Posted on 06/10/2005 5:52:29 PM PDT by TexKat
Pfc. Brendon Piper, from the 443rd Civil Affairs Battalion, 304th Civil Affairs Brigade, 3rd Infantry Division, keeps his eye on the vehicles to the rear of his convoy as they roll through Baghdad, Iraq. Photo by Ferdinand Thomas.
Three corpses found in Dourah
BAGHDAD, June 11 (KUNA) -- The Iraqi Police on Saturday found the bodies of three Iraqi civilians on a highway nearby the area of Dourah, south of Baghdad, said an Iraqi Police source.
The source told reporters that the three bodies were handcuffed, blindfolded, and shot several times, noting that one of the bodies is for an Iraqi Ministry of Oil employee, and another was for a cameraman working for a local television station.
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KUNA 111855 Jun 05NNNN
http://www.kuna.net.kw/Home/Story.aspx?Language=en&DSNO=741867
By SAMEER N. YACOUB, Associated Press Writer
BAGHDAD, Iraq - A suicide bomber dressed as a policeman blew himself up during roll call at the heavily guarded headquarters of an elite commando unit Saturday as attacks in and around Baghdad killed at least 23 people.
Interior Minister Bayan Jabr, meanwhile, said an Iraqi-led offensive to weed out militants in the capital had led to 1,318 arrests and reduced the number of car bomb attacks from an average of 12 a day to less than two.
Iraqi Interior Minister Bayan Jabr speaks during press conference in Baghdad Saturday June 11, 2005. Speaking about a suicide bomber's attack on the headquarters of Wolf brigade earlier Saturday, Jabr said the attacker was a former Wolf Brigade member who was targeting the commando force's commander, Brig. Mohammed al-Quraishi. (AP Photo/Hadi Mizban
Two U.S. Marines were killed Friday in a roadside bomb attack near the volatile Anbar province town of Saqlawiyah, west of Fallujah, the military said Saturday. At least 1,693 U.S. military members have died since the Iraq war began in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count.
The attack at the two-story Baghdad headquarters of the Wolf Brigade followed weeks of accusations against the Shiite Muslim-dominated force by Sunni Arab leaders, who accuse it of kidnapping and killing Sunnis, including clerics.
Jabr said the attacker was a former Wolf Brigade member who was targeting the commando force's commander, Brig. Mohammed al-Quraishi.
"Today's attack does not constitute an infiltration of the police forces," Jabr said. "The only thing left of the bomber was his head and feet."
Three people were killed in the blast, Jabr said, adding that police were searching for two of the suspect's former colleagues. A witness, Maj. Falah al-Mahamdawi, said five people were killed and seven wounded. The discrepancy could not immediately be reconciled.
Gunmen also opened fire on a minibus in Diyara, 30 miles south of Baghdad in the so-called Triangle of Death, killing at least 11 Iraqi construction workers employed at government and U.S. bases, police said.
A man looks at bodies of people killed when their minibus came under attack in Diyara, 50 kilometers (30 miles) south of Baghdad Saturday June 11, 2005, at Iskandariyah hospital morgue. At least 11 people were killed and three others were injured Saturday when gunmen attacked a minibus just south of Baghdad in the so-called Triangle of Death, police said. (AP Photo/Alla al-Marjani)
In Baghdad, gunmen in a speeding car attacked an Interior Ministry commando convoy in western Baghdad's Mansour area, killing three Iraqi forces, police said.
Another suicide car bomber blew himself up Saturday in front of the Slovakian Embassy in southeast Baghdad, injuring four people, according to Iraqi and Slovak officials. Slovakia has 109 soldiers in Iraq mostly for de-mining efforts.
US troops investigate a car bombing outside Slovak Embassy in Baghdad Saturday June 11, 2005. A suicide car bomber blew himself up Saturday in front of the Slovakian Embassy in southeast Baghdad, injuring four people. (AP Photo/Mohammed Uraibi)
It was unclear how the attacker managed to enter the tightly guarded compound in eastern Baghdad's Bab Sharqi neighborhood with his explosives undetected, but his police uniform may have helped him avoid the stringent checks in place.
People entering the compound, which also houses the 10-story Interior Ministry building, must go through metal detectors and be searched by policemen and dogs.
Al-Mahamdawi said the attacker was disguised as a policeman and detonated explosives during a roll call for new commandos.
"I was inside the headquarters building when the explosion took place," al-Mahamdawi said. "Then I saw five dead bodies lying on the ground plus seven injured people, most of them are policemen."
"There was a group of newly graduated commandos gathered in the yard at the time of the explosion," he added. It was unclear if the bomber was standing among the graduates or was nearby.
It was uncertain what motivated the attack. Such violence is usually associated with the Sunni struggle for a role in the country's political process. Sunnis, who comprise only 15 percent to 20 percent of Iraq's 26 million people but dominated the country under Saddam Hussein, resent the rise to power of the majority Shiite community and the U.S.-allied Kurds.
This is believed to be a major factor in the continuing insurgency in Iraq that has killed at least 934 people since the new Shiite-led government was announced April 28.
Jabr said that more than $6 million had been confiscated and 1,318 people arrested, including eight foreigners — all Arabs, in the ongoing counterinsurgency campaign dubbed "Operation Lightning," which will enter its third week on Sunday.
He said car bombings have dropped from an average of 12 a day to less than two since the operation began on May 29. There have been 26 bombings involving cars since the start of the offensive, according to an Associated Press count.
"Operation Lightning has forced the terrorists to flee outside Baghdad," Jabr said at a news conference. "Within the coming six months, God willing, we will spread security all over Iraq."
He added that eight people had been arrested in a Friday car bombing outside a Baghdad falafel restaurant that killed 10 people, including two children.
A member of the Iraqi Interior Ministry's al-Hussain Brigade guards suspected insurgents at their base in Baghdad Saturday June 11, 2005. The brigade arrested 41 suspects in recent raids in Baghdad. (AP Photo/ Karim Kadim)
U.S. soldiers shot to death two Iraqis and wounded two others in Baghdad when their car came too close to an American armored patrol, military spokesman Lt. Jamie Davis said.
An American soldier fired a warning shot, but occupants of the Iraqi vehicle shot at the convoy and sparked a gunbattle, Davis said, adding the American soldiers left the scene without stopping but an American patrol returned later and found "multiple AK-47s" inside the vehicle.
Police Maj. Moussa Abdul-Karim said those killed were Iraqi security guards driving to work in northern Baghdad and were mistakenly shot by American soldiers.
In other developments Saturday:
_Two oil ministry employees were shot to death and another man was critically wounded in southern Baghdad.
_A bomb exploded in a cemetery in the southern city of Najaf, killing two Iraqis, including an 8-year-old girl, and wounding three others from the same family as they were visiting the graves of relatives.
A man sits with his injured child after an explosion in a cemetary in the Iraq city of Najaf June 11, 2005. A piece of unexploded ordinance detonated as a family was visiting a cemetary in the holy city of Najaf, killing two people and injured three others, police officials said. REUTERS/Ali Abu Shish
_Iraqi police raided an auto mechanic's workshop in a southeastern suburb of Baghdad and captured five men suspected of rigging car bombs. ___
Associated Press writers Sinan Salaheddin and Qassim Abdul-Zahra contributed to this report in Baghdad.
Good last few minutes of the morning to you Gucho!!
Iraqi sentenced to 15 years in jail for killing US soldier
BAGHDAD, June 11 (KUNA) -- Central Criminal Court in Iraq sentenced an Iraqi man for 15 years in jail for killing a US soldier, said a Multinational Force press release on Saturday.
The press release said that the court sentenced Ziyad Hussein Hammadi for killing a US Army sergeant.
Hammadi was accused of throwing grenades and opening fire toward a US Army patrol on December 3, 2004, killing one US soldier and wounding three others. He was spotted by the US Army patrol while firing his weapon and fleeing to his residence, where he was pursued and captured by the patrol.
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KUNA 111615 Jun 05NNNN
http://www.kuna.net.kw/Home/Story.aspx?Language=en&DSNO=741822
By Lisa Fernandez
Mercury News
The FBI alleges agents have been looking into the affairs of Mohammad Adil Khan -- an educator leading the fight to open a Muslim school in Lodi -- for years.
Mohammed Adil Khan
In federal court papers, agents link him to an associate of his father's in Pakistan who signed a holy order with Osama bin Laden calling for followers to kill Americans.
But none of these accusations matches up with the Khan friends across California say they have known for at least five years, since his arrival in the United States on a visitor's visa to launch the Farooqia Islamic Center on 18 acres in the Central Valley.
They say he's an open-minded man leading the effort to ensure that the future Islamic school is a model of tolerance, as opposed to some of the madrasahs in Pakistan that many Lodi parents worry would turn their children into extreme Islamists.
While the FBI continues to trace threads of a possible terrorist cell in Northern California, Khan, 47, is being held on a no-bond warrant in Santa Clara County's jail on an alleged immigration violation. He was swept up this week in a larger terror-related probe in which a Lodi father and son -- Umer Hayat, 47, and Hamid Hayat, 22, -- were arrested for allegedly lying to the FBI about the son's training to become a terrorist in Pakistan.
``I swear to God, he is such a good man,'' said Shujah Khan, a former vice president of the Lodi Muslim Mosque who helped bring Khan to the United States. ``He never, ever said anything that would create hatred toward anyone. He's the one who has linked us to the Christian and Jewish communities.''
Rabbi Jason Gwasdoff of Stockton's Temple Israel has met Khan at several interfaith sessions.
``My impression of Mohammad Adil is that he's a warm, kind, generous man,'' he said. ``He's the kind of person who greets outsiders with open arms. I'm hoping that it's not guilt by association. Think of how damaging this is to his reputation.''
Khan, though, has detractors.
The Lodi mosque filed a lawsuit this spring against Khan, alleging that he fraudulently transferred money raised in Lodi for the new school to an account in East Palo Alto. The suit also claims that Khan is in the United States on an expired temporary visa, and that his request for permanent residency was denied. Muhammad Shoaib, a trustee of the Lodi mosque, did not return a call Friday from the Mercury News seeking comment.
The FBI, though, paints a link between Khan's father -- Salimullah Khan -- the head of Farooqia Islamic University in Pakistan, and an associate, Fazlur Rehman Khalil. Khalil signed a 1998 fatwa of Osama bin Laden advocating the killing of Americans and their allies.
Ironically, supporters say, it was Khan's offer to help the FBI ferret out terror suspects in Lodi that landed him in trouble.
According to Shujah Khan, federal agents went to Mohammad Adil Khan's home last Saturday evening asking about the Hayats, who they said had a possible link to Al-Qaida. Khan and another member of the clergy, Shabbir Ahmed, 42, went with the FBI to Sacramento voluntarily.
``Then he never came home,'' Shujah Khan said. ``They held him on immigration violations.''
The powers that be are doing some type of rewiring of lines or something to that effect and either their customer service is unaware or either forbidden to inform the customers of what is actually transpiring (I wonder if that is for billing purposes).
At the present my dsl access goes down around midnight to midnight thirty :>), and I just realized this morning that I do not regain access until around 10 a.m. the next morning. At this point (which has now been a month)I believe I am do more of a credit than 6 days. :>).
That's what we heard today...shook the bejabbers out of the building I work in.
I heard a different casualty report, but I guess I'd better keep it zipped unitl it comes out.
By Andrew Adams News-Sentinel Staff Writer
Last updated: Saturday, Jun 11, 2005 - 06:43:11 am PDT Even though suspected Lodi terrorist Hamid Hayat was on a plane flying to the United States after taking part in an Al Qaida terrorist training camp, a representative for the Transportation Security Administration said the department's "no-fly list" program works.
Created shortly after 9/11, the program lists people who are suspected terrorists, or may have links to terrorists, and is designed to keep them off planes. Agencies, including the FBI, forward names to the TSA which compiles the list, said TSA spokesman Nico Melendez.
Hayat reportedly left Pakistan, where he attended the training camp, for the United States May 27. Two days later, the FBI received word that Hayat was on the no-fly list and had his plane diverted to Japan where federal agents were able to question him.
Hayat later admitted lying to those agents about his involvement in the camp, and he was arrested June 5, according to an affadavit. His arrest; the arrest of his father, who lied about paying to support Hayat's activities; and three other men on immigration charges have rocked Lodi's tight Muslim community.
"In very broad terms, what happened is a demonstration of the system working," Melendez said. "That shows this works. That's how intelligence works."
He could not say if Hayat was on the list when he left for Pakistan in April 2003.
While he would not comment on the details of Hayat's case, Melendez said, in general, the TSA has struggled in making sure security screeners at international airports check the list and stop people on it from boarding flights.
But, he said, screeners in other countries send flight manifests to U.S. border agents who then review them and can hopefully divert flights with anyone on the list before the planes enter U.S. airspace.
FBI Agent and spokesman John Cauthen said he has had to make the decision on recommending people for the no-fly list and said it really comes down to a simple judgment call.
He also would not comment on whether Hayat was on the list when he left the country for Pakistan.
But he did say, that in making the decision one has to weigh the risk to public safety, not unlike how a judge determines the appropriate sentence for someone convicted of a crime.
Once Cauthen makes his decision, he said it is reviewed by several other people; some in his agency and some in others, before anyone is actually added to the no-fly list.
However, Cauthen would not say exactly who makes decisions or what agents find during their investigative work to make them think someone should be on the list.
"I don't want to speak on any specifics," he added. "I don't want to go down that path."
The TSA actually has two types of lists: The no-fly list and "selectee list." People on the selectee list can be subjected to additional screening when trying to board a plane, while those on the no-fly list are supposed to not be permitted to board an aircraft flying to, from or in the United States.
Melendez said some people with absolutely no connection to terrorism can find themselves on the selectee list because they share the name of someone who is on the list.
"It's unfortunate," he said. "It may be a case of a minor inconvenience when you fly."
If one finds themselves on the list, and don't have connections to any worldwide terrorist network, the TSA's Web site, http://www.tsa.gov, offers recommendations on how to make traveling easier.
People can fill out a "passenger identity verification form" that may allow the TSA to expedite the check-in process, according to the Web site.
The form has two parts: One requiring the person fill out a physical description of themselves, as well as adding their social security number and telephone numbers while the second requires notarized copies of the person's passport, birth certificate and another piece of identification such as a driver's license or certificate of citizenship.
Once the TSA receives the form, it will then review it and see if a streamlined check-in is available. If so, TSA can contact the airlines with the information and send a letter to the person stating the same.
It sounds pretty bad. Our guys have their hands full. I understand that there were/are some suspicion of some of the members of the Wolf Brigade in the killing of some of our guys during the battle in Qaim.
Keep your head down and stay safe Allegra.
No wonder your windows shook. I heard a report on Iraq yesterday, the gist of which I thought I would share with you all in case you didn't get the benefit of their insight. The Iraqi soldiers are fools and cowards. They don't like our guys and are afraid of them. If they don't get better living conditions and equipment, they are going to quit (this, according to the reporter is imminent, so I am watching for the mass resignations on the news). Also of note, the vast majority of "insurgents" are not foreigners, they are Iraqis. (The proof offered for this was that they caught one and he was an Iraqi.) In addition, our guys can't stand the Iraqis and make fun of them. Get ready to pack up, Allegra. NPR says this endeavor is all but over and we have lost.
Police push back anti-US protesters trying to march towards the U.S. embassy Saturday, June 11, 2005 in Manila. Police were on the look out for any massing of people a day after a former intelligence officer surfaced and accused President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo cheating in the 2004 election based on a wiretapped conversation. (AP Photo/Pat Roque).
Thousands Demand Ouster of Arroyo
By OLIVER TEVES, Associated Press Writer
Sat Jun 11, 7:26 AM ET
MANILA, Philippines - Thousands of protesters on Saturday demanded President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo step down during the biggest anti-government rally since allegations surfaced that she fixed last year's election and her family received gambling kickbacks.
The government has denied the allegations, saying they were part of a plot to unseat Arroyo. Police nationwide and soldiers in the capital Manila were on full alert against a power grab in a country with a history of coup attempts.
Claims of payoffs to Arroyo's son and a brother-in-law from illegal gambling operators and an alleged wiretapped conversation between Arroyo and an election official to fix the 2004 vote, come as she battles poverty, rising prices, a fiscal deficit, corruption and the lowest popularity rating since late dictator Ferdinand Marcos.
At a reception on the eve of Philippine independence, Arroyo said "purveyors of instability and intrigue" were undermining her efforts to reform the economy.
In this photo released by the Malacanang Palace, President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo delivers her speech during the Vin de Honneur Saturday, June 11, 2005 at the Malacanang palace in Manila attended by members of hte diplomatic corp and government officials. Arroyo stated that she was focused on turning around the economy of the country and no one will deter her from doing so. The event was a day after an intelligence officer who surfaced accused her of alleged cheating in the 2004 election. (AP Photo/Malacanang palace HO)
Arroyo said she was focused "like a laser beam" on reforms "to turn this economy around, and no one will deter me from that mission."
"We cannot resolve our differences by tossing out the democratic process just because we are not getting our way," she said.
In a rare show of solidarity, a wide spectrum of anti-Arroyo groups, including opposition politicians and rival leftist groups, joined forces in Saturday's rally dubbed a "National Day of Mourning." Police estimated that 5,000 people took part in the protest.
Religious leaders join together on the stage during a rally of different groups against President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo Saturday, June 11, 2005 in Manila. Different organizations joined together in a rally they dubbed Day of National Mourning, a day after an intelligence officer surfaced and accused President Arroyo of alleged cheating in the 2004 presidential election. Placard reads 'Hello Garci! We have been exposed'. (AP Photo/Pat Roque)
"The rally for me can be seen as a measure of how far or how widespread the disgust is for Arroyo and her isolation," said Rep. Teddy Casino of the left wing Bayan Muna party.
Casino said his party wants Arroyo's ouster, but opposes a coup d'etat, a military junta or a "palace coup."
"This is the early stage of the struggle for the eventual regime change that is expected," he said. However, he said talk of "an imminent downfall is not accurate."
Earlier in the week, a key witness testifying in an ongoing Senate hearing on the illegal numbers game called jueteng claimed she personally handed payoffs to Arroyo's son and brother-in-law, who are both members of the House of Representatives.
The two men have denied the charges. Arroyo's son has filed a libel suit against the witness.
To show she was not protecting her family, Arroyo immediately ordered government investigators to look into the allegations and file charges if warranted, saying her kin are not above the law.
On Friday, the dismissed deputy head of the justice department's investigation agency claimed he was the source of an audio recording that purportedly has Arroyo talking to an election official about fixing last year's election to gain a 1 million margin against her closest rival, Fernando Poe Jr. Poe died in December following a stroke.
Samuel Ong, former deputy director of the National Bureau of Investigation, said disgruntled military intelligence agents gave him the "mother of all tapes" containing the alleged wiretaps.
Officials said the recording was doctored to show alleged wrongdoing by the president.
"In the first place," Ong said, "our constitution says that the (Commission on Elections) is an independent constitutional body to ensure peaceful, orderly and honest election. Now here comes somebody outside this constitutional body ... not only asking but directing him to do something."
Presidential spokesman Ignacio Bunye said Ong's allegation is "part of a well-orchestrated plot to destabilize the government and eventually replace the president."
"We will not allow democracy to be undermined," he said.
12 June 2005 0113 hrs
BAGHDAD : At least 43 people, including three US servicemen, were killed in 24 hours as a spate of bomb attacks shattered Baghdad's relative calm since US and Iraqi forces launched a sweep for insurgents three weeks ago.
In the deadliest attack Saturday, police said 11 Iraqi construction workers were killed when gunmen attacked their minibus in an area south of Baghdad dubbed the Triangle of Death for its insurgent violence.
Another 10 people died when a blast tore through Baghdad's mainly Shiite Shula district late Friday, shortly before a night-time curfew came into effect. An eight-months pregnant woman, her unborn child and husband were among the dead.
Coalition troop losses continued to mount, with one US soldier killed in a roadside bombing in Baghdad Saturday and two marines dead in a similar attack west of the capital Friday, the US military said.
The deaths brought to 12 the number of US servicemen killed in Iraq since Tuesday and to 1,684 the overall toll since the March 2003 invasion, according to AFP tallies based on Pentagon figures.
In the second blast to strike Baghdad on Saturday, three members of an elite Iraqi commando unit known as the Wolf Brigade were killed when a suicide bomber disguised as a commando walked into their barracks.
Interior Minister Baqer Jabr Solagh told journalists that eight people had been detained in connection with the Shula blast.
He said the commando strike had been carried out by a former brigade member and that the force's chief Major General Mohammed al-Quraishi was the target.
"The terrorists will try to penetrate the security cordon that we have erected around Baghdad and they succeeded in doing that in Shula," he said.
The commando unit had come to the capital as part of Operation Lightning, a major offensive launched amid fanfare in May reportedly involving 40,000 Iraqis forces.
A patriotic song regularly broadcast on Iraqi television says that members of the feared Wolf Brigade "disarm bombs with their teeth".
In the third attack, four Iraqis were wounded when a suicide bomber blew up an empty fuel tanker near the Slovak embassy in the capital's central Jadriyah neighbourhood, an interior ministry official said.
The embassy could not be reached for comment.
Solagh said 1,380 "terrorists" and 219 "suspected terrorists" had been detained in Operation Lightningt, including 11 non-Iraqi Arabs, and that 27 car bombs had been defused.
Another 36 "terrorists" had been killed, along with 37 civilians and four security personnel.
Asked how the "terrorists" had been identified, the minister said: "If we find in their possession hand grenades, certain tapes and medium-calibre weapons, then that tells us they are terrorists. Plus intelligence."
He said 73 of the "suspected terrorists" had since been released.
The minister praised the operation's success and promised it would soon be extended outside Baghdad, without saying when or where.
"Car bombs have gone down from 12 to 0.6 a day," he added.
Prime Minister Ibrahim Jaafari's Shiite-led government is eager to demonstrate that it is able to control the security situation and often points to mistakes committed under the US-installed interim government of Iyad Allawi which had a Sunni Arab as interior minister.
A US commander had warned of the likelihood of renewed violence but said it would not last long because of waning public support for the insurgents.
However he said the rebels would resort to more shootings as it became more difficult for them to get car bombs to their intended targets.
The same tactic was used in the attack in which 11 builders were killed.
"Eleven Iraqis were killed and three others wounded when men aboard two cars opened fire on a minibus taking construction workers from Jbala, 70 kilometres (45 miles) south of Baghdad, to the capital," said Captain Said al-Kraimi.
The bullet-riddled corpses of two brothers and a cousin were found on a main road in south Baghdad after they were lured from their homes by men in police uniforms the night before, an interior ministry official said.
Three police commandos were killed in a drive-by shooting, while a US patrol killed two insurgents after they also came under fire from a passing car.
And in the volatile area north of the capital eight people, including a Turkish truck driver, were killed, said Iraqi security sources.
One of the incidents involved the accidental killing by Iraqi forces of Sunni cleric and member of the Committee of Muslim Scholars Wissam al-Duri and his brother, said police captain Ahmed Shaker.
There was no immediate confirmation from the influential committee which has accused Shiite militia and elements within the security forces of hunting down its members.
- AFP /dt
Pilots Appear With Planes at National Air and Space Museum Annex
Saturday June 11, 2005 12:34pm
Dulles, Va. (AP) - Pilots are gathering outside the National Air and Space Museum's annex in northern Virginia to talk about their high-flying adventures in Iraq, Africa and other far-off places.
It's all part of the first "Become a Pilot" Family Day and Aviation Display.
More than two dozen aircraft surround the Steven Udvar-Hazy Center. Museum officials say the day offers visitors a rare chance to get an up-close look at aircraft still in use.
Inside the center, visitors can try hands-on activities such as a briefing on flight safety procedures.
Among the pilots expected to participate Saturday is Gus McLeod. He's the amateur aviator from Maryland who attempted to circumnavigate the globe over the North and South poles in a single-engine airplane.
He'll appear with the "Firefly" - a prototype aircraft made for last year's attempt.
Submitted by: 2nd Marine Division Story Identification #: 2005611123639 Story by Cpl. Tom Sloan
HURRICANE POINT, AR RAMADI, Iraq (June 11, 2005) -- It's been said many times, "A man's best friend is his dog." One Marine here certainly agrees with that saying.
Lance Cpl. Marshall S. Spring, a military working dog handler with Operation Force Protection, I Marine Expeditionary Force, has formed a special bond with his partner, a three-year-old Belgium Malonois named Rex.
"He keeps me happy while I'm here," said the 21-year-old Spring Ashland, Ore., native. "Being responsible for his well-being makes it harder for me to slip into a funk and feel anxiety about being deployed to Iraq,"
Spring and Rex are based out of Marine Air Ground Combat Center, Twentynine Palms, Calif., and are deployed here with 1st Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment supporting Operation Iraqi Freedom.
Their mission is to conduct random vehicle checks at the three vehicle checkpoints outside the camp's perimeter.
The long-time dog lover said he plays ball with Rex when they aren't working.
"I enjoy throwing the ball for him and giving him his exercise," the 2001 Ashland High School graduate explained. "He cheers me up when I'm down, which isn't very often. But when I do feel bad, he makes me happy, because he's always happy."
Spring and Rex have had their share of close calls. Spring recently received a Purple Heart for wounds he received while returning to camp two months ago.
"We were riding in a (light armored vehicle) when an IED detonated on the side of the road as we passed," he recalled. "I took shrapnel to my left ear and hand, and the blast was so loud it ruptured my eardrum. Luckily, Rex was protected from the blast and didn't get injured."
Spring knows everything about his canine companion of almost a year.
"He's a co-dependent dog," said Spring. "He gets separation anxiety if I leave him for too long, like going to chow. Sometimes he has to be as close as he can get to me at night. He's also headstrong and the friendliest dog I've had."
Lance Cpl. Marshall S. Spring, a military dog handler with Operation Force Protection, I Marine Expeditionary Force, holds his 60-pound partner, Rex, a three-year-old Belgium Malonois. Spring, 21, of Ashland, Oregon, and Rex are deployed here from Twenty-nine Palms, Calif., supporting Operation Iraqi Freedom while attached to 1st Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment. They have the mission of conducting random vehicle checks at the three vehicle checkpoints just outside the camp's perimeter. The two have developed a special bond between them. Photo by: Cpl. Tom Sloan
According to Spring, Rex often jumps into his bed at night when insurgents are lobbing mortars at the camp.
Rex may be young, but according to Spring, he knows his job.
"He has the best nose of any dog I've ever handled," said Spring, who's handled three dogs during his career in the Corps. "He's just young too, which means he has got a lot of raw, natural talent. I see him becoming an even bigger asset to the military once he's fully mature."
While on the job, Rex, a three-year-old Belgium Malonois, stands by his handler Lance Cpl. Marshall S. Spring, a military dog handler with Operation Force Protection, I Marine Expeditionary Force. Spring, 21, of Ashland, Oregon, and Rex are deployed here from Twenty-nine Palms, Calif., supporting Operation Iraqi Freedom while attached to 1st Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment. They have the mission of conducting random vehicle checks at the three vehicle checkpoints just outside the camp's perimeter. The two have developed a special bond between them. Photo by: Cpl. Tom Sloan
Spring plans on leaving the Marines in a year and possibly returning to Iraq.
"I'd like to come back and work as a dog handler for a civilian contractor," he said. "Either that, or working as a handler for the (Department of Defense).
Iraqi interior minister claims counterinsurgency campaign a success so far
Associated Press
BAGHDAD, Iraq - Iraqi Interior Minister Bayan Jabr claimed Saturday that a two-week old counterinsurgency campaign was a success and expressed confidence that the Shiite-led government would bring Iraq under control within six months.
Jabr said that an ongoing campaign code named Operation Lightning to drive militants out of Baghdad had led to 1,318 arrests, and claimed it was showing some success in drastically reducing the number of car bomb attacks in the capital.
"Operation Lightning has forced the terrorists to flee outside Baghdad," Jabr told a news conference. "For us, it has been more than 90 percent successful."
His comments came as insurgent attacks claimed the lives of at least 23 people in and around Baghdad Saturday, including a suicide bomb attack that killed three elite police commandos inside one of his own Interior Ministry complexes.
It has also been criticized by Sunni Arabs who say the operation has been particularly heavy handed with the minority. Sunni Arabs are thought to make up the core of the insurgency.
"I'm worried about the way the recent security plan has been implemented, especially after a number of negative aspects have appeared" Iraq's Sunni Arab Vice President, Ghazi al-Yawer, told a London-based pan-Arab newspaper.
"That's why I call for not breaking into people's homes without a legitimate reason and for depending on thorough security information and not on biased information," he added.
Jabr said, however, that the campaign had successfully targeted car bombers _ one of its main targets.
Before Operation Lightning, there were an average of 12 car bombings in Baghdad a day and that number has now dropped to less than two a day, he said. There have 26 bombings involving cars since the operation began on May 29, according to an Associated Press count.
Jabr added that 36 insurgents had been killed during the operation, including eight foreign Arabs. Lightning's bounty so far includes $6 million in cash, 8 car bombs, 37 missiles, 325 automatic weapons, 52 mortar rounds, 13 rocket-propelled grenades, 36 pistols, 37 hand grenades, 1,217 forged documents and various types of ammunition and explosives.
Operation Lightning was only a first step of a campaign to eventually rid Iraq of the violence that has killed at lest 934 people since his government took over on April 28.
"Within the coming six months, God willing, we will spread security all over Iraq," he said, adding that Iraq's people had to help.
"If the people of Iraq will not help us, then we can't put an end to the terrorism." he said.
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