"2 US troops killed in attack by Iraqi soldier; First American casualties since end of combat" by Leila Fadel, Washington Post | September 8, 2010
BAGHDAD — Two US service members were killed and nine others were wounded when a Kurdish Iraqi soldier sprayed them with gunfire inside an Iraqi army commando base north of Baghdad yesterday afternoon, Iraqi and US military officials said.
That doesn't look like the end of combat to me.
The two Americans, whose names were being withheld until relatives are notified, were the first US service members to be killed in Iraq since the Obama administration declared combat operations there officially over last week. The incident underscored the dangers still facing the nearly 50,000 US troops still in the country.
Details remained murky yesterday afternoon while the US military investigated the shooting....
In Jumhouriyah, Wali’s neighborhood just a few miles from the base in Tuz Khurmatu, neighbors and family members would not speak about the 26-year-old yesterday, saying they feared repercussions.
The mostly Kurdish neighborhood had been the target of recent joint US and Iraqi missions to root out members of a Sunni insurgent group, Ansar al-Sunna, said Colonel Haywa Rasoul, of the Tuz Khurmatu police. Tuz Khurmatu has a mixed Kurdish, Turkmen, and Arab population. Some Iraqi security officials said the raids might have upset Wali, whom they described as short-tempered.
Whatever. I'm not buying cover story crap anymore. Maybe it's all true, but the trust factor with my paper is gone.
The US military confirmed that US troops had assisted in an Iraqi mission in the previous 24 hours to detain a man with a warrant out for his arrest, along with several other suspects. But it did not confirm the mission was related to Ansar al-Sunna.
“This is the first incident in which a Kurd killed Americans. We are worried that this might end the honeymoon between the Kurds and the Americans,’’ a Kurdish security official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity....
Time to get divorced and come on home then.
The attack was the second within three days on an Iraqi base where US troops were present. On Sunday, a vehicle loaded with explosives detonated outside an Iraqi army headquarters in Baghdad, and at least four suicide bombers stormed the base, where several American service members are housed. Two gained entry before US and Iraqi forces repelled the assault, which left at least 12 Iraqis dead, most of them soldiers.
See: Occupation Iraq: Clouds on a Sunshiney Day
Since the end of combat operations, US troops in the north have fired only a few warning shots, the US military said. This year, at least 20 service members have been killed in Iraq, including in yesterday’s attack, according to iCasualties.org, a website that tracks military deaths in Iraq and Afghanistan. More than 4,400 have died since the war began in 2003.
Also yesterday, a news anchor for the state television network al-Iraqiya was gunned down in the capital in what appeared to be part of an ongoing campaign of assassinations.Yeah, who would want to do that?
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Related: Occupation Iraq: Government Death Squads
Occupation Iraq: Government Hit Squad Killed Reporters
How is that investigation going anyway?
Looks like you have a couple more cases to probe:
"Gunmen kill 2d Iraqi journalist in two days" by Sinan Salaheddin, Associated Press | September 9, 2010
BAGHDAD — Gunmen yesterday killed an Iraqi TV journalist, the second to be slain in Iraq in two days, highlighting the dangers media workers continue to face in the country seven years after the US-led invasion.
While a number of foreign correspondents were killed in the years immediately following the invasion, Iraqi journalists are now the main target, especially photographers and TV journalists who are easier to spot, according to Reporters Without Borders, a media watchdog based in Paris.
The group released a report Tuesday entitled “The Iraq War: A Heavy Death Toll for the Media,’’ which coincided with the killing of Riyad Assariyeh, an anchor at state-run Iraqiya TV.
Assariyah also served on Baghdad’s Provincial Council. He was shot dead by unidentified gunmen in a western Baghdad neighborhood.
In the northern city of Mosul, Safaa Abdul-Hameed, a correspondent for a local TV station, was killed yesterday morning near his home in the eastern part of the city. The gunmen shot him from a speeding car, police said.
Hameed, a father of six, had worked at al-Mousiliyah channel for about a year, his colleagues said.
At least 230 media workers have been killed in Iraq since 2003, according to Reporters Without Borders. Of those killed, 172 were journalists. The rest were translators, drivers, and assistants.
Ever notice when AmeriKa kills them it is really no big deal?
Also yesterday, at least six people were killed in two separate bombings in Baghdad, police and hospital officials said.
And look who got all the print.
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"Four prisoners in Iraq escape US custody; Ranked as dangerous; breach called embarrassing" by Steven Lee Myers, New York Times | September 10, 2010
BAGHDAD — Four of the most dangerous prisoners in Iraq escaped overnight on Wednesday from American custody in a heavily fortified prison on the edge of Baghdad, an embarrassing security breach that led to an intensive manhunt, American and Iraqi officials said yesterday.
Translation: The AmeriKans let them go.
Related: Occupation Iraq: "Al-CIA-Duh" Escapes From Iraqi Prison
Seems to be part of a PATTERN!
The four prisoners, who were not identified, were among more than 200 that Iraq asked the US military to continue to hold because of their prominence and the potential threats they posed after the Iraqi government assumed control of the last American-built prison here, formerly known as Camp Cropper.
Same number as last time. Hmmmmm.
The 200 include former members of Saddam Hussein’s government and senior foreign and Iraqi insurgents....
Also see: Occupation Iraq: U.S. Shuffles the Deck of Cards
The prisoners escaped during what appeared to be a larger attempted prison break late Wednesday evening, though officials declined to provide many details, citing the need for security as American and Iraqi forces intensively searched the areas in and around Baghdad International Airport yesterday.
The four were discovered missing after two other prisoners were caught trying to escape, prompting a head count of all the prisoners in the remaining American-controlled section of the prison, the American military said in a statement.
It was not clear how the four managed to get out of a prison located inside a bigger military base, one of the most secure places in all of Iraq....
They OBVIOUSLY had HELP!
The prison break was the latest in a series of troubling developments here since President Obama declared the end of the US combat mission last week and celebrated the reduction of American troops to below 50,000 for the first time since the invasion in 2003. Attacks by insurgents, including one that drew Americans into a firefight on Sunday, the killing of two American soldiers by an Iraqi soldier at a base north of Baghdad, and now the escape have bolstered a sense of unease here at a time when violence is spiking and the country’s politics remain deadlocked....
--more--"And just when you think you are out, Americans.... they PULL YOU BACK IN!
"Deadly raid in Iraq draws US troops in; Amid pullout, violence still plagues nation" by Rebecca Santana, Associated Press | September 16, 2010
BAGHDAD — For the second time in less than a week, US forces were drawn into deadly fighting against insurgents — a reminder of the ongoing dangers American forces face well after President Obama declared a formal end to combat.
Obama as bad as Bush then. Mission NOT accomplished!
With a persistent insurgency, ongoing sectarian tensions, and no agreement on a new government after six months of wrangling, stabilizing Iraq before all American forces leave still seems a distant dream.
Obama just made the announcement to remove any war talk from the political campaign -- and surprise, surprise it has not come up!
Yesterday’s raid, in which at least six people were killed, was in the former insurgent stronghold of Fallujah — highlighting the persistent danger that Al Qaeda-linked militants still pose despite years of efforts by Iraqi and US forces to root them out.
Maybe you should take a look at the links those escaped prisoners have, readers.
Insurgents seem to have redoubled their efforts this summer to target Iraqi security forces taking over for the departing Americans — nine Iraqi soldiers died yesterday in a roadside bombing, while two police officers in Baghdad were shot and killed. The militants are trying to undermine the so-called Sons of Iraq — the anti-Al Qaeda militia that was instrumental in reducing violence.
The CIA calling off its dogs had to help.
The anger with which Fallujah officials reacted to the raid — conducted by Iraqi troops instead of local forces — spotlights another persistent threat to Iraq’s security: deep divisions between the minority Sunnis in places like Fallujah and the Shi’ite majority that rules the country.
Even though they intermarry, etc, etc.
Tired of the sectarian lies, too!
Details of the raid were murky. US officials described it as an Iraq-led mission targeting Al Qaeda-linked militants with Americans in an advisory capacity. Officials in Anbar Province railed against the raid, calling it a heavy-handed attack that left civilians dead.
That sounds like us, AmeriKa.
American troops were helping Iraqi forces hunt down a senior Al Qaeda operative when militants opened fire on Iraqi security forces as they and the US soldiers were approaching a building in which the suspect was hiding, said US Major Rob Phillips. He said Iraqi forces killed four suspected militants as well as two residents in nearby houses who came out of their homes with weapons drawn.
If I went outside to see what was going on I would also bring a weapon.
And were they militants or just suspected?
He did not know whether the US forces ever opened fire or the exact role they played. But he said that as long as the Iraqi forces Americans are advising are at risk, “we’re still in as much danger as they are.’’
So COMBAT hasn't ended, Americans -- and your government has lied to you again.
Officials in Fallujah and Anbar Province portrayed the raid in a different light.
Translation: the true version of what really happened.
Brigadier General Mahmoud al-Essawi, the Fallujah police chief, said local police did not take part and were told by commanders of the joint US-Iraqi unit that their help was not needed.
Iraqi forces sometimes bring in troops from outside an area to conduct raids or make arrests because they worry that the local forces, especially police, can be infiltrated by insurgents.
The city’s Municipal Council criticized the raid and said in a statement that seven civilians were killed, “including old men and children.’’ Five people were injured, the statement said, adding that the raiding force faced no resistance. Hospital officials confirmed the death toll.
“The people of Fallujah denounce this terrorist operation . . . motivated by the deep hatred of this city and its people,’’ the statement said, referring to the distrust between the Shi’ite majority and the Sunni city.
I can see why they would feel that way.
In the early years of the war, Fallujah was synonymous with the insurgency, drawing in people from Saudi Arabia and Yemen who wanted to fight the Americans.
Related: "Al-CIA-Duhs" Catch-and-Release Program
Good way to keep a war going, huh?
In 2004, US troops there faced some of the most intense urban combat since Vietnam, but the city has become more peaceful in recent years, largely due to the rebellion of many Iraqis against their former militant allies.
Related: Deformed babies in Fallujah
Yeah, nothing about the U.S. using WMD in Fallujah!
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Seeing as the sun has gone down I need to get to bed, dear readers.
I will arise before dawn and return tomorrow.
