Posted on 04/07/2004 7:34:53 AM PDT by dennisw
I saw that.
Yes there is a war going on. Airplane firepower and other firepower going on all around me. I guess I'll throw on my burka and stroll on down to the mosque.
Better yet
Do you have ANY reason to believe the terrorists operating in Fallujah are signatories to the Geneva convention?
And while you're at it, what does the "Geneva Convention" say about shooting civilian non-combatants, hacking them, and dragging their corpses through the streets?
Hmmm?
"Geneva Convention" my @ss!
Our guys don't need or want interferance by the civilian population, their job is hard enough.
I didn't know Iraq was a vacation spot yet.
Well that's sure a relief.
ALLIED troops today stepped up their battle with rebels in central Iraq.
Twelve American and two coalition soldiers and 66 Iraqis were killed yesterday in the most extensive fighting since President George Bush declared the war over in May. This brings the total figure for coalition troops killed to 30 in the past few days.
At least 136 Iraqis have also been killed in the worst battles since Saddam Hussein was toppled.
Hundreds of British soldiers were arriving in Iraq today as militiamen stepped up their attacks on coalition forces. Around 700 British troops are flying to Iraq today and tomorrow, and another 4300 will head for the Gulf over the next week to relieve four or five brigades.
The spiralling violence has prompted Tony Blair to fly to Washington next week to meet President Bush for crisis talks.
Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari said the country needed 25,000 extra soldiers to cope with worsening violence, and the US is already considering boosting its presence.
British forces have killed 15 rebels in the south of the country.
Fighting was spreading in several directions today, with Shiites attacking coalition troops and taking control of several southern cities.
However, President Bush declared the US resolve in Iraq remained "unshakeable". "Our resolve is firm... and we will prevail," his official spokesman said at his ranch in Crawford, Texas.
Marines this week launched a major operation to root out Sunni Muslim guerrillas from one of their strongest bastions, the city of Fallujah, west of Baghdad. But yesterday, the insurgents opened a new front with a bloody attack on marines in the nearby town of Ramadi. Gunmen hiding in a cemetery opened fire on US patrols, sparking a gunbattle in alleys and near the governor's palace, witnesses said. At least two Iraqis were killed.
New fighting erupted in the same neighbourhood today. Heavy explosions and machinegun fire were heard. In the south, Shiite militiamen attacked coalition troops in five cities yesterday in battles in a revolt sparked by a US crackdown on their leader, radical cleric Muqtada al-Sadr.
Al-Sadr urged Iraqis to rise up against the US occupation and vowed to die rather than be captured by US forces. "America has shown its evil intentions, and the proud Iraqi people cannot accept it," he said.
"They must defend their rights by any means they see fit." Clashes continued overnight between militiamen from al-Sadr's al-Mahdi Army and coalition troops in Kut, Karbala and the mainly Shiite neighbourhood of Sadr City in Baghdad.
At least 12 Iraqis were killed in Kut and four in Baghdad, along with two Iranians caught in the crossfire in Karbala. The al-Mahdi Army appeared to be in control of Kut and Kufa.
Paul Bremer, the top civilian administrator in Iraq, conceded not all was going smoothly as the coalition approached the June 30 handover, a date which he said was inviolable. ALLIED troops today stepped up their battle with rebels in central Iraq.
Twelve American and two coalition soldiers and 66 Iraqis were killed yesterday in the most extensive fighting since President George Bush declared the war over in May. This brings the total figure for coalition troops killed to 30 in the past few days.
At least 136 Iraqis have also been killed in the worst battles since Saddam Hussein was toppled. Hundreds of British soldiers were arriving in Iraq today as militiamen stepped up their attacks on coalition forces.
Around 700 British troops are flying to Iraq today and tomorrow, and another 4300 will head for the Gulf over the next week to relieve four or five brigades.
The spiralling violence has prompted Tony Blair to fly to Washington next week to meet President Bush for crisis talks.
Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari said the country needed 25,000 extra soldiers to cope with worsening violence, and the US is already considering boosting its presence.
SOFIA, April 7 (Reuters) - Bulgaria has asked the United States to send troops to reinforce Sofia's 450-strong battalion in the southern Iraqi city of Kerbala, where occupation soldiers are facing a radical Shi'ite uprising.
Bulgarian chief of staff Nikola Kolev said the Bulgarian military base had come under heavy machinegun fire on Tuesday night but there were no casualties.
Deputy Foreign Minister Ivan Petkov called ambassadors of the United States, Britain, Spain and Poland to the foreign ministry on Wednesday asking for back-up for Bulgarian soldiers in Iraq.
"Bulgaria has demanded additional U.S. support for our contingent in Kerbala," Petkov told reporters after the meeting. "I firmly reassert our decision to continue our engagement in Iraq and fight the terror."
Followers of radical Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr have fought gun battles with foreign troops in several southern Iraqi cities in revolt that has claimed over 130 lives since Sunday, including one Ukrainian and one Salvadoran soldier.
A Bulgarian civilian truck driver was killed on Tuesday some 40 km (25 miles) south of Nassiriya when attackers fired on a convoy of six trucks belonging to a Bulgarian company involved in Iraq's reconstruction.
Bulgaria, which joined NATO this month, has been a staunch supporter of the U.S.-led military campaign which toppled Saddam Hussein and last year deployed around 450 troops to serve in the Polish-led multinational force in south-central Iraq.
Five Bulgarian soldiers were killed and 64 injured in a suicide bombing in Kerbala last December.
Associated Press
BRUSSELS, Belgium - Shiite militiamen drove Ukrainian soldiers and coalition officials from the Iraqi city of Kut on Wednesday, and Japan urged the United Nations to intervene to stop the growing violence in Iraq.
Italy's defense minister, however, said Italian troops would stay in Iraq, rejecting opposition calls to pull out after clashes that left 15 Iraqis dead and a dozen Italians injured. U.S. forces said helicopters and troops to reinforce the Bulgarians.
Fighting between coalition forces and Shiite militiamen across a wide swath south of Baghdad presents a major test of the resolve of America's partners to stay the course in Iraq.
The mounting unrest, triggered by the U.S. crackdown on firebrand Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, will also test the American strategy of avoiding traditional alliances and international institutions in favor of "coalitions of the willing" in a military conflict.
Washington's inability to bring its major partners in the NATO alliance into the Iraq conflict means the United States has no ready pool of well-trained reinforcements - apart from its own troops - in case the Pentagon decides more forces are necessary to maintain order.
Instead of binding treaty obligations, Washington must rely on arm-twisting and powers of persuasion to hold on to its coalition partners, some of whom face domestic pressure to send their troops home.
Since violence erupted Sunday in Shiite areas south of Baghdad, coalition soldiers from Europe and Latin America have come under armed attack after months in which the Americans have born the brunt of the fighting - and the casualties.
But the uprising by al-Sadr's supporters has put the allies squarely on the front lines.
In Kiev, the Ukrainian Defense Ministry said its troops evacuated about 20 coalition representatives - Americans, Britons, Poles and others - from the Kut city hall after Shiite fighters launched mortar and infantry attacks overnight. The civilians and Ukrainian forces moved to a camp outside of town.
"There were no Ukrainian casualties, but several dozen militants were killed," ministry spokesman Lt. Col. Andriy Lysenkohe said.
Elsewhere, Polish troops killed an al-Sadr aide, Muntadhir al-Mussawi, in a shootout Wednesday in Karbala, Shiite officials said. Later, mourners carried away al-Mussawi's body, chanting, "Today we will free Karbala from the Jews."
Spanish commanders convinced Shiite tribal chiefs and clerics to urge al-Sadr to end the takeover of police stations and religious shrines in the holy city of Najaf, Spain's Defense Ministry said Wednesday.
But the statement added that "a stable situation has not yet been achieved."
By Tuesday night, the toll from the Shiite fighting included three dead - one soldier from El Salvador, another from Ukraine and a civilian truck driver from Bulgaria. At least 12 Italians, five Ukrainians, four Bulgarians and two Poles have been wounded.
Those numbers pale alongside American losses - 417 battle deaths and about 3,000 wounded since the war started in March 2003.
However, coalition partner losses are significant in smaller countries where support for the war has never been as strong as in the United States, Britain or Australia.
In Tokyo, Japan's top government spokesman, Yasuo Fukuda, urged the United Nations to intervene "at an early stage" to stop the violence.
"Rather than simply using force, we can consider other ways to stop the violence," Fukuda said without elaborating.
Since the explosion in the Shiite areas, none of the coalition partners have spoken of abandoning the mission. Before the flare-up, however, the incoming Spanish government announced it will withdraw its 1,300 troops unless the United Nations takes over the mission by June 30, when Washington returns power to a new Iraqi government.
In Rome, Italian Defense Minister Antonio Martino told a parliamentary committee that it was "unthinkable" to talk about ending the Iraq mission before the transfer of power to the Iraqis was complete.
Bulgarian President Georgi Parvanov called an emergency meeting of top military officials on Wednesday in the capital Sofia to review the situation in Iraq and the security of the Bulgarian soldiers stationed in the Shiite holy city of Karbala.
Afterward, Defense Minister Nikolai Svinarov said four U.S. helicopters and a U.S. military police platoon have been sent to Karbala to help the Bulgarian troops.
However, signs of trouble are emerging in coalition ranks and are likely to be fueled by the spreading conflict.
On Tuesday, however, several leading Dutch politicians called for a parliamentary debate on Iraq next week. The Dutch government favors keeping its 1,300 soldiers in Iraq after their tour ends July 1.
"It's not a foregone conclusion that we'll stay in Iraq," Dutch politician Boris Dittrich said.
In Norway, an opinion poll released last week showed that 51.2 percent of the 1,505 people surveyed wanted the country's 150 troops home. The margin of error was 5 percent.
Even before the latest fighting, calls for withdrawing Ukraine's 1,650 troops have been increasing because of public concern over the country being targeted for terrorist attack. Three other Ukrainian soldiers have been killed since the Iraq mission began last year.
Thailand's embassy in Sweden received a letter threatening terrorist attacks in the Southeast Asian country if it does not pull its 450 military personnel out of Iraq, the Thai Foreign Ministry in Bangkok said Wednesday.
After failing to win support in the United Nations for a military strike against Iraq, the U.S. administration cobbled together a coalition of nearly 40 countries, which sent a total of about 24,000 troops.
Notably absent are France and Germany, both of which opposed the war.
Even if Washington can hold on to most of its partners, it is unlikely they would be able to provide thousands of new troops if more are needed.
During a news conference Tuesday, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld held out the prospect of a role for NATO, telling reporters that "I suspect we'll see, would be delighted to see, NATO take a larger role … in Afghanistan, then Iraq."
Last week, however, NATO foreign ministers showed little enthusiasm for getting deeply involved in Iraq unless a sovereign Iraqi government asks the United Nations to assume a major role.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.