*IRAQ: latest news and developments

[Barking_Mad]

US troops seal off Samarra

Thursday 23 September 2004, 16:10 Makka Time, 13:10 GMT

"The Americans struck last night and three bodies were brought out from the wreckage," said police chief Colonel Muhammad Fadil on Thursday. Twenty-one cars were burnt or damaged in the air strikes, he added. US forces sealed off the city, including the crucial bridge over the Tigris.

The US military confirmed fighting around Samarra on Wednesday evening when their troops were ambushed from a mosque. "A 1st Infantry Division patrol was attacked September 22 by anti-Iraqi forces with small arms fire and mortar fire from a mosque in Samarra at approximately 5pm (1300 GMT)," the military said, using its term for fighters. The patrol also came under fire from a nearby building and attack helicopters fired off missiles, but fighters continued to shoot at them. Finally aircraft dropped a bomb on the building, the military added. "The Americans struck last night and three bodies were brought out from the wreckage"

Also on Thursday, Sana Yusif, deputy manager of the Northern Oil Company in Mosul, was killed when unknown armed men opened fire at his vehicle in the city's Baladiyat neighbourhood in the morning. And in Miqdadiya town, northeast of Baghdad, five Iraqis, including three policemen, were injured when an explosive device went off. The blast occurred when an Iraqi police patrol passed through the area, sources said.

U.S. warplanes attack insurgents in east Baghdad

BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) U.S. warplanes fired on insurgent targets in the east Baghdad slum of Sadr City, killing at least one person and injuring 12 many of them children hospital officials said Thursday. The U.S. military said they launched an operation overnight aiming to ''disband and disarm'' militia loyal to the rebel Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr and open way for reconstruction projects in the city.

The Thursday attacks followed a day of fierce clashes between American troops and fighters loyal to al-Sadr. U.S. warplanes and helicopters roared overhead and residents said loud explosions could be heard for hours. Militia fighters returned fire with machine guns, they said. An American Bradley fighting vehicle was hit by a rocket-propelled grenade and caught fire, according to a U.S. military report. It was not clear if there were any casualties.

The aim of the operation, dubbed ''Iron Fist 2,'' is to maintain pressure on al-Sadr by seizing weapons caches and detaining or killing his lieutenants, said Maj. Bill Williams, an acting battalion commander in the 1st Cavalry Division. The Americans believe that Sadr have been increasing his authority in Sadr City after last months agreement to stop hostilities between his followers and U.S. troops, using the lull in fighting to improve his position.

''The main problem is that he has the militia,'' Williams said. ''Our goal is to pressure him to disband and disarm.'' The military says that the insurgents have laid down booby traps throughout Sadr City and have repeatedly fired mortars toward an American base on its outskirts.

 

[bigfish]

http://www.williambowles.info/iraq/war_reports17904.html

Translated and compiled by Muhammad Abu Nasr, editorial member

Friday, 17 September 2004.

In a savage crime: US aircraft hysterically bomb village, massacring at least 44 Iraqi villagers.

American F-16 and F-18 fighter bombers as well as Apache helicopters carried out continuous and hysterical bombing from 3:30am until 5:00am local time Friday morning of the Ridwaniyat Zawbi` area in the village of Zaydan, 20km south of al-Fallujah. The area is home to members of the Zawbi` tribe. The local correspondent of Mafkarat al-Islam reported that the American aircraft dumped more than 14 massive anti-personnel container bombs as well as napalm on the rural community. Each container bomb consists of about 2,000 bomblets that blast apart near the ground to kill any and all living things.

Forty-four Iraqi civilians were massacred in the savage American bombing at last count, but the figure was expected to rise considerably in view of the massive scale of the damage inflicted on the little village. Of those, 15 of the dead were children, 10 women, and nine were elderly persons. Seven children are in critical condition, and eight women and five men were also wounded.

Ironically, perhaps, one of those killed in the US bomb raid was `Adil `Ali Hamdan the General Administrative Director of al- Fallujah General Hospital. His wife and two of his children were killed as well, and two other children of his were wounded.

 

[Barking_Mad]

Nepalm - not the first time its been reported that the US have used it.

 

[Barking_Mad]

Gunmen kill oil official in northern Iraq, saboteurs blow up oil well

1:35 p.m. September 23, 2004

BASRA, Iraq – Gunmen killed a senior official of Iraq's North Oil Co. in the northeastern city of Mosul on Thursday, less than two weeks after his boss escaped an assassination attempt, while saboteurs attacked an oil well near Baghdad and a pipeline in the south, officials said.

In Rashidiya, some 15 miles north of the capital, Baghdad, saboteurs blew up an oil well, setting it on fire, said Jassim al-Dulaimi, who is in charge of security at the area's oilfields. Until midday Thursday, fire fighters were still trying to extinguish it, 14 hours after it exploded, he said. The well, with a capacity of 5,000 barrels a day, supplies refineries in nearby Taji and Baghdad's Dora refinery, al-Dulaimi said.

Saboteurs also attacked a pipeline with explosives Thursday in the southern city of Najaf, ceasing oil flow from fields near the city to a refinery in the southern city of Basra, an official with the South Oil Co. said on condition of anonymity. He said the attack will not affect oil exports from the south, Iraq's main port for oil shipments.

Abuse, Torture and Rape Reported at Unlisted U.S.-run Prisons in Iraq

Huntington Woods, Michigan , Sep 23 - American legal investigators have discovered evidence of abuse, torture and rape throughout the US-run prison system in Iraq. A Michigan legal team meeting with former detainees in Baghdad during an August fact-finding mission gathered evidence supporting claims of prisoner abuse at some 25 US-run detention centers, most of them so far not publicly mentioned as being embroiled in the Iraq torture scandal.

"That list was something that we came back with -- we only knew of three prisons going there," investigator Mohammed Alomari told The NewStandard, referring to the few detention centers in Iraq where concerns over treatment of prisoners have already been raised publicly.

The list includes some actual prisons, such as Al-Salihiya Prison in Baghdad, the notorious prison in Abu Ghraib, and a prison at Camp Bucca, a Coalition-built POW camp in the southern port city of Um-Qasr. Other detention centers have been established at military bases, such as the US Military compound at Al-Dhiloeia, north of Baghdad; a US base outside Fallujah; and the Hilla military compound, a joint US-Polish base where Alomari said he has recently been informed of allegations against US and Polish personnel.

"Nobody talks about it. All everyone talks about is Abu Ghraib because of the pictures," said Alomari. "But in these other places, there’s tons of acts of torture, abuse, rape."

 

[Barking_Mad]

Hepatitis spreads in 2 Iraqi districts

BAGHDAD A virulent form of hepatitis that is especially lethal for pregnant women has broken out in two of Iraq's most troubled districts, Iraqi Health Ministry officials said in interviews here this week, and they warned that a collapse of water and sewage systems in the country is probably at the root of the illnesses.

The disease, called Hepatitis E, is caused by a virus that is often spread by sewage-contaminated drinking water.

The officials said that their limited ability to test for the virus had already been overwhelmed by the hepatitis outbreaks, suggesting that only a fraction of the actual cases have been diagnosed. But in Sadr City, a Baghdad slum that for months has been convulsed by gun battles between a local militia and American troops, as many as 155 cases have turned up.

The second outbreak is in Mahmudiya, a town 56 kilometers, or 35 miles, south of Baghdad that is known as much for its kidnappings and drive-by shootings as for its poverty, where 60 suspected cases have been seen. At least nine pregnant women are believed to have been infected, and one has died. There have been five reported deaths overall. "We are saying that the real number is greatly more than this, because the area is greatly underreported," said Dr. Atta-alla Mekhlif al-Salmani, head of the viral hepatitis section at the Health Ministry's Center of Disease Control.

The World Health Organization is rushing Hepatitis E testing kits, water purification tablets, informational brochures and other materials to Iraq to help with the outbreaks, said Dr. Naeema al-Gasseer, the health agency representative for Iraq and a UN health official, who is now based in Amman, Jordan.

 

[Barking_Mad]

The best university in Iraq. Imagine the rest

Broken or antiquated equipment, and too few chairs to go round. Luke Harding in Baghdad reports on what Saddam, sanctions and 'shock and awe' did to science.

Standing in the physics laboratory of Baghdad University, Professor Raad Radhi points to the machine for measuring liquid helium. "It hasn't worked for two or three years," he says, in front of a twisting assembly of pipes. Colleagues nod vigorously. "In fact we haven't got anything," he adds. "We don't even have chairs for our students to sit on.

"I got my PhD from the University of Michigan. Imagine the difference between the facilities here and there. How are we expected to work?"

It is a good question. Some 17 months after the fall of Baghdad, Iraqi science is in parlous state. Most of the equipment used by Radhi and his department, much of it British, is 20 or 30 years old. "Look at this," the professor says, as he shows off the university's crumbling electronics lab. "Most of this stuff doesn't work. The few things that do work should be in a museum."

"We might be able to make coffee on this," he adds sarcastically, gesturing at a plate for soldering metal.

 

[Barking_Mad]

This is a long way from the early estimates. 100,000 you generally can't immediately identify seems like quite a problem

New estimates on numbers involved in Insurgency

"The overall prospects... are for a violent political future," said Jeffrey White, a former senior Defense Intelligence Agency analyst.........White said his conservative estimate is that there are 100,000 Iraqis involved in the Sunni insurgency, including fighters, messengers and people who provide housing and other assistance. He discounted estimates by U.S. military commanders that the Sunni resistance numbers about 5,000 fighters.

 

[Barking_Mad]

Iraq - it's worse than you think

It's not only that U.S. casualty figures keep climbing. American counterinsurgency experts are noticing some disturbing trends in those statistics. The Defense Department counted 87 attacks per day on U.S. forces in August—the worst monthly average since Bush's flight-suited visit to the USS Abraham Lincoln in May 2003. Preliminary analysis of the July and August numbers also suggests that U.S. troops are being attacked across a wider area of Iraq than ever before. And the number of gunshot casualties apparently took a huge jump in August. Until then, explosive devices and shrapnel were the primary cause of combat injuries, typical of a "phase two" insurgency, where sudden ambushes are the rule. (Phase one is the recruitment phase, with most actions confined to sabotage. That's how things started in Iraq.) Bullet wounds would mean the insurgents are standing and fighting—a step up to phase three.

Another ominous sign is the growing number of towns that U.S. troops simply avoid. A senior Defense official objects to calling them "no-go areas." "We could go into them any time we wanted," he argues. The preferred term is "insurgent enclaves." They're spreading. Counterinsurgency experts call it the "inkblot strategy": take control of several towns or villages and expand outward until the areas merge. The first city lost to the insurgents was Fallujah, in April. Now the list includes the Sunni Triangle cities of Ar Ramadi, Baqubah and Samarra, where power shifted back and forth between the insurgents and American-backed leaders last week. "There is no security force there [in Fallujah], no local government," says a senior U.S. military official in Baghdad. "We would get attacked constantly. Forget about it."

 

[bigfish]

By the looks of it AP have trained up a tame 'Tom' Arab in sophistry as I see we're back to the phony "Gunmen" tag in post 3364.

What about the hoards of American and British "Gunmen" roaming Iraq slaughtering its people? What about the fascist "Gunman" Allawi shooting out the brains of prisoners in Baghdad?

Don't they count?

 

[Barking_Mad]

Rocket Hits Busy Street in Baghdad

BAGHDAD, Iraq - A rocket fell on a major Baghdad street Friday, causing injuries among civilians, police and witnesses said. The rocket hit a busy side of Palestine Street, which is in the eastern part of the city, witnesses said. Blood stains could be seen on the street, videotape from Associated Press Television news showed. Police Capt. Thaer Mtashar confirmed that there were casualties, but he could not say how many.

Ten Iraqis wounded in US-insurgent clashes north of Baghdad

DHULUIYA, Iraq - Seven Iraqi civilians and three national guards were wounded in clashes overnight Friday between insurgents and joint Iraqi-US forces in the flashpoint town of Dhuluiyah, security and medical sources said. "Ten people, including three members of the Iraqi National Guard (ING) were wounded in these clashes," ING officer Ali Yusef told AFP.

"We have received 10 wounded, including a woman and a child," said Mohammed Kadhem, a doctor from the general hospital in Dhuluiyah. According to the ING, rebels launched an assault aimed at taking control of the main police station there. Fighting began on Thursday afternoon when a US military patrol came under attack from rocket-propelled grenades near an abandoned police station, a military spokesman said.

The town, home to members of the puritanical Wahabbi sect of Islam and thought to harbour foreign fighters fleeing from the trouble zone of Samarra, is 75 kilometres (40 miles) north of Baghdad.

 

[bigfish]

Video: "Massacre of Civilians in Fallujah?" - Retired Special Forces soldier Stan Goff comments: "The “tell” is in the audio. When the pilot asks permission to fire, he reports a large number of people… not armed people. People. And permission is granted instantly. This is an indication that the mission guidance is to shoot anyone who is in the street.

http://www.newsgateway.ca/Fallujah_video_massacre.htm


Like Dogs In The Night: It's time for Americans -- both Democrat and Republican -- to wake up and face the truth -- we are struggling under the heel of a morally bankrupt, rabid right-wing, pre-World War II Germany facist cult.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article6958.htm


U.S. operation 'Iron Fist 2' steps up attacks on Sadr City : Iraqi doctors said one person was killed Thursday and 12 were wounded, many of them children.

http://www.oaklandtribune.com/Stories/0,1413,82~1865~2423728,00.html


Bush Upbeat as Iraq Burns: As the situation in Iraq moves from bad to worse, the president, based on his public comments, seems to be edging further and further from reality. This is disturbing, to say the least.

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/09/24/o...=beca722ce58ba596&ei=5090&partner=rssuserland


Allawi, Bush & Cheney Are Lying About Conditions in Iraq: To sum it all up, America is in deep trouble. We have a president and vice president who consistently lie to the people, using their “war on terror” as an abstraction that allows them to have a war without end to allegedly “protect us.”

http://www.todaysalternativenews.com/index.php?event=link,150&values[0]=&values[1]=1920


The Face of Iraqi Democracy: Ayad Allawi's performance in Washington was everything the Bush re-election campaign could have asked for. Unfortunately, most of it was wrong.

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/09/24/o...=8e004485641580dc&ei=5090&partner=rssuserland


Everything they say about their war is a lie: The brutal realities behind the rape of Iraq -- that it was planned years ago, that the aggressors knew full well that their justifications for war were false and that their invasion would lead to chaos, ruin and unbridled terror -- have been exposed by the very words and documents of the invaders themselves

http://www.themoscowtimes.com/stories/2004/09/24/120.html

 

[Gumbert]

its getting messy, sorry check, its been this messy since march 2003..

round of applause

 

[bigfish]

Robert Fisk: 09/25/04 "The Independent" -- We are now in the greatest crisis since the last greatest crisis. That's how we run the Iraq war - or the Second Iraq War as Lord Blair of Kut al-Amara would now have us believe. Hostages are paraded in orange tracksuits to remind us of Guantanamo Bay. Kidnappers demand the release of women held prisoner by the Americans. Abu Ghraib is what they are talking about. Abu Ghraib? Anyone remember Abu Ghraib? Remember those dirty little snapshots? But don't worry. This wasn't the America George Bush recognised, and besides we're punishing the bad apples, aren't we? Women? Why, there are only a couple of dames left - and they are "Dr Germ" and "Dr Anthrax".

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article6967.htm


'Out of touch' Blair fights to keep Iraq off agenda: PM 'more inflexible than Thatcher', poll finds. Bid to head off 'troops out' call at conference

http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/politics/story.jsp?story=565791


Iraq: The Massacres Continue as “Democracy - Building”: The indiscriminate slaughter of Iraqi citizens in Fallujah, Najaf, Baghdad, Tel Afar, Kut and other Iraqi cities, the outrageous treatment of Iraqi prisoners of war and civilian detainees, and the destruction of the nation of Iraq have not registered in the Moral consciousness of the “civilised” Western world.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article6968.htm


‘Get Out, America!’: Death by US forces is being meted out in all areas of Iraq. In the north, in the center, and in the south, and all in the name of fighting ‘terrorists’. With the death toll rising every day, an estimated 20,000 to 30,000 civilians have lost their lives in Iraq since you began your adventure

http://www.arabnews.com/?page=7&section=0&article=51934&d=25&m=9&y=2004


More Iraqi civilians killed by U.S. forces than by insurgents, data shows: Operations by U.S. and multinational forces and Iraqi police are killing twice as many Iraqis - most of them civilians - as attacks by insurgents, according to statistics compiled by the Iraqi Health Ministry

http://www.realcities.com/mld/krwashington/9753303.htm


Reuters Video: Iraqis digging through the ruins of a destroyed building, and pulling out survivors including two women and two children.

http://tv.reuters.co.uk/ifr_main.js..._17d5d2axff33a3ee5cx7324&rdm=678864.716868319


Allawi safety claims 'out of touch with reality' say Iraqis: Iraqis reacted with astonishment and derision yesterday to a claim made by the interim Prime Minister, Iyad Allawi, before the US Congress that 14 or 15 out of Iraq's 18 provinces "are completely safe."

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/story.jsp?story=565547


Every Day Is Waco Day in Allawi’s ‘Liberated’ Land: After Allawi called journalists reporting unenthusiastically about Iraq’s daily slaughter liars, almost the entire legislative and executive branches of the US government gave the CIA-trained, neocon-selected Iraqi interim prime minister a standing ovation, and Wolfowitz kissed him. Twice.

http://www.arabnews.com/?page=7&sec...5&m=9&y=2004&pix=opinion.jpg&category=Opinion


Rigging the Iraqi Elections : The electoral commission chosen by Allawi is fixing things so the parties created by those Iraqis who lived in exile in recent decades and who owe their allegiance to the United States will be heavily favored in the ballot positioning.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article6964.htm

 

[laptop]

US arrests senior Iraqi commander

A senior member of the Iraqi National Guard is in custody after being arrested for suspected links with insurgents, the US military has said.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/3691540.stm

Which just goes to show how the totally independent Iraqi régime is improving the security situation entirely in its own democratically determined interests. Or something.

 

[Lock&Light]

It's being reported that the two Italian women hostages have been released.

 

[Barking_Mad]

U.S. reconstruction money not reaching Iraqis

WASHINGTON - Less than half of the aid in the Bush administration's reconstruction package for Iraq is being spent to benefit Iraqis, say some U.S. officials and independent analysts. Nearly a year after Congress set aside $18.4 billion for reconstruction, costs related to dealing with the insurgency - such as security services, property losses and insurance - are consuming an increasing share of the money, analysts said.

Another large part of the aid - contractors' profits and salaries paid to American and other foreign workers - mostly ends up outside Iraq without helping the Iraqi economy, they said. U.S. officials, noting the "unusually difficult" conditions in Iraq, acknowledged last week that security costs and other overhead are a large expense in Iraq.

Some government analysts - while insisting they not be named - say such costs eat up half the reconstruction aid. Private analysts estimate the figure at up to 75 percent. "The central point is this money is not reaching the Iraqis," said Frederick Barton, co-director of the reconstruction studies program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington think tank. "We're spending a lot of money we believe is helping people and converting Iraq to a new kind of economy. That's where I think we're kidding ourselves."

The issue is drawing attention at a time when the administration already is being criticized in Congress for the slow pace of spending the reconstruction aid: Although the Bush administration argued that the $18.4 billion was urgent when Congress approved it a year ago, only about $1 billion of it has been spent. Last week, the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Sen. Richard Lugar, R-Ind., said the slow pace of spending reflected "the incompetence of the administration."

Barton's reconstruction study group estimates that less than 30 percent of the money reaches Iraqis. Another 30 percent appears to be going for security, about 10 percent for U.S. government overhead, 6 percent for contractor profits, and 12 percent for insurance and foreign workers' salaries. The rest, perhaps 15 percent, might be lost to corruption and mismanagement, the group estimates.

 

[Barking_Mad]

Aside from the tragic human cost - $600bn in compensation. Christ......

Official: Iraq veterans face long-lasting mental health issues

WASHINGTON - U.S. Secretary of Veterans Affairs Anthony J. Principi said Tuesday that the violent guerrilla tactics used by insurgents in Iraq will take a considerable toll on the mental health of troops, resulting in a lifetime of disability payments for many of those who return from war.

So far 20 percent of returning Iraq veterans who've sought VA care have done so for mental health issues. While the exact cost of compensating those injured in the Iraq war is uncertain, the VA already expects to pay $600 billion over the next three decades in disability payments to veterans of earlier wars.

Principi said the VA is readying itself for an influx of veterans with mental illnesses and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

"This type of war - insurgency warfare - where you don't know whether you're going to be the next victim of a car bomb or roadside bomb or (rocket-propelled grenade). It's like fighting in Vietnam when I was in the Mekong Delta," Principi said. "You don't know whether you're getting into an ambush with guerrillas."

Of 168,000 service members who had served in Iraq and been discharged as of July 22, 28,000 had sought medical care from the VA, according to the department's most recent statistics. Of those, about 5,400 had mental health issues and nearly one in three of those suffered from PTSD, which results from a serious traumatic event and can cause debilitating flashbacks, nightmares, anxiety and uncontrollable anger. The disorder may not show itself for years.

 

[Barking_Mad]

Why We Cannot Win

Before I begin, let me state that I am a soldier currently deployed in Iraq, I am not an armchair quarterback. Nor am I some politically idealistic and naïve young soldier, I am an old and seasoned Non-Commissioned Officer with nearly 20 years under my belt. Additionally, I am not just a soldier with a muds-eye view of the war, I am in Civil Affairs and as such, it is my job to be aware of all the events occurring in this country and specifically in my region.

I have come to the conclusion that we cannot win here for a number of reasons. Ideology and idealism will never trump history and reality.

When we were preparing to deploy, I told my young soldiers to beware of the "political solution." Just when you think you have the situation on the ground in hand, someone will come along with a political directive that throws you off the tracks.

I believe that we could have won this un-Constitutional invasion of Iraq and possibly pulled off the even more un-Constitutional occupation and subjugation of this sovereign nation. It might have even been possible to foist democracy on these people who seem to have no desire, understanding or respect for such an institution. True the possibility of pulling all this off was a long shot and would have required several hundred billion dollars and even more casualties than we’ve seen to date but again it would have been possible, not realistic or necessary but possible.

Here are the specific reasons why we cannot win in Iraq.

First, we refuse to deal in reality. We are in a guerilla war, but because of politics, we are not allowed to declare it a guerilla war and must label the increasingly effective guerilla forces arrayed against us as "terrorists, criminals and dead-enders."

 

[Barking_Mad]

Riverbend Blog

You know things are really going downhill in Iraq, when the Bush speech-writers have to recycle his old speeches. Listening to him yesterday, one might think he was simply copying and pasting bits and pieces from the older stuff. My favorite part was when he claimed, "Electricity has been restored above pre-war levels..." Even E. had to laugh at that one. A few days ago, most of Baghdad was in the dark for over 24 hours and lately, on our better days, we get about 12 hours of electricity. Bush got it wrong (or Allawi explained it to incorrectly)- the electricity is drastically less than pre-war levels, but the electricity BILL is way above pre-war levels. Congratulations Iraqis on THAT!! Our electricity bill was painful last month. Before the war, Iraqis might pay an average of around 5,000 Iraqi Dinars a month for electricity (the equivalent back then of $2.50) - summer or winter. Now, it's quite common to get bills above 70,000 Iraqi Dinars... for half-time electricity.

 

[Barking_Mad]

If America were Iraq, What would it be Like?

President Bush said Tuesday that the Iraqis are refuting the pessimists and implied that things are improving in that country.

What would America look like if it were in Iraq's current situation? The population of the US is over 11 times that of Iraq, so a lot of statistics would have to be multiplied by that number.

Thus, violence killed 300 Iraqis last week, the equivalent proportionately of 3,300 Americans. What if 3,300 Americans had died in car bombings, grenade and rocket attacks, machine gun spray, and aerial bombardment in the last week? That is a number greater than the deaths on September 11, and if America were Iraq, it would be an ongoing, weekly or monthly toll.

And what if those deaths occurred all over the country, including in the capital of Washington, DC, but mainly above the Mason Dixon line, in Boston, Minneapolis, Salt Lake City, and San Francisco?

 

[Barking_Mad]

At least 13 Iraqis killed, six US troops wounded in blasts, shootings

A car bomb went off in the northern city of Mosul as a U.S. military convoy was passing by, injuring six US troops, it was reported Wednesday. According to The AP, witnesses said the attack late Tuesday wrecked a vehicle and that American troops sealed off the area.

Meanwhile, U.S. and Iraqi forces clashed with resistance fighters on a main Baghdad street on Wednesday, the Iraqi Interior Ministry said. At least one blast was heard across the Iraqi capital. Separately, the American Army said a U.S. warplane struck a rocket launcher mounted on the back of a vehicle in the Baghad slum of Sadr city, destroying the vehicle. Maithem Mahmoud of the al-Sadr General Hospital said one man was killed and a woman injured.

Elsewhere, gunmen opened fire on two vehicles carrying policemen near Latifiyah, south of the capital, killing seven people inside the cars, said Salah Hamza, a doctor at Iskandariyah General Hospital. According to The AP, the police were on route from Baghdad to the southern city of Nasiriyah. Attackers also threw a hand grenade at a tent housing Shiite pilgrims set up by the side of the road just south of Baghdad, killing two civilians, hospital officials said.

In the town of Mahmoudiyah, the local leader of one of Iraq's main Shiite political parties escaped an assassination attempt in a drive-by shooting, but his driver was killed, a hospital official said. Three members of the party's armed wing, the Badr Brigade, were killed and two others seriously wounded when their car was hit by grenades and rifle fire in Baqouba, north of Baghdad, said police Capt. Hashim Hamdan.

 

[Barking_Mad]

Suicide of soldier recalled to Iraq

A 20-year-old Milford Haven soldier, who broke down as his father was driving him back to his unit for further service in Iraq, was later found hanged from the swings at a village play area. Gary John Boswell, of 34 Woodbine Way, Hakin, had served with the Royal Welch Fusiliers in Iraq, Germany and Canada since joining up in 2002, the Pembrokeshire Coroner, Mr Michael Howells, was told at a Milford Haven inquest on Thursday.

Before recording a suicide verdict, the coroner heard from Mr John Moses Boswell how his popular young son had suddenly banged his head on the car door and asked him to take him back home. He had previously attempted to cut his wrists and had also taken an overdose of tablets, but he had seemed happy at the start of the car journey back to camp.

Mr Boswell said his son had never cried in front of him before, but he would not open up about what had happened out in Iraq. "I think there was one man who was bullying Gary," he told the coroner. It was at 7.15am on Sunday, July 25th, that a motorist driving past Herbrandston play area saw a figure hanging from the crossbar of the swings.

Police found Gary hanging from his car towrope, which had been tied to a fence and stretched over the swings.The coroner expressed sympathy with the family over the tragic incident.

 

[Barking_Mad]

UKRANIAN KILLED IN CAR ACCIDENT

Camp Babylon, Iraq - One Ukranian officer has died and 2 Ukranian officers were injured as a result of a car accident near Camp Delta earlier today . The Ukrainians are part of the Ukrainian contingent deployed in the Wasit province. The accident is now under investigation.

Attacks outline insurgency

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Over the past 30 days, more than 2,300 attacks have been directed against civilians and military targets in Iraq, in a pattern that sprawls over nearly every major population center outside the Kurdish north, according to comprehensive data compiled by a private security company with access to military intelligence reports and its own network of Iraqi informants.

The sweeping geographical reach of the attacks, from Nineveh and Salahuddin provinces in the northwest to Babylon and Diyala in the center and Basra in the south, suggest a more widespread resistance than the isolated pockets of insurgency described by Iraqi government officials.

The type of attacks ran the gamut: car bombs, time bombs, rocket-propelled grenades, hand grenades, small-arms fire, mortar attacks and land mines.

"If you look at incident data and you put incident data on the map, it's not a few provinces," said Adam Collins, a security expert and the chief intelligence official in Iraq for Special Operations Consulting-Security Management Group Inc., which compiles and analyzes the data as a regular part of its operations in the country.

The number of attacks has risen and fallen over the months.

Collins said the highest numbers were in April, when there was major fighting in Fallujah, with attacks averaging 120 a day. In contrast, the average is now about 80 a day.

 

[Barking_Mad]

Four gunmen killed in Baghdad clash

Baghdad, Iraq, Sep. 29 (UPI) -- U.S.-backed Iraqi national guards killed four gunmen in a search for arms and insurgents along a central Baghdad road Wednesday, security sources said. The Iraqi guards in cooperation with U.S. forces closed all accesses to Haifa Road early Tuesday and fanned out in the area searching for suspected arms caches and hideouts.

The sources said the guards clashed with gunmen during their raids, killing four and capturing several others. Similar clashes erupted along Haifa Road Tuesday when gunmen tried to kill an employee of the Iraqi intelligence service and kidnap four national guardsmen.

In the city of Karbala, 100 kilometers (62 miles) south of Baghdad, gunmen killed two Iraqi national guardsmen and wounded two others. Official Iraqi television said the guardsmen were killed Tuesday night when gunmen attacked a checkpoint at the entrance of the city. In the northern city of Mosul, an explosive charge blew up near a checkpoint manned by U.S. forces and Iraqi police. Witnesses said at least two U.S. soldiers and two Iraqi policemen were killed in the blast, but there was no official confirmation.

 

[bigfish]

Resistance to U.S. in Iraq called widespread : Iraq rebels atttack 2,300 times in a month.: The sweeping geographical reach of the attacks, suggest a more widespread resistance than the isolated pockets of insurgency described by Iraqi government officials.

http://www.iht.com/bin/print.php?file=541103.html


Growing Pessimism on Iraq: A growing number of career professionals within national security agencies believe that the situation in Iraq is much worse, and the path to success much more tenuous, than is being expressed in public by top Bush administration officials, according to assessments over the past year by intelligence officials at the CIA and the departments of State and Defense.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article6973.htm


In Pictures: U.S. Bombs Falluja

http://english.aljazeera.net/InPictures/usfalluja26092.htm


U.S. Tactics Fuel Falluja Insurgency, Residents Say: 'Is this the logic of your civilization? How can money compensate me for the loss of my family? I await compensation from God to kill all of you in Iraq'."

http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=reutersEdge&storyID=6366115


Iraq War Plans 'Were Drawn Up Before Vote' : Britain was involved in planning for war in Iraq for at least nine months before MPs approved military action, according to a document apparently leaked from the Pentagon.

http://news.scotsman.com/latest.cfm?id=3560751


Operation American Repression?: An Army officer in Iraq who wrote a highly critical article on the administration's conduct of the war is being investigated for disloyalty -- if charged and convicted, he could get 20 years.

http://fairuse.1accesshost.com/news2/salon37.htm

 

[bigfish]

Control Room: Thought-provoking documentary about the way the media is covering the war in Iraq, concentrating on the work done by the Arab network

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/video1001.htm

 

[Barking_Mad]

How many attacks is this on Fallujah by air?

'Three dead' in Falluja air raid

At least three people have been killed and several others injured in a US air strike on the Iraqi town of Falluja, west of Baghdad, local medics say. Unconfirmed reports say the casualties included civilians. The US army said in a statement it had targeted a safehouse that was being used by supporters of the Islamic militant, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. Later, a car bomb explosion near a police station in Baghdad, caused several casualties, police said. And outside Baghdad, a rocket fired at a US military support base killed one coalition soldier, the US said. His nationality was not specified.

Regarding the Falluja attack, the US army said: "Several intelligence sources reported that Zarqawi terrorists were using the safehouse at the time of the strike to plan attacks against Iraqi citizens and multinational forces." It said "significant secondary explosions during the impact" suggested arms had been stored in the house.

The attack took place at about 0500 (0100 GMT), the army said. Up to eight people were reported injured. Witnesses said two houses were destroyed and four others damaged. Zarqawi is blamed for a string of kidnappings and suicide bombings. In recent weeks the US has launched almost nightly bombardments of Falluja, which for several months has been a stronghold of militants fighting US and Iraqi forces. Last week a US official said up to 100 of Zarqawi's associates had been killed in the raids. Doctors in the town have reported that dozens of civilians have been killed in the strikes.

The US official said such claims should be treated with caution.

 

[Barking_Mad]

Many killed in Baghdad bombings

US and Iraqi forces came under attack across Baghdad on Thursday, leaving many soldiers and police dead. A bomb attack on a US military convoy travelling in the capital was reported to have killed at least 30 people.

Earlier, in the Abu Ghraib area, a suicide car bomber killed at least two Iraqi police and a US soldier. Another US soldier died in a rocket attack. In Falluja overnight a US air strike killed at least three civilians, according to local doctors.

The most bloody attack in Baghdad was a double bomb attack on a US convoy at about 1315 (0915 GMT). "Initial reports that we have is that it was a multiple vehicle-borne improvised explosive device attack in the same vicinity of western Baghdad," said Col Jim Hutton of the US 1st Cavalry Division. A policeman at the scene, quoted by Reuters, said he had counted at least 33 bodies and said about 50 people were wounded.

In Abu Ghraib, a car bomber drove into a US military checkpoint near the mayor's office and a police station at about 0945 (0545 GMT), the US said. It sent shrapnel flying around near a busy junction milling with crowds of people, an interior ministry spokesman told Reuters. A doctor spoke of 60 people injured. "This despicable act killed not only a multinational forces soldier, but Iraqis who were merely going about their business of defending this country," Col Hutton said in a statement.

Also near Baghdad, insurgents fired a rocket at a US military base, killing one soldier and injuring others. Elsewhere on Thursday, a senior policeman was killed in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul, when gunmen opened fire on his car, police said.

Hospital: 35 Killed, 120 Wounded in Baghdad Blasts

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - At least 35 people were killed and 120 wounded, many of them children, in a set of three car bomb blasts in southern Baghdad on Thursday, hospital officials said. Officials at Yarmouk hospital said they were inundated with bodies and said at least 35 corpses had been brought in. They said 120 people were wounded, most of them children hit by shrapnel.

 

[Barking_Mad]

'Ten hostages' captured in Iraq

The Arabic television channel al-Jazeera has broadcast footage of what it says is a militant group claiming to have seized 10 new hostages in Iraq. The video, said to be from a group calling itself the Islamic Army in Iraq, showed three men held captive and two masked gunmen.

It says the hostages - two Indonesian women, six Iraqis and two Lebanese - work for an electronics firm. There was no mention of any demands, or when or where the hostages were taken. A Lebanese foreign ministry official told the Associated Press news agency that two Lebanese nationals had been kidnapped in Iraq.

Iraq to get $436m emergency loan

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has approved an emergency loan of $436m (£232m) to Iraq, the first from an international organisation. The IMF hopes the loan will act as a catalyst for more international economic aid, including debt relief. Deputy IMF managing director Takatoshi Kato said Iraq's foreign debt needed to be brought down to a "sustainable level".

The Paris Club of creditor nations are due to discuss debt relief for Iraq. The US wants 90% of Iraq's $120bn overseas debt wiped off, but Russia and France have insisted on a 50% limit. They say this is sufficient for such an oil-rich nation. Despite the disagreement, the IMF said all Iraq's main overseas creditors had agreed to defer Iraq's debt repayments until the end of 2005. This is the first time the IMF has given Iraq a loan of any sort, and comes under its emergency assistance program.

Syria 'to seal' border with Iraq

The US says Syria has agreed to tighten its border with Iraq to prevent militants from crossing the border. The move followed two days of talks in Damascus between Syrian and Iraqi officials and US military commanders, US State Department officials said. There has been no word yet from the Syrian government.

The US has long pressed Damascus to crack down on what it sees as terror groups and to prevent insurgents from moving in and out of Syria. Now what we have to see is action on the part of the Syrians "A number of understandings have come out of this meeting with respects to commitment with the Iraqi interim government and the coalition and the Syrians to stop illicit activity across the border," US Secretary of State Colin Powell said in an interview with the AFP news agency. "I think it is a positive step, but what really matters is action and not just an agreement," Mr Powell said.

 

[Barking_Mad]

Reports now suggest that 35 people have been killed and 140 injured in several bombings around Baghdad.

http://www.novinite.com/view_news.php?id=39815