End the War in Iraq - Older News

Water problems remain: 115+ Tuesday casualties; Jordan waives tuition for Iraqis

Baghdad’s nearly six million people have access to half their needs of drinking water, said Sadeq al-Shammari head of Baghdad’s Water Authority. Shammari said practically more than three million people in Baghdad have no access to running water at their homes. “They (the government) have the resources but they are slow in investing them,” said a UNICEF official. Shammari described the shortage as critical, saying that conditions of Baghdad’s sewage system and heavy water treatment plants were even worse. “A few-minute interruption in power supply causes at least a three-hour interruption in drinking water,” said Shammari. Public amenities like water facilities, sewage systems and hospitals are not supposed to be covered by outages which may continue for up to 20 hours in Baghdad.

A suicide bomber thwarted a security check at a police recruiting center in Jalwala 90 miles north of Baghdad on Tuesday and blew himself up, killing at least 27 recruits and wounding 45. Police and defence ministry officials said the bomber had arrived at the building by car and was stopped by police to be checked. But he then leapt from the vehicle and ran into the crowd where he detonated his bomb.

In violence elsewhere on Tuesday, five people died when a roadside bomb hit a civilian van near the town of Mandali. A car bomb went off next to the central health department in Tikrit. Four officers were among the 13 wounded. In Baghdad, a roadside bomb targeted a Sahwa patrol, the U.S. backed militia, in al-Mowasalat neighbourhood injuring two members. A roadside bomb targeted a police patrol in Ghadeer neighbourhood at noon injuring two policemen and two civilians. Iraq’s Defense Ministry announced that Iraqi Army killed six suspects thought to be extremists and arrested 48 others in operations carried out in separate areas of Iraq during the last 24 hours.

The Jordanian Ministry of Education said Iraqi students will not have to pay for public education for this coming school year. "All principals have been instructed not to seek fees from Iraqi pupils, even for textbooks," said Jordanian General Education Director Mohammad Okour. Okour said the decision came from Amman, adding Iraqi students also will receive meals funded through the state nutrition program, The Jordan Times said Monday. "Iraqi students are afforded the full rights and benefits as Jordanian students," said Okour.

With the encouragement of the UNHCR and its partners, many Iraqi children have been leaving costly private institutions and joining public schools – like the one in Amman's Marka district that Laila attends. UNHCR believes it is essential that all refugees continue to receive an education, which was not possible for the neediest before the king's decree. "One of the most crucial challenges that we face is that we do not lose the literacy and futures of a generation of Iraqi children due to displacement," said said Imran Riza, UNHCR's representative to Jordan. posted 26 August, 2008

Kidnap suspect caught; Monday voilence; U.S. soldier killed; Electricity improving

U.S.-led forces claim to have captured a man behind the 2006 kidnapping of U.S. journalist Jill Carroll and members of the Christian Peacemaker Teams. The suspec Ashur al-Shujayri, also known as Abu Uthman, is accused of masterminding and hiring kidnappers in 2005 and 2006 and also of overseeing car or suicide bombings targeting Iraqis with the intent of inciting sectarian violence. However, the circumstances of the kidnappings have led others to consider that they may have been orchestrated from outside Iraq. In both cases, the captures were freed unharmed, with the except of Tom Fox with CPT, and there were no hostage takers found during the "rescues". A considerable amount of money was also paid.

In Monday violence, a bomb attached to a car wounded a man, his wife and his daughter in the Jamiaa distict in western Baghdad. A roadside bomb killed two bystanders in the town of Shirqat. Gunmen killed a man working as a guard for the dean of Mosul University in a drive-by shooting in eastern Mosul. The US military said an American soldier died Monday from wounds sustained when his foot patrol came under small arms fire in northern Baghdad.

A roadside bomb was planted near the house of Basim Mohammed, a Lieutenant-Colonel of the government facilities guard force, killing his daughter and wounding two sons on Sunday in Mussayab. One body was found with gunshot wounds on Sunday in Baghdad. Iraqi police said they caught a teenage girl with a suicide vest on Sunday in Baqouba. The girl's mother and sister were arrested.

More than 100 workers from Iraq's Ministry of Industry and Minerals took to the streets of Baghdad on Monday to demand higher wages and additional benefits from the government.

Iraq is now producing as much power as it did on the eve of the US-led invasion of 2003 but is still meeting barely 50 percent of peak demand as occupation facilities are still siphoning much of the electrical supply, particularly in Baghdad. Current production stands at 5,302 megawatts, virtually the same as the 2002 level of 5,305 MW, said control chief Adel Mahdi. Companies from China, Germany, Iran and South Korea and the United States are working on new plant deals, however Iraq says that it also needs technicians and engineers to help with construction and infrastructure development. posted 25 August, 2008

Cleric killed in Basra; 105+ more casualties; Govt. to disarm Suni militias

Gunmen in Iraq killed a Shiite cleric and an outspoken critic of sectarian militias in an ambush on a van carrying his wife, mother and sister, police said Sunday. The cleric, Haider al-Saymari, was killed Saturday in the southern Iraqi city of Basra. His relatives were not harmed.

There were more than 105 casualties in Iraq late Saturday and Sunday as the violence of occupation and war continued. A suicide bomber blew himself up at a car dealership in the northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk late Saturday, killing at least five people and wounding nine. The attack targeted a leader of a group fighting insurgents in the town of Khalis in the central province of Diyala.

A suicide bomber blew himself up Sunday in the midst of a celebration to welcome home an Iraqi detainee released from U.S. custody, killing at least 25 people and wounding at least 29 more. The bomb detonated inside one of several tents set up outside a house in the Abu Ghraib area on Baghdad's western outskirts

Elsewhere, four Iraqi soldiers were killed and eight others were wounded when a roadside bomb blasted their patrol in the town of Bala Druz. In Baquba, two policemen were killed and six others including a woman were wounded in a shootout when insurgents fired at a police patrol. Gunmen wounded two people in a drive-by shooting in southern Hilla. At least three people were killed and eight wounded, including five policemen, when a bomb targeting a patrol exploded on a through-road leading to Iraq's interior ministry in Baghdad. A roadside bomb wounded two people in the al-Dora district, in southern Baghdad. The bodies of two men bearing gunshot wounds were recovered from the Tigris river in Suwayra.

Iraq’s government is grateful to U.S.-allied Sunni fighters but won’t allow them to keep their weapons indefinitely, the prime minister said Saturday, hinting at a more intense crackdown on the Sunni groups. In recent weeks, the Shiite-dominated government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has gone after Sunni fighters despite their alliances with the Americans. Some leaders have been arrested, while scores of others have been disarmed and banned from manning checkpoints except alongside security forces. The groups, known as Awakening Councils, Sons of Iraq and Popular Committees, have helped rout insurgents in some parts of Iraq. But Shiite leaders fear the Sunnis’ switch of allegiance is just a tactic, and that they could one day turn their weapons against the Shiite majority. posted 24 August, 2008

Iraqi officials affirmed on Friday that, although a draft security deal contains no firm schedule for a U.S. withdrawal, they want the agreement to require U.S. forces to move off of most Iraqi streets by the middle of 2009 and combat troops to go home by the end of 2011. Government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh said, "The Iraqi government wants this agreement to be valid just for three years."

Other Iraqis questioned the deal saying their main desire was to restore Iraq's sovereignty, something they said could not happen as long as U.S. forces remained on the ground. "We want to rebuild our army, police, society. We want to help our country," said a man. "They came to us as liberators, and now they are occupiers. This is ridiculous. It's been five years." "The government that came with this occupation does not represent us," said one woman, adding that her father was detained by U.S. forces for a year before being released without charge. "We don't want any financial agreement, any political agreement, any security agreement with them. We don't want anything to do with them."

Violence continued on Saturday. In Baquoba, one person was killed and two wounded in separate bombings. Militants also kidnapped eight men in a raid on their town just south of that city. Gunmen killed four members of a U.S.-backed neighbourhood patrol in a drive-by shooting at their checkpoint just south of Baiji. U.S. forces detained 13 suspected militants while targeting al Qaeda in different parts of Iraq on Friday and Saturday, the U.S. military said.

A U.S. citizen soldier who fled to Canada rather than fight in Iraq has been sentenced to 15 months in prison after pleading guilty in Fort Carson, Colo., to a reduced charge of desertion. Pvt. Robin Long told a military judge at his sentencing Friday that he left the country over moral objections to what he called an illegal war. Prosecutors say the 25-year-old from Boise, abandoned his duty and his country. Unlike non-military citizens and other public employees, those serving in the military can be compelled to remain in their job, under threat of imprisonment or even death

Two Camp Pendleton Marines refused to testify yesterday in the trial of their former squad leader, who is accused of the murder of four captives in Fallujah. The two Marines had been put behind bars a few months earlier for not testifying before a grand jury, and the federal judge in the trial found them to be in criminal contempt yesterday. posted 23 August, 2008

Sadr City raid; Protests, violence on Friday; Military denies private guard killed civilian

Iraqi troops raided the Sadr City on Friday, killing one a guard of Muqtada al-Sadr and arresting another, his supporters said. Spokesman for al-Sadr's office, Ali al-Moussawi, said troops entered Baghdad's Sadr City as worshippers headed to dawn prayers at a mosque. The soldiers opened fire on a guard and one of al-Sadr's offices when he tried to escape arrest. Al-Moussawi said the guard was wounded and died near his home. Another guard was arrested.

Thousands of Iraqis participated in large demonstrations later in the day in Baghdad, Najaf, Kufa and elsewhere over a proposed plan to extend the U.S. occupation of Iraq past the Dec. 31 U.N. mandate deadline. However, "The (security agreement) draft itself is not finalized," said Hadi al-Ameri, lawmaker and a top Shiite leader from the powerful Supreme Iraqi Islamic Council (SIIC) on Friday.

At least four people were killed and fifteen Iraqis were injured througout the country. In the one incident, three civilians were killed when a helicopter opened fire on their car south-west of Kirkuk. In another incident, an Iraqi soldier was killed and eight soldiers were wounded when a bomb struck their patrol in the south of the city of Baqouba. In Samarra, a member of a U.S.-backed neighbourhood patrol wounded fellow guards when he opened fire on them. U.S. forces detained 16 "militants" on Thursday and Friday in operations targeting al Qaeda in central and northern Iraq, the U.S. military said in a statement. One mortar bomb also landed in the heavily fortified Green Zone in central Baghdad.

The US military on Friday denied that an Iraqi had been shot dead a day ago in Baghdad by private guards working for a foreign security company. On Thursday, Iraqi security officials from the Interior and Defense ministries said one civilian had been killed and another wounded when guards opened fire in a crowded street in Baghdad's Bab al-Sharji neighbourhood. posted 22 August, 2008

The U.S. military freed a Reuters television cameraman on Thursday after holding him for three weeks in Iraq without charges. Ali al-Mashhadani, who also works freelance for the BBC and Washington-based National Public Radio, was detained in Baghdad on July 30 while he was in the Green Zone government compound. U.S. forces have detained Mashhadani twice before, at one point holding him for five months, but no charge has ever been filed against the cameraman.

U.S. Secretary of State Condolezza Rice, while on a visit to Baghdad's Green Zone today, said that the United States and Iraq are close to a deal extending the presence of U.S. troops beyond 2008. "We are very close, we have a text, but not the final agreement. Everything has been addressed," Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari told reporters after meeting with US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice in Baghdad. The need for an agreement is dictated by the expiration at the end of this year of the United Nations mandate under which American troops operate in Iraq. Many Iraqi politicians have bristled at the idea of a continuing defense pact with the United States. Thousands of American combat troops will pull out of Iraq next year and all frontline forces will be gone by 2011, under the terms of a draft accord.

In Thursday violence, One policeman was killed and another was wounded in gun battles with gunmen Mosul. Also in Mosul, police found three bodies since yesterday in various parts of the city. U.S. forces detained 15 suspected "militants" during operations in different parts of Baghdad.

In an effort to asset Iraqi independence, the Ministry of Planning and Development Cooperation announced on Thursday the suspension of all future dealings with 31 Iraq, Arab and foreign companies, citing their failure to fulfill their contractual obligations with the ministry and other state departments. The projects concern the Iraqi ministries of industry, minerals, electricity, youth and sports, health, agriculture, communications, trade, oil, and the Municipality of Baghdad, according to the same statement. The concerned companies are from the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Egypt, Jordan, Germany, Turkey, Italy, Indonesia, Iran, France, Ukraine, the United States, Russia, and Britain. posted 21 August, 2008

NY pays antiwar protestors; Poland approves payments for Iraqis; Lebanon PM visits

New York City is paying more than $2 million to settle a lawsuit over mass arrests during a 2003 protest against the U.S. invasion of Iraq. Police rounded up 52 persons and charged them with blocking pedestrians. After two were tried and acquitted, charges against the rest were dropped. But those arrested sued the city and police alleging their right to free speech had been abused. "I could not believe in my country, in my city, I could get arrested for doing absolutely nothing and standing on the sidewalk," Ahmad Shirazi, 70, said.

Poland’s government has officially approved the plan of assistance, including asylum or a $40,000 payment to any Iraqi working for its military or police in Iraq. The plan covers Iraqi translators and other workers who will be able to choose between the right to live in Poland with government assistance or have $40,000 per person if they decide to stay in Iraq or settle in a third country. There are currently about a hundred interpreters working for the Polish contingent in Iraq. Poland is withdrawing its troops from Iraq this October.

The streets of Baqouba were relatively silent today as residents were afraid to leave their homes while military patrols searched through neighborhoods.

In Baghdad, two people were killed and four others wounded by a roadside bomb. Gunmen in a car killed a government employee in a drive-by shooting in southern Kirkuk. Police found two bodies, including a woman, bearing signs of torture and bullet wounds south of Hilla. Turkish troops fired a salvo of shells at Kurdish rebel positions in northern Iraq early on Wednesday, but it was unclear if there were any casualties. Mortars fell on a pair of television stations in Mosul on Tuesday, but no casualties were reported.

Iraqi refugees living in Cairo told Az-Zaman news that the free repatriation trips to Baghdad upon the request of Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki is more of a political promotion for the government, and that those who returned in two flights did so because they had run out of savings and could not find work in Egypt. Some 100,000 Iraqi refugees prefer to stay in Cairo for the time being.

Lebanon's prime minister, Fouad Siniora, and a delegation paid a visit to Iraq on Wednesday - the first such visit by a Lebanese leader in the post-Saddam Hussein era - and he and PM Nuri al-Maliki, discussed issues including oil exports and investment.

Iraq became teh 179th country to sign the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty. However for the treaty to go into effect it must be signed and ratified by 44 states that participated in a 1996 disarmament conference and had nuclear power or research reactors at the time. Holdouts include the United States, Iran, India and North Korea. posted 20 August, 2008

U.S. soldier killed; Americans hawk arms to Iraqis; Officials arrested in Baquoba;

Another U.S. soldier was killed Tuesday in an rocket attack on a U.S. occupation position near the city of Amarah. At least 4,144 members of the U.S. military have died in the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq began in March 2003.

In other violence, gunmen opened fire on a police checkpoint in Baghdad, killing a policeman and wounding three on a highway. A parked car bomb wounded five people including three members of a Kurdish security force when it targeted their patrol just north of Mosul. The Iraqi army arrested 48 suspected militants during operations in the last 24 hours in different parts of Iraq, the Defence Ministry said in a statement. A bomb in Muqdadiyah killed one person and wounded four more members of the same family. A car bomb wounded four people in Talkeef.

Iraq is fast becoming one of the U.S.'s top customers for military sales. Since January 2007, Iraq has spent $3.1 billion on U.S. weapons. In the past two months alone, the Pentagon has alerted Congress of a possible $8.7 billion in additional military sales to Iraq, for everything from lightweight attack helicopters to armored ambulances to binoculars. Once again, the U.S. is arms merchant to the word - and future conflict.

Iraqi troops raided local government offices in Baqouba on Tuesday, arresting a Sunni provincial council member and a university president who was led away hooded and handcuffed. The Sunni head of the provincial council's security committee, Hussein al-Zubaidi, was arrested, police said. The Sunni president of Diyala University, Nazar al-Khafaji, was taken from his home handcuffed, his head covered by a hood. The provincial council suspended cooperation with the federal government in protest. posted 19 August, 2008

Election officials targeted; Baghdad violence; $400bn needed for reconstruction.

Masked gunmen ambushed a bus carrying electoral officials in southern Iraq on Monday, killing two and seriously wounding a third. The attackers opened fire from a passing car in the Abu al-Khasib area south of Basra, killing two top members of a local committee who were preparing for provincial elections.

Also Monday, mourners in Baghdad's Azamiyah district held a funeral for Farooq al-Obeidi, deputy head of a group of U.S.-allied Sunni fighters who was killed by a suicide bomber on Sunday. In Baghdad on Monday, three police officers and a civilian were wounded in roadside bomb that exploded in the Karrada district. Another bomb wounded five people, including three policemen, in the al-Mansour district. A third bomb wounded nine people, including three policemen, when it exploded near a U.S. military patrol in the Yarmouk district. Gunmen killed a Shi'ite cleric and wounded his wife when they opened fire on the couple's car in Zaafaraniya district.

Elsewhere in Iraq, a roadside bomb wounded three prison guards in eastern Mosul. Gunmen killed a religious leader outside a mosque in central Mosul on Sunday. A suicide car bomber killed five policemen and wounded seven in an attack on a police checkpoint in Ramadi.

Meanwhile, U.S. and Iraqi forces continued combat and training exercises around the capital. Iraqi forces killed three militants and arrested 33 others during last the 24 hours. U.S. forces detained 11 militants on Sunday and Monday during operations targeting "al Qaeda" in central and northern Iraq, the U.S. military said.

Iraq needs around $400 billion over the next few years to rebuild its shattered infrastructure, the country's Finance Minister Bayan Jabor said Monday. Iraq's infrastructure was ravaged by decades of sanctions and wars and the costs of reconstruction have risen significantly as the U.S. occupation continued after the initial 2003 invasion. Reconstruction has been hampered by continued fighting many projects were halted as funds were diverted away from rebuilding into increased security. Despite increased national income from oil, Jabor said most of the budget is being used to pay salaries for 4 million retired and still-in-service civil servants. Some $6 billion will be spent on food stuffs purchases to cover the food ration system the government is implementing. posted 18 August, 2008

Turkey bombs north; Kerbala festival ends without incident; Unbearable IDP conditions

Turkish fighter planes hit northern Iraq late Saturday. No details of casualties from the cross-border air attack were available, but Turkey was aimed at a group of PKK guerrillas hiding in a cave. Iraqis complain of an ethnic cleansing campaign along the borders of Turkey and Iran, carried out by those countries with permission by U.S. authorities. The Turkish government has a one-year parliamentary authorization for cross-border military action against the PKK, which expires in October. The United States has backed its NATO ally by providing real-time intelligence on PKK movements in Iraq.

Home invasions and searches by the U.S. and Iraqi military continued in the Baqouba area on Sunday. In Arbil, one person was killed and four others were wounded during a protest march complaining over a lack of services in their Khlifan district. In Mosul, one policeman was killed and another was injured in a small arms attack. A roadside bomb wounded three women in Wajihiya.

In Baghdad, at least 15 people were killed and another 30 injured in a bomb attack near a crowded outdoor market in Adhamiya. Women and children were among the dead, in the bombing that seemed to target a security checkpoint. The commander at the checkpoint and four of his men were among the dead.

More than three million Shiites began to return home after marking an annual pilgrimage to Kerbala amid tight security. Several bomb attacks on pilgrims heading to the rite killed more than 30 people in recent days, but the ritual itself in Kerbala was peaceful, authorities said. Last year Shi'ite militia and police clashed during the pilgrimage, leading to major gunbattles in Kerbala's streets. The pilgrimage marks one of the holiest days in Shi'ite Islam, the birth of Imam Mohammed al-Mehdi. Shiite worshippers from across the Muslim world had converged on Karbala over the past week to celebrate Shabaniyah, the birth anniversary of the eighth century Imam Mahdi, who vanished as a boy and whom Shiites believe will return one day as the messiah.

While the rate of people fleeing their homes in Iraq has decreased during the first half of 2008, daily life for the thousands of internally displaced persons (IDPs) living in tent camps remains grim, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) said in its latest assessment. "Tent camp residents have little or no access to basic services, cannot protect themselves against the elements or extreme weather, and are located far away from medical care, education and other services," the IOM statement said. "These harsh conditions, combined with a cultural aversion to living without familial privacy and personal dignity, make tent camps a last resort for Iraqi IDPs."

"Tent camp residents have little or no access to basic services, cannot protect themselves against the elements or extreme weather, and are located far away from medical care, education and other services," the IOM statement said. "These harsh conditions, combined with a cultural aversion to living without familial privacy and personal dignity, make tent camps a last resort for Iraqi IDPs." The miserable conditions in Iraq’s largest IDP camp, al-Manathira, south of Najaf and home to 231 families (about 1,400 individuals) was described. It said "families who were evicted from public buildings live in cramped tents and caravans with limited sanitation and drinking water”. "Our daily life is miserable," al-Khafaji, a father-of-two, told IRIN. "We have only two generators for the whole camp and sometimes we have to wait for days or weeks to get them repaired when they break down." In Qalawa camp in the northern province of Sulaymaniyah, IOM said that a group of IDPs who had settled on a piece of open land two years ago still do not have sanitation, electricity or toilets. They "live surrounded by garbage", the report said. "As a result, cases of typhoid have recently been reported.” posted 17 August, 2008

Hundreds of thousands of pilgrims poured into Iraq's holy city of Kerbala on Saturday, defying bomb attacks across the country to attend a rite that has become an annual show of strength for the Shi'ite majority. Many of the pilgrims have walked for days in temperatures of up to 122 degrees to mark the birth of Imam Mohammed al-Mehdi.

Security checkpoints were evident everywhere and cell phones were banned because they could be used to trigger bombs. However, violence continued to mar the festivities on Saturday.

A car bomb in Baghdad's Shaab district killed six and wounded 10 others when it exploded next to minivans going to Kerbala.

Iraqi forces killed three suspected insurgents, captured one other, and confiscated several mortar bombs in the Salam district of the southeastern Maysan province. Police arrested 12 people suspected of involvement in an attack this week on pilgrims in Iskandariya.

Iraq's Kurdish autonomous region has agreed to withdraw its 4,000 Peshmerga troops from Diyala province during the next 10 days and hand over security in the area to forces of the central government, said Jaffar Mustafa, Kurdistan's Peshmerga minister. The Pershmerga, who evolved from guerrilla cadres fighting against Saddam Hussein into the official security force of the Kurdish autonomous region, have been patrolling ethnically Kurdish parts of Diyala for more than a year. Defence Ministry spokesman Mohammed al-Askari confirmed the Peshmerga would be integrated into a Defence Ministry division and based in Kurdistan from August 25. posted 16 August, 2008

Sadr calls for "blood" pact; 2 US casualties; Kerbala security; Talabani recovering in U.S.

Angry that the Iraqi government and the U.S. are negotiating an agreement to allow the occupation to continue though 2010, Moqtada al-Sadr on Friday called on his followers to "sign with their blood" a pledge to resist occupying forces. "My only enemies are the occupiers, the infidels, the "nawasseb" (radical anti-Shiite Sunnis), colonisers and invaders. I am not negotiating with them over the signing of a truce and will not sit at the same table as them as long as I live," al-Sadr said in a statement.

Sadr, who U.S. forces believe is in Iran, announced in June that he would replace the 60,000-strong Mahdi Army with a leaner and meaner fighting force to target the US-led occupation. A ceasefire between Sadr and the US-led coalition forces drawn up a year ago has been a key factor in violence levels dropping to four-year lows. Shi'ias, who originally supported the invasion and deposition of Saddam Hussein, have grown increasingly frustrated with the war crimes committed by occupation forces.

In Baghdad's Sadr City, angry protestors on Friday chanted anti-US slogans as they demonstrated against the ongoing occupation of Iraq. Also in Baghdad on Friday, a roadside bomb wounded six people, including three Iraqi soldiers conducting a foot patrol, in the Mansour district of western Baghdad. One pilgrim was killed and ten others were wounded when a roadside bomb struck a minibus near the New Baghdad district. Two people were wounded when a mortar bomb landed in the Zaafaraniya district. In Balad, passenger van packed with explosives exploded at a bus station, killing four and wounding 48.

Iraqi police killed 12 militants, including two foreign fighters, in raids on Thursday near Tikrit. A parked car bomb killed one Iraqi soldier when it exploded on Thursday in northern Mosul. One U.S. marine was killed by small arms-fire on Thursday just east of Fallujah. Another U.S. soldier died by non-combat reasons. Thursday's attack raises to at least 4,143 members of the U.S. military who have died in the Iraq war since it began in March 2003.

Iraqi officials threw a massive security cordon around the city of Kerbala on Friday as tens of thousands of Shiites head on foot to Karbala to venerate Imam Mahdi. More than 40,000 soldiers and police have been mobilized, including 2,000 female security workers, to boost security in response to twin suicide bombings that killed 26 people in that city on Thursday. Iraqi aircraft could be seen overhead and US helicopters monitored the area around the holy city, including the desert west of Karbala from which Sunni insurgents tend to launch mortar and rockets attacks.

Iraqi President Jalal Talabani remains in the U.S. where he is recovering from heart surgery. Talabani, 74, has not been seen in public since travelling to the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota on Aug. 2. Talibani left the hospital on Thursday and will return to Iraq after completing a recovery period. posted 15 August, 2008

A rash of bomb attacks and other violence in Iraq on Thursday, created at least 150 new casualties.

At least 26 people were killed and 75 were wounded in a double attack among a crowd of pilgrims heading to Kerbala. The bombers detonated their explosives-packed vests 50 yards apart and at a five-minute interval in Iskandiriyah.

In Baghdad, an attack on Shiite pilgrims was killed one person and and seven others wounded by a roadside bomb in Tahariyat square in the Karrada district. Another explosion killed a policeman and nine people near a checkpoint in the Zafraniya district of southern Baghdad. A bomb near the Ghadeer Bridge blasted a U.S. patrol. A roadside bomb killed one person in western Baghdad's district of Mansour and two bodies were found with gunshot wounds in Baghdad on Wednesday.

In Baqouba, a car bomb targeting a police patrol killed two policemen and injured six others. Also near Baquba, a bomb hidden in a field killed a 10-year-old girl. A roadside bomb killed two policemen and wounded six others when it struck their patrol in the town of Buhriz. Another bomb killed one policeman and wounded five people, including two policemen, in Salman Pak. A bomb also wounded five employees of Baiji oil refinery. The body of a murdered policeman was found in southern Kirkuk.

Gunmen killed a father and wounded his son when they stormed their house in eastern Mosul. A vactioning Iraqi soldier was shot dead and his companion was injured in the Seha neighborhood in western Mosul.

U.S. forces killed one militant and detaining five suspects, the U.S. military said. posted 14 August, 2008

Refugees threaten regional stability; US soldier killed; Contractors to cost US $100 B

The Iraqi and US governments should do more to address Iraq's displacement crisis which has affected over four million people and threatens regional stability, a group of Iraqi and international non-governmental organizations (NGOs) says. "We endorse a bolder approach to helping vulnerable Iraqis, especially ones who are displaced. Current US efforts to help Iraqis are a good start, but they don't go far enough," says a statement by scores of NGOs inside and outside Iraq. The statement said many Iraqi refugees in neighbouring countries were struggling to survive as their savings were limited and they did not have the legal right to work; many lived in fear of being forcibly returned to Iraq, and face possible death threats and persecution. "Iraq is still a country of conflicts and therefore the most dangerous place in the world," says Basil al-Azawi, head of the Baghdad-based Commission for Civil Society Enterprises, an umbrella group for more than 1,000 NGOs.

The group praised the US government's efforts in resettling around 10,000 Iraqi refugees (and the planned resettlement of another 12,000 refugees in 2008), but it said: "The needs are much greater. We ask the US to reconsider resettling 105,500 refugees from Iraq and, if necessary, to reassess this number for the next few years." Also, "there is clear negligence by the Iraqi government, other governments and international bodies via-a-vis the needs of the internally displaced persons [IDPs] and refugees in neighboring countries who are forgotten," says al-Azawi.

In Wednesday violence, two Iraqis were killed, including a soldier, and 16 injured when a suicide bomber rammed a car into a military patrol in the city of Mosul. A suicide truck bomber targeted Abdul-Karim Ali Nsaif, the mayor of Multaqa while another car bomb struck a local market in Qaiyara south of the northern city of Mosul, killing at least two people and wounding six others. In Khan Bani Saad, a roadside bomb killed one woman and wounded two others. In Zanjili, two Iraqis were wounded during an bombing there. Two Iraqi soldiers were wounded during a bombing in central Mosul.

Twenty-two suspects were detained in al-Seba, al-Fidaghiya, al-Bahar, Rashidiya and Baqouba, according to military sources. The speaker of the Iraqi parliament, Mahmud Mashhadani, was taken to neighboring Jordan for treatment on Tuesday after suffering heart problems, his spokesman Jabbar Mashhadani said.

A U.S. soldier and an Iraqi interpreter were killed when the vehicle they were riding in was struck by an IED in Baghdad. A U.S. base in the Kadhimiya district of Baghdad came under mortar attack, but no casualties were reported.

The US government spent $85 billion between 2003 and 2007 on contractors for services in support of the Iraq war and reconstruction, and by the end of 2008, spending is likely to top $100bn, a review by the Congressional Budget Office found.

According to CBO estimates, the US currently employs 190,000 contractors in Iraq and neighbouring countries, a ratio of one contractor per member of the US armed forces. About 20% are American, 40% are citizens from the country where they are employed; and the rest are foreign workers. They provide services ranging from security, logistics support, construction, petroleum products and food.

The scale of the private contract business and the sums involved have prompted calls for greater scrutiny. "I believe we need to create a special committee in the US Senate to exercise oversight over contracting abuses related to reconstruction and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan," said Senator Byron Dorgan recently. He wants a panel similar to investigate waste, fraud and abuse similar to one set up by Senator Harry Truman in 1941 during the build-up to WWII

In related news, the Pentagon this week is scheduled to deliver an update to Congress on major changes to its $1.7 trillion portfolio of big-ticket weapons system acquisitions, a report that details significant changes to at least half a dozen programs, including one major termination previously announced and a pair of significant schedule slips. posted 13 August, 2008

Work continues to wall off more two million people in Baghdad's Sadr City district. Late into the night, a crane drops towering slabs of concrete into place, the earth shaking as U.S. and Iraqi forces slowly wall off the area. This third wall that will encircle Sadr City is part of the U.S. and Iraqi effort to passify the population and solidify the sharp drop in violence. Such security walls, designed to stop suicide bombers and slow the traffic of weapons, have brought bitter debate where they have been erected around markets, public places and entire neighbourhoods across Baghdad. Along with an Iraqi-built wall on the eastern side of Sadr City and a canal that runs along its northern edge, the walls will encircle the area entirely. Several checkpoints will search vehicles exiting and entering the area.

"No one wants to live in a prison. But right now, this is useful for us," says Iraqi Lt. Col Abdullah. But Zaineb Kareem, a member of Sadr's bloc in parliament and a Sadr City resident, retorts the money for the walls would be better spent on basic services. "People can't see their neighbours because of these walls. The walls have disrupted this city," she says. U.S. officials are also blamed, in part, for the lack of infrastructure and services. Kadim al-Hashimi, who sells used cars in southern Sadr City, says there is a desperate need for jobs and basic services. Many residents only have an hour or two of grid power each day - nearly six years after U.S. occupation.

An indefinite curfew was imposed on Baqouba on Tuesday after a suicide bombing attack targeted the governor and his operations chief from the surrounding province of Diyala. Three people were killed and seven wounded when the bomber detonated an explosive vest near the convoy carrying Diyala Governor Raad al-Mulla Jawad. Earlier in the day three people were killed and three others wounded when a suicide bomber blew up his explosive vest near al-Sharqi police station in central Baquba.

Elsewhere in Iraq, gunmen killed one woman and wounded another in a drive-by shooting near a market in Mahaweel. Six members of the same family, including one woman and three children, were found shot dead in an open area east of Ramadi.

King Abdullah II Ibn Al Hussein of Jordan flew to Baghdad on Monday, becoming the first Arab leader to visit Iraq since Saddam Hussein fell five years ago. The king met with Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki and members of his cabinet. Talks included discussions about security cooperation and economic relations, including the renewal of a 2006 agreement for Iraq to sell Jordan crude oil at a discount. Jordan relies on Iraq for most of its fuels. posted 12 August, 2008

Bush returns to US over S. Ossetia; Armada heading to gulf; Monday violence; Sistani for Kirkuk elections; Water projects for Basra

President Bush cut short his trip to Beijing to return to the U.S. and address the growing conflict between Russia and Georgia over South Ossetia. At the same time, he has angered Russia by siding with Georgia and assisting Georgian military forces by helping airlift troops that were stationed in Iraq. "I regret that some of our partners are not helping us but in fact are trying to impede us," said Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin. "I am referring to the US transfer, aboard its military transport planes and directly into the conflict zone, of the Georgian military contingent from Iraq."

A massive armada of U.S., British and French naval forces is headed to the Persian Gulf. The naval force comprises a U.S. Navy super carrier battle group and is accompanied by an expeditionary carrier battle group, a British Royal Navy carrier battle group and a French nuclear hunter-killer submarine. The naval force comprises a U.S. Navy super carrier battle group and is accompanied by an expeditionary carrier battle group, a British Royal Navy carrier battle group and a French nuclear hunter-killer submarine. Also reported heading toward Iran is another nuclear-powered carrier, the USS Ronald Reagan and its Carrier Strike Group Seven; the USS Iwo Jima, the Royal Navy aircraft carrier HMS Ark Royal and a number of French warships, including the nuclear hunter-killer submarine Amethyste. Once the naval force arrives in the Gulf region it will be joining two other U.S. naval battle groups already on site: the USS Abraham Lincoln and the USS Peleliu; the Lincoln with its carrier strike group and the latter with an expeditionary strike group.

Adding to the volatility is the presence of a major Russian navy deployment affected earlier this year to the eastern Mediterranean comprising the jewel of the Russian fleet, the aircraft carrier Admiral Kuznetsov with approximately 50 Su-33 warplanes that have the capacity for mid-air refueling. This means the Russian warplanes could reach the Gulf from the Mediterranean, a distance of some 850 miles and would be forced to fly over Syria (not a problem) but Iraq as well, where the skies are controlled by the U.S. military, and the guided missile heavy cruiser Moskva. The Russian task force is believed to be composed of no less than a dozen warships as well as several submarines.

Six people were killed on Monday in two powerful bombings in Diyala where thousands of U.S. and Iraqi soldiers are conducting a major offensive. In one attack a suicide bomber killed an Iraqi police officer and injured 17 other people when she blew herself up at a market in Baqouba. Five Iraqi women were killed and three men were injured when a roadside bomb exploded next to their pick-up truck near Al-Wajihiyah, about 12 miles east of Baqouba.

In Baghdad, a pipe bomb attached to a car killed its driver in New Baghdad district. Two Iraqis were wounded when a roadside bomb exploded by a U.S. military patrol near Beirut Square. The bodies of two men and a woman were found shot in Baghdad on Sunday. A car bomb exploded near a petrol station and wounded two people in eastern Mosul. A pipe bomb attached to a car also killed a man on Sunday in Mosul.

Iraq's Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani has called for an election in Kirkuk to resolve the dispute over who will control the oil-rich province. “The solution to Kirkuk's problem lies in the hands of its citizens, who must determine how to run their city with their votes,” the ayatollah's office said in a statement on Sunday. Last week, Iraqi lawmakers failed to reach an agreement on a provincial election bill due to disagreements about how to distribute power in the northern oil-rich province of Kirkuk. Kurdish leaders oppose the application of article 24 of the Iraqi provincial election law which stipulates that Kurds, Arabs and Turkmens should rule the disputed province of Kirkuk equally. Kurds are a majority in Kirkuk and Kurdish leaders want a larger say.

Basra's provincial council has referred 39 water projects at a total cost of nearly $16.5 million to local companies and contractors, a council member said on Monday. Several water networks in Umm Qasr (48 miles west of Basra), al-Muhandiseen neighborhood (west of Basra city), al-Lajna al-Ulimpiya (Olympic Committee) Street (downtown), al-Nashwa al-Muwahhad, in addition to other areas in the province will be implemented or maintained.

In the U.S., thirteen people protesting the Iraq war were arrested for trying to enter the Fort McCoy military installation in western Wisconsin. The protesters delivered a letter seeking an end to the war Sunday afternoon and asked to enter the fort to talk with soldiers. They were denied access and asked to leave. The 13 people were arrested after going beyond secured boundaries. posted 11 August, 2008

130+ Iraqi casualties on Sunday; 7 US casualties reported; New Parliament building opens

The occupation and war in Iraq claimed at least 130 more victims on Sunday as a series of bombs hit the capital and elsewhere. Meanwhile Iraqi and U.S. troops scorched areas around Balad Ruz in the Diyala province - areas that have been ethnically cleansed of Iraqis during the "Surge".

There were 7 U.S. casualties reported on Saturday and Sunday. One American soldier was killed two others were wounded Sunday in a complex attack in Tarmiyah. The attacks also wounded 15 local nationals, three Iraqi Policemen and three Sons of Iraq members. One U.S. soldier was killed and two more were wounded during a roadside bombing Saturday in Baghdad. Another soldier was killed in a non-combat accident while in Kuwait on Thursday. More than 4,139 members of the U.S. military have died in the Iraq war since it began in March 2003.

Baghdad, a bomb exploded as an Iraqi army patrol passed by in Baghdad's central Khillani square, killing a soldier and a civilian and wounding nine other people. An attack in Sadr City killed four persons and wounded ten others. A bomb exploded outside a bank in the Kamaliya area killing two and wounding 10. A roadside bomb struck an Iraqi army patrol and a minibus carrying Ministry of Finance employees. The blast killed three people, including a soldier and an employee, and wounded 10 others, including four soldiers and five employees. A roadside bomb targeted a private security company patrol wounding four people including two guards in Amil district, in southwestern Baghdad. A bomb went off over a bridge in the Kadhimiya neighborhood, wounding three soldiers. A tossed hand grenade wounded three people in Camp Sara. A bomb exploded in east Baghdad's Zaiyuna district, wounding two soldiers and two civilians. Two mortars also struck Baghdad's Green Zone on Sunday.

Elsewhere in Iraq, a suicide attacker blew up a bomb-laden minibus, killing at least three people and wounding 20 others outside a Kurdish security department in Khanaqin about 62 miles northeast of Baquoba. A car bomb exploded at an Iraqi army patrol in al-Madaen about 19 miles east of Baghdad, killing one soldier and wounding five others. In Suleiman Bek, a roadside bomb wounded a member of an Awakening Council.

Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki presided over the opening of the new headquarters of the Iraqi parliament in Baghdad - in the renovated Saddam Hussein-era parliamentary building located in the al-Alawi district outside of the Green Zone. The 275-member legislative body, which has recessed until Sept. 9, had met in a heavily guarded convention center inside the sprawling maze of concrete barriers and checkpoints in central Baghdad. posted 10 August, 2008

Iraq's army hopes to become fully self-sufficient by mid-2009, the defence minister said on Saturday, the same date by which Baghdad hopes U.S. patrols of Iraqi towns and cities will end. "We must truly stand on our own two feet. We made a promise to the Iraqi people that we are going to undertake all the tasks of our role by the middle or end of 2009," said Defence Minister General Abdel Qader Jassim. "Before, you could count the number of battalions on two hands. Now we have more than 14 fully-equipped divisions," he said. The Kurdish Peshmarga security forces, under the authority of Kurdistan President Massoud Barzani and Patriotic Union of Kurdistan chief and Iraqi President Jalal Talabani, are likely to be merged into Iraqi national forces. Meanwhile, the Iraqi Ministry of Defense said it would establish committees throughout the Iraqi army to invite former military personnel from the Saddam era to join the national security forces.

A powerful roadside bomb in Baghdad's Maysalon Square injured four Iraqi policemen on Saturday. A bodyguard who works for Youth and Sports minister Jassim Mohammed Ja'afar was gunned down outside his home near the city of Kirkuk. Gunmen shot dead a 50-year-old woman outside her home in the al-Maamoun district in Mosul. Gunmen shot dead a man on Friday outside his house in the town of Tuz Khurmato. Militants killed a member of a U.S.-backed neighbourhood patrol and wounded two others when they attacked their checkpoint in Jurf al-Sakhar, about 40 miles south of Baghdad on Friday.

U.S. forces killed people and detained 14 suspects while targeting al Qaeda networks in central and northern parts of Iraq on Friday and Saturday, the U.S. military said. Iraqi soldiers killed three people, including a woman, and wounded two others on Friday when they fired at a car speeding towards their checkpoint in Shirqat.

Georgia will withdraw its entire 2000-strong military contingent from Iraq within three days because of the war in South Ossetia. Georgia's President, Mikheil Saakashvili, said yesterday the country was officially in a "state of war" after Tbilisi accused Moscow of bombing Georgian civilian areas. As the conflict, which has left at least 1600 dead, escalated, Russian warplanes bombed and "completely devastated" the Black Sea port of Poti. Russian warplanes also bombed the Georgian city of Gori, a military airport in Marneuli, and a railway junction and an airport in Senaki. posted 09 August, 2008

Defense agreement rests on timetable, immunity, detainees; Prisoners in crates

Iraq and the United States are near an agreement on all American combat troops leaving Iraq by October 2010, with the last soldiers out three years after that. The proposed agreement calls for Americans to hand over parts of Baghdad's Green Zone - where the US Embassy is located - to the Iraqis by the end of this year. It would also remove US forces from Iraqi cities by June 30, 2009. One Iraqi official said persuading the Americans to accept a timetable was a "key achievement" of the talks and that the government would seek parliamentary ratification as soon as the deal is signed. Iraqi officials also said the Iraqis were willing to grant immunity for actions committed on American bases and during combat operations - but not a blanket exemption from Iraqi law. The Iraqis also want American forces to hand over any Iraqis they detain (the U.S. currently holds moer than 26,000 Iraqis). They also want U.S. soldiers to be barred from raiding Iraqi homes.

Moqtada Sadr says he will order most of his Mahdi Army militia - except for an elite force - to lay down its arms if a security pact between Baghdad and Washington provides for a withdrawal from Iraq, his spokesman said Friday. "We want to see whether the provisions of the agreement are serious. We will be satisfied if the agreement contains the withdrawal of US forces," said Salah al-Obeidi, chief spokesman for the Sadr movement.

On Friday, a roadside bomb killed a policeman and wounded two others in Iskandariya. U.S. forces detained 10 Iraqis on Thursday and Friday in northern Iraq, the U.S. military said. Iraqi police arrested three wanted militants and captured 18 other suspects in a security operation in Iskandariya. A bombing at a crowded outdoor market in Tal Afar killed 25 people and wounded 72 others.

One member of a U.S.-backed neighbourhood patrol was killed and four were wounded during clashes with militants on Thursday in Mussayab. Gunmen killed an Iraqi soldier when they ambushed a patrol on Thursday in western Mosul.

The U.S. military is segregating some violent Iraqi prisoners in wooden crates that in some cases are not much bigger than the prisoners. The military released photos of what it calls "segregation boxes" used in Iraq. Three grainy black-and-white photos show the rudimentary structures of wood and mesh. Some of the boxes are as small as 3 feet by 3 feet by 6 feet tall, according to military officials. The United States' handling of detainees has been a concern since the abuses at Baghdad's Abu Ghraib prison came to light. posted 08 August, 2008

Most refugees are refusing to go home, due to the ongoing violence. Despite the security gains of the past year, a recent survey by the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR), found only four percent of respondents planning to return to Iraq. Thursday's violence is telling enough of their reasons to fear.

In Mosul, four policemen were killed when their patrol approached the body of a policeman in civilian clothes lying near a booby-trapped wooden cart. Gunmen also killed Mahmoud Younis, a local leader of the Iraqi Islamic Party. Three policemen were wounded when a car bomb exploded in the parking lot belonging to the police directorate in Baaj.

In Baghdad, eight members of one Iraqi family, including three woman and two children, were killed when an old mine brought home by one of their children exploded inside their house. Three U.S-backed neighbourhood patrol group members were killed and two wounded on Wednesday when gunmen in a car opened fire at their checkpoint in the Sulaikh district. One person was wounded when a roadside bomb went off on Wednesday in central Kirkuk.

The U.S. military said its forces spread out across central and northern Iraq Thursday, detaining 25 Iraqis. U.S. and Iraqi forces are preparing to launch another siege against Fallujah under the pretext of combating “terror,” according to local media. The city has now been placed under tight curfew. The two U.S. sieges of the city during 2004 led to the destruction of approximately 75 percent of the city, thousands of civilian deaths, and the displacement of hundreds of thousands of people. There are meanwhile no signs of improvement of any other kind in Fallujah. Walls now divide the city into sectarian sections, with poverty, unemployment and suffering on all sides.

A videotape of the execution of British aid worker Margaret Hassan in 2004 leaves questions as to who her killers were. Kidnapped by men in police uniforms, it is now November, 2004, Margaret is shown being excuted by gun in a tape that was handed over the Al Jazeera. In the video a lone man wearing a grubby grey and black checked shirt and ill-fitting, baggy trousers, a scarf concealing his face fires a gun into her head. Margaret's husband Tahseen remains suspicious that a "foreign" hand took her away. As Margaret once exclaimed, "these people have been reduced to penury. They live in shit. And when you have no money and no food, you don't worry about democracy or who your leaders are." posted 07 August, 2008

Drought, war hits Iraqi farmers; Diyala arrests in hundreds; Gen. Chiarelli promoted

Across Iraq, farmers are struggling with the worst drought the country has faced in years. Adding to the disaster is ongoing occupation and war in many of the breadbasket areas - such as Diyala - of Iraq. Instead of crops, shriveled, dusty fields stretch as far as the eye can see. U.S. security forces, working on ousting insurgents, have contributed to farmers' woes by diverting their canals and burning their fields.

Majid al Khalid, Diyala's top agriculture official, says he has never seen it this bad. He says the drought and war has damaged more than 120,000 acres of farmland and killed any summer vegetable crop. One-third of the fruit orchards are also in bad shape. A two-hour drive south of Baghdad, outside the city of Diwaniyah, the farm belt is also more brown than green. Irrigation ditches that run through the fields are dry and cracked. Azzawi Selman Abdullah crumbles fistfuls of soil from his water-starved farm to demonstrate what the drought has done to his land. The 47-year-old farmer says this field should be lush with cucumbers he planted in the spring. He adds that instead, everything on his 150 acres is dying — even the weeds.

In Mosul on Wednesday, a suicide car bomber, targeting an Iraqi army patrol, killed one person and wounded eleven, including one soldier. Gunmen also wounded a man and a child in a drive-by shooting. One person in Arbil was injured by a Katyusha rocket launched from Iran. In Baghdad, two bomb attacks targeted a convoy of a foreign security firm in the Karradah neighborhood and an Iraqi police patrol on Wednesday, wounding six people. There was sporadic shooting in other areas of the city. The bodies of 16 men were discovered on Tuesday in different areas of a village near Baquba.

The total number of suspects arrested since the beginning of a military offensive in Diyala last week has reached 483, the Defence Ministry said in a statement. Iraqi security forces also arrested three women on charges of plotting suicide bombings against the military.

Iraq on Tuesday announced it was seeking six billion dollars in investment over the next three years to fund a masterplan to revitalise conflict-torn Baghdad with new hotels, restaurants and highways. "A year ago, we were not able to talk about such projects as we were worried about security issues. We have succeeded in that area and now we will succeed in construction," said Tahsin al-Sheikhli, spokesman for the civilian wing of Baghdad's security plan. Baghdad suffered considerable damage in the US-led invasion of 2003 and the violence that followed. It also endured the effects of a decade of UN sanctions.

Lt. Gen. Peter W. Chiarelli was promoted to four-star general yesterday in Washington. Chiarelli commanded the 1st Cavalry Division based at Fort Hood, Texas, in August 2003 and deployed to Iraq as the commander of Task Force Baghdad - from February 2004 to March 2005. He also served as commander, Multi-National Corps-Iraq from January 2006 to December 2006. In his Pentagon job as the Army's vice chief of staff, Chiarelli will serve as the principal advisor and assistant to the chief of staff of the Army, advising and assisting the CSA on issues related to personnel, logistics, operations and plans. posted 06 August, 2008

Iceland, Sweden accept Palestinians; Suskind: Bush "lied; $300 M for PTSD; Agent Orage link

Palestinian refugees stranded for two years in desperate conditions on the Iraq-Syria border will be resettled in Iceland and Sweden in the coming weeks, the United Nations refugee agency said Tuesday. More than two dozen vulnerable Palestinians from the Al Waleed camp will be leaving for Iceland while another group of 155 refugees from the Al Tanf camp are bound for Sweden, UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) spokesman Ron Redmond said. Redmond said that an estimated 2,300 Palestinians were living in camps along the border amid "dire" health conditions, unable to return to Iraq or cross into neighbouring countries.

In Tuesday violence, gunmen attacked on Monday evening the home of Sheikh Ibrahim al-Karbouli, a leader of a U.S.-backed local patrol unit in Yusufiya and there were several casualties. Militants slit the throats of three members of a U.S.-backed neighbourhood patrol who were guarding a checkpoint just southwest of Kirkuk. In Baghdad, a roadside bomb wounded six people including two policemen in Palestine street while a blast struck the commercial Bab al Muadham district, killing one person and wounding five others. U.S. forces said captured 15 militants during operations in central and northern Iraq on Tuesday while Iraqi soldiers killed two militants and arrested 99 others during last 24 hours. Five bodies were found in Suwayra, Hilla and Mosul.

President Bush committed an impeachable offense by ordering the CIA to to manufacture a false pretense for the Iraq war in the form of a backdated, handwritten document linking Saddam Hussein and al-Qaeda, according to journalist Ron Suskind. The author writes that Bush’s action is “one of the greatest lies in modern American political history” and says he spoke on the record with U.S. intelligence officials who stated that Bush was informed unequivocally in January 2003 that Saddam had no weapons of mass destruction. Nonetheless, his book relates, Bush decided to invade Iraq three months later — with the forged letter from the head of Iraqi intelligence to Saddam bolstering the U.S. rationale to go into war. On page 371 of “The Way of the World,” Suskind describes the White House’s concoction of a forged letter purportedly from the hand of Habbush to Saddam Hussein to justify the United States’ decision to go to war. CIA officers Richer and John Maguire, who oversaw the Iraq Operations Group, are both on the record in Suskind’s book confirming the existence of the fake Habbush letter. The White House denied the claim.

The Pentagon is spending an unprecedented $300 million this summer on research for post-traumatic stress disorder and traumatic brain injury (TBI). The money — the most spent in one year on military medical research since a $210 million breast cancer study in 1993 — will fund 171 research projects on two of the most prevalent injuries of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. An estimated 1.4 million Americans suffer TBI each year, leaving 235,000 hospitalized and 50,000 dead, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The Pentagon also will target new ways of delivering therapy to PTSD victims living in remote areas of the U.S. and reducing the stigma that can keep victims from seeking help. The military funding will go toward evaluating up to 20 different medications for TBI and studying ways of regenerating damaged brain cells. A study released in April by the Rand Corp. think tank estimates 300,000 current or former combat troops have PTSD or depression, and up to 320,000 may have suffered a brain injury.

In related news, UC Davis Cancer Center physicians today released results of research showing that Vietnam War veterans exposed to Agent Orange have greatly increased risks of prostate cancer and even greater risks of getting the most aggressive form of the disease as compared to those who were not exposed. "While others have linked Agent Orange to cancers such as soft-tissue sarcomas, Hodgkin's disease and non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, there is limited evidence so far associating it with prostate cancer," said Karim Chamie, lead author of the study and resident physician with the UC Davis Department of Urology and the VA Northern California Health Care System. "Here we report on the largest study to date of Vietnam War veterans exposed to Agent Orange and the incidence of prostate cancer." It is estimated that more than 20 million gallons of the dioxin tetrachlorodibenzo-para-dioxin (TCDD), also known as "rainbow herbicides," were sprayed between 1962 and 1971, contaminating both ground cover and ground