*IRAQ: latest news and developments

[laptop]

Bush slaps down top general after he calls for troops to be pulled out of Iraq

The top American commander in Iraq has been privately rebuked by the Bush administration for openly discussing plans to reduce troop levels there next year, The Sunday Telegraph has learned.
...
[US commanders'] "best scenario" target is to reduce numbers to 60,000-70,000 by next autumn if Iraqi forces start to make progress against the insurgents. The fall-back option would be Gen Casey's minimum 30,000 reduction by the summer.

There is also a rarely-mentioned "Plan C" - complete withdrawal if all-out civil war erupts between the Shias and Sunnis, both of whom are engaged in a last-ditch battle for political territory in the current negotiations.

link

As it ever was: politicos tell general off for thinking the bleeding obvious.

Would like to know more about sources for "Plan C", though...

 

[Barking_Mad]

I notice this piece was on the BBC web site, yet the BBC failed to mention how many bodies had been found and instead just said it was a mass grave.

Iraqi forces find 30 bodies in mass grave

Hilla, Iraq - The bodies of 30 people, including two women, were discovered in a mass grave south of Baghdad on Sunday, and police have made several arrests in connection with the grisly find, security sources said.

"A grave containing 30 mutilated bodies, of which two were women, was discovered at Awerij," about 20 kilometres south of the Iraqi capital, said police lieutenant Muthanna al-Shumari. Shumari said the grave, located in Babylon province whose capital is Hilla, dated back around around six months.

Civilians killed in suicide attack south of Baghdad

BAGHDAD, Aug 15 (KUNA) -- A suicide attack killed two Iraqi civilians and wounded five others yesterday south of Baghdad, an Iraqi police source said in a press statement on Monday. The suicide bomber detonated an explosive belt near the municipal council of Al-Mahawil town in the Babil province, the source added. The source who preferred anonymity, said the attack killed two Iraqis and left five others with various wounds who were taken to hospital for treatment.

Rallies in Kurdistan demand self-determination right

Thousands of Kurds staged peaceful rallies in three cities in northern Iraq Sunday demanding their rights to be confirmed in the constitution, including the right of self-determination.

Two policemen found dead in Samarra

Two policemen were found shot dead in Samarra, 100 km (62 miles) north of Baghdad, police said.

Reuters: Border patrol officer killed

Gunmen killed one border patrol officer and wounded three others in the small town of Imam Wes, 70 km (43 miles) east of Baquba, close to the Iranian frontier.

Reuters: Police officer killed in Kirkuk

A police officer was killed and three wounded when their patrol was attacked in the disputed northern oil capital of Kirkuk, police sources said.

 

[Barking_Mad]

Duplicate article removed. Cheers Jeff!

 

[jeff_leigh]

15 killed after attacked U.S. patrol returns fire

you've already posted this once barking #4585 and # 4593 are the same

 

[Barking_Mad]

Minimum number of Iraqis killed this month 302

 

[oi2002]

Time on Iran in Iraq.

... A TIME investigation, based on documents smuggled out of Iran and dozens of interviews with U.S., British and Iraqi intelligence officials, as well as an Iranian agent, armed dissidents and Iraqi militia and political allies, reveals an Iranian plan for gaining influence in Iraq that began before the U.S. invaded. In their scope and ambition, Iran's activities rival those of the U.S. and its allies, especially in the south. There is a gnawing worry within some intelligence circles that the failure to counter Iranian influence may come back to haunt the U.S. and its allies, if Shi'ite factions with heavy Iranian backing eventually come to power and provoke the Sunnis to revolt. Says a British military intelligence officer, about the relative inattention paid to Iranian meddling: "It's as though we are sleepwalking."

Pat Lang comments:

Until recently it has been the "received wisdom" of the US Government that Iraqi Shia are Iraqis first and always, and Shia in the same way that Americans are Presbyterians or Baptists. In other words, the US establishment, taking its clue from the US Government has maintained that Iraqi Shia would never let themselves be dominated by Iran because the Iranians are Persians and the Iraqi Shia are Arabs and never the two shall identify with each other. It has also been maintained that Iraqi Shia (and Sunnis) are so universally secular that they would "never" accept a theocratic state in Iraq, and most especially one aligned with Tehran.

What a crock!! First of all, the idea that you would accept as true the unverified statements of a group about themselves, (any group) is ludicrous. People lie about such matters to outsiders with great dependability. They are especially prone to lying about themselves when they perceive that they are talking to the gullible (us). Secondly, anyone who knows anything about the pre-war Shia population of Iraq knows that they were deeply divided between those who were secular and felt themselves primarily Iraqi (many of these were members of the Baath) and those who were always primarily Shia in loyalty and who resisted the influence of Iraqi nationalism. Many of these people went into exile in Iran and actually fought against Iraq in the Iran-Iraq War.

NOW. They're Back!!!

Why did the US propagate the patent untruth of Iraqi Shia independence of spirit? Ask the Jacobins. It suited their purposes. Now this tissue of delusion and falsehood is collapsing.

 

[jonH]

Seventeen Spanish soldiers serving with Nato forces have been killed in a helicopter crash in Afghanistan, Spanish military sources say.

 

[Barking_Mad]

Torture complaint challenges Iraq constitution

BAGHDAD, Aug 15 (Reuters) - Iraq's draft constitution will enshrine democracy, its framers and their U.S. sponsors say; but allegations on Monday of torture in prisons raised troubling questions over human rights in the new Iraq.

In a video released by a senior local government official, 20 men who said they were held as suspected insurgents by Interior Ministry forces displayed welts and bruises and alleged they were beaten and given electric shocks among other tortures.

Just as a 1990 charter imposed by ousted President Saddam Hussein promised equal rights and the rule of law, but did not stop genocidal killing and torture, so the value of the constitution that may be presented on Monday will lie in how far fine words translate into reality in an Iraq riven with sectarian and ethnic strife.

It was not possible to verify the allegations endorsed by Awf Rahoumi, a deputy governor of Diyala province, northeast of Baghdad, where sectarian tensions between once dominant Sunni Arabs and majority Shi'ite Muslims have been running high.

"They gave me electric shocks here," said one man, naked in the video, as he pointed to his genitals.

An Interior Ministry spokesman, asked about the video, said there had been no evidence of abuse in Iraqi prisons.

 

[Barking_Mad]

'It is all promises and lies'

A witness to revolts, revolutions and invasions, Talib Ashur, an 83-year-old Baghdad fruit seller, considers himself a good judge of historic events.

He remembers the drone of British warplanes during the suppression of Rashi Ali's uprising in 1941, the overthrow of Abdel-Karim Qasim in 1963 and Saddam Hussein's takeover in 1979.

The attempt to draft a new constitution, however, has not registered on Mr Ashur's scale of momentousness: "It will change nothing. I don't believe in politics anymore. It is all promises and lies."

Three American Humvees trundled past his stall on Karrada Dakhil street, followed by two police pick-ups with blaring sirens. Regardless of any new constitution, the insecurity and impoverishment will continue, said Mr Ashur. The former civil servant said his pension has not been paid for a year. He no longer has regular electricity or clean water and two brothers have been killed in the violence.

What difference to him will it make if a piece of paper is signed in Baghdad's green zone, a fortified complex a few miles away, which could have been a parallel universe, with its diplomats and politicians locked in textual wrangling?

 

[Barking_Mad]

Iraqi Sunnis Battle To Defend Shiites

BAGHDAD, Aug. 14 -- Rising up against insurgent leader Abu Musab Zarqawi, Iraqi Sunni Muslims in Ramadi fought with grenade launchers and automatic weapons Saturday to defend their Shiite neighbors against a bid to drive them from the western city, Sunni leaders and Shiite residents said. The fighting came as the U.S. military announced the deaths of six American soldiers.

Dozens of Sunni members of the Dulaimi tribe established cordons around Shiite homes, and Sunni men battled followers of Zarqawi, a Jordanian, for an hour Saturday morning. The clashes killed five of Zarqawi's guerrillas and two tribal fighters, residents and hospital workers said. Zarqawi loyalists pulled out of two contested neighborhoods in pickup trucks stripped of license plates, witnesses said.

The leaders of four of Iraq's Sunni tribes had rallied their fighters in response to warnings posted in mosques by followers of Zarqawi. The postings ordered Ramadi's roughly 3,000 Shiites to leave the city of more than 200,000 in the area called the Sunni Triangle. The order to leave within 48 hours came in retaliation for alleged expulsions by Shiite militias of Sunnis living in predominantly Shiite southern Iraq.

"We have had enough of his nonsense," said Sheik Ahmad Khanjar, leader of the Albu Ali clan, referring to Zarqawi. "We don't accept that a non-Iraqi should try to enforce his control over Iraqis, regardless of their sect -- whether Sunnis, Shiites, Arabs or Kurds.''

 

[Barking_Mad]

Two policemen killed, 26 civilians wounded in two attacks in Baghdad

Gunmen killed two Iraqi policemen and wounded two others while US forces wounded 26 bricklayers in Baghdad on Tuesday, police said.

"Armed men opened fire at about 4:30 a.m. (0030 GMT) at a civil defense center in Baghdad's eastern Sadr City, killing two policemen and wounding two others," an Interior ministry source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.

In a separate incident, the US forces fired at a group of bricklayers at about 5:30 a.m. (0130 GMT) in Alawi district in central Baghdad, wounding 26 of them, the source said.

The US troops told the Iraqi police that they had shot at " terrorists".

"But when our patrols reached the scene they discovered the wounded people were bricklayers who left home early looking for work," the source said.

 

[Barking_Mad]

Some photos of Sadr City http://electroniciraq.net/news/2100.shtml

Article about life in Iraq

Of the three million residents of Sadr City, a poor area of Baghdad, 72% have hepatitis A or E, because of polluted water. In Sadr City we saw trenches dug along the main streets for sewer system repair. According to leaders of Sadr City, this project does not include replacing the cracked and inadequate pipes along the side streets that connect to the people's homes, so raw sewage still leaks out onto the streets and seeps into the nearby cracked water pipes.

Even though there are more manufactured goods in the markets of Iraqi's cities, poverty is severe, with an estimated 40% unemployment, and increasing malnutrition. Flooding Iraqi markets with cheaper foreign goods and the take over of many of Iraq's businesses and oil production by US companies, continue to erode the economy.

Families in Fallujah are slowly starting to rebuild with little help from the US or Iraqi governments. Since the Nov. 2004 attacks, US forces still wage active warfare in many other cities and villages. US and Iraqi forces currently surround the city of Tellafar, west of Mosul and have used heavy bombs in attacks on the city of Haqlaniyah. Iraqi people live in daily fear of explosions and kidnappings by the violent resistance groups as well as the violent house raids, indiscriminate round-ups, abusive interrogations and imprisonment by US and Iraqi forces.

They are also worried about corruption in the new Iraqi government and the brutal violence of the newer Iraqi special police commandos, trained by the US and operating under the Ministry of Interior. Some call this "state terrorism." Iraqis tell us about family members being abducted from their homes, tortured and sometimes found dead by a roadside. Prisoner's families report paying thousands of dollars to prevent the prisoner from being tortured or forced to give confessions on TV of crimes they didn't commit. Many fear Iraq becoming a police state as bad, or worse than under Saddam.

 

[oi2002]

Intel Dump on Iran in Iraq, US basing and a comparison with the aftermath of WWII.

The result of course was a divided Germany and a permanent U.S. military presence in Western Europe. I want to think about this more, but I will make some observations:

1) The debate over Iran’s ideology and security aims will become increasingly salient, as it did at the beginning of the Cold War.

2) The U.S. will begin to cozy up to unappealing (i.e. ex-Baathist) groups to stem Shi’ite expansion. The problem is, unlike post-Nazi Germany, we are still fighting a Sunni insurgency.

3) The probability of a divided Iraq is not falling.

4) This is not improving the likelihood of U.S. troops leaving any time soon.

5) This has the makings of a classic security dilemma. Iran feels threatened by the American presence in Iraq, resulting in its own movement west, forcing the U.S. to make its position larger and more permanent.

Related Posts (on one page):

1. Exiting the American Sector of Baghdad…Entering the Iranian?
2. Disposable Bases Redux
3. Uzbekistan and the New American Basing Strategy

 

[Barking_Mad]

btw can anyone tell me how to save the thread? This is the only copy!

 

[Barking_Mad]

43 killed in 3 Baghdad car bombings

Three suicide car bombings in the center of Baghdad killed at least 43 people and injured 80 others Wednesday. The first two explosions went off within 10 minutes of each other at the crowded Nahda bus station, while the third appeared to be timed to maximize the terror factor. It exploded 15 minutes later along the road to the nearest hospital, just as the injured from the bus station were en route. The majority of victims appeared to be civilians, many of whom were trapped on buses, the BBC said. Iraqi police said 22 vehicles were damaged at the bus station, CNN reported. Meanwhile, a U.S. military statement said a U.S. soldier died Tuesday when a roadside bomb exploded near his patrol in southwestern Baghdad.

 

[pbman]

Matt laure gits slaped with reality, on his own tv show.

Mark Finkelstein over at Newsbusters reported this morning that Matt Lauer got a surprise answer from a soldier on a recent trip to Iraq. After asking about morale, a few soldiers told him that morale was good. Like any good morning TV show journalist, Lauer was skeptical:

LAUER: Don't get me wrong, I think you're probably telling the truth, but there might be a lot of people at home wondering how that might be possible with the conditions you're facing and with the insurgent attacks you're facing... What would you say to people who doubt that morale could be that high?

CAPTAIN SHERMAN POWELL: Well sir, I'd tell you, if I got my news from the newspapers I'd be pretty depressed as well.
Powell said that he knows the media have a hard time getting out in Iraq and seeing the improvements, but that he's "satisfied" and "proud" of the work the United States is doing in Iraq.

Don't you also love how Lauer says, "What would you say to people who doubt that morale could be that high?" when he means, "What would you say to Matt Lauer, who doubts that morale could be that high?"

http://media.nationalreview.com/073290.asp

 

[Johnny Canuck3]

Matt laure gits slaped with reality, on his own tv show.



http://media.nationalreview.com/073290.asp

lol

 

[Barking_Mad]

5,000 deserters might say otherwise.

 

[Barking_Mad]

Explosions rock Baghdad day after bombs kill 43

BAGHDAD - International pressure was mounting on Iraqi leaders on Thursday to wrap up a draft constitution for the war-torn country after a wave of car bombings in the capital killed 43 people.


Fresh violence rocked Baghdad on Thursday, with a US military convoy hit by a roadside bomb and Iraqi judge and his driver gunned down.

Iraqi officials reported some American casualties in the bomb blast although the US military had no immediate comment on the incident.

“Our troops have seen American soldiers evacuating some of their wounded colleagues from the humvee after it hit the bomb,” an interior ministry official said.

 

[Barking_Mad]

Car bomb explodes in central Fallujah

A car bomb exploded Wednesday in the center of this city killing three people, including two children, and wounding seven, hospital officials said.

 

[Barking_Mad]

4 US troops dead in Samarrah

http://www.focus-fen.net/index.php?catid=138&newsid=70485&ch=0&datte=2005-08-18

 

[Barking_Mad]

Sunni Muslim scholar assassinated

"Unidentified gunmen shot dead Sheikh Ali al Shamari soon after he left his house at 07:30 AM (local time) Wednesday," said the statement, noting that Al Shamari is the Imam (preacher) of the Janabi mosque in Khan Bani Saad area northeast of Baghdad

Multinational forces apologise for civilian casualties' incident

Multi-National Forces in Iraq apologised Thursday for the death of civilians in central Baghdad as US helicopters tracked and engaged the terrorists on August 16th. Iraqi Ministry of Interior sources reported that 26 Iraqis were sleeping over the roofs of buildings during the incident and were severely injured. Multi-National forces said in a statements, "Terrorists attacked a Task Force Baghdad patrol in central Baghdad during the early hours of Tuesday August 16th." The statement added, "This fight resulted in an undetermined number of civilian casualties." "The incident is under investigation. Multi-National Force-Iraq regrets any loss of life or injuries sustained by the civilians in the area," it said.

 

[Barking_Mad]

It's worth keeping an eye on the Afghanistan news page. 69 US deaths in Iraq this year so far. As opposed to 52 in the whole of last year. There has been a significant rise in the number of IED attacks against US troops in recent months and many more attacks on police etc...Also the helicopter that crashed with 17 Spanish troops on board is now said to have been shot down.

http://www.icasualties.org/oef/Default.aspx

 

[Barking_Mad]

Iraqi convicts bound for gallows

Officials hope the death penalty can deter crime
Iraq will carry out its first execution of convicts since the fall of Saddam Hussein within a few days, Prime Minister Ibrahim Jaafari has said.
Three men convicted of killing, kidnap and rape are set to be hanged in the southern city of Kut.

Rights group Amnesty International has called for Iraq's constitution, now being finalised, to ban executions.

"The draft constitution is totally silent on the... the death penalty," a spokesman told the BBC News website.

"Amnesty is strongly opposed to the death penalty and is alarmed at the news that executions could be imminent," Neil Durkin said.

Discussions over Iraq's new constitution resumed on Wednesday after a deadline of Monday passed without agreement.

Parliament has set a new deadline of 22 August for a deal.

 

[Johnny Canuck3]

Iraqi-Canadian businessman kidnapped, killed.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20050815/wl_canada_afp/canadairaqkidnap_050815231446

 

[Barking_Mad]

*sigh*

Death of Iraqi brothers sparks anti-U.S. rage

BAGHDAD, Aug 18 (Reuters) - An angry Iraqi crowd carried coffins through a Baghdad district on Thursday and threw rocks at American soldiers, accusing U.S. troops of killing three innocent middle-aged brothers, one of them in a wheelchair.

The U.S. military said they had killed three "terrorists".

"They call everybody terrorists but they just commit terrorist acts whenever they want," said Mohsen Thabit, a friend of the men whom neighbours found shot in the head at home after a raid by U.S. and Iraqi troops in the Amiriya district overnight.

The bodies of Khalil, Khalid and Jamal Hussein, filmed by a neighbour, lay sprawled in their home, that of the crippled Khalil lying in the bathroom next to his wheelchair.

U.S. spokesman Major Tim Keefe confirmed U.S.-led and Iraqi forces raided a house the neighbourhood around midnight.

"The purpose of the raid was to capture and detain a kidnapping cell. A firefight ensued, and three terrorists were killed and one wounded. Weapons and explosive materials were captured," he said by e-mail in reply to a question.

 

[Barking_Mad]

Some more info on the background behind the car bombs in Baghdad that killed 43 people the other day. More sectarian violence.

Government officials said that Wednesday's synchronized car bombings at a bus station and nearby hospital that killed up to 43 people in Baghdad were an attempt to target Shiites and stoke civil war between religious groups in the country.

"They targeted an area that has a population of people from southern Shiite provinces, and their message was that their government is unable to protect you from us," government spokesman Laith Kubba said. "They want a reaction against Sunnis to therefore deepen the sectarian crisis in the country."

Kubba said flyers had recently been handed out in some Baghdad neighborhoods threatening Shiites if they did not leave the city. At least one person, a Sunni Arab woman married to a Shiite, had been killed after the threats, he said.

And from the same link, another Fallujah attack

Insurgents threw a hand grenade at an Iraqi patrol in central Fallujah, wounding two troops, police 1st Lt. Jassim Ouwaid said. The attack came one day after a car bombing killed three people in the city that was once an insurgent stronghold before a U.S. offensive retook the city in November of last year.

 

[Barking_Mad]

Iraqi judge killed

unkown gunmen killed and Iraqi judge and his driver in the Dora area in southern Baghdad today.

Iraqi police sources said the gunmen killed justice Jassem Duwaih, a judge in the court of appeal in the Karkh area, and his driver while they were leaving the judge's house.

The gunmen sprayed the car and killed both men immediately.

 

[Barking_Mad]

Iraq PM won't sign death warrants

IRAQI President Jalal Talabani, a vocal opponent of capital punishment, has refused to sign the first death warrants issued since the ousting of former dictator Saddam Hussein more than two years ago.

"Talabani delegated Vice-President Adel Abdel Mehdi to sign a decree... which approves the execution of three convicts," his office said.
Prime Minister Ibrahim Jaafari had announced that Mr Talabani has signed the death warrants for three al-Qaeda linked men convicted of kidnapping and killing policemen and raping women.

The executions are due to take place in the next few days in Kut, 175 km south of Baghdad, Mr Jaafari said, although how they will be killed is not known.

During Saddam's regime common criminals used to be hanged, while disloyal soldiers faced a firing squad.

Mr Talabani said in May that he would not sign a death sentence against Saddam, whose trial on charges of crimes against humanity during his iron-fisted rule over Iraq, is expected to come up within the next two months.

Three members of the al-Qaeda-linked group Ansar al-Sunna were sentenced to death in May, a verdict later approved by the Supreme Council for Justice, the highest judicial authority in Iraq.

 

[Barking_Mad]

IMF slashes growth forecast for Iraq

Insurgents’ attacks on Iraq’s oil production will slash the country’s predicted economic growth by more than three-quarters this year, the International Monetary Fund said on Tuesday.


In its first assessment of the Iraqi economy since Iraq turned its back on the IMF 25 years ago, the fund also warned that the government must cut back its massive subsidies to petrol, diesel and kerosene to prevent its precarious budget situation worsening further.

The IMF said it was cutting its forecast for gross domestic product growth from 17 per cent this year to 4 per cent. Oil production was likely to reach only 2m barrels per day over the year, down from an original estimate of 2.4m barrels, “because of the continuing sabotage of oil installations and the resulting halting of oil exports from the north”.

Higher oil prices have helped to cushion the blow of lower output. But the IMF warned that the government was still likely to run short of money in the second half of this year as lower oil exports were compounded by a shortfall in fiscal revenues. The IMF predicted a fiscal shortfall of $1.4bn in 2005, which it said would largely have been eliminated if the government had cut subsidies on petroleum products as planned.