Deputy PM visits Baqubah, declares success despite complaints, sniper fire

Above: Iraqis receive bags of rice and bottles of water distributed by Iraq soldiers last week in Baqubah.

Report: Iraqis in Baqubah feel neglected

BAQUBAH, Iraq, Aug. 13 (UPI) -- Sunni Muslims in the provincial capital of Iraq's Diyala province claim they are being neglected by the Shiite-dominated central government in Baghdad.

Deputy Prime Minister Barham Salih traveled to the city on Sunday and was overwhelmed with stories of despair...

Employees at a state-run electrical plant said their salaries had gone unpaid for months at a time, while others said their families had been scattered because of fear of al-Qaida militants operating in the area.

Salih told a gathering of local and tribal officials the Baghdad government has set aside $50 million to compensate residents for damage suffered during the fighting and an additional $30 million to help revitalize businesses, create jobs and support farmers, which didn't sit well with Sheik Hamid Anbagiya...

"What you are talking about are dreams," Anbagiya said. "First we have to stop the insurgency. Then we can talk about civil services and projects."

Read the rest at UPI

Baqubah is still 'a work in progress'

BAQUBAH, IRAQ -- Iraq's deputy prime minister flew here Sunday under heavy guard with promises of food, jobs and cash for a city emerging from the sway of Sunni Arab militants largely driven out by U.S.-led troops. What he got was an earful.

Men in long white dishdashas pushed past the crush of bodyguards, soldiers, aides and journalists that surrounded Deputy Prime Minister Barham Salih in a market street, demanding to know when food rations would arrive from Baghdad and when government pensions would be paid.

Young, veiled women told him that they had risked their lives to sit through university exams in an area where Iraqi soldiers once dared not go and that they still had not received their test results. Employees at a state-run electrical plant said their salaries went unpaid for months at a time. And tribal leaders gathered at the governor's fortified office here berated him for talking about development projects when insurgents still terrorize outlying roads and villages in Diyala province...

But Salih told reporters he was encouraged by what he saw in Baqubah, the provincial capital: streets full of shoppers, produce and sodas for sale in the market, and men with graying beards smoking cigarettes and sipping tea at a cafe...

As he spoke, gunfire erupted nearby as U.S. forces guarding the meeting took aim at a sniper who had fired at them.

Read the rest at the LA Times

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