*IRAQ: latest news and developments

[Barking_Mad]

US wounded in Falluja hits 412

More than 70 US soldiers, most of them injured in Falluja, have been flown from Iraq to a military hospital in Germany. A C-141 transport plane brought the 73 newest patients to the US Air Force's Ramstein base on Saturday morning.The 73 new patients at the US military's Landstuhl Regional Medical Centre pushed the number of arrivals this week to 412, nearly all of whom were injured in Falluja, according to a hospital spokeswoman.

Military officials could not provide an exact breakdown on the number of wounded from Falluja or the nature of their injuries.

 

[Barking_Mad]

Fallujah and Aid

The International Red Cross said it was striving to gain access

"The IRC is making contacts with all the parties involved, the multi-national forces, the Iraqi forces and all other parties in order to remind them of their international obligations as stated by the international humanitarian law," said Rana Saidany.

These obligations include the need for treating the wounded, evacuating them from the battle zone along with facilitating the tasks of medical teams and securing the safety of the civilian population."

Saidany added: "It is unacceptable in the 21st century to abandon the wounded stranded on the streets and bleeding to death while preventing medical teams from treating them."

"The troops dragged patients from their beds and pushed them towards the wall. There were 17 injured people among the patients," al-Muhannadi said.



"We exited from the hospital on the second day of the attack, but we could not return as the main Falluja-Saqlawiya junction was controlled by the US troops. We saw around 150 women, children and the elderly attacked by aircraft fire," she said.

"All of us were subject to intense inspection; the soldiers even examined children's nappies. Two female doctors were forced to totally undress," al-Muhannadi said. Residents say many civilians have died and hospitals continue to receive casualties, including children.

 

[Barking_Mad]

Part of a Washington Post article (registration) most of which has been mentioned on here already - apart from this part.

Fighting in Mosul started last week, two days after U.S. tanks entered Fallujah. Armed men appeared in a sudden tide on a main street, a wide avenue where so many American convoys had been ambushed that locals nicknamed it "Death Street." At 11 a.m. Thursday, the target was an armored SUV. Witnesses said that after its Western passengers were chased into a police station, the driver was burned alive atop the vehicle as the attackers shouted "Jew!"

The city then devolved into chaos. Thousands of police officers abandoned their precinct houses. The governor's house was set alight. Insurgents took the police chief's brother, himself a senior officer, into his front yard and shot him dead.

........

"The city is a mess," said Bahaa Aldeen Abdulaziz, owner of the Casablanca Hotel. "The shops are closed. There's no security. And the reason for all this is because the Americans invaded Fallujah.

"And Fallujah will never finish. It has gotten into people's blood."

"I believe the situation will continue like this, and Mosul will become another Fallujah," said Noofel Mohammed Amen, a shoe salesman. "And later on all the cities of Iraq will be Fallujah."

 

[Barking_Mad]

And from the same article linked above this.....Worrying I'd have thought.

The news was not all bad for the government. Also Sunday, Najaf buzzed with the news that local tribesmen had carried out three days of devastating attacks in the town of Latifiyah. Located on the exceedingly dangerous road between Baghdad and Najaf, the town harbors extremists blamed for killing 18 young Iraqi men returning from Najaf after signing up for the National Guard earlier this month. The victims' tribal leaders, incensed after extremists demanded payment before handing over the bodies, last week sent fighters north to burn farms and carry out revenge killings, officials in Najaf said.

 

[richtea]

TV says Marine shot dead wounded prisoner

Monday November 15, 11:18 PM

TV says Marine shot dead wounded prisoner

LONDON (Reuters) - A television pool report by U.S. network NBC says that a U.S. Marine shot dead an unarmed and wounded Iraqi prisoner in a mosque in Falluja.

The Iraqi was one of five wounded prisoners left in the mosque after Marines had fought their way in on Friday and Saturday. There was no immediate comment from the Pentagon on Monday's report.

U.S. forces launched an offensive one week ago on Falluja, and have gained overall control of the formerly rebel-held city, although scattered resistance remains.

The pool report by NBC correspondent Kevin Sites said the mosque had been used by insurgents to attack U.S. forces, who stormed it and an adjacent building, killing 10 militants and wounding the five.

Sites said the wounded had been left in the mosque for others to pick up and move to the rear for treatment. No reason was given why that had not happened.

A second group of Marines entered the mosque on Saturday after reports it had been reoccupied. Footage from the embedded television crew showed the five still in the mosque, although several appeared to be already close to death, Sites said.

He said one Marine noticed one of the prisoners was still breathing.

A Marine can be heard saying on the pool footage provided to Reuters Television: "He's fucking faking he's dead. He faking he's fucking dead."

"The Marine then raises his rifle and fires into the man's head. The pictures are too graphic for us to broadcast," Sites said. No images of the shooting were shown in the footage provided to Reuters.

The report said the Marine, who had returned to duty after being shot in the face a day earlier, had been removed from the field and was being questioned by the U.S. military.

Sites said the shot prisoner "did not appear to be armed or threatening in any way".

 

[bigfish]

An Iraqi nurse treats 2-year-old child Mustafa Adnan, at a Baghdad hospital, who lost a leg when his house in Falluja's Jolan district was shelled. (Ali Jasim/Reuters)​

 

[Barking_Mad]

Mosul under siege as battles spread

Mosul, Iraq's third largest city, was today the scene of street battles as US and Iraqi troops fought to retake police stations captured by insurgents. Residents reported US warplanes and helicopters hovering over the city as loud explosions and gunfire were heard on the northern edge. Three police stations already under the control of insurgents were blown up this morning before the militants left. A mass insurgent uprising began in Mosul last week as fallout from the week-long assault on the city of Falluja spread to several towns across the country.

Masked and armed bands of men stormed more than half a dozen police stations, bridges and political offices in the city, clashing with US troops and Iraqi forces. The city's police force were overwhelmed, and in many places, failed to even put up a fight. An Iraqi special police task force and a US infantry battalion were sent to Mosul in the wake of the violence.

Captain Angela Bowman of the US military said Mosul's five bridges were today closed off with the start of operations. "We are in the process of securing all of the police stations and returning the police to these stations to implace a strong police presence. "Some of those stations are in neighbourhoods on the western side of the city where there has been insurgent activity and presence. We are now moving through the neighbourhood."

One U.S soldier killed, another wounded in attack on American convoy

Baghdad, Nov 16, SPA -- One U.S. soldier was killed and another wounded when their convoy came under attack Tuesday near a town in central Iraq, the military said. The soldiers were members of the 13th Combat Support Command unit that is responsible for the area of Balad, a town 80 kilometers (50 miles) north of Baghdad. The attack by indirect fire _ referring to mortars or rockets _ took place at 10 a.m. (0700 GMT). The injured soldier was evacuated to a military hospital, the army said. The name of the dead soldier was withheld pending notification of next of kin.

 

[Barking_Mad]

Children pay price for US offensive

Ala Barham slumps in his hospital bed and stares blankly into the air in front of him. Twelve years old and still deeply in shock, he can barely speak. Ala's family had fled the Iraqi city of Falluja before last Monday's all-out offensive began. He was happily playing with his brother in the garden of their uncle's house in a village outside the city. Then the rocket hit.

"My uncle died. They took us to hospital," he mumbles, speaking in little more than a whisper.

His brother lies face down on the bed next to him, a bandage around his leg, a tube feeding into his stomach. Their mother sits on another bed, cradling her now fatherless two-year-old nephew.

Across the room, another two-year-old lies on a bed in a nappy, a blanket covering one tiny leg. The other one was blown off by a shell. Interim Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi says not a single civilian has died in the assault to retake Falluja from anti-US forces allegedly led by al-Qaida ally Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. But the charred bodies in the streets of the city and the children in Baghdad's Naaman hospital tell a different story.

"Is this child one of Zarqawi's followers?" asks Nusum Hasan, flatly, holding out her nephew's bandaged right arm.

"Is any of this his fault?"

 

[Barking_Mad]

U.S. forces arrest senior member of Sunni political party in Baghdad

U.S. forces arrested a senior member of an influential Sunni political party Tuesday after a dawn raid on his Baghdad home, party officials said.

 

[Barking_Mad]

Bit of background on Mosul.

Mosul: the new front in insurgency

Mosul, scene of a major US-led offensive on Tuesday against Iraqi insurgents after a spate of deadly clashes, is an ancient and ethnically diverse city that has become a new front in the insurgency. Car bombings and fighting have become all too frequent in Mosul and surrounding areas, which have gradually fallen into the sway of hardline Islamic groups since Saddam Hussein's regime was toppled in April 2003.

US troops were swarming into restive pockets on Tuesday to secure police stations and restore order, with bridges straddling the Tigris river closed and a night-time curfew in place. Rebels overran a number of police stations last week, triggering clashes that left several dozen people dead, mostly insurgents. US military commanders say the events in predominantly Sunni Muslim Mosul and other parts of the country may be a spillover from the massive assault launched last week on the insurgent hub of Fallujah.

But they insist they are still in control of the capital of Nineveh province, 370 kilometers (230 miles) north of Baghdad, at the tip of the so-called Sunni Triangle and scene of the worst violence since Saddam fell. Mosul, whose name in Arabic means the link, is one of the most ethnically diverse cities in Iraq with Arabs, Syriac people, Armenians, Kurds, Turkmen, Jews, Christians, Muslims and Yazedis all calling the city home. The area has been inhabited since 6000 BC and was chosen by the ancient Assyrians to build their glorious capitals of Ashur, Nimrud and Nineveh, whose ruins still dot the city and surrounding areas.

 

[Barking_Mad]

Saboteurs Attack Oil Pipeline in Iraq

KIRKUK, Iraq (AP) -- Saboteurs blew up an oil pipeline Monday, shutting down Iraqi oil exports from the north, and set fire to a storage and pumping station in northern Iraq, offficials said. The pipeline, which connects the Kirkuk oil field with the Turkish port of Ceyhan, was hit Monday morning in the Safra area, 37 miles southwest of Kirkuk, said an official in the Northern Oil Company under condition of anonymity. Oil exports to Turkey, the outlet for Iraq's northern fields, was halted due to the blast, he said. It will take at least a week to repair the damage, he said. Later in the day, gunmen attacked a storage and pumping station in Ein al-Jahish area, about 60 miles south of Mosul. The attackers set fire to the station, where oil is stored and then pumped to Ceyhan port, according to eyewitnesses.

 

[Barking_Mad]

This should put the whole 'foreign fighters' episode to bed. Keep an eye on the BBC to see how they still refer to fighters.........

Few Foreigners Among Insurgents - Judging from fighters captured in Fallouja, all but about 5% are Iraqi, U.S. officials say.

CAMP FALLOUJA, Iraq — The battle for the city of Fallouja is giving U.S. military commanders some insight into this country's insurgency, painting a portrait of a home-grown uprising dominated by Iraqis, not foreign fighters. Of the more than 1,000 men between the ages of 15 and 55 who were captured in intense fighting in the center of the insurgency over the last week, just 15 are confirmed foreign fighters, Gen. George W. Casey, the top U.S. ground commander in Iraq, said Monday.

There was evidence that an organized force of foreign fighters was present. One dead guerrilla bore Syrian identification. A number of insurgents believed to be foreigners wore similar black "uniforms," each with black flak vests, webbed gear and weapons superior to those of their Iraqi allies. But despite an intense focus on the network of Jordanian-born militant Abu Musab Zarqawi by U.S. and Iraqi officials, who have insisted that most Iraqis support the country's interim government, American commanders said their best estimates of the proportion of foreigners among their enemies is about 5%.

 

[Barking_Mad]

800 Civilians Feared Dead in Fallujah

*BAGHDAD, Nov 16 (IPS) - At least 800 civilians have been killed during the U.S. military siege of Fallujah, a Red Cross official estimates. * Speaking on condition of anonymity for fear of U.S. military reprisal, a high-ranking official with the Red Cross in Baghdad told IPS that "at least 800 civilians" have been killed in Fallujah so far. His estimate is based on reports from Red Crescent aid workers stationed around the embattled city, from residents within the city and from refugees, he said.

"Several of our Red Cross workers have just returned from Fallujah since the Americans won't let them into the city," he said. "And they said the people they are tending to in the refugee camps set up in the desert outside the city are telling horrible stories of suffering and death inside Fallujah." The official said that both Red Cross and Iraqi Red Crescent relief teams had asked the U.S. military in Fallujah to take in medical supplies to people trapped in the city, but their repeated requests had been turned down. A convoy of relief supplies from both relief organisations continues to wait on the outskirts of the city for military permission to enter. They have appealed to the United Nations to intervene on their behalf.

"The Americans close their ears, and that is it," the Red Cross official said. "They won't even let us take supplies into Fallujah General Hospital." The official estimated that at least 50,000 residents remain trapped within the city. They were too poor to leave, lacked friends or family outside the city and therefore had nowhere to go, or they simply had not had enough time to escape before the siege began, he said. Aid workers in his organisation have reported that houses of civilians in Kharma, a small city near Fallujah, had been bombed by U.S. warplanes. In one instance a family of five was killed just two days ago, they reported.

"I don't know why the American leaders did not approach the Red Cross and ask us to deal with the families properly before the attacking began," said a Red Cross aid worker, who also spoke on condition of anonymity. "Suddenly they attacked and people were stuck with no help, no medicine, no food, no supplies," he said. "So those who could, ran for the desert while the rest were trapped in the city."

If the U.S. forces would call a temporary cease-fire "we could get our trucks in and get the civilians left in Fallujah who need medical care, we could get them out," he said. Mosques have organised massive collections of food and relief supplies for Fallujah residents as they did last April when the city was under attack, but these supplies have not been allowed into the city either. The Red Cross official said they had received several reports from refugees that the military had dropped cluster bombs in Fallujah, and used a phosphorous weapon that caused severe burns. The U.S. military claims to have killed 1,200 "insurgents" in Fallujah. Abdel Khader Janabi, a resistance leader from the city has said that only about 100 among them were fighters.

"Both of them are lying," the Red Cross official said. "While they agree on the 1,200 number, they are both lying about the number of dead fighters." He added that "our estimate of 800 civilians is likely to be too low." The situation within Fallujah is grim, he said. If help does not reach people soon, "the children who are trapped will most likely die." He said the Ministry of Health in the U.S.-backed interim Iraqi government had stopped supplying hospitals and clinics in Fallujah two months before the current siege. "The hospitals do not even have aspirin," he said. "This shows, in my opinion, that they've had a plan to attack for a long time and were trying to weaken the people."

 

[ska invita]

just want to take this time to say thank you to Barking_Mad... i'll never buy a newspaper again as long as your around... sterling work sir!

 

[Barking_Mad]

Odd, I thought Fallujah was secure and been liberated. I notice they are saying resistance fighters are sneaking back into the city...........odds on the US still fighting house to house there in a week, two weeks, a month?

Mass kidnap of Iraqi policemen

A group of at least 30 Iraqi policemen have been kidnapped in western Iraq as they returned from training in Jordan. Reports say the group of policemen were ambushed by 20 armed men in the town of Rutba, near the Jordanian border. The men, many of whom were believed to come from the Diyala province, were seized as they returned home. Last month, nine Iraqi policemen returning from training in Jordan were ambushed and killed on their way back to Iraq. A Karbala police spokesman, who spoke under condition of anonymity, said that the police officers were seized while they were staying in a hotel in the west of the country. "There was an attack on a hotel occupied by policemen coming back from training in Jordan," he told the Associated Press news agency.

In the wake of Fallujah battle, clearing the dead

Iraq - Murmuring "God is great," two dozen Iraqi men collected corpses Tuesday in a U.S. Marine-directed effort to rid Fallujah of festering bodies in keeping with Muslim burial principles.

Mortars pound Falluja resistance

The US military says it has overall control of Falluja. US forces in Iraq have been bombarding southern districts of Falluja with mortar fire in an attempt to flush out remaining pockets of insurgents. The US military says it has taken control of the Sunni city but scattered resistance remains. Mortar attacks by marines aim to clear out surviving rebels and their weapons. Meanwhile, US officials say troops have met little resistance in the northern city of Mosul to an operation to remove rebels and retake police stations.

In Falluja, US-led forces say they have gained overall control, trapping rebels in the south of the city, and are now moving house-to-house to clear the last streets. But marines are also fighting insurgents who are sneaking back into Falluja, the Associated Press news agency said on Wednesday.

Troops are now fighting to regain control over Mosul, Iraq's third largest city, which descended into lawlessness last week as the major US operation in Falluja began. More than 1,000 US soldiers moved through Mosul on Tuesday, taking control of police stations captured and looted by insurgents. An overnight curfew was put in place and the city's five bridges closed. The city's police chief, Brig Gen Mohammed Kheiri Barhawi, was fired amid reports that some police co-operated with insurgents.

 

[Barking_Mad]

Eyewitness: Fear remains after assault

The city is calmer now - but the fear is still there and some fighting. I have seen some strange things recently, such as stray dogs snatching bites out of bodies lying on the streets. Meanwhile, people forage in their gardens looking for something to eat. Those that have survived this far are looking gaunt. The opposite is happening to the dead - left where they fell, they are now bloated and rotting. Many of the fighters have escaped or been killed. A few have stayed on to fight.

US forces control most of the city now, except for some areas in the south. We keep hearing that aid has arrived at the hospital on the outskirts of the city, which is now in the hands of the Americans. But most people in this area are too weak or too scared to make the journey, or even to leave their homes. For now, the best option is to stay put. I would like to escape Falluja, but I fear I will end up getting killed if I try. A group of journalist friends left the city by car last week as the assault was starting. I have no idea what happened to them. Not one of their mobile phones works and I fear the worst.

Food and water are all but finished. I have enough dried dates and water to last me another few days. If, in five days' time, it is still impossible to leave the city or get any supplies, I might have to raid my neighbour's vacant house for food and water. I can enter their place by jumping from our roof onto theirs. I am completely out of touch with the situation in the rest of Iraq. Looking at Falluja now, the only comparisons I can think of are cities like Beirut and Sarajevo.

British Soldier Injured by Iraq Bomb
A Black Watch soldier was seriously injured today after being hit by a roadside bomb in Iraq. It was a separate incident to the one in which members of the Queen’s Dragoon Guards were targeted by a suicide bomber today

Three U-S soldiers hurt in Beiji suicide car bombing

Iraq Military officials in Iraq say three U-S soldiers have been injured in a suicide car bombing in Beiji.

Marines Killed Four Wounded Iraqi Prisoners: US Reporter
The US pool reporter, who broke to the world the killing of a wounded, unarmed Iraqi prisoner by a marine, further revealed that more prisoners were shot dead.....

US forces holding Fallujah correspondent: Arabic TV channel
US forces in the flashpoint Iraqi town of Fallujah are holding a correspondent for the Arabic television station Al-Arabiya

News: National Guard and Reserve Mobilized as of November 17
This week, the Army and Air Force announced an increase in the number of reservists on active duty in support of the partial mobilization ... The net collective result is 2,294 more reservists mobilized than last week.

Insurgents attack Iraqi oil pipeline
Iraqi police say insurgent forces have attacked a domestic oil pipeline west of the city of Samarra in the latest strike against Iraq's major industry.

Insurgents attack Iraqi security forces
Insurgents attacked Iraqi security forces with mortars and roadside bombs across the rebellious Sunni Triangle on Wednesday...

Nine Dead in Clashes in Ramadi
Nine people died and 15 were injured in fierce clashes between the US forces and insurgents in the Iraqi city of Ramadi, 100 km west of Baghdad

 

[Barking_Mad]

Aid still urgently needed in Fallujah

FALLUJAH (IRIN) -- "Please tell them to come back, we don't have another person to help us, we need food and my children are sick, they have to try again," Rasha Omar, a mother of five in Fallujah, told IRIN after finding out that the Iraqi Red Crescent Society (IRCS) couldn't deliver food to the city.After reaching Fallujah's main hospital on Saturday, the IRCS couldn't get to the centre of the city to deliver food and medical supplies. The NGO left the hospital area on Tuesday morning taking supplies to Amrya near Fallujah, where almost 3,500 displaced families have fled. "We didn't get authorisation from the US-led forces to go into the city and afraid that we would lose our supplies we preferred to leave and deliver to those who are also in need around Fallujah," Firdoos al-Abadi, spokeswoman for the IRCS, told IRIN.

Al-Abadi added that the situation was critical in the Saqlawiyah and Garma, villages around Fallujah which are currently home to nearly 5,000 displaced families. The IRCS intends to send a food convoy to those areas on Thursday morning, along with another convoy for Amrya. Fallujah, which lies 65 km west of Baghdad, has been under seige for 10 days as US-led troops battle against insurgents. The city is largely under US control with the exception of some pockets in the south, where mortar attacks were launched on Wednesday morning. The IRCS has appealed to the UN for help to reach residents left in Fallujah who are desperate for humanitarian aid. "The UN is our last chance," al-Abadi said.

Families still inside the city are asking for help to flee. "I want to leave here, I cannot stand this situation anymore, I am tired and we need food and water, I cannot bear sounds of bullets anymore," local residient Abbas al-Sabri told IRIN.

Colonel John Ballard, the officer in charge of the US marines humanitarian effort, told IRIN that he was sceptical about the humanitarian crisis announced by the IRCS and had come to the city to see for himself. "The US troops are able to deliver any supplies to the people here and haven't seen civilians in trouble," he added.

But residents speaking to IRIN said that conditions were bad. "My son is bleeding and I cannot take him to the hospital. He was wounded by shrapnel last night and my other sons are sick, most of them with chronic diarrhea," Jalal Taha, a father of seven in Fallujah told IRIN as he broke down in tears. Another resident said that he had seen 22 bodies being buried, two of which were children. Some of the bodies had been found rotting and had been mauled by stray dogs and cats, he said.

On Tuesday, the Kadhmiya Hospital in Baghdad received almost 30 wounded people, among them children. Each hospital room has four patients and their familes, causing severe overcrowding. They say they have nowhere else to go. But the hospital is unable to cope and has asked NGOs to help solve the problem. Many others have fled to Baghdad and are living in open areas in the city. In one of the capital's most respectable districts, women could be seen cooking in the street, with girls washing dishes and children running around. Nearly 150 families who have fled Fallujah are staying in a camp at the entrance of the Baghdad International Fair, in Mansour district. They have received help from the IRCS and other NGOs in the capital.

..........

However, the Iraqi authorities deny that Fallujah residents are suffering severe difficulties. In an interview with Arabya Television on Tuesday, interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi said the situation in the city was under control and that there was no humanitarian crisis. He also claimed that only insurgents had been affected by the attacks, adding that he believed no civilians had been killed.

But witness accounts appeared to contradict him. "Whoever is inside [the city] can see what a disaster Fallujah is, death and bleeding everywhere, human beings killed on the streets everywhere you look, my father of 85 years old is one of them. Is it what they call democracy?" Ahmed Haj, a resident who managed to escape from the fighting on Tuesday morning, asked.

 

[Barking_Mad]

I just watched BBC and BBC24 at 6pm and the only mention of the days events in Iraq was that a UK soldier had been injured in a suicide car bomb attack, but that his injuries "werent life threatening". Nothing was said about the fact he'd actually been seriously injured.

And that was it. That was everything that happened today in Iraq. That's our supposedly great broadcasting channel for you.

 

[Barking_Mad]

Pull-Outs Threaten Polish-Led Force in Iraq

WARSAW (Reuters) - A Polish-led multinational division in charge of security in south-central Iraq faces disintegration if more countries pull their troops out, Polish officials said on Wednesday....."A pull-out of Hungarian and Ukrainian troops would be a significant reduction," Poland's deputy foreign minister Boguslaw Zaleski told Reuters. "A disintegration (of the brigade) is possible if more countries were to pull out because we would not be able to control the zone with just Polish troops," he added.

 

[bigfish]

And that was it. That was everything that happened today in Iraq. That's our supposedly great broadcasting channel for you.

The fucking lot of them make me sick. They're all just as complicit in all this killing as their political masters. The BBC's completely polluted by right-wing scumbags like the Newsnight troika of Alolph Essler, Eva Braun Wark and that Joseph Goebbels wannabe Jeremy Spudwank.

 

[Barking_Mad]

US have suffered 498 wounded in the last week and 85 dead in the last 9 days of fighting.

US dead confirmed by the Pentagon at 91 on Monday (for November.)

 

[Barking_Mad]

Violence ebbs in Falluja, flares elsewhere

Fighting broke out on a number of fronts in Iraq as US forces, into the 10th day of a huge offensive, finally appeared to be getting a grip on the town of Falluja. Fierce fighting erupted in Ramadi, west of Baghdad, on Wednesday evening between US soldiers and armed groups opposed to the US-led government, leaving seven people dead, according to hospital officials.

The fighters fired rocket-propelled grenades, mortar rounds and Kalashnikov rifles at US forces at several locations in the town, Abd al-Karim al-Hiti of Ramadi General Hospital said. The three-hour gun battle broke out after evening prayers at around 6pm local time. Another 13 people were injured in the fighting, according to al-Hiti. Several floors of two residential buildings in the Aziziya district were set ablaze by the firefight, residents said.

North-east of the capital, in Al-Mugdadiya and Al-Khalis, an unknown number of US soldiers were wounded and several military vehicles damaged in heavy fighting between US troops and resistance fighters, Aljazeera has learned.

Fighting also broke out in Bayji, which lies north of Baghdad. Iraqi police sources told Aljazeera that 15 Iraqis were wounded when an explosive device destroyed a US armoured vehicle.

US forces immediately cordoned off the site, ordering residents to stay in their homes and threatening to shoot anybody who ventured out.

 

[bigfish]

Falluja Arithmetic Lesson

by Prof. Greg Palast

Monday's New York Times, page 1:

"American commanders said 38 service members had been killed and 275 wounded in the Falluja assault."

Monday's New York Times, page 11:

"The American military hospital here reported that it had treated 419 American soldiers since the siege of Falluja began."

Questions for the class:

1. If 275 soldiers were wounded in Falluja and 419 are treated for wounds, how many were shot on the plane ride to Germany?

2. We're told only 275 soldiers were wounded but 419 treated for wounds; and we're told that 38 soldiers died. So how many will be buried?

3. How long have these Times reporters been embedded with with military? Bonus question: When will they get out of bed with the military?

Monday's New York Times, page 1:

"The commanders estimated that 1,200 to 1,600 insurgents had been killed."

Monday's New York Times, page 11:

"Nowhere to be found: the remains of the insurgents that the tanks had been sent in to destroy. ...The absence of insurgent bodies in Falluja has remained an enduring mystery."


NOT in the New York Times:

"Every time I hear the news
That old feeling comes back on;
We're waist deep in the Big Muddy
And the Big Fool says to push on."

- Pete Seeger, 1967

 

[bigfish]

17 Iraqi Doctors Killed

Counterinsurgency run amok : Dr al-Muhannadi also confirmed that American snipers killed more than 17 Iraqi doctors who had mobilized to answer an appeal from Fallujah's doctors broadcast on al-Jazeera

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/FK18Ak03.html

 

[bigfish]

Where are the "good" Americans?

Francis Boyle: Obliterating Fallujah: A War Crime in Real Time: One generation ago the peoples of the world asked themselves: Where were the "good" Germans? - Today the peoples of the world are likewise asking themselves: Where are the "good" Americans?

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article7301.htm

 

[bigfish]

 

[fela fan]

The fucking lot of them make me sick. They're all just as complicit in all this killing as their political masters. The BBC's completely polluted by right-wing scumbags like the Newsnight troika of Alolph Essler, Eva Braun Wark and that Joseph Goebbels wannabe Jeremy Spudwank.

Me too. If i lived in england i'd be plotting how to enter the studios during news broadcast time and grabbing the live feed to get my message across. I wonder how long i'd get before having the plug pulled?

Or maybe i could get the studio cameraman and whoever else in on the plot.

The nation's media are actually more complicit in my book bigfish. Going to war seems to be part of the leaders' jobs, and killing people is part of the soldiers' jobs. However, in a democracy the job of journos as the fourth estate is to check the abuse of power by the elites and to report faithfully and truthfully what is going on.

As barking points out, they're not even doing any reporting. The most obvious kind of censorship.

There is an outbreak of insanity in the media in US and UK. They have joined the lunatics in the whitehouse and whitehall.

Truly the lunatics have taken over the asylum, and this madness has afflicted people like paxman and who's that political affairs fucker in charge at the bbc? They're all insane, and the iraqis are suffering. But so too are western peoples who are keeping quiet at the destruction of humanity going on. Everyone who doesn't speak out has blood on their hands.

But that's alright, big brother, eastenders, and the next round of premiership games is due...

 

[Barking_Mad]

BBC Radio 5 this morning - nothing on Iraq
BBC web site front page http://news.bbc.co.uk/ - nothing on Iraq.

 

[Barking_Mad]

Updates.....

Rebels attack governor’s office in Mosul
Rebels attacked the provincial governor’s office in Iraq’s third largest city, Mosul, on Thursday, killing one of the governor’s bodyguards and wounding four more, the US military said.

Iraq 'out of control' says Jordan
Jordan's Prince Hassan has warned that the situation in Iraq is "spinning out of control" and threatens the elections scheduled for January.

4 Iraqis killed in bomb blast in Baiji
Four Iraqis were killed on Thursday when a roadside bomb exploded and destroyed a civilian car in the northern Iraqi city of Baiji, police said.

Bombs kill four in Baghdad and Kirkuk
Insurgents detonated a car bomb Thursday near a U.S. military convoy in Baghdad and a roadside bomb exploded at a job recruiting center in the northern city of Kirkuk, in attacks that killed four people, police and officials said.

Iraq assessments: Insurgents not giving up
BAGHDAD (AP) — The recapture of Fallujah has not broken the insurgents' will to fight and may not pay the big dividend U.S. planners had hoped — to improve security enough to hold national elections in Sunni Muslim areas of central Iraq, according to U.S. and Iraqi assessments. Instead, the battle for control of the Sunni city 40 miles west of Baghdad has sharpened divisions among Iraq's major ethnic and religious groups, fueled anti-American sentiment and stoked the 18-month-old Sunni insurgency. Those grim assessments, expressed privately by some U.S. military officials and by some private experts on Iraq, raise doubts as to whether the January election will produce a government with sufficient legitimacy, especially in the eyes of the country's powerful Sunni Muslim minority.

Even before the battle for Fallujah began Nov. 8, U.S. planners understood that capturing the city, where U.S. troops are still fighting pockets of resistance, was only the first step in building enough security to allow the election to take place in the volatile Sunni areas north and west of Baghdad. The next steps include solidifying Iraqi government control, repairing the substantial battle damage and winning the trust of the people of Fallujah. That requires, among other things, an effective Iraqi police and security force.

Gen. John Abizaid, the commander of all U.S. forces in the Middle East, said during a visit to Iraq this week that the Fallujah offensive was a major blow to the insurgents, and he said the only way the U.S. forces and their Iraqi allies can be defeated is if they lose their will.

 

[Barking_Mad]

this may require registration, but an interesting read.

Marine Officers See Risk in Cuts in Falluja Force

Senior Marine intelligence officers in Iraq are warning that if American troop levels in the Falluja area are significantly reduced during reconstruction there, as has been planned, insurgents in the region will rebound from their defeat. The rebels could thwart the retraining of Iraqi security forces, intimidate the local population and derail elections set for January, the officers say.

They have further advised that despite taking heavy casualties in the weeklong battle, the insurgents will continue to grow in number, wage guerrilla attacks and try to foment unrest among Falluja's returning residents, emphasizing that expectations for improved conditions have not been met.

The pessimistic analysis is contained in a seven-page classified report prepared by intelligence officers in the First Marine Expeditionary Force, or I MEF, last weekend as the offensive in Falluja was winding down. The assessment was distributed to senior Marine and Army officers in Iraq, where one officer called it "brutally honest."

Marine commanders marshaled about 12,000 marines and soldiers, and roughly 2,500 Iraqi forces for the Falluja campaign, but they always expected to send thousands of American troops back to other locations in Iraq eventually, after the major fighting in Falluja. This intelligence assessment suggests that such a move would be risky.