*IRAQ: latest news and developments

[Barking_Mad]

Channel 4 reporting that Fallujah's tribal leaders are writing to Kofi Annan about the situation there and asking for his intervention.

They actually interviewed an Iraqi *gasp* and he said that there was no food and water in Fallujah and that the international community should not stay quiet.

 

[Barking_Mad]

Bit of a bizarre one this. Imagine realising that you're in Baghdad! ERK!

13 Bangladeshis return to Dhaka from Iraq

Thirteen Bangladeshi migrant workers trafficked to Iraq by manpower agencies have returned here after a weeklong harrowing journey, Xinhua reports. According to a report in the Daily Star newspaper Sunday, each of the young fortune-seekers paid between 120,000 Taka and 160,000 Taka ($2,000 to $2,660) to local recruiting agencies as they were promised jobs in Jordan.

They left Dhaka by a Gulf Air flight April 17 with only transit visas for Jordan, and arrived in Amman via Dubai, from where the agents took them to Iraq by car. The travellers had no idea where they were bound for until the car went on for about 1,000 km and they saw the signboards of Baghdad.

Being dropped mercilessly in the war-ravaged Iraqi city, the 13 people managed to go back to Amman after stranded at the Jordan-Iraq border for two days. This was not the only batch of Bangladeshi nationals taken to Iraq by unscrupulous recruiting agencies in recent months, as another 36 Bangladeshis were reportedly stranded in Iraq for the same reason at the end of March.

http://www.hindustantimes.com/news/181_710119,0005.htm

 

[slaar]

Bremer Warns of "Explosive" Najaf

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/3657651.stm

Paul Bremer's spokesman said militants were stockpiling weapons and ammunition in mosques, shrines and schools.

Uh oh.

 

[Barking_Mad]

Its a little hard to know what the plan is here, or maybe that just sums up what is going on. One report says they wont enter Najaf, another says they will but only parts of it, another says that any entrance to Najaf or Karbala would lead to a massive Shia uprising.

US to enter Najaf?

The US would like to force the guerrillas step by step out of Fallujah and Najaf by tough talk alone. If this fails, then its military and civilian leaders may feel they have no alternative but to attack or be seen as weak by Iraqis. Yesterday, Hoshyar Zebari, the Iraqi Foreign Minister, said the lack of consistency in the policy of the US-led allies was seen by Iraqis as weakness. After the US decided to allow Baathist generals back into the new Iraqi army, he said: "In London and Washington it may look like a virtue to show flexibility over the Baathists. But here they will simply think you are being defeated." Mr Zebari, a veteran Kurdish leader, said many of the US mistakes were attributable to "its lack of good intelligence".

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/story.jsp?story=515274

 

[Barking_Mad]

BBC were speaking to a military analyst on Radio 5 this a.m. He said that more UK troops would be sent, possibly 2,000 or more. He was very concerned about the US tactics, or a lack of and he'd spoken to Senior British commanders who were very worried about where this was heading.

edit: He also said that this should be spoken about in Parliament and thoughout the country and not something for Blair and his cabal to decide between themselves.

 

[Barking_Mad]

Bomb sets U.S. vehicle on fire in Baghdad

26 Apr 2004 07:26:00 GMT

BAGHDAD, April 25 (Reuters) - An explosion ripped through a U.S. military vehicle in central Baghdad on Monday, setting it on fire and inflicting American casualties, witnesses said.

They said a bomb exploded as a U.S. military convoy was driving through a street in Bab al-Muazzam neighbourhood. The blast was heard in many areas of the capital and a large cloud of black smoke bellowed over the area.

U.S. forces evacuated some casualties from the bombed vehicle, the witnesses said. There was no immediate comment from the U.S. military.Roadside bombs are a favourite weapon of anti-U.S. insurgents in Iraq.

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/LAD624320.htm

 

[Barking_Mad]

Heavy fire exchanged in Fallujah

26 April 2004 09:30
US marines in Iraq are reported to have exchanged heavy fire with insurgents this morning in the Sunni Muslim town of Fallujah.

Local residents said the fighting broke out in two areas of the town, with the rebels firing rocket-propelled grenades and the troops using heavy machine guns.

The marines have been encircling the town for three weeks and are demanding that the insurgents lay down their heavy weapons.

http://www.rte.ie/news/2004/0426/iraq.html

 

[Barking_Mad]

Last week there was an article about a flyer going round Baghdad saying to the people to stay indoors as the resistance was coming to the capital. Over the last few days there have been a number of Baghdad based IED and RPG attacks on US troops. This is an update on the thread two above this one.........

Two people were killed and four wounded in a powerful blast that blew up four US military Humvees and caused a house to collapse in Baghdad, an AFP photographer at the scene said.

Shortly after the explosion, US troops could be seen removing two bodies in body bags. Four civilians, including two children were wounded in the blast, the photographer said. An Abrams tank and a Bradley armoured vehicle were also at the scene as fire trucks rushed to the area where several chemical plants are located. An Iraqi policeman, who refused to give his name, said he saw "three US soldiers wounded or killed in each vehicle."

It also goes on to say -

In other violence Monday a British soldier was injured in a roadside bomb blast targeting a convoy in Basra, a coalition spokesman said.

The soldier was part of a six-vehicle supply convoy that was targeted in the southeast of the British-controlled city, the scene of suicide bomb attacks that killed 74 last week.

"There has been an explosion at about 0745 (0345 GMT) this morning on a six-vehicle convoy resulting in one coalition force injury," said Squadron Leader Jon Arnold, a British military spokesman in Basra."The injuries are not life-threatening."

Witnesses and police in Basra said the injured soldier was evacuated by helicopter.

http://www.terra.net.lb/wp/Articles/DesktopArticle.aspx?ArticleID=152992&ChannelId=4

 

[Barking_Mad]

Update on Fallujah fighting

Local witnesses said Monday's battle, in which guerrillas fired rocket-propelled grenades and Marines opened up with heavy machineguns mounted on vehicles, was triggered when U.S. forces probed into northern districts of the town late in the morning.

An hour into the fighting, U.S. helicopters attacked.

Even before the latest clash, local people had little faith that Sunday's deal would do more than extend a scarcely observed cease-fire and would expose the patrols to the guns of the fighters, who, the Americans say, may include 200 foreigners.

"I expect the U.S. and Iraqi forces to be exposed targets for the resistance. No one can control the feelings of the sons of Falluja because they are very angry," said Abdul Hakim Shaker, another resident of the city of 300,000 west of Baghdad.

http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=4937417&section=news

 

[Barking_Mad]

More on the Baghdad blast.....

In central Baghdad, an explosion ripped through a chemical storehouse, setting four U.S. military vehicles ablaze and inflicting American and Iraqi casualties, witnesses said.

One witness said the blast happened after 12 U.S. soldiers parked their Humvees outside and surrounded the building. When they tried to force their way in, there was a huge ball of fire and I was thrown to the ground," Imad Hashim, who said he was about 100 yards away, told Reuters.

The blast was heard in many areas of the capital and a large cloud of black smoke billowed over the area. There was no immediate comment from the U.S. military.

and this.

The convoy of Bulgarian President Georgi Parvanov came under fire late on Sunday as he made a surprise visit to Bulgarian troops in Kerbala, Defense Ministry spokeswoman Rumiana Strugarova said. No one was hurt and Parvanov returned home early on Monday, she said in Sofia.

http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=4937417&section=news

 

[Barking_Mad]

From yesterday

04/25/04 CanWest: Up to 42 attacks a day- Brig.Gen. Mark Kimmitt

There have been between 37 and 42 attacks a day on coalition forces recently, said Brig.-Gen. Mark Kimmitt, deputy commander of operations for the 135,000 U.S. troops in Iraq. Yesterday alone, there were 20 attacks on coalition forces.

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

 

[slaar]

Fighting Breaks Out in Fallujah

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/3659979.stm

A US military spokesman said the marines were surprised by the organised nature of Monday morning's assault by Iraqi insurgents in Falluja.

Mortars and heavy machine-gun fire could be heard, and thick black smoke rose from buildings in the city after the US replied with helicopter and jet aircraft strikes.

A reporter with the marines says that after taking fire from a minaret, marines called in air support which destroyed the 60-foot tall structure.


The local hospital said it had never attended to so many injured American soldiers at one time.

Four of the injured marines were seriously hurt.

 

[Barking_Mad]

Update of today's news - some of these headlines might be repeats of earlier posts

04/26/04 Matamat: US helicopters launch Falluja attack
Two US helicopter gunships have launched a missile attack on Falluja's Golan district despite talk of an enduring if not unstable truce.

04/26/04 Centcom: MULTIPLE ATTACKS INJURE EIGHT SOLDIERS
Eight 13th Corps Support Command Soldiers were injured as the result of four separate attacks at various locations on Sunday.

04/26/04 AP: U.S. Threatens Falluja, Najaf After New Battles
U.S. forces in Iraq threw down a gauntlet to fighters from both main Muslim communities Monday, threatening imminent assaults on two key towns if guerrillas do not accede to their demands

04/26/04 Reuters: Iraqi group threatens to kill Italian hostages
The captors of three Italian hostages being held in Iraq have threatened to kill them in five days unless Italians protest publicly against their country's involvement in the U.S.-led occupation.

04/26/04 VOA: 8 Insurgents Killed in Iraq
At least eight Iraqi insurgents and one U.S. Marine were killed Monday in the Iraqi city of Fallujah in a firefight that erupted despite a supposed truce in the city

04/26/04 AFP: Five killed by Spanish troops in Iraq
A Spanish patrol unit killed five Iraqis after coming under attack on Monday near the southern Iraqi city of Diwaniyah, the Spanish defence ministry announced.

04/26/04 Reuters: Three U.S. Soldiers Killed in Iraq
One U.S. soldier was killed in clashes with guerrillas in the Iraqi flashpoint town of Falluja and two were killed when a building they were searching exploded in Baghdad Monday, a U.S. military spokesman said.

04/26/04 CNN: Fighting rages in Fallujah - 10 Marines injured
U.S. Marines patrolling a section of northwest Fallujah on Monday engaged in a raging firefight with insurgents that left 10 Marines injured, four of them seriously, according to Marines on site.

04/26/04 Reuters: 'Weapons inspectors' hurt in Iraq blast
US troops who were at a chemical storehouse that exploded in Baghdad on Monday appear to have included members of the Iraq Survey Group (ISG) hunting for weapons of mass destruction.

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

 

[Barking_Mad]

Independent Aid in Iraq Nearly Impossible

For Ibrahim Younis, logistics coordinator for Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières’ (MSF) emergency pool, having to accept a US military escort into the besieged city of Fallujah one Sunday in April proved to be "the scariest day in my life." He first stayed in Baghdad with the MSF team before, during, and after the US-led bombing campaign last year, a time in which he also spent two weeks in various jails following his arrest by Iraqi security forces. None of these experiences, though, compared to traveling down the road to Fallujah.

"The Coalition forces are a target in Iraq," Younis said after recently returning to Brussels. "Along the road I saw the carcasses of military vehicles destroyed by mortars or rocket-propelled grenades. The Americans told us they needed to escort us, but I would have felt much safer without them."

http://www.globalpolicy.org/ngos/aid/2004/0423nearly.htm

 

[Barking_Mad]

US soldier shot dead in Baghdad

BAGHDAD, April 27 (SPA) - A U.S. soldier was shot on Tuesday as troops patrolled a bus and taxi station on the eastern outskirts of Baghdad, witnesses said. A soldier from the Iraqi Civil Defense Corps and a translator who were in the patrol said the soldier suffered fatal wounds. There was no immediate comment from the U.S. military in Baghdad. The witnesses said gunmen on rooftops fired assault rifles at the patrol, triggering a gun battle. There were no other known casualties. U.S. forces sent reinforcements and conducted house searches in the area, the witnesses said. --SPA 1254 Local Time 0954 GMT

http://www.spa.gov.sa/html/archive_e.asp?srcfile=635328&NDay=27/04/2004&wcatg=0

 

[Barking_Mad]

Soldier dies after commendation for Iraq bravery

NICOSIA (Reuters) - A British soldier has died on his birthday just hours after he was told he would be decorated for bravery in Iraq, his Cyprus-based regiment says. Sergeant Major Darren Leigh, born in Salford, died in Cyprus on April 24. He was stationed at the First Battalion Queen's Lancashire Regiment, based at Dhekelia in Cyprus. Leigh, 37 last Saturday, won a military cross for bravery but collapsed on the morning the announcement was to be officially made, his regiment said on Tuesday. No cause of death was given.

He won the award for courage under fire during riots in the southern Iraqi city of Basra in August 2003.

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/040427/325/es4rz.html

 

[Barking_Mad]

Army Lures Iraqis With Construction Funds

A

lmost a year since President Bush declared major combat over, the U.S.-led occupation of Iraq has become mired in a brutal counterinsurgency campaign, with Iraqi civilians caught between guerrilla bombings and ambushes and American counter-raids and checkpoints.

The 1st Cavalry's deputy commander, Brig. Gen. Jeffery Hammond, wants to prevent the attack-counterattack cycle from becoming a never-ending story. He's urged his five brigade commanders to spend money in their occupation zones in the Iraqi capital, giving permission for projects of up to $100,000 apiece to fix neighborhood infrastructure and provide jobs.

The two commanders, interviewed at the division's main base near Baghdad International Airport, say the rebuilding work is key to stabilizing Iraq -- and America's exit strategy.

"As long as you're mired in combat operations, it's very hard to move on to these other things," said Hammond, of Hattiesburg, Miss. "What we're trying to do is move on."

http://www.greenwichtime.com/news/n...0,6341373.story?coll=sns-newsnation-headlines

 

[Bernie Gunther]

Various US sources are reporting lots of big explosions happening in Fallujah. Others say AC130's are blasting the shit out of urban targets etc. e.g.

Possibly a renewed assault?

 

[Barking_Mad]

I forgot to post this earlier.......

A U.S. military official in Iraq says about 60 militiamen have been killed in fierce overnight clashes with coalition forces near the Shi'ite holy city of Najaf.
U.S. General Mark Kimmitt said the military believes most of them were members of radical Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr's illegal militia. The coalition says the militia is using Najaf's mosques and shrines as bases, and for the storage of weapons and ammunition.

The general also said the coalition destroyed an anti-aircraft system belonging to the rebels during the fighting, which broke out late Monday about 10 kilometers from Najaf, near Kufa

Link here:

 

[Kaka Tim]

Looks like another assault on Fallujah.

http://www.boston.com/dailynews/118/world/U_S_aircraft_hammers_Fallujah_:.shtml

'FALLUJAH, Iraq (AP) Multiple explosions shook Fallujah after dark Tuesday, and large plumes of smoke billowed into the sky as fighting erupted for the second straight night. An American AC-130 gunship hammered targets in the city.'

another report here

http://kutv.com/topstories/local_story_118145958.html

 

[Barking_Mad]

Interesting piece on Sadr City

Al-Sadr City: Support from the impoverished

In the main square of Baghdad's largest Shia ghetto, an elderly man in the worn uniform of the former Iraqi air force directs donkey and car traffic with a ping-pong paddle. Al-Sadr City, once called Saddam City, has always been on the neglected margins of Iraq's power centre and capital. Piles of trash and long pools of raw sewage line the boulevards, while battered looking men stand on corners with shovels waiting in the hot sun for work.

Local security

Even the security arm charged with maintaining public order in al-Sadr City - the Iraqi police - appears as loyal to al-Sadr, to his wanted son and to the outlawed Jaish al-Mahdi as the area's ordinary residents.

"If there are any more clashes here, we won't intervene," says Colonel Maruf al-Lami, head of al-Sadr City's police directorate: "We're from the people of this city and the people in Jaish al-Mahdi are our relatives. We can't fight our brothers and neighbours."

http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/D58B4A08-5E73-4A57-B8A3-2E478F0B6DAD.htm

 

[Barking_Mad]

Iraqis demand full sovereignty

Members of Iraq's interim Governing Council have called for "nothing less than full sovereignty" after the planned transfer of power on 30 June. US Secretary of State Colin Powell has said Iraq would have to "give back" some power to the US in the early days. That caused concern among Iraqi leaders and on the United Nations Security Council which is expected to be asked to support the new government in Iraq. UN envoy Lakhdar Brahimi later told the Council the role of Iraqis was vital.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/3664395.stm

 

[Barking_Mad]

Looks like the US are running out of guns!

Army wants its howitzers back

RENO, Nev. - The U.S. military is demanding the return of five howitzers that two Sierra Nevada ski resorts use to prevent avalanches, saying it needs the guns for the fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan. Alpine Meadows and Mammoth Mountain received the artillery pieces on loan from the Army and began using them last year to fire rounds into mountainsides and knock snow loose. But the ski resorts received word earlier this month that the Army’s Tank Automotive and Armaments Command at the Rock Island Arsenal in Illinois needs the howitzers back immediately.

‘‘I need to have them back in the troops’ hands within 60 to 90 days,’’ said Don Bowen, the Army command’s team leader in charge of the howitzers. ‘‘It’s a very short timeframe to get them serviceable and back into the theater in southwest Asia. Afghanistan-Iraq is the immediate concern.’’

http://www.chieftain.com/national/1083132000/7

 

[laptop]

Army wants its howitzers back

That'll be "prevent avalanches" in the same sense that the current attack on Fallujah is "defensive", then

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/3664991.stm

 

[Barking_Mad]

A must read piece from a Guardian reporter in Najaf:

Najaf and Falluja are presenting the Bush administration with big problems with little more than two months to go before sovereignty is to be transferred to Iraqis: by resorting to force to crush the rebellions, the military risks generating further alienation and opposition. "We were determined to stop them," said Abu Mathan, a member of Moqtada al-Sadr's Mahdi militia, as he waved traffic over Kufa's bridge and across the Euphrates river. He said the Americans tried to enter Najaf on Monday evening: "We attacked them with mortars and rocket-propelled grenades. They bombed us with jet fighters. We put up fierce resistance. At 2am they left."

.....if there is any strategic thinking on the US side about how to deal with the Najaf standoff, it was hard to find it there yesterday. The Guardian, which was given rare access into the territory defended by Mr Sadr's army, found his fighters digging in for battle along Kufa's dusty main road. In front of the library, two men wearing red kaffir headdresses chatted next to a machine gun. Trenches had been dug outside Kufa's gold-domed mosque. The popular sentiment was not hard to fathom - alongside portraits of Mr Sadr were slogans that read: "Yes to the armed resistance" and "Death to America". The cleric's young and largely uneducated followers have been dubbed the Mahdi army. They are not an army - more of a loose-knit group of frustrated Shia Iraqis with Kalashnikovs. As one volunteer, Syad Mustafa, said: "We don't have any bases. We don't have any tanks. We don't have any jets."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,1204966,00.html

 

[Barking_Mad]

A slightly different slant on Sistani and Sadr........

A political analyst once told me: "Iraq is blessed to have a moderate cleric like Sistani. Imagine what would have happened if we had a radical one." Well, actually, I can't understand the blessing in having an old cleric dictating the political process of my country. I can't see the difference between that and the system we had before. But then who am I to ask these big questions?

http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,1204196,00.html

 

[Barking_Mad]

and a must read piece on the crumbling reconstruction work

Unless the situation improves dramatically in the next few weeks, essential work on the electricity network will not be complete before the extreme heat of the summer arrives, raising the prospect of months of power cuts similar to those that led to riots and widespread discontent last year, the officials warned.

"It is screwing up the timetables completely, so for things like electricity, essential work that should have been done over the last three or four weeks has not been done," one senior official said.

"We are at risk of moving into the summer period with the repairs not complete, which means we are going to have massive demand and not very good provision. So from that point of view, it is a disaster."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,1204230,00.html

 

[Barking_Mad]

Three Coalition Soldiers Die in Iraq -Spokesman

April 28 — BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Three soldiers from the U.S.-led coalition force in Iraq died on Wednesday, one killed in action and two of wounds sustained in attacks, U.S. military spokesman Brigadier General Mark Kimmitt said.He told a news conference one soldier was killed near Swairah, south of Baghdad, and another died of his wounds. A third died in northern Iraq of wounds sustained earlier, Kimmitt said, without specifying the nationalities of any of the soldiers. He said medics were operating on a third soldier hit in the Swairah attack, but did not say how badly he was wounded.

The Ukraine Defense Ministry reported one Ukrainian soldier was killed and two wounded when "bandits" attacked a patrol near the town of Kut on Wednesday. It said the patrol came under attack from grenades and high-caliber machine guns about 60 km (40 miles) south of Kut, and withdrew afterwards with support from two U.S. helicopters.

http://abcnews.go.com/wire/US/reuters20040428_261.html

 

[Barking_Mad]

Iran Court Orders U.S. to Pay $600 Million

April 28 — TEHRAN (Reuters) - An Iranian court has ruled the United States should pay $600 million in compensation for supplying ousted Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein with chemical weapons, the official IRNA news agency said on Wednesday.
IRNA said the money in the case, brought by Iranian war veterans and disabled, should be paid to survivors of attacks on the town of Sardasht which borders Iraq.

http://abcnews.go.com/wire/World/reuters20040428_264.html

 

[Barking_Mad]

Anyone listening to Radio 5 Live at 5.45pm would have heard my e-mail read out on air. Frankly Id had enough of the BBC's woeful reporting so I knocked this out - oddly enough Peter Allen still managed to chop up what I said, misquote me and leave bits out. GRRRR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Dear Peter,

This afternoon at 4.40pm whilst driving home from work I found myself screaming with rage at the radio in regard to your reporting of events in Fallujah, which I can only describe as utterly shambolic. Firstly you played comments from General Kimmitt who said (and I paraphrase), "Despite media reports there still is a ceasefire in Fallujah." The inference being that the media was in fact making the reports of fighting up!

You then went on to report that helicopter gunships had been used after US troops called for back-up in attacking, 'insurgent positions'. The female reporter you had on commented that, "There was a ceasefire of sorts" and that it was a "shaky ceasefire". A dictionary definition of a the word 'ceasefire' states that it is: "a state of peace agreed to between opponents so they can discuss peace terms." How can you fail to challenge the simple and obvious fact that there is no agreed ceasefire in Fallujah?

To make matters worse you then played a short clip of Kofi Annan who called for (paraphrase), "occupation forces to stop the use of force on an occupied people." You put this to your political correspondent (John P) who somehow managed to twist his comments and said that he was appealing to, (another paraphrase) "All good Iraqis to come forward and stop the violence." Jane Garvey interjected that he might have been calling on US forces to halt, but he still managed to bumble through without correcting the blindingly obvious.

Are you simply stenograhpers for the US and UK government and military or are you going to be objective about this whole situation and do some thinking and basic analysis of your own?

You were very quick to challenge Blair on the 15 minute WMD claim, but now you're nothing short of useless. I suggest anyone wanting good reports on the conflict in Iraq should go read some independent reporting coming from the country rather than relying on the handful of BBC journalists who are either sat in BBC offices in the UK or holed up inside Iraq repeating parrot fashion everything that the CPA report to them.

Shame on you BBC, shame on you

Sorry if that appeared self-indulgent btw, just I'd really got wound up and needed to vent some steam!