These are the archives for the week ending 29th June 2007
Turkish military push Iraq attack
The head of the Turkish armed forces has repeated his view that a military incursion into northern Iraq would help to defeat Kurdish rebels based there.
General Yasar Buyukanit told reporters at a news conference that the military needed guidelines from the government for any such cross-border operation. Gen Buyukanit's comments put pressure on Turkey's government to allow a military operation, just weeks before parliamentary polls in which security and terrorism issues will be high on the agenda.
Political analysts say the generals are trying to portray the Islamist-rooted ruling AK Party as weak on terrorism. But any incursion would strain relations with Washington and Iraq, which oppose unilateral Turkish action.
BBC News, 27/6/06
NATO won't change airstrike policy despite civilian deaths
NATO's force in Afghanistan said Wednesday it did not plan to change its use of air power against the Taliban, despite criticism about the number of civilian deaths.
"We are looking closely at our air operations, but it would not be something we would be looking to change at this point," International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) spokeswoman Lieutenant Colonel Maria Carl told reporters. This was "mostly from the standpoint that air offers us the opportunity to cover a lot more (of) that ground that we can't do with a limited number of troops at that moment," she said.
President Hamid Karzai on Saturday accused the NATO-led ISAF force and separate US-led coalition of killing about 90 civilians this month, most of them in air operations. Civilian casualties were not acceptable, he said.
Pakistan Times, 28/7/06
Record opium crop in Afghanistan
Helmand Province in southern Afghanistan, where some 7,000 British troops are based, is on the verge of becoming the world's biggest drug supplier, cultivating more opium than entire countries such as Burma, Morocco, or even Colombia, the UN warned.
The region was largely responsible for a huge increase last year in Afghanistan's opium poppy harvest, the origin of most of the heroin on the streets of Britain and mainland Europe.
And Helmand's poppy harvest is expected to increase again this year, according to the latest annual report of the UN office on Drugs and Crime.
The report will not be welcome reading for the British Government. Five years ago, Tony Blair said Britain would take responsibility for overseeing Afghanistan's anti-narcotics programme.
"Drugs and the insurgency are intrinsically linked" a British official admitted.
British military commanders, meanwhile, warn that attempts to eradicate the poppy crop without providing alternative incomes will simply increase hostility to foreign troops and increase support for the Taliban.
A US proposal to spray the poppy crop was vetoed by the Afghan president, Hamid Karzai.
Guardian 27/6/07
Pro-US Iraqis may meet in green zone
A U.S. military official said Tuesday that the U.S. government will consider hosting meetings of Iraqis opposed to al Qaida in Iraq inside the fortified Green Zone, one day after a suicide attack at a downtown Baghdad hotel killed Sunni sheiks who were considered crucial to a U.S.-backed effort to counter radical Sunni militants.
"We can't guarantee that (a suicide bombing of allies) won't happen in the future," Army spokesman Lt. Col. Christopher Garver said Tuesday.
"A suicide bomber with a suicide vest, if that's what it was, is hard to stop." Nonetheless, "You do what you can to mitigate those risks," Garver said. From now on, that may mean hosting alliance meetings inside the safer confines of the Green Zone.
McCLatchy Newspapers, 26/6/07
Arrest warrant for Iraqi minister
Judicial authorities in Baghdad have issued a warrant for the arrest of the Iraqi minister of culture on terrorism charges. Police raided Asaad Kamal al-Hashemi's house overnight and arrested at least six of the Sunni politician's guards.
The minister has been accused of giving orders for the killing in February 2005 of the two sons of another prominent Sunni politician, Mithal al-Alusi. Police believe Mr Hashemi is currently out of the country, in Jordan.
Mr Hashemi's party condemned the arrest warrant as part of the "marginalising policy against prominent Sunni leaders to push them away from the political process".
It warned the Iraq's Shia-dominated government to avoid "playing with fire by continuing the policy of fabricating lies to exclude Sunni politicians and officials from the Iraqi arena".
BBC News, 26/6/07
Iraq can't hold ground
American military commanders now seriously doubt that Iraqi security forces will be able to hold the ground that U.S. troops are fighting to clear - gloomy predictions that strike at the heart of Washington's key strategy to turn the tide in Iraq.
Several senior American officers have warned in recent days that Iraqi soldiers and police are still incapable of maintaining security on their own in the most crucial areas, including Baghdad and the recently reclaimed districts around Baqouba to the north.
Iraqi units are supposed to be moving into position to take the baton from the Pentagon. This was the backbone of the plan President Bush announced in January when he ordered about 30,000 soldiers to Iraq.
The goal is to reduce the violence to a level where the Iraqis can cope so that Americans can begin to go home. But that outcome is looking ever more elusive. The fear is that U.S. troops will pay for territory with their lives - only to have Iraqi forces lose control once the Americans move on.
Unless Iraqis can step up, the United States will face tough choices in months ahead as pressure mounts in the Democratic-controlled Congress
Washington Post 26/7/07
Africans snub US security base plan
American plans to create a military command in Africa to expand US security interests have met with a wall of hostility from countries reluctant to associate themsleves with the "war on terror."
Libya and Algeria told a US delegation they would play no part in hosting "Africom", and even Morocco, America's closest North Africa ally, expressed misgivings.
The state department conceded that America had a big image problem on the continent, where countries are reluctant to support the US becasue of hostile public opinion and concerns that American controlled facilities could become targets for terrorists.
Guardian 26/7/07
Bomb kills pro-US sheiks
A stealthy suicide bomber slipped into a busy Baghdad hotel and blew himself up in the midst of a gathering of US-allied tribal sheiks, killing at least four, police said.
The noontime explosion, devastating the ground-floor lobby of the high-rise Mansour Hotel, also killed at least nine other people and wounded 27, police said.
The stunning terror strike in the heart of Baghdad, by a killer penetrating layers of security, was one of a wave of suicide and other bombings that killed at least 46 people across Iraq in one day.
West Australian, 26/6/07
Coalition continues to kill Afghan civilians
A remote-controlled bomb hit a NATO convoy, wounding one British soldier Sunday morning and prompting British troops to open fire south of Helmand's main city of Lashkar Gah, said provincial police chief Mohammad Hussain.
Hussain said the British gunfire killed one man, but it was not clear if the victim was a civilian or a militant involved in the attack. Raz Mohammad Sayed, director of a local hospital, said one man was killed, and another man was wounded by British gunfire. He referred to both victims as "civilians."
On Saturday, Afghan President Hamid Karzai accused foreign soldiers of carelessly killing scores of Afghan civilians and warned that the fight against resurgent Taliban militants could fail unless foreign forces show more restraint.
"Afghan life is not cheap and it should not be treated as such," Karzai said in an angry rebuke that drew a contrite acknowledgment from NATO that it must "do better."
In the past 10 days, more than 90 civilians have been killed by airstrikes and artillery fire targeting Taliban insurgents, Karzai said. The mounting toll is sapping the authority of the Western-backed Afghan president, who has pleaded repeatedly with U.S. and NATO commanders to consult Afghan authorities during operations and show more restraint.
Houston Chronicle, 24/7/06
Bush pledges more US military aid to Israel
Just days after Iranian- and Syrian-backed Hamas fighters imposed full control over the Gaza Strip, U.S. President George W. Bush promised his Israeli counterpart a 10-year military aid hike to help it handle new regional threats.
Israel is seeking an additional $50 million to $60 million each year, which would raise total U.S. military grant aid from $2.4 billion in 2008 to nearly $3 billion by 2018. Nicholas Burns, U.S. undersecretary of state for political affairs, will lead bilateral discussions here in July aimed at determining the parameters and conditions of the new aid package, sources here said.
Aside from the Iranian nuclear program, which continued to dominate the bilateral security agenda; the coup in Gaza; and residual instability in Lebanon, Bush was referring to Syrian and Iranian efforts to arm and train Hizbollah-style proxy forces throughout the region, according to U.S. and Israeli sources here.
"I'm committed to reaching a new 10-year agreement that will give Israel the increased assistance it requires to meet the new threats and challenges it faces," Bush said following a June 19 White House meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.
DefenseNews.com, 25/6/07
US struggles to care for wounded
More than 800 of them have lost an arm, a leg, fingers or toes. More than 100 are blind. Dozens need tubes and machines to keep them alive. Hundreds are disfigured by burns, and thousands have brain injuries and mangled minds. These are America's war wounded, a toll that has received less attention than the 3,500 troops killed in Iraq.
Depending on how you count them, they number between 35,000 and 53,000. More of them are coming home, with injuries of a scope and magnitude the government did not predict and is now struggling to treat.
"If we left Iraq tomorrow, we would have the legacy of all these people for many years to come," said Dr. Jeffrey Drazen, editor-in-chief of the New England Journal of Medicine and an adviser to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. "The military simply wasn't prepared for its own success" at keeping severely wounded soldiers alive, he said.
Survival rates today are even higher than the record levels set early in the war, thanks to body armor and better care. For every American soldier or Marine killed in Iraq, 15 others have survived illness or injury there.
Chicago Tribune, 24/6/07
Brown will keep troops in Iraq
Britain's incoming prime minister Gordon Brown on Sunday vowed to learn the lessons of Tony Blair's "divisive" decision to go to war in Iraq, as he was finally confirmed leader of the Labour Party.
But while both Brown and his new deputy in the governing party acknowledged that mistakes had been made, he offered few signs that his Middle East policy would immediately differ from that of Blair when he takes over on Wednesday.
"In Iraq, which all of us accept has been a divisive issue for our party and our country, in Afghanistan and in the Middle East, we will meet our international obligations," he told Labour members here.
As anti-war protesters outside called for him to withdraw British troops from Iraq immediately, Brown gave no hint of a different approach, even though Blair's stance on Iraq arguably hastened his departure from office.
AFP, 24/6/07
Iraqi tribes paid to protect power grids
Contracts with tribal chiefs to protect Iraq's valuable electricity grids have not paid off, according to U.S. auditors.
The investigative arm of Congress updated a report originally released last month so it could provide a more accurate estimate on the number of attacks against coalition and Iraqi forces. The estimated number of attacks in April were adjusted from 4,500 to 4,900.
Overall, the U.S. has spent about $5.1 billion to rebuild Iraq's oil and electricity sectors from the budget years 2003 through 2006. The U.S. also has spent $3.8 billion in Iraqi funds. Auditors said billions of dollars more will be needed to rebuild both sectors.
Sabotage is driving much of the spending. Iraq's Ministry of Electricity has contracted with tribal sheiks to protect the electrical transmission lines running through their areas and pays them about $60 to $100 per kilometer, according to the report.
Yet the tactic is not working, auditors said. The report, citing U.S. and U.N. officials, said "some tribes that were paid to protect transmission lines also sold materials from the downed lines and extracted tariffs for access to repair the lines."
The tribes wield considerable power in parts of Iraq. They share a mixture of ancestry, geography and a strict social code that demands allegiance between members. Military commanders have credited new working relationships with tribes in driving down the number of attacks against coalition and Iraqi forces in some provinces.
The auditors said the U.S. government has developed several initiatives that will provide better protection, namely fortifying structures so that attacks cause less damage.
Associated Press, 23/6/07
Germany faces terror strike due to Afghanistan involvement
Germany faces a heightened threat of terrorist attacks because of its military involvement in Afghanistan, security officials here said Friday. The danger, they warned, is comparable to that in the months before the Sept. 11 attacks in the United States.
The deputy interior minister, August Hanning likened the atmosphere to that in the summer before the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, in the United States, "when obscure threats surfaced, which, as we know, became reality."
The latest warning, which was amplified in public statements by the interior minister, Wolfgang Schaeuble, and by the head of the Federal Criminal Police, Joerg Ziercke, is likely to fan the country's debate about its military operations, which now range from Africa to Central Asia.
Chicago Tribune, 23/6/07
US bombs Pakistan village
Bombing by jet fighters and helicopters sent by the US-led coalition forces and artillery and mortar shelling carried out from Afghanistan's territory into Pakistan's tribal borderlands on Friday night and Saturday morning killed, at least, 33 people in South Waziristan and North Waziristan.
Apart from the human losses, the bombing and shelling destroyed about two dozen houses, damaged vehicles and killed cattle-heads. The dead included several women and children.
There was no comment by the government on the cross-border raid on the village Tor Jawar. But villagers and tribal sources said Tor Jawar, situated three kilometres inside Pakistan near the border town of Angoor Adda, was bombed by jet fighters and helicopters that had flown from Afghan territory. They described the jets as B-52 bombers and the helicopters as Apache, both US-manufactured and in the use of American soldiers deployed to Afghanistan.
The News-International, Pakistan, 24/6/07
Blair's 'attack Iraq' lawyer quits
The top British government lawyer who gave Prime Minister Tony Blair the green light for the war in Iraq is to step down after six years.
Attorney General Peter Goldsmith faced a political storm over allegations he changed his mind on the legality of the U.S.-led invasion after intense government pressure.
He also faced controversy over a police investigation into whether political parties awarded state honors in return for loans and the scrapping last year of an inquiry into a weapons deal with Saudi Arabia.
Blair, U.S. President George W. Bush's closest ally over the war, has repeatedly said there was no question that Goldsmith changed his mind on Iraq.
The row erupted in 2005 when a secret document leaked to the media suggested Goldsmith cast doubt on the case for war, only 10 days before he gave the go-ahead in parliament.
The furor rocked Blair's government before a 2005 general election and fueled opposition attacks on his government's trust and integrity.
Goldsmith repeatedly denied claims that he changed his stance, saying he wouldn't have hesitated to give negative advice if that had been his conclusion.
CNN 23/6/07
NATO airstrike kills dozens of civilians
A NATO airstrike targeting Taliban insurgents in southern Afghanistan has killed dozens of civilians, including women, children and a Muslim cleric, Afghan officials said Friday.
The deaths, if confirmed, would add to a civilian toll that has become a major flash point in the war this year, with Afghans becoming increasingly angry with NATO and U.S.-led forces for not doing more to protect noncombatants.
NATO officials said Taliban fighters were killed in the airstrike overnight Thursday, but acknowledged that civilians might have died as well.
The provincial police chief, Mohammad Hussein Andiwal, put the civilian death toll at 25. He said that among the dead were nine women, three infants and a local Muslim cleric.
Washington Post, 23/6/07
US denies arming insurgents
The number two US military commander in Iraq on Friday denied that US forces were arming insurgents willing to fight forces of the Al-Qaeda network, but said the military was "reaching out."
However, Lieutenant General Raymond Odierno did admit providing 10 assault rifles to a security detail for one mayor he said was being "threatened."
"Beyond that, we have not given weapons to any insurgent groups. They have plenty of weapons," Odierno said. "I want those weapons to be used against Al-Qaeda and not against coalition forces or Iraqi security forces."
The insurgent groups "are reaching out to us, and we are reaching back. They want to fight Al-Qaeda, and we think they can help us."
AFP, 22/6/07
More attacks on Green Zone
A series of mortars or rockets slammed into the US-controlled Green Zone today, and an official said at least one round struck a parking lot used by the Iraqi prime minister and his security detail.
A recent increase in mortar and rocket attacks on the Green Zone has raised new concern about the security of thousands of US soldiers and foreign contractors, as well Iraqis.
It was unclear whether the rounds were fired by Sunni or Shi'ite extremists. Both groups operate in areas of the city within rocket and mortar range of the heavily fortified complex of concrete buildings and checkpoints.
A June 5 UN report said insurgents had bombarded the Green Zone with rockets and mortar fire more than 80 times since March, reportedly killing at least 26 people.
Brisbane Times, 21/6/07
China cancels Iraq debt, plans oil deal
China will substantially forgive debt owed by Iraq and also help with the reconstruction of the war-torn country. That was the pledge made by President Hu Jintao when he met his Iraqi counterpart Jalal Talabani in Beijing yesterday.
No specific figure was available but Talabani was quoted as saying ahead of the trip that he would like to have $8 billion in debt cancelled.
Talabani said Iraq treasures the traditional friendship between the two countries. Baghdad welcomes Chinese firms to join other international firms in bidding for oil-exploration contracts, and hopes to revive a frozen oil deal after a domestic oil law is adopted, the Iraqi ambassador to China said earlier.
He was referring to a 1997 deal struck by China National Petroleum Corp to develop the billion-barrel Al-Ahdab field. The $1.2 billion contract was signed by the company and the government of former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein.
The company began renegotiating the Al-Ahdab deal in October and the project could be reactivated if Iraq's parliament passes the hotly debated oil law next month.
China Daily, 22/6/07