down with murder inc

U.S. air strike kills 40 in Iraq
Monday 31st October, 2005 (UPI)
A pre-dawn U.S. air strike on two houses in western Iraq Monday killed more than 40 people, many of them civilians.
The attack targeted an al-Qaida cell leader in the town of Karabilah, on the border with Syria, the BBC said.
U.S. military officials said it was a precision strike designed to avoid civilian casualties, but doctors at a hospital in nearby Qaim said the dead included women and children.
The al-Arabiya news agency said a further 20 people were injured in the attacks, and said U.S. soldiers had arrested 49 terrorists during raids over the weekend.
In other violence, Baghdad police reported that two mortar rounds hit a major junction near Iraq's oil ministry, killing a civilian and wounding four others.
In the town of Bani Saad, 35 miles northeast of Baghdad, two mortar rounds hit an Iraqi army base, killing two soldiers and wounding seven, police said.
- bignewsnetwork

Roadside bombings claim lives of 8 U.S. soldiers in Iraq
Tuesday 1st November, 2005 - The U.S. military says eight American soldiers have been killed in Iraq in separate roadside bombings.
Four U.S. soldiers from Task Force Baghdad were killed Monday when their vehicle struck a roadside bomb in the Yusufiyah district, southwest of Baghdad, military officials reported.
Another roadside bomb killed two 29th Brigade Combat Team soldiers Monday while they were on a patrol north of Logistics Support Area Anaconda, officials said.
Elsewhere, a U.S. Marine died when his vehicle struck a roadside bomb near Amiriyah on Sunday. The Marine was assigned to the 2nd Force Service Support Group (Forward), 2nd Marine Expeditionary Force (Forward).
Another Marine died when his vehicle hit a roadside bomb during combat operations near Nasser Wa Salaam on Saturday. He was Sgt. Michael P. Hodshire, 25, of North Adams, Mich., He was assigned to 2nd Battalion, 2nd Marine Regiment, 2nd Marine Division, II Marine Expeditionary Force, Camp Lejeune, N.C.
The U.S. military in Iraq also reports it has killed a Saudi-born member of al-Qaida who was involved in smuggling foreign fighters and suicide bombers into the country.
U.S. officials say Abu Sa'ud was killed Saturday near the Syrian border when he tried to flee by car from coalition troops. Three other people in the car were also killed. Local reports dispute the military claim, saying 40 civilians were killed in the air strike. A military spokesman said he knew nothing of any civilian deaths.
Meanwhile, Iraqi Prime Minister Ibrahim Jafaari says Saddam Hussein's jailed half-brother, Barzan Ibrahim al-Hassan, will be given access to medical treatment for cancer. The defendant is facing trial along with Saddam for crimes against humanity.
bignewsnetwork

Bomb kills 20 in Iraq after bloodiest month for US
01.11.05 BASRA, Iraq - A car bomb killed 20 people in Iraq's second city of Basra today at the end of the bloodiest month for US troops in Iraq since early this year.
Witnesses said a suicide bomber targeted Iraqi troops.
Seven US troops were killed by bombs near Baghdad, taking October's death toll to 93, the highest in one month since January, when 107 died. The number of Americans killed in Iraq passed the 2,000 mark a week ago. The blast came when Basra's bustling Algiers Street area was packed with festive crowds visiting restaurants and enjoying the cool of one of the last evenings of the holy month of Ramadan. An Interior Ministry official said 20 people were killed and 45 wounded. Several buildings and vehicles were devastated and rescue workers picked body parts from the street.
"An old car drove at an Iraqi army patrol and exploded," one eyewitness, named Ahmed, said. "Many people were killed."
Deep in the majority Shi'ite heartland, the Gulf coast city has been spared much of the violence Sunni Arab insurgents have inflicted further north. There has been tension among rival Shi'ite militias, however, and 16 people were killed by an evening car bomb in September.
In the far west, where US marines have been fighting for months to stem a flow of foreign Arab fighters and funds coming through Syria, local doctors and tribal leaders accused American forces of killing some 40 civilians in an air strike.
The military said it knew of no civilian deaths and believed it had killed an al Qaeda leader targeted by precision bombing.
Two roadside bombings near Baghdad on Monday killed six soldiers and the military announced a Marine had been killed by a similar device near Falluja on Sunday.
WORST MONTH
That made October, which saw Iraqis vote for a constitution and put Saddam Hussein on trial, the worst month for US forces since January, when attacks by Sunni Arab rebels surged before an election that brought Kurds and majority Shi'ites to power.
Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld warned at the weekend of a similar increase in bloodshed before another parliamentary vote in December, although officials hope a decision by Sunni leaders not to repeat their January boycott of the poll may deprive the militants of support within Saddam's once dominant minority.
President George W. Bush, responding to concern over the rising US death toll and declining support for the Iraq campaign, said last week more sacrifices would be necessary.
Militants claiming to speak for some nationalist rebels have said they held fire around the October 15 constitutional referendum to encourage a big Sunni turnout and may do so again, despite disappointment that Sunnis narrowly failed to veto the charter.
But foreign-influenced Islamist radicals like al Qaeda show no sign of letting up. A suicide bomber lured Shi'ites to their death with a truck laden with dates on Saturday, killing 30 in a small town north of Baghdad, and there are fears of more violence around this week's end of the holy month of Ramadan.
Launching one of two big Sunni-led blocs expected to figure prominently among dozens of parties on the December 15 ballot, one leader set the tone for his campaign by calling for an end to US occupation. He criticised rivals who returned from exile after Saddam's fall as beholden to Washington or religion.
"We are ... working for the liberation of our country," Saleh al-Mutlak said, launching his Iraqi Unified Front as a secular pan-Iraqi bloc. "You won't find anyone in our group who rode into Iraq on an American tank or on a sectarian horse."
Various secular groups accuse the ruling United Alliance, led by Islamists once exiled in Tehran, of seeking to bring Iraq under the influence of fellow Shi'ites in non-Arab Iran.
LETHAL BOMBS
The order in which parties appear on the lengthy ballot paper will be drawn by lot on Tuesday. Prime Minister Ibrahim Jaafari said that, unlike in January, up to a million Iraqis living abroad may not be able to vote due to the cost and a tight schedule.
Monday's roadside bomb that killed four soldiers near Yusufiya, just south of Baghdad, was among the most lethal of recent weeks. US commanders have been voicing concern about increasing power and sophistication of such bombs. Devices capable of penetrating armoured vehicles have become more common this year, based on technology US and British officials say has been introduced from Iran.
"We see an adversary that ... continues to develop some sophistication on very deadly and increasingly precise standoff-type weapons," Pentagon spokesman Lawrence Di Rita said.
Two soldiers were killed in a similar attack near Balad, 60 km (40 miles) north of Baghdad, and the military said a marine was killed by a bomb near Falluja, to the west, on Sunday.
The US death toll in Iraq is now at least 2,026.
Near the Syrian border on Monday, US aircraft bombed a house close to Karabila before dawn in what the military said was a precision strike on an al Qaeda leader. Hospital doctors in nearby Qaim said 40 people were killed and 20 wounded, many of them women and children.
"Civilian deaths cannot be verified and hospital officials frequently make such claims," US spokesman Colonel David Lapan said. "We believe the targeted terrorist leader was killed." - nz herald

Iraq PM urges extension for US forces mandate
BAGHDAD (AFP) Nov 01, 2005 - Iraqi Prime Minister Ibrahim Jaafari on Tuesday called on the United Nations to extend the mandate of the US-led multinational force in Iraq by one year, state television reported.
Jaafari "has asked, in a letter to the Security Council, for a one-year extension of the multinational force," Iraqia television reported.
On May 31 the Security Council granted Iraq's request to keep the multinational force in Iraq "until the end of the political process."
Security Council resolution 1546, dated June 8, 2004, was to re-examine the presence of the military force in Iraq one year later upon the request of Iraq's government.
Top Iraqi officials have repeteadly said they want the US-led force to stay because the country's fledgling army and police forces are too weak to maintain internal order. - spacewar.com

Security incidents in Iraq, Nov. 3
* BAGHDAD - The U.S. military said two insurgents were killed when a car bomb they were preparing exploded prematurely in central Baghdad on Wednesday. The blast also killed one civilian.
BAGHDAD - Police said they found 11 bodies in southeastern Baghdad. Some had been beheaded and some shot. There was no immediate indication of who the victims were.
MUSAYYIB - The death toll in Wednesday's car bombing near a mosque in the Shi'ite town of Musayyib rose to 29, with 62 wounded, hospital sources said.
RAMADI - A U.S. soldier was killed on Wednesday when his vehicle was hit by a roadside bomb in Ramadi, 110 km (68 miles) west of Baghdad, the military said.
BAGHDAD - A U.S. soldier was killed when his patrol was hit by a roadside bomb south of Baghdad on Wednesday, the military said.
BALAD - A U.S. soldier died and another was wounded when insurgents attacked their patrol with a grenade and small arms fire near Balad on Wednesday, the military said. Two insurgents were killed in the clash. - alertnet.org

Iraq al Qaeda says to kill 2 Moroccan hostages-Web
By Yara Bayoumy DUBAI, Nov 3 (Reuters) - Al Qaeda in Iraq said on Thursday it had decided to kill two Moroccan embassy employees it kidnapped last month, according to an Internet statement.
"The legislative authority of al Qaeda organisation in Iraq has decided to carry God's law against the infidels and has ruled to kill them," the group said.
It was not clear from the statement when the killings would be carried out. The statement's authenticity could not be verified.
The posting, on an Islamist Web site often used by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi's al Qaeda group, did not show any pictures or videos of them being killed.
"After the court looked into the detainees' case, it was proven, without any doubt, that they are followers of the despots (U.S.) and infidel Moroccan government," the group said. "They added to their heresy and their war on Islam by allying themselves to the outcast government in Baghdad, and this has been confirmed by their confessions."
On Tuesday, the group said it would put the two Moroccans, driver Abderrahim Boualam and assistant Abdelkrim El Mouhafidim, on trial. They were seized late last month. The announcement coincided with the beginning of the Muslim Eid al-Fitr holiday marking the end of the fasting month of Ramadan.
The group had warned Arab and Muslim governments against sending envoys to Baghdad to recognise what it says is an infidel government allied with the United States.
"Let this be a new lesson for anyone who dares to challenge the mujahideen and has the guts to step into Iraq and think their diplomatic immunity will protect them," the group said.
Earlier this year, two Algerian diplomats working in Baghdad were killed by Zarqawi's group.
More than 200 foreigners and thousands of Iraqis have been kidnapped since the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003. Guerrilla strikes have driven diplomats from the Iraqi capital, undermining the U.S.-backed government's efforts to gain support among Arab countries. alertnet.org

Security incidents in Iraq, Nov. 4
* TAZA - Five Iraqi special forces troops were killed and four were wounded when their convoy was hit by a roadside bomb in Taza, 10 km (6 miles) south of Kirkuk, Major Yazkar Mohammed said.
SAMARRA - U.S. forces said they killed three gunmen and wounded two more when a gun battle broke out in the city of Samarra, north of Baghdad.
DORA - A roadside bomb in Dora, south of Baghdad, killed three people, hospital sources said.
KERBALA - A former Baath party official was killed by gunmen in Kerbala, police said.
BUHRIZ - Gunmen armed with assault rifles and heavier weaponry killed at least six Iraqi policemen and wounded 10 in an attack on a checkpoint near Buhriz, north of Baghdad, police said. One officer put the toll at nine dead and 12 wounded.
TALLIL - A U.S. soldier from a supply unit died on Thursday of "non-battle related causes" near Tallil, a major base in southern Iraq, the military said. - < a href="http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L04773653.htm">alertnet.org

US launches anti-terror offensive near Syrian border
05/11/2005 - The American military launched a major new offensive today, involving about 2,500 Marines, soldiers and sailors near the Syrian border, aimed at destroying an al-Qaida in Iraq network.
The "Operation Steel Curtain" offensive in the town of Husaybah in the western province of Anbar would remove militants and their "safe houses" from the area to improve security before Iraq's parliamentary election on December 15, the US military said.
The offensive included an unspecified number of Iraqi forces.
Husaybah is near the border town of Qaim and about 200 miles west of Baghdad.
"Operation Steel Curtain marks the first large-scale employment of multiple battalion-sized units of Iraqi army forces in combined operations with coalition forces in the last year," the military said in a statement.
The election, an important step in Iraq's democratic reforms, and the training of new Iraqi forces, are aimed at one day allowing US forces to begin withdrawing from Iraq.
Operation Steel Curtain included scout platoons recruited from the Qaim region, the US command said.
It said al-Qaida in Iraq, the country's most feared terror group, had used the Husaybah region's porous borders to smuggle foreign fighters, money and equipment into the country to be used in its attacks against the Iraqi people and coalition forces.
The military also said that militants continued to threaten to kill residents of Husaybah who worked with US or Iraqi forces in the region as "collaborators".
The offensive is part of a larger US military operation designed to deny al-Qaida in Iraq the ability to operate in the Euphrates River Valley, which stretches through Anbar province, and to establish a joint permanent security presence along the Syrian border.
Earlier, the terror group warned foreign diplomats to flee after announcing it would put to death two kidnapped Moroccan embassy employees. The warning came in a statement posted on an Islamist website yesterday in the name of al-Qaida in Iraq, which also claimed responsibility for the July kidnap and killing of two envoys from Algeria and one from Egypt, as well as the abduction and beheading of many foreign hostages.
On Thursday, another internet statement attributed to al Qaida said the two Moroccans had been condemned to death. There was no indication last night that they had been killed.
"We are renewing our threat to those so-called diplomatic missions who have insisted on staying in Baghdad and have not yet realised the repercussions of such a challenge to the will of the mujahedeen," yesterday's statement said. "Let them know that there is no difference in our judgment between the head of a diplomatic mission and the lowest-level employee." - IOL

UN unanimously extends mandate for U.S. to occupy Iraq
Tuesday 8th November, 2005 - The United Nations Security Council has voted unanimously to extend the mandate of the U.S.-led multinational forces in Iraq.
A resolution passed Tuesday, on a 15-0 vote, extends the mandate by one year, through December 31, 2006.
The measure requires a Security Council review of the mandate by June 2006, and says the council can terminate the mandate at any time if requested to do so by the Iraqi government.
In remarks to the council Tuesday, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, John Bolton, said the extension will give the Iraqi government time to consolidate its authority.
The Security Council established the U.S.-led coalition's mandate in June 2004, about 15 months after the invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein. Iraq's interim Prime Minister Ibrahim Jafari had asked the council for an extension last month. - - Big News Network.com

Iraq president asks Italian troops to stay
By Robin Pomeroy ROME, Nov 8 (Reuters) - The president of Iraq on Tuesday thanked Italy for sending troops to his country and warned against a premature pullout, after weeks of pre-election debate in Italy over how much longer its forces should stay.
On a week-long visit to Italy, Jalal Talabani said Italians were heroes for helping establish democracy in Iraq, words which delighted Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi who will fight an election next April vowing to retain a military presence there.
"We express great sorrow for your fallen. They are heroes of democracy," Talabani told a news conference alongside Berlusconi. "We came here to thank the government, the people and the army of Italy for their help in freeing Iraq from a terrible dictatorship." Italy has some 2,900 soldiers in Iraq, a force dwarfed by the 152,000-strong U.S.-contingent.
Italy's decision to send troops to Iraq in the aftermath of the U.S.-led 2003 invasion was unpopular and the centre-left opposition initially said it would rapidly pull the forces out if, as expected by opinion polls, it beats Berlusconi in April.
Talabani said that the prospect of a change of government in Italy did not worry him. "There is no worry because pulling out troops is a right of the Italian government. But an Arabic proverb says that when you do a good job you do a complete job."
In recent weeks the opposition's stance has softened. Centre-left leader Romano Prodi told Reuters last month that an exit timetable "will be decided if and when I take power ...This will be not done without communication and consultation with the parties."
Prodi reiterated that position at a meeting with Talabani.
"I repeated to the president ... we will build a calendar together for the withdrawal of troops but the Italian commitment to the reconstruction of the country will be strong and intense also in the future," he told reporters.
Berlusconi has said he too would withdraw, but only gradually and in coordination with the Iraqi government. Berlusconi grinned at reporters as he read a quote from an article Talabani wrote for La Stampa daily in which he said: "A premature withdrawal would be a catastrophe for the people of Iraq and a victory for terrorism."
Such a position backs Berlusconi's stance on Iraq and may exacerbate the splits in Prodi's coalition which includes centrists calling for a slow, gradual withdrawal and communists and pacifists who are demanding an instant pullout. - alertnet.org

Security incidents in Iraq, Nov. 8
* BAGHDAD - Gunmen opened fire on a car carrying two lawyers for Saddam Hussein's co-defendants, killing one and wounding the other. Adil al-Zubeidi was the second defence lawyer to be assassinated since the trial opened on Oct. 19.
DALI ABBAS - Four Iraqi soldiers were killed and a fifth critically wounded when a bomb blew up near their patrol car in the small town of Dali Abbas, northeast of Baghdad, police said.
RUSTUMIYA - Iraqi police found five decomposed bodies in the Rustumiya area just south of the Iraqi capital, police said. The identity of the victims was not immediately known.
KIRKUK - A roadside bomb blew up next to a police patrol, killing two policemen and wounding three others near the town of Daquq, 40 km (25 miles) south of Kirkuk, Lieutenant-Colonel Ali al-Sheikh said.
BASRA - An Iraqi security force colonel and his brother were killed by a roadside bomb as they drove through southern Basra, 550 km (340 miles) southeast of Baghdad, police and witnesses said.
BAGHDAD - The death toll from a suicide car bombing at a checkpoint south of Baghdad on Monday rose to five, with an interpreter also killed along with four U.S. soldiers, the military said.
BAQUBA - Insurgents killed one policeman and injured five when they attacked a patrol car in Baquba, north of Baghdad, police said. There was no immediate information on insurgent casualties.
RAMADI - U.S forces killed two militants and arrested six others as they raided an al Qaeda safe house near the insurgent stronghold of Ramadi, west of Baghdad, a U.S military statement said.
BAGHDAD - A car bomb exploded near Mustansiriyah University in eastern Baghdad wounding two bystanders, police said. alertnet.org

Security incidents in Iraq, Nov. 10
BAGHDAD - A suicide bomber wearing an explosive vest blew himself up in a crowded Baghdad restaurant frequented by the security forces during breakfast, killing 35 people and wounding at least 25, police said.
KIRKUK - Police said the brother of parliamentary speaker Hajem al-Hassani was abducted on Tuesday in the northern city of Kirkuk.
BAGHDAD - A husband and wife employed by the city council were killed by gunmen while on their way to work in the capital's western Ghazaliya district, police said.
BAGHDAD - Four policemen were wounded when they were attacked by gunmen in southern Baghdad, police said.
BASRA - An intelligence officer was killed by gunmen in the southern city of Basra, intelligence officials said.
alertnet.org

Iraqis allegedly behind Jordan blasts

ISN SECURITY WATCH (Friday, 11 November: 14.50 CET) – A statement by "al-Qaida in Iraq" has claimed that four Iraqis, including one woman, carried out the triple bombings in US-owned hotels in Amman, Jordan.

In a Friday statement purportedly by the militant group, the four alleged bombers were named as: Abu Khabib, Abu Muaz, Abu Omaira, and Umm Omaira.

The authenticity of the statement could not be verified.

Meanwhile, Jordanian police said they had arrested at least 120 people, mainly Iraqis and Jordanians, in a nationwide manhunt following the Wednesday blasts that killed 59 people and wounded 96 others.

Three killed in Baghdad blast

ISN SECURITY WATCH (Monday, 14 November: 11.45 CET) - A car bomb exploded on Monday near a police checkpoint outside a main gate to the Iraqi capital's high-security "Green Zone", killing at least three people and wounding some dozen others, news agencies reported.

Iraqi police said the blast targeted several vehicles used by security officials to transport foreign officials and private contractors or mercenaries.

According to the police report, several foreigners were among those killed.

50 insurgents killed in Iraq

ISN SECURITY WATCH (Monday, 14 November: 23.27 CET) - US and Iraqi troops on Monday said they had killed at least 50 insurgents in Operation Steel Curtain in the Euphrates River town of Obeidi, near Iraq's border with Syria.

"Approximately 50 insurgents are estimated to have been killed in sporadic but heavy fighting. The combined force of Iraqi army and coalition forces has encountered at least six mines and improvised bomb," the US military said in a statement carried by news agencies.

Iraqi PM promises probe into torture allegations

16/11/2005 - The discovery of 173 mostly Sunni Arab detainees in an Iraqi Interior Ministry basement lockup - malnourished and showing signs of torture - appeared to validate some of the long-standing grievances and has raised questions about the Shiite-led government's commitment to democracy and human rights.

"In order to search for one terrorist, they detain hundreds of innocent people and torture them brutally," said Mohsen Abdul-Hamid, a Sunni politician.

US forces seized the detention centre in Baghdad on Sunday, and yesterday Iraq's prime minister promised an immediate investigation.

"I was informed that there were 173 detainees held at an Interior Ministry prison and they appear to be malnourished," Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari, a Shiite, said of Sunday's raid at a detention centre in the fashionable Jadriyah district.

"There is also some talk that they were subjected to some kind of torture."

One detainee had been crippled by polio and others suffered "different wounds," said the deputy interior minister, Maj. Gen. Hussein Kamal.

Shiite civilians also suffer at the hands of Sunni insurgents and religious extremists who have killed hundreds in suicide attacks. But the Sunni allegations are disturbing because the alleged offenders are not rebels, but government forces sworn to defend the rule of law.

In Washington, a State Department spokesman said the Bush administration found the reports troubling. "We don't practice torture, and we don't believe that others should practice torture," said the spokesman, Adam Ereli. "We think that there should be an investigation and those who are responsible should be held accountable."

But the head of Iraq's largest Sunni political party said he had spoken to al-Jaafari and other government officials about torture at Interior Ministry detention centres, including the one where the detainees were found. Abdul-Hamid, leader of the IraqiIslamic Party, said the government routinely dismissed his complaints, calling the prisoners "former regime elements," meaning Saddam Hussein loyalists.

US Brig. Gen. Karl Horst, who commanded the troops in Sunday's raid, said American and Iraqi forces planned to carry out checks at every Interior Ministry detention facility in Baghdad. It was not immediately clear why US forces chose to move in on Sunday.

"We're going to hit every single one of them, every single one of them," Horst said.

Sunni politicians have been complaining of torture, abuse and arbitrary arrest by special commandos of the Shiite-controlled Interior Ministry since the current government took power last April. Sunnis have also accused the ministry of being behind "death squads," rumoured to be made up of former members of Shiite militias, which target Sunnis in reprisal for the killings of Shiites by Sunni Arab insurgents.

Interior Minister Bayn Jabr has denied any role in such killings.

Sunni Arab complaints have taken on new urgency because of American efforts to encourage a big Sunni turnout in the December 15 parliamentary elections in hopes of undermining Sunni support for the insurgency.

In recent days, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw and UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan have all visited Iraq to promote Sunni participation. US officials have also been pressing the majority Shiites and their Kurdish allies to reach out to the minority community - which dominated the country during Saddam's regime.US Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad and the top US commander in Iraq, Gen. George Casey, have expressed their "deep concern" over the condition of the detainees "at the highest level" of the Iraqi government, a US Embassy statement said.

"We agree with Iraq's leaders that the mistreatment of detainees is a serious matter and totally unacceptable," the statement added.

But the case also raises troubling questions about the training and discipline of Iraqi security forces, which Washington hopes can assume a greater role in fighting the insurgents so that US and other international troops can begin to go home.

Interior Ministry commandos, who are separate from the Iraqi army, spearhead the Iraqi government's campaign against the insurgency. Those commandos arrested more than 300 suspects last week in Diyala province after attacks on police checkpoints and a truck bomb that killed about 20 people in a Shiite village.

Kamal, the deputy interior minister, said all detainees found at the centre had been arrested under legal warrants issued by judges.

"They were mistreated and you know what happens in prison," Kamal told The Associated Press. "We will try to make sure that such acts are not repeated in the future."

He said the detainees were held in the basement of the building because the Justice Ministry lacked proper facilities and "there are no other places to hold those terrorists". - IOL

US defends use of white phosphorus weapons in Iraq

By Will Dunham WASHINGTON, Nov 16 (Reuters) - The Pentagon on Wednesday acknowledged using incendiary white-phosphorus munitions in a 2004 counterinsurgency offensive in the Iraqi city of Falluja, but defended their use as legal.

Army Lt. Col. Barry Venable, a Pentagon spokesman, said the U.S. military had not used the highly flammable weapons against civilians, contrary to an Italian state television report this month which said the weapons were used against men, women and children in Falluja who were burned to the bone.

"We categorically deny that claim," Venable said. "It's part of our conventional-weapons inventory and we use it like we use any other conventional weapon," added Bryan Whitman, another Pentagon spokesman.

Venable said white phosphorus is not outlawed or banned by any convention. However, a protocol to the 1980 Convention on Conventional Weapons forbids using incendiary weapons against civilians or against military targets amid concentrations of civilians.

The United States did not sign the protocol.

White phosphorus munitions are primarily used by the U.S. military to make smoke screens and mark targets, but also as an incendiary weapon, the Pentagon said. They are not considered chemical weapons. The substance ignites easily in air at temperatures of about 86 F (30 C), and its fire can be difficult to extinguish.

U.S. forces used the white phosphorus during a major offensive launched by Marines in Falluja, about 30 miles (50 km) west of Baghdad, to flush out insurgents. The battle in November of last year involved some of the toughest urban fighting of the 2-1/2-year war.

Venable said that in the Falluja battle, "U.S. forces used white phosphorous both in its classic screening mechanism and ... when they encountered insurgents who were in foxholes and other covered positions who they could not dislodge any other way."

He said the soldiers employed what they call a "shake-and-bake" technique of using white phosphorus shells to flush enemies out of hiding then using high explosives to kill them.

The Italian documentary showed images of bodies recovered after the Falluja offensive, which it said proved the use of white phosphorus against civilians.

"We don't target any civilians with any of our weapons. And to suggest that U.S. forces were targeting civilians with these weapons would simply be wrong," Whitman said. - alertnet.org

Security incidents in Iraq, Nov. 13

FALLUJA - Two U.S Marines were killed on Saturday when a roadside bomb exploded near their vehicle in Falluja, 50 km (35 miles) west of Baghdad, the military said in a statement

Security incidents in Iraq, Nov. 15

NEW UBAYDI - Two U.S marines taking part in an offensive against guerrillas were killed on Monday in separate attacks in western Iraq near the Syrian border, a U.S military statement said. One died from gunshot wounds and the other was killed by an explosive device.

NEW UBAYDI - A U.S marine died from wounds received on Monday when a roadside bomb blew up as he was taking part in a U.S. offensive in the small western town of New Ubaydi, a military statement said.

Security incidents in Iraq, Nov. 16

BAGHDAD - Three U.S soldiers were killed on Tuesday when a roadside bomb exploded near their patrol north west of Baghdad, the U.S military said in a statement.

KARMAH - A U.S marine was killed by a car bomb in Karmah near Falluja, 50 km (35 miles) west of Baghdad, the U.S military said in a statement.

Security incidents in Iraq, Nov. 17

NEW UBAYDI - Five U.S marines were killed in action during a firefight on Wednesday in New Ubaydi near the Syrian border, the U.S military said in a statement. Sixteen insurgents were also killed, it said.

BAGHDAD - One U.S soldier died on Wednesday of wounds suffered in a roadside bomb attack in northwest Baghdad on Tuesday, the U.S military said in a statement.

FALLUJA - A U.S. Marine was killed by a makeshift bomb during combat operations at Haditha in western Anbar province on Wednesday, the military said in a statement.

US says 5 marines, 16 insurgents killed in Iraq battle

BAGHDAD, Nov 16 (Reuters) - Five U.S. marines and 16 insurgents were killed in a firefight in western Iraq on Wednesday, the U.S. military said in a statement.

The battle took place in New Ubaydi, near the Syrian border, as part of Operation Steel Curtain launched to quell the insurgency in the region, it said without giving further details. - alertnet.org

Suicide bombers kill 38 in twin Iraq mosque blasts

BAGHDAD, Nov 18 (Reuters) - At least 38 people were killed and more than 50 wounded on Friday when suicide bombers strapped with explosives blew themselves up inside two Shi'ite mosques in the eastern Iraq town of Khanaqin, police said.

The blasts went off as worshippers were performing Friday prayers and left the mosques completely destroyed, they said.

"Initial reports say there are 38 dead and more than 50 wounded," police sources at Baghdad's Interior Ministry said.

Khanaqin is a mixed Shi'ite and Kurdish town northeast of Baghdad. It has experienced very little violence over the past 2-1/2 years of Sunni Arab-led insurgency that followed the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq.

It was the latest in a string of attacks on Shi'ite mosques by militants. Earlier this month, at least 29 people were killed in an attack on a Shi'ite mosque in Musayyib, south of Baghdad.

Sunni mosques have also occasionally been attacked in reprisal.

Tensions between Iraq's majority Shi'ite Muslim community and the Sunni Arab minority have grown sharply in recent months in the run-up to elections scheduled for Dec. 15, when Shi'ite and Kurdish parties are expected to dominate.

Police said the bombers entered the small mosques in Khanaqin with explosive belts strapped to their waists and detonated themselves when the buildings were at their most busy -- during prayers on the Muslim holy day. - alertnet.org

Fighting in western Iraq leaves 32 insurgents dead

18/11/2005 - Insurgents attacked US and Iraqi troops in western Iraq, triggering fire fights that left 32 insurgents dead, a US military statement said today

The attacks began shortly after noon local time and focused on US and Iraqi positions along the main road of the Anbar provincial capital, Ramadi, said the statement from the US. 2nd Marine Division.

Most of the fighting took place around a mosque in the centre of the town.

One US Marine and an Iraqi soldier suffered minor injuries during the attack, the US forces said.

Iraqi police also reported the clashes, but did not immediately have casualty figures.

"Marines reported they received sustained small arms fire originating from the mosque," the statement said. "A nearby US Army outpost also reported receiving enemy fire from the area surrounding the mosque."

The US forces estimated at least 50 insurgents took part in the co-ordinated attack, which quickly dissipated when the Iraqi and US forces returned fire, the military said. Iraqi troops entered the mosque and found spent ammunition.

"Mosques and other religious and cultural sites are given a protected status by Iraqi army and coalition forces," the statement said. "However, once attacks or military operations are launched from these sites, Iraqi and coalition (troops) will respond with force in order to return the site to its protective status."

US forces have conducted a number of operations in western Iraq in the previous weeks to both take control of towns occupied by insurgents and set the stage for parliamentary elections on December 15. - IOL

Baghdad car bombs target foreign journalists' hotel

18/11/2005 - Two suicide car bombers detonated vehicles today in a Baghdad residential district, and a hotel housing foreign journalists was the apparent target, US and Iraqi officials said.

The blast was also close to an Interior Ministry building at the centre of a torture dispute.

At least six people were killed and 43 injured in the blast near the Hamra hotel in the Jadriyah district, officials said.

The blasts reverberated throughout the city centre, sent a mushroom cloud hundreds of feet into the air and was followed by sporadic small arms fire.

Several residential buildings collapsed from the blasts, which gouged a large crater in the road. Firefighters joined neighbours to dig through the debris and under toppled blast barriers to pull victims from the rubble.

The deputy interior minister, Maj. Gen. Hussein Kamal said the heavily-fortified hotel appeared to be the target, with the first bomb designed to breach blast walls protecting the Hamra.

If true, it would be the second attack against a hotel housing international journalists since the October 24 triple vehicle bomb attack against the Palestine Hotel. - IOL

Security incidents in Iraq, Nov. 18

* RAMADI - Medical sources said three civilians were killed and five wounded during clashes between U.S forces and insurgents in Ramadi, 110 km (68 miles) west of Baghdad. No official verification was immediately available.

* KENA'AN - Three civilians were wounded when a suicide car bomb exploded near a U.S patrol in the Kena'an area near Baquba, 65 km (40 miles) north of Baghdad, police said.

BAGHDAD - Gunmen kidnapped a Shi'ite politician from his home in western Baghdad on Thursday. Police said Tawfiq al-Yassiri was a candidate for Dec. 15 elections, heading a list called Sun of Iraq, a mixed bloc of Shi'ite and Sunni Arab politicians.

BAGHDAD - At least four people were killed, including two children, and 40 wounded on Friday when two suicide car bombs exploded near a hotel used by foreigners in the Jadiriya district of central Baghdad, police said.

TAL AFAR - One U.S soldier was killed and two others were wounded on Thursday in a vehicle accident in Tal Afar north of Baghdad, the U.S military said in a statement.

BUHRUZ - Two Iraqi policemen were killed and seven wounded on Thursday when a roadside bomb exploded near a U.S.-Iraqi patrol in Buhruz, 60 km (40 miles) northeast of Baghdad, an ambulance driver said. No information was immediately available from the Iraqi police or U.S military. - reuters alertnet

Car bomb kills 13 at Baghdad market

19/11/2005 - A car bomb killed at least 13 people and wounded 21 today when it exploded near a market outside the Iraqi capital Baghdad.

It happened after Iraqi police arrested four people in connection with Friday's suicide bombing of two mosques in the eastern border town of Khanaqin which killed dozens of people, many of them worshippers.

One of those arrested was an apparent third suicide bomber, police said.

This morning's explosion occurred near the Diyala Bridge area just southeast of the Iraqi capital as dozens of people were shopping at the popular market, police Colonel Nouri Ashour said.

The dead included five women, he added.

In yesterday's attacks, two suicide bombers wandered into the Sheik Murad mosque and the Grand Mosque in Khanaqin during noon prayers and detonated explosives strapped to their bodies.

Reported death tolls ranged from 76, provided by Kurdish officials, to at least 100, provided by police. Hospital officials said on Friday that 74 people were killed and more than 100 injured in the largely Kurdish town about 90 miles northeast of Baghdad.

It was the deadliest attack since September 29, when three suicide car bombers struck in the mostly Shiite town of Balad just north of Baghdad, killing at least 99 people.

A security officer in Khanaqin, who asked not to be identified because of the nature of his job, said four people were arrested following the blasts, three were strangers who came from outside the town and the fourth was a third suicide bomber who was found near the scene.

The blast ripped down part of the roof of the Grand Mosque and heavily damaged the other place of worship. At sunset, dozens of people were still searching the rubble for missing family members and friends. Others collected shredded copies of the Muslim holy book, the Quran.

One of the survivors, Omar Saleh, said he was on his knees bowing in prayer when the bomb exploded at the Grand Mosque.

"The roof fell on us and the place was filled with dead bodies," Saleh, 73, said from his hospital bed.

American soldiers from the 101st Airborne Division sent medical specialists and supplies to the town, located about six miles from the Iranian border.

Friday's mosque outrage came just hours after two car bombs exploded outside Baghdad's Hamra hotel - the second attack against a compound housing foreign journalists in the Iraqi capital in less than a month.

Eight Iraqis were killed and at least 43 people were injured.

The latest attacks in Khanaqin and Baghdad have brought to at least 1,617 the number of Iraqis killed since the Shiite-led government took power April 28, according to an Associated Press count. At least 3,429 have been injured. - IOL

Congress sidelined as Justice Department probes Halliburton

Saturday 19th November, 2005

One of the major focus points of the Iraq war has been the colossal multi-billion dollar contracts handed out to supporters of the Bush administration.

The main criticism has been directed at Halliburton subsidiary Kellogg, Brown and Root, Incorporated. Five months ago the Principal Assistant Responsible for Contracting for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Bunnatine H. Greenhouse, testified before the Senate Democratic Policy Committee that there had been major abuses, fraud, and waste involving the tens of billions of dollars of contracts awarded for reconstruction. She pin-pointed the Halliburton subsidiary as the main culprit. Within a few weeks she was sacked from her position.

As we have reported previously Dick Cheney, when Secretary of Defense oversaw the handing of major contracts to Halliburton in the early 1990s to advise the government on the concept of outsourcing. Several million dollars were paid to Halliburton by the Defense Department for the advice to outsource almost all non-combat activities of the defense forces. Cheney then awarded a ten year contract to Halliburton to provide those services, notwithstanding Halliburton was the government's independent advisor. In an extraordinary conflict of interest situation Cheney then joined Halliburton as its CEO and later Chairman, before resigning in 2000 to become the Vice President of the United States.

Eight months later before the twin towers had hit the ground he was advocating an attack on Iraq, nothwithstanding the September 11 attacks were being attributed to Osama bin Laden and al-Qaeda. Halliburton subsequently, and well before Iraq was invaded, became a prime contracter for the reconstruction that would follow the inflicting of tens of billions of dollars damage on Iraq courtesy of what was termed a "shock and awe" aerial bombing campaign which reportedly involved the dropping of more bombs than in World War II.

The campaign over a short number of weeks devastated the country and killed tens of thousands of civilians. The only protectorates in the country were the oil ministry and the oil fields which were staked out well in advance.

Halliburton and other companies close to the administration, including Bechtel, lined up at the troughs, as contracts for the reconstruction were dished out.

Greenhouse, like other critics of the Bush administration and its associates, has paid a terrible price. What she did was to tell the truth. She described her experience as, "The most blatant and improper contract abuse I have witnessed during the course of my professional career." One example given was the torching of new trucks costing $85,000 because they had flat tires or clogged fuel pumps.

U.S. Senator Byron Dorgan (D-ND) asked Congress to investigate the allegations. The Congress, a sleeping giant, failed to do its job, just as it has failed to do for the past four years.

Greenhouse of course is just one of many that have blown the whistle on the Halliburton contracts. Just two weeks ago the United Nations asked the U.S. to repay Iraq nearly a quarter-of-a-billion dollars for work done by Halliburton which it said was overpriced or poorly done. What also came to light when the UN announced this was the fact that Halliburton had been paid out of the proceeds of the sale of Iraqi oil. Remember before the Iraq invasion the question arose as to whether the cost of the war or the inevitable reconstruction could be paid for by oil sales? The U.S. was uneqvivocal. Iraqi oil belonged to the Iraqis. Not so it seems, now a lot of it has passed to Halliburton and others. Yet in June last year during a tour of the al-Doura oil refinery, then-Iraqi Prime Minister Allawi said to employees, "In the past, Iraqi oil was used in building palaces, buying weapons to achieve one person's goals. Today the most important natural resource has been returned to Iraqis, to serve all Iraqis."

One silver lining in all of this is a little heralded announcement Friday by Dorgan that he had been informed by the Defense Department Inspector General's office that Greenhouse's allegations about wrong-doing in connection with Halliburton's Kellogg, Brown and Root, Incorporated, have been referred to the Justice Department for criminal investigation.

Dorgan renewed his call for congressional oversight of Iraq reconstruction contracting - a responsibility he says traditional standing committees have essentially ignored. He also renewed his call for creation of a special "Truman Committee" - modeled after the Senate Committee then-Senator Harry Truman (D-Mo) chaired during World War II to look into war-profiteering by contractors.

"The hearings conducted by the Senate Democratic Policy Committee have revealed massive waste, fraud and abuse with regard to Iraq contracting, thanks to the testimony of courageous individuals like Bunnatine Greenhouse who have, often at great personal risk, blown the whistle on waste, fraud and abuse. The referral of Bunnatine Greenhouse's allegations for criminal investigation add to the growing cloud of scandal that surrounds too much of the contracting effort regarding reconstruction in Iraq," he said.

"This Congress needs to get about the business of conducting oversight of the billions of dollars being spent on reconstruction in Iraq. So far, it has utterly failed to do so," Dorgan added.

Halliburton rejects the criticism which it labels as unfair. David Lesar, the current CEO says, "Mischaracterizations and incomplete facts do a grave disservice to the employees and subcontractors who are working in Iraq. Never before has any contractor worked in as dangerous a situation as they are. Halliburton is providing jobs for Americans, and we are supporting the troops with the largest civilian workforce ever assembled in support of a military operation." - Big News Network.com

Security incidents in Iraq, Nov. 19

BAGHDAD - At least 11 people were killed and 15 wounded when a car bomb exploded in a busy market in southeast Baghdad, police said.

BAGHDAD - Eleven civilians and three policemen were wounded when a suicide bomber in a car attacked a police patrol in central Baghdad, police said.

BAGHDAD - Three policemen were wounded when gunmen attacked their patrol along a highway in eastern Baghdad, police said.

KARBALA - A former member of Saddam Hussein's Baath party was assassinated by gunmen in Kerbala, 110 km (68 miles) southwest of Baghdad, police said. - alertnet

Security incidents in Iraq, Nov. 20

KERBALA - A former member of Saddam Hussein's Baath Party was killed by gunmen in the city of Kerbala, 110 km (68 miles) southwest of Baghdad, police said. His 14 year-old son was also killed in the attack.

TIKRIT - Two women working with the Iraqi army were kidnapped by gunmen in the city of Tikrit, 175 km (110 miles) north of Baghdad, police said.

BAGHDAD - Two members of the Iraqi Islamic party in Buhriz, 60 km (40 miles) northeast Baghdad, were found shot dead in a Baghdad morgue. Relatives of the victims said they were taken by Interior Ministry commandoes about a week ago.

*BAGHDAD - A U.S. soldier was killed by small-arms fire during a patrol north of Baghdad.

BAQUBA - The death toll from a suicide car bomb attack on a funeral in the town of Abu Sayda on Saturday rose to 50, with 75 wounded, doctors said. Earlier the toll was put at 35 killed.

The bomber blew up his vehicle near a crowded condolence tent during a funeral for a Shi'ite tribal sheikh in the town near Baquba, 65 km (40 miles) north of Baghdad.

HADITHA - A U.S. Marine and 15 Iraqi civilians were killed on Saturday by a roadside bomb in Haditha, 220 km (140 miles) northwest Baghdad, the U.S. military said in a statement.

MUQDADIYA - Saad al-Mehdawi, the head of the Iraqi Islamic Party in Muqdadiya, 90 km (50 miles) northeast Baghdad, died of wounds sustained after he was shot in Muqdadiya several days ago, police said.

HILLA - One man was seriously wounded in a mortar attack on a U.S. military base north of the city of Hilla, 100 km (62 miles) south of Baghdad, police said.

BAGHDAD - Three Iraqi soldiers were killed and five wounded when in an attack by a makeshift bomb and gunmen on an Iraqi army patrol in western Baghdad, police said.

BAIJI - Five U.S soldiers were killed and five were wounded on Saturday in two makeshift roadside bomb attacks on a patrol in Baiji, 180 km (112 miles) north of Baghdad, the U.S military said in a statement.

MAHAWEEL - Three children were killed and a man was wounded in a mortar attack on a U.S. military base in Mahaweel, 80 km (50 miles) south of Baghdad on Saturday, police said.

One of six mortars fired at the base hit a nearby house, killing the three people.

alertnet

Iraqis grieve over the body of a relative killed in a shooting while the family was on their way to Baquba, about 80 km (50 miles) north of Baghdad, November 21, 2005. Witnesses and the Iraqi police said U.S. troops opened fire on a crowded mini-bus north of Baghdad on Monday, killing five members of the same family, including two children, and wounding four others. The U.S. military said it was looking into the incident but did not confirm its involvement or provide any other details.

U.S. army confirms accidentally killed civilians

By Faris al-Mehdawi BAQUBA, Iraq, Nov 21 (Reuters) - U.S. troops opened fire on a crowded minivan north of Baghdad on Monday, fearing a car bomb attack, and killed at least three members of the same family, including a child, the U.S. military and survivors said. The U.S. army's 3rd Infantry Division confirmed the incident, saying its troops had opened fire after first trying to wave the minivan to a stop and then firing warning shots.

"This is a tragedy," said Major Steve Warren, a spokesman for U.S. forces in Baquba, near where the shooting occurred. "But these tragedies only happen because Zarqawi and his thugs are out there driving around with car bombs," he added, referring to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, a militant leader in Iraq.

Warren said three people -- two men and a child -- were killed and three were wounded, but the survivors disputed that, saying five members of the family, including two children, were killed and four were wounded.

One of the survivors told Reuters the family was travelling from Balad, a town about 80 km (50 miles) north of Baghdad, to the nearby city of Baquba for a funeral when they were shot at by a U.S. patrol as it approached them on the road.

"As we tried to move over to one side to let them pass, they opened fire," one survivor said. None of them would give their names but said the head of the family was a Mohammed Kamel.

Warren said the incident occurred near a U.S. military forward operating base as vehicles were entering the camp. He said U.S. troops frequently set up impromptu roadblocks in such cases and force all nearby vehicles to come to a halt.

The U.S. military took the minivan away immediately after the incident, Iraqi police and the U.S. army said.

Reuters television footage showed two dead children in a morgue in Baquba and relatives kissing another dead body on a morgue trolley. One child's head appeared to have been been blown off.

"They are all children. They are not terrorists," shouted a relative. "Look at the children," he said as a morgue official carried a small dead child into a refrigeration room. "We felt bullets hitting the car from behind and from in front," said another survivor with blood running from a wound to his head and splattered on his shirt. "Heads were blown off. One child had his hand shot off," he said.

Of those wounded, two were women and one was another child, the survivors said. The U.S. military said two men and one woman were among the wounded. U.S. troops are frequently accused by Iraqis of shooting at civilian vehicles at checkpoints and roadblocks. At the same time, U.S. troops are attacked every day by car bombers in civilian vehicles who race at U.S. patrols or roadblocks.

Less than two hours after the shooting, a U.S. convoy was attacked by a car bomber in the same area, Warren said.

The U.S. military says it does everything it can to ensure it does not fire on civilians, although it has also admitted in the past to accidentally killing civilians at roadblocks. To avoid the possibility of being fired on, most Iraqis pull over to the side of the road when U.S. convoys approach. The convoys generally travel with signs in Arabic telling people to stay back or away and warning them that deadly force will be used if they get too close.

It wasn't clear if the U.S. troops involved in Monday's shooting had erected signs telling vehicles to stop. - alertnet

Suicide car bomber in Iraq kills 22

AP - 23 Nov 2005 - A suicide car bomber killed 22 people in northern Iraq on Tuesday after insurgents lured police to the scene by shooting an officer, officials said. A mortar shell fired at a U.S. ceremony sent the U.S. ambassador and the top American commander scurrying for cover.

The suicide bomber struck on a busy commercial street in Kirkuk, a mixed Arab, Kurdish and Turkoman city in an oil-producing region 180 miles north of Baghdad. About half the dead were police who rushed to the scene after gunmen killed a fellow officer.

In addition to the 22 dead, another 23 people were wounded.

The attack was the latest in a wave of spectacular suicide operations which have killed more than 160 civilians since Friday, most of them Shiites. Yesterday, gunmen wearing Iraqi army uniforms broke into the home of a senior Sunni leader on and killed him, his three sons and his son-in-law on the outskirts of Baghdad, his brother and an interior ministry official said.

Khadim Sarhid al-Hemaiyem was the leader of the Sunni Batta tribe and the brother of a candidate in the Dec. 15 election, the ministry official Maj. Falah al-Mohammedawi said. One of the slain man's brothers said the family has been attacked before. Al-Mohammedawi said government forces were not involved in the slaying and the investigation was focused on insurgents.

The slayings follow a big push by U.S. officials to encourage Sunni Muslim participation in the Dec. 15 election, which will install the first non-transitional government in Iraq since the 2003 invasion.

Also Wednesday, the U.S. military announced a new operation by American and Iraqi troops in predominantly Sunni western Iraq. The operation in Ramadi, 70 miles west of Baghdad, was launched Tuesday to prevent insurgents from stopping the vote in that city, a U.S. military statement said. - Bucharest daily-news

The Puppetry of civil war
Hard line [Iranian?] Militias to face off against
Saddams old guard? [CIA trained?]
But what of Al Queda?

New Iraqi army looks like old one

Monday 21st November, 2005 (UPI)

The new Iraqi security force, under U.S. supervision, has drawn heavily from the ranks of Saddam Hussein's disbanded force.

The disbanding of the Hussein's nearly 400,000-strong army when there were not enough U.S. troops is seen by many critics today as one of the gravest miscalculations by the United States in Iraq, The Washington Post reports.

Critics say that effort left the borders open, allowing the insurgency to flourish and encouraging the growth of private militias.

But since then, Iraq and the United States have brought in Hussein-era soldiers, many from the ruling Baath Party, to rebuild Iraq's military.

The Iraqi defense ministry has even begun bringing in recruits from among junior officers in Hussein's military, says the report.

U.S. officials say they must leave behind an Iraqi army capable of fighting the insurgency. The Hussein-era officers are seen as having the officer training, combat experience and staff and leadership skills to fight the insurgents.

Many of the critics of the U.S. invasion now give U.S. military officials credit for their latest work. - Big News Network.com

Gunmen in Iraqi army uniforms kill four in sleep

By Yasser Faisal - BAGHDAD, Nov 23 (Reuters) - Gunmen in Iraqi army uniforms shot dead a 70-year-old Sunni Arab tribal leader and three of his sons as they slept in their home, relatives said on Wednesday.

A Defence Ministry official denied Iraqi troops were involved in the slayings in the Hurriya district of Baghdad overnight and said the killers must have been terrorists in disguise.

"Iraqi army uniforms litter the streets and any terrorist can kill and tarnish our image, killing two birds with one stone," he said.

The attack is likely to fuel sectarian tensions which have raised fears of civil war. It comes a week after the discovery of more than 170 malnourished Sunni prisoners locked in an Interior Ministry bunker. Some showed signs of starvation and torture. In the latest attack, an Interior Ministry official said 40 men wearing army uniforms had come to the victims' house in the night. Relatives said they were shot in their sleep.

One victim was holding his daughter. "The gunmen told the girl to move then shot the father," said a relative.

The slain elderly man, Kathim Sirheed Ali, was the head of the Batta tribe, his family said. Sunni leaders accuse the Shi'ite-dominated Interior Ministry of sanctioning death squads run by Shi'ite militias which attack Sunnis. The government denies it.

WEEPING WOMEN

"I saw it with my own eyes. They were soldiers," said Thair Kathim Sirheed of the men who killed his father and three brothers in the shooting attack.

Sirheed said he and two of his slain brothers had worked as policemen.

"I am going to get rid of my police badge. From now on I will be a terrorist," said Sirheed. Last month gunmen killed another brother and then stole his car and money, he said.

Wailing women in black veils stood over bullet-riddled bodies in the house as the young children of the slain brothers looked on. "Why? Why? Does the government accept this?" asked one of the women. Such attacks are not unusual in Iraq, where Shi'ites and Kurds swept to power in January elections which sidelined the Sunnis who had been dominant under Saddam Hussein. Iraqi officials and their U.S. allies are hoping elections for a full-term government next month will help unite the country and ease sectarian tensions.

But the big question is whether Iraq's political process will defuse a Sunni insurgency of suicide bombings and shootings which has killed tens of thousands of members of the Iraqi security forces and civilians. - alertnet.org

Flashback: Private firm to protect NATO in Iraq

BRUSSELS (AFP) May 04, 2005 - The US-led coalition in Iraq has decided to hire a private security firm to protect a military training academy outside Baghdad which NATO plans to open in September, an official said Wednesday.

NATO military planners recommended the "temporary" solution to avoid a new delay in launching the training centre at Al-Rustimayah in the suburbs of the Iraq capital. NATO leaders agreed last June to set up a mission to train senior Iraqi officers, and began deploying military instructors last September. But so far they have been confined to the heavily-fortified central Green Zone due to security concerns.

So far more than 500 Iraqi officers have received training there, but the military alliance has made it clear all along that it plans to expand its training mission to Al-Rustimayah.

The decision to hire a private company to protect the training academy and its staff was agreed by NATO ambassadors on Wednesday evening, allowing the US-led coalition to contract out the work.

"This a temporary solution, until the end of the year," to allow NATO to assess the needs and deploy a NATO-led contingent, said the NATO official, requesting anonymity.

NATO aims to train some 1,000 Iraqi officers per year. A number of the 26-member alliance's members, notably France and Germany, are supporting the mission although refusing to send troops onto Iraqi soil.

The US-led alliance was plunged into one of the worst crises in its history by the 2003 Iraq war, opposing anti-war countries like France and Germany against Washington and its allies including Britain. - spacewar.com

NATO equipment transport blocked at customs
Alecs Iancu - Bucharest - 24th Nov 2005 - A NATO transport of military equipment heading to bases in Iraq and Kosovo has been blocked in Nadlac border check point, in Arad County for several days because authorities have not yet given approval for the transport to cross the country.
A total of 29 trucks loaded with military equipment were at the Nadlac check point yesterday. Three of the trucks in the convoy are Romanian and are heading to the KFOR base in Kosovo. The rest are Turkish and are heading to Baghdad.
According to representatives of the transport company in Bucharest, the equipment was loaded in Hamburg and had crossed Austria and Hungary before reaching Romania. From here, the trucks will go to Kosovo through Bulgaria and Macedonia.
The owner of the company, Dan Fratila, said his firm has had a contract with German and American partners for special transports and explained that the convoy needs the approval of the Defense Ministry to leave the country. Romanian drivers have been blocked in the check point for two days, while the Turks have been there for seven days.
The drivers said they do not know exactly what they are carrying, as the equipment is locked in special containers. They also said they had no problems in any of the countries they went through before getting to Romania.
An official inside the Defense Ministry initially refused to comment on the situation, but later yesterday, a ministry spokesman said the transport received approval to leave the country. - daily-news

Security incidents in Iraq, Nov 23
BAGHDAD - A 70-year-old Sunni Arab man and three of his sons were killed by gunmen wearing Iraqi army uniforms in the western Hurriya district of Baghdad, relatives said.
BAGHDAD - A former senior traffic police officer was killed by gunmen in his home in the Yarmouk district of southwestern Baghdad, a police source said.
BAGHDAD - Police said a director at a Baghdad battery factory was killed by gunmen while driving near his home in the western Jami'aa district of Baghdad.
* BAGHDAD - Three women were wounded when a mortar round fell on their house in al-Salihiya district in central Baghdad, police said.
* BAGHDAD - Police said two civilians were hurt by a roadside bomb targeted at an Iraqi army convoy in al-Tayaraan in central Baghdad.
* BAGHDAD - Two policemen and a teenage boy were wounded when a roadside bomb hit a police patrol in southwestern Baghdad, a police source said. - alertnet

Car bomb kills 34 outside hospital near Baghdad
By Reuters, November 24 2005 - A suicide car bomber attacked a hospital south of Baghdad on Thursday, killing 34 people and wounding dozens more as militants stepped up their campaign of violence before elections next month. The explosives-packed car detonated as Iraqi security forces were gathered outside Mahmoudiya General Hospital and as U.S. civil affairs soldiers were visiting the facility to look at ways to improve it, the U.S. army and witnesses said. Another car bomb exploded near a crowded market in Hilla, 100 km (62 miles) south of Baghdad, killing up to four people, police said. Police earlier said up to 14 may have been killed.
In the Mahmoudiya blast, four U.S. troops were wounded, but most of those killed and injured were civilians, including Hoda Ali Mahmoud, a 30-year-old woman whose young son was killed. She had taken him to the hospital for treatment for a cold.
“The glass flew at us,” she said, sobbing as she sat up in hospital. “His nose was hit and he couldn’t breathe.”
The body of her son, less than two years old, lay on the morgue floor at Yarmouk hospital in Baghdad, where many of the wounded were brought.
Hasna Aboud’s son, who was due to get married next week, was also killed. “My 22-year-old son was killed while trying to bring me some medicine,” she said through her tears. “I lost my only son.”
Police sources said one of those killed in Mahmoudiya may have been the secretary-general of the Iraqi Workers Party, a member of the Iraqi parliament. No other details were immediately available.
The bombings are the latest in a series of suicide attacks and car bomb blasts that have killed nearly 200 people since last Friday, in what appears to be an increase in violence by insurgents ahead of Dec. 15 parliamentary elections. A little known group called “The Supporters for the Sunni Community” claimed the Hilla attack, an Internet statement said.
DOCTOR, POLICE, SOLDIERS KILLED
The head of the emergency room at the hospital said the Mahmoudiya blast killed 34 people, including seven policemen, three Iraqi soldiers, a doctor and five medical staff. A total of 39 people were wounded, most of them civilians. In a statement, the U.S. military said the hospital had been the target of the suicide attack, but the bomber had failed to penetrate its security barriers. The building suffered minor damage to its facade, and three nearby houses were badly hit.
Many of the recent attacks in Iraq have been sectarian, with Sunni Arab militants targeting Shi’ite Muslim communities. In one of the worst incidents in recent months, 77 Shi’ites were killed when explosives-strapped bombers blew themselves up inside mosques in the northern town of Khanaqin last week.
Mahmoudiya, about 30 km (20 miles) south of Baghdad, and Hilla have seen considerable violence in the past two years. Both sit in an area dubbed the Triangle of Death. The region consists of a belt of mixed Sunni and Shi’ite towns where sectarian tensions have spilled over, leading to fears Iraq could be sliding towards a full-blown civil war.
The Defence Ministry said earlier that soldiers had found a car west of Baghdad filled with children’s toys booby-trapped with hand grenades and explosives, and a government spokesman said two people had been detained.
TROOP REDUCTION?
U.S. and Iraqi forces are trying to impose nationwide security for next month’s elections, when a four-year parliament will be ushered in for the first time, after several interimIraqi authorities over the past two years. The build-up to elections and other key events has been accompanied by a surge in violence in the past. As well as battling insurgents in western Iraq, where groups such as al Qaeda in Iraq, led by Jordanian militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi are based, U.S. and Iraqi forces are trying to stem a rash of sectarian killings in Baghdad and other major cities.
On Thursday, a Sunni tribal leader and three of his sons were shot dead in their beds by gunmen dressed in Iraqi army uniforms. The Defence Ministry denied Iraqi troops were responsible, saying the killers were terrorists in disguise. Leaders from Iraq’s Sunni Arab minority, dominant under Saddam Hussein, accuse the Shi’ite-run Interior Ministry of sanctioning anti-Sunni death squads run by Shi’ite militias. The government denies the claims.
At the same time, Sunni Arab insurgents carry out near daily suicide and other attacks on Shi’ites, creating a volatile atmosphere of danger and mistrust.
U.S. commanders hope that if they can kill Zarqawi, whose group has carried out some of Iraq’s deadliest attacks, it will help dampen the insurgency, which in the past 24 hours has killed six U.S. soldiers, raising the total of American dead since the war began to more than 2,100. The latest two soldiers died when their vehicle hit a makeshift roadside bomb, a common weapon of the insurgency.
Training Iraqi security forces so they can take on the insurgency themselves is the key plank in Washington’s plan for steadily withdrawing the 155,000 U.S. troops serving in Iraq. U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice suggested this week that a troop reduction may start fairly soon. But a significant pullout is not expected until well into 2006, allowing the new Iraqi government to settled in and more Iraqi police and military battalions to be fully trained.
Reuters via FT.com

Two Suicide Car Bombings Kill 10 in Iraq
By HAMID AHMED, Associated Press - 26th November
A suicide bomber drove his pickup truck into a crowded gas station in central Iraq on Saturday and detonated it, killing six people, while a car bomb targeting a convoy of foreigners in the capital killed four people, police said. The U.S. military also said it had received information confirming the death of a top aide to the leader of al-Qaida in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. Bilal Mahmud Awad Shebah, also known as Abu Ubaydah, was killed in an Oct. 14 raid in Ramadi, an insurgent stronghold 70 miles west of Baghdad, the U.S. command said in a statement. The confirmation came from "a close family member as well as coalition sources," the statement said.
"Detained members of al-Qaida claim Abu Ubaydah served as an 'executive secretary' for Zarqawi; met with Zarqawi frequently; served as a messenger and gatekeeper for Zarqawi; screened all messages and requests for meetings with Zarqawi (and) was one of Zarqawi's most trusted associates," the statement said.
A U.S. soldier assigned to the 2nd Marine Division was killed Friday when his vehicle was hit by a roadside bomb near Hit, 85 miles west of Baghdad. There are several Army units temporarily assigned to the 2nd Marine Division in western Iraq. At least 2,105 members of the U.S. military have died since the beginning of the Iraq war in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count.
The suicide bomber struck in Samarra, 60 miles north of Baghdad, said police Lt. Col. Mahmoud Mohammed. Twelve people were injured and nine cars were destroyed. The burnt carcasses of two sheep were in the back of one destroyed truck, and burnt clothing - including a man's traditional Sunni Arab robe - was scattered around the station parking lot.
In central Baghdad, a parked car bomb detonated when two armored cars drove by, killing four people, Lt. Thaer Mahmoud said. No one in the convoy was injured, but one of the armored cars was damaged and removed by U.S. forces, Mahmoud said.
In the first signs of trouble before the Dec. 15 parliamentary elections, four people have been shot in the last two days while trying to hang campaign posters, police said. Two of the incidents occurred in Mosul, 225 miles northwest of Baghdad, while two more were reported in the capital.
In northwestern Baghdad on Friday, more than 200 members of the Batta tribe gathered at a mosque carrying banners and chanting slogans to demand the resignation of the defense minister after Wednesday's slaying of Khadim Sarhid al-Hemaiyem. One of the sheik's brothers said gunmen wearing Iraqi army uniforms and vehicles broke into the family home, killing al-Hemaiyem, three of his sons and his son-in-law. A spokesman for the Interior Ministry denied that government forces were involved. Another one of al-Hemaiyem's sons was killed by men in uniform last month, family members said.
"We want the Arab League and the Sunni scholars to investigate," said Abdullah Jawad Khadim al-Battawi, a relative.
A statement from the little-known Partisans of the Sunni claimed it carried out a Thursday car bombing, killing 11 and wounding 17, in the mostly Shiite city of Hillah in retaliation for al-Hemaiyem's slaying and other attacks against Sunni Arabs.
"We have warned the (Shiites) to stop assassinations and detentions and torture," the statement posted Friday on an Islamist Web site said. "You should know, your blood is no more dear than ours. You kill our men, we kill yours. You kill our sheiks, we kill yours. You started this war."
An Interior Ministry official said security forces were aware of the Partisans group, which has been active in the area south of Baghdad for months. More than 270 people have been killed since Nov. 18 in car bombings and suicide attacks against Shiite targets.
The Saddam Hussein trial resumes Monday following a five-week recess granted by the court to give the defense time to study the evidence. The trial could raise sectarian tensions ahead of national elections. Saddam's regime was dominated by Sunnis, and the trial involves the deaths of Shiites.
U.S. officials hope a big Sunni turnout will encourage members of the community to turn away from the insurgency, hastening the day when American and other international troops can go home. Sunnis form about 20 percent of Iraq's estimated 27 million people but are the backbone of the insurgency. - yahoo News

Security incidents in Iraq, Nov 27
* BAGHDAD - A car bomb exploded near an Iraqi police patrol in western Baghdad on Sunday, killing two civilians and wounding two others, Iraqi police and witnesses said.
* MOSUL - A roadside bomb targeting a police patrol killed one Iraqi policeman and wounded another in Mosul, Iraq's third largest city in the far north of the country, police said.
FALLUJA - A U.S. Marine was killed by a makeshift bomb during combat operations on Saturday near Camp Taqaddum, the military said on Sunday.
HAWIJA - Police said on Sunday they had found the beheaded body of a former Iraqi army cook in Hawija, 70 km (45 miles) southwest of Kirkuk.
RIYADH - An Iraqi army officer escaped an assassination attempt when a roadside bomb exploded near his car in the Riyadh area, 60 km (38 miles) southwest Kirkuk, police said. Two of the officer's bodyguards were wounded.
BAQUBA - One civilian was killed and another wounded when a roadside bomb went off near an Iraqi police patrol in Baquba, 65 km (40 miles) north of Baghdad, police said.
KERBALA - A major crimes unit official was killed by gunmen in Kerbala, 110 km (68 miles) southwest of Baghdad, police said. - alertnet

Security incidents in Iraq Nov. 28.
BAGHDAD - British consular officials said on Monday they were investigating reports that at least two British nationals may have been killed. Iraqi Interior Ministry sources said that six foreigners who appeared to be Asian were attacked by gunmen just south of Baghdad and that three had been killed and three wounded. They were attacked as they were traveling on a religious pilgrimage from Baghdad, south to Kerbala, police said.
BAIJI - A leader of the Shammar tribe was killed when a U.S. patrol opened fire after a roadside bomb exploded near it on Sunday in Baiji, 180 km (112 miles) north of Baghdad, police said. No U.S. casualties were reported.
BAGHDAD - One of Baghdad mayor's guards was shot dead on Monday in the Albaya district of Baghdad, hospital sources said. Source: Reuters

Security incidents in Iraq Nov. 29.
* MOSUL - Two members of the Christian Assyrian Democratic Movement were shot and killed and another two were wounded when they were attacked by gunmen while putting up election campaign posters in northeastern Mosul on Tuesday, one of the injured and a hospital source said.
BAGHDAD - Two U.S. soldiers were killed on Tuesday when their patrol struck a roadside bomb north of Baghdad, the U.S. military said.
BAGHDAD - A roadside bomb hit a U.S. Bradley armoured vehicle on Monday, wounding one crew member, the military said.
BALAD - Six Iranians, including two women, and an Iraqi woman were kidnapped after gunmen opened fire on their bus on Monday, seriously wounding the Iraqi driver, police said. The group were on their way to a Shi'ite holy shrine in Balad, 70 km (45 miles) north of Baghdad. Police said the three women were released later on Monday.
TIKRIT - Thafer Migwil Hazza, a relative of former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein and a former Iraqi army officer, was kidnapped from his house by gunmen on Monday in Tikrit, 175 km (110 miles) north of Baghdad, police said.
BAGHDAD - Bashar Shnawa Gaber, a senior member of the Shi'ite Dawa party, was shot dead in Baghdad on Monday, his party said.
BAGHDAD - Saad Albana, a senior official in the Housing and Reconstruction Ministry, was kidnapped from his home in Baghdad on Tuesday, police said. alertnet.org/

This still from video footage, released by German TV broadcaster ARD, shows a kidnapped German woman, blindfolded third from left, her driver, second rom right, and her captors. A previously unknown group has claimed responsibility.

Photos show German hostage
By Robert H. Reid - November 29, 2005 - Associated Press - BAGHDAD, Iraq – Al-Jazeera broadcast an insurgent video Tuesday showing four peace activists taken hostage in Iraq, with a previously unknown group claiming responsibility for the kidnappings.
The Swords of Righteousness Brigade said the four were spies working undercover as Christian peace activists, Al-Jazeera said. The station said it could not verify any of the information on the tape. The aid group Christian Peacemaker Teams has confirmed that four of its members were taken hostage Saturday.
German TV broadcast photos Tuesday showing a blindfolded German woman being led away by armed captors in Iraq. Six Iranian pilgrims, meanwhile, were abducted by gunmen north of Baghdad. The pictures of Susanne Osthoff were taken from a video in which her captors demanded that Germany stop any dealings with Iraq's government, according to Germany's ARD television. Germany has ruled out sending troops to Iraq and opposed the U.S.-led war.

Two U.S. soldiers assigned to Task Force Baghdad were killed when their patrol was hit by a roadside bomb north of the capital, the U.S. command said. At least 2,109 members of the U.S. military have died since the war began in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count.
A suicide car bomber killed eight Iraqi soldiers and wounded five more when he drove into an army patrol Tuesday in Tarmiyah, 30 miles north of Baghdad, police Lt. Ali Hussein said. A U.S. Army medical helicopter helped evacuate the wounded, he added.
President Bush told reporters in El Paso, Texas, he would make decisions about U.S. troop levels in Iraq based on the advice of his military commanders. "If they tell me the Iraqis are ready to take more and more responsibility and that we'll be able to bring some Americans home, I will do that," the president said. "It's their recommendation."
Lt. Gen. Martin Dempsey, who manages the training of Iraqi security forces, told National Public Radio on Tuesday that 212,000 people in the police and army are trained and equipped, although he suggested that more needed to be done.
"Now you know they lack some capabilities that we still have to provide them and will continue to have to provide them for a period of time," Dempsey said. "They're short officers because we brought in some senior officers, and we grew some junior leaders but not enough. They require about 8,000 junior leaders and they're hovering just now about 4,500 or so." "We're focused very carefully now on logistics, communications and the generation of an officer corps," he said.
Iraq was rocked by a wave of foreigner kidnappings and beheadings in 2004 and early 2005, but they have dropped off in recent months as many Western groups have left and security precautions for those who remain have tightened. Insurgents, including al-Qaeda in Iraq, seized more than 225 people, killing at least 38 – including three Americans.
The video on Al-Jazeera showed four men and a British passport belonging to Norman Kember. The British government and the Christian Peacemaker Teams have both said Kember, a 74-year-old Briton, was among the four activists taken hostage. Christian Peacemaker Teams said it would not identify the other three for their protection.
"In the interests of their safety our Iraq team needs that space to locate them," group spokesman Rebecca Johnson said. "The communication that may be coming from us does not help them to locate them."
A white-haired man shown in the passport photograph also was seen sitting on the floor next to three other men in the video, which had a date stamp indicating it was recorded Sunday. The corner of the video showed two crossed black swords and the name of the insurgent group written in red Arabic script. Christian Peacemaker Teams issued a statement saying the four were working on behalf of Iraqi civilians. The group said it has had a team in Iraq since October 2002, working with U.S. and Iraqi detainees and training others in nonviolent intervention and human rights documentation.
Kember and another person were part of a visiting delegation, while two members of the group's Iraq-based staff also were taken, the statement said. The group said on its Web site that it was founded in the mid-1980s and is supported by Mennonite Church USA, Mennonite Church Canada, Church of the Brethren and Friends United Meeting. It places teams of trained peacemakers in crisis situations and militarized areas, and those teams work with civilians to document abuses and develop nonviolent alternatives to war. The group said the team in Iraq was working on documenting detainee abuses, referring Iraqis to human rights organizations and accompanying Iraqi civilians as they interact with coalition troops and Iraqi government officials.
Kember, a retired professor, is a longtime peace activist who once fretted publicly that he was taking the easy way out by protesting in safety at home while British soldiers risked their lives in Iraq.
The U.S. Embassy has confirmed that an American is missing in Iraq – presumably one of the aid workers. A Canadian official has said two Canadians were in the group. The statement said those taken hostage knew the risks when they went to Iraq. The organization said it "does not advocate the use of violent force to save our lives should we be kidnapped, held hostage, or caught in the middle of a conflict situation."
In Barcelona, Spain, British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said he had contacted Iraqi Foreign Minister Hohshyar Zebari about Kember's abduction, and that Zebari "pledged every assistance from the Iraqi government." Osthoff and her driver have been missing since Friday and, "according to current information, we have to assume it is a kidnapping," German Chancellor Angela Merkel said in Berlin. She added that the Foreign Ministry has set up a crisis team to help secure the pair's release. "The German government will do everything in its power to bring both back to safety," Merkel said.
Osthoff, 43, is a fluent Arab speaker and a trained archaeologist who has worked since 1998 for the Munich-based management consulting firm FaktorM, which said on its Web site that she has "organized and supported the distribution of aid goods in Iraq since 1991." She was in Iraq working to help German organizations distribute medicine and medical supplies.
"One can only hope and keep their fingers crossed and remain optimistic," her mother, Ingrid Hala, told Germany N24 news station.
Hala said she had not heard from her daughter for about five years, and her uncle, Peter Osthoff, said his niece had broken almost all ties with her family, including a daughter who will be 12 in December. "She has almost no contact with any relatives," he told the AP.
Germany's Central Council of Muslims called for Osthoff's immediate release.
The Iranian pilgrims were abducted Tuesday near Balad, 50 miles north of Baghdad, police Maj. Falah Mohammedawi said, but it was not clear if the six were going to or coming from Samarra, a central city that houses a shrine to two Shiite saints. Iraq and Iran, predominantly Shiite countries, reached an agreement earlier this year on pilgrim visits, which excludes trips to Shiite shrines in Baghdad and Samarra because of the dangerous security situation. The pilgrims appear to have been violating that agreement.
Insurgents have kidnapped aid workers, journalists and contractors in an attempt to drive foreigners out of the country or to win large ransoms. Since May, abductions have fallen off considerably, mainly because many Western groups left Iraq and security precautions for those remaining have been tightened, with foreigners staying in barricaded compounds and moving only in heavily guarded convoys.
The last American to be kidnapped was Jeffrey Ake, a contract worker from LaPorte, Ind., who was abducted April 11. He was seen in a video aired days afterward, held with a gun to his head, but there has been no word on his fate. - signonsandiego