DAILY WAR NEWS FOR WEDNESDAY, January 31, 2007
Photo: U.S. Army Pfc. Christopher Stafford, 21, from Atlanta, Ga. stands guard over women whose relative was found with a grenade during a foot patrol with Delta Company, 4th Battalion, 31st Infantry Regiment near Youssifiyah, 12 miles (20 kilometers) south of Baghdad, Iraq Wednesday, Jan. 31, 2007. (AP Photo/Maya Alleruzzo)
Bring 'em on: The U.S. army said on Wednesday three servicemen were killed of wounds sustained from hostilities in the restive Iraqi province of Anbar. "Two U.S. soldiers and a Marine were killed of wounds sustained from hostile acts on Jan.30 in al Anbar province," the U.S. army said in a statement received by the independent news agency Voices of Iraq (VOI).
Bring 'em on: A Task Force Lightning soldier died and another was wounded while conducting combat operations in the mainly Sunni Salahuddin province north of Baghdad, according to a military statement
OTHER SECURITY INCIDENTS
Baghdad:
Two people were killed and ten others were wounded when a car bomb was detonated near a bakery at al-Amin neighborhood in southeast of Baghdad.
Unknown gunmen in a car opened fire at people who were walking in a main road at al-Sulaigh neighborhood in eastern Baghdad killing ten.
A car bomb went off in al-Jumhoriyah street in central Baghdad killing a civilian and wounding three others.
Three university professors and a student kidnapped in Baghdad on Sunday have been killed, Adnan al-Janabi, the head of al-Nahrain university, told Reuters. He said police had informed the university that their bodies were in the Baghdad morgue.
Ten mortar rounds landed in different parts of Adhamiya district in northern Baghdad, killing four people and wounding 20, police said.
A car bomb killed two people and wounded eight in Bab al-Muadham area in central Baghdad.
A car bomb wounded two people in al-Maamoun district in central Baghdad.
A car bomb killed one person and wounded six people in New Baghdad district.
Police found the bodies of eight people in various parts of Baghdad in the 24 hours to Tuesday evening.
al-Muqdadiyah:
A suicide bomber blew himself up inside an Iraqi army barrack in al-Muqdadiyah district, 80 km northeast of Baghdad, killing one soldier and wounding ten others.
Kirkuk:
An attack targeted an Iraqi army vehicle patrol in the northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk, a security source said and added "one soldier was killed and three others were wounded in the attack."
An Iraqi police force, backed the Multi-National forces, detained six suspects during a search campaign in west of Kirkuk.
A roadside bomb killed one person and wounded two people in Kirkuk.
The leader of the Iraqi Turkmen Front, the largest political party in Kirkuk, escaped unharmed from a roadside bomb attack on Tuesday near Kirkuk.
Mosul:
A car bomb was detonated near the trade unions headquarters in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul killing one policeman and wounding four others.
The body of a man who had been decapitated was found in Mosul.
Tal Afar:
A car bomb aimed at an Iraqi army patrol wounded 10 civilians in Tal Afar, 420 km (260 miles) north of Baghdad.
Baiji:
A roadside bomb targeting a police patrol wounded six policemen in Baiji, 180 km (112 miles) north of Baghdad.
Police found the bodies of two people with bullet wounds to the head in Baiji.
Gunmen killed a policeman late on Tuesday in Baiji.
Mahmudiya:
A U.S. helicopter killed two insurgents in an attack on four men trying to plant a roadside bomb in Mahmudiya, 30 km (20 miles) south of Baghdad, the U.S. military said. Residents said the air strike targeted Shi'ite followers of cleric Moqtada al-Sadr marking the Ashura ritual.
Falluja:
The bodies of six people shot in the head and chest were found in Falluja, 50 km (35 miles) west of Baghdad.
Gunmen killed a teenager in the city of Falluja.
Miqdadiya:
A suicide bomber in a fuel truck rammed the main gate of an Iraqi army base in Miqdadiya, 90 km (50 miles) northeast of Baghdad, wounding nine soldiers.
In Country:
The Iraqi army killed 210 insurgents and arrested 342 in the past two days in various parts of Iraq, the Defence Ministry said.
>> NEWS
Iraq's defense ministry said 263 militants from an obscure Shi'ite cult were killed and more than 500 arrested on Sunday in one of the largest battles since the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003.
Ministry spokesman Mohammed al-Askari said Iraqi security forces arrested 502 people including 210 who had been wounded in the battle near the holy Shi'ite city of Najaf.
The government said the leader of the group, who claimed to be the Mahdi, a messiah-like figure in Islam, was killed. They said his "Soldiers of Heaven" had planned to assassinate top Shi'ite clerics and had to be stopped.
Television footage shot on Monday and obtained by Reuters on Tuesday showed dozens of bodies laying in what appeared to be a dry and unused irrigation canal that the fighters appeared to have used as a trench.
Dozens of bullet casings and an empty Kalashnikov magazine lay at the side of a man's body. The man was dressed in a blue jacket and civilian clothes.
The footage also showed the bodies of several women and children who appeared to be indoors.
Maliki has said his country only needs a slight increase in the number of US troops in Iraq to help quell violence there.
"We believe that the existing number, with a slight addition, will do the job, but if there seems to be more need, we will ask for more troops," Maliki told CNN television Wednesday, speaking through an interpreter. He did not specify a number.
The US may have to lower expectations for Iraq as it embarks on a new war plan, a senior American military official has said.
William Fallon, George Bush's choice to become the most senior US military commander for the Middle East, told the senate armed services committee: "What we've been doing is not working."
His statement echoed that of other senior US government and military officials in recent months who have also said the US is not winning in Iraq.
Democratic leaders agreed to Bush's idea for a new bipartisan panel to advise him on the fight against terrorism and the Iraq war, days after rejecting such a commission.
>> REPORTS
Bullets and bombs are killing thousands of civilians every month in Iraq while
the psychological impact of the ongoing violence is affecting the mental health of millions and is a major cause for concern for future generations, psychologists say.
In a privately funded study entitled 'Psychological effects of war on Iraqis', the Association of Iraqi Psychologists (AIP) said out of 2,000 people interviewed in all 18 Iraqi provinces, 92 percent said they feared being killed in an explosion.
Some 60 percent of those interviewed said the level of violence had caused them to have panic attacks, which prevented them from going out because they feared they would be the next victims.
Major U.S. companies with multimillion-dollar contracts for Iraq reconstruction are being forced to devote 12.5 percent of their expenses for security due to spiraling violence in the region, investigators said Wednesday.
Meanwhile, tens of millions of U.S. dollars have been wasted elsewhere in Iraq reconstruction aid, some of it on an Olympic-size swimming pool ordered up by Iraqi officials for a police academy that has yet to be used.
The quarterly audit by Stuart Bowen Jr., the special inspector general for Iraq reconstruction, is the latest to paint a grim picture of waste, fraud and frustration in an Iraq war and reconstruction effort that has cost U.S. taxpayers more than $300 billion and left the region near civil war.
Information Clearinghouse: WINNING HEARTS AND MINDS
3 Minute Video
The arrogance of power: U.S. occupation troops show complete disregard for either the lives or property of the Iraqi people
link
>> COMMENTARY AND ANALYSIS
Patrick Cockburn: US 'VICTORY' AGAINST CULT LEADER WAS 'MASSACRE'
There are growing suspicions in Iraq that the official story of the battle outside Najaf between a messianic Iraqi cult and the Iraqi security forces supported by the US, in which 263 people were killed and 210 wounded, is a fabrication. The heavy casualties may be evidence of an unpremeditated massacre.
A picture is beginning to emerge of a clash between an Iraqi Shia tribe on a pilgrimage to Najaf and an Iraqi army checkpoint that led the US to intervene with devastating effect. The involvement of Ahmed al-Hassani (also known as Abu Kamar), who believed himself to be the coming Mahdi, or Messiah, appears to have been accidental.
The story emerging on independent Iraqi websites and in Arabic newspapers is entirely different from the government's account of the battle with the so-called "Soldiers of Heaven", planning a raid on Najaf to kill Shia religious leaders.
The cult denied it was involved in the fighting, saying it was a peaceful movement. The incident reportedly began when a procession of 200 pilgrims was on its way, on foot, to celebrate Ashura in Najaf. They came from the Hawatim tribe, which lives between Najaf and Diwaniyah to the south, and arrived in the Zarga area, one mile from Najaf at about 6am on Sunday. Heading the procession was the chief of the tribe, Hajj Sa'ad Sa'ad Nayif al-Hatemi, and his wife driving in their 1982 Super Toyota sedan because they could not walk. When they reached an Iraqi army checkpoint it opened fire, killing Mr Hatemi, his wife and his driver, Jabar Ridha al-Hatemi. The tribe, fully armed because they were travelling at night, then assaulted the checkpoint to avenge their fallen chief.
Members of another tribe called Khaza'il living in Zarga tried to stop the fighting but they themselves came under fire. Meanwhile, the soldiers and police at the checkpoint called up their commanders saying they were under attack from al-Qai'da with advanced weapons. Reinforcements poured into the area and surrounded the Hawatim tribe in the nearby orchards. The tribesmen tried - in vain - to get their attackers to cease fire.
American helicopters then arrived and dropped leaflets saying: "To the terrorists, surrender before we bomb the area." The tribesmen went on firing and a US helicopter was hit and crashed killing two crewmen. The tribesmen say they do not know if they hit it or if it was brought down by friendly fire. The US aircraft launched an intense aerial bombardment in which 120 tribesmen and local residents were killed by 4am on Monday.
The messianic group led by Ahmad al-Hassani, which was already at odds with the Iraqi authorities in Najaf, was drawn into the fighting because it was based in Zarga and its presence provided a convenient excuse for what was in effect a massacre. The Hawatim and Khaza'il tribes are opposed to the Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI) and the Dawa Party, who both control Najaf and make up the core of the Baghdad government.
This account cannot be substantiated and is drawn from the Healing Iraq website and the authoritative Baghdad daily
Azzaman. But it would explain the disparity between the government casualties - less than 25 by one account - and the great number of their opponents killed and wounded. The Iraqi authorities have sealed the site and are not letting reporters talk to the wounded.
read in full...
Blah3: WHAT REALLY HAPPENED AT NAJAF?
This "apocalyptic cult" story with Sunnis and Shiites banning together in some death raid has been hard to understand, but then a lot of what's going on over there is baffling. But apparently some Iraqi news sites are suggesting a very different narrative:
The cult denied it was involved in the fighting, saying it was a peaceful movement. The incident reportedly began when a procession of 200 pilgrims was on its way, on foot, to celebrate Ashura in Najaf. They came from the Hawatim tribe, which lives between Najaf and Diwaniyah to the south, and arrived in the Zarga area, one mile from Najaf at about 6am on Sunday. Heading the procession was the chief of the tribe, Hajj Sa'ad Sa'ad Nayif al-Hatemi, and his wife driving in their 1982 Super Toyota sedan because they could not walk. When they reached an Iraqi army checkpoint it opened fire, killing Mr Hatemi, his wife and his driver, Jabar Ridha al-Hatemi. The tribe, fully armed because they were travelling at night, then assaulted the checkpoint to avenge their fallen chief.
Members of another tribe called Khaza'il living in Zarga tried to stop the fighting but they themselves came under fire. Meanwhile, the soldiers and police at the checkpoint called up their commanders saying they were under attack from al-Qai'da with advanced weapons. Reinforcements poured into the area and surrounded the Hawatim tribe in the nearby orchards. The tribesmen tried - in vain - to get their attackers to cease fire. [....]
This account cannot be substantiated and is drawn from the Healing Iraq website and the authoritative Baghdad daily Azzaman. But it would explain the disparity between the government casualties - less than 25 by one account - and the great number of their opponents killed and wounded. The Iraqi authorities have sealed the site and are not letting reporters talk to the wounded.
Yeah, it's that last bit that's troubling. No, this can't be substantiated and deserves a dose of scepticism. But if the Iraqi army called in the Americans because they were being "overwhelmed," why so few casualties on their side? Why deny reporters access to the site and the wounded? It'll be interesting to see where this goes.
Update: Evidently the battle site has been visited by some reporters, who come away with a version that supports the official story, at least in part. Make what you will of the two versions--I need more info on this myself.
read in full...
Free Iraq: THE MASSACRE OF NAJAF
An email from a friend:
"What is certain from the information we have (see the different 'official' versions of this massacre then scroll to under the two pictures for the eye-witness story) is that processions of Arab shiite tribes were walking (as part of the Ashoora tradition) to Najaf: The Hawatim and The Khazael. Both tribes are known for their Arab national and patriotic positions. Khazael for example had played an important role in supporting Iraq's position toward Palastine in 1948.
Had they the intention to attack the Hawza symbols in Najaf? I cannot be affirmative but there is a story from inside iraq saying that they have demanded that all Iranians in the Hawza are to leave Najaf.
Were they Mahdists? This may be a simple propaganda to isolate them among other shiites and in the eyes of the outside world.
In any event, this massacre is of great significance.
First: There were many indications and information that the Hakim-Maliki-Sistani alliance is becoming very isolated among the Arab shiite tribes and cities throught central and southern Iraq. For a while, Saddr (in Arabic) was an alternative but since he participated in the elections, returned recently to rejoin the parliment after demanding a scheduled withdrawal of occupation forces while his followers participate in wide spread attacks against the sunnis, he is losing his influence among Iraqi shiites. Iraqi nationalism is stronger than sectarianism.
Secondly: The use of lethal force by the Americans, like what they did in in Falluja, against important Arab tribes will spread the anti American anti Iranian resistance. The myth of the shiites being united behind Sistani is finished. More and more of Arab shiites will join the resistance.
The occupation and its puppets have nothing to the Iraqi people but blood, death, lies and destruction.
Abdul Ilah Albayaty" January 31, 2007
Questions d0 come to mind? How can more than 300 'terrorists' remain hidden in a field near Najaf for so long, and are then suddenly discovered and obliterated? If they are claimed to be such well-trained militants, how come the Iraqi police and military casualties are so low in comparison with near 260 dead 'terrorists'?
read in full...
Left I on the News: I WAS WRONG
When hundreds of alleged members of the "Soldiers of Heaven" were killed near Najaf in Iraq yesterday, the press was filled with reports about how this was an action of the Iraqi army. In a comment yesterday morning on another blog, I wrote this:
Here's what else you're supposed to believe - that it was the Iraqis who did all the killing, with just minor American "support." My money's on the fact that 90% of the dead were killed by American helicopter gunships.
Alas, I was wrong. 90% of the dead appear not to have been killed by American helicopter gunships. They were killed by F-16s and British fighter jets dropping 500-pound bombs (as well as some Apache attack helicopters).
That's why I try to stay away from predictions, it's so easy to be wrong. ;-)
Undaunted, however, I'll make another prediction. American news media will continue to report uncritically every claim of the U.S. military, until such time, if any, when a particular claim becomes completely untenable.
link
Another Day in the Empire: IRAN BLAME GAME SHIFTS INTO HIGH GEAR
As expected, the attack Iran hype has slipped into overdrive.
"The Pentagon is investigating whether an attack on a military compound in Karbala on January 20 was carried out by Iranians or Iranian-trained operatives, a U.S. official told CNN on Tuesday.... Some Iraqis speculate that the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps carried out the attack in retaliation for the capture by U.S. forces of five of its members in Irbil, Iraq, on January 11, according to a Time.com article published Tuesday."
In other words, CNN, as a faithful propaganda handmaiden, is speculating, thus adding fuel to the attack Iran fire now smoldering, ready to break out into a five alarm conflagration, as planned, with the appropriate admixture of irresponsible speculation, as usual backed up with little more than thin air.
"Some Iraqis speculate that the IRGC has already started a campaign of revenge with the killing of five American soldiers in Karbala on Jan. 20, nine days after the arrest of the IRGC [Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.] members in Erbil. As the logic of the rumor goes, five American soldiers were killed for five Iranians taken; [the attack at the Provincial Joint Coordination Center in] Karbala was an IRGC message to release its colleagues-or else," writes Robert Baer for
Time Magazine, basing his story on rumor and hearsay, a common enough modus operandi for corporate journalists these days. "There is nothing the IRGC likes better than to fight a proxy war in another country," never mind this would play right into the hands of the neocons, thus providing yet another pretext for an ultimate attack, as long planned.
read in full...
>> BEYOND IRAQ
Information Clearinghouse: US PLANS TO 'FIGHT THE NET' REVEALED
Bloggers beware.
As the world turns networked, the Pentagon is calculating the military opportunities that computer networks, wireless technologies and the modern media offer.
From influencing public opinion through new media to designing "computer network attack" weapons, the US military is learning to fight an electronic war.
The declassified document is called
"Information Operations Roadmap" [PDF File]. It was obtained by the National Security Archive at George Washington University using the Freedom of Information Act.
Officials in the Pentagon wrote it in 2003. The Secretary of Defense, Donald Rumsfeld, signed it.
The "roadmap" calls for a far-reaching overhaul of the military's ability to conduct information operations and electronic warfare. And, in some detail, it makes recommendations for how the US armed forces should think about this new, virtual warfare.
The document says that information is "critical to military success". Computer and telecommunications networks are of vital operational importance. (...)
When it describes plans for electronic warfare, or EW, the document takes on an extraordinary tone.
It seems to see the internet as being equivalent to an enemy weapons system.
"Strategy should be based on the premise that the Department [of Defense] will 'fight the net' as it would an enemy weapons system," it reads.
The slogan "fight the net" appears several times throughout the roadmap.
read in full...
QUOTE OF THE DAY: "President George W. Bush's invasion of Iraq is the greatest crime of the 21st century."
-- Paul Craig Roberts in The Failure of America as a Moral Force
# posted by Anonymous : 1/31/2007 11:36:00 AM
