Archive for the week ending 4th April 2008
More than 1,000 refused to fight in Basra
More than 1,000 Iraqi soldiers and policemen either refused to fight or simply abandoned their posts during the inconclusive assault against Shiite militias in Basra last week, a senior Iraqi government official said Thursday.
Iraqi military officials said the group included dozens of officers, including at least two senior field commanders in the battle.
The desertions in the heat of a major battle cast fresh doubt on the effectiveness of the American-trained Iraqi security forces. The White House has conditioned further withdrawals of American troops on the readiness of the Iraqi military and police.
New York Times, 4/4/08
Positive moment or fomenting civil war?
President Bush described last week's fighting as a "positive moment in the development of a sovereign nation that is willing to take on elements that believe they are beyond the law".
In reality, it amounted to US support for the promotion of a Shia civil war. There are depressing similarities with US policy in Palestine, where the US is arming and financing Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah movement against Hamas instead of working for Palestinian unity.
Guardian 4/4/08
Rape endemic in US forces
The stories are shocking in their simplicity and brutality: A female military recruit is pinned down at knifepoint and raped repeatedly in her own barracks. Her attackers hid their faces but she identified them by their uniforms; they were her fellow soldiers. During a routine gynecological exam, a female soldier is attacked and raped by her military physician. Yet another young soldier, still adapting to life in a war zone, is raped by her commanding officer. Afraid for her standing in her unit, she feels she has nowhere to turn.
These are true stories, and, sadly, not isolated incidents. Women serving in the U.S. military are more likely to be raped by a fellow soldier than killed by enemy fire in Iraq. Numbers reported by the Department of Defense show a sickening pattern.
In 2006, 2,947 sexual assaults were reported -- 73% more than in 2004. The DOD's newest report, released this month, indicates that 2,688 reports were made in 2007, but a recent shift from calendar-year reporting to fiscal-year reporting makes comparisons with data from previous years much more difficult.
At the heart of this crisis is an apparent inability or unwillingness to prosecute rapists in the ranks. According to DOD statistics, only 181 out of 2,212 subjects investigated for sexual assault in 2007, including 1,259 reports of rape, were referred to courts-martial, the equivalent of a criminal prosecution in the military.
Another 218 were handled via nonpunitive administrative action or discharge, and 201 subjects were disciplined through "nonjudicial punishment," which means they may have been confined to quarters, assigned extra duty or received a similar slap on the wrist.
Los Angeles Times, 31/3/08
200 killed in Basra raids
Iraqi security forces killed or wounded at least 900 armed men, and arrested 300 others, since the beginning of the military operations in Basra, an official of the Iraqi Ministry of Interior (MOI) said on Thursday.
"Security forces killed more than 200 gunmen, wounded 700, and arrested 300 others, since the beginning of the military operations in Basra," Major General Abdul-Kareem Khalaf, manager of the MOI's National Command Center told Aswat al-Iraq - Voices of Iraq
Voices of Iraq, 3/4/07
US at full stretch in Iraq and Afghanistan...
The U.S. military has too many troops tied down in Iraq to send needed reinforcements to Afghanistan this year, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs said Wednesday.
"There are force requirements there [in Afghanistan] that we can't currently meet," Adm. Mike Mullen said. "Having forces in Iraq at the level they're at doesn't allow us to fill the need that we have in Afghanistan." As of November 1, 2006, the U.S. had 147,796 troops in Iraq, according to the U.S. Department of Defense.
In making the statement at a Pentagon briefing, Mullen also appeared to dash hopes for any significant additional U.S. troop cuts in Iraq after last year's troop buildup ends this summer.
Conditions in Iraq are not likely to free up additional troops, he said, "and until forces become available with respect to that, I would not expect us to be able to provide additional forces to Afghanistan, which is also a priority."
CNN, 2/4/08
...and so is Britain
Gordon Brown has urged Western governments to do more to support the Nato mission in Afghanistan.The Prime Minister arrived at a Nato summit in Bucharest with a set of demands for allies to bear more of the burden of fighting the Taliban, a struggle that has claimed 89 British lives so far.
"What I want is a process of burden sharing," Mr Brown told reporters travelling with him to Bucharest.
Britain has 7,800 troops in Afghanistan. Senior British sources have not ruled out sending even more UK troops to Afghanistan, taking the total deployed above 8,000 for the first time.
However, the confirmation this week that it will not be possible to draw down troops in Iraq has limited British planners' room for manoevre.
Daily Telegraph, 3/4/07
Iraq troop reduction delayed
The number of British troops in Iraq will not be reduced as planned, due to violence in Basra, Defence Secretary Des Browne has told MPs.
Since October the government has cut troop numbers from 5,000 to 4,000. But plans for a further reduction to 2,500 have been halted, he confirmed.
During the weekend, forces became directly involved in fighting between the Iraqi army and Shia militiamen.
BBC News, 1/4/08
Iraqi death toll climbs sharply
The monthly figure of people killed in Iraq rose by 50% in March compared with the previous month, according to official government counts.
A total of 1,082 Iraqis, including 925 non-combatant civilians, were killed, up from 721 in February. March also saw an increase in bombings and intense fighting between Shia militiamen and government forces.
The number of deaths last month seems to confirm a trend of rising deaths due to violence. More than 1,800 people were killed in August 2007. This declined to 540 in January 2008, but the figure has risen steadily since.
BBC News, 1/4/08
al-Sadr shows he has power in the south
The Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr rarely ventures into the public eye. But he's never far from the minds of Iraq's leaders as one of the nation's most influential and wily political survivors.
It appears he has managed again to turn a potential blow to his advantage. Al-Sadr, who directs the powerful Madhi Army militia, was facing a possible stranglehold after Iraqi forces moved last week against Shiite gangs in the southern city of Basra.
Instead, al-Sadr emerged as a self-styled peacemaker and patriot after offering Sunday to rein in the Mahdi militiamen who rose up to protest the crackdown.
"Al-Sadr achieved what he wanted," said Vali Nasr, an expert on Shiite politics at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University. "He stood his ground, made his point and showed he has the real power in the south, not his rivals."
In the balance of politics in Iraq, that means the biggest hit is taken by the Shiite-led government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and its allies.
Associated Press, 31/3/08
Bush calls for more troops in Afghanistan
US President George W. Bush heads to Europe Monday to push NATO allies for more support in Afghanistan and to meet with his outgoing Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin.
Demanding more troop contributions from alliance members for the second front in the "war on terror," where failure would be seen as a personal blow, has emerged as a priority for Bush when he attends his final North Atlantic Treaty Organization summit April 2-4 in Bucharest.
Among the subjects to be discussed by NATO leaders are the military alliance's eastward expansion and US plans for a missile defense system in central Europe - both of which have strained US-Russia ties.
Facing accusations of neglecting the mission in Afghanistan to focus on the war in Iraq, Bush affirmed that "there is no better opportunity to deal with the threats of terror than in Afghanistan" and that he heads to Bucharest "to encourage people to take our obligations seriously."
His decision to commit an additional 3,500 Marines should "set an example and encourage others to participate," he told reporters.
Less than a year before he leaves office, Bush knows his reputation rests in large measure on success in Afghanistan. But experts say Bush's partners know his ability to force decisions has been considerably diminished as he nears the end of his presidency.
AFP 31/3/08
Moqtada al-Sadr calls for end to uprising
Moqtada al-Sadr, the radical Shi'ite leader, has ordered his followers to abandon a week-old uprising that humbled Iraq's government by exposing its tenuous grip on the country's biggest cities.
The Baghdad government has welcomed Mr Sadr's call on his Mahdi army militia to stop attacks on the security forces in Baghdad and Basra.
A spokesman for Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki suggested the focus of a crackdown on militia activity in Basra would be altered in the wake of the declaration.
The sudden return of instability to Baghdad after a year of security gains shook the confidence of political elite and even the US-led coalition.
Rockets fired from the Sadr City district peppered the Green Zone diplomatic enclave, turning the fortified centre of government into a citadel of fear.
The operation had threatened to drag British forces back into a combat role, something the Ministry of Defence was extremely keen to avoid. Major Tom Holloway, a spokesman for British forces at Basra Airbase, said efforts to support Iraqi operations had gradually increased over the past week.
The use of artillery and provision of logistic supplies was authorised by UK commanders. Army teams fired illumination rounds and smoke shells to enable Iraqi attacks on militia positions.
Maj Holloway refused to rule out a ground operation by British forces in future. "We're planning for a wide range of contingencies at the moment," he said. "It would be inappropriate to list those in detail just now." But officials warned British troops could still be forced to re-enter the city the Army withdrew from in September.
An American military statement revealed platoons of its special forces were operating in Basra in support of the Iraqi army.
Telegraph 31/3/08
Maliki launched attack to shore up political position
Mystery surrounds Mr Maliki's motive in launching an assault on the Mehdi Army after Mr Sadr renewed his six-month ceasefire last month.
A likely explanation is that Mr Maliki, who has little support outside the holy city of Kerbala, was under pressure from the Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq (ISCI), his main ally, to attack the Sadrists now.
The Sadrists were expected to do well against ISCI in provincial elections which are to be held in October under an agreement brokered by the US Vice-President Dick Cheney during his visit to Baghdad earlier in the month. ISCI wanted to crush the Sadrists before the poll and this would be easier to do before the US reduces the numbers of its troops in Iraq.
But, unless Mr Maliki's attack picks up steam over the next week, he will have done nothing except damage his own standing. Demonstrators have already been denouncing him as an American puppet and demanding that he go.
A measure of the anarchy in Iraq is that it is unclear who controls large swaths of the country. By one report the Mehdi Army has taken over the centre of the city of Nassariya. The Green Zone in Baghdad, the headquarters of the Iraqi government and of US political influence, is being mortared every day.
The Iraqi spokesman for "the surge", which Mr Bush has lauded as successful, was kidnapped by police commandos, who shot dead his guards before abducting him.
Independent, 29/3/08
British join Basra fighting
British ground forces today became involved in the fighting in the southern Iraqi city of Basra, firing artillery at a mortar team, a spokesman for the British army said.
The intervention, at the request of Iraqi forces, was the first of its kind in the current battles between Iraqi and coalition troops and militant followers of the radical Shia cleric, Moqtada al-Sadr.
Spokesman Major Tom Holloway said the firing, at a mortar team in the al-Halaf district of northern Basra, was successfully concluded, though details were not yet available.
British jets have been providing air support in the area but this was the first report of a ground engagement involving British forces.
Guardian, 29/3/08
Baghdad curfew extended indefinitely
Iraqi authorities on Saturday extended a curfew in Baghdad indefinitely in an attempt to contain clashes between Shi'ite militants and Iraqi security forces that have threatened to spiral out of control.
But in an indication that the violence was set to continue, Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr ordered his followers not to lay down their weapons, defying a five-day-old crackdown by Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, who has ordered them to disarm.
The latest violence has spread from the southern city of Basra through towns in Iraq's southern Shi'ite heartland and neighborhoods of Baghdad.
"Moqtada al-Sadr asks his followers not to deliver weapons to the government. Weapons should be turned over only to a government which can expel the (U.S.) occupiers," Sadr aide Hassan Zargani told Reuters by telephone.
Maliki has staked his authority on disarming Sadr's followers with a major military operation. But his forces have made little progress driving fighters from the streets and instead have provoked rebellion in towns across the south.
Reuters, 29/3/08
Iraqi asylum seekers beaten on return to Iraq
The biggest operation yet to return Iraqi asylum seekers from Britain to Northern Iraq ended in violence when some of those on the plane were beaten by guards on their arrival.
Iraqis on Thursday night's flight said security officers had boarded the plane at Irbil airport in northern Iraq and beat people who refused to get out of the aircraft. "The British security guards were also hitting people" said one man on the flight.
A number of those on the flight were apparently Kurds from Mosul, Kirkuk and Baghdad, despite British government assertions that enforced returns involved Iraqis from the Kurdistan regional government area further north in Iraq.
One asylum seeker, Hraz Hassan Mohammed said that as he and others were transferred from a detention centre in Dover to Stansted, four detainees managed to overpower the accompanying guards and jump out of the window as the vehicle was speeding along the motorway.
His solicitor, Gary McIndoe, said "These people are being rounded up, moved around the country and then loaded onto a plane as if they were livestock"
Guardian 29/3/08
American planes bomb Basra & Baghdad
US aircraft attacked Shia militia in Basra for the first time in the current round of fighting as intense battles continued between supporters of Moqtada al-Sadr and tens of thousands of Iraqi forces in a crackdown personally supervised by Iraq's prime minister, Nouri al-Maliki.
British troops, based at the city's airport, were kept away from the operation described by George Bush as "a defining moment in the history of Iraq".
American fighter jets dropped bombs on a mortar team and a militia stronghold in Basra, said Major Tom Holloway, a British military spokesman.
As protests spread across Iraq, US aircraft also attacked Sadr City in Baghdad, killing at least 5 civilians.
Defying a curfew, protesters again attacked the US-protected Green Zone in the capital with mortars and rockets.
British defence officials said they were carefully monitoring a "developing operation likely to take time". British forces were providing medical and logistical support and air survelliance, they said.
But they made it clear that the British government and military commanders did not want to intervene. "The operation was planned, implemented and executed by the Iraqis. We will only intervene if requested by the Iraqis" the MoD said.
In Baghadad, the Iraqi parliament called an emergency meeting but only 54 members of the 275-seat body succeeded in getting inside the fortified Green Zone.
Guardian 29/3/08