These are the archives for the week ending 7th September 2007
More mercenaries in Iraq
The number of times that private security contractors working for the U.S. military fired warning or deadly shots at Iraqis nearly doubled during the past year, according to the U.S. military command in Iraq.
In the year ending May 2007, there were 207 reported incidents of private contractors firing shots, up from 115 during the same period the year prior, according to the Multi-National Force-Iraq. The incidents resulted in four deaths of Iraqis in separate shootings.
The higher numbers seem to follow the increased use of private security contractors to protect U.S. supply convoys. Contractors protect more than 500 convoys per month, compared with about 200 to 300 a month two years ago, U.S. military records show.
Shooting incidents could increase further. The Pentagon is considering using private security contractors to protect some convoys that are now protected by U.S. troops.
"That's part of a larger effort to look at ways we can use contractors' capabilities and allow GIs to go home," Air Force Maj. Gen. Darryl Scott said.
It's not clear whether all shootings are reported. Generally it is the responsibility of the contractors to report the incidents.
"It's based on an honor system," said Army Lt. Col. Greyce Powell, a Reserve officer who returned this year from a tour in Iraq where she was director for the national reconstruction operations center. "Nobody knows whether they are meeting the requirement or not," she said.
USA Today, 4/9/07
More than two-thirds think Britain is losing war
More than two-thirds of the British public think UK troops are losing the war in Iraq, a survey suggests.
Asked "On balance, do you think British troops are winning the war in Iraq or not?" only 12% thought British troops were winning.
The poll indicated support for an immediate withdrawal of forces - with 42% saying Gordon Brown should take all of Britain's troops out of Iraq as soon as possible.
Meanwhile, 27% of those surveyed believed British troops should remain for as long as the Iraqi authorities wanted them. About 22% said some troops should be withdrawn before the end of this year, with the remaining troops the following year.
On the issue of security, 20% thought British forces were making the situation better, 33% said they were making it worse and 37% believed they made no difference.
BBC News, 3/9/07
Gaoling the victims in Afghanistan
Afghanistan is building new jails for women. Though there are only 300 female prisoners now, that number is expected to grow.
Imprisoned for what are loosely described as "moral crimes", these women would qualify as victims rather than criminals under any interpretation of international human rights laws, including those to which Afghanistan is a signatory.
The UN women's fund (Unifem) found that 80 per cent of the violence perpetrated against women in Afghanistan originated in their homes.
According to the Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission (AIHRC), 60 to 80 per cent of marriages in Afghanistan are forced, some of them involving girls as young as six years old.
Subjected to sexual and psychological abuse along with violence in their marital home, many girls run away. And when they come in contact with Afghanistan's criminal justice system, instead of receiving any protection, they are seen as offenders and convicted.
Al Jazeera, 3/9/07
British may still be in Iraq for years
By withdrawing the main bulk of the fighting troops to the airport, some five miles outside the city, the British Government is no doubt hoping that it can keep future casualties to an absolute minimum.
But suggestions that the hand-over of Basra to Iraqi control will enable Britain to undertake a complete withdrawal of its troops next year are over-optimistic.
The 5,500 troops now based at Basra airport will still be used to support the Iraqi security forces in their attempts to control local insurgent groups.
And even if the Iraqis prove themselves capable of imposing order, the Government's long-term commitment to supporting Iraq's transition from dictatorship to democracy means that British troops are likely to remain in Basra for years rather than months.
Daily Telegraph, 4/9/07
Iraq seeks $1 billion foreign investment for plant
Iraq is seeking investors for a possible $1 billion upgrade of a petrochemical plant in Basra and may build a new $2 billion facility in the country's northern or central regions, an industry and minerals ministry official said Sunday.
The Basra plans involve a $120 million upgrade of the existing 500,000-ton-a-year olefins complex, which may be developed further by investing $1 billion into the upgrade, Iraq's industry and minerals minister Fawzi Al Hariri said at a conference in Dubai.
"We are in discussions with international players," Al Hariri said. Both projects would be offered on a 50:50 joint venture basis.
The new plant may be located in one of the three Kurdistan Regional Government provinces or in the Anbar province, Al Hariri said. However, the ultimate decision on the plant's location may depend on the security situation on the ground. Al Hariri said security-related expenditure may add between 10 and 40% to the cost of a project.
Dow Jones MarketWatch, 2/9/07
British troops leave Basra base
British soldiers began withdrawing Sunday from their last base in the southern Iraqi city of Basra, paving the way for fresh troop cuts and fueling worries about the security of the country's second-largest city and the surrounding region.
U.S. and Iraqi authorities have expressed concern that a broader British drawdown could jeopardize the region's rich oil resources and the land supply line from Kuwait to Baghdad and beyond. Some analysts also fear that British withdrawal could exacerbate a violent power struggle between rival Shiite groups in the sect's southern heartland.
Around 550 soldiers were leaving the downtown Basra Palace, one of deposed President Saddam Hussein's former compounds, to join 5,000 other personnel at an air base 7 miles away on the fringes of the city.
Defense officials said the withdrawal was going well but could take days to complete. The Iraqi military sent hundreds of reinforcements to the city to prevent Shiite militias and criminal gangs from expanding their influence once the British have gone.
Associated Press, 3/9/07
al-Maliki government 'plagued by corruption'
A US government report has reportedly found that Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's government is plagued by corruption and has quashed investigations of political allies
The draft report from the US embassy in Baghdad says Maliki's government is failing to stop officials from committing fraud and is undermining its own watchdog agency, preventing it from carrying out effective investigations
The government has withheld funds from the commission on public integrity, the country's anti-corruption agency, and in some cases the prime minister's office has quashed probes into politicians allied with the government.
AFP, 1/9/07
More than 1,800 Iraqi civilians killed in August
Civilian deaths rose in August to their second-highest monthly level this year. That raises questions about whether U.S. strategy is working days before Congress receives landmark reports that will decide the course of the war.
The top American commander, Gen. David Petraeus, is expected to cite security improvements when he and Ambassador Ryan Crocker submit reports on progress toward stability and national reconciliation to Congress during the week of Sept. 10.
However, figures compiled by the AP from police reports nationwide show that at least 1,809 civilians were killed across the country last month compared with 1,760 in July.
At least 81 American service members also died in Iraq during August - an increase of two over the previous month but well below the year's monthly high of 126 in May. American deaths surpassed the 80 mark during only two months of 2006.
Associated Press, 2/9/07
Border skirmishes in north Iraq
Iran has continued to fire shells into northern Iraq despite protests from Baghdad, threatening relations between the two neighbors, Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshiyar Zebari said on Thursday.
Iraqi Kurdish officials have complained about cross-border shelling since mid-August. Cross-border skirmishes also occasionally occur as Iraq's neighbors Turkey and Iran battle Kurdish separatist rebels operating from bases in Iraq's mountainous northeastern region of Kurdistan.
Baghdad says hundreds of people have had to be evacuated from border villages as a result of Iranian shelling. Kurdish PJAK guerrillas, who seek autonomy for Kurdish areas in Iran, are believed to shelter in the border area.
Reuters, 30/8/07
US policy 'intellectually bankrupt@
A second key British general has criticised US post-war policy in Iraq. Maj Gen Tim Cross, who was the most senior UK officer involved in post-war planning, told the Sunday Mirror US policy was "fatally flawed".
His comments came after Gen Sir Mike Jackson, head of the Army during the invasion, told the Daily Telegraph US policy was "intellectually bankrupt".
BBC News, 1/9/07
A social revolution in the south of Iraq...
The major players in the power struggle in the south are the Mahdi Army militia loyal to anti-American cleric Muqtada al-Sadr and the Supreme Islamic Council of Iraq, the country's largest Shiite political party and the patron of the Badr militia.
Security forces in the region are known to be dominated by supporters of the Supreme Council, led by Abdul-Aziz al-Hakim, whose family has been locked in a long-running competition with al-Sadr's family over leadership of Iraq's Shiites.
The rivalries boiled over into deadly clashes Monday and Tuesday in the holy city of Karbala during a major Shiite religious festival. Dozen of people were killed.
The deeper roots of the conflict may be found in the makeup of the protagonists themselves. Al-Sadr's supporters are primarily poor Shiites who gain from the services offered by the group and obtain a sense of empowerment through membership of the Mahdi Army.
In contrast, the Supreme Council is perceived as a magnet of middle- and upper-class Shiites and enjoying the endorsement of the wealthy and traditional clerical leadership.
"In many ways, the Sadrists are leading a social revolution," said Joost Hiltermann, Middle East director of the International Crisis Group, a respected research agency based in Brussels, Belgium.
"It is a struggle against the traditional political class and the wealthy merchants of the Shiite shrine cities who support the Council," Hiltermann said.
Associated Press, 31/8/07
...as US prepare to move in
The US military is ready to intervene in southern Iraq to quell any unrest as British forces prepare to pull out from their last base in the oil port of Basra, the Pentagon said Thursday.
Press reports in London suggest that the British departure and handover of security control to Iraqi forces may be imminent, although the official line is that it will take place before the end of the year.
US forces will not allow any security advances in southern Iraq to be abandoned, Brigadier General Richard Sherlock, deputy director for operational planning at the Department of Defense, told reporters.
As requirements on the ground dictate, "they will reposition forces with the battlefield geography in mind so that they don't give up gains that they've made in different areas, including in Basra and the south," he said.
AFP, 30//8/07
Force not enough to beat Taliban
Military force alone is unlikely to defeat the Taliban in Afghanistan, a top U.S. commander said Thursday, noting that most insurgencies end with a political solution.
Maj. Gen. Robert Cone, who is in charge of equipping and training Afghan security forces to take over from international troops, said the local units were making good progress, but declined to say when they would be strong enough to allow foreign forces to go home.
Violence is soaring in Afghanistan despite years of counter-insurgency operations by international troops and millions of dollars spent in equipping the country's army and police units.
"You can say you defeated them in a single campaign ... but again given the complex nature of this environment, they might be back again the very next year," Cone told a media conference in the capital Kabul. "I think the real issue is probably not a military solution in the long term."
Associated Press, 31/8/07
Congress report shows surge not working...
The White House is playing down a report by the investigative arm of the US congress which contradicts key Bush administration claims of progress in Iraq.
Portions of the draft report, compiled by the Government Accountability Office and due to be released next week, have been leaked to the media. Among its conclusions: the so-called troop "surge" in Iraq is not the success the Bush administration has claimed.
The sharply negative report says Iraq has failed to meet 15 of 18 benchmarks in military and political improvement. The assessment, first reported by the Washington Post, says the Iraqi government has failed to make constitutional changes, crack down on sectarian militias and provide combat-ready Iraqi army forces to support us troops.
Al Jazeera, 31/8/07
...as Malawi undermines Iraqi government
A mixed group of moderate Iraqi politicians is trying to rally support in parliament for a no-confidence vote that would unseat unpopular Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki. The effort is led by Ayad Allawi, a secular Shiite who served as interim prime minister of Iraq from June 2004 to April 2005.
It is unclear whether Allawi, who spends most of his time in Jordan, can muster enough parliamentary votes or popular support to be a viable alternative to al-Maliki. Allawi wouldn't say whether he wants to become prime minister if he succeeds in engineering al-Maliki's ouster.
Allawi said any parliamentary move to push aside al-Maliki would likely not occur until after September. Gen. David Petraeus, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, and U.S. Ambassador Ryan Crocker are to deliver an evaluation of the Iraq war to Congress in mid-September.
USA Today, 31/8/07