Posted on 04/08/2005 8:44:35 PM PDT by TexKat
The toppled statue of Saddam Hussein is seen in in Firdos Square downtown Baghdad in this April 9, 2003 file photo. (AP Photo/Jerome Delay/File)
An U.S. Army soldier watches the road at a military checkpoint in Baghdad on February 25, 2005. Security was tightened across the city as the Iraqi National Assembly met on Wednesday. Iraq's parliament elected Kurdish leader Jalal Talabani as the country's new president on Wednesday, breaking a political impasse and paving the way for a new government more than nine weeks after historic elections. Picture taken on February 25, 2005. REUTERS/Ali Jasim
By Donna Miles
American Forces Press Service
WASHINGTON, April 8, 2005 – Two years ago April 9, the world looked on, captivated by the compelling television images of a towering statue of Saddam Hussein being ripped down in Baghdad, Iraq, and images of the Iraqi dictator being burned on the streets. Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz likened the view to “seeing the Berlin Wall come down all over again,” and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld lauded it as an important sign of things to come.
“We’re seeing history unfold and events that will shape the course of a country, the fate of a people and potentially the future of the region,” Rumsfeld said during an April 9, 2003, Pentagon press briefing. “Saddam Hussein is now taking his rightful place alongside (former dictators) Hitler, Stalin, Lenin, Ceausescu in the pantheon of failed brutal dictators.
“And the Iraqi people are well on their way to freedom,” he added.
The toppling of Saddam’s statue was just one -- but perhaps the most symbolic -- part of the fall of Baghdad from the grip of the brutal dictator who had ruled it with an iron fist for more than three decades. Days earlier, coalition troops captured the city’s airport, named after Saddam, and renamed it Baghdad International Airport. They also took the Presidential Palace in downtown Baghdad and began moving freely through the city.
Eight months after his larger-than-life image was pulled from its podium in downtown Baghdad, Saddam was pulled from a “spider hole” near his hometown of Tikrit. About 600 members of the 1st Brigade, 4th Infantry Division, along with special operations forces, captured him after receiving intelligence that the former dictator was in the area.
Saddam remains imprisoned at an undisclosed location awaiting trial on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity.
Now, two years after the launch of Operation Iraqi Freedom, Iraq is on a new course. During a March 19 radio address marking the second anniversary of the start of the operation, President Bush heralded successes being made.
“Before coalition forces arrived, Iraq was ruled by a dictatorship that murdered its own citizens, threatened its neighbors, defied the world,” the president said. “Now, because we acted, Iraq’s government is no longer a threat to the world or its own people. Today, the Iraqi people are taking charge of their own destiny.”
On April 6, Iraq’s Transitional National Assembly took a step toward that destiny by selecting its next president and two deputy presidents, representatives of the country’s diverse population.
“Iraq’s Transitional National Assembly took a momentous step forward in Iraq’s transition to democracy,” Bush said April 6 upon the election of Iraq’s presidency council by an overwhelming majority.
Speaking at a Pentagon town hall meeting on March 18, the eve of Operation Iraqi Freedom’s second anniversary, Rumsfeld praised those who have made changes in Iraq possible.
“The positive changes under way would certainly not have happened … without the hard work and the dedication of America’s men and women in uniform, their families, and indeed, the efforts of all of you who have devoted your lives to our country’s defense,” he said. “I want you to know that we are grateful and your country is grateful for your service.”
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The State Department ramped up its travel advisory for Yemen on Friday as it warned it was concerned about possible attacks by extremists against U.S. citizens or interests in the Middle Eastern state.
Britain also cited risks in Yemen on Friday. It suspended work at its embassy there "in the light of a current, credible threat to Western interests," the Foreign Office said in a statement.
Yemen was the site of the 2000 USS Cole bombing, which killed 17 U.S. sailors, and the 2002 attack on the French supertanker Limburg, which killed one.
The U.S. notice warned Americans to delay traveling to Yemen and authorized the voluntary departure of family members and nonemergency personnel working at the U.S. Embassy in the capital Sanaa.
"The Department of State warns U.S. citizens to defer non-essential travel to Yemen," it said in the latest travel warning.
The department issued a warning in November that the risks to all U.S. citizens in Yemen remained high due to terrorist activities, but wording in its newest warning was stronger.
"The Department is concerned about possible attacks by extremist individuals or groups against U.S. citizens, facilities, businesses and perceived interests and therefore has authorized the voluntary departure from Yemen of non-emergency personnel and eligible family members," it warned.
The earlier advisory did not ask Americans to delay nonessential travel, nor did it authorize a voluntary departure from the embassy in Sanaa.
Britain's warning recommended vigilance.
"There is a high threat from terrorism and evidence that terrorists may target Western, including British, interests in Yemen. You should be particularly vigilant in places frequented by foreigners, such as hotels," the Foreign Office said in advice to travelers.
A Foreign Office spokesman said the embassy, closed on Friday for the Muslim Sabbath, would not open on Saturday as scheduled.
"We are continuing to monitor the security situation. The safety of our staff is paramount," the official said when asked when the embassy would reopen.
Yemen, the ancestral home of Osama bin Laden, has cooperated with the U.S.-led war on terrorism since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, and Washington has praised it for fighting al Qaeda.
An Iraqi girl reaches out to shake hands with a passing US soldier from the 1st Battalion 5th Infantry during a search for hidden weapons in Mosul, 400 kilometers north of Baghdad.(AFP/Cris Bouroncle)
Cpl. Glenn James Watkins, 42, shown in this photo released by The Washington National Guard was killed in Iraq, April 5, 2005. Watkins was one of more than seventy Washington Army National Guardsmen that volunteered to remain in Iraq when the rest of the 81st Brigade returned to Washington during March and early April of this year, the National Guard said. (AP Photo/Washington National Guard)
DoD Identifies Army Casualty No. 343-05 IMMEDIATE RELEASE April 8, 2005
The Department of Defense announced today the death of a soldier who was supporting Operation Iraqi Freedom.
Spc. Glenn J. Watkins, 42, of Carlsbad, Calif., died April 5 in Baghdad, Iraq, when a vehicle-born improvised explosive device detonated near his military vehicle. Watkins was assigned to the Army National Guard’s 1st Battalion, 161st Infantry, Kent, Wash.
For further information related to this release, contact Army Public Affairs at (703) 692-2000.
DoD Identifies Marine Casualty No. 342-05 IMMEDIATE RELEASE April 8, 2005
The Department of Defense announced today the death of a Marine who was supporting Operation Iraqi Freedom.
Lance Cpl. Juan C. Venegas, 21, of Simi Valley, Calif., died April 7 as a result of a vehicle accident while conducting combat operations in Al Anbar Province, Iraq. He was assigned to 3rd Battalion, 4th Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division, I Marine Expeditionary Force, Twentynine Palms, Calif. During Operation Iraqi Freedom, Venegas was attached to Regimental Combat Team 8, 2nd Marine Division, II Marine Expeditionary Force.
The incident is currently under investigation.
Media with questions about this Marine can call the Twentynine Palms Public Affairs Office at (760) 830-6213.
Iraqis rally after Friday prayers in the Sadr City section of Baghdad, Iraq Friday, April 8, 2005. Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, who led uprisings against the U.S.-led coalition last year, called on his supporters to stage a mass protest at Firdos Square in Baghdad Saturday, where jubilant demonstrators pulled down a statue of Saddam Hussein two years earlier, marking the beginning of a U.S.-led occupation of the country. (AP Photo/Karim Kadim)
Al-Sadr Followers Hold Protest Marches
By ANTONIO CASTANEDA, Associated Press Writer
BAGHDAD, Iraq - Gunmen fired on supporters of the radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr on Friday, killing one person and wounding two others as they made their way to protests planned for the second anniversary of Baghdad's fall to U.S.-led troops.
In the poor New Baghdad neighborhood, meanwhile, four children were killed Friday when they came across explosives while digging through garbage for metal scraps, witnesses and police said. It was unclear what caused the blast.
"It's really ironic," said Qais Mousa, who saw the explosion. "We are living in a rich country, while these poor innocents are dying in this horrible way."
After dark Friday, al-Sadr supporters marched and chanted through the city, hanging anti-U.S. banners on columns surrounding Firdos Square, where a jubilant crowd pulled down a statue of Saddam Hussein on April 9, 2003, as U.S. troops spread through the capital.
Al-Sadr had urged his supporters to gather Saturday at the square, and a group was at the landmark along with police after the 11 p.m. curfew. U.S. and Iraqi officials said they were preparing for Saturday's demonstration.
The cleric had kept out of the limelight since his Mahdi Army militiamen accepted truces last year after failed uprisings in the southern city of Najaf and Baghdad's Sadr City neighborhood. But he has stepped up criticism of the United States in recent weeks, mostly by organizing Saturday's protest.
Sunni Muslim clerics also called demonstrations for Saturday to demand that American and other foreign troops leave Iraq.
Sheik Hassan al-Edhari, an official at al-Sadr's Baghdad office, said al-Sadr's mainly Shiite followers want the new Iraqi government to set a schedule for pulling out foreign troops and for putting Saddam on trial.
During his Friday morning sermon in the capital, the head of an influential Sunni group accused coalition forces of "killing the Iraqi people daily."
"We demand that the occupation troops withdraw from Iraq. We don't want them to do it immediately, but we want them to set a timetable for their withdrawal," said Sheik Harith al-Dahri, whose Association of Muslim Scholars is believed to have ties to Iraq's insurgents.
But at another Sunni mosque in Baghdad, Sheik Ahmad Hasan al-Taha instructed worshippers to refrain from marking the April 9 anniversary. Al-Taha also called for the release of arrested religious figures, claiming there were more than 90 imams in detention.
U.S. military officials said they had nothing planned to mark the anniversary, and refused to comment on security measures. But additional Bradley Fighting Vehicles and Humvees were seen in areas where demonstrations were expected.
A bomb killed a U.S. soldier Friday near Hawija, 150 miles north of Baghdad, the U.S. military said. It also reported that a Marine died Wednesday in a motor vehicle accident during combat operations in Fallujah, 40 miles west of Baghdad. No other details were provided.
The Iraqi army said three masked gunmen killed an Iraqi army officer, Maj. Mahmoud Hassan al-Yassiri, late Thursday in the southern city of Basra.
In the Shiite holy city of Najaf, four civilians were injured by a bomb that exploded near a bus station, police Capt. Qussai al-Jazaeri said.
___
Associated Press writer Mariam Fam in Baghdad contributed to this report.
Happy liberation day !
A bit of a change in tone, Sheik?
15 Iraqi troops killed in explosion:
09 April 2005, © United Press International
World News, BAGHDAD: At least 15 Iraqi National Guard troops were killed Saturday in a large explosion south of Baghdad, official sources said.
A defense ministry source said the incident occurred in the Latifiyah area, but gave no other details.
The attack came on the 2nd anniversary of Baghdad's fall to U.S.-led forces and the ouster of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein on April 9, 2003.
http://www.newkerala.com/news-daily/news/features.php?action=fullnews&id=95703
Sat, Apr 09, 2005:
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (Reuters) - Ousted Taliban remnants have killed a senior Afghan provincial official several days after kidnapping him, a Taliban spokesman said on Saturday.
Sarajuddin, chief of Zabul's power and water department, was killed after a group of Taliban seized him two days ago outside the town of Qalat, Zabul's provincial capital, the spokesman said.
The murder was confirmed by a local police official.
His killing is the third such murder of a local official in less than a week in the restive south, the former bastion of the Taliban.
Taliban guerrillas fatally wounded General Geranai, former deputy head of the army corps for the south in neighboring Kandahar province on Thursday, a day after killing a security official of adjacent Helmand province.
The number of attacks by the radical Islamists fell over the winter after they failed to make good on a vow to derail landmark presidential elections in October.
But with the onset of spring, low-scale violence linked to Taliban rebels has broken out in several southern and eastern areas of the country.
The rebels killed five Afghan policemen in a firefight in Zabul province on Thursday.
Last update - 17:34 - 09/04/2005
By Arnon Regular, Haaretz Correspondents and News Agencies
Israel Defense Forces soldiers shot dead two Palestinian youths in the Gaza Strip Saturday.
The two boys, 14, were identified as Mussa and Khaled Ghanam. An additional Palestinian youth was seriously wounded in the incident near the Tel a-Sultan neighborhood of Rafah, near the border with Egypt.
According to Palestinian sources, a group of youths was playing on the outskirts of the Rafah refugee camp, several hundred meters from the frontier. IDF forces opened fire on them from the south. The injured youth underwent surgery at a Rafah hospital.
Three men had approached a buffer zone near Israel's border with southern Gaza in the Rafah refugee camp. Troops fired at them after they failed to heed warning shots, a military source said.
A rise in violent incidents has been registered recently in the Gaza Strip. A Qassam rocket landed in the Negev town of Sderot several days ago, and a mortar shell landed in a Gaza settlement.
No Palestinians or Israelis were killed in the Strip during the month of March. In the West Bank, one Palestinian, 25-year-old Islamic Jihad activists Abd al-Latif Abu Khalil was killed.
Today 09 Apr 2005 | 17:59 KT
BAGHDAD, April 9 (KUNA) -- One Iraqi citizen was killed and 10 others were wounded on Saturday in two blasts that took place in separate locations in Mosul in northern Iraq.
Witnesses told Kuwait News Agency (KUNA) that a car driven by a suicidal bomber blew up, targeting an Iraqi police patrol near the Agricultural Department in western Mosul, killing one citizen and wounding 10 others, among them were policemen.
Other witnesses said another car exploded at a road intersection in central Mosul, noting that Iraqi security forces cordoned off the scene immediately, while losses were not determined yet.
The witnesses added that ambulances rushed to transport victims of the second attack to a nearby hospital.
Earlier today, a bomb explosion seriously injured two civilians at a crossroad in the southern city of Basra.
Eyewitnesses told the Kuwaiti news agenct that the explosion was aimed at a police patrol that passed by that road but instead it hit a civilian car that followed it.
The two civilians were transferred to the hospital for treatment.
Good morning Gucho, all.
Sat, Apr. 09, 2005:
Members of armor unit attached to Fort Benning's 3rd Brigade, 3rd Infantry Division find three cars, motorcycle rigged for bombing in Iraq.
BY ANGELIQUE SOENARIE - Staff Writer
A unit attached to Fort Benning's 3rd Brigade, 3rd Infantry Division found another weapons cache in the Diyala Province of Iraq Wednesday, said Maj. Steve Warren, the brigade's spokesman in Iraq.
Members of the 2nd Battalion, 34th Armor Regiment, based in Fort Riley, Kan., found three cars and a motorcycle rigged to be used as bombs. The weapons and ammunition were found about 20 miles southeast of Baqouba. It's the second cache the brigade found since it arrived in February, Warren said via satellite phone.
The armor unit also found 64 rocket-propelled grenades, six rolls of detonation cord, more than 600 machine gun rounds, five mortar rounds, five 57 mm rockets, 28 flares and 180 kilograms of C4 explosives, said Warren.
"They were driving down the road and saw this car parked in palm groves, and they didn't think it looked right," he said. "So they stopped and went to investigate it, and that's what they turned up."
Warren said no one was nearby when soldiers continued to go deeper into the groves, finding more weapons.
About 500 soldiers of the 2-34 Armor trained with the 3rd Brigade last summer at the Joint Readiness Training Center at Fort Polk, La. This is the unit's first deployment in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom.
"We're happy we've taken that much weaponry out of circulation," Warren said. "That was all stuff that was going to hurt us or the Iraqi Army. We're counting that as a big find."
$14 million for towns in Iraq’s ‘triangle of death’
By Mahmoud al-Yasseri
Azzaman, April 9, 2005
The interim cabinet has allocated $14 million to improve public services in three of the most restive and violent towns in the country.
The money, according to Zaki Mattar of Baghdad’s Water Department, will go to Latifiya, Yousifiya and al-Rasheed, which are scenes of daily battles between insurgents and U.S. and Iraqi forces.
The towns, south of Baghdad, are almost no-go areas for Iraqi troops and police and on Saturday the insurgents killed 15 Iraqi soldiers traveling in an area close to Latifiya south of Baghdad.
The towns are situated in a lawless region, known in international press as ‘the triangle of death.’
Mattar said his department “will construct 24 water projects to provide one million gallons of water a day.”
New water pipes will be extended in the area to carry drinking water even to remote villages in the area, he said
Contracts for the implementation of the 24 projects are ready and will be announced “in a few days,” he said.
Eventually, the department will lay a nearly 17-kilometer long network of pipes in the three towns, Mattar said.
Power and clean water are still scarce in Iraq two years after Baghdad fell to U.S. troops.
The reconstruction of the war-ravaged country has yet to start and many Iraqis still drink water directly from rivers and wells.
Public service projects in the three run-down towns are in urgent need of rehabilitation.
Even in Baghdad, sewage water inundates many streets and mostly flows untreated into the river.
But Mattar said his department had executed 211-kilometer long of pipes in Baghdad and the outlying towns in the past year and that 90% of water projects in these areas have been rehabilitated.
http://www.azzaman.com/english/index.asp?fname=news\2005-04-09\10327.htm
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