Archive for the week ending 15th February 2008
More British troops survive wounds
The government is sending army brain surgeons to Afghanistan for the first time to try to reduce lasting disability for soldiers who these days survive combat injuries that would once have killed them.
Defence officials said on Thursday improved body armour and better, faster medical care meant the ratio of wounded to dead in wars in Iraq and Afghanistan was higher than ever before.
But some survivors have been heavily brain-damaged or physically disabled.
"We have seen two dozen individuals survive when conventional medical wisdom said they would die,"Surgeon General Lieutenant-General Louis Lillywhite told a press briefing at the Ministry of Defence in London.
Currently, British troops in Afghanistan are treated by more general surgeons and doctors who have decreased death rates from the around one in four wounded that would traditionally have been expected to around half of that.
Britain has lost 174 personnel in Iraq and 87 in Afghanistan.
Reuters 14/2/08
Karzai could alienate Britons
President Hamid Karzai is in danger of alienating British public commitment to Afghanistan if he continues to make outspoken comments, a group of politicians said on Thursday.
Political relations between the two countries have "slightly soured" they said, after a series of diplomatic spats including criticism of British forces working to defeat the Taliban and helping in the country's reconstruction.
"There is a risk that the tone and timing of recent comments by the government of Afghanistan which are critical of the UK could undermine British public support for the UK's long-term commitment to Afghanistan," the International Development Committee said in a report.
Karzai has questioned some of the policies adopted by British troops in Helmand province and last month rejected Paddy Ashdown, the former Liberal Democrat leader and EU envoy to Bosnia, for the post of senior U.N. envoy.
More than 70 British soldiers have been killed in Afghanistan.
Reuters 14/2/08
Iraq deputies pass landmark bills
Iraqi MPs have made an breakthrough in parliament by passing three important laws after weeks of delays and brinkmanship between rival factions.
The legislation sets a budget, provides for a limited amnesty for detainees, and defines the relationship between Baghdad and local authorities. The third law is necessary before provincial elections can be held.
The move comes a day after the assembly was adjourned amid acrimony and calls for its dissolution.
Passing the bills had been among 18 benchmarks set by Washington to foster political reconciliation. US ambassador Ryan Crocker called them each "very significant accomplishments".
The $48bn state budget financed mainly through oil revenues was meant to have been agreed before the end of last year.
The amnesty bill will benefit many of an estimated 25,000 detainees held in US and Iraqi prisons, if they have not been charged with or convicted of violent crimes. A large proportion of detainees are thought to be suspected Sunni Arab insurgents who are held without being charged.
BBC News 13/32/08
UN seeks $265 million for Iraq aid
The United Nations issued an appeal for 265 million dollars (182 million euros) in aid to Iraq for 2008, warning the country is still suffering from a humanitarian crisis.
Four million Iraqis need food assistance while only 40 percent of the population has reliable access to safe drinking water, the UN said.
The bloody conflict that has gripped the country since the US-led invasion in March 2003 has only exacerbated chronic problems from the past two decades, it added.
The UN's emergency appeal hopes among other things to deliver food assistance to newly displaced people who cannot access their food rations. It also targets aid for health and nutrition, education, water and sanitation, housing and shelter, and protection.
According to the UN refugee agency, 4.2 million Iraqis have been displaced since 2003, including 750,000 who found refuge in Jordan and 1.4 million in Syria. Another two million or so are displaced within the country.
AFP 12/2/08
Britain threatens more military interventions
The foreign secretary, David Miliband, will today set out the clearest exposition yet of Labour's recast foreign policy when he will argue that mistakes made in Iraq and Afghanistan must not cloud the moral imperative to intervene - sometimes militarily - to help spread democracy throughout the world.
He will warn that the rise of China means that the world can no longer take "the forward march of democracy for granted", and that Britain must unambiguously be on the side of what he describes as "civilian surges" for democracy.
Guardian, 12/2/08
Afghanistan could become 'failed state'
Afghanistan could degenerate into a "failed state" if NATO were to pull out troops and abandon efforts to stabilise the country, British Foreign Secretary David Miliband said.
Miliband, who visited Afghanistan last week with U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, said "immense challenges" remained there and it was vital that Britain meet its commitments and some other NATO members increased theirs.
"It would help precipitate even more dangerous insecurity in Afghanistan (if the international community pulled out)," Miliband told BBC radio. If more effort is not made, Afghanistan risks becoming a "failed state", he added.
American-led forces toppled the Taliban government in 2001, but Taliban rebels launched an insurgency two years ago whose success has led Washington to call on its allies to send more troops to Afghanistan.
France has indicated a willingness to send more troops, but Germany has been adamant it cannot do more.
Britain, the second largest contributor to the 43,000-strong ISAF international peace force, is feeling intense pressure as its 7,000 soldiers - based mostly in southern Helmand province - battle increasingly fierce resistance and casualties rise.
"We do need the whole of the international community, including European countries, to step up," Miliband said.
Reuters 11/2/08
Russia writes off Iraq debt
Russia on Monday forgave Iraq's 12.9-billion-dollar debt, which dates back to the Soviet era, and expressed hope for a rise in investment in the war-torn country, ITAR-TASS news agency reported, quoting Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin.
The amount written off came to 93 percent of the total owed by Baghdad to Moscow.
AfricaAsia 11/2/08
Chill in US-Egyptian relations
Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak said Monday that a continued U.S. presence in Iraq would attract terrorists and threaten the security and stability of the Middle East.
The remarks, a sharp deflection from Mubarak's earlier backing for the American role in Iraq, come amid a recent chill in U.S.-Egyptian relations and the Egyptian leader's increasingly defiant tone.
That defiance stepped up after U.S. moved last year to put conditions on the US$2 billion in aid, including US$1.3 billion in military assistance, that Washington gives annually to Egypt, the second largest recipient of U.S. aid after Israel.
The U.S. Congress and Bush agreed to withhold US$100 million from Egypt until it stops smuggling, implements judicial reforms and curbs police torture, which human rights groups say is systematic. This has angered Egypt, historically the top U.S. ally among Arab states.
In turn, frustration has also grown in the U.S. over Egypt's inability to rein in the Palestinian militant Hamas and prevent weapons from being smuggled through border tunnels to the Gaza Strip.
International Herald Tribune 11/2/08
US challenges Europe over Afghanistan
Defense Secretary Robert Gates challenged the European military leaders and lawmakers Sunday to revive flagging support for the international mission in Afghanistan, warning that if members of NATO were no longer willing to shoulder the burdens of war equally, it "would effectively destroy the alliance."
Gates's comments to the annual Munich Conference on Security Policy were the latest attempt by the Pentagon chief to persuade NATO allies to send more troops to Afghanistan, especially in the southern part of the country where the fighting has been fierce and where the Taliban controls wide swaths of territory.
Gates said too many European countries have been content to participate only in less risky peacekeeping and training operations.
"Some allies ought not to have the luxury of opting only for stability and civilian operations, thus forcing other allies to bear a disproportionate share of the fighting and the dying," he said.
He repeated comments made in Washington last week that NATO risked becoming a "two-tiered alliance" if certain countries, which he did not name, continued to shy away from combat.
Such remarks have irked some NATO members, who say the Pentagon is unfairly blaming its allies for the inability to win a lasting victory over the Taliban and other insurgents.
Washington Post 10/2/08
Norway closes Kabul embassy
Norway closed its embassy in the Afghan capital Kabul Sunday because of "terror threats," a Foreign Ministry spokeswoman said.
Kristin Melsom said the embassy had been closed until further notice. She would not elaborate on the nature of the threats or how long the embassy would remain closed."It is too early to comment on that," she said.
Norway has been singled out at least twice by al-Qaida as a nation that should be targeted because of its deployment in Afghanistan and a previous deployment in Iraq.
Norwegian Defense Minister Anne-Grete Strom-Erichsen confirmed that Norway will add 200 extra troops to its 500 soldiers in Afghanistan with the deployment of special forces and helicopters in March.
Associated Press 10/2/08
Putin warns of new arms race
Vladimir Putin has used one of the last major speeches of his presidency to deliver a defiant message to the West, accusing it of unleashing a new arms race that left Moscow no choice but to retaliate in kind. Less than a month before presidential elections that his hand-picked successor is almost certain to win, the speech removed any lingering doubts that Russian foreign policy might become less aggressive after Mr Putin steps down.
Mr Putin went into overdrive yesterday, painting Russia as the victim of Western aggression and expansion, and promised a Russian response. He said Western countries spent far more on defence than Russia, and also returned to a theme he has raised many times before - that of Nato enlargement towards Russian borders. "We pulled out of bases in Cuba and Vietnam," he said. "And what did we get? New American bases in Bulgaria and Romania."
He also complained about US plans to build elements of a missile defence system in Poland and the Czech Republic. "They try to persuade us that all these actions are not aimed against Russia," he said, "but they have no constructive answers to our well-founded concerns."
Russia has previously threatened to deploy nuclear missiles in its Baltic exclave of Kaliningrad if the US goes ahead with its plans. Russia's annual defence spending has quadrupled since Mr Putin came to power and the Kremlin has announced a £100bn programme to modernise ageing military hardware.
Independent, 9/2/08
Sniper admits killing passing Iraqi
The former commander of a U.S. Army sniper team testified Friday that he ordered one of his soldiers to kill an Iraqi who had stumbled on their hiding place, saying that was the only way to ensure the safety of his men in hostile territory.
Sgt. Michael A. Hensley, who was a staff sergeant at the time of the killing last spring but was later demoted, gave his testimony on the opening day of a court-martial hearing a murder charge against Sgt. Evan Vela.
"I told Sgt. Vela to pull out his 9-mm (pistol) and 'crack it.' I told Vela to shoot," said Hensley, who was acquitted in November of murder charges in this shooting and two earlier killings but was convicted of lesser charges. He received immunity for testifying Friday.
When asked why he didn't kill al-Janabi himself, Hensley said: "Sgt. Vela happened to be the guy with the pistol. The Iraqi's head was at his (Vela's) feet. I would have gladly shot him myself."
Associated Press, 8/2/08
Attacks on pro-US militias double
Attacks on Iraqi security volunteers, who are given much of the credit for reducing violence in their country, have doubled since October, the U.S. military said Thursday.
The U.S. military says the rising number of attacks is a sign that Sunni Muslim militants feel squeezed by the grass-roots security effort, which has grown to include at least 70,000 members of so-called concerned local citizens groups who stand guard at checkpoints across the nation. In return, they receive $10 a day from U.S. military funds.
Los Angeles Times, 8/2/08
US forces exhausted by Iraq
The top U.S. uniformed military officer on Wednesday described a tired U.S. military force, worn thin by operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, and unlikely to come home in large numbers anytime soon.
Defense Department officials testified that the Bush administration's plan to withdraw some 20,000 U.S. troops from Iraq this summer will do little to relieve the stress on the Army and Marine Corps.
Admiral Michael Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told the Senate Armed Services Committee that the military was exhausted by the repeated deployments to Iraq.
Seattle Times, 7/2/08