An American soldier walked last week through Contingency Operating Base Adder, where the last convoy of the military withdrawal left early Sunday under cover of darkness.
Showing posts with label iraq. Show all posts
Showing posts with label iraq. Show all posts
Sunday, December 18, 2011
Thursday, December 15, 2011
US War in Iraq Declared Officially Over
American troops in Iraq before the ceremonies marking the end of their mission on Thursday. More Photos » By THOM SHANKER and MICHAEL S. SCHMIDT BAGHDAD - The United States military officially declared an end to its mission in Iraq on Thursday even as ...
Wednesday, November 16, 2011
Protesters storm Kuwait assembly demanding PM quit
Kuwaiti member of parliament Waleed Al Tabtabaie sits in the National Assembly after he and others stormed the parliament building
Dozens of Kuwaitis briefly stormed Kuwait’s parliament building late yesterday as hundreds more demonstrated outside, demanding that Prime Minister Sheikh Nasser al-Mohammad al-Sabah step down, local media and witnesses said.
They said the protesters who forced their way into the debating chamber included some opposition lawmakers who have been among hundreds of people protesting outside parliament every week to demanding the removal of Sheikh Nasser, whom they accuse of corruption.
Friday, October 21, 2011
Saturday, February 5, 2011
Iraqi premier says will give up half his salary
As unrest sweeps the Middle East, Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki said he would give up half his salary in a possible bid to head off simmering discontent, and called for a two-term limit to be placed on his office.
Iraqis have held sporadic protests against food, power and water shortages and their plight acquired particular attention this month as a wave of anti-government protests rocked the region.
Unlike other countries in the region, however, Iraq’s former autocratic regime has already been swept away, in the 2003 US-led invasion.
Maliki’s media advisor, Ali al-Moussawi, said the premier would forego 50 per cent of his US$30,000 (RM91,500) monthly paycheck to bring his salary closer to other government employees.
“He feels there is a huge difference and says this leads to a kind of caste system in society,” Moussawi said. Maliki made the announcement in a statement late on Friday.
Yesterday, Maliki reiterated that he supported efforts to seek a constitutional reform that would place a two-term limit on the office of prime minister, Moussawi said.
As things stand, Iraq’s prime minister can run for re-election an unlimited number of times, while the president can only serve two terms.
Hundreds of people gathered in Baghdad yesterday to demand better basic services. On Thursday, police fired on protesters making similar demands near the southern city of Diwaniya.
Political analyst Mazin al-Shammari said Maliki’s pay cut could be an attempt to soothe public anger.
“The prime minister, by doing this, is trying to put a windscreen in front of these protests,” Shammari said.
“Politicians in the Middle East are watching where the jasmine cloud moves,” he said, referring to Tunisia’s “Jasmine Revolution” that overthrew President Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali.
Maliki was confirmed for a second term in December after nine months of political squabbling over a new government following an inconclusive parliamentary election in March.
His government is trying to rebuild Iraq but the economy remains shattered economy and infrastructure devastated eight years after the invasion ousted Saddam Hussein.
Iraqis complain bitterly about basic services. The national grid supplies only a few hours of electricity a day in a nation where temperatures rise above 50 degrees Celsius in the summer.
Members of parliament make US$27,000 a month, according to Safia al-Suhail, a lawmaker from Maliki’s State of Law political bloc, but have to pay from their salaries the cost of up to 30 personal security guards who make US$635 each per month. Teachers earn about US$350 a month.
“I admit that there is no social fairness between the government employees,” Suhail said.
Government salaries can be a sensitive issue. “Why do you ask me?” said one MP when asked yesterday how much he made. “Do you want to judge me?” — Reuters
Iraq’s Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki speaks during a joint news conference with Iraqi parliament speaker Osama al-Nujaifi in Baghdad on December 20, 2010
Saturday, December 25, 2010
Attack fears cloud Christmas for Baghdad Christians
Santa Claus toys are displayed for sale during Christmas Eve along a street in Baghdad on December 24, 2010.
Normally on Christmas Eve, Ban Zaki puts on festive clothes and takes her family to Baghdad’s Our Lady of Salvation church for lively holiday celebrations.
Not this year.
Dressed in black and fighting back tears, she has brought her three children to the church to honour her late husband, who was killed along with 51 others when Iraqi forces stormed it after militants took hostages during Sunday mass on Oct 31.
“He died on this spot,” 49-year-old Zaki said, pointing to the marble floor of the Catholic church.
“This year, there will be no festivities, no celebrations. The images of the attack and how they killed my husband here in this place are still in front of my eyes. Those were four hours I won’t forget for the rest of my life,” she said.
The attack triggered a fresh exodus of Christians from some Iraqi cities amid renewed fears that Sunni Islamist militants were trying to drive Christians out of their homeland.
The UN refugee agency said last week that some 1,000 Christian families, roughly 6,000 people, had fled to Iraqi Kurdistan from Baghdad, Mosul and other areas.
Iraq’s Christians once numbered about 1.5 million. There are now believed to be about 850,000 out of a population estimated at 30 million.
In its latest threat, the Islamic State of Iraq, the local affiliate of al Qaeda, said this week that Iraqi Christians risked further attacks unless they pressured the Christian church in Egypt to release a group of people it said the church was holding after they had converted to Islam.
The group also warned Iraqi Christians against proselytising and fraternising with occupation forces.
Fearing further bloodshed, several church leaders in Iraq have urged Christians to keep Christmas low-key and limit celebrations to prayers and mass.
On Christmas Eve, the only sign of the holiday at downtown churches was a group of children rehearsing carols at Our Lady of Salvation. Their parents stood nearby, watching them anxiously.
CHURCH LIKE A FORTRESS
The threat of fresh attacks has led Iraqi security forces to erect high blast walls topped with barbed wire around Our Lady of Salvation and several other churches in Baghdad.
“These are a part of new security measures for the churches in Baghdad,” said fire-fighter Abed Aswad Mohammed, standing beside his fire truck at the Sacred Heart Church in the Karrada district in Baghdad.
For some parishioners, the protective walls are a depressing reminder of the dangers they face.
“I swear I burst into tears when I saw it for the first time,” said Khalid Yousif, a worshipper who came to Our Lady of Salvation with his two children.
“Look at it. It doesn’t look like a church. It looks like a fortress or a prison.”
He gestured at the church walls which still bear the marks of the attack. Beneath decorations of elegant Arabic calligraphy, the walls are riddled with bullet holes and in some places speckled with blood. All the windows are shattered.
On a green carpet before the altar, worshippers have placed pictures of the two priests and dozens of others killed in attack. Bouquets, wreaths and sprays of flowers adorn the spot.
Zaki, who was shot in the abdomen during the Oct. 31 attack, said she was planning to leave Iraq now, despite calls from religious leaders to keep the faith and stay.
“I was here on this ground bleeding,” she said, her voice breaking. “My husband was there, two or three meters a way from me, but I couldn’t reach him. I was afraid that if I move, they will kill me or my children, whom I held in a tight embrace.”
“I am not ready to make any more sacrifices,” Zaki said. “This is enough.”
Tuesday, December 21, 2010
Iraqi Parliament Approves New Government
Iraq's Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki speaks at the house of parliament in Baghdad December 21, 2010. The Iraqi parliament has unanimously approved a new government, with incumbent Nouri al-Maliki as prime minister.
Wednesday, September 1, 2010
US forces still in fight at end of combat mission
Even as President Barack Obama was announcing the end of combat in Iraq, American soldiers were sealing off a northern village early Wednesday as their Iraqi partners raided houses and arrested dozens of suspected insurgents.
While the Obama administration has dramatically reduced the number of troops and rebranded the mission, the operation in Hawija was a reminder that U.S. forces are still engaged in hunting down and killing al-Qaida militants — and could still have to defend themselves against attacks.
That reality was front and center at a change-of-command ceremony in one of Saddam Hussein's former palaces outside Baghdad that the American military now uses as its headquarters. Officials warned of a tough road ahead as the U.S. moves into the final phase of the 7 1/2-year war.
U.S. soldiers attend the United States Forces-Iraq change of command ceremony in Baghdad on Wednesday, Sept. 1, 2010, as a new US military mission in Iraq was launched ending seven years of combat. U.S Vice President Joe Biden said Wednesday he's confident the various factions in Iraq will form a workable coalition and bring stability to the country, now that the U.S. combat role there has ended
A soldier takes a picture of US Secretary of Defense Robert Gates and some colleagues after he had dinner with troops at the Sports Oasis dining facility at Camp Victory in Baghdad, Iraq, Wednesday Sept. 1, 2010. In Iraq to mark the formal close of the U.S. combat mission and the departure of the top U.S. war commander Gates said Wednesday that history will judge whether the war in Iraq was worth it.
Of paramount concern is Iraqi leaders' continued bickering, six months after parliamentary elections, over forming a new government — a political impasse that could further endanger stability and fuel a diminished but still dangerous insurgency.
"Iraq still faces a hostile enemy who is determined to hinder progress," Gen. Lloyd Austin, the newly installed commander of the just under 50,000 U.S. troops still in Iraq, told the swelling crowd that was clad in military fatigues and political suits. "Make no mistake, our military forces here and those of the Iraqi nation remain committed to ensuring that our friends in Iraq succeed."
Vice President Joe Biden presided over the gathering at al-Faw palace, Saddam's gaudy former hunting lodge replete with fake marble walls and a huge chandelier made of recycled plastic.
The remaining U.S. forces in Iraq would be "as combat ready, if need be, as any in our military," Biden said, flanked by Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Joint Chiefs Chairman Adm. Mike Mullen for the 75-minute ceremony, which also changed the U.S. mission's name from "Operation Iraqi Freedom" to "Operation New Dawn."
Three years ago, about 170,000 U.S. troops were in Iraq. Of those who remain, fewer than 10 percent — or 4,500 — are special forces who will regularly go on raids and capture terrorists, albeit alongside Iraqi troops.
Obama ordered the end of combat missions by Aug. 31 in a step toward a full withdrawal of American forces by the end of next year that was mandated in a U.S.-Iraqi security agreement.
Violence also has declined dramatically since early 2007, when the Pentagon poured tens of thousands more troops into Iraq over a matter of months to quell a Sunni insurgency that had lured the country to the brink of civil war. Additionally, a Sunni revolt against al-Qaida in Iraq and a Shiite militia cease-fire have helped tamp down attacks, although bombings and shootings across Iraq continue on a near-daily basis.
But Iraqi forces are heavily dependent on U.S. firepower, along with helicopters, spy data and other key tools for combating terrorists that they won't be able to supply on their own for years to come.
"Every soldier I have knows that fighting is not over because there are groups here that still want to hurt us," Maj. Gen. Tony Cucolo, commander of U.S. troops in Iraq's volatile north, told The Associated Press recently. "But clearly combat operations is not in our mission statement."
In Hawija, once a hub for Sunni militants and Saddam's disaffected allies located 150 miles north of Baghdad, roughly 80 U.S. soldiers teamed up with more than 1,000 Iraqis to arrest about 60 terror suspects in the early morning raid Wednesday.
From checkpoints and command centers to helicopters hovering overhead, the Americans were on hand at the request of Iraqi police. But it was the Iraqis who went into houses and arrested suspected insurgents — including two considered high-value targets — while the U.S. watched the operation from afar.
Hours before the raids, Lt. Col. Andy Ulrich gave his soldiers a pep talk to counter concerns they weren't on a worthwhile mission.
"You all are combat troops not doing a combat mission, although it looks smells and feels and hurts a lot like combat," Ulrich said.
"Don't worry about what the politicians are saying because we have a mission," he added. "The bad part is, we can't go kicking the doors ourselves and get these guys. We've got to kind of convince Iraqis to do it, but the good part is, they're kind of willing to do it."
Iraqi forces across Baghdad appeared to be on heightened alert, aiming to reassure the populace and ward off insurgent attacks to coincide with the change in command.
Intelligence officials had warned al-Qaida in Iraq might use the U.S. military's shifting mission to launch suicide bombings around the capital in the days leading up to Wednesday's ceremony. However, the day was relatively quiet, except for a roadside bomb in eastern Baghdad that police said killed one person.
At the Baghdad ceremony, Gen. Ray Odierno, the outgoing commander, formally ended his nearly five-year tour in Iraq on a reflective note.
"This period in Iraq's history will probably be remembered for sacrifice, resilience and change," Odierno said. "However, I remember it as a time in which the Iraqi people stood up against tyranny, terrorism and extremism, and decided to determine their own destiny as a people and as a democratic state."
Then, wistfully using his military call sign one last time, Odierno ended his remarks: "Lion 6 — out."
Obama ordered the refocusing of the U.S. mission last year to fulfill a campaign promise of ending what he once termed "a dumb war" and one that Gates acknowledged Wednesday was launched without justification. In an address Tuesday night Obama announced the end of American combat, but made clear that this was no victory celebration.
"Of course, violence will not end with our combat mission," the president said.
Defining the front lines in a war where soldiers who are attacked while delivering supplies could just as easily return fire as Marines while on a raid to round up suspected insurgents has never been easy. Some of the key ongoing threats to the safety of American forces are the same as they've always been: rockets, mortars and roadside bombs.
U.S. military officials have said Iranian-backed militias are stepping up their attacks against targets in Baghdad, trying to make it look like they're driving out the Americans. Since arriving in Iraq, the battalion taking part in the Hawija raids has been hit by rocket and grenade attacks on their patrols and on their base almost every other day.
In the western Iraqi city of Ramadi before the ceremony, Gates told reporters the U.S. would consider keeping some military forces in place past next year, if the Iraqi government requests it.
Asked whether the U.S. was still at war in Iraq, Gates answered succinctly, "I would say we are not."
He was less definitive about whether the 7 1/2-year war was worthwhile. More than 4,400 American troops and an estimated 100,000 Iraqis have been killed since the 2003 invasion, and billions of dollars have been poured into the war effort.
Claiming that Saddam had weapons of mass destruction, then-President George W. Bush ordered the invasion with approval of a Congress still reeling from the 9/11 attacks. Bush's claims were based on faulty intelligence, and the weapons were never found.
"The problem with this war, I think, for many Americans, is that the premise on which we justified going to war turned out not to be valid," Gates said. "Even if the outcome is a good one from the standpoint of the United States, it'll always be clouded by how it began."
US Army Lt. Col Andy Ulrich walks with an Iraqi police general and an Iraqi Army colonel, center, after an operation by Iraqi forces supported by US troops on the first day after America ended its combat role, Wednesday, Sept. 1, 2010 in Hawija, north of Baghdad, Iraq. The U.S. marks on Wednesday the transition to the final phase of the Iraq war, shifting the focus of the remaining 50,000 American troops from combat operations to preparing Iraqi security forces to protect the country on their own.
An Iraqi man eyes a US Army soldier from 1st Battalion, 14th Infantry Regiment during an Iraqi security sweep of Hawija, north of Baghdad, Iraq, on the first day after America ended its combat role, Wednesday, Sept. 1, 2010. The U.S. marks on Wednesday the transition to the final phase of the Iraq war, shifting the focus of the remaining 50,000 American troops from combat operations to preparing Iraqi security forces to protect the country on their own.
A U.S. Army soldier from A Co., 1st Battalion, 14th Infantry Regiment stands next to an armored vehicle during a joint operation with Iraqi security forces on the first day after America ended its combat role, Wednesday, Sept. 1, 2010 in Hawija, north of Baghdad, Iraq. The U.S. marks on Wednesday the transition to the final phase of the Iraq war, shifting the focus of the remaining 50,000 American troops from combat operations to preparing Iraqi security forces to protect the country on their own
Army soldier from 1st Battalion, 14th Infantry Regiment peers through his rifle scope during a joint operation with Iraqi security forces on the first day after America ended its combat role, Wednesday, Sept. 1, 2010 in Hawija, north of Baghdad, Iraq. The U.S. marks on Wednesday the transition to the final phase of the Iraq war, shifting the focus of the remaining 50,000 American troops from combat operations to preparing Iraqi security forces to protect the country on their own.
A US Army soldier from 1st Battalion, 14th Infantry Regiment stands with Iraqi policemen in a courtyard outside an Iraqi police station during a joint operation with Iraqi security forces on the first day after America ended its combat role, Wednesday, Sept. 1, 2010 in Hawija, north of Baghdad, Iraq. The U.S. marks on Wednesday the transition to the final phase of the Iraq war, shifting the focus of the remaining 50,000 American troops from combat operations to preparing Iraqi security forces to protect the country on their own.
An Iraqi policeman gives directions to a motorist during a joint operation with US advise and assist forces on the first day after America ended its combat role, Wednesday, Sept. 1, 2010 in Hawija, north of Baghdad, Iraq. The U.S. marks on Wednesday the transition to the final phase of the Iraq war, shifting the focus of the remaining 50,000 American troops from combat operations to preparing Iraqi security forces to protect the country on their own.
US Army soldiers from 1st Battalion, 14th Infantry Regiment sit in a courtyard outside an Iraqi police station during a joint operation with Iraqi security forces on the first day after America ended its combat role, Wednesday, Sept. 1, 2010 in Hawija, north of Baghdad, Iraq. The U.S. marks on Wednesday the transition to the final phase of the Iraq war, shifting the focus of the remaining 50,000 American troops from combat operations to preparing Iraqi security forces to protect the country on their own.
Obama: Time to turn the page in Iraq
President Barack Obama declared an end to the seven-year US combat mission in Iraq yesterday and told war-weary Americans “our central mission as a people” is to restore the US economy.
Obama said he had fulfilled a 2008 campaign pledge to end US combat operations in Iraq in a move that many Iraqis both welcome and fear, given political deadlock in Baghdad and fears of a fresh outbreak of violence.
After seven years of war that has brought sacrifice from Americans and Iraqis, he said, “Now, it is time to turn the page.”
“Tonight, I am announcing that the American combat mission in Iraq has ended. Operation Iraqi Freedom is over, and the Iraqi people now have lead responsibility for the security of their country,” Obama said in excerpts of a speech he was to deliver at 8pm EDT in the White House Oval Office.
Obama hailed the removal of all but 50,000 US troops and the end of the combat phase, saying: “This was my pledge to the American people as a candidate for this office.”
But Americans are also looking to Obama for leadership on boosting the sagging US economy and some analysts were questioning his foreign policy focus this week — Iraq and the Middle East — at a time of fears of a double-dip recession.
Obama sought to tie the Iraq development with his efforts to bring down a 9.5 per cent jobless rate that is endangering Democratic rule in Washington in the November 2 congressional elections.
“Today, our most urgent task is to restore our economy, and put the millions of Americans who have lost their jobs back to work,” Obama said. “This will be difficult. But in the days to come, it must be our central mission as a people, and my central responsibility as president.”
Obama earlier visited the US Army base at Fort Bliss, Texas, yesterday to celebrate the milestone but stressed his Oval Office speech should not be seen as a “victory lap.”
“It’s not going to be self-congratulatory. There’s still a lot of work that we’ve got to do to make sure that Iraq is an effective partner with us,” Obama said.
Sunday, August 29, 2010
Obama says Iraq war is ending, his promise is kept
US President Barack Obama said today Iraq could “chart its own course” and told Americans the drawdown of US troops helped fulfil a promise he made during the 2008 presidential campaign.
Obama, who is vacationing on the Massachusetts island of Martha’s Vineyard, declared in his weekly radio and Internet address that “the war is ending” and pledged to take care of troops who are returning home.
A worker gives directions to load up a Humvee as US troops prepare to leave Iraq at Balad Base, 80km (50 miles) north of Baghdad, yesterday, August 27, 2010.
The US military recently cut its strength to under 50,000 troops in Iraq, helping to make good on Obama’s promise to end the war launched 7½ years ago by his Republican predecessor, George W. Bush.
Obama’s remarks today may be a preview of a rare, televised address the president plans on Tuesday evening from the White House Oval Office about the troop drawdown.
“On Tuesday, after more than seven years, the United States of America will end its combat mission in Iraq and take an important step forward in responsibly ending the Iraq war,” Obama said.
“As a candidate for this office, I pledged I would end this war. As president, that is what I am doing.”
The White House is trying to emphasise Obama’s accomplishments ahead of November elections to bolster fellow Democrats, who are likely to lose seats and possibly majorities in one or both houses of Congress.
With economic growth slowing and unemployment still near double-digit levels, the White House hopes the fulfilment of a foreign policy promise will help offset the economic pain at the forefront of voters’ minds.
Obama said the United States had brought home more than 90,000 troops since he became president and Iraqis had taken the lead in security operations in many parts of the country.
“In the months ahead, our troops will continue to support and train Iraqi forces, partner with Iraqis in counterterrorism missions, and protect our civilian and military efforts,” he said.
“But the bottom line is this: the war is ending. Like any sovereign, independent nation, Iraq is free to chart its own course. And by the end of next year, all of our troops will be home.”
Obama highlighted measures his administration is taking to help military veterans and urged Americans to express their gratitude to returning troops.
Friday, August 27, 2010
Eight killed in Iraq violence, Qaeda militants arrested
At least eight people were killed in violence across Iraq on Friday, including three anti-Al-Qaeda militiamen, a week before the US military is due to end its combat mission in the country.
Iraqi forces also arrested five Al-Qaeda militants linked to a deadly attack on Wednesday, a day that saw 53 people killed in car bombings blamed on the Islamist insurgent group.
The three Sahwa (Awakening) militiamen were killed overnight in northern Iraq, in the latest revenge attack against the force credited with turning the tide against Al-Qaeda.
Police said another three militiamen were wounded in the midnight (2100 GMT Thursday) attack on a checkpoint in the centre of the mainly Sunni Arab town of Al-Sharqat, 290 kilometres (180 miles) north of Baghdad.
Recruited by the US military among Sunni Arab tribesmen and former insurgents, the Sahwa, also known as the Sons of Iraq, played a key role in curbing sectarian violence which claimed thousands of lives in 2006 and 2007.
Dozens of its fighters have been killed in acts of retaliation in recent months.
Six were killed on Thursday in an attack in the village of Shrwain in ethnically divided Diyala province just north of the capital, one of Al-Qaeda's remaining Iraqi strongholds.
When full control of the Sahwa passed from the US military to the Iraqi government in April last year, Baghdad promised to integrate 20 percent of its men into the police or army, and find civil service jobs for many others.
But 52,000 are still waiting for new employment.
Meanwhile three soldiers were also killed on Friday in a pre-dawn attack in the volatile northern province of Nineveh, when gunmen attacked a patrol near the town of Al-Baaj close to the Syrian border, police said.
A policeman was also killed and another wounded when a homemade bomb exploded in the central of Mosul, the capital of Nineveh, police said.
Elsewhere in northern Iraq a nine-year-old boy was killed by gunmen who also wounded three people when they opened fire indiscriminately in a residential neighbourhood of Yarmuk, a village west of Kirkuk, Sarhad Qader, a police brigadier general, said.
A Christian glazier who was abducted a week ago by someone posing as a prospective client was found dead, his head riddled with bullets, despite his family paying a 15,000-dollar ransom for his release, police said.
Luay Barham al-Malik's decomposed body was found in a field in Nimrud, south of Mosul, Lieutenant Colonel Mohammed Omar al-Juburi said.
Also on Friday, Iraqi police arrested three suspected Al-Qaeda members who confessed to masterminding Wednesday's bombing in the city of Kut, southeast of Baghdad, police Lieutenant Colonel Aziz al-Imara said.
"They admitted being behind the suicide attack against a police station in Kut and said the bomber was Sudanese," he said. Twenty people were killed and 90 others wounded in that bombing.
Imara said the suspects admitted "they had liaised with the terrorists who carried out the other attacks against security forces elsewhere in Iraq on Wednesday."
The Kut bombing was among more than a dozen apparently coordinated car bombs targeting Iraqi police and other attacks blamed on Al-Qaeda which killed 53 people on Wednesday and wounded 300.
Five of Wednesday's victims died in Fallujah and Ramadi, west of Baghdad, and Fallujah police chief Faisal al-Issawi said two suspected Al-Qaeda operatives have been arrested in connection with these attacks.
Insurgents attack Iraqi police as US pulls back
Suicide bombers and other attackers killed at least 62 people in co-ordinated attacks on Iraqi security forces throughout the country yesterday, less than a week before US troops formally end combat operations.
The bombings also wounded more than 250 people, underscoring the fragility of Iraq’s security and the uncertainty of its political situation more than five months after an election that produced no outright winner and as yet no new government.
The onslaught was launched a day after the US military in Iraq cut its strength to under 50,000 as President Barack Obama, facing a war-weary American public, seeks to fulfil a pledge to end the war launched 7½ years ago by his predecessor.
Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki blamed Sunni Islamist al Qaeda and former dictator Saddam Hussein’s banned Baath party, and warned of more attacks as US troops end their combat mission on August 31 ahead of a full withdrawal next year.
“It is necessary that our armed and security forces are at the highest levels of vigilance and cautiousness during this sensitive period of Iraq’s history, and take all the required measures to protect the citizens and state institutions and fight terrorism strongly and firmly,” he said in a statement.
The US military spokesman in Iraq, Major-General Stephen Lanza, called the attacks “desperate attempts” to undermine faith in the Iraqi security forces and a sign that al Qaeda was trying to re-establish itself after suffering many blows.
The geographic spread of the attacks on the security forces showed that while weakened, the insurgency retains the ability to organise and carry out a nationwide assault involving dozens of operatives, under the noses of the authorities.
In Kut, 150km southeast of Baghdad, a suicide car bomber killed 30 policemen and wounded 87 after destroying a police station, said Lieutenant-Colonel Aziz al-Amarah, head of the rapid response police force in the province of Wasit.
The blast shattered the building. Burnt-out cars littered the scene as rescue workers searched for survivors.
“Parts of the building collapsed and there are still policemen’s bodies, including the police chief, under the rubble,” Amarah said by telephone.
In Baghdad, a suicide truck bomber killed 15 people and wounded at least 56 others in an attack on another police station, Interior Ministry and police sources said.
Parts of the police station in Baghdad’s northern Qahira district also collapsed and surrounding houses were severely damaged, the Interior Ministry source said.
Baghdad security spokesman Major-General Qassim al-Moussawi warned of more attacks as US troops gradually withdraw.
“We have plans to face those terrorist attacks,” he said.
Elsewhere, a car bomb near a police station in the Shi’ite holy city of Kerbala, southwest of Baghdad, and a minibus packed with explosives near a police station in the southern oil hub of Basra, wounded more than 40 people.
In Buhriz, about 60km northeast of Baghdad, gunmen detonated bombs near the houses of policemen and raised the flag of al Qaeda’s Iraqi affiliate on a building.
Other attacks in Baghdad, Diyala province, Anbar province and the cities of Kirkuk and Mosul, brought the national death toll from the attacks to at least 62.
Iraq is on high alert for attacks by suspected al Qaeda-linked groups following the inconclusive election.
More than 4,400 US soldiers and at least 100,000 Iraqi civilians have been killed in the sectarian warfare and fierce insurgency unleashed after the invasion in 2003.
Overall violence has dropped sharply since the height of sectarian carnage in 2006-07. But bombings and killings take place daily, suggesting insurgents are trying to exploit the political vacuum as Iraq’s leaders jostle for power.
“We’re very concerned about these attacks,” the chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, Admiral Mike Mullen, said in Chicago yesterday.
“But we’re more anxious about the setting up of the new government. What Iraq needs and what the people are calling for is a new government so they can move forward as well.”
US and Iraqi security officials say al Qaeda’s local affiliates are also trying to prove they remain a potent force after many of their top leaders were killed earlier this year.
Iraqi PM warns of attacks as US withdraws
Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki said today his government had information al Qaeda-linked groups were planning a series of attacks across the country, state television reported.
Maliki made his comments as the US military prepared to formally end its combat mission in Iraq on August 31.
Iraq has been hit by a string of attacks over the past few weeks that have killed dozens and underscored the country’s fragility as politicians squabble over forming a new government almost six months after a March poll produced no clear winner.
Al Iraqiya television quoted Maliki as saying that Sunni Islamist al Qaeda and members of former dictator Saddam Hussein’s banned Baath party planned to stage more attacks.
“Based on the information that has been made available to us ... the criminal alliance of al Qaeda and the remains of the former regime of Baathists are planning, with a foreign backing, to stage a series of bombings and killings on selected provinces from the south to the north,” Maliki said.
On Wednesday, insurgents killed 62 people in coordinated attacks on Iraqi police. A week earlier a suicide bomber blew himself up at an army recruitment centre in Baghdad, killing at least 57 people.
Overall violence in Iraq has dropped sharply in the past two years compared to the days of sectarian carnage in 2006-7, but bombings and killings remain daily occurrences
Wednesday, August 25, 2010
Insurgents attack Iraqi police as US pulls back
The bombings also wounded more than 250 people, underscoring the fragility of Iraq’s security and the uncertainty of its political situation more than five months after an election that produced no outright winner and as yet no new government.
The onslaught was launched a day after the US military in Iraq cut its strength to under 50,000 as President Barack Obama, facing a war-weary American public, seeks to fulfil a pledge to end the war launched 7½ years ago by his predecessor.
Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki blamed Sunni Islamist al Qaeda and former dictator Saddam Hussein’s banned Baath party, and warned of more attacks as US troops end their combat mission on August 31 ahead of a full withdrawal next year.
“It is necessary that our armed and security forces are at the highest levels of vigilance and cautiousness during this sensitive period of Iraq’s history, and take all the required measures to protect the citizens and state institutions and fight terrorism strongly and firmly,” he said in a statement.
The US military spokesman in Iraq, Major-General Stephen Lanza, called the attacks “desperate attempts” to undermine faith in the Iraqi security forces and a sign that al Qaeda was trying to re-establish itself after suffering many blows.
The geographic spread of the attacks on the security forces showed that while weakened, the insurgency retains the ability to organise and carry out a nationwide assault involving dozens of operatives, under the noses of the authorities.
In Kut, 150km southeast of Baghdad, a suicide car bomber killed 30 policemen and wounded 87 after destroying a police station, said Lieutenant-Colonel Aziz al-Amarah, head of the rapid response police force in the province of Wasit.
The blast shattered the building. Burnt-out cars littered the scene as rescue workers searched for survivors.
“Parts of the building collapsed and there are still policemen’s bodies, including the police chief, under the rubble,” Amarah said by telephone.
In Baghdad, a suicide truck bomber killed 15 people and wounded at least 56 others in an attack on another police station, Interior Ministry and police sources said.
Parts of the police station in Baghdad’s northern Qahira district also collapsed and surrounding houses were severely damaged, the Interior Ministry source said.
Baghdad security spokesman Major-General Qassim al-Moussawi warned of more attacks as US troops gradually withdraw.
“We have plans to face those terrorist attacks,” he said.
Elsewhere, a car bomb near a police station in the Shi’ite holy city of Kerbala, southwest of Baghdad, and a minibus packed with explosives near a police station in the southern oil hub of Basra, wounded more than 40 people.
In Buhriz, about 60km northeast of Baghdad, gunmen detonated bombs near the houses of policemen and raised the flag of al Qaeda’s Iraqi affiliate on a building.
Other attacks in Baghdad, Diyala province, Anbar province and the cities of Kirkuk and Mosul, brought the national death toll from the attacks to at least 62.
Iraq is on high alert for attacks by suspected al Qaeda-linked groups following the inconclusive election.
More than 4,400 US soldiers and at least 100,000 Iraqi civilians have been killed in the sectarian warfare and fierce insurgency unleashed after the invasion in 2003.
Overall violence has dropped sharply since the height of sectarian carnage in 2006-07. But bombings and killings take place daily, suggesting insurgents are trying to exploit the political vacuum as Iraq’s leaders jostle for power.
“We’re very concerned about these attacks,” the chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, Admiral Mike Mullen, said in Chicago yesterday.
“But we’re more anxious about the setting up of the new government. What Iraq needs and what the people are calling for is a new government so they can move forward as well.”
US and Iraqi security officials say al Qaeda’s local affiliates are also trying to prove they remain a potent force after many of their top leaders were killed earlier this year.
Thursday, August 19, 2010
Suicide bomber targets Iraqi army recruits, kills 39
At least 39 recruits and soldiers were killed and 57 wounded today when a suicide bomber blew himself up outside an army recruitment centre in the Iraqi capital, authorities said.
The Baghdad operations command said in a statement 39 people had been killed. One police source said the death toll could be as high as 48, with 123 wounded.
The suicide bombing is one of the bloodiest attacks in weeks as political tensions simmer following an inconclusive election more than five months ago and ahead of the end of US combat operations this month.
The attack occurred at the site of what used to be the Defence Ministry under Saddam Hussein, turned into an army recruitment centre and military base after the 2003 US-led invasion.
One army source who declined to be identified said there might have been two suicide bombers, a hallmark of Sunni Islamist al Qaeda and its local affiliates.
“They (the recruits) were gathering in large numbers. They let in 250 recruits at a time,” the source said.
The bloodshed was the latest in a steady drumbeat of attacks since a March 7 election produced no outright winner and as yet no new government.
While overall violence in Iraq has fallen sharply since the height in 2006-07 of the sectarian slaughter between majority Shi’ites and once dominant Sunnis, a stubborn insurgency remains capable of carrying out large scale attacks.
Iraqi and US officials say the insurgents are trying to exploit political tensions stirred up by unsuccessful coalition talks between the major Shi’ite political factions and a Sunni-backed cross-sectarian alliance which won a narrow victory in the March election.
They are also putting the Iraqi security forces to the test ahead of the formal end of US combat operations this month and the reduction in US troop levels to 50,000 by September 1, part of a plan leading to a full-scale withdrawal in 2011.
US on track to exit Iraq war
The US military is holding steady in its aim to reduce troop numbers in Iraq to 50,000 by August 31, when the 7-1/2 year US combat mission launched by former President George W. Bush comes to an official close.
The last US brigade officially classed as a combat unit formally handed over responsibilities to its Iraqi counterparts on August 7, but US troops have been steadily flowing out of the country on transport aircraft and by road for a year.
“My personal experience is it was worth it. We paid a huge cost,” said Staff Sergeant Christopher Hush from the First Battalion of the 116th Infantry regiment which pulled out to Kuwait earlier this week.
US media said yesterday the last US combat troops had left Iraq, but US officials clarified there were still 56,000 US soldiers in Iraq, so the reduction to 50,000 non-combat troops by September 1 promised by US President Barack Obama still has a some way to go.
There will actually be little change on the ground in the US military mission in Iraq come September 1 as most US military units began switching their focus to training and assisting Iraqi troops and police more than a year ago when they pulled out of Iraqi urban centres on June 30, 2009.
Much of the US war material and many of the soldiers departing Iraq are being redeployed to Afghanistan, where Nato forces are fighting a resurgent Taliban.
The end of the US combat mission in Iraq will mark a milestone in the war that began in 2003 with the invasion to topple Sunni dictator Saddam Hussein, whose long rule was marked by an eight-year war with Iran, the invasion of Kuwait and economic decline and diplomatic isolation.
More than 4,400 US soldiers have been killed since the invasion, while up to 106,071 Iraqi civilians also died in fierce warfare unleashed between majority Shi’ites and minority Sunni Muslims who dominated the country under Saddam.
Overall violence has fallen sharply since the height of the sectarian slaughter in 2006/07, when US troop numbers topped out at around 170,000.
But a stubborn Sunni Islamist-led insurgency continues to carry out devastating attacks and Iraq remains a fragile place.
Its leaders have not resolved a number of politically explosive issues that could easily trigger renewed fighting, such as tensions between majority Arabs and minority Kurds, and reconciliation between Sunnis and Shi’ites.
Nor have they been able to form a new government five months after a national election that produced no outright winner, and tensions have been stoked by a steady stream of suicide bombings and other attacks by insurgents trying to exploit the political vacuum ahead of the end of the US combat mission.
Nevertheless, Iraq’s tentative experiment with US-imposed democracy holds the potential to upset political power balances throughout a region accustomed to autocratic governance.
Obama promised American voters he would halt combat missions on August 31 ahead a full US withdrawal by the end of 2011 as agreed in a bilateral security pact signed by his predecessor.
The US president faces a war-weary US public as his fellow Democrats seek to hold on to their control of the US Congress in elections in November.
Obama has said not a single US service member will remain in Iraq come January 1, 2012, even though it will be impossible for Iraq to stand up its own air force and be ready to protect its territorial integrity on its own by then.
With US opinion polls showing Americans tired of nearly a decade of war in Afghanistan and Iraq, any decision to extend US military involvement in Iraq would be enormously risky for Obama, who is up for re-election in 2012.
He would almost certainly face a backlash from Democrats in Congress and from the left wing of his party, which is already disenchanted with him.
The war in Iraq has gone on longer than the US Civil War, World War One and World War Two.
Monday, August 9, 2010
Iraq forces take over from last US combat brigade
The United States handed over control of all combat duties to Iraqi security forces today in a further sign its withdrawal is on track despite a political impasse in Iraq and a recent rise in violence.
US President Barack Obama said last Monday he would stick to his promise to end US combat operations in Iraq by August 31, with security being left in the hands of Iraq’s own US-trained army and police.
“Today is an extremely important day as we continue to progress towards turning over full responsibility to the Iraqi security forces,” General Raymond Odierno, top commander of US forces in Iraq, told reporters after a departure ceremony for the last US combat brigade.
Seven years after the US-led invasion to topple Saddam Hussein, Washington is reducing the number of troops in Iraq to 50,000 by September 1 from just under 65,000 currently and close to 150,000 during the height of the conflict.
During the ceremony, a division of the Iraqi army demonstrated vehicle checks and other security measures often employed in the war-battered country, where bombings and other attacks remain daily occurrences although overall violence has subsided since the conflict peaked in 2006-7.
While this was the last combat brigade to hand over control to Iraqi forces, there will still be six brigades left in the country after US combat troops leave by the end of the month.
The six Advice and Assist Brigades, which come into effect from September 1 when the US moves formally into an advisory role, will train and support Iraq’s army and police.
However, the inability of Iraq’s fractious parliamentary parties to come up with a coalition government five months after elections has created a power vacuum potentially vulnerable to sectarian tensions and left many Iraqis concerned about the ability of local forces to maintain security.
There was a sharp rise in deadly attacks in July, increasing fears that insurgents are trying to exploit the political situation to foment sectarian strife.
“The Iraqi security forces have continued to do their job throughout this time and have not been affected at all by the delays in the formation of the government,” Odierno said in Abu Ghraib on the western outskirts of Baghdad.
Iraqi Defence Minister Abdel Qader Jassim, who also attended the ceremony, said the issue of politicians struggling to agree on a coalition government was a political one and that the primary responsibility of Iraqi forces was to protect Iraqis.
American forces have been patrolling in a support role with their Iraqi counterparts for months and US commanders say the remaining force of 50,000 at the end of this month will be enough to counter any unexpected surge in violence.
Scores killed, wounded in Iraq blast
The explosion of a power generator, possibly triggered by a bomb, at a busy market in Iraq’s southern oil hub Basra yesterday killed dozens of people and wounded scores more, morgue and security sources said.
A source at the city’s morgue said at least 25 bodies had been taken there. A security source who asked not to be identified said the toll was 45 killed and 162 wounded while a hospital source said 16 had died and at least 110 were wounded.
Witnesses reported that two or three explosions struck the popular market in the centre of Basra and two security sources said at least one of the blasts was the detonation of a car bomb. Basra Police Chief Adil Daham told al-Hurra television the explosion was caused by a malfunctioning generator.
“We’re investigating the cause. We don’t know whether it was a terrorist attack or something else,” said Ali al-Maliki, the head of the security committee in the Basra council.
Firefighters and ambulances rushed to the scene, the central al-Ashaar market in one of Iraq’s largest cities. Fierce flames and smoke could be seen.
“There were three explosions in this very crowded area,” lawmaker Hussein Talib told Reuters television at the scene. “There were women and children and poor vendors.”
“As a lawmaker from Basra I hold the military and police leadership responsible for the blood that has been shed.”
Oil-rich Iraq has remained in a political void since an inconclusive March 7 election while Shi’ite, Sunni and Kurdish political factions try to sort out a coalition government.
Politicians and security officials say insurgents appear to be trying to take advantage of the power vacuum.
Overall violence has ebbed since the peak of sectarian warfare in 2006/07 but bombings and suicide attacks still occur regularly. Iraq has the world’s third-largest oil reserves and most of its exports come from oilfields located around Basra.
A man at the scene of the explosions blamed politicians, who have failed in their attempts to form a government in the five months since the election.
“They are all fighting over their chairs. Is that what they want? Explosions in Basra, another one in Mosul. Oh my God, why is this happening?” the man, Furat Yasir, said.
More than a dozen people were killed in other attacks across Iraq on Saturday, including four policemen in clashes with gunmen in Baghdad during a raid on a house where car bombs were being made. In the northern city of Mosul a suicide bomber killed a policeman and wounded six other people.
Nearly 400 civilians were killed in bombings and other attacks in July, almost double the June toll, Iraqi authorities say.
Tens of thousands of people were killed during the height of Iraq’s sectarian slaughter in 2006-07.
US general eyes ‘first steps’ toward Iraqi government
Iraqi political leaders are likely to make headway in forming a government ahead of a September 1 date for the United States to end combat operations in the country, the US commander in Iraq said yesterday.
Iraq has been in political limbo since an inconclusive March 7 election as Shi’ite, Sunni and Kurdish political factions have failed to agree on a new government in five months since the vote.
“I think we’ll see some first steps toward forming a government by 1 September,” US General Ray Odierno told ABC’s “This Week” program without elaborating on what those steps might be.
Odierno also said he was confident that Iraqi forces, helped by 50,000 US troops that will remain in Iraq after September 1, can overcome attacks by people trying to take advantage of the political stalemate.
US troop levels in the drawdown of forces are not linked to the formation of an Iraqi government, Odierno said.
“Our numbers are linked to the capacity that the Iraqis — of the Iraqi security forces being able to sustain stability — and I think they are moving toward that capacity,” he said.
The United States currently has just under 65,000 troops in Iraq. It had close to 150,000 at the height of the conflict.
Odierno credited the Iraqi security forces with staying “neutral” and “very professional” in conducting their duties while competing political factions struggle to put together a government.
The 50,000 US troops that will stay in Iraq after September 1 will represent a “significant presence” to help the Iraqi military against militant forces, including al Qaeda in Iraq, whose capabilities have been worn down by the allies, he said.
“Their ability to surge and do this over a sustained period of time is limited, and that’s due to a lot of the work of the Iraqi security forces, working with us to conduct these operations,” Odierno said.
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