*IRAQ: latest news and developments

[Barking_Mad]

Respected Shia cleric shows 'support' for Iraq's new government

Najaf, Iraq — Iraq's most influential Shiite cleric gave his tacit endorsement to the new interim government Thursday, and urged it to lobby the UN Security Council for full sovereignty to erase ”all traces” of the American-run occupation. Still, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Husseini al-Sistani said the new government, appointed Tuesday by a UN envoy, lacks the ”legitimacy of elections” and does not represent all segments of Iraqi society and political forces.

”Nevertheless, it is hoped that this government will prove its efficiency and integrity and show resolve to carry out the enormous tasks that rest on its shoulders,” Mr. al-Sistani said in a statement released by his office here. Mr. al-Sistani's opposition to the new interim government would have severely undermined its credibility because of the cleric's influence among Iraq's Shiite majority, believed to comprise about 60 per cent of the country's 25 million people. Mr. al-Sistani's objections to U.S. policy in Iraq effectively derailed at least two blueprints put forward by Washington to chart the political future of Iraq.

 

[Barking_Mad]

More US dead.

US soldiers die in Baghdad ambush

Four US soldiers have been killed and five wounded in an attack on a convoy near Baghdad's main Shia Muslim district, the US military reports. Reports say the convoy came under bomb and grenade fire on the edge of Sadr City, a slum in the east of the city. A grenade strike halted the convoy which was then hit by a roadside bomb, Witnesses told AFP news agency. Sadr City recently became a focus of unrest among Iraq's Shia community against the US-led coalition.

 

[Barking_Mad]

Selected updates for yesterday and today in Iraq.

06/04/04 AFP: Iraqi Girl and Cameraman Injured
A 21-year-old Iraqi was seriously wounded by the blast, his father said. A cameraman was also injured when US troops opened fire to keep bystanders away, witnesses said.

06/04/04 Reuters: Four U.S. Soldiers Killed, Five Wounded in Baghdad
Four U.S. soldiers were killed and five wounded on Friday when an explosion hit their vehicle in eastern Baghdad, a U.S. military spokesman said.

06/04/04 TIMES-DISPATCH: Ambushed in Baghdad
Two Iraqi police officers in the front seat of the car with Erwin were killed. A translator in the back seat pulled Erwin down and out of the line of fire, saving him from even greater injury.

06/04/04 AP: U-S troops come under fire in a police station in Baghdad
Militiamen fired rocket propelled grenades at U-S troops near a girl's school after U-S troops approached the city's cemetery in Najaf. At least six people were killed and eleven injured.

06/04/04 Reuters: Four U.S. Soldiers Wounded in Baghdad Vehicle Blast
Four U.S. soldiers were wounded on Friday when their vehicle was attacked as it drove through Baghdad, a U.S. military spokesman said.

06/03/04 Centcom: Soldiers Question News Media Following Roadside Bomb
Coalition soldiers questioned two news media cameramen and a reporter after a roadside bomb exploded near a Coalition convoy two kilometers north of Mosul June 3.

 

[Barking_Mad]

Total US dead for May: 81

From the 4th May to the 31st May :

Total US injured: 749
Returned to duty within 72 hours 341
Not returned to duty within 72 hours 408

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

 

[Barking_Mad]

Zarqawi 'aide' captured in Iraq

Iraqi police have captured a top aide of al-Qaeda suspect Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the US-led coalition says. The man, Umar Baziyani, is known to have ties to several extremist groups in Iraq, according to a statement by the US military. He is believed to be responsible for the deaths of scores of innocent Iraqi citizens, the statement said. Mr Baziyani, who was arrested on Saturday, is said to be providing information to coalition authorities. Zarqawi, a 38-year-old Jordanian, is the prime suspect in some of the deadliest attacks around the world. Washington has accused him of masterminding a string of spectacular suicide bombings in Iraq.

 

[Barking_Mad]

How many times has this, or a similar agreement been announced?

U.S., Shiite Militia to Leave Najaf, Kufa

NAJAF, Iraq - American and Shiite militia forces agreed to withdraw from the holy cities of Najaf and Kufa and turn over security to Iraqi police, the governor of Najaf province said Friday.

The withdrawal was scheduled for later in the day, said Gov. Adnan al-Zurufi. His announcement came one day after aides to radical cleric Muqtada al-Sadr said they would begin removing their fighters from the cities, although there was no sign of any such movement by late afternoon. Al-Sadr criticized the new Iraqi government and said he would accept "nothing less" than an elected leadership in Iraq.

The potential breakthrough calls for al-Sadr's militia and the Americans to remove their forces from the two cities, which contain some of the most sacred shrines in Shia Islam, al-Zurufi said. The Iraqi police will assume full responsibility for security in the two cities Friday evening. "All fighting forces, the coalition forces and the al-Mahdi Army militia, should leave the two holy cities and not allow any of their elements to enter again," al-Zurufi said.

Col. Brad May, commander of the U.S. 2nd Armored Cavalry Regiment, said the military agreed to move its forces "to the periphery of these sensitive areas" of Najaf and Kufa "while the police can move in." May defined "sensitive areas" as the Imam Ali Shrine in Najaf and the Kufa mosque. Al-Zurufi promised the Americans that al-Sadr's militia had "been reduced to the point where the legitimate Iraqi security forces can move in to those very sensitive areas. It's an Iraqi solution to the problem."

The uprising began in April after the U.S.-led coalition shut down al-Sadr's newspaper, arrested a top aide and announced an arrest warrant charging him with murder in the April 2003 death of a moderate cleric in Najaf. Al-Sadr failed to mention the deal in a statement read on his behalf in the mosque in Kufa, where he routinely preaches.

"America has taken upon itself to appoint a prime minister and a president of the nation under the cover of the United Nations," al-Sadr's message said. "It has done that with impertinence and domination. The government must be elected and I will never accept anything beneath that."

He said he could not imagine "any reasonable person would ever accept" a government "which comes from no less than the occupying power."

 

[Barking_Mad]

News updates for the last 2 days in Iraq.

06/06/04 CJTF: Convoy Attack Kills One Contactor, Wounds One Soldier
One civilian contract driver is dead and one 13th Corps Support Command Soldier is injured as the result of an improvised explosive device attack on their convoy at about 1 p.m. June 5 near Haditha.

06/06/04 AP: Attack on police station kills 7 Iraqi officers
Eight people stormed into a police station south of Baghdad, opened fire and killed seven officers before planting explosives to destroy the building, police said Sunday.

06/06/04 Reuters: Car Bomb Kills 9 Outside Iraqi Security Force Base
Guerrillas detonated a car bomb outside an Iraqi security force base just north of Baghdad Sunday, killing nine people and wounding dozens in the latest attack on Iraqis cooperating with occupying troops

06/06/04 AP: 4 Office Workers Killed in Baghdad Ambush
two Americans and two Poles working for Blackwater Security Consulting, were killed Saturday afternoon when a convoy they were traveling was ambushed, said Boguslaw Majewski, the spokesman for Poland's Foreign Ministry

06/05/04 Centcom: 2 Soldiers Killed, 2 Wounded Confirmed
Two Task Force Baghdad Soldiers were killed and two others were wounded when an improvised explosive device detonated around 9:30 a.m. June 5.

06/05/04 AP: Officials identify second Guardsman killed in Iraq
Spc. Christopher M. Duffy was killed Friday in an attack that also claimed the life of Sgt. Frank Carvill of Carlstadt. Family members had confirmed Carvill's death late Friday

06/05/04 Reuters: Iraq Gunmen Kill Foreigner in Convoy Attack
Gunmen opened fire on Saturday on vehicles carrying foreign security guards in the northern city of Mosul, killing one foreigner and wounding two others, the U.S. military said.

06/05/04 AP: Two N.J. Soldiers Killed In Iraq
Two New Jersey National Guard members were killed and three other New Jerseyans were wounded in an ambush in Baghdad on Friday, state and federal officials said.

06/05/04 AP: Three Oregon soldiers killed in Iraq
In the single worst loss for Oregon, three National Guard soldiers were killed in Iraq Friday when their vehicles were attacked while on patrol in Baghdad, state military authorities said.

06/05/04 UPI: Three foreigners killed in Iraq
Three foreigners of undetermined nationalities were killed by gunmen Saturday on the airport road in Baghdad.

06/05/04 Reuters: Rocket attack wounds 17 Iraqis
A rocket attack wounded 17 people lining up at a recruiting post for the new Iraq army in the northern city of Mosul

06/05/04 AP: Relatives fear for Turkish driver who was taken hostage in Iraq
Kidnapped by militants in Iraq, Yanik, a truck driver, appears in a videotape shot by his captives and obtained Wednesday by Associated Press Television News.

06/05/04 AP: Gunmen Kill Brother of Informant in Iraq
Gunmen killed the brother of the man who told the U.S. Army where to find Saddam Hussein's sons, witnesses and hospital officials said Saturday

06/05/04 U.S. Soldier Killed in Baghdad Explosion
A roadside bomb killed one U.S. soldier and injured three others Saturday in an explosion near the Ministry of the Interior, the U.S. military said.

 

[Barking_Mad]

Iraq militias 'agree to disband'

Iraq's new Prime Minister, Iyad Allawi, says he has reached a deal to disband militias that have been battling coalition forces. About 100,000 fighters will either join the security forces or return to civilian life in the coming months, Mr Allawi said in a statement on Monday.

There was no indication if the deal included the Mehdi Army militia loyal to radical cleric Moqtada Sadr. They have been fighting US-led forces in bloody battles around holy cities. Mr Allawi's statement follows more violence at the weekend. At least six Iraqis were killed by a car bomb near Baghdad. Twelve more Iraqis and one Briton also died in separate attacks.

 

[Barking_Mad]

Its not been reported much on the news, but there's still many people dying in much the same numbers as last month. So far 21 have died this month. But from watching the news you'd hardly know this was happening....

Six Troops Killed in Iraq Ammunition Explosion

WARSAW (Reuters) - Six soldiers from eastern Europe were killed while disposing of ammunition from an Iraqi depot in the Polish-run occupation zone on Tuesday, a Polish military spokesman said.
"They were working on destroying ammunition stocks from Saddam Hussein's army," said Colonel Zdzislaw Gnatowski, spokesman for Poland's general staff.

"They're removing munitions from depots and detonating them, and while they were unloading them from a vehicle something exploded, most likely an air-launched bomb."

More blasts rock Iraq

In Baquba, Iraq, U.S. troops had to duck and cover as Iraqi militiamen fired several rocket propelled grenades at the Americans. U.S. soldiers returned the fire in the battle that lasted several hours. No word on any casualties

Three Slovaks die in car explosion in Iraq - minister

Three Slovaks from a Slovak engineers company died together with two Poles and one Latvian when fulfilling their duties connected with mine clearing in Iraq today, Slovak defence Minister Juraj Liska has confirmed, adding the accident occurred during ammunition transport.
Liska said that the Slovaks were fulfilling their duties some 150 kilometres from their base camp in Hilla.

They are the first Slovak soldiers to die on the Iraqi mission.

17 Iraqis hurt in Mosul gun battle

Seventeen Iraqi civilians have been wounded in clashes between US soldiers and gunmen in a western district of Mosul in the north of the country. A US military spokesman said the soldiers had just defused a bomb and were preparing to pull out when they came under fire from a group of gunmen. The civilians were caught up in the gunbattle.

Separately, a US soldier was killed and two others were wounded in a roadside bombing near Iskandariyah, 40 km south of Baghdad, according to a coalition spokesperson.

Iraq kidnappings hard to stop

About 20 foreigners are being held hostage in Iraq and, according to Andrew White, canon of Coventry Cathedral in England and director of the International Center for Reconciliation, abductions show little sign of ending.

"Our information gathering makes us quite certain that these groups are handing on their hostages," he said in an interview.Canon White, also an adviser to the US-run Coalition Provisional Authority, believes that the kidnappings are becoming more organized and structured."If lightweights have hostages, they know they can sell them on to Al Qaeda-type groups," he says. "This will really complicate things for us because these groups have little respect even for the Islamic authorities."

U.S. raid frees four hostages in Iraq

BAGHDAD, Iraq — U.S. special forces freed four hostages in a raid Tuesday after staking out their captors' hideout for a day – the first military rescue of foreigners caught up in Iraq's wave of kidnappings.

But there was no word on the fate of a U.S. soldier held hostage and two other Americans missing since an attack on a fuel convoy nearly two months ago. The raid ended the ordeal of a Pole kidnapped last week and three Italian security guards abducted in April whose co-worker was brutally slain. But Iraq's string of abductions showed no sign of abating.

Gunmen disclosed they had kidnapped seven Turkish citizens who they said were working with the Americans. They showed some of their captives to reporters and released videotape of the others.

 

[Barking_Mad]

14 Iraqis and a GI die as car bombs explode

Two car bombs exploded Tuesday in different cities in Iraq, killing at least 14 Iraqis and an American GI and wounding dozens of people, including 10 U.S. soldiers, officials said.

 

[Barking_Mad]

This piece has gone missing for the most part too. Worth the brief read as it could well be a sign of things to come...

Attacks hint tactics in Iraq are changing

Coordinated sabotage attacks on fuel and transmission lines around an enormous power plant south of Baghdad shut the plant down last weekend, American and Iraqi government officials said Tuesday, raising new fears that insurgents were targeting major sectors of the Iraqi infrastructure as part of an overall terror plan. At full production, the plant is capable of supplying nearly 20 percent of the entire electrical output of Iraq. But the plant's output plunged nearly to zero and was still generating only a fraction of its maximum output, said Raad Al Haris, deputy minister for electricity.

An official with the Coalition Provisional Authority, which is scheduled to hand over sovereignty in the country to a new Iraqi government on June 30, confirmed that an oil pipeline south of Baghdad had been struck by sabotage. A second senior official in the Electricity Ministry said that the weekend attack had been the latest in a series in the same area, and that repairs on the lines had repeatedly been followed by new strikes. This official said that the pipeline also delivered crude oil to at least one major refinery, whose operations had also been affected.

By Tuesday, enough repairs had been done to increase the plant's output to about 300 megawatts of electricity, out of a possible 750 megawatts, for most of the day, the official said. Power plants around the country put about 4,000 megawatts on the electrical grid, although demand is much higher, which leads to frequent blackouts, both scheduled and unscheduled. Demand is expected to soar even higher as the hot summer months arrive.
“As we have been saying for some time, international terrorists and Saddam loyalists continue to try to derail the emergence of a modern democratic Iraq,” said Dallas Lawrence, a spokesman for the Coalition Provisional Authority on electricity, in a statement.

More worrisome than this specific act of sabotage, Haris said, is the pattern of attacks on the electrical grid around the country. He estimated that the high-tension lines that are the backbone of the grid have been attacked an average of twice a week recently, and he expressed irritation at what he said had been a refusal by the Coalition Provisional Authority to provide security for the lines.A senior United States military intelligence official said that insurgents in Iraq had begun to realize that, with summer coming on, damaging the country's electrical and water infrastructure could sow widespread distrust and discontent with the occupation and its allies, including the new Iraqi government.

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[Barking_Mad]

More updates. A couple of these may be repeats form the post a couple above this one. Some however are just more examples of reports which aren't making the mainstream news headlines.

06/07/04 Boston.com: 3 civilian contractors injured in IED attack in northern Iraq
A roadside bomb Monday wounded three civilian security contractors working in northern Iraq for the London-based firm Global Risk Strategies, the U.S. military said.

06/07/04 Herald Sun: Soldiers caught in convoy attack
A ROADSIDE bomb killed one American soldier today and wounded two others south of Baghdad, the US command said.

06/07/04 AP: U.S. army base comes under attack
Assailants fired mortar rounds at a U.S. army base in the mainly Sunni neighborhood of al-Azamiyah in Baghdad at around 9 p.m. Monday, witnesses said.

06/07/04 CENTCOM: One US Soldier Dies in Afghanistan
One U.S. Soldier was killed today and two were wounded during a patrol after their HMMWV drove onto an IED in Zabul Province near Deh Rawod.

06/07/04 SeattlePI: Senior Shiite official killed in Baghdad
Gunmen killed a senior official in Iraq's largest Shiite political party Monday in a drive-by shooting in Baghdad, a party aide said

06/07/04 Evening Times: British Contractor Shot Dead Near Mosul is Identified
Craig Dickens was killed in the ambush near Mosul on Saturday, as he travelled in a civilian convoy which came under fire from gunmen.

06/07/04 AFP: Explosion Rocks Great Mosque in Kufa
AN explosion rocked the Great Mosque in Kufa, Iraq, today, where Shiite rebel leader Moqtada Sadr gives the sermon at the main weekly Muslim prayers, said US military officials.

06/07/04 The Australian: Accidental blast kills two in Kut
Two Iraqis were killed in the accidental firing of rocket-propelled grenade launchers from the old regime in the central city of Kut today, an Iraqi paramilitary commander said.

06/07/04 News24.com: Three Arabs killed in Kirkuk
Three Arabs, including a member of the former Iraqi Baath regime, were killed in two separate attacks in the northern ethnically-divided city of Kirkuk, police officials said on Monday.

06/07/04 FOX: Assailants attack Marine camp near Fallujah
Assailants fired two rockets at a Marine base outside the restive city of Fallujah but caused no damage or casualties, Marine officers said Monday.

06/07/04 CENTCOM: Soldier Collapses, Dies on Guard Duty
A Task Force Baghdad soldier died yesterday from a non-combat-related cause, according to 1st Cavalry Division medical officials.

 

[Barking_Mad]

And after all that, here's the main news headline on Iraq.......

UN backs Iraq handover of power

PRESIDENT BUSH and Tony Blair proclaimed a new era of world unity last night as the United Nations unanimously backed their plans to end the occupation of Iraq this month and return sovereignty to its people.
The two leaders hoped that the 15-0 vote would consign to the past the bitter international divisions over Iraq, and send a signal to the terrorists that their efforts to prevent Iraqis taking charge of their own affairs were futile.

Mr Blair hailed the resolution as an important milestone for the new Iraq: “We all now want to put the divisions of the past behind us and unite behind a vision of a modern, democratic and stable Iraq that can be a force for good not just for Iraqis but for the whole region. “The Iraqis know they have a united world on their side. The terrorists, fanatics and former elements of the Saddam regime now know it wasn’t just the US and UK but the whole of the UN and world community against them.”

 

[Barking_Mad]

Meanwhile......

Debating UN resolution, Kurds seek to protect self-rule

Iraq's Shiites and Kurds argued Tuesday over the wording of a new United Nations Security Council resolution recognizing Iraq's sovereignty, with the political battle threatening to undermine the country's new caretaker government. Seeking legitimacy for the cause of self-rule, the Kurdish leaders Massoud Barzani and Jalal Talabani issued a statement insisting that Iraq's interim constitution be mentioned in the new UN resolution.

But representatives of Iraq's Shiite majority are up in arms about the interim constitution's guarantee of Kurdish semi-autonomy in the northern provinces of Dahuk, Arbil and Sulaimaniya. The ethnic fault lines resurfaced as diplomats at the United Nations said they had all but clinched a deal in New York on a new Security Council resolution, giving the stamp of approval to a sovereign Iraq. But a Shiite religious leader, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, warned the United Nations against any reference to the charter in its resolution. Any mention of the interim constitution "is illegal and is rejected by a majority of Iraqis," Sistani's office said in a statement.
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An attempt to legitimize it by mentioning in the resolution "could have dangerous consequences," the statement read. Sistani is a reclusive cleric who has the power to summon thousands on to the streets in protest. When the resolution was adopted March 8, Sistani and Shiite politicians expressed anger over the fact that Islam was not the sole basis of the charter and that Kurds were granted an implicit veto over a permanent constitution to be drafted next year.

Around 2,000 Shiites marched through the streets of Baghdad on Tuesday heeding Sistani's latest call. Waving posters with Sistani's likeness, they headed from Al-Shaab stadium and congregated on the eastern side of the Tigris river, across from the coalition's headquarters.

The crowd denounced the interim constitution as an instrument of the United States, drafted behind closed doors with the aid of the U.S.-picked Governing Council, now dissolved.

 

[Barking_Mad]

The incomplete contractor list now stands at 88 including 4 more Blackwater staff killed on the road between Baghdad and the airport.

Dead Contractors - A Partial list

There's also at least 11 missing.

 

[Barking_Mad]

Occupation Watches take on the handover of power

Sovereignty at Gunpoint: The Reality of the June 30 Hand-Over

The much-hyped "transfer of power" to a new Iraqi government is imminent. But, as usual, mainstream media outlets in the U.S. are missing the bigger picture. What kind of power will this new government have over the country's military, its laws, and its economy? Are we talking about real sovereignty or simply a new face for the occupation, which will continue to be run by the United States from what is going to be the largest U.S. Embassy in the world? Is the hand-over a positive step toward democracy in Iraq or merely a positive campaign move by the Bush administration, which is hoping to win re-election in November?

 

[Barking_Mad]

US Soldiers take on what's going on, from Occupation Watch, originally in The Washington Post

Soldiers' Doubts Build as Duties Shift - For Many, Prolonged Stay and New Threat Have Eroded Early Optimism

KARBALA, Iraq -- When the Army's 1st Armored Division arrived in Iraq 13 months ago, its job was to close out Iraq's past by wiping out remnants of former president Saddam Hussein's armed base of support. Now several of its units are confronting a new threat, Moqtada Sadr, a Shiite cleric who is leading an armed revolt in defiance of U.S. plans to sideline him in a new Iraq.

This shift in responsibility is hitting hard at soldiers who moved into this area south of Baghdad last Wednesday for a short mission to fight Sadr's militia. In the view of many troops in Company A of the division's Task Force 1-36, the old battle, though filled with hardship, was imbued with the optimism of liberation. The new one is tinted by pessimism. Soldiers feel themselves mired in an effort to navigate the indecipherable intricacies of Iraqi politics.

"I just think it's a lost cause," said Spec. Will Bromley, a gunner who sits inside the turret of a Bradley Fighting Vehicle and mans a 25mm cannon whose rounds can blast walls to pieces. "This has become harder than we thought. Getting rid of Saddam Hussein, that's one thing. Getting Iraqis to do what we want is another. It's like we want to give them McDonald's and they might not want McDonald's. They have to want it or we can't give it to them."

Sgt. Jerry Sapiens, a specialist in nuclear, biological and chemical warfare, suggested there was no end in sight. "We're in the baby-sitting phase and my question is, how long can we baby-sit for the Iraqis? We want the Iraqis to change, to be like us, and to do this we will have to be here forever.....The enemy is not the same as before," said Spec. Matthew Aissen, a medic. "I fear that people who use religion as a power point are taking over the place. It's a power struggle. Our weak point is they think we are evil and we're not so popular, so we become part of the mess."

 

[Barking_Mad]

More cause for concern amongst the Kurds regarding Shia power in Iraq including the possibility that the Kurdish representtive would step down and that the Kurds would press for their own state if they didn't get what they believed they deserved from the political process. I've edited the article so its flows better, the text is al but identicle.

Kurds threaten to bolt Iraq government

Kurdish parties warned Wednesday that they might bolt Iraq's new government if Shiites gain too much power. In another challenge to the interim administration, saboteurs blew up an oil pipeline, forcing a 10 percent cut in electricity output. Kurdish fears of Shiite domination rose after the Americans and British turned down their request to have a reference to the interim constitution - which enshrines Kurdish federalism - included in the U.N. resolution approved Tuesday.

Iraq's Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari, the first Kurd to hold the post, said he had lobbied unsuccessfully for an acknowledgment of the charter during his meetings at the Security Council last week. But he said he was satisfied that the "spirit" of the charter was in the final resolution. Still, Kurdish leaders in Iraq were unconvinced. "Now our future is ambiguous," said Nesreen Berwari, a Kurdish member of the interim government. "The interim constitution would have been the clear and bright roadmap to the all components of the Iraqi people."

Berwari said she would resign if asked to do so by the Kurdish leadership. "Until now, we have not called for a separate Kurdistan, but if the Kurds' rights are not recognized, then we will take political measures that serve the interests of the Kurdish people," said Mulaha Bekhtiyar of the PUK. "For the time being, we will commit to a united Iraq." Bekhtiyar said that the Kurds would not agree to the Shiites having the "lion's share" of any government. Political infighting occurs as the new government and its coalition allies struggle to improve security - the most important problem facing a sovereign Iraq.

Both major Kurdish parties - the Kurdistan Democratic Party and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan - conferred Wednesday to consider a response to the decision not to refer to the interim constitution in the U.N. resolution. The interim charter, adopted in March, affirms the principle of federalism and gave the Kurds an effective veto over the permanent constitution to be drafted next year. Kurds fear that the interim constitution, which the Americans hailed as the most progressive in the Middle East, will be sidelined once the occupation ends and the Shiite clergy gains ascendancy. The Kurds have been running their own autonomous mini-state since 1991, and many Kurds would prefer their own independent country. At the United Nations, Secretary-General Kofi Annan sought to reassure the Kurds, saying that while the resolution doesn't refer to the constitution, it "does have language that refers to a united federal democratic Iraq."

From the same article, Sistani's stance on the situation

The country's most prominent Shiite leader, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Husseini al-Sistani, warned he would not accept mention of the interim charter in the resolution. Shiites oppose parts of the charter that give Kurds a veto over a permanent constitution due to be drawn up next year.Diplomats said reference to the interim constitution was omitted because of opposition by al-Sistani. Shiites are believed to compromise about 60 percent of Iraq's 25 million while Kurds number around 15 percent.

In a statement addressed to the U.N. Security Council earlier this week, al-Sistani warned that mentioning the interim charter in the resolution would be "an act against the will of the Iraqi people and will have dangerous results." He denounced the charter, saying it was "put in place by an unelected council, under the shadow of occupation" - referring to the U.S.-picked Governing Council that approved it.

And news on an attack on the oil pipeline which is affecting power in Iraq -

The pipeline attack appeared to be part of an insurgent campaign against infrastructure to shake confidence in the new government, due to take power on June 30. The blast occurred about 9:30 a.m. near Beiji, 155 miles north of Baghdad, said Col. Sarhat Qadir of the Kirkuk police. Huge fireballs rose into the air, witnesses said.

Oil Ministry spokesman Assem Jihad told Dow Jones Newswires that the attack would not affect exports from the northern oil fields. However, the blast cut supplies to the Beiji electric power station, forcing a reduction of 400 megawatts in power generation, Jihad said. Iraq now produces around 4,000 megawatts. Power cuts in the country have now reached more than 16 hours a day, making it difficult to cope with soaring heat, which is already more than 100 degrees.

 

[Barking_Mad]

US tanks gather outside flashpoint Iraqi city

Some 15 tanks are deployed on road about one kilometre east of US checkpoint on border of Fallujah.US tanks gathered outside Fallujah in western Iraq on Wednesday and appeared to be preparing to enter the flashpoint city, an AFP correspondent reported.

Some 15 tanks were deployed on a road about one kilometre (less than a mile) east of a US checkpoint on the border of the city, which lies 50 kilometres (30 miles) from Baghdad.Iraqis living in Fallujah said American troops had asked the local authorities to provide them with a safe passage through the city, the correspondent said.

 

[Barking_Mad]

Iraqi Insurgents Attack Security Forces

Reports say that insurgents today launched mortar attacks against Iraqi security forces in the town of Al-Fallujah, reportedly causing casualties. Details are still sketchy. Earlier reports said that U.S. tanks were gathering outside the town.

Meanwhile, saboteurs today blew up part of Iraq's Kirkuk-Turkey oil pipeline some 80 kilometers south of Kirkuk. There were no immediate reports of injuries. Iraqi officials say the pipeline is still ablaze. That act of sabotage came after saboteurs ruptured an oil pipeline 200 kilometers north of Baghdad.

In other developments, Polish Deputy Defense Minister Janusz Zemke today said that an explosion that killed six soldiers yesterday in Iraq was probably a mortar attack. The blast, which killed three Slovaks, two Poles, and one Latvian, was initially blamed on a minesweeping accident.

 

[Barking_Mad]

Missing - all these reports on the main news headlines.

06/11/04 AP: Shiite gunmen raid police station
Shiite gunmen loyal to radical cleric Muqtada al-Sadr ransacked an Iraqi police station Thursday in the holy city of Najaf

06/11/04 middle-east-online: US troops clash with Shiite militiamen in Baghdad
Two Iraqi children killed, 23 people injured in overnight clashes between US troops and militiamen in Sadr City.

06/11/04 iribnews: Three US troops wounded in bombing
Three US soldiers were wounded in a car bomb attack on a military convoy in southern Baghdad on Friday, a military spokesman said.

06/10/04 Centcom: 1 Task Force Soldier Dies, 4 Wounded
A Task Force Baghdad Soldier died of wounds as a result of a coordinated attack on Coalition forces in eastern Baghdad that took place around 10:30 p.m. June 9.

06/10/04 FoxNews: Shiite Gunmen Seize Najaf Police Station
Shiite gunmen seized a police station this morning in Najaf in the first outbreak of fighting since an agreement to end weeks of bloody clashes between U.S. troops and militia forces.

06/10/04 TampaTribune: Mortar Attack Ends Lull In Fallujah
mortar attack Wednesday shattered a relative calm of several weeks in Fallujah, wounding 12 members of a special Iraqi brigade created last month to end the bloody standoff between U.S. forces and insurgents.

06/10/04 Reuters: Iraqi police battle militia in Najaf
Five people have been killed in fighting between Iraqi police and Shi'ite militia in Najaf, the first clash there since U.S. forces and guerrillas agreed a truce last week, hospital sources say.

 

[Barking_Mad]

Suicide bomber strikes in Baghdad

A suicide car bomber has killed at least seven Iraqis outside a US base in the Iraqi capital, Baghdad doctors and American military officials report. Police officers who apparently stopped the car outside Camp Cuervo were killed along with the bomber and civilians waiting at a nearby petrol station. A top civil servant and a university professor were also killed in the city and a US soldier died near Baghdad. Elsewhere, reports have emerged of the killing of two Iraqi journalists.

Sunday's attacks came as the issue of the treatment of prisoners by coalition forces resurfaced. Iraq's interim President, Ghazi Yawer, rejected US proposals to demolish the notorious Abu Ghraib prison near Baghdad on grounds of cost. "It's a prison that we spent more than $100m building," he told the US ABC television network. "We are people that need every single dollar we have... instead of demolishing and rebuilding." The US has announced separately that it plans to close another major detention centre, Camp Cropper at Baghdad airport, after the 30 June transfer of power to the Iraqi administration.

Two foreign hostages, a Turk and an Egyptian, were released on Sunday after 10 days in captivity, mediators said. The day was otherwise marked by violence in and around the capital. The Baghdad suicide bomber was intercepted at about 0915 (0515 GMT) as the car speeded on the wrong side of the road towards Camp Cuervo in Rustamiya district. A US military spokesperson said about 12 Iraqis had died in the blast and 13 had been wounded but hospital sources put the death toll at seven. There were no American casualties. Eight civilian cars were badly damaged, an Iraqi police official added.

Other news:

A rocket attack on coalition headquarters in Baghdad caused no casualties;

Overnight fighting in the Shia slum of Sadr City left six Iraqis dead, according to Shia militants;

In Taji, a town 20 kilometres (12 miles) to the north of Baghdad, a roadside bomb killed one US soldier and wounded two - the American military said it killed one attacker;

Reuters news agency reported that the bodies of two Iraqi journalists had been found; they were reportedly killed in the western town of Qaim on Saturday.

The government official shot dead in the city's Ghazalia district was Kamal al-Jarrah, director of cultural relations at the Iraqi education ministry.

A separate gun attack at Baghdad University took the life of geography professor Sabri al-Bayati.

The attack on Mr Jarrah, 63, was the latest in a spate of ambushes on officials:

Interim Deputy Foreign Minister Bassam Qubba was killed on Saturday as he left for work in the al-Azimiya district;

Deputy Health Minister Ammar Safar escaped an attempt on his life in the same district a few days earlier.

The head of Iraq's border guards, General Hussein Mustapha, said he had narrowly escaped an ambush on Saturday on a Baghdad road.

 

[Barking_Mad]

Car bomb in Baghdad

At least 10 people, including two British nationals, have been killed in a huge car bombing in the centre of the Iraqi capital, Baghdad.
Iraq's Prime Minisiter Iyad Allawi said five foreign contractors were known to be among the dead. Dozens of people were injured in the blast, which happened in the early morning and destroyed a building in Tahrir Square. Bystanders were seen carrying blast victims onto pick-up trucks. "It is an unfortunate and cowardly incident that happened today," Mr Allawi said. "These people were helping Iraq rebuild its power generating stations." It is an unfortunate and cowardly incident. These people were helping rebuild Iraq. US and Iraqi officials have warned of an increase in bloodshed in the country as it moves towards the handover of sovereignty on 30 June.......

....But other witnesses said they thought a parked car was detonated by remote control. The BBC's Dumeetha Luthra in Baghdad says the explosion destroyed a building and left a huge crater surrounded by burnt-out, mangled cars. Local people rushed to the scene, pulling wounded victims from the wreckage of the vehicles and bundling them into their own cars to take them to hospital. A correspondent for al-Arabiya television said the rescue operation was still under way and there were expectations that many people might be trapped under the rubble of the collapsed building.

Capt Issam Ali at the nearby Neurological Hospital said many of the injured had serious burns and had lost limbs. Our correspondent says anger at the explosion turned to fury at the US, as crowds began hitting the burnt-out cars and shouting "God is Great" and "Down with the USA". There were reports that the crowd poured fuel over one of the destroyed vehicles and set it on fire. Iraqi police fired into the air to drive people back. The blast comes a day after a suicide car bomber killed at least seven Iraqis outside a US base in the city, the latest in a spate of such attacks.

 

[Barking_Mad]

News from the 13th June

06/13/04 AP: U.S. Army helicopter crashes north of Baghdad[/B]
A U.S. Army OH-58 helicopter crashed Sunday north of Baghdad, but the two-member crew was reported in good condition, the U.S. command said.

06/13/04 Reuters: US-backed Iraqi TV employees shot
A driver and a technician from the Iraqi public television channel, Al-Iraqiya, have been shot dead near the border with Syria.

06/13/04 Reuters: One U.S. Soldier Killed, Two Wounded in Iraq
One U.S. soldier was killed and two others wounded in Iraq on Sunday when insurgents attacked their unit with a car bomb and small arms fire, a U.S. military spokeswoman said.

06/13/04 DAILYNEWS: Thousands of soldiers have been wounded in Iraq.
For every flag-draped coffin the American people aren't allowed to see coming home from Iraq, there are at least four other casualties of war like Spec. Roy Harper they don't hear about, either.

06/13/04 AFP: Iraqi professor gunned down
An Iraqi geography professor, Sabri al-Bayati, was shot dead today moments after leaving a Baghdad university campus, said a witness and a medical official.

06/13/04 AP: Explosions Heard in Baghdad Green Zone
Explosions reverberated Sunday from inside the heavily fortified Green Zone headquarters of the American-run occupation authority.

06/13/04 AP: Cleric Killed In Kirkuk
In the northern city of Kirkuk, Iraqi police say a prominent Kurdish cleric has been killed.

06/13/04 Reuters: 'Jihadists' free Turk, Egyptian hostages
A Turk and an Egyptian hostage have been in Iraq, a mediator says.

06/13/04 AP: Gunmen kill Iraqi deputy foreign minister
Gunmen firing from a car killed Iraq's deputy foreign minister Saturday in the first assassination of a senior official since the new interim government was announced this month.

06/13/04 NewsInteractive: Iraq's Ministry of Education was shot dead in Baghdad
Kamal Jarrah, the ministry's director of cultural relations, was shot as he left his home for work, an official said

06/13/04 CJTF: Twelve Iraqis Killed, 13 Wounded in Baghdad Car Bombing
Twelve Iraqis were killed and 13 more were wounded when a car bomb exploded in eastern Baghdad around 9:15 a.m. June 13

 

[Barking_Mad]

Iraq jail chief told to treat inmates "like dogs"

LONDON (Reuters) - The U.S. general in charge of Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq was told by a military intelligence commander that detainees should be treated like dogs, she said in an interview.Janis Karpinski, the one-star general responsible for the military police who ran prisons in Iraq when pictures were taken showing prisoners being abused, said she and her soldiers were being made scapegoats for abuse ordered by others.

In the interview with BBC radio on Tuesday, Karpinski said Geoffrey Miller, a two-star general sent to Iraq from the U.S. prison camp at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba, had ordered new procedures in cell blocs where Iraqis were interrogated."He said, at Guantanamo Bay we've learned that the prisoners have to earn every single thing they have," Karpinski said."He said they are like dogs, and if you allow them to believe at any point they are more than a dog then you've lost control of them."

 

[Barking_Mad]

Iraqi police accused of handing over Shiites for slaughter

Dozens of Iraqis today accused Fallujah police of handing over Shiite truck drivers to Sunni extremists who slaughtered them after they sought refuge at a police station. The anger erupted at a funeral service in Firdous Square for six Shiite drivers whose bodies were found at a morgue near the city yesterday. Mourners said the men were delivering a load of tents to the Fallujah Brigade, a force that co-operates with the US military in the restive city, 40 miles from the capital, Baghdad.

On their way back to Baghdad, the drivers were stopped by armed men who identified themselves as mujahedeen fighters who battled Marines to a standstill in April. The six drivers escaped and sought refuge in a police station, the mourners said. However, they were handed over to a hard-line Sunni cleric because they were Shiites, the mourners said.They were killed after the men who were holding them, one of them a Syrian, demanded €2,400 a head, the mourners said. The families could not afford the ransom.

Colonel Adnan Abdul-Rahman, spokesman of the Interior Ministry, described the allegations against the police as ”baseless,” but confirmed that the killings took place in the Fallujah area. If true, the incident raises new questions about the capability of the Iraqi police to handle security following the handover of sovereignty June 30.

A 12-year-old boy, Mohammed Khudeir, said he was among those allegedly handed over by the police. But the cleric and his followers let him go, apparently because of his age. “We tried to seek police protection, but the policemen handed us over,” Khudeir said. He said the cleric “handed us over to a group of Arabs who spoke with non-Iraqi accents. I was tortured for a while, but then I was released.”

 

[Barking_Mad]

U.S. General: Fallujah Goals Not Achieved

Baghdad, Iraq - More than a month after the Fallujah siege, a senior U.S. military officer acknowledged Saturday that the Americans had not achieved their goals in the restive Sunni Muslim city, now in the hands of hardline clerics and fighters who held off the Marines. "There's still a long way to go in Fallujah before the coalition - and for that matter the Iraqi government - can be satisfied that we have brought Fallujah to resolution," Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt, the coalition deputy operations chief, told reporters.

..............

During a press conference, Kimmitt listed the goals which the coalition set down during negotiations in April with Iraqi mediators that led to the agreement that ended the fighting. They included the return of Iraqi government control, handing over heavy weapons and foreign fighters and the arrest of those responsible for the slaughter of four security contractors working for Blackwater USA - whose deaths and mutilation led to the three-week siege.

"We are not satisfied we are making active progress in the latter," Kimmitt said, referring to the killers of the contractors. "We are not satisfied that there has been progress on any of those objectives, with the exception of having an Iraqi presence back inside the city." Kimmitt's remarks were surprisingly frank in a U.S. operation which rarely concedes any policy missteps and seeks to present an image of a mission on track in building a stable democracy from the wreckage of Saddam Hussein's dictatorship.

 

[Barking_Mad]

Registration needed.

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/06/13/international/middleeast/13SADD.html?hp]Errors Are Seen in Early Attacks on Iraqi Leaders[/URL]

WASHINGTON, June 12 — The United States launched many more failed airstrikes on a far broader array of senior Iraqi leaders during the early days of the war last year than has previously been acknowledged, and some caused significant civilian casualties, according to senior military and intelligence officials.

Only a few of the 50 airstrikes have been described in public. All were unsuccessful, and many, including the two well-known raids on Saddam Hussein and his sons, appear to have been undercut by poor intelligence, current and former government officials said......

......The broad scope of the campaign and its failures, along with the civilian casualties, have not been acknowledged by the Bush administration......

.....The poor record in the strikes has raised questions about the intelligence they were based on, including whether that intelligence reflected deception on the part of Iraqis, the officials said. The March 19, 2003, attempt to kill Mr. Hussein and his sons at the Dora Farms compound, south of Baghdad, remains a subject of particular contention.

A Central Intelligence Agency officer reported, based primarily on information provided by satellite telephone from an Iraqi source, that Mr. Hussein was in an underground bunker at the site. That prompted President Bush to accelerate the timetable for the beginning of the war, giving the go-ahead to strikes by precision-guided bombs and cruise missiles, senior intelligence officials said.

But in an interview last summer, Lt. Gen. T. Michael Moseley, of the Air Force, who directed the air campaign during the invasion, acknowledged that inspections after the war had concluded that no such bunker existed. Various internal reviews by the military and the C.I.A. have still not resolved the question of whether Mr. Hussein was at the location at all, according to senior military and intelligence officials, although the C.I.A. maintains that he was probably at Dora Farms.

 

[Barking_Mad]

Two reports on the attacks on Iraqi oil terminals/pipelines courtesy of the Independent. One year on and still they dont have power for 24 hours a day.

Militants sabotage crucial Iraqi oil pipeline

Iraq's main oil export terminal was hit by sabotage yesterday, delivering a further blow to the interim government just two weeks before the official transfer of power. In the second attack on vital oil supplies in two months, insurgents also attacked two oil pipelines in southern Iraq, cutting exports from the south by half, officials said. The oil price surged a dollar a barrel following news of the bombings which are keeping up the pressure on the occupying powers.

But anger against the US has swelled more in the heat of the summer because of sabotage of the electricity supply, which is still worse in the capital than it was under Saddam Hussein. "I can't believe that the Americans can equip an entire army here but don't bring in spare parts for our power stations," said Kamal Zein al-Abadin, a shopkeeper. Even poor Iraqis own some form of air conditioning but as the temperature soars to 120F they have been receiving only 12 hours a day of electric power. Everybody is affected. Thieves flourish where there are no street lights. Computers and televisions flicker off at inconvenient moments. Meat and vegetables cannot be stored.................The shortage of power is sometimes a matter of life and death. One man phoned Radio Dijla in tears to say that his three-year-old daughter had just died because of the heat. An hour later another listener arrived at the radio's office to donate a generator to the family of the dead girl.

American officials protest that their failure to provide electricity is explained by systematic looting and sabotage as well as obsolete power stations. They have a point. On Monday three electrical engineers working for General Electric and two of their guards were killed when their convoy was blown up by a suicide bomber in the heart of Baghdad. Last week, saboteurs blew up a fuel line leading to Baiji power station north of Baghdad.

Attack on oil pipelines cuts Iraq's oil exports

Saboteurs blasted a key pipeline today for the second time in as many days, halting all oil exports from Iraq, officials said. Gunmen killed the top security official of the state-run Northern Oil company as insurgents stepped up attacks on Iraq's infrastructure. Today's attack north of the town of Faw crippled two already damaged pipelines, forcing a halt in all Iraqi oil exports southward through the Gulf, Southern Oil Company spokesman Samir Jassim said.

"Due to the damage inflicted on the two pipelines, the pumping of oil to the Basra oil terminal has completely stopped," Jassim said. "Exports have come to halt."Exports were halted last month through the other avenue - the northern pipeline from Kirkuk to Ceyhan, Turkey, after a bombing on May 25, Turkish officials said on condition of anonymity.Two explosions on the southern pipeline occurred yesterday in the same area as the blast. It could take up to a week to repair the damage, Jassim said.

 

[freethepeeps]

Reuters: Panel Says No Signs of Iraq, Qaeda Link

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Investigators have found no evidence Iraq aided al Qaeda attempts to attack the United States, a commission investigating the Sept. 11, 2001 hijackings said on Wednesday, undermining Bush administration arguments for war.

The report by commission staff said al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden had met with a senior Iraqi intelligence officer in 1994 and had explored the possibility of cooperation, but the plans apparently never came to fruition.

President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney this week reiterated pre-war arguments that an Iraqi connection to al Qaeda, which is blamed for the Sept. 11 attacks, represented an unacceptable threat to the United States.

However, the commission said in a staff report, "We have no credible evidence that Iraq and al Qaeda cooperated on attacks against the United States."