Archive for the week ending 27th June 2008
US troops kill 8 Iraqi civilians
U.S. soldiers fatally shot three Iraqi bank employees Wednesday as their car passed a convoy near Baghdad International Airport, according to an Interior Ministry official and Yarmouk Hospital, where the bodies were brought.
The attack was one of two bloody episodes on Wednesday in which the American military and Iraqi officials offered sharply different accounts of what had happened.
In the shooting near the Baghdad Airport, one of the most tightly guarded locations in Iraq, the American military said "three criminals" fired at soldiers about 8:40 a.m. while their convoy was stopped on the side of the road.
Officials at the hospital identified the charred bodies of the dead as those of Hafed Abdul Mahdi, director of the bank at the airport, and Surur Shadid Ahmed and Maha Adnan Yunis, women who worked at the bank.
Hours earlier, an American helicopter fired missiles into a home near Tikrit, killing a family of five, local officials and a relative said.
The episode began when Afar Ahmed Zidan thought he heard thieves prowling near his home in the darkness, a cousin, Hussain al-Azawi, said. Zidan went outside and fired at them. But the men in the darkness turned out to be American infantrymen conducting a search.
They returned fire, wounding Zidan, who rushed inside and frantically called his cousin to alert him to what had happened. Then the Americans called in an airstrike that killed Zidan, his wife and three children, all under 10 years old, Azawi said.
International Herald Tribune, 26/6/08
Official: Britain could be in Afghanistan for decades
Britain's Armed Forces cannot go on running two major military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, the head of the Armed Forces has admitted.
The two wars have left the Forces "stretched beyond the capabilities we have," Air Chief Marshal Sir Jock Stirrup said.It is the first time the most senior officer in the British military has expressed such grave doubts about the struggle faced by troops fighting wars on two fronts.
Sir Jock admitted that Britain could faces decades more involvement in Afghanistan, which he called a "mediaeval" state lacking even basic government structures.
Daily Telegraph, 25/6/08
Bush administration OK's 'sovereign' oil deals
The Bush administration indicated Tuesday that it had no plans to interfere with negotiations between Iraq and several Western oil giants to boost crude production in that country, despite concerns by some Democrats that the deal could inflame anti-U.S. sentiments.
"Iraq is a sovereign country, and it can make decisions based on how it feels that it wants to move forward in its development of its oil resources," said White House spokeswoman Dana Perino.
"And if that means that our companies here in the United States can compete and win business, then that's for them and the Iraqis to decide," Perino added. "But I don't think the federal government of the United States needs to get involved."
The administration's position puts it at odds with Democratic Sens. Chuck Schumer of New York, John Kerry of Massachusetts and Claire McCaskill of Missouri, who warn that the deals could fan the perception that U.S. involvement in Iraq was motivated by oil.
Associated Press, 25/6/08
US trains 'Daughters of Iraq'
Female suicide bombers, who often slip through security checkpoints untouched because of cultural norms, are taking a more deadly toll than ever across Iraq. But the U.S. Army has created a solution with "Daughters of Iraq," a program that trains Iraqi women to find female suicide bombers.
Women carried out eight bombings in all of 2007, according to the U.S. military. Halfway through 2008, the number of female suicide bombers is 20. A suicide attack carried out by a woman on Sunday in Baquba killed at least 16 people and wounded another 40.
"Daughters of Iraq" is a spinoff of "Sons of Iraq," which employs Iraqi men to run checkpoints and is credited with taking much of the steam out of the insurgency.The goal of the women's program is twofold: to protect against female suicide bombers, and to provide much-needed income to Iraqi women with few chances for employment.
The women will work two or three days a month, making up to $300, an Iraqi military officer explained to applicants. In a community, where families struggle to survive, that's good money. The women come from small farming communities. Many of them are widows with numerous children and almost no income.
CNN, 24/6/08
Iraq security more fragile than Bush claims
Beyond the declines in overall violence in Iraq, several crucial measures the Bush administration uses to demonstrate economic, political and security progress are either incorrect or far more mixed than the administration has acknowledged, according to a report released Monday by the Government Accountability Office.
Over all, the report says, the American plan for a stable Iraq lacks a strategic framework that meshes with the administration's goals, is falling out of touch with the realities on the ground and contains serious flaws in its operational guidelines.
Administration figures, according to the report, broadly overstate gains in some categories, including the readiness of the Iraqi Army, electricity production and how much money Iraq is spending on its reconstruction.
And the security gains themselves rest in large part not on broad-scale advances in political and social reconciliation and a functioning Iraqi government, but on a few specific advances that remain fragile, the report says.
The relatively calm period rests mostly on the American troop increase, a shaky cease-fire declared by militias loyal to the Shiite cleric Moktada al-Sadr, and an American-led program to pay former insurgents to help keep the peace, the report says.
New York Times, 24/6/08
NATO shells Pakistan...
NATO forces in Afghanistan shelled guerrillas in Pakistan in two separate episodes on Sunday, as escalating insurgent violence appeared to be eroding the alliance's restraint along the border.
NATO officials said they had retaliated against rocket and artillery attacks launched by militants from sanctuaries across the border in Pakistan, where they operate freely. The insurgents' attacks, launched into Khost and Paktika Provinces, killed four Afghan civilians, at least two of them children, Afghan and NATO officials said. Casualty figures for Pakistan were not available.
The firing by NATO forces into Pakistani territory followed an American airstrike on a Pakistani border post earlier this month that killed 11 Pakistani soldiers. The Pakistani government denounced the strike, and the American government expressed regret, but it is still not entirely clear what happened.
New York Times, 23/6/08
...as Rice urges greater cooperation
The United States Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice, says threats by Afghanistan to pursue Taliban insurgents across the border into Pakistan are not wise.
Dr Rice is calling for cooperation between the two nations after Afghan President, Hamid Karzai angered Pakistan when he threatened cross-border action as a right of self-defence against Taliban forces.
She says it is probably not wise to talk about Afghan cross-border operations, and it's better Pakistan and Afghanistan cooperate on their respective sides of the border.Dr Rice says it is probably better that the respective governments deal with their own problems.
ABC Radio, Australia, 23/6/08
Britain uses vacuum weapon in Afghanistan
British forces in Afghanistan have used one of the world's most deadly and controversial missiles to fight the Taliban. Apache attack helicopters have fired the thermobaric weapons against fighters in buildings and caves, to create a pressure wave which sucks the air out of victims, shreds their internal organs and crushes their bodies.
The Ministry of Defence (MoD) has admitted to the use of the weapons, condemned by human rights groups as "brutal", on several occasions, including against a cave complex.
The secret decision to buy the Hellfire AGM-114N missiles was made earlier this year following problems attacking Taliban fortified positions.
The weapons are so controversial that MoD weapons and legal experts spent 18 months debating whether British troops could use them without breaking international law. Eventually, they decided to get round the ethical problems by redefining the weapons.
"We no longer accept the term thermobaric [for the AGM-114N] as there is no internationally agreed definition," said an MoD spokesman. "We call it an enhanced blast weapon."
The redefinition has allowed British forces to use the weapons legally, but is undermined by the publicity of their manufacturer, Lockheed Martin, which markets them as thermobaric.
Sunday Times, 22/6/08
Women and children suffer most in Iraq
Women and children have been hit especially hard in Iraq's refugee crisis, often forced to beg and in some cases turn to prostitution to provide for their families because so many men have been killed, a report said Friday.
A biannual regional survey by the International Organization for Migration paints a bleak picture of Iraq's estimated 2.8 million internally displaced people, or IDPs.
They often face eviction threats and insufficient access to food, clean water and health care despite recent security gains, the report said.But women and children who have been forced to flee their homes are particularly vulnerable because the men in the family have often been killed or abandoned them in a conservative Islamic society that generally doesn't value women in the workplace.
Women make up about half of the displaced population, surpassing the number of men in some provinces, including Baghdad. But they face difficulties finding employment and often are isolated because of their gender, it said.
Displaced children, meanwhile, have suffered from malnutrition and skin diseases due to a lack of clean water and sanitation, the report said. They also frequently lack access to education because they must work or beg on the streets instead of going to school.
AFP, 21/6/08
Cheney knew of US torture
A former military officer who served as chief of staff to former Secretary of State Colin Powell on Wednesday said Vice President Dick Cheney probably knew the U.S. military was using torture on Iraqi detainees at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and at prisons in Iraq.
Col. Lawrence B. Wilkerson's testimony before a House panel followed revelations this week that detainees were subjected to beatings and other aggressive interrogation techniques with the authorization of government attorneys.
"At what level did American leadership fail?" Col. Wilkerson said during a hearing before the House Judiciary subcommittee on the Constitution, civil rights and civil liberties. "I believe it failed at the highest levels of the Pentagon, in the Vice President's Office and perhaps even in the Oval Office."
Painful interrogation techniques were apparently authorized in a Feb. 7, 2002, order signed by President Bush that also said al Qaeda and Taliban detainees were not to be considered prisoners of war. The order was based on a legal memo from the White House counsel's office.
Washington Times, 19/6/08
Western oil companies return to Iraq
Four western oil companies are in the final stages of negotiating contracts that will return them to Iraq - 36 years after losing their oil concession to nationalisation under Saddam Hussein.
Exxon Mobil, Shell, Total and BP - the original partners in the Iraq Petroleum Company, which had a virtual monopoly on all oil exploration in Iraq from 1925 to 1961 - are in talks with Iraq's oil ministry.
Along with Chevron and a number of smaller oil companies, they are seeking no-bid contracts to service Iraq's largest fields. The deals, expected to be announced on 30 June, lay the foundation for the first commercial work for the major companies in Iraq since the invasion in 2003.
The no-bid contracts are unusual for the industry, and the firms are preferred to 40 other contractors from Russia, China and India.
The Scotsman, 20/6/08
Israel rehearses Iran attack
Israel carried out a major military exercise earlier this month that American officials say appeared to be a rehearsal for a potential bombing attack on Iran's nuclear facilities.
The scope of the Israeli exercise virtually guaranteed that it would be noticed by American and other foreign intelligence agencies.
A senior Pentagon official who has been briefed on the exercise, and who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the political delicacy of the matter, said the exercise appeared to serve multiple purposes.
One Israeli goal, the Pentagon official said, was to practice flight tactics, aerial refueling and all other details of a possible strike against Iran's nuclear installations and its long-range conventional missiles.
A second, the official said, was to send a clear message to the United States and other countries that Israel was prepared to act militarily if diplomatic efforts to stop Iran from producing bomb-grade uranium continued to falter.
"They wanted us to know, they wanted the Europeans to know, and they wanted the Iranians to know," the Pentagon official said.
New York Times, 20/6/08
Britain is world's biggest arms dealer
Britain was the world's biggest arms seller last year, accounting for a third of global arms exports, the Government's trade promotion organisation said.
UK Trade and Investment (UKTI) said that arms exporters had added £9.7 billion in new business last year, giving them a larger share of global arms exports than the United States.
"As demonstrated by this outstanding export performance, the UK has a first-class defence industry, with some of the world's most technologically sophisticated companies," Digby Jones, the Minister for Trade and Investment, said.
UKTI said that the figures were boosted by orders for Eurofighter Typhoon jets from Saudi Arabia, the world's biggest arms buyer, which has imported $31 billion (£16 million) in weapons over the past five years. There were also orders from Oman and Trinidad and Tobago for offshore patrol vessels.
The US is still the world's biggest exporter over the past five years, with $63 billion in total arms exports. Britain was second with $53 billion and Russia third with $33 billion.
The Times, 18/6/08