*IRAQ: latest news and developments

[Barking_Mad]

Oh dear.

Saddam trial lawyer taken hostage

Gunmen have kidnapped one of the lawyers involved in the trial of former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein. Sadoun Nasouaf al-Janavi was taken from his office in eastern Baghdad. He is acting for one of Saddam Hussein's co-defendants, Awad Hamed al-Bandar. One report said seven other people were seized at the same time.

In a defiant appearance at his trial on Wednesday, Saddam Hussein pleaded not guilty to charges over the killing of 148 people in a Shia town in 1982. Mr Janavi was one of 13 defence lawyers believed to have been present in the courtroom.

Identities and the faces of four of the five judges have been kept secret to ensure their safety. The names of the chief judge and the top prosecutor were the only ones revealed. Saddam Hussein refused to confirm his identity, telling the presiding judge: "Who are you? What is all this?"

All eight defendants pleaded not guilty to charges of ordering the killing of 148 Shia men in 1982. If convicted, they could face the death penalty. The trial was adjourned until 28 November.

 

[Barking_Mad]

US dead 1,988

I notice that the BBC still cant manage to get the total spot on.

At least 1,980 US troops have been killed in Iraq since the US-led invasion in March 2003.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/4359196.stm

 

[Barking_Mad]

GI's and Syrians in Tense Clashes on Iraqi Border

A series of clashes in the last year between American and Syrian troops, including a prolonged firefight this summer that killed several Syrians, has raised the prospect that cross-border military operations may become a dangerous new front in the Iraq war, according to current and former military and government officials.

The firefight, between Army Rangers and Syrian troops along the border with Iraq, was the most serious of the conflicts with President Bashar al-Assad's forces, according to American and Syrian officials. It illustrated the dangers facing American troops as Washington tries to apply more political and military pressure on a country that President Bush last week labeled one of the "allies of convenience" with Islamic extremists. He also named Iran.

One of Mr. Bush's most senior aides, who declined to be identified because of the sensitivity of the subject, said that so far American military forces in Iraq had moved right up to the border to cut off the entry of insurgents, but he insisted that they had refrained from going over it.

But other officials, who say they got their information in the field or by talking to Special Operations commanders, say that as American efforts to cut off the flow of fighters have intensified, the operations have spilled over the border - sometimes by accident, sometimes by design. Some current and former officials add that the United States military is considering plans to conduct special operations inside Syria, using small covert teams for cross-border intelligence gathering.

The broadening military effort along the border has intensified as the Iraqi constitutional referendum scheduled for Saturday approaches, and as frustration mounts in the Bush administration and among senior American commanders over their inability to prevent foreign radical Islamists from engaging in suicide bombings and other deadly terrorist acts inside Iraq. Increasingly, officials say, Syria is to the Iraq war what Cambodia was in the Vietnam War: a sanctuary for fighters, money and supplies to flow over the border and, ultimately, a place for a shadow struggle.

Covert military operations are among the most closely held of secrets, and planning for them is extremely delicate politically as well, so none of those who discussed the subject would allow themselves to be identified. They included military officers, civilian officials and people who are otherwise actively involved in military operations or have close ties to Special Operations forces.

 

[bigfish]

‘Mouse journalism’ is the only way we can report on Iraq — Fisk

http://www.pressgazette.co.uk/article/131005/mouse_journalism_is

By Matthew Lewin

The Independent's famously intrepid Middle East correspondent Robert Fisk has revealed that the situation in Iraq is now so dangerous that he doesn't know whether he can go on reporting from the country.

Fisk, who has previously accused colleagues of practising "hotel journalism" in Iraq, said that "mouse journalism" is now the best he can do in the country.

Fisk, whose new history of the Middle East, The Great War for Civilisation, has just been published, described mouse journalism as the practice of popping up at the scene of an event and staying just long enough to get the story, before the men with guns arrive.

Speaking at a bookshop in Golders Green, he said: "You cannot imagine just how bad things are in Iraq.

"A few weeks ago, I went to see a man whose son was killed by the Americans, and I was in his house for five minutes before armed men turned up in the street outside.

"He had to go and reason with them not to take me away. And this was an ordinary Baghdad suburb, not the Sunni Triangle or Fallujah.

"It has got to the stage where, for example, when I went to have a look at the scene of a huge bomb in a bus station, I jumped out of the car and took two pictures before I was surrounded by a crowd of enraged Iraqis.

"I jumped back in the car and fled. I call that ‘mouse journalism' — and that's all we can do now.

"If I go to see someone in any particular location, I give myself 12 minutes, because that is how long I reckon it takes a man with a mobile phone to summon gunmen to the scene in a car.

"So, after 10 minutes I am out. Don't be greedy. That's what reporting is like in Iraq."

He continued: "This country is nowhell — a disaster. You cannot imagine how bad it is. Nothing of the reporting I see generally, except The Guardian and Patrick Cockburn in The Independent, really conveys the absolute agony and distress of Iraq.

"The Ministry of Health, which is partly run by Americans, will not give out any figures for civilian casualties; staff are just not allowed to give us these figures.

"When I went to the city morgue in Baghdad one day nearly four weeks ago, I arrived at 9am and there were nineviolent death corpses there.

"By midday there were 26 corpses. When I managed to get access to the computer system of the mortuary, I discovered that in July 1,100 Iraqis had been killed in Baghdad alone.

"Multiply that across Iraq and you are talking about 3,000 a month or more, which means 36,000 a year.

"So these figures claiming 100,000 Iraqi civilian casualties are not necessarily conservative at all. But no-one wants to report on this.

"One of the delights of the occupying powers is that the journalists cannot move. When I travel outside Baghdad by road it takes me two weeks to plan it, because the roads are infested with insurgents, checkpoints, hooded men and throat-cutters. That's what it's like.

"It is almost impossible to get access to free information outside Baghdad or Basra. Most of the reporters who can travel are doing so as members of military convoys with armour to protect them.

"The last time I travelled to Najaf, the road was littered with burned-out American vehicles, smashed police vehicles, abandoned checkpoints and armed men. That's Iraq today — it's in a state of anarchy, and many areas of Baghdad are in fact now in insurgent hands."

He added: "This is a war the like of which I have never reported before.

Over and over again, we are escaping with our lives because we are lucky.

And it is getting much worse, not better — don't believe what Blair is telling you.

"It is very sad to have to say that I don't know if we can go on reporting in Iraq. I don't know if I can personally keep on going back.

"This last trip there was so dangerous and frightening, I actually said to some people that we were going to have to debate whether the risks are worth it all.

 

[Barking_Mad]

Spain orders arrest of US troops

A Spanish judge has issued an international arrest order for three US soldiers over the shelling of a Baghdad hotel that killed a cameraman. Judge Santiago Pedraz issued the warrant for Sgt Shawn Gibson, Capt Philip Wolford and Lt Col Philip de Camp, of the US 3rd Infantry Division. Jose Couso, of Spanish TV network Telecinco, died in April 2003 when a US tank fired on the Palestine Hotel. Reuters news agency cameraman Taras Protsyuk, a Ukrainian, was also killed.

The National Court agreed to consider filing criminal charges against three members of the tank crew two years ago, acting on a request from Mr Couso's family. Speaking on Wednesday, the judge said he had issued the arrest order because of a lack of judicial co-operation from the US in the case.

The family of Mr Couso said they were delighted at the news, and that they now hoped justice would be done. US officials say the tank crew believed they were being shot at when they opened fire, although TV footage of the incident did not record any incoming fire. The incident was witnessed on TV around the world on the day before the fall of the regime of Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein, as the Palestine was the base for almost all the foreign media crews in Baghdad.

Earlier on the same day, a correspondent for the Arabic TV broadcaster al-Jazeera was killed when US missiles hit the network's office in Baghdad. Following the incident, then-US Secretary of State Colin Powell said a US review of the incident had found the use of force was justified.

 

[Barking_Mad]

Kidnapped Saddam' defense lawyer killed

The defense lawyer involved in the trial of former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein, who was kidnapped by unidentified gunmen Thursday in Baghdad, was shot dead on Friday, police said.

 

[nino_savatte]

Kidnapped Saddam' defense lawyer killed

Hmmmm, highly suspicious. So much for a free, fair and transparent trial. I hope Halabja comes up...with any luck Rummy will find himself in the same 'cot' as Saddam.

 

[Barking_Mad]

Number of US dead 1,992

59 dead so far this month.

 

[bigfish]

Kidnapped Saddam' defense lawyer killed :

The defense lawyer involved in the trial of former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein, who was kidnapped by unidentified gunmen Thursday in Baghdad, was shot dead on Friday, police said.

http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/200510/21/eng20051021_215860.html

 

[oi2002]

The Belgravia Dispatch comments on a sober piece by Rory Stewart on the Shi'a South.

Is southern Iraq only hell with flies? September's image of a British soldier bathed in flames as he tumbled from his tank seemed to symbolise a state of anarchy, spawned by the coalition and dominated by Iranian-funded terrorist militias. The reality is less bleak, but still unsettling. Southern Iraq is under coalition occupation but not coalition control; an elected government that is not quite a democracy uses a secular constitution to impose Islamist codes; Iraqi nationalists funded by Iran employ illegal groups to enforce the law.
...
This is not the kind of state the coalition had hoped to create. During 14 months of direct rule, until the middle of last year, we tried to prevent it from emerging. We refused to allow Shari'a law to be "the source of legislation" in the constitution. We invested in religious minorities and women's centres; supported rural areas and tribal groups; funded NGOs and created "representative bodies" that were intended to reflect a vision of Iraq as a tolerant, modern society. We hoped that we had created the opportunity for civil society to flourish. This was a dream we shared with many Iraqis. We refused to deal with the Sadr militia and fought a long counter- insurgency campaign against them. Then we left, an election was held and the dream collapsed—the Islamist parties took almost all the seats provincially and nationally. The rural sheikhs, the "liberal" middle classes and the religious minorities mostly vanished from the government.
...
The British soldier engulfed by flames and his colleagues who were kidnapped were not simply victims of mob violence, or even of an illegal militia. They were confronting the authorities of an independent state. In place of last year's insurgency, there is now an increasingly confident governing apparatus in the south, which extends from governors and provincial councillors to the militias, police and ministries. The leaders of these groups have a distinctive Islamist ideology and complex history. This new Islamist state is elected, it functions and it is relatively popular. We may not like it, but we can only try to understand it and acknowledge that there is now little we can do to influence it.

Others are calling it West Iran.

 

[Barking_Mad]

Secretary of the director general of al-Mansur shot dead

In southwestern Baghdad, Mohammed Ali Ni'ma, the secretary of the director general of al-Mansur, was shot dead by gunmen in the al-Saydiya neighborhood Monday morning, the Interior Ministry said.

Gunmen kill 12 in Iraq

Twelve Iraqi building workers were gunned down, police said as the US death toll since the invasion neared 2,000, heightening pressure on President George W. Bush over the US role in the violence-ravaged country.

More Bodies Found In Baghdad

In addition, the bodies of eight Iraqis who apparently were kidnapped and killed in captivity were found in the capital on Monday, police said

Five Iraqis injured in car bomb blast in Baghdad

A car bomb exploded in the eastern parts of Baghdad Monday, injuring five Iraqis and damaging the targetted police patrol car. Police sources said told KUNA that a car bomb exploded in the Al-Shaab suburb injuring three civilians and two policemen.

British forces arrest nine Iraqis

British troops have seized nine Iraqis suspected of terrorist activities, the Ministry of Defence said yesterday, as officials admitted that a private poll showed a majority of Iraqis opposed the presence of foreign troops in their country

Blasts rattle Baghdad, Kirkuk

At least three car bombs and several roadside bombs hit US and Iraqi security forces in Baghdad and the northern city of Kirkuk on Sunday, killing at least eight people and wounding dozens more, Iraqi police say.

Blasts halt north Iraq oil exports

Four sabotage blasts have brought oil exports from northern Iraq to a halt and it could take up to one month to carry out repairs, an oil official said on Sunday.

Ten Iraqis, including seven members of Iraqi security forces killed

Ten Iraqis, including seven members of Iraqi security forces, were killed in various insurgent attacks in the country, security sources said. An Iraqi civilian was killed and eleven others wounded in ...Kirkuk

A police captain killed in Baquba

A police captain was killed by gunmen in central Baquba, 65 km (40 miles) north of Baghdad, police said.

Police colonel was killed

A police colonel was killed and four children wounded, two of them his children, when a bomb exploded near his house in Tikrit, 175 km (110 miles) north of Baghdad, police said.

Four dead as car bomb rocks Baghdad

A car bomb rocked central Baghdad Sunday, killing four people, including at least two policemen, and wounding 13 others, security sources said.

Iraqi policeman, 5 US Soldiers wounded

A roadside bomb struck a car being driven by a police officer, killing him and his four children Sunday in northern Iraq, and attacks elsewhere killed at least seven other Iraqis and wounded more than 30 people, including five U.S. soldiers

 

[Barking_Mad]

Interesting story, no doubt one of the many not released into the general news media.

U.S. military says four contractors killed in Iraq

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Four U.S. contractors for the U.S. military were killed in Iraq last month, the military said on Saturday, confirming an attack that a British newspaper said saw two of the men murdered in front of a jeering crowd. A military spokesman said the attack occurred on September 20 when insurgents fired rifles and rocket-propelled grenades at a convoy guarded by U.S. troops after it made a wrong turn in Duluiya, near Balad north of Baghdad.

"Task Force Liberty soldiers responded to assist the convoy, administered first aid to two wounded contractors and evacuated the remains of four contractors killed in the attack," the spokesman said in a statement.

No reason was given why the military had not released information on the attack earlier. Britain's Daily Telegraph newspaper gave an account of the incident which recalled the slaying of four contractors killed by a crowd in Falluja in March 2004, an incident which provoked the first of two major U.S. offensives last year against rebels in the city west of Baghdad.

The Telegraph, quoting a U.S. officer in the area who had spoken to soldiers involved, said the victims were American employees of Halliburton unit Kellog, Brown & Root, the biggest U.S. military contractor in Iraq. At least two of the men were dragged alive from their vehicle, which had been badly shot up, and forced to kneel in the road before being killed, it said.

"Killing one of the men with a rifle round fired into the back of his head, they doused the other with petrol and set him alight," the newspaper report said.

"Barefoot children, yelping in delight, piled straw on to the screaming man's body to stoke the flames."

The Telegraph said U.S. soldiers escorting the convoy were unable to respond quickly because the hatches on their Humvees were closed.

Military spokesman Major Richard Goldenberg said he was unable to comment on the details of the Telegraph's account of the incident.

He said U.S. soldiers, acting on a tip, returned two days later to detain an individual suspected of ties to the attack, and killed two insurgents after coming under fire.

Like Falluja, to the west of Baghdad, Duluiya to the north is a stronghold of Sunni Arab insurgents fighting the U.S. occupying forces and the Shi'ite-led Iraqi government.

 

[newharper]

"Sunni-majority Anbar province in western Iraq has rejected the country's draft constitution by 96%, according to electoral official Abdul Hussein al-Hindawi."

Nice Majority

"While the first three are expected to easily approve the constitution, Sunni-dominated Nineveh, the capital of the mixed governorate of Mosul, looked set to decide the issue for the entire country."

http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/D4CA142D-7C56-473C-B8BF-18C45A71D78E.htm

 

[Barking_Mad]

Riverbend - Baghdad Burning

We’ve been having more than the usual power outages. Government officials were saying ‘power problems’, ‘overload’, etc. for the last two days and then suddenly changed their minds today and claimed it was ‘sabotage’. It’s difficult to tell. All we know is that large parts of Baghdad are literally in the dark. We’re currently on generator electricity. Water has been cut off for the last two days with the exception of an occasional dribble that lasts for ten to fifteen minutes from a faucet in the garden. We have a nice big pot under it to catch as much water as possible.

Private cars haven’t been allowed to drive in the streets since Thursday- this will last until Sunday. It’s been declared a ‘holiday’ of sorts. Everyone is at home. In spite of these security measures, there were several explosions today.

The referendum promises to be somewhat confusing. People are saying it should be postponed. Now is not the right time. More changes were made a few days ago to the supposed ‘final’ draft of the constitution- the one that was submitted to the UN. It was allegedly done to appease Sunnis.

The trouble is that it didn’t address the actual problems Iraqis have with the constitution (Sunnis and Shia alike). The focus of negotiations by ‘Sunni representatives’ seemed to revolve around Iraq’s Arab identity and de-Ba’athification. A clause has also been added which says that the constitution will be subject to change (quelle surprise! Yet again!) with the new government after the next elections. That doesn’t make me feel better because changes can work both ways: if the next ‘elected’ government is, again, non-secular, pro-Iran, the amendments made to what is supposed to be a permanent constitution will be appalling.

Iraq’s Arab identity, due to its Arab majority, won’t be reduced just because it isn’t stated over and over again in a constitution. It’s as if the people negotiating the constitution chose to focus on the minute, leaving the more important issues aside. Issues like guaranteeing Iraq’s unity and guaranteeing that it won’t be turned into an Islamic state modeled on Iran.

The referendum is only hours away and the final version of the constitution still hasn’t reached many people. Areas with a Sunni majority are complaining that there aren’t polling stations for kilometers around- many of these people don’t have cars and even if they did, what good would it do while there’s a curfew until Sunday? Polling stations should be easily accessible in every area.

This is like déjà vu from January when people in Mosul and other Sunni areas complained that they didn’t have centers to vote in or that their ballot boxes never made it to the counting stations.

 

[Barking_Mad]

US dead as of 10pm Monday 1,997

 

[Bernie Gunther]

Pointing out typo, now fixed.

 

[laptop]

According to http://icasualties.org/oif/ it's: 1997 US; 97 UK; 102 Other:

[b]Period		US	UK	Other*	Total	Avg	Days[/b]
10-2005  	64	2	1	67	2.79	24
 9-2005 	49	3	0	52	1.73	30
 8-2005 	85	0	0	85	2.74	31
 7-2005 	54	3	1	58	1.87	31
 6-2005 	78	1	4	83	2.77	30
 5-2005 	80	2	6	88	2.84	31
 4-2005 	52	0	0	52	1.73	30
 3-2005 	36	1	3	40	1.29	31
 2-2005 	58	0	2	60	2.14	28
 1-2005 	107	10	10	127	4.1	31
12-2004 	72	1	3	76	2.45	31
11-2004 	137	4	0	141	4.7	30
10-2004 	63	2	2	67	2.16	31
 9-2004 	80	3	4	87	2.9	30
 8-2004 	66	4	5	75	2.42	31
 7-2004 	54	1	3	58	1.87	31
 6-2004 	42	1	7	50	1.67	30
 5-2004 	80	0	4	84	2.71	31
 4-2004 	135	0	5	140	4.67	30
 3-2004 	52	0	0	52	1.68	31
 2-2004 	20	1	2	23	0.79	29
 1-2004 	47	5	0	52	1.68	31
12-2003 	40	0	8	48	1.55	31
11-2003 	82	1	27	110	3.67	30
10-2003 	44	1	2	47	1.52	31
 9-2003 	31	1	1	33	1.1	30
 8-2003 	35	6	2	43	1.39	31
 7-2003 	48	1	0	49	1.58	31
 6-2003 	30	6	0	36	1.2	30
 5-2003 	37	4	0	41	1.32	31
 4-2003 	74	6	0	80	2.67	30
 3-2003 	65	27	0	92	7.67	12
Total		[b]1997[/b]	97	102	2196	2.31

7 of the 1997 are "awaiting Department of Defense confirmation".

So we pass the 2000 line sometime tomorrow, but the DoD gets to fudge exactly when to keep the headline off compliant media.

Edited to add: don't forget the 7159 US troops wounded too seriously to return to duty within 72 hours, and expect some figure-massaging to come to light concerning what duties the other 8061 of the 15,220 total woundd returned to.

 

[Barking_Mad]

Did some of them get better? It was nearly 2000 last time I looked? A typo?

Sorry you're right Bernie, it was a typo.

 

[Barking_Mad]

Soldiers Lost in Iraq Top Those Lost in First Four Years in Vietnam

"The nearly 2,000 Americans killed in combat (1,998 on October 24, 2005) in Iraq since 2003 are more than were lost in Vietnam combat in the first four years of U.S. combat (1961-1965, when just over 1800 died). This total is more than were lost in the last two years of combat (1971-1972, when just over 1600 died)," recounts Maurice Isserman, co-author of "America Divided: The Civil War of the 1960s."

"Today public opinion polls show that the percentage of Americans who believe that it was a mistake for the U.S. to go to war in Iraq is roughly comparable to the number of Americans who believed it was a mistake for the U.S. to go to war in Vietnam in the aftermath of the Tet Offensive in 1968. The principal difference between the anti-war opposition of 2005, and that of 1968, is that in the Vietnam war a significant group of Democratic Party leaders - starting with Senators Morse and Gruening in 1964 and eventually including such figures as Senators Fulbright, McCarthy, Kennedy (Robert and Ted), and McGovern - joined the opposition to the war. This lent legitimacy and influence to the opposition. Today, the Democratic party, with a few brave exceptions, mostly in the House of Representatives, is supportive of or silent about the war," observes Isserman.

 

[Barking_Mad]

Some experts believe Iraq's insurgency will spread

BAGHDAD -- With the grim milestone of the 2,000th U.S. military death looming in Iraq, many wonder about the direction of the insurgency that killed most of them. Experts think the country's increasingly regional-oriented politics will fuel the insurgency and spread it further inside Iraq.

Others put forward a simple, disquieting scenario: So long as U.S. and other foreign troops remain in Iraq, the insurgency will continue.

"It will become more chaotic," predicted Magnus Ranstorp of the Swedish National Defense College in Stockholm, Sweden. "It is obvious that the United States is in Iraq to stay. If this is the case, the Shiites will likely join the Sunnis in the fight."

Blasts halt north Iraq oil exports

Four sabotage blasts have halted oil exports from northern Iraq and repairs could take up to a month, while bad weather in the south has stopped loading from the country's main terminal, industry sources said on Sunday.

At Least 17 Die In Bombing Of Iraq Hotel Housing Journalists.


Nine reported killed in Iraq car bomb attack

It is reported that nine people have been killed in a car bomb attack in the northern Iraqi Kurdish city of Sulaimaniya. An unknown number of people were also wounded. The blast happened near a building housing regional officials who deal with the local Kurdish militia.

The blast came ahead of the announcement of the final results of Iraq's constitutional referendum. Sunni Arab insurgents fighting the Shi'ite- and Kurdish-led government in Baghdad oppose the constitution, which is expected to be passed.

 

[Barking_Mad]

US deaths in Iraq now stand at 1,999

 

[Barking_Mad]

U.S. blows $1 million on 7 lemon cars in Iraq

After spending nearly $1 million, here's what they got: six vehicles with bad armor and run-down mechanics. The newest model was a 1996; the oldest, a 1994. According to the special inspector general, the seventh auto is missing.

Two Moroccans missing in Iraq

Enforcement officer, Abdelkrim El Mouhafidi and driver, Abderrahim Boualam visited last week the Moroccan embassy in Amman, Jordan onboard the embassy vehicle to get their salary. They vanished after they entered the Iraqi territory on Thursday.

Four foreigners killed by roadside bomb in western Iraq

Four foreign nationals believed to be U.S. security staff were killed by a roadside bomb targeting a convoy close to the western Iraqi city of Ramadi, police said Tuesday.

Two Iraqi policemen killed Baghdad

Two policemen were killed and another seven wounded when gunmen ambushed a vehicle transferring prisoners in the western Ghazaliya district of Baghdad, police said. It was not clear if there were casualties among the prisoners.

Three Iraqi soldiers found dead in Ramadi

Three corpses of Iraqi army soldiers wearing civilian clothes were found in Ramadi. Doctor Hamdi al-Rawi from Ramadi General hospital said the bodies had gunshot wounds to the head.

Roadside bomb kills one person in Baghdad

One person was killed and one wounded when a roadside bomb exploded near one of Baghdad's children's hospitals, police said.

Policeman killed in Baghdad

Police also said a policeman in Baghdad was killed in drive-by shootings.

Bomb Misses U.S. Troops, Kills Young Child

A 7-year-old boy was killed by a roadside bomb that exploded near a U.S. military convoy in Baghdad. The bomb missed the soldiers but killed the boy, who was selling cans of black-market gasoline on a street.

Policewoman killed in Mosul

Another policewoman died in Mosul, a city 360 kilometres northwest of Baghdad, when militants shot her, police said.

Two suicide car bomb attacks occur in generally peaceful province

[A] suicide car bomber rammed his vehicle into a seven-car convoy carrying Mullah Bakhtiyar, a senior Kurdish official in President Jalal Talabani's Patriotic Union of Kurdistan party woundeding two of the convoy's guards.

Suicide Car Bombing Kills 9 in Iraq

A suicide car bomb exploded near a regional government ministry in a predominantly Kurdish province of Sulaimaniyah on Tuesday, killing at least nine people and wounding four, a security official said.

Analysis finds 21 homicides among deaths of U.S. prisoners overseas

At least 21 detainees who died while being held in U.S. custody in Iraq and Afghanistan were killed, many during or after interrogations, according to an analysis of Defense Department data by the American Civil Liberties Union.

 

[Barking_Mad]

Iraqi border guards found dead near Saudi border

The bodies of eight Iraqi border guards, blindfolded and with their hands bound behind their backs, were found near the Saudi border in western Iraq on Tuesday, police said. They were found some 250 km west of the Shi'ite Muslim holy city of Kerbala.

Up to 11 Iraqis killed in bus explosion

Some 11 Iraqis were killed on Tuesday as a result of an explosion in a small passenger bus, which occurred in the city of Baaqouba, some 60 kilometers north of Baghdad, a source close to the Iraqi police said.

Car bomber kills self, companion, in Baqubah

In Baquba, a car bomber exploded his vehicle near an Iraqi army checkpoint, killing himself and a companion and injuring another companion, hospital sources said. The source said there were no casualties among the Iraqi soldiers

 

[Barking_Mad]

Desperate Squatters A 'Huge Problem' - Many Iraqis Were Evicted After Invasion

BAGHDAD -- Every morning, Sajida Abboud slips out of the simple room she shares with her husband and two children and, eyes downcast, tries to leave unnoticed for her job as an elementary school teacher. She does not want her pupils to catch sight of her leaving the trash-strewn former government building where she has lived illegally as a squatter since the U.S.-led invasion 2 1/2 years ago.

Abboud, 35, moved to the building in the Baladiyat neighborhood in eastern Baghdad after her landlady forced her from her home of 14 years because she could not pay the rent, she said. When Saddam Hussein was in power, landlords could not evict tenants who were unable to pay. But when the Americans came to Iraq, Abboud said, her landlady persuaded U.S. troops to kick her family out of their dwelling, telling the soldiers that "we were terrorists, Baathists."

Abboud is among the Iraqis -- their numbers are estimated in the thousands -- illegally occupying empty buildings because they have no other place to go. Such people represent a looming challenge for Iraq's fledgling government as it grapples with a host of other problems, including shortages of electricity, potable water and fuel.

Mohammed Hareeri, spokesman for the Housing and Reconstruction Ministry, said the number of homeless in Iraq was a "huge, huge problem."

Hareeri said Iraq was short 3.38 million housing units, which will cost $120 billion to construct. "There are no such funds," he said. "We are a country under debt."

 

[Barking_Mad]

Number of dead US troops in Iraq 2,000

THE US military death toll in the two-and-a-half year Iraq war reached the milestone of 2000 today, with the announcement by the Pentagon of a US soldier who died at a hospital in Texas over the weekend.

The Pentagon said Staff Sergeant George Alexander Jr, 34, of Killeen, Texas, died at Brooke Army Medical Centre in San Antonio, Texas, on Sunday of injuries sustained on October 17 in Samarra, Iraq, when a roadside bomb planted by insurgents detonated near his Bradley Fighting Vehicle.

In the Iraq war, which began in March 2003, more than 15,000 US troops also have been wounded in action.

 

[Barking_Mad]

Kidnappers target Minister of Housing sister

In Tikrit, police said Wednesday that gunmen had kidnapped the sister of Minister of Housing and Reconstruction Jassim Mohammed Jaafar on the highway between Tikrit and Kirkuk.

Two Policemen killed in Ramadi

Two policemen were killed when gunmen attacked a police station in Ramadi, 110 km (70 miles) west of Baghdad, police said.

Three police killed in Fallujah

Three policemen were killed and two wounded when a roadside bomb exploded beside their patrol in central Falluja, police said.

Water resources convoy attacked, two wounded

Gunmen opened fire on a convoy of bodyguards for Iraq's minister of water resources in western Baghdad, wounding two people. Police said that the minister, Abdul Latif Rasheed, was not present

Four bodies found in Haditha

Four bodies were found in northeastern Haditha a doctor said. Three of them were wearing army uniforms and the other was a contractor working with U.S companies. The corpses were bound, gagged and had gunshot wounds to the head and chest.

Gunmen assassinate head of Baghdad museum

Armed men assassinated Wednesday an official of the Iraqi Culture Ministry's tourist institution. Nabeel al Moussaoui was killed while he was driving his car heading to his work at Baghdad museum. The assault also killed the driver

 

[Barking_Mad]

Sunnis form alliance to fight election

Three Sunni parties announced yesterday they are to form an alliance to fight the Iraqi parliamentary election in December. The decision marks a significant change after many Sunnis boycotted the last election in January. Sunni participation is a breakthrough for the US and Britain whose diplomats have been trying to persuade them for months to engage in the political process. The Sunnis, the second-largest grouping in Iraq, were dominant under Saddam Hussein, but they have been supplanted since the fall of the dictator both by Shias, the majority grouping, and the Kurds.

28% OF IRAQ VETS HAVE HEALTH PROBLEMS

Of all the veterans that return to the United States from Iraq, 28% have at least one health problem requiring medical treatment, according to USA today, which obtained the survey from Pentagon officials. The survey was taken by the Pentagon and was not released to the public.

About 40% of the 50,000 soldiers who returned this year have reported having nightmares or flashbacks of experiences in Iraq. 1,700 veterans reported having thoughts of hurting or killing themselves, and 3,700 were worried that they might hurt someone else. The Pentagon has counted 1,971 American casualties and 15,220 wounded soldiers as of last week. However, many more soldiers are experiencing both health and emotional problems. Stressed marriages and family relationships are also adding a toll.

 

[Barking_Mad]

Kidnappers released woman captive

Yalmaz Jaafar was released later in the day while the men were still held captive. After a group of gunmen abducted her late Tuesday, along with Two others.

Three U.S. Soldiers Killed in Iraq

Insurgents using roadside bombs and small arms fire killed three U.S. soldiers and wounded four, the military said Thursday

One killed, eight wounded in Baghdad car blast

An Iraqi was killed and eight others wounded on early Thursday by a suicide car bomb in central Iraq, security and hospital sources said.

Top Iraqi Cleric Won't Back Shiite Parties

The move by the Iranian-born Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani reflected the cleric's disappointment with the performance of Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari's Shiite-led government, according to three associates of the cleric who are in regular contact with him....
As an example of al-Sistani's disappointment, the associates spoke of a recent visit by a Shiite delegation to Najaf. The lawmakers came to sound out the cleric about a plan to establish a new ministry to supervise religious festivals after a series of bomb attacks and a stampede killed Shiite worshippers at religious ceremonies. "He told them that if the money is available to set up a new ministry then it will be better spent providing better services to Iraqis," one associate said. The idea was dropped.

 

[Barking_Mad]

Baghdad Hotel Attack: The Real Targets

Monday's deadly attack on Baghdad's Palestine Hotel, a large, well-coordinated assault claimed by al-Qaeda involving truck bombs which killed at least six people, was thought to target the many foreign journalists who stay there. But sources inside the Iraqi insurgency tell TIME that the real target was a security firm based in the hotel.

The raid was a joint operation between al-Qaeda in Iraq, the organization headed by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, and Jaysh al-Muhammad, one of the largest Ba'athist groups. Al-Qaeda claims Iraqis from a suicide group called the Lions of Bara'a bin Malik drove the actual vehicle bombs. In a statement, al-Qaeda claimed the attack went after "the intelligence agencies, American, Australian and British security companies and the thieves of the treasures of Iraq," referring to contractors. The insurgents believe the targeted security firm is actually a Western or Israeli government intelligence agency.

 

[Barking_Mad]

Air strikes continue near the Syrian border

An American warplane struck a suspected insurgent safe house there on Wednesday. In the same area, U.S. warplanes killed an insurgent in a safe house in Ushsh village on Wednesday, and helicopters apparently killed a militant in a building near Qaim

Teacher killed in Baghdad

In Fallujah insurgents fired a mortar round at the Iraqi army headquarters, leading soldiers to return fire randomly and hit a nearby car carrying three teachers to a local school. One of teachers was killed and two wounded.

Police Colonel killed

In Dora, one of the capital's most violent areas, a drive-by shooting by insurgents killed police Lt. Colonel Mahdi Hussein in his car, officials said.

Three bodies of kidnapped engineers found

The AFP news agency reports Iraqi police saying that the bodies of three Iraqis have been discovered near the town of Baqouba. The three men, engineers who had been working at an Iraqi army base, had been kidnapped recently, police said.

Baghdad gun fight leaves 19 dead

A clash in Baghdad between Iraqi police and Shia militiamen, on the one side, and Sunni insurgents, has left 19 people dead, reports say. According to one report, 17 of the dead were Shia militiamen and two were members of the Iraqi police. The AFP news agency says that fighters from the Mehdi Army had requested help in recovering a comrade being held by Sunni insurgents. The Mehdi Army is a militia loyal to radical Shia cleric Moqtada Sadr. There was no immediate information on casualties on the insurgent side.