Situation in Iraq

[Supreme_Warlord]

2pm update

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
US loses control of two cities

· Up to 300 dead in Falluja
· Three Japanese 'taken hostage'
· Iraqi interior minister resigns

George Wright and agencies
Thursday April 8, 2004


The US military admitted today that it had lost control of two cities to Shia militants as fierce fighting continued to rage across Iraq.
Despite attempts by Washington to play down the scale of the uprisings that have swept the country, Lieutenant-General Ricardo Sanchez said today that coalition troops in Najaf and Kut had been fought back by militants loyal to radical cleric Moqtada al-Sadr.

He said coalition soldiers - Ukrainians in Kut and Spaniards in Najaf - had retreated to their bases on the outskirts of the cities, effectively ceding control to the Shia fighters.

He vowed to retake Kut "imminently", while conceding that the presence of large numbers of pilgrims in the holy city of Najaf for a religious festival could hamper any coalition counter-offensive. The coalition denied reports that some of its soldiers had been taken hostage by Shia militants in Najaf yesterday.

In a further setback to the coalition on what has been the bloodiest week since the end of the war on year ago, Al-Jazeera television broadcast footage of three Japanese, including one woman, dressed in civilian clothes it said were taken hostage by an Iraqi group.

The hitherto unknown group - Saraya al-Mujahideen - threatened to kill the captives unless Japan withdrew its troops from Iraq within three days.

Meanwhile, US forces sustained further casualties in fierce hand-to-hand battles with militants on the streets of Falluja, where local doctors said the Iraqi death toll had reached almost 300 in the last three days.

The US assault on Falluja began early on Monday, when marines surrounded the city of more than 200,000 people. Since then, US forces have been waging heavy street battles, using warplanes and tanks against Sunni insurgents in heavily populated districts who have dug themselves in.

Taher al-Issawi, a doctor in the besieged city's hospital, said today that more than 280 Iraqis have been killed and 400 wounded during the offensive. He told the Associated Press there were many more dead and wounded "in various places buried under rubble" who could not be reached because of fighting.

According to a report on Al-Jazeera news, at least 45 Iraqis were killed yesterday - including a family sitting in a car parked behind the Abd al-Aziz al-Samarai mosque compound when it was bombed by a US plane.

A spokesman for Iraq Body Count criticised the US tactics for putting the lives of civilians in at risk.

"The recent upsurge in violence has emphasised yet again that it is innocent Iraqi civilians who are the main victims of the US-led war and occupation. Up to 11,000 civilians are now reported killed since the invasion. Although we regret the loss of military lives too, military people have chosen to put their lives at risk. Civilians have no choice," he said.

"The US has responded to the deaths of four security contractors in Falluja with the killing of 16 children. This is not the 'winning of hearts and minds' but the destruction of human life and hope. The continuing failure of the USA and the UK to acknowledge the costs of their policies in civilian deaths further undermines the prospects for peace and reconciliation in Iraq."

Despite the air strike and a six-hour gun battle yesterday, insurgents still appeared to be using the area around the mosque as a base today and a fresh assault was under way to uproot them.

Witnesses said there had been heavy fighting in several districts as US troops took positions on rooftops and in buildings. They fired on gunmen in the streets and, occasionally, civilians who poked their heads out of their homes, according to the Associated Press. Marines say they have control of about one-quarter of the town.

Meanwhile, thousands of Iraqis - from both the Sunni and Shia communities - marched 60km from Baghdad to Falluja to bring food and medical supplies to the besieged citizens there.

The marchers - carrying colourful flags and banners reading, "Sons of the great Falluja, we are with you on the road of jihad and victory" - arrived at the marine roadblock at the western entrance to the city earlier today.

After searching the vehicles for weapons, the marines allowed two ambulances full of medical supplies, two minibuses carrying food and a dozen cars with Sunni clerics and officials to enter the city.

There was also renewed fighting overnight in the holy city of Kerbala, south-west of the capital, Baghdad, where Polish and Bulgarian troops are involved in an operation against Shia fighters loyal to the radical cleric Moqtada al-Sadr. Yesterday, Polish forces were reported to have killed the a senior aide to Mr Sadr who was leading the Shia fighters in the city.

In other developments, Iraqi interior minister Nouri Badran, who is responsible for Iraq's hard-pressed security forces, announced his resignation today.

Mr Badran's decision did not appear to be directly related to the turmoil sweeping the country. According to the Associated Press, he stepped down at the request of Iraq's US administrator Paul Bremer to maintain the Shia-Sunni balance in the government.

Mr Badran, a Shia Muslim, said he had been told that the US-led administration believed the defence minister and interior minister should not both be Shia. A new defence minister's position was created this month and filled by a Shia official.

However, critics will point to the fact that Mr Badran may have been forced to leave because the Iraqi police forces he controls have proved wholly ineffective in the face of sustained attacks by insurgents.

[Vympel]

The Operation to take back those two cities has been dubbed "Resolute Sword". One of the better Operation names of late, though I'm sick of them all, really.

[Supreme_Warlord]

Some more on the kidnappings mentioned above:

8 Koreans, 3 Japanese Kidnapped in Iraq

Thursday April 8, 2004 2:16 PM

By LEE KEATH

Associated Press Writer

BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - Eight South Koreans and three Japanese were kidnapped Thursday by insurgents in Iraq, and captors armed with automatic rifles and swords threatened to burn the Japanese alive if Tokyo did not withdraw from the U.S.-led coalition.

The Arabic TV station Al-Jazeera, broadcasting to Iraq and the rest of the Arab world, showed portions of a tape from a previously unknown group calling itself the "Mujahedeen Squadrons'' showing the three Japanese blindfolded and surrounded by gunmen. It also shows passports for the three.

Associated Press Television News obtained a copy of the full tape, which shows four armed, masked men pointing knives and swords at the captives' chests and throats.

The South Koreans, believed to be Christian ministers who left for Iraq on April 5, were detained by unidentified "armed men'' who then released one of the captives, a Foreign Ministry official in Seoul told The Associated Press.

The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the South Koreans had been kidnapped about 155 miles west of Baghdad but that it was unclear who their captors were.

The videotape, parts of which also were shown on Japan's NHK television, showed two Japanese men and a woman identified as two journalists and an aid worker.

On Al-Jazeera, an announcer read a statement that he said came with the video in which the kidnappers issue a three-day ultimatum for Japan to announce it will withdraw its troops from southern Iraq.

"Three of your sons have fallen into our hands,'' the Al-Jazeera announcer read. "We offer you two choices: either pull out your forces, or we will burn them alive. We give you three days starting the day this tape is broadcast.''

The full video shows the Japanese crouched on the floor of a concrete walled room with an iron door. Four masked men dressed in black stand behind them holding automatic weapons and RPG launchers.

The gunmen make the Japanese lay one-by-one on the floor, and point swords and knives at their chests and throats. The woman's lips can be seen moving as if speaking.

The gunmen then show passports identifying the three as: Noriaki Imai, born 1985; Soichiro Koriyama, 32; Nahoko Takato, 34. They also show a press card for Koriyama from the weekly newspaper Asahi.

Japan has about 530 ground troops based in Samawah, part of a total planned deployment of 1,100 soldiers for a mission in Iraq to purify water and carry out other reconstruction tasks. Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi has been one of the strongest backers of the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq.

About 460 South Korean medics and military engineers have been in Nasiriyah for almost a year. They will come home after South Korea sends the new deployment of up to 3,600 troops to the Kurdish region of northern Iraq later this year.

The kidnappings came amid escalating violence in Iraq. Earlier this week, two South Korean aid workers were briefly detained by Shiite Muslim forces during a gunbattle with Italian peacekeepers. They were released unharmed.

Emphasis mine.

This is getting uglier by the day. As for the South Koreans, how could they be so stupid (assuming they were dressed conspicuously) as to think they would be safe in the hotbed of Islamic resistance that is the area in and around Baghdad?

[Solauren]

If I was the US Government, I'd be tempted to just pull the hell out.

It's obvious the people of Iraq don't care, as they are not trying to fight back against the militants.

[Bob McDob]

If I was the US Government, I'd be tempted to just pull the hell out.

It's obvious the people of Iraq don't care, as they are not trying to fight back against the militants.

Or they're too afraid to fight back - which isn't much better, admittedly.

[Supreme_Warlord]

...It's obvious the people of Iraq don't care, as they are not trying to fight back against the militants.

Why would they want to fight back? By all accounts, the people of Iraq are grateful for the removal of Saddam but they don't want to live under an occupation.

As much as the Monkey-in-Chief and his lapdog in Britain would like to say otherwise, the majority of the resistance is of a nationalist nature.

[Col. Crackpot]

kidnapping and torturing reporters and aid workers. yeah, thats a brilliant fucking plan.

[Supreme_Warlord]

kidnapping and torturing reporters and aid workers. yeah, thats a brilliant fucking plan.

My point was about the nature of the resistance, not their methods.

[Tribun]

Well, what I have read, sounds a bit...

In Nadschaf and Kufa, the police stations and the buildings of the administration were totally plundered by the shiitic troops. "They even unfastened and transported away the toilets." a american soldier said. So 6 months of re-building these by the americans for thier puppet government gwere gone to hell in a day....

[Col. Crackpot]

Well, what I have read, sounds a bit...

In Nadschaf and Kufa, the police stations and the buildings of the administration were totally plundered by the shiitic troops. "They even unfastened and transported away the toilets." a american soldier said. So 6 months of re-building these by the americans for thier puppet government gwere gone to hell in a day....

you can rationalize their behaivior all you want, but the fact is that these 'shiitic troops' are noting more that religious fundie theives.

[Darth Wong]

Of course they're fundies! Who's denying that?

[Vohu Manah]

I don't think anyone was arguing we weren't dealing with fundamentalists. They tend to be the most persistent and annoying militants. You can't make them an example (by just killing them), thats something Sadaam would do (not that anyone in the region would notice or care if we tried to do better). However, you can't leave the cities in the hands of the militants. Great, I see the hand-over deadline lapsing over issues of domestic security.

[Fire Fly]

Was Iraq really better under Saddam or is it better with a democracy? So far, it seems to be the former, and that's sad.

But that's just me.

[Sharp-kun]

Was Iraq really better under Saddam or is it better with a democracy? So far, it seems to be the former, and that's sad.

But that's just me.

Technically its not the later yet

[Col. Crackpot]

Of course they're fundies! Who's denying that?

it's not denial, i'm just sick of them being portrayed as noble freedom fighters. They are mindless godfreaks who steal from themselves and they'd cut off their own nose to spite their face. Not to mention they are the minority of the Iraqi population !

[salm]

If I was the US Government, I'd be tempted to just pull the hell out.

It's obvious the people of Iraq don't care, as they are not trying to fight back against the militants.

irak would become a second iran if US pulled out now.

[LordShaithis]

Fuck winning the hearts and minds. Start rounding up these fundy fucks and shooting them on streetcorners. Yes, he was a martyr, woohoo. Enjoy, because you're next Akhmed.

[Chardok]

Let it become another Iran, as far as I'm concerned. Let them rip each other apart. Once one of these warlords takes over and fucks the place up even worse than sadaam ever could, they'll beg for us to come back. These zombies are united under a common banner: Eject the oppressors.

We need to say "Fine, buddy, it's all yours." Then watch the fur fly. not like we'll be worse off. We didn't get oil from Iraq anyway. Fuck 'em, I say. Fuck 'em long and hard.

[Grand Admiral Thrawn]

You did blow up their country.

[TheDarkling]

Let it become another Iran, as far as I'm concerned. Let them rip each other apart. Once one of these warlords takes over and fucks the place up even worse than sadaam ever could, they'll beg for us to come back. These zombies are united under a common banner: Eject the oppressors.

We need to say "Fine, buddy, it's all yours." Then watch the fur fly. not like we'll be worse off. We didn't get oil from Iraq anyway. Fuck 'em, I say. Fuck 'em long and hard.

Do you understand the concept of responsibility for ones actions?

We toppled Saddam and now we have to do our utmost to see Iraq fixed.

[Chardok]

Fuck winning the hearts and minds. Start rounding up these fundy fucks and shooting them on streetcorners. Yes, he was a martyr, woohoo. Enjoy, because you're next Akhmed.

Or there's that.... (BTW, nice touch with the "A" name, implying Alphabetical "elimination")

[Chardok]

Do you understand the concept of responsibility for ones actions?

Yep. They also must accept responsibility for the consequences of wanting us out enough to start major battles.

We toppled Saddam and now we have to do our utmost to see Iraq fixed.

did you miss the part where I said we'd go back when they tore themselves apart (As they inevitably will)

[salm]

Fuck winning the hearts and minds. Start rounding up these fundy fucks and shooting them on streetcorners. Yes, he was a martyr, woohoo. Enjoy, because you're next Akhmed.

i thought they were already doing that.

[salm]

did you miss the part where I said we'd go back when they tore themselves apart (As they inevitably will)

yeah, they´ll probably tear each other apart, but what makes you think that they´re going to want the US back in their country? check out arfica. half of the continent is tearing each other apart. they dont´t want any marines there though, see somalia.

[Chardok]

did you miss the part where I said we'd go back when they tore themselves apart (As they inevitably will)

yeah, they´ll probably tear each other apart, but what makes you think that they´re going to want the US back in their country? check out arfica. half of the continent is tearing each other apart. they dont´t want any marines there though, see somalia.

Pfft. Send the Army. Marines are for beachheads.


<----Army guy.

As far as wanting us back, Who cares? If they do, we go fix it, if they don't we're no worse off, and, in fact, Better off. We're not spending hundreds of millions of dollars every weeks keeping our soldiers fed and armed and making $50,000.00 death payments to families.

total cost of killed soldiers in the U.S. alone: 25,000,000.00

Just in standard death benefits. Iraq is not worth this.