Free Republic

"Iranian commentators are mainly angry, defending Iran's action," the e-mail said. "The reason for that is a) UK does not have a good/positive history in Iran b) Persians have been treated badly by Westerners e.g. in the movie 300 or referring to Persian Gulf as simply Gulf or Arabian Gulf, so now having the poor young sailors captivated by Iran, many Iranians feel proud!!!!!!"

Many people in Germany consider the United States as more dangerous than Iran, according to a poll by Forsa released by Stern and RTL. 48 per cent of respondents say the U.S. is the biggest threat to global peace, while 31 per cent think Iran is. In November 2005, Christian-Democratic Union (CDU) leader Angela Merkel was sworn in as Germany’s first female head of government. The current administration includes members of the CDU, the Bavarian Christian-Social Party (CSU), and the Social Democratic Party (SPD).

Chalabi met with Grand Ayatollah al-Sistani Sunday in Najaf, the Shiite holy city, and the two men discussed the draft law which would allow thousands of former Baath Party members to regain their jobs or grant them pensions if they are denied the right to jobs they once held in the government or military. The law excludes former regime members already charged with or sought for crimes. A Chalabi aide, who asked not to be named because of the issue's sensitivity, said al-Sistani "rejects passing this law because it allows Baathists to return to top state posts."

Iraqi security forces, backed by Sunni tribesmen, clashed Sunday with a united of al-Qaida fighters near the Syrian border, killing at least 21 members of the terrorist organization, police said. The fighting, near the border town of Qaim in Anbar province began after midnight and lasted several hours, said Col. Tariq Youssef, a police official in the city, 320 kilometers (200 miles) west of Baghdad. The colonel said "a small number of the tribal fighters suffered minor wounds" and all 21 al-Qaida members in the unit were killed. "The operation was launched by police forces backed by the Abu Faraj...

If President Bush vetoes an Iraq war spending bill as promised, Congress quickly will provide the money without the withdrawal timeline the White House objects to because no lawmaker "wants to play chicken with our troops," Sen. Barack Obama said Sunday.

Two suicide vests were found unexploded in the heavily fortified Green Zone in Baghdad, a military spokesman said Sunday, less than a week after a rocket attack killed two Americans in the vast central area. U.S. military spokesman Rear Adm. Mark Fox said the vests were found Saturday and the matter was under investigation. "It reflects the nature of the security challenge that we're facing," he told reporters, without giving more details. Two Americans — a contractor and a soldier — were killed in a rocket attack on the Green Zone on Tuesday.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad praised his country's ability to recruit "hundreds of suicide bombers a day," saying "suicide is an invincible weapon." Ahmadinejad made the comments during a visit to a site south Iran used to prepare suicide bombers during the Iraq-Iran war, Iranian state television reported. He praised Hizbullah fighters for their suicidal spirit during last summer's confrontation with Israel. "Suicide bombers in this land showed us the way, and they enlighten our future," he said. The Iranian president said the will to commit suicide was "one of the best ways of life."

Iraq expects to achieve naval self-sufficiency by 2011. Officials said the Baghdad government has approved a naval modernization plan that would cost at least $220 million. They said the navy would procure 21 new vessels, including four new patrol ships from Italy. The four Italian vessels would cost around $100 million, officials said. They said the fast patrol boats would be supplied by Italy's Fincantieri, and deliveries would begin in late 2008.

Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah told Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad during their talks in Riyadh on March 4 that he should not underestimate the U.S. military threat to Iran, according to Newsweek. The magazine quoted Foreign Minister Saud Al-Faisal as saying in an interview that the king said Tehran should take the threat of a possible U.S. military strike on Iran over its nuclear enrichment program seriously. In the interview, Prince Saud quoted the king as saying: “Why do you want to take a chance on that and harm your country? What is the rush? Why do you have to do...

Sunni insurgent groups that were previously allied with Al-Qaeda in Iraq have turned against it, killing its leaders, attacking its supporters and vowing to drive it out of the country. At least two Al-Qaeda commanders have been killed by Iraqi insurgents in Baghdad. Others have been forced to flee after insurgents passed their details to US and Iraqi commanders. Fierce fighting has broken out between insurgent groups and Al-Qaeda in Anbar province, west of Baghdad. Some senior Sunni insurgents believe that Al-Qaeda in Iraq shares the agenda of Iranian-backed Shi’ite militias to plunge the country into ever more violent sectarian...

Iran's hardline president said Saturday that Britain and its allies were "arrogant and selfish" for not apologizing over what he called the incursion of 15 captured British sailors and marines into Iranian waters. President Bush described the 15 Britons as "hostages" in his first comments on the capture and said their seizure was "inexcusable," calling for their release. President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's most extensive comments on the crisis closely followed tough talk from other Iranian officials, an indication that Tehran's position could be hardening.

Dora Market in southeast Baghdad is a sign of both how well the Baghdad security plan has succeeded in calming some of the capital's violence and how far it still has to go. "I came down here the day after I took command," Gen. David H. Petraeus, the top American commander in Iraq, said Saturday as he stood between a stand selling slippers and a street vendor selling colorful women's gowns. "This place was shut up, like a war zone." In December, only three vendors were operating in the market, which had been repeatedly targeted by bombers. On Saturday, 141...

An Iraq war veteran has been sentenced to six months in jail for kissing a 14-year-old girl. He could have gotten ten years in prison. A judge in Georgia yesterday decided the mandatory ten-year sentence was too harsh. He set aside Staff Sergeant Jimmy Brown's conviction for child enticement and allowed him to plead to lesser charges. He'll still have to register as a sex offender and abide by at least 20 lifetime restrictions on residency, registration and conduct.

President Bush said Saturday that Iran's detention of 15 British sailors was "inexcusable" and that Tehran must release them immediately. "The British hostage issue is serious because the Iranians took these people out of Iraqi water. It's inexcusable behavior. I strongly support the Blair government's attempts to resolve this peacefully," he said, referring to British Prime Minister Tony Blair.

Most Britons oppose immediate military action to free 15 navy personnel detained in Iran, and believe the government will resolve the crisis peacefully, a poll released Saturday suggests. Only 8 percent of respondents to the survey for the Sunday Telegraph newspaper said Britain should prepare to use military force at this stage, nine days into the crisis. Asked if force should be used as a last resort, 48 percent were opposed and 44 percent in favor. Forty percent of Britons polled backed the government's current strategy of quiet diplomacy but no apology to Iran, while 17 percent felt Britain should...

A crackdown on violence in Baghdad resulted in the arrest of 212 suspected insurgents and terrorists by multinational forces, officials said Saturday. Coalition military leaders labeled 50 of those captured in and around the Iraqi capital during the previous 48 hours as terrorists and the other 162 as suspects, the Kuwait News Agency said. The officials also said the multinational force had deactivated 11 bombs and freed one person who had been abducted, KUNA reported.

16 followers of Iraqi Shiite leader Moqtada al-Sadr were killed and 14 others injured in a US air raid on Sabaa village, to the east of Sadr City in Baghdad, an Iraqi security source was quoted as saying here Friday.

The Iraqi government has endorsed a decision to relocate and compensate thousands of Arabs who moved to the northern city of Kirkuk as part of Saddam Hussein's campaign to push out the Kurds, the justice minister said Saturday. The decision was a major step toward solidifying the status of the disputed oil-rich city.

Artillery fire and mortar shells rained down on Somalia's capital Saturday as government troops and their Ethiopian allies continued a major offensive to quash a growing insurgency by Islamic militants. Residents were sent fleeing some of the heaviest fighting in Mogadishu since the early 1990s. On Friday, insurgents shot an Ethiopian helicopter gunship out of the sky and mortar shells slammed into a hospital, leaving piles of bodies in the streets and wounding hundreds of civilians.