As violence against Iraqi citizens rises, a stern warning from U.S. officials

March 26, 2006

BAGHDAD, Iraq - A roadside bomb exploded in front of a school in the southeast Iraqi city of Basra on Sunday, killing a 13-year-old student, police said.

The explosion occurred at 7:30 a.m. as children were arriving for class in the center of Basra, about 340 miles southeast of Baghdad, police Capt. Mushtaq Kadim said. The school week begins Sunday and runs through Thursday in Iraq, where Friday is the day of prayer for Muslims.

The attack was part of a startling increase in violence recently against Iraqi citizens. In the capital Sunday, a bomb also exploded in front of a house in the central neighborhood of Karradah, killing a woman and wounding two of her sisters and a man next door, police said.

Warning from U.S. lawmakers
A group of visiting U.S. politicians voiced alarm a day earlier about rising sectarian violence in Iraq and told Iraqi leaders they needed to urgently overcome their stalemate and form a national unity government.

It was the second high-level U.S. delegation in less than a week to deliver the same stark message to Iraqi politicians as the Bush administration steps up pressure to overcome the political impasse that threatens to scuttle hopes to start an American troop pullout this summer.

“We need very badly to form this unity government as soon as possible,” Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., said at a news conference Saturday after meeting with President Jalal Talabani and Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari. “We all know the polls show declining support among the American people.”

U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad, who has patiently shepherded negotiations to form a new government, already was looking beyond that task to the need to cap the sectarian, militia-inspired killing.

“More Iraqis are dying today from the militia violence than from the terrorists,” Khalilzad told reporters during a visit to a sports complex refurbished with American aid. “This will be a challenge for the new government — what to do about the militias.”

The country’s leadership must “overcome the strife that threatens to rip apart Iraq,” he said.

Political logjam
Nevertheless, a sixth session of multiparty meetings Saturday failed to overcome the logjam that has snarled formation of a government for more than three months.

Sen. Russell Feingold, of Wisconsin and the ranking Democrat in the U.S. delegation, joined McCain in pressing for the quick formation of a government but spoke bluntly of his concern that the continued presence of American forces was prolonging the conflict.

“It’s the reality of a situation like this that when you have a large troop presence that it has the tendency to fuel the insurgency because they can make the incorrect and unfair claim that somehow the United States is here to occupy this country, which of course is not true,” he said.

On Tuesday, a delegation led by Sen. John Warner, the Virginia Republican who is chairman of the Armed Services Committee, delivered the same tough message, saying the uneasiness back home could force U.S. lawmakers to press for a reduction in American troop strength if the government delay were prolonged — regardless of the consequences.

With November’s midterm congressional elections drawing nearer and American voters increasingly disenchanted with the Iraq war, the two visits in quick succession by high-powered U.S. politicians signaled deep concern over potential fallout from a lack of progress in Iraq.

Talabani, a Kurd, has formed a coalition with Sunni and secular politicians against a second term for al-Jaafari, a move that only deepened the government stalemate more than three months after the Dec. 15 parliamentary elections.

The U.S. politicians met separately with each of the men, as well as the U.S. commander in Iraq, Gen. George Casey.

Seven people — most civilians killed in their homes by mortar fire — died Saturday and several others were wounded in a gunbattle between forces of the Shiite Mahdi Army militia and Sunni insurgents near Mahmoudiya, about 20 miles south of the capital.

At least 13 other people were killed in scattered violence Saturday and two more bodies were found dumped in the capital, shot in the head with their hands and feet bound.

msnbc

March 26
AP -
The Iraqi army said Sunday it has dispatched troops to investigate a report that 30 beheaded corpses were found in a village north of Baghdad.

Brig. Saman Talabani, commander of the Iraqi Army 2nd Battalion, said the bodies were reported by residents in Mullah Eid, a village near the town of Buhriz, a former Saddam Hussein stronghold about 35 miles north of Baghdad.

Saddam is a member of the minority Sunni Arab sect that ruled Iraq for decades and brutally oppressed majority Shiites and Kurds.

Talabani said he had sent a battalion of soldiers to join a team from Diyala hospital to deal with the reported victims.

Iraq has seen a flurry of sectarian killings among Sunnis and Shiites since the Feb. 22 bombing of a Shiite shrine in Samarra, a predominantly Sunni city, 60 miles north of Baghdad.

I watched it last night. Fourth time I have done so. It goes back to the time of the Ottoman Empire and it also clearly shows the complicity of the Empirical designs of France and Britain to make the Arab world their own. Matters have not changed in nearly a century. Watch it. Now it is America with the grand designs of Empire. The Arab world is aware. Lawrence wanted to see the Arab world unite. Empires will not allow it.

Wave of Violence Kills at Least 69 Iraqis

Monday March 27, 2006 1:31 AM
AP Photo BAG101
By STEVEN R. HURST
Associated Press Writer

BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - Police found 30 more victims of the sectarian slaughter ravaging Iraq - most of them beheaded - dumped on a village road north of Baghdad on Sunday. At least 16 other Iraqis were killed in a U.S.-backed raid in a Shiite neighborhood of the capital.

Accounts of the raid varied. Aides to the Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr and Iraqi police both said it took place at a mosque, with police claiming 22 bystanders died and al-Sadr's aides saying 18 innocent men were killed.

The Americans said Iraqi special forces backed by U.S. troops killed 16 ``insurgents'' in a raid on a community meeting hall after gunmen opened fire on approaching troops.

``No mosques were entered or damaged during this operation,'' the military said. It said a non-Western hostage was freed, but no name or nationality was provided.

Associated Press videotape showed a tangle of dead male bodies with gunshot wounds on the floor of what was said by the cameraman to be the imam's living quarters, attached to mosque itself.

The tape showed 5.56 mm shell casings scattered about the floor. U.S. forces use that caliber ammunition. A grieving man in white Arab robes stepped among the bodies strewn across the blood-smeared floor.

A total of at least 69 people were reported killed Sunday in one of the bloodiest days in weeks. Most of the dead appeared to be victims the shadowy Sunni-Shiite score-settling that has torn at the fabric of Iraq since Feb. 22 when a Shiite shrine was blown apart in Samarra, north of Baghdad.

Much of the recent killing is seen as the work of Shiite militias or death squads that have infiltrated or are tolerated by Iraqi police under the control of the Shiite-dominated Interior Ministry.

Many of the victims have been found dumped, mainly in Baghdad, with their hands tied, showing signs of torture and shot in the head.

In an apparent effort to clamp down on police wrongdoing, American troops raided an Interior Ministry building and briefly detained about 10 Iraqi policemen after discovering 17 Sudanese prisoners in the facility, Iraqi authorities reported.

The report was reminiscent of a similar U.S. raid last November that found detainees apparently tortured. That discovery set off a round of international demands for investigations and reform of Iraqi police practices to ensure observance of human rights.

In this case the Americans quickly determined the Sudanese were held legitimately and had not been abused, said Maj. Gen. Ali Ghalib, a deputy interior minister.

The U.S. military command here had no immediate comment.

The raid in Baghdad came a day after U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad spoke out on the need to cap the sectarian, militia-inspired killing, saying ``More Iraqis are dying today from the militia violence than from the terrorists.'' He did not say which militias he meant nor did he define who the terrorists were.

more
Guardian

AFP

US
President George W. Bush made clear to British Prime Minister
Tony Blair in January 2003 that he was determined to invade Iraq without a UN resolution and even if UN arms inspectors failed to find weapons of mass destruction in the country, The New York Times reported.

Citing a confidential British memorandum, the newspaper said the president was certain that war was inevitable and made his view known during a private two-hour meeting with Blair in the Oval Office on January 31, 2003.

Information about the meeting was contained in the memo written by Blair's top foreign policy adviser and reviewed by The Times.

"Our diplomatic strategy had to be arranged around the military planning," the paper quotes David Manning, Blair's chief foreign policy adviser at the time, as noting in the memo.

" 'The start date for the military campaign was now penciled in for 10 March,' Mr. Manning wrote, paraphrasing the president. 'This was when the bombing would begin'," the paper continued.

The timetable came at an important diplomatic moment, the paper said.

Five days after the Bush-Blair meeting, then US secretary of state
Colin Powell was scheduled to appear before the United Nations to present evidence that Iraq posed a threat to world security by hiding unconventional weapons.

Stamped "extremely sensitive," the five-page memorandum had not been made public, according to the report. Several highlights were first published in January in the book "Lawless World," which was written by British lawyer and international law professor Philippe Sands.

In early February, Channel 4 in London first broadcast excerpts from the memo.

But since then, The New York Times has been able to review the five-page memo in its entirety.

The document indicates the two leaders envisioned a quick victory and a transition to a new Iraqi government that would be complicated, but manageable, the paper said.

Bush predicted that it was "unlikely there would be internecine warfare between the different religious and ethnic groups." Blair agreed with that assessment.

The memo also shows that the president and the prime minister acknowledged that no unconventional weapons had been found inside Iraq, The Times noted.

Faced with the possibility of not finding any before the planned invasion, Bush talked about several ways to provoke a confrontation, including a proposal to paint a US surveillance plane in the colors of the United Nations in hopes of drawing fire, or assassinating Iraqi president Saddam Hussein.

you couldn't make this stuff up!

BBC

Arabic television channel al-Jazeera has broadcast an audiotape purportedly from Saddam Hussein's former deputy Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri.

The voice on the tape urges Arab leaders due to meet in Sudan to boycott the Iraqi government and recognise what he calls the "Iraqi resistance".

The speaker also condemns recent attacks on Shia shrines in Iraq.

There had been persistent speculation about whether Mr Douri, one of Iraq's most wanted men, was dead or alive.

Expel the representatives of collusion and treason who have sold their religion and homeland at the cheapest prise

A number of websites linked to the former ruling Baath party reported last November that Mr Douri had died of cancer.
But the US military - which has offered a reward of up to $10m for information leading to Mr Douri's capture - said at the time that it was treating those claims with caution.

Right-hand man

The tape broadcast by al-Jazeera has yet to be authenticated and no date has been given for the recording.

The speaker calls on leaders taking part in the Arab League summit on Tuesday to "boycott the regime of agents and traitors", saying the current Iraqi government was "appointed by the US occupiers".

He also urges them to recognise the "Iraqi resistance as the sole legitimate representative of the Iraqi people".

The voice also describes recent attacks on Shia mosques and holy sites, which have sparked widespread sectarian violence, as a "crime".

Mr Douri has been accused of financing Sunni insurgent groups in Iraq

more
BBC

TRANSCRIPT:
Full text: 'al-Douri' audio tape

Al-Jazeera has broadcast an audio tape apparently recorded by Saddam Hussein's former deputy Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri.
The authenticity of the tape has not been independently verified, but the full text is reproduced below.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

To the faithful and mujahideen: know that the bombing of the dome of the revered Imam Ali al-Hadi, peace be upon him; killing innocent people and civilians from the sons of our people; burning mosques, husayniyat [Shia prayer halls] and churches; and slaughtering people on the basis of their identity cards, represent the peak of vileness, meanness and criminality.

Our people and its heroic resistance will exact retribution on the perpetrators sooner or later, God willing.

To the men holding official, historic responsibility in the nation: your forthcoming conference should adopt a bold, explicit and unambiguous resolution recognising the national and valiant Iraqi resistance.

It is the sole legitimate representative of the people of Iraq and it should be represented at your conferences, the [Arab] League and its institutions.

You should expel the representatives of collusion and treason, who have sold their religion, homeland and nation at the cheapest price.

You should boycott the regime of collusion and treason, besiege it and adopt the necessary resolutions to support the people of Iraq and its national and valiant resistance and its jihad until liberation.

Mon Mar 27, 2006

Related: Iraq minister says US, Iraqi troops killed 37
Ruling Shi'ites demand Iraq regain security contro

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Pentagon said on Monday no mosques were entered or damaged in an operation involving Iraqi and U.S. forces that killed more than a dozen people and prompted Iraq's ruling Shi'ite alliance to urge American forces to return control of security to Iraqis.

Asked about Sunday's operation, Bryan Whitman, a senior Pentagon spokesman, reiterated a version of events put out by the U.S. military command in Iraq.

Whitman said that "my understanding is that there were no mosques that were entered into or damaged as part of this operation." He said that "there were U.S. special forces in support of the operation," but declined to state the role played by American troops.

Government-run Iraqi media have portrayed the operation as a U.S. raid on unarmed worshipers in a holy place. Iraq's security minister, Abd al-Karim al-Enzi, said 37 people were killed in the attack.

"An Iraqi special operations force conducted a raid in one of the neighborhoods in northeast Baghdad to disrupt a terrorist cell that had been responsible for not only conducting attacks on Iraqi security forces and coalition forces but also in kidnapping Iraqi civilians in the local area," Whitman said.

"That particular Iraqi special operations force came under fire as they were conducting this operation, and in the process the Iraqi special operations forces killed 16 insurgents. They also, in securing the objective there, detained a number of other individuals, approximately 15, is what I've heard," Whitman added.

Whitman said that as part of the raid, a cache of weapons, roadside bomb-making materials and ammunition was discovered.

The building was not a traditional mosque but a former Baath party compound used by Shi'ites for prayers and other religious events and was known locally as the Mustafa mosque.

"This was an Iraqi planned and led operation and U.S. forces were only in an advisory capacity," said a State Department official, who asked not to be named because he was not authorized to address the issue until the administration formed its official response to the charges.

The incident underscored the need for Iraqis to take a non-sectarian approach to security, he said.

Reuters

cole-on-television

if you just plop down the url from the source address, in many cases it will cause the screen to "go wide", requiring scrolling over to read the full comment.

PLEASE use the "A href="www.madeupurl.org">somename /A >" (with < before A and /A at the beginning and the end) instead

Iraqi troops supposed to work for the government make some extra bucks by kidnapping foreigners in Baghdad.

-- Tontos y locos, nunca fueron pocos.

Eight Oil Workers Killed in N. Iraq
'Agents of Occupation' Are Shot On Day of Roadside Explosions

By John Ward Anderson
Washington Post Foreign Service
Friday, March 31, 2006; A14

BAGHDAD, March 30 -- A bus ferrying oil workers to their job was forced to the side of a road in northern Iraq by masked gunmen, who ordered the workers to get off, accused them of being "agents of the occupation" and then shot them, killing eight, police said.

The workers were all employees of one of Iraq's largest oil refineries, in Baiji, a town about 120 miles north of Baghdad.

In the capital, meanwhile, one person was killed and 11 were injured in two roadside bombings; two were killed and seven injured in a car bombing; and five people were injured when a suicide car bomber detonated explosives near a police convoy.

The Reuters news agency reported that a U.S. airman was killed and another wounded by a roadside bomb near Baghdad. In addition, a soldier who was wounded in action on March 28 in Anbar province died of his wounds, the military said in a statement. No further details were available.

In Ramadi, the Anbar capital, which is 60 miles west of Baghdad and a stronghold of al-Qaeda in Iraq, the bodies of three workers from Ramadi General Hospital were found blindfolded and shot in the head, according to Haiythan al-Dilami, a physician there. He said al-Qaeda in Iraq had asserted responsibility for the killings in a note found with the bodies that accused the men of being homosexuals.

In the killing of the oil workers, Lt. Nawras Hamed of the Baiji police said one man, Salih Abed, survived the attack and told police that the minibus in which he and his co-workers were traveling was forced off the road by three cars containing masked gunmen. He said the gunmen ordered everyone off the bus while firing their weapons wildly into the air to scare off other vehicles.

Abed, who was shot in the stomach and leg, told police that the gunmen admonished the workers, "You are all agents of the occupation," and then shot them, Hamed said. He said all eight who died were killed by gunshot wounds to the head and chest.

Capt. Hakim Azzawi of the Tikrit Hospital Police said most of the victims were residents of the area. "They were killed only because they worked for the state refineries," Azzawi said.

In other news, the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, the country's most powerful Shiite political party, released a statement denying reports that U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad had recently told Shiite leaders that President Bush opposed their coalition's nominee for prime minister, Ibrahim al-Jafari.

more
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/30/AR2006033002128_pf.html

This message from the Iraqi Government scrolling along the bottom of the screen during a news broadcast.

“The Ministry of Defense requests that civilians do not comply with the orders of the army or police on nightly patrols unless they are accompanied by coalition forces working in that area.”

What does that say about the readiness of the Iraqi police and army to take over security duties?

Baghdad Burning

NZ Herald March 31
By Paul Smith

Freed hostage Harmeet Sooden has said he believes a ransom was paid for his release.

Mr Sooden, who was held captive in Iraq for four months, said today that he and his fellow hostages thought their rescue was "contrived".

The Auckland student, who is a Canadian citizen, said he was grateful to the New Zealand and Canadian authorities for their assistance, but said the invasion and occupation of Iraq were "illegal" and the New Zealand government was complicit in that.

Mr Sooden, 32, a member of activist organisation the Christian Peacemakers Teams (CPT), described how he and his two fellow captives were released on March 24. He said they heard unusual noises and then an English accent demanding the door be opened.

Within moments British soldiers were cutting them free. Another soldier wearing a mask removed it to show he was an Iraqi, a move Mr Sooden said he thought was supposed to indicate the Iraqis were involved in the rescue.

His captors were "nowhere to be seen" during the release, which was "highly unusual", he said.

"I felt it was contrived," he said. Asked if he thought a ransom was paid, Mr Sooden said it was "highly probable" though he had no evidence for that.

Mr Sooden said the taking of hostages such as himself, fellow Canadian James Loney, 41, Briton Norman Kember, 74, and American Tom Fox, 54, was "simply a way to fund the insurgency". He added: "I wanted to be released, but I didn't want money to be paid.

"Our belief was that we were commodities to be exchanged for money and that if that didn't work out or there was a raid, we would be destroyed."

He said videos other than ones released to Arabic television channels during his captivity were filmed. Since his release, Western authorities had given "vague information of what happened to them", indicating they had been used in negotiations.

Mr Sooden remained calm and measured throughout an hour-long press conference in Auckland this afternoon except when talking about Mr Fox, who was killed and his body found dumped in Baghdad earlier this month. At those moments he stopped to compose himself and shed a tear.

"I never had any regrets, even during the worst moments, which surprised me," Mr Sooden said. "I never felt I should not have gone." He said he would consider returning to Iraq to do peace work.

Mr Sooden described how the hostages were kept bound and hooded for the first week and were only given six biscuits and two small glasses of water a day. However, conditions improved during their time in captivity.

He said he was slapped once and guns were sometimes pointed at the hostages.

But he saw his captors as "victims" who had suffered at the hands of the American-led invasion of Iraq. One of their captors brought them food and offered to clean their clothes, while another was more volatile and tension rose when he was present.

Mr Sooden said he now struggles to sleep and is not eating well, but hopes that talking about his experiences will help him to relax.

He said he would take New Zealand citizenship if offered.

The Lincoln Group was tasked with presenting the US version of events in Iraq to counter adverse media coverage. Here we present examples of its work, and the reality behind its headlines. By Andrew Buncombe

Published: 30 March 2006

This is the news from Iraq according to Donald Rumsfeld and the Bush administration.

A week after the US Defence Secretary criticised the media for " exaggerating" reports of violence in Iraq, The Independent has obtained examples of newspaper reports the Bush administration want Iraqis to read.

They were prepared by specially trained American "psy-ops" troops who paid thousands of dollars to Iraqi newspaper editors to run these unattributed reports in their publications. In order to hide its involvement, the Pentagon hired the Lincoln Group to act as a liaison between troops and journalists. The Lincoln Group was at the centre of controversy last year when it was revealed the company was being paid more than $100m (£58m) for various contracts, including the planting of such stories.

The Pentagon - which recently announced that an internal investigation had cleared the Lincoln Group of breaching military rules by planting these stories - has claimed these new reports did not constitute propaganda because they were factually correct. But a military specialist has questioned some of the information contained within their reports while describing their rhetorical style as "comical". Furthermore, it has been alleged that quotations contained within these reports and others - attributed to anonymous Iraqi officials or citizens - were routinely made up by US troops who never went beyond the perimeter of the Green Zone.

What seems clear is that, taken by themselves, these reports would provide an unbalanced picture of the situation inside Iraq where ongoing violence wreaks daily chaos and horror. Three years since US and UK troops invaded, more than 2,500 coalition troops have been killed. How many Iraqi civilians have died is unclear. The Iraqi Body Count puts the minimum at 33,773, but this figure is based on media reports and the group admits "it is likely that many if not most civilian casualties will go unreported by the media". An extrapolation published in The Lancet 18 months ago said more than 100,000 had been killed.

more

April 1, 2006
Politics
Senior Shiite Cleric Urges U.S. to Replace Envoy in Iraq

By EDWARD WONG
BAGHDAD, Iraq, March 31 — With tensions growing between Shiite officials and the American Embassy here, one of Iraq's leading Shiite clerics demanded Friday that the American ambassador be replaced.

The cleric, Ayatollah Muhammad al-Yacoubi, denounced the ambassador, Zalmay Khalilzad, at a sermon given at the mosques of his followers. The ayatollah said the Americans were attacking the Shiites and wanted to "change the demography of the Iraqi people and weaken the strongest component in Iraq, represented by the followers of Imam Ali."

The Shiites are the followers of Ali, the son-in-law of the Prophet Muhammad who was murdered in the seventh century.

In the rancorous talks to form a government, Mr. Khalilzad has been trying to persuade the majority Shiites to allow greater Sunni Arab representation in the most powerful offices. That has led Shiite politicians to accuse the ambassador of favoring the Sunni Arabs, who held power under Saddam Hussein, at the expense of the majority Shiites, who won a plurality of seats in Parliament in December.

In his speech, Ayatollah Yacoubi said Mr. Khalilzad was offering "political support" for the "political front of the terrorists."

He added that if the Bush administration "wants to protect itself from more failure and collapse, it should change its ambassador in Iraq, honestly and seriously build strong national military forces able to secure the country, and end the claims to occupation that are the main source of the evolution of terrorism."

A spokeswoman for the ambassador declined to comment.

MORE here

US military deaths in Iraq drop as Iraqis targeted

By Will Dunham
Reuters
Friday, March 31, 2006; 3:24 PM

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. military deaths declined in the Iraq war for a fifth straight month in March even as insurgent attacks continue unabated with Iraqis increasingly the targets.

There have been 2,327 U.S. military deaths in the war, and another 17,381 troops have been wounded in action, the Pentagon said on Friday. But the monthly U.S. military death toll has steadily dropped since reaching 96 last October, the fourth deadliest month of the war.

There were at least 29 U.S. military deaths in March, according to a count of fatalities announced by the military. That would represent the smallest monthly death toll since 20 in February 2004, the lowest of the three-year war.

U.S. officers in Iraq said several factors have contributed to the decline, including that insurgents are now directing their attacks toward civilians and U.S.-trained Iraqi government security forces who are assuming more security responsibilities previously handled by U.S. and allied forces.

Defense analysts said the recent decline in U.S. deaths is not evidence of an overall improving security environment.

"It still does not fundamentally alter the deteriorating security situation in the country, given the rise in sectarian violence," said Ted Carpenter of the Cato Institute think tank.

more here

Filming the Iraq insurgency
By Matt Hann
Producer, The Insurgency

As a US tank comes into view on a street in Ramadi, west of Baghdad, three fighters in civilian clothes and headscarves aim their weapons and wait. They claim to be part of al-Qaeda in Iraq.

"This is a message to America," one insurgent says to the camera.

"Look at your might and power, yet you are unable to walk the streets of Ramadi, which belongs to the mujahideen."

Al-Qaeda insurgents see themselves as challenging US power

He turns back to the tank, which has paused a few blocks away. "I swear by almighty God we will destroy them," the insurgent says.

We received this footage while making a documentary about the Sunni insurgency fighting the Coalition Forces in Iraq.

We had asked local fixers and stringers in Baghdad if they would be prepared to take a camera and a list of prepared questions into the heart of the Sunni Triangle to speak directly with insurgents. Few accepted such a dangerous task.

Of those that did, one person got past the roadblocks with the film of al-Qaeda in Ramadi.

New generation of fighters

Cases of US heavy handedness or the abuse in Abu Ghraib have provided fertile ground for the insurgents to recruit from.

"A number of the insurgents keep saying to me that this is what I was trained for," journalist Michael Ware explained to us.

"They say the next generation is going to be worse than we've ever been. And it's in this way that it's al-Qaeda that are one of the main beneficiaries of this war.

"The Bush administration is the midwife to the next generation of al-Qaeda. And that's a generation that is principally being shaped by Zarqawi," Mr Ware said.

The normal methods of making a documentary about the evolution of the Sunni insurgency are not possible in Iraq.

Our contact with the insurgency came in two other ways.

Firstly, through two journalists - Michael Ware, who has had contact with members of the insurgency from the very beginning; and Ghaith Abdul-Ahad, who has travelled throughout the Middle East to understand more about the foreign fighters coming to fight in this war.

And secondly we embedded with US and Iraqi forces. We filmed the raids they were making to counter the insurgency.

The officers we spoke to were exceptionally candid about the realities of the situation and the problems resulting from past mistakes. Something we were not expecting

more
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/4866118.stm

Neighborhood Militias Add Another Armed Layer
Fearing Shiite attacks, Sunni Arabs in Iraq are organizing fighters and storing guns in mosques. Some fear an escalation to all-out sectarian war.
By Megan K. Stack, Times Staff Writer
April 1, 2006

BAGHDAD — When the "black shirts" come back, the neighbors of the mosque will be ready to fight.

The Sunni Arab men of the district have posted plainclothes spies on the corners to look out for suspicious strangers. They keep their cellphones close at hand, waiting for the ring that will call them to arms. When it comes, the men will pour from the surrounding homes, guns blazing.

ADVERTISEMENT
Faced with the growth of Shiite militias such as the black-shirted Al Mahdi army and deadly abuses by the Shiite-dominated police forces, Sunnis in mixed-sect neighborhoods and cities throughout Iraq are stashing guns in their mosques and knitting themselves into militias of their own.

"We've made an agreement with the neighbors that if we have another attack, they'll pick up their weapons and fight the invaders," said Fares Mahmoud, deputy preacher of the El Koudiri Mosque here in the middle-class neighborhood of Arasat. "We are depending on the soul of the people to protect us."

In the last week, U.S. troops have clashed with Shiite militias, and American officials have expressed concern about their growing power. On the other side of Iraq's sectarian divide, the emergence of armed bands of Sunnis, often from middle-class or secular backgrounds, presents a disturbing indication of how close Iraq is to all-out sectarian war.

The Sunni neighborhood militias add yet another armed element to the Iraqi scene, which already features Sunni insurgents — often militant Islamists or former members of Saddam Hussein's ruling elite — who have been battling Iraqi and U.S. security forces for three years.

Among the Sunnis, "you have the [militant Islamic] Takfiris, the old Baathists, you have the people who feel they have been marginalized, you have Arab nationalists. If each of these groups is going to have its own militia, then God help us," said Adnan Pachachi, a Sunni legislator and the temporary speaker of the new Iraqi parliament.

"Unfortunately, the last election showed one thing: In order to win, you have to have a lot of money and you have to have your own militia," he said.

Amid the rising violence, many Iraqis feel they have little choice but to arm themselves and their neighbors.

"In Baghdad, for example, there is a perception that the police are not really there to protect them," said a Western official in the capital who would not speak on the record because of the political sensitivity of the topic. But "it is not an acceptable answer to bend to the presence of a militia to guarantee a particular neighborhood."

An escalation in sectarian violence could stir neighboring Sunni states, such as Saudi Arabia and Jordan, to funnel arms or money into Iraq to support Sunnis there, some analysts fear. Sunni Arabs across the region have regarded the growing strength of Iraq's Shiites — not to mention the swelling influence of Iran, which is already heavily involved in backing Shiite groups — with great trepidation.

"This is a new stage — it's not a traditional, classical civil war, but it's a sort of civil war," said Ismael Zayer, editor of the Iraqi newspaper Al Sabah Al Jadid. "At the end of the day, if nobody will protect them and the government won't intervene, then they have to protect themselves. But if you ask me, I don't like it. I don't like Sunnis or Shiites to have arms like this."

Like many Sunnis across Iraq, worshipers at the El Koudiri Mosque have absorbed a bitter lesson from the wave of killings and vandalism that convulsed the country after the recent bombing of a Shiite shrine: They can't count on anybody but themselves for protection.

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http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-militias1apr01,0,7923382.story?coll=la-home-world

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Al-Jaafari warns of US interference

Friday 31 March 2006, 2:49 Makka Time, 23:49 GMT

Ibrahim al-Jaafari, the Iraqi prime minister, has warned against US interference in his country's politics and defended his ties to a Shia militia.

With backing from Shia parties, Prime Minister al-Jaafari is seeking to stay in office but his candidacy has proved contentious among parliamentary factions, which have yet to agree on a national unity government three months after national elections.

In an interview with The New York Times published on Thursday, al-Jaafari said that certain comments from US officials had undermined the US president's public stance in favour of democracy in Iraq.

"There was a stand from both the American government and President Bush to promote a democratic policy and protect its interests," he told the paper in an interview conducted at his Baghdad home.

"But now there's concern among the Iraqi people that the democratic process is being threatened."

Al-Jaafari appeared to be referring to US concerns over his candidacy amid reports that US officials were actively lobbying for other figures who might be able to draw support from Kurdish and Sunni leaders who oppose al-Jaafari.

"The source of this is that some American figures have made statements that interfere with the results of the democratic process," he said, without elaborating.

"These reservations began when the biggest bloc in Parliament chose its candidate for prime minister."

US reaction

Three months after the national elections, Iraqi efforts to form a government have been delayed by bickering over cabinet posts and resistance to al-Jaafari's drive to keep his job.

Al-Jaafari's comments came a day after the White House denied reports from Iraq that Bush had told a top Shia leader that he opposed al-Jaafari as the country's next prime minister.

Adam Ereli, deputy State Department spokesman said: "I don't think we've made any such statements.

"The future of Iraq and the development of its political institutions is in the hands of Iraqis.

"We are a friend of Iraq. We are there to support them in that endeavour and to assist them in that process as we can," Ereli said.

Disagreement

Kurdish and Sunni representatives accuse al-Jaafari of running a sectarian-tinged government and collaborating with Muqtada al-Sadr, who leads a powerful Shia militia and controls a bloc of 32 seats in the parliament

AFP

U.S. helicopter down near Baghdad, no word on crew
01 Apr 2006 17:59:25 GMT

Source: Reuters

(Adds official's comments)

BAGHDAD, April 1 (Reuters) - A U.S. military helicopter went down southwest of Baghdad on Saturday and it was unclear if there were casualties, the military said.

A militant group said it shot down a helicopter in the same area and residents said they heard gunfire.

"A ... helicopter went down southwest of Baghdad at approximately 5:30 p.m. (1330 GMT)" the military said. "The status of the crew is unknown."

A spokesman declined to say how many were on board or the type of helicopter involved.

"The aircraft was conducting a combat air patrol," the statement said. Combat patrols are typically flown by two-seater reconnaissance or attack helicopters.

In an Internet posting, a group calling itself the Rashedeen Army said it had shot down a U.S. helicopter near the town of Yusufiya, an area that sees considerable Sunni insurgent activity just southwest of the capital.

"The lions of Islam from ... the Rashedeen Army succeeded in downing a helicopter that belongs to the U.S. occupation forces in the Yusufiya district," the little known group said in a statement posted on a Web site often used by militants.

The posting came some time before the military statement.

A local government official in Yusufiya said an Apache helicopter, which carry a crew of two, was shot at and came down between Yusufiya and Falluja.

Residents in Yusufiya said they heard shooting in the area at the time, shortly before dusk. Others said they saw smoke coming from the wreckage and no sign of survivors.

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