Iraq residents rise up against al-Qaida By SINAN SALAHEDDIN, Associated Press Writers
1 hour, 50 minutes ago
BAGHDAD - A battle raged Thursday in west Baghdad after residents rose up against al-Qaida and called for U.S. military help to end random gunfire that forced people to huddle indoors and threats that kept students from final exams, a member of the district council said.
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Meanwhile, a suicide bomber hit a police recruiting center in Fallujah, killing as many as 25 people, police said — though the U.S. military said only one policeman was killed and eight were wounded. Elsewhere, three policemen and three civilians were killed and 15 civilians were wounded when a suicide truck bomber struck a communications center on the western outskirts of Ramadi, according to Anbar provincial security adviser Col. Tariq Youssef Mohammed.
The American military also reported the deaths of three more soldiers, two killed Wednesday in a roadside bombing in Baghdad and one who died of wounds from a roadside bomb attack northwest of the capital Tuesday. At least 122 American forces have died in May, the third-deadliest month of the Iraq conflict.
U.S. forces backed by helicopter gunships clashed with suspected al-Qaida gunmen in western Baghdad's primarily Sunni Muslim Amariyah neighborhood in an engagement that lasted several hours, said the district councilman, who would not allow use of his name for fear of al-Qaida retribution.
Casualty figures were not immediately available and there was not immediate word from the U.S. military on the engagement.
But the councilman said the al-Qaida leader in the Amariyah district, known as Haji Hameed, was killed and 45 other fighters were detained.
Members of al-Qaida, who consider the district part of their so-called Islamic State of Iraq, were preventing students from attending final exams, shooting randomly and forcing residents to stay in their homes, the councilman said.
U.S. forces also continued a search for five Britons who were kidnapped Tuesday in Baghdad, as well as for two of its soldiers who have been missing since a May 12 ambush south of the capital.
The Fallujah suicide bomber killed at least 10 policemen in the attack, which occurred about 11 a.m., according to a police official in the city who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to release the information. The rest of the dead were civilians, many of them in line seeking jobs as policemen. He said as many as 50 were wounded.
Fallujah General Hospital had received 15 bodies and 10 wounded, according to a doctor there, who would not allow the use of his name because he feared retribution. The physician said he believed other casualties were taken to the nearby Jordanian Hospital and private clinics.
A member of the Fallujah city council, who also asked for anonymity for fear of attack by insurgents, said there were at least 20 killed and 25 injured.
The coordination of information in Fallujah was particularly difficult because the mobile telephone system has been working only sporadically.
Maj. Jeff Pool of the Multi-National Force-West said the Anbar province governor's office and the provincial police put the total number of dead at one Iraqi policeman, with six police and two civilians wounded in Fallujah, 40 miles west of Baghdad.
Police said the bomber detonated explosives in his vest at the third of four checkpoints, standing among recruits who were lining up to apply for jobs on the force. The center had only opened Saturday in a primary school in eastern Fallujah.
The U.S. military and Iraqi army and police were running the center along with members of Anbar Salvation Council, a loose grouping of Sunni tribes that have banded together to fight al-Qaida.
Police stations and recruiting posts have been a favorite target of Sunni insurgents and al-Qaida throughout the war.
U.S. forces, meanwhile, pressed on with the search for five kidnapped Britons, and a procession of mourners, some of them women wailing and beating their chests, marched through Sadr City behind a small bus carrying the coffins of two people who police said were killed in a U.S. helicopter strike before dawn.
The U.S. military said it had no report of airstrikes in Sadr City and that there were no civilian casualties in the second day of a search for the Britons, who were abducted Tuesday from a Finance Ministry data processing building in eastern Baghdad.
A U.S. military statement, however, said U.S. and Iraqi forces had arrested two "members of the secret cell terrorist network" in Sadr City. There was no mention of fatalities.
AP Television News videotape from Sadr City showed the coffins of the victims atop a small bus with men and women walking behind, crying. A young boy could be seen sitting next to the coffins.
A car in the area was punctured with big holes, as if hit by an airstrike.
A police officer in Sadr City, who refused to allow use of his name because he feared retribution, said the helicopter hit a house and car at 4:30 a.m., killing two elderly people sleeping on the roof of their home — a common practice in Iraq's extreme heat through late spring and summer.
The officer said a 13-year-old boy was wounded.
Also in Sadr City raids, which the U.S. has been conducting with a select unit of Iraqi army forces, Shiite cleric Abdul-Zahra al-Suwaidi claimed his home was raided and ransacked by American forces at 3 a.m. Thursday. The military said it had no report of the incident.
Al-Suwaidi, who runs the Sadr City political office of radical cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, said he was sleeping elsewhere at the time of the raid, expecting that he would be targeted. He said his home was badly damaged and a small amount of money was taken.
Dozens of U.S. Humvees and Bradley fighting vehicles had taken up positions around Sadr City at nightfall Wednesday.
The five kidnapped Britons included four bodyguards working for the Montreal-based security firm GardaWorld and one employee of BearingPoint, a U.S.-based management consulting firm.
In Washington, Brig. Gen. Perry Wiggins, deputy director of operations for the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said the military believed a helicopter that crashed Monday north of Baghdad was brought down by small-arms fire. The Islamic State of Iraq, an al-Qaida front group, claimed responsibility.
Wiggins also said that more than 100 patrols a day were being launched to search for two missing troops who vanished after a May 12 ambush near Mahmoudiya, south of Baghdad. Four Americans and one Iraqi soldier were killed in the attack and the body of another American was later found in the Euphrates River.
"Our determination and resolve to locate our missing soldiers is unwavering," Wiggins said.
"War does not determine who is right - only who is left."
- Bertrand Russell
"He who fears being conquered is sure of defeat." - Napoleon Bonaparte
"There is nothing so likely to produce peace as to be well prepared to meet the
enemy." - George Washington
We don't like to leave soldiers behind for any reason, but it looks like the chances of finding these guys alive or dead are pretty slim. The soldiers there know what their fate will be if they are captured, so more than likely they were badly or mortally wounded at the time they were taken away. I don't know that for a fact obviously, but I seriously doubt we will see a video tape with these guys in it, or at least for their sakes I pray not.
"Imagination was given to man to compensate him for what he is not, and a sense of humor was provided to console him for what he is."
Sunnis revolt against al-Qaida By STEVEN R. HURST, Associated Press Writers
17 minutes ago
BAGHDAD - U.S. troops battled al-Qaida in west Baghdad on Thursday after Sunni Arab residents challenged the militants and called for American help to end furious gunfire that kept students from final exams and forced people in the neighborhood to huddle indoors.
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Backed by helicopter gunships, U.S. troops joined the two-day battle in the Amariyah district, according to a councilman and other residents of the Sunni district.
The fight reflects a trend that U.S. and Iraqi officials have been trumpeting recently to the west in Anbar province, once considered the heartland of the Sunni insurgency. Many Sunni tribes in the province have banded together to fight al-Qaida, claiming the terrorist group is more dangerous than American forces.
Three more U.S. soldiers were reported killed in combat, raising the number of American deaths to at least 122 for May, making it the third deadliest month for Americans in the conflict. The military said two soldiers died Wednesday from a roadside bomb in Baghdad and one died of wounds inflicted by a bomb attack northwest of the capital Tuesday.
Lt. Col. Dale C. Kuehl, commander of 1st Battalion, 5th Cavalry Regiment, who is responsible for the Amariyah area of the capital, confirmed the U.S. military's role in the fighting in the Sunni district. He said the battles raged Wednesday and Thursday but died off at night.
Although al-Qaida is a Sunni organization opposed to the Shiite Muslim-dominated government, its ruthlessness and reliance on foreign fighters have alienated many Sunnis in Iraq.
The U.S. military congratulated Amariyah residents for standing up to al-Qaida.
"The events of the past two days are promising developments. Sunni citizens of Amariyah that have been previously terrorized by al-Qaida are now resisting and want them gone. They're tired of the intimidation that included the murder of women," Kuehl said.
A U.S. military officer, who agreed to discuss the fight only if not quoted by name because the information was not for release, said the Army was checking reports of a big al-Qaida enclave in Amariyah housing foreign fighters, including Afghans, doing temporary duty in Iraq.
U.S.-funded Alhurra television reported that non-Iraqi Arabs and Afghans were among the fighters over the past two days. Kuehl said he could not confirm those reports.
The heaviest fighting came at 11 a.m. when gunmen — identified by residents as al-Qaida fighters — began shooting randomly into the air, forcing people to flee into their homes and students from classrooms.
They said the fighters drove through the streets using loudspeakers to claim that Amariyah was under the control of the Islamic State of Iraq, an al-Qaida front group.
Armed residents were said to have resisted, set some of the al-Qaida gunmen's cars on fire and called the Americans for help.
One Amariyah resident, reached by telephone late Thursday, said the shooting continued, especially along al-Monadhama Street, the main thoroughfare in the district not far from Baghdad International Airport, where the U.S. military has extensive facilities.
"The Americans came this afternoon and it got quiet for a while. We are staying home, frightened. We have no idea what's going on. There's nothing to do. There has been shooting outside since last (Wednesday) night," the resident said.
Everyone contacted in the neighborhood spoke on condition of anonymity, citing fears of reprisals from roaming gunmen.
Casualty figures were not immediately available. But the district councilman said the al-Qaida leader in Amariyah, known as Haji Hameed, was killed and 45 other fighters were detained.
Saif M. Fakhry, an Associated Press Television News cameraman, was shot twice and killed in the turmoil in Amariyah on Thursday. Fakhry, 26, was the fifth AP employee to die violently in the Iraq war and the third killed since December.
He was spending the day with his wife, Samah Abbas, who is expecting their first child in June. According to his family, Fakhry was walking to a mosque near his Amariyah home when he was killed. It was not clear who fired the shots.
Also Thursday, Lt. Gen. Raymond Odierno, the No. 2 commander in Iraq, said U.S. military officers were talking with Iraqi militants — excluding al-Qaida — about cease-fires and other arrangements to try to stop the violence.
He also suggested he might not be able to meet the September deadline for telling Congress whether President Bush's military buildup in Iraq is working.
Odierno said commanders at all levels are being empowered to reach out for talks with militants, tribes, religious leaders and others. Iraq has been gripped by violence on a range of fronts including insurgents, sectarian rivals and common criminals.
"It's just beginning, so we have a lot of work to do in this," he said. "But we have restructured ourselves ... to work this issue."
He said he thinks 80 percent of Iraqis, including Sunni insurgents and Shiite militants, can reach reconciliation with each other, although most al-Qaida operatives will not.
"We are talking about cease-fires, and maybe signing some things that say they won't conduct operations against the government of Iraq or against coalition forces," Odierno told Pentagon reporters in a video conference from Baghdad.
On the assessment of operations that is due in September, he said he thinks it will take longer to tell whether the increase of nearly 30,000 troops will work as intended: to quell violence enough to give Iraqi officials breathing space to work on reconciliation and development issues.
In western Iraq on Thursday, a suicide bomber hit a police recruiting center in Fallujah, and there were conflicting reports about the death toll. Police said as many as 25 people were killed, but the U.S. military said just one policeman died.
Elsewhere, three policemen and three civilians were killed and 15 civilians were wounded when a suicide truck bomber struck a communications center on the western outskirts of Ramadi, according to Anbar provincial security adviser Col. Tariq Youssef Mohammed.
American forces, meanwhile, continued Thursday with the search for five kidnapped Britons in and around Baghdad's Sadr City district.
A procession of mourners, some of them women wailing and beating their chests, marched through Sadr City behind a small bus carrying the coffins of two people who police said were killed in a U.S. helicopter strike before dawn.
The U.S. military said it had no report of airstrikes in Sadr City and that there were no civilian casualties in the second day of the search for the Britons. The five were abducted from a Finance Ministry data processing building in eastern Baghdad on Tuesday.
APTN video tape from Sadr City showed the coffins of the victims atop a small bus with men and women walking behind, crying. A young boy could be seen sitting next to the coffins on the bus
This is yet another article that shows that no one invited Al-Qaeda into Iraq. Without these terrorists and criminals Iraq may not be what it is today, the more the Iraqis resist these invaders the safer Iraq will be and the sooner the US troops will be able to pull out of this poor country. God help the Iraqis succeed in their fight against the real illegal invaders, Al-Qaeda and all of its umbrella groups, God knows they are the main cause for what is going on in Iraq today
"War does not determine who is right - only who is left."
- Bertrand Russell
"He who fears being conquered is sure of defeat." - Napoleon Bonaparte
"There is nothing so likely to produce peace as to be well prepared to meet the
enemy." - George Washington
BAGHDAD - Iraqi and U.S. troops fanned out in a devastated Sunni neighborhood in Baghdad on Friday, residents said, adding they were holed up in their houses under a curfew that was imposed to restore calm after days of internal fighting between insurgent groups.
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Northeast of Baghdad, an al-Qaida-linked suicide bomber blew himself up Friday in a house sheltering members of the rival 1920 Revolution Brigades, killing two of the other militants and wounding four in the strife-ridden city of Baqouba, police said.
The developments were the latest in an apparently growing Sunni insurgent power struggle as U.S. and Iraqi officials try to isolate the terror network by turning other militant groups and tribal leaders against it. The tactic has proven relatively successful in the western Anbar province, once considered the heartland of the Sunni insurgency, and Washington and the Iraqi government are trying to replicate it elsewhere.
Lt. Gen. Raymond Odierno, the No. 2 U.S. commander in Iraq, said Thursday that U.S. military officers were talking with Iraqi militants — excluding al-Qaida — about cease-fires and other arrangements to try to stop the violence. He said he thinks 80 percent of Iraqis, including Sunni insurgents and Shiite militants, can reach reconciliation with each other, although most al-Qaida operatives will not.
Abu Ahmed, a 40-year-old Sunni father of four in Baghdad's Amariyah neighborhood, said he was among a group of residents who joined in the clashes with al-Qaida fighters on Wednesday and Thursday — fed up with the gunfire that kept students from final exams and forced people in the neighborhood to huddle indoors.
Ahmed denied being a member of any insurgent groups but said he sympathizes with "honest Iraqi resistance," referring to those opposed to U.S.-led efforts in Iraq but also against the brutal tactics of al-Qaida.
"Al-Qaida fighters and leaders have completely destroyed Amariyah. No one can venture out and all the businesses are closed," he said. "They kill everyone who criticizes them and is against their acts even if they are Sunnis."
"What al-Qaida fighters do is not jihad (holy war), these acts are just criminal ones. Jihad must be against the occupation, Shiite militias and those who cooperate with them," he added. "Those fighters are here only to kill Iraqis and not the Americans. They are like cancer and must be removed from the Iraqi body."
Other residents, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they feared retribution, said the clashes began after al-Qaida abducted and tortured Sunnis from the area, prompting a large number of residents, many members of the rival Islamic Army armed with guns and rocket-propelled grenades, to rise up against the terror network.
Official casualty figures were not immediately available. But a local council member, who declined to be identified because of security concerns, said at least 31 people, including six al-Qaida militants, were killed and 45 other fighters were detained in the clashes.
Lt. Col. Dale C. Kuehl, commander of 1st Battalion, 5th Cavalry Regiment, who is responsible for the Amariyah area of the capital, confirmed the U.S. military's role in the fighting in the Sunni district. He said the battles raged Wednesday and Thursday but died off at night.
Although al-Qaida is a Sunni organization opposed to the Shiite Muslim-dominated government, its ruthlessness and reliance on foreign fighters have alienated many Sunnis in Iraq.
The U.S. military and the Iraqi government congratulated Amariyah residents for standing up to al-Qaida.
"Government security forces are now in control of the Amariyah district," Iraqi military spokesman Qassim al-Moussawi was quoted as saying by Iraqi state TV. He also lauded "the cooperation of local residents with the government."
Saif M. Fakhry, an Associated Press Television News cameraman, was shot twice and killed in the turmoil in Amariyah on Thursday. Fakhry, 26, was the fifth AP employee to die violently in the Iraq war and the third killed since December.
He was spending the day with his wife, Samah Abbas, who is expecting their first child in June. According to his family, Fakhry was walking to a mosque near his Amariyah home when he was killed. It was not clear who fired the shots.
The explosion in Baqouba, 35 miles northeast of Baghdad, came as residents said al-Qaida is trying to regain control of the central Tahrir neighborhood from the 1920 Revolution Brigades, a group composed of officials and soldiers from the ousted regime who have allied themselves with local security forces against the terror network.
Mustafa Hadi, a 30-year-old man who lives in the neighborhood, said the insurgent group had set up several checkpoints and commandeered houses that have been vacated by Shiites and others fleeing the violence.
"These soldiers use empty houses as resting places," he said. "At night they ask the residents to light a bulb outside their homes to make it easy for them to watch the area."
Abdul-Aziz al-Hakim, the leader of Iraq's largest Shiite party, meanwhile, returned to Baghdad from Iran after completing the first phase of his treatment for lung cancer, according to the Web site of the Supreme Islamic Council of Iraq.
Yet another article showing Iraqi disgust for the foreign invaders who call themselves Al-Qaida... Where are all of those who argued that Al-Qaida was doing the right thing, and claim that the Iraqis invited them to Iraq? Where are your comments now, when there is testimony from Iraqis, proof that Al-Qaeda is the destabilizing force in Iraq, not the US
"War does not determine who is right - only who is left."
- Bertrand Russell
"He who fears being conquered is sure of defeat." - Napoleon Bonaparte
"There is nothing so likely to produce peace as to be well prepared to meet the
enemy." - George Washington
This is yet another article that shows that no one invited Al-Qaeda into Iraq. Without these terrorists and criminals Iraq may not be what it is today, the more the Iraqis resist these invaders the safer Iraq will be and the sooner the US troops will be able to pull out of this poor country. God help the Iraqis succeed in their fight against the real illegal invaders, Al-Qaeda and all of its umbrella groups, God knows they are the main cause for what is going on in Iraq today
calm down general
al-qaeda is about 5% of the iraqi resistance - they get more coverage coz their attacks are indiscriminate and brutal - however the removal of al-qaeda will not affect the resistance as a whole
in fact it might improve the resistances PR image and hence stregthen it, so no complaints from the supporters of the iraqi resistance in removing al-qaeda
a quote from a resistance commander who is against al-qaeda:
Abdul Khaliq said he hoped U.S. forces would stay out of the fight. "But if the Americans interfere, it will blow up, because they are the enemy of us both, and we will unite against them and stop fighting each other," he said.
The US invited them into Iraq. Under Sadam, such factions were kept in check by a brutal iron fist. The US displacement of Sadam opened the door to terrorists.
al-qaeda is about 5% of the iraqi resistance - they get more coverage coz their attacks are indiscriminate and brutal - however the removal of al-qaeda will not affect the resistance as a whole
in fact it might improve the resistances PR image and hence stregthen it, so no complaints from the supporters of the iraqi resistance in removing al-qaeda
a quote from a resistance commander who is against al-qaeda:
The US is negotiating a cease fire with the Shia and the Sunni as well as the tribes and other various factions. It is becoming more and more apparent who the real perpetrator or violence in Iraq is, to everyone. The people in Iraq know that the US soldiers do not wish to be in their country and are only there to help stabilize. The more these people realize that America is not the enemy, the more the real enemy will be exposed and either brought to justice or eliminated. Also, where do you get your figure of 5%? I have never seen that, and Al-Qaeda and its subsidiaries I would bet take up far more than 5% of the "resistance" in Iraq, the others who have been fighting are fighting sectarian violence that is instigated by Al-Qaeda. Also, how old is that quote you put, most of the quotes I have heard lately are leaders calling for US assistance.
Personally I would love to see Al-Qaeda run out of Iraq by the Iraqi people and the US troops come home. Nothing would make me happier
"War does not determine who is right - only who is left."
- Bertrand Russell
"He who fears being conquered is sure of defeat." - Napoleon Bonaparte
"There is nothing so likely to produce peace as to be well prepared to meet the
enemy." - George Washington
The US invited them into Iraq. Under Sadam, such factions were kept in check by a brutal iron fist. The US displacement of Sadam opened the door to terrorists.
figure it would be a neocon posting propaganda on here....
unlike you I get my information from actual reliable news sources... you can deny it all you want though, I am sure you can find something different on prisonplanet.com
"War does not determine who is right - only who is left."
- Bertrand Russell
"He who fears being conquered is sure of defeat." - Napoleon Bonaparte
"There is nothing so likely to produce peace as to be well prepared to meet the
enemy." - George Washington
The US is negotiating a cease fire with the Shia and the Sunni as well as the tribes and other various factions. It is becoming more and more apparent who the real perpetrator or violence in Iraq is, to everyone. The people in Iraq know that the US soldiers do not wish to be in their country and are only there to help stabilize. The more these people realize that America is not the enemy, the more the real enemy will be exposed and either brought to justice or eliminated. Also, where do you get your figure of 5%? I have never seen that, and Al-Qaeda and its subsidiaries I would bet take up far more than 5% of the "resistance" in Iraq, the others who have been fighting are fighting sectarian violence that is instigated by Al-Qaeda. Also, how old is that quote you put, most of the quotes I have heard lately are leaders calling for US assistance.
The United Nations’ top human rights official says abuses by U.S. soldiers of Iraqi prisoners at Baghdad’s Abu Ghraib prison could amount to war crimes.
Al-Qaeda is the enemy of Iraq obviously, which is why Al-Qaeda has been continuously been being driven out by the Iraqi people. You can post all the pictures and youtube garbage you want, but none of that changes the facts shown in the recent news. Heads of councils have been meeting with US generals and Iraqi government officials to try to work out a cease fire, because everyone who is there and living that nightmare sees that the people that are blowing up markets and killing women and children are not wearing US military clothes. I am not going to argue with you about this, the news is speaking for itself. The US is not the enemy of the Iraqis, the US is the enemy of those who are trying to destabilize the Iraqis enviroment.
"War does not determine who is right - only who is left."
- Bertrand Russell
"He who fears being conquered is sure of defeat." - Napoleon Bonaparte
"There is nothing so likely to produce peace as to be well prepared to meet the
enemy." - George Washington
Al-Qaeda is the enemy of Iraq obviously, which is why Al-Qaeda has been continuously been being driven out by the Iraqi people. You can post all the pictures and youtube garbage you want, but none of that changes the facts shown in the recent news. Heads of councils have been meeting with US generals and Iraqi government officials to try to work out a cease fire, because everyone who is there and living that nightmare sees that the people that are blowing up markets and killing women and children are not wearing US military clothes. I am not going to argue with you about this, the news is speaking for itself. The US is not the enemy of the Iraqis, the US is the enemy of those who are trying to destabilize the Iraqis enviroment.
you call pictures, documentaries and testimonies garbarge? and yet your propaganda lies are facts?
wake up and smell the reality you neocon terrorists!
It is becoming more and more apparent who the real perpetrator or violence in Iraq is, to everyone.
Yeah, the U.S. military. Al Qaeda is a very, very distant second.
The people in Iraq know that the US soldiers do not wish to be in their country and are only there to help stabilize.
Yep. We'll stabilize Iraq with one Iraqi body at a time.
The more these people realize that America is not the enemy, the more the real enemy will be exposed
LOL. The "real enemy" is us.
Read and comprehend!
78,000 Iraqis Have Been Killed By Coalition Airstrikes: The Secret Carnage
By SHERWOOD ROSS
June 1, 2007
CounterPunch
An estimated 78,000 Iraqis were killed by U.S. and Coalition air strikes from the start of the war through June of last year, an article in "The Nation" magazine says.
The estimate is based on the supposition that 13 percent of the 601,000 Iraqis who met violent deaths reported by The Lancet study released last October "had been killed by bomb, missile, rocket or cannon up to last June," author Nick Turse writes in the June 11th issue of the weekly magazine.
"There are indications that the air war has taken an especially grievous toll on Iraqi children," Turse said.
"Figures provided by the Lancet study suggest that 50 percent of all violent deaths of Iraqi children under 15 in that same period (March 2003 through June 2006) were due to coalition airstrikes."
Since April, 2003, Turse reports, the U.S. has dropped at least 59,787 pounds of cluster bombs in Iraq, a type of weapon Human Rights Watch(HRW) termed "the single greatest risk civilians face with regard to a current weapon that is in use."
The author notes cluster bombs have "a high failure rate" so that unexploded bomblets that fall to ground become, in fact, landmines which, Marc Garlasco of HRW points out, are "already banned by most nations."
Garlasco, the HRW senior military analyst, says, "I don't see how any use of the current U.S. cluster-bomb arsenal in proximity to civilian objects can be defended in any way as being legal or legitimate."
At a time when many nations are moving toward banning cluster munitions, the U.S. China, Israel, Pakistan and Russia are opposing new limits of any kind. At a conference in Oslo last February, 46 of 48 governments supported an international ban on cluster bombs by 2008.
The cluster bomb bursts above ground and releases hundreds of smaller "bomblets" that create a kill radius about the size of a football field, shredding virtually every object in the zone.
Aside from these deadly devices, Air Force officials acknowledge Coalition aircraft dropped at least 111,000 pounds of other types of bombs in Iraq last year as part of 10,519 "close air support missions," author Turse said.
According to Les Roberts, co-author of two surveys of mortality in Iraq published in the British medical journal The Lancet, "Rocket and cannon fire could account for most coalition-attributed civilian deaths."
The magazine quotes him further as stating, "I find it disturbing that they (Pentagon) will not release this (figure), but even more disturbing that they have not released such information to Congressmen who have requested it."
Turse's article is titled, "The Secret Air War in Iraq," and alleges "The devastation from U.S. bombing is underreported---and may be increasing."
He writes, "That an occupying power regularly conducts airstrikes in or near dense population centers should have raised serious concerns in the mainstream media, unfortunately, reports on the air war are sparse and mostly confined to regurgitations of military announcements."
"..Until reporters begin bypassing official U.S. military pronouncements and locating Iraqi sources, we will remain largely in the dark regarding the secret and deadly U.S. air war in Iraq," Turse concludes.
lol mtaffi is very funny, yes a few sunnis may be fighting al-qaeda, but ummm those same sunnis next week will be planting roadside bombs to kill a few of your marine terrorists, did you forget that part lol?
as for negotiation with shia and sunni groups, lol isnt this the same propaganda garbage we heared back in 2004, then 2005, then 2006, now 2007? wow it seems i will have kids and grandkids until this truce and treaty is complete!
lol you also seem to forget that marines in iraq are dying at a higher rate than ever, seems very strange if u ask me especially with your propaganda claims that you are now almost in truce with insurgent groups, i mean why are your marine terrorists dying in such high numbers when your army propaganda keeps claiming your so close to a truce?!
you see folks, its called propaganda and dis-information, the us goverment are trying to pit insurgent groups against others, and it is 'slightly' working but not being very effective since their marines are actually dying in quite a fast number now, as they say divide and conquer, now offcourse mtaffi the braindead neocon will come say haaaaaaaaaaaaaa look at these ppl always saying everythings propaganda! hey i say let the ground facts speak for themselves, not your rubbish media which always contradicts ground events, marines are dying at a higher pace than ever, insurgent groups which are supposedly in talks with US are comming out saying ummmm no were not and were still fighting them!
now offcourse mtaffi will probaly reply by saying heyyyyyyyyy sunnis in baghdad are fighting al-qaeda so you are wrong! ummmmmm one neighborhood doesnt really count as a large scale sunni insurgency fighting al-qaeda, as usual they like to blow everything out of proportion lol, one neighborhood now means all sunnis in iraq love th us and have sided with them!
so mtaffi you can only dream of this, but fact is, sunnis in iraq and the majority of sunni groups nor shia groups will EVER unite and side with US, and thats a fact and groun facts says it all. keep dreaming.
you see folks, its called propaganda and dis-information,
You must have inside information if you know everything said that does not support your stance is propaganda and dis-information, but you got all the facts.
Amazing!
The U.S. doesn't care whether anybody "loves" them, the important element here is that Al-Qaeda is finding it harder to pressure the civilian population to hide them. As for "marines" dying at a higher rate "than ever", it has been a bad month for IED devices, but May was actually the third highest casualty rate among U.S. military servicemen and women since the war started. The Iranians are bringing in more sophisticated anti-armor bomb devices, that is for sure.
"Imagination was given to man to compensate him for what he is not, and a sense of humor was provided to console him for what he is."
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calm down general
:zip:
keep dreaming.
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