Today in History - July 9, 2005
Jul 9, 2005 3:00 am US/Eastern
(AP) Today is Saturday, July 9, the 190th day of 2005. There are 175 days left in the year.
Today’s Highlight in History:
On July 9, 1776, the Declaration of Independence was read aloud to Gen. George Washington’s troops in New York.
On this date:
In 1540, England’s King Henry VIII had his six-month-old marriage to his fourth wife, Anne of Cleves, annulled.
In 1755, British Gen. Edward Braddock was mortally wounded as his troops suffered a massive defeat during the French and Indian War (he died four days later).
In 1816, Argentina declared independence from Spain.
In 1850, the 12th president of the United States, Zachary Taylor, died after serving only 16 months of his term.
In 1896, William Jennings Bryan delivered his famous “cross of gold” speech at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago.
In 1918, 101 people were killed in a train collision in Nashville, Tenn.
In 1944, during World War II, American forces secured Saipan as the last Japanese defenses fell.
In 1947, the engagement of Britain’s Princess Elizabeth to Lt.
Philip Mountbatten was announced.
In 1951, President Truman asked Congress to formally end the state of war between the United States and Germany.
In 1982, a Pan Am Boeing 727 crashed in Kenner, La., killing all 146 people aboard and eight people on the ground.
Ten years ago: French commandos boarded the Greenpeace ship Rainbow Warrior II in the South Pacific. Pete Sampras won the men’s singles title at Wimbledon by defeating Boris Becker, 6-7 (7-5), 6-2, 6-4, 6-2.
Five years ago: The 13th International AIDS Conference opened in Durban, South Africa. Twelve people died in a soccer stampede set off when police fired tear gas at bottle-throwing fans during a World Cup qualifier between Zimbabwe and South Africa in Harare, Zimbabwe. (South Africa’s 2-0 victory over Zimbabwe was ruled official.) Top-seeded Pete Sampras won his seventh Wimbledon title as he defeated Patrick Rafter, 6-7 (10), 7-6 (5), 6-4, 6-2.
One year ago: A Senate Intelligence Committee report concluded the CIA had provided unfounded assessments of the threat posed by Iraq that the Bush administration relied on to justify going to war. The International Court of Justice ruled that Israel’s planned barrier in the West Bank barrier violated international law. Paul Klebnikov, the American editor of Forbes magazine’s Russian edition, was gunned down near his Moscow office. Actress Isabel Sanford died in Los Angeles at age 86.
Today’s Birthdays: Former British Prime Minister Sir Edward Heath is 89. Actor-singer Ed Ames is 78. Singer-songwriter Lee Hazelwood is 76. Actor James Hampton is 69. Actor Brian Dennehy is 67. Actor Richard Roundtree is 63. Author Dean Koontz is 60. Football Hall-of-Famer O.J. Simpson is 58. Actor Chris Cooper is 54. TV personality John Tesh is 53. Country singer David Ball is 52. Rhythm-and-blues singer Debbie Sledge (Sister Sledge) is 51. Actor Jimmy Smits is 50. Actress Lisa Banes is 50. Actor Tom Hanks is 49. Singer Marc Almond is 48. Actress Kelly McGillis is 48. Rock singer Jim Kerr (Simple Minds) is 46. Actress-rock singer Courtney Love is 41. Rock musician Frank Bello (Anthrax) is 40. Actor David O’Hara is 40. Actor Scott Grimes is 34. Actor Enrique Murciano is 32. Rock musician Dan Estrin (Hoobastank) is 29. Actor Fred Savage is 29. Country musician Pat Allingham is 27. Actress Megan Parlen is 25. Rhythm-and-blues singer Kiely Williams (3LW) is 19.
Thought for Today: “Invest in the human soul. Who knows, it might be a diamond in the rough.”—Mary McLeod Bethune, American educator and reformer (1875-1955).
http://cbsnewyork.com/topstories/topstories_story_178151056.html
© 2005 The Associated Press.
Associated Press
Last updated: 4:13 a.m., Saturday, July 9, 2005
BAGHDAD, Iraq -- About 600 U.S. Marines and Iraqi soldiers launched a fourth counterinsurgency operation in less than a month in a volatile western province in Iraq, this time near Fallujah, the military said Saturday.
The counterinsurgency offensive, called Operation Scimitar, started Thursday with targeted raids in Zaidan, 19 miles southeast of Fallujah. Two days later, 22 suspected insurgents had been detained.
The military said it did not announce the offensive earlier because commanders did not want to tip off insurgents that a major operation had begun.
The offensive -- named after a curved sword -- includes 500 Marines from the 3rd Reconnaissance Battalion, Regimental Combat Team-8, a highly trained infantry unit stationed in Okinawa, Japan, the military said.
About 100 Iraqi soldiers are supporting the operation, which is designed to disrupt insurgent activity in the Anbar province.
The latest counterinsurgency offensive in the province came on the heels of Operations Spear, Dagger and Sword. There are a number of insurgent strongholds in Anbar, which stretches from Baghdad to the Syrian border.
Copyright 2005 Associated Press
U.S. Launches Operation Scimitar in Iraq (Update)
Saturday July 9, 2005 3:46 PM
By FRANK GRIFFITHS
Associated Press Writer
BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - About 600 U.S. Marines and Iraqi soldiers have launched a fourth offensive against insurgents in less than a month in a volatile western province in Iraq, the military said Saturday.
Operation Scimitar started Thursday with targeted raids in the village of Zaidan, 20 miles southeast of Fallujah. So far, 22 suspected insurgents had been detained. Fallujah was a major insurgent bastion until U.S. forces overran the city in November.
A U.S. Air Force Predator also conducted a strike Friday against militants near Qaim, an Anbar province town on the Syrian border, the military said. The Predator fired a Hellfire missile at a truck carrying rocket-propelled grenades and suspected insurgents.
Two insurgents were killed, said Marine 1st Lt. Pamela Marshall, a spokeswoman.
The military said it did not announce the Operation Scimitar earlier because commanders did not want to tip off insurgents. The campaign - named after a curved Asian sword - includes 500 Marines from the 3rd Reconnaissance Battalion, Regimental Combat Team-8, stationed in Okinawa, Japan, the military said.
About 100 Iraqi soldiers were supporting the operation, which was designed to disrupt insurgent activity in the Anbar province, which stretches from Baghdad to the Syrian border and holds a number of insurgent strongholds. Fallujah is 40 miles west of the capital.
The latest counterinsurgency offensive in the province came on the heels of Operations Spear, Dagger and Sword.
The heaviest fighting occurred during Operation Spear in mid-June in Karabilah, near the porous Syrian border, which intelligence officials believe is the main gateway for foreign fighters entering Iraq.
The military said it killed about 50 insurgents in airstrikes, tank shelling and gunbattles during Operation Spear. Sections of Karabilah were left in rubble.
Separately, radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr has issued a religious decree to collect 1 million signatures for a petition demanding U.S.-led foreign troops leave the country. Dozens of people, including young boys, signed the petition in the Sadr City slum in eastern Baghdad on Saturday.
Al-Sadr, who opposes the foreign presence in Iraq, recently has taken on a higher public profile after emerging from months of hiding following clashes last year between U.S. troops and his militiamen.
The head of Iraq's karate union also has been kidnapped south of Baghdad, sports officials said Saturday. Ali Shakir was abducted Thursday afternoon in Latifiyah, about 20 miles south of Baghdad, while on his way home, said Ahmed Hashim, an Iraq Olympic committee official.
It was not clear why Shakir was taken, but insurgents have frequently targeted members of the U.S.-backed Iraqi government. The Iraqi Union of Karate is a government agency.
Elsewhere Saturday, gunmen in three cars killed police Capt. Saad Mihsin Abdul Sadah in Amiriyah, 25 miles west of Baghdad. He was on his way to work at the Interior Ministry, police said.
The insurgency frequently targets Iraq's security forces, but has started focusing on attacking foreign diplomats in recent days as part of a new trend apparently aimed at isolating the country from the Arab world.
A roadside bomb hit an American convoy in the central city of Samarra, damaging one Humvee, police Capt. Laith Mohammed said. No casualties were reported. A separate mortar attack in downtown Samarra wounded three women, he said.
At the G-8 summit in Scotland Friday, Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi said his government would begin withdrawing about 300 troops from Iraq in September - subject to security conditions at the time.
The moves came as violent incidents in the Iraqi capital are declining since Iraq's U.S.-backed forces launched an operation against insurgents in the city six weeks ago.
The commander of U.S. forces in Baghdad, Maj. Gen. William G. Webster Jr., said car bombings had dropped from 14 to 21 a week in May to about seven or eight a week now. But he said it was ``very difficult to know'' whether the insurgency has been broken.
Iraqi officials have become concerned about a possible exodus of diplomats from Baghdad after a Web site claim Thursday by al-Qaida in Iraq that it had killed Egypt's top envoy after kidnapping him. The claim could not be independently verified.
Egyptian and Iraqi officials said Egypt would temporarily close its mission in Iraq and recall its staff - although Ihab al-Sherif's body has not been found and the Web statement contained no photographic evidence of his death.
Pakistan's Ambassador Mohammed Younis Khan left the country Wednesday after his convoy was fired on in a kidnap attempt. Bahrain's top envoy, Hassan Malallah al-Ansari, was expected to leave soon after he was slightly wounded in a separate attempt.
In its Web statement, the country's most feared terror group said it wanted to seize ``as many ambassadors as we can'' to punish governments that support Iraq's Shiite-dominated government.
Sunni Arabs, who dominated Iraq until fellow Sunni Saddam Hussein was ousted in 2003, boycotted January elections and are believed to make up the core of an insurgency that has killed more than 1,475 people since the Shiite- and Kurdish-led government took office on April 28.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,1280,-5129664,00.html