IRAQ - Latest News

naz_1969

Top Iraqi condemns US over Iran

The outside of the Iranian liaison office raided by US forces One of Iraq's most powerful Shia politicians has condemned the arrest of Iranians by US forces in Iraq as an attack on the country's sovereignty. The comments by Abdel Aziz al-Hakim, made in a BBC interview, are seen as the strongest expression yet of Iraq's concern about the US approach to Iran. They follow two recent US raids in which Iranians were arrested. The remarks are interesting as Mr Hakim is seen as close to President Bush, says the BBC's Andrew North in Baghdad. Mr Hakim also has close links to Iran, after many years in exile there. Late last year, US troops descended on Mr Hakim's residential compound in Baghdad and detained two Iranian officials. They were later released, but last week, five more were detained at the Iranian liaison office in Irbil. They are still being held. US officials say they are linked to the Iranian Revolutionary Guard which they allege trains and arms Iraqi insurgents. Delicate balance Iran, which has demanded their immediate release, says they are diplomats engaged in legitimate work. Iraq has sought to bring about a dialogue between the US, Iran and Syria, Mr Hakim, leader of the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, told the BBC. Any tension between Washington and Tehran might have adverse consequences for Iraq, he said. We fully respect the views, policies and strategy of the United States, which is the strongest ally to Iraq, but the Iraqi government has national interests of its own Hoshyar Zebari Iraqi Foreign Minister "Regardless of the Iranian position we consider these actions as incorrect," Mr Hakim said. "They represent a kind of attack on Iraq's sovereignty and we hope such things are not repeated." On Sunday, Iraq's Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari said that Iraq needed a constructive relationship with Iran. "We can't change the geographical reality that Iran is our neighbour. This is a delicate balance and we are treading a very thin line. "We fully respect the views, policies and strategy of the United States, which is the strongest ally to Iraq, but the Iraqi government has national interests of its own," Mr Zebari said. Mr Hakim is said to be close to President George W Bush and has backed his new plan for Iraq. Speaking after a lengthy meeting with Prime Minister Nouri Maliki, Mr Hakim said that, under the plan, Iraqi security forces would be in charge for the first time in four years, while the multinational troops provide support. "This came about at the request of the Iraqis. They met and decided to carry out these operations and be fully responsible while the multinational forces support them," said Mr Hakim.

Link: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/6270957.stm
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Seems that it is inevitable that the next US Troop deployment is not to police Iraq , but to invade Iran instead.
What do you think?

[ Last edited by  naz_1969 at 18-1-2007 01:15 PM ]

naz_1969

Attackers kill 35 in Baghdad, Kirkuk; 30 bodies found
BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- Explosions and gunfire in the Iraqi capital and the northern city of Kirkuk claimed 35 lives Wednesday.
The mass casualties occurred at the Kirkuk police station, where 10 people were killed, according to police, and the Shiite stronghold in Baghdad, Sadr City, where at least 17 people were killed, according to an Interior Ministry official.

In addition, a roadside bomb in central Baghdad killed a police officer on patrol and wounded two others, an Interior Ministry official said.

The convoy of a U.S. aid group also was attacked in Baghdad, leaving a female American staffer and three security people dead, according to a representative for the National Democratic Institute for International Affairs. The group's regional director identified the security personnel as Hungarian, Croatian and Iraqi nationals.

Gunmen killed a professor at Baghdad University's veterinary school, and in a separate incident, a civilian and a policeman in eastern Baghdad, according to the Interior Ministry. Police also found 30 bodies across the capital, the Interior Ministry added.

In a grim statistic released Tuesday by the United Nations, more than 34,000 civilians were "violently killed" across Iraq in 2006, an average of 94 every day. The bimonthly report singled out sectarian violence as "a major cause for an ever-growing trend in displacement and migration of all Iraqis, as well as the targeting of various professional groups."

Also, educational institutions in Iraq were being subjected to an "intimidation campaign," the report said. "Academics have apparently been singled out for their relatively respected public status, vulnerability and views on controversial issues in a climate of deepening Islamic extremism," the report said.

Its release came on the same day as the deadly attack on Mustansiriya University, which killed 70 people and left 170 injured. Last month, gunmen killed the school's assistant law dean and another faculty member.

The deadly car bomb attack in Sadr City Wednesday wounded 35 people, the Interior Ministry official told CNN. The violent Shiite slum serves as a bastion of support for anti-American Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr and his Mehdi Army militia, which is thought to be heavily involved in Iraq's sectarian violence.

In Kirkuk, 42 people were wounded in the deadly blast. A bomber had parked a truck next to the police station and fled when police asked him to move it, police there said Wednesday.

The explosives detonated remotely, police said. The blast heavily damaged the station, leaving a number of people trapped under the rubble and causing structural damage to other buildings.

The oil-rich city -- where Arabs, Kurds, Turkmen, Sunnis, Shiites and Christians live in a cauldron of tension -- has seen a "deteriorating human rights situation," according to the U.N.'s bimonthly report on human rights in Iraqi cities. Since 2003, the city has seen a significant increase in violent acts "widely believed to be the doing of perpetrators and instigators from inside and outside Iraq and Kirkuk," the report said.

Link: http://edition.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/meast/01/17/iraq.main/index.html

naz_1969

Iraq Violence in Figure

Many thousands of people have died in the Iraq conflict since the US-led coalition invaded in March 2003. But establishing exactly how many lives have been lost is a controversial topic, with most estimates tending to produce very different figures. More than 3,000 soldiers from the coalition have died so far, but US forces do not keep complete records of civilians killed in the conflict. Nor does the Iraqi government have a precise figure, although estimates from the health ministry in November 2006 ranged from 100,000 to 150,000 dead. This contrasts with a survey of Iraqi households published by the Lancet, which suggested that about 655,000 Iraqi deaths had occurred "as a consequence of the war," by July 2006. These estimates are both higher than the running total of reported civilian deaths maintained by the campaign group, Iraq Body Count. Using two media reports as their source for each death, IBC say the civilian death toll is now about 55,000, including more than 2,900 police, but also warn that many deaths may not have been reported.

Coalition figures last updated 15 January 2007

naz_1969

Arab states watch Iraq with dread

By Roger Hardy BBC Middle East analyst Arab states fear that the violence in Iraq is poisoning the region US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, is in the Middle East trying to win Arab support for the Bush administration's new strategy for Iraq and its tougher approach to Iran. So how successful is she likely to be?  The Arab rulers find themselves caught between the American eagle and the Iranian lion.  Washington's main Arab allies, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Jordan, have watched the recent rise of Iranian power and influence in the Middle East with mounting trepidation.  But they are reluctant to be drawn into an anti-Iranian regional alliance led by an unpopular United States, especially if such an alliance tacitly included Israel.  Bush's warning In his speech on 10 January setting out a new US strategy for Iraq, President Bush had a blunt warning for his nervous Arab allies. "Countries like Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Jordan and the (Arab) Gulf states," he declared, "need to understand that an American defeat in Iraq would create a new sanctuary for extremists and a strategic threat to their survival."   An Iranian envoy was in Saudi Arabia just ahead of Condoleezza Rice It was in their interests to help America succeed in Iraq and to "prevent Iran from gaining nuclear weapons and dominating the region".  The arrest by the Americans of five Iranians last week in Kurdish-controlled northern Iraq suggests this is not mere rhetoric, but the start of a more confrontational approach to Iran.  But nervous though they are about Iran, Arab rulers may take some persuading that the new US strategy will make them safer rather than the reverse.  They have three interlocking fears: Iraq's instability will get worse and the poison of sectarianism will spread beyond its borders   Confrontation between Washington and Tehran will lead inexorably towards some kind of US military strike against Iranian nuclear facilities - a move which would dramatically raise the regional temperature   Despite the Bush administration's claims that it is seriously engaged in efforts to revive the Arab-Israeli peace process, the current deadlock will persist.   In other words, they would be foolish to align themselves too closely with US policies which are not only deeply unpopular in the region, but doomed to fail. The dilemma of the Saudi kingdom, which is wealthy but militarily weak, is particularly acute. Saudi split? Moreover there have been signs of a rift between senior princes over what course to adopt.  The Foreign Minister, Prince Saud al-Faisal, is said to favour a cautious, non-confrontational approach to Iran.  The National Security Adviser and former long-time Ambassador in Washington, Prince Bandar bin Sultan, is thought to want a more aggressive posture. In December, Prince Bandar's successor in Washington, Prince Turki al-Faisal (the foreign minister's brother), abruptly resigned, reportedly in protest at interference by the more hawkish Bandar. How far this dispute is hampering coherent foreign-policy-making is not clear. Iran, for its part, is anxious to maintain good relations with Saudi Arabia, and to avoid being accused of fostering Sunni-Shia tensions in the Arab world. It is a complicated picture. But the factor that will have the greatest impact on regional attitudes is not what the Iranians or the Americans may say, but what happens on the ground in Iraq. If Arab fears of growing chaos are realised, they may be drawn willy-nilly into taking the side of Iraq's Sunni Arab minority against what they regard as a Shia-led, Iranian-backed government. Iraq could become the new Lebanon, wracked by a lethal combination of civil war and external interference

Link : BBC