1 600 gefallene US-Soldaten im Iraq

zum Beispiel...*g*

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BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- A suicide car bomb has killed at least 26 people and wounded 60 in the Sadr City section of eastern Baghdad, Iraq police have said.

The densely populated Shiite neighborhood was also struck July 1 by a car bomb that ripped through a packed marketplace, killing more than 60 people, Iraqi emergency police said.

Sunday's deadly blast came one day after insurgents killed three Iraqi police and wounded five others in what appeared to be a planned ambush in a market in Baquba, Iraqi police said.

Five civilians were also wounded in the attack, police said, which began when gunmen opened fire on police in the market. Officers who responded to the call for back up were then hit by two roadside bombs, police said.

When it was over, three Iraqi police officers were dead and 10 people were wounded, including five officers, police said.

Baquba is located 50 kilometers (30 miles) northeast of Baghdad.

South of the capital, U.S. soldiers killed 15 "terrorists" in a three-hour firefight in Babil province, the U.S. military said.

An Iraqi soldier was also killed in the fighting, which began in Musayyib.

Meanwhile the U.S. military said Saturday an American soldier was killed when his convoy was hit by a roadside bomb in eastern Baghdad.

Another soldier died from a "non-combat related injury" Thursday and military investigators are looking into the incident, the U.S. military said Saturday.

The number of U.S. military fatalities in the Iraq war now stands at 2,560.

PM: Lebanon issue 'dangerous'
Also Saturday Iraq's prime minister, whose country is mired in Sunni-Shiite sectarian fighting and a relentless insurgent violence, said he wanted to put another conflict on his busy agenda next week when he meets with the Bush administration and other officials -- Lebanon.

Nuri al-Maliki -- who spoke to reporters in a press conference after the first meeting of the Higher Commission for Dialogue and National Reconciliation -- said he would discuss the conflict with the United Nations and the U.S. government during his trip.

Al-Maliki said he would urge the speeding up of a cease-fire and the implementation of International resolutions.

"We have a new and dangerous issue: the military and security situation that came as a result of the Israeli attacks and raids on Lebanon and the destruction of infrastructure and the bombing of water, electricity and airports and what the Lebanese people are living and how it could affect the situation in the region," al-Maliki said.

Al-Maliki, noting that the trip had been planned for some time, said the Iraqi delegation would be focused on the importance of building of Iraqi security forces and security that "would lead to reconstruction, rebuilding and services."

But al-Maliki's comments on Lebanon reflect the political complexities and priorities in the region.

Al-Maliki's government is an ally of the United States and relies on U.S. security for its existence.

However, his words on the conflict in Lebanon are at odds with the Bush administration's support of Israel's fight against the Hezbollah guerrilla network in Lebanon.

Al-Maliki, a Shiite who had been in exile in Syria during the Saddam Hussein era, represents a government dominated by Shiites, who number 60 percent of Iraqis.

Hezbollah is a Shiite Muslim movement and it has support across the Shiite world, including the huge Shiite population in Iraq.

Some Arab countries, such as Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Jordan, have questioned the wisdom of Hezbollah's raid into Israel that sparked the Israeli offensive in Lebanon. They are largely Sunni nations.

But al-Maliki joins other leaders across the Muslim world -- both Shiite and Sunni -- who have solely laid the blame on Israel in the conflict.

Also Saturday, around 2,000 demonstrators marched from Sadr City to a square near the headquarters of the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, a Shiite group, to protest "Israeli acts of terror on the Lebanese people" and to express solidarity with the Lebanese people.

 

Saddam Hussein nach Hungerstreik im Krankenhaus

zurückDer durch einen Hungerstreik geschwächte frühere irakische Diktator Saddam Hussein ist in ein Krankenhaus gebracht worden, erklärte heute der Chefankläger im Prozess gegen den Exdiktator.

Ein ganzes Team von Ärzten stehe zur Behandlung bereit, hieß im US-Nachrichtensender CNN. Saddam und drei weitere Angeklagte verweigern seit dem 7. Juli die Nahrungsaufnahme. Sie wollen damit nach eigenen Angaben einen besseren Schutz für ihre Anwälte erreichen.

Drei Verteidiger sind seit Beginn des Prozesses im Oktober vergangenen Jahres ermordet worden. Das immer wieder unterbrochene Verfahren, in dem sich Saddam wegen des Blutbades an Schiiten von 1982 verantworten muss, sollte morgen fortgesetzt werden.
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AMMAN (Reuters) - Saddam Hussein's lawyers will boycott the toppled leader's trial due to resume on Monday in protest at the court's refusal to meet their demands for a fair trial, the chief defense lawyer said on Sunday.

"After all our legal demands that represent the minimum for a fair trial have been refused, the defense team decided to continue its complete suspension of its attendance of the trial sessions," Khalil Dulaimi told Reuters in a interview.

Saddam was also insisting on maintaining a hunger strike begun over two weeks ago until the court met demands that include better protection for lawyers and other concessions over the trial's procedures after a third defense lawyer was killed in Baghdad, Dulaimi said.

 

Saddam Hussein wird künstlich ernährt

Der wegen eines Hungerstreiks ins Krankenhaus eingelieferte irakische Ex-Präsident Saddam Hussein schwebt nach Angaben der US-Armee nicht in Lebensgefahr.

Sein Gesundheitszustand werde permanent vom medizinischen Personal überwacht und sein Leben sei nicht in Gefahr, sagte Oberstleutnant Keir-Kevin Curry heute in Bagdad.

Über Magensonde ernährt
Saddam Hussein setze seinen Hungerstreik fort, werde aber über eine Magensonde ernährt. Auch zwei Mitangeklagte, die sich ebenfalls im Hungerstreik befänden, würden medizinisch überwacht.

Um welche Angeklagten es sich dabei handelt, sagte Curry nicht. Alle Betroffenen erhielten eine "adäquate medizinische Behandlung und Überwachung".

Prozess ohne Saddam Hussein
Saddam Hussein hatte seit dem 8. Juli aus Protest gegen ein Gerichtsverfahren gegen ihn nur noch Flüssigkeit zu sich genommen; gestern wurde er in ein Krankenhaus eingewiesen.

Der Ex-Präsident muss sich derzeit zusammen mit sieben Mitangeklagten wegen eines Massakers an 148 Bewohnern des schiitischen Dorfes Dujail vor Gericht verantworten. Der Prozess sollte heute in Bagdad ohne Saddam Hussein fortgesetzt werden.
 

BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- U.S. commanders in Baghdad are focused on cracking down on Iraqi death squads responsible for killing hundreds of citizens in the capital in recent months, a military spokesman said Monday.

Most death squad killings appear to be sectarian, with Sunni Muslim gunmen targeting Shia neighborhoods, and Shiite attackers going after Sunnis. Victims are sometimes abducted by the dozens, their bodies often turning up later with signs of torture.

On Monday, three bodies were recovered across Baghdad. All had been shot in the head and showed signs of being brutalized.

Sunni leaders have accused Iraq's Shiite-dominated government of allowing gunmen from Shiite militias to infiltrate Iraq's police force, but U.S. troops have not found a "larger organization" behind the killings, Maj. Gen. William Caldwell said.

"It appears it's very extremist elements from both sides out there operating, using murder and assassination as their means by which to further personal goals that they're trying to achieve," he said.

The latest push is "a top priority" of Gen. George Casey, the top American commander in Iraq, Caldwell told reporters.

"It makes absolutely no difference what their religious sect is, what organizations they may claim to belong to. All we care about are those -- when we talk about death squads -- that are out conducting murders and assassinations."

The February bombing of the Askariya Mosque, a major Shiite Muslim shrine, in Samarra set off wave of communal violence that has pushed Iraq to the brink of civil war.

Last week, at least 200 Iraqis were reported to be killed across the country. The United Nations estimates that at least 14,000 Iraqi civilians were killed in the first half of 2006.

The increased attention on securing Baghdad came as Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki headed to Washington for talks with President Bush on Tuesday. Al-Maliki's two-day visit to Washington comes on the heels of a stop in London, where he met with British Prime Minister Tony Blair.

In Washington, White House spokesman Tony Snow declined Monday to give what he called "report cards" on Iraq's conditions since Bush's visit to Baghdad in June.

However, Snow acknowledged, "I think we realize that you've got some real work ahead in securing Baghdad," he said.

In a sign of progress, Iraqis were taking control of the southern province of Muthanna, near the Kuwaiti border, Snow said. "And there are several other provinces that are going to be under Iraqi control, they think, relatively soon," he added.

Meanwhile, in northern and western Iraq, U.S. troops continue to battle a persistent insurgency led mostly by Sunnis. Two American soldiers were reported dead in western Iraq's sprawling Anbar province Monday, bringing the U.S. death toll since the invasion of Iraq to 2,566.

Attacks persist against civilians
A string of three roadside bomb attacks in Baghdad killed one person and wounded six Monday morning, including two police and two Iraqi soldiers, Iraqi Emergency Police said.

Later, four mortars wounded eight civilians in the southern Baghdad neighborhood of Dora, police said.

In Taji, 20 miles north of Baghdad, armed men gunned down three Sunni Arabs, police said.

In Samarra, 100 kilometers north of the capital, a car bomb killed two civilians and wounded 17, including seven policemen, Reuters reported, quoting medical sources. The bomb was targeting a police patrol, the sources added.

Hussein hospitalized
As his trial resumed Monday, former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein was being treated in a hospital for the effects of his hunger strike, the chief prosecutor said.

Hussein was receiving nutrition through a feeding tube and was being monitored, the U.S. military said. He is continuing his hunger strike and his life is not in danger, said U.S. military spokesman Lt. Col. Keir-Kevin Curry.

Hussein's defense attorney has questioned whether the hunger strike was the real cause of the hospitalization, saying his client appeared to be in "very, very good health" Saturday.

Inside the court, Hussein's half-brother and former intelligence chief, Barzan Hassan, has asked Chief Judge Abdel Rahman for time to find new attorneys, since his private lawyers have boycotted the proceedings.

Like Hussein, Hassan also faces charges related to the killings of more than 140 people in the town of Dujail in 1982 after a failed assassination attempt against Hussein.

Rahman said Hassan's request seemed fine, but also blamed Hassan's lawyers, saying, "Your lawyers attended previous sessions. Their decision to not attend is for TV and publicity."

A court-appointed lawyer began closing arguments.

 

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Four U.S. Marines have been killed in action in Iraq's restive western Anbar province, the U.S. military said on Saturday.

It said the Marines -- three from the 1st Brigade, 1st Armored Division and the other from Regional Combat Team 5 -- were killed on Thursday. Statements on their deaths gave no further details.

More than 2,570 U.S. soldiers have been killed in Iraq since the March 2003 U.S.-led invasion to topple Saddam Hussein.

 

Zeitung: US-Außenamt vertuschte zu hohe Irak-Ausgaben


Das US-Außenministerium hat laut einem Zeitungsbericht bei Wiederaufbauprojekten im Irak die Budgets überschritten und das in der Buchhaltung vertuscht.

Die Hilfsagentur des Außenministeriums, USAID, habe die zusätzlichen Gelder in den Bilanzen als Verwaltungskosten gekennzeichnet, berichtete die "New York Times" heute unter Berufung auf einen Prüfbericht.

Der Generalinspektor für den Wiederaufbau im Irak prüfte demnach die Ausgaben für den Bau eines Kinderkrankenhauses in Basra und stieß auf Unregelmäßigkeiten. Der Prüfbericht zu dem Krankenhaus spreche auch von weiteren Wiederaufbauprojekten im Irak.

USAID verwaltet 1,4 Milliarden Dollar (1,1 Milliarden Euro) für Wiederaufbauprojekte im Irak.
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Ehemaliger US-Soldat beschreibt Gleichgültigkeit des Tötens im Irak
Sonntag 30. Juli 2006, 19:43 Uhr

   
von AFP  
Der wegen Vergewaltigung und mehrfachen Mordes an irakischen Zivilisten angeklagte frühere US-Soldat Steven Green hat im Gespräch mit einem Kriegsberichterstatter der "Washington Post" die Gleichgültigkeit des Tötens im Irak beschrieben. "Dort Leute zu töten, ist wie eine Ameise zu zerquetschen", sagte der 21-Jährige dem Reporter. Die Zeitung veröffentlichte das etwa einen Monat vor den mutmaßlichen Morden geführte Interview am Sonntag. "Du tötest jemanden und dann sagst du, 'Los, holen wir uns eine Pizza'", sagte Green. "Ich habe einmal auf

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einen Typ geschossen, der nicht an einem Kontrollposten angehalten hat, und es war, als wäre nichts gewesen".

Dabei habe er immer geglaubt, dass eine solche Erfahrung das Leben verändere, sagte Green weiter. "Ich habe es getan und es war wie 'So, und jetzt?'". Der Ex-Soldat habe dabei mit den Achseln gezuckt, heißt es in dem Zeitungsartikel.

Der Green zur Last gelegte Vorfall hatte sich Mitte März nahe Mahmudijah rund 30 Kilometer südlich von Bagdad ereignet. Laut Gerichtsakte drangen Green und drei weitere US-Soldaten in ein Haus ein und ermordeten vier Mitglieder einer Familie. Der Angeklagte soll zunächst den Vater, die Mutter und ein etwa fünf Jahre altes Mädchen getötet haben. Anschließend hätten er und ein anderer GI eine 15-jährige Tochter der Ermordeten vergewaltigt, die Green daraufhin mit zwei oder drei Schüssen getötet habe. Die alkoholisierten Täter versuchten demnach auch, die Leiche der jungen Irakerin zu verbrennen. Green war Wochen später wegen "Persönlichkeitsstörungen" aus der Armee entlassen worden.

Die Tat war erst am 20. Juni bei einem Verhör von Mitgliedern aus Greens Einheit ans Licht gekommen. Anfang Juli wurde im Irak Anklage gegen fünf weitere US-Soldaten erhoben. Vier von ihnen wird eine direkte Beteiligung vorgeworfen, ein fünfter Soldat wird beschuldigt, von der Tat gewusst und geschwiegen zu haben. Die Klageerhebung in den USA soll Mitte Oktober erfolgen.

Der Fall ist der bislang letzte in einer Reihe von schweren Übergriffen auf irakische Zivilisten durch US-Soldaten. Bei der US-Armee laufen bereits mehrere Ermittlungsverfahren gegen Soldaten, die Zivilisten oder Häftlinge gezielt getötet haben sollen. Im bisher schwerwiegendsten Fall wird Marineinfanteristen vorgeworfen, im November als Rache für den Tod eines Kameraden wahllos 24 Einwohner von Haditha erschossen zu haben. Die Ermittlungen laufen noch.

 

Vier US-Soldaten im Westirak getötet

Bagdad (dpa) - Die Gewalt im Irak nimmt kein Ende. In der teils von Aufständischen kontrollierten Provinz Anbar sind vier US- Marineinfanteristen getötet worden. Das teilte das US-Militärkommando in Bagdad mit. Zu den Verlusten nach feindlichen Aktivitäten , die sich bereits gestern ereignet hätten, machte das US-Militär keine weiteren Angaben. Zuletzt waren in Anbar am Donnerstag vier US- Soldaten ums Leben gekommen.
 

m entführt worden (orf)


25 Menschen von US-irakischer Handelskammer entführt
zurückIm Zentrum von Bagdad sind heute zwölf Mitarbeiter der US-irakischen Handelskammer entführt worden, darunter der Direktor. Die Geiselnehmer hätten Polizeiuniformen getragen und seien mit etwa 15 Militärfahrzeugen vor das Gebäude im Viertel el Arasat gefahren, teilte das irakische Innenministerium mit.

Es sei kein Schuss gefallen. Damit korrigierte das Ministerium erste Angaben, wonach 25 Angestellte einer Mobilfunkfirma entführt worden seien. Die Firma befindet sich unmittelbar neben der Handelskammer.

Inzwischen bedienen sich viele Entführer im Irak gestohlener Polizeiuniformen. Das Innenministerium hatte wiederholt angekündigt, das Problem durch neue Ausweise und neue Uniformen lösen zu wollen.
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Mindestens 41 Tote bei Anschlägen im Irak

Bei drei verschiedenen Anschlägen sind im Irak heute mindestens 41 Iraker getötet und Dutzende weitere verletzt worden.

Eine Autobombe riss im Zentrum von Bagdad allein 14 Menschen in den Tod, berichtete der staatliche Fernsehsender Al-Irakija. In Bedschi, 200 Kilometer nördlich von Bagdad, explodierte ein Sprengsatz unter einem Transportfahrzeug der Armee; dabei wurden 20 Soldaten getötet. In Muktadija, 110 Kilometer nordöstlich von Bagdad, kamen bei der Explosion einer Autobombe sieben Menschen ums Leben  

BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) -- A bomb hidden in a trash bag exploded in Baghdad Wednesday, killing three laborers, a day after bombings and shootings left more than 70 people dead in a dramatic surge of bloodshed in Iraq, police said.

Tuesday's dead included 20 Iraqi troops, a U.S. soldier and a British soldier.

Early Wednesday, a bomb in a garbage bag lying on a street in downtown Baghdad exploded near a group of laborers waiting to be hired for daily wage work, said police 1st Lt. Ahmed Mohammed Ali. Three of the laborers were killed and eight injured. Minutes later a second bomb, also hidden in a bag, exploded but caused no casualties, he said.

A short distance away, gunmen in a car opened fire on a checkpoint outside the Ministry of Oil building about an hour later, injuring three guards, said police Lt. Bilal Ali Majid.

Also Wednesday, a man was killed when a roadside bomb he was planting on a highway exploded in northern Baghdad, police Warrant Officer Mahoud Yassin.

The recent surge of violence -- blamed on sectarian rift between the Shiites and Sunnis and ordinary criminals -- is being seen as a greater threat to the government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki than the anti-government, anti-U.S. Sunni insurgency, which had erupted after the fall of Saddam Hussein in March 2003.

The U.S. military is moving at least 3,700 soldiers from Mosul to Baghdad and is gearing up for a new security operation to wrest control of the capital from Shiite militias, Sunni insurgents, kidnap gangs, rogue police and freelance gunmen.

U.S. officials have described the Baghdad campaign as a "must-win" for al-Maliki, whose government has struggled to curb the rise in violence since it took office May 20. American troops will work alongside U.S.-trained Iraqi forces.

As part of the campaign against militias, U.S. troops on Tuesday arrested a Baghdad-area representative of radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, whose Mahdi Army is among the most feared armed groups.

In the bloodiest incidents Tuesday:

-- a roadside bomb destroyed a bus packed with Iraqi soldiers near Beiji, 240 kilometers (155 miles) north of Baghdad. All 24 people aboard were killed.

-- in Baghdad 14 people died and 37 were wounded when a car bomb exploded at a bank where police and soldiers were picking up monthly paychecks.

-- an American soldier assigned to the 1st Armored Division died "due to enemy action" in Anbar province west of Baghdad, the U.S. command said.

-- a British soldier was fatally wounded in a mortar barrage on a British base in the southern city of Basra.

-- an Iraqi journalist working for the Iranian government-run Al-Alam television was slain in western Baghdad.

Late Tuesday, an Internet statement by the al-Qaeda-affiliated Mujahedeen Shura Council claimed "the resistance" captured 37 Najaf policemen Monday near Ramadi as they returned from a training course in Jordan. This could not be independently confirmed.

 

Regierung die Truppen zu reduzieren, werden sie derzeit sogar erhöht....ist wohl das "sicherste" Zeichen dafür, wie fatal die Lage derzeit im Irak ist....

grüsse
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TIKRIT, Iraq (Reuters) - U.S. soldiers charged with murdering three detainees in Iraq smiled before carrying out the shootings and threatened to kill another soldier if he informed on them, a military court heard on Wednesday.

Prosecution witness Private First Class Bradley Mason said one of those charged, Staff Sergeant Raymond Girouard, told him if he were arrested he would try to get out of it on medical grounds because he had Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.

"They just smiled," said Mason.

"I told him (Girouard) that I am not down with it. It's murder."


The soldiers -- Private First Class Corey Clagett, Specialist William Hunsaker, Girouard and Specialist Juston Graber -- are from the 101st Airborne Division and were serving in Samarra, north of Baghdad.

They have said the men who were killed were trying to escape during the shootings on or around May 9.

Mason, under cross examination, said the rules of engagement were "we get to kill all the male insurgents".

The defendants have been charged with premeditated murder, attempted murder, conspiracy, communicating a threat, and obstructing justice in the killings north of Baghdad.

A premeditated murder conviction can bring the death penalty under U.S. military law.  
 

The deaths took place during a raid on a suspected insurgent training camp near Thar Thar Lake, southwest of Tikrit. At the time, the military said more than 200 people were detained.

A Colonel Michael Steele had given orders to "kill all of them" during the operation, said Mason.

The Article 32 hearing to determine if they will face courts-martial is being held at Contingency Operating Base Speicher in Saddam Hussein's hometown of Tikrit, 175 km (110 miles) north of the capital.

It comes at a sensitive time when the military is investigating other cases of alleged abuses -- including the killings of up to 24 unarmed civilians in the town of Haditha last year by U.S. Marines -- which have infuriated Iraqis.


Mason said Girouard told him: "If you say anything, I'll kill you."

"I took them pretty seriously," said Mason.

The military had issued a statement hailing the success of Operation Iron Triangle, a three-day raid launched on May 9 against the Muthana Chemical Complex, a sprawling plant closed after the fall of Saddam in 2003.

Mason described the raid as a competition for kills.

"I know he (Steele) said 'good job' after we killed one of them, that's another terrorist down," he said.

 

Britischer Botschafter rechnet mit Bürgerkrieg im Irak (orf)

Der scheidende britische Botschafter im Irak, William Patey, rechnet mit einer Teilung des Landes. "Die Aussicht auf einen Bürgerkrieg mit einer geringen Intensität und eine faktische Teilung des Irak sind derzeit wahrscheinlicher als ein erfolgreicher Übergang zu einer stabilen Demokratie", schrieb Patey in einem Telegramm an die britische Regierung, wie die BBC berichtete.

Selbst "die reduzierten Erwartungen" von US-Präsident George W. Bush - eine irakische Regierung, die sich selbst erhalten, selbst verteidigen und selbst regieren könne - seien "zweifelhaft".

Lage "schwierig, aber nicht hoffnungslos"
Die Lage im Irak sei schwierig, aber "nicht hoffnungslos", schätzte der Diplomat. Sie werde auch in den kommenden fünf bis zehn Jahren "ungeordnet und schwierig" bleiben.

Pateys Schreiben, das der BBC vorlag, war an Premierminister Tony Blair, an das Außen- und Verteidigungsministerium sowie an weitere Minister und ranghohe Militärs gerichtet. Der Botschafter weicht damit von der offiziellen Haltung der Regierung ab, die sich bisher zuversichtlich gegeben hatte, was die Zukunft des Irak angeht.
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BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- At least eight people died as Iraqi security forces clashed with gunmen in the town of Wahda, southwest of Baghdad, Wednesday night, police said.

Among the dead were four Iraqi police and four civilians. A police official said some of the gunmen also died, but did not have specific numbers. Wahda is about 20 miles (35 km) southwest of Baghdad.

In Wajihiya, gunmen stormed a house late Wednesday, killing four people and wounding a fifth, according to an official with Diyala Joint Coordination Center. Wajihiya is about 50 miles (80 km) north of Baghdad.

Earlier on Wednesday, two bombs exploded in a Baghdad soccer stadium, killing 12 people and wounding 14, police in the Iraqi capital said.

At least seven children were among the dead, police said. The incident took place at 8:15 p.m. in the Amel neighborhood of southwestern Baghdad, while young people were playing soccer and spectators were watching.

Elsewhere, two U.S. troops died as the result of "enemy action" in Iraq's Anbar province, the military said.

A U.S. soldier assigned to 9th Naval Construction Regiment and a Marine assigned to 1st Brigade, 1st Armored Division were killed, the military said.

Five people were also killed in a bombing in Baghdad and a shooting in Diyala province, police said.

At least three people were killed and nine others wounded when the bomb exploded in central Baghdad early Wednesday, Baghdad emergency police told CNN.

The new violence came as Iraqi President Jalal Talabani said Iraqi forces will take over security in all 18 Iraqi provinces by the end of the year, according to a presidential aide. (Full story)

It also came after one of the worst days of bloodshed recently in Iraq Tuesday with a death toll The Associated Press put at at least 70 (Full story).

Tuesday's dead included 20 Iraqi troops, a U.S. soldier and a British soldier.

In Wednesday's violence according to a police official, explosives hidden in a trash bag detonated around 6:30 a.m. in Tayaran Square, a busy area where day laborers gather. A second trash bag exploded a short time later, but caused no casualties.

Less than two hours later, two traffic police were killed and two other officers wounded in Khalis when gunmen fired on their vehicles, an official with the Diyala Joint Coordination Center said. Khalis is about 55 miles north of Baghdad in Diyala province.

In Ramadi, Iraqi security and coalition forces searched Anbar University for insurgents after receiving intelligence reports that indicated the university is being used as an insurgent safe haven and command center, a U.S. military statement said.

"Iraqi and coalition forces have received sniper fire from the university on multiple occasions," the statement said. The operation coincides with a recess in classes.

Ramadi is located about 60 miles west of Baghdad in Anbar province.

 

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - In a reversal, the Pentagon on Wednesday said Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld will testify publicly on the Iraq war to a key Senate committee after Democrats blasted him for planning to bypass it because of a busy schedule.

Earlier in the day, Rumsfeld told reporters he would not attend a morning Senate Armed Services Committee hearing, but would have a closed briefing for all senators along with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and two generals later on Thursday.

Sen. Hillary Clinton, a New York Democrat who led the charge against Rumsfeld, called his "11th hour decision to reverse course ... the right one."


She said senators and the American people "should hear directly from the top civilian leader at the Pentagon, the person most responsible for implementing the President's military policy in Iraq and Afghanistan."

Rumsfeld, known for frosty relations with some lawmakers, had denied he was reluctant to face senators in public, and suggested critics were playing politics.

Democrats, trying to regain control of Congress from Republicans in elections in November, have made Rumsfeld a prime target of criticism over the handling of the three-year-old Iraq war.

Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada fired off a letter to Majority Leader Bill Frist of Tennessee urging him to call on Rumsfeld to appear in the open hearing.

Rumsfeld has not testified publicly to the Armed Services Committee since February. Instead of Rumsfeld, Army Gen. John Abizaid, head of U.S. Central Command, and Marine Corps Gen. Peter Pace, the top U.S. military officer, were set to testify.  
 

Virginia Republican Sen. John Warner, the committee's chairman, and the panel's top Democrat wrote Rumsfeld on July 26 "to confirm your invitation to testify" at the hearing on operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Warner said on Wednesday "at no time did he refuse to come up here," adding the Senate Republican leadership preferred having Rumsfeld, Rice, Pace and Abizaid brief in private.

At the Pentagon, Rumsfeld said that "my calendar was such that to do it in the morning ... would have been difficult."

Without mentioning anyone by name, Rumsfeld added, "Let's be honest. Politics enters into these things. And maybe the person raising the question is interested in that." Clinton is a possible 2008 Democratic presidential candidate.


Democrats have used these committee hearings to savage Rumsfeld. At a 2005 hearing, Sen. Edward Kennedy of Massachusetts asked Rumsfeld, "Isn't it time for you to resign?"

 

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - U.S. troops opened fire on a convoy carrying supporters of radical Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr at a checkpoint south of Baghdad on Thursday, wounding at least 16 people, Iraqi police said.

The U.S. military said it was checking the report and had no immediate comment.

A Mahmudiya police source said the convoy, transporting Sadr supporters from the holy city of Najaf to Baghdad for a rally on Friday, had been passing by a U.S. base in the flashpoint town of Mahmudiya when the shooting took place.

He said the last five vehicles in the 13-vehicle convoy had ignored instructions at a traffic checkpoint, prompting the U.S. soldiers to open fire. He said one person was killed and 16 wounded. A police source in Baghdad said only 16 were wounded.



In June, the U.S. military said its troops had reduced the number of Iraqi civilians they kill after orders to improve checkpoint procedures following the shootings of some 350 Iraqis in such incidents last year.

Sadr commands the Mehdi Army militia, which has clashed repeatedly with U.S. and Iraqi troops in recent weeks during a security crackdown on so-called rogue militias that U.S. officials say pose a major threat to the stability of Iraq.

His movement is also part of the national unity government of Shi'ites, Sunnis and Kurds led by Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki. He is opposed to the presence of U.S. troops in Iraq.

He has called on supporters to gather in Baghdad for a rally after Friday prayers in support of Hizbollah in Lebanon.

 

das hat vor einigen Monaten doch schon mal viel optimistischer geklungen....


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld warned on Thursday against pulling U.S. troops out of Iraq prematurely, saying it would be seen as a victory by extremists who want to control a region extending beyond the Middle East.

"If we left Iraq prematurely as the terrorists demand, the enemy would tell us to leave Afghanistan and then withdraw from the Middle East," he told the Senate Armed Services Committee at a hearing.

"And if we left the Middle East, they'd order us and all those who don't share their militant ideology to leave what they call the occupied Muslim lands from Spain to the Philippines," he said.


"And then we would face not only the evil ideology of these extremists, but an enemy that will have grown accustomed to succeeding in telling free people everywhere what to do."

Testifying about the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, Rumsfeld said the Bush administration wants to bring U.S. troops home but those decisions must be warranted by conditions on the ground.

The head of U.S. Central Command, Army Gen. John Abizaid, also played down prospects for reducing troop levels in Iraq this year because of violence in Baghdad.

The United States has about 133,000 troops in Iraq.

Abizaid called the sectarian violence the worst he had yet seen in Baghdad, and said it could lead to civil war.  
 

"Sectarian violence probably is as bad as I've seen it, in Baghdad in particular," he said. "If not stopped, it is possible that Iraq could move toward civil war."

Republican Sen. John Warner of Virginia, the committee's chairman, suggested the Bush administration might have to come back to Congress for authorization to remain in Iraq if the situation descends into civil war.

Sectarian violence in Baghdad has intensified despite a security crackdown that has added thousands of troops to the streets. The Pentagon last week agreed to add more than 3,000 troops to Iraq's capital, extending those soldiers' deployments.

Marine Corps Gen. Peter Pace, the top U.S. military officer, was asked by a senator if he would have seen the chance of civil war a year ago. He replied, "No sir."

 

lt. Pentagon:


http://www.defenselink.mil/news/casualty.pdf


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Irakkrieg: Hillary Clinton fordert Rumsfeld zum Rücktritt auf

Die New Yorker Senatorin Hillary Clinton hat US-Verteidigungsminister Donald Rumsfeld andauernde Inkompetenz in der Irak-Politik vorgeworfen und ihn deswegen zum Rücktritt aufgefordert.

An US-Präsident George W. Bush appellierte die mögliche Kandidatin für dessen Nachfolge bei der Wahl in zwei Jahren, er möge Rumsfelds Rücktritt akzeptieren, wie Clintons Sprecher gestern sagte.

"Fröhliches Gerede und strategische Fehler"
Clinton lieferte sich zuvor einen harschen Wortwechsel mit dem Minister im Militärausschuss des Senats. "Wir hören eine Menge fröhliches Gerede und rosige Szenarien, aber wegen der groben strategischen Fehler der Regierung und, ehrlich gesagt, der langen Liste der Führungsinkompetenz, sind sie Chef einer verfehlten Politik", sagte Clinton. "Angesichts dieser Ergebnisse, Minister Rumsfeld, warum sollten wir ihren Zusicherungen nun glauben?", fragte sie.

Strategen: Irak am Rand des Bürgerkriegs
Der Irak befindet sich auch nach Einschätzung führender US-Militärvertreter am Rande eines Bürgerkriegs. Vor Clinton haben bereits mehrfach Mitglieder der Demokratischen Partei den Rücktritt Rumsfelds gefordert. Eigentlich wollte dieser gar nicht vor dem Senatsausschuss erscheinen und sich lieber in einer nicht-öffentlichen Sitzung vor dem gesamten Senat äußern. Allerdings stellte Clinton einen Antrag, so dass Rumsfelds im Ausschuss aussagen musste.
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