*IRAQ: latest news and developments

[laptop]

US fears that Brown wants Iraq pull-out

Sarah Baxter in Washington and David Cracknell

McDonald, a senior diplomat who formerly ran the Iraq desk at the Foreign Office, was in Washington this month to prepare for the summit. He asked a select group of US foreign policy experts what they believed the effect would be of a British pull-out from Iraq.

...
Army chiefs make no secret of their desire to withdraw. British troops are under virtual siege in Basra with four servicemen killed in the past two weeks by mortar or rocket attacks on their two bases. Most are in tents with no overhead protection.

http://timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article2159281.ece

Hmm... content of the article supports UK disengagement, but its existence suggests an attempt at US manipulation against that...

 

[Barking_Mad]

Water Taps Run Dry in Baghdad

Much of the Iraqi capital was without running water Thursday and had been for at least 24 hours, compounding the urban misery in a war zone and the blistering heat at the height of the Baghdad summer.

 

[Barking_Mad]

U.S. military launches new air campaign south of Baghdad

The U.S. military has launched a new air campaign against militant safe havens and weapons smugglers south of Baghdad as it seeks to choke the flow of bombs and weapons reaching Baghdad, a top commander said Thursday.

 

[Barking_Mad]

Latest 'Iraq Index' from the Brookings Institute (30th July)

Makes for very interesting reading, lots of info to take in.

Q. Who do you think currently controls things in Iraq?

A. 50% say 'The US Government'

(Half of the more optimistic Shia's believe the Iraqi government is in control.)

http://www3.brookings.edu/fp/saban/iraq/index.pdf

 

[Barking_Mad]

Iraq's national electricity grid nearing collapse, who cities short of water

BAGHDAD (AP) - Iraq's electricity grid could collapse any day because of insurgent sabotage, rising demand, fuel shortages and provincial officials who are unplugging local power stations from the national system, electricity officials said on Saturday.

U.S. President George W. Bush, meanwhile, was busy on the phone, calling Vice-president Adel Abdel-Mahdi and President Jalal Talabani, urging political unity in the country, where the government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki is under a stiff challenge.

Abdel-Mahdi, a Shiite, and Talabani, a Kurd, provided few details of the conversations in statements released by their offices. But both men have been involved in trying to solve a government crisis after Iraq's largest bloc of Sunni political parties ordered its ministers to quit the government.

For many Iraqi citizens, however, trying to stay cool or find sufficient drinking water was a more urgent problem. The Baghdad water supply already has been severely affected by power blackouts and cuts that have affected pumping and filtration stations.

And now water mains have gone dry in the Shiite holy city of Karbala, where the whole province south of Baghdad has been without power for three days. Power supplies in Baghdad have been sporadic all summer and now are down to just a few hours a day, if that.

"We no longer need to watch television documentaries about the stone age. We are actually living in it. We are in constant danger because of the filthy water and rotten food we are having," said Hazim Obeid, who sells clothing at a stall in the Karbala market.

Aziz al-Shimari, the Electricity Ministry spokesman in Baghdad, said power generation nationally was only half of demand and that there had been four countrywide blackouts over the past two days.

"Many southern provinces, such as Basra, Diwaniyah, Nassiriyah, Babil have disconnected their power plants from the national grid. Northern provinces, including Kurdistan, are doing the same," al-Shimari said.

He complained that the central government was unable to do anything about that or the fact that some provinces were failing to take themselves off the supply grid once they had consumed their daily ration of electricity.

Najaf province spokesman Ahmed Deibel confirmed to The Associated Press Sunday that the gas turbine generator there was removed from the national grid. He said the plant produced 50 megawatts while the province needed at least 200.

 

[Barking_Mad]

Continuing violence boosts funeral industry in Baghdad

BAGHDAD, 7 August 2007 (IRIN) - The continuing violence in Baghdad is fuelling a boom in the funeral industry.

Back in Saddam Hussein's time, coffin maker Abdul-Wahab Khalil Mohammed used to sell one or two coffins a day at US$5-US$10 each. Now he produces an average of 15 to 20 coffins a day and charges $50-$75 for each one.

"Our business is booming," said Mohammed pointing to at least seven caskets in front of his tiny shop in Baghdad's central Allawi area.

Professional mourners like 51-year-old Um Ali, who attends funerals to add emotion to the ceremony, are also cashing in. "I feel like I'm a death toll meter. Since the end of 2005, I've been doing a daily average of three to five funerals," said Um Ali.

Um Ali, who charges $50-$100 per appearance, is now training one of her daughters and a nephew.

"I can't do more than three to five funerals a day because the security situation means I can't move around Baghdad easily," said Um Ali who limits herself to Baghdad's Shia-dominated neighbourhood of Mashtal, unless clients agree to drive her to and from the services.

The violence has also been good for Saif Tawfiq al-Ani's funeral supplies' business, which has expanded from one tiny shop in 1989 to four shops and two pick-up trucks today. He hires out everything a grieving family needs for a proper burial - chairs for the mourners, tape recorders, speakers to broadcast Koranic verses, plates for traditional food and a generator - all for about $200 a day.

According to Muslim and Iraqi tradition, bodies should be buried quickly, if possible on the day of death itself. But tradition also calls for three days of mourning. Families rent a tent near the deceased's home and receive visitors. On the final day of mourning, the deceased's family throws a big feast, in which mourners and the neighbourhood's poor can partake. That is where Ali and other funeral suppliers come in.

"The demand for our services has gone up since the bombing of a Shia shrine in Samarra [in February 2006] since when much of the country has been gripped by a wave of reprisal killings," said al-Ani.

Since mid-2005 textile merchant Abdul-Sahib Mukhtar Ni'ma has stopped importing brightly coloured items and instead has specialised in selling black cloth in Baghdad's markets.

"Most people these days are asking for black cloth to wear or use for banners to announce deaths," Ni'ma said.

 

[Barking_Mad]

Bomb attacks on US troops at highest level

Roadside bomb attacks on American troops in Iraq reached an all-time high last month, accounting for more than one third of all combat deaths.

The increase in the number of casualties caused by the sophisticated explosive devices comes at the height of the "surge" of United States forces which, the Pentagon claims, is broadly a success.

Washington and London have blamed the Iranian regime of supplying the devices which have been used with lethal effect against American and British troops.

Although the Coalition forces had claimed a number of successes in discovering caches of the bombs, the number of attacks last month - 99 - shows the insurgency has had no problem in obtaining supplies.

US forces have been focusing their operations on Sunni militants and, in particular, al Qaeda in Iraq. One of the aims of the "surge" was to combat Shiite militias which, often in collusion with Government forces, have been running death squads.

But the use of the roadside devices show that the threat from the Shiites, with many of the groups sponsored by Tehran, have not diminished despite numerous American missions.

Lieutenant-General Raymond Odiarno, deputy US commander in Iraq, said last month was an all-time high for attacks using the devices and that Shia militants were responsible for 73 per cent of the attacks which killed or wounded US troops in Baghdad last month.

 

[TAE]

Expert: Iraq's Internal Chaos Needs Federalization

A German study concluded that a federal solution will be needed in order to calm clashes that may possibly escalate in the north and the south of Iraq, adding upheaval to the conflict in Baghdad.

...

"Within the next couple of years, I think we will see an escalation of conflict not only in Baghdad, but rather in the north and the south of the country: in the north, over the incorporation of the Kirkuk into the Turkish autonomy zone; and in the south, over the control of the southern Shiite areas. This is why I think that only a federal solution can smooth this process of breaking off of Iraq."

...

 

[Barking_Mad]

As many UK troops have died since the beginning of January 2007 (total of 41) than had died in the previous 20 months before that.

 

[Barking_Mad]

Number of Iraqis Held by U.S. Is Swelling

The number of detainees held by the American-led military coalition in Iraq has swelled by 50 percent under the troop increase ordered by President Bush, with the inmate population growing from 16,000 in February to 24,500 today....

Masked Militants Target Police in Iraq

Dozens of masked fighters launched a coordinated attack on police in Samarra, an official said Friday, entering the city at dusk in 20 machine-gun mounted pickups then splitting up to assault checkpoints and a headquarters building.

Baghdad overnight clash kills 13

U.S. forces opened fire from helicopters during an overnight clash with Shi'ite militants in western Baghdad, killing at least 13 people...A police source at nearby al-Hakim hospital said one woman was among 13 bodies brought to its morgue...

 

[corporate whore]

Been a while..

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/10/world/middleeast/10iraq.html

In a sharp escalation of a dispute over border fighting, an official Iranian delegation at a diplomatic conference here warned Sunday that if the Iraqi government could not stop militants from crossing into Iran and carrying out attacks, the Iranian authorities would respond militarily.

 

[corporate whore]

Also:

http://in.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idINIndia-29439620070910

The Pentagon is preparing to build a military base near the Iraq-Iran border to try to curtail the flow of advanced Iranian weaponry to Shiite militants across Iraq, the Wall Street Journal reported on Monday in its online edition.

The base will be located about four miles from the Iranian border and will be used for at least two years, according to the report. U.S. officials told the paper it is unclear whether it will be among the small number of facilities that would remain in Iraq after any future large-scale U.S. withdrawal.

 

[RhymnRzn]

Cholera spreads to Iraq's south


what in the world.......

 

[jonH]

2 US dead and 40 injured

 

[corporate whore]

The deal is done

US troops in for the long haul, US Inc. with first dibs over Iraqi assets. Just as planned.

http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5jcyYIvKNmFgHCjYkWu1jxLA3zQBgD8T5EPQ80

Iraq's government, seeking protection against foreign threats and internal coups, will offer the U.S. a long-term troop presence in Iraq in return for U.S. security guarantees as part of a strategic partnership, two Iraqi officials said Monday.

The proposal, described to The Associated Press by two senior Iraqi officials familiar with the issue, is one of the first indications that the United States and Iraq are beginning to explore what their relationship might look like once the U.S. significantly draws down its troop presence.

In Washington, President Bush's adviser on the Iraqi war, Lt. Gen. Douglas Lute, confirmed the proposal, calling it "a set of principles from which to begin formal negotiations."

As part of the package, the Iraqis want an end to the current U.N.-mandated multinational forces mission, and also an end to all U.N.-ordered restrictions on Iraq's sovereignty.

Preferential treatment for U.S. investors could provide a huge windfall if Iraq can achieve enough stability to exploit its vast oil resources. Such a deal would also enable the United States to maintain leverage against Iranian expansion at a time of growing fears about Tehran's nuclear aspirations.

What I love about this is the Iraqis offering it to the Americans like they had a choice.

 

[Andy the Don]

64 die in markets bombings

Just when you think the terrorists have plumped the depths of humanity..

An Iraqi official said the devices were attached to two mentally disabled women, and were detonated remotely.

 

[corporate whore]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/feedarticle?id=7274954

Iraq faces severe shortages of wheat

Iraq may face its worst wheat shortages in years this year, aggravated by a delay in purchasing that clouds deliveries for the rest of the year. Food experts, millers, traders and even senior grain officials privately warn a crisis looms even though Iraq is about to return to the international market after a nearly four-month halt in new purchases.

 

[corporate whore]

http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5jHviLgA-6oAnT6tVgNAytnwYr2KwD8UH6PRG2

US wants its cake and to eat it

PRESERVING OPTIONS: The United States wants to preserve the right to hunt down top foreign fighters, as it negotiates a long-term security agreement with the Iraqis, according to a working draft described to The Associated Press.
SOME PRESENCE: While the agreement will not tie the U.S. to specific troop levels, officials do not rule out including some broad goals for the U.S. military presence there.
TRANSFERRING POWER: The closely held draft document foresees a flexible agreement that would allow the U.S. and Iraqi governments to adapt and shift responsibilities as conditions change.

 

[corporate whore]

http://www.reuters.com/article/featuredCrisis/idUSL01438851

UK troops practiced 'off-the-scale' abuse in Iraq

"If these harrowing allegations are proven, then you'd be pushed to be able to put it in context -- it would be the worst conduct by the British army in the last 100 years."

 

[corporate whore]

http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5hjedAPIv29LgVxMWKNeZKm9ilnKA

Human Rights eroded in Iraq in 2007

"Attacks on civilians by various insurgent and militia groups continued," HRW said in a bleak assessment of Iraq in its annual report.

It said the "sectarian cleansing" of Baghdad by both Sunni and Shiite groups proceeded despite a US troop "surge" aimed at halting the killings.

 

[Barking_Mad]

Kurdistan defies Iraqi authorities on oil contracts

Kurdistan has raised the stakes in the fight over the world's third largest oil reserves, insisting it would continue to sign production contracts with foreign oil companies despite the protestations of Iraq's central government...

 

[Barking_Mad]

About 100 bodies found in Iraq mass grave

Iraqi security forces found about 100 badly decomposed bodies in a mass grave north of Baghdad, the U.S. military said on Saturday, one of the largest such finds in the country for months.

 

[Barking_Mad]

nothing to see here Britain, move along please........

Thousands protest in Basra over security

BAGHDAD (AP) — Thousands of people took to the streets Saturday in southern Basra, protesting deteriorating security in a city where Iraqi forces assumed responsibility for safety last December.

It was day of violence as well as political unrest in Iraq: Police in Diyala province northeast of Baghdad reported two separate bombings in which six people were killed.

In Basra, Iraq's second-largest city and the urban center of an oil-rich region, Shiite groups have been wrestling for control of the area.

Residents are becoming increasingly alarmed about security, saying that killings, kidnappings and other crimes have increased significantly since British forces turned over responsibility for the city at the end of last year.

In February, two journalists working for CBS were kidnapped in Basra. One was released but the other, a Briton, is still being held.
FIND MORE STORIES IN: Baghdad | CBS Corp. | Muqtada al-Sadr | Basra | Baqouba | Diyala | anti-U.S | Briton | Badr Brigade | Khalis | Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council | Shiite-run | Al-Forat TV

A long line of marchers, estimated to be as many as 5,000 people, demonstrated near the Basra police command headquarters Saturday, demanding that the police chief, Maj. Gen. Abdul-Jalil Khalaf, and the commander of joint military-police operation, Lt. Gen. Mohan al-Fireji, resign.

Many carried banners, decrying the killing of women, workers, academics and scientists. Dozens of women were slain in Basra by religious extremists last year because of how they dressed, their mutilated bodies found with notes warning against "violating Islamic teachings."

Saturday's protesters, overwhelmingly men, came from several Shiite political movements, including the biggest Shiite party, the Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council and its militia wing, known as the Badr Brigade.

There was violence, meanwhile, in Diyala province northeast of Baghdad where an official in the joint police-army operations center said that separate roadside bombings killed six people in Wajihiyah, about 25 kilometers east of the provincial capital of Baqouba.

In the first attack, a bomb destroyed a car — killing a mother and her two children and wounding two others, including the woman's husband. The second attack hit a bus, killing three men and wounding two others, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Police also found the bullet-riddled bodies of 13 men in Khalis, 80 kilometers (50 miles) north of Baghdad, the official said.

Meanwhile, the U.S. military confirmed that it had released the news editor of a prominent Shiite-run television station on Friday afternoon, after he was cleared on having connections to so-called "special groups" militias — a term often used by the military to describe Shiite extremists who have broken with anti-U.S. cleric Muqtada al-Sadr.

Hafidh al-Beshara, the news editor and manager of political programming for Al-Forat TV, was detained two weeks ago along with his son, who is still being held.

 

[oake]

Saddam Hussein had no direct ties to al-Qaida, says Pentagon study

A US military study officially acknowledged for the first time yesterday that Saddam Hussein had no direct ties to al-Qaida, undercutting the Bush administration's central case for war with Iraq.

The Pentagon study based on more than 600,000 documents recovered after US and UK troops toppled Hussein in 2003, discovered "no 'smoking gun' (ie, direct connection) between Saddam's Iraq and al-Qaida", its authors wrote.
George Bush and his senior aides have made numerous attempts to link Saddam Hussein and Al Qaeda terror in their justification for waging war against Iraq.

Wary of embarrassing press coverage noting that the new study debunks those claims, the US defence department attempted to bury the release of the report yesterday.

Link

 

[oake]

Commander says forget winning hearts and minds

"Winning hearts and minds" in Western-occupied nations like Iraq and Afghanistan is an impossible goal, a British army commander said in frank remarks on Tuesday that challenged an often-heard mantra.

While some opponents could be brought back from the brink by addressing underlying grievances, others were irreconcilable.
"They are simply the architects of chaos. You have to expel them, incarcerate them or kill them," said Lamb, who holds the post of Commander, Field Army Headquarters Land Command.

Reuters

 

[Barking_Mad]

Seems the violence, that never truly went away, is increasing yet again.

www.icasualties.org has long lists of bombs, deaths, murder etc....

 

[audiotech]

***********

 

[Barking_Mad]

Mental health injuries scar 300,000 U.S. troops

Some 300,000 U.S. troops are suffering from major depression or post traumatic stress from serving in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and 320,000 received brain injuries, a new study estimates.

 

[Poi E]

Mental health injuries scar 300,000 U.S. troops

So that makes over 300,000 damaged men and women being sent back into American society. What a fucking cancer.

 

[Aldebaran]

It was their choice to go there.
I'm far more concerned about the uncountable Iraqis who are scarred for life, both physical and mental, and keep getting scarred for life. There is even no psychiatric help available for the children.

salaam.