*IRAQ: latest news and developments

[Barking_Mad]

Interesting read.

'We don't need al-Qaida'

When the infidel conquers your home, it's like seeing your women raped in front of your eyes and like your religion being insulted every day," says Abu Theeb.

He joined others and started first with direct rocket-propelled grenade hits and small arms attacks on US convoys around his area, until a fellow Salafi fighter taught him how to set an IED using primitive techniques, a TV remote control and some artillery shells. A visiting Iraqi army general laid the ground rules for the group: IEDs were the most successful weapon, but should always be laid at least two kilometres outside the village to spare the people the wrath of the Americans.

"Everyone was fighting, men who under Saddam spent years as military deserters became zealous fighters," says Abu Theeb. "Something like fire was inside us. We would go out to fight for days, leaving our families and wives behind."

He and other Salafi fighters became known as the Anger Brigade, an insurgent group that has claimed responsibility for numerous attacks on US and Iraqi targets and is involved in kidnapping those who are perceived as collaborating with the much-hated occupation.

....

For more than two years, Abu Theeb had been taking part in insurgent attacks on US and Iraqi targets, laying IEDs, carrying out ambushes and kidnappings. Then, about eight months ago, a group of Syrian men visited him. They identified themselves as part of the al-Qaida group in Iraq, and they asked for his cooperation in establishing a foothold for their organisation in his area. "They told me that they had support and money and wanted to open a new front here," says Abu Theeb. "I said to them, 'What about the village - do you want this to become a new Fallujah?'" Abu Theeb didn't want al-Qaida, even if their aims were ostensibly the same. "When al-Qaida came here I was the first to fight it," he says. "They went to the clerics and said, 'Denounce this man. If not, your blood will be spilled.' They can kill and slaughter easily."

 

[Barking_Mad]

27 killed in clashes between Iraqi police and civilians

At least 27 people, most of them police, were killed in clashes with civilians in Nahrawan township Thursday, said Iraqi army sources. The police were in civilian uniform, prompting the villagers to open fire thinking that the police were terrorists

Police Colonel dies of wounds

A police colonel was killed by gunmen in the northern city of Kirkuk, police said. He had previously been reported as wounded.

Two police killed south of Kirkuk

Two policemen were wounded when a car bomb exploded near a police patrol in Hawija. And The head of the Hawija city council escaped death when gunmen attacked him near Hawija, police said. He is seriously wounded in a hospital.

Policeman killed in Kirkuk

One policeman from an elite unit was killed and two wounded when a roadside bomb exploded near their patrol in the northern city of Kirkuk, police said.

Two Police killed in seperate attacks in Baquba

One policeman was killed and five others wounded when clashes broke out between insurgents and Iraqi police in Baquba. And One policeman was found shot dead in his car south of Baquba, police said.

Civilian killed in attack on U.S. convoy in Baghdad

A car bomb hit a U.S. patrol of Humvee armoured vehicles in Baghdad early on Thursday, killing one civilian and wounding four, police and witnesses said.

Policeman killed in Baghdad

A police major was killed by gunmen in the southern district of the capital, police said.

 

[Pickman's model]

i think you refer to the same cop colonel twice - once as wounded and once as killed, in kirkuk.

 

[Barking_Mad]

Update from previous post

Iraqi militia clashes with insurgents, 23 dead

At least 21 Shi'ite militia fighters and two policemen were killed on Thursday when they clashed with Sunni Arab insurgents southeast of Baghdad, an Interior Ministry official said. Another five policemen and 12 members of the Mehdi army were wounded

 

[Barking_Mad]

Iraqi Shia unite to contest poll

The Shia-led United Iraqi Alliance has a parliamentary majority Iraq's ruling Shia-led coalition has confirmed that it will contest the upcoming parliamentary election as a single bloc. This comes a day before the close of registration for the election in December that will end Iraq's period of transitional government. The United Iraqi Alliance (UIA) won 140 seats in the 275-member National Assembly in January's election.

It formed a coalition government with the Kurdistan Alliance in April. Former interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi is also putting together an alliance, which he's said will cross sectarian and ethnic divides. It is expected to be unveiled on Saturday.

 

[Barking_Mad]

i think you refer to the same cop colonel twice - once as wounded and once as killed, in kirkuk.

Cheers, i think that's right now.....

 

[Barking_Mad]

Interesting stuff.....

Sadr, Sunnis join hands to contest polls - Radical cleric says alliance aims to 'consolidate national unity'

Radical Iraqi Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr said Wednesday he would present a joint list of candidates with Sunni Arabs in the Al-Anbar Province to contest the upcoming legislative elections.

His comments come shortly after three Sunni Arab parties set up a coalition to contest the December 15 elections.

Sadr's organization said it decided to ally itself with the Sunnis due to "the difficult situation facing the country, to prevent the occupier and enemies of Iraq from attaining their goals, to consolidate national identity and to reaffirm its unity."

Al-Anbar includes the rebel strongholds of Ramadi and Fallujah, which overwhelmingly rejected the Iraq constitution that was approved by referendum on October 15.

Sadr's office said: "Deputy Fattah al-Sheikh has been designated to form a list in Al-Anbar for the elections." Sheikh told AFP he would "run in Al-Anbar at the head of a list that includes eight Sunni candidates.

"Consultations have taken place in recent days to create a national Islamic force" to run against a secular bloc being mooted by former Prime Minister Iyad Allawi, he said. The talks are continuing, he added.

Meanwhile, the Conference of the People of Iraq, the Iraqi Islamic Party, and the Iraqi National Dialogue "agreed to run on one list under the name Iraqi Concord Front," a joint statement said. The Islamic Party boycotted the January elections but called on voters to approve the constitution. Both the National Dialogue and the Conference of the People both opposed ratifying the constitution.

The group's platform will be known in the next few days.

In another political development, the Muslim Scholars Association, an influential group of Sunni clerics, criticized the new constitution, saying it will only "benefit the occupiers and those who collaborate with them." Reading a statement to reporters, spokesman Abdel-Salam al-Kubaissi claimed that "no" votes in the referendum had been blocked in a "big conspiracy against our Iraq."

For that reason, he said: "The association will not take part in any political process" in Iraq.

 

[Barking_Mad]

US Iraq troops at highest level

US forces in Iraq have swelled to 161,000, their highest level since the US invasion in March 2003, a Pentagon spokesman said.The increase was due to overlapping troop rotations, Lawrence DiRita, the chief Pentagon spokesman said today. The previous high in US force levels was reached in January, when the number of US troops in the country rose to 159,000 during national elections.

"The last number I saw was 161,000, but you're going to start to see that come down pretty dramatically because that was in-place relief and holdovers," said Mr DiRita.

 

[Barking_Mad]

ethics and morals eh?

2,200 companies in UN oil-for-food scandal: report

(CBC) - More than 2,200 firms involved in the United Nations oil-for-food program paid $1.8 billion in illicit surcharges and kickbacks to Saddam Hussein's government, says a new UN-backed report. The committee, led by former Federal Reserve chairman Paul Volcker , found that illegal surcharges were paid for humanitarian contracts and kickbacks for oil contracts.

"Iraq's largest source of illicit income under the program came from kickbacks paid by companies that had been selected to receive contracts for humanitarian goods under the program," the report said, adding that companies and individuals from 66 countries paid illegal kickbacks in the scheme.

"Available evidence indicates that Iraq derived more than $1.5 billion of income from the kickbacks."

The oil-for food program was launched after the United Nations imposed sanctions on Iraq following Saddam Hussein's invasion of Kuwait in 1990. Under the program, Iraq was allowed to sell limited and then unlimited quantities of oil on the condition that most of the money would be used to buy humanitarian goods

And this.....fancy, all these companies and many 'wouldnt have known about the bribes. You'd hardkly believe it......

Australian wheat funded Saddam

AUSTRALIAN wheat sales to Iraq were used to illegally funnel about $US200 million ($A262.78 million) from the UN humanitarian oil-for-food program to prop up Saddam Hussein's murderous regime, The Australian newspaper reported today.

The paper says the Howard Government is bracing itself for an explosive United Nations report, which identifies the AWB, formerly the Australian Wheat Board, as one of 3000 companies involved in a corruption scandal that syphoned $US12.8 billion ($A16.82 billion) to Saddam over the seven years the program operated.
According to paper, the report, by UN chief investigator Paul Volcker and due to be released early today, says the AWB was involved in providing $US200 million in payments to a transport firm.

But it also found there was insufficient evidence to show the AWB or its executives were aware the money was eventually going to Saddam.

 

[Barking_Mad]

26 Arrested at White House Mourning 2000th American Death in Iraq Including Sheehan

WASHINGTON – Peace Action joined with other anti war groups in a day of action on Wednesday around the 2,000th unnecessary death of an American soldier in Iraq. Peace Action affiliates, along with allied antiwar groups and coalition partners participated in nearly 2,000 events nationwide. At the White House vigil, hundreds held candles calling for U.S. troops to be brought home from Iraq and for Congress to provide leadership to bring our troops home. Nearly fifty people laid head to toe on the sidewalk in front of the President’s home just like soldiers are laid to rest at Arlington cemetery. Park police arrested 26 mourners at the “die in” including Cindy Sheehan – the mother who lost her son in Iraq and camped at Crawford, TX asking the President why.

 

[Barking_Mad]

Not Iraq related but its worth pointing out that in Afghanistan 92 US troops have died so far there this year as opposed to just 52 in the whole of last year. In fact this years total is nearly twice the total for the last 2 years put together.

 

[oi2002]

Juan

Aides around Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani, the chief spiritual leader of Iraqi Shiites, are broadly hinting that after the December 15 elections, he may begin a Gandhi-like campaign to demand a timetable for the withdrawal of US troops from Iraq.

 

[oi2002]

John Robb sees the recent attack on the Palestine hotel as highly signifigant:

Iraq's open-source insurgency can now mount operations with strategic implications (the attack on the Palestine, if it had succeeded, might have changed the course of the war). We can expect more efforts like this in the future, including an assault on a US military forward operating base. A successful attack on this scale (one that kills or holds hostage hundreds of US citizens) could turn public sentiment decisively against the war. The situation in Iraq has reached an inflection point and things are rapidly spinning out of control.

 

[newharper]

A rose tinted view from West Point.

"Blueprint for Victory

For democracy to thrive in Iraq, the Sunnis must know they are defeated.
by Frederick W. Kagan


"THE BUSH ADMINISTRATION and the U.S. military deserve much praise for what has occurred in Iraq these past 30 months. The establishment of a new state, the formation of a new army, the rebuilding of a shattered economy, the foundation of a new democracy--all these are remarkable achievements in a short period of time. They will come to nothing, however, if they do not end in success"

but not uncritical,

“The focus on counterterrorism operations and the foreign fighters was a strategy on which all sides could agree. No one doubted that jihadists were evil, and few U.S. or Iraqi leaders wanted to consider the possibility that their more basic assumptions were mistaken. This view of the problem was justifiable until April 2004, when Marines sent into Falluja to capture those responsible for the brutal deaths of four American contractors encountered not only a determined, organized, well-equipped, and well-supplied enemy that attempted to fight them toe to toe, but also a hostile populace. Not only did the people of Falluja give aid and shelter to the insurgents, but many young Fallujans grabbed their trusty AK-47s and made a game of shooting at advancing Marines and then disappearing. They were spurred on not just by radical imams preaching anti-Americanism and the virtues of jihad, but also by their families and friends, who exhorted them to be martyrs”

“The first battle of Falluja should have rung alarm bells about the assumptions underlying American strategy”

“The very fact that the insurgents held their ground in Falluja is one of the most important and least examined events of the war. Insurgents do not ordinarily behave in this fashion, fearing the destruction of their organizations in pitched battles against stronger military forces. Yet the rebels held in Falluja, in many cases fighting to the death. Why? Because it is important to them that”

"The use of either Shiite or American soldiers in Sunni-Arab villages is likely to generate hostility on the part of the locals. And in truth it is almost certainly better for the Americans to bear the brunt of that hostility. Because the U.S. forces will leave Iraq eventually, the long-term consequences of Sunni-Arab resentment of an American presence will be mitigated

The second battle of Falluja marked a major turning point in the course of the insurgency. From that point on, the insurgent military threat became much less grave. Insurgents now rarely concentrate in groups of more than two or three. They do not undertake direct attacks on U.S. soldiers if they can help it, and they have focused their improvised explosive devices on the softer targets of the Iraqi army, Iraqi police, and Iraqi civilians. The guerrilla war is effectively over because the enemy dares not even attempt guerrilla attacks,"


"The problem is within Iraq and specifically within the Sunni community. The coalition and the Iraqis are creating the political preconditions for success and have largely confined the military problems to the Zarqawi network and the Sunni Triangle (where that network is, for the most part, based). But until we, working with our Iraqi partners, have persuaded the Sunni community that violence is counterproductive and cannot improve its political position, the insurgency will continue. That persuasion will require political incentives and military pressure. If we and the Iraqi government apply both in judicious measure over the course of the next few years, there is no reason we cannot win."

Yeah right.

 

[Barking_Mad]

Iraq reconstruction running low on funds

As the money runs out on the $30 billion American-financed reconstruction of Iraq ... there is no clear source for hundreds of millions of dollars a year needed to operate the projects that have been finished, according to a report to Congress ...

Many talented Iraqis are leaving

First, gunmen burst into Riyadh Tamimi’s home, beat his guard, terrified his wife and three daughters and stole appliances. Later, kidnappers held his brother until the family paid $20,000. When gunfire blew out Tamimi’s windows, that was the last straw

Iraq's fledgling army lacks vital equipment

Even as American forces are relying more on Iraqis to fight the insurgency, the Iraqi Army is facing some of the same procurement problems that American troops have experienced in getting adequate armor and other equipment

Gunmen kill Iraq cabinet adviser

An Iraqi cabinet adviser was killed on Sunday when his car was attacked by gunmen in northern Baghdad and a deputy trade minister was wounded in a separate attack, officials said.

Iraqi deputy minister hurt in gun attack

Iraq's deputy trade minister has been injured in an ambush by gunmen on his motorcade in the capital, Baghdad. Two of Qais Dawoud Hassan's bodyguards were killed in the gun attack in the wealthy district of Mansour.

Gunmen attack Iraqi Vice President's brother in Baghdad

Gunmen ambushed the car of Iraqi Vice President Adel Abdul Mehdi's brother in eastern Baghdad on Sunday, seriously wounding him and killing his driver, an Interior Ministry source said.

Syria - border with Iraq difficult to control

A Syrian army general...says that Syria has managed to arrest 1400 extremists with its own resources. The Brigade General, who identifies himself as Amin, says the borders between Syria and Iraq are difficult to control...

More bodies found, Iraqi soldier gunned down

On Saturday night, the corpses of three handcuffed and blindfolded Iraqis were found in Baghdad, and police said an Iraqi soldier and the brother of a policeman were gunned down.

US Troops Attack Insurgents Planning Raid

U.S. troops backed by helicopters and a jet attacked insurgents planning a nighttime ambush near an American base north of Baghdad, killing six militants and wounding and capturing five others, the U.S. command said Sunday.

Four Civilians Killed In Baghdad

One person was killed and three wounded when gunmen attacked their car in northern Baghdad, police said. The victims worked for the movement of cleric Moqtada al-Sadr...Two employees of a bank were killed by gunmen in southern Baghdad, police said.

Police colonel killed in northern Baghdad

A police colonel was killed on Saturday when gunmen attacked his house in northern Baghdad, police said. His bodyguard was also killed and his wife and nephew were wounded in the incident.

2 Civilians killed in Mahmudiya

Two civilians were killed and three wounded when a roadside bomb exploded near an Iraqi police patrol in Mahmudiya, just south of Baghdad, police said.

Iraq truck bomb killed 30 on Saturday, police say (update)[/B]

Thirty people were killed and 42 wounded in a suicide truck bomb attack on a small Shi'ite Muslim town north of Baghdad, hospital staff said on Sunday, raising the death toll in Saturday evening's blast.

U.S. Soldiers evacuate victims of mortar attack

Terrorist-launched mortar rounds fell short of the Abu Ghraib Prison walls at 1:30 p.m. Oct. 29. One woman and two children were injured in the attack. Task Force Baghdad Soldiers...transported the injured to the Abu Ghraib Hospital.

Sectarian protest rocks key north Iraq province

Angry Sunni Arabs protesting the removal of a top police official have threatened to topple the provincial government of Nineveh as sectarian tensions flare in the volatile northern Iraqi province.

Kurds Reclaiming Prized Territory In Northern Iraq

Kurdish political parties have repatriated thousands of Kurds into this tense northern oil city and its surrounding villages, operating outside the framework of Iraq's newly ratified constitution and sparking sporadic violence...

 

[Barking_Mad]

US 'had no policy' in place to rebuild Iraq

The US government had "no comprehensive policy or regulatory guidelines" in place for staffing the management of postwar Iraq, according to the top government watchdog overseeing the country's reconstruction. The lack of planning had plagued reconstruction since the US-led invasion, and been exacerbated by a "general lack of co-ordination" between US government agencies charged with the rebuilding of Iraq, said Stuart Bowen, the special inspector-general for Iraq reconstruction, in a report released on Sunday.

His 110-page quarterly report, delivered to Congress at the weekend, has underscored how a "reconstruction gap" is emerging that threatens to leave many projects planned by the US on the drawing board.

"Nearly two years ago, the US developed a reconstruction plan that specified a target number of projects that would be executed using the Iraq Relief and Reconstruction Fund. That number was revised downward [last year]. Now it appears that the actual number of projects completed will be even lower," Mr Bowen says in his report.

Iraqis Urged to Give Zakah for US-hit Anbar

Iraqis are being urged to give their zakah (obligatory alms) to fellow countrymen in Al-Anbar province, a regular theater of incessant US-led onslaughts allegedly targeting Sunni "insurgents".

"Representatives of the ravaged areas in Al-Anbar came to many mosques in Baghdad, pleading for help and donations for our brethren who have been driven homeless by the many US military strikes on the western province," Sheikh Ibrahim Al-Ne'ama, imam of Omar Al-Mukhtar mosque in Baghdad, said in his Friday prayer sermon on October 28.

"Everybody knows what has befallen Iraqi cities, specially in the western areas, and the havoc wrecked on Al-Anbar," he told the attentive worshipers. Sheikh Al-Ne'ama recalled a meeting with people coming from Al-A'na city, some 270 kilometers west of Baghdad .

"They spoke of the people's suffering and who they fled their city after US strikes only to live in tents in the desert."

Haditha, a main city in Al-Anbar, has been besieged by US and Iraqi forces for weeks, a resident who fled the city told IslamOnline.net correspondent in Baghdad after the prayer.

"They have set up checkpoints everywhere and have launched a wide-scale detention campaign," he added, requesting anonymity. He noted that the US-Iraqi forces have only days ago allowed aid convoys into the ravaged city. The UN special rapporteur on the right to food has recently accused the US-led occupation forces of starving Iraqis civilians in besieged cities and depriving them of water to force them.

"A drama is taking place in total silence in Iraq , where the coalition's occupying forces are using hunger and deprivation of water as a weapon of war against the civilian population," Jean Ziegler told a press conference Friday, October 14. Iraqi cities with Sunni majority have been a favorite target for US-led onslaughts over charges that Sunnis were feeding the Iraqi resistance. After destroying half of Al-Karabla city in Al-Anbar, the US forces decided to withdraw from the semi-erased city on Monday October 24, 2005.

 

[Barking_Mad]

Reports prepared by NGO's - Female detainees abused, raped and tortured

....A report prepared by the Iraqi National Association for Human Rights, a nongovernmental organization, has stated the existence of violations against female detainees at stations and centers of the interior ministry. Essam Al Jilbi, head of the association has confirmed "the occurrence of some violations against female detainees at investigation centers, before transferring them to prisons."

...........

Al Jilbi added, "We have recorded similar cases at Al Masba' Police Station, which are relating to obtaining confessions in a manner that violates the Human Convention for Human Rights."

It is worth mentioning that a report, which was issued by the research and studies center of the Iraqi Human Rights Organization and published by Al Zaman earlier, has disclosed the occurrence of sexual, physical and psychological violations that detainees of both sexes have suffered from, including blinding eyes during the investigation, excessive beating with sticks an plastic and metal pipes", squeezing limbs, kicking and tying for long hours, in addition to using electricity and torture." The report confirmed that the Human Rights committee has documented 5 cases of rape at Iraqi investigation stations, which have been executed on behalf of the investigation centers' elements.

Subscription required for full piece.

Controversy grows over fate of Iraq detainees

The fate of thousands of prisoners held without trial by US and British forces in Iraq is in legal limbo as controversy grows over the deaths of detainees in US custody and reported attempts by the Bush administration to sanction the use of torture.

US and UK officials, in interviews with the FT, acknowledged the debate over the legal status of some 11,000 Iraqi and other prisoners. The two governments have not agreed on how to resolve the issue, which is tied to the timetable for electing a constitutional Iraqi government by the end of this year.

Iraqis forced to take in uninvited troops

The Marines call it a necessary evil - taking over houses and buildings for military use. For the Iraqis who become unwilling hosts, it can be anything from a mild inconvenience to a disruption that tears apart lives. In a recent offensive in Haditha, the headmaster of one school where Marines were based pressed them for a departure date so he could resume classes. At another school, Marines fortified the building with blast walls and sandbags for long-term use. A trembling woman wept when Marines tried to requisition her home to set up an observation post with a view of a nearby road where a bomb had been planted. The Marines quickly left, using her neighbor's rooftop instead.

"We try to be respectful and not destroy anything in their homes," said Cpl. Joseph Dudley of Los Gatos, Calif., with the 3rd Battalion, 1st Marine Regiment. "We just borrow their house and try to complete our missions."

Requisitioning homes or other buildings has been widespread in Iraq for U.S. troops on missions who stay far away from bases, sometimes for several days or weeks. During major offensives, the temporary bases deep inside cities allow troops to send out more patrols and respond quickly to attacks rather than going all the way back to bases on the outskirts of town. Some homeowners politely treat the Marines as welcome guests. During an offensive in May, one man whose home was being used served rounds of tea to the Marines while his wife remained discreetly out of sight. He let the tired troops catch naps on his living room couch and floor, then waved goodbye to them from his front doorsteps when they left to search more houses.

 

[Barking_Mad]

Six US soldiers die

The U.S. command says six American soldiers have been killed Monday in two separate roadside bombings.

Iraqi Police Uncover 14 Bodies in Shallow Grave

Iraqi police uncovered the bodies of 14 people who had been buried--just east of Tal Afar. Twelve of the corpses were bound and appear to have been shot in the head while two others were decapitated. The victims were probably killed 1-3 months ago

Four US soldiers killed in Baghdad

Four U.S. soldiers were killed on Monday when a roadside bomb went off on their patrol just south of Baghdad, the military said in a statement. The incident, around the town of Yusufiya, was one of the heaviest single U.S. losses for some time.

Five Iraqis wounded in bomb car explosion

Five Iraqis were wounded Monday in a bomb car explosion in northern Baghdad, Iraqi police said.

Eleven more bodies found

Late Sunday, police found the bodies of 11 unidentified men -- blindfolded, hands bound and with gunshots in the head -- in a village near Baghdad where Sunnis and Shiites clashed three days ago.

Three killed in mortar attacks around Baghdad

In the town of Bani Saad, two mortar rounds hit an Iraqi army base, killing two soldiers and wounding seven, Iraqi police have reported. two mortar rounds hit a major junction near Iraq's oil ministry, killing a civilian and wounding four others.

Al Qaeda in Iraq Claims Murder of Ghaleb Abdel Mehdi

International terrorist group Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia, claimed responsibility for the assassination of Ghaleb Abdel Mehdi, cabinet adviser and brother of one of Iraq’s two Vice Presidents, Adel Abdel Mehdi, Arab news network Moheet reported

Iraqi police arrest 56 gunmen in Saladin

Iraqi police arrested Monday 56 suspects believed to have taken parts in attacks carried out in the northern Iraqi governorate of Saladin, said an Iraqi police source.

US says bombs Qaeda house, Iraqis say 40 dead

U.S. aircraft bombed a house near the Syrian border before dawn on Monday in what the military said was a precision strike on an al Qaeda leader. A local hospital doctor in the Iraqi town of Qaim said 40 people were killed and 20 wounded...

 

[Barking_Mad]

US dead this month stands at 91 (24 dead in last 7 days)
Total US dead stands at 2,024

 

[Barking_Mad]

US forces leave some bases in north Iraq: general

U.S. military forces in north-central Iraq have closed 10 of their 27 forward operating bases this year and will turn over the Tikrit palace complex of former President Saddam Hussein to the Iraqi government next month, a senior American general said on Friday.

Tikrit is the hometown of Saddam, who is now in prison near Baghdad facing trial on war crimes charges. Army Maj. Gen. Joseph Taluto, commander of the U.S. 42nd Infantry Division, told Pentagon reporters in a teleconference from Iraq that progress had been made since February in training and equipping Iraqi forces to take over military operations from U.S. troops.

But Taluto added that despite moving American forces away from the 10 forward bases in the area that he has commanded since February, he could not predict a major withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq next year.

There are 161,000 American troops in Iraq, the largest number to date in a war that began in March 2003, and President George W. Bush is under pressure amid sinking public approval ratings at home to consider withdrawing forces.

War blamed as 6,000 quit Territorial Army

THE Territorial Army (TA) is suffering a manning crisis with more than 6,000 soldiers quitting in the past year because of the war in Iraq. A £3m television advertising campaign has flopped, bringing in fewer than 600 recruits, and, at 35,000, the strength of the TA has dropped to its lowest point since it was founded in 1907. This is more than 6,000 below its required strength of 41,610.

Ministers admit the real figures are even worse — only 24,000 troops are fully trained and in practice only 12,000 TA soldiers are now available to back up the regular army on operations in Iraq, Afghanistan and the Balkans. The Ministry of Defence has repeatedly denied that the TA was in trouble as a result of Iraq, but the figures released to parliament last week show the situation is far worse than previously claimed.

Don Touhig, a junior defence minister, told MPs in a series of answers to written questions that the numbers of soldiers leaving the TA had more than quadrupled in the immediate aftermath of the Iraq war in 2003. Before the invasion the numbers leaving were steady at about 150 a month, keeping the strength of the TA relatively stable, but as soldiers started coming back from the war in October 2003 they began to leave in droves. Over the next six months, the numbers leaving quadrupled to more than 600 a month and although the figure has dropped slightly since, it is still running at an average of 540, well over three times the pre-war figures.

The Iraq war also necessitated the first compulsory call-up of reservists from all three services since the Korean war in the 1950s with 12,580 mobilised and five reservists among the 97 killed so far. The shortages come as General George Casey, the US commander in Iraq, expressed concern at the lack of troops to patrol the border between the British sector and Iran.

His comments follow the refusal of John Reid, the defence secretary, to allow military commanders to increase the number of British troops in southern Iraq by 25%. Major-General Rob Fulton, the British commander in the south, asked for the 2,000 extra troops to mount a border surveillance operation, senior defence sources said. But it was refused for what senior commanders believe were political reasons with Reid willing to sanction only the addition of fewer than 200 extra troops.

 

[oi2002]

Couple of strong posts on Pat Langs blog. Pat on the lack of heavy equipment in the new Iraqi army:

The army was also not to be allowed to be big enough or strong enough to have the capability to attack its neighbors. Following this line of reasoning, the army was not to be allowed to have armored vehicles or artillery. There is a problem with this reasoning. Armies which are not strong enough to attack neighbors may not be strong enough to defend against them. Military forces should be "sized" on the basis of the CAPABILITIES of potential enemies. Only a fool "sizes" his armed forces on the basis of an estimate of the INTENTIONS of possible enemies. Intentions are ephemera. Capabilities are real. The country's potential external military threats are Iran and Turkey. I judge that they are the only neighboring external powers with the capability to invade Iraq successfully. Iran and Turkey both have large armed forces heavily endowed withthe very gear which neither the National Guard nor new Iraqi Army were issued. Does that make sense?
...
We are going to start trying to withdraw from Iraq in the new year. As our numbers fall we will be able to do less and less, and the Iraqis will have to do more and more. We will inevitably have to leave larger and larger parts of the country to them in the hope that they will provide the security upon which the existence of the Baghdad government will depend.

Will they have tanks, armored personnel carriers and artillery? How about helicopters and just plain old body armor? How about it?

I sure hope that we are going to do the right thing by these people. If not, then they are really "in for it."

They are in for it all right. Bottom line here is DC simply doesn't trust the Iraqis.

Michael Murry is on the money here:

As a victim/veteran of the Nixon-Kissinger Fig Leaf Contingent (Vietnam 1970-1972) I can say on the basis of much bitter experience that our marooned and abused military in Iraq now fights and dies for only one transparent thing: namely, to buy time for George W. Bush and the Republican Party to somehow find a way to spin "retreat" into "victory" in time to save their own sorry asses and cushy, corrupt sinecures. All this talk about what "we" want for the Iraqi people and their "army" will evaporate instantly the minute we get the last of our guys and girls out of that sand trap. We never cared a single additional tax dollar for the Iraqi people before this shameful attack on them and we won't care a thing about them after we've come to our senses and left. George W. Bush has shot our wad. We've already done more than we should have and far more than we can afford.

 

[oi2002]

Kris Alexander looks at the numbers in Iraq and comes out hopeful.

It would be nice if he was right but even if you trust the Pentagon sourced Brookings and Republican Institute figures that light's at the end of a very long tunnel and DC just isn't going to persist in a war that is now a vast strategic deficit.

 

[Barking_Mad]

In violence on Tuesday

a boy wearing an explosives belt blew himself up in...Kirkuk, wounding the city's police chief General Khattab Abdullah Areb ...Just south of Baghdad...at least three Iraqi policemen were killed in a roadside bombing near the town of Mahmudiyah.

Civilian contractors in Iraq dying at faster rate as insurgency grows

As of Monday, 428 civilian contractors had been killed in Iraq and another 3,963 were injured, according to Department of Labor insurance-claims statistics obtained by Knight Ridder.

Rumsfeld: Iraq force may increase temporarily

Coming off one of the deadliest months for American troops, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld indicated Tuesday that the number of U.S. forces in Iraq could rise temporarily as Iraqis prepare to vote in mid-December parliamentary elections.

Suspects arrested in Basra car Bombing

"The owner of the car bomb was arrested early Tuesday a few hours after the attack, followed by that of the operation's planner, who is Iraqi, from Basra, and who belongs to an apostate group" of Sunni fundamentalists...

U.S.offers realistic training in dealing with roadside bombs

A mock airport, library, gas station and bank are opening at this base Wednesday to help U.S. troops learn how to deal with the roadside bombs that have taken such a high toll in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Iraq eyes tourism as US leaves Saddam palace

US commanders on Tuesday moved out of a complex of palaces that once belonged to ousted president Saddam Hussein, a site Iraqi officials hope to turn into a tourist destination.

Military releases 500 Iraqi prisoners

Iraq Five-hundred detainees from Iraq's notorious Abu Ghraib prison are now free after what the military calls a gesture of Ramadan good will. Officials say none of the men committed serious crimes...

US probe recommends possible death for sergeant

A U.S. military probe recommended on Tuesday that a sergeant charged with murdering two colleagues in Iraq face a possible death sentence at a court martial for the first such crime since the 2003 invasion. in a non-binding recommendation

Policeman kidnapped in Samarra

A police officer was kidnapped from his home near Samarra, 100 km (62 miles) north of Baghdad, police said.

Roadside bomb wounds ond South of Baghdad

One civilian was wounded when a police commando patrol was hit by a roadside bomb on the Saydiya highway leading south from the capital, police said.

Two civilians killed in Southern Baghdad

Two civilians were killed and three wounded when a roadside bomb exploded near an Iraqi police commando patrol in southern Baghdad. Two Iraqi police commandos were wounded when their patrol came under fire in a separate attack in the same area.

Two bodies found in Balad

Police in Balad, north of Baghad, said they found two bodies, both of them shot dead. One was identified as a police officer and was found in a river; the other was found in a village nearby.

Civilian killed in Baghdad

One civilian was killed in eastern Baghdad when Iraqi police commandos opened fire by mistake, police said. Another civilian was wounded when a roadside bomb exploded near a U.S. army patrol in the capital, police said.

 

[Barking_Mad]

Ha, democracy in action

Senate Ends Unusual Closed Session On Iraq War

CAPITOL HILL -- The Senate is meeting again in public, after a surprising closed-door session Tuesday afternoon to discuss pre-war intelligence on Iraq. Democratic leader Sen. Harry Reid of Nevada said he and other Democrats forced the Republican-controlled Senate into the unusual closed session because they wanted to "get to the bottom" of the reasons behind the war. Republicans derided the move as a political stunt.

Reid and other Democrats said Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Pat Roberts, R-Kan., reneged on a promise to fully investigate whether the administration exaggerated and manipulated intelligence leading up to the war. Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist said he was blindsided by the move. He charged Democrats "hijacked" the Senate.

While he admitted it was within the rules, he called it a slap in the face to normal procedures. Reid said the nation deserves to know the details of how the United States became engaged in the war, especially following last week's indictment of Vice President Dick Cheney's chief of staff.

 

[Barking_Mad]

They're using WWII ammo? Times must be tough.

.50-caliber ammo used so much that supplies run low

Washington- U.S. troops in Iraq are firing .50-caliber machine guns at such a high rate, the Army is scrambling to resupply them with ammunition - in some cases dusting off crates of World War II machine gun rounds and shipping them off to combat units.

In the conflict that has intensified in Iraq since the U.S. invasion in March 2003, the gun that grunts call the "fiddy-cal" or "Ma Deuce," after its official designation, M-2, has become a ubiquitous sight mounted on armored Humvees and other heavy vehicles.

Above the staccato crackle and squeak of small arms fire, the fiddy-cal's distinctive "THUMP THUMP THUMP" indicates that its 1.6-ounce bullets, exactly the weight of eight quarters, are going downrange at 2,000 mph. The bullets are said to be able to stop an onrushing car packed with deadly explosives dead in its tracks from a mile away. A .50-cal round can travel four miles, generally not with great accuracy.

 

[Barking_Mad]

Talabani rejects any strike on Syria from Iraq

DUBAI (Reuters) - Iraqi President Jalal Talabani said in remarks published on Tuesday he would oppose the use of Iraqi territory as a launchpad for any U.S. military strike on Syria.

"I absolutely reject that Iraqi territory be used as a launchpad for any military strike against Syria or any other Arab country," Talabani told Arabic daily Asharq Al-Awsat. But this is my personal opinion and my capabilities are limited in confronting America's might ... I cannot impose my opinion on them," he added in an interview.

Iraq's President Jalal Talabani looks on during meetings with Iraqi politicians in Baghdad's Green Zone, October 30, 2005. (REUTERS/AliI Haider/Pool)
U.S. President George W. Bush said last month that military action would be a last resort to deal with Syria, which Washington accuses of allowing foreign fighters to cross the border into Iraq, where U.S. troops are fighting a blooding insurgency.

Talabani, who also heads the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), had a long-standing alliance with Syria which allowed him to operate from its territory against former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein.

"I will not say a word against Syria which I owe a lot to. If I have anything to say I will relay it directly to brother (Syrian President) Bashar al-Assad," Talabani said.

 

[Barking_Mad]

Militia ID cards are keys to the city

BAGHDAD -- Identity cards issued to members of Sheik Muqtada al-Sadr's illegal militia are brandished openly in areas controlled by the firebrand Muslim cleric, reflecting widespread defiance of the central government.

Other Iraqis also seek the protection of the cards, which ensure the bearer of safe passage in Sadr City -- home to about 2 million Shi'ites in Baghdad -- and parts of southern Iraq. Private militias are theoretically banned in Iraq, but Sheik al-Sadr's Mahdi Army has cemented its control of the neighborhood so thoroughly that anyone wishing to travel to Sadr City must get permission from the local Sadr offices or risk getting killed.

Maintenance hobbles Iraq electricity

WASHINGTON, Oct. 31 (UPI) -- The Iraqi government's failure to properly maintain its electrical grid has reduced capacity by about 30 percent, according to a new report from the U.S. State Department.

Insurgent attacks -- which twice since June 2005 blacked out Iraq's electrical grid -- and the consumer economy's growing hunger for power, along with maintenance issues, keep Iraq's Ministry of Electricity from meeting demand, according to the Oct. 15 report Report on Iraq Relief and Reconstruction.

"Electricity levels have ... been limited by poor operations and maintenance (O&M) practices, which reduces the output of power plants by up to 30 percent. Finally, Iraq's Ministry of Electricity has been hard pressed to meet and dampen rapidly increasing demand, which has grown 23 percent in the last year, as Iraq's economy continues to expand," the report states.

Before the war, Iraq's power plants produced up to 4,400 megawatts a day, which was distributed unequally across the country with Baghdad heavily favored. Immediately following the war, Iraq's electrical production dropped to 2,500 megawatts.

 

[Barking_Mad]

US unveils new prison in Iraq

Sulaimaniyah - The US military has opened a new prison with capacity for more than 1 700 detainees near the Kurdish city of Sulaimaniyah, north of Baghdad, it said on Sunday. Fort Suse began operations on October 17 and the first inmates arrived on October 24, a statement said.

"The opening of Fort Suse is a big step in the transition of detention operations to the Iraqis," it added, quoting Major General William Brandenburg, commanding general of detainee operations.

"It will be the first facility to be completely turned over to Iraqi control.

"This complete transition of operations will take place after extensive training of Iraqi guards and only after they are completely confident in their ability to run this facility."

The site is an old Russian-built army training centre that was renovated in a little more than two months with a workforce of about 400 and a budget of $8m. The prison will be handed over when "Iraqi guards are confident in their ability to maintain the same high-quality level of care and control currently maintained by coalition forces," the statement said.

 

[Barking_Mad]

Trouble.......

Mosul Leaders Threaten to Join Guerrilla Movement

Northern Iraq is a sectarian tinderbox after Saturday's massive car bombing of a Shiite village near Baqubah in the mixed Diyalah province. The Iraqi Islamic Party (Sunni) called for calm and avoidance of reprisal killings, seeing the bombing of the Shiites and the killing of 25 Mahdi Army militiamen in an ambush in Baghdad on Friday by Sunni Arabs as steps toward sectarian civil war. Al-Sharq al-Awsat reports that the Shiite Badr Corps militia is denying any link to the assassination last week of Saadoun al-Janabi, a defense lawyer for one of Saddam's relatives.

Some 51 clan elders from the Sunni Arab and Kurdish families of Mosul agreed with policemen in the city that they will return it to the control of armed guerrillas if the Interior Ministry implemented its decision to fire Ninevah's police chief, Ahmad Muhammad al-Juburi, who is accused of corruption. Hundreds of armed men surrounded the provincial headquarters on Saturday evening to protest al-Juburi's firing. US troops stopped the protesters from storming the building. The armed protesters, including police and civilians, surrounded a number of government buildings. They shouted through megaphones, complaining of Kurdish domination of provincial offices.

and here

Saturday's demonstration, which saw both civilian and police protesters firing into the air in downtown Mosul followed a joint statement by leaders of dozens of local Sunni Arab tribes. They said in a letter to Prime Minister Ibrahim Jaafari that allegations against Jibouri were not sufficiently investigated and his sacking was based on ethnic and political grounds.

"If you intend to approve this dismissal, you can expect to hear that the province has fallen into our hands within 24 hours," the letter said.

Residents of Mosul said the situation in the city appeared calm on Sunday. A police official said Jibouri remained in his office, but was planning to return to his home outside the city later in the day. Mosul, Iraq's third largest city about 400 km (250 miles) north of Baghdad, lies near some of Iraq's richest oil fields and has a history of sectarian strife. Arabs accuse Kurdish leaders, whose autonomous region of Kurdistan lies just outside the city, of packing Mosul with Kurds. The Kurds deny this.

 

[Barking_Mad]

one for the conspiracy theorists?
By the Rivers of Babylon

American plans for Iraq have been fully revealed since in the context of the wider strategy exposed by former US ‘‘covert’’ economic agent John Perkins in his best-selling ‘‘Confessions of an Economic HitMan’’. The Bush government is still bent on duplicating the now famous JECOR (US-Saudi Joint Economic Cooperation Agreement) which, from the 1970s onwards made Saudi Arabia an American dominion whose economy fell under the complete control of the US Treasury Department (with virtually unlimited profits for selected contractors), against military guarantees for the perpetuation of the Saudi monarchy. Throughout the 80s and 90s Washington demanded that Saddam agree to the same arrangement and made several ‘‘offers he could not refuse’’. He preferred to seek separate agreements with European and Asian countries, sealing his own doom in the process.

Plan B, sponsored by current World Bank Chairman Paul Wolfowitz among others, consisted in taking over the country militarily while carrying out extensive destruction of the infrastructure and then rebuilding at Iraq’s own costs with mostly American corporations. The USA thus hoped to give a new lease of life to their faltering economy, crushed under an avalanche of debt.

The US-British plan was to bring Iraq back into a renovated Baghdad Pact (CENTO). The next steps included the taking over of Syria (now in process) and Iran in order to create a pro-Atlantic alliance encompassing the oil-rich Middle East upto Pakistan, — with the hope of adding India to it — as well as Central Asia. For now however, the American forces have no hope of winning a long-lasting victory against an elusive, self-regenerating, guerilla-savvy enemy. Their recent expeditions in pursuit of ‘‘insurgents and criminals,’’ typically planned by armchair absentee generals, have all ended in murky failure.

Fearful of the prospect of Iraq falling under the sway of Iran’s Shiite theocracy, the neighbouring Arab states are providing support to the Sunni resistance even while it is decimating their self-styled American allies. The Iranian Revolutionary guards, after setting up an Iraqi branch of the Hezbollah militia, have undermined the tenuous British hold on the Shiite South, together with Moqtada Al Sadr’s Nationalist Mahdi army which however wants to maintain the country’s unity and is willing to ally with some Sunni factions for that cause. All the ingredients are therefore available for a protracted, regional civil war pitting Saudi Arabia and other Arab states against Iran.

Even more ominously, the Pentagon’s secret Strategic Support Services (the P2OG), rely more and more on para-military forces, recruiting mercenaries and killers in many countries to fight ‘‘unconventionally’’ in Iraq. The methods seem to include, according to several converging testimonies, remotely activated car-bombs, used to wreak random havoc among ordinary Iraqis , thereby hoping to turn them against the resistance by demonising it as an ally of ‘‘Al Qaeda in Iraq’’. That shadowy body gives some indications of being either a product of Anglo-American counter-intelligence ‘‘black operations’’ or a thorougly compromised and manipulated agency, used to keep both ordinary Iraqis and Americans hostile to the terrorist insurgency and supportive of Washington’s ‘‘War on Terror’’.