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*IRAQ: latest news and developments

Johnny Canuck2 said:
Is it just me, or has the number of american servicemen being killed in Iraq, dropped off rapidly in recent weeks?

As predicted, I mean.
Click to expand...

Whilst its true that 'only' 20 have died this month as compared to 47 last month, the reasons for this are that the US has pulled many of its troops back behind the sandbags and concrete blocks of their secure bases.

Instead the Iraqi 'police' are taking the brunt of the attacks with 300 dead. So if you want to see the deaths of 20 less Americans and 300 more Iraqi police as some sort of positive step forward, then please, go ahead and use your twisted logic.

Meanwhile you'll have to excuse me if I dont see this as some sort of positive step forward. Call me a nitpicker if you like......... :rolleyes:

http://www.ajc.com/news/content/news/ap/ap_story.html/Intl/AP.V6975.AP-Rumsfeld.html
 
Johnny Canuck2 said:
Is it just me, or has the number of american servicemen being killed in Iraq, dropped off rapidly in recent weeks?

As predicted, I mean.
Click to expand...

The Economist explores the issue :

What the figures suggest is that the number of attacks is going up even more sharply, though the number of potential American targets is going down as their force is reduced in size. Moreover, the American and British armies have hived off a lot of dangerous jobs (driving military vehicles, for instance) to contract workers, mostly Asian, whose deaths rarely get listed. The many British security companies in Iraq tend to hire people from Nepal or Fiji to guard bases. Another British-run company, Erinys International, now deploys 14,000 Iraqis to guard Iraq's oil installations.
Click to expand...
 
Well that depends on how you want to define 'development' doesn't it.

If there were less US casualties and they were still continuing patrols, still doing exactly the same jobs as they were when they were suffering higher casualties, then yes, that would be a good development as it means there is less resistence and therefore less death.

But its only a 'development' because the US arent doing as many patrols and are instead getting the Iraqis to do them whilst they retire behind their sandbag and concrete walls. Its all about putting it into context and not misreporting something as some sort of success when it isn't really telling the whole story.
 
See Johnny?

More casualties are being reported from the latest attack on Iraqi security forces.

Iraqi police say a bomb planted in a police car parked outside a restaurant killed a police officer and injured eight other people. Officers were having lunch in the restaurant in the central city of Baqouba (bah-KOO'-bah) when the bomb was apparently slipped into the vehicle.

One officer says he and his colleagues saw a plastic bag in the car -- and that it blew up when a police lieutenant opened a car door. The lieutenant was killed. Six other police officers were hurt, along with two civilians.

Meantime, an Iraqi security force member says an explosion damaged part of an oil pipeline about 60 miles north of Baghdad. He says an initial investigation points to a homemade bomb that was tossed under a network of oil and gas pipes.

http://www.arkansasnbc.com/Global/story.asp?S=1671160
 
Shiite walkout interrupts talk on Iraq constitution

BAGHDAD - Shiite Muslim members of Iraq's Governing Council walked out of a session to draft an interim constitution on Friday after a dispute over women's rights, exposing deep divisions between the country's two chief religious groups as they seek to form a transitional government.

The walkout by eight of the council's 13 Shiite members, the first since the body was formed in July, casts doubt on the council's ability to meet today's deadline set by the Bush administration for drafting an interim constitution.

Several members and their aides said the protest provided the clearest indication yet of the wide political gulf between majority Shiites, who largely favor a greater role for Islamic law, and minority Sunnis, who prefer a more secular government.

The discord stemmed from a decision to vote on a resolution introduced by some Shiites that would have imposed Islamic sharia law in adjudicating divorces, inheritances and other family matters.

When the resolution was rejected by Sunni members and a few liberal Shiites, two dozen women who had been invited into the council chamber applauded, prompting the eight Shiite members, some of them visibly angry, to leave.

http://www.contracostatimes.com/mld/cctimes/news/8064616.htm
 
Iraq wins 60 percent debt reduction

ABU DHABI (Reuters) - Iraq has won in principle a 60 percent reduction in the $120 billion (64 billion pounds) it owes international community, Iraq's planning minister says.

Mehdi al-Hafedh told reporters on the sidelines of a donors meeting in Abu Dhabi to kick off aid commitments for Iraq's reconstruction that the amount of debt reduction had not been officially announced yet.

"In principle, we have a 60 percent reduction in our debts," Hafedh told reporters.

France and Japan were among countries that had expressed a willingness to reduce Iraq's debt, Hafedh said.

Iraq's debt burden had been the subject of a sustained lobbying effort by the United States, which sent special envoy James Baker to ask countries like France, Russia, China, Saudi Arabia and Japan for a reduction.

Iraq, which had been given a moratorium to the end of 2004 on its debt payments, is trying to reach a deal to reduce its obligations before the period runs out.

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/040228/325/en7ol.html
 
Occupation exposes sectarian tensions

In 1917, 21 Shia clerics in Najaf wrote a letter to the British forces advancing towards Baghdad calling on them to occupy Iraq and throw off Sunni Ottoman rule.

The British did become an occupying force, but did not give in to Shia demands for a major role, but instead installed a royal dynasty to rule Iraq.

Between the creation of the modern Iraqi state in 1921 and the overthrow of the monarchy by the army officer Abd Al-Karim Qasim in 1958, there were 23 governments, four of them headed by Shia prime ministers.

Qasim became the first president of the Republic of Iraq. He tried to satisfy the Shia, who comprised the majority of the Iraqi Communist party that Qasim sympathised with.

However, Qasim was toppled by his old companion Abd Al-Salam Arif, who was an Arab Sunni. Arif was killed in a helicopter crash in 1966 and was succeeded by his brother Abd Al-Rahman Arif.

In 1968 Arif was in turn toppled by the Baathists, and Ahmad Hasan al-Bakr, an Arab Sunni, became the president of Iraq. In 1979 he was succeeded by his fellow citizen Saddam Hussein.
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http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/74EA2098-11C5-44F3-8829-FDBC80C86BB2.htm

oops sorry, this threads about the latest news on the liberation of iraq. So...
 
Iraq mourning blasts dead

A benumbed Iraq, shocked and shaken by Tuesday's string of bomb attacks in Karbala and Baghdad, is observing three-days of mourning.

Amid an outpouring of rage and grief over the death of 180 people in the coordinated blasts, Iraqi leaders called for calm, patience and unity in the face of the gravest of provocations.

"These sick people with guns are seeking to start sectarian strife so they can consolidate their positions," Adel Abdel Mehdi of the main Shia party, the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI) said.

"Their aim is to stop Iraqis from winning their sovereignty," he said.
Click to expand...

http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/47DAE710-B001-4374-AFAD-289055CD3836.htm
 
pbman said:
Why do you guys bother?

Your only getting about 50-100 hits a week on this thread, and its been that way for months?
Click to expand...

Well you keep reading it, so perhaps you'd like to explain why you bother?
 
Barking_Mad said:
Well you keep reading it, so perhaps you'd like to explain why you bother?
Click to expand...

I don't read it.

I just stopped in to tell you your wasting your time.

Carry on, i don't care. :D
 
Explosions rock centre of Baghdad

A series of loud explosions has been heard in the centre of the Iraqi capital, Baghdad.
The attack appeared to target the heavily-fortified headquarters of the US-led coalition, but so far there has been no word of any casualties.

A BBC correspondent says flashes of flame filled the sky, and sirens were heard across the city. The explosions were close to the building where Iraq's new interim constitution is to be signed on Monday.


The ceremony will bring together all 25 members of the US-appointed Iraqi Governing Council. The signing was called off on Friday because Shia leaders objected to some aspects of the new constitution.

The BBC's Barbara Plett says that mortars and rocket-propelled grenades were fired at the coalition headquarters, with five rockets targeting the al-Rashid hotel, where a number of senior officials are based.

"There was no confirmation of any injuries," said US Major John Frisbie.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/3541321.stm
 
Occupation HQ fired on in Baghdad

http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/39F40223-A7CD-4E2D-A9D9-DD96BA8C7AFC.htm I think this is the same thing. But different slant.


A series of rockets have been fired at the headquarters of the US occupation administration in Baghdad on the eve of the planned signing of an interim constitution for Iraq.

Police said there were no casualties from the Sunday blasts. Ten rockets were fired from a parked car and the attackers fled, police said, adding that they had also found explosives in the car along with two rockets that had not been fired.

The rockets were aimed at buildings in the "Green Zone", a heavily fortified area on the west bank of the Tigris River that used to be one of Saddam Hussein's palace complexes and is now the main base of occupying forces in Iraq.
Click to expand...
 
http://news.myway.com/top/article/id/257892|top|03-06-2004::09:50|reuters.html

Bush, Blair Misled by Intelligence on Iraq - Blix



It's a great tongue-twister: Blix Bush Blair.
 
Barking_Mad said:
Yeah, it would shatter your illusions about what's going off. BEst keep that bad news filter on huh?



Yeah, we noticed. :rolleyes:
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Cheek the weekly hit rate yourself then.

I was just being nice and telling you, that you are wasting your time.

Fell free to ignore me, and contnue wasting time.
 
Occupation hinders Iraqi agriculture

Once the region's most prosperous people, Iraqi farmers, are suffering under harsh living conditions since the occupation of Iraq last April.

In provinces such as Diyala and Tikrit, which have witnessed Iraqi resistance attacks, thousands of hectares of farmland and forest have been razed by the US occupation forces, who claim they have been used as hideouts for Iraqi resistance fighters.

Hundreds of farmers have lost their income overnight. They are neither able to ask for compensation, nor have they been given a date by which they can replant their destroyed crops and resume work.

"They flattened our farmlands in front of our eyes," said an Iraqi farmer in Diyala. "We are unable to work and feed our families anymore. They allege that Iraqi fighters had been using our farms as hideouts, it is not true."
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http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/97D6C92E-04C1-455C-9A1F-3393DA35ACBD.htm
 
Biggest car-jacking operation on Jordanian trucks in Iraq‏
‏‏
‏AMMAN, March 10 (KUNA) -- Jordanian trucks taking the route of Ramadi and ‏
‏Falujeh in Iraq were under the biggest car-jacking operation in a year ‏
‏resulting in the killing of many truck drivers, the Jordanian Al-Arab Al-Youm ‏
‏daily said Wednesday.‏ It added that 12 trucks were ambushed by highway robbers and killed a ‏number of drivers then stole their trucks.‏

‏ The newspaper quoted some of the surviving drivers as saying that the ‏
‏trucks were loaded with goods on their way to Baghdad when they were ambushed ‏ ‏by armed gangs.‏ They added that the gangs steal the goods then replace the license plates ‏of the Jordanian trucks with Iraqi ones in order to sell them.‏

‏Head of the Jordanian Trucks Owners Abdulmajed Al-Habshana said that ‏security roads to Baghdad are getting worst due to lack of Iraqi police or ‏coalition forces adding that over 1,500 Jordanian trucks working on that route ‏are in danger.‏

‏He added that 45 truck drivers working in Amman-Baghdad route were killed ‏
‏since the start of war last year and another 90 were seriously wounded.

http://www.kuna.net.kw/English/Story.asp?DSNO=610096
 
Explosion rocks Shia office in Iraq

A bomb has exploded outside the office of one of the main Shia parties in the Iraqi town of Baquba, injuring at least one person and badly damaging the building, police and witnesses said.

The blast just after 6am (03:00 GMT) on Wednesday shattered windows and doors at the offices of the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI), in Baquba, north of the capital.

Shia leaders, including the head of SCIRI, have criticised a transitional constitution signed on Monday, and raised concerns about certain clauses that they feel could jeopardise their representation.

Meanwhile, scattered explosions and small-arms fire were heard on Wednesday morning in central Baghdad, while a mortar round fired by US soldiers in northern Iraq missed its target earlier this week, killing an Iraqi civilian, the military said.

A US military spokesman could not confirm the cause of the blasts in Baghdad, but said they might have been controlled bursts to destroy captured stockpiles of ammunition and ordnance
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http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/24C658F3-9206-415C-9B40-8EB5B85FA1E0.htm
 
Two Iraqi Translators For UK Military Killed In Basra

BAGHDAD (AP)--Gunmen killed two Iraqi women working as translators for the U.K. military, a day after the slaying of two U.S. coalition officials and their translator by attackers disguised as police in southern Iraq, officials said Thursday.

The two women, sisters, were driving home in a taxi in Basra late Wednesday when gunmen stopped the vehicle and opened fire on them, a coalition official in the southern city said. The motive for the attack wasn't immediately known. Guerillas have targeted Iraqis working with the U.S.-led occupation. Also, Basra, which is patrolled by the U.K. military, has seen a number of killings blamed on Shiite militias enforcing Islamic law.

Meanwhile, L. Paul Bremer, the top administrator in Iraq, has requested that the FBI investigate the slayings of the U.S. civilians Tuesday on a road outside the town of Hillah, 60 kilometers south of Baghdad, said Dan Senor, spokesman for the U.S.-led coalition. The two were the first U.S. civilians working for the occupation authority to be killed in Iraq. It isn't known whether the gunmen were specifically targeting coalition officials. "We're starting to form views on that," Senor said Wednesday.

It was also unclear if they were traveling with security, and coalition guidelines discourage staffers from movements after dark. The roads around Hillah have seen a number of attacks on vehicles, some fatal.

http://news.nasdaq.com/news/newsSto...ACQDJON200403110302DOWJONESDJONLINE000146.htm
 
Reported Events in just 24 hours in Iraq

03/11/04 Centcom: 2 Soldiers Killed Confirm by Centcon
Two Soldiers from the 1st Brigade Combat Team of Task Force All American were killed and another Soldier was injured when their vehicle struck an improvised explosive device Thursday.

03/11/04 DOD: US Soldier Dead of Non-Hostile Gunshot Wound
Spc. Edward W. Brabazon, 20, of Philadelphia, Pa., died March 9 in Baghdad, Iraq, of a non-hostile gunshot wound.

03/11/04 Centcom: 1 Soldier Killed, 2 Wounded
One Task Force Ironhorse Soldier was killed and two were wounded Wednesday around noon when their convoy was attacked with an improvised explosive device near Ba'qubah.

03/11/04 KOTV: Oklahoma woman killed in Iraq
An Oklahoma woman is among those who died in an ambush in Iraq. The ambush happened about 35 miles south of Baghdad near the town of Hillah.

03/11/04 AP: Gunmen Kill Two Iraqi Women In Basra
Two Iraqi women working for contractors employed by the US-led forces occupying Iraq were killed as they were returning to their homes in the southern city of Basra, a military official said.

03/11/04 Reuters: US Soldier Dies of Wounds from Bomb Attack
A U.S. soldier died from wounds suffered in a bomb attack northeast of the capital Baghdad, a senior U.S. military official said Thursday.

03/10/04 AP: Iraqi Employee of VOA Killed in Baghdad
Selwan Abdelghani Medhi al-Niemi, an Iraqi who worked as a freelance translator in Baghdad for the Voice of America, was shot to death last Friday by unknown assailants while driving home from a relative's house, the VOA said.

03/10/04 AP: 3 Soldiers Wounded in Kirkuk
The military says gunmen injured three soldiers near a stadium in the northern town of Kirkuk. The gunmen escaped, and the wounded Americans were flown to Baghdad for treatment

03/10/04 AFP: Two Iraqi cops gunned down
Two Iraqi police officers were shot dead today by armed gunmen in a restaurant in the town of Al-Qayim near the Syrian border, the local police chief said.

03/10/04 AP: Bomb Wounds 2 In Baqouba
In Baqouba, northwest of Baghdad, a bomb went off near the offices of Iraq's largest Shiite party, wounding two people, said Haithem al-Husseini, a party spokesman.

03/10/04 AP: Two Puerto Rican soldiers wounded in Iraq
Fort Buchanan Spokesman Jose Pagan said Tuesday that two Puerto Rican soldiers stationed in Iraq were wounded during an explosion Monday.

03/10/04 Reuters: Iraq Firefight Kills Four Police, Italian Wounded
Four Iraqi policemen were killed in a midnight firefight which ended when Italian Carabinieri paratroopers stormed the offices of a security militia in Nassiriya, a coalition official said Wednesday.

03/10/04 AP: Two US nationals, Iraqi translator shot dead in central Iraq
Two US government employees and their Iraqi interpreter were shot dead in central Iraq), while an errant US mortar round killed one Iraqi civilian.

http://lunaville.org/warcasualties/Summary.aspx
 
US wants military rapes investigated

Female service members of the US armed forces stationed in Iraq, Kuwait and Afghanistan have reported more than 100 cases of sexual assault or misconduct.

Of those complaints, 91 were filed against male members of the US Army, 12 from the Navy, three from the Air Force and one from the Marine Corps.

The Pentagon considered the matter serious enough to call for an official investigation into how the Department of Defence handles crime in combat zones.

The investigation will also look at whether sufficient medical treatment and psychological counselling are being provided to US military victims.

In a February memorandum, Secretary of Defence Rumsfeld said, "Commanders at every level have a duty to take appropriate steps to prevent sexual assaults, protect victims, and hold those who commit offences accountable."
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http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/419C44F1-3998-4C08-BCC2-F8A272D23308.htm
 
Kimmitt said the number of attacks against coalition forces has averaged about 19 daily for the past week, and that insurgent attacks averaged fewer than four daily against Iraqi security forces, and two per day against Iraqi civilians.

The general reported the coalition is continuing offensive operations to capture and kill anti-coalition forces. In the past 24 hours, he said, coalition forces conducted 1,457 patrols, 32 offensive operations and 13 raids, capturing 81 anti-coalition suspects.

http://www.defenselink.mil/news/Mar2004/n03122004_200403128.html
 
Four US soldiers die in Baghdad - The latest deaths bring the weekend toll to six

Four American soldiers have been killed in two separate overnight attacks in the Iraqi capital, Baghdad. A spokesman said three soldiers were killed and one wounded in a blast in south-east Baghdad late on Saturday.

Another soldier died in hospital, after being caught in the blast from a home-made bomb early on Sunday. The deaths bring to 271 the number of US troops reported by the Pentagon as killed in action in Iraq since the end of major combat on 1 May.

Early on Saturday, a roadside bomb in Tikrit killed two US soldiers and wounded three others.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/3509720.stm
 
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