September 2004
Day
519:
Thursday, September 30, 2004
Operation
American Repression? DISSENTING US SOLDIER FACES 20 YEARS
An Army officer in Iraq who wrote a highly
critical article on the administration's conduct of the war is being
investigated for disloyalty -- if charged and convicted, he could
get 20 years.
Salon.com Eric
Boehlert
 |
|
US soldier guards
the scene of a roadside bombing in Baghdad (Reuters) |
An Army
Reserve staff sergeant who last week wrote a critical analysis of
the United States' prospects in Iraq now faces possible disciplinary
action for disloyalty and insubordination. If charges are bought and
the officer is found guilty, he could face 20 years in prison. It
would be the first such disloyalty prosecution since the Vietnam
War. The essay that sparked the military investigation is
titled "Why We Cannot Win" and was posted Sept. 20 on the
conservative antiwar Web site LewRockwell.com. Written by Al Lorentz,
a non-commissioned officer from Texas with nearly 20 years in the
Army who is serving in Iraq, the essay offers a bleak assessment of
America's chances for success in Iraq. "I have come to the
conclusion that we cannot win here for a number of reasons. Ideology
and idealism will never trump history and reality," wrote Lorentz,
who gives four key reasons for the likely failure: a refusal to deal
with reality, not understanding what motivates the enemy, an
overabundance of guerrilla fighters, and the enemy's shorter line of
supplies and communication.
read
more
5 dead in Iraq clashes; US artillery fire kills 3
Dawn.com, Mark
Mazzetti
 |
|
Rebel attacks are
widely spread, says US study |
Baghdad: Clashes between insurgents and US-Iraqi forces claimed the
lives of five Iraqis including one civilian in Iraq yesterday.
In Iskanderiyah, 40km from Baghdad, insurgents attacked an Iraqi
National Guard patrol, killing two soldiers and wounding three,
according to local police. The attack was carried out by a
band armed with small-arms who later managed to flee. Iskanderiyah
is situated near the Shiite cities of Karbala and Najaf.
Another two Iraqis were killed yesterday south of Kirkuk, when
gunmen opened fire on a minibus, said police in the northern Iraqi
city. The two victims from Iraq’s Kurdish northern provinces
had been working for the US army. Three of their colleagues who were
travelling with them were injured in the incident. Police in
Kirkuk also reported that four US soldiers were wounded in an
explosives attack on their convoy about 35km from the city. In
Ramadi, about 100km from the capital, one Iraqi civilian was killed
in a firefight which ensued after insurgents attacked a US patrol,
witnesses said.
read more
Day
518:
Wednesday, September 29, 2004
Bigleys
take hope from Italians
BBC
 |
|
Italian
aid workers Simona Pari and Simona
Torretta were involved in aid
initiatives in Iraqi schools (Al Jazeera photo) |
Members
of the Muslim Council of Britain say Ken Bigley is still alive. The
release of two Italian women who had been held captive in Iraq has
given the family of British hostage Ken Bigley new hope that he may
be alive. His younger brother Paul told the Times newspaper "we are
all heartened" by the release of the aid workers and that he was
"overjoyed for their families". Mr Bigley, 62, from Liverpool,
was captured in Baghdad 13 days ago. On Tuesday members of the
Muslim Council of Britain said they believed the civil engineer was
still alive. Dr Daud Abdullah and Dr Musharraf Hussain were
speaking after returning from Iraq, where they were lobbying for the
release of Mr Bigley by appealing for his release on radio and in
two of the country's most widely circulated newspapers. They
said "tremendous goodwill on the ground" had been fostered by their
visit. Mr Bigley was taken hostage by the hardline Tawhid and
Jihad group along with two American colleagues, who have both since
been beheaded. On Tuesday, the release of Simona Pari
and Simona Torretta, both 29, came as an Egyptian telecoms company
said four of its workers who had been held hostage were set free.
And there have been reports on Arabic television that two French
journalists who were kidnapped last month in Iraq would also soon be
released.
read
more
Iraq resistance is
homegrown
Dawn.com, Mark
Mazzetti
 |
|
Insurgents
continue to target Iraqi police force recruits |
WASHINGTON: The insistence by interim Iraqi Prime Minister Ayad
Allawi and many US officials that foreign fighters are streaming
into Iraq to battle American troops runs counter to the US
military's own assessment that the Iraqi insurgency remains
primarily a home grown problem. In a US visit last week,
Allawi spoke of foreign insurgents "flooding" his country, and both
President Bush and his Democratic challenger have cited these
fighters as a major security problem. But according to top US
military officers in Iraq, the threat posed by foreign fighters is
far less significant than American and Iraqi politicians portray.
Instead, commanders said, loyalists to Saddam Hussein's regime - who
have swelled their ranks in recent months as ordinary Iraqis bristle
at the US military presence in Iraq - represent the far greater
threat to the country's fragile 3-month-old government.
Foreign militants such as the Jordanian-born Abu Musab Zarqawi are
believed responsible for carrying out videotaped beheadings, suicide
car bombings and other high-profile attacks. But US military
officials said Iraqi officials tend to exaggerate the number of
foreign fighters in Iraq to obscure the fact that large numbers of
their countrymen have taken up arms against US troops and the
American-backed interim Iraqi government. "They say these guys
are flowing across (the border) and fomenting all this violence. We
don't think so," said a senior military official in Baghdad. "What's
the main threat? It's internal." In interviews during his US
visit last week, Allawi spoke ominously of foreign militants "coming
in the hundreds to Iraq". In one interview, he estimated that
foreign fighters comprise 30 per cent of insurgent forces.
Allawi's comments echoed a theme in Bush's recent campaign speeches:
that foreign fighters streaming into the country are proof that the
war in Iraq is inextricably linked to the global war on terrorism.
Kerry has made a similar case, with a different emphasis. In remarks
on the stump last week, Kerry said that the "terrorists pouring
across the border" are proof that the Bush administration has turned
Iraq into a magnet for foreign fighters hoping to kill Americans.
Yet, top military officers challenge all these statements. In a
television interview on Sunday, Gen John P. Abizaid of the US
Central Command estimated that the number of foreign fighters in
Iraq was below 1,000.
read more
Blair refuses to say sorry
Last minute changes
water down admission over Iraq
The
Guardian, Michael White
 |
|
Does being Tony
Blair mean never having to say you're sorry? |
Tony Blair yesterday
offered critics of his Iraq war strategy his most contrite
justification for the conflict so far but stopped short of an
outright apology, removing the word "sorry" from the text of his
speech to Labour's Brighton conference in frantic last-minute
rewriting. "I know this issue has divided the country. I entirely
understand why many disagree," he told the conference. Journalists
had been briefed that he would say "I am genuinely sorry about that"
between the two sentences, but it was removed. Mr Blair's
attempt to assuage party members over Iraq was combined with a
bullish blueprint for a 21st century "opportunity society" which won
him a five-minute standing ovation from wary delegates. Mr
Blair boasted that Labour would deliver equality of choice to all.
"Choice is not a Tory word," he said.
read more
Day
517:
Tuesday, September 28, 2004
US pounds Iraqi cities
Al
Jazeera
 |
|
US aircraft have
pounded Falluja for several days |
US
bombers have launched new attacks on the Sunni Muslim city of
Falluja and the mainly Shia Baghdad suburb of Sadr City. The
air raids targeting the rebel-held city targeted its northern
neighbourhood but no details were immediately available. The
US military has been pounding the insurgent stronghold relentlessly
in recent days. It says the strikes have eliminated scores of
wanted fighters but doctors at Falluja's hospitals claim that many
of the victims of the raids are women and children. Also on Monday
evening US army helicopter gunships launched air strikes against
Baghdad's eastern Shia suburb of Sadr City, the US military
announced. The raids followed bombing runs earlier in the day
which killed up to five people and wounding 46, including women and
children.
read more
U.S. soldiers charged in death of Iraqi
Associated Press
BAGHDAD, Iraq -- Two U.S. soldiers have been charged with murder in
the death of an Iraqi civilian, the 1st Cavalry Division announced
Monday. A military statement identified the soldiers as Staff
Sgt. Johnny Horne Jr. and Staff Sgt. Cardenas Alban, both from
Company C, 1st Battalion, 41st Infantry Regiment from Fort Riley,
Kan. Fort Riley spokeswoman Sam Robinson said Horne, 30, of
Winston-Salem, N.C., and Alban, 29, of Carson, Calif., were both on
their second tour of duty in Iraq with the unit. The statement
said the alleged incidents are not related to murder charges filed
against Sgt. Michael Williams and Spc. Brent May, from the same
unit. They were charged in the deaths of three Iraqis, the military
announced last week. Williams was also charged with obstruction of
justice and making a false official statement, the military said.
read more
Day
516:
Monday, September 27, 2004
Powell Warns Iraq Insurgency 'getting Worse,' Will Make Elections
Difficult
AFP
 |
|
Powell: "Yes, It's
Getting Worse." |
US
Secretary of State Colin Powell warned that the insurgency in Iraq
was "getting worse" and could hinder the organization of Iraqi
elections planned for January. "Yes, it's getting worse,"
Powell told ABC television. "And the reason it's getting worse
is that they are determined to disrupt the election. They do not
want the Iraqi people to vote for their own leaders in a free,
democratic elections." "Right now our goal is, and I think
it's an achievable goal, is to have full, free and fair elections
across the whole country." The top US military commander in
the region, General John Abizaid also cautioned that "we will fight
our way through elections" in Iraq, and that he could not predict
that the entire country would be able to vote. Their remarks
stood in sharp contrast to the optimistic scenario painted by US
President George W. Bush and Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi, who
both vowed last week that elections would go ahead and insisted the
rebuilding of Iraq was on track.
read more
Blair warns
against 'false hopes' for Briton being held in Iraq
AFP
 |
|
Blair: Refuses to
Intervene for Bigley |
LONDON Prime Minister Tony Blair warned
Sunday against "raising false hopes" for a British engineer held
hostage in Iraq, as the crisis cast a shadow over the start of his
party's annual conference. Kenneth Bigley, 62, was abducted in
Baghdad 10 days ago, along with two American colleagues who have
since been killed. Bigley appealed directly to Blair to intervene in
an Internet video broadcast last week. In an interview with
BBC television, Blair was asked how he had felt when he heard
Bigley's appeal. "My first reaction is the reaction of anyone,
which is real sympathy for him, anger at how he is being held by
those people and an earnest hope that, despite all the difficulties,
we can do something," Blair said. "But I just don't know if we
are able to or not. There is no point in raising false hopes because
of the nature of the people we're dealing with.
read more
Key Bush assertions about Iraq in dispute
Reuters
CRAWFORD, Texas - Many of President
George W. Bush's assertions about progress in Iraq -- from police
training and reconstruction to preparations for January elections --
are in dispute, according to internal Pentagon documents, lawmakers
and key congressional aides on Sunday. Bush used the visit
last week by interim Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi to make the
case that "steady progress" is being made in Iraq to counter
warnings by his Democratic presidential rival, Senator John Kerry,
that the situation in reality is deteriorating. Bush touted
preparations for national elections in January, saying Iraq's
electoral commission is up and running and told Americans on
Saturday that "United Nations electoral advisers are on the ground
in Iraq."
read more
Day
515:
Sunday, September 26, 2004
Falluja doctors decry civilian toll
Hospitals say women and
children were killed and injured
Al
Jazeera
 |
|
Doctors in Falluja:
Our Hospitals are full of injured civilians |
US
warplanes, tanks and artillery units have renewed their assault on
the Iraqi city of Falluja, killing and wounding many women and
children. At least 15 people were killed and 25 wounded in
what US military authorities are calling a precision strike
targeting "terrorists meeting in the Jolan district of Falluja".
"Intelligence sources indicated that approximately 10 terrorists
were meeting at this location to plan operations targeting innocent
Iraqi civilians and multi-national forces," said a US military
statement on the strike carried out at 1800 GMT. However, Falluja
medical sources are disputing US claims and saying their hospital
wards are being filled with dead and wounded women and children.
read more
Left,
right, the US out of step in Iraq
Foreign Policy in
Focus, Frank Smyth
One event in Baghdad has been largely unreported, not only by the
mainstream media but also by the "alternative" press, even though it
implies that US control over Iraq's political future may already be
waning. In August, the White House supported the establishment of an
Iraqi National Council comprising 100 Iraqis from various tribal,
ethnic and religious groups in an effort to influence the
composition of an electoral oversight body. But this month, two
large political parties, each of which has long been viewed with
suspicion by Washington, came out ahead in the voting. Many
criticize the legitimacy of the process by which the administration
of President George W Bush is hoping to steer Iraq toward national
elections next January. The indirect elections for the council took
place under war conditions, and there were reports that mortars
exploded near the convention site in Baghdad where delegates had
gathered. Iraqi delegates also expanded the number of vice-chairs in
the national council from two to four. Had they not done so, the
results might have been even more troubling for Washington.
read
more
Day
514:
Saturday, September 25, 2004
Rumsfeld: US troops can leave before Iraq peaceful
Swissinfo.com,
Charles Aldinger
 |
|
Rummy: Iraq has
"never been peaceful and perfect" |
The United States does not have to wait until Iraq "is
peaceful and perfect" before it begins to withdraw military
troops from that troubled country, U.S. Defence Secretary
Donald Rumsfeld says. Responding to questions from reporters
on Friday, Rumsfeld said Washington was determined to provide
security for scheduled January elections in Iraq, where nearly
140,000 American troops are now fighting a growing insurgency.
But "any implication that that place has to be peaceful and
perfect before we can reduce coalition and U.S. forces, I
think, would obviously be unwise," he told a press conference
after meeting Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi. "Because it's
never been peaceful and perfect and it isn't likely to be.
It's a tough part of the world. Our goal is to invest the time
and the money and the effort to help them train up Iraqis to
take over those (security) responsibilities." Rumsfeld gave no
timetable for any possible drawdown of U.S. troops from the
costly and controversial Iraqi deployment that has stressed
America's military and taken centre stage in the U.S. election
battle between President George W. Bush and Democratic
challenger John Kerry.
read more
Related
Story:
Quick Exit from Iraq is Likely
US aircraft, artillery fire pound Falluja
Al
Jazeera
 |
|
The US military
has intensified its air strikes on Falluja of late |
US artillery and aircraft fire
have pounded sectors of the Iraqi town of Falluja, sending up
clouds of smoke. The smoke on Friday shrouded the southeastern
industrial zone, which houses mainly metal and mechanical
workshops, as residents charged that US forces had lobbed
artillery into the area, although warplanes were also sighted.
Within minutes, the artillery fire was followed by an air
strike on the Shuhada district in southern Falluja. A marine
spokesman confirmed artillery had been fired on the outskirts
of the city after troops spotted fighters in a vehicle with a
mounted weapons system. The vehicle managed to flee, he added.
The US military has intensified its strikes on Falluja this
month, targeting suspected hideouts of alleged top al-Qaida
operative Abu Mussab al-Zarqawi.
read more
Day
513:
Friday, September 24, 2004
Iraqi polls might be limited, says Rumsfeld
Scotsman.com,
Margaret Neighbour
 |
|
Rummy: "Nothing is
Perfect" |
DONALD
Rumsfeld, the US defence secretary, yesterday raised the possibility
that Iraq might conduct only limited elections in January, excluding
areas where violence was too severe for people to go to polls.
"Let’s say you tried to have an election and you could have it in
three-quarters or four-fifths of the country. But in some places you
couldn’t because the violence was too great," Mr Rumsfeld said at a
Senate armed services committee hearing. "Well, so be it.
Nothing’s perfect in life, so you have an election that’s not quite
perfect. Is it better than not having an election? You bet."
His comments cast a shadow over attempts by the US president, George
Bush, and Iraq’s prime minister, Ayad Allawi, to put a positive spin
on the situation in Iraq. In a speech to Congress yesterday,
Mr Allawi said: "We are succeeding in Iraq" and elections will occur
"on time in January, because Iraqis want elections on time".
Saying "thank you, America" for the invasion, he added: "There would
be no greater success for the terrorists if we delay and no greater
blow when the elections take place, as they will, on schedule."
read more
U.S. planes again
hit Sadr City
Air attacks follow clashes with militia
AFP
U.S. warplanes fired on targets in the east Baghdad slum of Sadr
City on Thursday, the second day of fighting in the Shiite militia
stronghold. Iraqi doctors said one person had been killed and 12
injured, several of them children. The U.S. military said the
operation had been intended to "disband and disarm" militia loyal to
the rebel Shiite cleric Moktada al-Sadr and to open the way for
reconstruction projects in the city. The attacks followed a
day of fierce clashes between American troops and fighters loyal to
al-Sadr. U.S. warplanes and helicopters roared overhead and
residents said loud explosions could be heard for hours. Militants
returned fire with machine guns, they said. An American
Bradley fighting vehicle was hit by a rocket-propelled grenade and
caught fire, according to a U.S. military report. It was not clear
if there were any casualties. The aim of the operation, "Iron Fist 2," is to maintain pressure on al-Sadr
by seizing weapons and detaining or killing his lieutenants, said
Major Bill Williams, an acting battalion commander in the 1st
Cavalry Division. Last month an agreement suspended hostilities
between al-Sadr's followers and U.S. troops and now the Americans
believe he has been using the lull in fighting to increase his
control.
read more
Day
512:
Thursday, September 23, 2004
'I need you
to help me, Mr Blair'
The Scotsman, Chris Marks
"I think this is my last chance
to speak. I don’t want to die in Iraq, neither do the women in the
prisons. I want to live, I want to live" - Kenneth Bigley, British
hostage
 |
|
Bigley faces
execution |
The
British hostage held by terrorists in Iraq made a desperate
last-minute plea for Tony Blair to save his life, in a video
released on the internet last night. The video showed an
emotional Kenneth Bigley, seated in front of a flag, appealing
directly to the Prime Minister for help. "I think this is my
last chance to speak. I don’t want to die in Iraq, neither do the
women in the prisons. I want to live, I want to live. "Mr Blair, I’m
nothing to you, just one person in the United Kingdom with a family
like you ... You can help, I know you can. These people are not
asking for the world, they’re asking for their wives, their mothers
and children." Mr Bigley also called on the public and
political parties to lobby Mr Blair about his fate. "The
Iraqis don’t like foreign troops walking their streets. It’s not
right and it’s not fair. We need to pull the troops out," he added,
sometimes rocking forward, his hands in his lap.
read more
Nato agrees to expand training mission in Iraq
New
Zealand Herald
Nato
allies agreed on Wednesday to create a military training academy in
Iraq, expanding the alliance's small presence in the country after
two years of feuding over the US-led war. Ambassadors at Nato's
headquarters in Brussels reached the accord after overcoming
concerns raised by France and others that a larger presence would be
tantamount to putting the alliance into the Iraqi battlefield
through the back door. "Today Nato ambassadors agreed on the
political directions to the military to enhance Nato assistance to
the government of Iraq in the training of its security forces," Nato
spokesman James Appathurai told reporters. "We are very
pleased this step has now been taken." He stressed Nato was
there for training and that it would have no direct combat role. The
mission will report to Nato but receive help from the US-led
Multinational Force to make sure it can go ahead in safety, he said.
read more
Day
511:
Wednesday, September 22, 2004
CIA was 'just guessing' in report on Iraq
New Zealand Herald
 |
|
Bush: "CIA was just guessing" |
US President George W Bush, determined to put an optimistic face on
deadly conditions in Iraq, said on Tuesday that the CIA was just
guessing when it said the war-racked country was in danger of
slipping into civil war. "The CIA laid out several scenarios.
It said that life could be lousy, life could be OK, life could be
better. And they were just guessing as to what the conditions might
be like," Bush told reporters during a picture-taking session with
Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi. Bush and Allawi met for 45 minutes
on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly. The CIA, which has been
blamed for spectacular lapses involving the September 11, 2001,
attacks and prewar Iraqi weapons capabilities, gave Bush a report
last July that presented a bleak outlook for Iraq.
read more
US forces attack Sadr City
Al
Jazeera
 |
|
Parts of Sadr City
are under the control of fighters |
US tanks have raided the Baghdad area of
Sadr City as aircraft bombed the area and helicopters flew low
overhead, witnesses say. "Right now we are in there. We are
fighting the terrorists so we can re-establish civil-military
operations and get back to the reconstruction projects that the
people of Sadr City want," said army spokesman Major Philip Smith.
Bombing had begun around 2100 GMT on Tuesday and was continuing.
One local resident said he counted up to two dozen US tanks and
other armoured vehicles in the early hours of Wednesday on the
streets in the western part of Sadr City. Fighters have
established large swathes of control in the sprawling, poor
neighbourhood to the northeast of Baghdad's city centre.
read more
Day
510:
Tuesday, September 21, 2004
Possibility of civil war looms over Iraq
Associated Press,
Hamza Hendawi
 |
|
Locals remove a
dead body after U.S. soldiers shot randomly
|
Sunni
and Shiite clerics gunned down. Christian churches bombed. Hundreds
of police killed, and Iraqi soldiers abducted and threatened with
death. Is Iraq heading to civil war?
No way, say Prime Minister Ayad Allawi and many of his countrymen,
who blame the bloodshed on foreign Islamic extremists. However, as
the death toll rises, thoughtful Iraqis are beginning to fear the
unthinkable. "We are not yet in a civil war," said Mahmoud Othman, a
senior Kurdish politician and member of the former Iraqi Governing
Council. "But if the ongoing violence is not contained, it will turn
into an Iraqi-Iraqi war." Many Iraqis put their faith in
age-old ties among Shiites, Sunnis and Kurds to keep the peace - an
understandable yearning, perhaps, since most Iraqis don't want to
imagine things getting any worse.
read more
Foreigners taken hostage in Iraq top 135
Associated Press
Insurgents in Iraq have
kidnapped more than 135 foreigners in their campaign to drive out
coalition forces and hamper reconstruction:
-Ten Turkish employees of
the construction company VISNAN. Kidnapping reported in a video
broadcast Sept. 18 and attributed to the Salafist Brigades of Abu
Bakr al-Siddiq. The Ankara-based company said Sept. 21 that it was
freezing operations in hopes of saving the workers.
-Three Lebanese travel
agency workers, Fadi Munir Yassin, Cherbal Karam Haj and Aram
Nalbandian, and their driver, Iraqi Ahmed Mirza. Kidnapped Sept. 17
on the road between Baghdad and Fallujah.
-Americans Jack Hensley
and British engineer Kenneth Bigley. Kidnapped in Baghdad on Sept.
16 along with Eugene Armstrong, an American civil engineer. Employed
by Gulf Services Co. of the United Arab Emirates. A video issued in
the name of Jordanian militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi threatens their
lives unless the U.S. frees all Iraqi women in custody; a video
posted Sept. 20 shows Armstrong being beheaded.
read more
Day
509:
Monday, September 20, 2004
As many as 100,000 insurgents in Iraq: Report
Press Trust of India
 |
|
How many Iraqis
have joined the insurgency? |
There
could be as many as 100,000 insurgents in Iraq not including those
who provide them with food and shelter, a media report said on
Monday. In its upcoming issue, Time magazine quoting Jeffrey
White, a former analyst with the Defence Intelligence Agency says
that insurgents tied to Abu Mousab al-Zarqawi are conducting patrols
on Haifa Street, a busy Baghdad thoroughfare from where the US
Embassy lies within mortar range. Time says it has obtained audio
cassettes, which provide a rare insight into the insurgents'
mindset. In hours of sermons and seminars, as they are called,
leaders of al-Zarqawi's group, Attawhid wal Jihad, exhort their rank
and file to slaughter Iraqis cooperating with the US and the interim
Government, the magazine said. In one tape, Time says a man named
Sheik Abu Anas al-Shami, one of al-Zarqawi's key commanders and a
member of the organisation's religious committee, preaches that any
nation built on secular principles is "in the light of Islamic law a
tyrannical infidel and blasphemous state."
read more
Deadline
for Briton facing Iraq execution
Blair admits 'new conflict' has begun
The Guardian, Luke
Harding
 |
|
Bigley the latest
to be taken hostage |
Last-ditch attempts to save the life of a British man being held
hostage by Iraqi militants were under way last night as a deadline
set by his kidnappers loomed. The families of Kenneth Bigley and the
two Americans being held with him begged the kidnappers not to carry
out a threat to execute the men when the deadline was reached in the
early hours this morning. The Foreign Office took the rare step of
putting up an official to make an appeal for help on the Arabic
satellite television station, al-Arabiya. In Iraq officials said
authorities were pursuing a number of leads in connection with the
kidnapping of the men, who were shown blindfolded and bound in a
video released at the weekend. British and US special forces were
also thought to be standing by. Despite George Bush declaring
that combat operations were over more than 16 months ago, the
growing hostage crisis and insurgency led Tony Blair yesterday to
talk of a second war.
read more
Day
508:
Sunday, September 19, 2004
Britain to cut troop levels in Iraq
The Observer, Jason
Burke
 |
|
Some
British troops are heading home |
The British Army is to start pulling troops
out of Iraq next month despite the deteriorating security
situation in much of the country, The Observer has learnt. The
main British combat force in Iraq, about 5,000-strong, will be
reduced by around a third by the end of October during a
routine rotation of units. The news came amid another day of
mayhem in Iraq, which saw a suicide bomber kill at least 23
people and injure 53 in the northern city of Kirkuk. The
victims were queueing to join Iraq's National Guard.
More than 200 people were killed last week in one of the
bloodiest weeks since last year's invasion, strengthening
impressions that the country is spinning out of control.
Yesterday grim footage apparently showing a British engineer
kidnapped from a house in Baghdad last week along with two
American colleagues surfaced in a video released in the Iraqi
capital. The group holding the three threatened to execute
them unless Iraqi women prisoners are released from jail.
read more
US air strike targets Falluja
Al
Jazeera
 |
|
Four people
were killed and five wounded in the latest attack |
A US air strike has killed four
people and left five wounded in Falluja, hospital sources say,
while a large offensive against the city is being planned, a
US newspaper reports. The US military said a strike was
carried out at 1830 GMT on a checkpoint in northern Falluja.
"Four people were killed and five wounded," said Dr Ali Hiad
Mashalani at Falluja General hospital. The military said
it had targeted armed men it believed were responsible for
abducting and murdering people at the checkpoint.
"Informants linked the checkpoint to kidnappings and
executions in the Falluja area," the military said in a
statement. However, Aljazeera learned late on Saturday
the checkpoint targeted by the US air force belonged to the
Mujahidiin Advisory Council who are in negotiations with US
commanders and Iraqi officials to end US aerial assaults on
the city and cede control to the Iraqi interim government.
read more
Day
507:
Saturday, September 18, 2004
More deaths as US renews assault on Falluja
Al Jazeera
 |
|
Injured
Iraqi Boy |
Three people have been killed and five injured in
renewed US air strikes on the Iraqi town of Falluja amid widespread
condemnation against the attacks. The latest air strike by the
US air force was launched on the Shuhada and industrial sectors of
the city late on Friday, Aljazeera learned. Earlier, Ahmad
Hardan, member of the Local Council in Falluja, told Aljazeera of
the three killed, two were an elderly couple. Five people were
also injured in the air strike which targeted the Dhubbat (officers)
neighbourhood in the city, Hardan said. "Three bodies were
taken from the rubble," said one rescue worker. Another three people
- among them two women and a child - were injured, ambulance workers
said. A US fighter jet dived over the city's Dhubbat district
at around 1730 GMT and shortly afterwards a loud explosion rocked
the area, said one resident. France backs Annan on illegal status of
war.
read more
Day of Violence Across Iraq Leaves 52 Dead
Associated
Press, Kim Housego
 |
|
Fighting erupted between British troops and fighters loyal
to al-Sadr near al-Sadr's office in
Basra |
BAGHDAD, Iraq - A suicide car bomber slammed into
a line of police cars sealing off a Baghdad neighborhood Friday as
American troops rounded up dozens of suspected militants, capping a
day of violence across Iraq (news - web sites) that left at least 52
dead. Among the 63 suspects arrested were Syrians,
Sudanese and Egyptians, officials said. Coalition forces say foreign
fighters are playing a major role in the insurgency. Early Saturday,
a car bomb exploded outside the Iraqi national guard headquarters in
the northern city of Kirkuk, killing at least eight people and
wounding 10, the national guard said. The blast tore through a crowd
of people waiting to apply for jobs in the force, said National
Guard Gen. Anwar Mohammed Amin.
read more
Barnier said international law was why France opposed the war
 |
|
Barnier said international law
was why France opposed the war |
France on Friday backed UN Secretary General Kofi
Annan's description of the US-led war on Iraq as "illegal".
"You well know that what explains our country's disagreement with
the way the war was carried out was that it clearly did not at that
time abide by international law and there was not a clear request
from the United States to start that action," French Foreign
Minister Michel Barnier told journalists. That was
"traditionally" France's view from the start, he added. "We
have always considered that international law constitutes the
framework for any action, notably against terrorism or for stability
in the world," he said. Barnier's comments added fuel to a
debate over the legitimacy
read more
Day
506:
Friday, September 17, 2004
Annan’s Remark Opens Old Wounds
AFP
 |
|
Annan:
"I hope we do not see another Iraq-type operation for a long
time" |
UNITED
NATIONS, 17 September 2004 — The US decision to go to war in Iraq
without the approval of the UN Security Council was “illegal,”
Secretary-General Kofi Annan told the BBC. “I hope we do not
see another Iraq-type operation for a long time — without UN
approval and much broader support from the international community,”
he said in an interview Wednesday with the BBC World Service.
The UN Charter allows nations to take military action with Security
Council approval as an explicit enforcement action, such as during
the Korean War and the 1991 Gulf War. But in 2003, in the build-up
to the Iraq War, the United States dropped an attempt to get a
Security Council resolution approving the invasion when it became
apparent that it would not pass. At the time, Annan had
underlined the lack of legitimacy for a war without UN approval,
saying: “If the United States and others were to go outside the
Security Council and take unilateral action they would not be in
conformity with the Charter.”
read more
Intelligence report cast doubts over Iraq venture
Reuters, Rupert
Cornwell
 |
|
family approaches
US soldier at check-point in suburbs of Tal Afar
|
A
deeply pessimistic US intelligence assessment of the situation in
Iraq has cast further doubts over the Bush administration's attempt
to rebuild the country, and given Democratic challenger John Kerry a
new opportunity to move the Iraq crisis to the centre of the
Presidential election battle. A new National Intelligence
Estimate, drawn up in July and representing the distilled wisdom of
the entire US intelligence community, sketches out three scenarios
for Iraq. The grimmest is a descent into civil war; but even
the most favourable of the three foresees no better than a
precarious stability, under threat at any moment. The
conclusions of the latest NIE, first reported by the New York Times,
contrast sharply with the upbeat tone of Mr Bush, who in campaign
speeches continues to insist that progress is being made in Iraq,
deriding Mr Kerry for his alleged vacillation on the issue. The
NIE's assessment reflects the view of most nonpartisan Iraq
specialists here, that the insurgency is becoming more sophisticated
and more dangerous, and that for the US the war in Iraq is
politically, if not militarily unwinnable.
read more
Day
505:
Thursday, September 16, 2004
Iraq war illegal, says Annan
ABC News
 |
|
Annan: The UN
Charter was violated (AFP) |
United
Nations secretary-general Kofi Annan says the United States decision
to invade Iraq in March 2003 was "illegal". Australia was a
key supporter of the war on Iraq and sent troops to joined the
United States-led invasion last year. Mr Annan's comments are
likely to reignite debate over whether US President George W Bush,
Prime Minister John Howard and British Prime Minister Tony Blair
acted within the bounds of international law by failing to get a
final UN Security Council resolution on Iraq. Speaking in an
interview with BBC World Service radio, Mr Annan says the UN
Security Council should have issued a second resolution, if a US-led
invasion of Iraq was to be allowed. "I'm one of those who
believe that there should have been a second resolution," he said.
"Yes, if you wish. I've indicated that it was not in conformity with
the UN Charter from our point of view, and from the Charter point of
view it was illegal." The UN Charter is one of the cornerstones of
international law.
read more
Fresh Iraq clashes leave many dead
Al Jazeera
Up to 10 people have been killed in
clashes between Iraqi fighters and US marines in Ramadi, while a car
blast south of Baghdad has left two dead. Aljazeera has learnt
that armed men attacked a US convoy in the centre of the city of
Ramadia, west of Baghdad, on Wednesday. US forces responded with
heavy gunfire. "Ten people were killed and six wounded this
morning in clashes in Ramadi," said a Health Ministry official in
charge of collecting casualty tolls from hospitals nationwide. A US
military spokesman in the area confirmed fresh clashes took place
early on Wednesday. "At approximately 7:30 am (0330 GMT) this
morning, marine units operating in the Ramadi area were targeted by
the AIF [Anti-Iraqi Forces - recently introduced US terminology for
anti-US fighters] with approximately 13 rounds of indirect fire,"
Lieutenant Lyle Gilbert said.
read more
Day
504:
Wednesday, September 15, 2004
Iraq: a descent into civil war?
The Guardian, Luke
Harding
 |
|
aftermath of
a car bomb outside a police station in Baghdad |
Lying amid the debris strewn near Al-Karkh
police station was the photo of a young man in a blue T-shirt. The
passport snap had been part of his application to join Iraq's police
force. Yesterday, however, he and dozens of other recruits queueing
outside the station in central Baghdad were blown to pieces by a car
bomb. Near the photo, someone had heaped the shoes of the dead and
injured into a neat pile. The destruction from the suspected suicide
blast which killed 47 people and injured 114 was everywhere: bits of
metal, glass, a broken billiard table, a dead bird and pools of
blood. There was nothing left of the recruit in the photo.
"The bomb went off at 10am. A lot of people were queueing up to join
the police," said Allah Hamas, 31, who owns Allah's Famous Falafel
Stand, next to the police station. "I handed a customer a
sandwich.
read
more
'Hostage' drama: hunt for 11 Australians
Sydney Morning
Herald
The Department of Foreign Affairs said today it had been
unable to account for 11 Australians in Iraq. Latest figures
released by DFAT this morning showed there were 231
Australians in Iraq, with 220 accounted for. A group
calling itself the Horror Brigades of the Islamic Secret Army
released a leaflet on Monday night, saying it had seized two
Australians and two Asians near the Iraqi town of Samarra, and
would execute them unless Australia withdrew forces from Iraq
within 24 hours.
read more
Day
503:
Tuesday, September 14, 2004
Is Iraq
out of control?
BBC News
 |
|
A car bomb
in Baghdad has killed 47 Iraqis |
A car bomb has exploded in the busy
Haifa Street area of Baghdad in Iraq, killing 47 people and injuring
more than 100.
It happened close to a police station where people were queuing,
waiting for it to open. After the attack, angry crowds gathered
denouncing the US military and Prime Minister Ayad Allawi's interim
government for failing to protect police recruiting centres.
Violence across the country on Sunday has already left 70 dead and
air strikes by US planes in Falluja on Monday killed 15 people.
read
more
US troops face new torture claims
The
Guardian, Richard Norton-Taylor
Allegations that American soldiers routinely tortured and
maltreated detainees have emerged from a third Iraqi city,
renewing fears that abuse similar to that inflicted in Abu
Ghraib jail in Baghdad has been systematic and widespread.
American soldiers in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul beat and
stripped detainees, threatened sexual abuse and forced them to
listen to loud western music, according to statements seen by
the Guardian. Lawyers investigating the claims have sent
details to the Pentagon and the British Ministry of Defence
and have demanded an inquiry. Though the abuse of prisoners at
the Abu Ghraib jail and in Basra has been well-documented,
this is the first time claims of abuse have been made from the
north of the country. Two statements have been taken
from Iraqis detained in Mosul and more are expected. In
one, an Iraqi lawyer says he was hooded and stripped naked in
a building known as the "disco".
read more
Day
502:
Monday, September 13, 2004
US air attack on Falluja kills civilians
Al Jazeera
 |
|
The bombing
of the town has caused residents to flee |
US forces have launched air strikes on the Iraqi
town of Falluja, killing up to 18 people, including women, children
and an ambulance driver. Up to 29 others have been injured in
the strikes, which began at 4am (0100 GMT), on different parts of
the city, just west of Baghdad. Seven people, including the driver
of an ambulance, were killed when US aircraft fired a missile at the
vehicle while it was transporting casualties near the northern gate
of the city, Aljazeera has learnt. "Every time we send out an
ambulance, it gets targeted," Dr Rafea al-Isawi, director of Falluja
hospital, told Aljazeera. "How are we going to transfer
casualties? This is unreasonable. The US army has no ethics."
read more
Bush team 'knew of abuse' at Guantánamo
The
Guardian, Oliver Burkeman
 |
|
Torture-R-US |
Evidence of prisoner abuse and possible war
crimes at Guantánamo Bay reached the highest levels of the Bush
administration as early as autumn 2002, but Donald Rumsfeld, the
defence secretary, chose to do nothing about it, according to a new
investigation published exclusively in the Guardian today. The
investigation, by the veteran journalist Seymour Hersh, quotes one
former marine at the camp recalling sessions in which guards would
"fuck with [detainees] as much as we could"
read more
Day
501:
Sunday, September 12, 2004
US fires missiles at Baghdad crowd
Al Jazeera
 |
|
The casualties were all civilians, said an Iraqi journalist |
Up to
10 Iraqis have been killed and 35 others injured after US
helicopters fired missiles at a crowd in a central Baghdad street.
The attack, which also killed a Palestinian journalist, follows
fierce clashes which began when US military vehicles, firing stun
grenades, entered Haifa street in the centre of the capital at about
2am (1100 GMT) on Sunday, an Iraqi journalist told Aljazeera. A US
armoured vehicle was set ablaze and as a group of Iraqi men gathered
around the burning vehicle, US helicopters swooped in and fired
machine guns and missiles at the crowd, killing up to 10 Iraqis and
injuring 35 others. Twenty-eight year old Palestinian television
journalist, Mazin al-Tumaisi, was also killed and two photographers
wounded, when the US missiles struck.
read more
At Least 13 Killed in Baghdad Fighting
Associated Press,
Hamza Hendawi
 |
|
A man stands near
a burning U.S. Bradley Fighting Vehicle at Haifa Street in
Baghdad where fighting broke out on Sunday |
BAGHDAD, Iraq - Militants pounded central Baghdad on Sunday with one
of their most intense mortar barrages ever, targeting the Green Zone
and destroying a U.S. vehicle along a major street. At least 13
people were killed and 55 wounded — some of them when a U.S.
helicopter fired at crowds around the burning vehicle. Elsewhere, a
suicide attacker detonated an explosives-packed vehicle at the gates
of Abu Ghraib prison, killing himself but causing no other
casualties, the U.S. military said. American guards fired at the
vehicle before the driver could reach the gate, the military said.
Rockets and mortars began raining down before dawn on the Green
Zone, which houses Iraqi and U.S. offices, and other parts of
central Baghdad. As the shelling continued after sunrise, U.S.
troops backed by armored vehicles moved into the streets searching
for the attackers.
read more
Rumsfeld mixes up
Saddam and Osama
Dawn.com
 |
|
Saddama? Odam? All the same to Rummy? |
WASHINGTON, Sept 11: US Defence
Secretary Donald Rumsfeld mixed up Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden
and former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein twice in a speech on
Friday about the "war against terrorism". Critics accuse the Bush
administration of having concentrated on going after Saddam Hussein
at the expense of the hunt for Osama bin Laden. In a speech to the
National Press Club on the eve of the third anniversary of the Sept
11 attacks, Mr Rumsfeld began by saying the world just before the
attacks was not as serene as some people now suggest. "The leader of
the opposition Northern Alliance, Masood, lay dead, his murder
ordered by Saddam Hussein, by Osama bin Laden, Taliban's
co-conspirator," Mr Rumsfeld said. He was referring to Ahmad
Shah Masood, who was in opposition to the ruling Taliban in
Afghanistan and was killed allegedly by Al Qaeda two days before the
Sept 11 attacks. Later in response to a question, Mr Rumsfeld
again confused Saddam and Osama in a discourse about how U.S.
actions had made it more difficult for "terrorists" to operate.
"It's harder for them to travel between countries, it's harder for
them to communicate with each other, it's harder for them to raise
money, it's harder for them to transfer money, it's harder for them
to buy weapons, it's harder for them to do everything," Mr Rumsfeld
said. "Saddam Hussein, if he's alive, is spending a whale of a
lot of time trying to not get caught. And we've not seen him on a
video since 2001," Mr Rumsfeld said.
read more
Day
500:
Saturday, September 11, 2004
Scholars slam coalition for waging ‘genocide’ in Iraq
Sadr aide in Basra criticises Sistani for
silence
 |
|
The US is
training Iraqis to kill Iraqis: Is a full-scale civil war
imminent? |
Bahrain Tribune
Daily
TALL AFAR, Iraq: Top Sunni Muslim scholars slammed the US-led
coalition yesterday for waging “genocide” in Iraq, after US-led air
and ground assaults on insurgents in Tall Afar and Fallujah killed
at least 57 people. Meanwhile, Rome forged ahead with a
diplomatic mission to save two kidnapped aid workers after militants
loyal to Al Qaeda’s number two purportedly gave Italy 24 hours to
promise to release Muslim women prisoners in Iraq. As US-led
operations to rid Tall Afar of “terrorists” continued, Sheikh Abdel
Ghaffur Al Samarrai told worshippers the assault qualified as
genocide.“What have the residents of Fallujah and Tall Afar done to
deserve these atrocities? The occupation forces are committing
genocide,” he said. “They came to Iraq to kill, destroy and strip
its resources. Where is the UN Security Council?” asked the member
of Iraq’s exclusive Committee of Ulema. Calm hung over the northern
town, 75 kilometres from the Syrian border after a 13-hour air and
ground assault on Thursday that medics said left 45 people dead, and
the US military said killed up to 57 “terrorists”.
read more
Kuwaiti indictees claim they were tortured
Al Jazeera
 |
|
Kuwait is cracking down on groups opposed to foreign
troops |
A group of Kuwaiti Islamists have said they were made to confess to
plotting attacks on foreign forces under duress. The four
Kuwaitis said statements admitting plots to attack Iraq and Kuwait
were extracted under physical and mental torture. "We demand
that our interrogation be repeated since we were forced to say what
did not happen and things that we had nothing to do with," Hamad al-Harbi,
Muhammad al-Asfur, Ahmad al-Utaibi and Badr al-Utaibi said in a
joint statement in Kuwait City on Friday. The four men were
arrested in August on suspicion of being al- Qaida supporters and
running a local network of radical religious thought with the aim of
fighting US forces in Iraq and Kuwait. Kuwaiti officials were not
available for comment.
read more
Day
499:
Friday, September 10, 2004
Peace talks come
apart in Sadr City
Dawn.com, Peyman
Pejman
 |
|
Shia
militants are once more taking up arms against US forces |
BAGHDAD: The new outbreak of violence in Baghdad has shattered cease
fire talks between Shia militants and the Iraqi government.
Following a successful if fragile cease fire in the holy city Najaf
, it was hoped that talks in the impoverished Sadr City of Baghdad
would become a model for further negotiations between the government
and followers of the radical Shia cleric Moqtada al- Sadr.
read more
Day
498:
Thursday, September 9, 2004
US bombing kills more Falluja civilians
Al Jazeera
 |
|
US insists
air raids are precise while civilians continue to die |
US air strikes have
killed at least 12 Iraqi civilians in the town of Falluja in a third
successive night of bombing.
Speaking from the town's main hospital on Thursday, Dr Mushtaq Talib
said three women and five children were killed and another 15 were
injured. The victims, from just three families, were taking
shelter in a couple of houses that were completely destroyed during
the third successive night of air strikes, locals said. Families
living in the northern Nuwab al-Dhubat quarter were particularly
shaken after the attack after whole houses became holes in the
ground.
read more
Day
497:
Wednesday, September 8, 2004
 |
|
Shea
Micheal Dooley, 10 months, was born after her father,
Micheal Dooley, was killed in Iraq. Christine Dooley is
one of about two dozen women who were pregnant when their
soldier husbands died. |
Toll in Iraq war marks a grim milestone
Most of the 1,003 U.S. deaths came after
major combat was declared over
Associated Press
Jorge Rincon and his wife, Yolanda, lost their son Pfc. Diego
Fernando Rincon in a suicide bombing in Iraq in March 2003.
Military deaths in the Iraq war and past conflicts. Numbers include
those killed in action as well as non-hostile deaths during
operations.
-- Iraq War: 1,000 troop deaths, plus three deaths of civilian
employees of the Department of Defense, March 19, 2003, to Sept. 7,
2004.
-- Afghan war: 135 deaths from Oct. 7, 2001, through Sept. 3, 2004.
(Figure includes some related deaths outside Afghanistan.)
read more
Rumsfeld says Iran funding Iraq insurgency
Reuters
Money and people channeled from Iran fuel the insurgency in Iraq,
U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has said in an interview.
"They have put people in there. They have put money in there,"
Rumsfeld said in an interview with The Washington Times on
Wednesday. "By 'they,' I'm not going to say which element of the
government or whether it's even known to the government. But money
has come in from Iran. People have come in from Iran." He gave no
further details. Iran has denied previous charges of meddling in
Iraq. Rumsfeld said it was "a very difficult thing to stop" because
Iran has shown by its behaviour that it is "not part of the
civilised world." But he said other countries are not willing
to join in pressuring Tehran to change.
read more
US missiles rock Falluja
Al Jazeera
 |
|
Attacks
began late on Tuesday and continued on Wednesday |
Up to six Iraqis have been killed and 24 others
injured in US air strikes that have rocked the town of Falluja. In
the first attack late on Tuesday, US jets fired several missiles
into Falluja, killing four people and wounding 11 others. A Falluja
hospital spokesman said that a child and an elderly man were among
the dead. Fighting inside the city had also taken place.
read more
Day
496:
Tuesday, September 7, 2004
US death toll in Iraq nears 1,000
as seven more die
7 US Marines and 3 Iraqi Soldiers killed in
Fallujah
 |
|
1124
Coalition soldiers
have died in Iraq, 993 were Americans |
A car bomb killed seven US Marines and three
Iraqi soldiers outside the city of Fallujah yesterday, bringing the
total number of American dead since the US invasion of Iraq in March
last year close to 1,000. An apparent suicide bomber blew himself up
nine miles north of Fallujah, which has been controlled by Iraqi
insurgents for the past six months, destroying two Humvee vehicles.
The force of the explosion hurled the engine "a good distance" from
the blast site, a military official said.
read more
14 Palestinians killed IN ISRAELI STRIKES
Reuters, Nidal al-Mughrabi
 |
|
A wounded
Palestinian is carried to hospital after Israeli tanks
shelled a training camp for Hamas in Gaza. |
Israeli tanks, helicopters and warplanes have
pounded a Hamas training camp, killing 14 militants in the deadliest
attack in Gaza for nearly four months, as Israel struck back after a
double suicide bombing. A barrage of tank shells and missiles hit
the outskirts of the town of Shijaia, a stronghold of Hamas, the
Palestinian faction behind nearly simultaneous blasts that killed 16
people on two Israeli buses in Beersheba last Tuesday.
read more
WASHINGTON -- The new
Iraqi prime minister, trying to stave off attacks by anti-American
militants, has a long relationship with Washington as a trusted
intelligence source, former officials say. Ayad Allawi also
helped British intelligence gather information about Saddam
Hussein's regime during nearly three decades in exile. Once a member
of Saddam's Baath Party, Allawi later formed the Iraqi National
Accord to act as a conduit for defectors from, and sources in, the
former Iraqi government. Now Allawi heads the appointed Iraqi
interim government struggling to assert its authority and its
independence from the United States. Allawi has taken a hard line
against militants, threatening them with military action while
pressing for negotiations to have anti-government militias lay down
their arms.
The Iraqi prime minister
has said he's proud of his contacts with Washington and other
governments and claimed he worked with "at least 15" intelligence
agencies while in exile.
read more
Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry has called the invasion
of Iraq "the wrong war in the wrong place at the wrong time", saying
his goal is to withdraw US troops in his first White House term.
Under pressure from some Democrats to change the subject from
national security - regarded by many as President George Bush's
strongest issue - Kerry tried to focus exclusively on the economy
and other domestic topics at a neighbourhood meeting on Monday, but
supporters raised the Iraq subject. The Massachusetts senator,
who has said he would have voted to give Bush the authority to use
force if necessary against Iraq even if he had known at the time
that Saddam Hussein had no weapons of mass destruction, has
struggled to draw clear contrasts with the president. "I would not
have done just one thing differently than the president on Iraq, I
would have done everything differently
than the president on Iraq," he said.
read more
KIRKUK, Iraq -- A suicide
attacker detonated a car bomb Saturday outside a police academy in
the northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk as hundreds of trainees and
civilians were leaving for the day, killing at least 20 people and
wounding 36, authorities said. Separately, U.S and Iraqi
forces clashed with insurgents in another part of northern Iraq
after launching an operation to destroy an alleged militant cell in
the town of Tal Afar, the U.S. military said. At least nine people
were killed and 50 injured, hospital officials said. Ambulances
raced to the scene of the blast in Kirkuk, where a seven cars were
ablaze. Rescue personnel ferried the wounded away on stretchers.
Some waited for attention while sprawled on the building's steps.
"This is a terrorist act against members of Iraqi police who were
heading to their homes," said Kirkuk police Col. Sarhat Qadir.
read more
NEW YORK -- A year and a
half ago, Robert Sarra was a Marine sergeant in Iraq, where, he
says, he once fired his M-16 at a black-cloaked old woman who failed
to stop when she was told. Instead of a suicide bomb, the bundle she
carried to her death held only bread, tea, and a white flag.
From that day in a tiny town called Ash Shatra, Sarra says, he
journeyed through dark territory -- heavy drinking, violent
outbursts, therapy -- and finally from his temporary job in Chicago
to the Republican National Convention this week. It is in New York
that he embraced his new role -- peace activist. "I became opposed
to the war when I saw we had no point in what was going on over
there," said Sarra, 32, who spent nine years in the Marines and left
in April. "We are all trying to make sure that the next time the US
goes to war, it's for a good reason." The massive protest in
Manhattan on Sunday marked one of the first public appearances of a
new group called Iraq Veterans Against the War. Though it is still
small, numbering about 40, its members are taking tips from more
established veterans groups, and because of their war experience,
they seem likely to take a prominent role in debate about the Iraq
war. Almost unheard of before they caught the cameras' gaze
Sunday, the Iraq veterans are now juggling interview requests from
Fox News and MSNBC and GQ and Maxim magazines.
read more
FALLUJAH, Iraq -- A U.S.
airstrike late Wednesday targeted a suspected safehouse in Fallujah
used by followers of Jordanian militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, U.S.
officials said. The attack killed 17 people, including three
children, and wounded six, hospital officials and witnesses said.
Witnesses said the strike hit a residence in the southern
neighborhood of al-Jubail. People struggled to pull bodies from the
rubble, while ambulances and civilian cars took the dead and wounded
to the hospital. U.S. forces have repeatedly carried out
airstrikes in Fallujah, 40 miles west of Baghdad, since Marines
pulled back after a three-week siege of the city in April aimed at
rooting out Sunni Muslim insurgents. The U.S. military said in a
statement that the latest strike used a precision-guided weapon to
hit a safehouse used by al-Zarqawi's militants.
read more
"When America uses force in the world, the cause must be just, the
goal must be clear, and the victory must be overwhelming,'' said
George W. Bush in 2000, when accepting his party's nomination.
With 9/11 the cause was just … war on terrorism. The response
was to root out the Taliban and Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan. But
overwhelming victory remains elusive. The Taliban is still killing
Americans, and Osama Bin Laden lives to plan another 9/11. In
Iraq, a new goal: eliminate weapons of mass destruction the
administration insisted threatened America. But there were none.
Then the goals started shifting … get rid of Saddam. And then …
something far harder, far fuzzier … bring democracy to Iraq.
"That looks highly uncertain, at best,'' said Jessica Tuchman
Mathews, with the Carnegie Endowment For International Peace.
The price is being paid in blood - almost a thousand Americans dead,
nearly 7,000 wounded.
read more
