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More than 30,000 tribal members in Iraq have come forward to work with U.S. and Iraqi forces over the past six months, a phenomenon that is spreading beyond Anbar province to Baghdad and other regions of the country, according to U.S. commanders. The Iraqi government, at the urging of U.S. authorities, this month ordered Iraqi army and police units to integrate the volunteers into their operations. "That is huge. This gives them the approval that we are looking for," said Brig. Gen. John F. Campbell, deputy commander of the U.S. military in Baghdad. However, questions remain over whether alliances with...

Iraq violent death rates 'plunge' Figures show reduction of violence, but it is unclear how long it will last The number of Iraqi civilians killed per month in bombings and shootings has fallen to the lowest level this year, the Iraqi government says. In September, 884 civilians were killed by violence, less than half the figure for August, the government said. The BBC's Jon Brain in Baghdad says the figures suggest the so-called surge involving 30,000 extra US troops is having some success. September also saw the lowest number of US troops killed for more than a year. SEPTEMBER...

By Bob Woodward Washington Post Staff Writer Monday, September 17, 2007; A03 Alan Greenspan, the former Federal Reserve chairman, said in an interview that the removal of Saddam Hussein had been "essential" to secure world oil supplies, a point he emphasized to the White House in private conversations before the 2003 invasion of Iraq. Greenspan, who was the country's top voice on monetary policy at the time Bush decided to go to war in Iraq, has refrained from extensive public comment on it until now, but he made the striking comment in a new memoir out today that "the Iraq...

General Petraeus’ testimony on Capitol Hill last week undermined numerous Democratic talking points about the progress of the war and the situation on the ground in Iraq. But through their own behavior before and during the hearings, the Democrats themselves were responsible for exploding one of their most cherished myths: Republicans were the partisans prone to a particularly nasty form of character assassination – that is, challenging the patriotism of those who disagree with them. Democrats have long claimed to be victims of Republican challenges to their love of country. As early as 2003, John Kerry told the Associated Press,...

INDIANAPOLIS -- As hundreds of Republican activists from a dozen Midwestern states gathered Friday to talk about the 2008 election, one of the more divisive topics amid the vendor booths and candidate tables was a senior GOP senator's call for President Bush to bring some troops home from Iraq by Christmas. Many delegates were angry with Sen. John Warner of Virginia, a former Navy secretary and one of Congress' most respected military voices. They said he seemed to be undercutting Bush, selling short recent reports of military successes and pre-empting a mid-September report to Congress from top military and diplomatic...

WASHINGTON: US President George W. Bush signaled Saturday his unwillingness to consider early US troop reductions in Iraq, saying new offensive operations there were just in their "early stages." The statement, made in his weekly radio address, followed a fervent plea by John Warner, the top Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee, who publicly asked the president to initiate by September 15 at least a symbolic drawdown of US military forces from Iraq. Warner, a former secretary of the Navy and a widely respected authority on military affairs, suggested Thursday the president bring home up to 5,000 US troops...

The following letter was sent to Senator Warner after his comments urging President Bush to start an Iraq troop withdrawal: Senator Warner, It wasn’t that long ago when I saw you and a whole bunch of other Senators sitting around the table at the confirmation hearing of General Petraeus. One after another, you and others uttered your “words of wisdom” and wished the General “Godspeed” I wondered what the General was thinking at that moment, whether he shared my suspicion that he was being sent there TO FAIL, thereby giving you and others a Get Out of Iraq Free Card....

“Democratic leaders in Congress had planned to use August recess to raise the heat on Republicans to break with President Bush on the Iraq war. Instead, Democrats have been forced to recalibrate their own message in the face of recent positive signs on the security front, increasingly focusing their criticisms on what those military gains have not achieved: reconciliation among Iraq’s diverse political factions.” Cue the grumbling from the left. “With all this undisciplined, rambling ‘the surge is working’ talk and a Republican ad blitz coming around the corner to bolster Bush’s White House Report, it’s clear the Democrats have...

Earlier today, the Italian news service AKI reported that the presumed leader of the largest insurgency in Iraq will start cooperating with the Iraqi government. Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri, one of the highest-ranking members of Saddam Hussein's government, reportedly pledged to work with Iraqi and American forces to fight al-Qaeda in Iraq: The leader of Iraq's banned Baath party, Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri, has decided to join efforts by the Iraqi authorities to fight al-Qaeda, one of the party's former top officials, Abu Wisam al-Jashaami, told pan-Arab daily Al Hayat. "AlDouri has decided to sever ties with al-Qaeda and sign up to...

WASHINGTON, (AP) -- Former White House aides are joining Republican fundraisers in bankrolling a $15 million, five-week advertising campaign putting pressure on lawmakers whose backing of President Bush's Iraq war strategy may be wavering. The group, Freedom's Watch, launched the ads Wednesday, even as Bush delivered a renewed call for keeping U.S. forces in Iraq. The money will pay for ad placements on national cable and local television stations as well as on radio and the Internet. The ads will run in 20 states and will urge viewers to ask their member of Congress to stand by Bush's plan. Organizers...

Democrats figured that the August recess would give them plenty of opportunity to raise the heat on Republicans to force a withdrawal date from Iraq. They could return to their home districts, stoke some demonstrations, and return with new momentum after Labor Day to push for retreat. Unfortunately, events have intervened, and now Democrats have to regroup to avoid looking like defeatists while the military effort has started producing successes:***************************************SNIP*********************************** The Democrats have been outmanuevered again on Iraq. Earlier this year, they took 108 days to come up with a funding formula that wouldn't get vetoed by the Bush administration,...

JURF AS-SAKHR, Iraq (Reuters) - Under a tree by a battlefield road in Iraq's "Triangle of Death," Lieutenant- Colonel Robert Balcavage meets his new recruits. The men are Iraqi Sunni Arabs who are about to join the U.S. military's payroll as a local militia. They want guns. "I am not giving out guns and ammo," the U.S. commander says. The men listen carefully as the interpreter translates. "I've been shot at up here enough times to know that there's plenty of guns and ammo. Me personally. Some of you guys have probably taken some pretty good shots at me." Slowly...

As soon as I heard last night that Hillary Clinton had (sort of) stated the obvious truth that the surge is WORKING, I knew the leftwing blogosphere would go into an uproar as a result as you can see in this KOmmie THREAD titled, "HRC sez surge working." The Democrats went way out on the limb by claiming defeat in Iraq was inevitable only to see that defeatist limb sawed off by the success of the surge. Right now Hillary is trying to triangulate her way back to the tree but it seems not to be working this time....

Iraq parties agree on talks agenda Al-Maliki, right, was in Tikrit on Friday canvassing the support of Sunni leaders [AFP] Iraqi leaders have agreed on the agenda for a summit called by Nuri al-Maliki, the prime minister, in an effort to save his unity government, according to one of the state's vice-presidents. "The breakthrough came on the second day of preparatory talks involving the country's most senior political leaders," Tareq al-Hashemi said on Sunday. "We reached agreement on a number of issues. The most important is the agenda for the summit and who will attend the meeting," a statement said. On...

I don't know if this is a precipice from which there is any return for the party of Pelosi and Reid. These are turncoats in the truest form of the word. These are people who are secretly – and, now, not so secretly – praying for, hoping for and acting in the best interests of victory for Osama bin Laden and his cohorts who would chop off their heads just as fast as they would chop off yours and mine. Imagine political power meaning so much to you that you would sell out your own country – perhaps even the...

The Iraq debate that we’ve been watching this year has been about two bets. After false starts and misplaced hopes in 2004, and 2005, and 2006, George W. Bush is betting his surge strategy will facilitate the political progress that could bring a semblance of stability to Iraq. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) are betting the surge will fail. It’s as simple as that. If Bush wins his bet, Iraq will be a better place, the Middle East will be a better place, and America will be a safer place. But Reid and...

BEGIN TRANSCRIPT RUSH: The president just concluded a bang-bang speech on the progress of the surge in Iraq. I've been watching it while working here on the closed-captioning, reading some of it, and just really kicking butt with this speech, very upbeat and positive. J. R. Dunn today in the American Thinker, the surge is working, it is succeeding, and everybody is aware of it, and so how is that going to be dealt with? It's going to be ignored, says Mr. Dunn at the AmericanThinker.com today. The results are being ignored now. "Virtually no media source or Democratic politician...

Capture and interrogation of senior al Qaeda leader highlights al Qaeda control; Abu Omar al-Baghdadi a fictitious leader *********************************** U.S. Special Operations Forces scored a major victory against al Qaeda in Iraq’s senior leadership and gained valuable insight on the al Qaeda creation known as the Islamic State of Iraq. On July 4, Coalition forces captured Khalid Abdul Fatah Da’ud Mahmud Al Mashadani, a senior al Qaeda in Iraq and Islamic State of Iraq leader and close associate of Abu Ayyub al Masri, al Qaeda’s commander. Mashadani, also known as Abu Shahed, was captured in Mosul and is thought by...

The U.S. command said Wednesday the highest-ranking Iraqi in the leadership of al-Qaida in Iraq has been arrested, adding that information from him indicates the group's foreign-based leadership wields considerable influence over the Iraqi chapter. Khaled Abdul-Fattah Dawoud Mahmoud al-Mashhadani, also known as Abu Shahid, was captured in Mosul on July 4, said Brig. Gen. Kevin Bergner, a military spokesman. "Al-Mashhadani is believed to be the most senior Iraqi in the al-Qaida in Iraq network," Bergner said. He said al-Mashhadani was a close associate of Abu Ayub al-Masri, the Egyptian-born head of al-Qaida in Iraq.

BAGHDAD (AP) - The U.S. military is weighing new directions in Iraq, including an even bigger troop buildup if President Bush thinks his "surge" strategy needs a further boost, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said Monday. Marine Gen. Peter Pace revealed that he and the chiefs of the Army, Marine Corps, Navy and Air Force are developing their own assessment of the situation in Iraq, to be presented to Bush in September. That will be separate from the highly anticipated report to Congress that month by Gen. David Petraeus, the top commander for Iraq. The Joint Chiefs...

Bush says US can succeed in Iraq The report says Iraq has made some progress on security George Bush on Iraq President George W Bush has said the US mission in Iraq can still succeed, after a report found Iraq had made mixed progress towards key US targets.Mr Bush said he found cause for optimism in some of the report, particularly in the field of security. But he conceded Iraq had "much more work to do" to meet political and economic goals. The report comes amid growing pressure in Congress on the Bush administration to change course in Iraq....

BAGHDAD, Iraq — Around 1,200 Iraqi civilians were killed in violence in June, a 36 percent drop from the previous month and the lowest monthly toll this year, according to Iraqi government figures obtained Sunday. The decrease comes amid a U.S. troop increase in Baghdad that began in February and has been building since, with the military launching simultaneous offensives in mid-June aimed at uprooting insurgents in the capital and neighboring provinces to the northeast and south. A U.S. military spokesman said the decrease was encouraging but that it was too early to attribute it to the crackdown. "The synchronized...

US troops fighting al-Qaeda militants in the Iraqi city of Baquba now control about 60% of the city's western side, their commander says. Brig Gen Mick Bednarek said a big challenge for his 10,000 soldiers was securing areas once they were clear. The situation inside the city, 60km (35 miles) north-east of Baghdad, could not be confirmed independently. Earlier, another US military official said al-Qaeda fighters were being "enveloped into a kill sack".

A status update on the operations in the Baghdad Belts and beyond Operation Phantom Fury, the name of the overarching operation to secure the Baghdad Belts, is now in its fifth day. As noted yesterday, Phantom Thunder is a corps level operation, with multiple U.S. and Iraqi divisions engaged on multiple fronts. Iraqi Security Forces and Multinational Forces Iraq are engaged in intense fights in four main theaters: Baghdad proper, and the belts regions consisting of Diyala and southern Salahadin province to the north, northern Bail province to the south, and eastern Anbar province to the west of Baghdad. The...

Completely ignored by the MSM!

The first day of operation Arrowhead Ripper was intense. The Army is giving full access to the battlefield, and while on base full access to the TOC (HQ) which means I see the raw truth on the ground, and as it feeds through the TOC. They are hiding nothing. Or if they are, it’s in plain view. (Special operations notwithstanding.) A reporter can see as much as he or she can stand. Civilian casualties are occurring, despite much discretion being used on the firing. I saw three MLRS rockets hit targets downtown today (June 20) and more were fired. Watched...

The first day of operation Arrowhead Ripper was intense. The Army is giving full access to the battlefield, and while on base full access to the TOC (HQ) which means I see the raw truth on the ground, and as it feeds through the TOC. They are hiding nothing. Or if they are, it’s in plain view. (Special operations notwithstanding.) A reporter can see as much as he or she can stand. Civilian casualties are occurring, despite much discretion being used on the firing. I saw three MLRS rockets hit targets downtown today (June 20) and more were fired. Watched...

A major thrust in Diyala province, which began Tuesday, has left at least 30 suspected insurgents dead and uncovered 1,000 roadside bombs. BAGHDAD -- At least 30 suspected insurgents have been killed in two days of operations being conducted in Diyala province as part of a major thrust by U.S. and Iraqi forces to clear Al Qaeda operatives from the region, the military said today. Soldiers conducting Operation Arrowhead Thunder also have uncovered more than 1,000 roadside bombs around the provincial capital, Baqubah, where the offensive is being conducted, Iraqi security officials said. Local residents reported heavy fighting in some...

BAGHDAD (AFP) - US Defence Secretary Robert Gates said Saturday that a troop surge in Iraq is only starting to have its full impact and that it is too soon to tell whether conditions will be ripe by September for decisions on US force levels. The US commander in Iraq, General David Petraeus, said that the latest troop reinforcements to arrive in theatre had enabled the military to begin major operations against Al-Qaeda rear-bases outside the capital. "While I indicated yesterday that I think we'll see some trends and be able to point in some directions by September, the full...

Violence in Baghdad and greater Iraq remains low as the Iraqi government is enforcing a curfew in the major population centers where the threat of sectarian backlash from the Samarra mosque bombing remains high. There have been one confirmed report of a mosque attack and no major clashes on the streets. A Sunni mosque in Basra was destroyed on Friday, and a curfew is now in place in the city. The Iraqi Security Forces, along with a Coalition advisory team, have deployed an additional 650 soldiers and police to Samarra, including "Approximately 300 Iraqi Army soldiers from 4th Battalion, 1st...

US Iraq troop surge 'starts now' US troops are working with Iraqi forces to try to secure Baghdad The US military has said all the extra US troops sent to Iraq as part of the "surge" strategy are now in place.The US has deployed some 28,500 troops, mostly in Baghdad, to try to improve security and curb sectarian violence. Spokesman Lt Col Christopher Garver told the BBC that counter-insurgency efforts could now get fully under way. US Defence Secretary Robert Gates - who has landed in Baghdad on a surprise visit - said the government should do more to...

Al-Qaeda Military Emir of Mosul Killed Coalition Forces killed a senior terrorist leader during an operation Tuesday morning targeting the al-Qaeda in Iraq network in Mosul. Kamal Jalil Bakr 'Uthman, also known as Sa'id Hamza, was known to be the al-Qaeda in IraqMosul. Intelligence reports indicate he planned, coordinated and facilitated suicide bombings in the Mosul area. Additionally, he facilitated the movement of more than 100 foreign fighters through safe houses in the area, and orchestrated attacks against Iraqi and Coalition Forces. military emir of Mosul. Coalition Forces targeted 'Uthman Tuesday as part of their operations to disrupt the al-Qaeda...

Nearly four months since the Baghdad Security Plan was announced, the Sunni population in the provinces continues to turn on al Qaeda in Iraq, and attempts to weaken support for the group inside Baghdad are showing early signs of success. Al Qaeda in Iraq, for its part, has focused its attacks largely in the provinces, and zeroed in on the Iraqi Security Forces, the anti-al Qaeda Sunni community, and Iraq's bridges. The most significant development inside Baghdad over the past week occurred in the Sunni-dominated western neighborhood of Amiriyah, where a group of local residents and Sunni insurgent groups (largely...

Al Qaeda in Iraq has stepped up its bombing campaign nation wide against the Iraqi security forces. Since Friday, al Qaeda has conducted five separate major bombings or attacks, all outside the capital of Baghdad. On June 8, three separate attacks occurred; a bombing in the northern city of Daquq, another in Qurna in the south, and an attack on the home of a Diyala police chief. "At least 34 others were killed in two bombing attacks, one in the northern city of Daquq, about 30 miles south of Kirkuk, and the other in the southern city of Qurna, 60...

U.S. forces have begun arming nationalist guerrillas and former Saddam loyalists -- and coordinating tactics -- in a marriage of convenience against al-Qaeda radicals in one of Iraq's most violent provinces, senior U.S. commanders tell CNN. Several sources said al-Qaeda members burned a 7-year-old-child alive and murdered women and other children in the towns around the provincial capital of Baquba. Richards described assistance from the former insurgent factions and what he calls other "concerned local nationals" as "militarily crucial." His key ally in the region is a man known as Abu Ali, who says he has never belonged to an...

CNN Reports Iraq insurgents increasingly joining the fight against al-Qaeda.

IA, CF kills 19 insurgents near Baqouba Thursday, 07 June 2007 Multi-National Corps – Iraq Public Affairs Office, Camp Victory APO AE 09342 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE RELEASE No. 20070607- 08 June 7, 2007 IA, CF kills 19 insurgents near Baqouba Multi-National Division – North PAO BAQOUBA, Iraq – A joint team of Iraqi and Coalition Forces used air and ground firepower to destroy anti-Iraqi forces operating in Kabat village, near Baqouba, June 5. Soldiers from 1st Battalion, 2nd Brigade, 5th Iraqi Army Division and Company D., 1-12th Cavalry Regiment, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division, engaged and killed 19...

BAGHDAD -- A car bomb exploded about 200 yards from the entrance of a U.S. military base northeast of Baghdad today, unleashing a cloud of chlorine that sickened at least 62 personnel but caused no (life-threatening) injuries, the military said. The use of chlorine canisters to turn an ordinary bomb into a chemical weapon has become a signature tactic of insurgents fighting U.S. and Iraqi forces in Al Anbar province, west of Baghdad. But today's attack was believed to be the first time the tactic was used in Diyala province, north and east of the capital. The U.S. military, meanwhile,...

The Awakening movement, which was started in Anbar province by local tribes and Sunni insurgents that opposed al Qaeda's attempts to Talibanize Iraqi society, has now spread to all of the provinces bordering Baghdad. Over the past month, Awakening movements formed in Diyala and Salahadin, and, this week, the Babil Awakening was formed. Al Qaeda in Iraq immediately targeted the leader of the Babil Awakening, Sheikh Obeid Al-Masoud, seriously wounding him and his wife in the city of Iskandaria. Al Qaeda is working to destroy the nascent Awakening movements in the provinces, where they provide a political and ideological alternative...

Sunni Iraqi insurgents fought fierce battles Thursday with Al-Qaeda-led militants for control of the Amiriyya neighborhood in Baghdad that has effectively been outside government control for months. The clashes came as the number two leader of US forces in Iraq, General Raymond Odierno, said commanders are talking with Iraqi militants about cease-fires and other arrangements to try to stop the violence. A suicide bomber hit a police-recruiting center in Fallujah on Thursday, killing as many as 25 people, police said. The American military Thursday reported the deaths of three more soldiers. At least 122 American forces have died in May....

A battle raged Thursday in a west Baghdad where residents rose up against al-Qaida intimidation and called for U.S. military help to end threats that kept students from final exams and random gunfire that forced people to huddle indoors, a member of the district council said. Casualty figures were not immediately available. But the district councilman, who would not allow use of his name for fear of al-Qaida retribution, said the al-Qaida leader in the Amariyah district, known as Haji Hameed, was killed and 45 other fighters were detained. A suicide bomber hit a police recruiting center in Fallujah on...

BAGHDAD, Iraq – In operations around Iraq Tuesday morning, Coalition Forces detained 14 suspected terrorists, including a suspected al-Qaeda regional emir. Coalition Forces raided a building in Baghdad searching for an alleged terrorist leader. When they found the building empty, the ground force moved to a follow-on target. There, they detained four suspected terrorists, including the alleged al-Qaeda in Iraq emir in charge of the Hay al-Jamah area of the city. In Mosul, Coalition Forces detained a suspected terrorist leader and his brother-in-law in two coordinated operations. Intelligence reports indicate the suspected terrorist leader was allegedly the emir of Ansar...

Post-Ba'athist Iraqi politics are undergoing a dramatic change, and the Sadrists and the Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council (SIIC), formerly known as the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI), are leading the way by bringing a major shift in the balance of power.With the gradual decomposition of Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's national-unity government, mainly dominated by Shi'ite and Kurdish parties, Iraq is entering a new political era. As splintered political factions, such as the Sadrists, seek to form a new coalition made up of Sunni parties, formerly exiled Shi'ite groups such as Da'wa and the SIIC face new...

BAGHDAD — U.S. forces rescued 42 Iraqi civilians Sunday from an Al Qaeda hide-out northeast of Baghdad, including some who showed signs of torture and broken bones, a senior U.S. official said.Maj. Gen. William Caldwell, the top U.S. military spokesman in Baghdad, said it was the largest number of detained Iraqis ever found in a single Al Qaeda hide-out. Some among the 42 had been held as long as four months, he said. Details were incomplete, but Caldwell said some of the freed Iraqis were being transported to medical facilities for treatment of their injuries. There were no indications that...

The Second Surge By DJ Elliott, IS1 (SW), USN (Ret) Think about it. 14,000 more IA personnel. A Division's worth of new troops added to a 10 Division force. I had to write the headline myself a week after the data was released to the public since the press did not bother with this major news item.

Photo by Wissam al-Okaili/AFP-Getty Images Baghdad: Iraqis inspect the damage to cars after US-led forces called in airstrikes to support an early morning raid in the Baghdad Shiite stronghold of Sadr City today. US-led forces seized a suspected militant with ties to Iran and killed five. Baghdad, May 26 (VOI)- The U.S. army said on Saturday a suspected leader of a secret cell was arrested and five gunmen were killed during a raid in the Shiite Sadr City, eastern Baghdad. "Iraqi and Coalition Forces detained one suspected terrorist cell leader and killed at least five terrorists Saturday morning during raids...

U.S. President George W. Bush on Friday signed a war funding bill that erased a timetable to withdraw troops from Iraq from its previous version. The move followed a bitter struggle with Democrats who sought unsuccessfully to tie the funding to timeline for U.S. troop withdrawals. Bush had rejected a previous version of the bill because it contained a withdrawal timetable. Faced with continued White House opposition after the veto, the Democratic leadership agreed to drop the withdrawal language so the bill could be signed by Bush before the end of the month. Both the House of the Representatives and the Senate...

Boehner asks, "when will we stand up to this enemy?"

There is good news from Iraq, believe it or not. It comes from the most unlikely place: Anbar province, home of the Sunni insurgency. The level of violence has plummeted in recent weeks. An alliance of U.S. troops and local tribes has been very effective in moving against the al-Qaeda foreign fighters. A senior U.S. military official told me—confirming reports from several other sources—that there have been "a couple of days recently during which there were zero effective attacks and less than 10 attacks overall in the province (keep in mind that an attack can be as little as one...

 AP Sen. Harry Reid talks to reporters on Capitol Hill. WASHINGTON —  Congressional leaders indicated Tuesday that a compromise is near over how to fund U.S. troops serving in Iraq and Afghanistan after Democrats confirmed they will abandon plans to include a troop withdrawal timetable in the war supplemental spending measure. House Majority Leader pledged that Democrats would try to include a timetable for withdrawal in next year's spending bills. "We can't pass something without the president's signature and the president can't pass something without our agreement," Hoyer, D-Md., told reporters. "So we can be at a standoff and go back...