*IRAQ: latest news and developments

[Barking_Mad]

You know if some other country other than the US and UK were carrying these actions out I sadly fear the rection to this wouldnt bo ignored quite so much......

Some gave accounts of the recent fighting. "As soon as the Americans see a group of people in the streets, they shoot at them, people venture out only if their homes risk being bombarded or if they must carry the dead or wounded to the city's clinics," one man told AFP.

"I saw people bury their dead in their yards because they feared to venture out," he added. http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,1189883,00.html

Then on the other hand we have General Kimmitt, a supreme fuckwit if ever there was one.

And when we see televisions running footage -- don't know the quality of the footage, don't know the veracity of the footage -- which somehow tries to trump up the charge that we are incurring massive civilian casualties in the conduct of our operation, that just frankly doesn't square with the facts. There have been times when we have taken -- we have conducted operations, and in the process of the operation there have been unintentional casualties. When that happens we thoroughly investigate. If improper actions have been taken, we take the proper prosecutorial actions. But in the main, as a matter of policy, we run deliberately precise operations so that we make sure that our focus is on the target, and we minimize any opportunity and any chance of bringing damage onto the surrounding area.

http://www.defenselink.mil/transcripts/2004/tr20040407-0588.html

 

[Barking_Mad]

News on 2 choppers downed in Iraq

US Apache down, crew dead, contact lost with another chopper in Iraq‏
‏‏
‏

BAGHDAD, April 11 (KUNA) -- A US Apache had been downed in the Abu Ghreib ‏ area, 10 kilometers west of Baghdad, Sunday morning and the two crew members ‏are reported dead, a source in the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) in ‏Iraq confirmed.‏
‏
Other sources said another chopper, model still undeclared, had gone ‏
‏missing at noon after loss of contact with its crew.‏ The CPA sources pointed out this second chopper was transporting a group of ‏soldiers, whose fate is still to be ascertained.

http://www.kuna.net.kw/English/Story.asp?DSNO=620597

 

[Barking_Mad]

Al Jazeera airs tape of 'two dead US officers' in Iraq

DUBAI - Arab television station Al Jazeera aired a tape on Sunday showing the bodies of two men it said were US intelligence officers killed in the Sunni town of Falluja. “The audio recording accompanying the footage said the two men were intelligence officers working in Iraq,” Al Jazeera said. The videotape showed the bloodied bodies of two foreign men lying on the ground, one shot in the back and another in the leg, surrounded by several Iraqi men.

http://www.khaleejtimes.com/Display...l/focusoniraq_April94.xml&section=focusoniraq

 

[Barking_Mad]

Two Germans found shot dead

LONDON, April 11 (Saba) - Two German security officers missing in Iraq were killed by Iraqi insurgents, London's Sunday Telegraph reported.

The paper released photographs purported to be the bloodied bodies of the Germans, who were part of a convoy attacked on Wednesday. Racing through an insurgent roadblock on the highway from neighbouring Jordan to Baghdad, the convoy was pursued, and the tires were shot out in the last of six vehicles in the group.

The disabled vehicle was forced to stop in front of a former school, and the two Germans were shot to death when they got out, the paper said.The vehicle was burned out. A Sunday Telegraph reporter claimed to have accompanied the insurgents for two days.

http://www.sabanews.net/view.php?scope=f9129&dr=&ir=&id=66159

 

[Barking_Mad]

Young Iraqis grow in hatred of U.S.

Ahmed, a 29-year-old man with elegant fingers and honey-colored eyes, has been planting bombs inside dead dogs and leaving them on the highway. He and a team of helpers have been especially busy recently.

"We start work after 11 p.m.," Ahmed said. "Our group is small, just friends, and we don't even have a name."

Khalif Juma, 26, a vegetable seller, said he and his cousins bought a crate of Kalashnikov rifles recently. "To be honest, we weren't like this before," he said. "But we're religious people, and our leader has been threatened. We would be ashamed to stay in our houses with our wives at a time like this."

The other day, when trouble broke out in the predominantly Shiite neighborhood of Khadamiya, he dashed home from work, grabbed a clip for his Kalashnikov and took it out front.

"If the Americans come this way, we will fight them," Muhammad said. "I'm going to defend my house, my street, my land, my religion."

He stood on the sidewalk in sweat pants, without shoes.

"I like to fight barefoot," he said.

Abdul Razak al-Muaimy, 32, a laborer, said: "I train my son to kill Americans. That is one reason I am grateful to Saddam Hussein. All Iraqis know how to use weapons."

http://www.oregonlive.com/metro/oregonian/index.ssf?/base/exclude/1081684539173610.xml

 

[Barking_Mad]

Iraqis reject Shiite leader

The weeklong uprising of Shiite Muslims led by outlawed cleric Muqtada al-Sadr has Baghdad residents and U.S. soldiers alike spitting mad. "He is not an imam, not a Muslim,” Hadnan Abdul Sahib Hassan, chairman of the Baghdad City Council, said in a telephone interview from Iraq. "He is a criminal and his followers are criminals and troublemakers. No one here supports them.” Hassan lives in the al-Kamiyah district, which borders Sadr City, the sprawling Shiite slum that is home to 2 million of Baghdad’s 5 million residents. While Hassan said his own district "is very poor,” it pales in comparison to the abject poverty of Sadr City.

http://www.newstimes.com/cgi-bin/dbs.cgi?db=news&view_records=1&id=61047

 

[Barking_Mad]

Shiite Leader Sadr Calls Iraqis To Unite

11 April 2004 | 15:24 | AFP
Shiite radical leader Muqtada Sadr called the Iraqis to unite behind his Mehdi Army and promised liberation from the US occupation, reported AFP. The army is to protect the suppressed people, who fight for their rights and for the sacred institutions, and it declares itself for liberation from the occupation, writes a sign hung on an announcement board in front of the vault of imam Hussein in the town of Karbala. “My brethren, let’s unite and support each other in order to liberate ourselves”, said Sadr adding that “the army is a people’s army and I am just one of the Iraqi people”. He also called for putting a stop to “the assaults against the people in Falluja”.

http://www.focus-fen.net/index.php?catid=138&ch=0&newsid=38307&PHPSESSID=

 

[Barking_Mad]

Highway to hell: The road to Falluja

Sunday 11 April 2004, 1:29 Makka Time, 22:29 GMT

As we drive through the back roads on the way to Falluja, US jets are pounding the area around the tiny village of Garma.

The sight of US reinforcements flying into the area and the continuous sound of explosions and gunfire proves too much for my driver. He pulls into the village, unwilling to go any further. Half way between Baghdad and Falluja, Garma is well placed to witness the US bombardment of the latter, where the steadily rising toll of dead Iraqis from the past week's fighting has passed 400. At least 1000 have been reported wounded.

http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/FE78FACB-0A6D-4F88-A6C1-B434857135A6.htm

 

[Barking_Mad]

Iraqis refuse to fight in Fallujah

Washington, april 11 - A battalion of the new Iraqi army refused to go to Fallujah earlier this week to support US marines battling Muslim insurgents for control of the city, the Washington post reported Sunday.

Citing senior US army officers in Baghdad, the newspaper said the incident is casting new doubt on US plans to transfer security matters to Iraqi forces.

The 620-man 2nd battalion of the Iraqi armed forces refused to fight Monday after members of the unit were shot at in a Shiite Muslim neighborhood in Baghdad while en route to Fallujah, said the Post, quoting US army major general Paul Eaton.

http://www.iribnews.ir/Full_en.asp?news_id=201916

 

[Kaka Tim]

Confirmation that an Apache Attack Helicopter has been shot down over baghdad.

http://www.voanews.com/article.cfm?objectID=521C513B-FA5A-4D26-A01EE537445F1CCA

 

[Gumbert]

Captors threaten to start killing Japanese

i cant work this out, first they were going to be set free now this..

The kidnappers of three Japanese civilians have threatened to kill one of them within 24 hours if Tokyo does not withdraw its troops out of Iraq, a self-described Iraqi mediator has told Aljazeera satellite channel.

Citing a statement by "the Iraqi resistance," Mazhar al-Dalaimi, said on Sunday the kidnappers are "giving the Japanese government a 24-hour ultimatum, not open to extension, after which they will execute a first hostage.

Al-Dalaimi, who heads the League for the Defense of Iraqis' Rights, said "the death sentence will be applied to the others 12 hours later" unless Tokyo meets a number of conditions, chiefly to pull its troops out of Iraq.

A Japanese diplomat in Amman declined to comment on the status of al-Dalaimi.

On Thursday Aljazeera television aired a videotape showing the three Japanese sitting at the feet of their armed captors, members of a previously unknown group called Saraya al-Mujahadin.

http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/207639E9-60F6-4A9A-B75D-9947357CFD94.htm

 

[Gumbert]

Shia flock to Karbala amid clash fears

Hundreds of thousands of Shia thronged to the Iraqi city of Karbala to mark the holy day of Arbian amid fears of more fighting after the uprising by supporters of Shia leader Muqtada al-Sadr.

The Arbain commemoration, which began late on Saturday and continued on Sunday, falls 40 days after the day of Ashura. In March bombers detonated a series of deadly explosions, leaving 171 civilians killed.

Over the past week, members of al-Sadr's al-Mahdi Army militia have battled occupation forces in Iraq, worsening fears of bloodshed during Arbain.

The peak of the Arbain commemoration-prayers before dawn- passed peacefully. But after daybreak the streets were still crowded with Shia, some of whom had walked for days from across Iraq to visit the Karbala shrine.

The day commemorates the death of Imam al-Husayn, grandson of the Prophet Muhammad, nearly 13 centuries ago in Karbala.

Al-Sadr's militiamen have fought fierce clashes with Polish and Bulgarian occupation troops around Karbala during the past week. The battles have killed 69 people and wounded more than 100, said Mahdi Masnawi, Karbala director-general of health.

http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/0129A1FA-D7F2-4E99-B824-E9D523023EBA.htm

 

[Barking_Mad]

Mass Graves and genocide, all within a week......our media should be ashamed at the lack of reporting of this fact.

600 Iraqis killed in Fallujah in a week, hospital chief says

FALLUJAH, Iraq - More than 600 Iraqis have been killed in the fighting in Fallujah the past week, the head of the city's hospital said today. Statistics on deaths were gathered from four main clinics around the city and from Fallujah General Hospital, hospital director Rafie al-Issawi told The Associated Press. They totaled more than 600 dead, he said.

The actual number of dead in the city may be higher, he said. "We have reports of an unknown number of dead being buried in people's homes without coming to the clinics,'' al-Issawi said.

Bodies were being buried at two soccer fields in Fallujah. At one of the fields, dubbed the ``Graveyard of the Martyrs'' by residents, there was row after row of freshly dug graves, with wooden planks for headstones.

Khalaf al-Jumaili, a volunteer helping bury bodies at the field, said more than 300 people have been interred there. It was not known how many were buried at the other football field.

http://www.startribune.com/stories/484/4716247.html

 

[Barking_Mad]

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Insurgents killed eight U.S. soldiers in various attacks in the past two days, the U.S. military said in a statement on Sunday.

The deaths and attacks had not previously been reported.

Four 1st Armored Division soldiers were killed in two separate attacks on April 9 in Baghdad, the statement said, while three 1st Infantry Division soldiers were killed and two wounded in an ambush near Tikrit, north of Baghdad the same day. On April 10th, a Marine was killed as a result of fighting in the al-Anbar province west of Baghdad.

http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=4798532&section=news

 

[Barking_Mad]

Have seen very little of this report in the Western media

Aljazeera airs tape of dead 'CIA men'

Aljazeera TV has aired a video tape showing two dead bodies, with the voiceover claiming they were that of CIA men killed in Falluja. The tape, aired on Sunday, showed marks of gunshots on the bodies and a number of Iraqis surrounding them. It also showed a damaged car, which the narrator claimed belonged to the dead men.

On Saturday, Aljazeera aired a tape showing a US detainee kidnapped by a group called al-Mujahidin during an attack on a US convoy.

http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/64583899-BD41-4851-9C9C-A2BA1FDC9F1C.htm

And about the US hostage....

Aljazeera also aired an audio tape from the kidnappers. "Up to now your prisoner is being dealt with in the tolerant manner specified by Islamic law. Our one request is to break the siege of the city of the mosques (in Falluja) during the 12 hours from six o'clock on Saturday evening," the kidnappers said.

"If not, he will be dealt with worse that those who were killed and burned in Falluja," they added.

 

[bigfish]

Mass Graves and genocide, all within a week......our media should be ashamed at the lack of reporting of this fact.

On a point of order: "Our" media is really their media only cunningly disguised and made to look like its speaking for us all in order to fool the rest of the world in to thinking the British ruling elite are much stronger than they really are.

 

[Barking_Mad]

On a point of order: "Our" media is really their media only cunningly disguised and made to look like its speaking for us all in order to fool the rest of the world in to thinking the British ruling elite are much stronger than they really are.

Youre quite right

 

[Barking_Mad]

Speaking of their news....Fox News Ticker says:

<<<TERROR ALERT: EVEVATED>>>

Actually its said that for the last 4 days at least. You don't think they perhaps......well...leave it up there on purpose?

 

[Walter Mitty]

Just Terror alert evetated and nothing else? It sounds like a police states propaganda machine.

 

[Barking_Mad]

US Dead for April totals 66 to April 11th

This morning when I checked, the number for US dead stood at 53 - Last casualties I heard were the 2 US helicopter crew who were being highlighted on all major TV stations. Then I check on the US Coalitian Casualty web site it jumps to 66.

A quick look at Centcom reveals the US released 10+ names that were reportedly killed two days ago but not reported until now. As of yet there are no reports of the number of US dead on any of the newswires. I suspect that number might go above 70 if its taking 2 days to get round to releasing their names.

http://lunaville.org/warcasualties/Summary.aspx

 

[Barking_Mad]

Just Terror alert evetated and nothing else? It sounds like a police states propaganda machine.

Well thats it! Its been like that for 4 days. My first thought was, "Elevated above what?"

 

[Barking_Mad]

Washington Post report on Iraqi troops not wanting to fight. Registration needed, but free.

Iraqi Battalion Refuses to 'Fight Iraqis'

BAGHDAD, April 10 -- A battalion of the new Iraqi army refused to go to Fallujah earlier this week to support U.S. Marines battling for control of the city, senior U.S. Army officers here said, disclosing an incident that is casting new doubt on U.S. plans to transfer security matters to Iraqi forces.

It was the first time U.S. commanders had sought to involve the postwar Iraqi army in major combat operations, and the battalion's refusal came as large parts of Iraqi security forces have stopped carrying out their duties.

The 620-man 2nd Battalion of the Iraqi Armed Forces refused to fight Monday after members of the unit were shot at in a Shiite Muslim neighborhood in Baghdad while en route to Fallujah, a Sunni Muslim stronghold, said U.S. Army Maj. Gen. Paul Eaton, who is overseeing the development of Iraqi security forces. The convoy then turned around and returned to the battalion's post on a former Republican Guard base in Taji, a town north of the capital.

Eaton said members of the battalion insisted during the ensuing discussions: "We did not sign up to fight Iraqis."

He declined to characterize the incident as a mutiny, but rather called it "a command failure." http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A2680-2004Apr10.html

 

[Barking_Mad]

US soldiers confirmed missing

TWO US soldiers are missing following an attack by Iraqi insurgents on their convoy west of Baghdad. Military spokesman Justin McCue said: "There are two soldiers missing as a result of an attack on the convoy today ... the attack occured right around Baghdad International Airport."

McCue said it was unknown if the soldiers had been abducted by insurgents following a flurry of kidnappings of foreigners across Iraq in recent days. Earlier today, US Central Command announced that a member of the 13th Corps Support Command had been killed and 12 wounded in an attack on their convoy near Baghdad International Airport.

It was not immediately known if the missing soldiers were part of the same convoy.

http://www.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,4057,9238933%5E1702,00.html

 

[slaar]

Article by John Simpson on the BBC website about Iraqi politicians`concerns as to how the US has responded to a threat from "a tearaway who gathered a small army of thugs around himself":

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/3613473.stm

Now, because the Americans have decided to take them on, he and his Mehdi army have suddenly assumed the status of defenders of the faith...

What worries the Iraqi politicians even more is the timing of it all.

Shia pilgrims are gathering in their hundreds of thousands in the holy city of Karbala to mark the end of a period of mourning for their faith's figurehead, Imam Hussein, who was martyred in the seventh century.

Feelings will be running extremely high.

It is the worst possible time to find yourself in conflict with the Shias.

It is possible the Iraqi politicians will have managed to persuade Sadr to do a climbdown by then.

They are certainly trying to, but if not, they could have even more grounds for depression.

 

[Barking_Mad]

Simpson did a BBC NEws 24 piece and just came across as a man walking around Iraq with his eyes closed. He was speaking to an English speaking Iraqi waling through the narrow streets of Baghdad and every time the Iraqi put up a reason for the troubles Simpson retorted, "But Saddams not here" or "But you have to give them more time".

I think it all went over the top of his already very inflated head.

 

[Barking_Mad]

Julian Manyon on ITN 24 reporting that 2/3 of Iraqi police are said to have left their posts in Karbala.

Perhaps more importantly one of the US conditions on the Fallujah talks is that all the Iraqi police come back to the US before they pull back. If you have satellite Manyon's pieces are like a breath of fresh air amongst the other continuously poor efforts.

 

[Barking_Mad]

Robert Fisk -

Just shut up. That's the new foreign policy line of our masters. When Senator Edward Kennedy dubbed Iraq "George Bush's Vietnam", US Secretary of State Colin Powell told him to be "a little more restrained and careful" in his comments. I recall that when the US commenced its bombing of Afghanistan, the White House spokesman claimed that some journalists were "asking questions that the American people wouldn't want asked". Back in the early 1980s, when I reported on the Iranian soldiers on a troop train to Tehran who were coughing Saddam's mustard gas out of their lungs in blood and mucus, a Foreign Office official told my then editor on The Times that my dispatch was "not helpful". In other words, stop criticising our ally, Saddam.

So maybe the policy has been around for quite a while. When the occupation authorities deliberately concealed the attacks against US troops after the start of the Iraq occupation last year, journalists who investigated this violence were told that they weren't covering the big picture, that only small areas of Iraq were restive.

http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?SectionID=15&ItemID=5300

 

[Barking_Mad]

This is an interesting piece written by someone in Fallujah.

Nothing could have been easier than gaining the good-will of the people of Fallujah had the Americans not been so brutal in their dealings. Now, a tipping-point has been reached. Fallujah cannot be "saved" from its mujaheddin unless it is destroyed.

http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?SectionID=15&ItemID=5304

 

[Barking_Mad]

Seven Chinese kidnapped in Iraq

HONG KONG (AFX-ASIA) - Seven Chinese citizens became the latest foreigners to be kidnapped in Iraq when they were abducted by an armed group, state media quoted a Chinese diplomat in Baghdad as saying early Monday.

The seven entered Iraq from Jordan early Sunday and were most probably abducted in the flashpoint city of Fallujah, west of Baghdad, Xinhua news agency quoted the diplomat as saying.

The seven men were from eastern Fujian province, according to a name list provided by the diplomat. The oldest was 49, the youngest 18, it added.

http://www.iii.co.uk/shares/?type=news&articleid=4947634&action=article[/QUOTE]

 

[Barking_Mad]

Looks like Howard think theres some political mileage to be made out of Iraq.

Government is letting down Britain in Iraq, says Howard
By Nigel Morris, Home Affairs Correspondent
12 April 2004

Tony Blair was accused by the Tories yesterday of failing Britain in the Iraq crisis by allowing America a free hand in running the increasingly lawless country....

Mr Howard said: "We are the second-biggest military contributor to the coalition in Iraq and our troops are doing a superb job and we need to have more of a say." He said he was worried Britain was punching "below our weight politically and diplomatically because we don't have a real say in the policy-making in Baghdad and the execution of that policy". He told BBC Radio 4: "The execution of the policy could benefit from a bigger British input."

http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/politics/story.jsp?story=510740