Station renovations support Iraqi police and residents
Police chief welcomes visitors to Suq Ash Skuk Police Station. (Photo by Suzanne Fournier, GRS)
November 02, 2005
Base Camp Adder (Ali Base), Iraq -- Completed reconstruction of a police station project in Suq Ash Skukh, Iraq, will serve to support and provide increased protection for both the police assigned to it and the town’s residents.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers provided oversight for the project that includes increasing the height of the perimeter security wall and adding concertina wire; vehicle and personnel gates; guard towers; lighting, plastering and painting; new roof tiles; potable water tanks; septic tank; electrical wiring and a 30kV generator.
An average of 35 Iraqis worked daily on this renovation project and constructed an additional 25 x 15m building to provide much-needed office space for more than 100 police personnel.
The professional law enforcement quarters will help to provide for the protection of the Suq Ash Skukh citizens and, therefore, improve their quality of life.
Currently, 19 of the 31 (or 61 percent) of the police facility projects programmed in the Thi Qar Governorate are complete.
Iraq Reconstruction Funds financed the project.
Note: Suzanne Fournier is the Public Affairs Officer for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Gulf Region South.
By Suzanne M. Fournier - Gulf Region South U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
Blair plays down talk of military action against Iran Wed Nov 2, 2005
LONDON (AFP) - Prime Minister Tony Blair has said that military action against Iran was not on the agenda but that the international community's patience with the Islamic republic was running out.
Speaking for the European Union Wednesday, Blair reacted furiously last week to a call by Iran's hardline President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad for Israel to be "wiped off the map".
Britain, whose six-month stint as EU president started in July, was also behind a statement of condemnation issued Friday by the UN Security Council.
Asked in the British parliament whether his response carried an implicit threat of military action, Blair said he did not raise the possibility either implicitly or explicitly.
"Nobody is talking about military threats or invasion of Iran," he said during the weekly question-and-answer session.
"The Iranian government has got to understand that the international community simply will not put up with their continued breach of the proper and normal standards of behaviour that we expect from a member of the United Nations."
"The statements by the Iranian president in respect of Israel are completely and totally unacceptable," he reiterated.
"This is something we want to discuss with other allies and with other members of the Security Council."
Britain and Iran have been locked in an escalating war of words in recent months.
Britain, with France and Germany, has been leading efforts to force Iran to abandon sensitive nuclear fuel activities, seen by Western nations as a possible cover for weapons development but which Iran insists are strictly peaceful.
Blair and other senior officials last month also accused Iran and its allies in the Lebanese Shiite movement Hezbollah of involvement in attacks against British troops in Iraq, charges again denied by Iran.
"Iran has to realise that the international community cannot tolerate continuing conduct that is supporting terrorism around the world, that is supporting terrorism not just in the Middle East but elsewhere, that is in breach of its nuclear weapons responsibilities and obligations under the atomic energy authority," Blair said.
The most important thing, he addded, was that a united message to Iran went out not just from Britain but from "right around the world".
Earlier Wednesday, a small explosive device went off in Tehran near the offices of British Airways and oil giant British Petroleum.