Daily Iraq War News - End the War in Iraq

Two years ago, SPLC's Intelligence Report revealed that alarming numbers of neo-Nazi skinheads and other white supremacist extremists were taking advantage of lowered armed services recruiting standards and lax enforcement of anti-extremist military regulations by infiltrating the U.S. armed forces in order to receive combat training and gain access to weapons and explosives. Forty members of Congress urged then-Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld to launch a full-scale investigation and implement a zero-tolerance policy toward white supremacists in the military, btu neither Rumsfeld nor his successor, Robert Gates, enacted any sort of systemic investigation or crackdown.

New evidence is now emerging that indicates the problem may have worsened since the summer of 2006, as enlistment rates continued to plummet, and the military accepted an ever-lower quality of soldier in a time of unpopular war. a new FBI report (PDF) confirms that white supremacist leaders are making a concerted effort to recruit active-duty soldiers and recent combat veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. According to the unclassified FBI Intelligence Assessment, "White Supremacist Recruitment of Military Personnel Since 9/11," which was released to law enforcement agencies nationwide: "Sensitive and reliable source reporting indicates supremacist leaders are encouraging followers who lack documented histories of neo-Nazi activity and overt racist insignia such as tattoos to infiltrate the military as 'ghost skins,' in order to recruit and receive training for the benefit of the extremist movement." Additional information on this subject can be found in an Alternet article.

Violence was relatively low on Friday throughout Iraq. A car bomb has exploded in Baghdad's al-Jidida neighbourhood killing three Iraqis and wounding seven others. Policemen killed a would-be suicide bomber who tried to enter a mosque during Friday Prayer in Tal Afar. U.S. forces arrested eight militants in different areas of Iraq, including a wanted man hiding out in the Hamrin Mountains, eastern Iraq, on Thursday and Friday, the U.S. military said. The military said in a statement released Friday that a soldier died in a non-combat accident the day before in Ninevah province while conducting an operation. The death brings to 23 the number of U.S. soldiers who have died in Iraq this month.

Iraqi children are getting ready to commence school again after a hot, and dangerous, summer. In addition to learning, schools provide a safe environment for children to play with one another and practice sports. Iraq's parents have worried through five years of war. And though life here is nowhere near as dangerous as it was in 2006 and 2007 — the daily body count sometimes topped a hundred then, and now entire days pass without the discovery of a single corpse — they still worry. "We cannot keep them just as before and just forget about them," said Jassim Mohammed, Tiba's father. Tiba has a 17-year-old sister, Nativa, and an 11-year-old brother, Hassan. "They have to be under our eyes now." Ghaith, the 15-year-old in Karrada, a mixed Sunni-Shiite district in central Baghdad adjacent to the Green Zone, hasn't left his neighborhood in months. His summer is turning out to be pretty crummy. "If he wants to play football, he can play until all hours in front of the house, but nowhere else," said Ghaith's mother, Eman. posted 29 August, 2008

Top official arrested; 2 U.S. soldiers dead; Turnover of Anbar

American forces arrested a top Iraqi Shiite government official as he stepped off a plane at Baghdad's airport, a political ally said Thursday. The U.S. claims the man arrested was a leader of Iranian-backed militias and was behind a bombing that killed 10 people, including four Americans. The arrest of Ali al-Lami could bring serious pressure on the U.S.-backed government from Sunni groups and others worried about Iranian and Shiite militia influence in the top ranks of the Iraqi leadership. Al-Lami heads a committee that is in charge of keeping senior Saddam Hussein loyalists out of government positions. He was returning to Iraq from Lebanon where he sought medical treatment when he was detained, said Qaiser Watout, a member of al-Lami's committee. "We condemn this act," Watout said. "Al-Lami was a moderate official and we are surprised by his arrest."

Iraqi soldiers confiscated illegal munitions in a village in Yusufiya, 12 miles south of Baghdad on Thursday. Hundreds of munitions and assorted weapons were recovered during a weapons search operation. In Kirkuk eight Iraqis were killed or wounded in an explosive charge attack that targeted a popular market. A mortar shell landed on a residential compound in the al-Baladiyat district of eastern Baghdad, wounding two civilians. A roadside bomb struck a police patrol in eastern Baghdad, wounding five people including three policemen. Gunmen killed an army colonel and his wife in a drive-by shooting in the al-Adil district in western Baghdad. A roadside bomb killed a shepherd in southeastern Baquba. A roadside bomb killed a civilian and wounded another seven in the Ras Dumeez in southern Kirkuk. Gunmen shot dead an off-duty policeman in front of his house in al-Mishahda neighbourhood of western Mosul.

A U.S. soldier has died of wounds sustained in a small arms attack in northern Baghdad, the US military in Iraq said on Thursday. Another soldier died from an roaside bomb while on patrol in eastern Baghdad. The latest death brings to at least 4,150 the number of US soldiers killed in Iraq since the 2003 invasion.

The US military will hand over security control of Anbar province, after a long delayed transfer. "September 1 is the official date for the transfer of the security file of Anbar from US forces to the Iraqi military command," Tareq al-Dulaimi said. Anbar will be the 11th of Iraq's 18 provinces to be handed over by the US-led coalition.

China and Iraq have signed a $3 billion deal revising an earlier agreement for China's biggest oil company to help develop the Ahdab oil field, according to a statement from the Iraqi Embassy in Beijing. The revised terms of the deal increase the anticipated output from the billion-barrel field to 110,000 barrels per day from the originally planned 90,000 barrels per day, the statement said. The contract is to run for 20 years after production begins three years from now. posted 28 August, 2008

Militia groups to lose funding; US soldier killed; Vets demonstrate in Denver

A key pillar of the U.S. strategy to pacify Iraq is in danger of collapsing because the Iraqi government is failing to absorb tens of thousands of former Sunni Muslim insurgents who had joined U.S.-allied militia groups into the country’s security forces. American officials have credited the militias, known as the Sons of Iraq or Awakening councils, with undercutting support for al-Qaida in Iraq and bringing peace to large swaths of the country, including Anbar province and parts of Baghdad. Under the program, the U.S. will paid each militia member a stipend of about $300 a month.

An American soldier has died of wounds received in a bomb attack in Baghdad, the US military in Iraq said on Wednesday. The soldier was wounded after the vehicle he was travelling in was hit by a roadside bomb in the northeast of the capital on Tuesday.

In Baghdad on Wednesday, a bomb in a parked car killed one person and wounded seven others when it exploded in the New Baghdad district. A second explosion caused by a roadside bomb in eastern Baghdad killed a civilian and wounded seven other people near the national theatre in al-Karradaa district. A third blast struck a police patrol, leaving three police and three civilians wounded.

In Diyala province, one bomber was shot dead and another detonated his explosives as the troops approached, killing himself but causing no other casualties. In Mosul, gunmen killed one person in a shop in the al-Nur area. A suicide car bomber wounded 22 people in Tal Afar. Iraqi police found the body of a woman in the town of Numaniya. Three suspected militants died and six more were detained in U.S. operations in Diyala province northeast of Baghdad, a U.S. military statement said.

In Denver, host of the Democratic national convention, Iraq War vets, dressed in full camo gear, staged demonstrations of the day outside the Colorado Convention Center, enacting what they said are everyday street scenes in the Middle East. The group, representing Iraq Veterans Against the War, staged a series of simulated car stops, detainments, reaction to sniper fire and secure movement through an urban area - all in a plea to end the war. Police in riot gear arrested at least 50 protesters on Monday. posted 27 August, 2008