Archive for the week ending 14th March 2008
Brits kill civilians in Afghanistan
Four Afghan civilians have been killed and one injured in an airstrike called in by British forces, the Ministry of Defence said. It is understood two women and two children died in the incident in Helmand Province, southern Afghanistan, on Tuesday.
A spokeswoman said British troops called in air support after being caught in a Taliban ambush at an undisclosed location in the southern part of the war-ravaged province. The four bodies and one injured person were found as soldiers went to inspect the area.
Press Association, 13/3/08
Racist Iraq veteran fined
An Iraq war veteran, due to fight in Afghanistan, has been fined for shouting racist abuse. Thomas McFarlane, 20, from Grangemouth, boasted that he was "going to kill Pakis" just weeks before his next tour of duty.
Falkirk Sheriff Court was told that McFarlane had received a commendation during his time in Iraq as a soldier with the Royal Regiment of Scotland. He is due to serve in Afghanistan for seven months starting in April .
BBC News, 12/3/08
Britain now regards Iraq as safe...
Britain now regards Iraq as safe enough for the return of failed asylum seekers currently residing in Britain, The Guardian reported on Thursday.
Citing an internal Home Office document, the newspaper said that 1,400 failed Iraqi asylum seekers currently given state support will be given three weeks to sign up to a voluntary return programme or find themselves stripped of British state housing and benefits.
A letter dated March 6 and signed by Claire Bennett, the deputy director of the case resolution directorate at the Borders and Immigration Agency notes that the interior ministry now regards travel to Iraq from Britain as "both possible and reasonable".
AFP, 13/3/08
...as security worsens in south...
Violence erupted once again in central and southern Iraq as heavily armed Shiite militia groups battle with police and army over control of residential quarters.
Most ferocious clashes are reported to be taking place in the Province of Wasit of which the city of Kut is the capital. Police sources in Kut say the Mahdi Army, the military army of the Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, has driven police forces from city.
Police and security forces have fled the city and are reported to be regrouping for a counter attack. Iraqi troops have asked for reinforcements but it is not clear whether U.S. occupation troops will interfere. Eight people are reported to have been killed and scores wounded in the latest fighting.
More acts of violence are reported in Basra where one of Iraq's top surgeons, Dr. Khalid al-Mayahi, was murdered in his clinic. Highways linking southern cities with Baghdad and each other are no longer safe particularly at night and a massive crackdown on lawlessness in Basra in which more than 5,000 police officers took part seems to have failed to curb violence.
Azzaman, Iraq, 12/3/08
...and violence returns to Baghdad
In just a week, Baghdad has seen a spate of suicide bombings that have killed scores of Iraqis and five U.S. soldiers - among 12 Americans who have fallen in the line of duty during the past three days in Iraq.
Suddenly, the city is feeling the unease of the period before violence eased partly as a result of the U.S. troop buildup, which is now coming to a close.
According to an Associated Press count, at the height of unrest from November 2006 to August 2007, on average approximately 65 Iraqis died each day as a result of violence. As conditions improved, the daily death toll steadily declined. It reached its lowest point in more than two years on January 2008, when on average 20 Iraqis died each day.
Those numbers have since jumped. In February, approximately 26 Iraqis died each day as a result of violence, and so far in March, that number is up to 39 daily.
Associated Press, 12/3/08
US denies access to UN torture investigator
The U.N. torture investigator said Tuesday that American officials are refusing him access to U.S.-run detention facilities in Iraq even though he has received credible reports that conditions there have improved.
Manfred Nowak, one of the global body's independent human rights experts, said Iraqi officials had agreed in principle that he can visit the country later this year. British officials have also agreed to let him visit detainees held by their forces, he said.
Nowak said he met Tuesday with Iraq's deputy minister for human rights, Hussein Jasim Al-Zuhairi, who repeated his country's invitation for the U.N. expert to visit.
But he was told by U.S. officials that American-run prisons in Iraq were not subject to international human rights law because of the ongoing armed conflict in the country, and as such were outside of his remit as a torture investigator.
Associated Press, 11/3/08
Bush: politics won't shape withdrawal
US President George W. Bush on Tuesday promised cheering supporters that he would not risk "reversible" gains in Iraq with a troop withdrawal plan tied to the November US elections.
"I want to assure you -- just like I assure military families and the troops -- the politics of 2008 is not going to enter into my calculation, it is the peace of years to come that will enter into my calculation," he pledged to a Christian broadcasters association.
Bush, his approval ratings slumped at near-record lows, pointed to US troop draw-downs scheduled to occur by July and denied that political pressure was playing any role in US force levels in war-torn Iraq.
"They're not coming home based upon defeat, or based upon opinion polls, or based upon focus groups, or based upon politics, they're coming home because we're successful," he said, to thunderous applause.
AFP, 11/3/08
US commander resigns amid Iran differences
The top US commander for the Middle East resigned yesterday, a step that seems to bear out reports of sharp policy differences on Iran between a hawkish White House and a uniformed military leadership opposed to military action.
In a statement issued in Iraq, Admiral Fallon blamed his departure on press reports of "a disconnect" between his views and those of the President. He was referring specifically to an article in the latest issue of Esquire magazine, which suggested George Bush was exasperated by the admiral's opposition to possible military action against Iran's suspected nuclear sites.
The article pulled no punches. "How does Fallon get away with so brazenly challenging his commander in chief?" it wrote in an article headlined "The Man Between War and Peace" - before answering its own question.
"The answer is that he might not get away with it for much longer. President Bush is not accustomed to a subordinate who speaks his mind as freely as Fallon does," the magazine said, "and the president may have had enough."
The military's argument is simple: that, particularly after last year's troop surge in Iraq but even before, US forces were stretched almost to breaking point. An attack on Iran would provoke Iranian retaliation in Iraq and elsewhere in the Middle East that the US could not cope with, and might lead to an fullscale regional conflict.
Independent, 12/3/08
Sharp rise in violence in Afghanistan
There has been a sharp increase in militant attacks in Afghanistan, according to a new UN report. UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said there were 8,000 conflict-related deaths in 2007 at an average of 566 incidents per month. That compares with 425 incidents per month during the previous year.
According to the UN report nearly a fifth of the 8,000 fatalities last year were civilians. Last month the US Director of National Intelligence, Michael McConnell, said that the Taleban controlled 10% of Afghanistan - six years after they were ousted from power.
BBC News, 11/3/08
British war costs double to £3.3 billion
A parliamentary committee warned Monday that Britain's military operations in Afghanistan and Iraq were likely to cost almost twice as much for the past 12 months as they did in the previous financial year, despite a drop in British troop numbers in Iraq.
Responding to a committee report that put this year's costs at £3.3 billion, the Defense Ministry said the rise was caused partly by higher combat bonuses paid to troops and partly by increased expenditure on "force protection," particularly new armored vehicles to protect soldiers from roadside bombs that have killed increasing numbers of British troops in Afghanistan.
The British war effort has tilted increasingly toward Afghanistan, where British commanders have deployed 7,800 troops, a figure that is set to increase slightly in coming months.
New York Times, 11/3/08
Worldwide opposition to action on Iran
Support for tough international action against Iran over its nuclear programme has fallen in the past 18 months, a poll carried out for the BBC suggests.
Public support for sanctions or military strikes has fallen in more than half of the countries surveyed, including in those where support for tough action was highest.
Support has dropped 10 points in Australia (from 52% to 42%), nine points in Britain (43% to 34%), and nine points in Germany (46% to 37%). Overall, only 7% of those questioned in the Pipa/Globescan poll backed the idea of military strikes.
Analysts said that assessment took some of the wind out of the sails of US and European-led efforts to increase pressure on Iran through UN sanctions.
However, the US government says it still sees Iran as a significant danger, and Israel says it believes it is aiming to build nuclear weapons.
They were two of only three countries surveyed in the poll where a marked majority backed sanctions or military action against Iran. The other was South Korea.
BBC News, 11/3/08
Raid on landmine removal fund
Money set aside to clear landmines and remove arms for conflict zones is to be raided to pay a private defence contractor to keep Tornado jets flying in Iraq, according to a confidential memo seen by the Guardian.
The ministry of Defence plans to pay BAE Systems from the multi million-pound Conflict Prevention Fund - which covers projects such as destroying weapons in Bosnia and landmines in Mozambique - to subsidise the £5m - £10m cost of servicing each of the six planes.
The move follows a cost-cutting plan which has backfired for the MoD because of increased military action in Iraq.
Guardian 10/3/08
Iraqi women demonstrate for rights
Scores of women rallied outside a Baghdad hotel on Saturday demanding an end to violence and equal social status with men as part of the observations of International Women's Day.
"Stop neglecting women. Stop killing women. Stop creating widows," read a large banner that the women, from various ethnic and religious backgrounds, held at the Babylon Hotel in Baghdad's central Karada neighbourhood.
Iraq's constitution reserves 25 percent of the country's 275 seats of parliament for women, though not all are currently filled because in some cases female candidates were unavailable.
A recent report by US-based Women For Women International said the state of Iraqi women since the March 2003 US-led invasion of Iraq has become a "national crisis."
According to the report, released Thursday, 64 percent of the women surveyed said violence against them had increased since the war.
"When asked why, respondents most commonly said that there is less respect for women's rights than before, that women are thought of as possessions and that the economy has gotten worse," it said.
AFP, 8/3/08
Water makes US troops sick
Dozens of U.S. troops in Iraq fell sick at bases using "unmonitored and potentially unsafe" water supplied by the military and a contractor once owned by Vice President Dick Cheney's former company, the Pentagon's internal watchdog says.
A report obtained by The Associated Press said soldiers experienced skin abscesses, cellulitis, skin infections, diarrhea and other illnesses after using discolored, smelly water for personal hygiene and laundry at five U.S. military sites in Iraq.
The Defense Department's inspector general's report, which could be released as early as Monday, found water quality problems between March 2004 and February 2006 at three sites run by contractor KBR Inc., and between January 2004 and December 2006 at two military-operated locations.
Associated Press, 9/3/08
Bush vetoes waterboarding bill
President George W. Bush on Saturday vetoed legislation passed by Congress that would have banned the CIA from using waterboarding and other controversial interrogation techniques. Lawmakers included the anti-torture measure in a broader bill authorizing U.S. intelligence activities.
"Because the danger remains, we need to ensure our intelligence officials have all the tools they need to stop the terrorists," Bush said in his weekly radio address. He added that the vetoed legislation "would diminish these vital tools."
Reuters, 8/3/08
UK pledges £3m Afghan food aid
The government has promised an extra £3m in new funding to help meet growing food shortages in Afghanistan. The money will be given to a joint United Nations and Afghan government appeal for £40m in food aid.
It will be used to alleviate malnutrition, particularly among pregnant and breastfeeding women. The International Development Secretary Douglas Alexander said the cash would provide a "safety net" that will help avoid a humanitarian crisis.
He said that the food shortage is evidence of the impact of rising global food prices hitting the poor hardest.
The £3m pledged by Mr Alexander brings the total amount of UK humanitarian aid to Afghanistan to £124m since 2001.
Since 2001 the UK has also spent £490 million on reconstruction and development in the country.
Last December, Prime Minister Gordon Brown announced a further commitment of £450 million to Afghanistan between 2009 and 2012.
BBC News 9/3/08
Bombing increase indicates long term problem
Thursday's double-bombing in Baghdad, which killed nearly 70 people and left hundreds more wounded, was the worst attack in Iraq since June 2007. It continues a troubling trend: a slow but steady increase in deadly bombings across the country. The troop surge is ending and the U.S. has begun withdrawing soldiers from Baghdad, but these attacks may indicate that a military or political solution to the Sunni insurgency may be as far off as it was a year ago.
The trouble is that the ground-level military solution may be in conflict with other government efforts to reduce the violence and foster stability in Iraq. The Karrada bombing came on the heels of a state visit by Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, and struck a neighborhood that is home to Iraq's largest Shi'ite political party and many Shi'ite government officials. The timing and location of this bombing may have been a coincidence, but Karrada makes a nice target for Sunni militants who frame their fight as a struggle against Iranian domination.
The long-term difficulty for the United States and the Iraqi government is that this suspicion of Iran is not simply a fantasy of radical Sunni insurgents. It is a very real fear of Sunni former insurgents currently cooperating in the fight against al Qaeda.
Former insurgent leaders routinely scorn the Iraqi government's intentions, casting it as a pawn of the Iranians. So, as the Iraqi government strives to reduce violence by improving its relationship with Iran, it may be setting the stage for continued conflict with disaffected Sunnis.
Time Magazine, 7/3/08
..but not according to US military..
The U.S. military said Sunday it does not believe a recent wave of deadly attacks in Baghdad reflects a trend toward an overall increase in violence.
Navy Rear Adm. Gregory Smith, the military spokesman, said a wave of horrific violence, including a single attack on Thursday that killed 68 people in Baghdad, must be placed in perspective.
You have to "look historically at what happened in the last year to put in perspective what has happened in one week or two weeks in Baghdad," Smith said.
Violence around Iraq has dropped by about 60 percent in the past nine months, due mostly to an influx of thousands of U.S. troops, a cease-fire called by Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr and a decision by tens of thousands of Sunnis to join forces with the U.S.
"On any given day, al-Qaida in Iraq and other extremist groups are still very much disposed to handing out violence indiscriminately," Smith said, adding that "I wouldn't look at the last two weeks as an increase or trend" toward rising violence.
AP 9/3/08