*IRAQ: latest news and developments

[Barking_Mad]

US helicopter crash kills 2 Marines in Iraq

A U.S. helicopter crashed in the area of Ramadi west of Baghdad on Wednesday killing two Marines, the U.S. military said. A military statement said the AH-1W "Super Cobra" helicopter crashed at around 8.15 am (0515 GMT).

US Patrol attacked in Ramadi

In Ramadi...insurgents used guns, rockets and roadside bombs to attack U.S. patrols late Tuesday...[AP TV] News obtained a video from the scene showing a burning civilian vehicle and what appeared to be the exploded

Five Iraqi soldiers were killed

Five Iraqi soldiers were killed and four wounded when a roadside bomb went off near their patrol in the southeastern district of Baghdad, police said.

Roadside bomb misses U-S convoy in Iraq, Kills Five Iraqis

Police say a bomb intended for a U-S military convoy traveling south of Baghdad hit a private minibus that was behind the convoy. Five Iraqis were killed and six wounded.

 

[oi2002]

Big PDF from our old free blowjob averse friend Newt Gingrich on the dire state of US inteligence. Some of this is a little nuts.

Proximity too Guy Fawkes excepted the parallels between Jihadis and Catholics in Elisbethan England is interesting but a little odd. If I was looking for a historical example of a domestic menace its the much more marginal radical Protestant groups of the renaissance or the Puritans in the early 17th century. Ideologically very similar to Jihadis, fundamentalist revolutionaries, fully engaged with modernity and set on building a new Jerusalem. At this point I'd not pick a savagely unstable police state that was bent on forcibly suppressing the traditional faith of its population.

Anyway on page 36, an Intelligence Reform Assessment of a Career Military Intelligence Officer offers his thoughts on Iraq.

The insurgency in Iraq is America’s top national security problem. If it succeeds in frustrating our objectives we will suffer a major defeat in Iraq, the Middle East, and the GWOT. Intelligence is key to successful counter insurgency operations and global counter-terrorism operations. And we have not used our intelligence capability to the best advantage. The Iraq insurgency is a complex and adaptive phenomenon. It uses internal and external information operations, resources (personnel, money, logistics etc.), and business networks, similar to AQ networks. Our inadequate intelligence effort allows terrorist and Iraqi networks outside Iraq to intermingle, fueling the Iraqi insurgency. The national community – FBI, Treasury, DIA and CIA all-source efforts - are not doing enough to identify the networks that are moving foreign fighters/suicide bombers to Iraq and haven’t identified the specific components of the insurgent networks within and external to Iraq, including key nodes, leadership, facilitators, bomb-makers and financial support systems. Despite progress, we need to address shortcomings and energize efforts to retool, reorient and resource intelligence for the counter-insurgency in Iraq. The key to defeating the insurgency is deep and clinical understanding of the insurgent phenomenon leading to actionable intelligence and effective counter-insurgents operations and programs. A new intelligence approach to Iraq will pay-off globally. It is still our war to win, but we need the intelligence to do it while there is still time.

 

[oi2002]

Open thread on Intel Dump on Iraq.

There are two reasons for this change of heart. First, the Bush-Cheney-Rumsfeld crew has been so mendaciously and imperiously incompetent that there is no reason to have any confidence whatsoever that the outcome of any new strategy they come up with will not be worse than pulling the plug, the results of which will unquestionably be bad. They have fucked up just about everything they’ve touched regarding this adventure, and what they didn’t (mainly the initial invasion and conquest of the country under General Franks) wasn’t for lack of trying. Secondly, whatever plan B (or F, G or H) is, it will have to intimately involve the nearby nations in the Middle East and Asia as well as our disenchanted allies in the industrialized world. It will also have to involve the UN, and perhaps even NATO. None of this will be forthcoming in any meaningful way as long as Bush remains president, even if he were to undergo another conversion experience, turn his back on his sinful neocon ways and embrace the lord of reality. The George W. Bush Administration has brought about a catastrophic collapse of American credibility abroad that is personalized in the president himself. The facts of the depth of revilement and distrust of the man in most other countries has been shamelessly suppressed by our mainstream media. It remains to be seen by the next administration, whatever it is, how enduring this damage will be in the long term.

another poster:

But the really big elephant is Israel. Israel—another made-up state—is the root cause of radical Islam. I've got nothing against the Israelis—in fact I generally support and admire them—but they don’t do us a whole lot of favors. Unless and until we can come up with a grand unified strategy in the Mideast that incorporates the Israeli issue and also addresses such corrupt states as Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Pakistan—which get free passes from us, further inflaming radical passions—we will continue to fuel radical Islam. One might also note that questionable detention practices and the foreclosing of access by Iraqis and other Arabs to lucrative contract work in Iraq doesn’t help, either. It sometimes seems as if we’re helping our adversaries write their propaganda.
...
When it comes to theories about just why we launched this grand adventure, I’ve now decided that those who say we did it to show the Arab world that the US was no weakling and thus deserved respect have it just about right. It wasn’t WMD, it wasn’t liberation. It was to show ‘em who's boss. I think we then went in with a half-assed plan based on wishful thinking, exacerbated it with stupidity in the aftermath of the invasion and are now paying for it big time

 

[oi2002]

Defense Tech finds high morale amongst US troops in Iraq but also some cynicism:

“Democracy? Here? Are you fucking kidding me?” one sergeant laughed, as we drove near the Abu Ghraib prison. This was from a guy from helped safeguard the January round of elections. He figures the place will collapse into civil war as soon as U.S. troops leave.

 

[oi2002]

Lind proposes an exit strategy:

Please note that I am not talking about how to win the Iraq war. The war was lost from before the first bomb fell, because the strategic objectives were never attainable no matter what we did. Further blunders, from de-Baathification and sending the Iraqi Army home, through mistreating the civilian population, have moved us from mere failure to incipient disaster. The question, rather, is how we might get out without our defeat being so obvious as to be undeniable.

So here is my proposal:

First, announce that we will leave Iraq soon, and completely. Not one American base or soldier will remain on Iraqi soil. The spin should be, “We came only to remove Saddam from power, and we have accomplished that mission. Iraq now has a constitution and an elected government; we have no reason to remain.”

Second, open negotiations to set a date by which we will be gone. The formal negotiations will be with the Iraqi government. Behind the scenes, we will have to set a deadline for achieving an agreement, failing which we will announce a withdrawal unilaterally. Governments established by foreign powers may be reluctant to see foreign troops leave.

The critical (and secret) negotiations, however, will not be with Iraq's puppet government, but with the Sunnis. Here, what we need is what is sometimes called a “diplomatic revolution.” Instead of siding with the Kurds and Shiites against the Sunnis, we need to offer the Sunnis an alliance. The terms would be roughly these:

• We will set and adhere to a date for complete withdrawal;

• We will cease all attacks on the Sunni resistance, as part of a mutual cease-fire; and

• We will use such political influence as we retain with Iraq's Shiite-Kurdish condominium to protect and advance the Sunnis' interests.

In return, the Sunnis will:

• Enforce a cease-fire in the Sunni provinces, and

• Clean up Al Qaeda in Iraq. If they need and want our help to do that, we will help. I doubt they will need any assistance from us, beyond stopping our attacks in Sunni areas, and I doubt even more they will want it, since it would de-legitimize them.

Third, while we will cease our useless “sweeps” and other clearly offensive actions, we will also quietly institute the “inkblot strategy” in some mixed Sunni-Shiite-Kurdish areas. While the inkblot strategy (like the CAP program in Vietnam) represents a strategic offensive, which allows us to keep pressure on the Sunnis to make a deal, it requires de-escalation on the tactical level, so as not to alienate the local population. That should help reduce both Sunni and American casualties while negotiations proceed.

 

[oi2002]

That nice Mr Ahmadinejad is so helpful to his Iraqi friends:

The president said Iran was willing to offer its experience and expertise to rebuild Iraq and insisted on expediting work to set up an oil pipeline between Iran's port city of Abadan and Basra, Iraq's second largest city.

Ahmadinejad also called for completing a railway project connecting both countries. He said Iraq could use Iranian ports as a transit route to export goods.

Interesting that Kofi Annan thought to visit Tehran so soon after the wiping Israel of the map incident would be tactless.

Ahmad Chalabi has a thicker skin.

 

[Barking_Mad]

US dead do far this month 28

 

[Barking_Mad]

Baghdad's mortuary reels under the weight of killings

Last month there were 972 corpses received, almost all victims of violent death. The vast majority were brought in with bullet holes. Many had their hands bound and faces mutilated. No one knows quite how many people are being killed in Iraq or by whom.

 

[Barking_Mad]

Bomb attack on Baghdad restaurant

More than 30 people have been killed and at least 19 others wounded in a suicide bomb attack on a restaurant in Baghdad, Iraqi officials have said.
Witnesses said the explosion in the city centre could be heard from several miles away, soon after 0930 (0630 GMT). The restaurant is said to be frequented by police officers.

It comes a day after at least six people were killed and 25 others hurt in two car bomb blasts in a mainly Shia district in north-eastern Baghdad. At least five Iraqi policemen were also killed and nine others wounded by a suicide bomb attack near the Iraqi city of Baquba, north of Baghdad. Wednesday's attacks came as US and Iraqi forces announced they had secured the town of Husayba on the Syrian border, in a major operation targeting insurgents along the Euphrates valley.

In the latest attack, at least one suicide bomber detonated explosives strapped to his body inside a restaurant crowded with people having breakfast, police said. Several police officers and more than 20 civilians were among those killed, Major Abdel-Hussein Minsef told the Associated Press news agency.

 

[Barking_Mad]

27 Bodies Found in Southern Iraq

Twenty-seven bodies were found south of Baghdad, AFP reported citing a statement of the Iraqi Army. The bodies were found near the southern town of Al-Kut. All the victims were killed by firearms. They were dressed in civil clothes

Six dead after car bombs explode near mosque

Two car bombs exploded this evening near a Shiite Muslim mosque in north-east Baghdad, killing at least six people and injuring 31, police and paramedics at the scene said.

Five civilians were killed in a U.S. air strike

Five civilians were killed in a U.S. air strike on a house being used by insurgents on Nov. 7, the military said. The insurgents had killed two occupants when they forced their way into the house to use it to attack U.S. and Iraqi forces.

Explosion rocks recruitment centre in Tikrit

Five Iraqis were killed and 11 wounded on Thursday when a car bomb exploded outside an Iraqi army recruitment centre in Tikrit, Saddam Hussein's home town, police said.

Two police killed in Mosul

Two police officers were killed by gunmen in the northern city of Mosul, police said.

Seven wounded in Baghdad attacks

Three civilians were wounded when a roadside bomb exploded in eastern Baghdad, police said. The target of the bomb was not clear. Four policemen were injured when they were attacked by gunmen in southern Baghdad, police said.

Two killed in Baghdad shooting

A man and a women working for the city council were killed by gunmen in the western Ghazaliya district of the capital, police said. The married couple were in their way to work when they were attacked.

Intelligence officer killed in Basra

An intelligence officer was killed by gunmen in the southern city of Basra, intelligence officials said.

 

[oi2002]

Interesting comment on Pat Lang's blog exploring why the essentially Iraqi insurgency is misrepresented by the Pentagon:

"Jordan's" opinion squares closely with a recent conversation I had with a field grade officer (recently returned) who is convinced we can WIN if only the "cuffs would come off" and we could get the "2,000 guys" we "know are at the heart of the insurgency." (Of course, this officer could not tell me how reliably (or even how) we know about thes 2000 leaders.) This same officer recognizes the mendacity of our entry into this war and is appalled by the incompetence displayed by NCA-level in failing to provide for proper post conflict planning. But, he still thinks we can win.
...
Due to ignorance and deliberate misinformation, our folks believe they continue to fight the ever present "AQ" enemy in Iraq. Almost none of our troops speak Arabic, understand Iraqi history, or tribal culture. The average soldier could never tell the difference between a Syrian, Iranian, Egyptian or Iraqi - to them they are all "Jihadis" and deserving of a trip to an "AWR". Raised in a anti-Muslim, anti-Arab worldview shaped by 25 years of one-sided stories (Iran hostages, Beruit, GW I, Palestinians, terrorism, etc), they are easily swayed to the belief they are fighting "ragheads" not worthy of their respect. It is easy for them to believe that AQ is everywhere in Iraq and going at them in a climactic battle against the great satan.

 

[oi2002]

Kurdo on the less than perfect flowering of democracy in Kurdistan:

The Iraqi president said "Those who voted against the constitution are terrorists". (What the hell...Is this supposed to be democracy ? If I vote No or Yes it is my right and people should not call me a terrorist just because I disagree)...

On TV, a Kurdish Minister was speaking. A caller said "What have you done in your post apart from stealing money". The Minister became angry and soon the caller was cut out. The Minister said "This is an example of a terrorist Kurd-hater. All these who speak against us are terrorists and facists and should be punished severly". (What the hell...If I disagree with the government, I am a terrorist. Welcome to democracy).

 

[newharper]

Kurdo on the less than perfect flowering of democracy in Kurdistan:

well they had plenty of coaching.

"Lowest of all, Bush suggested that even to question his veracity was to give aid and comfort to the enemy—the constitutional definition of treason.

“These baseless attacks send the wrong signal to our troops, and to an enemy that is questioning America’s will,” he said.

That’s the last defense of this scoundrel: Wrapping himself in the flag, and denouncing anyone who dares to criticize him for deceitfulness as helping out the enemy and hurting the troops.

This is the tattered old Ashcroft card. Bush’s first attorney general, when questioned about his civil liberties infringements, said that such criticisms “only aid terrorists, for they erode our national unity and diminish our resolve. They give ammunition to America's enemies, and pause to America's friends.”"

http://www.commondreams.org/views05/1112-25.htm

 

[mk12]

Iraq detainees 'found starving'

Iraq detainees found starving

Iraq's government says it has begun an investigation into the alleged abuse of more than 170 detainees held by Iraqi security forces in Baghdad.

 

[oi2002]

From Desert Storm to Metal Storm: How Iraq Has Spoiled US-Turkish Relations
And that's no small thing; unlike the Israelis who just catch a free ride on uncle Sam's coat tails Turkey is actually strategically useful to the US.

 

[Barking_Mad]

Number of US dead this month - 50 including 10 in the last 2 days. Looks like there is a lot of fighting going on around the Syrian border with the US raiding lots of small towns and villages in the area. 35 out of the 50 were killed by IED or suicide car bomb.

 

[jeff_leigh]

From Desert Storm to Metal Storm: How Iraq Has Spoiled US-Turkish Relations
And that's no small thing; unlike the Israelis who just catch a free ride on uncle Sam's coat tails Turkey is actually strategically useful to the US.

oi2002 the link won't open

 

[sihhi]

oi2002 the link won't open

add an "f"

http://www.currenthistory.com/org_pdf_files/104/685/104_685_380.pdf

If it still doesn't work PM me and I'll send it you.
It has quite a decent chronology even if the analysis is wrong.

 

[oi2002]

add an "f"

http://www.currenthistory.com/org_pdf_files/104/685/104_685_380.pdf

If it still doesn't work PM me and I'll send it you.
It has quite a decent chronology even if the analysis is wrong.

Appears to be buggered. Ho hum.

 

[WholeNuIdentity]

Appears to be buggered. Ho hum.

you can grab a copy from google cache here if you want
http://66.249.93.104/search?q=cache...w+Iraq+Has+Spoiled+US-Turkish+Relations&hl=en

i suspect this link will only work for a short period of time...

 

[oi2002]

Chuck Hagel a man who would be President:

We face the possibility of a much more dangerous and destabilized Middle East, with consequences that would extend far beyond the region’s borders. There have been positive, recent developments in Libya, Syria, Lebanon and Gaza. To maximize the potential of these developments, the United States must demonstrate diplomatic agility to adjust and respond to the uncertainties, nuances and uncontrollables that the region will continue to face.

 

[Barking_Mad]

U.S. has detained 83,000 in war on terror

WASHINGTON - The United States has detained more than 83,000 foreigners in the four years of the war on terror, enough to nearly fill the NFL's largest stadium. The administration defends the practice of holding detainees in prisons from Afghanistan to Guantanamo Bay as a critical tool to stop the insurgency in Iraq, maintain stability in Afghanistan and get known and suspected terrorists off the streets.

Roughly 14,500 detainees remain in U.S. custody, primarily in Iraq.

The number has steadily grown since the first CIA paramilitary officers touched down in Afghanistan in the fall of 2001, setting up more than 20 facilities including the "Salt Pit," an abandoned factory outside Kabul used for CIA detention and interrogation.

In Iraq, the number in military custody hit a peak on Nov. 1, according to military figures. Nearly 13,900 suspects were in U.S. custody there that day - partly because U.S. offensives in western Iraq put pressure on insurgents before the October constitutional referendum and December parliamentary elections.

The detentions and interrogations have brought complaints from Congress and human-rights groups about how the detainees - often Arab and male - are treated.

 

[Barking_Mad]

Worth the full read.

Sunnis Demand Probe of Torture Allegations

Iraq's main Sunni Arab political party on Wednesday demanded an international investigation into allegations that security forces illegally detained and tortured suspected insurgents at secret jails in Baghdad.

In fighting in western Iraq, five U.S. Marines were killed and 11 wounded while searching a house Wednesday, according to an embedded New York Times reporter. The U.S. military does not normally report deaths until 24 hours after they happen.

In Baghdad, Omar Heikal of the Iraqi Islamic Party said it was now clear that majority Shiites in the U.S.-backed government were trying to suppress minority Sunnis ahead of the Dec. 15 parliamentary elections.

"Our information indicates that this is not the only place where torture is taking place," he said, reading an official party statement. The party "calls on the United Nations, the Arab League and humanitarian bodies to denounce these clear human rights violations, and we demand a fair, international probe so that all those who are involved in such practices will get their just punishment."

In a related development, at least four Iraqi policemen were treated at Yarmouk Hospital for injuries they said were suffered in beatings by men who identified themselves as Interior Ministry commandos after they were stopped Monday on patrol in the Dora neighborhood of southwest Baghdad.

An Associated Press photographer and an AP Television News cameraman saw long, thin black and blue bruises and welts on their backs and shoulders. None of them appeared to be so seriously injured as to require hospitalization.

The men were visibly nervous and refused to speak in detail about their ordeal, fearing reprisals. They told AP journalists that they were blindfolded and taken to an unknown location but were released after the "Americans interfered." They refused to give their names or say more.

 

[Barking_Mad]

U.S. man charged in Iraq kickback scheme

WASHINGTON -- An American businessman living overseas paid at least $630,000 in kickbacks to U.S. occupation authority officials to win reconstruction contracts in Iraq, according to a federal affidavit made public Wednesday.

Philip H. Bloom, a U.S. citizen who has lived in Romania for many years, was arrested recently at Newark International Airport in New Jersey. He appeared Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Washington and remains in federal custody.

Prosecutors at the court hearing did not detail the charges against Bloom, but U.S. Magistrate Judge Deborah Robinson said they involve money laundering and conspiracy to defraud the government. The charges remain under seal.

"We're in the process of reviewing the allegations," said Robert A. Mintz, Bloom's lawyer.

The U.S. is spending tens of billions of dollars to rebuild Iraq. The award of more than $10 billion to Halliburton Co. and its subsidiaries in 2003 and 2004, some of it in no-bid contracts, has drawn criticism from lawmakers and others.

Justice Department officials said they are unaware of previous indictments arising from contracting fraud in Iraq. But the charges against Bloom stem from a series of audits by Stuart W. Bowen Jr., the U.S. special inspector general for Iraq reconstruction.

A government affidavit alleges that Bloom conspired with officials of the Coalition Provisional Authority and U.S. military to rig bids for contracts in Al-Hillah and Karbala, cities 50 to 60 miles south of Baghdad. In some cases, Bloom's companies performed no work, Patrick McKenna Jr., an investigator in the inspector general's office, said in the affidavit.

 

[Barking_Mad]

South Korea slashing troop presence in Iraq by a third

South Korea has announced plans to pull a third of its troops out of Iraq next year...Roughly 32-hundred South Korean troops are stationed in northern Iraq -- the third-largest contingent after America's and Britain's in the U-S-led coalition.

Former Iraqi MP kidnapped in Baghdad

Gunmen kidnapped here on Thursday a former member of the Iraqi National Assembly Tawfiq Al-Yasri, who is also the head of "Sun of Iraq" electoral list, said an Iraqi police here on Thursday.

U.S. to Iraq: Curb Use of Shiite Militias

BAGHDAD, Iraq - The United States warned Iraqi officials Thursday against allowing Shiite militias a role in the security services following allegations of torture of Sunni Arabs by the Shiite-led Interior Ministry. The official in charge of the ministry said torture claims were exaggerated.

Sectarian rhetoric sharpened four days after U.S. troops found up to 173 malnourished detainees _ some showing signs of torture _ in an Interior Ministry building in the capital's Jadriyah district. Most were believed to be Sunni Arabs, the main group in the insurgency.

A leader of a major Sunni party, Tariq al-Hashimi, told Iraq's Sharqiyah television that his group had submitted 50 complaints of prisoner abuse to the government "but we did not receive a timely response."

However, Interior Minister Bayn Jabr, a Shiite, brushed aside the complaints, denied sectarian bias and claimed that "every time" al-Hashimi has differences with him "he exerts pressure on me through the U.S. Embassy."

"I reject torture and I will punish those who perform torture," Jabr said. "No one was beheaded, no one was killed" _ a clear reference to the beheadings of foreign and Iraqi hostages by insurgents including al-Qaida's Iraq wing.

 

[Barking_Mad]

Police officer and son killed in Ramadi

Iraqi police found the bodies of police Lieutenant Colonel Sulaiman al-Dulaimi and his son in Ramadi on Thursday after they were abducted a day earlier. Both had gunshot wounds to the head and chest, a doctor at Ramadi hospital said.

Three Danish soldiers injured in S. Iraq

Up to three Danish soldiers were injured in a bomb explosion inside their camp in Basra, in southern Iraq...three soldiers were wounded as they were trying to dismantle a bomb inside their camp on Wednesday night.

This was from a few days ago, I missed a lot of news but I meant to put this up and forgot.......
Bodies found in Iraq town after US offensive-doctor

RAMADI, Iraq, Nov 12 (Reuters) - An Iraqi Red Crescent doctor said on Saturday more than 50 bodies had been found in the rubble of a town near the Syrian border which U.S.-led troops swept through this week in an anti-insurgent offensive.

Around 2,500 U.S. troops and 1,000 Iraqi soldiers launched Operation Steel Curtain a week ago around the western town of Qusayba. They conducted house-to-house searches to root out insurgents and destroyed a number of houses in airstrikes.

The U.S. military says it has detained around 180 insurgents and killed at least 36 more in the operation, which was continuing in the nearby town of Karabila on Friday.

It said around 900 civilians who fled the town were given temporary housing nearby during the operation.

As residents started to trickle back to Qusayba in recent days, doctor Saif al-Ani, who works for the Red Crescent in the Qaim area, told Reuters they had unearthed at least 54 bodies in the rubble, including some women and children.

There was no immediate response from the U.S. military to questions about the casualties.

 

[Barking_Mad]

Interesting read.........

Secretive firm helps U.S. wage information war abroad

WASHINGTON // To fight what it sees as an insidious propaganda war waged by militants, from incendiary Web sites to one-sided television images of the Iraq war, the Pentagon has been quietly waging its own information battle throughout the Middle East and Central Asia.

One of its primary weapons is a secretive firm that has been criticized as ineffective and too expensive.

The Rendon Group, directed by former Democratic Party political operative John Rendon, has garnered more than $56 million in work from the Pentagon since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

These contracts list such activities as tracking foreign reporters; "pushing" news favorable to U.S. forces; planting television news segments that promote American positions; and creating a grass-roots voting effort in Puerto Rico on behalf of the U.S. Navy, according to Pentagon records.

The contracts, some of which were obtained by the watchdog group Judicial Watch through a Freedom of Information Act request, reveal that the Bush administration is engaged in a constant war of images and words with al-Qaida and other radical groups.

 

[Barking_Mad]

Among Insurgents in Iraq, Few Foreigners Are Found

BAGHDAD -- Before 8,500 U.S. and Iraqi soldiers methodically swept through Tall Afar two months ago in the year's largest counterinsurgency offensive, commanders described the northern city as a logistics hub for fighters, including foreigners entering the country from Syria, 65 miles to the west.

"They come across the border and use Tall Afar as a base to launch attacks across northern Iraq," Col. H.R. McMaster, commander of the Army's 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment, which led the assault, said in a briefing the day before it began.

When the air and ground operation wound down in mid-September, nearly 200 insurgents had been killed and close to 1,000 detained, the military said at the time. But interrogations and other analyses carried out in recent weeks showed that none of those captured was from outside Iraq. According to McMaster's staff, the 3rd Armored Cavalry last detained a foreign fighter in June.

 

[Barking_Mad]

Iraq attacks kill nine policemen

The restaurant bomb appeared to target policemen having breakfast
At least nine Iraqi policemen have been killed in three separate attacks by insurgents in Baghdad and the northern city of Kirkuk on Tuesday.
Four policemen were shot dead in an ambush east of Kirkuk, while three others were killed and three wounded by a roadside bomb in the centre.

In eastern Baghdad, two policemen were killed and at least six injured by a car bomb planted near a restaurant.

Meanwhile, a professor was shot dead outside his university in Baghdad.

Jasim al-Fidawi taught Arabic literature at Mustansiriya University.

The attack comes a day after another professor and his driver were killed there, a defence ministry official said.

 

[Barking_Mad]

Sniper hunts 2 US soldiers west of Baghdad

FALLUJAH, Iraq, Nov. 12 (Xinhuanet) -- An insurgent sniper hunted two US soldiers in the flashpoint city of Fallujah, west of Baghdad, on Saturday, a witness said.

"A sniper opened fire at a US military patrol in Souq al-Qadiem district, and picked off two soldiers before he fled the scene," Abdul-Rahman told Xinhua.

"Another insurgent hurled a grenade at a US patrol in the city damaging a US Humvee, but it was not known whether there was any casualty," he said.

US troops returned fire and cordoned off the area and searched for the attackers, he added. Fallujah, some 50 km west of Baghdad in the restive Anbar province, has witnessed frequent attacks against US and Iraqi forces.