Operation Phantom Fury--Day 660 - Now Operations River Blitz; Matador--Day 555

Ernesto Hits Gitmo, DoD Prepares for Florida Landfall

By Jim Garamone - American Forces Press Service

WASHINGTON, Aug. 28, 2006 – Defense Department officials and agencies have geared up to provide whatever support the Federal Emergency Management Agency may need in response to Hurricane Ernesto.

Tropical Storm Ernesto hit Cuba west of Naval Station Guantanamo Bay this morning, base spokeswoman Stacey Byington said.

The storm carried 33-knot sustained winds with gusts up to 38 knots, she said. The base’s 7,000 personnel got hit with 2.1 inches of rain. “We were prepared,” Byington said. “Most people sheltered in place and came out when the ‘all clear’ sounded this morning at about 10:30.”

Forecasters expect Ernesto will climb back to hurricane status in the warm waters north of Cuba. Satellite images show it headed for Florida.

DoD is working with FEMA experts to prepare for any eventuality. “We have the defense coordinating officer and the defense coordinating element from FEMA Region 4 deployed to the State Emergency Operations Center in Tallahassee, Fla.,” Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said today. DoD also has representatives at the Regional Response Coordination Center in Atlanta.

“There has also been a determination that should there need to be logistical staging, that Fort Rucker and Maxwell Air Force Base in Alabama and Homestead Air Reserve Base and Jacksonville Naval Air Station in Florida will serve as FEMA logistical staging areas,” Whitman said.

The various officials help identify logistical support and are the liaisons into U.S. Northern Command, based in Colorado Springs, Colo.

In addition, the states deploy their own National Guard assets as conditions warrant.

Related Sites:

U.S. Northern Command

Army official: Iraqis improving, but not ready to take over

Tribal loyalties remain a challenge for Iraq’s army

By Lisa Burgess - Stars and Stripes Mideast edition

Tuesday, August 29, 2006

ARLINGTON, Va. — The competence of Iraq’s security forces may be “night and day” compared to six months ago, but they aren’t yet ready to take complete responsibility for safeguarding their homeland, Army Brig. Gen. Dana Pittard, commander of the Iraqi Assistance Group, said Monday.

“If your question is, should the U.S. forces leave [Iraq] in the next couple of months, I’d say no, I think that’s premature, based on what we see on the ground,” Pittard told Pentagon reporters in a video teleconference from Iraq.

The 3,000 U.S. servicemembers who are training Iraq’s army, police and border patrol “are making a huge difference,” Pittard said.

But even the best trainers can’t overcome deeply rooted problems such as tribal and ethnic loyalties that can trump the newly minted security forces’ obligations to their equally new central government.

For example, on Friday, a battalion of the Iraqi army’s 10th Division in Maysan mutinied when its soldiers learned that they were going to be transferred to Baghdad to participate in Together Forward II, the ongoing effort to secure the capital city.

The soldiers, who were from the 2nd Battalion of the 4th Brigade, had been praised by their British trainers as the most professional in the province, according to a report in the London Daily Telegraph.

Pittard downplayed the incident, first saying that “there were some soldiers, I think it was about 100, who said they would not deploy as a part of the operation,” and then that “the leadership of that unit and their soldiers felt that they were needed down there in Maysan” rather than in Baghdad.

“A decision was made — a decision is going to be made as to whether or not that battalion will actually deploy,” Pittard said. “That will be worked out by the Iraqi government and the Ministry of Defense. And we’ll be in support of that [decision].”

The issue, Pittard said, is that “the Iraqi army has been a regionally recruited organization,” with soldiers recruited, trained and operating where they have lived all their lives.

Now, with Iraq security forces starting to be deployed to hotspots around the country, “it becomes more difficult,” Pittard said. “Because for many of those soldiers, they just thought that they’d be operating in their homeland areas.”

“So that is something that’s got to be tackled by the Iraqi government,” he said. “And again, we’re in support of that.”

Ramadi checkpoints allowing U.S. troops to isolate enemy

Insurgent attacks in eastern part of city on the decline

http://www.estripes.com/photos/39659_8281491b.jpg>
An Abrams tank rolls through the main gate at Entry Control Point Eight in eastern Ramadi recently. (Monte Morin / S&S)

Spc. David Burgess, 22, of Lamar, Colo., takes a radio call while manning an observation post at ECP-8. (Monte Morin / S&S)

By Monte Morin - Stars and Stripes Mideast edition

Tuesday, August 29, 2006

RAMADI, Iraq — As far as Capt. Justin Michel is concerned, Entry Control Point Eight is the roughest intersection in town.

A heavily fortified checkpoint on Ramadi’s eastern edge, ECP-8 is the kind of barren, shell-pocked outpost that makes a visitor walk a double-time zigzag for fear of snipers, or clench his gut in anticipation of falling mortar rounds.

In the past four months, this key entryway into Ramadi has been struck by what Michel called two “particularly nasty” car bombs and has suffered numerous attacks by snipers, rocket-propelled grenades and mortars.

In the first week alone, Michel’s Company A, 1st Battalion, 506th Infantry Regiment endured daily attacks as U.S. and Iraqi soldiers and engineers struggled to fortify the checkpoint with more than 30,000 sandbags, nearly 2,000 feet of razor wire and 200 concrete barriers.

“This place is something else,” said Michel, 42, of West Point, Miss. “We put an awful lot of work into it.”

As U.S. and Iraqi army troops wage a renewed campaign to rid Ramadi of insurgents, fortified checkpoints like ECP-8 have become critical weapons in the monthslong battle. By securing major thoroughfares into and out of Ramadi, U.S. and Iraqi army commanders say they have been able to isolate insurgents within the city by cutting off or substantially reducing their supply of weapons, as well as their freedom of movement.

“This has been one of the single most detrimental moves we’ve made against the enemy,” said Lt. Col. Ronald Clark, commander of the Fort Campbell, Ky.-based 1-506th — a unit of the 101st Airborne Division. “He can’t get fighters and supplies into the city. We’ve isolated him.”

The checkpoints, along with daily combat patrols, raids and other operations, have significantly reduced insurgent attacks in eastern Ramadi, which until recently had been one of the worst areas of the violent Sunni Arab city.

“If this isn’t the most dangerous part of Ramadi, it’s because we’ve made it that way,” Clark said.

The tactic of choking off insurgent supply lines was begun by the 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 28th Infantry Division, a Pennsylvania National Guard unit that completed its tour in Iraq early this summer. Since that time, the 1-506th and the 1st Brigade of the 1st Armored Division have expanded greatly on the concept.

“When we first came into this area there was no one else here. No Iraqi police. Nobody,” Clark said of eastern Ramadi districts like Ma’laab and Sofia.

In those early days, Clark said enemy attacks were constant and brazen, and the unit’s headquarters, Forward Operating Base Corregidor, was a frequent target.

“When we first got here, insurgents would walk out into the street and shoot at the FOB with RPGs. They’d launch mortars within a click of our base. That was totally unacceptable,” Clark said.

Clark’s battalion, a mix of light infantry, mechanized infantry, armor and Navy SEALS, fought back along with Iraqi army units and, according to commanders, forced insurgents to seek shelter in the south central part of the city — an area that had seen limited U.S. troop presence until the arrival of 1-1st AD several months ago.

“The insurgents are like cockroaches,” Clark said. “They go where you are not. They went to the center of the city because no one was there.”

ECP-8, which is manned by Able Company troops as well as soldiers from the 2nd Battalion, 1st Brigade, 1st Iraqi Army Division, is one of a handful of new positions established in eastern Ramadi by the 1-506th.

The battered checkpoint comprises a series of rambling city blocks and farms that have been seized and occupied by U.S. and Iraqi troops and are linked together by a network of blast walls and shining lengths of concertina wire. While the area teems with local Iraqis during operating hours, when residents are looking to get into the area or leave, or are seeking restitution payments from civil affairs teams, the outpost looks deserted much of the time.

Spc. Jonathan Thomas, 23, of Miami, said he was shocked by the desolate, rubble-strewn compound when he first arrived. Thomas served in the same sector of Ramadi at the beginning of the war when he was a member of the Florida National Guard.

“It looked like a regular road then,” Thomas said of the main boulevard that runs through the checkpoint. “There were people walking along the road and the businesses were running. Now, there are a lot more blown up buildings. It’s like a ghost town.”

The other big difference, Thomas said, was the number and quality of Iraqi army soldiers fighting alongside U.S. forces.

“These Iraqi army guys have stepped up a lot since I was here the first time,” he said.

Keeping the checkpoint operating, even under periodic attacks, has been one of Able Company’s main missions.

Able Company’s commander said that when a car bomb destroyed the checkpoint’s main gate, his company first sergeant and welders constructed a new, improved gate within a day and kept the checkpoint operating.

Michel said that it would have been a public relations victory for the insurgents if they had managed to shut the operation down for a week, preventing Ramadi residents from traveling to work, the market or the hospital because of the damage.

“We wanted to show the populace that we weren’t going to make this any more inconvenient than it was just because of the enemy,” Michel said. “If we had to close it down for six days, the enemy would have used that for its own information operations message. The population is the center of gravity in Ramadi, and we understand that.”

A soldier with Able Company, 1st Battalion, 506th Infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne Division, patrols farmland adjacent to ECP-8. (Monte Morin / S&S)

Local Iraqis approach ECP-8, which is surrounded by 1,600 meters of razor wire, in eastern Ramadi recently. (Monte Morin / S&S)

Iraqi men talk to a U.S. soldier recently while visiting the Civil-Military Operations Center at ECP-8. (Monte Morin / S&S)

V.P. Cheney: Iraq Pullout 'Ruinous' to Security

Monday, Aug. 28, 2006 - 4:55 p.m. EDT

Vice President Dick Cheney Monday seized on Democratic calls to pull troops out of Iraq to draw an election-year link between early withdrawal and the possibility of terrorist attacks in the United States.

As Cheney and President Bush try to help Republicans keep control of Congress on Nov. 7, polls show public support for the war ebbing away. But Bush gets better marks for his handling of terrorism and Cheney tied the two together.

"Some in our own country claim retreat from Iraq would satisfy the appetite of the terrorists and get them to leave us alone," Cheney told a Veterans of Foreign Wars convention in Reno, Nevada. "A precipitous withdrawal from Iraq would be ... a ruinous blow to the future security of the United States."

Cheney did not use the word "Democrats," choosing instead the anonymous "some," but he rejected the argument many have made that by invading Iraq in March 2003, the United States simply "stirred up a hornets' nest."

"They overlook a fundamental fact. We were not in Iraq on Sept. 11, 2001, but the terrorists hit us anyway," he said, in a reference to the hijacked plane attacks that killed almost 3,000 people.

When Bush answered a question about Iraq last week by raising Sept. 11, a reporter asked him "What did Iraq have to do with that?" The president replied, "Nothing," and added, "Nobody has ever suggested in this administration that Saddam Hussein ordered the attack."

But prior to the U.S.-led invasion, Cheney suggested that one of the Sept. 11 hijackers met in Prague before the attacks with an Iraqi intelligence agent. The bipartisan Sept. 11 Commission found no evidence such a meeting took place.

Sept. 11 and its aftermath, as well as the build-up and early successes in the Iraq war, were winning issues for Republicans in 2002 and 2004. With the unpopular war now helping to drag Bush's poll numbers down to the lowest of his presidency, the White House has sought to cast it as part of the broader struggle against terror.

Cheney said terrorists wanted to arm themselves with chemical, biological and even nuclear weapons, "to destroy Israel, to intimidate all Western countries and to cause mass death in the United States."

He suggested critics were naive and did not understand the magnitude of the threats.

"Some might look at these ambitions and wave them off as extreme and mad," he said. "Well, these ambitions are extreme and they are mad. They are also real and we must not wave them off, we must take them seriously."

Cheney said he welcomed the vigorous debate over Iraq but added: "There is a difference between healthy debate and self-defeating pessimism. "We have only two options on Iraq - victory or defeat - and this nation will not pursue a policy of retreat."

http://www.newsmax.com/archives/ic/2006/8/28/165807.shtml?s=lh

Reuters

IDF uncovers Hizbullah bunker

The Hizbullah bunker just half a kilometer away from a UN outpost in southern Lebanon. (Photo: IDF)

An IDF soldier near the recently uncovered Hizbullah bunker. (Photo: IDF)

Aug. 27, 2006

By JPOST.COM STAFF

IDF forces from the Golani Brigade blasted open a Hizbullah bunker overnight Saturday some 400 meters from the security fence near Rosh Hanikra, it was reported on Sunday. The bunker was discovered a mere stone's throw from a UN post.

According to Lt.-Col. Jassem Elian, a senior officer in the Golani Brigade, "Hizbullah dug a 40-meter by two-kilometer pit, in which they built dozens of outposts."

Elian added that the bunker had "shooting positions of poured concrete," and that the combat posts inside were equipped with phone lines, showers, toilets, air ducts, and emergency exits, as well as logistical paraphernalia for Hizbullah.

A Golani officer told the Jerusalem Post that among the force's findings was a Katyusha rocket launcher, most likely used in rocket attacks against northern Israel during the war.

He also mentioned that Golani forces had initiated the move to uncover the bunker after the same battalion, in an earlier operation, had discovered maps specifying certain areas where Hizbullah had planned such tunnels in south Lebanon.

The IDF blasts caused concern among nearby residents, who thought the loud explosions were rocket fire.

The IDF has continued to operate in southern Lebanon since a cease-fire was called two weeks ago, stopping weapons shipments to Hizbullah and killing several armed Hizbullah operatives who posed an immediate threat to IDF forces.

Cheney: U.S. Troops Fighting for American Ideals, Security

By Steven Donald Smith - American Forces Press Service

WASHINGTON, Aug. 28, 2006 – American troops fighting in the war against terrorism are serving the highest ideals of the United States, such as freedom, justice, equality and the dignity of the individual, Vice President Dick Cheney said today in Reno, Nev.

“And they are serving the vital security interests of America and the civilized world,” Cheney told an audience at the Veterans of Foreign Wars National Convention. “There is no denying that the work is difficult and that there is a great deal to be done. Yet we can harbor no illusions about the nature of the enemy we're fighting, or the ambitions they seek to achieve.”

The enemy the U.S. faces wears no uniform, has no regard for the rules of warfare and is unconstrained by any standard of decency or morality, Cheney said.

“They plot and plan in secret, target the defenseless, and rejoice at the death of innocent, unsuspecting human beings,” he said.

Islamic extremists seek to impose a dictatorship of fear, under which every man, woman, and child lives in total obedience to a narrow and hateful ideology, he said.

“This ideology rejects tolerance, denies freedom of conscience, and demands that women be pushed to the margins of our society,” he said. “Such beliefs can be imposed only through force and intimidation, so those who refuse to bow to the tyrants will be brutalized or killed -- and no person or group is exempt.”

These extremists have a set of clear objectives, he said. They want to end all American and Western influence in the Middle East, seize control of a country so they have a base from which to launch attacks and to wage war against governments that do not meet their demands, he said.

“The terrorists believe that by controlling one country, they will be able to target and overthrow other governments in the region, and ultimately to establish a totalitarian empire that encompasses a region from Spain, across North Africa, through the Middle East and South Asia, all the way around to Indonesia,” the vice president said.

Islamic extremists also have made it known that they want to arm themselves with chemical, biological and even nuclear weapons, to destroy Israel, to intimidate all Western countries and to cause mass death in the United States, he said.

“Some might look at these ambitions and wave them off as extreme and mad. Well, these ambitions are extreme and they are mad,” he said. “They are also real, and we must not wave them off. We must take them seriously. We must oppose them. And we must defeat them.”

It is important to go on the offensive against terrorists in order to prevent future attacks against the United States, Cheney said. He also said it was important to deny terrorists access to safe havens, halt the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and to keep those weapons out of the hands of killers.

“In the post-9/11 world, we have to confront such dangers before they fully materialize,” Cheney said.

It is also vital to deny the terrorists control of any nation, which they would use as a home base and staging ground for terrorist attacks on others, he said.

“That's why we continue to fight Taliban remnants and al Qaeda forces in Afghanistan,” he said. “That's why we're working with President (Pervez) Musharraf to oppose and isolate the terrorist element in Pakistan. And that's why we are fighting with the remnants of Saddam Hussein's regime and terrorists in Iraq.”

Retreat would convince the terrorists that free nations will change their policies, forsake their friends and abandon national interests whenever confronted with violence and blackmail, he said.

“We have only two options in Iraq: victory or defeat,” the vice president said. “And this nation will not pursue a policy of retreat. We will complete the mission, we will get it done right, and then we will return with honor.”

Cheney said the terrorists have been weakened since Sept. 11, 2001, but are still lethal and still desperately trying to hit the U.S.

“They hate us, they hate our country and they hate the liberties for which we stand,” he said. “This is not a war we can win on the defensive. Either we are serious about this fight or we are not. And the enemies of America need to know we are serious, and we will not let down our guard.”

Related Articles:

Rumsfeld To Stress to VFW Need for Resolve in Terror War

Related Sites:

Veterans of Foreign Wars

Afghan, Coalition Forces Find Multiple Bombs; Two Afghans Rescued

American Forces Press Service

WASHINGTON, Aug. 28, 2006 – Afghan and coalition forces discovered and disabled multiple explosive devices in three separate locations today, and coalition forces helped save two Afghan boys, U.S. military officials reported.

A coalition unit discovered a landmine placed on the side of a road in Paktika province. A coalition explosive ordnance disposal team destroyed the mine in place.

In Khost province, an Afghan civilian reported a makeshift bomb to the Afghan National Police, who investigated and found it in the Warza Village. Another makeshift bomb placed along the same road hit a separate Afghan police unit responding to the site.

In addition, an Afghan National Army patrol discovered another two makeshift bombs along a road in Paktika province. The patrol destroyed the devices in place. No injuries or damage was reported in any of the incidents.

“Afghan security forces demonstrated their capability to quickly respond to emergencies in support of the Afghan people,” said Army Lt. Col. Paul Fitzpatrick, Combined Joint Task Force 76 spokesman. “They showed great courage in responding to these (bombs) today. These weapons will no longer be a threat to the lives of Afghan civilians. Afghan and coalition forces will continue to seek out and destroy these types of deadly weapons wherever we find them to ensure the safety of the Afghan people.”

In other news from Afghanistan, U.S. medical evacuation helicopters flew two injured boys to U.S. medical facilities.

A 7-year-old boy who fell from a cliff was brought to the U.S. base in Kunar province with a skull fracture today.

In a separate incident, an 11-year-old boy was taken to the medical clinic on the coalition base in Asadabad yesterday after suffering from severe wounds sustained when an explosive detonated. The boy lost an arm in the explosion, but he is now recovering in stable condition, officials said.

“The Afghan hospital is very good, but traumatic injuries can be a challenge for any hospital to treat. When civilians come to a coalition clinic with life-threatening injuries, we will do everything we can to help save their lives," Fitzpatrick said. “Many times that includes transporting the patient to our two full-scale hospitals in either Bagram or Kandahar. When that occurs, we provide the same urgent medical care as for our own soldiers."

Coalition forces fly an average of three to five medical evacuation flights for Afghan civilians a week. “We genuinely care for the well being of the Afghan people and routinely devote our helicopters to civilian medical flights,” Fitzpatrick said.

(Compiled from a Combined Forces Command Afghanistan press release.)

Related Sites:

Combined Forces Command Afghanistan

40 Killed As Shiites, Iraqi Forces Fight

Aug 29, 2006 - 1:32 AM US/Eastern

By THASSIN ABDUL-KARAIM - Associated Press Writer

DIWANIYAH, Iraq -- Shiite militiamen battled Iraqi forces for 12 hours Monday, leaving at least 40 people dead and underlining the government's struggle to rein in an anti-U.S. cleric. The U.S. announced nine soldiers killed over the weekend in separate fighting.

The fighting in this southern city dominated a day that saw at least 19 people die in two suicide car bombings in Baghdad _ one outside the Interior Ministry and one on a line of cars waiting for fuel at a gas station.

Diwaniyah, 80 miles south of Baghdad, is a Shiite-dominated city where the influence of firebrand cleric Muqtada al-Sadr's Mahdi Army has been gradually increasing. The militia already runs a virtual parallel government in Sadr City, a slum in eastern Baghdad.

But the government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, a Shiite, has found it difficult to control al-Sadr, whose movement holds 30 of the 275 seats in parliament and five Cabinet posts, and his forces. Al- Sadr's backing also helped al-Maliki win the top job during painstaking negotiations within the Shiite alliance that led to the ouster of Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari.

Many Sunnis have expressed disappointment that al-Maliki's government has not moved to curb Shiite militias, especially the Mahdi Army, which have been blamed for much of the sectarian violence that has followed the Feb. 22 bombing of a Shiite mosque in Samarra.

A prominent hard-line Iraqi Sunni cleric, Harith al-Dhari, said Friday he was willing to meet with top Shiite religious leaders, part of an initiative to curb sectarian violence _ but also to press Shiite leaders into a response.

American forces also have been wary of confronting the militia, because of al-Sadr's clout over the government and his large following among majority Shiites. Al-Sadr mounted two major uprisings against the American-led coalition in 2004 when U.S. authorities closed his newspaper and pushed an Iraqi judge into issuing an arrest warrant against him.

The clashes in Diwaniyah began Saturday night after a rocket attack on a Polish-run base earlier in the day, and then resumed Sunday night, said Lt. Col. Dariusz Kacperczyk, a Polish military spokesman.

Sheikh Abdul-Razaq al-Nidawi, the manager of al-Sadr's office in Diwaniyah, told The Associated Press that trouble had been brewing since Saturday night when the Iraqi army arrested an al-Sadr supporter from the Jumhouri neighborhood.

On Sunday, the army raided the same place and "a gunfight erupted between them and the Mahdi Army," al-Nidawi said.

Army Capt. Fatik Aied said gunbattles broke out at about 11 p.m. Sunday south of Diwaniyah, when Iraqi soldiers conducted raids in three neighborhoods to flush out militiamen and seize weapons.

Al-Nidawi said "a big force of the army raided Jumhouri, Sadr and Askouri neighborhoods and clashes broke out (again) between the army and the Mahdi Army." He said the raids took place early Monday.

Fighting continued for most of the day, as the army brought in extra troops from other cities to reinforce its soldiers, said Brig. Gen. Othman al-Farhoud, commander of the 8th Iraqi Army Division.

By evening, the militia had set up road checkpoints and taken over seven neighborhoods in the south and east of the city, while the Iraqi army was controlling the northern and western parts, Aied said.

Late Monday, the U.S.-led military command issued a statement in Baghdad that the Iraqi army and police "successfully fended off an attack by a large group of terrorists" in three districts of Diwaniyah after a 12-hour battle.

Since the three districts in contention are in the city's south, it was not immediately clear how to reconcile the U.S. statement with that of Aied, the Iraqi army captain.

Dr. Mohammed Abdul-Muhsen of the city's general hospital said 40 people had been killed _ 25 Iraqi soldiers, 10 civilians and five militiamen. He said the hospital treated 75 wounded, but could not immediately give a breakdown.

Aied said the militiamen used rocket propelled-grenades and automatic assault rifles, and that at least 10 militiamen were arrested.

An indefinite vehicle ban was imposed in the city, said Adnan Abdu- Kadhim, a member of the provincial council.

Coalition forces were not involved in the fighting, but provided support with an aerial quick reaction force, using military helicopters as a show of force and to prevent possible attacks from rooftops, Kacperczyk said. Coalition quick reaction forces were also patrolling near the city, he said.

The U.S. military announced that nine U.S. soldiers were killed over the weekend in and around Baghdad, eight by roadside bombs and one by gunfire.

About 100 Iraqi Shiite soldiers refused to go to Baghdad to support the security crackdown there, marking the second time a block of Iraqi soldiers have balked at following their unit's assignment, a U.S. general said Monday.

U.S. Brig. Gen. Dana Pittard, commander of the Iraqi Assistance Group, said the problems stem from the Iraqi Army's regional divide, because soldiers are recruited in their home area and expect to train and serve there.

Still, U.S. military authorities said there was less violence than before.

"We have reduced the amount of violence," U.S. military spokesman Maj. Gen. William B. Caldwell told reporters in Baghdad. "We are actually seeing progress out there."

"Whether it is shops opening, banks opening, neighborhood trash being removed, women and children moving about in their neighborhoods ... Iraqi security forces are making progress," he said.

The average monthly death toll of Iraqis in Baghdad excluding insurgents declined by more than 30 percent for June, July and August to date compared to the previous three months, according to an analysis by The Associated Press. On average, 635 Iraqis died per month in Baghdad March-May but the average fell to 433 per month for June-August 28.

At the same time, the percentage of deaths in Baghdad compared to overall deaths across Iraq fell to slightly below 50 percent in the June-August period, compared with 63 to 73 percent in the previous three months, according to the analysis. The security crackdown began in mid-June.

On Monday, a suicide car bomber slammed into a police checkpoint outside the Interior Ministry at midmorning, when traffic is usually heavy. The blast could be heard more than a mile away, and smoke could be seen rising from the scene. The blast killed 16 people, including 10 policemen, Police 1st Lt. Ahmed Mohammed Ali said. He said 18 policemen were among the 47 people wounded.

Elsewhere in Baghdad, a suicide car bomber struck a line of cars waiting at a gas station in the southern neighborhood of Dora, killing three civilians and wounding 15, Lt. Ahmed Hameeed of the national police said.

Earlier in the day, a roadside bomb in the mainly Sunni western neighborhood of Jihad struck a car transporting five barber shop workers. One person was killed and another four were seriously wounded, police Lt. Maitham Abdul-Razzaq said.

http://www.breitbart.com/news/2006/08/29/D8JPT2SO0.html

___

The Associated Press News and Information Research Center and AP writers Jalal Mudhar, Qassim Abdul-Zahra, Vijay Joshi and Elena Becatoros in Baghdad contributed to this report.

Baghdad Police Academy expands

LTC Joel Holtrop and Jennifer Hunt with GRD-PCO led media on a tour June 29 showing the $73 million investment to expand Baghdad Police Academy with additional classrooms, barracks, and other infrastructure improvements so it now has the capacity to train 10,000 cadets annually. (U.S. Army photo by Norris Jones)

By Norris Jones - Gulf Region Central District, US Army Corps of Engineers

Aug 28, 2006

Baghdad, Iraq — Hundreds of cadets recently joyously celebrated after graduating from Baghdad Police Academy’s 10-week basic course. In all, 444 police cadets successfully completed the program that included training in human rights, firearms, tactics, and democracy.

Baghdad Police Academy’s capacity has been significantly expanded with a $73 million investment. When finished, the Academy will feature seven new classrooms, eight cadet barracks, six new instructor barracks, a new dining facility, library, forensic laboratory, range control building, firing ranges, guard towers, motor pool, warehouse, armory, contractor shop, renovations to existing buildings, and new site utilities (water, sewer, internal power grid).

The cadet barracks are designed to house 6 to 8 cadets per room, 400 cadets per building.

Jennifer Hunt and LTC Joel Holtrop with GRD/PCO both attended the graduation and led 57 reporters on a tour of the new facilities. Hunt pointed out the expanded campus now has the capacity to train 10,000 police recruits annually.

LTC Holtrop noted that Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad designated 2006 as the year of the police and “Baghdad Police Academy has definitely been a top priority. It’s a very exciting time as the cadets move into the new structures.”

ADDITIONAL PHOTOS:

Following a graduation ceremony, 57 media toured the Baghdad Police Academy campus June 29. (U.S. Army photo by Norris Jones)

CNN camerawoman Margaret Moth was among 57 news media attending the June 29 ceremony when 444 cadets graduated from the Baghdad Police Academy. Other media included LA TImes, NY Times, Newsweek, AP, NKK (Japan), ABC, AFP, BBC, Getty, Iraqia TV, Al Sumaria TV, and Baghdad TV. (U.S. Army photo by Norris Jones)

Coalition flies two boys to Bagram for urgent medical care

By COMBINED FORCES COMMAND – AFGHANISTAN COALITION PRESS INFORMATION CENTER KABUL, AFGHANISTAN

Aug 28, 2006

BAGRAM AIRFIELD, Afghanistan – Two young boys injured in two separate accidents were flown by medical evacuation helicopters to the U.S. hospital here.

An 11-year-old boy was taken to the medical clinic on the Coalition base in Asadabad on Aug. 27 suffering from severe wounds sustained when an explosive, left over from decades of war, detonated.

He was flown by helicopter on a U.S. medical evacuation flight to Bagram for treatment. Unfortunately, one arm was too badly injured to be saved, but he is now recovering in stable condition.

In a separate incident, a 7-year-old boy who fell from a cliff was brought to the U.S. base in Narray, Kunar Province with a skull fracture Aug. 28 and was also flown to Bagram hopefully to safe his life as well.

“The Afghan hospital is very good, but traumatic injuries can be a challenge for any hospital to treat. When civilians come to a Coalition clinic with life threatening injuries, we will do everything we can to help save their lives,” said Lt. Col. Paul Fitzpatrick, Combined Joint Task Force-76 spokesman. Many times that includes transporting the patient to our two full-scale hospitals in either Bagram or Kandahar . When that occurs, we provide the same urgent medical care as for our own Soldiers.”

Coalition Forces fly an average of three to five medical evacuation flights for Afghan civilians a week.

“We genuinely care for the well being of the Afghan people and routinely devote our helicopters to civilian medical flights,” Fitzpatrick said.

The child, injured by an unknown explosive, is a reminder of the millions of land mines and other explosives that have been left over from 30 years of war. Afghans should report the location of explosives and other dangers to Afghan or Coalition security forces for the safety of all Afghans.

Baghdad to get $22.7 million telecommunications center

The 13-story concrete stairwell was all that remained of the Exchange and Telecommunications Center. ( USACE photo by Norris Jones)

By Norris Jones - Gulf Region Central District

US Army Corps of Engineers

Aug 28, 2006

Baghdad, Iraq — A 13-story 1600-ton rectangular concrete stairwell, the last remnant of the old Al Mamoon Exchange and Telecommunication Center located near in Baghdad, was removed Aug. 5 to make room for a new seven-story telecommunications building on the 70x135-meter site.

GRC’s International Zone Office Deputy Resident Engineer Karem, a lifetime resident of Baghdad, says the “facility will be a visual symbol that Iraq is connected to the global community.” The Ministry of Communication offices will be located there as well as a 1300-square-meter post office. The structure will also feature a 200-seat auditorium, a cafeteria capable of serving 150 people, an exhibition hall, numerous conference rooms, several floors of communication switch gear, a 250-car covered garage and parking for 10 mail delivery vans and a loading dock for two trucks.

“This will provide Iraqis reliable communication. It will definitely be a focal point for the City of Baghdad,” Karem noted.

The 41-meter-high new structure is expected to be completed next year. Over 70 Iraqis are currently on the crew and that number will soon grow to about 400 Iraqi laborers.

“The facility will be the heart of Baghdad’s telecommunication system,” said 1LT Dawn Harrison, Project Engineer at GRC’s International Zone Resident Office. Of the 115 projects she and her fellow engineers oversee valued at $368 million, the Al Mamoon $22.7 million IRRF-funded project is one of the largest.

ADDITIONAL PHOTOS:

The stairwell comes down, clearing the site for the new $22.7 million facility. ( USACE photo by Norris Jones)

Iraqi workers cheer upon their successfully pulling down the 13 story stairwell. ( USACE photo by Norris Jones)

Artist’s rendering of the new facility.

Afghan, Coalition forces respond to IEDs

By COMBINED FORCES COMMAND – AFGHANISTAN COALITION PRESS INFORMATION CENTER KABUL, AFGHANISTAN

Aug 28, 2006

BAGRAM AIRFIELD, Afghanistan – Afghan and Coalition forces discovered and disabled explosive devices in three locations Aug. 28.

A Coalition unit discovered a landmine placed on the side of a road between Orgun-E and Sharona in Paktika Province . A Coalition explosive ordnance disposal team destroyed the munition in place.

In the Mando Zayi District of Khost Province, an Afghan civilian reported an IED to Afghan National Police. ANP investigated and found the IED in Warza Village .

Another ANP unit, responding to the site, was hit by a separate IED placed along the same road. The area around the initial IED is being secured by ANP until an explosive ordnance disposal team can respond.

An Afghan National Army patrol discovered two IEDs on the

Bermel Road in the Barmal District of Paktika Province. The patrol destroyed the devices in place.

No injuries or damage was reported in any of the incidents.

“Afghan security forces demonstrated their capability to quickly respond to emergencies in support of the Afghan people,” said Lt. Col. Paul Fitzpatrick, Combined Joint Task Force–76 spokesman. “They showed great courage in responding to these IEDs today. These weapons will no longer be a threat to the lives of Afghan civilians. Afghan and Coalition forces will continue to seek out and destroy these types of deadly weapons wherever we find them to ensure the safety of the Afghan people.”

Des Browne visits Baghdad

Mon Aug 28, 2006 - 1:34 PM BST

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Defence Secretary Des Browne said on Monday that security had improved in southern Iraq and his Iraqi counterpart predicted that formal control of another province in the region would be handed back to Iraq soon.

"I recognise there are continuing challenges and I've seen some violence over this weekend which suggests there's much more work to be done," Browne told a joint news conference with Iraqi Defence Minister Abdul Qader Jassim.

"But as Prime Minister Maliki said in an interview this weekend, things are improving and the challenge is to maintain that improvement," he added.

British Defence Minister Des Browne,left, with his Iraqi counterpart Abdel Qader Jassim, address a joint press conference, in Baghdad, Iraq, Monday Aug. 28, 2006.Browne arrived in Baghdad Monday for talks with Iraqi officials expected to focus on the gradual handover of security in the provinces to Iraqi forces. (AP Photo/Namir Noor-Eldeen, Pool)

British and Iraqi officials have said they expect Dhi Qar province, currently policed by Italians in the British-led force, to return to formal Iraqi control next month, following the return of neighbouring Muthanna in July.

"There was the handing over of security in al-Samawa, very soon, God willing, security in Nassiriya will be handed over," said Jassim referring to the capital of Dhi Qar.

The Italian government has been planning to withdraw its forces from their base in Nassiriya.

The handover, following that of Australian- and Japanese-run bases around Samawa in July, would leave 7,000 British troops in charge of the oil city of Basra and the province of Maysan, around the city of Amara, along the southern Iranian border.

Southern Iraq's mainly Shi'ite Muslim provinces are much calmer than central and northern Iraqi provinces outside the semi- autonomous Kurdish zone.

But the growing influence of Shi'ite militias may be a cause of concern. In the city of Diwaniya 25 Iraqi soldiers were killed in clashes that began late on Sunday with militiamen loyal to cleric Moqtada al-Sadr.

Sadr, whose supporters are part of the ruling Shi'ite Alliance, has led armed revolts against U.S., British and Iraqi forces.

A senior British commander said last week that London might halve its force in Iraq by the middle of next year after handing over security responsibility for all of the south.

Browne is also likely to discuss with Maliki British troops' efforts to curb violence in Basra among rival Shi'ite factions, some of which have links to Iran and to Maliki's fellow Shi'ites in the national unity government.

18 insurgents killed in Afghanistan

By NOOR KHAN - Associated Press Writer

August 29, 2006

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan - A suicide car bomber struck a NATO-Afghan military convoy Tuesday, killing two civilians and wounding one in the violence-wracked south, and a remote-controlled bomb killed two police officers on patrol.

The U.S.-led coalition said its troops killed 18 suspected insurgents when about 60 militants attacked with heavy machine guns and rocket-propelled grenades in Cahar Cineh district of the southern Uruzgan province on Monday. No coalition troops were injured.

The Taliban have increased suicide attacks this year, borrowing tactics from militants in Iraq. The escalation in the Taliban insurgency has stoked fighting that has killed more than 1,600 people, mostly militants, across Afghanistan in the past four months, according to an Associated Press tally of reports by U.S., NATO and Afghan officials.

The suicide bomber hit the military convoy on a road linking Kandahar with the city's airport, said Maj. Scott Lundy, a NATO spokesman. A NATO statement said two Afghan civilians were killed and one wounded.

A remote-controlled bomb hit a police vehicle on patrol in Helmand province, killing two officers, said Ghulam Muhiddin, the Helmand governor's spokesman. He blamed the Taliban.

Another remote-controlled bomb went off in east Kabul shortly after a NATO vehicle patrol drove past, but there were no casualties, said Interior Ministry spokesman Yousef Stanezai.

A Monday explosion killed 21 people and wounded 43 in a market in the Helmand provincial capital of Lashkar Gah.

NATO and the United Nations characterized that bombing as a suicide attack. But Qari Yousaf Ahmadi, who claims to speak for the Taliban, said it was conducted with a remote-controlled bomb, and targeted a former Lashkar Gah police chief because he had served under the pro-Communist government during the Soviet occupation of the 1980s. The target and his son were killed.

The attack was the second major bombing to kill civilians this month in southern Afghanistan, which is undergoing its bloodiest period of fighting since U.S.-led troops ousted the hard-line Taliban regime in late 2001 for hosting Osama bin Laden.

Also Tuesday, Turkish authorities said one Turk was killed and another abducted in an attack in western Afghanistan for which the Taliban claimed responsibility.

The Turkish Foreign Ministry said a Turkish citizen, Hasan Gedik, was killed in an ambush Monday and another unidentified Turk was abducted as they traveled on the road between the cities of Kandahar and Herat.

Ahmadi said insurgents ambushed the Turks' vehicle as they were traveling in Farah province.

Ahmadi often calls journalists to claim responsibility for attacks. His exact ties to the Taliban leadership are unclear.

Associated Press reporter Fisnik Abrashi in Kabul contributed to this report.

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