Well … this story seems to be bad news all around. Visit a media site, get a take. Here's a roundup:

• Scotsman.com: Arab World Outraged by Abuse of Iraqi Prisoners

• WaPo: U.S. Works to Calm Furor Over Photos

• Gulf Daily News (Bahrain): 'Savage acts' blasted by Arab League

• NY Times: Bush Voices 'Disgust' at Abuse of Iraqi Prisoners

• Japan Today: Photos of U.S. abuse of Iraqi prisoners sets off storm

• Arab News: World Denounces Abuse of Iraqi Prisoners…

AP

Arrests have been made in connection with yesterday's deadly car-bombing south of Baghdad.

The explosion killed eight U-S troops and wounded four others.

Brigadier General Mark Kimmitt today indicates it was a suicide attack. But he says two Iraqis were arrested near the site, and that they tested positive for explosives residue.

Kimmitt says 300 pounds of explosives were used in the car bomb, along with mortar rounds to create more shrapnel

Brigadier General Mark Kimmitt says two Marines died, six were wounded in the attack near the Marines' camp in Fallujah.

It hit a day after a car-bomb killed eight U.S. troops and wounded four others south of Baghdad.

Reuters:

U.S. Marines have handed control in Falluja to a former general in Saddam Hussein's Republican Guard, but new violence shows that a month of fighting in the besieged Sunni Muslim city is not over.

In a reversal of Washington's previous policy of excluding senior members of Saddam's Baathist regime from power, Jasim Mohamed Saleh said his new force would help police bring order and relieve a month-long siege that has cost hundreds of lives.

This bombshell is buried on page A-16 of today's Washington Post:

- - - - - - -

- - - - - - -

Previously, Wilson had scathingly accused the Bush Administration of having “twisted” the underlying intelligence. Wilson previously indicated that he disputed the claim that Iraq had tried to get uranium from Niger, Africa. See, for example, the story from the July 17, 2003 edition of TIME magazine:

- - - - - - -

- - - - - - -

Wilson now essentially confirms that Iraq DID seek uranium from Niger, Africa - just like the President said in the State of the Union Address.

Will Joe Wilson apologize to the President and to the general public for his prior false, inflammatory remarks? Will the mainstream media run this story with the same breathless excitement as Joe Wilson's previous claims? I suppose we all know the answers to these questions.

This is a duplicate of the original post on the nikita demosthenes website.

UPDATE:

The underlying story in the Washington Post, quoted above, is not a model of clarity. And it doesn't even mention the firestorm that erupted over Bush's “16 words” in his January 2003 State of the Union Address. (Perhaps the Post's placement of today's story on its interior page A-16 was meant as a pithy inside joke).

The bottom line, however, is that Joe Wilson appears to now take for granted that Iraq (indeed, our beloved “Baghdad Bob” from Iraq) WAS trying to get uranium from Niger, Africa. Certainly, Wilson does not appear to now be disputing this basic proposition.

Yet, in mid to late 2003, Wilson and the mainstream press spent many weeks worth of news cycles breathlessly talking about Bush's “16 words” in the State of the Union Address. These “16 words” were to the effect that Iraq had sought uranium in Niger, Africa. Now WILSON HIMSELF is the source CONFIRMING that Baghdad Bob did exactly that.

I think that Wilson has tried to underplay this in his book, and certainly the Washington Post has tried to underplay this in both the language and the placement of the story. But the above facts are the basic facts that one must work with - and the basic flip-flop that Wilson has undergone.

The US is reportedly planning to hire and arm Iraqi ex-soldiers and place them under the command of one of Saddam's former generals.

This strikes me as a really bad idea.

In addition to endorsing the formation of private armies, it will reinforce the notion that the US is unwilling to take casualties and the fear that the coalition will abandon the people of Iraq to a more-pliable (from the US perspective) Saddam-lite.

(A bit) more here.

Two Navy FA-18 Super Hornets dropped bombs Thursday on positions in Fallujah, continuing a series of targeted strikes in the city that has become a haven for anti-American insurgents.

Witnesses told the Reuters news service that U.S. war planes hit three sites in the city but Defense officials had no further information. The Golan district, a scene of heavy fighting over the past few days, was one of the three areas hit, witnesses said.

The take on the poll depends on the media outlet in which you read it. The bottom line is that most of the Iraqi's polled believe the removal of Saddam was worth the hardships they've faced, most want the occupation to end now, and they're split over whether the war has “done more harm than good.” Read it to get the stats.

Some sources (note the differences in titles):

• Reuters: Iraqis Split Over Whether Iraq Is Better Off

• USATODAY: Iraqis out of patience

• CNN: Iraqis conflicted about war, its impact

• … and it's not yet on FOX News

Reuters is also reporting that commanders in the Sunni triangle “have been appealing for more firepower,” and that the Pentagon has sent roughly two dozen additional M1A1 Abrams main battle tanks to the Marines, and “a similar number” for the 1AD near Tikrit.

Reuters has the report: The car bomb exploded just south of Baghdad around 10:30 Baghdad time. The soldiers were all of the 1AD.

From the AFP, via the ABC (Australian Broadcasting Corporation) :

CBS has broadcast images of US troops mistreating Iraqi prisoners, saying an army investigation has found “system wide” problems in the handling of captured Iraqis.

Deputy chief of military operations in Iraq, General Mark Kimmitt, says six US soldiers are being court martialled on charges stemming from the investigation into abuse of prisoners at Abu Gharaib.
[…]
“We're appalled. … These are our fellow soldiers, these are the people we work with every day, they represent us, they wear the same uniform as us, and they let their fellow soldiers down,” Gen Kimmitt said.

“We expect our soldiers to be treated well by the adversary, by the enemy… and if we can't hold ourselves up as an example of how to treat people with dignity and respect, we can't ask that other nations do that to our soldiers.”

Army Reserve Staff Sergeant Chip Frederick has been charged with maltreatment, assault and indecent acts for posing for a photograph while sitting on top of a detainee, striking detainees and ordering detainees to strike each other, among other things, CBS reports.

Frederick, a prison guard from Virginia in civilian life, and his lawyer Gary Myers blames the problems at the prison on the atmosphere created by commanders.

“We had no support, no training whatsoever,” Mr Myers told CBS.

Indeed, the army investigation found a lack of leadership at the prison and concluded soldiers at the prison, most of whom are reservists, are not trained on rules for handling prisoners of war under the Geneva Convention.

If true - and there's no reason to suspect it isn't - this indicates a system-wide problem. One not confined to just military prisons.

CENTCOM:

Anti-Coalition forces attacked Marines in defensive positions in Fallujah shortly after 10 p.m. yesterday (April 27), again violating the current cease-fire. After receiving rocket-propelled grenades and direct fire in their defensive positions, Marines called in close air support.

Two vehicles were observed transporting weapons and anti-Coalition forces. When Coalition aircraft engaged the vehicles, large secondary explosions erupted. Insurgents fled the immediate area and occupied a nearby building. Coalition aircraft fired on the structure in continued support of Marines on the ground. When the rounds impacted the structure, large secondary explosions were also produced. Such explosions often indicate the presence of large amounts of ordnance at the target site.

At this time, there are no reports of any Coalition casualties and no available information on the number of insurgents killed or wounded

.

Why has there been mainstream media silence on the on-going discoveries of Saddam Hussein's UN-prohibited WMD programs? Per Insight Magazine:

- - - - - - -

- - - - - - -

Via Instapundit.

This is a duplicate of the original post at the nikita demosthenes website.

UN NEWS CENTRE: Annan appeals to parties in Iraq to refrain from violence

United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan today appealed to all the parties in Iraq to refrain from violence, respect international humanitarian law and give the political transition a chance, saying it was time now for those who prefer “restraint and dialogue” to make their voices heard.

“There is nothing cowardly or fainthearted about this approach,” the Secretary-General told a press conference at UN Headquarters in New York.

“Those who venture into violent situations in the course of peace run just as high a risk as the soldiers do,” he said, echoing the warning by his Special Adviser Lakhdar Brahimi that violent military action by an occupying power against the inhabitants of an occupied country will only make matters worse.

“It takes courage and dogged determination to work for peace in a violent world,” he said.

FOX

U.S. forces launched a fresh attack on insurgent positions in Fallujah on Wednesday, targeting a train station used by enemy forces.

Marines called in two attack helicopters, which blasted three buildings with a mixture of machine gun fire and missiles. Billowing black smoke rose from the site and the firefight was captured by television cameras.

The helicopters attacked after a U.S. sharpshooter team that was trying to position itself in the area came under heavy fire by insurgents, military officials said.

Witnesses on the ground said insurgents were hiding behind women and children during the firefight.

The strike — the second targeted U.S. assault in less than 24 hours in Fallujah — did not represent a full-out offensive on the troubled city, military officials said. But if anti-American violence continues, the situation could change.

“We’re more than prepared to start a complete military offensive in Fallujah” if negotiations on a fragile cease-fire with insurgents falls apart, Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt told Fox News shortly before the incident at the train station.

From The Guardian :

…One of the clerics was a friend of mine who I first met in April last year when he was still thrilled about the liberation. Now he has different ideas and has become one of Moqtada's lieutenants. He was carrying a mobile phone in one hand and a satphone in the other, coordinating militia “activities”. He asked me to walk with him to the shrine of Imam Ali and told me all about the new victories they have achieved. All the time he kept his left hand hidden under his cloak. When we got to a militia staff room he produced a big sniper rifle and gave it to a guy there. “Take it to the guys on the roof - they'll need it,” he said.

He is a pleasant young man in his early 30s with a charming smile and an impressive beard. He speaks some English but his main talent, apart from smuggling weapons into the shrine, is computer graphics. He showed me his latest achievement: a picture of St George killing the dragon, except that St George was Moqtada and the dragon was Bush.

The “revolutionaries” are men mainly from the Baghdad slums and the poor south. They wear plastic sandals and carry pictures of Moqtada on their chests. They are armed with grenades strapped to their waists and a whole package of conspiracy theories.

There is a disturbing similarity between what these people are doing and saying and what the Ba'athists used to do and say. Since Moqtada's troops took over they have been acting thuggishly, in harmony with our great despotic traditions. I think there is something in the air that makes us yearn for a dictator to mess us around.

So the great holy fighters are manning checkpoints, detaining people and even have their own secret police. A cleric can order any of his thugs to take you to the religious court, where only Allah and Moqtada can release you.

When clashes erupted on the outskirts of the city, the new mojahedin, carrying RPG rockets without launchers and weapons looted from the Iraqi police, driving looted Iraqi police pick-up trucks and chanting “Moqtada”, all rushed to the fighting. Ten minutes later, with the same war cries, they were running back. According to a senior fighter, what I was seeing was a “tactical withdrawal”.

After Moqtada's Friday prayers, I went looking for my phone (phones are not allowed in the mosque for security reasons). I was waiting outside an office when I saw through a window four of the cleric's bodyguards dressing up another who was as chubby as the “leader” with a black turban and a black robe just like Moqtada's. Then they opened the door and ran outside with one guy shouting, “Long live Moqtada.” While the crowd surrounded them, the real Moqtada slipped out of the mosque.

It's reassuring to see the traditions of my country still thriving: one man is given the holy right to lead the nation, while young kids with RPGs terrorise everyone.

Hat Tip : Normblog

FOX

Iraqi police moved into the streets of the besieged city of Fallujah (Wednesday following hours of pounding by U.S. warplanes and artillery on Sunni insurgents in a show of force that comes amid U.S. demands for insurgents to surrender or face death.

The strikes late Tuesday smashed homes and sent huge plumes of smoke and orange flames into the night sky over Fallujah, where a fragile cease-fire with insurgent was extended.

U.S. and Iraqi forces are expected to begin joint patrols on Thursday, a step aimed at calming tensions in the city. Some U.S. officers have expressed concerns that the patrols could be targeted by militants who refused to surrender their weapons.

“We received orders to spread in the streets because U.S. soldiers are going to enter the city soon” said Iraqi security officer Lt. Mohammed Khalaf. Wednesday's Iraqi police patrols in Fallujah were separate from the planned joint patrols.

From the New York Times :

American commanders were also closely monitoring reports from inside Najaf said that growing anger of residents there against Mr. Sadr and his militiamen, who have sown a pattern of lawlessness since launching an uprising in the city earlier this month, had taken a startling new turn with a shadowy group of assassins killing at least five Sadr militiamen in attacks on Sunday and Monday.

Those reports, from residents of the city who reached relatives in Baghdad by telephone, said the killings had been carried out by a group calling itself the Thulfiqar Army, after a two-bladed sword that Shiite tradition says was used by Imam Ali, the martyred son-in-law of the Prophet Mohammed, the patron saint of Shiism. Accounts of the killings said the new group had distributed leaflets in Najaf threatening to assassinate members of Mr. Sadr's militia, known as the Mahdi Army, unless they left Najaf immediately.

One Najaf resident said some of Mr. Sadr's militiamen were shedding the black clothing that had been their signature during the weeks that they have occupied Najaf and large parts of other cities in central and southern Iraq with majority Shiite populations.

The same resident said that he knew of two killings of Mahdi Army members on Sunday, near a roundabout in Najaf named for the 1920 tribal revolt against British colonial authority in Iraq, and that three more Sadr militiamen had been killed later on Sunday or Monday.

…reports of violence against Mr. Sadr's followers in Najaf suggested that the American occupation authority might finally be seeing the beginnings of Iraqis taking action of their own to curb the firebrand cleric - as the American administrator, L. Paul Bremer III, recently urged in a television address…

Remember that there's only a single media source for this as yet, and only one person for much of it. Treat it with the same degree of scepticism you would any story from the NYT, or BBC, but not as much as the AFP.

Hat Tip to reader Dody Gunawinata.

About the AC-130, which is being used for the airstrikes in Fallujah.

The AC-130 gunship's primary missions are close air support, air interdiction and force protection. Missions in close air support are troops in contact, convoy escort and urban operations. Air interdiction missions are conducted against preplanned targets or targets of opportunity. Force protection missions include air base defense and facilities defense.

The AC-130H's call sign is “Spectre.” The AC-130U's call sign is “Spooky. ” The U-model is the third generation of C-130 gunships. All gunships evolutionized from the first operational gunship, the AC-47.

Fox TV has some amazing footage of fighting in Fallujah going on right now.

U.S. military gunship and coalition tanks waged a heavy attack Tuesday on suspected insurgent positions in Fallujah, attacking weapon storage sites used by anti-American forces.

The fierce attack captured on television cameras using night-vision technology produced a series of around 25 explosions. An AC-130 gunship (search) targeted two separate positions on the ground, sending showers of sparks and flames into the air.

A series of explosions lit up the night sky in Fallujah on Tuesday as black smoke rose above the city that has become a central location for anti-U.S. activity in Iraq.

Between 15 and 20 explosions were heard but U.S. officials are not clear what the target is or if there were casualties.

AP has details

AP: Soldier Sisters Won't Go Back to Iraq

Two sisters of a soldier killed in a Baghdad ambush have decided not to return to their National Guard units in Iraq, Guard spokesman Lt. Col. Tim Donovan said Tuesday.

Rachel and Charity Witmer had to decide whether to ask for reassignment to noncombat jobs after their sister, Michelle, died earlier this month.

The National Guard had received recommendations from the sisters' unit commanders in Iraq.

“Both commanders asked Rachel and Charity not to return, not because these soldiers are not valid members of their units, but because they are,” Donovan said, reading a statement from Maj. Gen. Al Wilkening.

Defense Department policy allows soldiers from the family of one who dies while serving in a hostile area to request an exemption from serving in a hostile area.

Spc. Michelle Witmer, 20, who was killed April 9, served with the 32nd Military Police Company, the same unit as her 24-year-old sister, Spc. Rachel Witmer.

FNC and CNN are both airing pool reporter's coverage of nightime shelling in the Fallujah area. Night vision cameras show substantial smoke from explosions.

Update: FNC reporting an AC-130 attacking a section of Fallujah that was known to have a number of munitions dumps. Explosions are said to be the ground munitions exploding.

The U.S. networks pool reporter notes that singing and chanting could be heard from mosques inside of Fallujah before, during, and after the attacks.
Pentagon now confirms the coalition is targeting sites within Fallujah.
AP now reporting that tanks are also attacking.

AFPS: Coalition Officials Defend Attack on Iraqi Minaret

“We very reluctantly go after holy sites, but when those holy sites are used to store and fire weapons, we must take action if our Marines are pinned down,” Army Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt, deputy operations director for Combined Joint Task Force 7, told reporters at a news conference.

The Marines confirmed that insurgents were using the minaret as a staging platform following an attack earlier in the day. After cordoning off the area, they entered the mosque and found “a significant number of ammunition shell casings,” Kimmitt said. Following the search, the Marines returned to their positions without damaging the minaret.

Kimmitt said the Marines called in the strike only after taking fire from the minaret the second time that day and realizing that their return fire was not enough to take out the enemy. This, he said, left the Marines with a choice: “Am I going to let my fellow Marines die, or am I going to recognize that that minaret has lost its protected status under international law and is being used as a firing platform and needs to go away?”

The Marines “made the right choice,” Kimmitt said, by calling in precision strikes that toppled the minaret but inflicted “a minimal amount of collateral damage … to any other part of that mosque.”

“On the few occasions when we must attack a holy site when it has lost its protected status under the Geneva Conventions, we have used the minimal amount of force necessary to protect our Marines,” he said.

Food for thought:

Just as the Marines took every precaution before calling in the attack on the minaret, Kimmitt said, he expects to see them working to rebuild it after stability is restored in Fallujah.

AP: Red Cross Visits Saddam in U.S. Custody

A team from the international Red Cross visited imprisoned Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein on Tuesday to check his conditions in U.S. custody, an American general said.

Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt would not say where the visit took place. Saddam has been held in an undisclosed location since his capture by U.S. forces in December, undergoing CIA and FBI interrogation.

The last visit by the International Committee of the Red Cross to Saddam came in February, Kimmitt said.

(No, I'm not going to link the Joe Cartoon thingy again.)

Kuwait News Agency:

A US helicopter crashed at 1.00 pm Tuesday, ‏said sources in the city of Kout, 180 km south of Baghdad.‏ ‏ Sources affirmed that the helicopter crashed into a high voltage pole, which was probably the main reason for the accident.‏

‏ US Army sources said, the helicopter was totally destroyed in the crash and ‏
‏that its crew was killed. It did not indicate the type of the helicopter or ‏
‏whether it was one for exploration.‏

‏ Residents in Kout said the helicopter may have been shot at by members of ‏
‏the Mehdi Army before it hit the electric pole.

AP:

A workshop believed to be producing chemical munitions exploded in flames Monday moments after U.S. troops broke in to search it, killing two soldiers and wounding five. Jubilant Iraqis swarmed over the Americans' charred Humvees, waving looted machine guns, a bandolier and a helmet.

Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt did not say what sort of chemical agents were suspected of being supplied to insurgents from the Baghdad warehouse. After the blast, there was no sign of precautions against chemicals. “Chemical munitions could mean any number of things,” including smoke grenades, he said.

From the AFP via the ABC (Australian Broadcasting Corporation) :

A number of insurgents have been killed in fierce fighting with US-led coalition forces near the central Iraqi city of Najaf, a military spokeswoman says.

The spokeswoman says an AC-130 aircraft has killed 43 anti-coalition forces and destroyed an anti-aircraft system.

An AFP correspondent reports that fighting broke out between US troops and Iraqi militia loyal to wanted Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr at an entrance to the southern city of Kufa, about 10 kilometres from Najaf.

Heavy gunfire and the sound of mortar explosions have been heard, the correspondent says.

A member of Sadr's Mehdi Army told the correspondent the militia had clashed with a US Army unit at the northern entrance of Kufa, about 160 kilometres south of Baghdad, and on the outskirts of Najaf.

At around 1:00am (local time) on Tuesday, the clashes subsided and the firing became intermittent.

“The clashes … are a provocation, but the red line has still not yet been crossed,” Qais al-Khazaali, a Mehdi Army spokesman, told Al-Jazeera television.

“To enter Najaf means to pour scorn on the Muslim holy places whether they are Sunni or Shiite. But we are ready, we are organised and we are coordinated.”

The AC-130 is a cargo aircraft converted into a flying artillery base, capable of either putting a 4” artillery round through a window, saturating areas the size of a football field with 20mm or 25mm rounds, or plinking individual vehicles with a 2-pound 40mm shell.

From Reuters via the ABC (Australian Broadcasting Corporation) :

A statement apparently from top Al Qaeda operative Abu Musab al-Zarqawi has claimed responsibility for a suicide boat attack on Iraq's Basra oil terminal and branded Prime Minister John Howard as “wicked”.

From the AAP via The Australian :

“The feeling is entirely mutual,” [Australian Foreign Minister] Downer said.

WASHINGTON POST: New Iraqi Flag Meets With Public Disapproval

It was supposed to be the perfect symbol for a new and unified Iraq: an Islamic crescent on a field of pure white, with two blue stripes representing the Tigris and Euphrates rivers and a third yellow stripe to symbolize the country's Kurdish minority.

But the new national flag, presented Monday after an artistic competition sponsored by the Iraqi Governing Council, appears to have met with widespread public disapproval here — in part because of its design and in part because of the increasing unpopularity of the U.S.-appointed council.

(Flag in extended entry)

Here it is:

What do you think?

Per the Sydney Morning Herald:

- - - - - - -

- - - - - - -

This is a duplicate of the original post on the nikita demosthenes website.

Via lucianne.com.

At least eight Iraqi insurgents and one U.S. Marine were killed Monday in the Iraqi city of Fallujah in a firefight that erupted despite a supposed truce with insurgents occupying the city.
U.S. General Mark Kimmitt said the fatalities occurred when Marines were attacked by insurgents firing small arms and grenades from windows in the minaret of a mosque. He said the minaret was destroyed in the fighting.

REUTERS: Iraq group threatens to kill Italians

Al Arabiya TV has broadcast a tape it says shows three Italians held captive in Iraq and say their captors will kill them in five days if the Italian people do not protest their country's military presence in Iraq.

“A group calling itself the Green Brigade said it would release them if demonstrations are organised in Italy to protest against the government's policy in Iraq,” the Arabic TV channel reported on Monday, quoting a message it said it received from the kidnappers.

“The group gave Italians five days to hold the protests or it will kill the hostages.”

JERUSALEM POST/AP: Iraqis: US using cluster bombs in Fallujah

A spokesman for an Iraqi delegation from the violence-gripped city of Fallujah on Monday accused US troops of using internationally banned cluster bombs against the city and said they had asked the United Nations to mediate the conflict.

Mohammed Tareq, a spokesman for the governing council of Fallujah and a member of the four-person delegation, said US military snipers were also responsible for the deaths of many children, women and elderly people.

“In Fallujah, the American troops killed at least 800 people and wounded 1,800,” Tareq told reporters. “We want to inform the world about the massacres and the human rights violations by the Americans in our city.”

Welcome! Our goal is to give you one power-packed briefing of insights, news and trends from the global War on Terror that leaves you stimulated, informed, and occasionally amused every Monday & Thursday. Today's “Winds of War” is brought to you by Dan Darling. of Regnum Crucis.

TOP TOPICS

• Hezbollah operations chief Imad Mughniyeh, who is already responsible for the deaths of over 200 American troops in Lebanon in the 1980s, is inside Iraq and has reportedly trained Sadr's Mahdi Army.

• Pakistan has granted an amnesty to the Waziri tribal leaders accused of sheltering al-Qaeda fighters (the latter of whom will apparently be let off in return for a pledge of good behavior) in an extremely disappointing turn of events. As part of the deal, 50 tribesmen, most of whom were captured during the recent military operation in Waziristan and in all likelihood killed Pakistani troops, will be released. Thankfully, we have no less a figure that MMA supremo Qazi Hussein Ahmed to tell that there are no al-Qaeda inside Pakistan.

• On a much happier note, over 300 members of the Algerian GSPC have agreed to surrender to the government under a new amnesty deal in a devastating blow to al-Qaeda's main arm in North and West Africa.

Other Topics Today Include: Iraq Briefing; Iran Reports; Taliban attack NGO; Sydney terror plot; Cole bomber nabbed; al-Haramain Brigades takes credit for Riyadh bombing; JI tied to counterfeit trade; Mullah Krekar's got a memoir; Saudis want jihad in Iraq but not at home; possible Hamas link to Kosovo shooting spree; JI and MILF operatives busted in Philippines; and robot surgeon sued for maltinkering.

REad The Rest…

AP: Bulgarian President's Convoy Attacked in Iraq

Bulgarian President Georgi Parvanov's convoy came under attack by gunmen late Sunday during a surprise visit to his country's forces in the southern Iraqi city of Kerbala, the Defense Ministry said.

The ministry said the president was not hurt in the attack on his convoy, which was fired on as it traveled between the camps of Bulgarian and Polish troops in the flashpoint city, where Shi'ite militants have stepped up attacks against U.S.-led forces in recent weeks.

“The president's car was shot up. No one was hurt,” Defense Ministry Spokeswoman Rumiana Strugarova said.

“The attack took about five minutes, and we suppose the attackers were Shi'ite militants. The president returned to Bulgaria in the early hours of the morning.”

Updating a previous post, from the AFP via the ABC (Australian Broadcasting Corporation) :

“A huge explosion occurred and four Humvees were set ablaze after US soldiers entered a chemical lab,” witness Salah al-Abed said.

Shortly after the explosion in two chemical laboratories in the northern neighbourhood of Waziriyah, US troops were seen removing two bodies in body bags.

Two civilians, including two children, were also wounded in a nearby house, according to the AFP photographer.

Heavy black smoke could be seen rising from the area as a US helicopter hovered overhead.

An Iraqi policeman, who refused to give his name, said he saw “three US soldiers wounded or killed in each vehicle”.

A nearby house partly collapsed, the AFP photographer said.

Some witnesses said at least one of the labs manufactured perfume.

Several witnesses said US soldiers entered one of the labs next to the damaged house and tried to force the door open, causing a spark which triggered the explosion.

“The US soldiers went into a first lab. When they came out, they were carrying chemical products. They made a small fire in the yard, then put it out,” Amr al-Tay, an Asharq al-Awsat daily journalist whose office is located nearby, said.

“They then went to a second lab nearby. When they forced the door with a tool, there was a spark and there was an explosion.”

“US soldiers entered the second chemical lab. There was smoke when a huge explosion occurred and the four Humvees parked outside were set ablaze,” Salah al-Hassan al-Abed, another Asharq al-Awsat employee.

He added that 10 to 11 US soldiers entered the labs.

“The US soldiers regularly came to search the labs where they suspected explosives were being manufactured for use to build makeshift bombs.”

About 100 residents gathered at the scene and chanted “Moqtada, Moqtada”, referring to radical Shiite cleric Moqtada Sadr, who is wanted in connection with the murder of a rival cleric a year ago.

US troops sealed off the area. An Abrams tank, a Bradley fighting vehicle and firefighters were on the scene.

A tank opened fire and injured a young man in the leg as he tried to retrieve a machine-gun from a damaged Humvee, an AFP correspondent said.

US soldiers stopped the ambulance who was evacuating him and arrested him.

A US military spokeswoman said she was aware that an explosion had damaged US military vehicles but she had no further details.

And from the AP via The Australian :

The Baghdad explosion occurred when US troops broke into a shop on the ground floor of a building in the northern Waziriya district. Moments afterward, the blast went off, levelling the front half of the one-story building and setting ablaze four Humvees parked outside.

A female American soldier was seen being taken away by troops, her face and chest severely burned. Witnesses reported seeing up to 10 US soldiers being loaded into ambulances. A US military spokesman confirmed Humvees were destroyed in the blast, but could not confirm US casualties.

Several Iraqis were pulled out of the building's rubble.

Later, teenagers dragged away one of the burnt out Humvees, stripped it of equipment then set it ablaze again with fuel. Some were seen afterward, waving US weapons.

So there you have it. It was variously a shop, a chemical storehouse or two laboratories, and due to a booby-trap or a spark causing perfume to explode.

From the photo in the previous post, 4 Humvees were indeed wrecked, and at least one building was in a state of collapse.

Updating a previous post, from the AFP via the ABC (Australian Broadcasting Corporation) :

Eight insurgents have been killed and at least four United States Marines wounded during fierce fighting in the Iraqi city of Fallujah, where an uneasy ceasefire had been in place for a week, the US-led coalition said.

A “significant” number of insurgents reportedly attacked Marines, prompting hours of fighting in the northern district of the city.

“Initial reports were eight enemy killed and four Marines wounded,” Colonel John Coleman, chief of staff for the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force, told reporters.

Marines were fired upon from a mosque which was then targeted by US forces and the minaret destroyed, an embedded pool reporter with the marines told CNN.

He said another six Marines were injured by shrapnel but the reports could not be immediately confirmed.

“Unfortunately the opposition forces … took it upon themselves to occupy a mosque,” Mr Coleman said.

“Instead of serving as a centre of religious life, it was employed as a bastion in the attack.”

He said Marines used small arms and a tank machine gun against the insurgents in the mosque during the battle in the northern district of Jolan.

Both Fox (TV) and Reuters are reporting that skirmishes have sprung up in Fallujah - on the television they are showing a mosque on fire and EuroNews is reporting that US helicopters are firing on Fallujah.

More as it comes in.

Fox has more here.

From Reuters via the ABC (Australian Broadcasting Corporation) :

US Marines and Iraqi guerrillas have exchanged heavy fire in two districts of the besieged town of Fallujah, local residents say.

Clashes in the Golan and Shuhada districts broke out around 11:20am local time and are continuing.

Insurgents are firing rocket-propelled grenades, while the troops use heavy machineguns mounted on vehicles.

Updating previous post, From Reuters via the ABC :

US troops who were at a chemical storehouse that exploded in Baghdad on Monday appear to have included members of the Iraq Survey Group (ISG) hunting for weapons of mass destruction.

Residents have shown a Reuters reporter at the scene identity cards belonging to members of the ISG.

The residents say they found the cards after US soldiers evacuated their casualties.

The reason for the blast is not immediately clear but witnesses say it happened when about 12 US soldiers tried to break into the building.

The structure was destroyed in the explosion and at least one unidentified body and four wounded Iraqis have been evacuated.

Again, from the AFP via the ABC :

A powerful explosion in Baghdad's northern neighbourhood of Waziriyah has blown up two US Humvees and caused a nearby house to collapse.

Reporters at the scene say two Humvees can be seen burning as US forces close off the area.

An Abrams tank and a Bradley armoured vehicle are also at the scene as fire trucks rush to the area, where several chemical plants are located.

Residents say they saw rocket propelled grenades being fired into the Humvees as they passed by.

Undated Photo from Al Jazeera Website illustrating story.

Finally, from Al Jazeera :

A powerful bomb has exploded in Baghdad's northern neighbourhood of Waziriya, destroying four US military vehicles.

No occupation forces spokesman was prepared to comment on casualties after the Monday morning attack, but as many as 12 marines may be dead.

An Iraqi policeman, who refused to give his name, said he saw “three US soldiers wounded or killed in each vehicle”.

Heavy black smoke could be seen rising above a chemical storehouse that appears to have been booby-trapped.

One witness, Imad Hashim, said the bomb went off “when they [US marines] tried to force their way in, there was a huge ball of fire and I was thrown to the ground”.

Hashim said he was about 100 metres away from the blast.

Four Humvees were seen burning as US forces closed off the area, residents said they also saw rocket propelled grenades being fired into the Humvees as they passed by.

Breaking on Fox - no link or story yet -

Fox is reporting that at least on blast has leveled a building in Baghdad and there are several injuries.

More as we get it.

Update: AP is reporting that four Humvees caught fire from the blast and at least one U.S. soldier and three Iraqi soldiers are among the injured.

Update 2: There is now a report that the four Humvees were the origin of the explosion, and a house subsequently collapsed - this report says that there is at least two associated with this incident, which witnesses say is the result of rocket fired grenades. At least two children have been injured.

From the AFP via the ABC (Australian Broadcasting Corporation) :

The ceasefire brokered by Iraqi mediators in the Iraqi city of Fallujah appears to have weakened the rebels battling US marines while also creating divisions within the Sunni Muslim community.

The insurgents have been trapped by the US marine siege in the flashpoint city west of Baghdad for the past three weeks, after having initially succeeded in winning national support for their cause.

“The city has been completely surrounded for the past 10 days and the fighters are trapped inside and cannot leave,” said one local tribal chief, Mansur al-Hadithi, who is sympathetic to the insurgents.

The Islamic Party and the Committee of Ulemas, composed of top Sunni clerics who helped broker the truce, have now come under fire from within the Sunni minority over their mediation.

A communique signed by the “Iraqi resistance in Fallujah” said the truce was “an inspiration from Satan because it shifted the balance power in favour of the occupation forces”.

“Our mujahedeen had the situation under control, and the truce weakened them,” said the statement.

A nationalist leader accused the Islamic Party of campaigning for a truce from the first week of fighting “to extricate the Americans from the Fallujah quagmire”.

“The insurgents enjoyed unprecedented support. Iraqis, by the hundreds, Sunnis or Shiites, were flocking to Fallujah with a single goal - prevent the Americans from crushing the resistance,” said Abdel Jabbar Kubaissi who leads “the national Iraqi coalition”.

“Four provinces rebelled in the south, some Baghdad neighbourhoods were in a state of insurrection, villages around Fallujah were controlled by armed men, supply lines of the Americans were cut. It was the beginning of civil disobedience,” he said.

News of the ceasefire “disorganised the guerrilla movement and the solidarity movement ran out of steam,” he added, pointing out that new recruits who came to Fallujah to swell rebel ranks had now left.
[…]
Another Fallujah spokesman also said town elders have written to UN secretary-general Kofi Annan asking him to mediate between militants and US troops to maintain the troubled truce.

“We told the UN people that if this mediation works, we are ready to ensure that the people of Fallujah will turn in their heavy weapons and respect any agreement reached in Amman,” he said, in the Jordanian capital.

You'd almost think that this is what the Americans had planned on… But remember the source is not the most reliable, to say the least. Large quantities of NaCl recommended to avoid Wishful Thinking.

From CNN via the ABC (Australian Broadcasting Corporation) :

The United States has decided to wait until Tuesday before either attacking or mounting armed patrols inside the Iraqi city Fallujah, CNN television reports.

Top US administrator Paul Bremer and other coalition officials reportedly reached the decision late on Saturday after discussions with residents.

From Tuesday, anyone seen with an unauthorized weapon will be considered potentially hostile, US military spokesman Brigadier General Mark Kimmitt is quoted as saying.

The patrols in Fallujah are to be mounted by US troops along with members of the Iraqi military and police forces.

The US side is demanding Fallujah residents turn in their weapons and Brig Gen Kimmitt was quoted as saying if that does not happen, the US Marines will ''start other options,'' apparently a reference to attacking the city.

From the AFP via the ABC (Australian Broadcasting Corporation):

The British Government has prepared a series of options aimed at boosting the number of British troops in Iraq to make up for the withdrawal of the Spanish contingent, The Times reports.

The options “range from sending 1,500 to 2,000 troops to fill the gaps left by the Spanish, to taking over command of a second multinational division in central south Iraq,” the daily says.

“In return for increased commitment, Britain is expected to demand a higher level of influence over how security is managed in Iraq.”

If British forces are to be deployed further north, around flashpoints like the holy city of Najaf, “one option for ministers was for Britain to take over command of the central south division currently led by a Polish general,” the paper quotes Ministry of Defence sources as saying.

The paper continues: “One suggestion is that Britain could ask NATO to allow the British led Allied Rapid Reaction Corps (ARRC) headquarters in Germany to be released to take over command from the Poles”.

The ARRC, headed by Lieutenant General Richard Dannatt, is 60 per cent composed of British soldiers.

However, the paper says NATO has ruled out allowing the ARRC to be deployed in Iraq under its auspices.

The British currently head the south-eastern multinational division with about 8,000 personnel around Basra, Iraq's second city.

“Defence sources acknowledged that the British appeared to be the only ones capable of expanding their forces level” alongside the 135,000 American troops in Iraq, the broadsheet reports.

From The Australian :

[Australian] Prime Minister John Howard today hinted more Australian troops could be deployed to Iraq.
[…]
He has repeatedly said he sees no reason to boost the number of troops in Iraq, but today left open the possibility of a small increase in Australia's deployment.

”If we did do more that would be appreciated,” Mr Howard told ABC radio.

“I have made it very clear all along that we did not have the capacity to have large numbers of additional troops - I called them peacekeepers at the time a year ago - and that remains the case.

“That doesn't mean that if there is a small increase for whatever reason in the number of people deployed that that should be seen as some reversal of that original policy.”

We're neither going to “Cut and Run” because of Islamofascist terrorism, nor send in more troops if that are not needed. If it takes a few less than we have there at the moment, fine. If it takes a few more, also fine. This isn't about “sending messages”, it's about doing what's needed - what Al Qaeda does or doesn't do is irrelevant.

“I'm more determined than ever that Australia should stay the distance and finish the task that Australia has,” Mr Howard said.
[…]
“One of the important messages that came through strongly to me is that it's important that Iraqi leaders be more prominent in publicly asserting what they so fervently believe privately and that is that the terrorists must be defeated and that the opportunity for freedom given by the removal of Saddam Hussein should not be lost.”
[…]
He had been expected to visit Australians on HMAS Stuart but the visit was cancelled because the frigate was sent to pick up Americans wounded in a suicide attack on an oil terminal in the Persian Gulf.

”This incident is a reminder of how valuable we are,” he said.

“Here's a case of suicide bombings designed to get at the oil terminals and some American coastguard people have been killed and others wounded and our vessel was there to rescue the wounded and provide the help.

“That is a live example of just how valuable is the presence of our vessel and it gives something for those who think they should come home to think about.”

Australia only has 850 people in Iraq and environs. But their usefulness is rather more than the raw numbers would indicate.

REUTERS: Saudi Ambassador: Iraq Pay-Off Could Avoid Bloodshed

The Bush administration might have avoided a deadly insurgency in Iraq by buying the loyalty of its former military for about $200 million, Saudi Arabia's ambassador to the United States said on Sunday.

But Ambassador Prince Bandar bin Sultan declined to say whether he had actually advised President Bush to offer former members of Saddam Hussein's military three months' pay in exchange for their services in securing Iraq.

Bandar was asked on NBC's “Meet the Press” whether journalist Bob Woodward was correct when he said that Bandar had advised Bush to take $200 million and “buy off, in effect, the Iraqi army.”

Bandar replied: “I don't talk about my conversations with the president … but I believe that would have been the right way to go.”

(Yes, it's a bargain compared to the $300 million his cousins paid to get Al-Qaida to leave Saudi Arabia alone… by the way, how's that working out?)

REUTERS: Third American Dies from Iraq Boat Attack

A third U.S. navy sailor died from wounds sustained in Saturday's suicide boat attack on Iraq's Basra offshore oil terminal, the U.S. Navy's Bahrain- based Fifth Fleet said Sunday.

“A U.S. coast guardsman has died from injuries sustained when a dhow exploded as he and six other coalition sailors attempted to board it yesterday evening,” the Fifth Fleet said in a statement.

“Two U.S. Navy sailors were killed and three other U.S. sailors and one coast guardsman were wounded. They are recovering at a military hospital in Kuwait,” it added.

The statement gave no further details.

CNN: Coalition: 'Dangerous situation' in Najaf

Coalition officials in Iraq on Sunday warned that a “dangerous situation is developing in Najaf,” the holy Shiite Muslim city controlled by wanted radical cleric Muqtada al-Sadr.

Iraqis in Najaf are stockpiling weapons in mosques, shrines and in schools, Coalition Provisional Authority spokesman Dan Senor said, while U.S. forces remained deployed outside the city.

From the AFP/Reuters via the ABC (Australian Broadcasting Corporation) :

Four schoolchildren have been killed by gunfire in Baghdad, shortly after a roadside bomb ripped through a US military vehicle, witnesses said.

Some witnesses said the children, all aged around 12, were shot dead by US troops who had opened fire randomly after the blast on Canal Street in eastern Baghdad. At least five other people were wounded.

The children had left their nearby school to look at the burning Humvee, the witnesses said.

Children and some passersby were “celebrating” the attack near the vehicle when the deadly shots were fired.

The US military had no immediate word on the incident.

“I saw a child lying on the street with a bullet hole in his neck and another in his side,” said a driver who witnessed the incident.

“He had his schoolbag on his back. Some 15 minutes later his relatives came and took his body away.”

A nearby hospital confirmed receiving the bodies of four children with gunshot wounds.

The targeted Humvee was part of a military convoy driving through the street.

Two soldiers in the Humvee were evacuated from the scene by military medics, they said.

Meanwhile, Katyusha rockets have hit a hospital, a hotel and a police facility in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul, killing two hospital and two hotel workers and wounding 13 people, police said.

They said a rocket slammed into the Salam (Peace) Hospital in the town, 390 kilometres north of Baghdad, killing two women staff and wounding 10 other people.

Less than an hour later, a second rocket hit Ashour Hotel in the city centre, causing extensive damage and wounding three people.

Two of the wounded, both hotel workers, died shortly afterwards in hospital.

A third rocket struck a police vehicle maintenance department next to police headquarters in southern Mosul's Wadi Hajar district, wounding two policemen.

Reuters Photo (undated) that accompanied story

USATODAY is reporting that the coalition is recruiting Iraqis for an “elite volunteer unit that would fight fellow Iraqis resisting the occupation of the country.”

Reading the article, I found this interesting:

“We didn't get it right the first time,” said U.S. Army Maj. Gen. Paul Eaton, who is responsible for organizing and training Iraq's new armed forces. “So we're going after other approaches.”

During recent insurgent violence, about 10% of Iraq's security forces “actually worked against us,” the commander of the 1st Armored Division said Wednesday. “We have to take a look at the Iraqi security forces and learn why they walked,” Maj. Gen. Martin Dempsey told a meeting of news executives in Washington.

In the comment thread on this post, several readers posted sites they visit to read the names, see the faces, and know some of the details regarding those US servicepeople killed in Iraq. I wanted to post them here for those who may be interested:

• Military City has their Faces of Valor page here.

• Pigstye has a list of coalition casualites and the circumstances of their death here (he also maintains an interesting Geocaching-related blog for GPS fans here).

• Lunaville maintains a remarkable set of casualty figures here.

AP

U.S. troops will likely enter parts of Najaf soon in a move to clamp down on the rebel militia of a radical Shiite cleric but will stay away from sensitive holy sites in the center of the city to avoid rousing the anger of Shiites, a U.S general said Sunday.

Shiite leaders have warned of a possible explosion of anger among the country's Shiite majority if U.S. troops enter Najaf, and until now U.S. commanders have been saying troops would not go in.

With the new move, the military seeks to impose a degree of control in Najaf, while hoping that a foray limited to the modern parts of the ancient holy city would not inflame Shiites. Brig. Gen. Mark Hertling did not say when troops would move in, or how many.

There's also plenty of talk going around about the “quiet before the storm” in Fallujah.

From the ABC (Australian Broadcasting Corporation) :

Prime Minister John Howard is paying a surprise visit to Australian troops in Iraq for Anzac Day.

The flying visit has been kept top secret.

Mr Howard's flight touched down before sunrise and taxied up to the control tower at Baghdad Airport where for the past year RAAF air traffic controllers have been in charge of flights into and out of the country's busiest airport.

Most of the 50 or so air men and women who had gathered for the Anzac Day dawn service were unaware who their guest would be.
[…]
In his address to the Australian forces, Mr Howard thanked them for their service to their country, and to Iraq.

“The cause on which you are embarked is just,” he said.

“You are seeking to bring to the people of Iraq who have suffered so much for so long, the hope of liberty and the hope of freedom, and your example, your behaviour, your values, belong to that great and long tradition that was forged on the beaches of Gallipoli in 1915.”

See Op Ed articles for the significance of ANZAC day.

Suicide bombers launched three boat attacks on Iraq's crucial Basra offshore oil terminal on Saturday, but the British military said there was no damage and no immediate reports of casualties.

Two boats exploded alongside a ship tied up at the terminal, which is around 10km offshore, British military spokesperson and Iraqi officials said.

A third boat was intercepted by a US-led coalition ship as it approached an exclusion zone around the terminal and there was an explosion soon after it was boarded, they said.

Update: Fox is reporting that two sailors have died in the attacks.

AP: Saudis Said to Aid Iraq War Extensively

During the Iraq war, Saudi Arabia secretly helped the United States far more than has been acknowledged, allowing operations from at least three air bases, permitting special forces to stage attacks from Saudi soil and providing cheap fuel, U.S. and Saudi officials say.

The American air campaign against Iraq was essentially managed from inside Saudi borders, where military commanders operated an air command center and launched refueling tankers, F-16 fighter jets, and sophisticated intelligence gathering flights, according to the officials.

Much of the assistance has been kept quiet for more than a year by both countries for fear it would add to instability inside the kingdom. Many Saudis oppose the war and U.S. presence on Saudi soil has been used by Osama bin Laden to build his terror movement.

But senior political and military officials from both countries told The Associated Press the Saudi royal family permitted widespread military operations to be staged from inside the kingdom during the coalition force's invasion of Iraq.

These officials would only talk on condition of anonymity because of the diplomatic sensitivity and the fact that some operational details remain classified.

From The Australian :

The US-led coalition has approved $US500 million ($681.38 million) in reconstruction spending for seven Iraqi cities.

The money would be drawn from the development fund for Iraq, which consisted of frozen Iraqi assets and from Iraqi oil revenues, Milton Ludington, a representative of the coalition's Program Management Office, said in Ramadi today.

He said $US35 million ($47.7 million) had been cleared immediately for reconstruction projects in the seven cities: Baghdad, Baquba, Fallujah, Mosul, Samarra, Ramadi and Tikrit.

Ludington spoke after a meeting involving coalition and US military officials and representatives of Iraq's western province of Al-Anbar.

From the ABC (Australian Broadcasting Corporation) :

Five US soldiers were killed and six wounded in a rocket attack on a coalition base near Taji, north of Baghdad.

A truck had been used to fire the 57-mm rockets, and it was destroyed by a military helicopter after the troops called for reinforcements.

A US military spokesman said three of the wounded were listed as critical with the remaining three in serious condition.

The spokesman did not mention any casualties among insurgents.

The Australian quoting the AP is reporting 4 killed, 7 wounded, so the figure of 5 may be incorrect.

The ABC report continues:

Two US soldiers were also killed in a rocket-propelled grenade (RPG) attack on a convoy near the southern Iraqi city of Kut, a local police chief said.

”As the convoy was passing by, attackers fired rocket propelled grenades at it, killing two and injuring a third,” Colonel Saad al-Jassani said.

Two vehicles were destroyed in the attack at Jannabiat al-Hay, 40 kilometres south of Kut, he said.

A spokeswoman for the US-led coalition said they were not aware of any such attack.

Rueters:

At least nine Iraqis were killed on Saturday when rockets or mortar bombs slammed into a market in a Shi'ite suburb of Baghdad, witnesses and hospital sources said.

At least two projectiles hit the chicken market in the Ourfalli neighborhood of Sadr City, witnesses said. Abdul-Jabbar al-Zubeidi, director of a nearby hospital, said several of the 30 wounded were in critical condition.

It was not clear who had fired the weapons.

From the AFP via The Australian :

Four policemen were killed and 16 more people were wounded in a car bomb attack today near a US military base in the northern Iraqi city of Tikrit, police said.

“Four policemen were killed and 12 more, as well as four civilians, were wounded when a booby-trapped car blew up near a base of the coalition forces,” said Colonel Ibrahim Jabburi, head of the city's emergency police.

He said he did not know who was behind the attack.

From Reuters via the ABC (Australian Broadcasting Corporation) :

A US Marine has died from wounds suffered in hostile action west of Baghdad 10 days ago, the US military said on Saturday.

The military said the Marine assigned to the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force died on Thursday of wounds received on April 14 while fighting anti-US forces in the Al Anbar province.

Al Anbar includes the restive towns of Fallujah and Ramadi.

From the NYT:

…Standing in the courtyard of [Najaf's] golden-domed Shrine of Ali on Friday, staring at 2,500 worshipers seated on rugs, the imam, Sadr al-Din al-Kubanchi, hurled words as sharp as scimitars at the army that had invaded this holy city.

But the soldiers he denounced were not Americans but members of [Moktada al-Sadr's] Mahdi Army…

“It's not brave to take refuge in the house or the mosque or the markets and use women and children as human shields,” Mr. Kubanchi said of the Mahdi Army. “They are people who are trying to cheat you, and they are people from the regime of Saddam Hussein, former intelligence officers. They want to drag you into battle to be destroyed. If that happens, the soldiers will attack Najaf, and our enemies will happily see our blood flow.”

The standoff in Najaf has turned into a showdown between the clerics of the city and Mr. Sadr, as the religious and tribal leaders here try to nudge their unwanted neighbor out of town…

Gingerly, since Mr. Sadr now runs the city, they have handed out flyers and given speeches urging the Mahdi Army to take its fight elsewhere. They have done so while their mosques and homes are surrounded by undisciplined militiamen…

Michele and I choose to permit comments at Command Post because we believe the ability to participate in journalism is inherent to the nature of our site, and that the ability to exchange and argue over ideas is at the core of a vigorous democracy.

That said, our comments area is not a forum in which anything goes. We believe the democratic way of life, and a better understanding of humanity, are furthered not by any discourse, but by reasoned discourse. Our vision for the Command Post comments is a forum that not only permits the participation in journalism, that not only facilitates the exchange of perspectives, but that does so as a reflection of human civility.

So: We welcome you to post comments at Command Post, and we encourage you take part in our marketplace of ideas, be you left, right, or center; red, blue, or green; Christian, Muslim, or atheist. If you do, our comment policy is very simple. We welcome comments that are:

• Respectable: “Worthy of respect; fitted to awaken esteem; deserving regard; hence, of good repute; not mean.”

• Civil: “Not rude; marked by satisfactory (or especially minimal) adherence to social usages and sufficient but not noteworthy consideration for others.”

It’s a simple policy. It provides an enormous field for the exchange of ideas. It allows vigorous and heated arguments over policy or philosophy. It welcomes the familiar and the arcane, the banal and the compelling, the grave and the humorous.

It is also a policy we will enforce. We will delete comments that we feel do not meet the simple standards of respect and civility, and we will ban the IP address of those posting such comments. If you feel you have been treated unfairly as a result of this policy, we welcome your appeal via email. If your appeal is neither respectable nor civil, it is an appeal we will ignore.

What does the policy mean in application? Where we will draw the boundaries? We don’t know. We suppose our experience will be much as Justice Potter Stewart described the limitation of pornographic speech: we’ll know it when we see it. We can’t guarantee we won’t make bad calls. We can’t guarantee we won’t upset one or more of our readers. But we can guarantee that no deletion or IP ban will ever be because of a point of view; it will always be because a point of view was articulated with neither respect nor civility. We don’t want to engage in censorship, we want to engage in sense.

A commitment to respectable and civil commentary on a weblog. It may sound high minded. It may sound like not much fun. But it’s our forum, and it’s what we’ll allow. Readers disappointed in our perspective are welcome to create their own sites and maintain their own comment forums. Because we choose to believe that most people are reasonable … that they want an intelligent exchange of perspectives … that all things being equal, they’d choose not to engage in an online slugfest of slanderous rubes … we think it’s the right way to go.

So that’s what we’re going to try and create, and if we can’t do so, well, then frankly, we’d prefer not to have comments at Command Post. Because at the end of the day, this is a hobby for us. We derive virtually no economic benefit from Command Post. Our reward, and we presume the reward for our contributors, is intangible—the pride that comes from building something that others value, that is a unique first step for decentralized journalism. Command Post is something Michele and I love, and frankly it’s something of which we want to feel proud. Hateful, biting, insulting commentary does not make us feel proud. It robs us of one of the only rewards we derive from the site … our ability to say, “Look at what we made … it’s good, and it’s a model of what the online exchange of ideas and information can be.”

We will not be robbed. We have anywhere from 15,000 to 120,000 visitors a day to our corner of the blogosphere … we’re more than happy to alienate a handful if it’s the means of creating a forum of civil exchange for the remainder. And deep in our hearts, independent of the fact that such a forum is something we’ll feel better about, something of which we’ll be proud, we also believe such a forum is something the remainder will value, visit, and enjoy.

So, jump on in, but please keep it respectable and civil. It’s all we ask, and thanks for reading The Post.

For the first time in the short history of Command Post, we have had to not only shut the comments down on a post, but delete them all together.

The ugliness that some people have shown in the posts about Pat Tillman is a complete disgrace to America and a slap in the face to every soldier who every wore a uniform and defended democracy.

We here at The Command Post are not in the habit of silencing dissent, but this was not dissent. This was moral depravity.

I am reprinting the worthy comments here. There will be no open forums on this subject again. If you would like to leave a message here, please email me.

Thank you to all who showed class and restraint.

• Eternal Rest grant unto him, O Lord,
  And let Perpetual Light shine upon him.
  May he and all of his fallen Brothers in Arms Rest in Peace, Amen.

Posted by: Cap'n DOC at April 23, 2004 11:13 AM

• A truly sad day. All sacrifice some, some sacrifice all.

God. COUNTRY. Family.

A TRUE patriot. God’s speed.

Posted by: American_Defender at April 23, 2004 11:17 AM

• …Tillman is the new generation’s hero. Complete sacrifice - the ultimate sacrifice. Like a few generations ago, Elvis elisted as well. Ali broke that mystique and condemned a generation to hesitation, fear and selfishness. Finally, we are back on the right track. I’m sorry it took Tillman to show us that.

Posted by: Scott S at April 23, 2004 11:41 AM

• Rest In Peace, Sir

Posted by: What? at April 23, 2004 11:52 AM
.

• I am reminded a bit of Nile Kinninck, University of Iowa Heisman Trophy winner in 1939 who was named the best athelete in the county… this in a year with Joe Dimaggio and Joe Louis near the top of their games
  Nile was lost on a training mission off the coast of Florida but was remembered for his unselfish enlistment in a time of national need. The stadium in Iowa City bears his name- Kinnink Stadium.
  I have seen a number of stories on the Tillman story, and what he walked away from to answer Freedoms call…

Posted by: Capsu78 at April 23, 2004 12:44 PM

• It’s a terrible shame that another soul leaves this earth…there are many and they aren’t all famous. May all the souls of the faithful departed, rest in peace.

Posted by: Wife of a Corpsman at April 23, 2004 02:05 PM

From NASA:

- - - - - - -

April 23, 2004
Bob Jacobs
Headquarters, Washington
(Phone: 202/358-1600)

News organizations across the world have been publishing and distributing images featured on the web site.

- - - - - - -

This is a duplicate of the original post from the nikita demosthenes website.

Breaking on Fox:

Police on Friday arrested five Iraqis believed linked to Al Qaeda and suspected in this week's suicide bombings in Basra, and the men led police to a stash of 20 tons of explosives, a police intelligence chief said.

Two of the men were caught in a truck carrying 3.5 tons of TNT, and the other three were captured in a house where another ton of explosives, along with mortar shells and rockets were found, said Col. Khalaf al-Badran, head of police intelligence in Basra.

The men led police to a second house where police found 20 tons of explosives, TNT, mortar shells, rockets and artillery shells, al-Badran said.

The five confessed to working with a Syrian connected to Al Qaeda who travels between Iraq and neighboring Kuwait, he said.

On Wednesday, suicide attackers blew up cars stuffed with explosives and rockets outside police stations, killing 74 people, including children.

Syrians, al Qaeda, Iraqis, oh my.

REUTERS: Annan Distances Himself from Brahimi on Israel

What does this have to do with Iraq? Read on…

United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan distanced himself on Friday from comments by his special envoy [to Iraq] Lakhdar Brahimi, who said Israel's “poison in the region” was complicating his search for an Iraqi interim government.

“Mr. Brahimi was expressing his personal views,” U.N. spokesman Fred Eckhard said in answer to questions. “The secretary-general's views, as expressed over the last seven years, do not contain the word poison.”

Brahimi told France's Inter radio on Thursday that Israeli policies toward Palestinians and Washington support for them hindered his search for an interim Iraqi regime that can assume sovereignty when the U.S. occupation ends on June 30.

“The problems are linked, there is no doubt about it,” Brahimi, a former Algerian foreign minister, said. “The big poison in the region is the Israeli policy of domination and the suffering imposed on the Palestinians.”

Brahimi said his job was complicated by Iraqi perceptions of “Israel's completely violent and repressive security policy and determination to occupy more and more Palestinian territory.”

(Thanks, Kofi.)

CNN: Danish minister resigns over WMD

Danish Defense Minister Svend Aage Jensby resigned Friday amid controversy over intelligence reports on whether Iraq had weapons of mass destruction.

In a statement on a Defense Ministry Web site, Jensby said: “Immediately after the prime minister, Anders Fogh Rasmussen, returned to the country, I asked him permission to step down.

“The government has achieved amazing results and I do not want to burden it and my family with more harassment, which have been aimed at me personally.”

This early breaking news is from the Drudge Report. The NFL plans a 1:00 p.m. ET press conference.

Pat Tillman turned down a three-year, $3.6 million contract with the Arizona Cardinals to volunteer as an Army Ranger.

Here are some background articles on Pat Tillman from the NFL, USA Today, the Las Vegas Sun, Veterans Advantage, ESPN, and the Army Times.

Former Arizona safety Pat Tillman turned down a three-year, $3.6 million contract offer from the Cardinals to pursue his dream of being a Ranger in the U.S. Army

On the U.S. Army Rangers: Members of the 75th Ranger Regiment - Pat Tillman's unit - make up an “elite combat unit.” Candidates must pass a stringent orientation course, where they are challenged physically and mentally, before they can even be selected. The Rangers are an infantry force trained to fight against any threat. Their creed: “Rangers lead the way!”

This is a duplicate of the original post from the nikita demosthenes website.

UPDATE: Pat Tillman, KIA. Reports from Army Ranger.com, CNN, and MSNBC.

Per MSNBC:

- - - - - - -

In Afghanistan, Tillman's batallion was involved in “Operation Mountain Storm,” part of the U.S. campaign against Taliban and al-Qaida groups along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border, military officials said.

He was killed during action in the past 24 hours, they said.

- - - - - - -

SECOND UPDATE: This item is also posted on The Command Post's Global War on Terror page.

THIRD UPDATE: A true American hero: the sad news of patriot Pat Tillman's death, fighting al Qaeda in the line-of-duty along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border, reverberates throughout the United States and the world. See:

Fox News,
Associated Press,
The Washington Post,
Reuters,
U.S. Army Ranger Association,
Arizona Cardinals Official Website,
Peggy Noonan - “Privileged to Serve”,
California's “Patio Pundit” blog,
France's “Merde in France” blog,
Canada's “Ghost of a Flea” blog, and
Australia's Tim Blair.

NFL.com - (April 23, 2004) — Former Arizona Cardinals safety Pat Tillman, who gave up an NFL contract to join the Army Rangers, reportedly has been killed in Afghanistan.

NFL.com - (April 23, 2004) In the wake of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in 2001, Tillman turned down a three-year contract with the Cardinals to enlist in the Army.

More from the Arizona Cardinals Official Website:

- - - - - - -

Tillman was a member of the 75th Ranger Regiment, and the Army refers to them as an “elite combat unit.” Candidates must pass a stringent orientation course, where they are challenged physically and mentally, before they can even be selected. The Rangers are an infantry force trained to fight against any threat. Their creed: “Rangers lead the way!”

An unrestricted free agent in 2002 when he made his decision, Tillman declined an offer from the Cardinals to play football that year. That wasn't the first time Tillman had proven his loyalty — in 2001 he turned down a chance to play with the St. Louis Rams to stay with Arizona for another year.

- - - - - - -

Tillman walked away from a $3.6 million contract with the Cardinals in the spring of 2002 to join his brother as an Army Ranger. He made the move quietly, staging no press conference, granting no interviews and issuing no public remarks about his decision. The move was a personal one for Tillman, who, according to those around him, was deeply moved by the attacks of 9-11. He wanted to “pay something back,” Cardinals defensive coordinator Larry Marmie told reporters at the time.

FOURTH UPDATE: Per Iowa Hawk:

- - - - - - -

Pat Tillman 1976-2004

(212) 450-2000.

- - - - - - -

REUTERS: Chalabi Compares U.S. Policy on Baathists with Nazis

A U.S. policy shift that may allow former Baathists join a new Iraqi government was akin to putting back Nazis in charge of Germany, Governing Council member Ahmad Chalabi said on Friday.

“This policy will create major problems in the transition to democracy, endanger any government put together by U.N. envoy Lakhdar Brahimi and cause it to fall after June 30,” Chalabi told Reuters.

He spoke after the White House announced an overhaul of the “de-Baathification” policy, which may let some former members join an interim government being put together by the United Nations ahead of a planned June 30 transfer of power.

“This is like allowing Nazis into the German government immediately after World War II,” added Chalabi, who heads a council committee specifically dedicated to keeping the upper ranks of Saddam Hussein's Baath Party out of office.

(Or letting Nazis become Secretary General of the United Nations?)

REUTERS: Iraq's Sadr Warns of Suicide Bombs if U.S. Attacks

Rebel Iraqi cleric Moqtada al-Sadr said Friday he could unleash suicide bombers if U.S. forces attacked the holy Shi'ite city of Najaf, and called on the whole nation to unite to expel Iraq's occupiers.

U.S. forces are poised just outside Najaf and have vowed to kill or capture Sadr and destroy his Mehdi Army militia, which has clashed with foreign forces across south and central Iraq.

Speaking at Friday prayers in Kufa, next to Najaf, Sadr told thousands of Shi'ites Najaf would never fall to the occupiers.

“We will shed blood to keep our holy city,” he said. “Lots of believers, men and women, came to me and asked permission to become martyrs and to execute martyrdom operations.

“I keep telling them to wait. But if there was an assault on our cities or on our religious authorities we will be time bombs and will not stop before destroying enemy forces.”

From the New Zealand Herald: US media becoming more sceptical of Bush policy on Iraq.

From the AFP via the ABC (Australian Broadcasting Corporation) :

United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan has said some criticism in the scandal over the UN's handling of Iraqi oil sales under Saddam Hussein was unfair.

Mr Annan has launched an independent probe into allegations of fraud and corruption in the handling of the UN “oil-for-food” program and said that the enquiry should separate fact from rumour.

“It is unfortunate that there have been so many allegations and some of it is being handled as if they were facts,” he said.

“This is why we need to have this investigation done.”
[…]
A Baghdad newspaper in January published a list of hundreds of people said to have worked the scheme for their own benefit, while Saddam Hussein and his associates are alleged to have skimmed around $US10 billion.

US television network ABC said on Tuesday it had a letter showing that the head of oil-for-food, Benon Sevan, was among three UN officials who got payoffs from Baghdad.

Mr Sevan, who has been holidaying in Australia, has denied any wrongdoing.
[…]
Mr Annan said Mr Sevan would cooperate with the panel headed by Paul Volcker, the former head of the US Federal Reserve.

From the AFP via the ABC (Australian Broadcasting Corporation) :

A total of 271 Iraqis have been killed and 793 wounded in Fallujah since US marines laid siege to Fallujah on April 5, interim health minister Khodayir Abbas has said.

”Between April 5 until Thursday [April 22] at 9:00am (local time) according to official health ministry figures, 271 people were killed and 793 wounded,” Mr Abbas told AFP, adding that the casualties were “Iraqi martyrs”.

During the same period, 305 Iraqis were killed and 1,261 wounded in clashes between Shiite Muslims and troops of the US-led coalition in Baghdad, central and southern Iraq, he said.

“Our sources are credible because they are based on figures given by hospitals, clinics and doctors who have to declare the number of dead and wounded in their establishments,” Mr Abbas said.

The Fallujah figure contrasted with earlier reports Iraqi negotiators said they gathered from hospitals which put the death toll at 600.

Note that the USMC has reported the use of stadiums as temporary morgues which may not be included. The figures may therefore be understated. Let's hope not. Also not stated was the proportion killed while bearing arms.

The Command Post has occasionally quoted first-hand reports from people serving in Iraq. Sometimes in uniform, sometimes people trying to reconstruct the place, build schools, restore power etc. We don't do it often, relying mainly on reputable (as in famous, not neccessarily truthful) news sources. But sometimes a story comes along first-hand, usually someone in Iraq blogging, or a letter or e-mail posted to a blogger, and we publish that.

Here is another view, from an English “Activist”, embedded with the “Mujihadeen” in Fallujah, and endorsed admiringly by John Pilger in The New Statesman :

Sergeant Tratner of the First Armoured Division is irritated. “Git back or you'll git killed,” are his opening words.

Lee says we're press and he looks with disdain at the car. “In this piece of shit?”

Makes us less of a target for kidnappers, Lee tells him. Suddenly he decides he recognises Lee from the TV. Based in Germany, he watches the BBC. He sees Lee on TV all the time. “Cool. Hey, can I have your autograph?”

Lee makes a scribble, unsure who he's meant to be but happy to have a ticket through the checkpoint which all the cars before us have been turned back from, and Sergeant Tratner carries on. “You guys be careful in Falluja. We're killing loads of those folks.” Detecting a lack of admiration on our part, he adds,”Well, they'e killing us too. I like Falluja. I killed a bunch of them mother f….ers.”

I wish Sergeant Tratner were a caricature, a stereotype, but these are all direct quotations.
[…]
Someone comes round to give us a report: the Mujahedin have shot down a helicopter and killed fifteen enemy soldiers. During the evening's street fighting twelve American soldiers have been killed. Six hundred were killed in an attack on their base but he can't tell us how, where or when. He says thousands of US soldiers' bodies have been dumped in the desert near Rutba, further east. I don't doubt that the US is under reporting its casualties whenever it thinks it can get away with it but I suspect some over reporting this time. Someone whispers that he's the cousin of 'Comical Ali', the old Minister of Information. It's not true but it ought to be.
[…]
Two French journalists have been admitted to the town, under the protection of the mosque, and for their benefit the body is swaddled head to foot in bandages, carried to a van with no back doors and driven away by two boys including Aodeh, one of the twin boys we met on the first trip. Earlier a little girl was brought out, a polka dotted black headscarf around her face, pink T shirt under a black sleeveless cardigan with jeans, sparkly bobbles on her gloves, holding a Kalashnikov.

She was clean, her clothes were fresh and she was very cute, eleven years old, and after the photo one of the men, her father I think, took her away as if her job was done. I hope and believe she was only being used as a poster child, that she wasn't really involved in the fighting. She's no younger than the lad from the other day who I know is involved in the fighting, but I wish he wasn't either.

While we wait we chat with the sheikh in the mosque. He says the hospitals have recorded 1200 casualties, between 5-600 people dead in the first five days of fighting and eighty-six children killed in the first three days of fighting. There's no knowing how many have been hurt or killed in areas held by the US. A heavily pregnant woman was killed by a missile, her unborn child saved, the sheikh says, but already orphaned.

“Falluja people like peace but after we were attacked by the US they lost all their friends here. We had a few trained officers and soldiers from the old army, but now everyone has joined the effort. Not all of the men are fighting: some left with their families, some work in the clinics or move supplies or go in the negotiating teams. We are willing to fight until the last minute, even if it takes a hundred years.”

He says the official figure is 25% of the town controlled by the marines: “This is made up of small parts, a bit in the north east, a bit in the south east, the part around the entrance to the town, controlled with snipers and light vehicles.” The new unity between Shia and Sunni pleases him: “Falluja is Iraq and Iraq is Falluja. We received a delegation from all the governorates of Iraq to give aid and solidarity.”

The cease-fire takes effect from 9am. Those with vehicles are loading stuff from the storage building opposite the mosque and moving it around the town. The opening up of the way to the hospital is one of the terms of the deal, so we're not really needed anymore. As well it's starting to feel like there are different agendas being pursued that we could all too easily get caught up in, other people's politics and power struggles, so we decide to leave.

At the corner of town is a fork, a paved road curving round in front of the last of the houses, a track leading into the desert, the latter controlled by the marines, who fire a warning shot when our driver gets out to negotiate a way through; the former by as yet invisible Mujahedin. The crossfire suddenly surrounds the car. David, head down, shifts into the driver's seat and backs us out of there but the only place to go is into the line of Mujahedin. One of the fighters jumps into the passenger seat and directs us.

“We're hostages, aren't we?” Billie says.

“No, it's fine,” I say, sure that they're just directing us out of harm's way. The man in the passenger seat asks which country we're all from. Donna says she's Australian. Billie says she's British.

“Allahu akbar! Ahlan wa sahlan.” Translated, it's more or less, God is great. I'm pleased to meet you. The others don't know the words but the drift is clear enough: “I think he just said he's got the two most valuable hostages in the world,” Billie paraphrases.
[…]
You look for ways out. You wonder whether they're going to kill you, make demands for your release, if they'll hurt you. You wait for the knives and the guns and the video camera. You tell yourself you're going to be OK. You think about your family, your mum finding out you're kidnapped. You decide you're going to be strong, because there's nothing else you can do. You fight the understanding that your life isn't fully in your hands any more, that you can't control what's happening. You turn to your best friend next to you and tell her you love her, with all your heart.
[…]
They bring our bags in and I make a hanky disappear. The guard, a different one now, is unimpressed. It's black magic. It's haram [sinful]. It's an affront to Allah. Oops. I show him the secret of the trick in the hope he'll let me off. Instead I make a balloon giraffe for his kids, who he's taken away to the safety of Baghdad.

“My brother was killed and my brother's son and my sister's son. My other brother is in the prison at Abu Ghraib. I am the last one left. Can you imagine? And this morning my best friend was killed. He was wounded in the leg and lying in the street and the Americans came and cut his throat.”

That was the one who came into the hospital this morning. Oh shit. Why wouldn't they kill us?
[…]
But they do let us go: they take us to one of the local imams who says he will drive us home. At the edge of Falluja is a queue of vehicles, some already turning back from the checkpoint. The passengers say the US soldiers fired as they approached. We get out of the car, hijabs off, and start the whole rigmarole again, loudspeaker, hands up, through the maze of concrete and wire, shouting that we're an international group of ambulance volunteers trying to leave Falluja, we're unarmed and please don't shoot us.

Eventually we can see the soldiers; eventually they lower the guns, tell us to put our hands down, they're not going to shoot us. “My bad,” one says. Apparently it's US slang for acknowledging your own mistake. “We're not going to fire any more warning shots.”
[…]
We can't go out again. For one thing there's no ambulance and besides it's dark now and that means our foreign faces can't protect the people who go out with us or the people we pick up. Maki is the acting director of the place. He says he hated Saddam but now he hates the Americans more.

We take off the blue gowns as the sky starts exploding somewhere beyond the building opposite. Minutes later a car roars up to the clinic. I can hear him screaming before I can see that there's no skin left on his body. He's burnt from head to foot. For sure there's nothing they can do. He'll die of dehydration within a few days.

Another man is pulled from the car onto a stretcher. Cluster bombs, they say, although it's not clear whether they mean one or both of them. We set off walking to Mr Yasser's house, waiting at each corner for someone to check the street before we cross. A ball of fire falls from a plane, splits into smaller balls of bright white lights. I think they're cluster bombs, because cluster bombs are in the front of my mind, but they vanish, just magnesium flares, incredibly bright but short-lived, giving a flash picture of the town from above.

Yasser asks us all to introduce ourselves. I tell him I'm training to be a lawyer. One of the other men asks whether I know about international law. They want to know about the law on war crimes, what a war crime is. I tell them I know some of the Geneva Conventions, that I'll bring some information next time I come and we can get someone to explain it in Arabic.

We bring up the matter of Nayoko. This group of fighters has nothing to do with the ones who are holding the Japanese hostages, but while they're thanking us for what we did this evening, we talk about the things Nayoko did for the street kids, how much they loved her. They can't promise anything but that they'll try and find out where she is and try to persuade the group to let her and the others go. I don't suppose it will make any difference. They're busy fighting a war in Falluja. They're unconnected with the other group. But it can't hurt to try.

Summary : War is Hell. No matter how you try to avoid civilian casualties, there will always be some. In an action like Fallujah, where one side deliberately hides amongst civilians, and makes use of child soldiers, there will be more.

U.S. Courting Former Baath Party Members

The United States, in a major change of strategy, is considering offering government jobs in Iraq to former senior officers of Saddam Hussein's military and the ousted Baath Party, administration officials said Thursday.

U.S. officials hope that bringing back members of the powerful Sunni minority will strengthen Sunni support for the U.S.-led coalition and reduce violence by weakening support for insurgents in the Sunni Triangle.

The policy of blacklisting leaders of Saddam's Baath Party was designed to screen out criminals from playing roles in post-war Iraq, State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said. But, he said, people who have clean records and who were party members only because their jobs required it are not targeted for punishment.

“We are working to try to develop an equitable solution,” he said.

AP: Congress Seeks More Details on Iraq Plan

Two days of Capitol Hill hearings on Iraq (news - web sites) have produced some new details on Bush administration plans for the beleaguered campaign, but not all that lawmakers had hoped for.

“We've got to get hold of this situation. We've got to do it quickly and we've got to spend a whole lot of money,” Arizona Republican John McCain, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said Thursday on NBC's “Today” show.

The final session this week began Thursday morning before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. At the same time, national security adviser Condoleezza Rice made a rare visit to the Capitol to meet with Republican lawmakers. Senate Democrats planned to meet with her that afternoon.

Republicans used their time with Rice to question her about security in Iraq and plans for turning authority over to an Iraqi government on June 30. Rice made clear that American forces can expect to stay after that date, said Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman John Warner, R-Va.

“While the large measure of sovereignty is being passed to Iraq, until such time as their internal forces, security forces, are strong enough to take over, the coalition forces will have the responsibility for the security of that nation,” he said.

From the AP via The Australian :

Spain has agreed to a US request to leave its intelligence agents in Iraq and not withdraw them along with its 1300 troops, a leading Socialist party member said today.

”Yes, there is an agreement, a consensus, on this. Both the defence and foreign ministers have spoken on this,” Trinidad Jimenez, the ruling party's spokesperson for international affairs, said in a Telecinco TV interview.

Jimenez said Spain would “maintain a commitment there (Iraq). It's just a question of deciding where and how.”

From the AP via The Australian :

German engineering giant Siemens AG has pulled its employees out of Iraq because of security concerns, [the] Iraqi electricity minister said today.

The firm suspended its operations following an April 12 warning by the German Foreign Ministry that called on its citizens to leave Iraq, said Electricity Minister Ayham al-Samarie.

Siemens AG was helping restore Iraq's power stations.

BBC World is also reporting that General Electric has suspended operations for unspecified reasons.

SEATTLE PI: New terror threat targets 8 U.S. allies

A self-proclaimed “anti-American” group is threatening to carry out terrorist attacks against diplomatic compounds, airlines and public transportation systems in eight U.S. allies, several of which have sent troops to Iraq, a South Korean official said Thursday.

The group, called the “Yello-Red Overseas Organization,” warned in a one-page letter sent to the South Korean Embassy in Thailand that it will launch the attacks through April 30, embassy spokesman Ryoo Jung-young told The Associated Press.

The group described itself as “anti-American” and threatened to attack diplomatic compounds, airlines and public transportation systems in South Korea, Japan, Thailand, the Philippines, Singapore, Australia, Kuwait and Pakistan. Several of these countries have sent troops to Iraq.

Ryoo said it was the first time South Korean authorities had heard of the group and were investigating the threat's credibility. The letter was received Wednesday.

From the AFP via The Australian :

Two Swiss nationals were released today by an unknown group in Iraq after being held hostage for 48 hours, Switzerland's Foreign Minister Micheline Calmy-Rey told a press briefing.

The pair … worked for a non-governmental organisation

REUTERS: South African Security Guard Shot Dead in Baghdad

A gunman in traditional Arab robe and headdress shot and killed a South African security guard in a Baghdad shop Thursday after accusing him of being a Jew, officials and witnesses said.

Police sources had earlier said the victim was a Spaniard.

“He was a South African,” Health Minister Khudier Abbas told Reuters. “He worked in the CPA (Coalition Provisional Authority) with security, as a bodyguard.”

Witnesses said the man was shot in the head at around 10:45 a.m. (0645 GMT) while shopping at a small supermarket in the Adhamiyah neighborhood, a Sunni Muslim stronghold. His translator was wounded and rushed to a nearby hospital.

(Relax. The United Nations is on the case, denouncing the negative stereotyping of religions.)

MAARIV: Iraq: Israeli Arab reported released by captives

An American company in Iraq reported this afternoon (Thursday) that George Houri, the Israeli Arab from East Jerusalem that was kidnapped in Iraq several weeks ago, has been released by his captors.

Welcome! Our goal is to give you one power-packed briefing of insights, news and trends from the global War on Terror that leaves you stimulated, informed, and occasionally amused every Monday & Thursday. Today's “Winds of War” is brought to you by Dan Darling. of Regnum Crucis.

TOP TOPICS

• Saudi al-Qaeda spokesman Abu Mohammed Saleh is talking tough with regard to attacking Americans in Saudi Arabia. Their local affiliate, however, the al-Haramain Brigades, don't appear to be very content with just talk.

• Is a deal with Sadr near? The Guardian seems to think so and paints quite an interesting picture of the negotiations.

Other Topics Today Include: Iraq Briefing; Iran Reports; Afghan police arrest Hekmatyar lieutenant; LeT forms medical unit; al-Ghamdi still dead; Ingushetia Wahhabi leader killed; 12 dead in Algeria so far in April; Abu Sayyaf goes back to being an Islamic Movement; Jordanian police kill 3 terrorists; inner workings of the Salafi Jihad; mafia linked to al-Qaeda; Mullah Krekar gets damages; and Muammar Qadaffi's legal reforms.

Read The Rest…

From Reuters via the ABC (Australian Broadcasting Corporation) :

Sorrow and anger has gripped Iraq's southern city of Basra as the families of 68 people slain by suicide bombers mourned their dead.

Streets were quiet and many parents kept their children at home after 17 youngsters were incinerated on their way to school in Wednesday's coordinated bombings of police stations.

The five blasts at three police stations in Iraq's biggest Shiite Muslim city, and at the police academy in nearby Zubeir, a mainly Sunni town, were the bloodiest attacks in British-controlled Basra since the start of the US-led occupation a year ago.

As relatives prepared to bury the victims, followers of rebel Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr planned a protest rally blaming the US-led occupation for the security breakdown.

UPDATE : From the ABC again :

Followers of the radical Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr have blamed British forces for the coordinated series of car bombs which killed 73 people in the southern Iraqi city of Basra yesterday.
[…]
The targets of the attacks were Iraqi police stations and a uniformed policeman who joined the protest said “the British were the ones who attacked us”.

”Now we are with our religious leaders,” the policeman said.

Another policeman said many of his fellow officers were ready to fight alongside Sadr's Mehdi army.

REUTERS: Poland Ready to Stay in Iraq Until Elections

Poland is ready to keep its 2,500 troops in Iraq until Baghdad holds free general elections, which should be organized by the end of January 2005, Defense Minister Jerzy Szmajdzinski said on Thursday.

“Our mission in Iraq with same number of troops has…sense in forthcoming months,” he told reporters. “The situation will be different when Iraq holds general elections. From this moment Polish forces could be significantly reduced.”

Prime Minister Leszek Miller said on Wednesday Poland was reviewing its engagement in Iraq, although it would not pull its troops out suddenly or without the agreement of the United States.

Poland leads a 9,500-strong multinational force in south-central Iraq. Spain and some central American states plan to withdraw their troops from the force, leaving Warsaw scrambling for ways to keep peace in the region.

From the AFP via the ABC (Australian Broadcasting Corporation) :

A number of insurgents have been killed during fierce fighting in Fallujah threatening a so-called 'cease-fire' in the besieged Iraqi city, according to a US-led coalition statement on Thursday.

The battle on Wednesday morning started when up to 60 insurgents attacked US marines with small arms and rocket-propelled grenades in north-west Fallujah.

“Marines responded to the attacks with overwhelming small arms and mortar fire, as well as close-air support, killing 36 anti-Iraqi forces,” said the statement.

The military reported on Wednesday that nine insurgents were killed and three marines were wounded in the battle.

A cease-fire deal calling for a weapons amnesty and joint patrols in the besieged Sunni Muslim city was put in place on Monday but the coalition said clashes threatened to de-rail the initiatives.

The weapons turnover had been lacklustre with only a few old and rusty weapons given up, a senior military coalition official said on Thursday.

“We have to have those heavy weapons that are killing marines, that are killing civilians,” the official said.

He said clashes on Wednesday were “very intense but very localised” and the marines were honouring the cease-fire.

“It would appear there is some honouring on both sides,” he said.

The return of families to the city was again suspended on Thursday because of tensions in the city.

From the AFP via The Australian :

A Spanish civilian was shot and killed in Baghdad's Sunni Muslim district of Adhamiyah today, a police official said.

”He was shopping in the district when around 11.30am Local time(4.30pm AEDT) a man appeared and opened fire with his Kalashnikov (assault rifle), killing a Spanish civilian and wounding his interpreter,” police Captain Fadel al-Amari confirmed.

UPDATE : See Later Post for correction.

The moral and financial scandal at the heart of the United Nations continues to deepen. At least 3 senior U.N. officials are suspected of taking multi-million dollar bribes from the Saddam Hussein regime, and documents have surfaced that link U.N. Undersecretary General Benon Sevan and 270 prominent foreign officials to a scheme that allowed them to trade in Iraqi oil at cut-rate prices.

Instapundit summarizes the ABC News roundup, and links on to the news report itself. Then he adds more here. Austin Bay, a U.N. supporter who has seen its humanitarian works first hand in the field, wants an independent investigation:

“So many of the self-righteous left still scream about “blood for oil” and maliciously accuse the United States of toppling Saddam in order to secure petroleum supplies. The truth is otherwise. Oil for Food lined the pockets of Saddam, his international political supporters, and corporate cronies, and that oil was paid for, hour by hour, with the blood of Iraqis slaughtered by his brutal regime.”

Or, in other words, blood for oil - to prominent international “anti-war” forces, and to the U.N. itself in return for managing this corrupt mess. Disgusting.

A Danish man reported missing in Iraq last week has been found dead, the Foreign Ministry in Copenhagen says.

The ministry was informed on Tuesday evening by the US-led Coalition Provisional Authority that Iraqi police found the man's body on 12 April.

“There is as yet no information about the perpetrators or a motive for the killing,” the ministry reportedly said.

Denmark confirmed one of its citizens was missing in Iraq on 16 April. It did not name him.

A devastating series of explosions which left 68 people dead and 238 injured in the southern Iraqi city of Basra was swiftly linked with al Qaeda today.

….

The mayor of Basra, Wael Abdul-Hafeez, directly pointed the finger at the terrorist group associated with Osama bin Laden.

“I accuse al Qaeda,” he said. “We have arrested a person disguised in a police uniform. We are questioning him.”

At least 16 of the dead were children on their way to school.

Admin Update: Comments have been closed on this post. Rather than ban everyone who is not following our comment policy, we will just close them off.

CNN TV is showing video of US Marines returning fire in Fallujah … CNN is NOT reporting this as a break in the cease fire; rather, they're saying it's a more localized incident. The USMC has said, however, that if the insurgent activity does not end, the Corps will take the cease fire of the table.

UPDATE: Sky News has a report here.

From the AFP via the ABC :

The Dominican Republic has decided to withdraw its 302 troops from Iraq in the wake of Spain's decision to pull out, Defence Secretary General Jose Miguel Soto Jimenez said.

”The armed forces' troops in Iraq will leave in a few days in the next week,” the general said after talks with President Hipolito Mejia.

Death toll is now at 68, with over 200 injured, most of them civilians.

Reuters reports that there was a fourth bombing that happened along with the other three.

BBC says four British soldiers are among the wounded.

More as we get it.

At least 40 people were killed and scores wounded in car bombings that hit three police stations in the southern Iraqi city of Basra on Wednesday, a Reuters correspondent said.

He said he had counted 40 bodies at one Basra hospital. Among the dead were many children who had been traveling to kindergarten in a minibus that was caught in one blast.

Many other civilians and police were killed or wounded.

“There were three separate explosions at police stations at about 7:15 a.m. (11:15 p.m. EDT),” said a British military spokesman, Squadron Leader John Arnold. “They were vehicle-based improvised explosive devices.”

(Reuters)

CNN: Iraqi tribunal to try Saddam Hussein

Iraqi leaders have set up a tribunal to try ousted dictator Saddam Hussein and other members of his Baathist regime, a spokesman for the Iraqi Governing Council said Tuesday.

Salem Chalabi, the nephew of the head the Iraqi National Congress, was named to head the tribunal of judges and prosecutors, according to council spokesman Entefadh Qanbar.

New political parties in Iraq include the Iraqi National Congress headed by Ahmed Chalabi; the Iraqi National Coalition headed by Adnan Pachachi; and the Supreme Council of the Islamic Revolution headed by Ayatollah Muhammed Baqr Al Hakim.

Seven judges have been assigned to the tribunal so far, and more judges and prosecutors will be chosen, Qanbar said.

He added that the tribunal has a budget of $75 million for 2004-2005.

No date has been set for Saddam's trial.

BALTIMORE SUN: Nader wants rapid pullout from Iraq

Ralph Nader, still laboring to get his presidential campaign off the ground, now calls himself a “muscular peace candidate.”

Nader, an independent, remains a marginal player in this year's election. He is likely to be shut out of fall debates, has little campaign money and faces a struggle to get his name on the ballot in many states.

But the anti-corporate activist apparently senses an opening for an anti-war candidate in the '04 contest.

Nader is advocating a pullout, within six months, of all U.S. military forces from Iraq. He argues that Democratic candidate John Kerry is “making a big mistake” by adopting a “stay-the-course” position in the face of rising anti-U.S. violence in Iraq.

“The peace movement in this country is going to have an interesting choice” in November, Nader told a group of reporters in Washington yesterday.

Nader wants Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney impeached for taking the nation to war without a formal declaration by Congress. But he also labels Kerry a “war candidate.” He sharply criticized the Massachusetts senator for refusing to admit that the war, which he voted to authorize, was a mistake and for supporting the continued U.S. occupation.

“He's stuck in the Iraq quagmire the way Bush is,” Nader said.

Not sure this one fits in with the timeliness of C-P, but it's worth noting…

JERUSALEM POST: Jews who fled Iraq to get compensation

French insurance giant AXA has agreed to compensate Jews who owned property in Iraq and fled in the early 1950s, a precedent that could pave the way for reparations for some 850,000 Jews who left Arab countries, officials said Tuesday.

AXA will pay compensation to three Jews who were forced out of Iraq in response to Israel's establishment in 1948, said Justice Ministry spokesman Yaakov Galanti.

Although the case involves a tiny group, it may bring other insurance companies to compensate other claimants, Galanti said.

“This is unprecedented,” Galanti said. “This really opens the doors for other policies to be compensated.”

FYI, Former Defense Minister Fuad Ben-Elizer was born in Iraq in 1950.

(It's not quite land for a casino in Cyprus, but who's counting?)

CNN: U.S.: Mortar attack kills detainees in Baghdad

A mortar attack on a Baghdad facility Tuesday killed more than 21 detainees, a U.S. Army spokesman said.

Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt said 18 mortars struck the Baghdad confinement facility Tuesday afternoon.

“Preliminary reports indicate that more than 21 detainees were killed and more than 100 wounded,” Kimmitt said at a news briefing.

From the AFP via The Australian :

President Ricardo Maduro has announced that the 368 Honduran troops in Iraq would be withdrawn as soon as possible, saying they have accomplished the mission assigned them by the United Nations.

”Today I have spoken with the members of the coalition and other friendly countries, and have decided to withdraw the Honduran troops in Iraq,” Maduro said.

“I have ordered the secretary of state… to carry out the decision as quickly as possible and in a way that will ensure the safety of our troops,” Maduro said in a speech broadcast nationally.

[…]
Other members of the US-led coalition - Britain, Australia, Italy, Poland, Philippines, Albania - have hastened to confirm they will remain in Iraq.

Japan, who has also ruled out any withdrawal of its 550 troops, warned Tuesday that Spain's pullout could prompt other nations to follow suit.

From the AFP via The Australian :

A Journalist and driver working for the coalition-funded Iraqi television channel were killed today by US military fire, the channel's editor-in-chief said.

”Journalist Assad Kadhem and his driver Hussein Saleh were killed, while cameraman Jaassem Kamel, who was hit in the back, is in Samarra hospital,” Najm Khafaji told AFP.

Khafaji said the reporting team in Samara, some 125 kilometres north of Baghdad, were killed after they had started to film a US base while it was under attack.

From the ABC (Australian Broadcasting Corporation) :

Thailand will withdraw its 451 medical and engineering troops from Iraq if they are attacked amid growing turmoil in the country, Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra has said.

Mr Thaksin's government is facing growing calls to withdraw its troops sent to Iraq last year to do humanitarian work in the southern city of Karbala, 100 kilometres south of Baghdad.

“If we get hurt or killed, I will not keep them there,” Mr Thaksin told reporters a day after Honduras followed Spain in announcing they would pull their troops out of Iraq.

The Thai senate began debate on a resolution on Tuesday calling for the troops to come home.

From The Australian :

US Marines have launched operations targeting Iraqis providing weapons, money and recruits for insurgents in Fallujah even as Coalition officials moved to ease access to the embattled Sunni town, a defense official said.

The operations have focused on locales along the border with Syria and in small towns surrounding Fallujah that are part of a clandestine network of support for fighters locked in a bloody, two week standoff with Marines, the official said.

“There have been specific raids on known indidivuals who are providing those weapons, those finances, which in turn has led to additional information on how those organisations are structured and equipped,” said the official, who spoke on condition he not be identified.

“Many of those operations have been along the border region with Syria,” the official said.

“There are a lot of small towns around Fallujah that also have been providing support for the insurgents,” he said.

The Marines, he said, “have been really successfully in heading much of that off.”

From ABC (Australian Broadcasting Corporation) :

The US-led coalition in Iraq has announced a deal aimed at ending the bloody stand-off in the Sunni stronghold of Fallujah in which more than 600 Iraqis and scores of US soldiers have died in the past month.

However coalition spokesmen have expressed doubts about whether the civic leaders, with whom they have reached an agreement, can deliver on the deal.

The coalition is offering access to hospitals, the removal and burial of the dead and a reduction in curfew hours.

In return they are demanding the handing in of all heavy weaponry and a crackdown by local authorities with coalition support, on foreign fighters, criminal and drug users and investigation into criminal acts including the killing and mutilation of four US contractors.

There would also be joint patrols involving Iraqi police and coalition forces.

The Status Quo Ante Bellum, but with the heavy weapons and terrorists surrendered. Sounds good - if the Tribal leaders can deliver. Breath-holding contra-indicated.

From the ABC (Australian Broadcasting Corporation) :

A coalition ally with troops in Iraq has taken what is being described as an extraordinary decision to declassify intelligence reports because of the continuing furore over Iraq's alleged weapons of mass destruction.

The Danish Government was one of a number of coalition allies to link Iraq's probable possession of chemical and biological weapons to the case for war.

It decided to declassify relevant intelligence reports after a former intelligence officer claimed no reliable details had been available to prove Iraq's operational WMD capacity.

At least one declassified report from Denmark's national intelligence agency, dated March 15 last year, confirms the agency had limited knowledge of Iraq's chemical weapons program.

Welcome! Our goal is to give you one power-packed briefing of insights, news and trends from the global War on Terror that leaves you stimulated, informed, and occasionally amused every Monday & Thursday. Today we also have a separate Winds of War briefing, covering the global War on Terror. Today's “Winds of War” is brought to you by Dan Darling. of Regnum Crucis.

Top Topics

• US marines are tightening the border between Syria and Iraq. This move led to a major clash with insurgents coming in from Syria, though there appear to be different versions as far as what actually occurred.

• ICT has a nice profile up of Muqtada al-Sadr.

• UN envoy Lakhdar Brahimi is proposing a caretaker government to govern Iraq between June 30 and the elections on January 31, 2004. Bush and Blair seem to agree with the plan as it now stands.

Other Topics Today Include: Reports from the front lines; Iraqi politics & economy; The international stage; WMD.

Read The Rest…

FOX NEWS: Bush Names Negroponte Ambassador to Iraq

U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations John D. Negroponte is the new U.S. ambassador-designate to Iraq, President Bush announced Monday.

“He has done a really good job of speaking for the United States to the world about our intentions to spend freedom and peace. John Negroponte is a man of enormous experience and skill,” Bush said in the Oval Office with the diplomat by his side. “No doubt in my mind he can handle it, no doubt in my mind he will do a very good job, no doubt in my mind that Iraq will be free and peaceful.”

JERUSALEM POST: Al-Sadr vows to stop attacks on Spanish troops

Muktada al-Sadr, the radical Shiite cleric, has called on his supportes on Monday to stop attacking Spanish troops after Madrid announced its intentions to withdraw its troops from Iraq.

Al-Sadr's spokesman said that Spanish soldiers would not be touched as long as Spanish force don't conducts acts of aggression against Iraqi targets.

From Reuters via the ABC (Australian Broadcasting Corpoartion) :

The US Army says it will reduce the size of the force it has built up outside the Iraqi city of Najaf and is prepared to wait before moving against rebel cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, a senior officer has said.

Colonel Dana Pittard, commander of the 2,500-strong 3rd Brigade Task Force outside Najaf, said the force would be withdrawn over coming days and would be replaced by about 2,000 soldiers from the 1st Armoured Division.

The US military has said it plans to kill or capture Mr Sadr who is holed up in Najaf and destroy his Mehdi militia.

Negotiations are under way through intermediaries to find a peaceful solution to the stand-off.

Iraqi clerics have warned that if US troops move into the holy Shiite city of Najaf it could spark fury and cause a fresh eruption of unrest.

“Because of where negotiations are right now, we can wait,” Colonel Pittard said.

“We still want Iraqis to solve the problem.”

And in the meantime, rotate fresh forces and heavy armour in…

AP: Fallujah Leaders Seek Insurgents' Weapons

Fallujah's civic leaders joined American officials Monday in calling for insurgents battling Marines here to surrender their heavy weapons — mortars and rockets for example — in return for an end to the U.S. siege of the city, according to a U.S. spokesman.

The committments appeared to be the first fruits of direct negotiations between U.S. officials and a group of civic leaders and professions representing Fallujah residents.

The joint statement also outlines promises to improve the humanitarian situation in the beseiged city and to attempt a restoration of control in the city to Irasqi security forces, U.S. spokesman Dan Senor said.

Maj. Gen. Mark Kimmitt warned, however, that if the deal fell apart, Marines were prepared to attack and take the city quickly.

From the ABC (Australian Broadcasting Corporation) :

The US military commander in Iraq has added his weight to criticism of [Australian Opposition Leader] Mark Latham's Christmas deadline for bringing Australian forces home.

In an interview with the ABC's 7:30 Report Lieutenant General Ricardo Sanchez says withdrawal would be, in his words, a “big signal” to terrorists operating in Iraq.

Washington is still determined to hand over sovereignty to an interim Iraqi government from July 1.

However, the US administrator for Iraq Paul Bremer has admitted Iraqi forces will not be able to deal with these threats by themselves and will be depending on US and coalition troops.

This view has been reiterated by Lt Gen Sanchez, the commanding officer of the coalition ground forces in Iraq.

“I think as soon as you start to have forces or countries depart form the coalition, it'll be a big signal sent not just to the Iraqi people, but more importantly to some of these insurgents who continue to operate in this country, and also to the international community, that the coalition is not committed to accomplishing its task.”

Yesterday, in a live TV interview, a member of the Iraqi Governing Council also called upon the Australian Opposition to reverse its policy again for much the same reasons.

From the AFP via The Australian :

Spain's new Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero Sunday ordered his country's troops to withdraw from Iraq “as soon as possible'' as he said Madrid's conditions for maintaining the contingent in the US-led coalition appear unlikely to be fulfilled.

Zapatero had vowed following his Socialist Party's election win last month to pull Spanish troops from Iraq unless they come under UN command by June 30 when their mandate expires.

“I have given the order to the defense minister to take the necessary measures so that Spanish troops are withdrawn from Iraq as soon as possible and with maximum security,” Zapatero said in an address on Spanish television a day after formally taking office.

“It does not look like a UN resolution will match the content” of the Spanish demands for the continued presence of the troops, the prime minister said.
[…]
A foreign ministry official in Cairo said Spain's Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos had informed Egyptian counterpart Ahmed Maher that Madrid plans to pull its troops out of Iraq “within 15 days”, but Maher later said that no specific timeframe was mentioned.

“Sauve Qui Peut!” Though it's not the military saying that, just the leaders.

UPDATE : From the AFP via ABC (Australian Broadcasting Corporation) :

Radical Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr has called on his followers to stop attacks on Spanish troops after Madrid announced it would withdraw its contingent from Iraq as soon as possible, a spokesman has said.

”We call [on them] to ensure the security of Spanish troops until their departure, as long as these forces do not perpetrate aggressions against the Iraqi people,” said Qais al-Khazaali.

“Other countries which assign troops to the coalition in Iraq are urged to follow the example of Spain and to withdraw their forces to save the lives of their soldiers,” he added.

UPDATE : From Reuters via the ABC again :

Romano Prodi, European Commission president and a key figure in the Italian left-wing opposition, has supported Spain's decision to withdraw its troops from Iraq and said Europe was finding common ground on the issue.

He said at a meeting of Italian centre-left allies that Spain's move was aimed at putting pressure on the international community to resolve the Iraq crisis.

“With this decision, Spain has fallen into line with our position,” Mr Prodi told reporters, referring to his political alliance in Italy which has said Italian troops should also come home from Iraq unless the United Nations (UN) takes charge there.

“The divide that prevented Europe from having a common position is being overcome,” he added.

Some U.S. soldiers who have returned from serving in Iraq have found they have one more enemy to face — a tiny sand fly that causes stubborn and ugly sores that linger for months.

One soldier undergoing treatment says so many of his fellow soldiers had the same sores he does that — in his words — “You ain't cool unless you got it.”

Doctors at the Walter Reed Army hospital in Washington have seen more than 600 cases of the infections that soldiers call the “Baghdad boil.”

The sores aren't painful or contagious, but left untreated they can last up to 18 months and leave permanent, burn-like scars.

Since the flies bite exposed areas, many soldiers have sores on their necks, faces and arms.

Drugde had a photo, but I'm declining in the interest of those eating breakfast.

CNN: Al-Sadr hails quick Spain pullout

Radical Islamic cleric Muqtada al-Sadr has welcomed Spain's decision to withdraw its troops from Iraq “in the shortest time possible,” as U.S. officials braced for more possible pullouts.

According to a spokesman in the Iraqi city of Najaf, the Shiite cleric praised Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero's decision Sunday to pull Spain's 1,400-plus troops from Iraq.

Al-Sadr also is asking that people from all coalition countries put pressure on their governments to follow Spain and recall their forces, spokesman Fuad al-Turfi said.

The cleric's supporters have been fighting coalition troops since the coalition closed their newspaper and arrested one of al-Sadr's deputies in connection with the killing of a rival cleric last year.

One man suffered serious injuries and was being flown home today for emergency treatment at a British hospital. The Ministry of Defence would not confirm whether his condition is life-threatening.

He was the victim of a roadside bomb that detonated on Sunday, destroying the Land Rover he was travelling in near the town of Al Almarah.

Two more soldiers suffered more minor injuries in the same incident and were treated in Iraq where they remain.

Two other soldiers were returning to the UK today with injuries sustained during fighting in Al Almarah, an hour and a half north west of Basra, on Saturday night.

From the ABC (Australian Broadcasting Corporation) :

Three US soldiers died in an ambush near the southern town of Diwaniya and another was killed in fighting in Al Anbar province near Fallujah.

And one soldier was killed and two were injured when a tank overturned north of Baghdad and another died of injuries received in a roadside bombing in the capital.

1 Soldier, 2 Civilians, 5 Marines. From the AP via The Australian :

Two Iraqi civilians and one American soldier were killed in attacks in Baghdad, the US military said today.

The US soldier was killed yesterday morning when a roadside bomb exploded near a military convoy, the military said in a statement.

The soldier was from Task Force Baghdad, which is made up mostly of troops from the 1st Cavalry Division.
[…]
Two Iraqi civilians were killed on Friday and four wounded when 122-millimetre rockets fired by insurgents fell short of a military camp and hit a civilian area, the military said.
[…]
5 Marines were reported killed in a 14-hour battle against more than 100 gunmen near Iraq's border with Syria, a journalist in the area said today.

Scores of insurgents were also killed, an embedded journalist from the St Louis Post-Dispatch reported. The city police chief in the border town of Qaim put the number of gunmen at about 150.

_________

[Ed. Update]

More on Marine deaths at Syria border at Fox.

REUTERS: Report: Spain to Offer U.S. Non-Military Aid in Iraq

Spain's Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos, sworn into office Sunday, will offer to replace Spanish troops in Iraq with non-military assistance when he visits Washington this week, newspaper El Pais reported.

Spain's Socialists ousted the pro-U.S. Popular Party in elections — just days after bombers killed 191 people on commuter trains in Madrid last month — and have stood by a campaign promise to withdraw Spain's 1,300 troops from Iraq if the United Nations (news - web sites) does not take charge there by June 30.

Moratinos will tell Secretary of State Colin Powell (news - web sites) on Wednesday that Spain is committed to helping the reconstruction of Iraq and helping it on the way to stability and democracy, the paper said.

The former EU Middle East envoy will make concrete proposals about reconstruction aid, which could include humanitarian assistance, the paper reported. Moratinos will also ask Powell about the U.S. view on the possibility of United Nations taking over in Iraq.

A foreign office spokesman could not confirm the report.

From the AFP via the BBC :

Al-Qaeda-linked terrorists planned a chemical attack on Jordan's spy headquarters that could have killed 20,000 people, officials have said.

Earlier this week King Abdullah said a massive attack had been thwarted by a series of arrests, but named no target.

Now unnamed officials say the suspects have confessed to plotting to detonate a chemical bomb on the Amman HQ of the Intelligence Services.

The plot was reportedly hatched by al-Qaeda suspect Abu-Musab al-Zarqawi.

Washington has accused the 38-year-old Jordanian radical of masterminding a string of spectacular suicide bombings in Iraq.

An official involved in the inquiry in Jordan told AFP news agency: “We found primary materials to make a chemical bomb which, if it had exploded, would have made nearly 20,000 deaths … in an area of one square kilometre.

“The target of this bomb was the headquarters of the Intelligence Services,” situated on a hill in the western suburb of Amman, he added.

The official said another operation planned by the network was to use “deadly gas against the US embassy and the prime minister's office in Amman … and other public buildings in Jordan”.

Jorsna's King Abdullah confirmed the chemical weapons entered Jordan via Syria. From the San Francisco Chronicle via NewsMax :

Jordan's King Abdullah revealed on Saturday that vehicles reportedly containing chemical weapons and poison gas that were part of a deadly al-Qaida bomb plot came from Syria, the country named by U.S. weapons inspector David Kay last year as a likely repository for Iraq's weapons of mass destruction.

”It was a major, major operation. It would have decapitated the government,” King Abdullah told the San Francisco Chronicle.
[…]
King Abdullah said that trucks containing 17.5 tons of explosives had come from Syria, though he took pains not to implicate Syrian President Bashir Assad in the al-Qaida plot, saying, “I'm completely confident that Bashir did not know about it.”

In his testimony before Congress last year, weapons inspector Kay said U.S. satellite surveillance showed substantial vehicular traffic going from Iraq to Syria just prior to the U.S. attack on March 19, 2003.

While Kay said investigators couldn't be sure the cargo contained weapons of mass destruction, one of his top advisers described the evidence as “unquestionable.”
[…]
A car belonging to the al-Qaida plotters, containing a chemical bomb and poisonous gas, was intercepted just 75 miles from the Syrian border.

From the ABC (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

Supporters of outlawed Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr say they expect US forces to attack the holy city of Najaf after mediation efforts failed today, while coalition officials were hopeful talks in Fallujah would end a bloody stand-off between US troops and Sunni Muslim rebels.

Sadr and his supporters said mediation efforts with the US-led coalition had failed in Najaf and they were preparing for what they believed to be an imminent US attack.

Talks halted “because the mediators have told us the Americans are putting obstacles towards finding solutions to the crisis and the situation is getting worse,” Qais al-Khazaali, the head of Sadr's office, said.

“We are expecting the Americans to attack Najaf any moment now.”

In other news from the same article :

Gunmen opened fire on a US convoy near the Spanish base at Diwaniyah, east of Najaf, today and US forces fired back, a spokesman for the Spanish contingent in the occupation force, said.
[…]
US Marines repositioned some of their forces to allow cars to reach the general hospital in Fallujah as part of confidence-building measures, an Iraqi mediator said.

From the AFP via The Australian :

A US soldier was killed and two wounded when their patrol hit an anti-tank mine near the Iraqi city of Tikrit, the military said today.

”One 1st Infantry Division soldier was killed and two wounded when their patrol struck an anti-tank mine near Tikrit at around 10.45am April 16,” the military said.

“The wounded were evacuated to a nearby military medical facility and were listed in stable condition.”

From the ABC (Australian Broadcasting Corporation) :

The US led coalition in Iraq has announced the closure of all major highways into and out of Baghdad.

Coalition spokesmen have denied the closure has anything to do with threats by insurgents.

The statement said highways one and eight to the north and south of Baghdad had become targets for anti-coalition forces and were damaged and too dangerous to travel. They would be closed indefinitely.

The main highway to the west, which runs through Fallujah, has been closed for a week now.

Military spokesman Mark Kimmitt says motorists would be directed to alternate roads.

He dismissed suggestions that the closure was due to posters and flyers being distributed around Baghdad warning people to stay at home this week because of a major offensive to be launched by insurgents and said if the fight were taken to the capital, the First Cavalry Division would be waiting.

From the ABC (Australian Broadcasting Corporation) :

A Sudanese national has been killed in the Iraqi capital, Baghdad, after two mortar rounds struck near two hotels used by security guards employed by the US-led coalition and foreign journalists.

One round fell near a security checkpoint leading to the hotels, killing the Sudanese man, who was a guard at a nearby building.

The second round exploded in the same sector, damaging a car and causing damage to nearby houses.

From the Reuters via the ABC (Australian broadcasting Corporation) :

Two Japanese hostages have been released in the Iraqi capital, witnesses said.

A Reuters Television cameraman saw the two being handed over to a Japanese delegation at Baghdad's Um al-Qura mosque.

“Two Japanese hostages were freed and handed over to the Japanese charge d'affaires,” said Abdel Salam al-Kubaisi, from the Muslim Clerics Association.

Done Dirt Cheap too.

From the AP via The Australian comes a detailed report of the situation in Fallujah.

In Fallujah's darkened, empty streets, US troops blast AC/DC's “Hell's Bells” and other rock music full volume from a huge speaker, hoping to grate on the nerves of the city's gunmen and give a laugh to Marines along the front line.

Unable to advance farther into the city, an Army psychological operations team hopes a mix of heavy metal and insults shouted in Arabic - including, “You shoot like a goat-herder” - will draw gunmen to step forward and attack. But no luck this night.
[…]
Laying on his stomach on a rooftop and wearing goggles and earplugs, a Marine sniper keeps an eye to his rifle site. His main task in recent days has been trying to hit the black-garbed gunmen who occasionally dash across the long street in front of him. To dodge his shots, one of the gunmen recently launched into a rolling dive across the street, which had the sniper and his buddies laughing.

“I think I got him later. The same guy came back and tried to do a low crawl,” said Lance Cpl. Khristopher Williams, 20, from Fort Myers, Florida.

Others have run across the street, hiding behind children on bicycles, said the sniper. In his position - reachable only by scaling the outside ledge of a building - he sits for hours with his finger poised on the trigger of a rifle that fires 50-caliber armor piercing bullets with such force that the muzzle flash and exiting gasses from the weapon have blackened the bricks around the gun.
[…]
At night, the psychological operations unit attached to the Marine battalion here, sends out messages from a loudspeaker mounted on an armored Humvee. On Thursday night, the crew and its Arabic-language interpreter taunted fighters, saying, “May all the ambulances in Fallujah have enough fuel to pick up the bodies of the Mujahadeen.”

The message was specially timed for an attack moments later by an AC-130 gunship that pounded targets in the city.

Those in the military reading this will now be saying “Ooh, That's gotta hurt.”

Later, the team blasted Jimi Hendrix and other rock music, and afterward some sound effects like babies crying, men screaming, a symphony of cats and barking dogs and piercing screeches. They were unable to draw any gunmen to fight, and seemed disappointed.

There's a reason why the Australian military likes to play with Uncle Sam's Misguided Children. Kindred Spirits.

From The Australian :

The radical young cleric Moqtada al-Sadr is today holed up in Iraq's sacred city of Najaf, trying to negotiate a face-saving compromise after failing to ignite a general uprising among the nation's Shi'ite Muslim majority.

But Sadr's future does not rest with the clerics and other go-betweens who are hoping to avert a bloody showdown between his 1000-strong militia and the 2500 US troops ringing Najaf.

The fate of Sadr - the angry 30-year-old who last week pledged to destroy the coalition's campaign in Iraq - rests with a legal brief that was carefully compiled over the past year by a provincial Iraqi judge.

It is this brief that led to an arrest warrant being issued for Sadr and some of his supporters, provoking his Mahdi Army to take control of several southern towns last week, raising the deadly possibility of a united insurgency by Shi'ite and Sunni hardliners until more moderate Shi'ite leaders disowned him.

A detailed summary of the case against Sadr, which has been obtained by The Weekend Australian, shows that the prosecuting judge, Raid Juhy, has laid a much wider range of charges against the radical cleric than was previously known.

Prosecutors had announced that Sadr was charged with the murder last year of rival cleric Abdul Majeed al-Khoei, the alleged theft of religious funds from several mosques, and the murder by his guards of an Iraqi family.

But Sadr has also been charged with ordering several other murders, setting up illegal courts and prisons, inciting his followers to violence, and other breaches of the Iraqi penal code.

The barrage of charges and evidence amassed by Juhy, a Najaf-based judge, means that even if Sadr can distance himself from the killing of Khoei, he will still face serious problems in court.

The brief shows that the judge, who is responsible under Iraqi law for overseeing the gathering of evidence, has found eyewitnesses to back the charges that Sadr personally authorised the murder of Khoei, a moderate rival.

According to Colonel Mike Kelly, an Australian army lawyer serving in Baghdad as a legal adviser to the coalition forces, the first that coalition lawyers knew of Juhy's investigation was when they heard last June that he was well advanced with the case.

“He is a very professional forensic sort of lawyer who says he doesn't care about politics, he just wants to ensure nobody is above the law any more in Iraq,” Kelly says.

One of the 730-odd Iraqi prosecutors and judges who kept their jobs when the coalition purged about 120 Baath Party members from the legal system, Juhy told coalition lawyers, according to Kelly, he didn't want any help from them “until it was time to arrest Sadr, which would obviously require coalition troops”.

Juhy arrived in London last night to interview two survivors of the attack on Khoei last April at the holiest Shi'ite site, the shrine of the sect's founder, Imam Ali, in Najaf. The son of a former grand ayatollah, Khoei had lived in Britain since the first Gulf War and was taken to Iraq by the coalition forces as a voice of moderation and support for the US-led occupation.

On April 10, Khoei and several associates visited the holy shrine to meet the present ayatollah, Ali al-Sistani.

According to the brief, Juhy has found an eyewitness who is willing to testify that Sadr, who saw Khoei as a threat to his ambitions, became aware of Khoei's visit and planned with his associates to kill him.

A second eyewitness says that when Sadr and a group of followers entered the mosque and saw Khoei's group, Sadr's followers said; “Just say the word, master, and we will attack.”

The brief says: “Sadr replied, 'Just wait, just wait'.”

A funeral procession then came into the mosque, and using this distraction, Sadr called to his followers to attack.

”(The) witness reported that Sadr said, 'By the will of God, attack'.”

Sadr then left the mosque and returned to his office, whereupon his followers drew AK-47s from their robes and started firing in the direction of Khoei and his group in the Khaladaria, an area in which the offices of the mosque clerics are located.

Khoei's bodyguard was armed with a pistol and returned fire.

“During the course of the firefight Khoei suffered an injury to his hand, losing a couple of fingers. When the Khoei group ran out of ammunition, Riyadh Nouri, a key Sadr lieutenant, called out on a megaphone for a ceasefire,” the brief says.

“He offered Khoei a hearing to defend himself in Sadr's nearby office. Khoei agreed, but as they emerged from the Khaladaria in the mosque, the Sadr mob descended upon them and began beating and stabbing them.

“At the entrance (of the mosque), Haider al-Kaliedar (Khoei's bodyguard) died from the knife attacks. At this point, Khoei and two of his group broke free and ran to the office of Sadr, suffering from many stab wounds and the beatings. Sadr refused to open the door to the office.

“At this point, a merchant from across the street came and collected the three persons, helping them into his shop. There Khoei passed out from his stabbing and gunshot wounds. Two clerics from the Sadr office came into the shop and tested Khoei's pulse.

“They then left and reported to Sadr. The mob gathered outside the shop and Sadr left his office.

“There is a (third) eyewitness who can testify that Sadr gave the direction to take him (Khoei) away and 'Kill him in your own special way'.

“Khoei was dragged from the shop and down the street by his feet, with his head banging on each of the stone steps down to the next street level. He was dragged up that street to about 50 metres from the entrance to the Imam Ali mosque, and there a Sadr follower produced an AK-47 and shot Khoei in the head.

“The other two persons who were left in the shop when Khoei was dragged out escaped to the coalition forces compound in Najaf and subsequently left the country.”

It is those two survivors of the fight that the judge has flown to London to interview.

According to Kelly, 12 of Sadr's followers — the stabbers and shooters — were arrested soon after the killings, and warrants were issued in August for Sadr and several of his more senior followers.

Attempts to arrest those followers, and the closure of Sadr's newspaper for inciting violence, were met by his call for all Shi'ites to rise against the coalition forces.

When there was no general uprising, Sadr said through intermediaries he was willing to stand trial but only after the coalition hands power over to Iraqis on June 30.

“We have done no deals along those lines,” Kelly says. “The only thing we would do is guarantee his safety, a fair trial and the provision of a defence lawyer if he needs one.”

Sadr's insistence that he be charged after the June 30 handover carries a particular danger for him.

The coalition authorities last year struck down Iraq's death penalty, meaning he would not risk execution if his case began before June 30, but Iraqi officials are widely expected to restore the death penalty once they regain sovereignty.

In Fallujah's darkened, empty streets, US troops blast AC/DC's Hell's Bells and other rock music full volume from a huge speaker, hoping to grate on the nerves of the city's gunmen and give a laugh to marines along the front line.

Unable to advance farther into the city, an army psychological operations team hopes a mix of heavy metal and insults shouted in Arabic - including “You shoot like a goat herder” - will draw gunmen to step forward and attack. But no luck this night.

I had this idea last week. Called “I Rock in Iraq” it would entail getting the bands like Slayer and Cannibal Corpse to head over to Fallujah and serenade Sadr and his minions until they can't take the Satanic verses anymore and come out with their hands up.

Or we could always just play Judas Priest records in reverse.

Iraqi insurgents say they are keeping an American soldier in good health, hoping to exchange him for prisoners in U.S. custody.

Those words come from the same videotape that shows the soldier being held at gunpoint.

The soldier on the tape identifies himself as Keith Maupin — an Ohio man who has been missing in Iraq for a week.

On the tape, the soldier goes on to say that he is married, with a ten-month-old child.

He says he came to liberate Iraq but “did not come willingly” — because he wanted to stay home with his child.

The video was shown by al Jazeera.

President Bush and Prime Minister Blair held a joint press conference this morning, in which questioning focused on Iraq and the Israel/Palestine situation.

The final questioner asked “isn't the awkward fact for both of you that you misled your peoples in taking troops to war and shedding blood as a result,” apparently assuming that the fact that WMD have not yet been found (though weapons violating the terms of the UN resolutions regarding Iraq have been) proves that the Bush and Blair somehow knew that Saddam had secretly disposed of the weapons he had previously developed and the UN believed he continued to have (and continued to sanction him for), but kept this knowledge from the UN and other nations.

Prime Minster Blair answered: “I just remind you that when, in November of 2002, we passed the United Nations resolution calling upon Saddam to comply fully with the United Nations inspectors, we did that on the basis of an understanding that wasn't confined simply to Great Britain and America, but wasright across the hall of the Security Council, that Saddam Hussein was a threat — and, indeed, it would difficult to conclude otherwise given that his was a regime that actually used chemical weapons, weapons of mass destruction against their own people.

… And this is one of these situations where — you know, people often say to me, well is it — is the world safer, given all the difficulty and violence that you have in Iraq? And I say to them, well, first of all, don't think that violence wasn't happening every day in Iraq under Saddam Hussein, it was. But, secondly, when you take on and you deal with these issues, yes, of course, you face difficult times.”

The President emphasized the importance of building free societies to winnign the longterm war on terror: “If they believe that we'll cut and run — in other words, if times get tough, and we'll just say, see you later — nobody is going to take a stand for freedom and liberty; they're afraid of getting killed or tortured or maimed. These are — I said the other night that a year seems like a long time for Americans and people in Great Britain. But a year is not much when
you're trying to shed yourself from the habits of tyranny and torture.
Remember where these people came from. They came from a society where if they dared speak their mind, it's likely they'd end up in a mass grave or in a torture room. If they criticized Saddam Hussein in any way, they would be maimed or killed. And that's a hard thing to forget. … There's a lot of talk about the war on terror, and can we win the war on terror. Of course we can win the war on terror in the long run. We can do a lot of things in the short-term to protect ourselves, starting with staying on the offensive. But in the long-term, it's the spread of freedom that will win the war on terror. See, the great thing about our two countries is we believe in the power of free societies. And we don't say freedom is only — is consigned to one group of people or one religion. We believe freedom is universal. And free societies are peaceful societies. And freedom will be the cure for those who harbor deep resentment and hatred in their heart. And I appreciate the Prime Minister understanding that vision, as well. It's a wonderful feeling to have a strong ally in believing in the power of free societies and liberty. And that's why we're going to stay the course in Iraq. And that's why when we say something in Iraq, we're going to do it, because we want there to be a free society. It's in our long-term interests. It's in the interests of our children and our grandchildren that Iraq be free.”

“We're on an express elevator to Hell. Going down!” I loved that movie.

Just kidding, though. We'll be successful in Iraq. But I'd hate to see one of these buggers in my sleeping bag:

Camel spiders, also known as wind spiders, wind scorpions, and sun scorpions, are a type of arthropod found (among other places) in the deserts of the Middle East

What would Ripley do? What would Ender do?

Via Little Green Footballs.

See, also, snopes.com.

This is a copy of the original post at the nikita demosthenes website.

Two Jordanians were killed and a third was injured in Iraq when their vehicle was hit by rockets near the central town of Ramadi, the official Petra news agency reported on Friday.

“A Jordanian vehicle was targeted in the region of Ramadi (west of Baghdad) with a rocket bombardment on Wednesday, which cost the lives of two Jordanian citizens and badly wounded a third,” it said.

The report identified only one of the dead, lawyer Mouaffak Faleh al-Zohbi, and said the the injured man, Qassem Oueid al-Zohbi, was taken to hospital in Amman where he was in a critical condition.

Hojatoleslam Moqtada al-Sadr, the firebrand Shia cleric, has today poured scorn on any compromise deal with US forces in his first public appearance for two weeks.

The radical cleric, who is wanted by US-led coalition for murder, said that any compromise aimed at diffusing a potentially explosive confrontation “will not work”.

He also said he would not disband his al-Mahdi Army militia, a central demand of the US-led coalition.

The US-led coalition has amassed a 2,500-strong task force poised on the outskirts of Najaf. It has given warning the task force will move into the city if the al-Mahdi Army does not disband and the cleric surrender.

But today, Hojatoleslam al-Sadr delivered a defiant sermon at the main mosque at Kufa, 5km northeast of Najaf. He said: “We will not allow the forces of occupation to enter Najaf and the holy sites because they are forbidden places for them.

“I say that they are here to stay and will occupy us for many years and as such compromise will not work.”

Full Story

• SMH reports that a Dane has possibly been kidnapped. They also report that some Russian workers in Iraq have opted to stay even though Russia has sent planes to evacuate them from the country.

• Australian PM Howard calls a spade a spade: He takes a “human shield” to task for wandering into a war zone and becoming a hostage.

“I think people have to understand that when they take unnecessary risks, they're not only putting their own lives at stake but they're also putting at stake the lives of many other people and it is just not acceptable,” Mr Howard said.

“I would be failing in my duty to the rest of the Australians in Iraq if I didn't say in the bluntest possible sense, it is not fair on others to behave in a careless and foolhardy fashion.”

• AP is reporting that a US businessman has been abducted from his hotel near Basra.

• US officials are meeting with Fallujah reps today.

From the AAP via The Australian :

(Australian) Foreign Minister Alexander Downer today described an Australian woman as reckless for travelling into an Iraqi war zone, saying the lives of others could have been put at risk.

Australian aid worker Donna Mulhearn, from Maitland in NSW, was captured by local Mujahadeen fighters as she and three other foreign aid workers tried to leave the Iraqi flash point of Fallujah on Wednesday.

They had been distributing humanitarian aid to civilians.
[…]
“She's gone into a war zone . . . I'm not sure what an Australian would do wandering into that area, it was very reckless,” he said.

“I think Australians have got to be enormously careful, whatever their political opinions, she claims to be a member of the Labor Party, … to make sure that they are as safe as possible.

“Otherwise other Australians then have to go and try and help them.

“I worry about all the Australians of goodwill, who nevertheless have had to look after people who describe themselves as human shields and go into Iraq to make all sorts of political points . . . and get themselves into trouble.

“Then our people have to take risks to try to help them.”

Mr Downer said political comments by Ms Mulhearn concerning the Australian government were also unhelpful.

“This is a very sensitive and a very difficult part of the world,” he said.

Ms Mulhearn claimed inflammatory comments by Prime Minister John Howard, which were given wide airplay on Iraqi and Arab television in the preceding days, had placed her in danger.

She said at the time, “I realised quickly that my prime minister, John Howard, had placed me in great danger by making inflammatory comments about the war just a few days ago.”

Mr Downer urged Australians to keep their political protests out of Iraq.

“If they don't like the American marines or something like that, please don't protest by going into Fallujah and trying to become a human shield,” he said.

“Go to America and stand outside the White House with a gigantic banner saying `I'm from Australia and I protest'.”

From The Guardian :

The Italian who was the first civilian hostage to be killed in Iraq was today hailed as a hero who defied his captors and told them: “Now I'll show you how an Italian dies.”

Italy's foreign minister, Franco Frattini, confirmed Fabrizio Quattrocchi's death, and said that an Italian official had seen a videotape of the killing of the 36-year-old security guard, one of four Italians taken hostage on Monday.

The tape of his killing was sent to Qatar-based Arab television station Al-Jazeera, which said that it was “too bloody” to show.

Mr Frattini said: “This boy, as the assassins were pointing the gun at him, tried to take off his hood and shouted: 'Now I'll show you how an Italian dies' … he died as a hero.”

It was understood that the Italian ambassador to Qatar had seen the tape, and had relayed its contents to Mr Frattini.

AP/Army Times: Marines trade ‘culturally sensitive’ training for bullets

On a rooftop overlooking Fallujah’s industrial wasteland, Lance Cpl. Tom Browne pokes his machine gun muzzle out of a hole in a barrier wall, singing to himself to pass the time.

In the street below, the corpse of an insurgent suspect lies baking in the sun. Browne, from Boston, says he has killed several rebels, probably Iraqis, so far.

“I don’t even think about those people as people,” he says.

It wasn’t supposed to be this way.

The band of Marines in this insurgent stronghold received two big orders this year. They were told to return to Iraq to stabilize the Sunni areas west of Baghdad, Iraq’s toughest patch of territory. The normally clean-shaven Marines also were told to grow mustaches in an attempt to win over Iraqis who see facial hair as a sign of maturity.

“We did it basically to show the Iraqi people that we respect their culture,” said Lance Cpl. Cristopher Boulwave, 22, from Desoto, Texas.

But after the brutal killing of four American contractors in Fallujah on March 31, they tossed aside such pretenses. First to go were the mustaches.

“When you go to fight, it’s time to shoot — not to make friends with people,” said Sgt. Cameron Lefter, 34, from Seattle.

In the fight for Fallujah — which has killed more than 600 Iraqis, according to city doctors and about a dozen Marines — the Marines now seem to be following the second half of their famous motto: “No better friend, no worse enemy.”

The Marines say it’s easier to cope with the daily work of killing inside Fallujah — where a seemingly unending supply of rebels continues to fight — if they don’t think about the suspected rebels they are targeting as people who, under different circumstances, they might have been trying to help.

“If someone came and did this to our neighborhood, I’d be pissed, too,” said Capt. Don Maraska of Moscow, Idaho, a 37-year-old who guides airstrikes on enemy targets in the town. “I’ve never had people look at me the way these people look at me. I don’t know what came before, but at this point, what else can we possibly do but fight?”

The Marines were hoping to lull Fallujah and Anbar province into a state of well-being by passing out $540 million in rebuilding funds, and showing off a more educated attitude about Arab sensitivities than they believed their U.S. Army predecessors displayed.

Before returning to Iraq, the Marines took a crash course in cultural training that included a video teleconference with an Arabic studies professor and the distribution of a culture handbook with tips warning against showing the soles of their feet or eating with their left hands.

About three dozen Marines from one unit took a three-week intensive language course in Arabic. And, of course, they grew mustaches.

“We grew them for the Iraqi people. We shaved them off for us,” said Lt. Col. Brennan Byrne, who originally ordered his men to sport the facial hair.

These days, the Marines are speaking a more familiar language.

“We didn’t initiate this,” said 1st Marine Regiment Commander Col. John Toolen. “I came in here with more money than bullets. Now I’m running out of bullets, but the money is still in my pocket.”

The Marines are frustrated with the negotiations to halt the firing in Fallujah. Many say they want to finish the battle, take control of the rebel city by brute force — whatever it takes — rather than wait for Iraqi negotiators to thrash out a deal to stop the fighting.

Commentary on OTB.

REUTERS: Iraqi Shi'ite Cleric Sadr Says U.S. Must Leave

Iraqi rebel Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, in an interview published on Thursday, said he was prepared for indirect talks with the U.S.-led occupation force and vowed to press demands for foreign troops to leave.

“We are ready to hold talks with the occupying regime, but have no intention of dropping the demands we have placed before it,” Sadr told Russia's RIA Novosti news agency on Thursday in Iraq's Shi'ite shrine city of Najaf.

“First and foremost, this means our demands for a pullout from all regions of Iraq and an end to the aggression against the Iraqi people.”

(Next thing you know, he'll threaten to use WMD on our troops. No way we're falling for that trick again!)

Per today's Washington Post:

- - - - - - -

- - - - - - -

This is a duplicate of the original post from the nikita demosthenes website.

Via Instapundit.