*IRAQ: latest news and developments

[Barking_Mad]

15 Iraqis executed near Falluja

Insurgents executed 15 Iraqis after ambushing their vehicle on a road north of Fallujah, police said Monday.

The gunmen ordered the passengers out of the vehicle and lined them up before shooting them in broad daylight on Sunday afternoon, police quoted witnesses as saying.

They did not specify if the victims were civilians or off-duty security personnel, but said they were believed to be from the neighbouring town of Saqlawiyah, in the Sunni triangle.

Pools of blood covered the scene of the attack on the desert road, next to empty cases of pistol and ak47 machine gun bullets, suggesting that the victims were shot from close range.

The road was blocked for nearly 10 hours until tribesmen from the neighbouring restive Sunni town of Ramadi evacuated the corpses, police added.

 

[Barking_Mad]

US boms al-Qaim killing at least 20

At least 20 people have been killed after heavy fighting erupted between US forces and armed men in al-Qaim city, 340km west of Baghdad, medical sources say.

Scores also were wounded in clashes in the town near the Iraq-Syria border, an eyewitness told Aljazeera.

Hassan Jasim, who spoke to Aljazeera from al-Qaim, said US forces made announcements through loudspeakers instructing people to leave the city because warplanes would launch heavy air strikes on the positions of the armed men.

Jasim, a resident of al-Qaim, said, "US troops have launched a savage attack against the city and a large number of people have been killed and injured."
"The bombing started half an hour ago," he added. He said water and electricity were cut because of the air strike.

 

[Barking_Mad]

Bodies of 12 Killed Men Found in Northern Iraq

The bodies of 12 killed men were found today in Northe Iraq in the outskirts of the town Samara, RIA Novosti reports citing representatives from the local police.

Three killed in car bomb blast in Mosul

Three Iraqis were killed and four injured when a booby-trapped car went off in the northern city of Mosul as a US army patrol was passing by...In another development, an Iraqi was injured when his car bumped against a US military vehicle in Mosul.

Rebels kill eight Iraqis

Eight Iraqis, including four policemen, were killed in separate rebel attacks. Two policemen were shot dead as their patrol came under fire in the Al-Khadra neighbourhood in Baghdad...

20 killed during Sunni/Al Qaeda clashes

Two Sunni Arab tribes, one loyal to al Qaeda and the other to the government, clashed in western Iraq, killing at least 20 people and wounding scores, clerics and hospital officials in the town said on Saturday.

The tribes fought months ago and violent confrontations erupted again on Friday and Saturday near Qaim, where U.S. Marines launched several offensives to root out insurgents from May to July.

Clerics in the town say members of the Karabilah tribe -- allied to al Qaeda -- attacked homes of the rival Albu-Mehel tribe -- many of whom are members of Iraq's new security forces in their province of Anbar.

Witnesses from the town said the tribes were involved in intense firefights and mortar attacks in the streets. The U.S military confirmed that two tribes were fighting but had no information on casualties.

Sheikh Nuri al-Rawi, the preacher of the town's main mosque, was wounded when gunmen shot him twice outside his mosque, his aide said.

Hospital officials say they have received 20 bodies in the past day but that the death toll is likely to be much higher as tribes often perform quick burials and the hospital is in the control of al Qaeda -- leaving Albu-Mehel to send their casualties elsewhere.

 

[Barking_Mad]

Fighting unseen enemy creates psychological pressure on troops

HIT, Iraq - The inability of U.S. forces to hold ground in Anbar province in western Iraq, and the cat and mouse chase that ensues, has put the Marines and soldiers there under intense physical and psychological pressure.

The sun raises temperatures to 115 degrees most days, insurgents stage ambushes daily then melt into the civilian population and American troops in Anbar find themselves in a house of mirrors in which they don't speak the language and can't tell friend from foe.

 

[Barking_Mad]

Iraq Heavy fighting is reported in western Iraq today http://www.kfor.com/Global/story.asp?S=3781595

Hospital officials in a city 200 miles west of Baghdad say at least 35 people have been killed in the latest battle between pro and anti-government tribes. Dozens more have been wounded. The pro-government and pro-rebel groups have been clashing near the Syrian border for the past few days.

U.S. Copter Under Fire in Iraq; GI Killed http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20050829/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq_american_killed_1

A U.S. Army helicopter made a forced landing Monday night under hostile fire in northern Iraq, and one soldier was killed and another injured, the U.S. military said.

Islamic party accuses government forces of killing 36 Sunnis http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/world/iraq/20050829-0510-iraq-killing.html

Tarek al-Hashimi, secretary-general of the Iraqi Islamic Party, said the Sunnis were abducted by squads in police uniforms from Baghdad's northern neighborhood of Hurriyah. Their bodies were discovered last week south of the capital.

Iraq police find 13 bodies in three western towns (update) http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L29526866.htm

Iraqi police said on Monday they had found 13 bodies in three western towns, but they had no details of who they were or how they had died. Police said the bodies were discovered in Falluja, Saqlawiya and Karma.

 

[Barking_Mad]

Hmmmm is this Saudi shifting the blame for its troubles, or is there grounds for thinking this might be another enlargement of the conflict?

Gun battle reported in Saudi city http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/9FF764D1-9FC5-44C7-913F-FFB200DAF8A8.htm

Saudi security forces have fought with armed men believed to be Iraqis in the industrial city of Jubail, east of the capital. An Interior Ministry spokesman later said four Iraqi car thieves had been arrested after the firefight.

"The Iraqis slipped into the country to try to steal cars and smuggle them out. Police officers arrested them after an exchange of gunfire," the spokesman said, adding one of the Iraqis was injured and taken to hospital.

The spokesman said such incidents were not infrequent but an investigation would attempt to determine if the clash was connected to a wave of al-Qaida violence that has swept the kingdom in the past two years. The world's top oil producer has been battling a wave of attacks over the past two years. Insurgents are attempting to overthrow the pro-Washington ruling royal family and drive Westerners out of the kingdom.

US air strike 'kills dozens' in Iraq town http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/E68CF4D7-7922-4929-BF9E-5D6D54E4A90F.htm

At least 47 people have been killed in two US-led air strikes in the western Iraqi town of al-Qaim near the Syrian border. An al-Qaim hospital official, Muhammad al-Ani, said 35 people died in one house and another 12 in a strike on a second house. Earlier, the US military said it had killed an al-Qaida fighter named Abu Islam and a number of other fighters in air strikes on Karabila, close to al-Qaim.

The US military gave no details of the total number of casualties. According to the US statement, four bombs were used to destroy a house occupied by "terrorists" outside Husayba. Two more bombs destroyed a second house in Husayba, occupied by Abu Islam, the statement added. "Islam and several other suspected terrorists were killed in that attack," the statement said, adding that the strikes began about 6.20am. The statement said intelligence reports indicated that several of Islam's associates fled from his house in Husayba for the nearby town of Karabila. "Around 8.30am, a strike was conducted on the house in Karabilah using two precision-guided bombs," the statement said. "Several terrorists were killed in the strike but exact numbers are not known."

 

[oi2002]

IPS is rather unimaginatively calling Iraq a quagmire and cites a long list of costs for the war. In America it's trailer park folk that overwhelmingly bear the costs of this war and not just in terms of kiled and maimed sons:

Just in Thurston County, Washington—site of the Fort Lewis military base—more
than 250 military families depend on the Women, Infants and Children (WIC)
nutrition program for food stamps.

Hurricane Katrina will test this assertion.

Security Costs Due to Loss of First Responders: Roughly 48,000 members of the National Guard and Reserve are currently serving in Iraq—making up nearly 35 percent of the total U.S. forces there. Their deployment puts a particularly heavy burden on their home communities because many are “first responders,” including police officers, firefighters, and emergency medical personnel. For example, 44 percent of the country’s police forces have lost officers to Iraq. In some states, the absence of so many Guard troops has raised concerns about the ability to handle fires and other natural disasters.

 

[Barking_Mad]

Field Health Clinic Bombed In Iraq

Doctors for Iraq has received reports from medical staff in Al Qaim hospital, western Iraq that a field clinic in Al Karablaa village situated on the borders of Al Qaim has been bombed. Two medical staff have been injured in the attack on the field clinic. Hospital staff and eyewitnesses report of many casualties from the military operation on Al Qaim city. Reports are coming in of at least fifty dead including some women and children.

Doctors For Iraq is trying to check and verify this information, which is proving difficult because the military attack is still ongoing. Doctors For Iraq is deeply concerned about the medical humanitarian situation in the area. Medical staff in Al Qaim report that the electricity supply to the hospital has been cut. Doctors are unable to move inside the area because of the ongoing military operation. The manager of Al Qaim general hospital has closed the hospital temporarily because of the unsafe conditions in the area. Doctors set up a filed clinic in the village of Al Kararblaa, which has been bombed.

Doctors are finding it difficult to reach the areas under attack. Medical personal have told Doctors for Iraq that they fear many casualties are trapped under debris and rubble in the area. Eyewitness say that a missile struck a house in Al Qaim reducing the house to rubble and at least three families are buried under the rubble of the destroyed house.

 

[oi2002]

Francis Fukuyama in the NYT hits the nail on the head:

So much attention has been paid to these false determinants of administration policy that a different political dynamic has been underappreciated. Within the Republican Party, the Bush administration got support for the Iraq war from the neoconservatives (who lack a political base of their own but who provide considerable intellectual firepower) and from what Walter Russell Mead calls "Jacksonian America" - American nationalists whose instincts lead them toward a pugnacious isolationism.

Happenstance then magnified this unlikely alliance. Failure to find weapons of mass destruction in Iraq and the inability to prove relevant connections between Saddam Hussein and Al Qaeda left the president, by the time of his second inaugural address, justifying the war exclusively in neoconservative terms: that is, as part of an idealistic policy of political transformation of the broader Middle East. The president's Jacksonian base, which provides the bulk of the troops serving and dying in Iraq, has no natural affinity for such a policy but would not abandon the commander in chief in the middle of a war, particularly if there is clear hope of success.
...
We do not know what outcome we will face in Iraq. We do know that four years after 9/11, our whole foreign policy seems destined to rise or fall on the outcome of a war only marginally related to the source of what befell us on that day. There was nothing inevitable about this. There is everything to be regretted about it.

This is the Wilsonian neocons war; the Jacksonian GOP mob is losing patience with them and there welfare programs for Camel Jockeys.

 

[oi2002]

From Pat Langs blog "Iraq, One Country, Many Wars" a MEP discussion PDF

Lang: But in fact the problem really with this place - Iraq - as in all the other states in
the region, except one, is in fact that these places are not nation states. You know, the assumption we
went into Iraq with was that Iraq was a nation state and that in fact Iraqis were one people and that
they would perceive their interests as being aligned in such a way that once they are released from
the tyrant's grasp in fact they would move forward into a bright new dawn. And this was just not
correct, in fact. It isn't true of any of these places out there.
...
The other thing you have to consider is to what extent is the Iraqi example typical of every other place
in the region. And Ambassador Freeman likes to quote my one inspired moment I think in which I said
that we have probably not invaded the real Iraq; we had invaded the Iraq of our dreams. But in fact, if
you look around at these other places, to what extent are we not doing the same thing there.

Eland: I think we lost the war a long time
ago and we just don't know it yet. But I think the president actually could get out of this by realizing
that Iraq is a fantasy and that he should encourage the groups to form a loose confederation or
maybe, even partition the country, and that's the best - there are a lot of problems with that, too, but I
think we're so far in the hole that that's about the only thing that can have a chance of achieving longterm
stability in that area. I think the real problem is that everybody wants to control the central
government in Iraq because traditionally the central government - whichever group controls it
oppresses the other groups. And of course, it's been the Sunni that controlled the government. But
now the Shi'a and the Kurds are trying to control it.

But I don't think any group is going to be able to achieve that and I think there's so many militia
running around and we haven't talked about those, but it's going to be impossible to get rid of those
because no one has confidence that the Americans are going to stay long enough to do this. What the
insurgents want to do is what the North Vietnamese and Viet Cong did is just outwait the stronger
party - and when there's talk of withdrawal in Washington, the Sunni guerillas are emboldened. And all
the other groups start saying, well, gee, I wonder what we do when the Americans pull out and the
popular opinion tanks, which is already has, what do we do? Well, we keep our militias.

Lang: But in fact, as you look at the
Islamic world as a whole or even the Arab world as a whole, the Sh'ia are in fact a really rather small
minority surrounded in fact by masses of Sunni Arabs, Pakistanis, Tajiks of one form or another,
everywhere, all over the places. And so, as was said, there's a great deal of concern in the Sunni Islamic world about the fact that if these people are going to rule Iraq in a place where they never
ruled before, and runs the risk of an unending series of tensions and possible wars which could
degenerate at any time into a really bad situation.
So if you think about it, an Iraqi Shi'a government will have no choice whether they wish to be
subordinated to the Iranians or not, of drifting in their direction, because for them, they're the only
show in town, the only real source of their external support. So I think that it's almost inevitable that if
you have an Iraqi Shi'a government, they will be pushed by external pressure and internal revolt more
and more in the direction of leaning on Iran.

On the stubborn Sunni rebellion:

Lang: Well, I think you know that the - I don't think it's actually possible to convince them that
they can't succeed in this way, because the evidence all runs in the other direction. If the greatest
power on Earth has not succeeded in subjugating them thus far, who are really ill-equipped, fairly
small, a bunch of people with not a lot of weaponry, there's no reason they shouldn't think as long as
they have some support in the Sunni Arab population that they can't go on forever. And it isn't
inconceivable that whatever government sits in Baghdad will not really control all the territory in the
country. I mean, I once lived in Yemen for a number of years and I know - some Yemeni is going to
attack me now - but in fact the government there in fact does not control the whole country and never
did when I was there anyway. There were large parts of the country that were effectively places the
government's writ didn't run unless they went in with a battalion of troops and some tanks and
something like that.
So you could very easily have a situation like that in which a large part of Iraq just remains with Ibn-
Khuldoon (ph) called the "land of insolence" - (in Arabic) - and in fact that could go on for a long period
of time. What I'm afraid of is that this situation will translate itself in other places as well, like Lebanon
and other places that we may, by our very well meaning efforts destabilize the situation and create an
analogous state of insurrection in the country as the various parts vie with each other.

 

[oi2002]

The Washington Institute has the next 12 months as tipping point period for Iraq.

 

[Barking_Mad]

UK troops killed in southern Iraq http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/4215472.stm

Two British soldiers have been killed in southern Iraq. Iraqi police said a British convoy had been hit by a roadside bomb near the al-Zubeir area, about 20km south of Basra, the AP news agency reported. The UK Ministry of Defence confirmed two soldiers had been killed in the Multinational Division South East area, which includes Basra. He said he could not confirm any further details but said the incident was being investigated.

 

[oi2002]

Insurgents Seize Key Town in Iraq

A sign newly posted at the entrance of Qaim declared, "Welcome to the Islamic Kingdom of Qaim." A statement posted in mosques described Qaim as an "Islamic kingdom liberated from the occupation."

Zarqawi's fighters were killing officials and civilians seen as government-allied or anti-Islamic, witnesses, residents and others said. On Sunday, the bullet-riddled body of a woman lay in a street of Qaim. A sign left on her corpse declared, "A prostitute who was punished."
...
Armed insurgent fighters loyal to the Jordanian-born Zarqawi openly traveled Qaim's streets. The fighters included both Iraqis and foreigners, including Afghans

The foreign-led fighters hung rooftops with Zarqawi's al-Qaeda banner of black backgrounds with a yellow sun.

Shops selling CDs, a movie theater and a women's beauty parlor were newly burned, apparently targeted by Zarqawi's group under its strict interpretation of Islamic law.

Residents said Zarqawi's fighters were killing most government workers, but had spared doctors and teachers.

This story is probably preparatory to Qaim getting the full Fallujah treatment.

 

[Barking_Mad]

Al-Sadr vows revenge on Sunnis over stampede deaths

THE maverick Shi’ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr has raised sectarian tension in Iraq by vowing vengeance against Sunnis he blames for the stampede that killed almost 1,000 pilgrims last week in Baghdad.
While more moderate clerics have avoided blaming Sunni insurgents for provoking the tragedy, al-Sadr claimed in a message from his mosque in al-Kufa, near Najaf, that civil war was already underway.

The interior ministry has said 953 Shi’ite worshippers died last Wednesday, trampled underfoot and drowned in the Tigris river after they tumbled from the narrow al-Aima bridge on their way towards the shrine of Moussa al- Kadhim, an 8th-century imam. An earlier exchange of mortar fire had made the crowd nervous, but pandemonium broke out when rumours spread that there were Sunni suicide bombers in their midst.

In a statement to newspapers al-Sadr identified “Ba’athists and Saddamists” and “fanatic sectarians” as likely culprits. “The number of dead is sufficient for us to prove that this incident was organised,” he said. “You should ask about the dirty hands who spilt all this blood.”

In a sermon later, the cleric promised further resistance to the American-led coalition, which he said had failed to prevent tensions between the Sunni minority and the Shi’ites from escalating.

“We condemn the view that the occupation’s existence is beneficial because if it ended there would be sectarian war — as if sectarian war has not already begun,” he said. It was al-Sadr’s first sermon in the mosque for more than a year, and appeared to hint that his uneasy truce with the coalition forces may be over. America and Britain are desperate to see Iraq’s political evolution continue, and hope the draft constitution can be approved in a referendum next month.

 

[Barking_Mad]

Insurgents Seize Key Town in IraqThis story is probably preparatory to Qaim getting the full Fallujah treatment.

I thought just the same when I read it.

 

[nino_savatte]

Insurgents Seize Key Town in IraqThis story is probably preparatory to Qaim getting the full Fallujah treatment.

I wondered when they would get around to this town.

 

[Barking_Mad]

Four Americans killed in southern Iraq

BAGHDAD - Four American security guards were killed Wednesday in a bomb attack targeting a US diplomatic convoy in the southern Iraqi town of Basra, the US embassy said.

Nine Iraqis, including four soldiers and a police colonel, were also killed and 19 others wounded in separate rebel attacks, most of them in the capital Baghdad, security sources said.

The four slain Americans worked for a private security firm "supporting the regional US embassy office in Basra", the embassy said in a statement.

Pictures taken by an AFP photographer at the scene showed a silver-coloured four-wheel drive vehicle on its roof with two bodies, wearing bullet-proof vests, lying nearby.

The incident occurred the day after two British soldiers were killed in a roadside bomb explosion on the outskirts of Basra, a dusty Shiite metropolis which is Iraq's second city.

In Baghdad, an Iraqi defence ministry official was shot dead and his driver wounded when gunmen ambushed their car, an interior ministry official said.

In southern Baghdad, three civilians were killed and three others wounded as a car bomb exploded on the main highway in Dura district, an interior ministry official said.

Also in southern Baghdad, police said they found the bullet-riddled bodies of three unidentified men whose hands were tied behind their backs.

Northeast of Baghdad, four Iraqi soldiers were killed and five others wounded when their checkpoint near Khalis, 80 kilometers (60 miles) from the capital, came under fire, a military source said.

A police colonel was killed and three police commandos wounded when gunmen aboard two cars opened fire on their patrol in the west of the capital.

Seven civilians were wounded when a car bomb exploded in central Baghdad, according to hospital staff. The blast appeared to target a US convoy, but there was no immediate word on whether any US soldiers had been hurt.

 

[Barking_Mad]

The south has seen many individual killings, generally unreported in the mainstream press, but has so far avoided many car bombs. In fact off the top of my head I dont remember any as serious as this. Given that the general strong opposition to the war in the UK, im surprised that there havent been more attacks on UK troops. Im not sure how long the UK public would put up with 20 dead troops a week for 3 months...

Car bomb rocks Basra

At least nine people have been killed when a car bomb exploded in the centre of southern Iraqi city of Basra, police and witnesses say.

The blast occurred at about 2100 local time (1700 GMT) outside a restaurant popular with members of Iraqi security forces, the AFP news agency says.

At least 10 other people were injured in the explosion.

Earlier on Wednesday, four US security agents were killed when a convoy was hit by a roadside bomb in Basra.

Their deaths were announced in a statement by the US embassy.

The mainly Shia city - Iraq's second largest - has been relatively calm compared to Sunni-populated regions further north.

edit - Other reports are now saying the number of dead is at least 15.

http://www.breakingnews.ie/2005/09/07/story219685.html

 

[Barking_Mad]

Fighting in West of Iraq

On Tuesday, U.S. jets struck targets near the Syrian border where al-Qaida has expanded its presence, and civilians fled fighting in the northern city of Tal Afar, complaining they were running short of food and water.

The airstrikes took place near Karabilah, about 185 miles west of Baghdad and one of a cluster of towns near the Syrian border used by foreign fighters to slip into Iraq.

In the first attack, Marine F/A-18 jets dropped bombs shortly after midnight on two light bridges across the Euphrates River that the U.S. command said insurgents used to move fighters and arms toward Baghdad and other cities.

Hours later, a Marine jet destroyed a building used by insurgents to fire on U.S. and Iraqi troops, a U.S. statement said. One Iraqi soldier was wounded when Marines and Iraqi soldiers stormed the building, killing two foreigners and arresting three others, it said.

Late Tuesday, Iraqi civilians reported a suicide bomber struck a checkpoint in Haditha, 60 miles east of Karabilah. There were no reports of casualties.

The airstrikes occurred about six miles east of the border city of Qaim, major parts of which have fallen under control of al-Qaida-linked foreign fighters.

Iraqi officials and residents say al-Qaida in Iraq, led by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, has taken over parts of Qaim after residents fled fighting between tribes supporting and opposing the insurgents.

The U.S. military maintains a presence in the area, but U.S. officers have complained privately that they don't have enough American and Iraqi troops to secure the area.

Elsewhere, thousands of civilians fled Tal Afar, a predominantly ethnic Turkomen city 260 miles northwest of Baghdad where U.S. and Iraqi soldiers are trying to wrest control from insurgents.

Plumes of smoke rose from the city, which sits along a major trade and smuggling route to Syria. Ambulances were seen carrying at least 10 wounded civilians toward nearby Mosul.

Some of those who fled sought refuge in the village of Taha, where local officials scrambled to provide for about 700 families. Some of them disputed claims by Iraqi officials that foreign fighters had joined local insurgents in the fighting inside Tal Afar.

"We did not see any strangers like Saudis, Syrians or others," said Hazem Mohammed Ali, deputy chairman of a Turkomen association in Tal Afar. "The people are suffering from lack of food stuff, drinkable water and blankets, because it is getting cold during the night here."

 

[oi2002]

Bill Lind on the MC snipers ambushed at the beginning of August:

...The previous day, 3/25 had lost six men, two sniper teams, under circumstances that were unclear. I recently received information on that incident that raises a very important question, a question with strategic, not merely tactical significance. I was told (not by anyone in 3/25) that the six Marines were ambushed and killed by the Iraqi troops they were attached to.

This always looked very fishy.

 

[Barking_Mad]

16 bodies found south of Baghdad

Iraqi police found the bodies of 16 more civilians south of Baghdad. All had been shot to death. Fourteen were found today near a farming town. Two more were found blindfolded and handcuffed near a sewage plant.

Iraqi lawyer killed in Tikrit

Police said one Iraqi lawyer was killed late on Wednesday after being abducted by people dressed in military uniforms and travelling in civilian cars, in Tikrit, 175 km (110 miles) north of Baghdad.

Two Iraqi soldiers killed

Two Iraqi soldiers guarding oil industry assets were killed and another nine wounded by a roadside bomb in al-Jazeera area, west of Tikrit, a police source said.

200 'Insurgents' arrested

U.S. and Iraqi forces have encircled the insurgent stronghold of Tal Afar, and Iraqi authorities on Thursday announced the arrest of 200 suspected insurgents there - most of them foreign fighters.

 

[sihhi]

16 bodies found south of Baghdad

Here is the report of UNAMI on Iraq over the summer:

It's not good news for anyone really:

https://www422.ssldomain.com/uniraq/documents/HR Report.new. Eng.doc

 

[Barking_Mad]

Three Bodies Found in Baghdad

Police found the bullet-riddled bodies of three men near a water purification plant in the Rustumiye section of southeastern Baghdad. Police said the bodies were dumped without identification.

3 Iraqis killed

A car bomb detonated Wednesday in southern Baghdad, killing three civilians and wounding another, an Interior Ministry source told Xinhua. The attack took place on the highway near Doura oil refinery in southern Baghdad.

Colonel killed and 4 bodyguargs wounded
In another attack in the capital, militants attacked an Interior Ministry commando patrol, killing a colonel and wounding four bodyguards. Along the Iranian border, rebels bombed an oil pipeline.

 

[Barking_Mad]

Number of US dead in August 85 Highest total in 5 months

 

[sihhi]

Iraq Projects are running out of money and in general fucking up:

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationw...tory?coll=la-iraq-complete&ctrack=1&cset=true

Although no overall figures are available, one contractor has stopped work on six of eight water treatment plants to which it was assigned.

"We have scaled back our projects in many areas," James Jeffrey, a senior advisor on Iraq for the State Department, told lawmakers at a hearing of the House Appropriations subcommittee on foreign operations. "We do not have the money."

More than two years after Congress approved funding for the rebuilding effort, electricity and oil production in Iraq are at or below prewar levels; and unemployment remains high. Less than half of the U.S. reconstruction money has been spent, but in some sectors, such as electricity and water, security costs have eaten up much of the budget.

 

[oi2002]

Pat Lang says They All Look Alike to the US millitary and that's the frickin problem in Tal Afar.

About 90 percent of the city's population — most of which fled to the countryside before the fighting began — is Sunni Turkmen, who have complained about their treatment from the Shiite-dominated government and police force put in place after the U.S. invasion in 2003.

...U.S. forces have stood back during the new sweep through Tal Afar, allowing Iraqi forces to break down doors in the search for insurgents." Yahoo News

All right... Now, how many of the 5000 Iraqi troops in this operation are Turkmen? How many do you suppose are former Kurdish Pesh Merga militia recruited from among the ancestral enemies of the Turkmen? How many are Shia Arabs who used to belong to SCIRI and Dawa Party militias?

Later he notes the WaPo confirmed his suspiscion:

For the second consecutive day, U.S. forces followed several hundred Iraqi soldiers, from a unit made up mostly of troops from the Kurdish pesh merga militia, into a section of Sarai, where most residents are Sunni Muslim Turkmens, ethnic relatives of Turks.
...
In Baghdad, Army Maj. Gen. Rick Lynch told reporters, "We will continue to work away so we have covered every inch of Sarai, and then every inch of Tall Afar, until we've killed all the terrorists and foreign fighters there."

Is the, in this case perhaps unwittingly, participating in ethnic cleansing? I'd add here the Turks were pissed off enough about their borders being destabilised by the US; if their Turkmen cousins are getting fucked by the Kurds the Turkish military won't sit still for it.

 

[oi2002]

Redstate.org after years praising Dubya for his visionary decision to invade Iraq has felt the urgent need to spread the blame:

Again, I have no problem with those who disagree in good faith with my views. Really, I don't. But when there are people out there who put out the serious and bizarre notion that the war in Iraq sprang out of the brows of "neocons" like Athena did from the brow of Zeus and when they don't get corrected on the basic history of the generation of the idea--a history that oftentimes reveals those critics to have been some of the greatest enthusiasts of getting rid of Saddam--then isn't it time to politely but firmly correct the record?

This is both true and as weasely as a box full of weasels.

 

[Barking_Mad]

Bombs, gunmen kill over 100 in Baghdad

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - A suicide bomber killed over 80 people in a crowded Shi'ite district of Baghdad on Wednesday, while gunmen killed 17 north of the city and the capital resounded with explosions and gunfire. The violence came as Iraqi troops, with U.S. support, continued operations against insurgents across the country. Fears of civil war are growing in the run-up to a divisive vote on a new constitution for Iraq's post-Saddam Hussein era.

The suicide bomber blew up an explosives-packed minibus in Kadhimiya, in Baghdad's old town, killing 82 and wounding 163, most of them laborers looking for day jobs, police said. An Interior Ministry source said the bomber lured the men toward his vehicle with promises of work before detonating the bomb, which contained up to 500 lbs of explosives.

It was one of the single deadliest car bombings Iraq has seen, and came days after around 1,000 people died in the same district in a stampede on a bridge, triggered by fears of a suicide bomber in a crowd during a Shi'ite religious ceremony.

"We gathered and suddenly a car blew up and turned the area into fire and dust and darkness," said Hadi, one of the workers who survived the attack, which happened shortly after sunrise.

Bodies lay in the street beside burned-out cars, witnesses said. Some used wooden carts to haul away the dead. Iraqi government officials have accused Sunni Arab militants of attacking majority Shi'ites, who were swept to power in January elections boycotted by most Sunnis, in a bid to spark a civil war. Around two hours later another blast was heard in central Baghdad, and two more car bombs exploded shortly afterwards.

 

[Barking_Mad]

Two Sunni Leaders Killed in Iraqi Basra

Two moderate Sunni leaders were killed in the Iraqi town of Basra on Monday, AFP announced. According to statements of eyewitnesses sheikh Hashim Kashali was killed while standing and sheikh Mahmoud Gazawi was wounded and later died in the hospital in Bakuba.

Iraqi farmer describes assault by seven British soldiers

An Iraqi farmer told a UK court martial yesterday how up to seven British soldiers had beaten him unconscious in an "angry, nervous" rage. Athar Finjan Saddam Abdullah was giving evidence against seven members of the Parachute Regiment.

Four Iraqis killed in Baghdad

Four Iraqis were killed when gunmen opened fire on them in Baghdad, police said.

 

[Barking_Mad]

U.S. forces strike insurgents in Iraq

U.S. forces along the Euphrates River attacked the insurgent stronghold of Haditha early Tuesday, capturing a militant with ties to al-Qaida in Iraq and killing four others, the military said.

Two suicide bombers stopped in Baghdad

A suicide car bomber blew himself up on Baghdad's western outskirts on Monday as he approached an Iraqi army checkpoint and a second bomber was arrested before he could detonate his vehicle. There were no civilian or military casualties.

Death toll raised to five in Monday night car bombing

A car bomb blew up outside a popular restaurant filled with diners killing five civilians and injuring 10 in Baghdad's upscale district of Mansour on Monday night, police and hospital officials said.