News & Views 11/19/07

Photo: Palestinian refugees stand next to their tents in the al-Tanaf camp in the desert between Syria and Iraq in this November 10, 2007, file photo. Syria says it has stepped up security on the frontier after U.S. criticism that it was allowing foreign fighters into Iraq, but diplomats on a rare tour of the border said more measures were needed and the troops should be better equipped. Picture taken November 10, 2007. REUTERS/KHALED AL-HARIRI

REPORTS – LIFE IN IRAQ

Monday: 35 Iraqis Killed, 28 Wounded

Bomb Kills Iraqi Children Gathered Around US Troops

A roadside bomb killed three Iraqi children and injured seven as they gathered around American troops handing out toys on Sunday, police and government officials told CNN. Three U.S.soldiers were also killed in the explosion in Baquba, north of Baghdad, a police official said.

The most dangerous war in the history of journalism

There were a number of "landmarks" in Iraq in the past few months: the Petraeus report into the US army's "surge"; the withdrawal of British forces from their last base inside Basra city; the decision to bring security companies under the law following the incident involving guards from Blackwater. But one landmark which passed virtually unnoticed was that the Iraq conflict has become the deadliest by far for the media trying to cover it, with more than 200 journalists killed to date. To put this in perspective, two were killed in the First World War, 68 in the Second, 77 in Vietnam and 36 in the Balkans. And the toll in Iraq shows no sign of declining. It is, if anything, rising. Five journalists were killed in separate attacks in just one day last month. "Covering Iraq," says Chris Cramer, the president of CNN International, " is the single most dangerous assignment in the history of journalism."

IRAQ: Diyala desperately needs doctors

A shortage of doctors in Diyalah, a volatile province in eastern-central Iraq, has led to nurses having to take on many tasks and procedures for which they are not qualified, according to Diyalah’s health department. “Patients are relying on nurses because there aren’t enough doctors to meet the demand. We know this is not right but what can we do when desperate people search for help or advice and there isn’t a doctor available,” said Adiba Nasuh, a nurse working at Baqubah General Hospital in the provincial capital. “The least we can do is to offer some of our experience after working closely with doctors for so many years,” Adiba added. Diyala’s health department said that at least 80 percent of the doctors that used to work in the province have fled because of violence, and those that remain work only when they feel they will be safe. “We urgently need doctors to attend to the huge number of patients who queue in front of the doors of our hospitals every day. To make matters worse, there is also a shortage of medicines of all kinds, especially those used to treat patients with cardiac problems,” Muhammad Hadi, media officer for Diyala Council’s health department, told IRIN.

U.S. strikes killed pro-U.S. Iraq fighters - officer

A group of gunmen killed in U.S. airstrikes in Iraq last week were pro-U.S. fighters, an American military officer said on Sunday, despite the military's public statements that they were insurgents. The officer, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said U.S. military officials had talked to Sunni Arab tribal sheikhs in Taji, just north of Baghdad, to express their regret for the loss of life in the attack, which took place last Tuesday. "There was some confusion and we were not able to turn off the attack quickly enough," he said of the airstrikes that continued for several hours despite frantic phone calls from local tribal leaders to the U.S. base in Taji. "We have talked to them and explained our sorrow over the incident and the loss of lives of volunteers trying to bring order to their neighbourhoods," the officer said. The incident threatens to derail a carefully constructed relationship between U.S. forces and anti-al Qaeda Sunni tribes in Taji and has put the spotlight on operating procedures for tribal police units the U.S. military is forming around Iraq.

No trace found for thousands of manuscripts U.S. troops discovered in 2003

Thousands of manuscripts have disappeared among them priceless copies of the Holy Koran, an Iraqi librarian said. The librarian, who wanted his name kept secret, said the manuscripts were “expropriated” by a U.S.-led force shortly after the 2003 invasion of Baghdad. The former government had moved the manuscripts from the national library shelves to a cellar close to the Umm al-Teboul mosque in Baghdad for fear of damage or theft. The librarian said the troops removed the manuscripts from the cellar but there is no trace of them. He said there were about 50,000 manuscripts in the national library which were all moved to the cellar. The collection, he added, was “the largest and the most valuable in the whole Middle East.” Of the most valuable manuscripts that have gone missing is a copy of the Holy Koran hand-written by Imam Ali only a few years after the death of the Prophet Mohammed. “There was a Koran written on snake skin. The miniature copy was no more than a few centimeters wide,” said the librarian. Eyewitnesses say they still remember the troops carrying the manuscripts from the cellar onto vehicles.

Major power plants idled due to lack of fuel

Most of northern Iraq is without lights as two major power plants have been idled due to lack of fuel, a statement by the electricity ministry said. The source said the plants feeding the northern cities of Mosul and Kirkuk are out of function as technicians failed to secure enough gas to run them. The gas-driven plants are among the largest stations in the north which has been suffering from acute power shortages for years. Electricity levels in Iraq as a whole are at all-time low. The average time power is on across the country has been almost reduced by two thirds since the U.S. invasion of 2003. Major cities used to have an average of nine hours of electricity a day prior to the invasion. The average is currently 3 hours a day. Iraq was generating nearly 5,000 megawatts before the U.S. invasion. But the generation capacity has slumped to less than 4,000 megawatts while consumption has soared.

U.S. struggles to restore drinking water to Iraqis

The water tankers arrive twice a week in this parched village surrounded by fallow fields stretching into the horizon. The town's wells still pump out a flow, but few villagers dare drink from it unless in desperation. At the gate of Kayria Fayhan's home, 250 gallons of the trucked-in cargo fill a metal tank for cooking and drinking, sometimes for washing up if itching from the groundwater becomes unbearable. Even the "clean" water from the tanker is a gamble on some weeks. "They say the water is clean, but sometimes the water is green," Fayhan said. "Sometimes, there's rust floating in it."

Fliers urge Karbala residents not to pick "weird" objects

The police in the holy Shiite province of Karbala handed out fliers urging families and students not to pick any "weird" objects from the ground, the police department media spokesman said on Monday. "Policemen from the department also paid field visits to schools in the city for guidance about the danger of lifting picking up any strange objects from the ground," Rahman Mashawi told the independent news agency Voices of Iraq (VOI). According to Mashawi, the al-Qaeda Organization in Iraq "has come up with a new style for killing by leaving electric lanterns packed with TNT on the streets, particularly those used by students." Karbala lies 108 km south of the Iraqi capital Baghdad.

Large weapons cache found in Diwaniya

A large weapons depot was found on Monday afternoon at the center of Diwaniya, an Iraqi army source said. "Joint Iraqi forces found a large weapons depot contains 17 Iranian-made anti-shields bombs, 15 locally manufactured bombs, and 15 Katyusha rockets," Brigadier Jameel al-Shemri, deputy commander of the 8th division, told the independent news agency Voices of Iraq (VOI). "30 hand grenades, 10 Iranian-made anti-shields missiles, Rocket Propelled Grenades (RPG) and different kinds of ammunitions were confiscated in Salem Street in al-Jumhouri neighborhood in central Diwaniya, he added.

Large Weapons Cache Found in Iraqi Village

Coalition forces have seized the largest cache ever found in Iraq of explosively formed penetrators, an especially lethal type of bomb, according to military officials. Acting on a tip from a local Iraqi, soldiers descended on a home in Sa’ada Village and discovered a stockpile that included 124 fully-assembled EFPs, according to a release issued Wednesday by Multi–National Division–North. The cache also included 159 copper disks, a component of EFPs, 600 pounds of C4 and other explosive materials, 100 mortar rounds, 31 rockets (107 mm), two mortar tubes and 20 claymore-type mines, the release stated.

Shooting reignites Iraqi furor; U.S. issues apology

Key details were murky -- including whether the military convoy fired as it approached the cars from behind, as local police contended. The number of fatalities was also unclear. Police charged that the shootings were unprovoked and said six people, including two Iraqi policemen, died in a barrage of bullets. The incident occurred on a day when U.S. officials announced that attacks in Iraq were at their lowest levels in nearly two years. The first word of the incident came from an apology jointly issued late Sunday by the U.S. Embassy and the U.S. military, but the statement referred to only two deaths and four injuries. A U.S. military spokesman said the incident was under investigation, and declined to release details. The military would confirm only that the deaths were the result of "a shooting incident" near Samawa, the capital of Muthanna province, located 160 miles south of Baghdad. "The shooting was heavy," said 1st Lt. Hussam Mohammed of the Samawa police department. "They shot from behind," he said. "We do not have anything in our report for any reason that would justify the shooting."

REPORTS – IRAQI MILITIAS, POLITICIANS, POWER BROKERS

U.S. Taking Iraqi Separatists' Side in Shia-Shia Conflict

The U.S. is providing "logistic and intelligence assistance" to a rival Shiite faction to weaken the Sadr Movement, a movement's senior official said. Bahaa al-Araji said the Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council, a leading ally of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, was working to undermine the movement and to provoke its military wing. The Mahdi Army, the movement's military arm, has vowed to suspend military operations targeting U.S. and Iraqi troops as well as other militia factions. But Araji said the movement, led by Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr may not be able to keep its promise with the U.S. siding with one of its major rivals. The Islamic council's military organization, the Badr Corps militias, is among the best armed and equipped irregular army in Iraq. Maliki's Dawaa party also has its own militia forces. The two militia factions are reported to have mounted a unified front against Sadr's Mahdi Army in several cities in the south, particularly in Karbala and Najaf.

Rising player with a vision for Shiite Iraq

Ammar al-Hakim is presiding over an Iraqi Shiite building boom. His austere Shaheed al-Mihrab Foundation has raised 400 mosques in Iraq since 2003. It's building the largest seminary here in the holy city of Najaf and opening a chain of schools. And it now has 95 offices throughout the country. What's more, Mr. Hakim's foundation is winning over adherents to his party – the Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq (ISCI) – through all-expenses-paid mass marriages along with cash payments and gifts for the newlyweds, free education and stipends at his new schools, and an array of other charitable projects such as caring for orphans and displaced families. All of this is being done to promote ISCI's core vision: a federation of nine provinces where conservative Shiite Islam would reign. While opponents say that such a federation among central and southern provinces would only hasten the breakup of Iraq and create a ministate where Iran would hold great sway, Hakim and his party are making great gains.

Iraq says 43 arrested over Baghdad shooting

An Iraqi government spokesman said on Monday that Iraqi security forces had arrested 43 people, including two Americans and 31 other foreigners, over a shooting in which a woman was wounded in central Baghdad. "This is a message to security companies that no one is above the law," government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh told Reuters. Dabbagh said those arrested would appear before an investigating judge in Baghdad on Tuesday. "Those involved will be put on trial and the innocent will be released," he said. Dabbagh said a convoy of workers being escorted by guards working for an Iraqi-registered security company was travelling through Baghdad's Karrada district on their way to the airport when they opened fire at civilians, wounding the woman. The four-vehicle convoy included 21 Sri Lankans, nine Nepalese and one Indian worker. The security guards included 10 Iraqis and two Americans.

At troop commencement, a time for Iraqi optimism

In the expanse of grey desert east of Baghdad, an Iraqi Army brigade marched Sunday in matching boots and uniforms with M-16 rifles slung over their shoulder, showing off their new formation to Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki. The ceremony marked the first time an Iraqi brigade had made it to graduation as a fully trained and equipped unit, and dignitaries portrayed it as a milestone. When a second brigade completes training, about 4,000 Iraqi soldiers will be added to Baghdad, freeing four Iraqi battalions to return home and fill holes left by a nearly year-long campaign to secure the capital. "This will increase the combat strength of the Iraqi Army throughout the country," said Lt. Gen. James Dubik, commander of the Multi-National Security Transition Command.

KRG bans media to access PKK bases

Kurdistan's Regional Government accuses the media of aggravating the regional PKK crisis and bans it from traveling to PKK bases. KRG spokesman, Jamal Abdullah says that the semi-autonomous KRG will prohibit reporters from accessing northern Iraq's borders and interviewing PKK rebels. "We will not allow journalists or the media to send any reporter ... to where the PKK are, whether on the border or the area of Qandil Mountains," Reuters quoted Abdullah as saying. He also said that media reports have exacerbated the crisis with Turkey but assured that the KRG will find alternative ways to defuse the situation.

REPORTS – US/UK/OTHERS IN IRAQ

US: Seizure of Iranians Failed to Validate Bush Line

The George W. Bush administration's campaign to seize and detain Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) officials in Iraq, presented by Bush himself last January as a move to break up an alleged Iranian arms smuggling operation in Iraq, appears to have run its course without having been able to link a single Iranian to any such operation. Despite administration rhetoric suggesting that the U.S. military had solid intelligence on which to base a campaign to break up Iranian-sponsored networks supplying armour-piercing weapons, what is now known about the kidnapping operations indicates that the actual purpose was to obtain some evidence from interrogations that would support the administration's line that the IRGC's elite Quds Force is involved in assisting Shiite forces militarily. None of the six Iranians now held by the U.S. military, however, has provided any evidence for the administration's case despite many months of very tough interrogation usually employed on "high value" detainees.

FEATURE-Dusty Iraqi border post tries to stem Iranian flow

At a dusty border speck on the map where tanks once fought a bitter war in a brutal landscape, trucks now stretch to the horizon, a sign of growing contact between former enemies. Tensions still simmer and Zurbatia has become an outpost of U.S. and Iraqi efforts to stem the flow of Iranian weapons and agents into Iraq's south and east. "When we first got here about a year ago there was literally a gate and an open field where people and commerce passed," said Colonel Mark Mueller, commander of a U.S. military unit working with Iraqi border guards in Iraq's eastern Wasit province. "There were a lot of challenges for security," he said. Washington and the U.S. military accuse Shi'ite Iran of funding, training and arming Shi'ite militias in Iraq with roadside bombs, including armour-piercing "explosively formed penetrators". Tehran denies the charge. Hundreds of trucks, piled high with bright yellow and green melons, bags of onions, building supplies and furniture, queue for miles every day on the Iranian side of the border, waiting to bring in imports on which Iraq's shattered economy relies.

IRAQI REFUGEES

A Lot of Talk, Little Action

The situation for Iraqi refugees in the Middle East continues to deteriorate, while the scale of the crisis continues to dwarf the international response. As the number of displaced Iraqis has reached an unprecedented level – more than 4.5 million – Iraq’s neighbors have increased restrictions on the refugees. These restrictions are at least partially a response to the lack of support received from the United States and other donor governments, as well as the government of Iraq itself, to lessen the tremendous burden that the host countries are assuming. Given the humanitarian needs of the displaced and the risk of regional destabilization in the Middle East, the United States must demonstrate more concretely and more vigorously than it has to date that the displacement crisis is of paramount concern. The U.S. must engage at all levels with the countries of the region, including Syria, and must also lead donor efforts to provide bilateral and multilateral assistance to support host countries in dealing with these large influxes. The United Nations has an important role to play as well, and needs to improve its overall response and coordination mechanisms.

TAKE ACTION: Tell Bush to Increase Assistance for Iraqi Refugees

SYRIA: Aid agencies begin food deliveries to over 50,000 Iraqi refugees

Aid agencies in Syria have joined forces to provide free food to over 50,000 Iraqi refugees throughout Syria. On 18 November, the UN World Food Programme (WFP), the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) and the Syrian Arab Red Crescent (SARC) began distributing food to 51,600 vulnerable Iraqis in Damascus and eight governorates in Syria, which is hosting an estimated 1.5 million Iraqi refugees, many of whom are in dire financial straights. "I don't have any income. There are no jobs and we have no money to buy food," said Manoel Asador from Kirkuk, queuing for food at a distribution point in Damascus. "This is very important for me because food is very expensive in the markets here and I have six people to feed." The price of basic commodities and housing in Syria has soared over the past two years. Refugees deemed most needy by the UNHCR will receive a two-month food ration including rice, wheat flour, lentils, canned meat, tea, jam and tinned tuna. "With every month that passes, we know that more and more Iraqi refugees are no longer able to provide food for their families. We are committed to a continued expansion of food distribution throughout Syria, and expect to add 5,000 to 6,000 people to our food distribution each month during the next six months," said Pippa Bradford, a WFP representative in Syria.

U.N. to help Iraq with returning refugees

The United Nations announced it will help the Iraqi government with the increasing number of refugees returning to their homes. In a statement, Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Iraq Staffan de Mistura said on Monday the assistance is a result of a request by the Iraqi Ministry of Displacement and Migration. "As there are indications that both refugees and (internally displaced people) are starting to return back to their homes, we stand behind the Iraqi government in ensuring that this initial positive return is properly assisted and implemented," Mistura said in a statement published in the U.N. website. Aid and relief agencies estimate 2 million people fled the country since the March 2003 U.S.-led invasion and subsequent sectarian fighting, while another 2.3 million left their homes for other parts of Iraq. "The assistance will include technical advice, developing monitoring and data-gathering tools and providing capacity-building support to the ministry," the U.N. statement said.

How to Help Iraqi Refugees

ANOTHER Way to help: The Collateral Repair Project

Quotes of the day: "Through clever and constant application of propaganda, people can be made to see paradise as hell, and also the other way round, to consider the most wretched sort of life as paradise" ~ Adolf Hitler - German Chancellor, leader of the Nazi party

"See, in my line of work you got to keep repeating things over and over and over again for the truth to sink in, to kind of catapult the propaganda." ~ George W. Bush - 43rd US President