Tuesday, July 25, 2006
WAR NEWS FOR TUESDAY, JULY 25, 2006
“We got the force necessary to deal with the security situation.”
Four mortar bombs fell in the southern
The final death toll from an explosion and clashes which erupted between gunmen and the police on Monday on
One policeman was killed and three wounded when a roadside bomb went off near their patrol in the Zayouna district of the capital.
Gunmen killed a policeman in a drive-by shooting in southwestern
Five civilians were killed and four others were wounded Monday evening when mortar shells crashed into a southern
A Youth Ministry employee in
Monday afternoon gunmen shot a civilian in
In north
On Sunday gunmen killed one man in the
On Sunday a volley of mortars in western
On Sunday three policemen were killed in the Qadasiya neighborhood in western
On Sunday in Adhamiya, a Sunni neighborhood, four unidentified bodies were found in the
On Tuesday, two roadside bombs exploded in
A family of Shiite civilians who had been threatened by a sectarian death squad were ambushed by gunmen as they fled a mainly Sunni neighbourhood south of
Four civilians were shot dead around the capital, two of them in drive-by shootings, while the corpses of two tortured murder victims were also found by the roadside, police said.
Gunmen set fire to food ration stores run by the Ministry of Trade at midnight in
Three Iraqi soldiers were wounded when a roadside bomb went off near a joint Iraqi-U.S. patrol in
A policeman in
A suicide bomber targeted a police checkpoint in the southern city of
Taji
Three bodies, identified as Sunnis, were found behind a factory in Taji, all shot in the head.
Baquba
A former policeman was shot dead in Baquba.
The bodies of five people were found shot dead on Monday night in a village near Baquba after being abducted hours earlier.
On Sunday gunmen killed at least two people near the city of
Balad
A Multi-National Force statement announced that troops killed one insurgent and wounded and arrested two others Monday in Balad.
Falluja
The bodies of two people were found with gunshot wounds near Falluja.
Saqlawiya
The
Gunmen fired rocket propelled grenades at two fuel trucks, killing two drivers and abducting the third on the main road between
Daquq
Gunmen wounded four people working for a private Iraqi company which deals with the
Ishaqi
Gunmen killed a police officer while he headed to work in the town of
Diwaniya
Gunmen killed a former member of Saddam Hussein's ousted Baath party on Monday in the city of
Kut
On Monday, the city morgue in Kut, a mostly Shiite city southeast of
Ramadi
Gunmen killed four men selling construction materials in Ramadi.
On Monday the
Four civilians were killed during a clash between an American military patrol and gunmen in Ramadi.
On Sunday night, the mayor of Ramadi, Muhamed Ahmed Al-Dulami, was killed around 9 p.m. by a group of gunmen. Three policemen were also killed.
On Sunday near Ramadi gunmen attacked three trucks carrying fuel, killing the drivers.
Suwayra
On Sunday near Suwayra Iraqi police officers retrieved the bodies of seven people who had been handcuffed, blindfolded and shot in the head and chest.
Mussayib
On Sunday one person was killed when a mortar hit a house in Mussayib.
On Sunday an American soldier was killed “due to enemy action” in Anbar province.
Too little too late: The US is planning to deploy thousands of extra troops in the Iraqi capital,
US President George W Bush and Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Maliki are to meet at the White House to discuss details.
US officials said the extra troops would be sent from other areas of
They’re going to combat death squads? What are they going to do, attack the Interior Ministry?: American troops are stepping up operations in the
It’s Bin Laden’s fault!: What explains the persistent and spiraling sectarian strife? Now that Shiite death squads, which infiltrated Iraqi forces, are doing as much killing as their militant Sunni Arab counterparts, Sunni Arabs no longer have a monopoly on the insurgency. Both camps include powerful well-organized, militant forces that want a divorce, and not a unified, multiethnic state. By carrying out a campaign of systematic sectarian killings and redrawing the map of
It was widely assumed that Mr. Zarqawi's death would herald a shift in Al Qaeda's strategy, as it was also assumed that Zarqawi had acted against the will of his senior bosses, Osama bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri, in targeting Shiites and their religious shrines. Mr. bin Laden's recent rhetoric clearly shows otherwise. In an apparent, dramatic shift of strategy, bin Laden, in two audiotapes posted on an Al Qaeda website, called on Sunnis everywhere to punish the Shiites whom he referred to as "rejectionists," "traitors," and "agents of the Americans." Believing that Sunni Arabs are experiencing "annihilation," bin Laden warned
Designed to gain Al Qaeda new recruits and stature among Sunni Arabs, bin Laden's call complicates the efforts by Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki to end the sectarian bloodletting that is tearing the country apart.
No, it’s the Iraqi government’s fault!: Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's visit to Washington starting today comes as the mood about the war in the capital outside the Bush administration is increasingly somber and fearful that the Iraqi leader's new government has not acted forcefully enough to stem the growing insurgency and sectarian violence.
With midterm congressional elections just over three months away, with
(WTF? Now we’re calling a drawdown of US forces before November a metric? Gee, and here I thought it would just be a cheap ploy for electoral advantage...)
Well, whoever’s fault it is, let’s not tell Bubble Boy: I reported in May that despite the deteriorating situation in
The situation has gotten even darker since my initial story—a United Nations report cited in Wednesday's New York Times found that an average of more than 100 Iraqi civilians were killed each day in June—and I've learned from two sources that some senior figures at the CIA, along with a number of Iraq analysts, have been pushing to produce a new NIE. They've been stonewalled, however, by John Negroponte, the administration's Director of National Intelligence, who knows that any honest take on the situation would produce an NIE even more pessimistic than the 2004 version. That could create problems on the Hill and, if it is leaked as the last one was, with the public as well.
“What do you call the situation in
Or maybe Maliki can just tell him it’s not really happening:
President George W. Bush will hear the Iraqi prime minister, Nuri al-Maliki, in
But talk to people at random in the capital and a picture quickly emerges of a city where virtually everyone has a friend, relative or neighbour who has fallen victim to the sectarian shootings and death threats that
Every one of 20 people who spoke to Reuters around their workplace in central
The dispatch was a milestone in Japan's shift away from a purely defensive posture towards a bigger international role for the nation's military, no member of which has fired a shot in combat or been killed in an overseas mission since 1945.
But Wait – There’s Good News From Iraq!
They found something they can agree on!: Though embroiled in a bloody war over the future shape and identity of their country, Iraq's Sunni Arabs, Shiites, Kurds and even Christians have unified in condemning Israel over its fighting in Lebanon against the Hezbollah militia.
Condemnation of
Demonstrators loyal to radical Shiite Muslim cleric Muqtada Sadr marched through the city center of Najaf on Sunday evening in support of Hezbollah leader Sheik Hassan Nasrallah, chanting "Death to
Heck, they’re practically working together:
Both Sunni and Shiite Muslim insurgent groups have released Internet videos depicting "revenge" attacks on
"These operations are retaliation for the attacks by the Zionist forces on our brothers in
"If the [Israeli offensive] continues, the reverberations of the
The Professionals Who Didn’t Flee
Could get much worse: Najla Muhammad, 34, is a biologist who graduated from one of the best universities in the capital. Unfortunately, however, rising unemployment has forced her to seek work as a housekeeper in order to support her family.
"I didn't have a choice. My family was going to starve if I didn't find a better job," says Najla. "For years I worked in a scientific laboratory in
Najla now works as a housekeeper to make ends meet, receiving between US $100 and US $120 dollars a month. Her husband, meanwhile, holds a degree in economics but has been unemployed for nearly a year and has few prospects for work.
National unemployment figures have risen ever since the occupation of the country by US-led forces three years ago. Local NGOs say this has led to increasing numbers of female professionals being driven to search for work as domestic servants.
"In most cases, they seek work as housekeepers," says Mayada Zuhair, vice-president of the Women's Rights Association of
American Values
What have they become?: The torture of prisoners in
Soldiers' accounts show that detainees routinely faced severe beatings, sleep deprivation and other abuses for much of 2003-2005, Human Rights Watch says.
Soldiers who tried to complain about the abuse were rebuffed or ignored.
But a Pentagon spokesman said 12 reviews had found there was no policy condoning or encouraging abuse.
What they should be: "Simply put, I am wholeheartedly opposed to the continued war in
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Commentary
NY Times Editorial: People who have seen “The War Tapes,” a documentary film focused on three National Guardsmen serving in Iraq, will remember them grousing at the assignment of riding shotgun on Halliburton’s lucrative supply convoys, then complaining later in the mess hall about the obvious overpricing of Halliburton chow-line utensils. The Pentagon, on the other hand, has insisted that stories of the $45 cases of soda, double-billed meals and $100 bags of laundry are largely myth and that Halliburton has done far better than a heckuva job. And a company official described its work in
Yet now it turns out that military brass have been quietly making plans to end Halliburton’s regal status as the single contractor of so much. The Pentagon’s new plan is to split the work among three companies to be chosen by competitive bidding. And for good measure they’ll pick a fourth to keep an eye on the other three, according to The Washington Post. The reasons for the change were described by an Army official as the search for better prices, more accountability and protection against having all the logistical eggs in one basket. This strangely echoes what critics of the Halliburton deal have been saying for the last four years.
Casualty Reports
A Marine from
A Cedarburg man says his son -- a Wisconsin National Guard member in