Iraq News Thread

[Ironduke]

All posts concerning the Iraq conflict here, please.

[Ironduke]

US captures Iraq 'guerrilla leader'

US captures Iraq 'guerrilla leader'



US forces say they have captured a suspected leader of the former Iraqi president's loyalist militia and two army generals in overnight raids in Saddam Hussein's home town of Tikrit.
The man is suspected of forming organised cells and paying armed guerrilla fighters to attack coalition forces in the town of Tikrit, according to Lieutenant Colonel Steve Russell.

The two former generals are suspected of organising guerrilla attacks nationwide. None of the men were named.

Almost 40 men were detained as a result of several tips-offs from local residents, who told US soldiers that the suspects had held a meeting and then provided them with the locations.


'Eroding support'

Nearly 400 US troops used Apache attack helicopters, tanks and armoured vehicles to seal off the area, before charging into a local hotel and detaining the men.

Most of the men - many of whom were labourers - were later released after a stark warning from Colonel Russell.

"If you fight against your government, we will hunt you down and kill you," he told the men through an interpreter, the Associated Press news agency reported.

US forces have been searching for the former Iraqi leader near his ancestral home, and say they are managing to strike a balance between capturing those who are carrying out attacks on their troops and keeping locals on their side.

"I think we are eroding all of the support of the former regime," Colonel Russell said.

"We have planned raids thinking he [Saddam] might be there and will continue to do so."

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/3130741.stm

[Ironduke]

Iraq 'needs $5bn from donors'

Iraq 'needs $5bn from donors'



Iraq will need $5bn from international donors at a conference in October just to keep essential services going, the United Nations has said.
But continuing security problems could scare potential donors away, said Ramiro Lopez Da Silva, a UN humanitarian aid co-ordinator in Iraq.

His words came as an American civilian working with the US army in Iraq was killed when a bomb went off beneath his vehicle.

Besides attacks on soldiers, ambushes in the last three months have also claimed the lives of a British journalist, a Sri Lankan technician for the International Committee of the Red Cross, and an Iraqi driver for the UN.

Living standards

Iraq's finance ministry has calculated the country will need $20bn in 2004 to keep basic services running.

But income from Iraq's crippled oil industry and other sources is unlikely to exceed $15bn. Donors would need to supply the rest.

"That is just to keep things going," Mr da Silva said.

"If you want a qualitative leap, a quantum leap in living standards and conditions, you would need much more."

Even if money is pledged in October it may not materialise - much of the cash promised to Afghanistan has yet to arrive, he added.

"If we want to attract something close to $5bn as support for Iraq next year, donors will have the present security environment very much in mind," da Silva said.

If the current level of lawlessness persists, few countries will be willing to commit cash.

No-go areas

Lack of security was having a "very serious impact" on humanitarian efforts, Mr da Silva added.

"There are areas where we cannot allow staff to go," he told Reuters.

These no-go areas included the "Sunni triangle" west and north west of Baghdad, where support for Saddam Hussein is widespread.

Mr da Silva said the goal of bringing living standards back up to the level of before the war by the end of 2003 was still achievable.

But there had to be a rapid improvement in law and order.

And the likelihood of a return to the relative prosperity of the 1980s was a distant prospect.

World Bank assessment

The US and its coalition partners may turn to the UN to ask more countries for help.

Mr da Silva said a new UN mandate - demanded by some countries as the price of aid - would not be necessary to raise $5bn.

But countries would want the money to be administered by a multilateral agency rather than by the occupying coalition.

The World Bank is making its own assessment of Iraq's economic needs and will make its findings known at the October conference.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/3126809.stm

[Ironduke]

Arabs snub US over Iraq troops

Arabs snub US over Iraq troops



Arab League foreign ministers have ruled out sending troops to help US forces to stabilise Iraq.
The ministers, meeting in Cairo on Tuesday, agreed that sending Arab forces "cannot be considered in the current circumstances," the organisation's secretary-general Amr Moussa said.

"We should work to put an end to the occupation and allow the Iraqi people to form a national government," the AFP news agency quoted him as saying.

The ministers from 11 Arab states and the Palestinian Authority also refused to recognise the US-backed Iraq Governing Council as a legitimate government.

"The Council is a start but it should pave the way for a legitimate government that can be recognised," Mr Moussa said.

The Council did not send any representatives to the Cairo meeting.

Reeling from crisis

The BBC's Magdi Abdelhadi in Cairo says the US intervention in Iraq has plunged the 22-member Arab League into one of its worst ever crises.

Some members - notably Kuwait, Qatar and Bahrain - offered facilities for the US-led invasion, but Syria and others strongly opposed it.

An Arab League spokesman quoted by AFP said the United States had asked 70 countries to send forces to help stabilise Iraq.

The Cairo meeting will most likely spark fresh complaints about the Arab League's failures on issues close to Arab hearts: the Palestinians and Iraq, our correspondent says.

The Iraq war prompted various initiatives to reform the organisation, including a mechanism to resolve Arab conflicts, a pan-Arab court of justice and a pan-Arab parliament.

But critics say that, without an explanation for the Arab League's chronic failure to implement its own resolutions, such proposals will not be worth the paper they are written on.

And the fall of the Baathist regime in Baghdad has discredited ruling elites across the Arab world, our correspondent says.

Reforms

Calls for democratic reforms have become widespread, but there is little agreement on where to start or on the content of such reforms, he adds.

Critics argue that without democratic reforms within Arab societies, the League will continue to reflect the failures of these societies: a lack of accountability and failure to uphold the rule of law.

The Arab League members attending Tuesday's meeting were: Algeria, Bahrain, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Libya, Morocco, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Yemen and the Palestinian Authority.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/3126515.stm[/img]

[Ironduke]

Iraq pneumonia spate baffles US

Iraq pneumonia spate baffles US



Army medical experts have been struggling to explain why about 100 US troops, who served mostly in Iraq, have contracted pneumonia since March.
The army has discounted biological weapons and Sars as possible reasons for the spate which has killed two soldiers and made 13 others seriously ill.

A team of medical investigators is due to arrive in Iraq within hours to try to identify any link between the cases.

But military officials say pneumonia remains common - even among fit young people - although troops are being encouraged to take precautions to stay healthy.

The illness has begun to attract public attention in the US, particularly after the two deaths, correspondents say.

The mother of Josh Neusche, 20, who died last month, told the UK's Sunday Telegraph newspaper that she believed her son had stumbled across something deadly while clearing rubble in one of Saddam Hussein's palaces.

Colonel Robert DeFraites of the Office of the Army Surgeon General said officials were concerned particularly by the two deaths and 13 other cases where the troops concerned needed to be put on a respirator.

But they did not believe them to have a sinister cause, he said.

"There's been no positive findings of any anthrax or smallpox or any other biological weapons... I'm pretty close to ruling it out," Colonel DeFraites told a news conference.

Samples taken from the sick have also shown no indications of the pneumonia-like Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (Sars) which killed hundreds of people - mainly in China and Hong Kong - earlier this year.

Far-flung cases

Colonel DeFraites said statistically the rates of infection and even deaths connected to troops in Iraq would not be considered unusual, given the fact that pneumonia remains common and a large bulk of the US forces were in the region.

Worldwide, the US army treats between 400 and 500 of its personnel for pneumonia each year, and there are on average three deaths a year from the disease.

Two-thirds of the most severe recent cases occurred in Iraq, but pneumonia has also hit troops in Qatar and Uzbekistan.

The 15 worst cases all came from different units and there has been no indication of any transmission from one person to another.

Colonel DeFraites said non-infectious causes of pneumonia could include dust and smoke.

The investigation teams - one on its way to Iraq and the other at a military hospital in Germany where some of the patients were treated - will check for clues in environmental conditions and what the troops were doing before they fell ill.

Military personnel working in Iraq and elsewhere in the region are being encouraged to take precautions not to become dehydrated in the intense summer heat and to cover their mouths and noses where dust occurs.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/3126843.stm

[Bill]

This definitely warrants further scrutiny.

[Bill]

It's times like these when you find out who your friends are.

[Stinger]

Tell me again why we supply aid to Egypt?

[Ironduke]

Former Saddam minister detained

Former Saddam minister detained

Another senior member of Saddam Hussein's government is in custody, the United States military authorities in Iraq say.
Former Iraqi interior minister Mahmoud Dhiyab al-Ahmad - number 29 on the American list of 55 most-wanted Iraqis - surrendered on Friday, according to US Central Command.

The Americans had already announced his capture a month ago, but now say that was an incorrect statement.

"We thought we had him, but we didn't and now we do," a military spokesman said.

The US authorities also announced that said the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) was to investigate Thursday's bomb attack on the Jordanian Embassy in Baghdad - which killed at least 14 people.

Iraq's US administrator, Paul Bremer, said the FBI would do all it could to help local authorities track down the perpetrators

In the absence of claims of responsibility for the attack, speculation has focused on an Islamic militant group, Ansar al-Islam.

Riots

The announcements come amid continuing instability in Iraq.

Four US troops were wounded in ambushes in the northern city of Kirkuk and Baghdad, officers told AP news agency.

In the south, British troops coming under attack in Basra after being deployed to quell fuel riots.

Protestors reportedly threw stones, attacked cars registered in nearby Kuwait and burned tyres after electricity failures caused huge queues at petrol stations.

British forces were hit by stones and fired into the air to keep back a crowd at one petrol station, witnesses said.

In a speech on Saturday, US President George W Bush warned that reconstructing Iraq would take a long time - 100 days after he announced that major combat operations there were over.

"One hundred days is not enough time to undo the terrible legacy of Saddam Hussein. There is difficult and dangerous work ahead that requires time and patience," he said in his weekly radio address.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/3138715.stm

[Gio]

So they won't attack Israel?

[ChrisF202]

Something tells me that this sickness, like "Gulf War Syndrome" is related to saddams WMD. Regardless of what the DoD says thats why I think.

[Stinger]

It could also be in response to the battery of Vaccines they recieved prior to deployement.

[ChrisF202]

It could also be in response to the battery of Vaccines they recieved prior to deployement.

yeah, they did get vaccinated against certin types of WMD

[bigross86]

What exactly is Gulf War syndrome? Isn't it a psychological thing?

[ChrisF202]

What exactly is Gulf War syndrome? Isn't it a psychological thing?

Its what happend after Saddam shot WMD at Coliation troops