These are the archives for the week ending 18th January 2008
IMF sees bright future for Iraq...
Iraq faces a period of economic growth and political progress, according to assessments by the International Monetary Fund and the UN.
Mohsin Khan, director of the IMF's Middle East and Central Asia department, said Iraqi GDP growth would likely top 7% this year and hold at between 7% and 8% next year.
"Of course all of this is conditional on oil production expansion and the security situation improving," he said.
BBC News, 17/1/08
...as power down to an hour a day
The halt of Turkish exports of electricity to Iraq and a lack of fuel for power stations is to blame for the blackouts hitting Iraq's northern oil fields, the Electricity Ministry said on Thursday.
Turkish power producer Kartet said on Jan. 4 it had halted exports of electricity to Iraq after the country stopped shipments of fuel oil to the company's power plant near the border.
The power cuts have forced Iraq to stop pumping crude oil along its northern pipeline to Turkey and knocked out its largest refinery, at Baiji. Both Baiji and the Shuaiba refinery in southern Iraq, which was hit by a major fire on Tuesday, are out of operation.
The two refineries supply the domestic market with gasoline, diesel, cooking gas and kerosene. Iraq already suffers from chronic fuel shortages and has long struggled to meet existing local demand.
The loss of the two refineries deals another blow to local fuel supply. The power cuts have left many parts of the country, including the capital, with less than one hour of electricity a day.
Reuters, 17/1/08
Iraq's healthcare left in disarray
The full extent of the destruction of Iraq's healthcare system and the devastating impact it has had on its people is documented today in a new report which indicts the allied invasion force for failing in its duty to protect medical institutions and staff.
The report, by an independent team of researchers and advisers from Iraq, the UK, the US and elsewhere, says the provision of healthcare "has become increasingly difficult" since the invasion.
"Doctors and nurses have emigrated en masse, exacerbating existing staff shortages.
"The health system is in disarray owing to the lack of an institutional framework, intermittent electricity, unsafe water, and frequent violations of medical neutrality."
The report, by the organisation Medact, tells how patients now have to pay bribes to get into hospital.
Medact, an organisation of health professionals that exists to highlight the consequences of war, poverty and other threats to global health, says the occupying powers had a duty under the Geneva convention to protect health services even after the establishment of the interim Iraqi government in 2004.
"Yet these rules and obligations have been routinely ignored".
Health facilities, it says, were not protected during and after the invasion. Reconstruction contracts were more often awarded to the private sector than to expert health bodies.
The report makes a number of recommendations for the future, including giving Iraqis the leadership role in the reconstruction of their health services.
Guardian 16/1/08
US attacks UK militia plan
The US general in charge of training the Afghan police has criticised British-backed plans to arm local militias in an attempt to defeat the Taliban.
The remarks by Maj-Gen Robert Cone, the second most senior US soldier in Afghanistan, are likely to deepen the row between London and Washington over how to counter the insurgency.
General Cone, who is in charge of rebuilding the Afghan police force, is the second US commander to condemn the initiative. He said: "Anything that detracts from a professional, well-trained, well-led police force is not the answer."
Last month, Gordon Brown said Britain would increase its support for "community defence initiatives, where local volunteers are recruited to defend homes and families modelled on traditional Afghan arbakai".
The arbakai system involves arming untrained Afghani men, who agree to come running at the beating of a drum if their village elders feel threatened.
Independent, 14/1/08
Iraq minister's convoy kills 5 children
Five school children were killed Tuesday after being struck by a car in the convoy of a top judicial official during a chaotic gunbattle with checkpoint guards, police and hospital officials said.
The children, ages 6 to 10, were hit by the car during an exchange of gunfire between the official's security team and Iraqi police who opened fire after the convoy failed to stop at a checkpoint in central Baghdad.
Bosho Ibrahim, Iraq's deputy justice minister, said the convoy carried Midhat al-Mahmoud, president of the Supreme Judicial council, the country's top legal oversight agency.
Associated Press, 16/1/08
US in Iraq until at least 2018
The Iraqi defense minister said Monday that his nation would not be able to take full responsibility for its internal security until 2012, nor be able on its own to defend Iraq's borders from external threat until at least 2018.
Those comments from the minister, Abdul Qadir, were among the most specific public projections of a timeline for the American commitment in Iraq by officials in either Washington or Baghdad. And they suggested a longer commitment than either government had previously indicated.
Pentagon officials expressed no surprise at Mr. Qadir's projections, which were even less optimistic than those he made last year.
President Bush has never given a date for a military withdrawal from Iraq but has repeatedly said that American forces would stand down as Iraqi forces stand up.
Given Mr. Qadir's assessment of Iraq's military capabilities on Monday, such a withdrawal appeared to be quite distant, and further away than any American officials have previously stated in public.
New York Times, 15/1/08
More US troops to Afghanistan
America will send another 3,200 Marines to Afghanistan, pushing the number of US troops in the country to its highest number since the fall of Kabul in 2001.
President George W Bush has approved the widely-expected move to increase America's current 26,000 troops in Afghanistan by 10 per cent.
About half of the US troops currently serve under the 40,000-strong Nato-led International Security Assistance Force (Isaf) US defence officials requested the extra troops to thwart an expected offensive by Taliban militants as the snow melts in coming months.
Violence has surged in Afghanistan over the past two years, with Taliban hardliners fighting a guerrilla war in the south and east and carrying out high-profile suicide and car bombings across the country.
The troop expansion follows months of US efforts to persuade Nato allies to provide extra combat forces. Analysts said the move suggests the Bush administration had accepted that Nato would not provide large numbers of extra combat forces.
Telegraph 15/1/08
Sunni - Shiite parliamentary agreement
Parliamentary blocs representing Sunnis, Shiites and independents on Sunday signed on to a common platform stressing the need for Iraqi national unity and central control over oil reserves.
The blocs, should they come together as is expected in a new political alliance, would be a dominant force in the 275-member parliament, with a total of more than 100 seats.
Among those who signed the statement of common understanding are the movement of radical Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, the secular Iraqi National List of former prime minister Iyad Allawi and Sunni leader Salah al-Mutlak's National Dialogue Front, a joint statement said.
The statement expressed "deep concern at individual acts without reference to central government, such as the signing of contracts with foreign companies" -- an allusion to Iraq's autonomous Kurdish region, which has signed 15 crude oil contracts with 20 foreign concerns since August.
The parties also came out in support of a political agreement over the future of northern oil city of Kirkuk, rather than a promised referendum that had been due to be held last year.
AFP, 13/1/08
Afghan fighting more intense than previously admitted
The intensity of fighting in Afghanistan is laid bare today in new figures which reveal that almost four million bullets have been fired by British Forces in less than a year - almost double the number previously reported.
The Ministry of Defence has been forced to admit it misled Parliament over the huge amount of ammunition used, after an accounting error.
Opposition politicians said the revelation that almost four million rounds had been fired in Helmand province in less than a year told of fighting "of much higher intensity" than had previously been revealed.
The Tories said the figures contradicted Des Browne's statement to the Commons that the "security situation in Afghanistan is stable if fragile in places".
Sunday Telegraph, 13/1/08
Sharp rise in killings by veterans
A survey of public records by The New York Times found at least 121 U.S. veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan committed a killing or were charged with one after returning home from duty.
The Times said the numbers indicated a nearly 90 percent increase in homicides involving active-duty military personnel and new veterans for the six-year period since the 2001 invasion of Afghanistan.
Saying its research likely uncovered only the minimum number of such cases, the Times found three-quarters of the veterans charged were still in the military at the time of the killings, more than half of which involved guns.
The Times said about one-third of the victims were spouses, girlfriends, children or other relatives, while some 25 percent were fellow service members.
Reuters, 12/1/08
Bush: Iraq withdrawal may slow...
In a development that could have an impact on the US presidential race, President George Bush said yesterday that the US could slow the pace of troop withdrawals from Iraq if commanders on the ground considered it necessary.
Mr Bush, speaking in Kuwait after meeting General David Petraeus, the senior US commander in Iraq, and Ryan Crocker, the American ambassador in Baghdad, said further reductions this year, beyond the 30,000 already announced, would depend on what the general recommended. He and Mr Crocker are due to report to Congress in March.
"My attitude is, if he [Gen Petraeus] didn't want to continue the drawdown, that's fine with me, in order to make sure we succeed," Mr Bush said after the meeting. "I said to the general, 'If you want to slow her down, fine. It's up to you.'"
But in an election year, such a proposal could have a tough time in Congress. Iraq is the main reason for Mr Bush's record unpopularity in the polls, and Democrats have been pushing hard, so far unsuccessfully, for faster and deeper troop cuts.
Independent, 13/1/08
...and occupation could 'easily' last ten years...
U.S. President George W. Bush said on Friday the United States would have a long-term presence in Iraq that could "easily" last a decade, but that it would be at the invitation of the Iraqi government.
Bush was asked about recent comments by Republican presidential hopeful Sen. John McCain that it would be fine with him to have a U.S. military presence in Iraq for 100 years.
"That's a long time," Bush replied, adding that there "could very well be" a long-term U.S. presence in Iraq at the invitation of the government in Baghdad. When asked if it could be 10 years, Bush replied: "It could easily be that, absolutely."
Reuters, 11/1/08
...while Britain could be in Afghanistan for 'decades'
Britain could be engaged in Afghanistan for decades, Defence Secretary Des Browne has indicated. His comments were the most explicit sign yet from the Government that the UK's commitments in the war-torn country may last more than 20 years.
While military figures in Afghanistan have previously suggested that the efforts there will take decades, ministers have only stressed the "long-term" nature of the commitment.
On a visit to Kabul last month, Prime Minister Gordon Brown pledged support over "the next few years", taken as a sign that troops could remain for a decade.
Press Association, 13/1/08
Iraq still faces displacement crisis
Iraq is still facing a serious displacement crisis with more than 2.4 million people internally displaced and some 2 million living in neighboring countries, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) said on Friday.
In a latest report, the IOM said that displacement rates in Iraq slowed in 2007 with increased numbers of internally displaced persons (IDPs) and refugees returning to their places of origin. But the returns remain very limited and in Baghdad represent only 8 percent of the overall number of displaced Iraqis, it said.
"The prolonged nature of the displacement crisis is increasing the plight of displaced families," said Dana Graber Ladek, the IOM's Iraq displacement specialist. "Many can no longer afford to pay for even substandard shelter and have little access to basic services, such as clean water, sanitation and electricity," she said.
According to the report, only 22 percent of internally displaced Iraqis have access to regular food distributions. This, with inadequate shelter and poor services are a major cause of chronic health problems and malnutrition among women, children and the elderly.
The availability and quality of healthcare in Iraq had dramatically deteriorated in 2007 due to the continued exodus of qualified professionals, severe shortage of medical equipment and damaged infrastructures, the report said.
Xinhua, 11/1/08
Lower ranks carry can for Abu Ghraib abuse
The only US army officer to be charged over the Iraq jail abuse scandal has been cleared of any wrongdoing by the US military authorities. Eleven lower-ranking soldiers have been convicted of carrying out abuses at Abu Ghraib - with sentences ranging from a few hours of community service to up to 10 years in prison.
The decision to clear the officer has angered human rights campaigners. They say the US military failed to investigate those further up the chain of command over the Abu Ghraib scandal, despite promising to do so.
"It could not be more clear that prisoner abuse in Iraq and Afghanistan resulted from policies and practices authorised by high-level officials, including military and civilian leaders," said Hira Shamsi, of the National Security Project of the American Civil Liberties Union.
"Although the abuse was systemic and widespread, the accountability for it has been anything but."
BBC News, 11/1/08
More US troops to Afghanistan
The US is planning to send 3,000 more troops to Afghanistan to forestall a possible spring offensive by the Taliban, as Washington's efforts to persuade its European allies to cover shortfalls in Nato forces have proved largely fruitless.
The move would respond to a long-standing request from Nato for a further three manoeuvre battalions for Afghanistan, but would still leave the alliance's Nato commander short of two fighting battalions.
The marine battlegroup would join British, Canadian, Dutch and other US troops in the south of the country, which has seen some of the fiercest fighting in recent years. The aim would be to thwart a possible onslaught by Taliban insurgents during the spring following the traditional winter lull in fighting
"Our allies are not in a position to provide [more troops], so we are now looking at perhaps carrying a bit of that additional load," Geoff Morrell, Pentagon press secretary, told reporters.
Financial Times, 11/1/08