Updated at 10:35 p.m. EST, Dec. 22, 2008
Debate over the journalist
shoe-thrower forced parliament to postpone voting on the fate of foreign troops
in Iraq and instead focus on the removal of its speaker. Meanwhile, two Iraqis were found dead and six more were wounded during a quiet day in Iraq. A U.S.
soldier died in a non-combat incident as well. Also, a U.S. official admitted
that over 10,000 detainees are being held without evidence against them.
Heated
debate over shoe-thrower Muntazer al-Zaidi disrupted
parliament to the point that lawmakers are calling for the removal of Speaker
Mahmoud al-Mashhadani. Parliament was forced to postpone
voting on a law that would govern foreign troops after a U.N. mandate ends next
week. The U.S. has already worked out an agreement separately.
Meanwhile,
al-Zaidi's brother saw him and reiterated
claims of torture. He also said that al-Zaidi was under duress when he wrote an
apology letter. Al-Zaidi's trial date was set
for Dec. 31 and is charged with "assaulting a foreign head of state visiting Iraq."
In
Mosul, shelling left one
person dead. Two
people were wounded in a small arms attack. Gunmen stole
$1.1 million and weapons from an oil company.
A body
was found in the al-Kifl River near Hilla.
Gunmen injured
a girl who was on the roof of a home in Iskandariya.
In Kirkuk,
gunmen injured a policeman
in the Wasiti neighborhood. Last night, a missile struck the Hamzali
neighborhood, but no
casualties were reported.
Two
civilians were wounded in Kut when a roadside bomb blasted them and
their car.
In Baghdad, Iraqi forces arrested
two suspected leaders of armed groups.
Police arrested
89 suspects in an area west of Diwaniya.
Six suspects were arrested
in Basra. About another dozen were arrested
for killing civilians, many of them women.
Thirteen al-Qaeda suspects
were detained in Jazeera.
In Bajwan, U.S. forces arrested
15 suspects and confiscated weapons.
Eighty policewomen graduated
from a U.S.-supervised training program in Diyala.
A Iranian carrying
a sharp weapon was arrested
at the border.
A U.S. official said
that over 10,000 prisoners currently in U.S. detention in Iraq were held without
evidence against them. They do have evidence against about 2,000 detainees however.
He added that 350 detainees were convicted of crimes. At the end of the month,
the U.S.-Iraqi security agreement comes into effect and the U.S. will be forced
to handover these detainees to Iraq.
Compiled by Margaret Griffis