*IRAQ: latest news and developments

[Barking_Mad]

Rocket attack on U.S. base kills three U.S. soldiers, wounds 25

BAGHDAD, Iraq - A rocket slammed into a U.S. logistics base near the city of Balad on Wednesday afternoon, killing three U.S. soldiers and wounding 25 people including a pair of civilians, the military said. Two of the wounded were flown to Baghdad for treatment, according to a statement from the U.S. Army's 13th Corps Support Command, which occupies the sprawling base known as Camp Anaconda.

 

[Barking_Mad]

Hmmmm.

Letter: Al-Zarqawi tells bin Laden militants are getting squeezed

CAIRO, Egypt (AP) -- A leader of militants in Iraq has purportedly written to Osama bin Laden saying his fighters are being squeezed by U.S.-led coalition troops, according to a statement posted Monday on Islamic Web sites.

A comparison subsequently showed that the purported letter from Abu Musab al-Zarqawi was the same text intercepted and released in February by the U.S.-led coalition in Iraq. It was not possible to authenticate the statement allegedly from al-Zarqawi, a Jordanian whose insurgent group claimed responsibility for the videotaped beheading of American Nicholas Berg.

Titled "The text of al-Zarqawi's message to Osama bin Laden about holy war in Iraq," the statement appeared on Web sites that have recently carried claims of responsibility for attacks in Saudi Arabia and Iraq. "The space of movement is starting to get smaller," it said. "The grip is starting to be tightened on the holy warriors' necks and, with the spread of soldiers and police, the future is becoming frightening."

 

[Barking_Mad]

Bush Policies a Failure, Retired U.S. Diplomats Say

Retired Gen. Tony McPeak, a former chief of staff of the U.S. Air Force, said the military had performed well in Iraq but the pre-war diplomacy had been bungled and the Pentagon now had only about half the troops needed for the occupation. "Because of the Pollyannaish assumptions that were made by the administration in going in there that bouquets would be thrown at us and so forth, we were totally unprepared for the post-combat occupation," he said. "So you see here unfolding in front of us a terrible disaster ... It simply has to be laid at (the feet of) the president," said McPeak, who said he supported Bush in 2000.

 

[Barking_Mad]

Workers' comp claims from Americans in Iraq could cost millions

WASHINGTON (June 16, 10:08 am ADT) - The mounting deaths and injuries to civilian contractors in Iraq could cost the federal government millions of dollars for hundreds of workers' compensation claims. Federal law requires all U.S. government contractors and subcontractors to obtain workers' compensation insurance for civilian employees who work overseas. If an injury or death claim is related to a "war-risk hazard," the War Hazards Compensation Act provides for government reimbursement to insurance carriers.

Nearly half the 771 injury claims filed by U.S. contractors so far this year occurred in Iraq - 345. Of the 66 deaths reported as of last week, all but nine occurred in Iraq, according to the Labor Department, which handles the reporting of claims and reimbursements. Since January 2003, there have been claims for 476 injuries and 80 deaths in Iraq.

 

[Barking_Mad]

Nine killed in Ramadi blast

Iraqi doctor reports nine people killed, including four foreigners travelling in all-terrain vehicle in Ramadi. Nine people were killed, including four foreigners, and 10 wounded when a vehicle was targeted in a blast Wednesday in the restive town of Ramadi, western Iraq, an Iraqi doctor said. "We have the bodies of five Iraqis and four foreigners," said Mohammed Jalal, a doctor in the neighboring town of Fallujah, 50 kilometres (30 miles) west of Baghdad. "In addition, 10 injured Iraqis were admitted to our hospital."

 

[oi2002]

The Pentagon's D.Perle just entered the Lions Den of the BBC. Emerged lightly mauled.

Admitted flawed intell. on WMDs, no Saddam-AQ link in US attacks. Ended up babbling about the BBC's failure to understand Risk Management like some embarrased QA guy after Y2K, the interviewer was polite enough not to press him on the success of his risk reduction strategy, very nasty chap Johnny Englishwoman.

 

[Barking_Mad]

What programme was that on Oi?

 

[Barking_Mad]

U.S. officer to be charged with murder

WASHINGTON -- The Army has decided to charge a 1st Armored Division officer with murder in the May 21 death of an Iraqi civilian who was wounded during a high-speed chase, then shot again at close range, an Army official said Wednesday.

The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the Army's Criminal Investigation Division has not yet publicly announced its decision, said the 1st Armored captain will be charged soon. The officer's name was not disclosed.

The U.S. Central Command announced on June 4 that the case was being investigated but provided few details. It said the matter involved a potential violation of U.S. rules of engagement which govern the use of deadly force. In its announcement,

Central Command said the driver of an Iraqi vehicle in a motorcade was seriously wounded and a passenger was less seriously wounded when U.S. troops opened fire near the city of Kufa. It said initial reports indicated that the wounded driver was then shot at close range by a U.S. soldier and died. The Army official who said Wednesday that a 1st Armored Division officer would be charged with murder in the case said the soldier reportedly shot the badly wounded man to end his suffering.

 

[Barking_Mad]

Top Iraqi Official Objects To Treatment as POW (registration probably needed)

Gen. Amir Saadi, the onetime liaison between Saddam Hussein's government and U.N. weapons inspectors, has been kept in solitary confinement since he surrendered to U.S. troops on April 12, 2003, according to his wife and friends.

Saadi was classified as a prisoner of war by U.S. authorities a month after his surrender. The Geneva Conventions say prisoners of war "may not be held in close confinement except where necessary to safeguard their health." They also may not be "threatened, insulted, or exposed to any unpleasant or disadvantageous treatment of any kind," if they refuse to answer questions, according to the conventions.

Detlev F. Vagts, a Harvard Law School professor who specializes in international law governing wartime, said in a telephone interview, "Clearly we [U.S. forces] and Iraqi forces will have the right to confine people causing trouble or suspected of insurgency," but he added: "That would not cover al-Saadi."

A Defense Department spokesman would neither confirm nor deny yesterday that Saadi is in isolation, saying it has been the department's "policy not to discuss the disposition of individual detainees . . . because of Geneva Convention prohibitions on subjecting detainees to public scrutiny." But he said Saadi "is being treated fairly and humanely."

"It is cruel to detain innocent people in solitary confinement indefinitely, but it is far worse to be cut off from family and loved ones when they are only 15 minutes drive away and phone connections not accessible," Saadi, 66, wrote in a message delivered by the International Committee of the Red Cross to his wife, Helma, on Feb. 16. She made excerpts from that message and others available to The Washington Post.

 

[Barking_Mad]

A piece from ZNet by Naomi Klein

Baghdad

I was in Iraq in April, at a pivotal moment when the United States decided to wage two pre-emptive wars within a pre-emptive war, one against the resistance in Fallujah, the other against Muqtada al-Sadr in Najaf and Sadr City. The LA Times estimates that 800 Iraqis have been killed in the past two months of U.S. attacks on Sadr City, almost as many as the 900 that than are estimated to have died in the siege on Fallujah.

As mosques were desecrated, prisoners tortured and children killed, I witnessed George Bush's awesome enemy-manufacturing machine up close. Hatred of Americans soared, not just in Iraq but also in neighbouring countries. The retaliation began immediately: a wave of kidnappings of foreigners, now so common they barely make the news. The change in mood was palpable.

Anti-Americanism was no longer a sentiment; it was an uncontrollable force of nature. Being Canadian didn't let us off the hook; we were still part of an ugly invasion of foreign soldiers, contractors and journalists traipsing through the country and taking what wasn't ours: lives, jobs, oil, stories, photographs. The kidnappers didn't usually discriminate based on nationality.

 

[Louloubelle]

at least 25 people killed in a car bomb outside an army recruitment centre in Baghdad. over 100 people were outside the centre when the bomb went off, the actual death toll may be much higher

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/3814337.stm

 

[Barking_Mad]

Iraqi insecurity threatens progress

Ask virtually anyone about their lives in post-war Iraq and the answer will come back: "Maku Aman... no security." To begin with, it was because the US army brought about not just "regime change" in April 2003 but the complete collapse of an already-weakened Iraqi state. More than a year later, organised groups of insurgents, militias and criminal gangs have established themselves, while the US army has been busy hunting down old regime elements and protecting itself - or at least trying to.

Lawlessness began with the ousting of the former regime. The result is that - as Iraq is supposed to be moving towards a new era - the forces of violence threaten to engulf progress towards a democratic government. It's a race against time, in the words of a recent report by the Washington-based Fund for Peace. And the new Iraq appears to be losing.

"Currently the spiral of conflict is outpacing the political dialogue and consensus-building required to conduct successful elections, adopt a viable constitution, and form legitimate national government," says the FFP report entitled Iraq as a Failed State.

 

[Barking_Mad]

British soldiers clash with al-Sadr supporters

British soldiers clashed with Shiite fighters loyal to rebel cleric Muqtada al-Sadr in south-eastern Iraq today after they arrested one of the militia’s leaders.No one was hurt in the hour long gun battle, a British military spokesman said. Three British military vehicles were fired upon with small arms fire and a rocket propelled grenade in two separate attacks in the city of Amarah, 180 miles south-east of Baghdad, a British military spokesman said.

None of the vehicles was damaged, he said. The attacks happened after British forces detained militia leader, Ahmed Hachi. A British military spokesman said three people were arrested just after midnight. He did not identify them. According to the witnesses, the fighting lasted about an hour and a shop was burned. The trouble began the day after al-Sadr took steps to honour an agreement meant to end fighting with US forces in the holy cities of Nafaj and Kufa, ordering fighters who did not live in those twin cities to return home.

 

[Barking_Mad]

Breaking News on BBC ticker - UK to send 600 more marines to Iraq.

 

[Barking_Mad]

You know you have trouble when the members of the security forces are trying to blow US troops up......

Iraqi soldiers held after bomb attack

Six member of the Iraqi Civil Defence Corps were arrested today after a roadside bomb attack on a US convoy killed a local policeman. The arrests raise further questions about the capability of Iraqi security forces to maintain order in the country after the transfer of sovereignty on June 30.

The attack happened in the centre of the town of Ramadi and five civilians were also injured.The bomb exploded as the American convoy drove by and within minutes US Marines arrested seven Iraqis, including six members of the Defence Corps for alleged involvement in the attack. The ICDC is supposed to be the key to ensuring domestic security in this country as the Americans lower their security profile after sovereignty is transferred.

 

[Barking_Mad]

Not Iraq but relevant.......

CIA Contractor Is First Civilian Indicted in Abuse Scandal

WASHINGTON June 17, 2004 — A contractor working for the CIA was indicted Thursday in connection with the beating death of a prisoner in Afghanistan the first civilian to face criminal charges related to U.S. treatment of prisoners in Afghanistan and Iraq. The four-count indictment was handed up in Raleigh, N.C., against David A. Passaro, 38, for the June 21, 2003, death of a prisoner in U.S. custody. Attorney General John Ashcroft said Passaro was accused of "brutally assaulting" the man while questioning him over two days.

The prisoner, identified as Abdul Wali, was being held at a U.S. detention facility in Asadabad, in the Kunar province of Afghanistan. Court documents say Wali had surrendered and was being questioned by Passaro about frequent rocket attacks directed at the U.S. facility, close to the Pakistani border. Ashcroft said al-Qaida and Taliban fighters were common in that part of the region.

Wali died in his prison cell after Passaro beat him "using his hands and feet and a large flashlight" during two days of interrogations, the indictment said.

 

[Barking_Mad]

Kidnapped Truck Drivers in Iraq Released

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Two truck drivers — a Turk and an Egyptian — were released to an Iraqi journalist on Thursday, weeks after being kidnapped near the restive city of Fallujah.

 

[Barking_Mad]

As bombers strike, UN says Iraq too dangerous

The death toll from two car bomb attacks against Iraq's army and civil defence corps has risen to 41 people, with 145 wounded. As violence continues, United Nations secretary-general Kofi Annan has warned the security situation is too dangerous for the world body to return to Iraq.

It is not clear how his announcement will affect the crucial UN role in helping prepare Iraq for January elections, the cornerstone of US ambitions to create a showcase for democracy in the Middle East............"On the security situation on the ground in Iraq, obviously I am extremely worried," Mr Annan told reporters at the UN headquarters in New York. "I am grateful to the Security Council that they inserted the phrase that we could go in 'as circumstances permit'. "As of today circumstances do not permit and we are monitoring the situation extremely carefully."

 

[Barking_Mad]

From the other day......

US seeks 'secure' Saddam handover

President George W Bush has refused to set a timetable to hand over ex-President Saddam Hussein to the interim Iraqi government. Mr Bush told reporters "appropriate security" must be in place first. The US and the Iraqi government do not want "lax security and for Saddam Hussein not to stand trial", Mr Bush said outside the White House.

Iraq's prime minister has said he wants Saddam Hussein to be handed over before the 30 June transfer of power. Iyad Allawi told al-Jazeera television on Monday this would happen "within the next two weeks". The Red Cross has said he must be freed or charged before the end of June.

 

[Barking_Mad]

US unit denies jail 'dogs' charge

The unit overseeing US detention operations in Iraq has denied that prisoner abuse was encouraged by military leaders. General Janis Karpinski, who used to head the unit, told the BBC she was being made a scapegoat for the abuse at Abu Ghraib prison in Baghdad. She said more damaging information would emerge at the trials of military police accused of involvement.

She said her successor had told her that prisoners were like dogs. This allegation flies in the face of the philosophy of humane treatment for all detainees that Major General Miller adopted.They should not be allowed to believe they were more than dogs, General Geoffrey Miller was alleged to have said.

However, a spokesman for General Miller, Colonel Barry Johnson, said General Karpinski's statement was categorically false, and General Miller had made no such comparison to anyone. "This allegation flies in the face of the philosophy of humane treatment for all detainees, under all circumstances, that Major General Miller adopted first at Guantanamo, and now at his position in Iraq," he said.

 

[Barking_Mad]

Nice little summation of what's gone off in Iraq.

Expect the unexpected

The Middle East is in a period of profound change and must adapt to internal and external challenges. US ambitions are now global. Its martial, political and economic power is unchallenged. But it has failed so far in imposing its culture. As America tries to impose Western-style democracy in Iraq and elsewhere, it may discover yet that homegrown ideologies, like Arab nationalism or political Islam, remain entrenched among the masses. Democratisation in Iraq could, ironically, breathe new life into them.

 

[Barking_Mad]

They're all coming out of the closet, here's an Aussie Bishop asking for 'God's Forgiveness'.

Forgive me, I was wrong on Iraq

Bishop Tom Frame supported the invasion. Now he seeks God's forgiveness.

As the only Anglican bishop to have publicly endorsed the Australian Government's case for war, I now concede that Iraq did not possess weapons of mass destruction. It did not pose a threat to either its nearer neighbours or the United States and its allies. It did not host or give material support to al-Qaeda or other terrorist groups.

But did the Australian Government and the Australian Defence Force really believe that Iraq possessed WMD and would employ them in support of its national interests? Definitely. Were intelligence assessments of Iraq's WMD arsenal and its ability to mount military operations exaggerated and inaccurate? Certainly. But in the absence of any clear mitigation, there is no alternative to concluding that the March 2003 invasion was neither just nor necessary.

I continue to seek God's forgiveness for my complicity in creating a world in which this sort of action was ever considered to be necessary.

 

[freethepeeps]

Incoming stooge government threatens martial law

Iraq's incoming government is considering imposing martial law to help stabilise the country after another two car bomb attacks on Thursday killed at least 41 Iraqis.


The first bomb, packed with artillery shells, exploded outside an army recruiting centre in central Baghdad killing 35 people. The centre had been hit in a similar strike earlier this year. A second attack north of Baghdad killed another six Iraqi civil defence soldiers.

The blasts were the latest in a spate of increasingly well-organised attacks, including suicide attacks against foreign civilians working for the US-led coalition, an assassination of a senior Iraqi official, and the sabotage of military and industrial targets.

 

[Barking_Mad]

South Korea to Send 3,000 Troops to Iraq

SEOUL, South Korea - South Korea (news - web sites) will send 3,000 soldiers to northern Iraq (news - web sites) beginning in early August to assist the U.S.-led coalition, the Defense Ministry said Friday. Once the deployment is complete, South Korea will be the largest coalition partner after the United States and Britain.

South Korea plans to send 900 troops to Kurdish-controlled Irbil in early August, followed by about 1,100 troops between late August and early September, Defense Ministry spokesman Nam Dai-yeon said. Another 1,000 soldiers will travel to Iraq later. South Korea already has 600 military medics and engineers in the southern Iraqi city of Nasiriyah. They are expected to head to northern Iraq beginning in mid-July to prepare facilities ahead of the arrival of the main force, South Korea's Yonhap news agency reported.

 

[Barking_Mad]

Holiday from Iraq means "death road" to airport

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Need a holiday from Iraq? Don't forget your passport, tickets -- oh, and a flak jacket for the trip to Baghdad International Airport. The "death road" to the airport, also known as RPG (rocket-propelled grenade) alley, is probably Iraq's most dangerous highway.

Scores of U.S. military convoys and Western contractors have been hit in sophisticated guerrilla ambushes that have claimed dozens of lives along the thoroughfare. "According to the latest information, there is one successful attack every two days on that road. It is a high risk area," said one of the hundreds of Western security consultants hired to protect foreigners in Iraq.

Guerrillas are showing no let-up, planting roadside bombs, unleashing rocket-propelled grenades or conducting drive-by shootings on the six-lane highway.Western security consultants say there have been more than 50 attacks on the road since early April. Applying stickers to maps, they try to trace the patterns -- and advise clients to take back roads instead.

 

[Louloubelle]

the american hostage, jonston (?) has been killed according to an arabic news channel
no links yet, but it's this guy http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/3819889.stm

 

[Louloubelle]

here's a link

http://www.reuters.co.uk/newsPackageArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=532117&section=news

 

[Barking_Mad]

Cant find much mention of this in the more mainstream press.

British Soldiers Kill Two in Clash with Rebel Cleric's Militia

British forces clashed with gunmen loyal to rebel cleric Muqtada al-Sadr in the south-eastern Iraq for a second day, killing at least two insurgents. No British soldiers were hurt, a British military spokesman said. Insurgents launched at least four separate hit-and-run attacks against British troops last night, near Amarah, 180 miles south-east of Baghdad, said the spokesman. The members of al-Sadr’s militia used small arms, mortars and rocket-propelled grenades in clashes that lasted about two hours, witnesses said.

At least two insurgents were killed, one in Amarah and another in the southern city of Basra, the army spokesman said. Insurgents also launched attacks against British soldiers in Amarah on Wednesday after they detained militia leader Ahmed Hachi.Al-Sadr’s forces are skirmishing regularly with US troops in Baghdad’s Sadr City district, but they were routed by the 1st Armoured Division in Karbala and their ranks were significantly reduced in Najaf and Kufa, coalition forces say.

 

[Barking_Mad]

UK soldiers face new abuse probe

MILITARY police are investigating new allegations of mistreatment by British soldiers in Iraq after complaints by the Red Cross....It is claimed prisoners were hooded and beaten by British troops.

The ministry said 14 Iraqis were known to have died, but there are claims the death toll was as high as 29. And witnesses have claimed 15 Iraqis were rounded up and taken to the British base at Amara. The Red Cross has made a complaint about the way the prisoners were treated between their arrest and their transfer to the Shaibah detention centre on the outskirts of Basra. One of those held, Abbas Abid Ali, a local policeman, claimed the soldiers had beaten the detainees.

Speaking through his cousin Yahia Rahim, who visited him in the centre, he said he had nothing to do with the fighting, but had been working on land he owns near the Amara-Basra road. He said: "We saw people by the side of the road with hands tied behind their backs and who were hooded and lying on their chests in the dirt.

"They did the same with us and made us lie on the hot and dirty earth for maybe two hours. Mr Ali said they were put, one on top of another, into the back of an armoured vehicle "with the soldiers’ feet on top of us". He continued: "We remained hooded until the next morning, when I could hear the birds sing. Then they started interrogating us one by one.

"They were using abusive language, shouting at us and kicking and beating us around the face and head and body. I saw one prisoner with his jaw so swollen I couldn’t recognise him. They wanted to know who had told us to fight. I said I was a policeman and a farmer, not an insurgent." The MoD confirmed the Red Cross had made a complaint and did not deny that Iraqis had been injured.

A British army spokesman in Basra said British forces in Iraq "treated the enemy injured and captured with the same respect as we treat our own".

 

[jeff_leigh]

Twenty two people have been killed and 20 others injured in a US raid on a house in Falluja, medical sources and witnesses have told Aljazeera's correspondent.
http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/10BAF2F2-8DAA-48C5-8F39-7A58080F0B32.htm