1 600 gefallene US-Soldaten im Iraq
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BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki told Iraqis on Wednesday they had one "last chance" for peace as U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld held talks with Iraqi leaders on the escalating sectarian violence in the country.
The U.S. commander in Iraq said Shi'ite "death squads" were fuelling a spike in the violence in which scores of people have been killed in street fighting, reprisal attacks and bombings in Baghdad neighborhoods in the past few days. The U.S. ambassador said communal bloodshed was now a bigger threat than al Qaeda.
Several hours after Maliki spoke, clashes erupted between gunmen armed with rocket-propelled grenades and police and residents in Um al-Maalif, a mainly Shi'ite neighborhood in southern Baghdad. Police said at least two people were killed.
Security forces said the bodies of 20 bus drivers kidnapped earlier in the day from a bus station in Miqdadiya north of Baghdad were found in a village to the north. They had been blindfolded, bound and shot in the back of the head.
Major General Ghassan al-Bawi, the police chief of Diyala province, said the kidnappings aimed to undermine a recent reconciliation accord agreed by Sunni and Shi'ite tribes in the area. He said 10 of the drivers were Sunni, the rest Shi'ite.
Maliki told parliament a national reconciliation plan he has promoted was Iraq's "last chance" to stem the violence.
"If it fails, I don't know what the destiny of Iraq will be," he told the assembled Iraqi lawmakers, including representatives of the minority Sunni community who had staged a week-long boycott in protest at the kidnapping of a colleague.
Maliki said Iraqi security forces had defeated a coordinated attempt in recent days by gunmen to occupy Baghdad districts west of the Tigris. Gunmen have fought in the streets and battled security forces in several districts in the past week.
"What we are seeing now as a counter to that are death squads, primarily from Shi'ite extremist groups that are retaliating against civilians," he told reporters.
"So you have both sides now attacking civilians. And that is what has caused the recent spike in violence here in Baghdad."
U.S. commanders have often been careful not to label gunmen as Shi'ites, although many of the recent attacks in Baghdad neighborhoods have been blamed by Sunnis and police on the Mehdi army militia controlled by Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr.
Sadr and his followers vigorously deny the accusations.
BIGGEST CHALLENGE
U.S. envoy Zalmay Khalilzad said on Tuesday sectarian violence was now the main challenge to security forces, not the three-year-old Sunni insurgency. As a result, the U.S. military is adapting its tactics but Rumsfeld cautioned that the "solution is not military" to ending communal bloodshed.
"We make a mistake if we take the security question and think of it as separate from everything else. The prime minister's effort with respect to reconciliation will be critically important in achieving better success," he said.
An upbeat Rumsfeld said he was confident that Iraq would emerge from the violence as a "fine success" for the region.
Saddam und drei weitere Mitgefangene aus der früheren Führungsclique protestierten gegen ihre Behandlung durch das Sondertribunal und den ihrer Meinung nach mangelhaften Schutz ihrer Verteidiger, berichtete der US-Nachrichtensender CNN am Mittwoch unter Berufung auf die US-Armee in Bagdad. Danach lehnt der 69-Jährige seit Freitagabend alle Mahlzeiten ab und trinkt nur noch Kaffee mit Zucker sowie Wasser mit Nährstoffzusätzen.
Es handelt sich um den dritten Hungerstreik, den Saddam und andere Angeklagte seit Beginn ihres Verfahrens unternommen haben. Der Ex-Machthaber und weitere sechs ehemalige Mitglieder aus seinem engsten Führungskreis sind wegen eines Massakers in der Kleinstadt Dudschail im Jahr 1982 angeklagt. Nach einem fehlgeschlagenen Attentat auf einen Fahrzeugkonvoi mit Saddam wurden nach Angaben der Anklage Hunderte von Menschen festgenommen und misshandelt. Ein Revolutionsgericht verurteilte damals 148 Männer zum Tode.
Die Staatsanwaltschaft hat deshalb im laufenden Prozess für den Ex-Staatschef sowie den ehemaligen Vizepräsidenten Taha Jassin Ramadan und Saddams Halbbruder Barsan el-Tikriti die Todesstrafe gefordert.
zurückBei einem Selbstmordanschlag gegen Schiiten im Norden des Irak sind gestern mindestens 26 Menschen getötet worden. 26 weitere wurden nach Polizeiangaben in einem Cafe der Stadt Tus Chormatu verletzt, als sich der Attentäter mit einem Sprengstoffgürtel in die Luft sprengte.
Demnach fragte der Täter in dem Lokal zunächst nach einem Glas Wasser und zündete dann inmitten der Gäste seinen Sprengsatz. Durch den Druck der Explosion stürzte das Cafe zusammen. Es befand sich in der Nähe eines Gebetsortes für die Schiiten. Zuvor waren bei mehreren Anschlägen gestern nach Polizeiangaben mindestens 35 Menschen ums Leben gekommen
zurückDer wegen Verbrechen gegen die Menschlichkeit angeklagte irakische Ex-Präsident Saddam Hussein befindet sich weiter im Hungerstreik. Gemeinsam mit drei Mitangeklagten verweigere der 69-Jährige nun seit neun Tagen feste Nahrung, sagte ein US-Militärsprecher gestern in Bagdad.
"Bei guter Gesundheit"
Saddam nehme lediglich süßen Kaffee und andere Flüssigkeiten zu sich. "Trotz ihrer Essensverweigerung, sind sie bei guter Gesundheit", sagte der Sprecher über die Angeklagten.
Mit dem Hungerstreik demonstrierten diese gegen das Gerichtsverfahren und für einen besseren Schutz ihrer Anwälte. Im vergangenen Monat war bereits der dritte Anwalt der Verteidigung von Unbekannten getötet worden.
Todesstrafe droht
Saddam ist vor einem Sondertribunal in der irakischen Hauptstadt wegen der Ermordung von 148 Schiiten und der Folter von hunderten weiteren Bewohnern des Dorfes Dudschail im Jahr 1982 angeklagt. Ihm droht die Todesstrafe. Ein Urteil könnte im September gefällt werden. Der Prozess soll in einer Woche fortgesetzt werden.
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There were conflicting accounts from officials about the events. In Baghdad, police and ministry sources said a car bomb devastated the market in Mahmudiya, just south of the city.
But in the town itself, a police commander said a series of explosions, reported to Reuters by local residents, were mortars falling on the town, followed by a rampage by gunmen through the market -- a rare tactic in Iraq against civilian targets.
Colonel Iyad Mohammed of the Mahmudiya police said 55 people were killed and 58 wounded. The sources in Baghdad had earlier put the toll at 42 dead and 33 wounded.
One of the bloodiest attacks in Iraq in recent months, it came on the anniversary of the 1968 coup that brought Saddam Hussein's Baath party to power.
"There are contradictory reports from the scene and communications are very difficult," an Interior Ministry official in Baghdad said, noting there were accounts both of a car bomb and of heavy clashes between militiamen and police.
Sunni insurgents like al Qaeda and Baathist diehards as well as Shi'ite militias have been active in the area, where the population is mixed between the two Muslim sects whose violent differences have taken Iraq to the brink of civil war.
Mahmudiya is part of a small area dubbed the 'triangle of death' over the past three years because of the number of attacks on U.S. forces and among the population.
A British soldier was killed and another was wounded during a raid in the southern province of Basra on Sunday, AP reported. The raid was launched to capture "those associated with terrorist activities," the British military said in a statement.
On Saturday, a roadside bomb on killed a U.S. soldier in Baghdad, the U.S. military said in a statement. "A Multi-National Division - Baghdad service member died at approximately 11:25 a.m. today when the vehicle he was riding in struck a roadside bomb near Sadr City, an area in northeast Baghdad," the statement said.
Two mortars landed outside an Iraqi police administration building in northern Baghdad, killing five civilians and wounding 12 others on Saturday, police said. The building, in the Iraqi capital's Sadiya section, is where Iraqi police go to be paid and get their uniforms, police said. No police officers were hurt, police said.
Die Autobombe detonierte auf einem Markt nahe einer schiitischen Moschee in Kufa. Ein Reuters-Mitarbeiter sah, wie herbeieilende Polizisten von wütenden Menschen mit Steinen beworfen wurden. Die Beamten schossen in die Luft, um die Menge auseinander zu treiben. Dabei wurden zwei Menschen verletzt.
BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- More than 14,000 civilians have been killed in Iraq in the first half of this year, an ominous figure reflecting the fact that "killings, kidnappings and torture remain widespread" in the war-torn country, a United Nations report says.
Killings of civilians are on "an upward trend," with more than 5,800 deaths and more than 5,700 injuries reported in May and June alone, it says.
The report, a bimonthly document produced by the U.N. Assistance Mission for Iraq, covers May and June, and includes chilling casualty figures and ugly anecdotes from the insurgent and sectarian warfare that continues to rage despite the establishment of a national unity government and a security crackdown in Baghdad.
The report lists examples of bloody suicide bombs aimed at mosques, attacks on laborers, the recovery of slain bodies, the assassinations of judges, the killings of prisoners, the targeting of clergy -- all incidents dutifully reported by media over these three-plus years of chaos in the streets.
The U.N. agency says it has been made aware since last year of the targeting of homosexuals, "increasingly threatened and extra-judicially executed by militias and 'death squads' because of their sexual orientation."
The intolerance propelling the anti-gay prejudice extends to ethnic and religious minorities and others whose manner of dress doesn't meet the standards of religious extremists.
"On 28 May, an Iraqi tennis coach and two of his players were shot dead in Baghdad allegedly because they were wearing shorts. Similar threats are said to be made to induce men to conform to certain hair styles or rules regarding facial hair," the report says.
Women face intolerance -- and violence -- as well.
"In some Baghdad neighborhoods, women are now prevented from going to the markets alone. In other cases, women have been warned not to drive cars or have faced harassment if they wear trousers. Women have also reported that wearing a headscarf is becoming not a matter of religious choice but one of survival in many parts of Iraq, a fact which is particularly resented by non-Muslim women."
Academics and health professionals have been attacked, spurring them to leave the country or their home regions, causing a brain drain and a dislocation in services.
"Health care providers face difficulties in carrying out their work because of the limited supply of electricity and growing number of patients due to the increase in violence," the report says.
Kidnappings have been part of the chaotic Iraqi scene since the insurgency began, with many hostages killed even after a ransom is paid. The abductors are not only motivated by sectarianism or politics; organized crime appears to be involved with some of the kidnappings.
"On some occasions, sectarian connotations and alleged collusion with sectors of the police, as well as with militias, have been reported to UNAMI. Although there are no reliable statistics regarding this phenomenon, because Iraqis often are afraid to report such crimes to the police, the kidnappings are likely a daily occurrence," the report says.
For children, the "extent of violence in areas" other than the Kurdish region "is such that likely every child, to some degree, has been exposed to it," it says.
"In one case the body of a 12-year-old Osama was reportedly found by the Iraqi police in a plastic bag after his family paid a ransom of some 30,000 U.S. dollars. The boy had been sexually assaulted by the kidnappers, before being hanged by his own clothing. The police captured members of this gang who confessed of raping and killing many boys and girls before Osama," the report says.
Cultural symbols
"Civilian casualties resulted mainly from bombings and drive-by shootings, from indiscriminate attacks, in neighborhood markets or petrol stations, or following armed clashes with the police and the security forces," the report says.
"Civilians were also targeted or became unintended victims of insurgent or military actions.
"Terrorist acts against civilians have been aimed at fomenting sectarian violence or allegedly motivated by revenge and have targeted members of the Arab Shia and Sunni communities, including their cultural symbols, as well as markets in Shia neighborhoods."
Figures from the Medico-Legal Institute in Baghdad and the Ministry of Health show that the total number of civilians killed from January to June was 14,338.
In late June, the Ministry of Health "acknowledged information stating that since 2003 at least 50,000 persons have been killed in violence and stated the number of deaths are probably under-reported." the report says.
"The Baghdad morgue reportedly received 30,204 bodies from 2003 to mid-2006. Deaths numbering 18,933 occurred from 'military clashes' and 'terrorist attacks'" between April 5, 2004, and June 1, 2006.
The report also notes the probes by the United States into the alleged killings of 24 civilians in Haditha by U.S. troops as well the deaths caused by military operations throughout the country.
Other developments
At least 45 people were killed and 60 others wounded Tuesday morning when a suicide car bomber detonated in a busy Kufa marketplace where day laborers gather, Iraqi police said.
The attack took place around 7:30 a.m. near a Shia shrine.
Kufa is considered a holy place by Shia Muslims and is just outside Najaf, about 100 miles (160 kilometers) south of Baghdad.
Meanwhile, gunmen wearing Iraqi army uniforms on Tuesday stole 1.24 billion Iraqi dinars (about $675,000) from Rafidain Bank in western Baghdad early Tuesday afternoon, Iraqi emergency police told CNN.
An in the northern city of Kirkuk, a roadside bomb killed six policemen, Kirkuk police said. Another police officer was wounded in the incident, which occurred at 11:30 a.m. in Hawija.
On Monday, in a coordinated attack in Mahmoudiya, south of Baghdad, at least 40 people were killed and wounded dozens, and small-arms fire killed a U.S. soldier in the capital.
The incidents took place as Sunni-Shiite sectarian violence festers in and near Baghdad.
The killing of a U.S. soldier on Monday -- which occurred at 12:55 p.m. (0955 GMT) in western Baghdad -- brought the number of U.S. military deaths in the Iraq war to 2,548. The soldier was from Multi-National Division Baghdad.
zurückIm Irak ist es den dritten Tag in Folge zu schweren Bombenanschlägen gekommen. In der Hauptstadt Bagdad wurden nach unterschiedlichen Angaben bis zu sieben Menschen durch drei koordinierte Explosionen getötet. Nach Angaben von Augenzeugen wurden 13 weitere Zivilisten verletzt.
Koordinierte Anschläge
Nachdem eine Autobombe in der Nähe der Technischen Universität in die Luft gegangen war, explodierten wenig später in der Umgebung zwei weitere Sprengsätze. Im Westen Bagdads wurde ein hochrangiger Regierungsmitarbeiter auf dem Weg zur Arbeit von Bewaffneten erschossen. Zwei seiner Begleiter erlitten bei dem Angriff Verletzungen.
In der Ölstadt Kirkuk im Norden des Landes explodierte eine Bombe vor einem Cafe. Vier Menschen seien getötet und 16 verletzt worden, teilte die Polizei mit.
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Irak: Uno schlägt Alarm
6000 Zivilisten in zwei Monaten getötet
[Bildunterschrift: Ausgebrannter Bus in Kufa nach dem Anschlag am 06. Juli 2006. ]
Im Irak fallen immer mehr Unschuldige der brutalen Gewalt zum Opfer. Allein in den vergangenen beiden Monaten wurden fast 6000 Zivilisten getötet, wie aus einem Bericht der UN-Mission für den Irak hervorgeht. Die Zahl der getöteten Zivilisten steige, Folter und Kidnapping blieben verbreitet, heißt es weiter. Seit Beginn des Irak-Kriegs starben rund 50.000 Menschen, 150.000 weitere wurden vertrieben, hieß es unter Berufung auf das irakische Gesundheitsministerium.
Wieder Tote bei Anschlägen in BagdadBei neuen Anschlägen in der irakischen Hauptstadt Bagdad wurden auch heute mehrere Menschen getötet. In der Nähe der Technischen Universität explodierten kurz hintereinander zwei Sprengsätze und eine Autobombe. Mindestens fünf Menschen wurden getötet. Im Westen der Hauptstadt wurde der Rechtsberater des Innenministeriums auf offener Straße erschossen.
Mitarbeiter von Behörden im Visier der TerroristenLaut dem UN-Bericht starben im Mai und Juni diesen Jahres 5818 Zivilisten, 5762 wurden verletzt. Darunter seien 244 Frauen und 71 Kinder gewesen. Die meisten der Menschen seien in Bagdad umgebracht worden. Vor allem Mitarbeiter von Justiz, Gesundheitswesen und Bildungseinrichtungen befänden sich unter den Opfern.
Die 150.000 Menschen, die seit dem Beginn des Irak-Kriegs ihre Heimat verlassen mussten, lebten ihrer Grundrechte beraubt und in Armut, heißt es weiter. In den Zufluchtsorten stiegen Spannungen zwischen den irakischen Volksgruppen weiter. Schiiten flüchteten meist in den Süden des Landes, die Sunniten in Richtung Norden, wo jeweils die traditionellen Gebiete ihrer Glaubensbrüder liegen.
[Bildunterschrift: Fast 6000 Zivilisten wurden in den letzten zwei Monaten im Irak getötet - die meisten von ihnen in der Hauptsadt Bagdad]
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Angehängte Grafik:
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A wave of assaults in Baghdad and Kirkuk killed at least 15 people, including a senior Interior Ministry employee and a family of four at a grocery store. A U.S. Marine death, as a result of a non-hostile incident on Tuesday, was reported Wednesday.
Kidnappers abducted more than 20 members of the agency that cares for Sunni religious sites nationwide. And police found 10 slain bodies dumped in the capital.
The United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq said more than 14,000 civilians have been killed in Iraq over the first half of this year, and that more than 5,800 deaths occurred in May and June alone. (Full story)
Nuri al-Maliki, Iraq's prime minister, addressed recent days of violence -- including the recent targeting of dozens of civilians at a day laborer gathering spot in a Kufa marketplace, at a marketplace in Mahmoudiya and at a cafe in Tuz Khurmato.
He said the fact that al Qaeda in Iraq has resorted to hitting soft targets shows its weaknesses.
He also touted the national reconciliation plan that he unveiled recently is the "only bridge and the basic crossing to the shores of peace." A government committee will meet on Saturday to begin working on the plan, which al-Maliki said the insurgency wants to undermine.
Meanwhile, the widespread "killings, kidnappings and torture" cited by the U.N. report remained on full display on Wednesday.
In southern Baghdad, attackers stormed a grocery store in the New Baghdad neighborhood, where they shot and killed four members of a family that owned the store. Then, they detonated an explosive where civilians were gathering, killing three people and wounding seven others.
Maj. Gen. Fakhrou Abdul Mohsen was gunned down when he was leaving his house in what emergency police called a drive-by shooting.
A car bomb, followed by two other blasts, killed five Iraqis -- including three police officers -- near the Technology University in southeast Baghdad, police said.
Two civilians were killed and 12 others were wounded while outside a cafe near the courthouse in the northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk, police said.
Police told CNN that 10 slain, unidentified bodies were found across Baghdad on Wednesday.
The dumping of slain bodies -- many with signs of torture -- has been a common occurrence in the capital and elsewhere since Sunni-Shiite sectarian violence escalated after the Feb. 22 bombing of the Askariya Mosque, a Shiite shrine in Samarra.
More than 20 employees of the Sunni Endowment were kidnapped on Wednesday, a spokesman for the group said. Mehdi Mashhadani said the incident took place when the people were leaving their offices in Baghdad and heading home to Taji, north of the capital. The agency manages for Sunni mosques and shrines across the country.
A U.S. Marine died in Iraq on Tuesday in what was described as the "result of a non-hostile incident" in Anbar province, the military reported on Wednesday. The Marine was assigned to Regimental Combat Team 5.
"Foul play is not suspected," the military said. This brings the number of U.S. military fatalities in the Iraq war to 2,554.
The U.S. military said on Wednesday that a U.S. Air Force F-16 fighter helped ground forces with intelligence and surveillance on Monday that led to the killing of an insurgent near Baquba and the breaking up of an IED-making cell.
"The F-16 identified three possible IED emplacers and passed the information to ground forces. Ground unit personnel positively identified the terrorists and requested the F-16 engage the hostile forces. The F-16 strafed the terrorists, killing one, ending the engagement," the military said.
The Nevada Democrat said he has been "somewhat gingerly approaching this.... No longer. There is a civil war going on in Iraq. In the last two months, more than 6,000 Iraqis have been killed. That's averaging more than 100 a day being killed in Iraq and we need to make sure there is a debate on this."
Republicans questioned why Reid wants to go over old ground and were ready to highlight the divisions among Democrats once again. (Watch how daily routines prove deadly for Iraq civilians -- 2:17)
"Talk about your bad summer reruns," said Eric Ueland, Chief of Staff to Majority Leader Bill Frist, "if they want to do that we'll go to the mats," he said.
Ueland threatened that Republicans would offer a proposal from Sen. John Kerry, D-Massachusetts, which calls for U.S. troops to come home by July of 2007.
That plan garnered only 13 Democratic votes in June, and illustrated the party's divide over the issue.
Republicans offered Kerry's plan before he did in June as well.
A Republican aide also warned that another debate about the Iraq war could prevent the Senate from completing work on necessary military spending bills.
Bob Stevenson, a Frist spokesman, told CNN, "We need to get the defense appropriations bill done and I would hope they would cooperate in getting the appropriations bill done to fund our troops, rather than engaging in partisan political games."
A 'cut and run' strategy?
Last month Senate Democrats offered two Iraq resolutions centering on U.S. troop withdrawal, and during several days of highly partisan debate, Republicans accused them of advocating a "cut and run" strategy.
Senate Democratic leaders call Iraq the top issue on voters' minds this election year and say they want to continue talking about it in Congress, especially since the situation appears to be deteriorating.
"The American people find it hard to believe that we can continue with our daily business here ignoring the obvious, which is the daily situation is getting worse," said Senate Democratic Whip Dick Durbin.
"It is more dangerous, we're still losing American lives and the Iraqis have not stepped up to defend their own country," the Illinois Democrat said. "That is a fact, and that will be a fact that people will remember in November."
Tactical error?
Some Democratic strategists told CNN at the time that Democratic senators made a tactical error in allowing June's Iraq debate to focus on troop withdrawal, an issue that divides the party, instead of playing up what they call administration blunders and lack of accountability from a GOP Congress.
Durbin noted that 39 Democrats voted for a non-binding resolution that would have urged the president to begin a phased troop withdrawal this year, but, he said, "Republicans said nothing. They had no response."
"We know, and they (Republicans) know, that this is the number one issue on the minds of people across America. When they say they want significant change in America, and you ask them what they're talking about, their answer is Iraq," Durbin said.
Democratic leaders say they do not yet know what kind of resolution or resolutions they plan to offer, but they hope to come up with what Reid called "lots of" Iraq-related measures the last week of July, when the Senate debates the defense appropriations bill.
Senate rules governing a funding bill limit their options.
A part of their strategy appears to be challenging Republicans, especially those facing tough re-election campaigns, on whether they will remain squarely behind the president, as they were during June's debate.
State television announced that a four-hour traffic ban in force every Friday of late to curb car bomb attacks on mosques during weekly prayers would be extended through most of the day.
A gun and grenade attack on a market just outside Baghdad on Monday and a suicide car bombing to the south of the capital killed 120 people this week. U.S. data showed attacks on security forces in Baghdad has averaged 34 a day over several days, compared to an average of 24 in recent months.
Baghdad morgue alone has taken in 1,000 bodies this month.
U.S. commanders are speaking about a looming fight to the finish in the capital between Shi'ite Prime Minister Nuri al- Maliki's two-month-old unity government and Sunni Arab rebels with links to al Qaeda and ousted president Saddam Hussein.
The U.S. ambassador has warned that a greater threat may be the mounting sectarian violence between minority Sunnis and the Shi'ites empowered by the U.S. invasion which ousted Saddam.
That has brought a risk that millions of ordinary but almost universally armed Iraqis may be dragged into all-out civil war.
U.S., Iraqi and international leaders have sounded alarms this week as new data showed tens of thousands of people have fled their homes in fear of death squads since a government of Shi'ites, Sunnis and Kurds was formed in May and that some 6,000 civilians may have been killed in violence in two months.
Four people were detained and 23 others, including some women and children, were injured in the raid.
In a statement, the military said the operation was aimed at "terrorists associated with senior al Qaeda in Iraq network members who have been targeted in previous coalition operations and have been linked to several attacks against Iraqi citizens.
"Intelligence also indicates that the targeted terrorists have extensive links to foreign fighters in the area," the military said in a statement.
The Diyala Joint Coordination Center, however, said those killed were an Iraqi family -- a father, mother, daughter, son and small child.
The military said it regretted civilian casualties "while coalition forces search to rid Iraq of terrorism."
It said "terrorists continue to deliberately place innocent Iraqi women and children in danger by their actions and presence."
In its account of the raid, the U.S. military said: "The target area consisted of a block of buildings. As the troops began to secure the area, they received small arms fire from the roof top of one of the initial target buildings and the terrorists attempted to reposition themselves between and on top of the adjacent buildings.
"After the target block was contained, several men were seen moving around on the roof tops. The ground force twice gave verbal instructions for all occupants to exit the target buildings. These instructions were ignored.
"Aerial fires were placed on the building and then halted. A third attempt to call the occupants out of the buildings then failed before force was escalated. "
Air and ground fire helped secure the site, the statement said
http://www.defenselink.mil/news/casualty.pdf
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zurückNach einem weiteren Anstieg der Gewalt in Bagdad in den vergangenen Wochen will die US-Regierung ihren erst kürzlich aufgestellten Sicherheitsplan für die irakische Hauptstadt überdenken.
"Die ersten Resultate sind enttäuschend", sagte ein ranghoher Vertreter der US-Regierung gestern. In den vergangenen fünf Wochen habe es einen Anstieg der Gewalt gegeben, generell und speziell zwischen den Volksgruppen.
Strategie wieder ändern?
US-Präsident George W. Bush und der irakische Ministerpräsident wollten bei ihrem für Dienstag geplanten Treffen in Washington über das Thema sprechen.
Es sei "sehr gut möglich", dass es bei der Zusammenkunft konkrete Pläne "für einen Wechsel der Prioritäten und eine neue Verwendung von Ressourcen" beschlossen würden. Bereits jetzt sprächen die US-Militärs im Irak mit Maliki über eine Neuausrichtung der Sicherheit.
Anlässlich Bush-Besuch umgesetzt
Das Sicherheitskonzept für Bagdad war nach dem Überraschungsbesuch von Bush in Bagdad am 13. Juni in Angriff umgesetzt worden. An der "Operation gemeinsam vorwärts" gegen Aufständische nahmen insgesamt mehr als 50.000 irakische Sicherheitskräfte und US-Soldaten teil.
So wurden neue Checkpoints errichtet und die Kontrollen an diesen Posten verschärft. Zu dem Konzept gehören auch Hausdurchsuchungen sowie ein Verbot für Zivilisten, Waffen zu tragen. Zudem wurde die nächtliche Ausgangssperre um zweieinhalb Stunden verlängert.
Auch zwei Moslem-Extremisten seien getötet worden, teilte das Militär am Freitag mit. Polizisten und Anwohner erklärten dagegen, bei dem Raketenangriff eines US-Hubschraubers auf ein Haus in Bakuba nördlich von Bagdad seien sechs Mitglieder einer Familie ums Leben gekommen. Das US-Militär warnte unterdessen, die Rebellen im Irak versuchten offenbar einen Entscheidungskampf in Bagdad herbeizuführen. Als Reaktion auf die schweren Anschläge der jüngsten Zeit weiteten die Behörden das Fahrverbot in der Hauptstadt vor und nach den traditionellen Freitagsgebeten aus.
Bei dem Einsatz in Bakuba wurden nach US-Angaben auch 23 Menschen verletzt, darunter Frauen und Kinder. Die Aktion dürfte die US-Truppen im Irak weiter unter Druck bringen. Das US-Militär sieht sich derzeit unter anderem mit Vorwürfen konfrontiert, Soldaten hätten in der Stadt Haditha im vergangenen Jahr ein Massaker an 24 Zivilisten verübt.
Der Einsatz in Bakuba habe sich gegen Terroristen mit Verbindungen zur irakischen Al-Kaida gerichtet, teilte das US-Militär mit. Die gesuchten Männer seien bereits seit längerem im Visier der US-Armee gewesen. Sie hätten mehrfach Anschläge auf irakische Zivilisten verübt. Die US-Soldaten seien mit leichten Waffen beschossen worden. Die örtlichen Behörden warfen der US-Armee dagegen vor, Zivilisten getötet zu haben. "Die US-Streitkräfte bombardieren Häuser in Bakuba und töten und verletzten Zivilisten", sagte ein Sprecher der Provinzregierung zu Reuters.
Polizisten und Anwohner berichteten, die Menschen in einem von mehreren attackierten Häusern hätten die US-Soldaten für Kämpfer einer feindlichen Schiiten-Miliz gehalten, weil sie schwarze Kleidung getragen hätten. Deswegen hätten sie auf die US-Soldaten geschossen, die das Feuer erwidert und dabei auch einen Hubschrauber eingesetzt hätten.
In Bagdad wurde das Freitagsfahrverbot um vier Stunden bis auf sieben Uhr am Abend verlängert. Die Behörden wollten damit die häufigen Bombenanschläge während der traditionellen Gebete zum Wochenausklang verhindern. Das US-Militär warnte, die Rebellen versuchten offenbar in der Hauptstadt eine Entscheidung zu ihren Gunsten in dem Konflikt herbeizuführen. "Sie wollen einen umfassenden Angriff auf den Großraum Bagdad führen", sagte ein Sprecher. Es sei ein Einsickern von Terroristen in die Region zu erkennen.
In Mahmudija, südlich von Bagdad, kamen derweil bei Gefechten drei Polizisten und drei irakische Soldaten ums Leben. In Chalis nördlich von Bagdad und im schiitischen Osten der Hauptstadt wurden bei zwei Anschlägen auf Moscheen der sunnitischen Minderheit zwei Menschen getötet und vier verletzt.
Die Gewalt im Irak hatte zuletzt nochmals erheblich zugenommen. Allein in den vergangenen zehn Wochen fielen ihr 6000 irakische Zivilisten zum Opfer. Die US-Botschaft mahnte zuletzt, der Konflikt zwischen Schiiten und Sunniten stelle inzwischen eine größere Gefahr für die irakische Regierung dar als die Anschläge der Rebellen. Die UN hatten erst kürzlich erklärt, der Konflikt zwischen den beiden moslemischen Glaubensgruppen drohe das Land in einen Bürgerkrieg zu stürzen.
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