Breaking Up Baghdad

Robert Fisk On The American Plan To "Seal Off Vast Sections" Of The Iraqi Capital


More than 100,000 Iraqis marched against the US-led occupation on the fourth anniversary of the Fall of Baghdad

One of the most widely read, and controversial, Iraq stories of the day is Robert Fisk's piece in the UK Independent on what he claims is an American plan to "divide Baghdad into sealed sections" :

Faced with an ever-more ruthless insurgency in Baghdad - despite President George Bush's "surge" in troops - US forces in the city are now planning a massive and highly controversial counter-insurgency operation that will seal off vast areas of the city, enclosing whole neighbourhoods with barricades and allowing only Iraqis with newly issued ID cards to enter.

The campaign of "gated communities" - whose genesis was in the Vietnam War - will involve up to 30 of the city's 89 official districts and will be the most ambitious counter-insurgency programme yet mounted by the US in Iraq.

The system has been used - and has spectacularly failed - in the past, and its inauguration in Iraq is as much a sign of American desperation at the country's continued descent into civil conflict as it is of US determination to "win" the war against an Iraqi insurgency that has cost the lives of more than 3,200 American troops.

...the campaign has far wider military ambitions than the pacification of Baghdad. It now appears that the US military intends to place as many as five mechanised brigades - comprising about 40,000 men - south and east of Baghdad, at least three of them positioned between the capital and the Iranian border. This would present Iran with a powerful - and potentially aggressive - American military force close to its border in the event of a US or Israeli military strike against its nuclear facilities later this year.

The initial emphasis of the new American plan will be placed on securing Baghdad market places and predominantly Shia Muslim areas. Arrests of men of military age will be substantial. The ID card project is based upon a system adopted in the city of Tal Afar by General Petraeus's men - and specifically by Colonel H R McMaster, of the 3rd Armoured Cavalry Regiment - in early 2005, when an eight-foot "berm" was built around the town to prevent the movement of gunmen and weapons. General Petraeus regarded the campaign as a success although Tal Afar, close to the Syrian border, has since fallen back into insurgent control.

...the new project will involve joint American and Iraqi "support bases" in nine of the 30 districts to be "gated" off. From these bases - in fortified buildings - US-Iraqi forces will supposedly clear militias from civilian streets which will then be walled off and the occupants issued with ID cards. Only the occupants will be allowed into these "gated communities" and there will be continuous patrolling by US-Iraqi forces. There are likely to be pass systems, "visitor" registration and restrictions on movement outside the "gated communities". Civilians may find themselves inside a "controlled population" prison.

A former US officer in Vietnam who has a deep knowledge of General Petraeus's plans is sceptical of the possible results. "The first loyalty of any Sunni who is in the Iraqi army is to the insurgency," he said.

"Any Shia's first loyalty is to the head of his political party and its militia. Any Kurd in the Iraqi army, his first loyalty is to either Barzani or Talabani. There is no independent Iraqi army. These people really have no choice. They are trying to save their families from starvation and reprisal. At one time they may have believed in a unified Iraq. At one time they may have been secular. But the violence and brutality that started with the American invasion has burnt those liberal ideas out of people ... Every American who is embedded in an Iraqi unit is in constant mortal danger."

Below are excerpts from the key document that Fisk uses as the basis for his article :

FM 3-24 comprises 220 pages of counter-insurgency planning, combat training techniques and historical analysis. The document was drawn up by Lt-Gen David Petraeus, the US commander in Baghdad, and Lt-Gen James Amos of the US Marine Corps, and was the nucleus for the new US campaign against the Iraqi insurgency. These are some of its recommendations and conclusions:

* In the eyes of some, a government that cannot protect its people forfeits the right to rule. In [parts] of Iraq and Afghanistan... militias established themselves as extragovernmental arbiters of the populace's physical security - in some cases, after first undermining that security...

* In the al-Qa'ida narrative... Osama bin Laden depicts himself as a man purified in the mountains of Afghanistan who is inspiring followers and punishing infidels. In the collective imagination of Bin Laden and his followers, they are agents of Islamic history who will reverse the decline of the umma (Muslim community) and bring about its triumph over Western imperialism.

* As the Host Nation government increases its legitimacy, the populace begins to assist it more actively. Eventually, the people marginalise insurgents to the point that [their] claim to legitimacy is destroyed. However, victory is gained not when this is achieved, but when the victory is permanently maintained by and with the people's active support...

* Any human rights abuses committed by US forces quickly become known throughout the local populace. Illegitimate actions undermine counterinsurgency efforts... Abuse of detained persons is immoral, illegal and unprofessional.

* If military forces remain in their compounds, they lose touch with the people, appear to be running scared, and cede the initiative to the insurgents. Aggressive saturation patrolling, ambushes, and listening post operations must be conducted, risk shared with the populace and contact maintained.

* FM 3-24 quotes Lawrence of Arabia as saying: "Do not try to do too much with your own hands. Better the Arabs do it tolerably than that you do it perfectly. It is their war, and you are to help them, not to win it for them."

* FM 3-24 points to Napoleon's failure to control occupied Spain as the result of not providing a "stable environment" for the population. His struggle, the document says, lasted nearly six years and required four times the force of 80,000 Napoleon originally designated.

* Do not try to crack the hardest nut first. Do not go straight for the main insurgent stronghold. Instead, start from secure areas and work gradually outwards... Go with, not against, the grain of the local populace.

* Be cautious about allowing soldiers and marines to fraternise with local children. Homesick troops want to drop their guard with kids. But insurgents are watching. They notice any friendships between troops and children. They may either harm the children as punishment or use them as agents.

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Calls It A "Continual Slaughter"

Happy Easter England, From Iran And Iraq


Pope Benedict XVI delivered a pointed denouncement of the United States failure to contain the violence in Iraq, in some of the strongest words delivered by a pope against US misadventures in war in decades :

"Afghanistan is marked by growing unrest and instability. In the Middle East, besides some signs of hope in the dialogue between Israel and the Palestinian Authority, nothing positive comes from Iraq, torn apart by continual slaughter as the civil population flees."

The Pope used his Easter address to talk about the growing spread of war and violence and depravity across the planet :

"How many wounds, how much suffering there is in the world..."

Pope Benedict XVI spoke of the..."terrorism and kidnapping of people, of the thousand faces of violence which some people attempt to justify in the name of religion, of contempt for life, of the violation of human rights and the exploitation of persons."

The Pope referred to the "...catastrophic, and sad to say, underestimated humanitarian situation" in Darfur, the growing war in Somalia, the brutality engulfing the Congo, the "crisis" in Zimbabwe. He said a negotiated solution needed to found to end the increasingly bloody battles in Sri Lanka and said he prayed for reconciliation in East Timor as the world's newest nation goes to the polls this weekend.

Few seem more surprised than the British prime minister himself when the Iranian president announced on Thursday that he was going to set free, without charge or trial, the 15 British sailors and marines who strayed into disputed Iranian waters, after collecting intelligence in the Persian Gulf the week before.

Iraq delivered the UK an Easter surprise as well : 4 dead UK troops, killed by a roadside bomb in Basra, followed by horrific scenes of Iraqis literally dancing in the street next to massive crater, picking through the wreckage for souvenirs. Two of the dead were only 19 years old, two were women.

From 'Your New Reality' :

British prime minister, Tony Blair, stepped out of No. 10 Downing Street to face the television cameras. He looked extremely uncomfortable, tired and depressed. His eyes continually dropped to the ground, his shoulders hunched, and he was clearly ashamed of what he had to say.

It was time to spin all the dramatic news of the day from Iran and Iraq, and it was time to spin it hard. He had no choice but to attempt to redirect the fury Britons were feeling over the horrific scenes of Iraqis openly celebrating the deaths of the four British soldiers back on the Iranians.

But it was clear from watching Tony Blair that the fight, and fire, has gone from him now. He didn't want to foul the deaths of these men with hollow propaganda, but he did it anyway.

Blair did not directly blame the Iranian government, who had just released, unharmed, and in good spirits, 15 British marines and sailors who were caught in disputed Iran-Iraq territorial waters. To do so would have caused a storm in the United Nations.

But the intent of Blair's words were crystal-clear - he could not allow Iraqis to be blamed by the British public for this furious slaughter. It was Blair's job to make sure they blamed Iran. Or at the very least, wonder if those 'friendly' Iranians who had not hurt those they captured, had coldly ordered the attack in Basra.

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Pakistan Looms As The Home Of 'Nuclear Al Qaeda'


Al Qaeda, such as it was, had been pretty well neutralized as a viable fighting force by the end of 2001.

The Australian, British and American SAS in Aghanistan, and hundreds of deep-cover agents in Pakistan, saw to that. The Brits, Americans, French and Germans had shut down most of Al Qaeda's international financing and money transfers and holding banks.

By the start of 2002, Al Qaeda had lost most of its training camps in Afghanistan and the border regions with Pakistan; it could no longer transfer money around the world with virtual impunity, and it had lost thousands of its fighters in fighting, with tens of thousands more who had once pledged allegiance changing their minds about the 'international struggle'.

Al Qaeda shocked the Muslim world with 9/11's huge civilian casualties and disgusted jihadists who wanted to only focus on military targets. They became their own worst enemy, and most of the world backed the US-led invasion to wipe out Al Qaeda in Iraq. This began with special forces operations launched only days after 9/11.

The Afghanistan War mopped up the remains. It would have taken a few more years, but deep-cover agents would have effectively picked off the remaining power centres of Al Qaeda, from Saudi Arabia to Indonesia.

The reason Bush said he didn't care where Osama was, or if he was alive, was because that was what his intelligence agencies were telling him in 2002 : Osama was irrelevant and he had destroyed his own cause. Bin Laden was finished.

But then came the Iraq War.

We know the story. Once the bombs started falling and the women and children were shown blown to pieces, and the rich cultural heritage of Mesopotamia was allowed to be publicly vandalised and degraded by looters (including international looters and antique traders), what remained of Al Qaeda had all the visual propaganda they needed to build back up their forces and support bases and ramp up the rhetoric.

Al Qaeda tried to tell the Muslim world that America wanted to destroy them through the late 1990s and early 2000s, but the vast majority of Muslims knew they were full of crap. Because they were.

But Iraq allowed Al Qaeda to claim they were right about 'The Great Evil'. America and its allies were at war with Islam.

The Iraq War transformed what was once a fringe terror group of well-financed and well-trained operatives who had scored some major hits (African embassies, The USS Cole, WTCs) into a decades long threat to international order. And it all happened off the back of the Iraq War.

Considering all that, it is easy then to believe that some in the Bush inner circle wanted Iraq to create an enemy worthy of half a trillion a year in defence spending.

After all, getting US defence spending back up to Cold War levels again was outlined clearly and precisely in a number of the NeoCon-centric Project For A New American Century policy statements in the late 1990s. That the NeoCons wanted to cause chaos in the Middle East as a means to increase American defence spending is neither a secret, nor a conspiracy.

Overthrowing Iraq was key to the NeoCon Grand Plan to reshape the world and pump up defence spending to incomprehensible levels.

It worked.

They got the war they wanted, and that gave the NeoCons the enemy they needed.

And now, Al Qaeda is growing, and some claim they are stronger and more dangerous than ever before. In report after report, Pakistan is now being mentioned as a relatively secure and popular base of operations for Al Qaeda Mk 2.

But Pakistan is a nation armed with nuclear weapons, and it is already well on the way to being destablised, and eventually over-run, by the forces of what may soon become known as 'Nuclear Al Qaeda.'

From the New York Times :

As Al Qaeda rebuilds in Pakistan’s tribal areas, a new generation of leaders has emerged under Osama Bin Laden to cement control over the network’s operations, according to American intelligence and counterterrorism officials.

The new leaders rose from within the organization after the death or capture of the operatives that built Al Qaeda before the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, leading to surprise and dismay within United States intelligence agencies about the group’s ability to rebound from an American-led offensive.

It has been known that American officials were focusing on a band of Al Qaeda training camps in Pakistan’s remote mountains, but a clearer picture is emerging about those who are running the camps and thought to be involved in plotting attacks.

American, European and Pakistani authorities have for months been piecing together a picture of the new leadership, based in part on evidence-gathering during terrorism investigations in the past two years. Particularly important have been interrogations of suspects and material evidence connected to a plot British and American investigators said they averted last summer to destroy multiple commercial airliners after takeoff from London.

Intelligence officials also have learned new information about Al Qaeda’s structure through intercepted communications between operatives in Pakistan’s tribal areas, although officials said the group has a complex network of human couriers to evade electronic eavesdropping.

Many American officials have said in recent years that the roles of Mr. bin Laden and his lieutenants in Pakistan’s remote mountains have diminished with the growing prominence of the organization’s branch in Iraq, Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia, and with the emergence of regional terrorism networks and so-called home-grown cells.

That view, in part, led the C.I.A. in late 2005 to disband Alec Station, the unit that for a decade was devoted to hunting Mr. bin Laden and his closest advisers, and to reassign analysts within the agency’s Counterterrorist Center to focus on Al Qaeda’s expanding reach.

Officials say they believe that, in contrast with the somewhat hierarchical structure of Al Qaeda in Afghanistan before Sept. 11, the group’s leadership is now more diffuse, with several planning hubs working autonomously and not reliant on constant contact with Mr. bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahri, his deputy.

“The jihadis returning from Iraq are far more capable than the mujahedeen who fought the Soviets ever were....They have been fighting the best military in the world, with the best technology and tactics.”

Jason Burke is a leading world expert on Al Qaeda and Islamist terrorism. His views and insights are always worthwhile, and invaluable, in forming a clearer picture of what Al Qaeda is today, and the level of threat they constitute to the West.

Jason Burke writing in the UK Observer (excerpts) :

The continuing evolution of the phenomenon of 'al-Qaeda' continues to surprise - and deeply worry - those charged with keeping us safe.

· Britain is universally considered to be the nation 'most threatened by a major terrorist strike' outside the Middle East or southwest Asia because of its strong support for American foreign policies, relative accessibility compared to the US and strong historic connections to Pakistan which allows in hundreds of thousands of British subjects to travel virtually unmonitored every year. Though only a tiny minority are involved in militancy, the ease of access to the country for Urdu-speaking Britons is a huge advantage to those bent on violence.

· Al-Qaeda has re-established its 'nerve centre' in the lawless tribal areas of western Pakistan. The country is now considered the 'centre of gravity' of al-Qaeda by security services and the 'critical battlefield' in the years to come.

· Contrary to the British government's public claim, every source spoken to by The Observer, official or otherwise, in Britain and elsewhere believes the Iraq war has exacerbated the threat to the UK specifically and to the West generally. 'It is a huge part of the problem,' one senior British government counter-terrorism specialist said. However, contrary to exaggerated reports, the number of Westerners who have gone to Iraq to fight is said to be 'a handful'.

· Major co-ordinated attacks on the critical infrastructure of Western nations, such as the Channel Tunnel or passenger jets, are 'within the capability and ambition' of militants close to the al-Qaeda leadership and acting independently and are being actively planned.

· All sources consulted believe Osama bin Laden to be alive. However, his death would 'make little operational difference', analysts say, possibly damaging 'the organisation' but not 'the movement'.

· All thought the struggle against Islamic terrorism was growing and would last 'many decades'.

Western government analysts now usually split al-Qaeda into three elements. The first is a 'hard core' of well-known leaders such as bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri, his Egyptian-born associate, in Afghanistan. Security officials believe key decisions and operations take place on a new 'middle management' level dedicated to training volunteers who make their way to Pakistan and to co-ordinating both propaganda and bomb attacks around the world.

'Al-Qaeda as an operational, technically capable network, with chains of command leading back to Pakistan from many places, is very much alive and well and continuing to plot,' said one security source. 'This is very, very surprising given the damage they have suffered but they are a very resilient organisation.'

The second element is the 'network of networks', defined as the series of groups affiliated to the al-Qaeda hard core in Iraq, elsewhere in the Middle East and, increasingly, in some North African countries. These 'franchises' have links to individuals inside Western European countries, particularly the Algerian-based Groupe Salafiste de Predication et le Combat, and are seen as a potentially major threat. Analysts see a 'clear convergence, practically and ideologically, among militant groups globally' with greater co-ordination between them.

'The national barriers are falling by the wayside,' said one Pakistani official. 'Once a group was just dedicated to jihad in Kashmir or Afghanistan. Now it has a far broader agenda and engagement.' With Kashmiri groups historically having a significant presence in the UK, this growing unity is of great significance for British domestic security.

Significantly, the Taliban in Afghanistan is not considered to be closely linked to the al-Qaeda hard core, though there is reported to be ad hoc co-ordination between the various groups comprising the insurgency, including some transfer of technical and tactical know-how and cash. One civilian source in Kabul described links between Afghan and Iraqi militants as 'sketchy'.

The third element of 'al-Qaeda Mk2', say security officials, is ideology. This has mobilised thousands of young Muslims from a wide variety of backgrounds around the world in the last five years. Analysts now say their radicalisation is occurring far faster, aided by the internet. 'We are talking about a group of guys deciding to do something in West Yorkshire, Paris, Casablanca or Montreal', said one Western intelligence official. 'It's still amateur.'

But it can be horribly effective. According to France's Chaboud, the largest source of danger 'is the home-grown extremist'. Belgian officials point to a recently arrested teenager who had 'gone from no engagement at all to full commitment to a suicide attack' in the space of a few weeks 'alone with a computer in his bedroom'.

British officials talk of suspects so young that '11 September is virtually a childhood memory' being radicalised by 'slick, effective' propaganda and contacts with older people. 'Teenagers' bedrooms are difficult to penetrate,' said one UK official.

Group thinking plays a major role.

It is not the poorest people who are drawn to militancy either. The standard profile is male, mid-twenties, often with a degree and with parents who have migrated, often from southwest Asia or north Africa to the West. There are also an increasing number of converts.

'For a few years it looked like the core of al-Qaeda had been destroyed as a genuine physical presence by the war of 2001 and all that remained were its ideas, powerful though they were,' said one senior Western European security source. 'Yet we have seen the core element returning as a major force. They can provide the critical legitimacy and direction that volunteers need.'

It is the continually evolving interaction between the three main elements - the hard core, the network of networks and the ideology - that make it so resilient.

Jason Burke also supplies a comprehensive, essential list of key Al Qaeda figures at large, who've been killed and who are now in prison.

At large:

Osama bin Laden
Accused of masterminding the 11 September atrocities, he has been indicted for the 1998 US embassy bombings in East Africa and the attacks in 2000 on the guided missile destroyer USS Cole. Last confirmed sighting in Afghanistan, 2001.

Ayman Al-Zawahiri
Egyptian al-Zawahiri is seen as the strategic thinker of al-Qaeda. He was a key figure in the Egyptian Islamic Jihad, which merged with al-Qaeda.

Saif Al-Adel
A former Egyptian army officer, was Bin Laden's security chief and ran al-Qaeda's training programmes.

Abu Mohammed Al-Masri
The 45-year-old Egyptian ran the training camps in Afghanistan.

Believed dead:

Abu Musab Al-Zarqawi
A Jordanian, he rose to notoriety as head of militant Islamic groups in Iraq. Killed in a US airstrike on an Iraqi safe house in June 2006.

Mohammed Atef
Al-Qaeda's military commander, died in an airstrike near Kabul in 2001.

In prison:

Khalid Sheikh Mohammed
Captured in Pakistan in 2003, he is to be tried at Guantanamo, accused of being an architect of the 11 September attacks. Born in Pakistan, Mohammed joined al-Qaeda in the mid-1990s.

Ramzi Binalshibh
Also to be tried as a key plotter of 11 September . The former bank clerk from Yemen was arrested in Karachi, Pakistan, in 2002.

Abu Zubaydah
A Saudi of Palestinian origin, he ran the logistics for bin Laden's camps in Afghanistan. Implicated in the USS Cole attack. Captured in Pakistan, he is to stand trial.

Ali Abdul Rahman Al-Ghamdi
Said to be al-Qaeda's leader in Saudi Arabia. Suspected of masterminding the 2003 Riyadh bombings. Surrendered to Saudi authorities shortly afterwards.

The Christian Science Monitor has a comprehensive round-up of Al Qaeda attacks, and its most significant losses and gains during 2006. A few of the most important on the list :

Afghanistan

Terrorism experts say that militant jihadists shifted focus to the original Al Qaeda base to utilize experience and tactics gained in Iraq - as reflected in the increase in suicide bombings from 27 in 2005 to 139 in 2006, according to US estimates. Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden and his No. 2, Ayman al-Zawahiri, are widely believed to be hiding in the border region between Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Indonesia

Hundreds of members of Jemaah Islamiyah (JI), a major terrorist group linked to Al Qaeda, were arrested, while more radical members split from the group in early 2006 to form Tanzim Qaedat al-Jihad. The biggest blow to counterterrorism efforts was the release of Abu Bakar Bashir from jail in June 2006 after he spent 26 months in prison. The radical Islamic cleric, who is said to lead JI, was cleared of conspiracy charges in December for his role in the 2002 Bali hotel bombings. "Indonesian counterterrorism law is gravely weak," says Mr. Gunaratna. "Abu Bakar Bashir is the leader of the most dangerous group in Southeast Asia. His group has killed more than 250 people."

Iraq

The most violent offshoot of bin Laden's global organization, Al Qaeda in Iraq, seemed to suffer a major blow in 2006 with the killing of former chief Abu Musab al-Zarqawi in June.

But the loss of his leadership may have actually strengthened the group, says Gunaratna.

Al Qaeda in Iraq is small but vicious...It was linked to the February bombing of a Shiite shrine in Samarra - the impact of which ratcheted up sectarian killings in 2006.

Pakistan

In September 2006, President Pervez Musharraf arranged his most recent peace deal with pro-Taliban militants in Pakistan's remote Federally Administered Tribal Areas along the Afghan border. Mr. Musharraf's peace-brokering, critics warn, has allowed the Taliban to move freely between Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Philippines

The Philippine military killed two top members of the Al Qaeda-linked militant group Abu Sayyaf. Military officials say that the killing of the group's leader, Khadaffy Janjalani, in September 2006, and his deputy Abu Sulaiman, who was killed in January 2007, have rendered the group ineffective. Still, US-trained Philippine soldiers continue to regularly engage Abu Sayyaf militants.

Saudi Arabia

In February, Saudi Arabia thwarted a bombing on an oil-processing plant. Raids and gun battles throughout the country netted more than 100 suspected Al Qaeda militants, but US officials have said that the kingdom could do more to curb terrorism, including stopping the flow of militants and funds across its borders.

USA

North America saw no Al Qaeda attacks. American security forces working around the world have seen "an awful lot of victories," says Arnaud de Borchgrave, director of the Transnational Threats Project at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington. "The CIA has carte blanche to track terrorists around the world," he says.

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World News In Brief


Iran is now effectively surrounded by US bases and troop deployments totalling more than 300,000 military personnel.

IRAQ : Four British soldiers and their translator were killed yesterday in Basra, when their vehicle was destroyed by a massive roadside bomb. Five American soldiers were killed in bombings and attacks in Baghdad. At least 41 Iraqis were executed, found dead or killed in fighting. More than 40 Iraqis were mass-kidnapped in the past two days.

President Bush clearly acknowledged yesterday, for the first time, that most Americans had "grown weary of this war". 57% of Americans want the majority of US troops out of Iraq by September, 2008.

WAZIRISTAN : More than 60 people have been killed in heavy fighting between Pakistani soldiers and foreign militants linked to Al Qaeda in the south, close to the Afghan border. Southern tribes began fighting the foreigners on March 19. More than 50 of the dead from yesterday's fighting are believed to be Uzbeks. Last Monday, a council of tribal elders declared war on the foreign fighters hiding out in the region.

The Pakistan government said the death toll was proof that it was actively, and successfully, fighting the 'War on Terror', after months of international pressure to stop Islamists and militants crossing from Pakistan into Afghanistan, via the Waziristan region.

RUSSIA : President Vladimir Putin is ramping up the rhetoric against the United States' plans to position bases for its 'missile defence shield' close to Russian borders. Poland and the Czech Republic are said to have informally agreed to allow the US to base some of its missiles within their borders.

Russia has warned the US again about the "consequences" of attacking Iran, and is growing nervous about increased US military activity close to Iranian border.

CHAD : 65 people were reported to have been killed, and more than 8000 driven from their homes in East Chad, after attacks by Sudanese Junjawid fighters. Chad military forces killed 25 of the attackers after the raids. The attacks are reported as "the latest spillover" from the war in Darfur, where more than 200,000 people have been killed in four years of fighting between Sudanese military and government-backed militias and local rebels.

IRAQ : US Senator John McCain, and presidential hopeful, along with other Republican lawmakers, made a much publicised visit to a Baghdad marketplace to show that it was safe to "walk the streets" in the war zone, and this was a sign that the security crackdown was working.
McCain was accompanied by 100 Iraqi and American soldiers, three Blackhawk helicopters and two gunships. Yesterday, 21 workers at the same market visited by McCain were abducted and executed.

The market stall owners, background extras to McCain's incredibly irresponsible publicity stunt, were furious that the senator went home and made claims about how "safe and secure" the Baghdad markets were, and how pleased stall owners were by the "increasing security". But stall owners in the market did not tell McCain this. They told the senator their situation was "bad" and "everybody complained (to McCain)". Now some of the very same stall market stall owners McCain visited are likely to be amongst the dead.

IRAN : The United States is actively backing and supporting terrorist attacks inside Iran, conducted by an Al Qaeda-linked Pakistani tribal militant group. 'Jundullah' has claimed responsibility for killing dozens of Iranians, and executing military personnel on video. The group is said to be funded by the US via Iranian exiles.

The capture and detention of 15 British sailors and marines by Iran caused near panic on world oil markets, seeing prices rise to six month records. One estimate claims that Iran has made more than $US80 million off the rise in oil prices. Iran exports more than 2.5 million barrels of oil per day. 25% of the world's oil passes through the Persian Gulf.

SOMALIA : More than 400 people were killed in four days of fighting between the Islamist insurgency and the combined military forces of the Ethiopian and Somali governments, most of the dead were civilians. Another 600 people were wounded.

ETHIOPIA : Human Rights Watch claim that the US, via the CIA and FBI, is involved in running rendition programs and secret prisons in Ethiopia, where Somalis fleeing the fighting are being held. Another report claims that hundreds 'terrorist suspects' from 19 countries, including women and children, are being held in Ethiopian prisons and are denied access to lawyers.

ISRAEL : Intelligence sources are claiming that thousands of Hamas and Islamic Jihad fighters are now undergoing military training in Iran, Yemen and Syria.

An influential Israeli military intelligence major claims that Iran, Syria and Hezbollah are preparing for war against the United States; war-drumming propaganda dismissed by most of the world's media.

KASHMIR : The nuclear-armed nations of Pakistan and India are getting closer to a formal deal over the future of Kashmir. Pakistan's President Musharraf has all but given up on Pakistan's territorial claim to India Kashmir, allowing the deal to move forward. India and Pakistan are expected to share responsibility for the governing of all of the disputed territory, which has been a rallying propaganda tool for Islamists for decades.

SYRIA : Syria and Turkey are working together to round up key leaders of the Syrian Kurdistan independence group PKK.

American Democrat Nancy Pelosi visited the Syrian president yesterday, much to the annoyance of the Bush White House, and announced that Syria was ready to negotiate peace with Israel, and talks between Syria and Israel should begin soon.

PALESTINE : The Arab summit in Riyadh two weeks ago finished with an offer of 'land for peace' to Israel. The Saudis were blunt after leading the talks and Arab nation negotiations and said Israel had to accept the offer or face further violence. Israel welcomed most of the plan, but now wants to invite Arab leaders to Israel for further talks. The Palestinian foreign minister said Israel is now stalling, and wants to negotiate peace offering nothing in return.

The capture and detention of 15 British sailors and marines by Iran caused near panic on world oil markets, seeing prices rise to six month records. One estimate claims that Iran has made more than $US80 million off the rise in oil prices. Iran exports more than 2.5 million barrels of oil per day. 25% of the world's oil passes through the Persian Gulf.

INDONESIA : A joint mission by Indonesian and Australian anti-terror forces has uncovered a massive stash of explosives held by suspected terrorists. Indonesia and Australia are claiming they have disrupted a terrorist bombing plot that would have killed hundreds. The volume of explosives seized was said to be (via an Australian radio news report) four times the amount used in the Bali bombings of 2002, that killed more than 200 people.

THAILAND : 14 Muslim worshippers were wounded after a bomb was thrown into a mosque in the south of the country. More than 2000 people have been killed in three years of Islamist insurgency in the country's far south districts. The government is now considering recruiting women into its military to help fight the insurgency.

SRI LANKA : Fighting last night saw the Sri Lankan military kill 23 'rebels' and seizing four Tamil Tiger bases, according to claims made by the government.

The government also claims it has effectively destroyed the Tamil Tigers "sea base" during bombing raids. The 'Sea Tigers' have waged a damaging series of "spectacular" boat-based suicide attacks against the Sri Lankan Navy.

Recently a bus at a military checkpoint was bombed by Tamil Tigers, killing 16. This followed the Tamil Tigers first air strike against a Sri Lankan air force base.

Tamil Tigers have been fighting government forces for more than 24 years, trying to get an independent homeland. Some 65,000 people were killed during the insurgency before a cease fire was negotiated in 2002. More than 4000 have died since fighting reignited in late 2005.

AFGHANISTAN : The United States now has more than 40,000 soldiers in Afghanistan, and one unit is feelig a unique kind of dejavu. They spent years playing the role of Afghan insurgents and Taliban in war games, now they are fighting the people they once pretended to be. Pakistan is claiming that attacks In bad news for the United States and NATO, old friends and former foes of President Hamid Karzai have announced they are uniting to form a new political party to "improve democracy in our society", and look likely to successfully undermine Karzai's power and influence.

Pakistan is claiming that harsh measures it took to contain militant raids and attacks launched from inside its borders into Afghanistan have been a major success - "no reports of any cross border movement."

Iran Frees British Sailors And Marines

Ahmadinejad Hammers Tony Blair For Sending A Mother To War

Syria Claims It Helped Resolve Standoff Between Iran And Britain



15 British military personnel detained for almost two weeks in Iran, after being captured by the Iranian coast guard in disputed waters in the Persian Gulf, have been released by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

The Iranian president said the act of pardoning the British sailors and giving them their freedom was a "gift" to their families, and the UK, for Easter.

Ahmadinejad made the announcement during a two hour speech in Tehran, during which he decorated the Iranian coast guard crews who captured the Brits. He claimed even though the Royal Navy sailors and Royal Marines had violated "Iranian territorial waters", he was prepared to forgive them and let them go back to their families.

All 15 Britons are expected to arrive home tonight, after being moved to the British Embassy compound in the Iranian capital :

"This pardon is a gift to the British people," the President said, observing that it falls between the birthday of the Prophet Muhammad last weekend and the celebration of Easter.

"On the occasion of the birthday of the great prophet and for the occasion of the passing of Christ, I say the Islamic Republic government and the Iranian people — with all powers and legal right to put the soldiers on trial — forgave those 15."

The Iranian president said he was asking PM Tony Blair not to judge the sailors and marines for their televised "confessions", where they said they had violated Iranian waters, while checking out ships suspected of smuggling cars into Iraq.

"(Do not) judge the military personnel for the truths that they said," he said, referring to the televised "confessions".

The President says the British Government has promised not to repeat the incident which saw the sailors' captured.

"The British Government, in a letter, has vowed not to repeat such incidents. But this release is not linked to this letter. It is due to Islamic goodwill,"

The Iranian president used the speech to blast British Prime Minister Tony Blair for allowing women, and in particular a mother of young children, to go to the front lines of the Iraq War.

"Why is the most difficult task, patrolling in the sea, given to a woman? How can you justify seeing a mother away from her home, her children? Why don’t they respect family values in the West?

Faye Turney is the young mother the Iranian president referred to, and the Iranian news agency, Fars, claims she burst into tears when she heard the president's words.

Turney became the most public face of the crisis back in the UK, and while the unfolding drama, and diplomatic stand-off continued, receiving wall to wall coverage in the British media, it did not incite mass anger or outrage.

Britons, for the most part, did not appear concerned that the sailors and marines would face execution, as some right-wing American media propagandized would happen while furiously beating the drums for war on Iran.

The Iranian president used the dramatic announcement to press his case that Iran does not want war with the West, but peace :

"We are really distraught that British youths join the army to earn a living and then, thousands of miles away, they get arrested. We don't want this to happen," he added.

"We invite everyone to worship one God with compassion, humanity, where there is loyalty and justice so that people will love one another."

Negotiations between Britain and Iranian diplomats were said to have been intense, with Iran demanding Britain officially apologise for "violating" Iranian territory, and the British disputing that claim while trying to tamp down any talk of threats of retaliatory action, outside of complaining to the United Nations Security Council about the incident.

When Ahmadinejad met the British sailors and marines, shortly before setting them free, he joked to them : "So you came on a mandatory vacation..."

To the absolute shock, and no doubt fury, of American NeoCons, one of the captured marines, Captain Chris Air, was seen on Iranian television happily greeting the Iranian president, saying :

"We're very grateful for your forgiveness. On behalf of the group I'd like to thank yourself and the Iranian people."

Syria, meanwhile, claims it played a key role in settling the dispute between Iran and Britain :

"Syrian efforts and the Iranian willingness culminated with the release of the British sailors," said Information Minister Mohsen Bilal.

He said Syria had been asked "to help positively in the issue..."

Foreign Minister Walid al-Moallem told reporters that "Syria exercised a sort of quiet diplomacy to solve this problem and encourage dialogue" between Britain and Iran.

The Washington Times, the Bush Dynasty's "favourite newspaper" claims that an Iranian diplomat detained in Iraq was freed as part of the negotiations to have the British sailors released :

Diplomat Jalal Sharafi arrived in Tehran yesterday, hours after he was freed by his captors in Iraq, officials said. He was seized Feb. 4 by uniformed gunmen in Karradah, a Shi'ite-controlled district of Baghdad.

Iran said the diplomat had been abducted by an Iraqi military unit commanded by U.S. forces -- a charge repeated by several Iraqi Shi'ite lawmakers. U.S. authorities denied any role in his disappearance.

In Baghdad, an Iraqi Foreign Ministry official said the Iraqi government had exerted pressure on those holding Mr. Sharafi to release him -- but he would not identify the diplomat's captors.

Extraordinary Scenes As Iran Frees British Sailors

British Families Respond "To The Best News Imaginable"

Iranian President : "Blair Chose The Path Of Media Hype"

In Quotes : Reaction Of British Families And Politicians

Timeline Of Events In The Detained British Military Personnel Crisis

US Says Iran Must Change Behaviour, Not Washington

Oil Plunges After Announcement That Britons Will Be Freed

The Botched US Raid That Led To The British Hostage Crisis

Arab Media Claims US Will Attack Iran By End Of April, Bush Justification Speech Now Being "Prepared"

The Talibanisation Of Pakistan

Bin Laden's "Walking Dead" Cross Into Afghanistan As Suicide Bombings Quadruple

The Taliban and Al Qaeda in Afghanistan are finding no shortage of new recruits in Pakistan, as jihadists gear up, and bomb up, for what are expected to be increasingly deadly clashes with NATO forces in the coming months.

While Pakistan's President Musharraf appears to remain a 'favourite' of the United States and the UK, there was a swirl of rumours last month that he, the leader of a military coup, was going to fall victim to another military coup, off the back of some extremely public protests by white collar professionals, mostly lawyers and doctors, in open defiance his dictatorship.

For now, Musharraf appears to have crushed any such dissident plans to overthrow him. But the pressure grows on Musharraf to do something about the steadily increasing number of jihadi militants crossing into Afghanistan from Pakistan, and infiltrating the neighbouring nation of Waziristan, where a small-scale tribal war has erupted.

Musharraf did a deal last year with supposedly non-Taliban aligned tribal leaders near Pakistan's border that was supposed to see a decrease in manpower support for the Taliban. The Taliban and Al Qaeda simply went recruiting in Pakistan instead.

The Pakistan military are sometimes openly aligned with the Taliban, and Afghanistan's President Karzai now accuses Musharraf of allowing Al Qaeda and the Taliban to train and recruit inside Pakistan's borders.

The much-hyped 'Spring Offensive' in Afghanistan appears to be drawing near, at least in propaganda terms. The Taliban now claims it has deployed thousands of suicide bombers to all of Afghanistan's cities, where they will wait for the right foreign targets to show themselves before attacking. Such claims are dismissed by the Afghan government as the stuff of fantasies, but NATO forces are clearly gearing up for some major confrontations.

The Australian government is about to announce a new deployment of SAS, which will double Australia's troop commitment to the war. Such SAS forces are highly regarded by both NATO country armies and the Taliban itself. They respect Australian SAS because they've killed so many Taliban fighters during 2001, 2004 and 2006.

Germany, meanwhile, is sending over new fighter jets, and the United States is still pressuring EU nations not already committed to deploy military forces into Afghanistan if they want to see the 'War on Terror' ever get a recognisable victory.

Meanwhile, dozens of Taliban fighters are being killed each week, on average, while NATO forces lose three or four troops to gun fights and suicide bombings, the incidence of which has increased four-fold in the last twelve months from the year before.

The death toll on all sides, however, is expected to increase dramatically in the coming months, previewed by the defence ministers of NATO countries with forces already deployed hitting the local media hard and talking of sacrifice in order to prepare their constituents for what is expected to be a brutal increase in fighting, and dying.

The Washington Times has a curious, disturbing story on new Al Qaeda fighters, known as Bin Laden's "walking dead". They are suicide bombers, trained in Pakistan madrassas, who then literally walk into Afghanistan loaded with explosives. When they've completed their missions, they leave behind only "two feet and a lot of flesh" :

Orphaned by war and schooled in anti-American religious madrassas, the bombers often smile for a final video testament in Pakistan before walking or riding to their deaths in Afghanistan. As new explosives technology and tactics from the war in Iraq arrive in this remote corner of South Asia, suicide bombing attacks in the past 12 months have more than quadrupled from fewer than half a dozen in the previous year.

At least some of the bombers cross the border with a blessing from Ayman al-Zawahri, bin Laden's bespectacled ideological lieutenant, said Lutfullah Mashal, a senior intelligence official with Afghanistan's National Security Council.

Afghan and U.S. officials say the bombers are trained in Waziristan, a tribal-administered border region of Pakistan. Several weeks of reporting along the rugged border suggests that al Qaeda and its affiliates are regrouping with charitable funds from Gulf Arab states, assistance from rogue elements of Pakistan's intelligence services and profits from the heroin trade.

Pakistan, which sanctioned U.S. bombing raids on suspected al Qaeda hide-outs last year, has all but retreated from its effort to fight the Taliban and al Qaeda in border areas, say Western diplomats.

Suicide bombing was unheard of during the long war against Soviet forces in the 1980s, when locals prided themselves on their skill in shooting down Soviet helicopters, rows of which still line the edge of the airport here.

As elsewhere in the Islamic world, al Qaeda is usually a facilitator of terrorism, rarely the direct instigator. Bin Laden's operatives exploit anti-American sentiment within home-grown Islamist groups and dispatch young men over the mountains toward martyrdom.

Al Qaeda and Taliban leaders in nearby Pakistani community of Miram Shah, mimicking similar martyrdom celebrations in the West Bank and parts of the Arab world, throw lavish parties for the families of the suicide bombers...

Time Magazine has an excellent, in depth look at the 'Talibanisation' of Pakistan 's border frontiers leading into Afghanistan. This is easily one of the most important investigative stories they've run in the entire history of the 'War on Terror', but in a blinding sign of just how little importance the US mainstream media places on the Afghanistan war, Time use the 'Talibanisation' story as its international edition cover story, but buried this historical feature behind a celebrity fluff piece cover story for its American edition.

Time Magazine's 'Talibanisation' (excerpts follow) :

...the tribal region of Pakistan, a rugged no-man's-land that forms the country's border with Afghanistan (is) rapidly becoming home base for a new generation of potential terrorists.

Fueled by zealotry and hardened by war, young religious extremists have overrun scores of towns and villages in the border areas, with the intention of imposing their strict interpretation of Islam on a population unable to fight back.

Like the Taliban in the late 1990s in Afghanistan, the jihadists are believed to be providing leaders of al-Qaeda with the protection they need to regroup and train new operatives. U.S. intelligence officials think that Osama bin Laden and his deputy, Ayman al-Zawahiri, may have found refuge in these environs. And though 49,000 U.S. and NATO troops are stationed just across the border in Afghanistan, they aren't authorized to operate on the Pakistani side.

Remote, tribal and deeply conservative, the border region is less a part of either country than a world unto itself, a lawless frontier so beyond the control of the West and its allies that it has earned a name of its own: Talibanistan.

Since Sept. 11, the strategic hinge in the U.S.'s campaign against al-Qaeda has been Pakistan, handmaiden to the Taliban movement that turned Afghanistan into a sanctuary for bin Laden and his lieutenants. While members of Pakistan's intelligence services have long been suspected of being in league with the Taliban, the Bush Administration has consistently praised Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf for his cooperation in rooting out and apprehending members of bin Laden's network. But the Talibanization of the borderlands--and their role in arming and financing insurgents in Afghanistan--has renewed doubts about whether Musharraf still possesses the will to face down the jihadists.

Because Musharraf also heads Pakistan's army, it's unlikely that he will be forced from office. But a loss of support from his moderate base could deepen his dependence on fundamentalist parties, which are staunch supporters of the Taliban. If the protests against Musharraf continue, he will be even less inclined to crack down on the militants holding sway in Talibanistan--grim news for the U.S. and its allies and good news for their foes throughout the region. Says a senior U.S. military official in Afghanistan: "The bottom line is that the Taliban can do what they want in the tribal areas because the [Pakistani] army is not going to come after them."

In fact, the territory at the heart of Talibanistan--a heavily forested band of mountains that is officially called North and South Waziristan--has never fully submitted to the rule of any country.

After 9/11, Islamabad initially left the tribal areas alone. But when it became obvious that al-Qaeda and Taliban militants were crossing the border to escape U.S. forces in Afghanistan, Pakistan sent in the first of what eventually became 80,000 troops. They had some success: the Pakistani army captured terrorist leaders and destroyed training camps. But the harder the military pressed, the more locals resented its presence, especially when civilians were killed in botched raids against terrorists.

As part of peace accords signed last September with tribal leaders in North Waziristan, the Pakistani military agreed to take down roadblocks, stop patrols and return to their barracks. In exchange, local militants promised not to attack troops and to end cross-border raids into Afghanistan. The accords came in part because the Pakistani army was simply unable to tame the region. Over the past two years, it has lost more than 700 troops there. The change in tactics, says Gul, was an admission that the Pakistani military had "lost the game."

The army isn't the only one paying the price now. Since Pakistani forces scaled back operations in the border region, the insurgency in Afghanistan has intensified. Cross-border raids and suicide bombings aimed at U.S. and NATO troops in Afghanistan have tripled, according to the senior U.S. military official. He concedes that "the Pakistanis are in a very difficult position. You could put 50,000 men on that border, and you wouldn't be able to seal it."

The troop drawback has allowed Pakistani militants allied with the Taliban to impose their will on the border areas. They have established Shari'a courts and executed "criminals" on the basis of Islamic law. Even Pakistani-army convoys are sometimes escorted by Taliban militants to ensure safe passage...

The emergence of Talibanistan may directly threaten the West too. Locals say the region has become one big terrorist-recruitment camp, where people as young as 17 are trained as suicide bombers.

"Here, teenagers are greeted with the prayers 'May Allah bless you to become a suicide bomber,'" says Obaidullah Wazir, 35, a young tribesman in Miranshah. National Intelligence Director John McConnell told the Senate Armed Services Committee last month that "al-Qaeda is forging stronger operational connections that radiate outward from their camps in Pakistan to affiliated groups and networks throughout the Middle East, North Africa and Europe."

....the Bush Administration is beginning to recognize that to stabilize Afghanistan and prevent the rebirth of al-Qaeda, it has to contain the growth of Talibanistan.

Bin Laden's "Walking Dead" Quadruple Rate Of Suicide Bombings In Afghanistan Over Past Twelve Months

Taliban Claim They Have Deployed "Thousands Of Suicide Bombers" To Cities To Attack Foreigners

12 Taliban, 3 Nomads Killed in Clashes With Afghan/Coalition Forces In Helmand

Suicide Bomber Rams Army Convoy, Kills Five Children

Waziristan : 10 Killed, Scores Injured in Fighting, Tribal Leaders Call For All Foreigners To Be Expelled From Region

Taliban Execute Three NATO-Linked Informants - Body Hangs In Town's Main Street

Australian Special Forces, Fully Rested, Prepare For Return To Afghanistan

Pakistan Says It Wants And Needs A Stable Afghanistan - 3 Million Afghan Refugees In Pakistan

Moqtada Al-Sadr Incendiary Message To Iraqis

"Great Evil, America, Wants To Eliminate Islam From The World"


Sunnis dig through a truckload of corpses searching for friends and relatives, after attacks in Mosul.

On March 25, influential Iraq Shia cleric, and American nightmare, Moqtada Al-Sadr delivered a statement during prayers in Najaf. The comprehensive and indispensable Iraqslogger obtained a copy of the statement and got it translated.

Al-Sadr has called for mass demonstrations on April 9, the fourth anniversary of the fall of Baghdad, urging both Shia and Sunni Iraqis to march against the American Occupation of their lands. There are many, many nervous people in the American military in Iraq, and the Iraqi government, likewise, is not pleased by the plans for what is expected to be the largest rally in Iraq since the war began.

Here's the words of al-Sadr, which have been reproduced in dozens of Iraqi newspapers, reaching millions of people.

Iraqslogger notes that translators remarks appear in parentheses.

Moqtada al-Sadr :

"Four years have passed since the occupation of our beloved country on the part of the great evil, America, and its followers who have assigned to themselves the elimination of Islam and of peace from the world, in order that they may live in peace.

"And the words of the great evil, Bush, continue to ring in the ears of the oppressed when he says “America has become more secure,” unaware of the blood that was shed in Iraq, and Afghanistan, and Palestine, and Lebanon, and many other places. Yet, how I wish peace for the people of peace! As the Most High has said (in the Qur'an), “Grant the unbelievers a short respite.”

"Four years have passed and Iraq is still languishing under the yoke of oppression and tyranny. So where are their claims of spreading freedom, from the prison of Abu Ghraib and the rest of the Iraqi prisons, as the prisons are still full of women and men? Is this (imprisonment) due to the misdeeds (of the prisoners)? Is this due to courts that are just? Bombs and explosions continue to resound in the skies and land of Iraq, shedding the blood of the innocent and the honorable, yet leaving the occupier and its partisans in our holy land. Yet how I wish that these humiliations be a call for resistance!

"Four years, and still many struggle for jobs, but these have not and will not save them from the retribution of an awful day (i.e. God’s judgment, a Qur’anic reference), but rather from the suffering of this world and its tribulations, and from the pressures of the occupier that continues to interfere with the political, military, security, social, and religious affairs of Iraq.

"Four years, and Iraq continues without water, without electricity, without fuel, and without security, without tranquility, and is rather in the abyss of strife, which may not strike the ones who oppress (a Qur’anic reference) but rather, as they say, “it wears down the grass and the ground.”

"Years of wasting away have passed in Iraq because of this oppressive occupation, which claims to be removing the specter of ruin and instead brings the specter of “fictitious democracy” and “globalization,” (and because of the occupation that claims) to move away from secret mass graves, (and) to move to openness, and (claims) to remove banned weapons, and (instead) comes with the most murderous and ugly of weapons: terrorism; and terrorism only follows terrorism!

"Years have passed, and rather than hanging in the homes of Iraqis, the picture of Bush remains trampled so that the armies of oppression do not trample the land of Iraq, and do not preside over the Iraqis. And rather than empty the terrorist Saddamist Iraqi prisons, they have built (more) prisons, and have filled Iraq with prisons; this mother cries over her son, and another cries over his situation, as unemployment has filled Iraq, and ruin increases, rather than development.

"But the occupier has not been content with this. he has (also) estranged Iraq from the Islamic and Arab world, and all the (Arab and Muslim) countries still do not care about Iraq as it heads for destruction, as though it were not an Arab or Muslim country in need of defense by whatever they were able to do.

"And how could this be except by the occupation, as it has been able to sow sectarian and ethnic strife between the Arabs and others, and between the Muslims and others; yet how I wish they all would remain brothers!

"But the awakening of the Arab peoples and of their consciousness and conscience calls them, saying: This humiliation is unacceptable to us, and, just as their prophet’s grandson (Husayn) said, this separation is unacceptable to us. Thus we call out to our Muslim Arab bothers in all places to give assistance to Iraq. By their voice and their demonstrations for the sake of Iraq, Iraq will be their protective armor and their great pillar; then the presence of the occupation in Iraq would be the presence (of the occupation) in their own countries and land, and absolutely no one would accept this.

"So, you people of Islam and of peace in all places, call out for assistance to the people, whose blood has flowed, and whose freedom and beliefs of living in the care of Islam and of peace, and freedom, and harmony, have been rent asunder. For here is the fourth anniversary that passes upon us of the greatest sadness and sorrow, leaving behind thousands of killed and injured of your Iraqi brothers and sisters, adults and children. And raise your voices in support of (the Iraqi people) and the resistance from the south of Iraq to its north, from its west to its east, so that Iraq might remain united, independent, stable, secure, and completely soverign, free from the interference of the occupier and others and a refuge from treason and unbelief.

"You oppressed people of Iraq, I hear your captive cry to the world, (saying) that you have rejected the occupation, and the destruction, and the terrorism, for you love Islam, and peace, and freedom. In order that the honor of beloved Iraq and its people remain high, and that you cut out the tongues of lying and deceit that want to take possession of Iraq and its people, come out to a united demonstration on the ninth of April of this year in Najaf, accepting the call of freedom and peace.

"And may you raise the Iraqi flag above your houses, buildings, and public residences, to show the sovereignty of Iraq and its independence, refusing the presence of American flags, and other (flags) from the countries of the occupation in our beloved Iraq, until they depart from our land.

"Finally, I renew my demand for the departure of the occupier from our land, even if the instigator of terrorism -- the American Congress -- decides to stay in our beloved country, because this is not their right, but rather the matter belongs to Iraq and its people. It is not anyone’s right to renew the period (of the occupation), nor to demand that it stay, for the departure of the occupier is the stability of Iraq, and the victory of peace and of Islam, and the abandonment of terrorism and of the unbelievers."

Iraq War Correspondent Shred's US Presidential Hopeful's Claim It Is Safe To Walk The Streets Of Baghdad

500 Iraqis Killed In Seven Days, Seven American Troops Killed In 48 Hours

A Close Look At The Fascinating Relationship Between Al-Sadr And Ayatollah Ali Al-Sistani

IraqSlogger's Iraq Week In Review - March 26 To March 30

Tal Afar Bombing : The Single Deadliest Attack In The Iraq War To Date : 152 Dead, Hundreds Wounded, Truck Carried 4000kg Of Explosives

Kissinger : Military Victory In Iraq Is Not Possible - "One Needs To Be Prepared To Negotiate With Adversaries"

Sala Al Bor : The Iraqi Town That Lost 90% Of Its Population

Parents Of The Dead, The Veterans Back Home Again, Struggle To Deal With The Reality Of The Iraq War

Somalia : Mortars Rain Down On Mogadishu

Hundreds Killed And Wounded, Thousands Flee Their Homes

Ethiopian Troops Flee Bases As Helicopter Is Brought Down

A wave of brutal fighting between the Islamist insurgency and the combined forces of the Somali and Ethiopian governments has erupted in Mogadishu and is breaking out across Somalia.

Mortars and rockets have been raining down on the capital, thousands of civilians are fleeing their homes and hundreds have been killed and wounded in four vicious days of fighting.

The United States, via its special forces operations and CIA operatives, backed Ethiopia's push late last year to drive out the Islamic Courts council from Mogadishu. Somalis had clearly been enjoying too much peace and stability since the insidiously corrupt US-backed Somali government had been overthrown by the Islamic Courts in mid-2006.

Military analysts and a number of world leaders warned the US and Ethiopia that their actions would see a revival of the Islamic insurgency in Somalia, which could threaten the stability of Ethiopia's borders, as well as causing more untold misery for the civilians of Mogadishu.

Those warnings have all come true. Mogadishu is slipping back into a living hell of fighting and savagery, and the Islamic insurgency is resisting Ethiopia's attacks with the backing of most Somalis.

Bad news for Ethiopia and the US. The countless battles of Baghdad have proved it is all but impossible to wipe out an insurgency when it has the backing and support of a majority of the locals. Unless a truce or peace deal is worked out between the Islamic Courts and the Somali and Ethiopian governments, the conflict is expected to grow and threaten the stability of the greater region.

From Reuters :

The International Committee of the Red Cross said the clashes were the worst seen in Mogadishu for more than 15 years.

"We are now being shelled heavily," said one resident of the Tawfiq neighbourhood. "The mortars are being fired from south Mogadishu. People are very scared."

On Thursday Ethiopian troops backed by tanks and helicopter gunships began the assault to crush remnants of a hardline Islamist movement and clan militia fighting alongside them.

But civilians have been the main victims. Hospitals have been overwhelmed, even though most of the wounded have been unable to seek any kind of help because of the continuing battles. Doctors were trapped in their homes.

Ethiopia says its military has killed more than 200 "armed remnants" of a group fighting for the Union of Islamic Courts, ousted from the city over the new year.

As the fighting intensified, insurgents shot down an Ethiopian gunship with a missile. Mobs dragged some dead Ethiopian soldiers through the streets. Thousands of people have fled the city.

From the London Times :

An outraged Somali working for the United Nations accused the Ethiopians, who have used tanks and helicopter gunships to pound rebel positions, of committing “war crimes”.

“They are firing heavy artillery into residential areas . . . innocent people who have nothing to do with these insurgents, let alone Islamists, are being slaughtered. Where are all those human rights groups who go on about Mugabe now; this is ethnic cleansing dressed up as a war on terror,” he told The Times.

Estimates of the number of people killed vary widely. Some now put the death toll as high as 150, but with most of the Indian Ocean port city a “no-go” area it is impossible to verify. Hospitals across the city are overflowing with wounded. Residents say that they represent only a fraction of the casualties.

Somalia Suffers Through Worst Violence In 15 Years - Somalia Feared To Be Going The Way Of Afghanistan And Iraq - 'War On Terror' Blamed

Islamic Insurgency Picks Up Their Guns Again As Ethiopian Troops Try To Disarm The Locals

Somali Clan Leaders Ask UN, EU, US, Arab League To Demand Ethiopian Forces To Stop The Slaughter

Ethiopian Military Reinforcements Flood In To Close Down The Capital

8000 African Union Forces Back Up Somali Government Military - Ugandan Soldier Killed In Fighting

Ethiopian Military Helicopter Shot Down By Insurgents

Ethiopian Soldiers Reported To Be Abandoning Military Compounds On Outskirts Of Mogadishu

Mogadishu : Hospitals Swamped By The Dying And The Dead