*IRAQ: latest news and developments

US forces attack in Baghdad, tensions build around Najaf

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2004/may2004/iraq-m11.shtml

There are growing signs of tension between Sadr’s militiamen and the Shiite groups gathered around Sistani. At a rally yesterday, SCIRI spokesman Sadreddin al-Kubbanji denounced Sadr and his militiamen for being used by “outside elements” and declared there was a “treacherous plot being hatched in the name of fighting the US-led occupation.”


There is little doubt that the US military is urging Shiite groups opposed to Sadr to physically attack the Mahdi Army. SCIRI’s Badr Brigade militia, for example, numbers approximately 10,000. An unsigned leaflet is reportedly being distributed in Najaf threatening to kill any members of Sadr’s militia who do not leave the city.


The potential exists for a confrontation between the rival factions on Friday. SCIRI has called for a demonstration in Najaf before prayer sessions to demand that Sadr leave the city. US military spokesman General Mark Kimmitt implied at a press conference yesterday that the US military would not enter Najaf and intervene if armed clashes broke out in the city.


According to the New York Times, SCIRI hopes the rally will draw “250,000 people.” There is little evidence, however, that the opposition of Sistani to the uprising has swayed Sadr’s supporters or turned the bulk of the Shia population against them.


A SCIRI march yesterday in Najaf had only 200 people and was reportedly heckled by Sadr’s militiamen. If anything, it appears that it is the Shiite leaders cooperating with the US occupation who are becoming increasingly isolated.

Well, Sadr offers to withdraw his army, but so far he appraently hasnt been asked. Either he is lying or the clerics are happy for him to carry on.........

Sadr tells Mehdi Army to fight on

Radical Shia cleric Moqtada Sadr has vowed to continue his fight against US forces in Iraq but says he will disband his militia if asked by Shia leaders. "If the US wants to leave Iraq it will bring peace, but their presence will lead to more terrorism," he said.

It was Sadr's first press conference since his Mehdi Army rebelled in April. Shia talks are continuing in Najaf to find ways to end to the Sadr uprising, as US forces battle his militia in several southern Iraqi cities. Mr Sadr has offered a conditional truce to end a standoff with US troops in Najaf, but he was defiant over the situation in Karbala which has seen some of the fiercest fighting in the last two days.

If the religious authorities issue an edict to disband the Mehdi Army, we will disband it. If not, it will remain to defend this country and its sanctity. "I appeal to the fighters in Karbala to stand together so as none of our holy sites and cities are defiled," Mr Sadr said in a press conference at Najaf's Imam Ali mosque, one of Shia Islam's holiest shrines.

He did not say whether two days of talks with Shia leaders were nearing a deal to end his uprising, but he praised the efforts while accusing the US of trying to sow discord. "If the religious authorities issue an edict to disband the Mehdi Army we will disband it," he said. "If not, it will remain to defend this country and its sanctity."

Clashes in Karbala were concentrated near the Mukhayam mosque, close to the holy shrine for Imam Hussein, which the Mehdi Army uses as a base. Witnesses quoted by Associated Press said American soldiers tried to enter the mosque, before coming under heavy gunfire from Sadr followers waiting in the buildings around it.

"I could not leave the house because of the shooting," a Karbala resident told AFP by telephone from his home in the part of the city sealed off by coalition forces. A correspondent for an Arabic TV network in Karbala said citizens told him is was "the most violent night in the history of the city". Hundreds of people marched in Najaf on Tuesday calling on Mr Sadr to pull his militia out.

Some of his supporters fired in the air over the crowd after the majority of marchers had dispersed. Sadr's militia launched an uprising against the US-led occupation in April after a pro-Sadr newspaper was closed down by the authorities. The US appears to have softened its earlier pledge either to kill or capture the cleric, whom it accuses of killing another Shia leader in April 2003.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/3707771.stm

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US troops battle Karbala militia

American troops, using tanks and helicopters, have clashed with Shia insurgents in Karbala, southern Iraq. The fighting involved supporters of the radical cleric Moqtada Sadr and is said to have lasted several hours.

Iraqi medics said nine militiamen were killed, while US officials put the toll at between 20 and 25. US troops and members of Mr Sadr's Mehdi Army militia also fought overnight on the outskirts of two other southern cities, Najaf and Kufa.

Fighting in Karbala was concentrated near the Mukhayam mosque, close to the holy shrine for Imam Hussein, which the Mehdi Army uses as a base. Witnesses quoted by Associated Press said American soldiers tried to enter the mosque, before coming under heavy gunfire from Sadr followers waiting in the buildings around it.

A US TV network with a reporter embedded in the 1st Armoured Division, showed a building on fire and a military vehicle trying to knock down a wall.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/3706455.stm

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Worth the read.

Private says: I was told to stand there, hold the leash and look at the camera

The female soldier at the centre of the Iraqi prison abuse scandal yesterday maintained that she only posed in the infamous pictures of naked detainees because she was told to do so by her superiors, as a means of softening up the prisoners for interrogation. Hours before the Pentagon privately showed what were by some accounts even more shocking photos to senior politicians on Capitol Hill, Private Lynndie England, 21, said she was given specific instructions on how to pose in the pictures. Asked who gave those instructions, she replied "persons in my chain of command", refusing to be more specific.

Her claim, in an interview with a television station in Denver, Colorado, echoes those of six of her colleagues in the 372nd Military Police Company, who are also facing courts martial for their part in the abuse at Abu Ghraib prison near Baghdad. It will intensify suspicions that responsibility for the abuse is not confined to them, or even to the six middle-ranking officers who face dismissal from the armed forces. Brigadier-General Janis Karpinski, who was in charge of running US military prisons in Iraq, told The Washington Post she had tried to block decisions by more senior officials to put military intelligence in effective charge of the prisons and authorising the use of lethal force to keep order.

She put the blame on Lieutenant-General Ricardo Sanchez, the top American commander in Iraq, and Major-General Geoffrey Miller, the former commander at Guantanamo Bay prison in Cuba, who was sent to Iraq in 2003 to "improve" the results of prisoner interrogations. Both generals have denied that they gave any such orders.

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/americas/story.jsp?story=520737

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Oh look, all of a sudden the Geneva Convention matters!!! Fking tossbags.

Pentagon Won 't Release More Abuse Photos

BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - Bush administration lawyers are advising the Pentagon not to publicly release any more photographs of Iraqi prisoners being abused by U.S. soldiers, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld (newsbio) said at the outset of a hastily arranged visit to Iraq aimed at containing the abuse scandal.

"As far as I'm concerned, I'd be happy to release them all to the public and to get it behind us," Rumsfeld told reporters traveling with him from Washington. "But at the present time I don't know anyone in the legal shop in any element of the government that is recommending that."

The government lawyers argue that releasing such materials would violate a Geneva Convention stricture against presenting images of prisoners that could be construed as degrading, Rumsfeld said en route to the Iraqi capital on a trip that was not announced in advance due to security concerns.

http://www.wjla.com/headlines/0504/146431.html

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She put the blame on Lieutenant-General Ricardo Sanchez, the top American commander in Iraq, and Major-General Geoffrey Miller, the former commander at Guantanamo Bay prison in Cuba, who was sent to Iraq in 2003 to "improve" the results of prisoner interrogations.


Both generals have denied that they gave any such orders.

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No fucking kidding!

Britons tell Bush of 'US abuse'

Two Britons released from the US base at Guantanamo Bay have sent an open letter to President Bush detailing the alleged abuse they suffered there. Shafiq Rasul and Asif Iqbal, held at the base for more than two years, said they were deliberately humiliated.

Guards used strobe lights, dogs and loud music - particularly from US rapper Eminem - to extract information, they allege. "We have never applied any of those techniques," the Associated Press quoted a spokesman for the US mission at Guantanamo as saying.

Mr Rasul and Mr Iqbal said detainees often were forced to go naked as punishment for minor offences, even when female guards were present. They also said they were forced to squat with their hands chained between their legs for hours during questioning.

"Soldiers told us, 'We can do anything we want'," the men said in the open letter to Mr Bush and members of the Senate Armed Services Committee.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/3713111.stm

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Hundreds being released from abuse scandal jail

US troops today started releasing more than 300 Iraqi prisoners at Abu Ghraib prison, the Baghdad jail where abuses by American soldiers have damaged the credibility of the US-led coalition governing Iraq. One bus carrying 17 prisoners left the jail and drove to an American military base in west Baghdad, where tribal leaders awaited them. The prisoners kneeled and prayed beside the bus. The coalition periodically releases prisoners from Abu Ghraib on the western outskirts of Baghdad. Some 315 were scheduled for release today.

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/story.jsp?story=521106[/QUOTE]



Second Iraqi identifies himself in prison abuse photographs

Saddam Saleh, an Iraqi who says he was one of the naked prisoners shown in the photographs of abuse inside Abu Ghraib jail, has accused American soldiers of torturing him for 18 days. He said he saw several senior figures connected with the Saddam Hussein regime being held in the now notorious area of Abu Ghraib shown in the pictures, including Saddam's nephew and the owner of the house where the former dictator was hiding when he was captured last year.

Mr Saleh is the second Iraqi to come forward and identify himself as one of those in the Abu Ghraib photographs. He says that he is one of the naked Iraqis shown standing in a row, while Private Lynndie England points at their genitals and grins, the third from the right.

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/story.jsp?story=521077[/QUOTE]


Awww, poor Tony would have been in the newspapers! Be-dumms!

Hutton decided against recalling PM to save him from 'glaring headlines'

Lord Hutton yesterday said Tony Blair had not been summoned back for cross-examination by his inquiry because it would have been inappropriate for him to face the resulting "glaring headlines".

The retired law lord, who faced widespread accusations of pulling his punches over the Government's role in the events leading to Dr David Kelly's death, strongly defended the conduct of his inquiry. In his first public comments since the report was published, he told MPs it had been beyond his remit to extend his investigation to examine whether the intelligence used by the Government to justify war had been flawed.

He also defended his controversial decision not to recall Mr Blair for cross-examination by the Kelly family and the BBC on the basis that he had already established his role in the affair. Lord Hutton said: "If I had brought the Prime Minister back to be cross-examined, I would have considered it as simply playing to the gallery - 'Here is the man who is not afraid to bring back the Prime Minister'. I did not think it was appropriate to do that."

http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/politics/story.jsp?story=521081

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Fierce fighting erupts in Najaf

Fierce clashes have erupted between US forces and Iraqi militants loyal to Shia cleric Moqtada Sadr in the holy city of Najaf. At least two US tanks have moved into a cemetery near a holy shrine and fighting is reported on roads leading out of the city. There have been intermittent clashes since Mr Sadr launched an uprising across southern Iraq last month. Gunfire and loud explosions were heard coming from a Najaf cemetery near the Imam Ali Shrine, close to where Mr Sadr has taken sanctuary.

Tanks fired on guerrilla positions among the tombs and pursued fighters into the sprawling cemetery, which covers several square kilometres. Thick black smoke was seen rising above the graveyard, while sporadic gunfire could be heard across the city. Fighting was also reported to have broken out on a road leading from Najaf to the city of Kufa, where the Shia cleric was due to deliver a sermon on Friday, the Muslim day of prayer.

Mr Sadr, who is wanted by the US in connection with the assassination of a rival Shia cleric, launched an uprising against coalition forces last month. Witnesses also reported gunfire in the holy city of Karbala, about 50 kilometres (30 miles) north of Najaf. Reuters news agency quoted hospital sources as saying at least four Iraqis were killed in clashes there between US forces and militants loyal to Mr Sadr overnight.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/3713453.stm[/QUOTE]

Aside from this article, Fox are showing pictures of one of the mosques with damage to its roof - apparently from gunfire.

Battles rage around Najaf's holy sites

Residents have evacuated the area as more tanks move in

At least 10 Iraqi militiamen have reportedly been killed in fierce clashes between US occupation forces and supporters of Shia leader Muqtada al-Sadr.


The fighting erupted as US forces intensified their war against al-Sadr on Friday, sending tanks into Najaf's vast cemetery to blast guerrilla positions on sacred ground in the holy city for the first time.

At least four dead and 26 wounded - mostly civilians caught in the crossfire - had been taken to Najaf's hospital by Friday afternoon, officials there said. Many more were believed to have been killed in the cemetery, but their bodies had yet to be collected, they added.

http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/CD724AC9-ECCD-44F6-B4E1-6F195498B97F.htm

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I saw Wolfowitz being questioned on the tv, and someone one the sitting panel asked him if putting a bag on someone's head for 72 hours was "de-humanizing". He didnt answer, but several attempts later he admitted it was. Tosser.

US restricts Iraq interrogations

The US military has barred a number of interrogation methods in Iraq, defence officials in Washington say. The banned methods include sleep and sensory deprivation, and making prisoners assume "stress positions".

Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld had defended the techniques, saying earlier this week that they had been cleared by Pentagon lawyers. The US military has been rocked by revelations about abuse at Baghdad's Abu Ghraib prison. Until now, techniques including sleep deprivation and "stress positions" could be used if approved by a commander.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/3716497.stm

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Bit more on the fighting.......

The fighting broke out at about 23:00 (19:00 GMT) on Wednesday and lasted for about three hours with the sound of heavy artillery being heard at times.

The remains of one burnt vehicle stood immobile in the town square and damaged power lines littered the streets. "I saw militia hiding in the cemetery firing at a US tank, which then responded by firing at them," said Jaber, 42, a resident.

Bullets and other projectiles were seen whizzing overnight above the city's cemetery, adjacent to the square, and a building in the area was set alight. In Karbala, gunfire echoed from narrow streets just a few hundred metres from the Imam Hussain mosque, which sits in the centre of the city. Smoke rose from nearby, witnesses said.

A Reuters TV correspondent at the scene said militiamen attacked a US Abrams tank with rocket-propelled grenades inflicting heavy damage. There was no immediate confirmation from US commanders

http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/4B7989C4-01B9-4C76-9123-505EC4F7186E.htm

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Iraq clashes near Shia shrines

US troops have clashed with militiamen in Iraq's holy city of Karbala, with American tanks passing near two of the most important sites of Shia Islam.
Hospital officials are quoted as saying one Iraqi fighter was killed and as many as 13 injured - mostly civilians.

There were also reports of two Iraqis killed and two wounded in Najaf. Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the spiritual leader of mainly Shia Iran, was quoted as saying the US incursions in Najaf and Karbala were "shameless". The ayatollah said Iraqis and Muslims around the world would not remain silent in the face of such aggression.

"Muslims cannot tolerate the shameless incursion of American forces into sacred places," the Iranian news agency quoted him as saying....

....In Karbala, Mr Sadr's Mehdi Army clashed with US forces close to the revered Imam Hussein and Imam Abbas shrines. Up to 15 US tanks took up position near the shrines while helicopters flew ahead. The French AFP news agency says an unarmed crowd tried to swarm around the tanks shouting "Long live Sadr, the Americans are an army of infidels."


http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/3718249.stm

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[B[Baghdad blast kills Iraq leader[/B]

The current head of Iraq's US-appointed Governing Council has been killed in a car bomb blast near the headquarters of the US-led coalition in Baghdad. Ezzedine Salim was waiting in a convoy of several vehicles to enter the compound when the bomb went off. Several other people also died, US officials say, and it is not yet clear whether Mr Salim was deliberately targeted in the blast. Smoke rose high into the sky after the blast which happened at about 0530 GMT.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/3720161.stm

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US admits Shia unrest is 'uprising'

Fighting continued in Shia cities across Iraq yesterday in what United States occupation forces now admit is a "minor uprising" by forces loyal to the radical Shia cleric Muqtada Sadr.

There were renewed clashes close to two major shrines in the Shia holy city of Karbala, as anger grew across the Shia world over damage to the Shrine of Imam Ali in nearby Najaf during fighting on Friday.

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/story.jsp?story=522042

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Surely that isn't proper (as in the Queen's) English, is it? But then I am reminded that 'normalcy' is another one of those words that only Americans use.

Oh dear...US puppet blown up at checkpoint

Baghdad blast kills Iraq leader


The blast was seen and heard over a large area
The current head of Iraq's US-appointed Governing Council has been killed in a car bomb blast near the headquarters of the US-led coalition in Baghdad.
Ezzedine Salim was waiting to enter the compound when the bomb went off at 0530 GMT, killing him and several others.

It is not yet clear whether Mr Salim was the target of what US officials say was a suicide attack.

Iraq's interim foreign minister has vowed that the political process will not be derailed.

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BBC

Far from ready for more war

It's hard to find a returning soldier who doesn't jump at loud noises or have trouble sleeping. Memories of battle deaths are vivid, and divorce is rampant.

"Some guys I talk to, they wish they'd never come home," said Sgt. Albert Blair, 32; he and his wife have been in marriage counseling.

"We're having communication problems," he said. "She wants to know it all. 'Did you shoot anyone? Did you see anyone die?' I don't want to talk about that stuff. I want to act like it didn't exist."

The Army is doing what it can to help, offering soldiers classes in everything from how to drive safely — most have not been behind the wheel of a car for a year — to how to reconnect with their children. Before the soldiers left Iraq, they filled out forms that asked, among other things, "Are you currently having thoughts of (circle all that apply) suicide, death or harming others?"

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Italian troops evacuate Nasiriyah base after attacks by Shiite fighters

BAGHDAD (AP) - Fighters loyal to radical cleric Muqtada al-Sadr drove Italian forces from a base in the southern city of Nasiriyah on Sunday and attacked coalition headquarters there with grenade and mortar fire as tensions in the Shiite region escalated. Two U.S. soldiers died elsewhere.
Gunmen also killed three Iraqi women working for the U.S.-led coalition. Amid the ongoing violence, the United States is looking to move some of its 37,000 U.S. troops stationed in South Korea to bolster forces in Iraq, South Korean and U.S. officials said.

Two Iraqi fighters were killed and 20 were wounded in battles in Nasiriyah, mostly at two bridges crossing the Euphrates River, residents said.

The Italian troops evacuated as their base came under repeated attack. Portuguese police were called out to support the Italians, seeing action for the first time since the force of 128 deployed to Nasiriyah in November, a Portuguese duty officer said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

At least 10 Italians were wounded, one of the critically, contingent spokesman Lt.-Col. Giuseppe Perrone told The Associated Press by phone. He said the Italians relocated to the nearby Tallil airbase.

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US 'moving Korea troops to Iraq'

The US is planning to move some of its troops from South Korea to Iraq, according to the Seoul government. South Korea's foreign ministry said the two governments were currently discussing the details of such a move. A South Korean newspaper says the US is planning to transfer a full brigade of 4,000 soldiers currently stationed near the North Korean border.

The US has had to reverse plans to reduce troop numbers in Iraq because of the escalating violence there. The US currently has some 37,000 troops based in South Korea under an agreement dating back to the Korean War 50 years ago.

There are about 130,000 US troops occupying Iraq, with an additional 20,000 from other nations. "The US government has told us that it needs to select some US troops in South Korea and send them to Iraq to cope with the worsening situation in Iraq," said Kim Sook, head of the South Korean foreign ministry's North American Bureau.

"South Korea and the United States are discussing the matter," he added. The US is planning a major realignment of its forces in East Asia but says it remains fully committed to the defence of South Korea. However, the BBC's Charles Scanlon in Seoul says the withdrawal of 4,000 men would significantly weaken the strength of the Second Infantry Division - the main US fighting force in South Korea.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/3720029.stm

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So, the US bomb and kill over 600 Iraqis in Fallujah, then give them footballs and wheelbarrows.......ahhh lets be friends!

http://www.centcom.mil/CENTCOMNews/News_Release.asp?NewsRelease=20040540.txt ]Coalition efforts improve life for Al Anbar Residents[/URL]

AL ANBAR PROVINCE, Iraq - A variety of Coalition initiatives designed to improve the quality of life for residents of the Al Anbar province are currently underway.

A Fallujah Liaison Team is evaluating contractors to manage a 1,200-man cleanup and restoration contract. Coalition leaders expect that workforce to increase as contractors get settled and increase their hiring capacity. Currently, the total workforce employed by Coalition-led projects in Fallujah is 2,880.

In addition, Marines delivered 36 wheelbarrows, picks and shovels for distribution to farmers in Al Kharma and Civil Affairs teams in Ramadi paid out a contract for 503 soccer balls, five ball pumps and 20 soccer nets.In the western Al Anbar province, Marines paid $16,000 for damages caused during recent fighting with terrorist forces. Marines also provided toys and school supplies to local Iraqi children.

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'Everyone knew' about Iraq abuse

Iraqi detainees were forced to crawl through broken glass and wear women's sanitary products, according to the female American soldier who has become the face of the prisoner abuse scandal. Private Lynndie England also reportedly told investigators that inmates at the Abu Ghraib prison were beaten and had their wounds stitched by untrained guards using a needle and thread. Meanwhile, other former guards at the jail near Baghdad told how a hooded detainee died after being taken to a shower room for interrogation by the CIA.

In a statement to investigators, obtained by the Los Angeles Times, she said "everyone in the company from the commander down" knew what was going on. She said guards forced detainees to crawl on their hands and knees on broken glass, threw a heavy ball at handcuffed prisoners and forced male detainees to wear women's 'maxi pads'. "He would take pictures of his work," she added.

Although England implicated more senior soldiers in the scandal, she told investigators that much of the abuse was "basically us fooling around".

"We thought it looked funny, so pictures were taken," she said.

But she added: "Personnel from MI [military intelligence] and OGA [Other Government Agency, or CIA] would tell us to keep it up, that we were doing a good job." She said there were many other abuses, but "I can't remember all of them".

http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/news/articles/10812117?source=PA

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'War rumbles on' in southern Iraq

British troops are 'struggling to control' Amara Just after midnight, British tanks and armoured personnel carriers rumble into action. They are hunting down their enemy here, Shia rebels loyal to the radical cleric Moqtada Sadr. Around Amara, it is not so much a question of peacekeeping as war fighting..........

The British troops even fixed their bayonets. They say they can't afford to take any chances. "The Mehdi Army are a very ruthless and determined enemy," said Major James Coote of the Princess of Wales's Royal Regiment.........

......Before, Sadr rebels ruled the roost in downtown Amara. Then a few days ago the British drove them out in a battle they call "Waterloo". Even so, the troops steer clear of a mosque that is still a Sadr stronghold.

With frequent ambushes on the road out of Amara, the safest way for us to leave was by helicopter. This province has always been unruly, full of criminal gangs and warring tribes. Even Saddam Hussein struggled to control it - now the British are struggling too.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/3723731.stm

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Iraq's Sistani urges forces to leave holy cities

NAJAF, Iraq (Reuters) - Iraq's foremost Shi'ite cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, has called on U.S. forces and Shi'ite militia fighters to withdraw from the holy cities of Najaf and Kerbala.It was the most clear-cut statement on the issue from Sistani, Iraq's most influential Shi'ite authority, since militiamen loyal to radical Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr launched an uprising against the U.S.-led occupation in April.

"It's permissible...to demand the withdrawal of all military vestiges from the two cities and allow the police and tribal forces to perform their role in preserving security and order," Sistani said in a rare statement released by his office in Najaf on Tuesday. U.S. forces and followers of Sadr's Mehdi Army militia have fought pitched battles in the streets of Najaf and Kerbala over the past week, often fighting close to some of Shi'ite Islam's holiest shrines.

Sadr's followers, in sermons at mosques across southern, Shi'ite dominated Iraq, have urged Shi'ites to converge on Najaf and Kerbala to defend the cities against U.S. forces. But Sistani said in his statement it was too dangerous and Shi'ites should instead demonstrate in their hometowns against the presence of all military bodies in the cities.

"The office of Ayatollah Sistani calls on citizens in all of the cities and governorates not to head to holy Najaf due to the dangerous circumstances that the holy city is passing through," the statement said.

Instead, it said, gatherings should be organised in mosques and provinces around the country, "to protest violations of the sanctity of the two holy cities".

Sources in Sistani's office said the statement was aimed mostly at Sadr's militia, which has been accused of attacking U.S. forces from inside mosques, including the Imam Hussein mosque in Kerbala, one of Shi'ite Islam's holiest shrines.

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/040518/325/etuyc.html

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'No one understands what we've been through'

Debbie Roath and Rachel Trueblood are just two of the wives from the 129th Transportation Company who are waiting for their husbands to come home from Iraq.
The company numbers 295 people from five different states - the vast majority are men - and they are part of the US army reserve. Some, like Rachel's staff sergeant husband Rony, were in Iraq the last time round, as Operation Desert Storm raged, and then petered out.

Debbie's husband, Sergeant Jeff Roath, has never been a full-timer, but the two men left their homes in the Kansas City area of Missouri in January 2003, arrived in Kuwait in late April last year, and have been driving heavy supply equipment lorries up and down the dangerous roads of Iraq ever since.

They were told initially that deployment would be between three and six months. Three times they have been expected home by their families, and three times the tour has been extended at a late hour. Last Thursday, Debbie and Rachel received calls telling them to expect their men home sometime later this week:

"The worst thing is telling the kids. They've been disappointed so often in the past that we've started lying to them. We don't mention they might be coming home now," says Debbie. "No one I know has told their kids anything," says Rachel. "We don't want to say a thing, but that means when they don't come, we have to suffer through that depression and rejection all by ourselves." ..........

..........Debbie's husband has not suffered the same retribution she says, but their wives' activism has made the two men closer: "They thought they would be transporting tanks, but instead it's been things like toilet paper, golf karts and even a fishing boat," says Debbie, wondering what possible military use the last two items could be put to.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,12271,1218796,00.html

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Iraq Wants Its Oil Income

BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) Iraq's deputy foreign minister said Tuesday he will ask the United Nations to allow the country's coming government to fully control oil revenues and that Iraq's debts and war reparations be scrapped or reduced.

"We demand that the coming Iraqi government have full control over natural resources, including oil resources," Hamid al-Bayati told The Associated Press. "The sovereign Iraqi government should be able to control revenues."

Prominent Governing Council member Ahmad Chalabi has said that after June 30, the date when sovereignty is to be handed over to Iraqis, all of Iraq's oil revenues should be under the control of the new interim government.

http://cbs4boston.com/news/topstories_story_139103653.html

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Britain and US plan for quick exit from Iraq

The new strategy, discussed by senior officials in Washington and London over the weekend, came as both countries accepted that Iraq would be given full sovereignty on July 1. In what was being portrayed as an example of Mr Blair’s quiet influence on Mr Bush, suggestions from Washington of only partial sovereignty have been dropped.

The first indication of the new approach came on Friday when Colin Powell, the US Secretary of State, Mr Straw and other coalition ministers said that forces would leave if the Iraqi interim government asked them to on July 1.

In an associated move, The Times understands, the expected deployment of extra British troops will not be announced this week. The Government wants to counter the impression that they were being sent in as a knee-jerk response to the removal of Spanish troops.

Major-General David Petraeus, of the US Army, who is leading efforts to set up the new Iraqi army, police force and security services, is studying closely the work of British forces in southern Iraq to forge links with local leaders.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,7374-1110250,00.html

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Update on 18/05/04

18/04 AP: Mortar shells hit houses in Baghdad
... two mortar shells fell on houses in Baghdad near a compound formerly used by the Iraqi security service. Three civilians were injured in that attack.

18/04 whotv: U-S military reports deadly shooting attack
The U-S military says gunmen have fired on a convoy of civilian cars in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul.

18/04 Paragoulddailypress: Injured soldier needs help
The family of a local soldier who was recently injured in combat in Iraq is seeking donations to a fund the family has set up...

18/04 AP: 2 Civilian Foreigners Said Killed in Iraq
Gunmen opened fire Tuesday on two civilian cars believed to be carrying foreigners, killing two and wounding another, witnesses said.

18/04 whotv: Urbandale Soldier Dies in Iraq
An Urbandale family is mourning the loss of a U.S. Marine killed in action in Iraq. The family of 19-year-old Marine Private Brandon Sturdy learned Friday that he died in combat near Fallujah.

18/04 AFP: Loud explosion rumbles across Baghdad
A loud explosion rumbled across central Baghdad on Tuesday, just hours after the funeral was held for the slain president of Iraq's Governing Council who was killed in a suicide bombing one day earlier

18/04 icwales: Ex-Royal Marine shot dead in Iraq
Brian Tilley, 47, was killed after a gunman reportedly walked into the house where he was staying and opened fire.

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I found this via another link from Backatcha Bandit. It's a good read and raises some good points, even though you might not agree with some of what he says.

At this point, the US lacks good options -- although it probably never really had them in the sense the Bush Administration sought. The option of quickly turning Iraq into a successful, free market democracy was never practical, and was absurd a neo-conservative fantasy as the idea that success in this objective would magically make Iraq an example that would transform the Middle East

http://www.csis.org/features/iraq_whatdone.pdf

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This Independent piece is worth the read - a nice summation of where the US stands in Iraq and the effects on the region.

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/story.jsp?story=522568 ]Power and vainglory[/URL]

Misguided from the start, the war in Iraq is spiralling out of control. Any legitimacy the occupying forces may ever have possessed has been destroyed, and there are signs that Iraqi insurgents are coming together to mount a movement of resistance that could render the country ungovernable. With even more damning images likely to find their way into the public realm in the near future, the United States is facing an historic defeat in Iraq - a blow to American power more damaging than it suffered in Vietnam, and far larger in its global implications........

........The resistance mounted by the Iraqi insurgents can be compared to the anti-colonial liberation struggles of the 1950s, but the closest parallels with the intractable conflict now under way are found in Chechnya, which remains a zone of anarchy and terror despite the ruthless deployment of Russian firepower and the systematic use of torture for more than a decade. It was the prospect of an intractable guerrilla conflict that led many soldiers in the Pentagon to express deep reservations regarding the war. When the civilian leadership launched the invasion of Iraq, US forces were plunged into a type of conflict for which they are supremely ill equipped.....

......Tossing aside international law and the norms of civilised behaviour in this way is self-defeating. Not so long ago, the clash of civilisations was just a crass and erroneous theory, but after the recent revelations it is becoming a self-fulfilling prophecy. In toppling Saddam, the Americans destroyed an essentially Western regime, not unlike the Stalinist Soviet Union in its militant secularism. In doing so, they empowered radical Islam as the single most important political force in the country......

......The Bush administration's self-defeating approach to terrorism is symptomatic of a dangerous unrealism running right through its thinking. For Paul Wolfowitz, the Deputy Defense Secretary, and other neo-conservatives, the solution to terrorism was to "modernise" the Middle East. For them, that meant overthrowing many, if not most, of the area's regimes and replacing them with secular liberal democracies. They appear not to have noticed that the region's secular regimes were authoritarian states such as Syria and Iraq. In the Middle East today, as in Algeria in the past, democracy means Islamist rule.

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Washington to stop funding Iraqi whose misleading WMD claims hastened war

Washington said yesterday that it was to cease funding the Iraqi politician Ahmed Chalabi, the former exile whose "intelligence reports" and claims about Americans' likely reception among his countrymen helped push the Bush administration to war. Officials said the Pentagon would stop paying Mr Chalabi's group, the Iraqi National Congress (INC), $340,000 (£192,000) a month at the end of June, when the US is due to return sovereignty of Iraq.

Entifadh Qanbar, an INC spokesman in Washington, said: "After 30 June, we expect all funding by US agencies to be ceased because the Iraqi government will be sovereign." The decision underlines Washington's growing frustration and disillusionment with the INC, which * for several years * had the ear of the administration as it supported the ousting of Saddam Hussein. The US * either through the CIA or the State Department * has provided tens of millions of dollars to the INC in exchange for information about Iraq and defectors from the regime..........

.....When the UN envoy Lakhdar Brahimi made clear he did not see a role for Mr Chalabi in the Iraqi body he has been asked to organise, the INC leader accused him of having an "Arab nationalist agenda".

Another thing that has fuelled the anger of Paul Bremer, head of the US authority, are claims that Mr Chalabi has been providing information about America's plans for Iraq to Shi'ite leaders in Iran, with whom he has links. A recent report in Newsweek quoted a US official as saying some of that information "could get people killed". The claims remain unconfirmed, but the fact that US officials are making them underlines the way Mr Chalabi is now viewed.

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Straw admits that allies' failure to keep accurate record of civilian deaths is 'odd'

The Foreign Secretary, Jack Straw, yesterday admitted it was "odd" that there were no consistent records of the number of Iraqis killed since the end of the war in Iraq.

The Independent revealed on Monday that no accurate records of the Iraqi dead * regarded as a measure of the misery in post-war Iraq * were being kept by the coalition. Challenged over the report, Mr Straw conceded on BBC radio it was "odd" but said it was very difficult to keep count of the Iraqi dead. Britain estimated about 10,000 had died, including those killed in the war. Ministers are now expected to order better records to be kept in the UK sector of Iraq, following pressure from Labour MPs and Amnesty International.

Mr Straw added: "It is worth pointing out that almost all of those who have lost their lives have been terrorists or insurgents seeking to disrupt the work of the coalition to build a representative, democratic Iraq or tragically they have been caught in the crossfire."

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