*IRAQ: latest news and developments

[Barking_Mad]

Roadside bomb kills five Iraqi soldiers

Iraq Attacks in Iraq today have left more than a half-dozen people dead. A roadside bomb killed five Iraqi soldiers in a city west of Baghdad.

Gunmen kill 4 policemen, kidnapped three others

Gunmen killed four policemen and kidnapped three others near Baquba, 65 km (40 miles) north of Baghdad, police said.

Bomb placed inside a Shi'ite mosque wounds seven

A bomb placed inside a Shi'ite mosque wounded seven worshipers on Sunday in Khalis, police said.

Four shop owners and 2 bodyguards killed in Khalis

KHALIS - Gunmen opened fire at shops, killing four shop owners and wounding five others in the town of Khalis...Gunmen killed two bodyguards of former Prime Minster Ibrahim al-Jaafari in Khalis, police said.

Gunmen kill 2 policemen in Madaen

Gunmen killed a policeman in an attack on police guarding electrical infrastructure in Madaen, 45 km (25 miles) south of Baghdad, an Interior Ministry source said.

 

[Barking_Mad]

Bit more on the killings in Balad from above. (My italics)

North of Baghdad, Sunnis flee the Shiite-dominated city of Balad after four days of sectarian killings. The fighting broke out after the bodies of 19 Shiite men were found on Friday in Ad Duliyiah, on the outskirts of Balad. A series of retaliatory raids by Shiite gunmen resulted in the deaths of more than 90 people over the weekend, all but 17 of them Sunni.

Reporting this story has been as relentless as the violence itself. After numerous attempts to reach Muwafaq Al Rubayee, Iraq's national security adviser, he said, " I do not want to comment on this subject."

http://abcnews.go.com/International/story?id=2574411&page=1

 

[Barking_Mad]

More than 3,000 Iraqi police sacked: ministry spokesman

Iraq's National Police is being completely reorganized and over 3,000 officers have been dismissed, the Iraqi interior ministry spokesman has said.
Click to learn more...

Brigadier General Abdel Karim Khalaf told reporters at a press conference in the heavily fortified Green Zone on Tuesday that 1,228 had been sacked for breaking the law while nearly 2,000 more were dismissed for dereliction of duty.

"This restructuring was applied this week to the leadership of the National Police," Khalaf said. "The headquarters of the two divisions were dissolved and all brigades were brought directly under the commander of the National Police."

The National Police, which was formed out of the police commandos and the public order brigades, was hastily thrown together in 2004 to address security shortages and became notoriously infiltrated by militias.

"A total of 1,228 have been dismissed on orders of the interior minister for criminal acts and forgery and human rights violations and other issues," Khalaf said.

"The rest have failed to carry out their duties in some terror operations in provinces like Qaddisiyah and Diyala," he said, estimating that more than 3,000 have been dismissed in total.

 

[Barking_Mad]

iCasualties gathering of news reports cites a bare minimum of 957 Iraqis killed in the first 16 days of October.

http://icasualties.org/oif/IraqiDeaths.aspx

 

[corporate whore]

BUsh-backed Commission recommends handing the whole sorry mess over to Iran & Syria

A commission backed by President Bush that is exploring U.S. options in Iraq intends to propose significant changes in the administration's strategy by early next year, members say.

Two options under consideration would represent reversals of U.S. policy: withdrawing American troops in phases, and bringing neighboring Iran and Syria into a joint effort to stop the fighting.

While it weighs alternatives, the 10-member commission headed by former Secretary of State James A. Baker III has agreed on one principle.

"It's not going to be 'stay the course,' " one participant said. "The bottom line is, [current U.S. policy] isn't working…. There's got to be another way."

 

[Barking_Mad]

BUsh-backed Commission recommends handing the whole sorry mess over to Iran & Syria

LOL this gets more darker and 'funnier' by the week. Hand Iraq over to Axis of Evil countries?........I need a lie down.

 

[Barking_Mad]

According to the BBC UK troops are ready to go into Amarah if asked.


UK troops prepare Amara advance

British troops are getting ready to enter the southern Iraqi city of Amara following serious clashes between militias and local police.

The UK military will act if it receives a request from Amara council, the Ministry of Defence (MoD) confirmed.

Clashes between police and up to 300 gunmen have been reported.

The MoD described the situation as "calm but tense". Amara council denied the city was "overrun" by militias, but admitted the situation was "serious".

hiite militia seizes control of southern Iraq's Amarah

BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - The Shiite militia run by anti-American cleric Muqtada al-Sadr seized control of the southern Iraqi city of Amarah on Friday in one of the boldest acts of defiance yet by the country's powerful, unofficial armies, witnesses and police said.

Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki dispatched an emergency security delegation that included the Minister of State for Security Affairs and top officials from the Interior and Defense ministries, said Yassin Majid, the prime minister's media adviser told the Associated Press.

The Mahdi Army fighters stormed three main police stations Friday morning, planting explosives that flattened the buildings, residents said.

About 800 black-clad militiamen with Kalashnikov rifles and rocket-propelled grenades were patrolling city streets in commandeered police vehicles, eyewitnesses said. Other fighters had set up roadblocks on routes into the city and sound trucks circulated telling residents to stay indoors.

At least 15 people, including five militiamen, one policeman and two bystanders, have been killed in clashes since Friday, Dr. Zamil Shia, director of Amarah's department of health, said by telephone from the city, about 320 kilometers (200 miles) southeast of Baghdad.

The events in Amarah highlight the threat of wider violence between rival Shiite factions, who have entrenched themselves among the majority Shiite population and are blamed for killings of rival Sunnis.

Fighting broke out in Amara on Thursday after the head of police intelligence in the surrounding province, a member of the rival Shiite Badr Brigade militia, was killed by a roadside bomb, prompting his family to kidnap the teenage brother of the local head of the a-Madhi Army.

 

[corporate whore]

UN says 750,000 people have fled their homes since US invaded

More than 750,000 Iraqis have fled their homes since the U.S.-led invasion in 2003, more than half of them since an increase in sectarian bloodshed at the start of this year, the U.N. refugee agency said Friday.

The overall number is likely to be much higher, said Ron Redmond, chief spokesman for the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees. The agency has concluded that 754,000 displaced Iraqis remain in the country, while tens of thousands more have sought refuge abroad.

"We remain extremely concerned about the rapidly deteriorating situation in Iraq and the ongoing displacement this is creating both inside and outside Iraq,'' Redmond told reporters.

 

[Barking_Mad]

Iraq Aims to Limit Mortality Data

Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's office has instructed the country's health ministry to stop providing mortality figures to the United Nations, jeopardizing a key source of information on the number of civilian war dead in Iraq

 

[corporate whore]

US sez you guys can handle this mess, we're gonna get the fuck out

The top two U.S. officials in Iraq predicted Tuesday that within a year, Iraq would be well on its way to political stability and economic health. Within 18 months, it should be able to provide for its own security, paving the way for the withdrawal of a large number of U.S. troops.

 

[Barking_Mad]

im away til December 8th, so if anyone reading this see's any news then please feel free to add it!

If you're looking for Iraq related styuff i'd recommend - www.icasualties.org

Ta.

 

[corporate whore]

Syrians don't talk of freedom and democracy, cos they've seen what it looks like in Iraq

Advocates of democracy are equated now with supporters of America, even "traitors," said Maan Abdul Salam, 36, a Damascus publisher who has coordinated conferences on women's rights and similar topics.

"Now, talking about democracy and freedom has become very difficult and sensitive," Salam said. "The people are not believing these thoughts anymore. When the U.S. came to Iraq, it came in the name of democracy and freedom. But all we see are bodies, bodies, bodies."

 

[FruitandNut]

Syrians don't talk of freedom and democracy, cos they've seen what it looks like in Iraq

Is that the fault of democracy, per se, or is it the fault of a lot of other issues that choose to use and abuse it from all angles?

 

[TAE]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/6097372.stm

Security firms 'abusing Iraqis'

Private security firms operating in Iraq are committing human rights abuses, a charity has claimed.

A report by War on Want says no prosecutions have been brought despite hundreds of complaints of abuse.

 

[corporate whore]

14,000 Weapons Lost In Iraq

The Pentagon cannot account for 14,030 weapons — almost 4 percent of the semiautomatic pistols, assault rifles, machine guns, rocket-propelled grenade launchers and other weapons it began supplying to Iraq since the end of 2003.

The missing weapons will not be tracked easily: The Defense Department registered the serial numbers of only about 10,000 of the 370,251 weapons it provided — less than 3 percent.

Missing from the Defense Department's inventory books were 13,180 semiautomatic pistols, 751 assault rifles and 99 machine guns.

 

[corporate whore]

Rebuilding going slowly

Ten months into a year-long effort to transfer control of Iraq's reconstruction to the Iraqis, federal auditors say, the government there is spending very little of its own money on projects, while the process for handing off U.S.-funded work "appears to have broken down," according to findings released yesterday.

The fledgling Iraqi government, in power since May, has about $6 billion this year to devote to major rebuilding projects, representing about 20 percent of its overall budget. But auditors with the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction found that beyond paying employee salaries and administrative expenses, only a small amount of money is being spent on actual work. Auditors blamed "bureaucratic resistance within the Ministry of Finance, which traditionally has been slow to provide funds."

 

[corporate whore]

October bad for soldiers, civilians alike

The monthly U.S. death toll in Iraq has topped 100 for the first time in nearly two years.

According to an Associated Press count, October has also recorded more Iraqi civilian deaths — 1,170 as of Monday — than any other month since the AP began keeping track in May 2005. The next-highest month was March 2006, when 1,038 Iraqi civilians were killed in the aftermath of the bombing of an important Shiite shrine in Samarra.

 

[corporate whore]

Pentagon admits things are really bad

The US military has confirmed Iraq is close to chaos, in a classified briefing prepared just two weeks ago, which gives a stark assessment of the country.
The briefing contains a summary that includes phrases such as "urban areas experiencing 'ethnic cleansing' campaigns to consolidate control" and "violence at all-time high, spreading geographically."
The Pentagon cites increasing activity by militias and the ineffectiveness of Iraqi government security forces, which in some cases have been infiltrated by the very militias they are supposed to be fighting.

 

[lostexpectation]

missing US soldier kidnapped from wifes home

the soldier they left behind when the pulled out of sadr city yesterday, is of iraqi descent and had married an iraqi girl last year and was at her faimilies house when he was kidanpped... http://edition.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/meast/10/30/missing.soldier.ap/

 

[Barking_Mad]

Two years after U.S. assault on it, Fallujah returns to insurgent hands

FALLUJAH, IRAQ - When insurgents hid a bomb in front of his house a few days ago, intending to use it against U.S. or Iraqi troops, Majeed al-Rawi had only one option: Move out.

"If I report it to the Americans, I will be killed by the men who put it there, and if I don't, my family will be killed either by the explosion or the Americans," the car dealer said. "This is not a way to live; this is a way to hate life."

Two years after U.S. troops launched a devastating ground assault that purged, at least temporarily, the heart of the Iraqi insurgency, Fallujah once again is a violent place.

In recent months, insurgents have filtered back into the city, despite tight controls that limit access to only six checkpoints. Residents must submit to an extraordinary identification system that includes fingerprinting, retina scans and bar-coded identification cards.

An insurgent intimidation campaign has killed two City Council members and at least 30 police officers.

The campaign has been so effective that police patrols have all but stopped, as officers fear to walk the streets.

The number of shootings, bombings and bombs found and defused has doubled since last winter, to about four or five a day, U.S. officers say. There have been about half a dozen car bombings in recent weeks.

Residents and police alike complain bitterly that after two years security is eroding in what had been a U.S. success story.

"Bush didn't give us democracy, he gave us more new ways to be killed," Al-Rawi said. "I think there is no future anymore. I believe the only future is to leave this country. "We can win the war, but for now Al-Qaida has won in Fallujah," said a police officer who didn't want his name used for security reasons. "They made the police force stop patrolling streets, and that's a victory."

Because insurgents target them at home, many officers are living in the police stations. Others simply quit.

"What was I going to wait for that would keep me on the force?" said Muhammad Humadi, a captain who quit in August after one of his commanders was beheaded. "Nothing was going to get any better. I have children, and if I were to sacrifice myself it wouldn't change anything."

With more Americans expressing support for different policies in Iraq, Fallujah offers a lesson in frustration.

 

[corporate whore]

Call to close universities as 150 kidnapped in at research institute

Gunmen in military-style uniforms have kidnapped more than 100 men from a research institute belonging to Iraq's higher education ministry.

A ministry spokeswoman said the gunmen arrived in new pick-up vehicles and stormed the ministry's Research Directorate in central Baghdad.

Higher Education Minister Abd Dhiab said teaching in Baghdad's universities would be halted until the security situation improved.

 

[corporate whore]

Commander of US forces met with skepticism in Capitol Hill hearing

The commander of U.S. forces in the Middle East said Wednesday that he had requested an increase in the number of U.S. military advisors in Iraq and had sent another 2,000-Marine unit into the country's restive western region, moves that will increase the number of American troops in Iraq.

In two back-to-back hearings on Capitol Hill, Army Gen. John P. Abizaid, head of U.S. Central Command, also forcefully resisted calls by Democrats for troop withdrawals, saying it would further increase sectarian violence. He defended plans for keeping troop levels at or slightly above the current 141,000 and said he remained optimistic that Iraq could become stable.

But Abizaid, who unlike his civilian superiors has been shown considerable respect by lawmakers in the past, was repeatedly challenged Wednesday by Democrats and Republicans — on his conduct of the war and his candidness with congressional oversight committees.

Abizaid was met with deep skepticism and doubt in the Senate, where even Republicans who have supported the war effort pointedly questioned his judgment on troop levels and his optimistic assessment of the capabilities of the Iraqi security forces.

 

[corporate whore]

Iraq's Shiite government seeks arrest of leading Sunni cleric

Iraq's Shiite-led government issued an arrest warrant Thursday for the country's leading Sunni Arab cleric, accusing him of colluding with insurgents, a potentially explosive charge that could exacerbate tensions between the country's warring sectarian groups and further divide a fragile national government.

The warrant against him is virtually certain to rekindle threats of a boycott of the government by Sunni politicians. Sunnis have warned that such a walkout would have dire consequences, further entrenching an already brutal civil war and pushing more ordinary Sunnis toward the insurgency. It would also be a lethal blow to a coalition government that U.S. policymakers had hoped would pacify the hostility among Iraq's sects and ethnic groups.

 

[corporate whore]

Iraqi leaders considering talks with Iran, Syria despite US objections

Iraqi leaders said Monday that they were seriously considering three-way talks with Iran and Syria, responding to an overture from Iran's president that raised new questions about the level of American influence here.

The talks would focus on how the two neighboring countries could help quell rising sectarian bloodshed in Iraq, according to Iraqi officials familiar with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's offer.

Influential figures in Washington have urged the Bush administration to talk to both countries in hopes of gaining their help to bring the violence in Iraq under control. But many of President Bush's advisors oppose the idea.

White House policy has been to isolate Iran to compel the government to abandon its nuclear enrichment program and to refuse to talk with Syria until it drops its support for what the United States considers terrorist groups.

 

[corporate whore]

Iraq and Syria restore diplomatic relations

Syria and Iraq are to restore diplomatic relations, after a break of more than 20 years.

Agreement on restoring all diplomatic ties was announced in Baghdad by Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari and his Syrian counterpart Walid Muallim.

Correspondents say Iraq hopes the move will help to stem a flow of militants across the border with Syria.

 

[corporate whore]

Iraqi death toll hits record high

The Iraqi death toll hit a record high in October, with more than 3,700 people losing their lives in the ongoing violence, according to a UN report.

The majority of the 3,709 people who died were killed in sectarian attacks - nearly 200 more than in the previous record month of July.

The brunt of the violence was borne in Baghdad, while the report also noted that women were increasingly victims.

 

[corporate whore]

Iraqi doctors fleeing country

Iraq's top doctors are under threat and are fleeing the country, leaving hospitals in the hands of medical students or junior physicians, an Iraqi lawmaker said Wednesday.

Doctors have been kidnapped and killed since the U.S.-led invasion in 2003 that toppled ex-Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, said Dr. Rajaa al-Khuzai, an obstetrician who is an elected member of the Iraqi National Council.

"We were promised, or we believed, that we would have many new hospitals being built, and many health centers ... but none of this has been done," she said. "No hospitals have been built so far; only some of the hospitals have been serviced."

 

[corporate whore]

Disintegration of Iraq seen spreading to Pakistan, Turkey, Saudi

The disintegration of Iraq would destabilise the Middle East and ultimately affect Pakistan and Afghanistan, according to a senior researcher working for a French think-tank.

He also said Iraq's division would hit Turkey very hard, where Kurdish separatists are already fighting Ankara for an independent Kurdistan state that Iraqi Kurds would also like to join.

Iraq's disintegration would also threaten Saudi Arabia, he said without elaborating.

 

[moono]

A wave of car bomb and mortar blasts in the Shia Sadr City area of the Iraqi capital has left at least 138 people dead and more than 200 injured.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/6177356.stm

Sod Blair, the sanctimonious twerp is history. Time to flay Brown, the archdeacon.

 

[snorbury]

Sod Blair, the sanctimonious twerp is history. Time to flay Brown, the archdeacon.

Looks like things are kicking off out there, the worst day since the invasion , an indefinite curfew has been ordered in Baghdad