If one were to total up the number of Iraqis found in mass graves since Saddam became dictator it would seem as though the Iraqis are better off now with only 1,000 dying each month. The difference may be that today they don't know where the next attack will come from--no matter what their politics, religion, race or gender-they are all targets.

Bahgdad

1000 Iraqis dying each month: expert


April 22, 2005

DESPITE a decrease in American deaths in Iraq, Iraqis continue to die and suffer under poor economic conditions, a foreign policy expert said today.


Between 500 and 1000 Iraqis would be killed each month in the war-torn country, the Washington-based The Brookings Institution foreign policy expert Michael O'Hanlon said.
"Unfortunately, things have not yet gotten much better for the Iraqi population either in terms of car bombings or general casualties from crime or from the ongoing civil conflict," Dr O'Hanlon told ABC radio.

Despite a weakening of insurgent forces since the US-led invasion in 2003 and a declining casualty rate for US forces, the situation had not improved for the Iraqi people.

"In the security arena, we've seen a great improvement in the rate of casualties taken by American forces - a much lower rate of fatalities and wounded; probably a 50 to 70 per cent reduction relative to the late fall," he said.

"Unfortunately, those improvements have not yet affected the overall security landscape in Iraq for most Iraqis."

The economic conditions in the country, although gradually improving, were no better than under the leadership of Saddam Hussein.

"I think that the progress here is probably only about back now to where things were under Saddam Hussein.

"The economy is only a little better than it was under Saddam. It may be no better at all if you look at certain indicators like unemployment."

Despite this, the insurgency was weakening - but not defeated, he said.

"I would not want to push the argument so far as to say that the insurgency is fundamentally on its heels or to say that it is so much weaker that it's been unable to continue to inflict random carnage on fellow Iraqi citizens."

A 34-year-old Australian contractor killed in an attack near Baghdad on Wednesday was the fourth Australian death there since the beginning of hostilities in March, 2003.

AAP

Car bomb kills 30 at Iraq funeral
May 02 11:54
AP


A car bomb exploded at the funeral for a Kurdish official in northern Iraq today, killing about 30 Iraqis and wounding more than 50, the US military said.

The attack occurred in the city of Tal Afar, 150 kilometres east of the Syrian border, said the military and Khisru Goran, the deputy provincial governor and a spokesman for the Kurdish Democratic Party.

Mr Goran said a suicide attacker detonated a car packed with explosives in a large tent where the funeral was being held. But the US military said it was not a suicide attack.

The funeral was being held for Sayed Talib Sayed Wahab, a KDP official gunned down by insurgents yesterday in Mosul, Mr Goran said from the nearby city.

The blast killed about 30 Iraqis and wounded more than 50, a US military statement said, adding: "Terrorists continue to target and disregard the safety of innocent citizens during their attacks."



US troops, Iraqi police and ambulances raced to the scene to take the wounded to a local hospital, but unidentified gunmen blocked the road and fighting broke out, Mr Goran said. The US military had no immediate information about that.

"Tal Afar has became a pocket for insurgents, and we know that more than 500 terrorists are hiding there," Mr Goran said.

Meanwhile, five Iraqi police were killed when a group of around 30 insurgents stormed a checkpoint on the southern edge of Baghdad, taking them by surprise, an interior ministry official said.

Militants loyal to Al-Qaeda's Iraq frontman Abu Musab al- Zarqawi said in a statement posted on the internet that they had carried out the attack.

Five Iraqi civilians, including a young girl, were also killed and 12 wounded in south-east Baghdad when a car bomb exploded as a US military convoy drove by, the official said.

In a second Baghdad car bomb targeting a US military convoy, a child was killed and 10 civilians wounded.

A Baghdad municipal official in charge of the sewage system was also gunned down in his car, while two men working for an Iraqi construction company were also shot dead in Baghdad.

A total of 567 Iraqi were killed in April, up almost 50 percent on the previous month. A further 668 were wounded, up from 494 in March.

Iraqi leaders had hoped the announcement of a partial cabinet line- up last week would undermine the insurgency but rebel attacks have shown no sign of letting up.

We had those elections in Viet Nam to, but the only thing that brought stability to the region is we left and the communists took over.

We are so desensitized to whats happening over there, that we hear of the death and destruction but without the hands on experience it may well just be a tornado in the midwest, for all the recognition we give it.

http://www.kwtx.com/home/headlines/1531502.html

Task Force Baghdad Troops Thwart Car Bomb Attack
Troops Rescue Driver After Bomb Fails To Detonate Properly

Soldiers from the 3rd Infantry Division’s Task Force Baghdad pulled the driver of an explosives-laden car to safety Sunday after the bomb failed to detonate properly and instead burst into flames.

It happened near a barrier at the entrance to a military base in eastern Baghdad.

Military officials said a preliminary investigation indicated that the driver was forced to carry out the mission by insurgents who had kidnapped his family.

“This is another case where Abu Musab al-Zarqawi has to extort men to carry out his indiscriminate slaughtering. He can’t recruit volunteers; he is resorting to forcing Iraqi civilians to carry out these mission by threatening harm to kidnapped family members,” said Col. Joe DiSalvo, Commander, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Infantry Division.

The 3rd ID took over responsibility from Fort Hood’s 1st Cavalry Division in February for operations in and around Baghdad.

Iraq is the new Afghanistan: US

IANS[ TUESDAY, MAY 03, 2005 10:18:52 AM ]



WASHINGTON: Iraq is now the new Afghanistan used by jehadi groups to train Islamic terrorists, the US State Department's Country Reports on Terrorism for 2004 has said.


Titled "Global Jihad: Evolving and Adapting", the report said: "Foreign fighters appear to be working to make the insurgency in Iraq what Afghanistan was to the earlier generation of jehadists - a melting pot for jehadists from around the world, a training ground, and an indoctrination centre.

"In the months and years ahead, a significant number of fighters who have travelled to Iraq could return to their home countries, exacerbating domestic conflicts or augmenting with new skills and experience existing extremist networks in the communities to which they return."

The report unwittingly seems to confirm the claims by many critics of the US invasion of Iraq who say the country...

has become a fertile recruiting and training ground for Al Qaeda. Describing the global jehadist movement as the "the pre-eminent terrorist threat to the United States, US interests and US allies, it said Al Qaeda "has spread its anti-US, anti-Western ideology to other groups and geographical areas".


US and coalition successes against Al Qaeda "have forced these jehadist groups to compensate by showing a greater willingness to act on their own and exercising greater local control over their strategic and tactical decisions.

"As a result of this growing dispersion and local decision-making, there is an increasing commingling of groups, personnel, resources, and ad hoc operational and logistical coordination," it said.

How many lives per gallon?

I agree, we are desensitized to what is happening in Iraq. Although, I think some Americans are affected by the troop casualites, I don't think many are concerned about the numbers of Iraqis that are killed daily. It may be, for some, it is because the numbers are overwhelming and difficult to fathom, but I do think that some just don't care.

May 4, 8:59 AM EDT

Bomber Kills 50 at Iraqi Police Center

By YAHYA BARZANJI
Associated Press Writer


IRBIL, Iraq (AP) -- An Iraqi carrying hidden explosives set them off outside a police recruitment center Wednesday where people were applying for jobs, police said. The U.S. military said at least 50 Iraqis were killed, making it the deadliest insurgent attack in Iraq in more than two months.

State-owned TV in Iraq and Al-Arabiya television gave even higher casualty figures, saying 60 were killed and as many as 150 wounded.

At least seven cars parked near the center were destroyed by the blast in Irbil, a Kurdish city 220 miles north of Baghdad. Several nearby buildings were damaged.

Pools of blood formed on the street outside the center as ambulances and cabs raced to the chaotic scene to take casualties to hospitals.

The attack came as many civilians were applying for Iraqi police jobs at the recruitment center, said Capt. Mark Walter, the spokesman who provided the U.S. military death toll.

Police officer Shwan Mohammed first said that the attacker had set the explosives off inside the police center, but police Capt. Othman Aziz later said the attacker detonated them outside the building because of the heavy security there.

Iraqi civilian Hawra Mohammed, 37, said he had just dropped his brother Ahmed, 32, off at the center to apply for a job and driven away when the explosion occurred.

When Hawra raced back, he found his brother lying in a street, bleeding and unconscious. But Ahmed soon began to move.

"I lifted my brother onto my shoulders and took him to a nearby hospital," Hawra said in an interview. "The blood on my shirt is my brother's."

Hawra said he nearly fainted at the sight of dead bodies outside the recruitment center and that many of the victims were unemployed, just like his brother, and wanted to earn money as policemen.

The attack appeared to be the deadliest by insurgents in Iraq since Feb. 28, when a suicide car bomber struck a crowd of police and national guard recruits outside a medical clinic in Hillah, south of the capital. That attack, which killed 110 people and wounded 133, was the single deadliest in the insurgency.

Militants have stepped up their attacks across Iraq in the last week, often targeting convoys of U.S. and Iraqi troops, and Iraqi police on patrol or at recruitment centers. A key goal of U.S. troops is to eventually train enough Iraqi security forces to reduce the role now being played by the Americans in fighting the insurgency.

Including Wednesday's bombing, some 200 people have been killed in insurgent attacks since last week's approval of a partial Cabinet that largely shut out Sunnis Arabs.

Elsewhere, the U.S. military said Wednesday that two American soldiers were killed in separate roadside bomb attacks in Baghdad the day before. Little information was immediately available.

In Baghdad, two legislators from Iraq's Kurdish and Sunni minorities condemned the attack in Irbil. Kurdish legislator Fouad Massoum blamed it on insurgent groups such as Ansar al-Islam, which operates in the Kurdish enclave, and Jordanian militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, believed to be linked with Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida.

"This is a horrible crime and a massacre," Massoum said in an interview outside the National Assembly. "Cooperation between the people and the security forces is necessary to fight terrorists like al-Zarqawi and Ansar al-Islam, who are the enemies of Iraq."

Mohsin al-Jarwa, the Sunni Arab lawmaker, said: "This is an inhuman operation, killing the sons of the land who were coming to protect Iraq. I don't believe those who carried this out were Iraqis. Iraqis don't kill Iraqis, and I strongly condemn this terrorist act."

An Australian task force arrived in Baghdad to work for the release of Douglas Wood, a kidnapped Australian citizen and a resident of California who has an American wife. In a televised interview on the al-Jazeera TV network, Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer appealed for the release of Wood, saying the 63-year-old engineer had a serious heart condition.

On Tuesday, the first democratically elected government in the history of Iraq was sworn in, and the new Shiite prime minister pledged before a half-empty parliament that he would unite the country's rival ethnic factions and fight terrorism.

Still, despite months of tortuous negotiations, there was no final decision on seven positions in the 37-member Cabinet, including the key oil and defense ministries.

More important, the partial Cabinet fails to give the country's disaffected Sunni Arab minority, believed to be driving the insurgency, a meaningful governing stake.

On Wednesday, Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari resumed months of behind-the-scenes talks aimed at resolving the dispute among Sunnis and Shiites over the outstanding Cabinet portfolios.

Many lawmakers skipped Tuesday's swearing-in ceremony, which took place in a conference hall deep within Baghdad's heavily fortified Green Zone. Those absent included the government's most senior Sunni member, Vice President Ghazi al-Yawer.

The Cabinet that took office includes 16 Shiite Arabs, nine Kurds, four Sunnis and one Christian. Two deputy prime minister slots - including one Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari hopes to offer to a woman - were left vacant, and five ministerial portfolios are in temporary hands.

Al-Jaafari played down the disputes still roiling his government more than three months after millions of Iraqis risked their lives to vote in landmark parliamentary elections on Jan. 30. He blamed the delay in filling the Cabinet on Sunni infighting and said the matter would be resolved in two to three days.

"But we are not in a hurry," he told reporters after Tuesday's ceremony. "We want the choice to be accepted by all the Iraqi people."

Al-Jaafari's government has less than eight months left to complete its main tasks: draft a new constitution by mid-August and submit it to a referendum no later than Oct. 15. If approved, new elections must be held by Dec. 15, under Iraq's transitional law.

Al-Jaafari pledged to get to work confronting the "heavy legacy" left by Saddam Hussein - a country afflicted by poverty, corruption and mass graves.

"This government belongs to the Iraqi people," he said. "Iraqis will reap the fruits of their sacrifices. These sacrifices have not gone in vain."

© 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Learn more about our Privacy Policy.

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Suicide bomber kills 22 in Iraq
Fri May 6, 2005 2:55 PM BST
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BAGHDAD (Reuters) - A suicide bomber in a car blew himself up near a vegetable market in a southern Iraqi town on Friday, killing at least 22 people and wounding 45, a police official said.

The attack in the mostly Shi'ite Muslim town of Suwayra was part of an escalation of guerrilla violence that has stepped up pressure on Iraq's new government announced eight days ago.

Guerrilla bombings and other attacks have killed over 200 people since the cabinet was announced, raising fears that the attacks will fuel sectarian tensions.

Suwayra is near Iraq's so-called "triangle of death" south of Baghdad where insurgents have launched many deadly attacks and carried out kidnappings.

Updated from article above, now 67

http://icasualties.org/oif/
Bombers kill 67 Iraqis
Fri May 6, 2005 6:42 PM BST



By Michael Georgy

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Suicide bombers killed at least 67 Iraqis on Friday in escalating violence that has cast doubts over the new government's ability to defeat insurgents.

Guerrilla bombings and other attacks have killed more than 250 people since the cabinet was announced eight days ago, in one of the bloodiest weeks of the insurgency.

In the deadliest blast on Friday, a suicide car bomber struck a vegetable market in a southern Iraqi town, killing at least 58 people and wounding 44, police and hospital officials said.

The attack hit the mostly Shi'ite town of Suwayra, reinforcing fears that guerrilla violence will fuel growing sectarian tensions and ignite a civil war.

Guerrillas also exerted pressure on U.S. allies in Iraq. In a new video aired on Al Jazeera, kidnappers of an Australian man demanded Australia begin withdrawing troops from Iraq within 72 hours. The shaven-headed hostage was shown held at gunpoint.

In Saddam Hussein's hometown of Tikrit, a suicide car bomber blew up his vehicle beside a minibus carrying policemen, killing at least nine and wounding several, local police said.

Millions of Iraqis braved suicide bombs to vote in the January 30 elections, expecting a new era of democracy that would end two years of suicide bombings, kidnappings and rampant crime.

But insurgents have stepped up bombings of security forces since the government was announced, defying leaders who face the daunting task of tackling violence so that Iraq can start rebuilding its shattered economy and infrastructure.

Guerrilla attacks gained momentum as politicians bickered for three months before announcing an incomplete cabinet, and the latest wave of violence has challenged the government to make good on its promise to tackle insurgents.

A series of bomb blasts and ambushes in Baghdad killed at least 24 people on Thursday. The previous day, a suicide bomb in the northern town of Arbil killed as many as 60 people, and a car bomb in Baghdad killed nine Iraqi soldiers.

Iraqi officials often blame such attacks on the elusive al Qaeda leader in Iraq, Jordanian militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, whose group claimed the Tikrit bombing near a checkpoint set up by Iraqi security forces.

"A lion from the martyrs' brigade attacked a group of the apostate police, who are agents of America, in the city of Tikrit ... killing many, " said a statement from Al Qaeda Organisation for Holy War in Iraq on an Islamist Web site. Its authenticity could not be verified.

In Baghdad, a resident alerted police after he saw bodies being buried. Police found the corpses of 14 men. Some of the victims, blindfolded and wearing civilian clothes and left in a garbage dump, had been shot in the head, police said on Friday.

HOSTAGES

As it tries to prevent insurgent attacks and ambushes, Iraq's new government must also try to tackle a series of kidnappings of foreigners, many of whom have been killed.

The Australian hostage, Douglas Wood, 63, was shown on Jazeera apparently pleading for his life as two masked insurgents pointed their guns at him. His head had been shaved.

Australia insists it does not negotiate with hostage takers. Last year, Canberra criticised the Philippines for withdrawing troops from Iraq to save the life of a Filipino truck driver held by Zarqawi's group.

Jazeera also said a group had kidnapped six Jordanians working in Iraq to press Jordanian companies not to work with U.S. forces. It aired a video tape showing six men holding up their passports as they sat beneath a sign carrying the name of the group, Al-Bara bin Malek Brigades.

As Iraq's new leaders try to contain the insurgency, they are struggling to resolve their own political disputes.

After the January 30 elections, Sunni Arabs who dominated under Saddam were sidelined and the Shi'ites and Kurds became the new powers in Iraq.

Their leaders have promised to give Sunni Arabs a prominent role in politics, but sectarian tensions and haggling have dragged on since the partial cabinet was announced. Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari, an Islamist Shi'ite, has yet to name ministers for key portfolios such as defence and oil.

New tensions also erupted on Friday between Iraqi security forces and supporters of radical Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr.

Followers of Sadr clashed with Iraqi soldiers after Friday prayers in Kufa, near the holy city of Najaf, and hours later gunmen killed two Sadr supporters in Baghdad, police said.

Sadr, who has led two major uprisings against U.S. troops in Iraq, has been keeping a low profile since an American military offensive against his Medhi Army fighters in Najaf last August.

If he decides to stir up his militiamen again, the new government could face trouble on a new front.



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Published: May 6, 2005
Modified: May 6, 2005 10:03 AM

12 bodies found at Baghdad garbage dump


By KARIM KADIM, ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER


BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - The bodies of at least 12 people who had been shot and killed were found buried at a garbage dump on the outskirts of Baghdad on Friday, Iraqi officials said.
Some of the victims were blindfolded and had been shot in the head execution-style, said Bassim al-Maslokhi, a soldier who was guarding the area during the recovery.

Authorities kept journalists at a distance. But an Associated Press photographer saw U.S. military, Iraqi police and soldiers at the dump in Kasra Waatash, on the northeastern edge of the capital, along with three ambulances.

There were conflicting accounts of the number of bodies found. Al-Maslokhi said 14 bodies were found. Kadhim al-Itabi, a local police chief, put the number at 12.

Al-Itabi confirmed they had been shot. The bodies were being transferred to the central morgue in Baghdad, said Mazin Fadhid, a policeman at the same station.

Fadhid said most of the victims appeared to be young men. Some were dressed in traditional white robes, others were in pants and shirts, and at least one was wearing a traffic officer's uniform, he said.

Master Sgt. Greg Kaufman, a U.S. military spokesman, referred questions to Iraqi authorities.

Police were called to the scene by scavengers who found some of the bodies while searching for scrap metal and other items to sell, al-Maslokhi said.

Police found the dead, believed to be Iraqis, in shallow graves at the dump, said al-Maslokhi, adding that they seemed to have been killed recently. He said police were still digging at the site.



© Copyright 2005, The News & Observer Publishing Company,
a subsidiary of The McClatchy Company

http://comment.independent.co.uk/leading_a...sp?story=635956

The Independent

The promise of democracy and the threat of civil war

06 May 2005

Three months after Iraq's elections, the flame of hope that flared up looks more and more like a feeble and short-lived flicker than the harbinger of a new dawn. The swearing in of the new - and still partial - government this week has been accompanied by a bout of killings as vicious as anything Iraq has experienced in the past year. Scarce wonder the US top brass has not repeated its view that the tide has turned.

The site wanted money to read the rest of your article and I'm too cheap to pay for it, but I think "the flame of hope that flared up looks more and more like a feeble and short-lived flicker than the harbinger of a new dawn" said it all. Thanks!

http://icasualties.org/oif/

Coffin Industry Booming in Iraq
A library photo of Iraqis offering funeral prayers for a car bomb victim.


BAGHDAD, May 7, 2005 (IslamOnline.net) – Against a backdrop of almost daily bombings, shuddering explosions and US raids that claim the lives of innocent Iraqi civilians, the demand for coffins is so high and undertakers are burying bodies at a huge profit.

“The spiraling death rate in the country has definitely reflected positively on undertakers,” Mohammad Sakran, who owns a tomb in east Baghdad, told the London-based Al-Quds Press news agency.

“The tomb is running out of space,” he added, recalling that many of the Shiite casualties who were killed in deadly clashes between US occupation forces and militias of Shiite leader Moqtada Al-Sare had been buried in his tomb.

In the past, it was just a funeral here and there. But now dozens of Iraqis are laid to rest day in and day out with tombs bursting at the seams, said the news agency.

Burial grounds have not only mushroomed in recent months across the country, but have become the size of such cities as An-Najaf as every family has almost lost one to an indiscriminate car bomb, US bullets or assassinations.

In other cities, bodies remain uncollected in morgues.

Burial Tag


Iraqi men remove a victim after a powerful car bomb explosion in Baghdad. (Reuters).


But there is also bitterness in the scene as the misfortunes of others are fortunes to Iraqi undertakers.

The burials are priced differently according to the family lineage, an undertaker, who requested anonymity, told Al-Quds Press.

“Well-off families are paying generously without argument,” he said.

“We don’t put a price tag, but leave it to the families, who might pay much than expected.”

But he said that the age and the cause of death set a minimum and maximum price.

“It s/he is old and died of a certain disease, the burial price ranges between 25,000 to 40,000 dinars (between 18 and 35 dollars),” noted the undertaker.

“The price could rise if s/he is young and was assassinated or killed in a car bomb.”

Deadly car bombs and blasts have been plaguing Iraq ever since the US-led forces occupied the country on April 9, 2003.

On Saturday, May 7, a car bomb exploded at a busy intersection in central Baghdad as a foreign security convoy drove past, killing at least nine Iraqis and four foreigners, and injuring 35 people.

At least 60 people were killed and 150 were wounded when a bomber blew himself up at the local offices of the Kurdistan Democratic Party, which also served as a recruiting center for police in the northern Iraqi city of Arbil, on Wednesday, May 4, 2005.

A study published by respected British medical weekly Lancet in October last year that over 100,000 civilians -- half of them women and children -- have lost their lives since the start of US-led invasion-turned-occupation.

Death toll nears 400 as violence escalates in Iraq
>By Steve Negus in Baghdad
>Published: May 12 2005 03:00 | Last updated: May 12 2005 03:00
>>
More than 70 people were killed in at least five attacks across Iraq yesterday in a dramatic surge in insurgent violence that has overshadowed the rise to power of Iraq's first elected government.

The wave of attacks, which brings the total number of Iraqis dead over the past two weeks to nearly 400, has shattered the sense of optimism created by the January 30 elections.

The escalation in violence appears designed to undermine the newly announced government led by Ibrahim al-Jaafari of the Shia Islamist al-Dawa party. Yesterday's blasts also came as US forces continued an offensive in a desert area near the Syrian border, alleged to be a main route for foreign Islamist volunteers infiltrating Iraq.

US sources claim that at least 100 insurgents have also been killed in four days of fighting, in addition to three marines and at least two civilians, a woman and a child, shot at a checkpoint on Tuesday.

The deadliest blast yesterday took place in Saddam Hussein's home-town of Tikrit, where a suicide car bomb exploded in a market outside a police station, killing at least 33 people.

In Hawija, a predominantly Sunni Arab town south-west of the disputed city of Kirkuk, a suicide bomber detonated explosives hidden under his clothes amid a crowd waiting outside a police and army recruitment centre, killing 32 people.

In Baghdad, meanwhile, three car bombs killed four people and wounded 14, police said.

US officials say the recent wave of suicide attacks is probably the work of Jordanian militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, who is believed to control most of the non-Iraqi volunteers that the US says make up the majority of suicide bombers.

In an attempt to disrupt Mr Zarqawi's network, US forces backed by fighter-bombers and attack helicopters continued a sweep through the Euphrates river valley near the city of Qaem in the western province of Anbar, a region the US claims is used as a staging area for foreign fighters crossing the Syrian border.

"It is here that these foreign fighters receive the weapons and equipment to conduct attacks such as suicide car bombs and assassination or kidnapping of political or civilian targets, in the more populated key cities of Baghdad, Ramadi, Fallujah and Mosul," the US military said.

Insurgents kidnapped the governor of Anbar, the predominantly Sunni province, and said he would only be released when US troops pulled out of Qaem, the governor's family reported on Tuesday. Additional reporting by Dhiya Rasan and Awadh al-Taee in Baghdad

Find this article at:
http://news.ft.com/cms/s/05cc2dde-c284-11d...acl=,s01=1.html

http://www.southbendtribune.com/stories/th...bt-MICH-A3-Angr

Angry Iraqis stone police
People furious as violence continues; latest strikes kill 21

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/4545357.stm
'Thousands' flee fighting in Iraq

Thousands of Iraqis have fled fighting between US troops and insurgents in the west of the country, aid workers say.
The head of the Iraqi Red Crescent in the country told the BBC that about 1,000 families had been displaced from the border town of Qaim

701ST MSB sponsors new girls school in Tikrit


Capt. Stephanie Tisdale, HHD/701st Commander hands out school supplies and toys in the Al Barudy School for Girls in Tikrit, Iraq. The 701st MSB sponsored the construction of the new Girls School. (Photo courtesy of 701st Main Support Battalion)

TIKRIT, Iraq--The 701st Main Support Battalion’s (MSB) mission during Operation Iraqi Freedom II involves thousands of man hours and extensive planning in order to support thousands of troops in the Task Force Danger area of operations. But supporting the Big Red One is not the only job the 701st MSB has undertaken during their time here.

The 701st MSB has also dedicated significant resources to sponsor two Tikrit schools, the Al Barudy Primary School and the Al Barudy School for Girls. Among the battalion’s finest achievements is the construction and opening of the Al Barudy School for Girls, the first girls’ school in northern Tikrit.

“The smiles and excitement coming from the Iraqi girls attending school for the first time are priceless,” said Capt. Nelson So, the E Company, 701st MSB Commander. “It’s great to know that we are directly contributing to building their future by building this school.”

The 701st MSB did not complete this project on its own. Key contributions of school supplies came from Germany, where the Wurzburg American Middle School, also sponsored by the 701st, put together packages of school supplies for their Iraqi counterparts. “The local community in Wurzburg helped to brighten the lives of many Iraqi students and helped the future of Iraq through their charitable donations,” said Maj. Mark Simerly, the 701st MSB Executive Officer. The Iraqi students were overwhelmed with the pens, pencils, paper, rulers, staplers, paper clips, folders, markers, and backpacks provided by American students.

On November 18, 2004, key leaders of the 701st conducted a patrol to the two schools to deliver the much needed supplies to the schools and to show support for the local people. Lt. Col. Drexel Ross, the 701st MSB Commander, led the patrol, accompanied by Command Sgt. Maj. Carlton Branch, the 701st MSB Sergeant Major, Maj. Christina Krych, the 701st MSB Support Operations Officer, Maj. Dina Wandler, the DISCOM Adjutant, Capt. Theresa Helus, the A Company Commander and Capt. Stephanie Tisdale, the HHD Commander. All the Soldiers involved played a vital role in the mission from speaking with staff at the schools, passing out goodies to the children or providing security for the whole civil affairs team.

“The girls were very interested in speaking to the female officers and had many questions about their leadership roles in the US military,” said 1st Lt. Scott Preusker, the battalion civil affairs officer. “Their appreciation for our support is evident by the shouts of joy and glee that come from the children that gathered around the Soldiers and trucks once they arrived at the schools. The children laughed and screamed and gave the Soldiers thumbs up or even a patriotic salute to show their gratitude.”

1st Lt. Preusker added “The civil affairs missions we undertake are an excellent opportunity for Soldiers of the 701st Main Support Battalion to interface with the local population and show them we truly care.” As the 701st continues to strive for excellence in every day missions, it will continue to strive for excellence for the Iraqi people. (Story by 1st Lt. Heather Kennedy, 701st MSB)

School Supplies delivered to local schools in the Al Neida area

FOB CALDWELL, Iraq - Soldiers from the 30th Brigade Combat Team hand delivered school supplies to two local schools in the Al Neida area yesterday.

The Al Sa’ad and Hamalathania schools received supplies donated by churches and the families of the 30th Brigade Combat Team. The donations were sent from the United States and included individual supplies for the students, black boards, and class room items that were given to the teachers. Approximately 60 students from the Al Neida area warmly welcomed the gifts.

Friends and family of Multi-National Forces are eager to help the local youth because education is such a valuable tool. This donation was given to not only enrich the Iraqi children’s lives, but to provide family and friends back in the United States the comfort of knowing their contributions are being well used and enjoyed. This is the second donation this month for the local schools in this area.

http://www.1id.army.mil/1ID/News/November/.../Article_83.htm

'We want to build our nation'

Under Saddam Hussein, Mahdy Ali Lafta, a teacher in Baghdad, saw the country's education system crumble. But now, as a member of the Iraqi Teachers' Union he is optimistic about the future. By Polly Curtis
Mahdy Ali Lafta, head of Iraqi Teachers' Union. Pic: Guardian/Frank Baron

Friday April 8, 2005

Mahdy Ali Lafta is an Iraqi teacher. But in 1979, 10 years into his career in Baghdad schools, Saddam Hussein came to power and Mr Lafta, because he wouldn't support the dictator, was forced out of his job. He spent the Saddam years teaching friends, family and neighbours, and doing a little private tuition. Mostly, he found other ways to make money, like driving a taxi in the city.
Tens of thousands of teachers were forced out of their jobs in Iraq in 1979. Thousands more followed during the 1990s as Saddam diverted the country's cash to fight his wars and build his palaces. Schools and universities, once the pride of the country, went into serious decline. Teachers' salaries went down to $3 a month, forcing many of them out of the profession in order to feed their families.

Mr Lafta, 57, is married, has a 15-year-old son, and lives in Baghdad, where, following the fall of Saddam, he now does something once unthinkable. He is head of the Iraqi Teachers' Union (ITC) for all of Baghdad east of the river Tigris. We meet in London at the end of a week-long trip to attend teachers' conferences as a guest of the TUC. He speaks via a translator, Abdullah Muhsin, the spokesman for the ITC, and Iraqi Federatin, of Trade Unions in London.

How would he describe the state of Iraqi education when Saddam fell? "In one word? Disastrous," he says.

"From the mid-1980s to his [Saddam's] fall not one school was built. Schools were taken by the police forcing students out under the notion that they would help protect the nation. Education was in a very bad state. There were 50/60 children in a class. In the 1970s illiteracy had been eradicated. Now 51% of girls can read and write when they leave school and 34% of boys," he says.

"When the regime fell we wanted to build a new trade union for education and the welfare of teachers. But not an ideological union; an educational union." Four months after Saddam fell he was elected to his current position.

On September 29 2003, the Iraqi executive put in place after the US and British invasion issued a decree stating that all teachers who had lost their jobs during Saddam's regime should be reinstated and, as Mr Lafta puts it, "given back their dignity". He along with thousands others went to the ministry of education to accept the offer.

Now his union, the Iraqi government and others are working to piece back together the education system. It's a difficult process, but there have been some quick fixes. Today, the schools are totally different places to what they were like under Saddam. "Teachers who were earning $3 now get £300. This is a huge motivation for people to work hard and improve their skills and retrain.

"The students are happier now. They go to school and get involved more. And parents do too. They come to school meetings, the students and parents and teachers all talk to one another. This never happened before. We live in a more open, democratic and free society - relatively speaking - and people sense this."

But there are still significant barriers, the main one being the infrastructure of the schools. Although there are now more teachers, there are no more classrooms in which to teach the pupils, so classes have remained at the 50 or 60 pupil level. Mr Lafta says a new curriculum is needed, and teachers need formal training. They currently have to have a degree, but do not go through any training.

The union is hoping to be key driver in changing that. But it is still finding its feet. "We have started from scratch," says Mr Lafta. "Under Saddam Hussein there was no union. Unions represented the state and the government. When we started building we lacked the knowledge and the understanding. But it is also cultural. People don't understand what a union is. They think unions control rather than serve. It's part of the legacy of Saddam."

But like all organisations and individuals in Iraq there are still some very basic jobs they have to do. Like trying to help their members stay alive while terrorism and insurgents exist in the country. Among the 125 Iraqis who died in a suicide bombing in Hilla in February, around 50 were newly qualified teachers who were queuing to register their health certificates so they could begin work.

"They were new teachers, slaughtered, killed. Young people," says Mr Lafta. "These extremists do not only kill teachers, but children and whole families. They focus on politicians, but they kill anyone. It won't be safe until Iraq has sovereignty with a democratic and accountable government and constitution."

Which brings us to a difficult question. Is Iraq better now than under Saddam? "Certainly," replies Mr Lafta. "But the people of Iraq did not want the war. Which nation would want to see itself occupied with no sovereignty or freedom? But it was Saddam who brought this upon us.

"The Iraqis should not be made victims again by the occupation. Iraq has become a subject of international debate. It is open to the world to see. We fought Saddam Hussein and many died, now we want to build our nation. Where better to start but with our schools and universities? We need solidarity for that."

He pauses, then adds: "We should focus on the good news too. The heroic acts of the civil society, of men and women who work hard and sometimes pay the highest price. Of the teachers who continued to teach through those years, and those who want to help rebuild the country now. That's worth telling."

Before our interview Mr Lafta had wondered around an exhibition of Spitting Image puppets in the Guardian's newsroom. He was transfixed by the image of Saddam, grotesquely out of proportion and all the more recognisable for it, nestled among sketches of Lady Thatcher, Ronald Regan and Osama Bin Laden.

Reflecting on it, Mr Lafta shivers. "He's the beast, and even an insult to the beast doesn't destroy the fear of that beast. I look at that and I think of mass graves and atrocities and for me, someone who loves teaching, I think of the damage to education.

"All those feelings, but I also feel happy that he can be depicted like that. That it's allowed. The rest look like saints compared with him."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,1455270,00.html

Mr. Lafta is right, the insurgents are making progress with the schools difficult. There was an earlier report that it is difficult for female students to get to school because it is too dangerous to leave their homes.


Violence in Iraq cripples $21-bln rebuilding effort
Reuters
May. 21, 2005 - Washington is far behind in plans to pump $21 billion into Iraq's reconstruction, bogged down by an insurgency that has killed hundreds of contractors and diverted funds to security, a U.S. official said on Saturday.

"There is a long way to go. We recognize a lot of work needs to be done," said William Taylor, the U.S. official overseeing American rebuilding work in Iraq.

He told reporters it was still too early to predict when Iraqis will enjoy adequate electricity and other essential services -- more than two years after the U.S.-led invasion.

Relentless guerrilla attacks have killed a 295 contractors for U.S. projects alone since reconstruction began, said Theresa Shope, spokeswoman for the Iraq Reconstruction Management Office.

Violence has forced foreign governments and companies to pump money into security, draining budgets and delaying rebuilding ventures after years of wars, United Nations trade sanctions and a state stranglehold on the economy.

Boosting the national electricity grid would help raise the spirits of Iraqis who have spent three straight summers battling stifling heat with erratic power for air conditioners.

But bloodshed has put a U.S. plan to improve the electricity grid on hold, Taylor said.

Trying to transport a huge turbine and 400 tonnes of equipment in a convoy to the northern city of Kirkuk proved too risky in a country where guerrillas can strike on any road, let alone a slow desert route.

"Now we are planning to get it there by September," Taylor said.

GOVERNMENT UNDER SIEGE

The chaos has worsened since a new government promising stability was announced last month.

Insurgents have killed more than 500 people with suicide bombings and other attacks, raising fears that the violence will erupt into a sectarian civil war.

Iraq's Interior Minister Bayan Jabor shed light on the security crisis in Iraq during a news conference on Saturday.

He said Iraqi forces had recently discovered a bomb-making factory where it only took an hour for insurgents to fit explosives in a car.

Taylor said few foreign investors will consider coming to Iraq unless they see signs of economic recovery in the major oil producer.

"Even oil companies, which usually go to dangerous places, are waiting," he said.

American efforts in Iraq have included 57 of 160 planned electricity projects and 47 of 147 planned water treatment projects, he said.

Asked why reporters seldom get access to such successful projects, he said disclosing any plans was too risky.

"I remember nine or 10 months ago we announced a ribbon cutting ceremony at a water treatment plant. The terrorists attacked and 33 children were killed in a school next door," Taylor said.


Copyright 2005 Reuters News Service. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

Copyright © 2005 ABC News Internet Ventures

ABC Online

Civilian death toll in Iraq war unknown. 24/05/2005. ABC News Online

http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200505/s1376142.htm]


Last Update: Tuesday, May 24, 2005. 7:32pm (AEST)
Civilian death toll in Iraq war unknownA peak Australian intelligence body says it does not have any figures on the number of civilian casualties in the Iraq war.

But the Office of National Assessments (ONA) says 1,800 members of the coalition forces have died in Iraq since the beginning of hostilities in March 2003.

The ONA has told a Senate estimates committee the figure that includes 1,600 Americans, 88 members of the British military, 21 from Italy and 18 from Poland.




© 2005 Australian Broadcasting Corporation
Copyright information: http://abc.net.au/common/copyrigh.htm
Privacy information: http://abc.net.au/privacy.htm

from the May 27, 2005 edition - http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/0527/p06s03-woiq.html

Iraq's tensions spill onto campus
Up to 50 professors have been killed, UN reports. But rebuilding includes 4,000 new staff at 20 universities.
By Neil MacDonald | Contributor to The Christian Science Monitor

BAGHDAD - When Iraq's new government officially took power earlier this month, Shiite students at Baghdad University celebrated. But after the jubilation ended, the main organizer of the festivities, Dawa party activist Masar Sarhan, was killed.

Mr. Sarhan, a pharmacy student, was shot on his way home and is apparently one of the latest casualties of tensions between Sunni and Shiite students at Iraq's 20 universities and 47 technical colleges.

According to a recent United Nations report, nearly 50 academics have been assassinated in Iraq over the past two years. A US official says the number is closer to 100, but added that the pattern of the killings is not clear, with "terrorism, general thuggery, pay back, and de-Baathification" all playing a role.

Thursday, professor Moussa Salum, a deputy dean at Baghdad's Mustansiriya University, was killed along with three of his bodyguards, Reuters reported.

But while the steady violence on campuses has been a constant worry for students and faculty alike, there are signs that Iraqis are making strides to reclaim the country's "long, proud tradition of distinguished universities," according to Jairam Reddy, the author of the UN report, who lives in Amman, Jordan.

According to the UN report, the total enrollment at Iraqi universities is more than 250,000, 42 percent of whom are female students. Forty percent of the country's learning institutions are now under construction - many suffered looting in the wake of the US-led invasion.

The Ministry of Finance has upped its allocation for higher education from $40 million in 2003 to nearly $70 million this year, according to the report. Backed by UN agencies and the World Bank, Iraqi universities have hired more than 4,000 new staff.

Although salaries are low by international standards, many professors who left under the old regime have returned to Iraq's universities, in some cases bringing much needed foreign expertise.

With help from foreign donors, universities are gradually rebuilding their labs and libraries, which were neglected for years. Groups of students, meanwhile, are gaining exposure to the outside world through American-funded study trips to the United States and other countries.

But while welcoming academic freedoms, some professors say that too many student groups are taking advantage of the country's new "free expression" as an excuse for politicized provocations.

With professors already feeling threatened, a new sense of Shiite ascendancy after the Jan. 30 elections raised the temperature between Shiite students and their Sunni counterparts, some of whom still express affection for Saddam Hussein and his former Baath regime.

"The university as a whole should be kept out of political struggles," says Baghdad University professor Nabil Mohammed. "It's not a place to put pictures calling for this party or that."

Professor Mohammed says he was never fond of Baathist apparatchiks either, but the campus was always safe under the old regime. "I can't remember dangerous incidents at that time," he says. "There were strong rules, and no demonstrations."

According to some professors and students, Sarhan's overtly sectarian style of activism was a slap in the face to all Sunnis at the university, Baathist or otherwise. In the new Iraq, one man's religious devotion can be another man's insult.

Pharmacy dean Mustafa Hitti, who is blamed by the Shiite students who rioted after Sarhan's death, fled from the campus during the rioting, with Shiite students alleging they had seen Hitti's bodyguards in an argument with Sarhan just before his murder. The dean, a Sunni, had asked the students not to hold a political gathering on campus, but Sarhan insisted on their "right to free expression," students say.

When the campus reopened several days later, some staff members still stayed away, complaining about the lack of adequate security. Several department heads "still refused to be on campus because they are afraid of some of students," Mohammed says.

An ideological shift is visible in the university's curriculum. While science courses are practically unchanged, humanities colleges have deleted "some subjects dealing with the former regime," Professor Mussawi says. Baathist studies seminars have given way to "new courses dealing with human rights, democracy, and globalization," he says.

Even science textbooks used to sometimes include sentences praising Saddam and the Baath Party. Students say their professors now tell them to tear these pages out.

Ali al-Adib, a member of parliament from the Shiite-led majority bloc, says new textbooks are on the way. He blamed the former regime for "creating ethnic divisions" and said that most of today's university administrators are "still infused with "Baathist culture."

Mr. Adib, who sits on a newly formed parliamentary committee for higher education, says he is confident that Iraqi education can once again be the best in the region. First, however, university curricula must be revised to reflect a "federal, democratic vision of Iraq," he says.

Over the next few months, as Iraq's politicians come to grips with drafting a permanent constitution, the definition of federalism is sure to be hotly debated. For some Shiite parties in the new government, "democratic federalism" is an old slogan that also means following Islamic law.

A Western adviser to the Ministry of Higher Education says that the most important step is to overcome the terrorist threat, which drains almost every kind of "productive investment" in Iraq. "If the country regained a sense of peace and normalcy, the fact that it would be a democracy would help it to regain stature in higher education," he says. "If there was no terrorism, the sky would be the limit."

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another ooops




http://www.focus-fen.net/index.php?catid=1...atte=2005-05-26

| WORLD | MIDDLE EAST

US Soldiers Opened Fire at a Bus in Baghdad

26 May 2005 | 21:41 | FOCUS News Agency



Baghdad. Three civilian Iraqis travelling in a minibus were killed, reportedly shot dead by US forces, AFP reported, citing officials.
"American forces opened fire on a minibus in the Dura district, in southern Baghdad, killing three people and wounding four others," said a defence ministry source.
US military spokesman Lieutenant Jamie Davis confirmed the incident but could not say at what time the bus shooting occurred.
"The details are sketchy and we don't know who was involved," Davis said.
Bus driver Abbas Abbas said US troops opened fire after he pulled over to get out of their way.

Our troops are understandably nervous and getting trigger happy apparently. This kind of thing will only get worse. We have to turn the money over to a "trusted" Iraqi authority. Monitor the projects done by iraqis, and start getting out of there.

Cut Halliburton, and Bechtel, and the foriegn contractors out of the gravy train. Tell Cheney to go cheney himself, and Rumsfeld as well. In fact put "I had other priorities" Cheney, and Chickenhawk Rummy on rear guard while we withdraw our troops.

Many Iraqis See Sectarian Roots in New Killings
No one knows who tortured and killed Hassan al-Nuaimi, a Sunni Arab cleric whose body was found in an empty lot here last week, with a hole drilled in his head and both eyes missing. But the various theories have a distinctly sectarian tinge.
The Shiite police chief investigating the death said he suspected Sunni Arab extremists who have driven much of the insurgency in Iraq, much of it aimed at Shiites. The Sunni family mourning the cleric pointed the finger at the Badr Organization, a Shiite militia. But with Mr. Nuaimi buried, the truth, as so often with killings in Iraq, seems to be lost in rumor and allegations.
The only sure thing is that Mr. Nuaimi and another Sunni man who helped write sermons were killed within 12 hours of their disappearance from a mixed Sunni-Shiite neighborhood in northeast Baghdad.
Their deaths, amid violence that has taken more than 550 lives across Iraq this month, renewed concern that the bloodshed may be shifting ever more toward crudely sectarian killings.
Hard-line Sunni leaders have pressed the case. "The killing in Iraq now is according to religious identity," said Sheik Abdel Nasir al-Janabi, a religious Sunni and a hard-line member of the National Dialogue Council, a Sunni political group that claims to have ties to the insurgency. "Now you're killed because you're a Sunni Arab."
Shiite leaders, including Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, Iraq's most powerful Shiite cleric, have responded to such talk with calls for calm and renewed appeals to Shiites that they place their trust in Iraq's fledgling democracy, not revenge killings.
But the urgency of the Shiite leaders' appeals reflects a deepening fear that the welter of allegations about Shiite death squads going after Sunni Arabs, true or false, may create a new reality, prompting still more sectarian killings and pushing the country ever closer to the brink of civil war.
"We are drifting into a sectarian society," said Ghassan al-Atiyya, a secular Shiite and the director of the Iraqi Foundation for Development and Democracy, a Baghdad research institute. "The Americans, instead of strengthening liberal and secular, they are now hostage of Sciri," he said, referring to a religious Shiite political group, "and Kurds."
"They let the genie out of the bottle," Mr. Atiyya said.
Iraq's Shiite majority were the main victims of Saddam Hussein's repression and have been among the principal targets of the insurgents. On Monday insurgents killed at least 33 Shiites in three car bomb attacks in Iraq, and on Thursday two members of Shiite political parties were assassinated.
For the past year Shiites have been attacked at mosques, weddings, funerals and crowded marketplaces. Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the most ruthless insurgent leader, has urged still more killing, calling Shiites "apostates" and usurpers of the Sunni Arab primacy in Iraq that ended with the overthrow of Mr. Hussein. On Wednesday his group boasted of killing Shiites in the northern city of Tal Afar.
But when Iraq got its first-ever Shiite majority government three weeks ago, the transition was accompanied by a new wave of terror that included attacks on Sunni Arab leaders, including clerics, and even fruit and vegetable sellers. Sunni leaders have blamed Shiite militias that they say work behind the scenes with official army and police forces, a charge that Shiites deny.
Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari suggested Thursday that there might be some truth in Sunni allegations of Shiite death squads. "I am alarmed," Dr. Jaafari said. "We will act very strongly against those who take the law into their own hands."
Sunni leaders have accused Shiite-led security forces of raiding mosques, arresting more than 300 Sunni clerics and worshipers, and killing several of them, including Mr. Nuaimi. His family has said he was taken from his home by men wearing Iraqi security force uniforms.
On Monday the Iraqi Islamic Party, a Sunni political group, condemned several sets of killings that it said had been carried out by government forces.
Sheik Khalaf al-Aliyan, a member of the National Dialogue Council, a coalition of Sunni political leaders, said he had evidence that Shiite political parties had drawn up a list of 4,000 Sunnis they intended to assassinate, a charge that Shiite leaders have dismissed as preposterous.

Sounds like the start of Civil War to me!

5th CAG cares for Haditha Hospital’s wounds
Submitted by: II Marine Expeditionary Force (FWD)
Story Identification #: 20056142413
Story by Cpl. Christi Prickett



HADITHA, Iraq (June 1, 2005) -- Since the middle of March, Team 4, Detachment 4, 5th Civil Affairs Group, II Marine Expeditionary Force (FWD), has played a vital role in Haditha. The city is known as one of the hottest spots in western Iraq.

During Operation New Market, which began on the night of May 23, the main objective of the CAG team, led by Maj. Matthew D. Chisholm, Team 4 leader, was to assess recent damages done to Haditha Hospital. The hospital was damaged earlier in the month when insurgents occupied the building. The team also wanted to talk to the staff to see how the hospital was functioning and ask locals their opinions about personal care.

“It is very unfortunate that the hospital was involved in the situation,” said Chisholm, a San Diego native. “After an attack such as this one, the CAG team has to stop and look at the overall situation. We immediately begin to get things running, like communications and laboratory capabilities. The next closest hospital is Hit, so people need this hospital to get care.”

Damage to the one-story hospital occurred when a vehicle-borne improvised explosive device was driven into an outside wall during a firefight with Marines from 3rd Battalion, 25th Marine Regiment, 2nd Marine Division. Only the service wing, kitchen, laundry, storage room and private patient ward sustained severe fire damage and no civilian casualties occurred.

“The insurgents came in and took over [the hospital],” said a doctor working there. “We didn’t want them here but they came anyway.”

Haditha Hospital is able to give care but patients and staff members are scared because operations are still going on in the city, explained a 25-year-old nurse at the hospital.

“I don’t blame them for being intimidated,” said Chisholm. “Even some of the most dedicated and educated people, like the doctors, can’t stand up to insurgency. Sometimes they’re just not in a position to protect themselves.”

“We could all see how much the insurgency is hurting their own people by destroying the hospital which usually could serve up to 500 patients a day,” said Cmdr. David C. Lu, 5th CAG medical officer and civil affairs liaison.

While Operation New Market was on going in the city, the doctors weren’t coming to work, which meant only a handful of staff members had to work around the clock.

“You need to call and tell them to come to work,” Chisholm told the staff. “The Marines are helping protect the immediate area, so coming to work should be no problem. They are just making you work harder.”

The hospital staff is made up about 30 doctors, 26 nurses and 16 assistants. Lu said the hospital is one of 12 hospitals in Iraq chosen to maintain Level 3 facilities, which means it must have surgical capabilities.

“The CAG will coordinate with Dr. Rafe, Director General of Health, Al Anbar province, and the Ministry of Health to ensure a prompt rebuilding process of the damaged hospital," said the staff internist at Cleveland Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Youngstown OPC, Ohio, who served eight years on active duty before entering the reserves the past four years.

"We have plans to give them new equipment like beds and a new ambulance before anything else,” said Chisholm.

Chisholm said his job is gratifying.

“We are the only hope some people have,” he explained. “We have two great teams in the area trying to get the hospital and other projects completed so the people can have their life back.”

EDITOR’S NOTE
Please feel free to publish this story or any of the accompanying photos. If used, please give proper credit to the writer/photographer, and contact us at: cepaowo@cemnf-wiraq.usmc.mil so we can update our records.

Unstability, mistrust and hatred towards occupiers and their in country supporters will do that.




http://afr.com/articles/2005/06/03/1117568343388.html


Fresh violence in northern Iraq
Jun 03 06:24
AFP

At least 31 people were killed in a wave of violence that swept over northern Iraq on Thursday, as Baghdad vowed that all groups in the fragmented country would take part in the political process.

The deadliest blast, in the northern town of Tuz Khurmatu, ripped through a restaurant as bodyguards of Deputy Prime Minister Roj Shaways, a Kurd, were having breakfast.

"Seven cars were destroyed and 12 charred bodies were pulled from the wreckage," said a defence ministry statement. A local medic said he had treated 38 people for their wounds.

The guards were in the town, 70 kilometres south of the main oil hub of Kirkuk, on their way to meet up with Shaways.

"I was having my breakfast at the Baghdad Restaurant when a powerful explosion rocked the place," said taxi driver Nozad Abdullah, who survived the blast because he was in the bathroom when the attack happened.


"I went outside to see what happened and I saw two of my taxi passengers wounded inside the car and three shattered bodies lying on the ground."

The town, home to 150,000 Kurds, Sunni Arabs and Turkmen, is a popular stop on the main road between Kirkuk and Baghdad.

An hour later, a second suicide car bombing targeted a US diplomatic convoy entering the complex of the Northern Oil Company in Kirkuk itself, killing a four-year-old child and wounding 11 civilians, police said.

Four more people were killed, including a local politician, and five others wounded in a suicide car bomb attack in Baquba, about 60 kilometres north of Baghdad, an Iraqi security source said.

To the north-west, five people were killed in an attack targeting the country's fledgling security forces in Mosul.

"Five people, including a policeman, were killed and 13 wounded in a double motorcycle bombing around 4.15pm in front of a cafe near a police station in the city," said Commander Mootaz Abdel Wahed Mohammed.

Two firefights between US and Iraqi forces and insurgents later killed two Iraqi troops and a gunman, and a Turkish truck driver.

In nearby Siniyah, an Iraqi soldier died and another was injured during a mortar attack on their base, another officer added, while further north in the Chorgat region, four civilians were killed by a roadside bomb.

"A family was driving from Mosul to Chorgat when their vehicle was hit by the explosion," army Captain Assad Sadad said.

But in Baghdad, police said they had thwarted a suicide attack, with the bomber forced to detonate his charge before reaching his target, wounding one policeman.

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/nationwor...world-headlines

Gunmen Kill 9 Iraqis in Baghdad Market June 2nd, 2005 @ 6:37am
BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - Gunmen firing from three speeding cars killed nine Iraqis Thursday in a crowded market area in Baghdad, a Defense Ministry official said.

The gunmen fired randomly at shops in a bazaar in the northwestern neighborhood of Hurriyah early, Radhi Badir said. "There were no security targets there, they were all civilians," the official said.

http://www.620ktar.com/?nid=46&sid=52197
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Car bomb north of Baghdad kills 10, wounds 12
03 Jun 2005 09:56:13 GMT
Source: Reuters


BAGHDAD, June 3 (Reuters) - A suicide car bomber rammed his car into a building north of Baghdad, killing at least 10 people and wounding 12, the U.S. military said on Friday.

The attack occurred late on Thursday in a village south of the town of Balad, about 80 km (50 miles) north of Baghdad, a U.S. military spokesman said. The information had come from Iraqi authorities in the area.

"We understand that the car blew up in the courtyard of a house," the U.S. spokesman said, adding that the death toll may rise.

Iraq's Defense Ministry confirmed the attack, but had no information on what the motive might have been. There has been a surge in suicide car bombings over the past six weeks, mostly in the capital Baghdad.

Some locals said the victims were Muslim Sufis and that they may have been targeted because of their religion.

Earlier on Thursday, there were at least three other suicide bombings and other attacks around the country, killing more than 20 people and wounding dozens.



http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L0374983.htm

http://www.iraqitradeunions.org/archives/c...ies_abroad.html

IFTU address to the SW TUC Annual General Meeting, 22-23 April 2005:

"Most of you will, like me and my comrades in the Iraqi Federation of Trade Unions (IFTU), have opposed the war. I don't regret doing so and I would do so again.

"I believed that the Iraqi people had other ways to overthrow Saddam Hussein's despicable fascist-type dictatorship.

"But things have changed for us Iraqis. Our new priorities are to keep Iraq intact (the risks of Iraq descending into civil war are still real), to build a strong independent and democratic trade union movement and to create a federal democratic and fully sovereign Iraq.

"The election at the end of January represented an historic breakthrough. 60 per cent of Iraq's population – 8.5 million people – went to the polls to elect a 275-member Transitional Assembly.

"Without intimidation, elections irregularities and incompetence, we would have seen an even higher turnout. But the bland expression 'went to the polls' hardly captures what happened on January 30 2005.

"Even as lines of voters were being blown up by homicidal bombers from the so-called 'resistance' they cast their ballot. One family saw their son blown up, did their duty to his body in the morning, and then insisted they vote in the afternoon in honour of his memory. These are the martyrs of the new Iraqi democracy.

"January 30 2005 was a triumph of democracy and the human sprit and humanity. Of course, the shadow of Saddam's brutal dictatorship is long. Iraq will not be transformed overnight. And now, after decades of repression, sanctions and war, we are now facing a terrorist network that actually targets trade unionists.

"A railway worker has been beheaded, his head placed on his stomach and prominently displayed. My friend and colleague, Hadi Saleh, the IFTU's International Secretary, was tortured and murdered, horribly, by remnants of Saddam's secret police. Rocket-propelled grenades have been fired at trade union headquarters.

"The international labour movement has risen as one to condemn the killing of Hadi and to extend the hand of solidarity to the IFTU. If Hadi had survived he would have been vindicated by the tremendous turnout at the elections.

"This election will enable Iraqis to move forward. Already the terrorists and ex-Saddam loyalists are in retreat. The great majority of Iraqis are battling for a new democratic, federal and united Iraq, governed by a secular constitution and the rule of law, parliamentary democracy and a proper separation of powers between the legislature, the executive and an independent judiciary.

"A new police force and army that are culturally different from Saddam's repressive apparatus are being trained and will be ready soon. They played a crucial role in providing security during the 30th January elections and should be commended. But the process of building new Iraqi security forces is slow. They are insufficiently trained and remain small in size. As yet they are incapable of taking full responsibility for securing Iraq’s large borders and protecting civilians and maintaining law and order. It is vital that efforts are redoubled until Iraq has security forces able to defend the country and the civilians. These forces must be beholden to no political party or individual but loyal only to the Iraqi constitution and its people.

"The political key to defeating sectarian violence is to develop a secular constitution that accommodates the aspirations of all Iraqis, including the Iraqi Kurds, for autonomy within a federal structure.

"Will Islam be the main source for the new constitution? Compromise must be reached here. Iraq has many other religious communities and discrimination against non-Muslims would be unjust.

"The success of Iraqi nation building also lies with the growth of civil society. Genuine democracy cannot be imposed from above but must be built from below, through a strong social movement composed of free political parties, non-governmental organisations, environmental agencies and free unions.

"Iraq's economy was abused by Saddam. Pulverised by his wars, bled by the consequent sanctions, devastated by the invasion of 2003, Iraq is crying out for emergency reconstruction. All sectors need rebuilding with foreign investment but national assets must remain publicly owned. We urgently need to diversify – 95 per cent of our income currently derives from oil.

"An emergency reconstruction of Iraq – a Plan for the people of Iraq – can kick start the economy, improve the quality of life of the people and dry-up the recruitment pool for extremists who feed on poverty. Such a Plan for Iraq would help cement the UN political structure put in place after the fall of Saddam with the aim of building a new, secure and democratic Iraq.

"Many Iraqi workers remain suspicious of the very term 'union', because of the repression they endured at the hands of Saddam's 'yellow unions' – part of the state machine of terror. To remedy this, the IFTU will commence a cultural project. A bus will function as a travelling theatre visiting workplaces and communities to promote the basic tenets of trade unionism and dismantle the culture of fear.

"Right now, the new unions have little or nothing. Some have buildings, but they are in severe disrepair after the war and subsequent looting. We need computers and fax machines.

"The TUC has launched an appeal for Iraqi unions and recently held a conference to boost solidarity and help us train our members and officers.

"The IFTU is an integral part of the international trade union movement and has received support from international federations as well as many British unions.

"Free trade unionism is growing in this more fertile political climate. The IFTU now represents 12 individual unions and has a membership of at least 200,000. The new and independent teachers' union has 75,000 members in Baghdad alone and 16 branches throughout Iraq. The Kurdistan Workers Syndicate Union has about 100,000 members. We all work together for a federal, democratic and secular Iraq.

"Perhaps most significantly to left-wing critics of the war, we are mobilising to persuade the incoming Assembly to enact a progressive labour code that will allow workers to challenge the economic occupation of our country.

"The IFTU recently led a successful strike of Hotel Workers in Baghdad. In Basra the IFTU led a solidarity march with students, male and female, who have been beaten by the Islamic hardliners for holding a picnic.

"Iraq is being reborn. The lengthy negotiations between the various parties eventually delivered a deal sharing out the key positions of the state. Hopes are high that a broadly based national government can be formed. This development would further attract those political groups, which initially boycotted the political process and the elections but are now looking to join in.

"Please do not be fooled by the news. There is still too much intimidation and violence – and not only against the IFTU - but the so-called "resistance" is increasingly withering and the majority of areas in Iraq are now secure.

"The UN should also take an active role in compelling neighbouring countries to guard their borders and to prevent the continued influx of foreign fundamentalist fighters into Iraq seeking to incite sectarian conflict.

"A strong labour movement is vital to our goal of rebuilding Iraq on the basis of social justice and unity. We desperately need the support of progressives around the world if basic social democratic and labour values are to take root in Iraq. Progressives desperately need an example of social democracy in the region. We need each other."

Posted by abdullah at 03:18 PM | Comments (0)

Entire Article

After long road to freedom, interpreter returns to Iraq
Submitted by: II Marine Expeditionary Force (FWD)
Story Identification #: 20057551720
Story by Lance Cpl. Evan M. Eagan



FALLUJAH, Iraq (July 05, 2005) -- After fleeing from his native Iraq in 2001 and embarking on a journey, which took him through five different countries and eventually to the United States as a refugee, an interpreter with II Marine Expeditionary Force, Headquarters Group, II MEF (FWD), has returned home to aid Marines in the rebuilding process in the city of Fallujah.

Johnny, a name he uses in place of his birth name to keep his identity hidden, works in the S-4 shop of the II MHG headquarters office, translating documents and helping bridge the communication gap between Marines and local Iraqis.

Born in Baghdad, Johnny had a passion for cooking, which led him to attend culinary school in Al Qanat, Iraq. Upon his graduation from the school he was required to fulfill a mandatory military service, putting his personal plans of working as a chef on hold.

“You are only required to do 36-months in the Iraqi military, but in Iraq under Saddam [Hussein] you never knew how long they would keep you,” he said. “One of my brothers was in for 15 years and another was a prisoner of war in Iran for 10 years.”

During his time in the service, Johnny was part of a recon unit during Operation Desert Storm in the early 90s, and fought in northern Iraq against the Iranians and Kurds.

After five years and eight months, Johnny was released from duty and he decided there were not many opportunities to better his life in Iraq. After a run-in with a federal agent under Saddam’s regime, he decided it was time to leave the country and go to the United States.

“He [federal agent] made a big order at the restaurant I was working at and tried to leave without paying for it,” said Johnny. “Then he told me, because I am a Christian, I don’t need the money because I have family in the U.S. sending it to me. I got so mad that I punched him in the face and knocked him down.”

As a result, Johnny was taken to prison, where he was interrogated and tortured because the agent said he was talking bad about Saddam’s regime.

Although his brothers posted his bail 12 days later, he vowed he would get out of Iraq and make a better life for himself no matter what he had to do.

“When I was in Iraq I was nothing because of the government,” said the 34-year-old. “I had no future there. There was nothing I could do.”

When he got out of prison Johnny obtained a fake passport and fled to Jordan, where he bought a fake visa in order to take a flight to Yugoslavia. From Yugoslavia he walked across the border to Hungary with a small group of people.

“We were captured in Hungary and put in a camp kind of like a jail,” he said. “They were going to do health examinations on us and other examinations which would have taken months, but I was in a hurry. Me, my nephew and two other guys escaped by jumping a fence of the camp. Once we got away we walked across the border to Austria where a charity made a meeting with the U.S. Consular for us.”

Johnny met with the consular at the U.S. Embassy in Vienna, Austria and told him his story.

“I received a phone call the next day and he [the consular] congratulated me on being a refugee to the United States,” he said with a smile. “I got a visa and took a flight to the United States on April 25, 2001, and went to Madison Heights, Mich., to live with my sisters.”

Shortly after arriving in the United States which Johnny refers to as his rebirth, he found a job in a bakery working with two of his cousins.

“I liked working at the bakery because I had family there, but I quit after a year because they didn’t know English,” he said. “I wanted to learn but I knew that I wouldn’t be able to do it there. I quit there and got a job at an Italian restaurant working with Americans and I started going to college to learn English and computer information science.”

From the end of 2002 until late 2004, Johnny studied English, through college classes and conversations with co-workers, until he heard about an opportunity to work in Iraq as a translator for the U.S. military.

After six months of screening, Johnny was chosen for the position.

Arriving in Iraq April 30, he is proud to be back to see how his country has improved.

“This is a really good experience for me,” he said. “I am so happy they got rid of Saddam. After 35 years of destroying the country, it will take time to be rebuilt. Everybody is happy, but many are still scared because of the insurgents. I can see that they want to help the Americans but they are afraid to do it because of the insurgents.”

Looking back on his long road to the United States, and back to Iraq, Johnny has no regrets.

“I think it was all worth it,” he said. “I would do it all over again in a second if I had to. I want to thank every American who came here and left their country to help the Iraqi people. I really appreciate that.”


EDITOR’S NOTE
Please feel free to publish this story or any of the accompanying photos. If used, please give credit to the writer/photographer, and contact us at: cepaowo@cemnf-wiraq.usmc.mil so we can update our records.