raqis hold a poster showing radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, right, and Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah during a protest march in Amil neighborhood in Baghdad, Iraq, Sunday, July 8, 2007. People protested the arrest by American troops of Jassim al-Hasnawi, the head of a local al-Sadr office. (AP Photo/Khalid Mohammed ) (I chose this photo because these demonstrations get little or no attention in western media, but the split between the Sadrist movement and the collaborationist Maliki government is in fact the biggest political news in Iraq right now. See below.)
Update on U.S. military fatalities from Whisker (Thanks bro)
One Multi-National Division - Baghdad Soldier was killed by an explosively-formed penetrator targeting a combat patrol in a southeastern section of Baghdad July 6. An interpreter was also killed and three other Soldiers were wounded in the attack. The wounded were evacuated to a combat support hospital following the attack. Note: This is MNF's way of signaling that the injuries are fairly serious.
Two Task Force Marne Soldiers were killed and two were wounded by an improvised explosive device explosion during a dismounted patrol south of Baghdad Friday.
The DoD has announced three new deaths, not previously reported by CENTCOM. (Note: I'm presuming that this is because they were operating under naval command and so were not covered by the standard MNF public affairs apparatus. -- C) All three were with the U.S. Navy and were assigned to an East Coast-based SEAL team. They died in the vicinity of Baghdad on Friday, July 6th:
Petty Officer 1st Class Jason Dale Lewis, 30, of Brookfield, Connecticut
Petty Officer 1st Class Robert Richard McRill, 42, of Lake Placid, Florida
Petty Officer 1st Class Steven Phillip Daugherty, 28, of Barstow, California
According to a local newspaper, they were killed in the standard way, by an IED attack on their Humvee. This suggests to me that due to the shortage of combat troops, naval personnel are being pressed into service in ground operations unrelated to bodies of water. Does anybody have a different suggestion? -- C
U.S. soldier killed in Salah Ah Din province, no further details available at this time.
Other Security Incidents
Baghdad
Car bomb in Karrada district, near offices of SICI, kills 2 and wounds 8. A second car bomb 5 minutes later, about a mile away, kills 6 and wounds 7. McClatchy gives differing casualty totals for these incidents.
Reuters describes a bombing as killing two in the Jadriya district near the al-Hamra Hotel. As best I can determine this must be a separate incident.
Unidentified gunmen killed Colonel Abdul Karim Hamid, director of the Facilities Protection Force from the electricity ministry and two of his bodyguards, as they were traveling through the al-Suleikh neighborhood in northern Baghdad. (Note: The Facilities Protection Service is a notorious unit dominated by Shiite militias and death squads. The FPS serves various ministries, and does not have a single unified command. Here's some background info. -- C) McClatchy says three "policemen working for the electricity ministry" were killed. I presume this refers to the same incident.
Armed men killed Iraqi army Colonel Jawad Kazem al-Saadi in the al-Qahera region of Baghdad Sunday morning.
Five killed and 3 wounded by mortar attack in al-Shohadaa neighborhood of southern Baghdad.
A roadside bomb killed three civilians and wounded five others in a busy market in the Shurja, an important commercial district in central Baghdad, police said. Reuters also reports:
- The bodies of an Iraqi couple employed by the U.S. embassy in Baghdad who were kidnapped in May have been found, a U.S. official said on Sunday.
- U.S. forces detained ten suspected militants during raids in western Baghdad, the military said.
- Iraqi soldiers killed nine militants and have detained 38 others in operations around the country in the last 24 hours, the Iraqi defence ministry said in a statement.
Near Haswa (South of Baghdad)
23 Iraqi Army recruits killed by suicide truck bomb. 27 injured. (Reuters article says the bomber rammed into their "truck," suggesting to me an unarmored troop transport vehicle of the sort familiar from those old WW II movies, with the benches down both sides. Maybe I'm overinterpreting,but with that big a toll it has to be something like that. Anyway, it's no secret that the Iraqi army has crappy equipment. -- C)
Tuz Khurmato
Death toll in Saturday bombing now stands at 150. 20 missing, 250 wounded. Iraqi officials are of course blaming Al Qaeda in Mespotamia, but there has been no claim of responsibility.
Buhruz (south of Baquba)
The morgue of Baquba public hospital received Sunday the bodies of five civilians, which were evacuated from Buhruz town 5 kms south of Baquba. The hospital also received 25 injured civilians from the same town. A security source said that gunmen attacked the town with mortar shells early morning today.
Khalis
Secuirty forces in Khalis town north of Baquba city said that two civilians from one family were killed and another seven wounded when gunmen attacked the town with mortar shells Sunday morning.
Suwayrah
Clashes broke out Saturday between police and the Sadr movement's militia, the Mahdi Army, in Suwayrah, 25 miles south of Baghdad, killing three civilians and wounding eight, according to a morgue official.
Samawa
A mortar killed one woman and two children in the southern Iraqi city of Samawa, 270 km (168 miles) south of Baghdad, police said.
Kirkuk
Three gunmen attacked the premises of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, and clashed with security guards. The clashes ended with the death of an armed man, while the others fled to an unknown place,” a source from the joint operations room in the Kirkuk police department told the independent news agency voices of Iraq.
Police found two bodies that had been tortured and shot.
Tikrit
Iraqi soldiers and police discovered a bomb making factory and about 10,000 pounds of ammonia nitrate near the northern city of Mosul on Saturday, the U.S. military said.
Thanks to Whisker for the assistance, as usual. Note the large number of reports that do not overlap among the various sources, as well as discrepancies where they do overlap. We must continually remind ourselves how murky and incomplete the information is that comes out of Iraq.
Other News of the Day
This New York Times editorial is, of course, commentary, but I'm posting it at the top of the news section because the fact of its publication is widely seen as news. The NYT editorial board (in distinct contrast to its news editors) has long been unfriendly to the conduct of the war but, as they confess here, thoroughly gulled by the various rationalizations and excuses as to why it could not simply be brought to an end. This only matters, however, if it helps to break the logjam in "respectable" opinion and so ultimately has an impact on the House and Senate. We shall see. -- C Excerpt:
The Road Home
Published: July 8, 2007
It is time for the United States to leave Iraq, without any more delay than the Pentagon needs to organize an orderly exit.
•
Like many Americans, we have put off that conclusion, waiting for a sign that President Bush was seriously trying to dig the United States out of the disaster he created by invading Iraq without sufficient cause, in the face of global opposition, and without a plan to stabilize the country afterward.
At first, we believed that after destroying Iraq’s government, army, police and economic structures, the United States was obliged to try to accomplish some of the goals Mr. Bush claimed to be pursuing, chiefly building a stable, unified Iraq. When it became clear that the president had neither the vision nor the means to do that, we argued against setting a withdrawal date while there was still some chance to mitigate the chaos that would most likely follow.
While Mr. Bush scorns deadlines, he kept promising breakthroughs — after elections, after a constitution, after sending in thousands more troops. But those milestones came and went without any progress toward a stable, democratic Iraq or a path for withdrawal. It is frighteningly clear that Mr. Bush’s plan is to stay the course as long as he is president and dump the mess on his successor. Whatever his cause was, it is lost.
Muqtada al-Sadr accuses Maliki of attacking Sadrist forces to appease U.S., warns him to back off. Excerpt:
by Hassan Abdul Zahra Sun Jul 8, 7:32 AM ET
NAJAF, Iraq (AFP) - Followers of Iraqi cleric Moqtada al-Sadr have accused Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki of attacking them in order to appease his US allies Sunday and warned him his days in office might be numbered. On Saturday, Maliki issued a bluntly worded statement calling on Sadr's Mahdi Army to put aside its weapons and alleged the movement had been infiltrated by terrorist supporters of Saddam Hussein's ousted regime.
Sadr's aides reacted with fury, and some suggested the statement had been designed to pave the way for a crackdown on their populist Shiite movement, which fields one of Iraq's largest armed militias. "Maliki's statement is just like a green light to occupation troops to strike and annihilate the Sadr movement," said Salah al-Ubaidi, Sadr's spokesman at his headquarters in the holy city of Najaf.
US commanders blame Sadr's army for much of Iraq's sectarian violence and say they have evidence some of his commanders work for secret cells controlled by officers from neighbouring Iran's covert Qods Force.
In recent weeks and months there have been several raids by Iraqi and US forces on Mahdi Army strongholds in Baghdad, while in the south of the country the militia has fought street battles with Iraqi and British forces.
Sadr still enjoys widespread support among central and southern Iraq's Shiite communities, however, and any broader move against him would be risky for a prime minister who was elected thanks to the movement's 32 MPs.
"Maliki's statement came as a link in a chain of successive aggressions by the occupation against the Sadr movement," said Ubaidi, claiming Maliki was seeking to curry favour with Americans in order to protect his job. "Occupation forces turned this statement into reality when they conducted a large raid and arrested innocents in the city," he added.
This was an apparent reference to the alleged overnight arrest of a pro-Sadr imam, Sheikh Nasser al-Saadi, whom supporters said was seized along with three of his sons in the Shuala district of northern Baghdad.
For Ahmed al-Shaibani, a senior aide to Sadr who was held in US military custody for two years before being freed at Maliki's request, the prime minister's statement was a sign he can see his grip on power slipping. "Maliki's government is ending, the next few days will prove this. As for us, it is ended, as it is ended in the occupation's view," he told AFP, adding "sources" had told him US support for Maliki was fading.
As Congress returns from recess, some Republicans are discussing defying the "president" on Iraq. (I'll believe it when I see it, and I'm going to end the excerpt with the money quote to show you what I mean. The only shift on the part of Republicans in Congress is rhetorical-- C) Excerpt:
After a week-long recess, Congressional members will head back to Capitol Hill this week. And some top Republicans openly are discussing defying President George Bush and supporting a bill to bring home overseas troops.
Six Republican Senators have signed a bill that calls for implementing the recommendations of the Iraq Study Group, including setting conditions for a possible redeployment of U.S. troops next spring. A growing sense that the president's surge strategy isn't working may be driving the shift.
snip
The White House is urging Republicans to withhold judgment until September, when military commanders issue a progress report.
Most of the Republican war critics said they will not support a firm deadline for bringing the troops home.
"Most of them have gone out of their way to say they will not vote with the Democrats to mandate an end to the war," O'Hanlon said. "And if you were in the White House, you would see that as a major silver lining."
Well duhhhh, department: Report: Iraq to miss Bush 'benchmarks'. Excerpt:
WASHINGTON, July 8 The Iraqi government is unlikely to meet any of the goals set by U.S. President George Bush last January, it was reported Sunday.
Senior White House officials are scurrying to find evidence of progress in Iraq to convince Congress to continue supporting the war, the Washington Post said.
White House officials are preparing a report saying Sunni tribal leaders in Anbar province are turning against al-Qaida and Iraqi leaders have agreed on a response to the bombing of a major religious shrine, the Post reported.
Those achievements are far different than the goals Bush set when he announced he would send tens of thousands of additional troops to Iraq.
Bush had said the additional troops would ensure Iraqi provincial elections and the takeover by Iraqi police of security in all provinces this year. Neither of those goals will be met, the Post reported.
"There are things going on that we never could have foreseen," said one official, who noted the president's original goals are not only unachievable in the short term, but also irrelevant to changing the conditions in Iraq.
In-depth Reporting and Analysis
The Guardian's Peter Beaumont describes U.S. Army's attempts to combat mortar and rocket attacks on the Green Zone. This is informative because it gives new information about where these attacks originate and how they are carried out. The civilian population, not surprisingly, is uncooperative with U.S. efforts to stop the attacks.
LA Times Julian Barnes says soldiers are disgruntled with Petraeus's much vaunted "outpost" tactic. Excerpt:
BAGHDAD, Iraq - The neighborhood outposts that the U.S. military launched with great fanfare in Baghdad early this year were supposed to put more American patrols on the streets and make residents feel safer. But some soldiers stationed at the posts and Iraqis who live nearby say they are doing the opposite.
The outposts, along with joint U.S.-Iraqi security stations, form a cornerstone of the current Iraq strategy. Following a classic counterinsurgency tenet, military planners are trying to take U.S. forces out of their distant, sprawling military bases and into the day-to-day lives of regular Iraqis.
Although senior U.S. commanders and midlevel officers say they believe the bases are starting to work, many soldiers stationed at the outposts are doubtful, arguing that the burden of protecting the bases means they spend less time on the streets.
"They say we are spending more time 'in sector,' which we are doing - we live here," said Spc. Tyrone Richardson, 24, a member of Charlie Company, 1st Battalion, 8th Cavalry that operates in the east Baghdad neighborhood of Ubaidi, outside Sadr City. "But we aren't spending the time patrolling."
Iraqis who live nearby say they feel less safe now, because many of the bases have quickly become magnets for rocket and mortar attacks. When attacks miss the troops, they often hit Iraqi civilians.
To his everlasting credit, NYT ombudsman Clark Hoyt calls out paper's
AS domestic support for the war in Iraq continues to melt away, President Bush and the United States military in Baghdad are increasingly pointing to a single villain on the battlefield: Al Qaeda.
Bush mentioned the terrorist group 27 times in a recent speech on Iraq at the Naval War College in Newport, R.I. In West Virginia on the Fourth of July, he declared, “We must defeat Al Qaeda in Iraq.” The Associated Press reported last month that although some 30 groups have claimed credit for attacks on United States and Iraqi government targets, press releases from the American military focus overwhelmingly on Al Qaeda.
Why Bush and the military are emphasizing Al Qaeda to the virtual exclusion of other sources of violence in Iraq is an important story. So is the question of how well their version of events squares with the facts of a murky and rapidly changing situation on the ground.
But these are stories you haven’t been reading in The Times in recent weeks as the newspaper has slipped into a routine of quoting the president and the military uncritically about Al Qaeda’s role in Iraq — and sometimes citing the group itself without attribution.
And in using the language of the administration, the newspaper has also failed at times to distinguish between Al Qaeda, the group that attacked the United States on Sept. 11, and Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia, an Iraqi group that didn’t even exist until after the American invasion.
There is plenty of evidence that Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia is but one of the challenges facing the United States military and that overemphasizing it distorts the true picture of what is happening there. While a president running out of time and policy options may want to talk about a single enemy that Americans hate and fear in the hope of uniting the country behind him, journalists have the obligation to ask tough questions about the accuracy of his statements.
War memorial in Fort Stewart is running out of space. Excerpt:
By Anna Badkhen, Globe Staff | July 8, 2007
FORT STEWART, Ga. -- Jamie Burgess looked at the young trees lining the windswept marching ground. Three hundred and thirty-six eastern redbuds, each dedicated to a soldier from the Third Infantry Division who had died in Iraq, stretched west to east in long, orderly rows along concrete sidewalks.
"Look at just how big this is," whispered Burgess, 23, from Merrimack, N.H., whose husband, Corporal Joshua Burgess, is serving in Iraq with the Third Infantry Division.
It is not big enough. As the US death toll in Iraq grows, Fort Stewart plants new trees to commemorate its fallen soldiers at the memorial founded in May 2003. At the time , President Bush celebrated the end of major fighting under a banner proclaiming "Mission Accomplished," and Fort Stewart planted the first 34 eastern redbuds to pay tribute to the soldiers killed when the Third Infantry Division led the invasion of Iraq. Four years later, as the United States grapples with the escalating cost of violence that shows no sign of receding, the division continues to lose soldiers, and trees are quickly filling up the marching ground.
Late last month, with the Third Infantry Division deployed to Iraq for the third time and the existing walkways running out of space, Fort Stewart commanders began constructing a new concrete path, long enough to accommodate 96 more trees. But each time they expand the memorial, called Warrior's Walk, garrison commanders are also sending a somber reminder to the thousands of soldiers' families who live on and around the base. Of all the evidence that their loved ones are in harm's way -- their own empty homes; the Army base deserted except for a few troops and civilians; the yellow ribbons adorning trees, lampposts, and businesses -- the growing rows of trees make the reality of war the most palpable.
Quote of the day
Robert Malley and Peter Harling of International Crisis Group cite Basra as an illustration of why the attempt at a military solution in Iraq is hopeless.
TO IMAGINE what Baghdad will look like after the surge, there is no need to project far into the future. Instead, just turn to the recent past. Between September 2006 and March 2007, British forces conducted Operation Sinbad in Basra, Iraq's second largest city. At first, there were signs of progress: diminished violence, criminality, and overall chaos. But these turned out to be superficial and depressingly fleeting. Only a few months after the operation came to an end, old habits resurfaced. Today, political tensions once again are destabilizing the city; relentless attacks against British forces have driven them off the streets; and the southern city is under the control of militias, more powerful and less inhibited than before.
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