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Sept 22
Iraq's hired hands under fire as the pot of gold starts to run low
They needed to be hired fast after the 2003 invasion of Iraq. With too few US soldiers on the ground, demand for private security guards was at a level not seen since the mercenary heyday of Congo in the 1960s. Former special forces soldiers from the US and Britain, with their wrap-around shades and swagger, had to be supplemented by Chileans, Colombians and Jordanians. Iraq was awash with billions of dollars from the US, and company profits soared, while those on the ground were earning much more than US and British soldiers.
But the Iraq boom for private security firms is coming to an end, even without the Blackwater shooting row, according to those in the trade.
Richard Fenning, chief executive of Control Risks, the British company which has 200 employees in southern Iraq, mainly protecting officials from the Foreign Office and the Department for International Development, echoed the point. "The situation has deteriorated. American money has dried up on reconstruction. So there is a lull," he said. "It sounds counterintuitive, but Iraq has got too dangerous for security companies to boom there."
** British Army Chief: "Our opponents...are Iraqi nationalists"
** TPM Exclusive: Petraeus' Sectarian Death Count Methodology Revealed
** Do GIs have to spin war's facts?
** Feds Target Blackwater in Weapons Probe
** US to start accepting 1,000 Iraqi refugees a month
** Iraqi forces take lead in only 8 percent of Baghdad: US general
** Two million displaced inside Iraq since US invasion: report
UN Vaccinates Polio in S. Afghanistan
Afghan elders have given safe passage to thousands of volunteer vaccinators immunizing children against polio in Afghanistan's violent south, a region health workers haven't worked in for months, UNICEF said Saturday.
The vaccinators are working in violent areas of Kandahar and Helmand provinces through the help of Kandahar's governor and local elders, who worked to ensure the health workers could travel safely, said Catherine Mbengue, UNICEF representative in Afghanistan.
"So far we have not had any reports of any incidents contrary to what has happened in each (previous) campaign," said Mbengue, who went with vaccinators door-to-door in Kandahar.
** Four Canadian Soldiers injured in Afghanistan
** Do or die: Saving a soldier pierced by an RPG
Previous Updates after the jump. Please post new stories and comments about the coalition's wars in Iraq and Afghanistan on this thread. (Prior weeks' Updates here).
Sept. 21
Blackwater USA Back On Limited Iraq Duty
The U.S. Embassy resumed limited convoy movements with Blackwater USA protection in Baghdad, four days after all land travel by U.S. diplomats and other civilian officials was suspended in response to Iraqi outrage over the alleged killing of civilians by the American security firm.
U.S. Embassy spokeswoman Mirembe Nantongo said the decision was made after consultations with the Iraqi governments and the convoys will be allowed to leave the heavily fortified Green Zone on a select basis.
"All movements supported by the PSDs have to be mission-essential," she said, referring to an acronym for personal security details run by Blackwater and other security contractors protecting Westerners and other dignitaries in Iraq.
A top aide to Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki conceded it may prove difficult for the Iraqi government to expel Western security contractors.
Heavy fighting kills 75 suspected Taliban in Afghanistan
Heavy battles punctuated by airstrikes killed 75 suspected Taliban and at least six civilians in Afghanistan's south, while a U.S. official toaccused Iran of supplying roadside bomb components to militants to get American soldiers "out of the region."
Cases of Cholera Reach Baghdad
The first cases of cholera appeared in Baghdad on Thursday, in a sign the epidemic that has already sickened thousands in northern Iraq is now spreading more widely in a population made vulnerable by war to a normally preventable disease.
** Analysis: US backing the wrong Shi'ite horse
Fear Drives Baghdad's Housing Bust
With hundreds of thousands of Baghdad residents having fled their homes for the relative safety of segregated neighborhoods or foreign countries, a clandestine system of buying and selling property off the books has supplanted more traditional real estate practices. If families being pushed out are lucky, they are able to sell their homes for some small price, as Ismael did. Wait too long, and their houses might be seized at gunpoint.
Controversial Osprey aircraft deployed to Iraq
The first combat squadron of tilt-rotor V-22 Ospreys has been quietly deployed to Iraq , ushering a new form of aerial technology into 21st Century warfare.
A Marine Corps aviation squadron and 10 Ospreys left for Iraq on Monday aboard the U.S.S. Wasp, a small Navy aircraft carrier known as an amphibious assault ship, said Marine Corps spokesman Maj. Eric Dent .
Marine Medium Tiltrotor Squadron 263, nicknamed ``The Thunder Chickens,'' will be based at the Al Asad Airbase in western Iraq for at least seven months of combat operations. The Marine Corps Ospreys, known as MV-22s, will be used to ferry Marines as well as cargo throughout predominately Sunni Muslim Anbar province.
** U.S. troops detain 3 Iranians in northern Iraq hotel, Kurdish official says
** Situation report on cholera outbreak in northern Iraq, 19 Sep 2007
** Kirkuk referendum may be delayed until mid-2008
** Iraq's ethnic map redrawn
Afghan Northern Alliance commander says Taliban talks a 'long, complex' process
One of Afghanistan's most renowned anti-Taliban commanders predicted Thursday that proposed peace talks would be a "long and complex process" but likely would be snubbed by hard-liners and foreign fighters in the Islamic militia.
The comments by Gen. Bismillah Khan — made during a visit by the most senior U.S. military chief for the region — appeared to reflect a more cautious approach by some in the Afghan military toward a push by President Hamid Karzai to open talks with the Taliban.
"This could be a beginning," Khan said following meetings with Adm. William Fallon, the head of U.S. Central Command. "But it's a long and complex process. It's not something that will have a significant effect in the short term.
** Islamic Web Site Says Bin Laden to Declare War on Pakistani Leader in New Video
** British Army leads 2,500-strong onslaught on Taleban
Sept 19
** Baghdad revealed as bank robbery capital of the world
US officials in Iraq barred from land travel
US officials were barred on Wednesday from travelling by land outside Baghdad's fortified Green Zone amid fears of attacks after the alleged killing of civilians by private security firm Blackwater.
The suspension came as Washington grappled with ways to curb the damage from Sunday's clash in which Blackwater guards escorting US embassy officials opened fire in a Baghdad neighbourhood, killing 10 people and wounding 13.
Blackwater denies any wrongdoing but a top Iraqi judge has said the US firm, one of the largest private security operators in Iraq, could face trial.
** Who Watches US Security Firms in Iraq?
** U.S., Britain Differ on Southern Iraq Mission, Official Says
** U.S. Working to Reshape Iraqi Detainees
** Editorial: America and the Iraq ‘oil grab’
Afghanistan will become `havens to terrorists' if Canada pulls its troops from country in 2009
Afghanistan will return to "anarchy" with the threat of thousands of civilian deaths if Canada pulls its troops from the country in 2009, President Hamid Karzai says.
While expressing fresh optimism over the possibility of peace talks with Taliban insurgents, Karzai cautioned the job of rebuilding his war-torn country is far from done and Canada cannot afford to leave.
"Afghanistan will fall back into anarchy. Anarchy will bring back safe havens to terrorists ... and terrorists will then hurt you back there in Canada and the United States. Simple as such," he told Canadian journalists at his palace last night.
"If you leave prematurely before we can defend ourselves ... Afghanistan will fall back."
** British woman to divorce bin Laden’s son amid death fears
** Building a Dam in a Bid to End Afghan Instability
Sept 18
Suicide Blast Kills at Least 7 People in Afghanistan
At least seven people were killed Monday when a suicide bomber detonated his explosives-packed vest outside a government building in Afghanistan's southern Helmand province, a stronghold of the Taliban insurgency and one of the most violent regions in the country.
The attack was the latest in a string of suicide bombings in Afghanistan, where such attacks were rare until a few years ago. So far this year, there have been 103 suicide attacks, according to a new U.N. report, which said the bombings are harming "civilians' perceptions of the ability of the Afghan government to protect them."
Iraq to review security firms after shooting
Iraq will review the status of all security companies after this week's "flagrant assault" by contractors from the U.S. firm Blackwater in which 11 people were shot dead, the government said on Tuesday.
Government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh said the cabinet backed an Interior Ministry decision to "halt the license" of Blackwater, which provides security for the U.S. embassy, and launch an immediate investigation into the shooting.
Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, adding his voice to Iraqi anger over the incident, urged the government to "cancel this company's work, and the rest of the criminal and intelligence companies" that employ tens of thousands of people across Iraq.
** Rice apologises for US security firm shootings
Petraeus in Iraq talks at No. 10
After facing a battery of hostile senators last week, General David Petraeus can expect a friendlier welcome from Gordon Brown at No 10 Downing Street today.
But there is still unease. America's top commander in Iraq and its ambassador there, Ryan Crocker, are holding talks with the prime minister amid reported tension over the UK's decision to withdraw from the centre of Basra to the southern Iraqi city's airport, ahead of a more general troop reduction.
** Pentagon's Iraq report not as rosy as Petraeus'
Standoff with Taliban leaves big Afghan dam project in limbo
The police posts on the hilltops around Kajaki Dam look out over empty villages and a deserted bazaar, where weeds grow and rubbish blows down the street. The population left a year and a half ago and only a few hundred people remain here, most of them soldiers and police guarding Afghanistan's jewel of industry, its largest hydroelectric dam, against Taliban insurgents.
The Taliban are dug in a few miles beyond, in otherwise deserted villages, and have cut off all access roads, holding this tiny community in a stranglehold. British troops, here for the last eight months, have held them back, but only enough to create a security bubble some four miles, or six kilometers, in diameter around the dam.
This is where the U.S. government plans its largest project in Afghanistan, the repair and upgrade of the half-century-old dam, which U.S. officials say will cost $150 million during its first year and up to $500 million in total. The project will include the construction of a 55-mile road to the dam through Taliban-held country, the installation of an additional turbine and putting up new transmission lines and substations to bring electricity to 1.7 million people in southern Afghanistan. U.S. officials say that more than 4,000 jobs will be created at the height of construction.
Iraqis tell Washington to monitor its own progress
Iraqi lawmakers said on Saturday Washington was covering up for its own mistakes in Iraq by setting them artificial benchmarks to meet and then ticking them off like scorecards.
Frustrated by criticism from the United States over their slow progress towards political goals meant to foster national reconciliation, Iraqi leaders said Washington would be better served by examining its own progress in the unpopular war.
"The Americans always try to pretend the responsibility for cleaning up this mess isn't theirs and tend to shift blame onto Iraq, Iran and Syria for everything that goes wrong," said veteran Kurdish lawmaker Mahmoud Othman.
"But they should stop this nonsense and admit that most of the accountability rests on their shoulders," he told Reuters.
** British troop numbers to be halved in Iraq
** Sadr group to pull out of Iraq's ruling Shiite bloc
** 15 recruiters fired over sex protection rules
** Army records first UAV kills
Chancellor Merkel Wants German Troops to Stay in Afghanistan
Amid criticism from opposition parties, German Chancellor Angela Merkel appealed to Germans in her weekly video podcast on Saturday, Sept. 15, to support German troops deployed in war-torn Afghanistan.
"There is no alternative," Merkel said, amid continuing criticism from opposition parties, which have called for a partial or complete pullout of Germany's biggest force abroad from the conflict.
She said the issue was not just the welfare of the Afghan people but Germany's own security as well.
** Canadian Forces Regain Part of Strategic Area in Southern Afghanistan
** Kandahar's gatekeeper for the dead
** Commentary: Musharraf meltdown