Today in Iraq

Thursday, January 26, 2006 War News for Thursday, January 26, 2006 Bring 'em on: Baghdad Soldier was killed and another Soldier was wounded when terrorists detonated a roadside bomb south of Baghdad Jan. 25. Bring 'em on: North of Baghdad, three Iraqi soldiers were killed and four wounded by another roadside bomb on Wednesday afternoon Bring 'em on: On Wednesday five Iraqi soldiers were killed and two wounded in a roadside bomb attack in Samarra, north of Baghdad. Bring 'em on: in Balad Ruz, Iraqi police also found the bodies of two men and one woman Tuesday, the official said. All had been shot Bring 'em on: In Baquba, to the northeast, gunmen killed two police officers and an employee of the Water Resource Ministry in separate attacks Tuesday Bring 'em on: a well-known Iraqi TV presenter described how she jumped off her second-floor balcony Tuesday in southeastern Baghdad to escape five masked gunmen trying to kidnap her and her husband. Nagham Abdul-Zahra spoke from her hospital bed where she is recovering from multiple fractures. Bring 'em on: Using mortars and light machineguns, unidentified gunmen attacked two government buildings where American troops were present in central Ramadi city earlier today, eyewitnesses said, American troops fought back. American helicopters and artillery were called in to assist. Medical sources in Ramadi hospital said three Iraqis were killed and four others injured. A week from the forgotten battlefield: Critical shortages of doctors, nurses and other medical staff mean the Canadian army and its allies in Afghanistan are being forced to rely on each other in emergencies like Sunday's suicide bomb attack, Forces doctors say. Pte William Edward Salikin and Cpl. Jeffrey Bailey suffered head injuries in the roadside bombing. Doctors are attempting to reduce the pressure on Salikin's and Bailey's brains. It's uncertain if the men have suffered permanent damage. CTV's Matt McClure, reporting from Kandahar, said a car packed with artillery shells and explosives was discovered Thursday about three kilometres from the Canadian base. The security situation in Afghanistan has taken a turn for the worse in the past year, according to a team of foreign policy and terrorism experts recently returned from a fact-finding mission there. Tactics employed by insurgents in Iraq, including roadside bombs and suicide bombers, appear to have migrated to Afghanistan and threaten to derail what has been one of the few bright spots in the four-year war on terror, the experts said Jan. 19 during a panel discussion at The Brookings Institution. Pakistan's president told a senior U.S. official on Saturday that the airstrike on a Pakistani village last week cannot be repeated, a foreign ministry official said. Gap between rich and poor widens in Afghanistan. Some buy watches for $4,000, others heat homes with dung. Afghan security forces have been ordered to step up operations against militants amid an unprecedented spate of suicide attacks and fighting that has killed 14 insurgents and 2 soldiers in the last month, the Defense Ministry said Sunday. Suspected Taliban militants attacked the staff of the American security firm USPI (U.S. Protection and Investigations) and snatched their vehicle in the troubled southern Helmand province on Sunday, a local official said. A helicopter used by the Red Cross for earthquake relief operations in Pakistan has gone missing with seven crew members on board, an official said Sunday. Several aircraft from NATO and coalition forces in Afghanistan are searching for a helicopter chartered by the Red Cross that has been missing for two days with seven crew on board. A bomb exploded just feet away from a Canadian military convoy in Afghanistan Monday morning, but no soldiers were injured, a Canadian military officer said. Seven Taliban rebels have escaped from Afghanistan's main high-security prison, officials said Tuesday. Afghan security forces arrested two suspected suicide bombers wearing vests packed with explosives on Wednesday Militants dropped a hand grenade on Tuesday night in front of the Indian consulate in Afghanistan's southern province of Kandahar but there were no casualties, a local official said on Wednesday. Finnish peacekeepers were fired upon in Afghanistan on Wednesday. According to information received by the Finnish defence administration, the seven-man patrol is unhurt. The event occurred north of Maimana in the Kunda Sang region at around noon local time. Here's what I could dig up on what's left of the "coalition of the willing" Albania--One Albanian commando company Armenia--46-strong contingent Australia--By 25 February 2003, over 2000 ADF personnel Azerbaijan--one peacekeeping infantry company Belgium--One C-130 made available in the frame of the United Nations World Food Program Bulgaria--120-member contingent Canada--some support Czeck Republic--251 personnel deployed to Camp Doha, Kuwait Denmark--battalion comprises in total approximately 500 soldiers--and support Djibouti--? Estonia--39 soldiers Finland--five police officers as instructors to the Iraqi police training center in Jordan. Great Britain--Some 10,000 Italy--2,600 troops Japan--some 600 troops Kazakhstan--?--a few Kuwait--support only Latvia--135 soldiers Lithuania--120 Macedonia--34 Mongolia--131 infantrymen Netherlands--1265 plus support Norway--support only Poland--about 1500 Korea--2,300 from 3,200 some time soon Romania--about 800 Saudi Arabia--support only Slovak Republic--a few for mine-clearing operations. Solvenia--5 5 police instructors based in Jordan Tajikistan--? perhaps a few Tonga few 36? Moldova--contingent of twelve soldiers Slovenia--four soldiers to the NATO Training Mission in Iraq-- Future unspecified date OIL: Syria, Iran to launch joint projects on oil, transport: Syria and Iran have agreed to launch joint projects in oil and land and air transport, the official Syria Times newspaper reported on Friday. Web post urges jihadists to attack Alaska pipeline: A recent posting on a Web site purportedly affiliated with al-Qaida urges attacks against the trans-Alaska oil pipeline and Valdez tanker dock, calling on jihadists to either shower the pipe with bullets or hide and detonate explosives along its length. The unknown author encourages small cells of four or five mujahedeen, or Muslim guerrillas, living in the United States or in Canada or Mexico to mount the attacks. The 10-page posting includes numerous links to Web sites providing maps and other basic information about the pipeline. Nigerian militants to resume oil attacks shortly: Oil unions threatened to withdraw from Nigeria's delta on Friday if security worsens as militants hardened their rhetoric, vowing to resume their attacks and execute three hostages if another one dies. The militants, whose violent campaign has driven oil prices to a four month high, are demanding the release of two Ijaw ethnic leaders, compensation for oil pollution and more local control over the delta's enormous oil wealth. The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta said they would not stop their raids, which have crippled a tenth of Nigeria's oil production, even if Shell pays the $1.5 billion they say it owes villages in the delta for years of pollution. Explosions Hit Gas Pipelines in Russia: The blasts, which hit two pipelines in the southern Russian region of North Ossetia near the border with Georgia, also cut supplies to Armenia, said Viktor Beltsov, a spokesman for Russia's Emergency Situations Ministry. U.S. construction workers in Iraq have completed a stretch of pipeline deemed the country's most critical piece of oil infrastructure. A U.S. airstrike inadvertently damaged crucial pipelines running beneath the Al Fatha bridge. The crossing connects the oil fields of Kirkuk to Baiji, Iraq's largest refinery. It is also the gateway to a 600-mile pipeline that carries crude to Turkey, the Boston Globe reported. Success is elusive in Iraq's oil fields: After two years of cost overruns and attacks, American construction workers in Iraq are finally completing a stretch of pipeline deemed the country's most critical piece of oil infrastructure. Three years after Bush administration officials predicted that oil revenues would fund the country's reconstruction, the industry is in turmoil. Attacks that knocked out pipelines in the north have combined with bad weather in the south to drive Iraq's oil exports last month to their lowest level since September 2003, in the aftermath of the US-led invasion. The oil industry, which accounts for about 60 percent of Iraq's gross national product and more than 90 percent of government revenue, has been hit with nearly 300 major attacks since 2003, according to Iraq Pipeline Watch, an arm of the Institute for the Analysis of Global Security, a Washington-based energy think tank. In July, Iraqi government officials estimated that the attacks had cost the fledgling government $11 billion in lost revenue. Iraq's Oil Shock: We know that the Bush administration was flat wrong about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. And now, nearly three years after the beginning of the war, it's also clear that top Bush officials were just as delusional about Iraq's energy business and how critical the energy sector would be to achieving security and stability in Iraq. Continuing failure with this vital part of the reconstruction is costing the United States -- and the Iraqi people -- very dearly. During the run-up to the war, the Bush administration denied that oil was a factor in its desire to oust Saddam Hussein from power: Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, during a November 2002 interview with CBS News' Steve Kroft, declared that the approaching U.S. invasion had "nothing to do with oil, literally nothing to do with oil." But four months later, as U.S. troops seized Iraq's oil infrastructure and closed in on Baghdad, then-Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz (now the president of the World Bank) made it clear that Iraq's oil was going to save American taxpayers a lot of money. Wolfowitz told Congress on March 27, 2003, that the U.S. was "dealing with a country that can really finance its own reconstruction, and relatively soon." He added that Iraq's oil revenues could "bring between $50 billion and $100 billion over the course of the next two or three years." Nine killed in oil company attack: Officials of the Italian oil company Eni SpA said an armed assault on its offices left nine people dead Tuesday in Nigeria's petroleum-rich south, where four foreign oil workers also are being held hostage. Recent attacks and sabotage in the Niger Delta region have helped drive up international crude prices, although the Italian company said there was no evidence the latest violence was linked to those incidents. War News: New generation engine air particle separator from CGTM is selected by the Royal Danish Air Force: A first order of five filters was launched in November 2005 and after two months of successful operational use, the RDAF has decided to adopt this system for installation in the rest of its AS550C2 Fennec fleet fitted with the Arriel 1D1, 12 machines in all. "The system has significantly improved the single engine reliability in a very hostile environment. I can say for sure that Royal Danish Air Force has been very satisfied with the support and engagement we have seen from CGTM”, tells Lau M Andersen, Technical Manager AS 550 at the Royal Danish Air Force. As a result of the success of this new product, CGTM has now established a distribution network for the new filter. Useful contacts have already been established with the Meravo Helicopters Company, who became customer and distributor of the filter for Germany, and the Michael Savbäck Company, distributor for Sweden. In these countries the filter is of particular interest to operators engaged in lime spraying operations for the treatment of forests affected by acid rain. Politics: Suspected Iraqi agent’s home searched: The government paid for a trip to Disney World for an Indiana truck driver suspected of trying to sell information to Saddam Hussein’s Iraqi government so the FBI could secretly search his home. Testimony during Shaaban Hafiz Ahmad Ali Shaaban’s trial Thursday recounted how FBI agents searched his home after a federal magistrate authorized an undisclosed search under the Patriot Act. Casualty Reports: Legion of merit: Salisbury Firefighter Posthumously Awarded Silver Star: A trained paramedic with the Salisbury Fire Department, according to a narrative accompanying the honor, McMullen "saved the life of Sgt. (Randal) Divel by moving him away from a burning vehicle, extinguishing the flames on his body and protecting him when a second IED (improvised explosive device) went off," according to the Army's narrative of the incident. Killed: Chief Warrant Officer 3 Rex “Chris” Kenyon Chief Warrant Officer 2 Ruel Garcia Army soldier Katherine P. Singleton Staff Sgt. Rickey Scott Sgt. Dennis Flanagan Sgt. Clifton Yazzie Spc. Matthew C. Frantz Marine Lance Cpl. Brandon Dewey Cpl. Carlos Arrelanopandura Technical Sgt. Jason L. Norton Staff Sgt. Brian McElroy Sgt. Matthew D. Hunter Private Lewis Calapini Lance Corporal Joshua Scott Stephen Enright (civilian) Rick Hickman (civilian) Roland Barvels (civilian) Samuel E. Parlin Jr (civilian) Wounded: Capt. Furat--12 bullets--paralyzed from the waist down, a bullet-shattered arm Jesus Bocanegra--PTSD--head-splitting flashbacks, paralyzing panic attacks and painfully vivid nightmares Christopher Shelhamer--shot--went through his stomach, lost a kidney Jeff Gavett--roadside bomb--facial injuries, extensive damage done to one of his hands. Sgt. Eddie Ryan--friendly fire--shot in the head twice, one to the brain and one to the jaw Travis Greene--explosion--lost both of his legs, acute respiratory distress syndrome Jason Poole--roadside bomb--is blind in his left eye, deaf in his left ear, weak on his right side and still getting used to his new face, which was rebuilt with skin and bone grafts and 75 to 100 titanium screws and plates. Damarcus Wilson--shrapnel--in a coma and paralyzed on his left side for two and a half weeks, brain was swelling very badly, and they said he had had several strokes