Sunnis Demonstrate in Baghdad
As Bombings Kill 28, wound 46, with 3 US Soldiers Dead
1 Million Iraqis say "US Out"!
Maher al-Thanoon of Reuters reports that one thousand Sunni Arabs staged a demonstration outside the Green Zone (barricaded government offices) against the elected Iraqi government, which is dominated by Shiites in coalition with Kurds. They accused the Jaafari government of using torture and death squads on a sectarian basis against their community, which they called "the new Iraq of fire and steel." Al-Thanoon says, "Simulating torture, they dressed up as soldiers and used drills, wooden clubs and electric wires to act out what they said were the techniques used by government forces against them."
The Muqtada al-Sadr followers say they have collected the signatures of one million Iraqis asking that US and other Coalition troops leave the country immediately. In his sermon at an East Baghdad mosque, Shaikh Abdul Zahra al-Suwaidi told the congregation, "We obtained the Iraqi signatures demanding the withdrawal of the occupation troops as asked for by Sayyed Moqtada Sadr . . . The goal of this petition is to show the world the rejection by Iraqis of foreigners in Iraq . . ."
Then on Friday evening in south Baghdad, guerrillas cut down Faisal al-Khaz'ali, a major leader of an important Shiite clan.
An individual suicide bomber walked up to an Iraqi army recruitment center in the northern town of Rabi`a, an hour's drive from Mosul near the Syrian border, and detonated his payload. He killed 25 persons and wounded 35. Rabi`a is one of those border towns into which the US alleges volunteer jihadis slip from Syria (though they also slip in from Jordan and Saudi Arabia but the Washington crew never say anything about that, and US journalists never call them on it). It wasn't clear, in any case, whether the bomber was an Iraqi (there isn't much difference among the Sunni clans on either side of that border; some belong to the same over-all tribes).
http://www.juancole.com/
Full Version: 1000 Protest In Bagdad
Common Ground Common Sense > Issues that Affect Our Lives > U.S. Military Issues > U.S. Military Issues Archive
Rumblings of civil war grows louder in Iraq as the Iraqis speak up louder against the coalition forces occupying Iraq, mainly US forces.
I'm sure we'll see more of this in some of our news prints not suppressed by the Pentagon...yet.
I'm sure we'll see more of this in some of our news prints not suppressed by the Pentagon...yet.
Oh, that's Juan Cole. And you folks call what I post to be propaganda. 
Seems Kuwait is still a matter of dispute that causes Iraqis to protest also. Turmoil turmoil turmoil, oh what will BushCo do now that we broke Iraq?
http://news.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtm.../31/ixhome.html
Iraqis hit back over Kuwait's 'border grab'
By Colin Freeman and Aqeel Hussein
(Filed: 31/07/2005)
It scarcely looks like a piece of land worth arguing about, let alone fighting a war over. But 15 years after its seizure led to the Gulf War, the narrow strip of border between Iraq and Kuwait is again on the subject of an armed stand-off.
The border, a century-old arbitrary colonial line drawn through 140 miles of non-descript desert, has become the scene of furious protests by Iraqis after Kuwait recently began erecting a metal barrier along its length.
Iraqis protest against the barrier Kuwait has erected
This time, it is not Saddam Hussein's soldiers who are threatening to tear it down, but a group of local shepherds, who claim that Kuwait has encroached several miles on to their land.
Such is the lingering enmity between the two countries, however, that the herdsmen have been joined by hundreds of other Iraqis sympathetic to their cause, leading to a series of violent clashes last week.
On Wednesday, stone-throwing crowds brandishing the Iraqi flag pulled down parts of the pipe-shaped barrier and fired shots at Kuwaiti border guards - the first hostile exchanges between the two countries since the end of the Gulf War in 1991.
According to some reports, a rocket-propelled grenade was also fired, although at no point so far have Kuwaiti troops shot back.
Kuwait has now deployed extra troops along the border as well as squads of riot police, while British forces, who control the southern Iraqi region that it runs through, are also monitoring.
Kuwait started building the metal barrier several months ago, partly to prevent its citizens straying accidentally into Iraq and also to stop the cross-border traffic in insurgents.
Kuwaiti officials have become increasingly concerned in recent months that terrorists currently fighting US forces in Iraq plan to export their campaign into the emirate.
Faisal al-Hajji, the acting Kuwaiti information minister, said: "By installing the metal pipe on the borders with Iraq, Kuwait is practising its sovereign rights on its territory. The pipe is being installed on the Kuwaiti side."
It would, he added, "help to eliminate terrorist attacks targeting Iraq".
Iraq factfile
A spokesman for the British embassy in nearby Basra said: "It is a domestic Iraqi issue, which will be resolved by them, although we will be on standby if the situation deterioriates."
The border between the two countries, drawn up by Britain some 100 years ago to enshrine Kuwait as an independent port state, has long been a source of wounded pride among Iraqis.
http://news.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtm.../31/ixhome.html
Iraqis hit back over Kuwait's 'border grab'
By Colin Freeman and Aqeel Hussein
(Filed: 31/07/2005)
It scarcely looks like a piece of land worth arguing about, let alone fighting a war over. But 15 years after its seizure led to the Gulf War, the narrow strip of border between Iraq and Kuwait is again on the subject of an armed stand-off.
The border, a century-old arbitrary colonial line drawn through 140 miles of non-descript desert, has become the scene of furious protests by Iraqis after Kuwait recently began erecting a metal barrier along its length.
Iraqis protest against the barrier Kuwait has erected
This time, it is not Saddam Hussein's soldiers who are threatening to tear it down, but a group of local shepherds, who claim that Kuwait has encroached several miles on to their land.
Such is the lingering enmity between the two countries, however, that the herdsmen have been joined by hundreds of other Iraqis sympathetic to their cause, leading to a series of violent clashes last week.
On Wednesday, stone-throwing crowds brandishing the Iraqi flag pulled down parts of the pipe-shaped barrier and fired shots at Kuwaiti border guards - the first hostile exchanges between the two countries since the end of the Gulf War in 1991.
According to some reports, a rocket-propelled grenade was also fired, although at no point so far have Kuwaiti troops shot back.
Kuwait has now deployed extra troops along the border as well as squads of riot police, while British forces, who control the southern Iraqi region that it runs through, are also monitoring.
Kuwait started building the metal barrier several months ago, partly to prevent its citizens straying accidentally into Iraq and also to stop the cross-border traffic in insurgents.
Kuwaiti officials have become increasingly concerned in recent months that terrorists currently fighting US forces in Iraq plan to export their campaign into the emirate.
Faisal al-Hajji, the acting Kuwaiti information minister, said: "By installing the metal pipe on the borders with Iraq, Kuwait is practising its sovereign rights on its territory. The pipe is being installed on the Kuwaiti side."
It would, he added, "help to eliminate terrorist attacks targeting Iraq".
Iraq factfile
A spokesman for the British embassy in nearby Basra said: "It is a domestic Iraqi issue, which will be resolved by them, although we will be on standby if the situation deterioriates."
The border between the two countries, drawn up by Britain some 100 years ago to enshrine Kuwait as an independent port state, has long been a source of wounded pride among Iraqis.
Five US soldiers killed in Iraq bomb attacks
By Agencies, Baghdad
Jul 31, 2005, 12:41
Five US soldiers were killed by roadside bombs in two separate incidents in Baghdad, the US military said Sunday.
In the first attack Saturday around 1:40 p.m., a patrol hit a roadside bomb in the southern Dora neighborhood, killing a soldier from Task Force Baghdad, a statement said. Two others were wounded in that incident.
Later that evening, around 11 p.m., four Task Force Baghdad soldiers were killed when a roadside bomb exploded in southwestern Baghdad.
The names of all the soldiers killed are being withheld pending notification of next of kin.
The military says U-S Marines killed eleven insurgents using tanks and aircraft today in western Iraq after the Americans came under attack from a village schoolhouse.
The statement did not say whether any Marines were killed or wounded in the battle, which started when Marines from Regimental Combat Team-two were attacked with mortar fire. The statement says the building was rigged with explosives and fortified with at least three .30 caliber machine guns in the windows.
U-S Abrams tanks and jet aircraft attacked the buildings, setting off secondary explosions from the munitions stored inside.
Meanwhile, more than 4,000 Iraqis have been killed since the start of the year, half of them civilians, official figures said as legislators struggled to reach agreement on a draft constitution by Monday.
The bloodiest months were May and July, coinciding respectively with the setting up of the new government and the start of constitutional talks, according to figures released Sunday by the defence, interior and health ministries.
Since January, 2,072 civilians were killed in politically- motivated acts of violence, along with 308 Iraqi soldiers and 765 policemen.
A total of 434 civilians, 150 policemen and 88 soldiers were killed in May, and 412 civilians, 134 policemen and 45 soldiers in July.
In addition, 855 insurgents have been killed since the start of the year.
On Sunday, an additional five civilians were killed and 10 injured in a car bomb explosion on a highway some 60 kilometers (40 miles) south of the capital, an interior ministry official said.
Two unidentified bodies, with gunshot wounds, were discovered in the capital, and a local interpreter working for US forces was shot dead in the northern city of Kirkuk.
At least 22 Iraqis died nationwide Saturday, along with five US soldiers blown up by bombs in Baghdad, and two Britons working as security guards who died in an attack on a British consulate convoy in the south of the country.
The US deaths brought the total number of US military personnel who have died in Iraq since the March 2003 invasion to 1,793 according to an AFP tally based on Pentagon figures.
Earlier this month, a study by two British groups-Iraq Body Count and the Oxford Research Group-had put the number of Iraqi civilians killed since US forces invaded the country at about 25,000.
The estimate of 24,865 deaths covered a two-year period between March 2003 and March 2005.
This toll was considerably lower than that of 98,000 suggested in a study published last October by British-based medical journal The Lancet.
The Iraq Body Count-Oxford Research report attributed 37 percent of civilian deaths to foreign forces and nine percent to insurgents.
However, a further 11 percent of deaths were attributed to "unknown agents," meaning suicide bombs and other attacks not directly aimed at foreign or official Iraqi targets, but possibly still intended to destabilise society.
The report also highlighted "extraordinary" levels of criminal violence, recording almost 9,000 deaths-more than a third of the total-not directly related to the occupation and insurgency.
These fatalities, recorded by Iraqi morgues, include people killed in robberies and kidnappings and battles between criminal gangs. The official statistics released on Sunday do not take account of people killed as a result of common criminal activity.
Meanwhile, members of the constitutional committee met for talks ahead of a key decision Monday on whether enough progress has been made for parliament to vote on a constitutional draft by August 15, or whether a six-month extension will be needed, as envisaged by interim constitutional rules.
And Iraq's special tribunal denied reports that an unidentified man had attacked ousted Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein during a court hearing in Baghdad on Thursday, and that the pair had exchanged blows.
"This report is wrong. The tribunal respects human rights in its treatment of those accused," a court spokesman said, adding that there was "neither a verbal, nor a physical" attack on Saddam.
The former dictator's Amman-based defence team Saturday said Saddam was attacked by an unidentified man as he was leaving the courtroom.
"There was a fist-fight between them," his lawyers said in a statement.
"The head of the court did not intervene to stop the assault."
Earlier this month, the tribunal filed the first charges against Saddam over the 1982 killing of 143 residents of the village of Dujail, northeast of Baghdad, where he had been the target of a failed assassination bid.
No date for his trial has yet been set. Saddam was ousted in April 2003 after the US-led invasion of Iraq and was captured in December of that year. He and several of his henchmen are in US custody at a base near Baghdad airport.
http://nation.ittefaq.com/artman/publish/article_20488.shtml
By Agencies, Baghdad
Jul 31, 2005, 12:41
Five US soldiers were killed by roadside bombs in two separate incidents in Baghdad, the US military said Sunday.
In the first attack Saturday around 1:40 p.m., a patrol hit a roadside bomb in the southern Dora neighborhood, killing a soldier from Task Force Baghdad, a statement said. Two others were wounded in that incident.
Later that evening, around 11 p.m., four Task Force Baghdad soldiers were killed when a roadside bomb exploded in southwestern Baghdad.
The names of all the soldiers killed are being withheld pending notification of next of kin.
The military says U-S Marines killed eleven insurgents using tanks and aircraft today in western Iraq after the Americans came under attack from a village schoolhouse.
The statement did not say whether any Marines were killed or wounded in the battle, which started when Marines from Regimental Combat Team-two were attacked with mortar fire. The statement says the building was rigged with explosives and fortified with at least three .30 caliber machine guns in the windows.
U-S Abrams tanks and jet aircraft attacked the buildings, setting off secondary explosions from the munitions stored inside.
Meanwhile, more than 4,000 Iraqis have been killed since the start of the year, half of them civilians, official figures said as legislators struggled to reach agreement on a draft constitution by Monday.
The bloodiest months were May and July, coinciding respectively with the setting up of the new government and the start of constitutional talks, according to figures released Sunday by the defence, interior and health ministries.
Since January, 2,072 civilians were killed in politically- motivated acts of violence, along with 308 Iraqi soldiers and 765 policemen.
A total of 434 civilians, 150 policemen and 88 soldiers were killed in May, and 412 civilians, 134 policemen and 45 soldiers in July.
In addition, 855 insurgents have been killed since the start of the year.
On Sunday, an additional five civilians were killed and 10 injured in a car bomb explosion on a highway some 60 kilometers (40 miles) south of the capital, an interior ministry official said.
Two unidentified bodies, with gunshot wounds, were discovered in the capital, and a local interpreter working for US forces was shot dead in the northern city of Kirkuk.
At least 22 Iraqis died nationwide Saturday, along with five US soldiers blown up by bombs in Baghdad, and two Britons working as security guards who died in an attack on a British consulate convoy in the south of the country.
The US deaths brought the total number of US military personnel who have died in Iraq since the March 2003 invasion to 1,793 according to an AFP tally based on Pentagon figures.
Earlier this month, a study by two British groups-Iraq Body Count and the Oxford Research Group-had put the number of Iraqi civilians killed since US forces invaded the country at about 25,000.
The estimate of 24,865 deaths covered a two-year period between March 2003 and March 2005.
This toll was considerably lower than that of 98,000 suggested in a study published last October by British-based medical journal The Lancet.
The Iraq Body Count-Oxford Research report attributed 37 percent of civilian deaths to foreign forces and nine percent to insurgents.
However, a further 11 percent of deaths were attributed to "unknown agents," meaning suicide bombs and other attacks not directly aimed at foreign or official Iraqi targets, but possibly still intended to destabilise society.
The report also highlighted "extraordinary" levels of criminal violence, recording almost 9,000 deaths-more than a third of the total-not directly related to the occupation and insurgency.
These fatalities, recorded by Iraqi morgues, include people killed in robberies and kidnappings and battles between criminal gangs. The official statistics released on Sunday do not take account of people killed as a result of common criminal activity.
Meanwhile, members of the constitutional committee met for talks ahead of a key decision Monday on whether enough progress has been made for parliament to vote on a constitutional draft by August 15, or whether a six-month extension will be needed, as envisaged by interim constitutional rules.
And Iraq's special tribunal denied reports that an unidentified man had attacked ousted Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein during a court hearing in Baghdad on Thursday, and that the pair had exchanged blows.
"This report is wrong. The tribunal respects human rights in its treatment of those accused," a court spokesman said, adding that there was "neither a verbal, nor a physical" attack on Saddam.
The former dictator's Amman-based defence team Saturday said Saddam was attacked by an unidentified man as he was leaving the courtroom.
"There was a fist-fight between them," his lawyers said in a statement.
"The head of the court did not intervene to stop the assault."
Earlier this month, the tribunal filed the first charges against Saddam over the 1982 killing of 143 residents of the village of Dujail, northeast of Baghdad, where he had been the target of a failed assassination bid.
No date for his trial has yet been set. Saddam was ousted in April 2003 after the US-led invasion of Iraq and was captured in December of that year. He and several of his henchmen are in US custody at a base near Baghdad airport.
http://nation.ittefaq.com/artman/publish/article_20488.shtml
So, the Sunnis want us out, huh? Hmm... Yeah, that's real smart. Talk about "be careful what you wish for". The Sunnis are a minority, and until the Iraqi government establishes a constitution which respects the rights of the minority, the Sunnis would be dead ducks if we arbitrarily pulled out now, because the Kurds & Shi'ites have 30 years of payback pent up inside them.
The Sunnis ran Iraq for years before our arrival and they will run Iraq long after we leave. Or I should say after they kick us out of Iraq.
QUOTE(david sobien @ Aug 3 2005, 07:38 PM)
The Sunnis ran Iraq for years before our arrival and they will run Iraq long after we leave. Or I should say after they kick us out of Iraq.
The Sunnis can't kick us out. If we leave prematurely it will be just like Vietnam, it will be because of statestide politics, not because of the Sunnis. The Sunnis will be promptly slaughtered by the Shi'ites and Kurds who have 30 years of payback to dish out. Millions will die. But hey, who cares if millions of people die a violent death as long as we don't pull the trigger it's okay with you, right? It's not our problem if innocent people in other parts of the world are slaughtered, right? The millions who died after we pulled out of Vietnam weren't important, were they? Say, wouldn't it be more merciful if we euthanize the rest of the world with neutron bombs, because only American deaths matter, right?
I am guessing that this petition and protest will only cause the current government to hold off on kicking out the troops, by raising the anxiety level. Rather counter-productive move by the Sunnis, I think.
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