*IRAQ: latest news and developments

[Barking_Mad]

09/08/04 CENTCOM: Task Force Baghdad Soldier Killed In IED Attack

One Task Force Baghdad Soldier was killed Sept. 8 at about 5:30 a.m. after an improvised explosive device detonated in eastern Baghdad. Two additional Soldiers were wounded in the attack.

09/08/04 Mother's search for answers to son's death

The mother of a tank regiment soldier who was killed by friendly fire in Iraq is considering a private prosecution to find out how her son died.

09/08/04 AFP: Truck drivers in US convoys killed in Iraq

A Turk and two other foreign truck drivers travelling in US-protected convoys have been killed in ambushes north of Baghdad in the last 24 hours, Iraqi police said today.

09/08/04 Centcom: ONE SOLDIER KILLED IN CONVOY ATTACK

One 13th Corps Support Command Soldier is dead and one is injured as the result of an improvised explosive device attack on a convoy near here at around 1:45 a.m. on September 8.

09/08/04 iribnews: 6 killed in US strikes on Fallujah

At least six Iraqis were killed and 23 wounded in overnight US air raids on the Iraqi city of Fallujah, a hospital official said Wednesday

09/08/04 AFP: US launches new air strikes on Fallujah

US fighter planes pounded the industrial zone in the Iraqi insurgent stronghold of Fallujah on Wednesday, following air strikes the previous day, witnessed an AFP correspondent.

09/08/04 news24.Com: Dyncorp mercenary dies of wounds

The Iraqi government confirmed that Herman "Harry" Pretorius, a South African Dyncorp mercenary, was seriously wounded, and subsequently died, in a land mine and small arms attack on a US convoy somewhere in Iraq

09/08/04 Reuters: U.S. Soldier Killed, One Wounded in Convoy Attack in Iraq

One U.S. soldier was killed and another wounded in an attack on a convoy early on Wednesday near the town of Balad, 50 miles north of Baghdad, the U.S. military said.

 

[Barking_Mad]

Iraqi and U.S. forces enter northern city of Samarra

BAGHDAD (AP) — U.S. troops and Iraqi security forces entered the central city of Samarra for the first time in months Thursday in order to reseat the city council and regain control, the military said in a statement. The troops that entered also aim to conduct an assessment of the police stations, the statement said. U.S. Humvees and armored vehicles were seen going into the city. Two U.S. helicopters hovered overhead.

In a city council meeting Thursday, the interim mayor and acting police chief of Samarra were installed in office until the general elections expected by January. Local leaders in the Salahuddin province, of which Samarra is the provincial capital, and the U.S. 1st Infantry Division have taken necessary steps to restore normalcy to the city, the statement said. U.S. officials agreed to go into the city after meeting with council members and other local officials Wednesday in Tikrit, said Taha al-Hendaira, the head of the Samarra's city council.

Despite the formal end of the U.S. occupation on June 28, the interim Iraqi government lost control over key Sunni Muslim cities such as Fallujah, Ramadi and Samarra. The commander of the U.S. 1st Infantry Division said recently that his troops and their Iraqi allies would regain control of Samarra before Iraq's general election. The troops that entered the city will have joint traffic control points in the city and will also open the Samarra Bridge, the statement said.

Dozens of civilians, fighters killed in U.S. attacks throughout Iraq

BAGHDAD (AP) - U.S. jets pounded targets north and west of the capital Thursday, blasting positions in the insurgent stronghold of Fallujah and around a northern town astride a major smuggling route, the U.S. military and witnesses said. American warplanes fired missiles on a building used by associates of Jordanian-born militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi in the third day of targeting in Fallujah, a hotbed of Sunni Muslim insurgents bent on driving coalition forces from the country. At least five were killed, including a woman and a child, said Dr. Ahmad Thair of the Fallujah General Hospital.

Warplanes also hammered Tal Afar, a northern city near the border with Syria suspected of lying on smuggling route for foreign fighters. The operations are intended to return the city 50 kilometres west of Mosul to the control of the interim Iraqi government, the military said. The military said initial reports put the number of insurgents dead at 57. At least a dozen civilians were also killed in the attack, Iraq (news - web sites)'s Interior Ministry said. The attacks in Fallujah on Wednesday raised plumes of smoke but left no extensive damage or signs of weakening the Sunni militants who have steadily expanded their control of this city about 50 kilometres west of Baghdad.

.....Elsewhere in this city of 300,000, fighters patrolled the streets in new American pickups. One resident, 33-year-old Abu Rihab, said they were part of a 16-vehicle fleet commandeered between Jordan and Baghdad......

....In Fallujah, real power is in the hands of the Mujahedeen Shura Council, a six-member body led by Sheik Abdullah al-Janabi, spiritual leader of the militants and the undisputed ruler of the city since May.

The mujahedeen run their own courts that try people suspected of spying for the Americans or other offences. Rihab said that since May, they have put to death about 30 people convicted of spying. It was impossible to confirm the figure.

 

[Barking_Mad]

Offensive in northern Iraqi town

Women and children were pulled from the rubble of the Falluja strike
US and Iraqi forces have launched an offensive to drive insurgents out of the northern Iraqi town of Talafar, the US military has said. Hospital sources say at least 17 people have been killed in the fighting and 51 more wounded.

The operation follows clashes last week in the town, described by US military as "a hotbed of militant activity". In Falluja, west of Baghdad, US troops fired missiles at alleged militant sites, killing at least seven people. A statement from the US military said the attack had been on a site used by supporters of the Jordanian militant, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, who the Americans say is an important member of al-Qaeda.

However, several women and children were among the dead and wounded pulled from the rubble, doctors said.

 

[Barking_Mad]

Update....

Bloody battle in northern Iraq : 28 killed

US forces have killed at least 28 Iraqis after attacking groups attempting to drive out foreign troops and security forces loyal to Baghdad's Washington-imposed government in Tal Afar. Doctors in Tal Afar, a town west of Mosul, confirmed on Wednesday that a further 70 people have been wounded during the latest offensive into the town. Fighting continues and the toll is expected to rise.

Dr Rabya Khalil, the general director of health in Iraq's northern province of Ninawa, told Aljazeera his medics was unable to reach all the wounded. "We sent ambulances, medical teams and medical supplies but unfortunately the Iraqi national guardsmen prevented them to enter the town. This is a shameful action and unacceptable act as how wounded could be evacuated to hospitals.

"We call on the Iraqi government to intervene to prevent such violation of human rights. It was a slaughter that should not have taken place. "All the casualties were Iraqis. Residents of Tal Afar resisted occupation forces which carried out this attack to punish them", he added.

US now battles Sadr in Baghdad

The smoke of battle between US forces and the army of poor young Iraqis supporting anti-American cleric Moqtada al-Sadr now rises over Baghdad. Less than two weeks after an agreement ended a costly confrontation in the southern city of Najaf, the US is again fighting the followers of the fiery religious leader who rails against the "American occupation." Only now the fighting is in the sprawling, densely populated slum that is Mr. Sadr's base of support. That this fight is in Sadr City and not Najaf, is both good and bad for the US, analysts say. Confronting Sadr's loyalists here removes the complication of fighting in one of the holiest sites of Shiite Islam. But it also means the Americans are fighting on the enemy's turf and in the even bigger showcase of Baghdad.

"It's a Hobson's choice. It takes away the symbolism that somehow we're fighting Islam," says Ellen Laipson, an intelligence specialist and president of the Henry L. Stimson Center in Washington. "But if the US objective is to demonstrate that we're on an upward trajectory, that's hardly served by having deadly fighting in the capital - where the US has its strongest presence - and where the Allawi government [of Interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi] already faces assassination attempts and other challenges." The accord that broke the standoff in Najaf left the hard realities of opposing political viewpoints to be confronted another day, analysts say. That "other day" is being tested in Sadr City - named after Sadr's revered late father. On a trash-piled street deep within the maze of this crumbling neighborhood of several million people, a horse lies dead outside the pockmarked house where neighbors say American planes shot repeatedly early Wednesday morning. The shooting added four more to Sadr City's official death toll of 40 residents since Tuesday, the neighbors claim. They insist attempts to remove the wounded by car were met by more gunfire.

"The Americans are killing our fathers and brothers just as Saddam did, so of course the boys will join the resistance!" wails Bushra Hamood, a black-robed woman who says she lost neighbors in Wednesday's air attack. "I thought the Americans could do a lot of good in Iraq, but it has come to this!" she cries, pointing to the blasted house and the putrid waters oozing down the street. "We have been pushed back to the age of boiling water."

 

[Barking_Mad]

Three Iraqis Killed In Bomb Blast, U.S. Soldier Dies In Road Crash

BAGHDAD, Sept 9 (AFP) - Three Iraqis were killed and two US military policemen wounded when a roadside bomb exploded near a multinational convoy near the notorious Abu Ghraib prison outside Baghdad, the army said Thursday. The attack happened early on Wednesday, a spokesman said providing no further details. North of Baghdad, near the town of Baquba, a US soldier was killed and seven others injured in a road accident late Wednesday.

Iraqi VP Say US "does not understand Arab culture"http://www.turkishpress.com/turkishpress/news.asp?ID=26637

MADRID, Sept 9 (AFP) - Iraq`s vice president took a swipe the United States in an interview published Thursday, saying that the US "does not understand Arab culture or customs" and that it "came into Iraq like an elephant astride its war machine." The Americans "committed mistakes such as dissolving the army and leaving the borders open," Ibrahim Al-Jaafari also said in the interview with Spanish daily El Pais.

Jaafari, a leader of moderate Shiite party Al-Dawa, was conciliatory toward France in his remarks. He acknowledged the French government`s opposition to the US invasion of Iraq, but hoped "to open a new chapter and to mutually reap political and economic benefits."

50% of the 1,000 dead US soldiers were aged between 18 and 24. What a waste of life

New York Times Publishes Photo Roster Of Iraq Dead

NEW YORK, Sept 9 (AFP) - The New York Times published Thursday black and white photos of nearly all the 1,000 US soldiers killed in Iraq, noting that they represented "the highest toll since the Vietnam War." The pictorial "Roster of the Dead" covered 2 1/4 pages of the newspaper's main section, listing the fallen in alphabetical order, without reference to service or rank. Some 100 names were listed in a "not pictured" section.

The Times tribute came after the death toll in Iraq crossed the symbolic 1,000 mark on Tuesday. An accompanying breakdown showed that more than 50 percent of those killed were aged between 18 and 24, while 18 percent were reservists or National Guard rather than full-time soldiers. A racial profile classified 70 percent of the dead as white, with 13 percent black and 12 percent Hispanic.

 

[Gumbert]

ditto barking...

Iraq dead between 20,000 and 60'000?

 

[Barking_Mad]

Depends which source you want to look at. I think that 20,000 must now be a minimum figure. The media cant keep quoting 10,000 dead when it's clearly an out of date number.

 

[Barking_Mad]

Rebels Begin to Control More Areas in Iraq

BAGHDAD, Sep 10 (IPS) - Armed groups and foreign terrorists have established new camps in central Iraq as government forces attack rebels in the north and south, officials say. The reports follow an admission by U.S. central command chief Gen. John Abizaid that there are more areas in Iraq under rebel control today than there were last year. The revelations could be damning for the government of U.S. appointed interim prime minister Iyad Allawi who has promised to uproot armed opposition to the nascent government.

New camps have been reported in the 'Sunni triangle' zone that includes Falluja and Ramadi. Iraqi and western sources say the camps have been established recently and fortified in the past couple of months. Reports are coming in of new armed groups organising themselves in parts of the country earlier thought safe, as fighting escalates in other parts of Iraq. Over the past few days fighting has erupted again in many parts of the country including Falluja and Mosul in the north and Sadr City in Baghdad.

U.S. planes pound Fallujah for fourth straight day (lost link)

BAGHDAD, Iraq -- A U.S. jet fired missiles today in the Sunni insurgent stronghold of Fallujah, the fourth day of attacks targeting the city where U.S. and Iraqi troops have no control, officials said.

One man was killed in the attack, Dr. Ahmed Thaer of the Fallujah General Hospital said. The attack followed airstrikes Thursday that reportedly killed nine people in Fallujah and dozens more in the northern town of Tal Afar, also one of the cities that has fallen under insurgent control and become a ``no-go'' zone for U.S. troops.

Late Thursday, the regional government's television station reported U.S. and Iraqi government forces had agreed to allow medical teams to enter Tal Afar to care for people wounded from the airstrikes there, but that military operations would continue ``until the city is liberated from outsiders and saboteurs so that peace can be restored.''

 

[Barking_Mad]

I was watching the very poor BBC 6 O'clock news the other night and there was a report from Iraq. They showed some film followed by tv pictures of a US soldier being dragged from a tank after an IED explosion to which the voice-over commented, "This man was injured today in an attack when his vehicle hit an IED explosive device."

The only problem was the pictures were from at least 3 months ago, as I remember seeing them several times on other channels. Is the BBC so short on footage that it has to run old news and pretend its something new?

Useless.

 

[Barking_Mad]

Fallujah May Be Toughest City to Retake

FALLUJAH, Iraq - Searching for victims or survivors, the young man in a black T-shirt swung a sledgehammer into a slab of concrete perched atop debris - all that was left of a house blasted by U.S. warplanes. Nine people, two of them children, died in the ruins.About 100 people watched as the young man labored under a blazing sun Thursday to clear the damage from the U.S. airstrike, which the Americans said targeted a suspected terrorist safehouse. Religious books, including "Three Theses on Jihad," were scattered amid the debris.

There was no evidence that the attack got its target. Instead, locals said, it only whipped up new anger in Fallujah, which is among a handful of Sunni cities that have fallen under insurgent control. On Friday, U.S. jets again fired missiles into targets in the city for a fourth successive day. Doctors said one man was killed in Friday's strike. The reaction of Fallujah's residents to the strikes suggests that the city may well prove the toughest to take back.

"Our faith has been strengthened by the fight against the Americans," said Abu Mohammed, a 40-year-old cleric who refused to give his full name. "We feel in danger. This is an infidel occupation that wants to destroy Islam. We must fight."

.............

There is another side to Fallujah's religious revival. Some people have been flogged in public for drinking alcohol. At least 30 have been executed for allegedly spying for the Americans, according to residents closely associated with the mujahedeen.A bearded fighter standing guard Wednesday in the city's industrial district berated a reporter for wearing a gold wedding band on his finger. Muslim males are prohibited from wearing gold objects.

The gunman, who identified himself only as Abu Abdullah, also took issue with the reporter's companion for wearing a gold chain. When the companion pointed out that the chain included a small tablet bearing a Quranic verse, Abu Abdullah snapped: "By Allah, this is all forbidden. Only Allah can protect you."

 

[Bernie Gunther]

Rockets and mortars in Baghdad's green zone.

US helicopters fire into civilian crowds, killing al Arabiya reporter on video.

Dozens dead, hundreds injured.

BBC report

 

[Bernie Gunther]

One gathers from this Reuters report that the US is changing its story on why their gunships fired rockets and cannon into the crowds.

Earlier, the U.S. military had said a helicopter destroyed the vehicle "to prevent looting and harm to the Iraqi people" after four U.S. soldiers were lightly wounded in the attack on the Bradley.

then they changed their story

The U.S. military said two of its helicopters opened fire after coming under attack from the crowd. Reuters television footage showed no evidence of shooting from the ground.

 

[Gumbert]

and they ( the bushbots ) say its all the fundies fault...

i certainly would be one fucked up GI seeing all this at firsthand nevermind the locals...

 

[invisibleplanet]

and from arab news:

US Missile Kills Journalist
Maha Akeel • Arab News

JEDDAH, 13 September 2004 — Mazen Al-Tomaizi, a Palestinian television journalist working for Saudi news channel Al-Ekhbariya and Arab satellite channel Al-Arabiya, was killed yesterday by an American missile as he was reporting live from Baghdad on deadly clashes between US forces and insurgents.

“He was killed at the scene of the American missile attack in Al-Haifa district while he was reporting the event,” Mohammed Barayan, general manager of Al-Ekhbariya told Arab News

 

[Gumbert]

and from arab news:

bonkers...

and do you see the people in the background before the explosion? Cos i do...

 

[invisibleplanet]

Latest headlines:
New Spasm of Violence Sweeps Iraq, Killing 110
Reuters - 37 minutes ago
Special Coverage

The Health Ministry said the worst casualties were in Baghdad, where 37 were killed, and in Tal Afar near the Syrian border where 51 people died.

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nm/20040912/ts_nm/iraq_dc&e=2&ncid=

also the BBC reports that Turkey is urging the US to bring its operations in the north Iraq town of Talafar to a swift end, saying ethnic Turkmen have died in air strikes.

 

[Barking_Mad]

Bloody Sunday leaves nearly 60 dead in Iraq, 37 in capital

Insurgents hammered central Baghdad on Sunday with one of their most intense mortar and rocket barrages ever in the heart of the capital, heralding a day of violence that left nearly 60 dead nationwide as security appeared to spiral out of control.

Three Polish Soldiers Killed in Iraq

Three Polish soldiers were killed in Iraq Sunday when they were attacked with grenades and machine-gun fire as they returned to their base from a demining operation, a Polish military spokesman said.

Three Iraqi soldiers killed

TWO powerful bombs exploded simultaneously today on a road near Hillah in central Iraq, killing at least three Iraqi National Guard members and seriously wounding three others, a Polish military spokesman said

Ten killed in clashes in Iraqi town of Ramadi

Ten people were killed and 40 wounded on Sunday in clashes between insurgents and US soldiers in the Sunni Muslim bastion of Ramadi, a hospital official said.

19 killed in Baghdad unrest

AT LEAST 19 people were killed and 77 wounded in a string of car bombs and hours of fighting between US forces and insurgents in Baghdad today, the health ministry and US military said.

Gunmen Attack Oil Guards in Iraq; 5 Hurt

Five officers were wounded in two separate insurgent attacks Sunday against security forces guarding Iraq's oilfields, a security official said.

Telegraph: Car bomb attempt on Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison fails

A man tried to drive a car rigged with explosives into the compound of Iraq's notorious Abu Ghraib prison early today, but the vehicle failed to explode.

Zarqawi Threatens Iraqi Prime Minister

Senior al-Qaeda operative in Iraq Abu Musab al-Zarqawi has issued a new threat on the Iraqi prime minister, Iyad Allawi

Terrorists Threatened to Kill the Two Italian Women Hostages

An Islamist group threatened to kill the two Italian hostages in Iraq if Italy doesn’t withdraw its soldiers out of the country in 24 hours, AFP communicated.

Troops Battle Militants in Iraq; 13 Dead

At least 13 people were killed and 55 wounded when a U.S. helicopter fired at crowds around the vehicle, Iraqi officials said.

3 US armored vehicles destroyed in Baghdad

Insurgents attacked a US military convoy on Baghdad's airport road, destroying three hamvees and causing unknown casualties, a Xinhua photographer at the scene said Sunday.

 

[Barking_Mad]

God knows how many bombing runs on Fallujah this is, but more innocent dead.

US bombards Falluja 'militants'

Falluja has been the scene of heavy fighting for days. At least 15 people have been killed in a joint US-Iraqi attack on militant positions in the restive Iraqi city of Falluja, according to hospital sources. US artillery bombarded several districts, before circling warplanes opened fire, witnesses said. The US military said it had "accurately targeted" militants from a group linked to al-Qaeda, but there were reports that civilians were among the dead.

It comes a day after 70 people were killed in fighting across Iraq. "Intelligence sources reported the presence of several key [Abu Musab] Zarqawi operatives who have been responsible for numerous terrorist attacks against Iraqi civilians, Iraqi Security Forces and multinational forces," a US military statement said. It said, "Iraqi Security Forces and multinational forces effectively and accurately targeted these terrorists while protecting the lives of innocent civilians", without saying where the strike took place.

The US accuses Zarqawi, head of the Tawhid and Jihad movement, of leading al-Qaeda operations in Iraq and for having carried out a spate of car bombings and other attacks. An AFP reporter said he had seen 15 bodies laid out for burial. Falah Abdullah, an undertaker at the cemetery in Falluja, told AFP an ambulance driver and two nurses were among those killed when an ambulance was hit.

................AFP said at least one house had been flattened by a US missile and two others were partially destroyed. Ambulances and cars were reported to have been ferrying casualties to hospital. The agency said four people were killed when a missile struck a civilian car driving on a motorway west of Falluja. Witnesses described black columns of smoke above Falluja and said hundreds of families had begun to leave town, Reuters reported. US forces using loudspeakers called on residents to co-operate and "expel terrorists from the centre of the city", Reuters said.

 

[Barking_Mad]

'We killed the civilians in order to save them.......'

US missile attack kills 13 civilians in Iraq

"I am a journalist. I'm dying, I'm dying," screamed Mazen al-Tumeizi, a correspondent for the Arabic television channel al-Arabiya, after shrapnel from a rocket fired by an American helicopter interrupted his live broadcast and slammed into his back. Twelve others were killed and 61 wounded by rockets from two US helicopters on Haifa Street in central Baghdad. They had fired into a crowd milling around a burning Bradley fighting vehicle that had been hit by a rocket or bomb hours before. It comes on one of Iraq's bloodiest days for weeks in which at least 110 people died in clashes around the country. The Health Ministry said the worst casualties were in Baghdad and in Tal Afar near the Syrian border, where 51 people died.

"The helicopter fired on the Bradley to destroy it after it had been hit earlier and it was on fire," said Major Phil Smith of the 1st Cavalry Division. "It was for the safety of the people around it."

Mr Tumeizi, a Palestinian, was the sixth Arab journalist to be killed by American troops since Baghdad was captured last year. The videotape of his last moments shows how Mr Tumeizi was killed during a live television broadcast, with the Bradley blazing in the distance and a crowd of young men celebrating its destruction, but it shows no reason why the helicopters should open fire.

Turkey reacts with fury to massive US assault on northern Iraqi city

The US military assault on Tal Afar, an ethnically Turkmen city in northern Iraq, has provoked a furious reaction from the Turkish government which is demanding the US call off the attack. American and Iraqi government forces last week sealed off Tal Afar, a city west of Mosul belonging to Iraq's embattled Turkmen minority. The US said it killed 67 insurgents while a Turkmen leader claims 60 civilians were killed and 100 wounded. The massive and indiscriminate use of US firepower in built-up areas, leading to heavy civilian casualties in cities like Tal Afar, Fallujah and Najaf, is coming under increasing criticism in Iraq. The US "came into Iraq like an elephant astride its war machine," said Ibrahim Jaafari, the influential Iraqi Vice President.

The Americans claim that Tal Afar is a hub for militants smuggling fighters and arms into Iraq from nearby Syria. Turkish officials make clear in private they believe that the Kurds, the main ally of the US in northern Iraq, have managed to get US troops involved on their side in the simmering ethnic conflict between Kurds and Turkmen. "The Iraqi government forces with the Americans are mainly Kurdish," complained one Turkmen source. A Turkish official simply referred to the Iraqi military units involved in the attack on Tal Afar as "peshmerga", the name traditionally given to Kurdish fighters. The US army account of its aims in besieging Tal Afar is largely at odds with that given by Turkmen and may indicate that its officers are at sea in the complex ethnic mosaic of Iraq. The US says that in recent weeks the city was taken over by anti-American militants who repeatedly attacked US and Iraqi government forces.

"Tal Afar is a tribal city and its people were not patient with the presence of American forces," said Farouq Abdullah Abdul Rahman, the president of the Iraqi Turkmen Front, in Baghdad yesterday. He agreed that there was friction with US forces but denied that anything justified the siege, with many Turkmen close to the front line fleeing into the countryside. "More than 60 people have been killed, including women and children, and 100 wounded."

 

[Barking_Mad]

More on Tal Afar - No medical supplies getting through

The US air assault on Tal Afar, a northern city east of Mosul, killed 57 insurgents, US military sources said. But Rabie Yassin, the provincial health chief, said 27 civilians had been killed and 70 wounded. "The situation is critical," Dr Yassin added. "Ambulances and medical supplies cannot get to Tal Afar because of the ongoing military operations."

The only success for the US and Iraqi government was their return to the city of Samarra on the Tigris river north of Baghdad for the first time in a month. US Humvees and armoured vehicles entered the city as two helicopters hovered overhead. Major-General John Batiste, who commands the 1st Infantry Division, said he had offered insurgents a deal under which they would be free to leave Samarra or to remain in the city so long as they stopped fighting.

At a city council meeting yesterday, an interim mayor and acting police chief were named to serve until the general election in January. General Richard Myers, the chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, said that it would be months before the US and local Iraqi forces would be able to take back cities such as Fallujah and Ramadi, the largest cities in Anbar province, most of which is held by rebels.

Iraqi security service officers underlined their control of Najaf and the heart of the city around the holy shrine of Imam Ali yesterday by searching for the first time the office of Muqtada Sadr, the radical Shia cleric. Fighting has died down Sadr City, home to two million Shias in Baghdad, but US planes were used to detonate roadside bombs intended for ambushes.

Despair in Iraq over the forgotten victims of US invasion

Iraqi officials demanded to know yesterday why so little international attention was being given to their numerous dead as the US mourned the death of 1,000 soldiers since the invasion of Iraq.

"When I heard on television that the Americans had lost 1,000 military killed in Iraq, I asked myself, what about our side? What is the number of Iraqis who have died?" said Dr Amer al-Khuzaie, an Iraqi deputy health minister.He admits it is impossible to know the true figure because many bodies are simply buried and the deaths never registered. "Sometimes there are as many as 200 Iraqis killed in a single day," sighed Dr Khuzaie, flicking through a file showing the casualty figures. "The Iraqi people are being eradicated. We must stop this haemorrhage, this bleeding."

The US army does not count the number of Iraqis killed since the invasion in March 2003. The most conservative figure for the number dead is 10,000 as calculated by private groups. It is rising every day. The US military claimed that on Tuesday alone it killed "100 militants" in air strikes on Fallujah on top of a further 33 people killed in fighting in Sadr City in Baghdad. Donald Rumsfeld, the US Defence Secretary, proudly claimed on Tuesday that US forces had, last month, killed between 1,500 and 2,500 Iraqi insurgents. He did not note an ominous trend that, for the first time, more Americans were probably killed by Shia fighters than by Sunni guerrillas. For the US, it is now a war on two fronts.

.............

People in Baghdad have learned caution. Often there are long traffic jams because cars do not want to go near a slowly moving American convoy, a possible target of a massive bomb buried beside the road or a rocket-propelled grenade. The Americans also have a much-feared practice of spraying fire in all directions when they come under attack...........Public health has not improved since the invasion last year. A main reason is unclean water. Dr Bashar, a senior house surgeon at al-Kindi, said: "Look around you. Baghdad is the dirtiest city in the world."

 

[Barking_Mad]

worth the read....

Fallujah Brigade’ to Disband, Join Resistance in Control of City

Sep 12 - Three weeks after initially suggesting the US-created "Fallujah Brigade" had long since served its purpose, and one week after a clash between Brigade members and US Marines left four Iraqis dead, American and Iraqi officials announced the official dissolution of the controversial unit Saturday, the LA Times reports. But as US pilots continue to bombard areas of Fallujah, reports suggest the city is still very much in rebel control -- possibly reinvigorated by the dispersal of the controversial Brigade.

After four months in operation, apparently enjoying effective autonomy from US and Iraqi government command, the Brigade has been deemed more trouble than it was worth. According to some Brigade members, though, the trouble is just beginning. Many of them now reportedly plan to fight openly against US occupation forces and Iraqi security personnel, using US-supplied weapons against US Marines if the latter are ordered to re-invade Fallujah as many expect.

.........One Brigade leader expressed exacerbation at the disbanding of the unit. "We don't know where to go now after this dismissal by the American troops and the Iraqi interim government," Brigadier General Tayseer Latief told the Times. "They leave us no other option but to join the resistance." Many members of the Brigade saw their role outlined by the Fallujah truce arrangement as providing for peace between Fallujans, with whom they sympathized, and the US occupation forces. Even though they were nominally aligned with the Marines, their allegiance to the people of Fallujah was never a secret. Another Fallujah Brigade officer, Major Abed Abaas, echoed Latief’s disappointment. "This was a great violation to the members of the brigade by the American forces and the Iraqi interim government," Abaas told the Times. "Dissolving the Fallujah Brigade, they broke the truce agreed upon last April..."

........American pilots have struck the city of 300,000 more than a dozen times since ground forces pulled out last spring, however. In fact, they have bombed the city nightly for the better part of the past week, each time striking what US military officials say are terrorist "safehouses." On nearly every such occasion, hospital officials have said the strikes killed or wounded women, children and others presumed to be noncombatants.

New doubt was recently cast on the validity of US targets by an unusual source: In a video the UK Guardian says is being distributed in markets all over Fallujah, unidentified captors reportedly execute an Egyptian man who says his name is Muhammad Fauzi Abdul Aíal Mutwali. Before he is beheaded, Mutwali confesses to having been offered $150 apiece to plant homing devices in the houses of suspected insurgents around the city, to be used to help US pilots hit specific targets in the city.

http://newstandardnews.net/content/?action=show_item&itemid=977

 

[invisibleplanet]

worth the read....


http://newstandardnews.net/content/?action=show_item&itemid=977New doubt was recently cast on the validity of US targets by an unusual source: In a video the UK Guardian says is being distributed in markets all over Fallujah, unidentified captors reportedly execute an Egyptian man who says his name is Muhammad Fauzi Abdul Aíal Mutwali. Before he is beheaded, Mutwali confesses to having been offered $150 apiece to plant homing devices in the houses of suspected insurgents around the city, to be used to help US pilots hit specific targets in the city.

One inspector even left behind a homing device to provide guidance for US bombers, which attacked Iraq in December 1998 during Operation Desert Fox (which, because it played out during the scandal surrounding President Clinton's affair with Monica Lewinsky, was often described as a "wag-the-dog" ruse).
source: googlecache

 

[invisibleplanet]

Iran focus: 8th September 2004

Rumsfeld: Iran aids rebels


By Rowan Scarborough
THE WASHINGTON TIMES


Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld charged yesterday that Iran is fueling the deadly insurgency in Iraq with money and fighters.
But, in an interview with editors and reporters of The Washington Times, Mr. Rumsfeld acknowledged that the United States has limited options because other nations are "not willing" to join in pressuring Iran, which has shown behavior that Mr. Rumsfeld said is "not part of the civilized world."
The defense secretary, a main architect of President Bush's strategy of attacking Islamic terrorists worldwide, declared of the insurgency in Iraq, "They're losing."

source: http://www.washingtontimes.com/national/20040908-123001-6570r.htm

syria focus: 13th September 2004 from Ha'aretz

The assistance that Bashar Assad has been lending Iraq, even after its defeat, is astonishing and attests to the makeup of the young president and to his readiness to take personal risks and put his country's best interests on the line. Syria is already paying a dear price for Bashar Assad's strange and bad bet to side with Iraq against the United States: The Americans have closed down the pipeline that carried a volume of about 200,000 oil barrels a day from Kirkuk to Syria.
source: http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/pages/...&subContrassID=14&sbSubContrassID=0&listSrc=Y

 

[Barking_Mad]

Ambulance torn apart in Fallujah as US launches 'precision' strikes

A plume of grey smoke billowed above Fallujah yesterday as the US military claimed they were making precision air strikes against insurgents in the city and local doctors said that civilians were being killed and wounded. The US army said its warplanes had bombed houses because it had intelligence about the presence of fighters loyal to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, whom the US sees as the guiding hand behind many attacks on its forces.

Dr Adel Khamis of the Fallujah General Hospital said at least 16 people were killed, including women and children, and 12 others were wounded. Video film showed a Red Crescent ambulance torn apart by an explosion. A hospital official said the driver, a paramedic and five patients had been killed by the blast. "The conditions here are miserable - an ambulance was bombed, three houses destroyed and men and women killed," said Rafayi Hayad al-Esawi, the director of the hospital. "The American army has no morals." .................

The US is now trying to reassert the authority of the interim government by bombing and the use of its air power but this is making the 138,000-strong US army in Iraq more unpopular by the day. High civilian casualties also create a backlash and act as a recruiting sergeant for insurgents.Ironically one of the quietest cities in Iraq is Tikrit, Saddam Hussein's home town, where the US army agreed with local tribal leaders not to fire back with its artillery if it was mortared.

Many killed in Baghdad explosion

A car bomb has exploded close to an Iraqi police station in central Baghdad, killing at least 35 people, officials say. Dozens of others were injured by the huge mid-morning blast in the busy Haifa Street area of the Iraqi capital, according to reports from the scene. Crowds of people were queuing outside the police station, waiting for it to open.

Haifa Street, a busy shopping area, has been a focus of recent resistance. The latest explosion, which occurred close to a number of shops and popular coffee houses, is one of the biggest in Baghdad for some time. The blast left a gaping three-metre (10ft) crater in the road, which was littered with glass and debris. A number of cars were set on fire. The blast echoed across the city and black smoke mushroomed over a wide area. Helicopters hovered above the scene as ambulances rushed casualties to hospital.

Angry crowds gathered near the site of the explosion, denouncing the US military and the interim government of Prime Minister Ayad Allawi for failing to protect police recruiting centres. "I blame Ayad Allawi's government for what happened because they did not take the necessary security measures," Ali Abul-Amir told the Associated Press news agency. He had gone to the police station to join the force, but had narrowly escaped the force of the explosion.

Haifa Street has been a hotbed of resistance to occupation forces and the scene of regular mortar and missile attacks. At least 13 people were killed in fighting there between US forces and insurgents on Sunday. Iraqi police forces have regularly been targeted by insurgents, who see them as collaborators with US forces.

 

[Barking_Mad]

Car bombing in Baghdad now said to have left 47 people dead.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/3654176.stm

 

[Barking_Mad]

Two US soldiers killed in Baghdad

Two Task Force Baghdad Soldiers were killed and three others were wounded when the Soldiers were attacked with an improvised explosive device and small-arms fire at approximately 4:30 p.m. The wounded Soldiers were evacuated to a medical facility

Turkey warns US it could stop Iraq cooperation

Turkey warned the United States that it would halt cooperation over Iraq if US forces did not stop their assault on the mostly Turkmen populated Iraqi town of Tall Afar, Anatolia news agency said.

Reuters: Bush to Shift Iraq Funds to Boost Security

Faced with mounting violence in Iraq the Bush administration plans on Tuesday to propose shifting $3.46 billion from Iraqi water, power and other reconstruction projects to improve security, boost oil output and prepare for elections scheduled for January

Saboteurs Blow Up Pipeline in North Iraq

Saboteurs blew up a domestic oil pipeline in northern Iraq on Tuesday, sending plumes of smoke leaping into the sky and forcing technicians to shut it down, officials said.

 

[Barking_Mad]

Sabateurs turn off electricity in Iraq

KIRKUK, Iraq - Saboteurs blew up a junction where multiple oil pipelines cross the Tigris River in northern Iraq today, setting off a chain reaction in power generation systems that left the entire country without power, officials said. Firefighters struggled to put out the blaze after the attack near Beiji, 155 miles north of Baghdad. Crude oil cascaded down the hillside into the river. Fire burned atop the water, fueled by the gushing oil.

Beiji is the point where several oil pipelines converge, said Lt. Col. Lee Morrison of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. One of them apparently was a domestic pipeline that fed a local power plant. The explosion set off a fire that melted cables and led to the power outage, electricity officials said. "Beiji is the chokepoint," Morrison said. "It's so easy to hit."..................."They already know it's a critical point because they've blown it up before," said Morrison, of St. Petersburg, Fla. "They obviously know the system. But it's not rocket science."

..........."Power will be back in the next hours," he said.

Iraqi policemen killed in Baquba

Eleven Iraqi policemen have been killed and two others injured after armed assailants sprayed their vehicle with bullets in Baquba, north of Baghdad. The civilian driver of the vehicle was also killed in the attack on Tuesday, said Qaisar Hamid of Baquba General Hospital. Two others were wounded, he said. Assailants fired at the vehicle with machine guns. The police officers were from out of town and were due to travel to Jordan for training on Tuesday. They reported to the police headquarters in Baquba, but were driving away after being told the journey to Jordan had been postponed for a day, when they were hit.

Meanwhile, armed assailants also opened fire on a US army patrol near the northern Iraqi city of Mosul on Tuesday, killing one soldier and wounding five, the US military said. The five wounded soldiers were evacuated to military hospitals in Mosul and Baghdad. Their patrol came under small arms fire as it was travelling on the western side of Mosul, the military said in a statement. The death followed the killing of two soldiers in Baghdad on Monday. A loud explosion also rocked al-Muthanna airport in central Baghdad, sources told Aljazeera.

They said columns of smoke were seen rising from the site. A US source confirmed the explosion.

Many killed in Ramadi, Falluja raids

Tuesday 14 September 2004, 8:15 Makka Time, 5:15 GMT

US snipers have killed at least 11 people in the Iraqi city of Ramadi, while air strikes on nearby Falluja have left 18 people dead. Dr Khamis al-Saad, general director of Ramadi hospital, told Aljazeera that 11 people, including a woman and children, were killed and another 18 wounded under US fire on Monday.

Ambulances and medical teams were targeted by US snipers in different areas of Ramadi, particularly near hospitals for women and children, al-Saad said. Two ambulance drivers and members of medical teams on board the vehicles were also killed, he said. Medical staff and patients inside the hospitals were targeted and a number of them were shot in the head, the general director said.

"Situation in general is unstable and deteriorating so I call on the government and NGOs to intervene as clashes are occurring every day," al-Saad said. "Our medical institutions are receiving casualties but medical supplies are not enough," he said. Earlier in the day, US forces launched air strikes on Falluja, killing up to 18 people, including women, children and an ambulance driver. "Every time we send out an ambulance, it gets targeted," Dr Rafia al-Isawi, director of Falluja hospital, told Aljazeera. "How are we going to transfer casualties? This is unreasonable. The US army has no ethics."........"Shame on our government that cannot protect the people," he added.

Elsewhere, one person was killed and three others wounded in a US helicopter strike on a Baghdad commercial district, not far from the scene of heavy fighting between US troops and armed fighters a day earlier, witnesses said. A US helicopter fired a missile on the area early on Monday afternoon, destroying a boarded-up clothes shop, said Ahmad Karim, who was wounded in the neck.

A dead man was sprawled in the street, his stomach ripped to shreds by shrapnel, while a child was wounded in the leg and an Egyptian worker hit in the face. Earlier, US troops patrolled nearby Haifa Street, where up to 40 people were killed and scores more wounded in clashes between armed fighters and US soldiers the day before.On Sunday, at least 110 people were killed in various parts of the country in an escalation of gun battles, car bombs and bombardments.

Civilians Allowed to Return to Tal Afar

TAL AFAR, Iraq - U.S. and Iraqi forces allowed civilians to return to Tal Afar on Tuesday, signaling an end to a siege of the northern city that killed dozens of people and angered U.S. ally Turkey. Civilian cars crossed the checkpoint on the outskirts of the city and troops searched others wishing to return, according to an Associated Press reporter watching the event unfold. Residents who fled the fighting had been pleading with U.S. forces to return to deal with bodies said to be left out in the streets.

American troops and Iraqi forces overran Tal Afar on Sunday - one of several Iraqi cities they say had fallen into the hands of insurgents - after a nearly two-week siege that forced scores of residents to flee and left a trail of devastated buildings and rubble. U.S. commanders said they moved in on Tal Afar at the behest of regional officials who lost control of the city. American intelligence believed Tal Afar had become a haven for militants smuggling men and arms from across the Syrian border.

The assault, however, angered Turkey, which accused U.S. forces of harming the city's civilian Turkmen population. The Turkmen are an ethnic Turkish minority in Iraq but make up the majority of Tal Afar's population. Turkish Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul warned Secretary of State Colin Powell that Ankara would stop cooperating with the United States in Iraq if American forces continued. Turkmen officials in Tal Afar have said that 58 people were killed during a 12-day assault by U.S. and Iraqi government forces. Turkmen residents who fled the city to nearby Mosul spoke of bodies lying under the hot sun and wrecked buildings.

 

[Barking_Mad]

Reports now say 47 dead in Baghdad bombing.

And it seems in addition to blaming Mr Allawi, they also arent very keen on Mr Bush.........

Pumping their firsts in the air, the crowds also condemned US President George W. Bush.

"Bush is a dog," they chanted.

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/story.jsp?story=561557

 

[Barking_Mad]

Doctors need more medical supplies in city of conflict

FALLUJAH, 13 Sep 2004 (IRIN) - The main hospital in Fallujah, some 60 km west of Baghdad, needs more medicines and equipment to treat people injured in recent fighting in the city, local doctors told IRIN on Monday.

They have also highlighted sanitation problems in hospitals and a lack of water and power supplies. The director of the main hospital, Dr Rafa'ah Hayad Al-Iyssaue, told IRIN that the surgical rooms of the hospital were closed as the equipment was inadequate to treat patients. Instead, most of the serious cases were being taken to Baghdad's main hospitals.

"Two months ago we sent an official document to the interim prime minister's office and to the Ministry of Health, telling them about our needs - a special quantity of materials that are essential for us due to the critical situation in Fallujah. But so far they haven't even answered our request," Dr Al-Iyssaue said.

 

[Barking_Mad]

Iraq: Signs of desperation

It is a telling indication of the problems in Iraq that the US State Department wants to switch money earmarked for water, sewage and electricity improvements to the training of Iraqi security forces. Attention is switching from long-term infrastructure to the immediate needs of security and stability.

Prompted by the US ambassador in Baghdad John Negroponte, the idea is to use $3.6 billion of the $18 billion approved by Congress last November to, among other things, train more Iraqi police and other forces, create more job programmes in an effort to reduce unemployment and plan for the elections in January. Of the $18 billion only about $1 billion has been spent so far, partly because reconstruction has been so difficult given the lack of security for contractors. The move comes as questions are being increasingly asked in Washington about whether Iraq can ever be put right.