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Title: Iraq Battlefield Report: 3/26 - 4/6 (Things still stink in Iraq)
Source:
ampedstatus.com
URL Source: http://ampedstatus.com/iraq-battlefield-report-326-46
Published: Apr 9, 2009
Author: Posted By David DeGraw
Post Date: 2009-04-09 20:07:03 by randge
Keywords: Iraq, War, Battlefield
Views: 65
Comments: 1
Iraq Battlefield Report: 3/26 - 4/6 Posted By David DeGraw on Tuesday, April 7th, 2009 at 3:41 pm, Filed under Iraq War, War Watch . Follow post comments through the RSS 2.0 feed. Click here to comment, or trackback. In the week following Obama’s announcement of plans to shift operational priorities from Iraq to Afghanistan and Pakistan, and as the UK begins their pullout, Iraq is heating up once again. With the increasing hostility between two key US allies, the country is erupting into another round of mass violence. Here is our report from the frontlines of the Iraq occupation. We divided the coverage into the following categories – click on the headings below to jump to individual sections: • Flashpoint: US Allies Face Off • British Pullout • US Combat Brigades Will Stay In Iraq • Obama’s Mercenaries • Underreported • Iraqi Civilian Causalities • US Soldier Stories • Death Toll FLASHPOINT: US-BACKED SUNNI AWAKENING COUNCIL VS. IRAQI GOV In Iraq, Two Key U.S. Allies Face Off A new and potentially worrisome fight for power and control has broken out in Baghdad as the United States prepares to pull combat troops out of Iraq next year. The struggle, which played out in fierce weekend clashes, pits two vital American allies against each other. On Sunday, Iraqi soldiers backed by U.S. combat helicopters and American troops swept into a central Baghdad neighborhood, arresting U.S.-backed Sunni fighters in an effort to clamp down on a two-day uprising that challenged the Iraqi government’s authority and its efforts to pacify the capital. But the fallout from the operation is already rippling far beyond the city’s boundaries. Both the Iraqi security forces and the Sunni fighters, known as the Awakening, are cornerstones in the American strategy to bring stability. The Awakening, in particular, is widely viewed as a key reason violence has dramatically dropped across Iraq. [Continue Reading] Arrest of Sunni Leaders Raises Fears of Broader Clashes The arrest of two Sunni paramilitary leaders in Baghdad and the violent clashes that followed this weekend have cast a harsh light on a U.S. program on which Iraq’s future stability may depend - the integration of U.S.-backed militias into Iraq’s security forces and government ministries. The latest violence, coupled with a pattern of arrests of Sunni leaders in other parts of Iraq, raises fears that the integration plan could collapse, and with it the understandings that led to drastically lower levels of violence throughout the country. [Continue Reading] Iraqi Sunnis Wary After Paramilitary Leader’s Arrest The Awakening movement isn’t very happy these days. The U.S. has been paying Sunni militants to turn their guns from American soldiers to al-Qaida foreign fighters, a program that has been celebrated for reducing violence in Iraq and is now falling apart. In the words of one Sunni leader who spoke to NPR, ‘The Americans completely abandoned us.’ …the U.S.-backed Sunni paramilitaries known as the Sons of Iraq kept security in Fadhil. But when Iraqi and U.S. forces arrested their leader, Adil al-Mashadani, his men fought back. The clashes left more than a dozen people dead and injured. Iraq’s government says Mashadani headed a secret cell loyal to Saddam Hussein’s Baath party. The U.S. military says he was involved in extortion and racketeering. But on the streets of Fadhil, several residents say they felt there were sectarian motives for the crackdown. An older Fadhil resident angrily denounced the raid, shouting repeatedly, ‘This is a war against the Sunni areas.’ Mustafa Kamel, the Sons of Iraq leader in the Baghdad neighborhood of Dora, says the government has not kept its word. ‘Honestly, we’re worried about the future. If the government doesn’t pay us and incorporate us into the security services, I swear, bad things will start happening here a month from now,’ he says. ‘We won’t attack them, but the situation will deteriorate again.’” [Continue Reading] Betrayed in Iraq Leaders of Awakening Councils are arrested, tortured and killed by Iraq government. Leila Fadel, Baghdad Bureau Chief of McClatchy Newspapers speaks to Paul Jay about the recent escalation in violence in Iraq’s capital. She says the former fighters termed the “Sons of Iraq” who have turned on al- Qaeda and joined the US are now being persecuted by the Iraq government. She says the Maliki government is afraid of the power they’ve accumulated in the neighborhoods they were put to protect by the US and many are now in exile or in hiding. Iraqi government releases Sunni paramilitary leader Ten days after arresting him in the middle of the night, the Iraqi government Thursday freed a prominent Sunni Muslim paramilitary leader and dropped all charges against him. While freeing Raad Ali, the Shiite-led government continued to hold another Sunni leader, whose arrest Saturday triggered an uprising… and it’s arrested a number of other Sunni paramilitary leaders and members this week. The turmoil is fueling fears that rising tensions between Sunnis and Shiites and between Sunni Arabs and Kurds could trigger a new round of violence and even disrupt the Obama administration’s plans to draw down American forces in Iraq. [Continue Reading] Ten Iraqi militia fighters arrested: Sahwa leader Ten members of Iraq’s Sahwa militia, which helped tame the country’s deadly insurgency, have been arrested in Baghdad amid warnings from Premier Nuri al-Maliki that they have no immunity from the law. “The Iraqi security forces, during the last few days, arrested 10 members of the Sahwa in Dora, including a number under the accusation of terrorism,” said Mohammad al-Gartani, one of the Baghdad’s district’s Sahwa leaders. He claimed the Sahwa, former Sunni insurgents trained and funded by US and Iraqi forces to battle Al-Qaeda and also known as the “Awakening”, were being persecuted. “We are very worried about the future of Sahwa forces, and we don’t know where to go, because the government and the American forces are chasing us, and Al-Qaeda is targeting us,” Gartani said. The arrests included five Sahwa leaders from the southwest Baghdad district, whose Awakening forces number about 2,450. [Continue Reading] The Return of the Sunni Insurgency Few observers of the war in Iraq have been more insightful than journalist Tom Ricks. In his military and defense reporting for the Washington Post and in his book Fiasco: The American Military Adventure in Iraq, Ricks showed the incompetence of the American occupation of Iraq, and exposed the idiocy at the core of the program to invade Iraq and try to remake the Middle East. In his recent book The Gamble: General David Petraeus and the American Military Adventure in Iraq, 2006-2008, he tracks the genesis and execution of “the surge.” Mainstream reporting and most political dialog about the surge focused on sending more combat troops to Iraq in 2007, but Ricks shows it was also a fundamental shift from a traditional military occupation to a tactically superior engagement of the entire Iraqi population. Petraeus championed the doctrine of counterinsurgency, and it is indeed one of the factors that had helped reduce violence in Iraq, especially in the Baghdad area. But, Ricks writes in The Gamble” “[I]t is unclear in 2009 if [Petraeus] did much more than lengthen the war. In revising the U.S. approach to the Iraq war, Petraeus found tactical success—that is, improved security—but not the clear political breakthrough that would have meant unambiguous strategic success. At the end of the surge, the fundamental political problems facing Iraq were the same ones as when it began…Under Petraeus, the American goal of transforming Iraq had quietly been scaled down. But even his less ambitious target of sustainable security would remain elusive, with no certainty of reaching it any time soon.” [Continue Reading] Fear keeps Baghdad divided and warring sects apart; few Sunnis dare return The streets are calmer now. The fighting between Shiites and Sunnis has largely ceased. But this is not a sign of normalcy in the Iraqi capital. It’s fear that keeps the peace. Only an estimated 16 percent of the mainly Sunni families forced by Shiite militiamen and death squads to flee their homes have dared to return. It takes two sides to have a fight, and there’s really only one side left in Baghdad after violence and fear turned parts of neighborhoods into ghost towns. [Continue Reading] Vow to Fight Raises Question: Is Calm in Iraq Just the Eye of the Storm? Most Iraqis think that today’s lower level of violence is the eye, not the end, of the storm, and that the decisive power struggles are just beginning. The U.S.-backed Iraqi government is widely regarded as an undeserving group of exiles who returned to Iraq on the backs of American tanks…. Although the Sunni insurgency that earlier had battled U.S. troops and Iraqi security forces and killed thousands of civilians is weakened, Mohammed is one of many Iraqis who still believe in what he calls the muqawima, the resistance. He always will. Mohammed is one of the thousands of detainees who’re being released from U.S. detention centers as America prepares to withdraw forces from Iraq. There are about 13,400 detainees in U.S.-run prisons, and on average 50 are released each day. Some are guilty of crimes, others are innocent, many have never been afforded due process and some have become radicalized by their time in prison…. Iraqi officials worry that releasing detainees will trigger a new wave of violence. In some cases, local police are using vigilante law and killing people who’ve been released from U.S. detention centers, according to residents in Anbar. Most are too afraid to talk about it. [Continue Reading] A Standoff in Central Baghdad: The Iraq surge bubble begins to collapse The standoff between two U.S. “allies” this weekend in the heart of Baghdad is a harbinger of things to come in Iraq. The showdown between Iraq’s central government security forces and members of Sunni militias, known as “Awakenings,” had nothing to do with the size of the U.S. troop presence in Iraq and almost everything to do with enduring tensions in Iraq—multiple struggles for power between competing Iraqi factions…. What happened this weekend in central Baghdad between Iraqi security forces and members of the Sunni Awakening groups was not unexpected, in large part because many of the tactics used in the 2007 “surge” of U.S. forces built a shaky and unstable foundation…. The stated goal of the surge, according to the Bush administration, was to reduce violence in order to help Iraq’s political factions bridge their divides over power, but that has simply not occurred in a meaningful way. Iraq remains plagued by enduring political divisions… [Continue Reading] A Wave of Suicide Attacks in Iraq: Are Insurgent Groups Making a Comeback? March was the deadliest month this year in Iraq, as suicide attacks across the country claimed the lives of at least 115 people. Such actions killed 51 people in February and 70 in January. [Continue Reading] Black Monday as car bombings kill 32 in Baghdad A series of bloody car bombings in Baghdad on Monday recalled the blackest days of violence in the capital as at least 32 people were killed and nearly 130 more were wounded. Shortly after midday, twin car bombs tore through a popular medical clinic and a crowded bazaar, killing 12 and wounding 23 in Um Al-Maalif just west of the city centre, defence and interior ministry officials said. A total of six car bombs shattered the city’s fragile security situation… [Continue Reading] Series of bombings in Baghdad Shiite areas kill 37 Six bombs rocked Shiite neighborhoods of Baghdad on Monday, killing 37 people and wounding more than 110 in a dramatic escalation of violence as the U.S. military is thinning out its presence before a June 30 deadline to pull combat troops out of the cities. [Continue Reading] ======= BRITISH PULLOUT Britain begins Iraq pullout The handover of the British-led coalition base to US forces in Basra overnight was tinged with sadness, as America’s senior military officer in Iraq admitted he had mixed emotions about the departure of its key ally…. Gen Odierno set the tone for a solemn occasion which paid tribute to the 179 British servicemen and women who have died in Iraq since the March 2003 US-led invasion [Continue Reading] British army hands control of Basra to US forces Britain today handed the US control of Basra airport, where thousands of its troops have been based since the invasion of Iraq, six years ago…. Most of the 4,100 British troops will go by 31 May, the day they complete their combat mission. Around 300 will stay, mentoring and training Iraqi officers and sailors. [Continue Reading] ======= US COMBAT BRIGADES WILL STAY IN IRAQ Report: Despite Obama’s Vow, Combat Brigades Will Stay in Iraq Despite Obama’s pledge, new evidence has emerged that the US plans to keep combat brigades in Iraq, but they will operate under a different name. Investigative reporter Gareth Porter of Inter Press Service reveals some of the brigade combat teams currently in Iraq will stay beyond August 2010 and will be renamed so-called “advisory and assistance brigades.” [snip] Lots more at ampedstatus.com/iraq-battlefield-report-326-46
Poster Comment: We are constantly being admonished that we cannot leave Iraq precipitously as our exit would cause us to throw away all the "gains that we have made." Today we see how successfully 'Bama's predecessors have left thing tied up in knots that no one can unravel, and the S.N.A.F.U. will provide ample rationale for Pentagon paid scribblers to continue to yammer on about the continued necessity of US presence. Like for years. Things still stink in Iraq, and it don't even make the 6:00 o'clock news no more. (Is Idol on 2-nite?)
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