Operation Phantom Fury--Day 343 - Now Operations River Blitz; Matador--Day 238

UN hails "incredibly peaceful", "smooth" Iraq vote

October 16, 2005

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - The United Nations hailed Iraq's constitutional referendum on Saturday as smooth and "incredibly peaceful" with few infringements of procedure.

"The process has gone smoothly and well from a technical point of view," said Carina Perelli, the head of the U.N. team providing technical assistance to the Iraqi government.

After a parliamentary vote in January in which more than 40 people were killed in insurgent attacks during Iraq's first free election in decades, the referendum was almost bloodless.

"Overall, if you compare it to January it had been incredibly peaceful," Perelli said.

In areas like the insurgent stronghold of Anbar province in the west, she said the difficulty for voters of casting a ballot in the conflict zone or where militants were intimidating people against voting had been recognised by waiving regulations that people must vote at a specific polling station near their home.

"The important thing now, for the first time in a long time they have turned to the polls and not to the guns," Perelli said, adding that, if transport of the ballot papers went well, some result data could be available from late on Sunday.

Baghdad slum backs charter, even without clerics

BAGHDAD, Oct 15 (Reuters) In a Baghdad slum where residents revere Shi'ite clerics, many voters in a constitutional referendum did something unusual today -- they didn't turn to religious leaders for guidance.

Walking past posters of leading Shi'ite cleric Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani and popular firebrand Moqtada al-Sadr, many Iraqis voted ''Yes'' and said the desire for security and better services motivated them, rather than the opinion of clerics.

''We all voted 'Yes' because we wanted to. We need stability and we need electricity and we need basic services,'' said Jassim Mohammed, standing beside his family.

''It's not because clerics told us what to do. It's our decision.'' Once known as Saddam City, the sprawling slum of more than two million was renamed Sadr City after Saddam's fall in 2003 in memory of Moqtada al-Sadr's father, a revered Shi'ite cleric believed killed by Saddam's agents.

The younger Sadr also derives authority by speaking out for the poor.

Posters of Sistani are plastered in many parts of Sadr City.

But few voters mentioned his call on the Iraqi people to support the constitution.

Looking around Sadr City it is easy to see why people want solutions, not promises.

Barefoot children in ragged clothes run through piles of stinking garbage. Raw sewage flows along streets.

Electricity -- as in other parts of Baghdad -- is erratic during the best of times. It went down as voters walked through the polling station to cast their ballots.

Sadr, who led two uprisings against US forces, initially expressed opposition to the constitution. Asked if he was now encouraging them to vote, many Shi'ites stressed they were making their own choices. Others said Sadr wanted voters to decide for themselves.

But they didn't dwell on the point.

One man said he was sure that the charter would defeat insurgents who mount suicide bombings and assassinations.

''I voted 'Yes' because the constitution will fire a bullet into the heart of terrorism,'' said Raad Farraj.

Such high expectations will step up pressure on Iraqi leaders to deliver on promises after urging Iraqis to back the charter with huge posters in Sadr City declaring: ''One Nation. One People. One Constitution.'' But many in Sadr City were unclear about how the constitution would improve their lives.

Iraqi Girl’s Future Getting Brighter

Soldiers of the 155th Brigade Combat Team carry Hadiya Hussein to their vehicle in order to get her to Forward Operating Base Kalsu, Iraq, for a medical examination prior to her leaving for the United States for life saving heart surgery.

October 15, 2005

FORWARD OPERATING BASE KALSU, Iraq -- With a tear in her eye and a smile on her face, Hadiya Hussein and her father began their journey to the United States. In a war where death and destruction are often the main themes seen on the home front, this is a story about life.

Specifically, it is a story about the life of a six-year-old Iraqi girl that had little hope of a real future. She was born with a hole between the bottom two chambers of her heart that prevents oxygenated blood from getting throughout her small, frail body. This limits her in normal daily children’s activities. In other words, the other children are able to run, romp and play, while Hadiya has to stand back and merely watch.

Soldiers with the 155th Brigade Combat Team (BCT) learned about her condition while conducting a routine inspection of the water treatment plant in the village of Tunis, Iraq. The 155th BCT is an Army National Guard unit comprised of soldiers from Mississippi, Arkansas, California, Vermont, and various other states.

"Much effort is being put into Iraq’s medical infrastructure." says 1st Lt. Brent Lindley, medical planner for the 155th BCT, from Hattiesburg, Miss. "Even though an Iraqi Heart Surgeon in Baghdad could perform the surgery, the lack of after care put Hadiya’s chance of survival at about 40 percent if she had it performed in Iraq." If the surgery is performed in the United States by American doctors, he said, her chances of survival, and even living a full life, are greatly increased. Lindley added that without the surgery, there is no way she will be able to survive.

Dr. John L. Meyers, professor of surgery and pediatrics, and chief of cardiothoracic surgery at Penn State Children’s Hospital in Hershey, Penn., has reviewed Hadiya’s medical files and has agreed to perform the life saving operation at no cost to the family. In a letter sent to the American Consulate in Iraq Meyers states, "We have accepted Hadiya Hussein for treatment at the Milton S. Hershey Medical Center Children’s Hospital to correct the abnormality of the ‘Ventricular Septal Defect’. This treatment is not available in Iraq, and will not require the use of [United States] taxpayer revenues."

It is expected that Hadiya will need approximately seven to ten days of inpatient treatment. She should be in the United States approximately three months, after which she will return to Iraq. The estimated cost of the surgery and after care is approximately $20,000, which will be paid for through the hospital’s Children’s International Healthcare Fund. A family that wishes to remain anonymous is paying to fly the little girl and her father to the United States and back to Baghdad.

Hadiya Hussein is examined at the battalion aid station located at Forward Operating Base Kalsu, Iraq, before she leaves for the United States to receive life saving heart saving surgery.

Flying an Iraqi child and a parent to the United States involves the U.S. Department of State issuing a non-immigrant visa. This visa cannot be issued at the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad but is issued in another country. The 155th BCT Chaplain, Lt. Col. Tommy W. Fuller, of Florence, Miss., had been working with Hadiya’s father to obtain this visa through the U.S. Embassy in Amman, Jordan. "They are the future of Iraq and no greater way can we as American Soldiers and the American people show this than by helping a family like Hadiya’s." he said.

"These are very poor yet honorable people who work hard to earn a living just to feed their children. By no means do they have, or could they afford, this type of procedure." Major Bradley Lauver, of Pittsburg, Penn., with the 490th Civil Affairs Battalion said. "The father has pleaded with us to try and save Hadiya’s life. I have lost a child myself, and I know the pain and suffering that one endures, especially as a family trying to cope with the loss of a child." He continued by adding, "I cannot sit back and let this course of action happen without trying everything possible within my means to try to save her life."

While Hadiya and her father are in the United States, private families have volunteered to use their homes and personal resources to provide daily care needs, which include providing food, lodging, and transportation. This is done for the simple reason that the families, who graciously open their doors, want to help.

In the early morning hours of October 8, 2005, a patrol left Forward Operating Base (FOB) Kalsu, en route to Tunis, Iraq. Hadiya and her father, Mohammed, were picked up and brought back to FOB Kalsu. Two Army Blackhawk helicopters flew Hadiya and her father to Baghdad, escorted by Lauver.

An hour later, Lt. Col. Fuller, 1st Lt. Lindley and 2nd Lt. Mark Batiste, a platoon leader in Bravo Battery, 2nd Battalion, 114 Field Artillery, left FOB Kalsu en route to Baghdad on "Highway 1" with Bravo Battery, 2nd Battalion, 114th Field Artillery providing combat patrol security.

Sunday morning, the group "saddled up" and escorted Hadiya and her father to Baghdad International Airport. Hadiya and her father flew from Baghdad, Iraq, to Amman, Jordan. At the U.S. Embassy in Jordan, Hadiya and her father will completed their medical visas to travel to the United States for Hadia’s heart surgery.

The cardiothoracic surgery team at Penn State in Hershey, Penn., is awaiting Hadiya’s arrival. Though more tests will be needed prior to surgery, many of the preoperative tests were done at the battalion aid station by Lt. Col. Mike Brown, an Army thoracic surgeon assigned to FOB Kalsu.

Lauver’s wife will meet Hadiya and Mohammed at an airport in the United States and will assist them throughout their time in America. Recovery is expected to take about two months. Hadiya and her father will return to Iraq at this time.

"If we can make an impact on these children, we help the future of Iraq." Lauver said.

By Sergeant 1st Class Kevin W. Reeves - 155th Brigade Combat Team, public affairs NCO

ADDITIONAL PHOTOS:

Hadiya Hussein and her father, Mohammed, sit together in their home as Soldiers with the 155th Brigade Combat Team discuss getting them to the United States for her life saving heart surgery.

Little Hadiya Hussein (c) is surrounded by the ones she loves at the Baghdad International Airport the morning she left for the United States to receive the heart surgery that will inevitably save her life. Also pictured are her father Mohammed (l) Major Bradley Lauver (rear), and Lt. Col. Tommy Fuller (r).

IRAQ WRAPUP 1-Provinces in focus as Iraq counts votes

An Iraqi soldier talks to a man wounded in a drive-by shooting near a polling station in Baghdad October 15, 2005. Police said the man had just finished voting in the Iraqi constitutional referendum when unknown gunmen in a car shot him as he walked home. (REUTERS/THAIER AL-SUDANI)

15 Oct 2005 - 22:14:53 GMT

Source: Reuters

By Andrew Quinn

BAGHDAD, Oct 16 (Reuters) - Iraqi officials counted ballots on Sunday after a historic vote on a U.S.-backed constitution with the fate of the document in the hands of a few provinces where Sunnis may muster enough "No" votes to block it.

A massive security clampdown prevented any serious insurgent attacks on voting day, with only scattered strikes reported around the country after months of Sunni Arab militant bloodshed that has killed thousands.

Election officials said partial results from the vote could be available as early as Sunday, but that it would take several days for the verdict to become clear.

If the constitution passes Iraq will go to the polls again in December to elect a new, four-year parliament in a step that Washington says will mark its full emergence as a sovereign democracy and new Western ally.

A "No" vote would force the country's warring factions back to the drawing board, limiting December's election to a new interim government to redraft the charter.

Most of Iraq's 18 provinces were expected to support the constitution, following Shi'ite and Kurdish government leaders who have tailored many of its provisions to their needs.

But it could still be blocked if two thirds of the voters in at least three provinces reject it.

Electoral officials said as many as 10 million of Iraq's eligible 15.5 million voters cast ballots, which would give a turnout of around 65 percent -- higher than the 58 percent recorded in January when the country went to the polls for the first time since Saddam Hussein's 2003 overthrow.

Despite the uncertainty, Saturday's election won praise from the United Nations and the Bush Administration.

"The vote today is an important milestone. They will have elections in December for a permanent government. Every time the Iraqi people have been given an opportunity to express themselves politically they have taken it," U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice told the BBC in an interview.

FOCUS ON MOSUL

The White House praised the large turnout in the referendum and the calm relative to the January election of an interim government when more than 40 people were killed in more than 100 insurgent attacks, including suicide bombings.

"It appears that the level of violence was well below the last election," White House spokesman Allen Abney said.

"Today's vote deals a severe blow to the ambitions of the terrorists and sends a clear message to the world that the people of Iraq will decide the future of their country through peaceful elections, not violent insurgencies," he added.

Saturday's ballot came exactly three years to the day after Iraq's last constitutional referendum, which asked voters if they wanted to extend Saddam's rule by seven years. The results gave Saddam 100 percent on a 100 percent turnout in a gesture of defiance toward a U.S. administration set on toppling him.

This year Iraq's sectarian feuds have ruled out such an unambiguous outcome, with many Sunnis fearful Iraq may break up into Shi'ite and Kurdish spheres that will deprive them of both power and oil.

At least two Sunni-dominated provinces -- Anbar to the west and Salahadin around Saddam's hometown of Tikrit -- are all but certain to vote heavily "No". An electoral official in Tikrit itself, Saleh Farah, said votes against the constitution in the city were 43,571 -- or 96 percent of those voting.

The key could lie in the northern province of Nineveh and the city of Mosul. Sitting some 400 km (250 miles) north of Baghdad, Mosul has a volatile mix of about two million Sunni Arabs and Kurds near some of Iraq's richest oil fields.

Arabs accuse Kurdish leaders, whose autonomous region of Kurdistan lies just outside the city, of packing Mosul with Kurds. The Kurds deny this, but it is unclear if Sunni opponents of the constitution can rally the numbers to swing the province to the "No" camp and defeat the constitution nationally.

Few were betting on the outcome, and at least one prominent Sunni leader said that the real answer to Sunni fears may be to seek changes within the new political system.

"If we are certain that no serious infringements or fraud have occurred, then we will deal seriously with the new reality," said Hussein al-Falluji, who negotiated on the current version of the constitution.

"We're focusing on taking part in the coming election at full strength to create a new balance in parliament and then we will act firmly to amend the constitution."

(Additional reporting by Ibon Villelabeitia in Mosul)

AlertNet news

Alaska brigade finds weapons cache

A munitions team sets off one of several explosions to dispose of a weapons cache found Tuesday in Iraq. C Troop, 4th Squadron, 14th U.S. Cavalry, part of the 172nd Stryker Brigade Combat Team based at Fort Wainwright, raided a chicken farm in the vicinity of Anah, Iraq, early Tuesday. Officials said they had reason to believe that the chicken farm was being used to store weapons and ammunition. (Photo courtesy U.S. Army)

By TATABOLINE BRANT - Anchorage Daily News

Published: October 15, 2005

It's not unusual for the soldiers of the Alaska-based 172nd Stryker Brigade to seize weapons caches while patrolling the streets and villages of Iraq. But the stockpile they unearthed outside a chicken coop Tuesday set a record.

It took three days to blow up.

"Without a doubt, this was a significant find and certainly crippling to the (anti-Iraqi forces) operating in my sector," Lt. Col. Mark Freitag wrote by e-mail this week from Rawah, Iraq, where his cavalry unit, from Fort Wainwright in Fairbanks, is stationed.

Stryker brigade commander Col. Michael Shields said the cache is the largest one the 172nd has uncovered since the 3,800-person brigade arrived in Iraq in early September.

The action started early Tuesday morning with a raid on a chicken farm near Anah, a remote desert village southeast of Rawah.

"We had reason to believe that the chicken farm was being used to store weapons and ammunition," Freitag wrote, without going into further detail.

Freitag's C Troop commander, Capt. John Hawbaker, 28, led a raid on one of the farm's chicken coops, but found it empty. Then, one of his "industrious" enlisted men, 31-year-old Staff Sgt. Jeremiah Mestas, eyed several depressions and dirt piles behind the chicken farm, Freitag said.

What happened next was described in an official Task Force Freedom press release this way: "Thanks to the diligence and innovation of a soldier they were able to get on-site excavation equipment operational and uncover the munitions."

In other words, Freitag explained in his e-mail, "(Mestas) 'hotwired' a backhoe that was on site and began digging."

Mestas, a Colorado native, first uncovered a military van filled with ammunition and weapons. He found more stockpiles as he continued to dig, Freitag said.

Freitag, 39, said it is not uncommon for his soldiers to find small caches of ammunition hidden away in buildings and culverts.

In the city of Mosul, where another large part of the 172nd is stationed, commanders have reported uncovering guns and rockets in vehicles and homes. Just recently, for example, an Alaska platoon in Mosul uncovered a half-dozen improvised bombs while on patrol, according to an article this week in Newsweek magazine.

But this was a "huge find" and Freitag called in reinforcements to help with the excavation. The assisting units brought two bulldozers with them (not hot-wired).

Pictures of the site show a metal trailer buried deep in the sand in an area that is flat and dusty as far as the eye can see. Explosive munitions of all shapes and sizes line metal shelves inside the windowless container. Large cloth sacks full of something sit nearby.

In the end, the team uncovered a chilling array of weapons: 220 rocket-propelled grenades; 40,000 7.62mm armor-piercing rifle or machine-gun rounds; 100 2.75-inch diameter rockets; 10 mines; 1,000 .50-caliber rifle or machine-gun rounds; 68 mortar rounds; 100 shotgun shells; 20 improvised claymore mines; 1,959 artillery projectiles; one rifle; a mortar bipod; four 122mm rocket engines; one mortar tube; 3,000 feet of detonation cord; 37 40-pound bags of red and black explosive powder; and 100 1-ounce primers.

The munitions were blown up, or "reduced," in military lingo, over three days by an ordnance disposal unit.

"It was the picture of a successful combined and joint operation," Freitag said.

On Friday it was unclear if anyone was living at the chicken farm or was wounded or detained in the raid. Freitag could not be reached for follow up questions because of the 12-hour time difference between Alaska and Iraq.

The Task Force Freedom press release concluded on this hopeful note:

"Anyone with information on anti-Iraqi insurgent activities should call the Joint Coordination Center's telephone numbers at 513462 or 07701623300."

Staff Sgt. Jeremiah Mestas, 31, of Colorado, noticed several depressions and some dirt piles behind a chicken farm southeast of Rawah, Iraq, early Tuesday. Mestas hotwired a backhoe that was on site and uncovered a major stockpile of weapons and ammunition. Mestas is with C Troop, 4th Squadron, 14th U.S. Cavalry, part of the 172nd Stryker Brigade Combat Team based at Fort Wainwright. (Photo courtesy U.S. Army)

The 172nd Stryker Brigade based at Fort Wainwright near Fairbanks raided a chicken farm and found a buried weapons stockpile. (Photo courtesy U.S. Army)

Fairbanks churches collect soccer balls for shipment to Iraq

October 15, 2005 - Fairbanks, AK

SOCCER STYLE: If you are a kid in Iraq you grow up playing soccer, even if you have to use a rock or a piece of trash as a ball. Some soldiers from Fort Wainwright are trying to improve the situation.

Soccer balls are being collected today and Sunday at two local churches and are to be shipped to Iraq next week by the Army.

The 2nd Battalion 1st Infantry Regiment of the Stryker Brigade has collection boxes at the Door of Hope Church and the Friends Community Church.

Door of Hope is at 270 Fairhill Road off the Steese Highway, on the uphill side of the intersection with Farmers Loop. The Friends Community Church is near the corner of Lathrop Street and 30th Avenue in south Fairbanks.

Lt. Col. Chuck Webster, who is deployed to Mosul, is among those who sent word back to Fairbanks that it would be great to have more soccer balls to hand out to kids.

"Every kid in Iraq from the day they can walk up until they are in their 30s plays soccer," said Capt. Tim Sawyer, who is the rear detachment commander for the regiment at Fort Wainwright.

"They play with everything they can find, whether it's a rock, a tin can, a piece of trash or an old ball," he said.

"When the units go on patrols through these little towns, the kids just swarm them. The soldiers like to pass out candy and that kind of thing," Sawyer said.

Sawyer said that the kids would appreciate getting soccer balls and it also helps the U.S. soldiers. "It builds relationships with the young Iraqis, which is important," he said.

If you have an extra air pump and needle, you might toss those in as well. A report from Newsweek this week said that the 172nd Stryker Brigade has picked up 100,000 soccer balls from Kurdistan, but there was a shortage of pumps.

* * *

SHOE UPDATE: In the past couple of weeks, Fairbanksans have responded in generous fashion to the request reported here of a young wife of a soldier for donations of kids' shoes.

So far, Jammie Tinsley has boxed up 644 pairs of shoes for kids in Iraq. She has also received enough donations to pay for the shipping.

This started because her husband, Cpl. Mason Tinsley, likes to give shoes to kids he sees walking barefoot in Iraq.

"I'm really happy with the way this has turned out," Jammie said of the response. "It's great."

People have continued to drop off shoes at the News-Miner, where there is a box where shoes can be left for Jammie.

Mason's commander has even said that he might let him and some other soldiers go out just to hand out shoes, Jammie said.

Attacks on Nigerian oil installations are the work of a terrorist group, GSPC in Nigeria

By KINGSLEY OMONOBI

Sunday, October 16, 2005

SECURITY agencies in the country may have been placed on red alert following an alarm raised by the Federal Government that it had uncovered a 10,000-man terrorist organisation in the Niger Delta region whose motive is to disrupt Nigeria’s oil production by kidnapping and killing oil workers.

Government also expressed concern over the activities of an Algerian terrorist group, the Salafist Group For Preaching and Combat (GSPC), believed to be affiliates to the dreaded Al-Qaeda, which it said has recruited and trained many Nigerians on destructive and sabotage acts against the country’s interests.

Director-General of the National Intelligence Agency, Ambassador Uche Okeke, who made the revelations in Abuja, disclosed that these groups were being sponsored by foreigners in connivance with wealthy individuals within the country who mean Nigeria no good.

He told Sunday Vanguard: “Though some people might dispute this, the fact is that terrorist activities have been established in the Southern part of the country, particularly in relation to the activities of the Ijaw militants in the Niger Delta area. This area has remained volatile with incessant disruption of oil exploration activities, kidnapping and killing of oil workers.”

“This group whose total strength is estimated at 10, 000 is equipped with sophisticated weapons that facilitate its attacks against oil related targets especially oil installations in the area. But for the intervention of the federal government through dialogue, the situation would have been worse”, the DG said, explaining, “How and where this group acquired its weapons is still a mystery and source of concern to government.”

He disclosed that the recent spate of violence in Nigeria particularly in some Northern states like Yobe and Borno had underscored the reality of the presence of terrorist intentions against Nigeria.

“The fact that Nigeria was listed by Osama Bin Laden among five apostate states ripe for revolution also confirms our worst fears’’ the intelligence chief said and pointed out: “It is on record that out of these five states, Nigeria is the only country yet to experience a major attack by Al-Qaeda or its sympathizers.”

“Furthermore, the activities of the Algerian terrorist group, the Salafist Group For Preaching and Combat (GSPC), in the Sahel countries of West Africa from Mauritania to Niger Republic and Nigeria are sources of concern to us”, Okeke said. It is instructive that three Nigerians were among the GSPC combatants captured by Chadian soldiers during an exchange of fire between Chadian forces and GSPC terrorists in April 2004. There were also some Nigerians among those killed by the Chadian troops”, he disclosed.

The NIA boss concluded: “You would recall that at least 17 people were killed in Yobe between December 2003 and January 2004 when the self styled Talibans, otherwise known as ‘‘Al-Sunna wal Jamma’’ attempted to impose what they called purification of Islam on the community where they set up their well fortified military styled camps.

The group also attacked two local government headquarters in Borno State in September 2004 causing death, destruction and pain to many people. These events are linked with international terrorism organizations, and there is evidence of foreign funding for the group.”

“You may also want to know that in December 2003, the NIA provided information about a planned terrorist attack on the MEGA PLAZA in Lagos, which is owned by an Israeli citizen. The Agency, the department of State Services and the Nigerian Police Force mobilized pre-emptive forces on receipt of the plan.”

“Though the attack did not take place most probably because of the presence of security operatives in and around the area, it shows that Nigeria is very vulnerable and could become target for terrorist attacks from international terrorists organizations.” Okeke disclosed that, “in July this year, operatives of the NIA interrogated one Al-Qaeda operative in Tripoli, Libya who confirmed that he was sent to Nigeria by the Al-Qaeda organization in late 2003 to arrange a number of targets for them.”

“He successfully concluded his assignment and sent his reports to his handlers in Afghanistan through a Nigerian he recruited before leaving the country in October 2004. The Nigerian was arrested by Pakistani authorities while trying to return to Nigeria having delivered the Al-Qaeda operatives work to their handlers”.

Al Qaeda "barber" arrested in Iraq, US forces say

15 Oct 2005

Source: Reuters

BAGHDAD, Oct 15 (Reuters) - U.S. forces in Iraq said on Saturday that they were holding a man suspected of acting as a barber to senior al Qaeda militants and helping them change their appearance to evade capture.

The man, named as Walid Muhammad Farhan Juwar al-Zubaydi -- "aka 'The Barber'", the U.S. military statement said -- was arrested in Baghdad on Sept. 24, the day before U.S. troops caught up with and killed a militant they described as the most senior al Qaeda leader in the capital, Abu Azzam.

"'The Barber's' duties included altering senior al Qaeda in Iraq members' appearances by dying hair colour, altering hairstyles and changing facial hair in their efforts to evade capture," the military said in the statement.

Also detained on Sept. 24 was Ibrahim Muhammad Subhi Khayri al-Rihawi, the military said, naming him also as Abu Khalil and calling him a "close associate" of Abu Azzam.

"(He) served as an executive assistant for the terrorist emir. He also acted as a banker for Azzam and stored the terrorist organization's funds so they would not be confiscated should Abu Azzam be killed or captured," it added.

Abu Azzam was described by U.S. commanders after his death as second only to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi in the Islamist network's organisation in Iraq.

U.S. forces are keen to show progress in tracking down insurgents in Iraq after two and a half years in which the militants have inflicted thousands of casualties on Iraqi civilians and security forces and killed hundreds of Americans.

AlertNet news

Russian police round up Muslim men

Saturday, October 15, 2005

By MIKE ECKEL - ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER

NALCHIK, Russia -- When Zarema Valgasova last saw her son, he was semiconscious and bleeding profusely from a badly broken arm with cigarette burns on his body - the result, she says, of police torture after his arrest.

After Thursday's attack by dozens of Islamic militants on police and security facilities in the southern Russian city of Nalchik, police rounded up more than three dozen people - most of them Muslim men.

The latest violence was in Kabardino-Balkiriya republic, a tense area ridden with poverty and corruption. It underscored the volatility of the Caucasus region where a long-running conflict in Chechnya is spilling over with increasing frequency to nearby republics.

At least 108 people, including 72 attackers, were killed in this week's fighting, according to a tally of accounts by officials, news reports and an Associated Press reporter.

Twenty-four law enforcement officers were killed and 51 were wounded, government officials said.

Chechen rebels have claimed involvement in the attacks, raising fears that Islamic militants who have been fighting Russian forces for most of the past decade were opening a new front in the troubled Caucasus.

Rebels for years have harassed Russian forces in Chechnya with roadside bombs and homemade explosives, but the Nalchik attacks appeared to be part of a strategy to target areas outside the volatile republic and keep Moscow off-balance.

The attack comes amid a long-running regional campaign aimed at undermining nascent Islamic extremism - which Russian officials describe as "Wahhabism" - a term stemming from the strict and austere form of Islam predominant in Saudi Arabia and practiced by Osama bin Laden.

Rights lawyers and the region's officially sanctioned Islamic leader say the campaign has caught up innocent, peaceful young Muslims, alienating and offending them as they rediscover their religious heritage.

If police continue their crackdown on Kabardino-Balkariya Muslims, it could lead to renewed violence against authorities, said Larisa Dolgova, a lawyer who represents Muslims in their complaints about harassment and torture.

"Muslims will exercise their right to believe," she said. "If not, I promise there will be mass disorder."

Valgasova said her 26-year-old son, Daniil Khamukov, is a family man with two young children - and an observant Muslim.

On Thursday morning, not long after gunfire reverberated around the city of 235,000, he said goodbye to his wife and two young children and set off for his job as a window dresser.

By 11 a.m., his battered body was in the courtyard outside his home, bleeding from a compound arm fracture, Valgasova said. He lay there for seven hours, she said. Paramedics refused to help.

"They told us: 'They say he's one of the fighters. Let him die,'" she said.

About 6 p.m., police came and collected Khamukov and took him to a local precinct house. Valgasova said she did not know anything more about his fate.

Dolgova, the lawyer, said Khamukov was arrested simply because he is an observant Muslim who does not practice his belief through official channels, for example, by attending worship services at Nalchik's only authorized mosque.

Even before Thursday's attacks, Dolgova said relatives of detained Muslims had turned to her for help filing legal complaints about mistreatment by law enforcement officials.

"Moral, psychological, abusive attitudes, that's what the authorities are showing toward observant Muslims," she said.

Anas Pshikhachev, the official mufti, or Islamic leader, for Kabardino-Balkariya, mildly criticized local authorities.

For example, he said the decision to close all the city's mosques except for his was a mistake. And some female university students had been accosted for wearing headscarves while some observant men confronted for wearing the style of beard of devout Muslims, added.

But the mufti was quick to add those were isolated incidents.

Still, this spring, the region saw a series of demonstrations by residents demanding an end to arbitrary police sweeps in search of what they said were Islamic extremists.

Russian officials said the 2002 seizure of hundreds of people in a Moscow theater, the 2004 school hostage-taking in the southern city of Beslan that killed 330 and other terror attacks were conducted by the Chechen militants with support and guidance from al-Qaida.

However, there is no firm evidence the two groups are coordinating their strategies.

Man Accused of Punching Out Plane Window

Oct 14, 2005- 9:09 AM US/Eastern

TAMPA, Fla. -- A passenger punched out the interior pane of an airplane window on an American West flight from Las Vegas to Florida, authorities said.

Ryan J. Marchione, 24, shattered the inner plastic shield covering the glass window and disconnected its frame about 90 minutes into the flight, according to an FBI affidavit. The outer window was not damaged and the plane did not depressurize, the airline said.

Marchione was arrested when the plane landed Wednesday at Tampa International Airport. He faces up to 20 years in federal prison if convicted of a charge of damaging or destroying an aircraft while it was operating.

About 90 minutes after the plane departed, Marchione "woke abruptly from his sleep and turned to the passenger seated in 7B ... raised a clenched fist to his shoulder as if he was going to strike the passenger in 7B, then suddenly turned and struck the exterior window," the affidavit said.

"It appears to have come out of nowhere," said Marchione's attorney, Thomas Ostrander. "Perhaps it was some sort of a psychotic episode as a result of drug abuse."

Marchione was released on $25,000 bail to home detention with electronic monitoring.

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