Posted on 05/24/2005 5:54:29 PM PDT by TexKat
U.S. forces secure the area after a bomb rigged to a parked car exploded next to an American convoy by the al-Dora bridge in Baghdad Tuesday, May 24, 2005 killing three of the soldiers, according to a U.S. military spokesman. (AP Photo/Hadi Mizban)
A U.S. soldier, right, evacuates a colleague as other U.S. forces secure the area after a bomb-rigged car detonated next to a convoy of U.S. soldiers by the al-Dora bridge in eastern Baghdad Tuesday, May 24, 2005 killing three of the soldiers, according to a U.S. military spokesman. (AP Photo/Hadi Mizban)
(AFP)
24 May 2005
WASHINGTON - US officials reacted cautiously on Tuesday to an Internet claim that Iraq’s most wanted man, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, had been wounded and said they could not immediately verify the authenticity of a statement posted on a militant web site.
“There are a lot of these things that have happened in the past that have not panned out,” a US official said. “All I can say at this point is I would approach it a little cautiously.”
A senior US military official, speaking on condition of anonymity, also said it was not known whether the Internet posting was authentic.
“Islamic nation, brothers in unity, we pray God that our sheikh, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, recover from the wounds he has sustained,” said the statement issued in the name of the “information department” of Zarqawi’s militant organisation.
“May God heal you, the most dear of the mujahedeen (Islamic fighters). May God give you strength,” said the Al Qaeda Organisation in the Land of Two Rivers, without giving details on the extent of Zarqawi’s injuries or how they were inflicted.
The US officials said they knew of no other information, independent of the Internet claim, that Zarqawi had been wounded.
The US military, however, investigated reports earlier this month that Zarqawi visited a hospital in Ramadi in late April amid rumors he was ill or wounded.
US forces launched a major offensive in western Iraq near the Syrian border in early May targeting forces loyal to Zarqawi. Although more than 125 insurgents were reported killed in the fighting, the bulk of the forces was believed to have slipped away.
US military officials have said Zarqawi narrowly escaped capture February 20 in a US raid between the cities of Hit and Haditha near the Euphrates River. A laptop was recovered that reportedly contained Zarqawi’s medical records.
Zarqawi is Iraq’s most wanted man with a 25-million-dollar US bounty on his head. His group has claimed a string of devastating attacks, assassinations and kidnappings since Saddam Hussein’s ouster by US-led forces in April 2003.
5/25/2005 3:32:11
Source ::: AFP
BAGHDAD: Iraq said yesterday that police were hunting for a leading member of ousted Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein's regime who was freed from custody by the former government because of poor health.
Ghazi Hammud Al Obeidi, one of a list of 55 notorious former regime leaders wanted by US authorities, was arrested soon after the fall of Saddam in April 2203.
But he was freed recently by a US-appointed government committee headed by former prime minister Iyad Allawi, said Leith Kubba, a spokesman for new premier Ibrahim Jaafari.
"There was a failure in the justice system and the current government does not intend to release any other prisoners" on the list of 55, Kubba said, adding that police have issued an arrest warrant for Obeidi.
The former Baath Party leader has cancer and is not expected to live long, according to Iraqi media reports. Obeidi headed Saddam's political party in Wassat province in central Iraq.
"Based on his poor health, his file was presented to a commission that decides on whether to free detainees," Kubba said. "The former government did not oppose his release." Obeidi is believed to be the only figure so far released from those arrested on the list of 55, which was also made into a deck of playing cards. Of the former regime leaders, 42 have been captured, including Obeidi.
Ibrahim Izzat al-Dhuri, Saddam's former right-hand man and most prominent figure still at large, has a $10m bounty on his head. Most of the high-level figures, including Saddam, have not been formally charged after months in jail.
Hah, is this the way its going to be done. Set them free one at a time, so that they can be hunted down and skined by their victims. Great!!
(Reuters)
24 May 2005
LONDON - The Middle East is more secure than a year ago because of positive developments both in Iraq and the Arab-Israeli conflict, one of the world’s top think tanks said on Tuesday in its annual survey of global security.
But the London-based International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) said Iraq remained an inspiration for Islamic militants, helping al Qaeda to recruit and continue to pose a threat to countries around the world.
The annual Strategic Survey of the IISS, whose experts have sometimes been sceptical of US policy under President George W. Bush, gave credit to the United States for measures that appeared to bear fruit over the past year, notably in Iraq.
“If May 2004 was marked by widespread despair over burgeoning insurgency in Iraq ... the watchword for May 2005 was guarded hope,” it said in the 384-page report.
It pointed to progress in the Arab-Israeli conflict, the promise of multi-party elections in Egypt and popular uprisings against Syria in Lebanon as examples of US policy successes.
“On balance, US policy in 2004-2005 appeared fairly effective in emboldening regional actors in the Middle East and Gulf to rally against rogue states and implement gentle political reforms,” the IISS said.
“But the inspirational effect of the Iraq intervention on transnational Islamist terrorism remained the proverbial elephant in the living room,” it said.
“From al Qaeda’s point of view, Bush’s Iraq policies have arguably produced a confluence of propitious circumstances: a strategically bogged down America, hated by much of the Islamic world and regarded warily even by its allies.”
“Tipping point”
The report said the reopening of dialogue between Palestinians and Israelis after the death of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat marked a “tipping point” in the peace process.
“Stark changes have been heralded not only by Arafat’s death, but by (Israeli Prime Minister Ariel) Sharon’s conversion and Bush’s commitment to use American influence to achieve a final status accord,” it said. But success depended also on militant groups like Hamas that have rejected the peace process.
In an unusual chapter on international law and the “war on terrorism”, the report described how courts over the past year had rolled back many new anti-terrorism powers claimed by governments, especially in the United States and Britain.
It said Washington and its allies had yet to resolve key legal issues, such as whether war could be justified against threats that were not imminent.
But it blamed the White House for the “shocking” abuse of prisoners in US custody. An “amateurish official legal debate” in the Bush administration “incorrectly suggested that certain prisoners were ’not legally entitled’ to humane treatment”.
“Such illegal practices made the achievement of any broad international coalition in Iraq even more difficult than it already was, and strengthened the cause of the insurgents.”
05.24.2005, 12:14 PM Presidents and oil company executives will inaugurate a 1,100-mile pipeline Wednesday that will carry millions of gallons of crude from the landlocked Caspian to the Mediterranean - a much-needed alternative to Mideast energy resources.
Analysts say the $3.2 billion, U.S.-backed Baku-Ceyhan pipeline could also help bring stability to the troubled region. The Caspian is thought to contain the world's third-largest oil and gas reserves.
"This global project will completely change the economic situation in Azerbaijan, and in the political sense it will influence the rest of the Caucasus and Central Asia," said Vafa Guluzade, a former foreign affairs adviser to the Azerbaijani government.
Built by a consortium led by BP PLC, the pipeline runs from Azerbaijan through Georgia to the Turkish port of Ceyhan.
Until now, Caspian states sent almost all their oil through Russian pipelines to reach world markets. The new route will neutralize any Russian attempts to use economic levers to bring former Soviet republics back under its wing, Guluzade said.
The pipeline "will carry a huge volume of oil, and Russia is nervous that it is being deprived of big money and also the possibility to dictate its terms to these states," he said.
Azerbaijan will earn taxes and royalties on the oil, while Georgia and Turkey are to profit from transit fees.
The presidents of Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Georgia and Turkey are to be on hand - along with U.S. Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman and oil executives - to watch Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliev open the taps Wednesday for the first symbolic drops of oil to enter the pipeline at the Sangachal oil terminal, about 25 miles south of the Azerbaijani capital, Baku.
Aliev and Kazakhstan President Nursultan Nazarbayev planned to sign an agreement on transporting Kazakh oil through the new pipeline Tuesday.
"We view this as a significant step forward in the energy security of that region," Bodman said Tuesday in Moscow.
The president of the pipeline consortium, Natik Aliev, said it would take up to a month and a half to fill the Azerbaijani section of the pipeline. The Georgian part will be ready after that, and then the Turkish stretch, which Turkish authorities have said should be filled by Aug. 15. It will take approximately 420 million gallons of crude to fill the entire pipeline.
Bodman said deliveries would begin in the fall.
"This is a contribution toward ... an increase supply in oil in the world," he said. "It adds a new supplier of some consequence."
But experts say the new oil will provide only short-term relief to a world that is consuming more crude every year. Oil prices, while down from their recent highs, are still hovering around $49 a barrel.
Four years ago, oil officials spoke of finds that could rival the Middle East's production. But experts now say the Caspian should pump some 168 million to 210 million gallons per day, on a par with Iran.
Eshan Ul-Haq, chief analyst at PVM Oil Associates in Vienna, Austria, said the pipeline will have an impact - but only for Europe, because initial volumes will be low.
He also said the pipeline's oil could bring prices down for sour-grade crude such as those produced by Iraq and Saudi Arabia, and it could mean lower prices for Russian Ural oil. The oil most in demand is light, sweet crude, which most refiners prefer because it is low in sulfur and easy to process.
Azerbaijan, meanwhile, hopes the pipeline will raise its profile and swing international support behind Baku in its dispute with Armenia over the Nagorno-Karabakh enclave, which ethnic Armenian separatists took control of more than a decade ago. The conflict continues to simmer, undermining the region's security.
The pipeline "will bring a certain element of stability in terms of cooperation," with big states pressuring both "Armenia and Azerbaijan to resolve the Karabakh conflict as quickly as possible," said analyst Rasim Musabekov.
Associated Press writer George Jahn in Vienna contributed to this report.
U.S. forces and Iraqi police secure the area after a bomb rigged to a parked car exploded next to an American convoy by the al-Dora bridge in Baghdad Tuesday, May 24, 2005 killing three of the soldiers, according to a U.S. military spokesman. (AP Photo/Hadi Mizban)
14 U.S. soldiers killed in 3 days in Iraq
May 24, 8:04 PM EDT
By PAUL GARWOOD
Associated Press Writer
BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) -- A car bomb exploded next to a U.S. Army convoy in Baghdad on Tuesday, killing three soldiers, while another American died in a drive-by shooting a half-hour later. Their deaths pushed the number of U.S. troops killed in three days to 14, part of a surge in attacks that have also killed about 60 Iraqis.
In the northern city of Tal Afar, there were reports that militants were in control and that Shiites and Sunnis were fighting in the streets, a day after two car bombs killed at least 20 people. Police Capt. Ahmed Hashem Taki said Tal Afar was experiencing "civil war." Journalists were blocked from entering the city of 200,000.
Eighteen U.S. troops have been killed in Iraq during the past week, raising concerns that insurgents may again be focusing their sights on American forces in addition to Shiite Muslims.
The deaths come as American troops are trying to pave the way for a graceful exit from Iraq by giving more responsibility to the country's security forces. But with the Iraqis still relatively weak, U.S. troops remain in the firing line, targeted by insurgents that have shown increasing abilities to attack when and where they please.
More than 620 people, including 58 U.S. troops, have been killed since April 28, when insurgents launched a bloody campaign after Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari announced his new Shiite-dominated government. The Associated Press count is based on reports from police, hospital and military officials.
During the same period, there have been at least 89 car bombs killing at least 355 people, according to the AP count. There were an additional five suicide bombings by individuals wearing explosives that killed at least 107 people.
The man blamed for instigating many of the attacks, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, has been wounded, according to a Web statement in the name of his group, al-Qaida in Iraq.
But U.S. officials cautioned they did not know if the posting was authentic, and privately said the information also may have been designed to purposely mislead.
The Jordanian-born al-Zarqawi has denounced Iraqi Shiites as U.S. collaborators and said killing them, including women and children, was justified.
Al-Zarqawi, who like his patron Osama bin Laden has a $25 million bounty on his head, has claimed responsibility for a relentless wave bombings, kidnappings and beheadings. They include a Feb. 28 bomb attack that killed 125 people in Hillah, south of Baghdad, in the single deadliest terror attack since Saddam Hussein's fall.
Earlier, U.S. forces announced the capture of two militants with links to al-Zarqawi: Mohammed Daham Abd Hamadi and Mullah Kamel al-Aswadi.
Hamadi's cell claimed responsibility for the kidnappings of Chinese and Turks; al-Aswadi was said to be al-Zarqawi's representative in Samarra, north of Baghdad.
Also Tuesday, Sunni and Shiite clerics and politicians intensified efforts to find a way out of a sectarian crisis that threatens a civil war.
Senior officials representing Iraq's two leading Sunni Muslim organizations met with Interior Minister Bayan Jabr. The Sunni officials recently had demanded Jabr's resignation, holding his office responsible for the killings of Sunni clerics and others.
Abdul-Aziz al-Hakim, a prominent Shiite politician, said there will be no civil war. "The awareness of the Iraqi people and the links between them will prevent such a war, God willing," al-Hakim told the AP in an interview.
Al-Hakim, who leads both the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq and the governing United Iraqi Alliance, said insurgents had been trying to start a civil war between the Shiite majority and the Sunni minority since Saddam's ouster.
Sunnis opposed to the new government are thought to make up the insurgency's core, and some Sunni extremists have been attacking Shiites.
The attacks, al-Hakim said, were "the last card in order to incite sectarian war." He pointed to three against Shiites on Monday, which claimed most of the nearly 50 lives lost on that day alone.
Three U.S. soldiers were killed Tuesday in central Baghdad when a car bomb exploded next to their convoy. A U.S. soldier sitting in the back of a Bradley fighting vehicle at an observation post was then killed in a drive-by shooting.
Four soldiers were killed Monday after they were attacked in Haswa, 30 miles south of Baghdad, the military said. They were assigned to the 155th Brigade Combat Team, II Marine Expeditionary Force.
A Marine was killed during an indirect fire attack Monday on an American base in Ramadi, 70 miles west of Baghdad, the military said.
As of Tuesday, at least 1,643 U.S. military personnel have died since the Iraq war began in March 2003, according to the AP count.
A Georgian serviceman suffered serious wounds to his legs and arms Tuesday after the U.S. Army jeep he was traveling in north of Baghdad hit a land mine. There are 850 Georgian troops in the U.S.-led coalition in Iraq.
The U.S. military announced that a two-day operation involving more than 2,000 Iraqi soldiers and police - the largest joint campaign in the Baghdad area - had rounded up 428 suspected insurgents.
But insurgents continued to wreak havoc in the capital.
Residents called police about a suspicious-looking car parked opposite the Dijlah Junior High School for Girls in Alwiyah, near eastern Baghdad's Withaq Square, a Christian neighborhood. As bomb-disposal experts approached the vehicle, it exploded and killed six bystanders. No students were believed to be among the casualties.
Iraq's National Assembly convened Tuesday, during which a conservative Shiite lawmaker said he had been named to head a 55-member committee charged with drafting Iraq's constitution, which must be drawn up by mid-August and put to a referendum by October.
Cleric Hummam Hammoudi, an aide to al-Hakim, told the AP he was appointed head of the committee and a Sunni Arab and a Kurd were appointed his deputies.
---
Associated Press writer Bassem Mroue contributed to this report from Baghdad.
By Arun Rajnath
NEW DELHI, May 25: India may consider demilitarization of the Siachin Zone in a phased manner, a top official of the Indian Ministry of Defense told the South Asia Tribune on the eve of India-Pakistan talks beginning in Islamabad today.
As the Indian defense delegation headed for Islamabad for the talks, Defense Ministry sources in Delhi said India is not averse to the idea of the complete and total demilitarization of the region, but it could be done in a phased manner. The talks that are going to take place in Islamabad is an initial phase, and nothing could be finally said about it.
“The final decision would be arrived at after talking to the army personnel of India who strategically know better about the problem. But one thing should be clear that India will not compromise with the security of the region and whatever will be done, will be done accordingly,” sources added.
(According to Reuters, Niaz Naik, a retired Pakistani diplomat involved in the back-door diplomacy, said there are hopeful signs of progress.
Pakistan Defense Secretary Lt. Gen. Tariq Wasim Ghazi will lead the Pakistani side and Indian civil service officer Defense Secretary Ajai Vikram Singh will lead the Indian team. The talks will focus on Siachin on May 26-27. On May 28-29 they will address a dispute over the Sir Creek estuary, a marshland in the Rann of Kutch, between India’s western state of Gujarat and Pakistan’s southern Sindh province.)
Pakistan Foreign Office spokesperson Jalil Abbas Jilani said recently that Pakistan wants implementation of the Indo-Pak agreement of 1989 on Siachin underlining total withdrawal of troops by the two countries from the ‘no man’s land’ region to the pre-Simla Accord of 1972, signed by the Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi and Pak Prime Minister Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto.
The agreement of 1989 was arrived at during talks between Prime Ministers Rajiv Gandhi and Benazir Bhutto. After Defense Secretary level talks a joint statement was also issued which read as follows:
“There was an agreement by both sides to work towards the comprehensive settlement based on re-deployment of forces to reduce the chances of conflict, avoidance of the use of force and the determination of future positions on the ground so as to conform with the Simla Agreement. The army authorities will determine these positions.”
Siachin zone is one of the most inhospitable and dangerous regions of the world. The Siachin glacier is about 76 kilometers long and 2-8 kilometers wide. It receives 6 to 7 meters of snow in winter alone. Blizzards can reach speeds of up to 150 knots (nearly 300 km per hour). The temperature routinely drops to 40 degrees Celsius below zero and even lower with the wind chill factor. For these reasons, the Siachin Glacier has been called the "Third Pole".
According to the Lt. Gen (retd). BS Malik the Base camp for Indian forces is 12,000 feet above sea level. The altitude of some Indian forward bases on the Saltoro Ridge ranges from Kumar (16,000 feet) and Bila Top (18,600 feet) to Pahalwan (20,000 feet) and Indira Col (22,000 feet). The area is also prone to avalanches. These adverse conditions have direct consequences, as only three per cent of the Indian casualties are by enemy fire while remaining 97 percent fall to the altitude, weather and terrain.
Gen. Malik told the South Asia Tribune Pakistan too is not in the advantageous position as their positions are usually at altitudes lower than the Indian ones, ranging between 9,000 and 15,000 feet, although some, such as Conway Saddle (17,200 feet), which controls ingress to the glacier, are much higher. On the other hand, glaciers at the Pakistani frontline begin at 9,440 feet and Pakistani troops are stationed on steep slopes, exposed to harsh weather.
Malik said: “It is necessary for the two countries to de-militarize the whole zone because no country wants to lose its men and money. The tension must be assuaged in the region.”
According to the Hindi official magazine of the Indian Defense Ministry, ‘Sainik Samachar’, the conflict began when in 1984 Pakistan permitted mountaineering expeditions in the area claiming it as its territory. Later, in 1987, Pakistan troops established an advance post, namely Quaid Post on the altitude of 6452 meters on the Saltoro ridge overlooking the Bilafond Pass.
The magazine claims that the Pakistani side initiated the first skirmish on April 18, 1987 after which the eviction of Pakistani troops became essential for India. Later on May 29, 1987 2nd Lt. Rajeev Pandey fell to the bullets from the Quaid Post. Then on June 24, 1987, code-named Operation Rajiv in the honor of 2nd Lt. Rajeev Pandey was launched.
Later, the Indian Army captured the Quaid Post and it was re-named as Bana Post in the memory of Naib Subedar Bana Singh who showed tremendous courage and valor and was awarded the ‘Param Chakra’, India’s highest medal for valor.
Malik says: “Time has come to move forward. President Gen. Pervez Musharraf has already given a proposal for the Siachin and I am happy that Indians have taken it seriously.”
Gen. Malik has been a course mate of Gen. Musharraf when both of them were Brigadiers in their respective armies and went for advanced course to London. (See previous story) He said at that time that the Indian government should consider seriously the proposal made by General Musharraf.
“Today only some Indian bureaucrats are going to Islamabad to hold talks. There should be military-to-military dialogue for the solution of the Siachin dispute as only the Indian Army can talk in military terms with the Pakistani officials. Pakistan Defense Secretary himself is an Army official,” he added.
Gen. Malik says that the demilitarization should be in phases to avoid escalation of tensions. Immediate pull out would cause problems. First peace should be established in the Siachin area. The situation should be reviewed by both sides and then the demilitarization may take place in a phased manner and on the basis of some give and take.”
“There should be a foolproof system that would ensure that no activities could be carried out in this area. The experience tells us that the whole problem started when one country began asserting that a particular area belonged to it and started allowing activities like, permitting foreign mountaineering expeditions. So it should be ensured that none of the side should go for such activities," he added.
When asked by the South Asia Tribune about the give and take, Gen. Malik replied: “You should remember that none of the sides is going to give up what it has already got. It should be done through military-to-military. There are greater chances for agreement through the military-to-military negotiations. Both the armies already have an understanding and this would be an extension to this understanding.”
Gen. Malik says that India should trust Pakistan in this matter and there is less possibility of redeployment of forces by Pakistan after demilitarization because India can keep vigil on the region through satellites and other surveillance equipment. “There must be a kind of a joint monitoring activity to ensure none of two countries is transgressing after withdrawal of forces.”
Anti-U.S. Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, left, and Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Ahmad Chalabi speak after a meeting in Najaf 160 kilometers (100 miles) south of Baghdad, Iraq, Tuesday, May 24, 2005. The meeting with Muqtada al-Sadr sought to defuse tension between Sunnis and majority Shiites after a recent series of sectarian killings. (AP Photo/Alaa al-Marjani)
From left, anti-U.S. Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, Deputy Prime Minister Ahmad Chalabi, and Al-Sadr aide Sheik Ali Smesim after a meeting in Najaf 160 kilometers (100 miles) south of Baghdad, Iraq, Tuesday, May 24, 2005. The meeting with Muqtada al-Sadr sought to defuse tension between Sunnis and majority Shiites after a recent series of sectarian killings. (AP Photo/Mohammed Hato)
25 May 2005 01:17:00 GMT
Source: Reuters
By Evelyn Leopold
UNITED NATIONS, May 24 (Reuters) - Saddam Hussein probably lied about his weapons of mass destruction because of pride and to protect himself from perceived Iranian attacks, a former U.S. and U.N. weapons inspector said on Tuesday.
Charles Duelfer, head of the CIA's Iraq survey group that hunted weapons after the 2003 Gulf War, said the threat from Iran was very real to Saddam, who wanted to create an impression he had more armaments than he really had.
"There was a greater concern than we could appreciate sitting here in Washington of the threat posed by Iran," Duelfer told the Council on Foreign Relations.
"Our gut feeling was not the same as the gut feeling one would have sitting in Baghdad."
Iraq and Iran fought a bloody war from 1980 to 1988 and kept up a low-level conflict after that. Suspicions were rife that Iran was developing weapons of mass destruction.
"Saddam was certainly aware of the WMD assessments of Iran and he created a certain ambiguity about what his capabilities were," Duelfer said.
Duelfer reported last October that Saddam did not have weapons of mass destruction for more than a decade before the 2003 U.S.-led invasion of Iraq. But he said Saddam hoped in the future to reconstitute his unconventional arms programs and refused to let skilled scientists leave the country.
In a rare on-the-record talk, Duelfer said narcissism and pride played a large role in Saddam's obfuscation of his weapons, since he wanted to be a leader in science and technology, which meant nuclear capabilities.
Duelfer was the deputy executive chairman of UNSCOM, the U.N. Special Commission, which fielded inspectors in Iraq from 1991 to 1998. Iraq denied it had any unconventional weapons programs but shown proof to the contrary, Saddam's government allowed many to be destroyed but refused to account in detail what happened to all the armaments.
While President George W. Bush used Iraq's alleged weapons to justify the 2003 invasion, Duelfer said Saddam also had a "key intelligence failure" by not understanding that the United States would follow through on its threats after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on New York and Washington.
Saddam in 1991 established as a priority to get U.N. sanctions lifted, imposed after the 1990 Gulf War when his troops invaded Kuwait.
He tried to hide his arms programs, particularly biological and chemical weapons materials that are easier to conceal than nuclear facilities or missiles. Duelfer said Iraq resented inspectors prowling around, actions that immediately created mistrust between Iraqis and the U.N. teams.
But in 1998, Iraq decided that "no matter what they did the United States in particular as not going to climb off on resolving the sanctions issue" and so Baghdad cut off cooperation with inspectors, Duelfer recalled. Saddam then tried to erode the sanctions by exploiting splits among the major powers and bribing politicians around the world.
Richard Norton-Taylor and Michael Howard in Iraq
Wednesday May 25, 2005
The Guardian
It could take at least five years before Iraqi forces are strong enough to impose law and order on the country, the International Institute of Strategic Studies warned yesterday. The thinktank's report said that Iraq had become a valuable recruiting ground for al-Qaida, and Iraqi forces were nowhere near close to matching the insurgency.
John Chipman, IISS director, said the Iraqi security forces faced a "huge task" and the continuing ability of the insurgents to inflict mass casualties "must cast doubt on US plans to redeploy American troops and eventually reduce their numbers".
Insurgents have killed 600 Iraqis since the new government was formed. The IISS report said: "Best estimates suggest that it will take up to five years to create anything close to an effective indigenous force able to impose and guarantee order across the country."
The report said that, on bal ance, US policy over the past year had been effective in emboldening regional players in the Middle East and the Gulf to rally against rogue states.
But it warned that the inspirational effect of the intervention in Iraq on Islamist terrorism was "the proverbial elephant in the living room. From al-Qaida's point of view, [President] Bush's Iraq policies have arguably produced a confluence of propitious circumstances: a strategically bogged down America, hated by much of the Islamic world, and regarded warily even by its allies".
Iraq "could serve as a valuable proving ground for 'blooding' foreign jihadists, and could conceivably form the basis of a second generation of capable al-Qaida leaders ... and middle-management players", the report said.
Yesterday, a statement was placed on the al-Qaida in Iraq website claiming that Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the Jordanian-born Islamist who has claimed responsibility for numerous attacks, kidnappings and beheadings of foreign hostages, had been injured.
The statement, whose authenticity could not be verified, asked Muslims to pray for his recovery but did not say how or when he was injured. It said: "Let the near and far know that the injury of our leader is an honour, and a cause to close in on the enemies of God, and a reason to increase the attacks against them."
There were reports this month that the US military was investigating whether al-Zarqawi was at a Ramadi hospital and whether he was ill or wounded.
The thinktank report points to US estimates that there are between 12,000 and 20,000 hardcore insurgents in Iraq. It says that Iraqi politicians have been keen to blame the rise in sectarian violence on foreign jihadists. "But they may have overstated their case."
Insurgents demonstrated their ability to hit US forces in the heart of the Iraqi capital yesterday when a military convoy was targeted by a car bomb, killing three US troops.
A fourth US soldier was killed in a drive-by shooting as he sat atop a Bradley fighting vehicle at an observation post in central Baghdad.
The US military also announced yesterday that four soldiers had been killed by a roadside bomb on Monday in Haswa, 30 miles south of the capital, bringing the total number of US fatalities since Sunday to 13.
Yesterday, Iraq's new interior minister, Bayan al-Jabr, who is also a member of the ruling Shia-led alliance, met two prominent Sunni Muslim figures in an effort to reduce sectarian tensions. Officials said the meeting was designed to "curb all hateful attempts aiming to plan sectarian sedition among the Iraqi people".
Toby Dodge, senior fellow at the IISS and expert on Iraq, estimated yesterday that there were about 1,000 foreign fighters in Iraq "perfecting the use of car bombs" and causing more problems across the region, including Saudi Arabia. There seemed to be no "viable exit strategy" for foreign troops.
MADRID, May 24 (Xinhuanet) -- Spanish police have arrested three Moroccan men suspected of providing weapons to those who carried out the 2004 Madrid train bombings that killed 192 people, police said Tuesday.
Two suspects were arrested in Madrid and one in Granada on Monday, police said in a statement.
So far about 90 people, most of them Moroccan, have been arrested during the probe into the attacks on March 11, 2004, which also injured more than 1,500.
The three men are suspected of belonging to a group linked to the terrorist network al-Qaeda, police said.
Tuesday, 24 May , 2005, 15:08
Pakistan: Pakistani authorities have arrested an Egyptian suspected of having links with Osama bin Laden's Al-Qaeda terror network, a security official said on Tuesday.
The suspect was arrested late Monday night in a raid on a house in Charsadda district, 50 kilometers northeast of Peshawar, close to the Afghan border, the official told AFP.
"Two female undercover agents posing as village women visited the home and then intelligence agents conducted the raid," the security official said, requesting anonymity.
"He is an old Arab claiming to be Egyptian and married to a local ethnic Pashtun girl."
During the raid, security officials also picked up a local resident, he added.
Pakistan, a key ally in the US-led war on terror, has so far rounded up around 700 Al-Qaeda suspects, including alleged top operatives, while its army troops remain in the country's lawless tribal border belt to hunting down militants.
Most of the suspects have been handed over to US custody.
Last month Pakistan captured several Al-Qaeda suspects, including Abu Faraj al-Libbi, allegedly a key aide of bin Laden's.
Al-Libbi, a Libyan national, is the alleged mastermind of two attempts on President Pervez Musharraf's life in December 2003, and is also believed to have been involved in a bid to assassinate Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz before he assumed office last year.
Abdul-Aziz al-Hakim, who heads both the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq and the governing United Iraqi Alliance, speaks to the Associated Press in Baghdad, Iraq Tuesday, May 24, 2005. The leader of Iraq's largest Shiite political party expressed certainty Tuesday that a civil war will not break out in his country despite an increase in violence and that he favored carrying out the death penalty as a means of reducing the level of violence. (AP Photo/Hadi Mizban)
Shiite Leader: Iraq Civil War Avoidable
By BASSEM MROUE, Associated Press Writer
Tue May 24, 4:39 PM ET
BAGHDAD, Iraq - The leader of Iraq's largest Shiite political party expressed certainty Tuesday that a civil war will not break out in his country despite an increase in violence.
Abdul-Aziz al-Hakim, who heads both the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq and the governing United Iraqi Alliance, also told The Associated Press in an interview that he favored the death penalty as a means of reducing the violence — which has left more than 620 Iraqis dead since the Shiite-led government was announced on April 28.
Al-Hakim said insurgents have been trying to start a civil war between Iraq's Shiite majority and Sunni minority since the fall of Saddam Hussein's regime in April 2003.
"The awareness of the Iraqi people and the links between them will prevent such a war, God willing," he said in his heavily guarded Baghdad home overlooking the Tigris River.
Sunni Muslims opposed to Iraq's Shiite-dominated government are thought to provide the backbone of the insurgency, and some Sunni extremists have been attacking Shiite targets in an effort to provoke a sectarian war.
The attacks, al-Hakim said, were "the last card in order to incite sectarian war" and pointed to three against Shiites on Monday that killed nearly 50 people and injured more than 100.
They were an attack in the northern town of Tal Afar that killed at least 20, a suicide bombing against a Shiite mosque south of Baghdad that left at least 10 dead, and a car bomb at a restaurant near a Shiite neighborhood in the capital that killed at least eight.
Al-Hakim said insurgents and groups such as Jordanian-born Abu Musab al-Zarqawi's Al-Qaida in Iraq had made starting a civil war a priority.
In a letter to Osama bin Laden that was intercepted by the U.S. military last year, al-Zarqawi said that causing sectarian fighting between Shiite and Sunni was the best way to undermine American policy in Iraq.
Civil war, al-Hakim said, was "not a new aim. It is a plan that was declared during the first months after the fall of Saddam's regime, and al-Zarqawi said it in his known letter."
One way of dealing with the recent spike in violence was to begin implementing the death penalty in Iraq, al-Hakim said.
The death penalty was abolished by the U.S.-led occupation forces shortly after the invasion, but reintroduced in August 2004 for crimes including murder, endangering national security and drug trafficking. It has not yet been carried out.
"There is a will in the government for this law to be implemented and therefore we must implement these laws and measures," he said when asked about the death penalty. "We are a Muslim country that believes in justice and punishment, therefore we must implement these principles."
He said that not implementing the death penalty "was one of the reasons behind the spread of terrorism."
One way out of the crisis, according to al-Hakim, was to involve the Sunni minority both in political life and in the drafting of Iraq's new constitution.
"They should have a real participation and their points of view should be taken seriously," he said.
He denied accusations by some senior Sunni leaders that Shiite militias were responsible for a recent spate of sectarian attacks and killings.
The leader of the influential Association of Muslim Scholars, Sheik Haridh al-Dhari, last week charged SCIRI's military wing, the Badr Brigades, of being behind the killing.
"There is no problem between Badr and the Association of Muslim Scholars," al-Hakim said, calling it "an accusation without any proof against Badr."
Al-Hakim said that a committee made up of the association, Badr representatives and followers of the anti-American cleric Muqtada al-Sadr was working to defuse the tension caused by the charges.
Web posted at: 5/25/2005 3:40:15
Source ::: AFP
KUWAIT CITY: The trial of 37 Islamic militants suspected of links to Al Qaeda and deadly clashes with police in January opened yesterday, with the prosecution demanding the death penalty for at leat 21 of the suspects.
Amid tight security, the hearing began at 2pm in the presence of the media and a number of relatives. Eleven of the suspects were being tried in absentia while two remained in jail. Twenty-five defendants are Kuwaitis, seven are bidoon or stateless Arabs, two Jordanians and one each from Saudi Arabia, Australia and Somalia, the case documents showed.
After a four-hour hearing, presiding judge Hani Al Hamdan adjourned the trial until June 11. Twenty of the defendants, all bearded and dressed in prison uniforms, were kept in the court’s iron cage under the watch of members of the special forces, many of whom wore masks.
Two other suspects who were freed on bail were also present in the courtroom along with Nuha al-Enezi, wife of the alleged ringleader, Amer Khlaif Al Enezi, the only woman involved in the case. She was sitting in a wheelchair because she is ill with cancer. Her lawyer appealed to the judge to release her on bail in order to be able to travel abroad for treatment.
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