*IRAQ: latest news and developments

[Barking_Mad]

Iraq offers insurgents political role http://nsnlb.us.publicus.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050602/NEWS03/50602006/-1/news

BAGHDAD, Iraq – A senior Shiite cleric said Wednesday that Iraq’s government has opened indirect communications with factions in the Sunni Arab-dominated insurgency and is trying to persuade them to lay down their arms and return to Iraq’s political fold. Hummam Hammoudi, chairman of a committee named by the National Assembly to draw up Iraq’s constitution, also said Sunni leaders have been given until June 15 to select 13 representatives to join the panel’s work.

Experts have long maintained it will be difficult to defeat the insurgency with military means alone. They stress the need for Sunni Arab participation in the political system, adequate reconstruction funds and job creation as key to weakening support for the rebels. The Shiite-dominated government led by Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari has been reaching out to the Sunni minority, such as encouraging them to help draft the constitution, but it had not previously said it also was communicating with insurgent factions.

In an interview with The Associated Press, Hammoudi gave few details on the nature of the contacts, which were confirmed by the spokesman for the Iraqi government.

“Some informal and limited contacts have been established with parties that we label as ‘resistance,’ so they can contribute to the drafting of the constitution,” said Hammoudi, a senior member of Iraq’s largest Shiite political party.

He said there had been an exchange of messages. “The contacts are becoming more promising and they give us reason to continue them,” he added, without providing any details.

 

[Barking_Mad]

Not had chance to watch this yet - links on website are below the picture of the truck.

FALLUJAH VIDEO

This video has been recorded in Falluja in early Janury, 2005, when the city was reopened to civilians after the American attack of November 8th, 2004 (“Operation Al-Fajr”, i. e. “the dawn”).

It’s an important document since the city was closed to reporters at that moment. This video was handed over to the Italian weekly magazine Diario by the Studies Center of Human Rights and Democracy of Falluja. Diario issued a broad enquire on Falluja battle on May 27th, 2005.

“Falluja-The day After” shows the total devastation of the Iraqi town, the corpses of the victims, the mass graves, the exhumation of many corpses by local rescue teams in order to try to recognize some of the victims. The last corpse shown in this video belongs to a 14 year old girl.

The video lasts 18 minutes and 20 seconds.

 

[Barking_Mad]

Not Enough Troops To Hold Ground

U.S. Army officers in the deserts of northwest Iraq, near the Syrian border, say they don't have enough troops to hold the ground they take from insurgents in this transit point for weapons, money and foreign fighters. From October to the end of April, there were about 400 soldiers from the 25th Infantry Division patrolling the northwest region, which covers about 10,000 square miles.

"Resources are everything in combat ... there's no way 400 people can cover that much ground," said Maj. John Wilwerding, of the 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment, which is responsible for the northwest tract that includes Tal Afar.

"Because there weren't enough troops on the ground ... the (insurgency) was able to get a toehold," said Wilwerding, 37, of Chaska, Minn.

During the past two months, Army commanders, trying to pacify the area, have had to move in some 4,000 Iraqi soldiers; about 2,000 more are on the way. About 3,500 troops from the 3rd ACR took control of the area this month, but officers said they were still understaffed for the mission.

"There's simply not enough forces here," said a high-ranking U.S. Army officer with knowledge of the 3rd ACR. "There are not enough to do anything right; everybody's got their finger in a dike." The officer spoke on the condition of anonymity because of concern that he'd be reprimanded for questioning American military policy in Iraq.

The Army has no difficulty in launching large-scale operations to catch fighters, the officer said. "But when we're done, what comes next?"

 

[Barking_Mad]

Britain to hand over control of security in south Iraq

British troops in southern Iraq are expected to hand over control of security to local Iraqi defense and police forces within a year, British newspaper Financial Times quoted a senior British police officer as reporting on Thursday.

"I would expect that within the next six to nine months in certain areas under British military control, the day to day running of security will be handed over entirely to the Iraqis," said Paul Kernaghan, the British police force's spokesman on international affairs.

According to the report, Kernaghan was speaking fresh from an inspection of British police who are training Iraqi police and defense forces and acting as security advisers in southern Iraq. The Ministry of Defense is drafting a plan for the deployment of extra British troops to Afghanistan, with the suggestion that this will involve a reduction in the British troops in Iraq, the report said.

According to other security sources, the withdrawal is for a two-phase program of British demilitarization in the southern areaof Iraq, the report said. Under a first phase, which is expected to be under way in March,2006, British troops will withdraw to main army bases from frontaloperational duties, with the capacity to offer support to Iraqi police and defense forces if necessary. A second phase will involve a phased withdrawal of British troops from Iraq, although a final decision on this has yet to be taken, and will depend on what progress is made in stabilizing security

 

[Barking_Mad]

Oil workers in Basra are ready to fight privatisation

Faced with daily reports of car bombs and kidnappings, it's difficult to feel optimistic about Iraq. But last week in the south of the country I heard a very different story. A story of the movement that has formed to rebuild the country's economy and national pride, to create an Iraq with neither the tyranny of Saddam nor the pillage of military occupation. Last week Basra saw its first conference on the threat of privatisation, bringing together oil workers, academics and international civil-society groups. The event debated an issue about which Iraqis are passionate: the ownership and control of Iraq's oil reserves.

The conference was organised by the General Union of Oil Employees (GUOE), which was established in June 2004 and now has 23,000 members. Focused as much on the broader Iraqi public interest as on members' concerns, its first aim was to organise workers to repair oil facilities and bring them back into production during the chaos of the early months of occupation.

This effort by the workers required both courage - often in conflict either with coalition troops or remnants of the Ba'athist regime - and considerable ingenuity, putting back together a working oil industry with minimal resources.

 

[Barking_Mad]

Minimum number of Iraqis killed this year 3,515

Minimum number killed so far in June 66

 

[Barking_Mad]

Article on US Militay Bases. Not had chance to read it all but looks like an interesting read - http://www.motherjones.com/commentary/columns/2005/06/bases_bases_bases.html

 

[Barking_Mad]

US forces issue hi-tech ID cards for insurgent suspects

Suspected insurgents are being issued with hi-tech identity cards by US forces, Gulf News has learned. Tagging will allow intelligence to keep track of suspects after their release. The cards allow American intelligence services to keep track of people taken into custody even if they are released because they are found to have done nothing wrong.

Most militant suspects in north central Iraq are taken by US military intelligence to a prison in Tikrit, part of Saddam Hussain's personal palace complex and now a major military base. Once there, they are immediately put through a series of tests to record biometric data. Fingerprints are taken and iris scans carried out on both eyes. Four digital photographs are then taken of the individual's face from different angles.

Cutting-edge computer technology allows a three dimensional map of the suspect's head to be drawn up from this information. That way, even if external changes are made to a face, such as a beard, the computer will be able to recognise the person from unchanging facial dimensions. All suspects taken to the prison centre on Forward Operating Base Danger have a detailed medical examination. Any evidence collected at the time of their capture is also processed there, and specialist US Military Intelligence officers interrogate them.

Information collected in this process is stored on a central computerised database, accessible to US intelligence agencies across the globe.

Hundreds of Iraqis believed to be involved in the insurgency have been tagged in this way including one man thought to have beheaded a British hostage according to a Military Intelligence (MI) officer serving at the centre. He spoke to Gulf News on condition of anonymity.

Each card has a unique barcode, enabling US soldiers to instantly patch into that person's records. The MI officer said the cards were a key way of keeping track of suspects.

 

[Barking_Mad]

US troops using Iraqi children as human shields.......?

The part of this particular conversation that stands out in my mind the most is when he described the day to day routine of his actions in Iraq. He told me some things that I have not heard reported in the so-called "liberal media."

He described how they would often raid schools, even more than mosques, because that is where many of the insurgents would hide out. He also told me that the one thing he felt the worst about his actions in Iraq was that the U.S. soldiers would routinely round up the kids and use them as human shields. I asked him why they did that, and he replied that it was because the Muslims would not shoot their own children. He repeated that he did not feel good about doing that, but said that it was the only way for him to survive sometimes.

 

[Barking_Mad]

Soldier killed, 20 others injured as rocket hits Camp Liberty

CAMP LIBERTY, Iraq — One soldier was killed and at least 20 other people were wounded Tuesday after a rocket hit a plaza near the post exchange on Camp Liberty, according to military officials here.

The 120 mm rocket hit at about 6:30 p.m. and caused schrapnel injuries ranging from minor cuts and broken bones to abdominal wounds, according to officials with the 256th Brigade Combat Team, which occupies the piece of Camp Liberty called Tigerland in Baghdad.

 

[Barking_Mad]

BBC is running a blog and a more detailed update of events in Iraq today.... http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_depth/middle_east/2005/day_in_iraq/default.stm

Details emerge of an attempted escape and rioting at Abu Ghraib jail, west of Baghdad. A US military statement reported by AFP says a detainee tried to escape under the cover of a heavy sandstorm on Sunday night. Four guards and six prisoners were injured during clashes that followed.

A Sunni Muslim cleric, Salam Abdul Karim, is found dead in Basra, Reuters reports. It is the latest in a series of assassinations of religious figures that have stoked sectarian tensions.

Four car bombings within seven minutes kill six people, including at least three Iraqi soldiers, in northern Iraq, according to the Associated Press. The first bomb exploded in Hawija, about 40 miles south of Kirkuk, before three others exploded at army checkpoints in Bagara, Dibis and at the entrance to Hawija.

Senior Iraqi police officer Lt Col Ali Hamza Jomaa is in a critical state after gunmen opened fire on his car on his way to work in the Chaab district in northern Baghdad, AFP reports, quoting an interior ministry source.

 

[Barking_Mad]

Radical cleric says election legitimized U.S. occupation

NAJAF, Iraq (AP) -- A radical anti-American cleric says he will stay away from Iraqi politics as long as U.S. troops remain, and he condemned senior Shiite leaders and the government for embracing this year's elections that "legitimized the occupation."

In a rare interview with a Western news organization, Muqtada al-Sadr also criticized the desecration of the Quran by interrogators and guards at the U.S. prison camp in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, telling The Associated Press their actions were criminal.

"God willing, whenever the tyranny's blows increase in frequency, our own courage and strength increase, too," Muqtada told the AP late Sunday as he sat on a cushion in his home in this holy city south of Baghdad. "Islam has lost nothing from this crime."

Al-Sadr indirectly criticized Iraq's top Shiite cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, for promoting the process that led to the formation of the country's Shiite-led government. The Iranian-born Al-Sistani was the driving force behind Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari's government and the man whose endorsement of the electoral process led Shiites to vote in droves in Iraq's historic balloting on January 30.

Al-Sadr said al-Sistani's appeal presented voting as an act of "political resistance" against the U.S. presence in Iraq, but it in fact legitimized the occupation.

"In reality, the electoral process was designed to legitimize the occupation, rather than ridding the country of the occupation," al-Sadr said.

 

[Barking_Mad]

Newsweek's Baghdad bureau chief, departing after two years of war and American occupation, has a few final thoughts

Two years ago I went to Iraq as an unabashed believer in toppling Saddam Hussein. I knew his regime well from previous visits; WMDs or no, ridding the world of Saddam would surely be for the best, and America's good intentions would carry the day. What went wrong? A lot, but the biggest turning point was the Abu Ghraib scandal. Since April 2004 the liberation of Iraq has become a desperate exercise in damage control. The abuse of prisoners at Abu Ghraib alienated a broad swath of the Iraqi public. On top of that, it didn't work. There is no evidence that all the mistreatment and humiliation saved a single American life or led to the capture of any major terrorist, despite claims by the military that the prison produced "actionable intelligence."

The most shocking thing about Abu Ghraib was not the behavior of U.S. troops, but the incompetence of their leaders. Against the conduct of the Lynndie Englands and the Charles Graners, I'll gladly set the honesty and courage of Specialist Joseph Darby, the young MP who reported the abuse. A few soldiers will always do bad things. That's why you need competent officers, who know what the men and women under their command are capable of—and make sure it doesn't happen.

Living and working in Iraq, it's hard not to succumb to despair. At last count America has pumped at least $7 billion into reconstruction projects, with little to show for it but the hostility of ordinary Iraqis, who still have an 18 percent unemployment rate. Most of the cash goes to U.S. contractors who spend much of it on personal security. Basic services like electricity, water and sewers still aren't up to prewar levels. Electricity is especially vital in a country where summer temperatures commonly reach 125 degrees Fahrenheit. Yet only 15 percent of Iraqis have reliable electrical service. In the capital, where it counts most, it's only 4 percent.

The most powerful army in human history can't even protect a two-mile stretch of road. The Airport Highway connects both the international airport and Baghdad's main American military base, Camp Victory, to the city center. At night U.S. troops secure the road for the use of dignitaries; they close it to traffic and shoot at any unauthorized vehicles. More troops and more helicopters could help make the whole country safer. Instead the Pentagon has been drawing down the number of helicopters. And America never deployed nearly enough soldiers. They couldn't stop the orgy of looting that followed Saddam's fall. Now their primary mission is self-defense at any cost—which only deepens Iraqis' resentment.

The four-square-mile Green Zone, the one place in Baghdad where foreigners are reasonably safe, could be a showcase of American values and abilities. Instead the American enclave is a trash-strewn wasteland of Mad Max-style fortifications. The traffic lights don't work because no one has bothered to fix them. The garbage rarely gets collected. Some of the worst ambassadors in U.S. history are the GIs at the Green Zone's checkpoints. They've repeatedly punched Iraqi ministers, accidentally shot at visiting dignitaries and behave (even on good days) with all the courtesy of nightclub bouncers—to Americans and Iraqis alike. Not that U.S. soldiers in Iraq have much to smile about. They're overworked, much ignored on the home front and widely despised in Iraq, with little to look forward to but the distant end of their tours—and in most cases, another tour soon to follow. Many are reservists who, when they get home, often face the wreckage of careers and family.

 

[Barking_Mad]

Minimum number of Iraqis dead today (7th June) 27
Minimum number of Iraqis dead in May 843
Minimum number of Iraqis dead in June 118
Minimum number of Iraqis dead this year 3,579

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Reported attacks today in Iraq

In the latest series of assassinations of religious figures, Sunni Muslim Salam Abdul-Karim was taken from his home (in Basra) by men wearing police uniforms. His body was found the following day.

"A correspondent for pan-Arab al-Arabiya TV channel reports that US soldiers have shot dead two Iraqi teachers in the Tamin district of Ramadi. The correspondent says the two Iraqis were caught up in a raid against insurgents that the US troops were conducting. "

"Four Iraqi soldiers are killed in an ambush and a roadside bombing north of Baghdad, AFP reports quoting Iraqi police and the army officials. Two bullet-riddled bodies were found on the banks of a nearby river, the report also says."

"A suicide bomb attack was also reported near a police patrol in the Shula district of northern Baghdad. At least 27 people were reported hurt, but no-one is thought to have been killed. "

"At least 18 people have been killed in a series of bomb blasts around a town in northern Iraq, police say. Four devices exploded within minutes of each other, three of them suicide bombs near army checkpoints in and around the troubled town of Hawija, near Tikrit. At least 39 people were reported wounded in the blasts."

 

[bigfish]

BBC is running a blog and a more detailed update of events in Iraq today.... http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_depth/middle_east/2005/day_in_iraq/default.stm

From dawn to dusk Baghdad time, we are reporting the news in greater detail than usual and talking to Iraqis from all walks of life about their everyday experiences and the impact of the violence that surrounds them.
We are looking at what the Iraqi media and bloggers are saying and at what our readers in Iraq and elsewhere make of the situation there, and responding to your e-mails, comments and question

Just listen to these lying scummers. "We are reporting the news in greater detail than usual." Well that wont be hard for them will it, bearing in mind that all of their worthless reporting is stripped of any content and meaning in the first place. Is Caroline Snorely going to climb out from under her hotel bed in the green zone and actually go outside and report?

"Talking to Iraqi's from all walks of life" will no doubt translate into a majority of professional middle class Iraqi's who benefit from and support the American presence, with a couple of ordinary poor people thrown in for "balance".

THE BBC ARE FUCKING LYING SCUM!

 

[Binkie]

Bigfish, what, apart from Barking's excellent work here, is a good source of info. about the war and politics in Iraq? Is there a Left in Iraq? If there is I havent heard a peep out of them.

 

[Raisin D'etre]

Is Caroline Snorely going to climb out from under her hotel bed in the green zone and actually go outside and report?

Not unless the beeb do a trendy line in hijab armour or the bar runs out of vodka. Whichever comes first

 

[Barking_Mad]

Early stages. Dont have the full report on this..........http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/in_depth/middle_east/2005/day_in_iraq/default.stm

A Sunni politician says that two insurgent groups are ready to start talks with the Iraqi government on disarming and joining the political process, AP reports. Ayham al-Samarie, a former electricity minister, said the Islamic Army in Iraq and the Mujahideen Army represented more than half of the insurgency.

 

[Barking_Mad]

Turkey seeks U.S. help to curb Kurdish attacks

WASHINGTON, June 7 (Reuters) - Turkish Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul on Tuesday urged U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to do more to stop Kurdish militants he said were crossing the border with Iraq to carry out attacks in Turkey. Gul raised the issue in a meeting with Rice one day before Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan meets U.S. President George W. Bush. Speaking to Turkish reporters after his meeting with Rice, Gul said terrorism in Turkey was a matter that needed to be urgently addressed.

"There is leakage from Iraq, and a noticeable increase in attacks on our troops by PKK terrorists utilizing remote controlled bombs and mines. We cannot ignore this, and I expressed that the U.S. needs to be more decisive in this struggle," said Gul.

The Turkish military said last month that guerrillas of the separatist Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) were stepping up attacks in Turkey after a large number of them were detected smuggling in explosives from northern Iraq, where the PKK is based. More than 30,000 people, mainly Kurds, have been killed since 1984 when the PKK launched its armed campaign for an independent homeland in southeastern Turkey. Erdogan was expected to repeat Turkish calls to Bush for U.S. forces to crack down on Turkish Kurdish rebels in northern Iraq and to try to improve battered relations with the United States. Ankara angered Washington by refusing to back its war in neighboring Iraq.

 

[Barking_Mad]

Pirates raid tanker at Iraq's Basra oil terminal

LONDON, June 8 (Reuters) - Pirates armed with AK-47 assault rifles attacked the crew of a large oil tanker waiting to load crude at Iraq's Basra oil terminal before making off with cash, an ocean crime watchdog said on Wednesday. The raid happened at night on May 31 some 10 nautical miles from Iraq's deep water oil terminal where most of its crude oil is exported.

"They tried to enter the bridge claiming to be policemen. The master denied them entry and the pirates became violent...they assaulted the master causing him injuries and demanded money," the IMB said in a report.

A coalition warship arrived to assist following a mayday signal. Jayant Abhyankar, deputy director of the IMB, told Reuters the incident raised questions about security at the oil terminal, Iraq's main outlet for the oil exports which provide nearly all of its income.

Security was stepped up last year at the southern Basra oil terminal after al Qaeda's al-Zarqawi group carried out suicide boat attacks at the terminal. In late April 2005 security was also increased at the Iraqi port of Umm Qasr after an armed gang raided a vessel carrying Australian wheat. The ship was at anchor some distance from the port when the incident occurred.

Iraqi officials killed

Two government employees were killed in a Baghdad drive-by shooting on Wednesday while an Iraqi translator working for the US military was slain north of the capital.

 

[Barking_Mad]

Attacks from June 7th

A car bomb detonated near a row of civilian cars queued outside a gas station in Baquba, north of Baghdad on Wednesday, killing three people and wounding another, police said.

Near the former rebel stronghold of Fallujah, west of Baghdad, three civilians died and 13 were wounded in a mortar attack on a military base.

One policeman died in a drive-by shooting in the (Mosul) city's industrial district and another in a mortar attack on his station in Tun Kubri, to the south.

"Nine people were killed in the northern city of Mosul, including four peshmerga militiamen reportedly shot dead by police after they were mistaken for insurgents and three students killed when unknown gunmen burst into their apartment.

An Iraqi Foreign Ministry employee is killed when armed men attacked his car south of Baghdad, al-Arabiya TV reports.

A policeman was shot dead in the southern Aamel neighborhood.The body of a policeman bearing gunshot wounds was also discovered near the infamous Abu Ghraib prison west of Baghdad.

Police in Baghdad said a Foreign Ministry official and an Iraqi commando were killed in separate drive-by shootings while a third shooting left an Iraqi police official critically wounded.

In the latest series of assassinations of religious figures, Sunni Muslim Salam Abdul-Karim was taken from his home by men wearing police uniforms. His body was found the following day.

A correspondent for pan-Arab al-Arabiya TV channel reports that US soldiers have shot dead two Iraqi teachers in the Tamin district of Ramadi. The correspondent says the two Iraqis were caught up in a raid against insurgents that the US troops were conducting.

Four Iraqi soldiers are killed in an ambush and a roadside bombing north of Baghdad, AFP reports quoting Iraqi police and the army officials. Two bullet-riddled bodies were found on the banks of a nearby river, the report also says.

A suicide bomb attack was also reported near a police patrol in the Shula district of northern Baghdad. At least 27 people were reported hurt, but no-one is thought to have been killed.

At least 18 people have been killed in a series of bomb blasts around a town in northern Iraq, police say. Four devices exploded within minutes of each other, three of them suicide bombs near army checkpoints in and around the troubled town of Hawija, near Tikrit. At least 39 people were reported wounded in the blasts.

---------

Mimimum number of Iraqis killed yesterday 49
Minimum number of Iraqis killed this month 140

Minimum number of Iraqis dead this year 3,601

---------

 

[bigfish]

Bigfish, what, apart from Barking's excellent work here, is a good source of info. about the war and politics in Iraq?

I've found that Information Clearing House offers a wide selection of analysis on the political and military situation in Iraq, including statements from the resistance. For a Marxist analysis, then I find the work of the WSWS to be first rate. The last place to look is the BBC, which is completely polluted by spineless, wonga trousering scum who try and palm off filthy lies and stinking propaganda as good coin.

Is there a Left in Iraq? If there is I havent heard a peep out of them.

Yes, there are progressive forces and reactionary forces in every society. I guess the reason you "haven't heard a peep" is because you are listening to the wrong channels.

 

[bigfish]

Not unless the beeb do a trendy line in hijab armour or the bar runs out of vodka. Whichever comes first

Sounds like it could be a job for the White City wardrobe department.

 

[Barking_Mad]

Reports of today's attacks in Iraq -

Here

"Gunmen also killed Mustafa Ashraf, a translator at an American base."

In Mosul, police Col. Nashwan Hadi was killed in a drive-by-shooting near his home. The attackers then fired a rocket at his house, injuring five people - including two children. Another officer was shot and killed in eastern Mosul.

One police officer was killed and six injured in clashes between Iraqi police and gunmen in northwest Baghdad after gunmen attacked a police car.

In Habaniyah, 50 miles (80 kilometers) west of Baghdad, insurgents attacked a supply convoy carrying supplies to an American base, and local reporters said they saw at least seven bodies, all of which appeared to be Iraqi men in their 20s and 30s.

Here

"Meanwhile, gunmen in the Dora neighborhood of Baghdad killed Iraqi National Assembly member Fereydoun Abdul Qader and two of his security guards on Wednesday."

"A car bomb detonated near a row of civilian cars queued outside a gas station in Baquba, north of Baghdad on Wednesday, killing three people and wounding another, police said. "

 

[Barking_Mad]

IRAQ: Growing frustration among returnees

BASRA, 7 June (IRIN) - The initial euphoria of returning to their homeland has turned into frustration for many Iraqi refugees who are still struggling to eek out a living in the midst of deteriorating social conditions.

"We left Iraq because of the injustice of Saddam [Hussein] and we came back to find ourselves homeless. My sons are jobless and we don't have money to buy a house, so we decided to live in the old naval academy," 60-year-old Um Hassan told IRIN.

The naval academy compound, situated on the outskirts of the southern city of Basra, shelters more than 250 families, most of whom have returned from neighbouring Iran since May 2003. The compound is considered to be relatively comfortable when compared with living conditions in other abandoned government buildings, many of which are being used to house scores of returnees. Thirty-five-year-old Basri Hannon, who originally fled to Iran in 1992, says he expected to find at least a job to support his family when he returned to Iraq. Now he's not sure he did the right thing when he came home.

"I wish to return to Iran because at least there I had a job and means to support my family," Hannon said.

 

[Barking_Mad]

22 Iraqi soldiers kidnapped near Syria

Twenty-two Iraqi soldiers were kidnapped near the Syrian border, an Iraqi military source said, as four US soldiers were killed in less than 24 hours in attacks north of the capital. With no let-up in strikes against Iraq's fledgling security forces, senior Shiite leader Abdul Aziz al-Hakim demanded Wednesday that the armed wing of his party play a greater role in hunting down insurgents, who have also singled out the country's majority Shiite community for attacks.

The soldiers, all Shiites, were nabbed by armed men in Rawa, about 250 kilometres (160 miles) west of Baghdad, after they had left their base, said the military source, adding that nothing had been heard from them since. The defence and interior ministries could not confirm the report. Rawa is in the predominantly Sunni Arab Al-Anbar province that has seen several incidents of kidnapping and mass killing of Iraqi soldiers in the past.

In March the bullet-riddled bodies of at least 30 members of the security forces were found on the banks of the Euphrates near Qaim, another border town in the restive province. Both US and Iraqi officials have accused Syria of not doing enough to stem the flow of fighters through its border with Iraq. At another flashpoint on the Iraq-Syrian frontier, a joint Iraqi-US force pressed on with an offensive against insurgents in the northern town of Tal Afar. Four bombers were killed when their explosives-laden vehicle detonated prematurely in Tal Afar, said Captain Ahmed Amjad of the Iraqi police.

 

[Barking_Mad]

Fallujah Video - not managed to watch it all yet so cant comment on what its like, but this video was taken inside Fallujah. Apparently there's a fair few dead people, so be warned in advance...Click under the small picture of the trucks for the streaming....

http://www.diario.it/?page=wl05060100#english

 

[Barking_Mad]

Military Investigates U.S. Guards in Iraq

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Sixteen private American security guards are under investigation for shooting at U.S. Marines and Iraqi civilians during a three-hour spree west of Baghdad, the military said Thursday. The Marines said the 16 Americans and three Iraqi contractors were arrested and held in a military jail for three days after spraying small arms fire at Iraqi civilians and U.S. forces from their cars in Fallujah late last month. There were no casualties.

Many Iraqis resent high-profile security details who speed along highways in sports utility vehicles bristling with automatic weapons. Senior government officials, who are prime targets of militants wreaking havoc across Iraq, use private security firms for their own protection. No charges have been filed yet following the May 28 shootings.

Marines spokesman Lt. Col. Dave Lapan said Marines reported seeing gunmen in several late-model trucks fire "near civilian cars" and on military positions. "Three hours later, another Marine observation post was fired on by gunmen from vehicles matching the description of those involved in the earlier attack," Lapan said.

U.S. forces later detained the contractors without incident and held them in a military jail for three days. The American contractors are thought to have left Iraq, the military said. A Naval Criminal Investigative Service inquiry is under way. Iraq's rampant insecurity has spawned a thriving private security industry comprising Iraqis and former military personnel from military forces around the world to protect foreign contractors working on reconstruction projects, journalists and senior government officials and diplomats.

Insurgents on Thursday ambushed a convoy carrying U.S. supplies near Khaldiyah, 75 miles west of Baghdad, police Sgt. Shakir Ibrahim said. Several trucks and sports utility vehicles were destroyed and there were an unspecified number of casualties, Ibrahim added. The attack was the second against a convoy transporting goods for American forces this week west of Baghdad.

 

[Barking_Mad]

Interesting read on one of the few articles on Basra.

Back in Basra

Basra, Iraq - It's been a little over a year since I was last in Basra, and at first glance little has changed. The buildings are just as dilapidated, livestock still periodically cross the rubble-strewn streets, and the once beautiful canals remain clotted with trash. The heat, too, is the same, although the summertime onslaught of humidity that afflicts this southern port city - situated about 40 kilometers from the Arabian Gulf - is still months away.

Beneath the surface, though, this is not the easy-going municipality of 1.5 million people I recall. For one thing, I can no longer wander the streets, take a cab, or dine in restaurants for fear of being spotted as a foreigner: Kidnapping, by criminal gangs or terrorists, remains a lucrative business. Instead, for safety's sake, I'm tied to my hotel, dependent on expensive drivers, unable to go anywhere without Iraqi escort. "You really shouldn't be here at all," a British-embassy official warned me.

After a week of cautiously exploring the city - usually with Layla, my friend, guide, and protector here in Basra - I noticed additional changes. For example, the plethora of religious imagery one used to find on the street has largely vanished. Gone are the glamorous posters of those Shia icons, Imams Ali and Hussain, and the broadsheets featuring fictitious renditions of Moqtada al-Sadr cradling his assassinated father. In their place are numerous billboards featuring the Iraqi flag, soldiers, and smiling children: advertisements for the new Iraqi state.

The reason for this apparent diminution of religious fervor is the mainstreaming of Shia political organizations. "After the elections, the Islamic parties seized control of Basra," Layla explains. "Now they want to appear more respectable." Indeed, all but six of the 41 seats on the province's Governing Council are filled by a cluster of Islamic groups, such as Dawa Islamiyya, the Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI), and the up-and-coming Fadillah party - affiliated with Moqtada al al-Sadr - which scored a coup when one of its members became the provincial governor.

Another change is the number of abiyas you see around town. As the religious parties flex their muscles, their various sheikhs and imams exert a steady, if unlegislated, pressure on women to cover themselves in hejab. Layla once wore Western-style clothing and a scarf; now she has to add a thin black tunic to appease Basra's guardians of female virtue. "If you don't abide by their wishes, they will harass you on the street - or worse," she complains.

"This has become an Iranian city," contends Salaam Wendy, a Basra native who recently returned to his hometown for the first time since he fled to Canada in 1986. "In the '70s and '80s, you used to find bars, nightclubs, casinos - and no women wore hejab. Today, you can't even find secular books or music CDs, the religious parties have such control of the city. This isn't the place I remember."

The shadow of religious fundamentalism falls across other areas, too. Take, for instance, Basra Province's "elected" council, the first such body in the long history of the region. I put "elected" in quotes in deference to the cynicism of numerous Iraqis, who claim that the religious parties fixed the balloting: One young man who acted as a poll-watcher on January 30 told me how he saw party members direct voters to cast their ballots for the United Iraqi Alliance slate of Islamic candidates. The result is that many members of the Governing Council are party hacks with zero concept of democracy. Recently, I attended a workshop organized by the Research Triangle Institute, an American NGO. Ostensibly an all-day seminar in democratic principles, the program instead stressed simple, almost childlike concepts such as "understand that you are useful," "be aware of your skills," "compromise," and - rather alarming, I thought - "be calm when you lose." Alexis de Tocqueville this wasn't.

 

[Barking_Mad]

Convoy 'attacked' - ' Foreigners dead'

Insurgents stopped nine trucks and three accompanying vehicles delivering supplies to the United States army west of Baghdad on Thursday, a police source said. Police spokesperson Ahmed Salih said gunmen attacked a convoy of trucks carrying foodstuffs and other supplies to American troops. Salih said the drivers, all foreigners, were taken to an unknown place and some of them were killed.

The incident took place near Malahma village north of the restive city of Khalidiyah, 80km west of Baghdad. US forces sealed off the region to search for the kidnapped and the attackers. There was no report available from the US military on the incident.