These are the archives for the week ending 13th October 2006
Iraq federalism law passed
Iraq's parliament on Wednesday approved a law that sets out the mechanics of forming federal regions, an issue Sunni minority leaders fear might tear the country apart in sectarian civil war. The law, backed by some Shi'ite majority leaders who have been keen to set up a big, autonomous region in their oil-rich south, was passed in a session boycotted by the Accordance Front, the largest political bloc of the Sunni minority.
Hostility between rival communities over federalism -- one of post-war Iraq's most sensitive issues -- is threatening the ability of the four-month-old national unity government to rein in mounting sectarian and ethnic violence. Legislators loyal to radical Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr and the smaller Shi'ite Fadhila Party stayed away from Wednesday's vote, showing Shi'ite support for federalism is not unanimous.
Reuters, 11/10/06
More than half a million excess deaths since invasion
A team of American and Iraqi epidemiologists estimates that 655,000 more people have died in Iraq since coalition forces arrived in March 2003 than would have died if the invasion had not occurred. The estimate, produced by interviewing residents during a random sampling of households throughout the country, is far higher than ones produced by other groups, including Iraq's government. It is more than 20 times the estimate of 30,000 civilian deaths that President Bush gave in a speech in December.
The surveyors said they found a steady increase in mortality since the invasion, with a steeper rise in the last year that appears to reflect a worsening of violence as reported by the U.S. military, the news media and civilian groups. In the year ending in June, the team calculated Iraq's mortality rate to be roughly four times what it was the year before the war.
Of the total 655,000 estimated "excess deaths," 601,000 resulted from violence and the rest from disease and other causes, according to the study. This is about 500 unexpected violent deaths per day throughout the country.
Washington Post, 11/10/06
Bonus for British troops
Britain has announced pay rises for its troops serving in Iraq and Afghanistan, in recognition of the ferocity of fighting there. "Our troops today ... are facing dangers and facing a type of conflict that a few years back they were unlikely to face, and I think it's important we recognize that," Prime Minister Tony Blair told reporters on Tuesday. The additional pay recognized the "exceptional dangers" troops were facing, he added.
"I am pleased to announce today that we intend to introduce a new, tax-free, flat-rate, operational bonus, which for a six-month tour would amount to £2,240," said Des Browne, who outlined the plan before the House of Commons and issued a statement on the Defense Ministry Web site.
CNN, 10/10/06
Iraq government locked in 'embrace of hatred'
Gatherings of Iraq's top politicians start with polite greetings and dinner. But once the after-meal tea is poured, they let loose: Sunnis and Shiites accusing each other of supporting death squads. Mistrust is deep in what was once lauded as Iraq's national unity government.
The tensions between them mount with each new tragedy - and it is even worse when the bloodshed becomes personal, as it did this week with the slaying of a brother of Iraq's most prominent Sunni Arab politician, Vice President Tariq al-Hashimi. Sunnis blamed Shite militias in the killing - the third sibling of al-Hashimi to be gunned down. The political leaders had been planning to meet to flesh out a plan to stop the sectarian violence, but now it will likely have to be put off a few days until tempers cool, Shiite lawmaker Bassem Sherif said Tuesday.
U.S. officials have said Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has only a matter of two or three months to show he can stop the violence that has left thousands dead and threatens to tip the country into civil war. U.S. Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice met last week with most of the party heads and gave them a blunt warning that the American public won't support a government torn by internal feuds. But al-Maliki has to find a solution at the head of a government which, many say, includes the killers themselves.
"The trust between them is destroyed," Hassan al-Shimari, a lawmaker from the Shiite Fadila party, said of the government's coalition of Sunni and Shiite parties. "Each side is afraid of the other, and in these meetings, the fear is increasing." Still, none of the parties is threatening to leave the administration. Instead, they are locked in an embrace of hatred.
International Herald Tribune, 10/10/06
'It's the Wild West out there'
The war in Iraq has killed at least 647 civilian contractors to date, according to official figures that provide a stark reminder of the huge role of civilians in supporting the U.S. military.
The death toll of civilians working alongside U.S. forces in Iraq compares with more than 2,700 military dead and, experts say, underscores the risks of outsourcing war to private military contractors.
Their number in Iraq is estimated at up to 100,000, from highly-trained former special forces soldiers to drivers, cooks, mechanics, plumbers, translators, electricians and laundry workers and other support personnel.
A trend toward "privatizing war" has been accelerating steadily since the end of the Cold War, when the United States and its former adversaries began cutting back professional armies. U.S. armed forces shrank from 2.1 million when the Berlin Wall came down in 1989 to 1.4 million today. "
At its present size, the U.S. military could not function without civilian contractors," said Jeffrey Addicott, an expert at St. Mary's University in San Antonio.
"The problem is that the civilians operate in a legal gray zone. There has been little effort at regulation, oversight, standardized training and a uniform code of conduct. It's the Wild West out there."
Reuters 10/10/06
Oil firms wait for new laws
U.S. oil companies are slowly building their relationships with the Iraqi government in anticipation of a new legal regime that will allow them to invest there, the Iraqi ambassador to the U.S. said Monday. "I see very strong interest from U.S. energy companies in Iraq," Ambassador Samir Shakir Mahmood Sumaida'ie told Dow Jones Newswires after a speech in Houston.
The passage of a new investment law in the next two or three weeks and a new hydrocarbons law "within this year" will create the right conditions for major U.S. investments, he said. Any reconstruction efforts would be impeded by a U.S. retreat from Iraq, Sumaida'ie said. A withdrawal "would create a security vacuum" and "would suck in regional powers," he said.
Dowjones Marketwatch, 9/10/06
British hire anti-Taliban mercenaries
British forces holed up in isolated outposts of Helmand province in Afghanistan are to be withdrawn over the next two to three weeks and replaced by newly formed tribal police who will be recruited by paying a higher rate than the Taliban.
The move is the result of deals with war-weary locals and reverses the strategy of sending forces to establish "platoon houses" in the Taliban heartland where soldiers were left under siege and short of supplies because it was too dangerous for helicopters to fly in.
Since taking command of the British forces at the end of July, Lieutenant-General David Richards has been looking for a way to pull them out without making it look like a victory for the Taliban. The districts will be guarded by new auxiliary police made up of local militiamen. They will initially receive $70 (£37) a month, although it is hoped that this will rise to $120 to compete with the $5 per fighting day believed to be paid by the Taliban.
"These are the same people who two weeks ago would have been vulnerable to be recruited as Taliban fighters," said Richards. "It's employment they want and we need to make sure we pay more than the Taliban."
Sunday Times, 8/10/06
US slams North Korean nuclear test
The United States proposed stringent U.N. sanctions Monday against North Korea, including a trade ban on military and luxury items, the power to inspect all cargo entering or leaving the country, and freezing assets connected with its weapons programs.
Those proposals were among several ideas for a Security Council resolution that the United States shared with council diplomats after North Korea reported it conducted a nuclear test.
n a brief statement he made in the diplomatic reception room of the White House, Bush said the United States was still attempting to confirm that a nuclear test had actually taken place. Still, he said, "such a claim itself constitutes a threat to international peace and security."
Bush said that North Korea was "one of the world's leading proliferators" of weapons technology, including transfers to Iran and Syria.
"The transfer of nuclear weapons or material by North Korea to states or non-state entities would be considered a grave threat to the United States," Bush said.
MSNBC news service 9/10/06
Iran-North Korea comparisons rejected
U.S. and European officials on Monday dismissed direct comparisons between the nuclear standoffs with Iran and North Korea, saying they were different problems and would require different solutions.
Western powers unanimously condemned communist North Korea's announcement that it had completed an underground nuclear test. The West suspects Iran too wants nuclear weapons, an allegation it denies, but officials stress the differences between the two countries.
"Iran is a democracy, however odious parts of the regime may be. North Korea is a dictatorship led by a man who people don't know very much about," said a source in Whitehall, seat of Britain's government.
Although President Bush has named both countries as part of an "axis of evil", a U.S. official who declined to be named said: "North Korea is a different case ... I don't expect our strategy on Iran will change. Iran certainly won't get put on the back burner."
Reuters 9/10/06
Wounded troops spread superbug in NHS
Wounded troops returning from Iraq have been linked by government scientists to outbreaks of a deadly superbug in National Health Service hospitals. Injured soldiers flown back to be treated on the NHS have been infected with a rare strain of Acinetobacter baumannii, a superbug resistant to antibiotics. Acinetobacter baumannii commonly inhabits soil and water and is associated with warmer climates such as the Middle East. It is resistant to most common antibiotics and, if left untreated, can lead to pneumonia, fever and septicemia.
At one hospital in Birmingham in 2003 the bacteria went on to infect 93 people, 91 of whom were civilians. Thirty-five died, although the hospital has not been able to establish whether the superbug was a contributory factor.
Sunday Times, 8/10/06
Bombings and shootings increasing in north
Bombings and shootings are increasing in Iraq's north as part of a power struggle between Arabs and Kurds. Car bombings in oil-rich Kirkuk grew fivefold last month and hundreds of Kurdish families have left the north's biggest city, Mosul, to escape the violence.
The creeping violence in the north - a region U.S. officials had hoped was getting more stable - underlines the difficulty in keeping all of Iraq's potential hotspots under control at once. It also suggests growing strains in another of Iraq's sectarian divides. Baghdad has been suffering from violence between Sunni and Shiite death squads. In the north, the tensions are between Arabs and Kurds, who claim Kirkuk as part of their autonomous zone of Kurdistan to the north.
The violence also has begun to take on the grisly nature of Baghdad's sectarian killings: In recent months, authorities in Kirkuk and Mosul have found bodies dumped in the city, their hands bound with signs they were tortured before their deaths.
Associated Press, 8/10/06
US casualty rate in Iraq worst since Fallujah
The number of US troops being wounded in Iraq is now at its highest level for two years as American forces are confronted by increasing sectarian violence and a continuing insurgency. Figures released by the Pentagon show that 776 soldiers were wounded in action in Iraq last month.
Some experts believe the number of wounded provides a better insight to the nature of the conflict in Iraq than the figure of 2,700 killed because - in relation to previous wars - many more wounded troops survive. The ratio of wounded to killed is 8 to 1, compared with 3 to 1 during the Vietnam War.
Anthony Cordesman, of the Centre for Strategic and International Studies, told The Washington Post: "These days wounded are a much better measure of the intensity of the operations than killed."
Independent, 9/10/06
Australians oppose war
Prime Minister John Howard on Monday vowed his government will keep troops in Iraq despite a new poll showing that most Australians support the major opposition party's policy of withdrawing the soldiers. The opposition center-left Labor Party is leading Howard's center-right coalition ahead of elections due late next year, according to the same AC Nielsen poll. The poll showed that 59 percent of respondents thought that Australian troops should be withdrawn and 36 percent said they should stay.
Australia sent 2,000 troops to support U.S. and British forces in the Iraq invasion in 2003 and 1,300 Australian troops remain in and around Iraq. Howard has vowed the troops will stay in Iraq as long as they are needed. However, Labor Leader Kim Beazley has pledged to withdraw all troops except those guarding Australian diplomats if he wins government.
International Herald Tribune, 9/10/06
Afghans could 'switch allegiance
' Nato's commander in Afghanistan has said the country's citizens may start supporting the Taleban unless their lives improve in the next six months.
Gen David Richards, a British officer, said the country was at a "tipping point", warning that up to 70% of Afghans could switch their support.
They might prefer the "austere and unpleasant" life under the Taleban to five more years of fighting, he said.
He was speaking a day after Tony Blair pledged full support for UK troops.
Gen Richards said: "If we collectively ... do not exploit this winter to start achieving concrete and visible improvement, then some 70% of Afghans could switch sides."
The British general wants about 2,500 additional troops to form a reserve battalion to help reconstruction and development efforts.
BBC news 8/10/06
Two journalists killed in Afghanistan
Two German journalists were killed by gunmen on the fifth anniversary of the US-led invasion of Afghanistan.
The two freelance journalists working for Germany's national broadcast outlet were the first foreign reporters killed in Afghanistan since late 2001, when eight journalists died.
A NATO soldier, meanwhile, was killed by militants who exploded a roadside bomb and fired on a military patrol in southern Afghanistan.
A suicide car bomber targeted a US patrol in eastern Afghanistan but caused no casualties.
The Hindu 8/10/06
US ponders cutting Iraq in three
An independent commission set up by Congress with the approval of President George W Bush may recommend carving up Iraq into three highly autonomous regions, according to well informed sources. The Iraq Study Group, co-chaired by James Baker, the former US secretary of state, is preparing to report after next month's congressional elections amid signs that sectarian violence and attacks on coalition forces are spiralling out of control. The conflict is claiming the lives of 100 civilians a day and bombings have reached record levels.
The Baker commission has grown increasingly interested in the idea of splitting the Shi'ite, Sunni and Kurdish regions of Iraq as the only alternative to what Baker calls "cutting and running" or "staying the course".
"The Kurds already effectively have their own area," said a source close to the group. "The federalisation of Iraq is going to take place one way or another. The challenge for the Iraqis is how to work that through."
Sunday Times, 8/10/06
Official: US was arrogant and made many mistakes
The US ambassador to Iraq, Zalmay Khalilzad, said yesterday that US officials had been arrogant and made many mistakes during efforts to rebuild Iraq after the 2003 invasion. "It's important to recognise that mistakes have been made over the last few years. There have been times when US officials have behaved arrogantly and were not receptive to advice from local leaders," he told Iraqi officials.
"We have made mistakes in the process of rebuilding Iraq," he said. "The path for success is clear. We are committed to helping Iraq stand on its own two feet," he added, speaking three-and-a-half years after US-led forces toppled the regime of Saddam Hussein.
The Peninsula, Quatar, 6/10/06
US army facing breakdown
Five years of warfare in Iraq and Afghanistan have left signs of wear and tear on the U.S. military, raising questions about its ability to sustain its current level of operations and confront potential new crises. The U.S.-led invasion of Afghanistan, ordered following the September 11 attacks, began on October 7, 2001, thrusting the all-volunteer U.S. military into combat that has continued unabated there and, since March 2003, in Iraq.
Many troops are facing second and third long combat tours and less time between overseas deployments. At the same time, the U.S. death toll mounts, with more than 2,730 troops killed in Iraq and about 280 more in Afghanistan.
"We're in the early stages of some sort of crisis that, if not addressed, will result in breaking the force," said retired Army Col. Andrew Bacevich, a military expert at Boston University. "You'd have to be remarkably naive to think that we're going to be able to continue to place this level of stress on the force for all that much longer."
Reuters, 5/10/06
Hoon unhelpful and evasive about rendition flights
Geoff Hoon, the minister for Europe, has been attacked by an international delegation of European MPs for evading questions about claims that Britain co-operated with CIA torture flights across Europe.
The MEPs accused the Government of breaking international law by failing to investigate claims that Britain was used for "extraordinary rendition" flights taking suspects to secret jails and countries which used torture. They criticised Mr Hoon for failing to answer detailed questions about allegations that nearly 200 flights stopped off in Britain during their secret missions.
The nine-strong delegation from the European Parliament accused Mr Hoon of being evasive when asked whether the Government knew of the flights, branding him one of the least helpful ministers they have interviewed during their investigation.
Independent, 7/10/06
4,000 Iraqi police killed in 2 years
About 4,000 Iraqi police have been killed and more than 8,000 wounded in the past two years, the U.S. commander in charge of police training said Friday, but he said the force's performance was improving and officials are working to weed out militiamen.
Associated Press, 6/10/06
GI death toll increases
Thirteen U.S. soldiers have been killed in Baghdad since Monday, the American military reported, registering the highest three-day death toll for U.S. forces in the capital since the start of the war.
The latest losses -- four soldiers who were killed at 9 a.m. Wednesday by small-arms fire -- are part of a recent spike in violent attacks against U.S. forces that have claimed the lives of at least 24 soldiers and Marines in Iraq since Saturday.
Washington Post, 5/10/06