Posted on 11/22/2005 3:52:52 PM PST by Gucho
Your welcome Justan.
Stars and Stripes Mideast edition
Tuesday, November 22, 2005
U.S. and Iraqi forces have launched “disruption operations” in northern Ramadi, seeking to dislodge insurgents in one of the most heavily entrenched cities in Anbar province.
Some 150 Iraqi soldiers and 300 Marines and soldiers assigned to the 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 2nd Marine Division launched Operation Bruins late Saturday, officials said. The operation is “part of a series of disruption operations in Ramadi and is designed to set the conditions for successful elections in December.”
“The forces are conducting cordon and searches, blocking off known terrorist escape routes and searching for weapons caches,” read a Marine Corps news release issued Monday.
Ramadi has long been one of the most violent cities in Iraq. Soldiers and Marines assigned to the area have experienced almost daily firefights in the downtown streets, and residents have reported armed insurgents freely roaming the streets when U.S. patrols are elsewhere.
For the past year, responsibility for the city has been divided between Marines and U.S. Army units attached to the 2nd Marine Division. Last January’s elections saw a paltry turnout, with fewer than a thousand of the city’s 400,000 residents voting.
The constitutional referendum in October fared a bit better.
But U.S. officials said Operation Bruins was part of a larger string, including Operation Panthers, which targeted the Sophia district of eastern Ramadi.
Bruins also follows a Nov. 17 incident, not reported at the time, in which U.S. forces fended off an attack and said they killed 32 insurgents in a downtown battle.
While violence flares in the city, U.S. officials say attacks against Iraqi and U.S. troops in the city have decreased 60 percent over the past month.
Friddle saved life of Iraqi civilian injured in bomb attack
Hospital Corpsman Chief Petty Officer Joseph Friddle returned from Iraq Nov. 4 after receiving the Bronze Star Medal for his medical service there. (Allison Batdorff / S&S)
By Allison Batdorff - Stars and Stripes Pacific edition
Wednesday, November 23, 2005
YOKOSUKA NAVAL BASE, Japan — It was early morning at the main gate of Camp Habbiniyah in Iraq. Civilian day laborers were lined up outside, waiting to undergo the daily entry search on their way to work, when a bomb went off, killing 14 of them.
Chief Petty Officer Joseph Friddle, a hospital corpsman, treated the 14 who ultimately didn’t make it, and saved the life of another civilian who did. For that, and other combat actions during his sixth-month Iraq deployment, he earned the Bronze Star Medal.
The 38-year-old is a reluctant recipient, though. Friddle refused a big presentation and hadn’t planned on wearing the medal in his job as an independent duty corpsman at U.S. Naval Hospital Yokosuka.
“I’m not really into that stuff; I’m more low-budget,” Friddle said Monday. “I was never alone over there. It was a joint effort. I hope the other guys got the same thing; otherwise it wouldn’t be fair.”
Friddle was tasked to go to Camp Habbiniyah last May. His job was to work with eight Americans and 2,000 Iraqi troops to design and build a medical facility at the forward-deployed base.
Easier said than done. Camp Habbiniyah may be in the “middle of nowhere,” but it was constantly under attack, Friddle said.
“You don’t hear about Habbiniyah on the news, but we got hit all the time,” Friddle said.
Convoys would be lost en route, leaving Friddle without medical supplies he needed to care for the mostly civilian casualties and injuries around the base. But sometimes his Yokosuka command mailed him medical supplies and care packages — both deeply appreciated, he said.
It was Friddle’s first time in a combat zone, but his “unequaled dedication to adaptability” made him a candidate for the Bronze Star Medal, according to the narrative that accompanies the award.
Friddle created, designed and tested a mass casualty plan for the camp. He led a team to create a regional medical center to serve all military personnel in the Al Anbar province, and his use of existing buildings saved hundreds of thousands of dollars, the narrative says. Under his watch, illegal black water dump sites were cleaned up and dining and residential inspection programs were enacted to keep military and civilians healthy.
“[Friddle] established a system that will endure long after his departure,” the narrative reads.
When asked if he wanted to return to Iraq, Friddle declined to answer. He did, however, give some advice to the Yokosuka-based personnel who want to go there.
“You don’t know how good you have it here. Take advantage of everything here, including the education,” Friddle said. “Study up, because once you go over there and it hits the fan, that’s not the time to learn.”
BTTT!!
Tank loader killed 3 insurgents when tank was attacked
2nd Infantry Division Command Sgt. Maj. James A. Benedict pins the Bronze Star with Valor on Spc. Rodney Roby at Camp Red Cloud on Monday. (Seth Robson / S&S)
By Seth Robson, Stars and Stripes Pacific edition
Wednesday, November 23, 2005
CAMP RED CLOUD, South Korea — A U.S. soldier from the tiny Pacific island of Pohnapei was awarded a Bronze Star with Valor here Monday for bravery during combat in Fallujah, Iraq, last year.
Command Sgt. Maj. James A. Benedict pinned the medal on Spc. Rodney Roby, 22, on the Camp Red Cloud parade ground before several hundred soldiers from the 2nd Infantry Division’s Special Troops Battalion.
Roby served as a tank loader in Baqubah, Iraq, with Company A, 2nd Battalion, 63rd Armored Regiment, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Infantry Division from February 2004 until February 2005.
During Operation Phantom Fury in Fallujah in November 2004, four insurgents using rifles and rocket-propelled grenades attacked Roby’s tank, his citation states.
“Under direct fire and without regard for his own personal safety he engaged the insurgents with small arms fire and hand grenades, killing three and wounding the fourth. His actions single-handedly eliminated the threat and ensured the safety of his crew and vehicle,” the citation states.
Iraq’s battlefields are thousands of miles from Roby’s adopted home on Guam and from his home island of Pohnapei in the Federated States of Micronesia.
It was on Pohnapei that Roby’s journey to the U.S. military began when his grandfather told him stories about the bravery of U.S. servicemembers who chased away Japanese occupiers of the island during World War II, he said.
After his family moved to Guam, Roby became a keen sportsman, playing football and volleyball and even paddling a small boat around the island in an epic race that left the crew exhausted, he said.
“I had heard a lot about the Army. That was one of the challenges I wanted to take. I joined up in August 2002,” Roby said.
Eighteen months later he deployed to Forward Operating Base Scunion in Baqubah to relieve 4th Infantry Division soldiers.
“They told us it was going to be pretty hot, especially where we were,” he said, adding that he had lost several buddies in the desert fight.
“On the radio you kept hearing ‘a person got killed, a person got killed, a person got killed’ but we kept our cool,” he said.
When insurgents attacked his tank in Fallujah Roby acted on instinct, he said.
“I was just doing my job as a loader and what I was supposed to do when we came into contact. Everybody in my platoon deserves an award. Everybody did their job and risked their lives,” he said.
The battle and the rest of his time in Iraq taught Roby some valuable lessons, he said.
“Afterwards I prayed a lot. I never realized how life is easily taken. It only took three or four minutes (to kill the three insurgents). You see that person and a minute later he is dead,” he said.
Since arriving in South Korea five months ago Roby, as the 2nd ID surgeon’s driver, has come to grips with dangerous local roads and gained a reputation as a hard-running front-rower with the 2nd ID rugby team. His rugby teammates knew he had been to Iraq, but he never talked about his personal bravery before he got the medal.
“I try to keep a low profile but now this is putting me on the spot,” he said of his Bronze Star.
The young soldier said his goal is to become a noncommissioned officer and pass on lessons he has learned in combat to other soldiers.
GI recovering after bullet rips through helmet
By MIKE STARK - Of The Gazette Staff
November 22, 2005
The phone rang at 2:45 a.m. Julie Mathiason caught it before the second ring.
By then, she and her husband, Kim, had become accustomed to calls at all hours from their son, Army Sgt. Mackay Mathiason, a Stryker Brigade commander in Iraq.
But instead of Mackay on the other end, a lieutenant spoke up. He introduced himself and then got to the point in a conversation that Julie said is burned in her memory.
"Mackay just wanted to let you know he was OK."
"OK. What happened?"
"Well, he's been shot."
A bit of luck
A sniper in Mosul had hit him. The bullet pierced his Kevlar helmet at the hairline in the middle of his forehead. From there, it tore across the front of his head, never penetrating his skull, and then ripped a second hole in the helmet near his right ear as it exited.
Had the bullet inside his helmet taken a more conventional path, that phone call on Oct. 29 would have brought word that Mathiason would never see his son, Noah, born less than two weeks earlier.
Instead, Mathiason, 24, is recovering nicely at a medical facility in Virginia. After spending eight days with him in a Washington, D.C., hospital, his parents are back in Billings, sure that someone was watching over their son.
"It wasn't luck," Julie said. "It was the hand of the Lord."
* * *
Mackay Mathiason grew up in Billings and joined the Army the same month he graduated from Senior High in 2001.
He was stationed at Fort Wainwright, Alaska, until this summer, when his unit was called for duty in the Middle East. They had a shorter-than-expected stop in Kuwait and then were sent into Iraq.
Vulnerable spot
Part of his job was to command a Stryker vehicle as it patrolled the streets looking for insurgents. Mathiason would typically be perched high atop the armored, eight-wheel vehicle, a vulnerable spot for a 6-foot-4 soldier.
He had three close calls before the sniper hit him. A bullet bounced off the Stryker's hatch, the vehicle parked on top of a roadside explosive that didn't detonate, and a sniper's bullet barely missed his head but blew up a nearby ammunition can, leaving him with powder burns and minor shrapnel wounds.
"That shook him up," Kim Mathiason said.
But in late October, he and his men were patrolling Mosul and looking for a silver car that had been connected with a sniping incident.
Suddenly, the car tore past their vehicle and a sniper fired through the empty back window.
At first, Mathiason didn't know he'd been hit, according to his parents. He was still giving orders when one of his men noticed he was bleeding.
The bullet's path left a gash across Mathiason's forehead. The impact caused bruising and bleeding in his brain. Many were surprised he survived.
"The doctor said to him, 'Son, you shouldn't even be here,' " Julie said.
He was taken to Talafar and then to Balad, where he received stitches for the 3- to 4-inch wound on his head. He was then transported to a military hospital in Germany and put on a list to be taken to Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C.
There, he was able to talk on the phone to his wife, Leslie, and with his parents.
"All that mattered was that we heard his voice," Julie said. "We told him we loved him and he said he loved us."
Along the way, Kim and Julie were in regular contact with Mathiason's doctor, nurse, superiors and fellow soldiers. It helped to hear not only about Mathiason's physical health, but also that he was in good spirits and cracking jokes.
Through it all, his parents relied on their Christian faith and the military community that responds when one of their own is in need.
"Our hat's off to them," Julie said. "They've been amazing."
***
At Walter Reed, Mathiason's family, including his parents, wife, two daughters and newborn son, stayed at Mologne House, a hotel on the grounds reserved for families of wounded soldiers.
They went to Mathiason's room on the first morning and watched him hold his son for the first time. They also spent time with some of the other soldiers and their families.
"I did a lot of crying," Julie said.
Mathiason's parents were struck by the camaraderie and courage of the soldiers, despite the wounds they'd suffered. Kim said several told him they'd go back to Iraq if they could.
"The attitude of the guys is remarkable," he said.
On an outing to see the National World War II Memorial, a man spotted Mathiason. Julie Mathiason told the man her son had recently been wounded in Iraq.
"He said, 'I just want to thank him for his service,' " Julie said.
Afterward, as they walked away, Mathiason stopped his parents and fastened on their shirts two Purple Heart pins that he bought at the memorial.
"I wear my pin just as proudly as he's going to wear his," Julie said.
***
But Mathiason has no interest in being portrayed as a hero. There are a lot of soldiers in worse shape than he is, he said.
Besides, he told his parents, he was just doing his job, just like the rest of the soldiers over there. His parents said he's always been unselfish and has been missing the other members of his unit since he's been out of action.
"That's the kind of person he is," Julie said.
Those serving in Iraq are proud of the work they're doing and sometimes are frustrated that the good deeds - building schools, restoring power, connecting with Iraqi children - don't show up in the American media very often, his parents said.
His parents talk to Mathiason every few days. They're planning on having him and his family at their home for Christmas.
And this week of Thanksgiving is sweeter than ever. Julie said she gives all of the credit to God for sparing her son.
"That's the miracle," she said. "Our son is still with us."
Mathiason, who has tremors on his left side and struggles with balance, will need physical therapy. Last week, he was transferred to a medical facility in Charlottesville, Va., where his rehabilitation continues.
He hopes to get back the Kevlar helmet he was wearing that day in Mosul.
"Everybody wants to see the helmet," Julie said. "So do we."
http://www.billingsgazette.com/index.php?id=1&display=rednews/2005/11/22/build/local/35-mathiason.inc
Bump
Thank you GodBlessUSA.
Tehran, 22 Nov. (AKI) - Iran's religious authorities in the holy Shiite city of Qom have officially invited Cuba's revolutionary leader Fidel Castro, to convert to Islam, according to Hojatolislam Mohammad Reza Hakimi, quoted by Iran's Farda news agency. "I met Castro together with the Iranian foreign minister, Saiid Salili, and gave him some sacred Islamic texts translated into Spanish," said Hakimi, who recently returned from a government visit to Cuba.
"We spoke with Castro for several hours, and I think I almost managed to convince him to become a Muslim," Hakimi added. "Castro certain that Cuba is suffering from a lack of spirituality, and seems very interested in Islam, above all in the writing of Iran's revolutionary leader, Ayatallah Khomeini," Hakimi continued.
Khomeini in 1989 invited Mikhail Gorbachev, former president of the Soviet Union, to renounce Communism and to convert to Islam. Gorbachev's political and economic reforms in the mid-1980s triggered the non-violent transition from authoritarian to democratic forms of government in Eastern Europe, and from state-controlled to more free-market economies.
Nov 22, 2005 - 3:07 PM US/Eastern
By MATTHEW BARAKAT - Associated Press Writer
ALEXANDRIA, Va. -- An Arab-American college student was convicted Tuesday of joining al- Qaida and plotting to assassinate President Bush.
The federal jury rejected Ahmed Omar Abu Ali's claim that Saudi authorities whipped and tortured him to extract a false confession.
Abu Ali, a 24-year-old U.S. citizen born to a Jordanian father and raised in Falls Church, Va., could get life in prison on charges that include conspiracy to assassinate the president and providing support to al-Qaida.
Abu Ali told authorities shortly after his arrest at a Medina, Saudi Arabia, university in June 2003 that he joined al-Qaida and discussed various terrorist plots, including a plan to personally assassinate Bush and to establish himself as a leader of an al-Qaida cell in the United States.
But the defense countered that he was tortured by the Saudi security force known as the Mubahith.
The jury deliberated for 2 1/2 days. Abu Ali swallowed hard before the verdict was read but otherwise showed little emotion.
SPECIAL TO WORLD TRIBUNE.COM
Tuesday, November 22, 2005
TEL AVIV — The Iranian-sponsored Hizbullah has launched its biggest rocket barrage against Israel in years.
Israeli sources said Hizbullah fired hundreds of mortars and rockets toward Israeli military positions and communities along the northern border.
The sources said 11 Israeli soldiers were injured in a coordinated rocket and ground force attack, which took place on the eve of Lebanon's Independence Day.
In the first battle since June 2005, Israeli artillery batteries and aircraft returned fire and targeted a Hizbullah command post, Middle East Newsline reported. The exchange of fire was said to have lasted more than four hours.
"Our assessment is that behind the Hizbullah fire stand Syrian and Iranian interests to heat up the border," Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz said.
"Hizbullah used its full arsenal against us -- mortar shells, Katyusha rockets, anti-tank missiles and sniper fire," Maj. Gen. Udi Adam, the head of the Israeli military's Northern Command, said. "No IDF activity was carried out in the area prior to this attack. This attack had been in the planning for a long time, and we haven't seen such a wide scale coordinated attack by Hizbullah in a long time."
Officials said the Hizbullah attack began with a mortar and rocket barrage on Israeli military outposts along the disputed Shebaa Plateau. After several minutes, Hizbullah fighters on motorcycles and dune buggies stormed an Israeli position in the border town of Rajar, divided between Israeli- and Lebanese-controlled sectors.
Israeli soldiers opened fire and five Hizbullah fighters were killed in a fierce battle. Military sources said Hizbullah sought to capture the Israeli outpost and abduct soldiers.
"Hizbullah cells carried out a number of attacks against Israel Defense Force posts in the Rajar and Mount Dov regions in an attempt to kidnap IDF soldiers," an Israeli military statement said. "IDF forces were successful in preventing these attempts and were able to disable the Hizbullah cells."
At that point, Hizbullah gunners opened Katyusha and anti-tank fire toward Israeli border communities. Authorities ordered Israeli residents to take refuge in bomb shelters.
Hours later, an Israel Navy helicopter opened fire toward a Hizbullah squad near the Lebanese village of Nakoura along the Israeli border. There were no reports of injuries.
Military sources said Israel intends to maintain its high alert along the Lebanese border until at least Dec. 15, the deadline for the submission of a United Nations report into the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri. Military sources said Hizbullah plans to either launch a rocket attack or abduct an Israeli soldier.
Officials said Hizbullah has 15,000 rockets and missiles, with ranges of up to 110 kilometers. They said at least 10,000 of the missiles were supplied by Iran.
Iraq training 1,000 new forces per week
SPECIAL TO WORLD TRIBUNE.COM
Tuesday, November 22, 2005
BAGHDAD — U.S. officials said the Iraqi security forces have more than 212,000 trained and equipped soldiers and police.
They said the military was training and deploying soldiers and police at a rate of nearly 1,000 per week.
Maj. Gen. Rick Lynch, spokesman for the U.S.-led coalition, said 120 Iraq Army and police battalions have joined the war against Sunni insurgents. Lynch said 25 percent of the battalions were able to take the lead on counter-insurgency operations.
On Oct. 28, the U.S.-led coalition transferred security responsibility for the Diyala province to the Iraq Army, Middle East Newsline reported. The Multi-National Force said 3,000 U.S. soldiers from Task Force Liberty have been replaced by the Iraq Army's 1st Brigade of the 5th Division.
Officials said Iraqi security forces continue to be hampered by poor logistics. But they said Iraqi soldiers and police have been increasingly effective in collecting and processing tactical intelligence, many of them composed of tips from Iraqi civilians.
"The Iraqi 1st Brigade continues to train and equip its forces while providing command and control for battalion-sized operations in eastern Diyala Province," a U.S. military statement said. "The regiment achieved significant success during its operations in eastern Diyala Province. Troopers of the regimental combat team conducted more than 13,000 combat patrols during their eleven months of service."
Officials said 17 bases have been turned over to the Iraq Army. They said the army has been in charge of an entire province as well as a large section of Baghdad.
[On Nov. 19, about 150 Iraqi soldiers and 300 Marines launched Operation Bruins in Ramadi. Officials said the operation was designed to block Sunni insurgency routes and search for weapons caches.]
U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said Iraq now has more than 100 military and police battalions engaged in battle. Rumsfeld said the security forces were "well respected by the Iraqi people," who have provided increased tips on insurgency activity and whereabouts.
"They're doing a very good job," Rumsfeld said on Nov. 20. "They're growing in numbers and they're growing in competence."
American Forces Press Service
CAMP BLUE DIAMOND, Iraq, Nov. 22, 2005 – U.S. and Iraqi forces wrapped up Operation Steel Curtain today near the Iraq-Syria border, military officials here announced.
The 17-day offensive was conducted in the cities of Husaybah, Karabilah and Ubaydi, and was geared toward preventing al Qaeda in Iraq from operating in the Euphrates River Valley and throughout the country's Anbar province, officials noted.
As part of a larger operation called Operation Hunter, Steel Curtain made way for the establishment of a permanent Iraqi army security presence in the Qaim region. It also set the conditions for local citizens to vote in the upcoming Dec. 15 elections, officials said.
Steel Curtain ushered in the first large-scale operational use of the Iraqi army, officials said, employing about 1,000 soldiers in western Anbar province. The Iraqi soldiers conducted detailed clearing missions alongside their coalition counterparts and began establishing permanent bases within these three cities.
"Forces at these outposts will prevent the al Qaeda in Iraq-led terrorists from regaining a presence in these cities and threatening local residents with their murder and intimidation campaign," a coalition spokesman said.
"Desert Protectors," specially trained local Iraqis, were recruited from the Qaim region and worked alongside the Iraqi army and U.S. units throughout the operation.
"Their familiarity with the area and its people was crucial in identifying friend from foe and enabled their Iraqi and coalition partners to better understand the geographical complexities of the region," the spokesman said.
Officials reported that 10 Marines were killed in fighting during Steel Curtain. A total of 139 terrorists were killed and 256 were processed for detention during the operation.
"The porous Iraq-Syria border was identified as a main route for men, material and money to be transited into Iraq," the spokesman said, and the western Euphrates River Valley region was known to be a major artery for al Qaeda in Iraq terrorists.
Iraqi soldiers and U.S. forces moved in on Husaybah the morning of Nov. 5, followed shortly thereafter by Karabilah, Ubaydi and winding up clearing the Ramana region, west of Ubaydi on the northern side of the Euphrates River.
"Iraqi army soldiers and U.S. forces will continue to maintain presence and increase efforts in securing the Iraq-Syria border," the spokesman said.
(From a Multinational Force Iraq news release.)
UPDATED: 1:14 pm EST November 23, 2005
CAIRO, Egypt -- Al-Qaida in Iraq on Wednesday denied that its leader, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, was among those killed in a weekend raid and gunfight in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul.
The statement _ posted on an Islamic Web site that often carries militant reports _ came a day after a top U.S. commander in Iraq said he has "absolutely no reason" to believe al-Zarqawi had died.
The insurgents' denial followed a fierce gunbattle between Iraqi and U.S. soldiers on Saturday after the coalition forces received tips that al-Qaida members, possibly including al-Zarqawi, were inside a house in Mosul.
Three insurgents detonated explosives and killed themselves to avoid capture and five more died in fighting, the U.S. military said, adding that four Iraqi police officers also were killed.
Al-Qaida said it delayed responding to the rumors of al-Zarqawi's death "until this lie took its full length to let Muslims know the extent of (the media's) stupidity and shallow thinking." The statement could not be verified.
Iraqi officials said DNA tests were under way to determine if al-Zarqawi was among the dead, though the White House also said reports of al-Zarqawi's death were "highly unlikely and not credible."
Lt. Gen. John Vines, chief of the Multi-National Corps Iraq, confirmed Tuesday that U.S. officials have the ability to determine if al-Zarqawi was there.
The U.S. command said 11 American soldiers, nine Iraqi army troops and one policeman were wounded in the fighting.
But the al-Qaida statement said five people, including a woman, were in the house and the woman blew herself up among 20 Iraqi and U.S. soldiers to avoid arrest. It said the four men were killed when helicopters bombed the house, and 20 Iraqi and 15 U.S. soldiers were killed.
The Associated Press
Updated: Nov 23, 2005 - 10:05am
A group of anti-war protesters returned to a roadside near President Bush's Central Texas ranch this morning. About two dozen protesters were lined up along the road by 9:00 AM. A large contingent of McLennan County Sheriff's deputies arrived a short time later to control the scene.
The president flew home to Texas and arrived last night at his Crawford ranch -- where he's expected to spend Thanksgiving.
Officials with the Crawford Peace House say antiwar activist Cindy Sheehan has a family emergency but should join the group Friday -- the day after Thanksgiving.
In August, Sheehan led a 26-day protest near the ranch. McLennan County commissioners in September imposed restrictions banning roadside parking within a seven-mile radius of Bush's ranch and prohibiting camping in any county ditch.
The Associated Press
11/232005 - 14:14 GMT
Heavy exchanges of fire between Israeli soldiers and Hizbullah fighters were reported in southern Lebanon on Wednesday afternoon. The incident started, according to Israeli sources, after "an Israeli glider crossed into Lebanese territory" due to powerful winds.
Ynet news reported the firefight erupted when Israeli forces crossed into Lebanon to rescue the man. Hizbullah fighters also spotted the Israeli and tried to capture him. No casualties reported in the firefight.
Eyewitnesses said Israeli forces reached the glider as Hizbullah fighters were only 70 meters away from him.
On Monday, four Hizbullah members were killed in a clash on the border with Israeli troops.
© 2005 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
Iran pledges $1 bln loan, security help to Iraq
23 Nov 2005 - 13:49:54 GMT
Source: Reuters
TEHRAN, Nov 23 (Reuters) - Iran has pledged to give Iraq a $1 billion loan and help with tackling insecurity, Iraqi President Jalal Talabani said at the end of a ground-breaking visit to the Islamic state.
Talabani's three-day visit, the first by an Iraqi leader to Iran for nearly four decades, followed heightened accusations by Western and some Iraqi officials that Shi'ite Muslim Iran was linked to insurgent attacks in Iraq. Iran denies the charges.
Talabani, as he did in his public comments throughout his stay in Iran, stressed the improving political and commercial ties between two countries which fought a bitter 1980-1988 war in which hundreds of thousands died.
"All the officials I met said there are no limits to Iran's support for the Iraqi nation," he told reporters.
"Iranian officials openly said they want the establishment of security in Iraq ... They said: 'your security is our security'," he said.
Talabani added that Iran had pledged to give Iraq a $1 billion loan and $10 million in aid to help with reconstruction efforts. He gave no details and Iranian officials could not immediately be reached to elaborate.
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L23550883.htm
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