*IRAQ: latest news and developments

[Barking_Mad]

4 civilians killed and 4 wounded by roadside bombs

Four civilians were killed when two roadside bombs went off in quick succession in central Baghdad, police said. Four people were wounded when a roadside bomb went off in eastern Baghdad, police said.

Four policemen wounded by roadside bombs

Two policemen were wounded when a roadside bomb went off close to their patrol near al-Kindi hospital in eastern Baghdad...in eastern Baghdad, two policemen were wounded when a roadside bomb exploded near a police check point in eastern Baghdad...

 

[Barking_Mad]

Driver of kidnapped Arab diplomat dies in Baghdad

A Sudanese driver for an Arab diplomat in Baghdad has died after being shot as he tried to stop gunmen kidnapping the envoy, police said on Wednesday.

Iraqis to Present Cabinet on Saturday

Prime Minister-designate Nouri al-Maliki will present his Cabinet to parliament on Saturday, signaling a possible end to months of uncertainty after legislative elections, Shiite and Sunni deputies said.

INSURGENTS TURN BOLDER IN IRAQ

BAGHDAD [MENL] -- The U.S. military has quietly acknowledged that insurgents -- despite the growth of Iraqi security forces -- have grown bolder in their attacks.

U.S. officers said fighters aligned with Al Qaida and Saddam Hussein have been attacking military bases in the Sunni Triangle. They said the fighters plant bombs near the entrance of major bases and in one case entered a base and conducted a suicide strike.

"They are bold and getting bolder," U.S. Maj. Mike Jason, adviser to the Iraq Army's 1st Battalion, said.

Jason has been serving on a military transition team at Camp Taji, north of Baghdad and near the Tigris River. The camp has become the target of numerous improvised explosive devices attacks, some of them planted by unemployed Iraqis paid the equivalent of a few U.S. dollars.

 

[Barking_Mad]

Photos from Iraq - be warned many of them are very shocking in nature.

 

[Barking_Mad]

Basra carnage escalates as one person killed every hour

One person is being assassinated in Basra every hour, as order in Iraq's second city disintegrates, according to an Iraqi Defence Ministry official.

And a quarter of all Iraqi children suffer from malnutrition, a survey of 20,000 households by the Iraqi government and Unicef says.

The number of violent killings in Basra is now at a level close to that of Baghdad, and marks the failure of the British Army's three-year attempt to quell violence there. Police no longer dare go to the site of a murder because they fear being attacked. The governor of Basra, Mohammed Misbahal-Wa'ili, is trying to sack the city's police chief, claiming that the police have not carried out a single investigation into hundreds of recent assassinations.

The collapse of government authority in Iraq is increasing at every level and leaders in Baghdad have yet to form a cabinet, five months after parliamentary elections on 15 December.

 

[Barking_Mad]

News from the 17th May

Eight bodies found different parts of Baghdad

Eight bodies were found with gun shot wounds in different parts of Baghdad, police said.

Gunmen kidnap tribal leader in Kerbala

Gunmen kidnapped a tribal leader after storming into his house in the sacred city of Kerbala, 110 km southeast of Baghdad, police said.

Body found near the Syrian border

Police found the body of a man, handcuffed, blindfolded, tortured and shot dead near the Syrian border, police said

Body of Finance Ministry official found in morgue

The body of Muhib Abdul-Razzak, a general director in the Finance Ministry, was found in the morgue after he was kidnapped earlier in the week, police and ministry officials said.

Policeman killed in Kirkuk

One Iraqi soldier was killed and four wounded when a roadside bomb struck their convoy in Kirkuk, police said.

Body found and civilian kidnapped in Kirkuk

One Iraqi soldier was killed and four wounded when a roadside bomb struck their convoy in Kirkuk, police said...Gunmen kidnapped a man in Kirkuk, police said.

Iraqi Shiite militants sentence all gays to death

Hard-line Shiite militias in Baghdad have issued a blanket death sentence for homosexuals, lesbians, prostitutes, liberal professors and booksellers.

 

[Barking_Mad]

Roadside bomb kills policeman in Najaf

A policeman was killed and three wounded when a roadside bomb went off near a convoy of U.S. military and Iraqi police vehicles near the Shi'ite city of Najaf, 160 km south of Baghdad, police said.

Gunmen wound military intelligence lieutenant-colonel

Gunmen wounded a military intelligence lieutenant-colonel along with his driver in the southern city of Basra, 550 km south of Baghdad, an intelligence source said.

Former football player killed in Basra

Gunmen killed Nazar Abdulzahra, a former football player in Iraq's national team, in Basra on Wednesday, police said on Thursday.

Bodies found in al-Malih village

Iraqi police found the bodies of two people, handcuffed, blindfolded and shot dead, in al-Malih village, about 75 km south of Baghdad, police said.

Mortar round kills 4 guards in Baghdad's Dora neighborhood

An open market in Baghdad's Dora neighborhood was hit by a single mortar round, killing four guards and wounding another, Baghdad police said.

Former Baath party member and teacher killed in Karbala

In Karbala, 50 miles south of Baghdad, gunmen killed a math teacher and former senior Baath party member as he was leaving his house, police spokesman Rahman Mishawi said.

Teacher and student killed in a drive-by shooting.

In the northern oil hub of Kirkuk, four men murdered a teacher and a student from technical school in a drive-by shooting. The gunmen were subsequently arrested.

8 Iraqis killed in attack on minibus in Iraq's capital

Gunmen stopped a minibus and killed all eight Iraqis aboard it in Baghdad on Thursday...seven car mechanics heading to work and their minibus driver. The gunmen ordered all of them off the vehicle in a remote area of southwestern Baghdad and shot them

Sunni Arab Shrine Bombed in Iraq

Iraqis armed with bombs destroyed a Sunni Arab shrine near the volatile city of Baqouba on Thursday in an apparent reprisal attack less than a week after similar bombings heavily damaged six Shiite shrines in the area.

Car bomb kills 4 policemen and 3 civilians

In northern Baghdad, seven people were killed and four others wounded in a car bomb apparently targeting a police patrol. Of those killed, four were police and three civilians.

US Sailor killed in Anbar province

A U.S. sailor also died Wednesday in fighting with insurgents in Anbar province, an area of the country where many Sunni Arab-led insurgent groups are based and there is frequent fighting between them and coalition forces.

Basra police chief narrowly escapes assassination attempt

In Basra, Iraq’s second largest city, police chief Gen. Hassan Swadi narrowly escaped an assassination attempt when a roadside bomb hit his convoy as he was heading to work on Thursday morning, said police spokesman Karim al-Zeidi.

Gunmen kidnap 15 Iraqi athletes

FIFTEEN members of the Iraqi Tae Kwon Do team have been kidnapped between Fallujah and Ramadi, west of Baghdad, Iraq's Olympic Committee said. "Armed men kidnapped 15 members of the national Tae Kwon Do team as they returned by coach from Amman

439 kidnappings in Iraq since March 2003 invasion

Since the United States invasion of Iraq in March of 2003, 439 people have been kidnapped there, according to a report published by a US government organization. According to the report, 195 of the hostages were private contractors.

 

[Barking_Mad]

Pentagon report said to find killing of Iraqi civilians deliberate

A Pentagon report on an incident in which U.S. Marines shot and killed more than a dozen Iraqi civilians last November will show that those killings were deliberate and worse than initially reported, a Pennsylvania congressman said Wednesday.

"There was no firefight. There was no IED (improvised explosive device) that killed those innocent people," Rep. John Murtha, D-Pa., said during a news conference on Iraq. "Our troops overreacted because of the pressure on them. And they killed innocent civilians in cold blood. That is what the report is going to tell."

Murtha's comments were the first on-the-record remarks by a U.S. official characterizing the findings of military investigators looking into the Nov. 19 incident. Murtha, the ranking Democrat on the Defense Appropriations subcommittee and an opponent of Bush administration policy in Iraq, said he hadn't read the report but had learned about its findings from military commanders and other sources.

Military public affairs officers said the investigation isn't completed and declined to provide further information. "There is an ongoing investigation," said Lt. Col. Sean Gibson, a Marine spokesman at Central Command headquarters in Tampa, Fla. "Any comment at this time would be inappropriate."

Both Gibson and Pentagon spokeswoman Cheryl Irwin said that the military has yet to decide what, if any action, might be taken against Marines involved in the incident.

"It would be premature to judge any individual or unit until the investigation is complete," Irwin said. Said Gibson, "No charges have been made as we have to go through the entire investigatory process and determine whether or not that is a course of action."

 

[Barking_Mad]

Rumsfeld - Troop Reduction in Iraq Unlikely in 2006

It may not be possible to reduce U.S. troop levels in Iraq this year, according to Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld's testimony before a Senate committee. In addition, Gen. Peter Pace, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

The Resilient Students at an Iraqi School for the Deaf

At Baghdad's school for deaf children, the challenges go far beyond the physical and mental obstacles common in schools around the world. Students are forced to deal with violence, power outages, and the fear that plagues much of the country.

 

[Barking_Mad]

Baghdad mortuary overwhelmed by rising numbers of dead

BAGHDAD, 17 May 2006 (IRIN) - Sajida Youssef, a housekeeper, waited more than 24 hours for the body of her son, who had been murdered by thieves, to be released from Baghdad’s central morgue.

“Not only is there the suffering of having my son brutally killed, but now I must wait hours until the mortuary can examine his body,” said Sajida.

Lack of space, a shortage of doctors and an increase in the number of victims of daily violence countrywide has put pressure on Baghdad’s only mortuary, which used to release bodies in five hours or less. “We have a lack of equipment and professionals,” said Dr Fa'aq Ameen, director of the health ministry’s Forensic Medicine Institute.

“Our work is getting more difficult because more Iraqis are being brutally killed, requiring lengthy investigations and examinations that can take hours and sometimes days.”

An average of 70 civilians are killed in Baghdad every day, largely a result of the sectarian violence which has been on the rise since the 22 February attack on a revered Shi’ite shrine in Samarra city. Every month, the mortuary receives more than 1,500 bodies, not including the bodies of people killed in the north and south of the country.

 

[Barking_Mad]

A fascinating read on the evolving Iraqi resistance. If you can spare 5 minutes have a read, it paints an interesting and unsurprisingly more complex picture than the US an the media would have you believe.

Iraq’s resistance evolves

Iraq is simultaneously descending into both a civil war and a war of resistance against foreign occupation. The United States has been hoping to exploit the divide between Iraqi patriots and global jihadists, but the Sunni opposition is growing more structured and unified as it adapts to changing conditions, and may transcend those divisions.

....

One area where the opposition is particularly settled is the al-Anbar governorate in northwestern Iraq. Here Iraqi aid workers negotiate safe passages with opposition leaders via what is almost an institutional process. A formal procedure is in place for lorry drivers to pay an insurance fee that allows them to cross the governorate, as long as they are not supplying the enemy.

...


The mere survival of the Tanzim al-Qaida illustrates just how complex and composite is Iraq’s armed opposition. It gives the lie to the widespread view that al-Qaida in Iraq is a wholly imported body. According to received opinion, al-Qaida operatives in Iraq are all foreigners and the organisation works according to a hierarchical structure detached from the reality on the ground. This view turns out to be naive. For while al-Qaida does have an impressive ability to call on financial and human resources from international networks of jihadism, it could not possibly operate in Iraq without a solid local base. Organising suicide attacks is in fact a logistical feat. The volunteers have to be found and then transported. The explosives have to be manufactured, and the attacks require detailed information and tactical planning. Iraqis apparently perform most of these tasks.

Moreover, al-Qaida is particularly vulnerable to exposure, given its renown, its controversial image and the priority that the US places on catching its members. It could not survive long without some degree of acceptance, albeit passive, in its immediate surroundings. In the US’s schematic, polarised version of the insurgent landscape, with its fierce, clear-cut opposition between terrorism and national liberation movements, the Tanzim al-Qaida would have disappeared by now.

Instead, [Tanzim al-Qaida] has mutated into a genuinely Iraqi phenomenon. This transformation is partly the result of a tactical decision, aimed at protecting the group by Iraqifiying its image. As such, it throws the eminently political nature of the opposition landscape into sharp relief. This political dimension often escapes attention because it is always tacit and opaque. But the main groups in Iraq’s armed opposition are constantly engaged in political manoeuvring, adjusting their ideological and strategic positions according to whoever holds the balance of power, what resources are available and who controls them.

Zarqawi, Tanzim al-Qaida’s controversial leader, has gradually retreated from the limelight, leaving an official spokesman by the unmistakeably Iraqi name of Abu Maysara al Iraqi to take centre stage. Iraqi’s name evokes in Arabic the ideas of comfort and ease, as well as that of his country, in sharp contrast to the connotations of a difficult struggle associated with the pseudonym Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. Tanzim al-Qaida has also entrusted the leadership of its military operations to an Iraqi figure. In January the group merged with other renowned local groups, forming a council of concertation. This council elected the Iraqi sheikh Abdallah al-Baghdadi, hero of the second Falluja siege, as its emir.

 

[Barking_Mad]

Prodi vows to pull Italian troops out of Iraq

Romano Prodi promised today to withdraw Italian troops from Iraq, saying that the allied invasion had been a grave mistake..."We consider the war and occupation in Iraq a grave error that hasn’t solved but has complicated the problem of security,"

4 U.S. Soldiers Are Killed by Bomb in Iraq

Four U.S. soldiers and their Iraqi interpreter were killed Thursday when a roadside bomb struck their vehicle northwest of Baghdad, the U.S. command said

Roadside bomb kills policeman in Najaf

A policeman was killed and three wounded when a roadside bomb went off near a convoy of U.S. military and Iraqi police vehicles near the Shi'ite city of Najaf, 160 km south of Baghdad, police said.

 

[Barking_Mad]

Worth reading lots of articles on this guys website, one of the few journalists to have reported from Iraq with any degree of credibility

Subject to the Penalty of Death

This weekend I received an email from a friend in Iraq. It read, "Salam Dahr, I was in Ramadi today to ask about the situation. I was stunned for the news of a father and his three sons executed in cold blood by US soldiers, then they blasted the house. The poor mother couldn't stand the shock, so she died of a heart attack."

Sounds unbelievable, until you consider this short clip from CNN, which shows a war crime being committed by US troops in Iraq. In this clip, shot on October 26, 2003, Marines are seen killing a wounded Iraqi who was writhing on the ground, and cheering. One of the murderers then told CNN, "These guys are dead now you know, but it was a good feeling ... and afterwards you're like, hell yeah, that was awesome, let's do it again."

This clip alone is evidence of violations of several domestic and international laws. In effect, all US soldiers, up to and including their Commander in Chief, who commit these violations, like the man in the aforementioned clip and the ones responsible for what my Iraqi friend reports from Ramadi, are war criminals.

 

[newharper]

This report is not out yet, so the Pentagon won't comment, but

WASHINGTON - A Pentagon report on an incident in which U.S. Marines shot and killed more than a dozen Iraqi civilians last November will show that those killings were deliberate and worse than initially reported, a Pennsylvania congressman said Wednesday.

"There was no firefight. There was no IED (improvised explosive device) that killed those innocent people," Rep. John Murtha, D-Pa., said during a news conference on Iraq. "Our troops overreacted because of the pressure on them. And they killed innocent civilians in cold blood. That is what the report is going to tell."

Murtha, the ranking Democrat on the Defense Appropriations subcommittee

.

 

[Barking_Mad]

The Iraqi resistance: 'Why we fight'

BAGHDAD - Call them terrorists, call them resistance fighters. By whatever their name, they have their own reasons for fighting the Americans in Iraq. Abu Ayoub, a 35-year-old living in Baghdad, is a member of the Islamic Army. He spoke in the Adhamiya neighborhood about why he joined the fight.

"When the occupation forces entered Baghdad, they killed my brother in front of my eyes. He was wounded and bleeding but the occupation forces didn't allow me to save him. When I tried to save him they began shooting at me, and after a few minutes my brother died. After that I swore to fight them to the death."

..........

When asked why he was fighting the US forces, he said: "I want you to pose this question to the US forces, not to me. They came from the other side of the world and crossed the ocean to occupy my country. Bush and Blair lied to all the world when they spoke about weapons of mass destruction. All the world knew very well their governments were lying, but no country said 'no'. Most of the world supported them to occupy my country."

Ayoub dismisses claims by US President George W Bush, closely parroted by British Prime Minister Tony Blair, that their goal in Iraq is to establish democracy and liberate the Iraqi people.

"They don't have credibility. They came to Iraq for many reasons: to destroy Islam, steal oil, save the east front of Israel, control the Middle East and establish bases near Iran and Russia. I want to ask them, 'Where is the democracy?' Three years of occupation and the Iraqi condition has gone from bad to worse."

Ayoub is not just angry with the coalition forces. He believes it was wrong for Iraqis to join the new army or police force. "They are not a real army like the Iraqi army before the occupation. The occupation forces built this new army to protect them from resistance. I think any honest Iraqi should not join this fake army."

The army is acting against the people, he said. "You can see what they did in Fallujah. They were like a hand of the occupation. They killed many innocent people there, and they did that in many other cities in Iraq, like Ramadi, Tal Afar, Hit, Rawa and Haditha. Go there and see how many children, old men and women were killed by the Iraqi army's hand."

 

[Barking_Mad]

Iraq VP calls on Basra to take responsibility to calm the city

The Iraqi vice president Adel Abdalmahdi said on Thursday that the religious and political parties must take responsibility of calming down the situation in the city of Basra in Southern Iraq.

Laser 'optical incapacitator' issued in Iraq

The U.S. military has given troops in Iraq a laser device to temporarily blind drivers who ignore warnings at vehicle checkpoints, the Pentagon said on Thursday.

Four policemen killed in Fallujah

In other violence, four policemen were killed in clashes in Fallujah said Dr Mohammed Ismail of the the western town's hospital. Clashes erupted after insurgents fired mortars at the US-protected seat of local government.

Iraqi police seize military gear

Iraqi security forces raided apopular Baghdad market Thursday and seized large amounts of military gear ready for sale...The Freedom Brigade stormed the Haraj market in the Bab al-Sharqi area in central Baghdad, seizing a number of bullet-proofvests

 

[Barking_Mad]

Saw this snippet....
Demonstrations in Basra

Despite assurances by the Defence minister Des Browne that the situation was under control while visiting the city, the Iraqi President, Jalal Talabani, discussed the situation in Basra with his Shia and Sunni Vice-Presidents, Adil Abdul-Mahdi and Tariq al-Hashimi.

"We are following this issue closely, not because other parts of Iraq are violence-free, but because of the importance of the city with regard to the security of the south as a whole and the economy of Iraq," Mr Abdul-Mahdi said.

Hundreds of people have staged demonstrations in recent days and Basra's governor fired the provincial police chief last week amid charges that he was doing little to control the violence.

 

[Barking_Mad]

Video - Fire destroys over 100 shops in Iraq

Three incidents in Iraq today, bomb blast near Baghdad police station leave 4 injured, fires rage out of control in Diwaniya and clashes in Ramadi kill three.

Brother of UAE diplomat abducted in Iraq denies release

The brother of a UAE diplomat kidnapped in Iraq told Al-Arabiya television the envoy has not been released, seconds after the Dubai-based news channel said he had been freed.

As Death Stalks Iraq, Middle-Class Exodus Begins

Deaths run like water through the life of the Bahjat family. Four neighbors. A barber. Three grocers. Two men who ran a currency exchange shop.

Two bullet-riddled bodies found in Baghdad

In Baghdad, authorities say they found the bullet-riddled bodies of two Iraqis who had apparently been kidnapped by insurgents.

Petroleum engineer killed in Kirkuk

Police in the northern city of Kirkuk say gunmen shot and killed a Shi'ite petroleum engineer outside his home.

Iraqi kidnap group wants top UAE diplomat out

Al Jazeera television said on Friday the captors of a United Arab Emirates diplomat in Iraq had demanded the UAE withdraw its charge d'affaires and close a UAE-based Iraqi television channel.

Bomb planted in police officer's home

in New Baghdad district, south eastern Baghdad, a bomb planted near one of the walls of the home of an Iraqi police officer blew up at 5:00 a.m. this morning. Five of his family members were wounded, and the identity of the officer was no disclosed.

Gunmen attack minibus in the Abu Ghraib district

The sources told Kuwait News Agencythat unknown gunmen attacked 10 passengers abroad a bus in the Abu Ghraib district today, including three security men in civilian clothes and seven citizens. All 10 were severely injured and the militants escaped

Nuclear scientist set to head Iraq's oil ministry

Nuclear scientist Hussain al-Shahristani, a Shi'ite Islamist, looked set to become Iraq's next oil minister in a unity government expected to be unveiled within the next 24 hours, negotiators said on Friday.

Five civilians killed in gun battle

Militants fought police in west Baghdad today. Police say the gunbattle killed five civilians and wounded eight.

US Soldier wounded by roadside bomb

An American soldier is wounded after a roadside bomb hit an armored vehicle. Two other roadside bombs targeted Iraqi forces in the capital.

Some Iraq war vets go homeless after return to US

Vanessa Gamboa is part of a small but growing trend among U.S. veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars -- homelessness. On any given night the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) helps 200 to 250 of them, and more go uncounted.

National Dialogue Minister added to Iraq's Cabinet

Iraqi officials said yesterday that a new government to be announced as early as tomorrow will include a new Ministry of National Dialogue, in an effort to stop the sectarian killings and violence that has spread through most of the country.

 

[Barking_Mad]

Four more bodies found

Police also found the bullet-ridden bodies of four Iraqis...One of the victims was an elementary school teacher. Two of the four bodies were found in Dora. Another beheaded, handcuffed body was found in Numaniya, 80 miles southwest of Baghdad

U-A-E diplomat freed by hostage-takers in Iraq

United Arab Emirates A captive diplomat from the United Arab Emirates has reportedly been set free in Iraq. The hostage's brother tells The Associated Press kidnappers let the embassy's first secretary go and that he's "on his way to the embassy."

 

[Barking_Mad]

CIA pick unhappy with top-secret unit

WASHINGTON - The White House pick to lead the CIA told Congress yesterday he "wasn't comfortable" with the secret Pentagon unit that claimed Al Qaeda had ties to Saddam Hussein.
Air Force Gen. Michael Hayden said the tiny unit created by Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld's policy advisers was so secretive he didn't know about its activities when he headed the National Security Agency before the Iraq invasion.

Critics say the Office of Special Plans led by former Pentagon policy chief Douglas Feith twisted intelligence to make the case for war.

"I wasn't aware of a lot of the activity going on," Hayden told the Senate Intelligence Committee. But he added: "No, sir, I wasn't comfortable [with Feith's Iraq analysis]."

Sen. Carl Levin (D-Mich.) pressed Hayden to recount the NSA's refusal to sign off on since-discredited claims that Osama Bin Laden had forged an alliance with Saddam.

Hayden confirmed that the agency placed a disclaimer that the NSA's reporting "neither confirms nor denies" those alleged links.

"You actually placed a disclaimer on NSA reporting" about such links, Levin asked.

"Yes, sir," Hayden replied.

 

[Barking_Mad]

Bomb targets Shi'ite workers in Baghdad

A bomb at a bus station in a Shi'ite neighborhood of east Baghdad on Saturday caused many casualties among laborers gathering for work, police sources said. One source put the initial, unconfirmed toll at nine dead and 28 wounded in the blast

Iraqi Cabinet to leave two doors open

Iraq's prime minister-designate is expected to announce a Cabinet to the Parliament on Saturday, but two key posts will be empty, a spokesman for a leading Shiite party said.

Violence in Baghdad routine, often without obvious reason

Moments after gunmen killed Wathban Abid Hashem, his brother Saad pulled the lifeless body from the orange Mercedes truck Wathban had been driving. Blood and small pieces of flesh dripped onto the dusty pavement from bullet holes in Wathban's chest.

Iraq's Fadhilah Party to vote for Al-Maleki''s government

Fadhilah Islamic Party in Iraq announced on Friday that it would vote in favor of Prime Minister Nouri Al-Maleki's government once it is presented to the National Assembly for approval.

New Iraq PM says no deal on defense or interior ministers

The incoming Iraqi prime minister said Friday he had failed to reach a deal with coalition partners on naming defense or interior ministers, but he still would inaugurate his Cabinet on Saturday.

Provincial council member escapes attack

Ali al-Qaseer, a member of the provincial council, escaped death when gunmen attacked his home on Thursday night in Babylon province, south of the capital, said Thamer Ghazala, a secretary of the governor's office.

Corpse found in Kirkuk

The corpse of an unidentified man with gunshot wounds and bearing signs of torture was found 10 km (six miles) from the northern town of Kirkuk, police said.

 

[Barking_Mad]

Nineteen killed by Baghdad bomb

At least 19 people have been killed and 58 wounded in a bomb attack in a Shia district of the Iraqi capital, Baghdad. Queuing labourers were the target of the attack in Sadr City, which comes as PM-designate Nouri Maliki is due to present his new cabinet to parliament.

The cabinet, which includes members of the main Shia, Kurd and Sunni parties, will be Iraq's first full-term government since the invasion of 2003.

It is hoped it will break the political inertia fuelling Iraq's unrest.

Witnesses said that the Sadr City blast happened at about 0700 (0300 GMT) near a food stand where day labourers seeking work were having breakfast.

.....

One man beat his face with his hands as he hugged his dead brother lying on the ground, Reuters reported, while a sobbing teenager, standing in a pool of blood, asked "When will this stop? Where is the government?"

 

[Barking_Mad]

Patrick Cockburn is one brave man. Hats off to him for this excellent report. Worth the read.

Iraq is disintegrating as ethnic cleansing takes hold

The state of Iraq now resembles Bosnia at the height of the fighting in the 1990s when each community fled to places where its members were a majority and were able to defend themselves. "Be gone by evening prayers or we will kill you," warned one of four men who called at the house of Leila Mohammed, a pregnant mother of three children in the city of Baquba, in Diyala province north-east of Baghdad. He offered chocolate to one of her children to try to find out the names of the men in the family.

Mrs Mohammed is a Kurd and a Shia in Baquba, which has a majority of Sunni Arabs. Her husband, Ahmed, who traded fruit in the local market, said: "They threatened the Kurds and the Shia and told them to get out. Later I went back to try to get our furniture but there was too much shooting and I was trapped in our house. I came away with nothing." He and his wife now live with nine other relatives in a three-room hovel in Khanaqin.

The same pattern of intimidation, flight and death is being repeated in mixed provinces all over Iraq. By now Iraqis do not have to be reminded of the consequences of ignoring threats.

In Baquba, with a population of 350,000, gunmen last week ordered people off a bus, separated the men from the women and shot dead 11 of them. Not far away police found the mutilated body of a kidnapped six-year-old boy for whom a ransom had already been paid.

The sectarian warfare in Baghdad is sparsely reported but the provinces around the capital are now so dangerous for reporters that they seldom, if ever, go there, except as embeds with US troops. Two months ago in Mosul, I met an Iraqi army captain from Diyala who said Sunni and Shia were slaughtering each other in his home province. "Whoever is in a minority runs," he said. "If forces are more equal they fight it out."

 

[Barking_Mad]

Why Sunni are key in sectarian warfare

The Sunni Arabs of Iraq feel they are fighting for their very existence. Some 5 million strong, they see themselves as fighting against a foreign occupation and impending Shia and Kurdish domination.

The past three years have brought nothing but disasters. When Saddam Hussein was overthrown many Sunni reviled him as a disastrous ruler. They scarcely fought for him during the US and British invasion, despite dominating the officer corps and security services. But as foreign occupation was established and the army dissolved, they launched a guerrilla war.

The Sunni insurgency proved highly effective. They could not drive the Americans out, but neither could the US stabilise its rule. This still remains true.

"The Kurds were able to destabilise Iraq for 50 years," said the Iraqi commentator Ghassan Attiyah. "The Sunni can certainly do the same."

 

[Barking_Mad]

Baghdad blasts kill at least 18, injure 15

At least 18 Iraqis were killed and 15 injured in a series of bomb attacks in Baghdad and its surrounding suburbs on Monday, security sources and eyewitnesses said.

Army suicides up since Iraq war

The number of U.S. Army soldiers who took their own lives increased last year to the highest total since 1993, despite a growing effort by the Army to detect problems and prevent suicides.

Five bodies taken to hospital in Balad

Five bodies were taken to hospital in Balad, 80 km (50 miles) north of Baghdad, after clashes with insurgents that erupted in the nearby town of Dhuluiya on Sunday, a hospital source said.

Four policemen killed in Jurf al-Sakhar

Four policemen were killed when a roadside bomb went off near a joint U.S. forces/Iraqi police patrol in Jurf al-Sakhar, about 85 km (53 miles) south of Baghdad, police said.

Gunmen killed a former Brigadier General

Gunmen killed a former Brigadier General in western Baghdad, an Interior Ministry source said. Two of his relatives were also killed, the source added.

Iraqi police arrest university student in Kirkuk

A university student was arrested by the Iraqi police in Kirkuk, Northern Iraq, for carrying out terrorist operations in the city.

Car bomb kills six civilians

A car bomb went off in a crowded street in southeastern Baghdad, killing six civilians and wounding three, an army officer at the scene said. Police earlier said three people had died.

From the 21st May


Iraqi policeman and insurgent likked in Iskandariya

One Iraqi policeman and one insurgent died in clashes that erupted near the town of Iskandariya, south of Baghdad, when insurgents tried to blow up a pipeline feeding a power station, police said. Five people were injured in the fighting

Iraqi soldier soldier killed in Dhuluiya

An Iraqi soldier was killed and 10 wounded when gunmen attacked checkpoints around their army base in Dhuluiya, 60 km (40 miles) north of Baghdad, Iraqi officers said. Local police, describing the army unit as made up largely of ethnic Kurds

Body of policeman found in Falluja, 5 suspects arrested

Police found the body of a policeman on Saturday near Falluja, 50 km west of Baghdad, police said. He was kidnapped hours earlier. Police arrested five suspects in the killing in a raid on Sunday, police added

Car bomb kills 2 civilians in Baghdad's Shula district

Two people were killed and six wounded when a car bomb exploded in the northwestern Shula district of the capital, police said.

Five people wounded by roadside bomb

Five people were wounded when a roadside bomb went off in Baghdad's southwestern Bayaa district, police said.

15 people wounded in roadside bomb explosion in Baghdad

Fifteen people were wounded when a roadside bomb went off in a busy market in southeast of Baghdad on Sunday, an Interior Ministry source told Xinhua.

City council employee kill by unknown assailants

In Al-Madain, south of Baghdad, city council employee Safa Ali was shot dead by unknown assailants as he drove to work

Insurgents kill two oil pipeline guards in Tikrit

North of Baghdad, in Saddam Hussein's hometown of Tikrit, insurgents killed two oil pipeline guards in a drive-by shooting, the interior ministry source said. The men were brothers.

Gunmen kill civilian in Baghdad

At about 8 a.m., four gunmen in a speeding BMW killed Ali Abdul-Hussein al-Kinani, 57, who was standing outside his food store in the mostly Shiite neighborhood of Ubaidi, said police Maj. Mahir Hamad Moussa

Authorities discover bodies of two women in Najaf

authorities discovered the bodies of two women with their throats slit in the holy Shiite city of Najaf. The women's corpses were found near a mosque in the city's south, police said

Suicide bomber kills at least 12, injures 14 inside

A suicide bomber killed at least 12 people and injured 14 after detonating his explosive vest inside a downtown Baghdad restaurant popular with police officers, police said. The 12 dead included three police officers,

 

[Barking_Mad]

Boeing unveils new light-weight bomb fit for urban combat

Boeing Co. on Monday unveiled a line of small, lightweight bombs that the U.S. Air Force will use in urban combat situations like the war in Iraq.

The small-diameter bombs weigh 250 pounds and can be used by all Air Force bombers, according to Boeing. By using the smaller bombs, planes can carry about four times as many of these weapons and fire them from farther away. A B-2 Stealth bomber can carry as many as 80 of the small-diameter bombs.

The bombs will also help limit civilian casualties during airstrikes in urban areas, according to the military news Web site GlobalSecurity.org. Boeing said its own tests show the bombs hit within 4 feet of their target.

"Our crews will be at less risk while defeating more targets with less collateral damage," Air Force Col. Richard Justice said.

At an unveiling ceremony Monday, Justice said Boeing's development of the bomb was one of the speediest and most successful weapons development in Air Force history. He said the bomb should be used in combat as early as this summer.

Boeing, based in Chicago but whose defense operations are based in the St. Louis area, said it will make 24,000 small-diameter bombs for the Air Force, which has contracted to buy them through 2015.

The small-diameter bomb contract is valued at about $2.5 billion, but Boeing has only won the first phase of the whole project.

 

[Barking_Mad]

I remember reading this article back in 2004 about Ramadi - there was a thread on it but it's since gone. Today I found this article on icasualties which gives a lot of insight as to just some parts of Iraq not mentioned on the mainstream news must look. Well worth a read

Insurgents hamper U.S., Iraqi forces in Ramadi

RAMADI, Iraq - Whole neighborhoods are lawless, too dangerous for police. Some roads are so bomb-laden that U.S. troops won’t use them. Guerrillas attack U.S. troops nearly every time they venture out — and hit their bases with gunfire, rockets or mortars when they don’t. Though not powerful enough to overrun U.S. positions, insurgents here in the heart of the Sunni Muslim triangle have fought undermanned U.S. and Iraqi forces to a virtual stalemate.

“It’s out of control,” says Army Sgt. 1st Class Britt Ruble, behind the sandbags of an observation post in the capital of Anbar province. “We don’t have control of this ... we just don’t have enough boots on the ground.”

Reining in Ramadi, through arms or persuasion, could be the toughest challenge for Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki’s new government. Al-Maliki has promised to use “maximum force” when needed. But three years of U.S. military presence, with nearly constant patrols and sweeps, hasn’t done it. Today Ramadi, a city of 400,000 along the main highway running to Jordan and Syria, 70 miles west of Baghdad, has battles fought in endless circles. Small teams of insurgents open fire and coalition troops respond with heavy blows, often airstrikes or rocket fire that’s turned city blocks into rubble.

“We’re holding it down to a manageable level until Iraqis forces can take over the fight,” Marine Capt. Carlos Barela said of the daily violence battering the city. How long before that happens is anybody’s guess.

U.S. and Iraqi commanders say militants fled to Ramadi from Fallujah during a devastating U.S.-led assault there in 2004. Others have joined from elsewhere in Anbar, blending into a civilian population either sympathetic to their cause or too afraid to turn against them. They’ve destroyed police stations and left the force in shambles. The criminal court system doesn’t function because judges are afraid to work; tribal sheiks have fled or been assassinated. While al-Maliki has vowed to crush the insurgency, a major military operation to clear Ramadi risks destroying any hope of reaching a political settlement with disaffected Sunnis.

U.S. commanders also say a Fallujah-style operation is not in the cards, at least not yet, and might not have the desired effect. “That would set us back two years,” said Lt. Col. Stephen Neary, commander of the 3rd Battalion, 8th Marine Regiment.However, the status quo with its bloodletting doesn’t sit well with the troops.

“We just go out, lose people and come back,” said Iraqi Col. Ali Hassan, whose men fight alongside the Americans. “The insurgents are moving freely everywhere. We need a big operation. We need control.”

Some Americans also say ground needs to be taken and held. Most U.S. missions typically consist of going out, coming under fire and returning to base — leaving behind a no-man’s-land held by neither side that insurgents in black ski masks always pour back into.

“This just ’we ride out, hold it for an hour, get hit, ride back in and now we don’t hold it anymore,’ what’s the point?” said Ruble of the Army’s 1st Battalion, 506th Infantry Regiment. “I believe in the cause and I believe in doing good, but when were going out, getting hurt and ... not accomplishing anything, why are we going out there? If you’re saying killing one insurgent is worth one of my guys getting hurt ... you’re crazy. That’s like killing one guy in the Chinese army. What have you done? not a thing.”

The sheer scale of violence in Ramadi is astounding. One recent coalition tally of “significant acts” — roadside bombs, attacks, exchanges of fire — indicated that out of 43 reported in Iraq on a single day, 27 occurred in Ramadi and its environs, according to a Marine officer who declined to be named because he’s not authorized to speak to the media. And that, he said, was “a quiet day” — when nothing from Ramadi even made the news.

In Ramadi, machine-gun fire and explosions are heard every day and tracer fire or illumination flares are seen every night. Even though assaults kill dozens at a time, guerrillas keep on coming — and keep dying.

“They’re crazy to be coming in the numbers that they do,” Lance Cpl. Chris Skiff, 25, of Tupper Lake, N.Y.

Inside a palatial Saddam-era guesthouse near the Euphrates River — now a fortified U.S. base where sand-filled barriers and camouflage netting surround even the portable toilets — Marines stare in wonder at photos of U.S. troops deployed here less two years ago. The pictures show their predecessors riding in open-topped vehicles, often with little armor. They show freshly painted buildings, since destroyed or splattered with gunfire. They show U.S. troops walking through a downtown marketplace, a casual outing unthinkable today. Some of the pictures show bullet-strafed buildings and cars on fire, but it’s a far cry from Ramadi, 2006. Case in point: Government Center, headquarters of the provincial governor. Once, civilian traffic was allowed to pass in front of the near-pristine edifice. Today, only military vehicles are allowed near. The wrecked building is enclosed by blast walls, barbed wire and a sometime moat of sewage. From machine-gun nests, walls of sandbags and tents of camouflage on the roof Marines repel several attacks a day.

Marines say that the governor is unfazed and comes to work despite 29 assassination attempts.

“If you wanna get blown up or shot at or anything else, then this is the place,” said Marine Staff Sgt. Jacob Smith, 28, from Martin, S.D., who helps clear roadside bombs that are sometimes replaced just after the minesweepers drive past.

In one Ramadi neighborhood, Master Sgt. Tom Coffey, 38, of Underhill, Vt., gestured to a paved road his forces would not drive on. “They hit us so many times with IEDs (roadside bombs), we ceded it to them,” he said. Though coalition forces answer with massive firepower, they rarely pursue attackers — for fear of falling into an ambush and because they have few troops to spare. Though U.S. and Iraqi troops conduct frequent raids and hit targets, the insurgents fight back in their own way. When U.S. and Iraqi troops question civilians, insurgents follow in their footsteps to visit and sometimes kill the suspected informants.

After U.S. troops use residential rooftop walls as observation posts, insurgents have been known to knock them down. Ramadi is dangerous not only for combatants, but for civilians caught in the crossfire. “It’s getting worse. Safety is zero,” Col. Hassan said. After one neighborhood sweep devolved into an hour-long gunbattle, Iraqi Maj. Jabar Marouf al-Tamini returned to base and drew his finger across a satellite map of the area he’d just fled under fire: “It’s fallen under the command of insurgents,” he said, shaking his head. “They control it now.”

U.S. commanders would argue otherwise, but acknowledge perhaps a bigger problem.

“They don’t have to win. All they have to do is not lose,” said Barela, 35, of Albuquerque, N.M., citing an adage about guerrilla war.

 

[Barking_Mad]

Iraq to lobby oil majors for investment

New Iraqi Oil Minister Hussein Shahristani said that he would launch wide-ranging contacts with international oil companies to boost investment in the vital but battered sector.

Jobless Iraqis vulnerable to extremists

The wife of Iraqi President Jalal Talabani said here Tuesday that high unemployment in her country was making disaffected youths vulnerable to extremists.

Car Bombing, Shooting Kill Police and Civilians in Iraq

Iraqi police say a car bomb blast in Baghdad Tuesday killed five people, including several police commandos. Officials say at least five other people were wounded in the blast that was apparently aimed at a police patrol.

Valley Marine killed over weekend

Lance Cpl. Benito A. Ramirez, 22, a member of the 1st Marine Division, 3rd Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment, stationed in Fallujah, Iraq, died when a roadside bomb denoted in close range.

Education department gunned down in Kirkuk

In the northern oil center of Kirkuk, a member of President Jalal Talabani's Patriotic Union of Kurdistan party working for the city education department was gunned down as he drove away from his home in the northern, oil-rich city.

Mortar round near green zone kills one, wounds four

In the city center, a mortar round struck near the heavily fortified Green Zone administrative compound, killing one person and wounding four.

Three elderly men killed in west Baghdad

In west Baghdad, gunmen opened fire on three elderly men, one of whom was blind and another disabled, killing them all

Bomb kills 10 year old boy in Balad Ruz

East of Baquba, in Balad Ruz, a bomb near the courthouse killed a 10-year-old boy and wounded two others.

Three day laborers killed between Baquba to Khalis

Three day laborers on their way to work were also killed when gunmen in a car raked their mini-bus with bullets on the road from Baquba to Khalis, northeast of the capital, police said.

In Mosul gunmen kill four blacksmiths

In the main northern city of Mosul, a family of blacksmiths was targeted when gunmen drove up next to their car and opened fire, killing four and wounding one, police said.

Ohio Marine killed by roadside bomb in Iraq

An Ohio Marine serving his second tour of duty in Iraq has been killed by a roadside bomb, his grandmother said Tuesday. Sgt. David Christoff Jr., 25, died Sunday while on patrol with his unit, Ann Christoff said.

Three copses, including 10-year-old boy, found in Baghdad

Three corpses were found in Baghdad: two floating in different spots on the Tigris River, and one of a 10-year-old boy from the neighborhood of Dura in the south, police said.

Professor and ministry employee shot and killed in Baghdad

In Baghdad, Professor Ali Hussein Ali was walking on Palestine Street in the east of the city on his way to work at the Technology University when a car filled with gunmen shot him dead and drove off. An industry ministry employee was shot dead

Roadside bomb damages Humvee, gunfire wounds woman and child

A roadside bomb damaged one Humvee in a U.S. convoy in Dora, one of Baghdad's most violent areas, and an Iraqi woman and a child were wounded in gunfire that followed.

Car bomb kills five in Baghdad

A car bomb targeting Iraqi police commandos in Baghdad has killed at least five people. The blast, which killed civilians and police officers, also wounded five people.

7 Iraqis killed in drive-by shootings north of Baghdad

Gunmen opened fire on Iraqi laborers and ironsmiths traveling to work north of Baghdad on Tuesday, killing seven people and wounding eight, police said

 

[Barking_Mad]

Iraq doctor brings evidence of US napalm at Fallujah

Evidence to support controversial claims that napalm has been used by US forces in Iraq has been brought to Australia by an Iraqi doctor. Dr Salam Ismael, of the Baghdad-based group Doctors for Iraq, said the evidence pointed to the use of napalm on civilians during the second siege of Fallujah in November 2004. It is contained in film and photographs that doctors took of bodies they collected when they were finally allowed to enter the city after being barred for three days of the military operation.

"We said that napalm had been used, because napalm is a bomb which is a fuel bomb that burns only on the exposed part of the body, so that the clothes will not be affected," Dr Ismael said from Perth at the start of a speaking tour.

Doctors For Iraq, an independent group founded in 2003, is calling for an international investigation that would allow the bodies to be exhumed for autopsies "because we want to know the truth of what happened".

Dr Ismael said the napalm was a modification from the 1990s of the wind-driven napalm chemical bombs used by the US in Vietnam in the 1960s. The US Government admits using white phosphorus in Iraq but denies using napalm. Dr Ismael said the pattern of burns on bodies collected in Fallujah suggested otherwise. Asked to respond to the napalm allegations, a Pentagon spokesman said only that the US did not target civilians. It was up to the Iraqi Government to decide if international investigators should be allowed into Fallujah. Dr Ismael will speak at a Unity for Peace public meeting at RMIT on Thursday night and at Melbourne University on Friday.

 

[Barking_Mad]

Speak up people! Great speech when a girl found out what John McCain was going to say at her graduation ceremony....

If all the world were peaceful now and forever more,
Peaceful at the surface and peaceful at the core,

All the joy within my heart would be so free to soar,

And we're living on a living planet, circling a living star.

Don't know where we're going but I know we're going far.

We can change the universe by being who we are,

And we're living on a living planet, circling a living star.

Welcome everyone on this beautiful afternoon to the commencement ceremony for the New School class of 2006. That was an excerpt of a song I learned as a child called "Living Planet" by Jay Mankita. I chose to begin my address this way because, as always, but especially now, we are living in a time of violence, of war, of injustice. I am thinking of our brothers and sisters in Iraq, in Darfur, in Sri Lanka, in Mogadishu, in Israel/Palestine, right here in the U.S., and many, many other places around the world. And my deepest wish on this day--on all days--is for peace, justice, and true freedom for all people. The song says, "We can change the universe by being who we are," and I believe that it really is just that simple.

Right now, I'm going to be who I am and digress from my previously prepared remarks. I am disappointed that I have to abandon the things I had wanted to speak about, but I feel that it is absolutely necessary to acknowledge the fact that this ceremony has become something other than the celebratory gathering that it was intended to be due to all the media attention surrounding John Mc Cain's presence here today, and the student and faculty outrage generated by his invitation to speak here. The senator does not reflect the ideals upon which this university was founded. Not only this, but his invitation was a top-down decision that did not take into account the desires and interests of the student body on an occasion that is supposed to honor us above all, and to commemorate our achievements.

What is interesting and bizarre about this whole situation is that Senator Mc Cain has stated that he will be giving the same speech at all three universities where he has been invited to speak recently, of which ours is the last; those being Jerry Falwell's Liberty University, Columbia University, and finally here at the New School. For this reason I have unusual foresight concerning the themes of his address today. Based on the speech he gave at the other institutions, Senator Mc Cain will tell us today that dissent and disagreement are our "civic and moral obligation" in times of crisis. I consider this a time of crisis and I feel obligated to speak. Senator Mc Cain will also tell us about his cocky self-assuredness in his youth, which prevented him from hearing the ideas of others. In so doing, he will imply that those of us who are young are too naïve to have valid opinions and open ears. I am young, and although I don't profess to possess the wisdom that time affords us, I do know that preemptive war is dangerous and wrong, that George Bush's agenda in Iraq is not worth the many lives lost. And I know that despite all the havoc that my country has wrought overseas in my name, Osama bin Laden still has not been found, nor have those weapons of mass destruction.

Finally, Senator Mc Cain will tell us that we, those of us who are Americans, "have nothing to fear from each other." I agree strongly with this, but I take it one step further. We have nothing to fear from anyone on this living planet. Fear is the greatest impediment to the achievement of peace. We have nothing to fear from people who are different from us, from people who live in other countries, even from the people who run our government--and this we should have learned from our educations here. We can speak truth to power, we can allow our humanity always to come before our nationality, we can refuse to let fear invade our lives and to goad us on to destroy the lives of others. These words I speak do not reflect the arrogance of a young strong-headed woman, but belong to a line of great progressive thought, a history in which the founders of this institution play an important part. I speak today, even through my nervousness, out of a need to honor those voices that came before me, and I hope that we graduates can all strive to do the same.

 

[Barking_Mad]

BBC piece on the insurgency and the US's 'solutions' to fighting each other that was on 5 Live the other morning at about 2.45am.

Using remote control cars to blow up IED's etc.......

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio/aod/main...io/aod/fivelive_aod.shtml?fivelive/pods_blogs