*IRAQ: latest news and developments

[Barking_Mad]

Senior Sunni cleric killed in Mosul

A senior Sunni Muslim cleric has been killed in a drive-by shooting in the northern city of Mosul, medical sources say. Assailants in a vehicle shot Shaikh Faidh Muhammad Amin al-Faidhi as he was leaving a place of worship in Mosul's al-Rifaq district at about 9am (0600 GMT) on Monday.

"The cleric was shot four times, in his chest and abdomen, and died shortly after he was transferred to hospital," said Abd al-Jabbar Muhammad, a doctor at Madinat al-Tib hospital. The cleric was a member of influential Iraqi Muslim body the Association of Muslim Scholars (AMS), and the brother of the organisation's spokesman in Baghdad, Muhammad Bashar al-Faidhi.

AMS decries clerics' silence on Falluja

The Association of Muslim Scholars (AMS) in Iraq has called on religious leaders to condemn the ongoing US military assault on Falluja. Speaking to Aljazeera on Friday, Muthanna Harith al-Dhari, head of information and cultural affairs of the AMS, said there was a political campaign to silence those critical of the "unjustified operation in Falluja".

"All the events that happened on Thursday - storming the houses of the AMS general-secretary Shaikh al-Dhari and Shaikh al-Qubaisi, raiding al-Shuhada mosque and arresting Shaikh Mahdi al-Sumaidai along with members of the Shura Council - come in the context of a campaign aimed at silencing these voices and preventing them from exposing what is taking place in Falluja now," al-Dhari told Aljazeera. Al-Dhari said Iraqis were puzzled by the silence of religious scholars who had not condemned what was taking place in Falluja.

On Thursday, Shaikh Mahdi al-Sumaidai, imam of Ibn Taimiya mosque in Baghdad, said he blamed Shia cleric Ayat Allah Ali al-Sistani for his silence on the events taking place in Falluja.

 

[Barking_Mad]

Falluja troops told to shoot on sight

On the eve of the assault on Falluja, the US military ordered troops to shoot any male on the street between the ages of 15 and 50 if they were seen as a security threat, regardless of whether they had a weapon.

"You are killers, not murderers. You are warriors not war criminals. Don't cross that line." Those were the words of a US officer to his men before they took part in the recent assault on the Iraqi city of Falluja........

........reports from newsmen embedded with the US troops during the assault launched on 8 November suggest that the shooting may not have been an isolated incident. Instead, it may have simply been the only one caught on camera, an illustration of the looser rules of engagement authorised for the Falluja offensive.

"The enemy can dress as a woman, the enemy can be faking to be dead," said one company commander to his marines before entering the heart of the city. "So shoot everything that moves and everything that doesn't move," he said. The photographer embedded with this unit, which carried out some of the most dangerous missions on the frontlines of the Falluja battle, said the rules of engagement were gradually modified as the situation evolved.

"A marine was killed when a unit entered a house. They pulled out and dynamited the building, but when they moved back in, an arm stuck out from under the rubble and threw a grenade," he said.

 

[Barking_Mad]

Assault on Falluja - Week 3

 

[Barking_Mad]

Foreigners in Baghdad shootout melee

Two foreigners, at least one of them British, were arrested in Baghdad after a ministerial bodyguard was shot dead, a senior police source has said. Shooting broke out when an advance party of the interim interior minister's security detail came upon a civilian vehicle whose occupants they felt were behaving suspiciously, the source said. It is not clear who fired first, but the Iraqi driver of the vehicle and one of minister Falah al-Naqib's guards were killed and another bodyguard wounded. The minister was in a vehicle some distance from the shooting and was unhurt.

The two men in the civilian vehicle, at least one and possibly both of whom were British, were disarmed and arrested but soon released, the source said.

 

[Barking_Mad]

There have been 24 attacks on Iraq's oil infrastructure in the last 22 days.

http://www.iags.org/iraqpipelinewatch.htm

 

[Barking_Mad]

Updates....

Second Sunni cleric gunned down in Iraq
Masked gunmen on Tuesday assassinated a Sunni cleric north of Baghdad, police said — the second such killing in as many days

Bomb in Samarra Kills One
Terrorists detonated a roadside bomb in the central Iraqi city of Samarra and mortar rounds landed near a U.S. military outpost in violence that killed one and injured three others, including two children, police said Tuesday.

Iraqi Police battle rebels, leaving one fighter dead
A gunbattle between police and rebels in a central Iraqi town left one fighter dead, while a search operation netted four suspected insurgents and a weapons cache

Violence Continues In Iraq
In Baghdad, insurgents attacked a U.S. convoy, setting fire to an armored vehicle. In the southern city of Al-Basrah, police said a former Ba'ath Party official and a policeman were killed by unknown assailants.

Rocket kills five in residential Baghdad
A rocket has slammed into a residential district in the centre of Baghdad, injuring five people including a child. Heavy shooting erupted later around two hotels used by Western journalists and contractors.

Black Watch Soldiers 'Kill Suicide Bomber'
The Ministry of Defence has launched an investigation after Black Watch soldiers shot dead a man they believed was a suicide bomber. as he drove a car at speed towards a checkpoint near the Black Watch’s base at Camp Dogwood.

Saddam lawyers mull war crimes suit against US
Lawyers for ousted Iraqi president Saddam Hussein announced that they were asking the International Court of Justice to prosecute the United States for war crimes, even though individuals are not allowed to petition the tribunal.

S Korea considers extending troop mission in Iraq
South Korea is strongly committed to helping rebuild Iraq and the government is seriously considering renewing the mandate for Seoul's 3,500 troops in the country expires in six weeks, Foreign Minister Ban Ki-moon said.

Former Mosul Police Chief Arrested for Aiding Insurgents
The former police chief of Mosul has been arrested for allegedly allowing insurgents to take over police stations during an uprising in the northern city. He was arrested Sunday in Irbil, where he fled after he was fired in the wake of the uprising.

 

[Barking_Mad]

Worth the read re: US troops injured in Iraq but not counted on the official totals.

Iraq: The Uncounted

How many injured and ill soldiers, sailors, airmen and marines [...] are left off the Pentagon's casualty count?

Would you believe 15,000? 60 Minutes asked the Department of Defense to grant us an interview. They declined. Instead, they sent a letter, which contains a figure not included in published casualty reports: "More than 15,000 troops with so-called 'non-battle' injuries and diseases have been evacuated from Iraq."

Many of those evacuated are brought to Landstuhl in Germany. Most cases are not life-threatening. In fact, some are not serious at all. But only 20 percent return to their units in Iraq. Among the 80 percent who don't return are GIs who suffered crushing bone fractures; scores of spinal injuries; heart problems by the hundreds; and a slew of psychiatric cases. None of these are included in the casualty count, leaving the true human cost of the war something of a mystery.

"It's difficult to estimate what the total number is," says John Pike, director of a research group called GlobalSecurity.org. As a military analyst, Pike has spoken out against both Republican and Democratic administrations. He's weighed all the available casualty data and has made an informed estimate that goes well beyond what the Pentagon has released.

"You have to say that the total number of casualties due to wounds, injury, disease would have to be somewhere in the ballpark of over 20, maybe 30,000," says Pike.

 

[Barking_Mad]

US battle plans begin to unravel

In the New York Times this week the first crack appeared in the armor of the "victory in Fallujah" facade maintained by the major US media since the battle began. Eric Schmitt and Robert Worth discuss a secret Marine Corps report that reveals the major bind the US has gotten itself into by sweeping through Fallujah and attempting to pacify it.


This US strategy has created exactly the dilemma that many critics of the war had been predicting: in order to hold Fallujah the United States has to keep large numbers of troops there, and then the Americans will not have sufficient troops to handle the uprising elsewhere in the Sunni areas.

The problem is summarized thusly in the New York Times article: "Senior marine intelligence officers in Iraq are warning that if American troop levels in the Fallujah 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."

 

[Barking_Mad]

Iraqi Shia leaders condemn Falluja attack

Baghdad's highest Shia authority has denounced the US military assault on Falluja and called on all Iraqi religious authorities to support the Iraqi people. Shaikh Muhammad Mahdi al-Khalissi has issued a statement, obtained by Aljazeera.net on Sunday, condemning the US assault on Falluja and describing it as "aggression and dirty war".

"No matter how powerful the occupation forces are, they will be driven out of Iraq sooner or later," he said. "The current savage military attack on Falluja by US occupation forces and the US-appointed Iraqi government is an act of mass murder and a crime of war." Al-Khalissi said he and his faction fully supported the religious decree issued by Iraq's influential Sunni Muslim authority, the Association of Muslim Scholars, in which it prohibited Iraqis from participating in the US attack on Falluja.

.......

For its part, the movement of the Iraqi Muslim Shia leader Muqtada al-Sadr said it had suspended its support for the forthcoming election in January 2005. "I am here today as a Shia figure belongs to a prominent Shia religious family to confirm that Iraqi Sunni Muslims are our brothers and dear countrymen" Shaikh Ali Smaysim, an aide to the Shia leader, told Aljazeera.net that al-Sadr's movement suspended its participation in the election in protest against the brutalities inflicted on Falluja and other Iraqi towns.

"This level of military power against Iraqi cities will result in preventing many Iraqi cities from participating in the coming elections, and that is against the standards of clean and honest elections," Shaikh Smaysim said. "There has been a chance for a peaceful solution, but the government always chooses the military solution because the US wants that."

 

[Barking_Mad]

Interesting read from someone who visited the US military hospitals in Germany

My Visit to Landstuhl Army Hospital

A friend and I recently returned from Landstuhl Army Hospital in Germany and thought you might be interested in our experiences there.

We arrived at the hospital’s main entrance in the early afternoon. The main entrance is also the entrance to the Emergency Room. As we were walking from the parking lot to the stairs leading down to the entrance, we saw between 25 - 30 medics standing outside the ER door, drinking coffee and talking on cell phones, their hands covered with either purple or turquoise latex gloves. We also saw about twenty gurneys lined up behind the medics. It was obvious they were expecting casualties.

Suddenly four dark blue buses with white crosses on the front and rear drove up to the ER entrance, followed by a German ambulance. The buses were filled with injured just flown in from Balad, Iraq. One of the buses carried the seriously injured on stretchers, which we could see through the bus windows. We watched as several stretchers were placed on gurneys and wheeled into the ER. Soldiers on the other three buses were, for the most part, able to move about on their own, or on crutches, or to wheelchairs. One soldier stepped out of the bus with a plastic tube in his nose, spitting up blood. Most of the wounds appeared to be legs, arms, hands and feet injuries.

 

[Barking_Mad]

Mass Offensive Launched South of Baghdad

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Some 5,000 U.S. Marines, British troops and Iraqi commandos launched a new offensive Tuesday aimed at clearing a swath of insurgent hotbeds south of Baghdad, the U.S. military said. The joint operation kicked off with early morning raids in the town of Jabella in Babil province, netting 32 suspected insurgents, the U.S. military said in a statement. Jabella is 50 miles south of Baghdad.

Insurgent violence has increased in the areas south of the capital in "an apparent attempt to divert attention" away from the U.S-led assault on the militant stronghold of Fallujah, the military said. The cluster of dusty, small towns located south of the capital, has been a major area for insurgent activity. U.S. and Iraqi forces have come under repeated attacks by car bombs, rockets, and small arms fire in the area.

The region has become known as a "triangle of death" for the numerous attacks by Sunni Muslim insurgents and criminal gangs on Shiites, Westerners and members of the Iraqi security services. In the past three weeks, Iraqi troops and Marines have detained nearly 250 insurgents in the area, the statement said.

They have been aided by British forces from the 1st Battalion of the Black Watch Regiment, who were brought into the area from southern Basra to aid American forces in closing off militant escape routes between Baghdad, Babil province to the south and Anbar province to the west.

 

[Barking_Mad]

US dead this month stands at 106 (as until today - 23/11/04)

71 of these died in the Al Anbar province which includes Falujah
41 of those died in or near Fallujah.

US injured stands at roughly 727 as up to the 16th November. 498 of those came in the fighting between the 10th - 16th November.

The number of Iraqi dead is unforgivably unknown.

 

[ska invita]

News Agency Confirms Mujahideen Controls Majority Of Fallujah Nov 23, 2004

News Agency Confirms Mujahideen Controls Majority Of Fallujah
Nov 23, 2004

China’s Xinhua News Agency reported Monday that Mujahideen are holding 60 percent of Fallujah and have surrounded dozens of US Marines in the al-Jawlan district of the city. Quoting eyewitnesses on Sunday “who managed to sneak out of the city.” Xinhua wrote that the residents reported that the Mujahideen still controls the southern part of al-Fallujah, which “constitutes the larger part of the city and quoted the witnesses as saying that “US troops only control the north and small eastern spots in the city.” The news agencies filing confirms what our sources and Mafkarat al-Islam have been reporting.

The residents said that “some American troops are based in government buildings and they are pounded by fighters.” They told the news agency, “in daytime groups of mujahideen engage with hit-and-run attacks with US Marines, and at the same time they gear themselves up for the night battles.” Xinhua reported that “fierce fighting and loud explosions resonated throughout the al-Jawlan neighborhood before sunset.”

They agency further reported eyewitnesses as saying on Monday that “fierce clashes are underway in the al-Jawlan, al-‘Askari, and ash-Shuhada’ neighborhoods on Monday. They said that several relief teams were conducting hard negotiations with US troops to gain access to the city to provide assistance to the wounded and bury the dead.

 

[ska invita]

British troops to help US forces in all Iraq combat zones

British troops to help US forces in all Iraq combat zones

British general says troops could stay in Iraq beyond 2005 * Rejects claims that Black Watch deployment was sign of ‘mission creep’ LONDON: British troops will be sent to help US forces in combat zones anywhere inside Iraq and could remain in the country beyond 2005, Britain’s army commander said in an interview published on Monday.

General Sir Mike Jackson’s comments in the Independent newspaper come three weeks after British troops were deployed for the first time to a hotspot near Baghdad to support a US offensive against the Sunnite Muslim city of Fallujah. The deployment by the Scottish-based Black Watch regiment from the relatively safe British-held area around Basra provoked an uproar in Britain, where the public is expressing growing opposition to the US-led invasion and occupation of Iraq.

All the British operations had been in the Basra area “until this one-off deployment of the Black Watch,” Jackson told the Independent.
“That is not to say, in the future, there may not be a military requirement of the coalition as a whole for a British unit or units to be elsewhere,” Jackson said.

The Black Watch would be pulled back within a few weeks and would not be replaced at Camp Dogwood, the area where they have been deployed near Baghdad, he said. The troops have suffered two suicide bombings at roadside checkpoints, with one killing three Black Watch soldiers and another injuring several members of the Queen’s Dragoon Guards.

 

[Barking_Mad]

US injured goes over 9,000. US injured for Novomber is over 1,000.

 

[Barking_Mad]

US-led forces in huge offensive near Baghdad

More than 5000 US, British and Iraqi troops have attacked areas south of the Iraqi capital in the latest push to pacify the country before planned elections in January. The operation on Tuesday came as world powers and Middle Eastern states meeting in Egypt threw their weight behind the war-torn country's first free and multi-party elections in decades. US marines and an Iraqi Swat (special weapons and tactics) team swept through the small south-central Iraqi town of Jibla, starting a fresh campaign in the north of the Babil (Babylon) province, the US military said in a statement.

........The joint operation resulted in the seizure of 32 suspected fighters, the military said. Jibla is 80km south of Baghdad and in what is known as the Triangle of Death.

..........Meanwhile, many refugees who left Falluja are living in poor conditions with inadequate shelter and food in areas surrounding the besieged city. Shaikh Yunus al-Hamdani, a member of the Iraqi Relief Body from Saqlawiya told Aljazeera the relief process was difficult as electricity had been disconnected for 15 days. "Water supply stations which depend on electricity do not work so water has been cut for 15 days.

"Medical aid has not reached us and I confirm that we have not received any aid from the Iraqi government which said it would send relief. People have nothing to protect them from the freezing weather. I call on non-governmental organisations to take the initiative to aid the people of Falluja in Saqlawiya who face very critical conditions", he said.

It is estimated there are about 15,000 families who fled Falluja and are now living in makeshift shelters outside the city.

 

[ska invita]

The Iranian, Egyptian and Syrian governments accused the US yesterday of using excess

The Iranian, Egyptian and Syrian governments accused the US yesterday of using excessive force to quell rebels in Iraq.

Tehran joins outcry against 'excessive' US force in Iraq
Ewen MacAskill, diplomatic editor Wednesday November 24, 2004 The Guardian
The Iranian, Egyptian and Syrian governments accused the US yesterday of using excessive force to quell rebels in Iraq.
The Syrian foreign minister, Farouk al-Sharaa, said at an international conference in Sharm el-Sheikh that although condemning terrorism, "we cannot over-emphasise the need to refrain from shelling civilians, destroying cities and killing innocent people".
More than 20 countries and organisations, including the US, Britain, the UN, and Iraq's neighbours, took part in the one-day meeting on the future of Iraq at the Egyptian Red Sea resort.
The Iranian foreign minister, Kamal Kharrazi, criticised "the use of excessive force and bombing of towns" but also condemned the insurgents for kidnappings and other acts of violence, saying: "Such acts will help prolong the presence of foreign troops in Iraq." The Egyptian foreign minister, Ahmed Aboul Gheit, expressed dismay at the American tactics, even though Washington counts Egypt as an ally.
"The policy of violence and intimidation and the overuse of force ... will only lead to further divisions, damage and destruction," he said.

 

[Barking_Mad]

Updates..

Soldier Charged With Murdering Iraqi
A U.S. soldier was arrested and jailed on murder charges Wednesday in the death of an Iraqi civilian in January. Staff Sgt. Shane Werst, 31, of El Toro, Calif., is accused of killing the Iraqi man while serving with the 3rd Brigade Combat Team

U.S. Replaces General Who Ran Prisons in Iraq
The decision to reassign Army Maj. Gen. Geoffrey Miller to an unrelated job in Washington was part of a routine rotation of senior officers and did not reflect unhappiness in Miller's performance, officials said.

U.S. Civilian Official Killed by Gunfire in Baghdad
A U.S. civilian official was killed by gunfire near Baghdad's Green Zone government compound on Wednesday, a U.S. official said. The official, who asked not to be named, identified the man as James Mollen and said he was a State Department employee ...

Kurdish Fighters Killed in Northern Iraq
Gunmen ambushed a convoy of Kurdish militiamen as they traveled to the northern Iraqi city of Mosul on Wednesday, killing three and wounding nine, hospital sources in the nearby town of Arbil said.

Two killed in attack on deputy Iraqi governor convoy
A convoy of Nineveh province's deputy governor came under fire Wednesday in Iraq's northern city of Mosul, killing one of his bodyguards and a member of the Interior Ministry special forces, Two other bodyguards were wounded

More bodies found in Mosul
Iraq Military officials in Iraq say they've found another five bodies in northern Mosul.

Two dead in Kirkuk as ''Zarqawi'' slams Muslim scholars
Gunmen in the northern city of Kirkuk attacked Iraqi National Guard forces, killing one soldier and a civilian in the drive-by shooting, the US military said Wednesday

National Guard and Reserve Mobilized as of November 24, 2004
This week, the Army and Air Force announced an increase in the number of reservists on active duty, while the Navy , Marines and Coast Guard had a decrease. The net collective result is 294 more reservists mobilized than last week.

Suicide drive down Baghdad's airport road
The airport road is the main gateway in and out of Iraq and has become a favourite hunting ground for rebels There have been 14 suicide car bombs on the road in that time, while four soldiers have died and 43 have been wounded.

Contractor Who Works With US In Iraq Kidnapped
An ethnic Turkish contractor who works with U.S. forces was kidnapped from his family home Tuesday in the northern city of Kirkuk, police said.

ING Soldier, Civilian Killed and One Soldier Wounded
One Iraqi National Guard soldier and one civilian were killed and a second soldier was wounded when anti-Iraqi forces attacked them in Kirkuk. The soldiers had stopped to help the civilian with his car, when gunmen drove by and shot them.

Two killed in Baghdad suicide car bomb A suicide car bomb attack in western Baghdad on Wednesday left the bomber and two other people dead, police said.

Roadside bomb hit US convoy in Baghdad, causing casualties
A roadside bomb hit a US military convoy Wednesday when it passed an intersection of Baghdad airport southwest the capital, destroying a Humvee and wounding all aboard.

 

[Barking_Mad]

Interestign article regarding the leaders of the Fallujah resistance - both Iraqis, one an electrician and the other a preacher.

Fallujah Leaders Were Local, Not Foreign

BAGHDAD, Iraq -- Before the assault on Fallujah, U.S. officials described the city as a den of foreign terrorists, but its top commanders were an electrician and a mosque preacher -- both natives of the community and now on the run from American forces. Religious fervor and hatred of Americans brought Omar Hadid and Abdullah al-Janabi together in a partnership that played a major role in transforming Fallujah from a sleepy Euphrates River backwater into a potent symbol of Arab nationalism.

Their rise to prominence provides insight into contemporary Iraq, where the U.S. presence sparked a religious backlash that gave radical Muslim leaders major roles in filling the void created by the ouster of Saddam Hussein's regime and its replacement by a weak U.S.-backed government. After U.S. Marines lifted the siege of Fallujah last April, central government control collapsed. That enabled men like Hadid, an electrician who lived with his mother, and al-Janabi, a local imam and member of an important local clan, to emerge as powerbrokers until the Marines took the city back this month.

Of the two, Hadid, thought to be in his early 30s, appears to have been the more influential, even though al-Janabi, in his 50s, headed the Mujahedeen Shura Council, which set up Islamic courts that meted out Islamic punishments, executed suspected spies and enforced a strict Islamic lifestyle. Fallujah residents and Iraqis with close family ties to the city said al-Janabi was more a spiritual leader -- deeply respected but without the leverage that Hadid enjoyed over the bands of fighters who patrolled the streets, directed traffic, attacked U.S. positions on the city's fringes and fought the Americans in April and again this month.

Hadid led one of the bigger and better armed factions in the city, residents say, but they also stress there were other groups of fighters and all largely operated independently of one another.

 

[Barking_Mad]

One of the few good pieces from Falluja by the BBC, or indeed by anyone else.

Eyewitness: Farewell to Falluja

I spent six nights sneaking through Falluja's wrecked streets to get to where I am now - at a refugee camp two kilometres outside the city. It was too dangerous to be outdoors during the day so we did all our moving between midnight and five in the morning. There were many tense moments. My friends and I stayed sane by reciting verses from the Koran. When we got to the river at the western edge of the city, we hid among the reeds and palm trees until the guide, who had arranged our escape, sent a car to pick us up.

I saw only desolation on the streets. I doubt if there are more than a few hundred civilians left inside Falluja now. I shall remember how I celebrated Eid this year - with bombardment and the sound of gunfire A US army checkpoint came under fire while we were passing by it. The fighters' rockets were landing everywhere but the Americans did not seem too bothered and were not returning fire.

Further down the street, I saw three crippled armoured trucks. I have spent the last few days in a village that has been taken over by refugees from Falluja. They have built a city out of tents and makeshift shelters. Families have filled the corridors and classrooms of the local school. Every day, trucks bring food and water donated by Arab states and wealthy individuals from within Iraq.

All the supplies arrive at the local mosque, where the imam and his men are in charge of the distribution. For the first time in weeks, I have been able to bathe and eat properly. I feel safer here among the refugees - it is very unlikely that anyone will want to bomb us now. No one knows how long we will wait before we can return to Falluja. I have heard the US military say it will be another three weeks before anyone can go back in.

In the distance, you still hear bombs dropped by American jets exploding over the city. But I am no longer there so I cannot tell you which districts they are fighting over now. I think I'm very lucky to have survived these last few months. I shall remember how I celebrated Eid this year - with bombardment and the sound of gunfire.

I shall never forget how the people left behind in the city helped each other. I became very close to those I shared the house with. Each of us knew that if death came, it would probably come to all of us - at any instant, we could all be finished off by the same bomb. Falluja was not a poor city, compared to many others in Iraq.

Falluja's refugees face an uncertain wait. But many of its homes are now dust. Hardly a single one among those still standing is unscarred by war. Wherever you look, there are bullet-holes, fire damage and massive holes missing from the walls.

Many people used to cultivate flowers in their gardens. The roses have wilted, the backyards are graveyards. My old house, near the train station, is half destroyed. I had built an office to one side of it, which had a library with all my books, documents, professional certificates and newspapers. All this is gone. It got bombed. One of my most prized possessions - prayer beads that belonged to one of Iraq's old rulers, King Faisal - was in that library too. But at least my wife and children are safe. I sent them away long before the assault and now I can look forward to seeing them again.

 

[Barking_Mad]

Falluja weapons finds 'stunning'

Marines say it will be weeks before civilians can return home

US Marines searching the Iraqi city of Falluja say they have unearthed enough arms to mount a nationwide rebellion. Marine officers said mortars, grenades and rockets were found in homes and in a mosque complex in eastern Falluja, describing the finds as "stunning". Troops are searching Falluja's 50,000 buildings for weapons before allowing around 300,000 civilians to return. Marines mounted a major offensive in Falluja this month, claiming that insurgents were using it as a base. Marine commanders said troops moving from house to house had discovered large numbers of weapons stores, including stocks of up to 700 mortar shells.

 

[bigfish]

20,802 US Soldiers Heavily Wounded

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article7367.htm

11/25/4 -- Can anyone believe how dirty and dishonorable the US administration is?

*The official number of US soldiers wounded in Iraq that was announced by the US DOD (department of defense) is 8458 in Iraq and 423 in Afghanistan.

Can anyone believe that the US military hospital at Germany (alone), the Landstuhl Regional Medical Center, announced that 20,802 troops have been treated at Landstuhl from injuries received in "Operations Iraqi Freedom" (occupying Iraq) and "Enduring Freedom" (occupying Afghanistan).

The interesting part of the news that I didn't find these numbers on AlJazeera (the No.1 enemy of Rumy and other little bush supporters). These Numbers were published by the well-known, Department of Defense-authorized daily newspaper distributed overseas for the U.S. military community, "Stars and Stripes".

more than 17,200 from these soldiers were injured in Iraq, and more than 3,000 were injured in Afghanistan as I read in a local newspaper.

These numbers are just for the US soldiers that were moved to Germany. There are other thousands that were injured inside Iraq and Afghanistan and treated in small local military clinics and hospitals, or moved to other US military hospitals.

The official number of Us soldiers killed in Iraq and Afghanistan is 1375 and 144. I wonder what the real numbers are.

 

[fela fan]

One of the few good pieces from Falluja by the BBC, or indeed by anyone else.

It is that kind of story that if i actually sit down and consciously dwell on it for more than a few seconds that makes my blood boil up to 100 degrees, that makes me want to explode with anger at the americans, that makes me want to shake 'humanity' by the scruff of its neck and tell it to stop being so fucking stupid.

What makes it all the worse is that it is all so fucking senseless. I doubt any one person in america could tell us a single objective of why they have completely fucked with that city in iraq.

It is beyond my comprehension how anyone can even begin to defend the actions of this genocidal bush regime. Four more years, fuck are we in for some ride. But for us, it's no problem (unless we get more 911s, and that'll be justice if we do). It's the likes of iraqis who are in the firing line.

 

[Raisin D'etre]

Two leading memebers of the Association of Muslim Scholars (AMS)—an organisation of 3,000 Sunni Muslim clerics calling for a boycott of the January 30 Iraqi elections—were assassinated this week.

Sheik Faidh Mohammed Amin al-Faidi, one of the most prominent Sunni clerics in the city of Mosul, was gunned down in a drive-by shooting as he left his house on November 22. Faidi was the brother of the main AMS spokesman in Baghdad, Mohammed Bashar al-Faidi, who has made passionate speeches at the Umm al-Qura mosque in recent weeks, denouncing US war crimes in Fallujah and the anti-democratic character of the planned election.

The next day, a group of masked gunmen shot and killed a second cleric, Sheik Ghalib Ali Latif al-Zuheiri as he left his mosque following dawn prayers in the town of Muqdadiyah, north of Baghdad.

It is not known who carried out the killings. Suspicion, however, must fall upon the US-led occupation forces. They have the necessary personnel and the motive—silencing opposition to the rigged elections.

Where have we seen these tactics before? Think Nicaragua. Think Honduras. Think Vietnam (Operation Phoenix)......... Think Negroponte.

 

[Barking_Mad]

This from 'The Stars and Stripes', hardly left wing pinkies. 20,000 treated, in Germany.....

As of Tuesday, 20,802 troops have been treated at Landstuhl from injuries received in Operations Iraqi Freedom and Enduring Freedom.

http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=24783&archive=true

 

[Barking_Mad]

Still, at least Fallujah is safe........

Two U.S. Marines Killed in Iraqi City of Falluja

Two U.S. Marines were killed in the Iraqi city of Falluja Thursday when insurgents threw grenades at them after they entered a house to search it, their commanding general said Friday.

Lt. Gen. John Sattler said Marines had also killed three insurgents in the incident. Marines have been searching houses in Falluja for weapons and guerrillas after a major offensive in the city earlier this month.

 

[Barking_Mad]

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

Car bomb blast in Iraqi city wounds 10
Two people were killed and 13 wounded in two car bombings, one of them a suicide attack, in the restive Iraqi city of Samarra, police and hospital officials said.

Guardsmen Say They're Facing Iraq Ill-Trained
Members of a California Army National Guard battalion preparing for deployment to Iraq said this week that they were under strict lockdown and being treated like prisoners rather than soldiers....

Basra police arrest foreign fighters
Five Arab foreign fighters who had escaped from Fallujah were arrested near southern Basra, where they were planning to attack coalition bases and police stations, authorities said Thursday.

Blast hits Iraq oil pipeline
AN explosion hit a domestic pipeline today that runs from northern Kirkuk to the Beiji refinery, oil officials said.The early morning sabotage took place in the Fatha area, about 113km southwest of Kirkuk...

 

[bigfish]

Two opponents of the US occupation assassinated in Iraq

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2004/nov2004/iraq-n26.shtml

Two leading members of the Association of Muslim Scholars (AMS)—an organisation of 3,000 Sunni Muslim clerics calling for a boycott of the January 30 Iraqi elections—were assassinated this week.

Sheik Faidh Mohammed Amin al-Faidi, one of the most prominent Sunni clerics in the city of Mosul, was gunned down in a drive-by shooting as he left his house on November 22. Faidi was the brother of the main AMS spokesman in Baghdad, Mohammed Bashar al-Faidi, who has made passionate speeches at the Umm al-Qura mosque in recent weeks, denouncing US war crimes in Fallujah and the anti-democratic character of the planned election.

The next day, a group of masked gunmen shot and killed a second cleric, Sheik Ghalib Ali Latif al-Zuheiri as he left his mosque following dawn prayers in the town of Muqdadiyah, north of Baghdad.

It is not known who carried out the killings. Suspicion, however, must fall upon the US-led occupation forces. They have the necessary personnel and the motive—silencing opposition to the rigged elections.

Iraq: child malnutrition almost doubles after US invasion

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2004/nov2004/mal-n26.shtml

A study conducted by the Fafo Institute for Applied Social Science, a Norwegian research group, found that acute malnutrition among Iraqi children between the ages of six months and five years has increased from 4 percent to 7.7 percent since the US-led invasion in March last year.

“It’s in the level of some African countries,” Jon Pederson, the institute’s deputy managing director, told Associated Press. “Of course, no child should be malnourished, but when we’re getting to levels of 7 to 8 percent, it’s a clear sign of concern.”

The findings were based on a survey conducted in April and May of 22,000 Iraqi homes. The study, which is yet to be officially released, was assisted by Iraq’s central office for statistics and information technology, as well as the United Nations Development Program.

Carol Bellamy, head of UNICEF, the UN’s children’s agency, condemned the war for its impact on Iraqi children. “War is waged by adults, but it is the children who suffer the most. This protracted fighting and instability is wreaking havoc on Iraqi children.”

Approximately 400,000 Iraqi children now suffer from malnutrition

 

[bigfish]

Media Alert: Fallujah - The BBC Director Of News Responds

http://www.medialens.org/

On November 8 and 11 we published two Media Alerts: 'Legitimising Mass Slaughter in Fallujah,' in which we commented on the bias and inhumanity of BBC and ITV News reporting on Fallujah.

These alerts generated a massive response from readers - one of the biggest we have seen - and contributed, we believe, to a short-lived improvement in both BBC and ITV reporting. As a flood of emails was being copied to us, the BBC in particular began paying attention to the plight of civilians in Fallujah in a way that it had conspicuously not done earlier in the week. This could of course have been a coincidence, but we doubt it. We suspect that BBC editors and journalists were shocked by the intensity and extent of public feeling, a suspicion strengthened by a response of unprecedented seriousness from the BBC's director of news, Helen Boaden (see below).

We also suspect that some journalists at the BBC, including front-line journalists, were already uneasy about the savagery of the US demolition of Fallujah and the BBC's response to it. On October 11, news anchor Anna Ford sent short messages of this kind to several readers:

"I've taken your concerns to the Head of TV News Roger Mosey. Daily discussion here on our coverage." (Forwarded to Media Lens, November 11, 2004)

It is worth bearing in mind that while no one likes to receive even rational criticism, journalists can use challenges of this kind to raise important issues within their organisations. Like all corporations, media companies are essentially totalitarian institutions subject to a strict, top-down hierarchy of control. Journalists are expected to be 'team players', 'focused' and 'disciplined' - code words that refer to the need to remain focused on 'pragmatic' bottom line goals of profitability and market share. In the BBC's case, it also means not inviting the kind of devastating punishment the government meted out over the Andrew Gilligan affair.

To attempt to take a moral stance in this environment is difficult; it risks raising issues that are deeply threatening to senior management. The BBC's senior management, of course, is appointed by the government. A flood of well-argued emails rooted in concern for human suffering allows journalists to challenge government and/or corporate malfeasance with less risk of their being labelled 'committed', 'crusading' or 'ideological'.

On November 16, we received the following from the BBC's Helen Boaden:


Dear Medialens
It's good to have considered feedback and I am sorry that you are troubled by some of our coverage of the assault on Fallujah. Our correspondents in Iraq are working under extremely difficult and dangerous conditions and we are proud of them.

Our aim as BBC journalists is to approach all stories, including wars, from an impartial standpoint, reflecting events and significant opinions in a fair and balanced way.

Blah blah blah...< snip >

Media Lens Response

We are grateful for such a substantial and thoughtful response.

Boaden argues that "there was no sense of ambiguity whatsoever about who was leading the assault."

This is correct, although not in the way Boaden intends. The BBC's lunchtime news anchor, Anna Ford, opened her report on the programme in question with this statement:

"Iraq's prime minister, Iyad Allawi, has said he has given American and Iraqi forces the authority to clear Fallujah of terrorists."

On seven occasions in this one programme, the BBC gave the impression that Allawi was the final authority in Iraq, thus indicating that the assault on Fallujah was an Iraqi government operation directing US and Iraqi forces to the attack. There was no ambiguity whatever, as Boaden rightly points out.

Entrenched habits of patriotic journalism are such that the media finds it impossible to report objectively, much less critically, on wars in which British forces are involved. Journalists reflexively slot conflicts into 'us' versus 'them' frameworks, with 'us' portrayed as reluctant, chivalrous interventionists intent on 'bringing peace', 'restoring order', 'rebuilding the country' (we have destroyed) and so on. 'Them' on the other hand refers to 'terrorists', 'murderers' and, in this case, 'Saddam loyalists' and 'foreign fighters' (essentially the same devilish 'foreign agitators' of Cold War propaganda).

It is difficult to maintain the 'us' and 'them' view of the world when we are illegal occupiers killing ordinary Iraqis resisting our occupation - so the illegality and the ordinary Iraqi resistance fighters are hardly mentioned. The issue of oil, of course, is not allowed even to exist, although it would be at the forefront of reporting on the crimes of an official enemy.
...
As part of its patriotic role, the media is drip-feeding the British public the impression that Iraqis are in control of their country and are deeply committed to fighting the insurgency. This is crucial propaganda lending a veneer of legitimacy to an illegal occupation and the staggering violence by which it is being maintained. The reality - that a Western superpower is imposing its will on an impoverished but oil-rich Third World country against the will of its people - is nowhere in sight.

The US manipulation of local puppets in pursuit of this cause is intended to camouflage the reality. To present the words of such stooges as worthy of serious attention - which is exactly what happens when news programmes open with such words - is crude propaganda worthy of Goebbels or the commissars under Stalin.
...
Boaden writes that "From the outset we have raised questions about civilian casualties."

In fact the BBC main news said next to nothing about such casualties until a flood of complaints from our readers appeared to contribute to a short-lived change in reporting. Boaden appears to recognise this initial, low-key emphasis when she writes: "Getting first hand information from within Fallujah has been extremely difficult."

And yet reliable reports from doctors in the city, from escaping refugees, and from the Iraqi Red Crescent, +were+ being heard at a time when BBC TV news was finding them "extremely difficult" to access. In fact, the BBC's emphasis has been highly patriotic. It was initially focused on the preparations and goals of the US military, presenting the attack on Fallujah from a "coalition" point of view. The impression given was of a World War II-style 'just cause', which the attack on Fallujah most certainly was not.
...
Boaden writes "As for use of the word terrorist, it is the Americans and Mr Allawi who have used this word. We have simply reported it."

Why, then, has the BBC not repeatedly reported "use of the word terrorist" by commentators describing US and British military actions in Iraq? Is it because Allawi and the Americans are deemed legitimate in a way that the insurgents are not? Allawi, as we have discussed, has +zero+ legitimacy, while the Americans are acting illegally in occupying the country, as the UN secretary-general Kofi Annan has made clear. Note, again, that Boaden brackets Allawi with the American government, suggesting comparable legitimacy.

Has the BBC ever reported that the British or US governments are involved in state terror? We doubt it. And yet both are undoubtedly using the demonstration effect of mass violence to terrorise insurgents, and Iraqis generally, into abandoning resistance to the occupation. US military officials have openly stated that the appalling fate suffered by Fallujah is intended 'pour encourager les autres' - a very clear example of state terrorism.

Boaden writes: "On the question of Fergal Keane's reporting from Darfur... If one of our reporters saw brutal behaviour by Iraqi or coalition forces we would similarly report that."

Recall that Keane said: "This was a day when the Sudanese government showed the face of raw power. When the international community was left powerless, and the most vulnerable, defenceless."

There was nothing in BBC TV reporting that expressed comparable moral outrage at the destruction of Fallujah by the Western superpower acting outside of international law. But in fact far worse violence was committed in Fallujah than featured in Keane's report. Here, too, the international community was powerless in the face of the slaughter, and the most vulnerable citizens in Fallujah were also its victims.

It was morally indefensible to subordinate our own ongoing and illegal mass killing in Fallujah to reports of lesser crimes by a foreign government for which we are not democratically or morally responsible. Instead of holding foreign secretary Jack Straw to account for his crimes against humanity in Iraq, he was respectfully invited by the BBC to comment on Sudanese crimes in Darfur. This was grotesque in the extreme.

Next Thursday, December 2, the peace group A Call For Light is organising a peaceful vigil to protest BBC reporting outside the BBC, Bush House, Aldwych, London, between 5:30pm and 7:00pm. See our next Media Alert for more details and comment.


SUGGESTED ACTION

The goal of Media Lens is to promote rationality, compassion and respect for others. In writing letters to journalists, we strongly urge readers to maintain a polite, non-aggressive and non-abusive tone.

Please attend the December 2 vigil outside the BBC.

Write to Helen Boaden, director of BBC News
Email: [email protected]

Please also send all emails to us at Media Lens:
Email: [email protected]

 

[bigfish]

Counting cost of crime and chaos
6,635 bodies in Baghdad mortuary

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,7374-1376189,00.html


Aid finally reaches Fallujah civilians
A spokesman said that the organisation fears that more than 6,000 people may have died in the U.S. Offensive and that thousands of families are in bad need of assistance.

http://www.aljazeera.com/cgi-bin/news_service/middle_east_full_story.asp?service_id=5853

Note: I count 12,635 relatively fresh Iraqi corpses just in these 2 reports alone. So is Jack von Straw lying to the British people? Does a one legged duck swim in a circle?


Juan Cole: 25,000 US Casualties in Iraq
9% of Troops Put in Hospital or Killed

http://www.juancole.com/2004/11/25000-us-casualties-in-iraq-9-of.html

The Mysterious Murders of the ASM Clerics
Is it a coincidence that US puppet Allawi is calling for the death penalty to be administered to the Association of Muslim Scholars (AMS) Sunni clerics who oppose elections, while, at the same time two of these clerics have been gunned down by unknown forces?

http://www.counterpunch.com/jacobs11272004.html

Abu Hanifa and its terrorists
What gives violence legitimacy? Last Friday, in Baghdad, Iraqis attending mosque were interrupted by a US-led military assault. Several accounts of the event circulated in the hours following. Among them I would like to briefly compare two: one by an independent journalist and a second by a major newspaper the New York Times.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article7380.htm