*IRAQ: latest news and developments

[Barking_Mad]

Another suicide?

MARINE DIES OF NON-HOSTILE GUNSHOT WOUND

A Marine assigned to the 11th Marine Expeditionary Unit died today as a result of a non-hostile gunshot wound. The Marine's name is being withheld pending next-of-kin notification. The incident is under investigation.

Bomb Kills at Least Four Iraq Guardsmen

BAGHDAD, Iraq - A car bomb exploded Tuesday at an Iraqi National Guard checkpoint outside the city of Baqouba, killing at least four guardsmen and wounding six others, Iraqi authorities said.

The blast occurred about 2:30 p.m. in the Kharnabat region just north of Baqouba. The attack killed at least four guardsmen, said police Capt. Ahmed Shaker. National Guard Lt. Mohammed al-Duleimi said six died and six were wounded. The conflicting reports could not immediately be reconciled.

Pendleton Marine is killed, six wounded

FALLUJAH, Iraq – A Marine was killed and six others were wounded yesterday in two attacks by insurgents outside the city. All of the casualties belong to 2nd Battalion, 1st Marine Regiment from Camp Pendleton. There was no word on the severity of the injuries or details of the assaults. It wasn't known whether enemy troops were killed or wounded.

Four Marines were wounded and another was killed when mortars struck their bunkered position just north of Fallujah about 8 p.m. Two of those Marines were in surgery late yesterday. A few hours earlier, a roadside bomb wounded two Marines while they were on patrol near Saqlawiyah, a town just outside Fallujah. Those injuries were described as "moderate" by a Marine spokesman.

 

[Barking_Mad]

According to Al Jazeera the oil pipeline attack in the north of Iraq may well have a serious effect on oil production

The road connecting Kirkuk with the refineries in Biji to the west was cut off as emergency workers battled to extinguish the raging flames, with Iraqi police and national guard units, and occupation troops securing the area.

Firefighters for some time could not approach the pipeline due to the heat emanating in the area, our correspondent reported. Sand barriers were also erected to contain the fires as thick black smoke covered the skies and could be seen all the way from Kirkuk.

An oil ministry spokesman in Baghdad declined to comment on the attack. But a source from al-Shamal oil company told Aljazeera that the explosion would affect oil production a great deal. The key northern artery only resumed work on Sunday carrying 200,000 barrels a day, after an attack in mid-July halted exports.

Until the end of June, the pipeline had been out of commission for about 10 months after a series of attacks.

 

[Barking_Mad]

This was from 31st July

‘Serious’ water crisis looming in Basra, UN warns

Jul 31 - The UN is warning of a "serious" humanitarian crisis threatening Basra as spotty electricity supply and soaring summer temperatures are aggravating an already critical water shortage in Iraq's second-largest city. Ross Mountain, the United Nations Secretary General's special representative for Iraq, told Reuters that water levels in Basra were between 40-60 percent of the supply required for the more than two million people living in and around that city. "We need all the help we can get. If emergency measures are not taken, there will be loss of life and disease."

Similar water shortages in Basra last summer sparked widespread protest in the largely Shi’ite city in southern Iraq. Already the residents of Basra have begun taking to the streets in protest of this summer's critical situation.

 

[bigfish]

"U.S. Forces Clash With Al-Sadr's Gunmen" - Newsday

Ooh, look how Newsday stands reality on its head!

For the sake of accuracy, Newsdays headline should really read:

"U.S. Gunmen Clash With Al-Sadr's Popular Forces"

 

[Barking_Mad]

Clashes Threaten Najaf Cease-Fire

NAJAF, Iraq - Radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr's militia has kidnapped 18 Iraqi police officers in hopes of using them as leverage to force authorities to free detained militants, police said Tuesday. The recent kidnappings took place as al-Sadr aides accused authorities of trying to arrest top officials from the cleric's Mahdi Army. The new tensions appear to threaten a fragile cease-fire between the Mahdi Army and Iraqi authorities.

Al-Sadr's followers fought a two-month rebellion against U.S. forces in April that died down after a series of truces. But on Monday, U.S. Marines clashed with al-Sadr militiamen near the cleric's house, and a woman and three other bystanders were killed. Mahdi Army militiamen have seized 18 police officers and two police cars in recent days, hoping to get some of their comrades out of prison, according to a Najaf police official who spoke on condition of anonymity. Najaf's governor, Adnan al-Zurufi, confirmed a number of policemen were abducted.

Najaf police were awaiting orders from local officials, who did not want to escalate the situation, the official said. Ahmed al-Shaibany, an al-Sadr spokesman, denied any policemen were locked in al-Sadr's office or any of his quarters. He accused Iraqi police of provocations, saying they had conducted several raids against the Mahdi Army that he said "threaten peace and stability in this holy city."

 

[ska invita]

Iraq set to Explode: The real view of present day Iraq


"Can't Blair see that this country is about to explode? Can't Bush?"

 

[Barking_Mad]

There's simply too much information to take a snippet out in this set of articles, but its by far and away the best inside view of Fallujah and the resistance that Ive seen anywhere on the internet. Essential reading Id have thought.

http://www.globalpolicy.org/security/issues/iraq/occupation/2004/0715insideresistance.htm

 

[Barking_Mad]

Hmmm, Sadr declares war on British forces in Basra - Tony must be pleased at the way this is all going.

SHI'ITES DECLARE HOLY WAR

Militiamen loyal to Shi'ite Muslim radical leader Moqtada al-Sadr have declared holy war against British forces based in Iraq's main southern city of Basra. The declaration came after four of their comrades were arrested. "We will wage jihad and war against the foreign troops, not against police and Iraqi forces," said Sheikh Saad al-Basri, al-Sadr's representative in the largely Shi'ite city.

"However, if Iraqi personnel fight on the side of the occupiers, we will strike them harshly."

Meanwhile, a US helicopter has been shot down in Najaf by fighters loya to al-Sadr. A US military spokesman said that several crew members were injured in the incident. There have been fierce clashes in recent days in Najaf, another Shi'ite stronghold, threatening to unravel a deal agreed in June to end a series of violent incidents. Two people were killed and eight wounded in overnight clashes, which started after al-Sadr's Mehdi Army militia attacked Iraqi police.

Heavy fighting at crash site

BAGHDAD, Iraq The fiercest fighting in weeks is under way in the Iraqi city of Najaf (NAH'-jahf) -- where a U-S helicopter has been hit. The chopper went down and injured crew members have been evacuated. The number of wounded is not known yet.

The battles between cleric Muqtada al-Sadr's Mahdi (MAH'-dee) Army and U-S-Iraqi forces have killed two people. The Najaf fighting threatens a fragile cease-fire. An Iraqi official is warning of "very bad consequences" if the milita members do not disarm and leave the city.

US troops arrest Iraqi police colonel in Ramadi: police

RAMADI, Iraq, Aug 4 (AFP) - US forces arrested an Iraqi police colonel overnight and searched a police station in the flashpoint city of Ramadi, west of Baghdad, police sources said Wednesday.

"An American unit went to the home of Colonel Imad Suleiman Falah at 2:30 am (2230 GMT) and arrested him without explanation," said policeman Ziya Hadi.
US soldiers also searched the al-Faruq police station in the centre of Ramadi for more than three hours, Hadi said.A US military spokesman in Baghdad had no information about the reports.

Car Bomb South Of Baghdad Kills 5

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Insurgents blew up a bomb in a minibus and opened fire on a crowd outside a police station south of Baghdad on Thursday, killing at least five people and wounding 21, Iraq's Health Ministry said. The blast occurred in the town of Mahawil, 53 miles south of the capital, said Dr. Ali al-Soudani. Two people got out of the minibus as it approached the station and began firing, while the driver continued on and detonated the explosives Interior Ministry spokesman Sabah Kadhim said. The two gunmen fled the scene, Kadhim said. Dr. Ali al-Soudani, from the Iraqi Health Ministry, said five people died and 21 were hurt, not including the bomber.

Gunmen free hostages in raid

, Iraq -- In an extraordinary assault, gunmen in the city of Fallujah stormed a kidnappers' lair and forced the overmatched militants inside to flee, freeing four Jordanian truck drivers held captive, local officials said Wednesday. The raid, in a city that has long been hostile to the U.S. military and supportive of Saddam Hussein, marked the first time local gunmen had broken foreign hostages out of captivity. They called the kidnappers "terrorists" and outsiders.

The four Jordanian truck drivers were seized last week along a highway near Fallujah, said Ahmad Abu-Jaafar, one of the freed drivers. Sheik Haj Ibrahim Jassam, a tribal leader, said he received word late Tuesday that the men were being held in a house on the edge of the city. ocal leaders gathered together armed residents, who raided the house, freeing the hostages and chasing out the kidnappers, he said.

Jassam called the kidnappers "terrorists, who are not from Fallujah." The Jordanians insisted their captors were not those who had battled the Marines. "The kidnappers have nothing to do with the resistance," Abu-Jaafar told The Associated Press by telephone.

U.S. LAUNCHES MAJOR MISSION ALONG SYRIAN BORDER

The U.S. military, backed by Iraqi forces, has launched a major operation along the border with Syria. U.S. officials said Operation Phantom Linebacker has comprised of thousands of U.S. and Iraqi soldiers as well as armored combat vehicles, unmanned air vehicles and helicopters in an effort to stem the flow of insurgents, funds and weapons from Syria into Iraq. The officials said the operation came in wake of a determination that the Sunni insurgency, including support for Abu Mussib Al Zarqawi, was coming mainly from Saddam Hussein loyalists who have fled to Syria. Officials said the operation was the largest by the United States to stop weapons from Syria. Earlier missions involved mainly fixed- and rotary-wing aircraft in pursuit of Sunni insurgents along the more than 500 kilometer Iraqi-Syrian border. The operation began on Aug. 2 and also comprised a range of Iraqi security forces. They included the Iraqi Border Police and Iraqi National Guard.

 

[Barking_Mad]

Supposed stats on attacks in Baghdad

Since January, U.S. forces in Baghdad have experienced the following, according to information obtained by WND:

51 car bombs
1291 IEDs (attacks with improvised explosive devices)
759 small arms attacks
198 rocket attacks
102 indirect fire attacks (different than rocket or mortar)
529 mortar rounds fired on U.S. facilities
2,382 attacks on coalition
512 attacks on convoys
132 accidents

http://www.wnd.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=39776

 

[Barking_Mad]

Al-Sadr militiamen battle U.S. and Iraqi forces in 4 cities

BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) -- Insurgents loyal to radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr battled fiercely with U.S. and Iraqi forces in the holy city of Najaf on Thursday and fighting quickly spread to other Shiite areas, threatening a shaky two-month-old truce. A U.S. military helicopter was shot down, injuring the crew. "The cease-fire is over because of the actions of the occupation forces, and the situation has started to deteriorate," warned Sheik Abdul Hadi al-Daraji, a spokesman for al-Sadr in Baghdad. Al-Sadr's men also fought with U.S. troops in the Baghdad neighborhood of Sadr City, shot at government offices in the southern city of Amarah and clashed with British forces farther south in Basra, Iraq's second largest city. Combat in Najaf reportedly killed at least four people and wounded 29, and the U.S. military said one of its UH-1 helicopters was hit by gunfire and crashed, injuring the crew.

People in Najaf said al-Sadr loyalists attacked a police station with mortars, rocket-propelled grenades and gunfire early Thursday. U.S. Marines later moved into the area, and busloads of Mahdi Army militants were seen entering the city, residents said. The Marines intervened "to help the policemen protect the police stations and the city," Najaf Gov. Adnan al-Zurufi told the Al-Jazeera television station. He warned of "very bad consequences" if the militiamen did not disarm and leave the holy city......Dr. Jawad Khadum, head of Najaf general hospital, reported four people killed and 19 wounded. It wasn't known whether they were combatants or civilians. Ten members of the Mahdi Army also were wounded, said Ahmed al-Shibani at al-Sadr's office in Najaf.

In Amarah, an appeal for Mahdi Army members to mobilize rang out from mosque loudspeakers and militants took to the streets, shooting at government buildings and blocking roads, residents reported. An al-Sadr militant was killed and three were wounded after they ambushed a British patrol in the southern city of Basra, said a local al-Sadr official, As'ad al-Basri. There were no immediate reports of British casualties. The Mahdi Army earlier had said it was taking up positions close to where British troops normally patrol after a noon deadline passed in its demand for the release of four al-Sadr supporters detained two days earlier. The British had not received a formal ultimatum, "only rhetoric," said a British spokesman, Maj. Ian Clooney. He said the men in custody had been detained for questioning.

An al-Sadr spokesman, Sheikh Assad al-Basri, said the militant group "prepared 1,000 fighters in Basra to confront the British forces who failed to respond to our demands." Meanwhile, in Mahawil, 50 miles south of Baghdad, a pair of gunmen dressed in police uniforms opened fire on guards outside a police station while a third sped toward the station in a vehicle filled with explosives and blew up, killing five people and wounding 27, the Interior Ministry said.

The blast damaged the gate of the station and a dozen nearby cars and left a 15-foot-wide crater.

 

[Barking_Mad]

UK Soldier killed in accident

A British Serviceman was killed in an accident at Al Amarah on 4 August 2004. His next of kin are being informed and further details will not be published until that process is complete.

 

[Barking_Mad]

Oh the irony....

Iraqi Delegation Robbed At Gunpoint in Memphis

Two of the Iraqi delegates were robbed at gunpoint last night on Main Street in Downtown Memphis. he thieves got away with some cash, travelers checks and a camera. No one was hurt. The robbery comes one day after City Council Chairman Joe Brown slammed the door in the delegates' faces at city hall. The group was here to learn about democracy, freedom and civil rights in America.

Members of the city council have now apologized for the incident. The council released a statement this afternoon that read: "We sincerely apologize for the embarrassment we have brought upon ourselves and your delegation. We would appreciate your forgiveness." It's signed, "Best wishes from the city of good abode."

The only council member who did not apologize is Carol Chumney. Chumney happily met with the group in the first place and says she had no reason to apologize.

 

[Barking_Mad]

El Salvador to send fresh troops to Iraq

The new contingent of Salvadoran troops for Iraq approved by the legislature last month after heated debate will leave in mid-August, President Tony Saca said on Wednesday. "They will give number one priority to health and education. They are going to Iraq to help the Iraqi people to get back to normal life in this area," Saca said. El Salvador's legislative assembly last month narrowly approved sending 380 troops to join the U.S.-led multinational force in Iraq.

The first contingent of 360 Salvadoran troops went to Iraq in August 2003 and a second contingent of 380 troops relieved them in February. The government expects the third contingent to leave for Iraq around Aug. 17. Many opposition lawmakers oppose renewing El Salvador's military presence in Iraq.

"These are forces of occupation, not of helping with reconstruction," said Manuel Melga, a deputy for the Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front, the leftist political party formed out of the former rebel group of the same name.

2 Marines die on Syrian border

Two Marines were killed and four wounded in attacks near Qaim in western Iraq near the border with Syria Wednesday.

 

[bigfish]

Iraq is errupting

Iraq: As the Media Takes Its Lenses Off - Iraq Explodes Once Again Into Full War 05/08/04
http://www.williambowles.info/iraq/full_war.html

Iraq: Resistance battles American aggressors, puppet police in Mosul 04/08/04
http://www.williambowles.info/iraq/mosul.html

Iraq: US General captured by Resistance; fighting rages in ar-Ramadi 03/08/04
http://www.williambowles.info/iraq/gen_captured.html

 

[Barking_Mad]

Tommy Franks sticking the boot in on Douglas Feith.

Franks predicts long haul in Iraq

The US general who led the invasion of Iraq says he believes foreign troops may have to remain in the country for a further three to five years. Retired General Tommy Franks told BBC's Newsnight programme he believed that would be the time it took for Iraqis to take full control of their country. He said US-led troops would have to stay in Afghanistan for a similar amount of time. But he said that did not mean troop levels would have to remain as high. "I think in Iraq the total process, until Iraqis are as firmly and fully in charge of their country as they would want to be, is three to five years," he told Newsnight.

He gives a detailed account of the US war on terrorism and says his greatest surprise was that the former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein did not use weapons of mass destruction in the early stages of the war. His criticisms of top Pentagon aide Douglas Feith - who he said was "getting a reputation.. as the dumbest guy on the planet" - were dismissed by Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld on Thursday.

Mr Rumsfeld said Mr Feith, who is under secretary of defense for policy, was a "rare talent" and called Gen Frank's criticisms "kind of strange".

 

[Barking_Mad]

US Aircraft pound Najaf

BAGHDAD, Aug. 6 (Xinhuanet) -- Iraq's central holy city of Najaf,where supporters of radical Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr are holed up, was pounded by US aircraft on Friday, Qatar-based al-Jazeera TVchannel reported. As fierce clashes continue between Sadr's supporters and US troops. the US planes pounded the city after midnight and early Friday morning, the channel said. The battles concentrated around the 20th Revolution Square and Najaf vast cemetery, it said.

The streets of the city were empty as people were forced to stay at home while the power and telephone communication lines were cut,al-Jazeera added.

 

[Barking_Mad]

Basra political process 'collapses'

'The selection of a new governor for Iraq's second city was postponed last night after weeks of intimidation, threats and the assassination of a leading councillor. What should have been a small and straightforward exercise in democracy in Basra has instead exposed the violent fissures in postwar Iraqi society and led to claims that the political process there has nearly disintegrated.

The city council, made up of around 45 religious politicians, tribal leaders and secular technocrats, was supposed to vote yesterday, but the rebel Shia cleric Moqtada al-Sadr demanded a delay after fighting broke out between his supporters and the US military in the holy city of Najaf. The impasse came after several secular independents on the council said they had been pressured to support candidates from the Shia parties that dominate southern Iraq. Some have since resigned, and two have left the country.'

'"The political process in Basra is so bad it has virtually collapsed," said Mansour Abdul Razaq al-Tamimi, a lawyer, member of the city council and candidate for governor. "There is a group of religious parties and they want to be on top, taking all the decisions for the city." '

Iraq's Top Cleric Flies to London for Treatment

Reuters Iraq's top Shi'ite cleric Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani has left Iraq and is heading to London for treatment for a heart condition, airport officials in Beirut said on Friday. Sistani, who has wide influence and has been a voice of moderation in postwar Iraq, landed in Beirut on a private plane. After a brief stopover he boarded a plane to London, officials said. They said the 73-year-old cleric was able to walk with some help. There had been fears fighting in the holy city of Najaf, where he lives, could hamper his access to proper medical care.One of Sistani's aides said on Thursday that it was the first time he had experienced heart problems. The reclusive cleric has not left Najaf for years.

 

[Barking_Mad]

When the BBC gets round to stop talking about Sven shagging his secretary they might actually bother to take seriously the latest violence in Iraq.

U.S., Italian & UK troops battle Shi'ite militia

Fri 6 August, 2004 11:20 - BAGHDAD (Reuters) - U.S. forces backed by helicopters are battling militia loyal to rebel cleric Moqtada al-Sadr near a cemetery in the holy city of Najaf, fuelling fears of a second Shi'ite uprising.British and Italian troops were also attacked by members of Sadr's militia, known as the Mehdi Army, across Shi'ite- dominated southern Iraq, in Basra, Amara and Nassiriya. The flare-up of tension with members of Iraq's majority Shi'ite community, less than three months after Shi'ite militants rose up across the south, is a severe headache for Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi's interim government. Yet only two days after fighting flared, Sadr appeared to offer an olive branch. His spokesman in Baghdad said the cleric was ready to negotiate and wanted peace. "We have no objections to entering negotiations to solve this crisis," Mahmoud al-Sudani told reporters. "As I have said in the name of Sayed Sadr, we want a resumption of the truce."

As well as trying to control the Shi'ite threat, Allawi is struggling to contain the 15-month Sunni-led insurgency. As part of those efforts, the U.S. military launched operation Cajun Mousetrap around the city of Samarra, 100 km (60 miles) north of Baghdad, where guerrillas have carried out a series of bomb attacks in recent weeks. At least three suspected insurgents were killed in overnight fighting near the town, said Major Neal O'Brien, a spokesman for U.S. forces in the area, and nine suspects were detained.

Last month, a U.S. general said he feared Samarra could become like Falluja, the rebellious city west of Baghdad, if the brewing insurgency there were not quickly tamped down.

NAJAF FLARES

Early on Friday, F-16s, AC-130 gunships and helicopters patrolled the skies over Najaf, covering U.S. troops battling insurgents in and around Najaf's cemetery, the largest in the Arab world and a safe haven for militants..........As well as in Najaf, the Mehdi Army showed its militancy in Nassiriya, 375 km (235 miles) south of Baghdad, firing assault rifles, rocket-propelled grenades and mortars at Italian troops responsible for security in the city.

A spokesman for Italy's 2,700-strong force in Iraq said there were more than a dozen attacks on patrols overnight, while a barracks for Iraqi security forces was also attacked and a power plant was bombarded by mortars. "It has been an extremely tense night and we are maintaining maximum alert," Captain Ettore Sarli told Reuters. The Iraqi health ministry said one Iraqi had died and 25 had been wounded in fighting in Najaf since early on Thursday, while six had died and 13 had been wounded in Nassiriya.

CAPITAL TENSE

In Baghdad, the U.S. military said 16 soldiers were wounded in four attacks on Thursday in Sadr City and were trying to restore order in the area, from where Sadr draws much of his support among poor, disaffected Shi'ite youths. Colonel Robert Abrams, commander of the 1st Brigade of the 1st Cavalry Division, responsible for Sadr City, said his troops were showing restraint in the face of the onslaught, which he said included children as young as six throwing firebombs. The health ministry said 19 Iraqis had been killed and 111 wounded in the fighting in Sadr City since early on Thursday.

The U.S. military's chief partner in Iraq, Britain, also came under attack, and a spokeswoman said mortar fire on a garrison in the southern city of Basra wounded one soldier early on Friday......Basra has largely been calm since the overthrow of Saddam Hussein last year, but Sadr has a large following in the city and his followers have led occasional outbreaks of violence. In Amara, a Shi'ite-dominated city 360 km (230 miles) southeast of Baghdad for which Britain is also responsible, the British base was hit by more than 20 mortar rounds on Thursday.

 

[X-77]

300 Moqtada Sadr supporters killed in the last day alone, apparently

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/3540844.stm

 

[Stibs]

Aljazeera's Baghdad office closed for "security reasons"

Aljazeera's Baghdad office closed for "security reasons"

Iraqi police officers arrived in the early evening at the Aljazeera office in Baghdad to implement the closure decision without providing legal document from an Iraqi court.

They carried an order from the interior ministry addressed "to whom it may concern", ordering the closure of the office.......

.......While Iraqi Interior Minister Falah al-Naqib announced the closure at a Baghdad news conference after an order from the national security committee, Prime Minister Iyad Allawi said, "We asked an independent commitee to monitor Aljazeera for the last four weeks ... to see what kind of violence they are advocating, inciting hatred and problems and racial tensions,"

"This is a decision taken by the national security committee to protect the people of Iraq, in the interests of the Iraqi people," he said.

SCARY.....

 

[Barking_Mad]

Danish troops clash with Iraq militants

BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) — Danish troops clashed with Shiite insurgents in southern Iraq on Sunday in fighting that left at least two militants dead and seven injured, police said. The fighting broke out late Saturday in Qurnah, about 235 miles southeast of Baghdad, when a Danish patrol came under attack by militants loyal to radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, said Karim Sadkhan, a police colonel in the southern city of Basra.

Denmark has a 496-person contingent in the U.S.-led 160,000-strong coalition. Al-Sadr's militia also clashed with police in Amarah, 110 miles southeast of Baghdad, in fighting that continued until dawn, police Lt. Haider Noori said. Noori said one policeman was killed and four were wounded. Sheikh Majid al-Shami, a leader of one of al-Sadr's militia in the town, said two of his fighters were killed and eight wounded. The Health Ministry said four people were killed in clashes there, but gave no breakdown.

North of Baghdad, a roadside bomb exploded in Baqouba on Sunday, killing an Iraqi National Guard soldier. Guardsmen had discovered the bomb and were sealing the area off when it exploded, said Mahir Abid of Baqouba Hospital. In the capital, a bus laden with 440 pounds of explosives blew up in a southern district of Dora late Saturday, killing four people aboard, said Col. Adnan Abdul-Rahman, an information officer at the Interior Ministry.

It was not immediately known why the men were carrying explosives — though it was likely they were planning a terror attack. The identities of those who died was not known.

 

[Barking_Mad]

Roadside bomb kills child

A SEVEN-year-old Iraqi child was killed and three others injured when they were caught in a roadside bombing today, while an Iraqi national guardsman was killed and another injured in a similar attack near Baghdad. The children, aged five to 10, were on their way to a playground next to their home in the centre of Kirkuk when they accidentally stepped on a roadside bomb, said Colonel Sirhat Qadir of Iraqi police in the city.

US military and Iraqi police and security forces patrols frequently travel on this road in the city's Al-Wati al-Arabi neighbourhood. Meanwhile, the body of a prominent Kurdish businessman in Kirkuk was found stabbed to death in the predominantly Arab town of Al-Riad, west of the city, according to Lieutenant Colonel Imad al-Obeidi. Tit-for-tat attacks are common among Kirkuk's Arab, Kurd and Turkmen populations.

 

[Barking_Mad]

Just goes to show how gullible the media are.

Beheading Video Revealed As Hoax

San Francisco — An aspiring politician and video game designer who faked his own beheading by Iraqi militants awoke Saturday to learn that television stations around the world were showing his homemade video of the gruesome hoax.

Benjamin Vanderford, 22, said he posted the 55-second clip, which shows a knife sawing against his neck, on an online file-sharing network in May. It circulated in cyberspace before crossing over to major media, airing on Arab television.

“It was part of a stunt, but no one noticed it up until now,” Vanderford told The Associated Press after being awoken at his San Francisco apartment early Saturday and informed that much of the world was suddenly under the impression he had been decapitated.

 

[Barking_Mad]

From 30th June to 3rd August there were 693 US casualties.

US dead now stands at 929.

 

[Barking_Mad]

Several killed in Baghdad clashes

At least seven people were killed and 29 wounded, in fighting between US troops and Shiite Muslim militiamen in Baghdad's Sadr City, medics said. Two hospitals said they had received seven dead and 29 wounded patients, including five women and five children, after the clashes in the Shiite slum, a bastion of support for militia leader Moqtada Al Sadr. One woman was among the dead, said an official at the Sadr general hospital.

Gunmen manned checkpoints around the north-eastern district, refusing to let people in. An AFP correspondent said landmines had been strewn about on the streets as sporadic gunshots ricocheted through the neighbourhood. The main Falah and Dakhil streets were completely shut down and three loud explosions boomed out from the southern entrance into Sadr City.

Terrified local residents huddled in alleyways as they watched the clashes in the main streets. Officials at the Sadr general hospital complained of food shortages and said Mehdi militiamen had prevented staff members living outside the neighbourhood from getting to work. An AFP photographer said about 10 US tanks rolled into the sprawling slum, coming under rocket-propelled grenade and mortar fire from Mehdi Army fighters based about 100 metres away.

Mehdi militiamen had closed off roads with bricks and burning tyres, but American tanks smashed through the makeshift barriers. A US military spokesman said a few US Army patrols had come under attack, but had returned fire in only one incident to avoid crowds gathering in the street.

 

[Barking_Mad]

Shiite Militia Attack British Troops In Southern Iraq, Vow To Escalate

BASRA, Iraq, Aug 9 (AFP) - Shiite Muslim militiamen loyal to Moqtada Sadr attacked a British military convoy in Basra, destroying a vehicle without causing casualties, as the radical cleric's aides in the southern city threatened to turn it into another Najaf. A spokesman for British troops said armed militia fired a rocket-propelled grenade at a convoy at about 2:00 pm (1000 GMT), damaging a Land Rover without causing casualties. The attack occurred in the centre of the city, a few hundred meters (yards) from Sadr's office Two vehicles, including a Land Rover, were seen burning at the scene as about 100 armed militiamen fanned out around the area.

Militiamen were also out in force in the city's suburbs.

This came after Salam al-Maliky, Sadr's representative in the city and a member of the provincial authority, threatened to fight for the secession of the three southern provinces of Basra, Dhiqar and Maysan from the rest of Iraq if US troops did not withdraw from Najaf. Another Sadr aide, Asaad al-Basri, warned that "Basra would be turned into another Najaf" if the US military did not pull out of the holy city further north. Fierce clashes have raged in Najaf between Sadr's militia, and US and Iraqi forces over the past five days, sparking violence across Shiite central and southern Iraq.

A little more on this story.....

British troops battle in Basra

BASRA, Iraq (Reuters) - British forces have fought gunbattles with militiamen on the streets of Basra and a military spokeswoman said the situation in Iraq's second largest city was "extremely tense".At least one British military Land Rover was set on fire by guerrillas, according to a Reuters photographer, and militiamen loyal to a radical Shi'ite cleric roamed the streets brandishing assault rifles and rocket-propelled grenades.

Asked about the loss of a military vehicle, the spokeswoman said on Monday: "That's very possibly the case. We're hearing reports, but it's very sketchy at this point. All I can say is that British troops are actively engaged on the streets of Basra." Militia loyal to rebel cleric Moqtada al-Sadr have risen up against U.S., British and other coalition forces in several southern Iraqi cities and Baghdad in recent days, with the heaviest clashes going on in the holy city of Najaf.

Three killed in Baghdad car bomb

Baquba - A car bomb exploded outside the house of a local official north of Baghdad on Monday, killing at least three people and wounding 14, police sources said. They said deputy governor for Diala province Akil Hamed was among the wounded and was rushed to a United States military hospital after the attack on his house in the village of Balad Ruz. His condition was not immediately known.

The other casualties, who included police and members of Hamed's family, were taken to a local hospital. Insurgents have killed scores of local officials who had been appointed by American forces since the fall of Saddam Hussein last year.

AIF attack Al Thawra District Council

Baghdad - Four Iraqi Intervention Forces were killed, six were wounded and three Task Force Baghdad Soldiers were wounded while thwarting an anti-Iraqi force attack on the Al Thawra District Council, in Sadr City around 1:30 p.m. Aug. 8. The building received rocket-propelled-grenade fire and small-arms fire.

"The IIF performance there was exemplary," said Col. Robert "Abe" Abrams, commander of the 1st Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division. "Because of their courage and tenacity, the militia's attack was repelled." The incident is under investigation.

 

[Barking_Mad]

Citing threats, Iraq stops pumping oil from Basra fields

BAGHDAD, Iraq (August 9, 7:10 am ADT) - Iraq stopped pumping oil from its key southern oil fields Monday because of the violence plaguing the region during a renewed Shiite uprising, an official with the South Oil Company said. About 1.8 million barrels per day, or 90 percent of Iraq's exports, move through Iraq's southern port of Basra, and any shutdown in the flow of Iraq's main money earner would badly hamper reconstruction efforts.

A senior official with the oil company, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the southern oil fields stopped pumping oil Monday after militants loyal to Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr threatened to target the oil infrastructure in Basra. Oil in storage tanks at the port was still being loaded onto tankers, the official said. The British military, which patrols Basra, said it had no reports on the shutdown. Al-Sadr's militants have been fighting coalition and Iraqi forces for five days in Shiite areas across the country. Iraqi Oil Ministry spokesman Assem Jihad said he could not confirm the shutdown, but added that any attacks on oil infrastructure would only hurt the interests of the Iraqi people.

"The oil industry is run by Iraqis now and for the sake of Iraqis, this wealth belongs to the Iraqi people and the government's budget relies on it for nearly 95 percent (of its money)," he said. "The only ones that will be effected will be the Iraqi citizens."

 

[Barking_Mad]

UK soldier dies in Basra battles

A British soldier has been killed and five others injured in clashes in Basra with militiamen loyal to Shia cleric Moqtada Sadr. A military spokesman said the situation in Iraq's second city was "extremely tense" after the clashes in which two vehicles were destroyed. Large numbers of armed militiamen loyal to the cleric were reported to be roaming Basra's streets.

It comes after days of battles between Mr Sadr's men and US troops in Najaf. The Ministry of Defence said it was not naming the dead man until his family had been informed. A spokesman said: "With regret we can confirm that one British soldier has been killed."

 

[Barking_Mad]

Poland Gave Up Control in Najaf

Polish troops in Iraq handed over military authority in Najaf and Qadisiya provinces to the US. The move is due to worsening security in the region, and was ordered by the US. The Poles retain control over three other areas in the region.

On Sunday night, three Polish military bases in Iraq came under fire. None of the soldiers were injured in the shooting. The Zulu, Delta and Lima bases, all of them hosting Polish troops, were the ones attacked.

 

[Barking_Mad]

U.S. FEELS EFFECT OF HALT IN SHIPMENTS

BAGHDAD [MENL] -- The U.S. military was said to be feeling the results of a boycott by truckers of cargo to coalition units in Iraq. Iraqi sources said U.S. combat units outside of Baghdad have experienced a slowdown in shipments of food, water and supplies over the past few days. The sources said the units most affected have been in the Sunni Triangle and Anbar province near the Syrian border.

Last week, Turkey's leading truckers association announced it was ending cargo transports to the U.S. military. The association's announcement came after the Tawhid and Jihad group of Abu Mussib Al Zarqawi executed a Turkish national who worked in a U.S. military base in northern Iraq.

The sources said the supplies to the U.S. military to southern Iraq began to dry up over the last week. They said Asian truck drivers, particularly Indian and Filipino nationals, refused to transport supplies from Kuwait to U.S. forces in Iraq.