*IRAQ: latest news and developments

[Raisin D'etre]

WASHINGTON (AFP) - Marine intelligence officials have issued a report warning that any significant withdrawal of troops from the Iraqi city of Fallujah would strengthen the insurgency.

The assessment, distributed to senior Marine and Army officers in Iraq (news - web sites), also said that despite the heavy fighting with coalition forces, the insurgents would continue to increase in number, carrying out attacks and fomenting unrest in the area.

One officer said the seven-page classified report -- parts of which were provided to Thursday's edition of The New York Times -- was "brutally honest" and appears to contradict the US government's victorious account of the US-led fight against insurgents in Fallujah and other parts of northern Iraq.

 

[Raisin D'etre]

BAGHDAD, Iraq — A car carrying explosives ripped into a U.S. convoy yesterday in northern Iraq, killing at least 10 civilians, and U.S. troops fought persistent pockets of rebels in Fallujah, a city wrecked by more than a week of fighting.

Black smoke billowed over Fallujah, once home to about 300,000 people, as U.S. forces faced insurgents staging hit-and-run raids on patrols moving through the city's dense warrens. Military commanders had no estimates on the number of insurgents still fighting, but the staccato bursts of gunfire and thunder from tank rounds in the city's center countered Iraqi and U.S. claims over the weekend that fighting there had largely ended.

U.S. commanders say they hold the entire city but acknowledge that rebels have moved back into areas believed to have been secured. While the entrances to the city are blocked, the fighters may be plying old paths into Fallujah or crossing the Euphrates River, whose palm-shrouded banks skirt the city.

 

[Barking_Mad]

Interesting piece from today's Indy.

In Mosul, mortar attacks continue

The mortars flew into the governor's compound from the neighbouring houses. They found an oil tanker, which erupted in flames. Elsewhere in this northern city, rocket-propelled grenades strucka US convoy. The military operation to control Fallujah was deemed a success by the Iraqi provisional government yesterday. But this is the battle for Mosul. And it continues. Yesterday's attacks were typical of the manner in which the struggle for this city, three times the size of Fallujah, is being played out. Small-scale insurgent attacks ensure that American military patrols fall short of controlling the city.

Earlier this week, a US military spokeswoman claimed US forces had retaken two-thirds of the city's police stations, although the insurgents had never captured more than eight about one-third. In a statement broadcast on local television, the governor, who had four of his guards wounded in the attack, urged Mosul residents to help "prevent" similar attacks. But unlike in Fallujah, the insurgents in Mosul are harassing American troops and their Kurdish allies while minimising the risk to themselves. Sadi Ahmed Pire, a Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) Party representative, said the Baath party had regrouped in Mosul and was directing attacks. He said: "The Baath is in charge. The Islamists are following ...

"The [insurgent] plan was to eliminate the police stations, the Kurdish [party] offices and then the Kurdish community. The Baath party worked to create an ethnic war."

 

[Barking_Mad]

Insurgents strike back elsewhere in volatile Sunni Muslim areas.

Gunbattles still flared in Fallujah as troops hunted holdout insurgents five days after the military said its forces had occupied the entire city 40 miles west of Baghdad. One U.S. Marine and one Iraqi soldier were killed, U.S. officials said.

....In Haditha, northwest of Fallujah, militants blew up the mayor's office and the police command center with four thunderous explosions. Insurgents distributed leaflets warning that anyone who ''wears a police uniform or reports to a police station will be killed.''

Car bombs in Baghdad, Mosul and Kirkuk killed at least four people, while mortar shells that exploded near the governor's office in Mosul wounded four guards, officials said. The governor of Diyala province northeast of Baghdad escaped assassination when a bomb exploded near his convoy, injuring four bodyguards.

Powerful Blasts In Baghdad

Baghdad. Several powerful explosions have occurred in downtown Baghdad in the Green Zone area, where thick clouds of smoke could be seen

 

[Barking_Mad]

Insurgents loot police uniforms

Insurgents have acquired thousands of police uniforms after officers deserted their posts when rebels attacked stations in Mosul. About 3,200 of the Iraqi town's 4,000 police officers dropped their weapons and ran off, intimidated into submission by groups of armed insurgents during a 48-hour period, it has emerged.

American-led troops will now potentially face rebels wearing police uniforms making it extremely difficult to distinguish them from policemen. At least seven police stations were overrun and looted of their weapons, radios, uniforms and vehicles, before being set ablaze or, in at least one case, destroyed by dynamite. Lt Col Michael Gibler, commander of the 3-21 Infantry Battalion, based in Mosul, said: "We are in a various, precarious security environment."

US troops found headless and dismembered bodies near one police station, while the group led by Jordanian al -Qa'eda ally Abu Musab al-Zarqawi made an unconfirmed claim that it beheaded two national guard officers in public in Mosul yesterday. The police chief on duty when the mass desertion occurred on Nov. 10-11 has been fired and a new chief drafted in. He is now carrying out an audit of the remaining 800 or so police to assess who is really loyal and who is a potential deserter. The police force was set up by US authorities last year and promoted as a symbol of the new Iraq. The police were supposed to be the backbone of Iraq's new security forces, reinforced by the national guard and the army.

 

[ska invita]

Insurgents loot police uniforms

incredible story ..but either the link just doesnt work, or theyve been shut down for running it!

 

[invisibleplanet]

incredible story ..but either the link just doesnt work, or theyve been shut down for running it!

are you in the uk?

 

[Barking_Mad]

incredible story ..but either the link just doesnt work, or theyve been shut down for running it!

Yes, its not made any news headlines. Instead we're being told how brave Prince William is. Me thinks the media needs to get a grip on reality.

 

[Barking_Mad]

http://www.ipsnews.net/new_nota.asp?idnews=26351

American military officials say their forces have killed more than 1,200 insurgents in 12 days of fighting. Bodies left on the streets are being collected by an Iraqi civilian group for burial in mass graves.

 

[Barking_Mad]

This is heartbreaking

'The war is over, but there is no peace ... and the killings go on'

The Iraqi journalist Abbas Ahmed Ibrahim tells of the horror and hardship in a first-hand account from the devastated city of Fallujah
20 November 2004


This is a strange time in Fallujah. They say the war is over, but there is no peace. Every day there is shooting, and there are still killings going on. There is very little left of the town now, everywhere there are buildings which have been destroyed.

There is also a terrible smell. We know what it is - it is the smell of dead bodies. Many have now been cleared away, but the smell does not go away, it will stay with us for a long time. The Americans say they are just finishing off the insurgents, but then they have been saying that for a few days now, so people here ask "who have they got left to finish off?" We hear of things like American soldiers killing wounded prisoners in a mosque, but that news is recycled to us from people outside. It is not possible to go out and find out what is going on.

I am not staying in Fallujah out of choice. But I am afraid to try to leave. I am 36 years old, The American troops have been arresting any males between the ages of 15 and 45 who have attempted to leave. They say civilians were told to get out of Fall- ujah, so any man who stayed behind must be in the mujahedin.

There are Iraqi men, with their faces hidden by scarves, with the American troops. These are the informers. If they point you out as an insurgent then there is no chance of proving that you are innocent. There are people who are settling personal or tribal grudges like this. You do not know who will denounce you.

 

[laptop]

incredible story ..but either the link just doesnt work, or theyve been shut down for running it!

Link works for me (from the UK - I may have registered). If "they" shut down the Daily Telegraph, that'd be a story, wouldn't it?

http://news.google.com will often get you stories you can't reach directly...

 

[Barking_Mad]

US may boost troop levels in Iraq

The assault on Falluja is aimed at stabilising the country. The US army says it may send more troops to Iraq before the January elections, depending on the outcome of its offensive in Falluja. US military commanders were considering whether to boost their troop levels in Iraq by several thousand, Lt Gen Lance Smith told a Pentagon news conference.

Gen Smith, the deputy head of US Central Command in Iraq, described the Falluja operation as very successful. But insurgents continue to hold out in some parts of the city.

And Gen Smith said it was "too early to say" if it had broken rebels' resistance.

US forces in Fallujah continue to fight what commanders say are the last pockets of insurgent fighters hiding in the south of the city. Artillery, tank shells and bombs fell on the area for much of the night and the boom of artillery fire continued into Saturday morning. The marine commander says these are the final bands of fighters in Falluja but they are proving difficult to dislodge. The US military officers say they hope to have the fighters cleared out by the end of the weekend.

Many homes in the Martyrs' neighbourhood have been reduced to rubble.

 

[Barking_Mad]

From an Iraqi blogger

Life in Baghdad

Saturday, November 20, 2004
Fierce fighting has been going on in several areas of Baghdad for the last 4 hours. I was supposed to leave for Basrah this morning, as soon as I walked out of the front door I was face to face with ten or so hooded men dressed in black carrying Ak-47's and RPG's. They had set up a checkpoint right in front of our door.

Someone barked at me to go inside. Nabil was also about to leave for his school. His driver had just called him and said that he was turned back at the street entrance by another checkpoint. We looked at the main intersection and it was swarming with armed men running about and motioning drivers and pedestrians to leave the area.

We watched them from behind the door with my mother frantically trying to get us inside. There was an exchange of fire and someone was bellowing "Where are the National traitors? (referring to the National Guards) Let them come and taste this." More shooting followed.

Tens of voices on the street were chanting "Allahu Akbar" and the ground beneath us suddenly shook from a nearby explosion. The shooting was frantic now and a series of explosions followed. Everyone in the house rushed to open windows to prevent their shattering from the pressure.

We got phonecalls from relatives in other areas asking what was going on. There was fighting in Adhamiya, Sulaikh, Haifa street, Sha'ab, Ghazaliya and Amiriya according to a brief news flash on Al-Jazeera.

 

[Barking_Mad]

Fighting rages in Baghdad

Three Iraqi policemen have been killed in heavy fighting out between armed fighters and Iraqi National Guards supported by US troops in western Baghdad. Columns of thick black smoke rose above the area in the neighbourhood of al-Aadhamiya and gunfire and explosions echoed over the rooftops on Saturday. US Apache helicopters buzzed overhead.

Circumstances surrounding the deaths of the policemen remain unclear, but they are thought to have been involved in a firefight with armed groups who attacked their station in the al-Aadhamiya district of the city.An Iraqi journalist in the area, Ziad Badruldin, told Aljazeera that he saw the al-Aadhamiya police station up in flames.

Badruldin, however, also said there are reports that the three were killed when their car was set ablaze near the al-Aadhamiya bridge. Clashes, the reporter said, had also occurred in Antar Square. Other confrontations occurred in al-Gazaliya, al-Amariya and Haifa Street. Badruldin said he saw destroyed US vehicles near the Abu Hanifa mosque.

Aljazeera aired video of a US armoured vehicle, believed to be a Hummer, destroyed by armed fighters in the clashes. Its occupants are believed to have been killed, but there has been no comment from US military authorities on the incident.

detaining protesters too.....

Also on Saturday, five students were detained by Iraqi police at the Technology University of Baghdad. The arrest came in the wake of a demonstration at the university which called for an end to the "massacres and atrocities" committed in Falluja.

 

[Barking_Mad]

Is this the most expensive 15 mile taxi ride in the world?

Baghdad's spiralling transport costs

Baghdad's airport route has become a regular target for insurgents
A 15-mile stretch between Baghdad airport and the city centre is said to be the world's most expensive taxi ride. Small convoys of armoured cars and Western gunmen charge about £2,750 ($5,108) for the perilous journey.

The route, known as the Qadisiyah Expressway, has become the scene of regular attacks and kidnappings by insurgents. Security costs have soared in Iraq reflecting the escalating risks for foreign workers. The high-speed drive costs four times more than the £670 Royal Jordanian charges for a one-way flight from London to Baghdad via Amman.

It equates to about £183 a mile compared to £4 a mile for the 2,540-mile flight on the only commercial airline flying to Baghdad.

 

[Matt S]

Fallujah in pictures

Apologies if this has been posted before. Very disturbing.

http://www.fallujapictures.blogspot.com/

Matt

 

[bigfish]

Weasel Words of the Dogs of Straw

http://www.williambowles.info/

We have yet to discover the true scale of the slaughter that the US wrought on Fallujah but one thing is clear, if we rely on the British government for the numbers we'll never know the truth. On 17 November the Foreign Office issued a response to the report in the Lancet that calculated that deaths in Iraq (excluding those in Fallujah from the current blitzkrieg and those of last April’s attack on Fallujah) were in the order of 100,000 and this number is more than likely to be on the conservative side as it deliberately excluded Fallujah figures in order not to skew its findings.

According to the FO, total deaths since the invasion last March were in the order of 3,800. And where did it get these numbers from? The destroyed Iraqi Ministry of Health. Well whaddya know but then what else can we expect from a government that fabricated an entire lie in order to justify the invasion in the first place.

Last week, we published an analysis of media coverage of the Lancet's report by MediaLens for in line with the media's master in Whitehall, the media felt that the Lancet's numbers were just too uncomfortable to live with. In other words, 100,000 is just too close to the numbers the government has been accusing Saddam Hussein of killing. So what is it about numbers? Does the government consider that 3,800 or 15,000 (the number the government was using when the Lancet report was published, and taken from the Iraq Body Count Website) are ‘acceptable’ levels of slaughter, acceptable that is, to a population inoculated to anything less than let’s say 50,000?
...

 

[bigfish]

Fallujans pay the price of liberation: When a nation's identity, existence and dignity is put at risk, the sacrifice required is far more than the lives of a group of fighters, and that is why Falluja has chosen to carry the flag of resistance in Iraq, in the clear knowledge it may be wiped out.

http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/17B57930-F852-4895-938C-DBF2D66F8D75.htm


Fallujah: 'The war is over, but there is no peace ... and the killings go on': The Iraqi journalist Abbas Ahmed Ibrahim tells of the horror and hardship in a first-hand account from the devastated city of Fallujah

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/story.jsp?story=584773


U.S. War Crimes in Fallujah: While the reporting of embedded correspondents operating in the besieged city of Fallujah is subject to censorship by the US military, a number of incidents have been captured on tape and broadcast in the United States that international law experts charge could be evidence of clear war crimes being committed by US troops

http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=04/11/19/1524257

 

[Barking_Mad]

Interesting piece on contractors and their families not being given information on their deaths from both the likes of Halliburton and the Pentagon. Worth a read.

Some companies won't say exactly how, or how many, workers have died

WASHINGTON -- Halliburton Co. truck drivers Tim Bell and Bill Bradley disappeared April 9 when their convoy was attacked west of Baghdad. Did they die at the scene? Were they captured? Is there reason for hope? No one will say.

Like those of many contractors caught in the violence of Iraq, their fates are shrouded in mystery. The Army has conducted an investigation into the ambush, but the report is classified. Pentagon officials refused to discuss its contents, directing questions to Halliburton. The company referred questions back to the Pentagon. "We have done everything in our power to find information and found that we are hitting a brick wall," Bradley's family wrote in an e-mail to the Houston Chronicle. "We are crushed."

The military has turned heavily to private contractors to supplement the work of enlisted personnel, freeing military troops for combat. For pay of $80,000 or more, civilians go to Iraq to drive trucks, build bases, deliver mail and serve chow. They live on base, eat in the mess hall, shop at the PX. And just like soldiers, they are attacked, abducted and sometimes killed.

When a U.S. soldier or Marine is killed in Iraq, the Pentagon provides to the public the individual's name, age and hometown, as well as a brief description of the cause of death. When it comes to contractor casualties, the Pentagon has left it up to the company to report -- or not.

 

[Barking_Mad]

More of Iraq's children starve after invasion

BAGHDAD -- Acute malnutrition among young children in Iraq has nearly doubled since the United States led an invasion of the country 20 months ago, according to surveys by the United Nations, aid agencies and the interim Iraqi government.

After the rate of acute malnutrition among children younger than 5 steadily declined to 4 percent two years ago, it shot up to 7.7 percent this year, according to a study conducted by Iraq's Health Ministry in cooperation with Norway's Institute for Applied International Studies and the U.N. Development Program. The new figure translates to roughly 400,000 Iraqi children suffering from "wasting," a condition that includes chronic diarrhea and dangerous deficiencies of protein.

"These figures clearly indicate the downward trend," said Alexander Malyavin, a child health specialist with the UNICEF mission to Iraq.

Iraq's child malnutrition rate now roughly equals that of Burundi, a central African nation torn by more than a decade of war. It is far worse than rates in Uganda and Haiti.

The surveys suggest the silent human cost being paid across a country convulsed by instability and mismanagement. While attacks by insurgents have grown more violent and more frequent, deteriorating basic services cost lives that many Iraqis said they expected to be improved under American stewardship.

"The people are astonished," said Khalil Mehdi, who directs the Nutrition Research Institute at the Health Ministry.

Mehdi and other analysts attributed the increase in malnutrition to dirty water and to unreliable supplies of the electricity needed to make it safe by boiling. In poorer areas, where people rely on kerosene to fuel their stoves, high prices and an economy crippled by unemployment aggravate poor health.

 

[Barking_Mad]

Gunfire erupts in Baghdad

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Militants battled American troops in the streets of Baghdad on Saturday, killing a U.S. soldier in an ambush and gunning down four government employees. Nine Iraqis also died in fighting west of the capital. In Fallujah, where U.S. Marines and soldiers still battle of resistance, militants waved a white flag of surrender before opening fire on U.S. troops and causing casualties, Marine spokesman 1st Lt. Lyle Gilbert said Saturday without elaborating.

Al-Arabiya television quoted Iraqi guerrillas fleeing Fallujah as saying they had run out of ammunition and many fighters who stayed behind were badly wounded..........

..........Violence also has driven away international aid agencies that brought expertise to postwar Iraq.

By one count, 60 percent of rural residents and 20 percent of urban dwellers have access only to contaminated water. The country's sewer systems are in a state of disarray.

Iraqis say such conditions carry political implications. Baghdad residents often point out to reporters that after the 1991 Persian Gulf War left much of the capital in shambles, Saddam's government restored electricity and kerosene supplies in two months.

"Yes, there is a price for every war," Haider said. "Yes, there are victims. But after that? Oh God, help us build Iraq again. For our children, not for us. For our kids."

 

[Barking_Mad]

9 soldiers, 42 others killed in Iraq unrest

The bodies of what are believed to be nine murdered Iraqi soldiers were found yesterday in central Mosul as US and Iraqi forces patrolled the city in a continuing bid to flush out insurgents. US and Iraqi troops have killed 15 rebels as they chase down insurgents in the northern city of Mosul, while more than two dozen Iraqis were killed in other parts of the embattled country. In Baghdad insurgents armed with automatic rifles and rocket-propelled grenades have skirmished with US and Iraqi forces in Sunni Muslim areas of Baghdad, killing at least three police and seven insurgents. Guerrillas attacked a police station in the northern area of Aadhamiya yesterday killing at least three policemen, police said.

In the western Amriya district, gunmen in several cars opened fire on a group of Iraqi National Guards deployed in the area. A guard at the scene said seven of the assailants were killed in the gunbattle that ensued and seven passersby wounded. The policemen, discovered in an industrial area not far from the scene of some of the worst clashes in Mosul, appeared to have been killed by a bullet to the head, an AFP correspondent said.

Four of the corpses were also badly burned, the correspondent said.

 

[Barking_Mad]

Worth a read from today's Independent. Quite refreshing coming from a US Colonel

At the marines' base, Camp Kalsu, Colonel Ron Johnson, 48, the commander of the 24th MEU, had very different ideas. "You can go and talk to anyone in this base," he declared. "They may say to you they hate Iraqis, they may say to you this is an unjust war. I'll accept that. But if anyone says 'no comment' let me have his name. Iraq is too important for people to come and serve here and not have any views."

Major General Bill Rollo, the British commander in Basra, came in for a flying visit, and Col Johnson invited me to sit in at their meeting. "After all, you represent a British newspaper, it'll be useful." I pointed out it was highly unlikely that the British military would agree to anything like that, and, of course, that turned out to be the case. The colonel's own meetings with his staff remained open.

Col Johnson, a big, cigar-chomping man with a resemblance to Robert De Niro, looks straight out of central casting. He has a reputation of being tough, but seems popular among his men - "a marine's marine," said a sergeant. "He is prepared to take the same risks as you are, he will stand up for you, and he doesn't give you bullshit. Believe me, these qualities can be pretty rare in officers."

The colonel, who comes from Duxbury, Massachusetts and is married with a 12-year-old daughter, has some surprising views. The United Nations sanctions on Iraq, he feels, harmed ordinary people far more than it did the regime. He was not convinced by the claims made about Iraq's supposed weapons of mass destruction, although he insists that it was worth having the war to free the people of Iraq from Saddam Hussein's brutal dictatorship.

He also eschews terms like "terrorists" because they are "too simplistic". In many cases, he holds, impoverished Iraqis are joining the insurgents because the occupying powers have failed to provide them with jobs and means of earning a livelihood.

.........

"The bottom line is that Iraqis must be allowed to run their own country. This is a country with history and culture and education. They are good workers. It is patronising of Westerners who say somehow that Iraqis cannot cope.

"This brings me to the question I keep on asking, but never get a satisfactory answer. What happened to the $18bn that Congress voted for reconstruction ? Why are so many contracts going to American and other foreign firms? Why aren't they going to more Iraqis? Who's deciding all this?"

 

[Barking_Mad]

From the above piece again, this just reminded me of one of the many passages from 'Catch-22'.

Large crowds gathered as roads were sealed off, the mood unhappy but resigned. There were only two interpreters, and they were both busy in another location. One of the officers shook his head in exasperation "I can't talk to these people. That is the biggest problem, we can't communicate." He asked me whether I could go and buy some pastries for him and his men from a bakery. Wouldn't it be better if he came along as well and actually met the people in the shop, I asked. In an ideal world, he said, but it is considered just too dangerous here.

 

[Barking_Mad]

Militant groups control 60 percent of Fallujah: witnesses

NEAR FALLUJAH, Iraq, Nov. 21 (Xinhuanet) -- Militant groups in battle-torn Fallujah have controlled 60 percent of the central Iraqi city and surrounded dozens of US Marines in Jolan district,witnesses said Sunday.

"Defenders of the city are controlling 60 percent of the city and they are encircling dozens of US soldiers in Jolan neighborhood," eyewitnesses who managed to sneak out of the city told Xinhua. Residents of Fallujah said the southern part of Fallujah, whichis still under control of the militant groups, constitutes the larger part of the city, and US troops only control the north andsmall eastern spots in the city. "Some American troops are based in government buildings and the yare pounded by fighters," they said.

"In daytime, groups of mujahedeen (Holy War fighters) engage with hit-and-run attacks with US Marines, and at the same time they gear themselves up for the night battles," they said.Fierce fighting and loud explosions resonated throughout Jolan district before the sunset.

US troops continued pounding the area as plumes and columns ofsmoke covered the sky over Jolan and the southern al-Shuhadaa district. Early this month, US and Iraqi forces launched a major offensiveto crush insurgents, including Zarqawi group, in Fallujah, 50 km west of Baghdad.

About one week later, the US military claimed it had controlled the city.

 

[Barking_Mad]

Sixth Iraq oil well set ablaze by saboteurs

Saboteurs set ablaze another well in Iraq's northern oilfields overnight, bringing to six the number firefighters are trying to extinguish in the region, security guards said

 

[Barking_Mad]

heh

Marines Hampered by Security Fears in Falluja

FALLUJA, Iraq (Reuters) - U.S. Marines were conducting painstaking weapons searches in the Iraqi city of Falluja on Monday when they spotted a man with an AK-47 rifle on a nearby rooftop. Armed only with a light weapon, he could never stand up to what they were about to unleash. But he was enough to distract Marines from a task that is key to stabilizing Falluja after a U.S.-led offensive crushed rebels controlling the Sunni Muslim city.

The angle of the rooftop could not quite accommodate the trajectory of a shoulder-launched Javelin missile so Marines fired the more direct, wire-guided TOW missile after a debate. Then they fired hefty .50 caliber machinegun rounds at the rooftop, blew up a door and stormed a living room.

It was an impressive display of firepower but they raided the wrong house.

 

[Barking_Mad]

US withdraws 100 tanks from Republic of Korea

Seoul (VNA) - A US army officer in the Republic of Korea (RoK) on Sunday said that the US has begun to withdraw 100 M1A1 tanks from the border area with the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) and transfer them to Iraq.

The officer affirmed that the withdrawal of the tanks will by no means reduce the RoK's defence capacity because the US-RoK joint forces were reinforced with improved M1A1 Abrams tanks last summer.

 

[Barking_Mad]

updates......

South Iraq pipeline blast cuts oil flows
An oil pipeline explosion in southern Iraq cut flows to the main export outlet of Basra by at least 750,000 barrels per day on Monday. The blast at around 9 a.m. stopped supplies through the smaller of two main southern oil export pipelines

ATTACK KILLS A TASK FORCE BAGHDAD SOLDIER
A Task Force Baghdad Soldier died from wounds sustained in an attack at about 10 p.m. on Nov. 21 in southwestern Baghdad.

Troops 'find' Bigley death house
US military officials believe a house in Fallujah they identified as a hostage centre is where kidnapped Briton Ken Bigley was beheaded last month.They also believe the site was used to house other hostages, CNN reported.Mr Bigley, a 62-year-old civil engineer from Liverpool, was shown being beheaded in a video sent to an Arab TV station in early October. His body has not been recovered.

Iraqi Security Forces Find 12 Bodies
Iraqi security forces recovered 12 bodies, including five decapitated ones, from an area south of Baghdad, police said Monday. One was identified as a member of the Iraqi National Guard.

From yesterday

Large blaze at Black Watch base
A large fire broke out on Sunday at Camp Dogwood, the central Iraq base of British Black Watch troops. The fire started at around 1830 local time (1530 GMT) in a tent at the base - flames reached 40ft in the air and ammunition inside the tent exploded.

 

[Barking_Mad]

Wounds That Don't Bleed

.......It's easy to see why so many troops are succumbing to stress. Every trip "outside the wire" brings the possibility of attack from any direction, from people who look like everyday citizens and from everyday objects — cars, oilcans, dead animals, even human beings — refashioned into deadly bombs. "It's relentless," says a Marine who was deployed in al-Anbar province, which includes violent hotbeds like Ramadi and Fallujah. "From the moment you arrive until the moment you leave, you're in danger." The life-threatening character of the daily job steadily erodes an individual's psychological immune system.

"It makes everyone even more susceptible, less resilient, to whatever happens," says Navy Captain Bill Nash, a psychiatrist who heads the Marines' Operational Stress Control Readiness (OSCAR) program in al-Anbar. "The war here has produced more significant stress injuries than any other conflict since Vietnam," he says. "And you'd have to be exceptionally optimistic and using massive denial to believe we are not going to generate a hell of a lot more of these stress injuries before we are done here."