Iraq

Interesting...

I was watching the news earlier today where they were saying that recruitment figures in the US were falling, and if they fell much further, they may ave to re-introduce drafting! This is probably a step to see if that can be avoided.

Iraq fighters name joint spokesperson

Two armed groups in Iraq, known for fighting US-led forces and their capture of foreigners including journalists, have appointed a joint spokesperson.

The new spokesperson for the Islamic Army in Iraq and Jaish al-Mujahidin, Dr Ibrahim Yusuf al-Shimmari, told Aljazeera that the decision comes in the context of the groups' plans to implement a political programme and be politically recognised.

"It is most appropriate for the two groups to unite and appoint a media spokesman," said al-Shimmari, "due to the escalating amount of persons who claim to speak on behalf of the resistance and adopt political projects that do not serve the resistance."

This is the first step in the implementation of the groups' plan to unite, added al-Shimmari. "Other steps will follow soon."

Aljazeera

I was wondering why this hadn't happened already.

This step at 'legitimisation' could accelerate the creation of specific blocs which may eventually lead the fight in a civil war.

the most honest and realistic account i've ever read of the happenings in Iraq is narrated on an Iraqi woman's blog:
www.riverbendblog.blogspot.com

heres a brief description from some american journalist who interviewed her:
"For more then a year now, the 25-year-old Iraqi woman has been keeping a document of her life. She lives near a bend in the Tigris River in the north of Baghdad and, when the electricity permits, she posts the stories of her life since the start of the war to her website under the appropriately unassuming and anonymous name of Riverbend. Born in Iraq and educated for eight years in America , she now shares her story and the story of her city with anyone who cares to read it"
(http://www.606mag.com/main.php?id=132)

Bahrain, Pakistan envoys shot in Iraq

The Bahraini and Pakistani envoys to Iraq have been attacked by armed men in Baghdad, the third attack on top diplomats in as many days.

Four armed men opened fire on the Bahraini envoy's car in the capital's upscale Mansour neighbourhood as he was being driven to work on Tuesday, a police source said. The driver was unharmed.

A hospital source said the envoy, Hassan Malalla al-Ansari, was wounded in the right hand by a single bullet. The motive for the attack was unclear.

Later on Tuesday, armed men opened fire on a convoy carrying Pakistan's envoy to Iraq in the third attack on a senior diplomat in three days, police sources said.

Two cars of armed men fired at Mohammad Younis Khan's convoy in the same Mansour district but sped off after guards returned fire. Nobody was reported hurt, they said.

Egypt's envoy was kidnapped over the weekend.

Iraq's government spokesman said the attacks on the Egyptian and Bahraini diplomats were part of an effort to intimidate countries considering upgrading their ties to Iraq.

Sunni Arab cleric Harith al-Dhari condemned all kidnappings, calling them "a bad phenomenon that emerged after the occupation of Iraq by America and its allies".

Aljazeera

irfan

Bahrain, Pakistan envoys shot in Iraq

The Bahraini and Pakistani envoys to Iraq have been attacked by armed men in Baghdad, the third attack on top diplomats in as many days.

Four armed men opened fire on the Bahraini envoy's car in the capital's upscale Mansour neighbourhood as he was being driven to work on Tuesday, a police source said. The driver was unharmed.

A hospital source said the envoy, Hassan Malalla al-Ansari, was wounded in the right hand by a single bullet. The motive for the attack was unclear.

Later on Tuesday, armed men opened fire on a convoy carrying Pakistan's envoy to Iraq in the third attack on a senior diplomat in three days, police sources said.

Two cars of armed men fired at Mohammad Younis Khan's convoy in the same Mansour district but sped off after guards returned fire. Nobody was reported hurt, they said.

Egypt's envoy was kidnapped over the weekend.

Iraq's government spokesman said the attacks on the Egyptian and Bahraini diplomats were part of an effort to intimidate countries considering upgrading their ties to Iraq.

Sunni Arab cleric Harith al-Dhari condemned all kidnappings, calling them "a bad phenomenon that emerged after the occupation of Iraq by America and its allies".

Aljazeera

Looks like the iraqi security services are heavily infiltrated. Thats three attacks against foreign diplomats in two days.

Whats happening in Iraq is awful.
America are now just invading another country.
Whenever I think about whats happening I feel really sad 😢

UK draws up Iraq 'pull-out plan'

Plans have been drawn up to withdraw thousands of UK and US troops from Iraq by the spring of 2006.
The paper, by Defence Secretary John Reid, suggests the UK's 8,500 troops in Iraq could be cut to 3,000, saving around £500m a year.

The document, leaked to the Mail on Sunday, also sets out US plans to cut its troops from 176,000 to 66,000.

However, Mr Reid said this was only one possibility and troops would stay in Iraq "as long as they were needed".

He said in a statement that "no decision" had been taken over the future deployment of troops.

BBC

Conflict 'kills 25,000 Iraqis'

Nearly 25,000 civilians have died violently in Iraq since the US-led invasion in March 2003, a report says.

Based on more than 10,000 media reports, the dossier is the first detailed account of such deaths.

"The ever-mounting Iraqi death toll is the forgotten cost of the decision to go to war in Iraq," said Professor John Sloboda, one of the report authors.

The Iraq Body Count and Oxford Research Group, made up of academics and peace activists, carried out the survey.

The Dossier on Civilian Casualties in Iraq 2003-2005 says 37% of all non-combatant deaths were caused by US-led forces.

Many of these occurred during the invasion phase, which it counts as ending on 1 May 2003.

But killings by anti-occupation and criminal elements also increased steadily over the entire two-year period.

Insurgents are said to have caused 9% of the deaths, while post-invasion criminal violence was responsible for another 36%.

The number of civilians who have died has almost doubled in the second year from the first year, according to the report.

'Failure'

Almost a fifth of the 24,865 deaths were women or children and nearly half of all the civilian deaths were reported in the capital Baghdad.

"On average, 34 ordinary Iraqis have met violent deaths every day since the invasion of March 2003," said Professor Sloboda.

"It remains a matter of the gravest concern that, nearly two-and-a-half years on, neither the US nor the UK governments have begun to systematically measure the impact of their actions in terms of human lives destroyed."

BBC

the crisis in Iraq is never-ending...we are always hearing about innocent civilians getting killed...it makes me so sad

what can we do to help?