EVER WONDER WHAT IT IS LIKE TO OWN A 'BURGER JOINT' IN BAGHDAD?

Baghdad - When Faruk al-Timimi opened his burger joint in 2005, his customers had a view of an intersection dotted with flowers and bustling with fruit stalls, juice vendors, and shoppers strolling lazily from shop to shop.

http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/20080509_report_from_baghdad/
Posted on May 9, 2008

Less than a year later, the Iraqi police Wolf Brigade, infamous for carrying out extrajudicial executions targeting Sunnis, set up a checkpoint right outside Sun City Food’s main entrance.

On the other side of the street, Sunni militias loyal to al-Qaeda moved in. The two forces showered each other with submachine gun fire, stray bullets often hit the restaurant’s windows, and dead bodies sometimes lay for hours, even days, on the sidewalk beneath. More than half of the neighborhood’s residents fled the area, and Al-Timimi closed his restaurant.

On February 15, Sun City Food reopened to much fanfare and cheering from the American troops, who have surrounded this religiously mixed neighborhood in southwestern Baghdad, Saidiyah, by a 12-foot concrete wall, encouraging residents who had fled the violence to return and businesses that had closed to reopen.

US Army Lieutenant Colonel Johnnie Johnson, who commands a battalion that operates in Saidiyah, describes Sun City Food reopening as one of the major achievements symbolic of the neighborhood’s recovery and reconciliation.

“They have these big, huge hamburgers that are too big for me to eat,” says Johnson, who often visits the restaurant for lunch. “It is a sign that a sense of normalcy was brought back to that area.”

But al-Timimi, who has spent $35,000 to remodel his two-story restaurant and decorated it with plastic flowers, a large fish tank and black and mirrored wall tiles, says that despite the return of relative peace to Saidiyah, business has been much slower than he had expected.
“In 2005, I was selling 500 burgers a day,” al-Timimi said in the spacious basement kitchen, where large plastic containers with spices stood on the counter and the aroma of thyme and allspice filled the air. “Now, on a good day, I sell 120 burgers, but usually, it’s more like 60.” He is busiest on Thursdays and Fridays, when he can make up to $1,000 a day, much of which goes to paying the 17 people he employs and for maintenance.

Since Americans surrounded Saidiyah with the wall, as many as 400 families have returned to the neighborhood, and more than 800 shops have reopened - mostly with $2,400 micro-grants that the US troops distributed. Sun City Food was one of the recipients of the grants.

But, like this burger joint, many businesses are doing far worse than before the violence peaked here last year. Mohammad al-Rubayee, who ran a small car dealership from his house in the south of Saidiyah, returned from a self-imposed exile to a calmer part of Baghdad in March to find his front door destroyed, most of his furniture stolen, and his cars stolen.

“They were displayed on the sidewalk, and now - look,” al-Rubayee gestured to the dusty street, empty except for garbage that residents, in the absence of regular trash pickup, often dump outside their homes. “All gone.”

And in northern Saidiyah, Samira al-Ubaidi complained that the security wall ran right in front of the nursery where her brother, Majid, used to sell flowers that she grows. Now there is no way to get in and out of the nursery, and the al-Ubaidis had to close it. Samira continues to grow roses in hundreds of plastic containers she keeps in the front yard under a green mesh to protect the tender shoots from the blistering sun, but the business is almost non-existent, and Majid had moved to a different part of Baghdad.

“That’s the one downside of the wall,” said Lieutenant Rusty Mason, whose platoon patrolled al-Ubaidi’s part of Saidiyah this week. “Pretty much no other business was really affected by it, but there were some nurseries all along the northern stretch, and they all had to shut down.”
At Sun City Food on Friday afternoon, members of Mason’s platoon were the only customers, and after they had ordered, several waiters in orange shirts stood along the walls, bored. A busboy brought from the kitchen a metal tray with large burger patties that had been made earlier that day, and a cook threw the patties, one by one, onto a scalding stove behind the counter in the dining area. Another cook piled the cooked patties, French fries, scarlet tomato slices and yogurt-based sauce between sliced buns, wrapped them in paper and placed them, carefully, into blue plastic bags with the words “Sun City Food” written in English. Al-Timimi said he hoped that eventually, business would pick up.

“When I saw the Americans in Bradleys and tanks in the neighborhood, and when I heard words of encouragement from Colonel Johnson I felt comfortable enough to reopen,” al-Timimi as the American soldiers prepared to leave. Outside his shop, the dusty intersection was empty except for three US Bradley fighting vehicles parked at the curb.

“As long as the Americans are here, I feel comfortable,” he said.

But if the Americans leave Saidiyah, al-Timimi said, “I’ll close my shop and I’ll leave, too.”

Anna Badkhen, 32, has returned to Iraq for the tenth time since 2003. She has covered the wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, Somalia, Israel and the Palestinian territories, Chechnya and Kashmir. Her last trip to Iraq was in 2006. Read more at Anna’s Baghdad journal on The Muckraker.

DEJA VU: NEW YORK TIMES HYPES US PROPAGANDA AND WAR WITH IRAN

Just like they did over five years ago, the New York Times is again promoting going to war, only this time it is with IRAN.

Submitted by John Stauber on Mon, 05/05/2008 - 13:11.Topics: Iran Iraq propaganda terrorism third party technique war/peace

http://www.prwatch.org/node/7294

Greg Mitchell of Editor and Publisher notes that New York Times military reporter Michael Gordon, "who contributed several false stories about Iraqi WMD in the run-up to the U.S. attack in Iraq," has been writing about Iran's alleged involvement in attacks against U.S. service members in Iraq. Gordon's latest article, "Hezbollah Trains Iraqis in Iran, Officials Say," is "based solely on unnamed sources," notes Mitchell.

An article from McClatchy's Baghdad bureau also contradicts Gordon's New York Times piece. McClatchy reports that the Iraqi government "seemed to distance itself from U.S. accusations towards Iran." Iraqi government spokesperson Ali al-Dabbagh said the government had formed a committee to find "tangible information" about Iranian activities in Iraq, instead of relying on "information based on speculation." Al-Dabbagh also told Agence France-Press that there is no "hard evidence" of Iranian support of insurgents in Iraq.

Retired U.S. Air Force Colonel Sam Gardiner has seen this sort of poorly-sourced reporting before in the New York Times as part of the propaganda campaign that led America directly into the disastrous quagmire in Iraq. Gardiner told me:

CASUALTY REPORTS FROM THE WARS WITH DETAILS

The following is a list of Casualty Reports from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Click on each individuals name in "BLUE" to read the full account.

http://warnewstoday.blogspot.com/

Bryan Currie was seriously wounded in Afghanistan, we was treated in-country and sent back to combat. Five months later, he returned with his unit to the U.S., where he sought help from the Army for PTSD. He was classified as undeployable, but the only help the Army offered was to push pills at him. His chain of command had him re-classified as deployable, and two days before his unit was sent to Iraq, he went AWOL. He talked with Courage to Resist from South Carolina.

Major David Beardi with the 402nd Civil Affairs Army Reserve Unit out of the Town of Tonawanda, Beardi was severely injured 11 months later (oct. 06) by an improvised explosive device, or IED, while stationed at the Forward Operating Base Speicher in Tikrit, 90 miles north of Baghdad. 14 months after being airlifted out of Iraq to an Army hospital in Germany. He spent many months recuperating in Walter Reed Army Medical Center before returning home in September.

Staff Sgt. John Kriesel lost both of his legs during a roadside bombing in Iraq last year.

MSNBC'S RICHARD ENGLE REPORTS CAPTURED AL QAEDA MEMBER WAS NOT THE LEADER.

Fox News has once again got egg all over their face. The right wing mouthpiece for the Bush administration was shouting from the rooftops that the Iraqis had captured the top Al Qaeda leader in Iraq, but MSNBC's Richard Engle reported this morning it was a case of mistaken identity and it was an Al Qaeda member that was captured, but not the top Al Qaeda man in Iraq.

TIME MAGAZINE REPORTS ON BAGHDAD'S COMING REFUGEE CRISIS

U.S.-back Iraqi forces are gearing up for a new push deeper into Sadr City that could worsen fighting and displace hundreds, a government spokesman in Baghdad said. "There will be a big offensive soon," said Iraqi government spokesman Tahseen al-Sheikhly. He did not say when the operation would go forward. In east Baghdad the Iraqi government has readied two stadiums and one former military base to serve as camps for Sadr City residents who may be forced to flee the fighting, al-Sheikhly said. "We don't want any losses in the civilians," said al-Sheikhly.

By MARK KUKIS/BAGHDAD Fri May 9, 12:15 AM ET
http://news.yahoo.com/s/time/20080509/wl_time/baghdadscomingrefugeecrisis

More than 1,010 have died in Sadr City since fighting erupted at the end of March, according to Iraqi government figures offered by al-Sheikhly. Another 2,930 have been wounded, he said.

Ongoing fighting continues to worsen the crisis in the vast Shi'ite slum, the Baghdad stronghold of the Shi'ite Mahdi Army militia. Mohammed Kamel Hassan, a volunteer organizer in Sadr City for the Iraqi Red Crescent Organization, said up to 500 families have already been displaced from areas around the fighting in recent days. "We have a big movement," said Hassan, whose organization is working closely with the Iraqi government on new emergency plans. "The situation is very bad."

U.N. estimates say that up to 6,000 people have already fled their homes in Sadr City while another 150,000 remain essentially trapped in areas locked down by military forces. Al-Sheikhly and Hassan said at present no evacuation of any part of Sadr City is underway. But residents in areas of heavy fighting said Iraqi army troops were urging civilians to move to the shelter of nearby stadiums with announcements over loudspeakers.

Continue reading by clicking on link above.

OUR MEDIA HAS BEEN WRONG FOR SO LONG ABOUT IRAQ

So Wrong for So Long: How the Press, the Pundits -- and the President -- Failed on Iraq, by Greg Mitchell, a collection of essays that date back from the lead-up to the Iraq war, in 2003, through this fall, is a compelling antidote to the cult of misinformation written by the editor of Editor & Publisher, a journal of the newspaper industry, and one of the oldest magazines in the country. The book features a preface by Bruce Springsteen, and foreword by Joseph L. Galloway.

By Jayne Lyn Stahl, AlterNetPosted on May 9, 2008, Printed on May 9, 2008

http://www.alternet.org/story/84114/

As one who has been on the cutting edge of exposing the Bush administration's pre-emptive war on the media, Mitchell, the author of nine other nonfiction works, is among the first to broach, and critically analyze, the issue of "non-hostile combat deaths," as well as suggest the long term costs of this war not merely to our veterans, but to our national ethos.

We're treated to a first rate account not merely of a media complicit in the debacle that is Iraq, but one equally responsible for our continued presence in the region.

AlterNet recently caught up with Greg Mitchell to talk about his latest book...

Jayne Stahl: You quote one of your reporters writing that the "highest calling of journalism is not reporting. It's finding the story that would help prevent a war." Tell how this relates to your decision to publish an anthology of your essays about the Iraq war now.

Greg Mitchell: This is the first book to look at five full years in the life of the war, from the "run-up" to the "surge" debate last fall. But its aim is to serve as a warning and, in part, a lesson for future journalists. When I was back in j-school, which came just before Woodward and Bernstein emerged, we were taught that the first rule for reporters is to be "skeptical." Not necessarily critical or negative, but skeptical. This rule applies whether you are probing a local school board scandal, or the preparation for an invasion of another country.

Click on link above to read full interview.

NAMES, HOMETOWNS, CAUSE OF DEATH OF 10 GIS IN IRAQ IN MAY

The names, hometowns and cause of death of ten American soliders in Iraq have been released to the media by the Department of Defense.


Date
Total
Name
Place of Death - Province
Cause of Death
06-May-2008
2
US: 2 UK: 0 Other: 0

US
NAME NOT RELEASED YET
Anbar Province
Hostile - hostile fire

US
NAME NOT RELEASED YET
Ninewah Province
Hostile - hostile fire
02-May-2008
3
US: 1 UK: 0 Other: 2



GE
Lieutenant Giorgi Margiev
Diyala Province
Hostile - hostile fire - IED attack

GE
Corporal Zura Gvenetadze
Diyala Province
Hostile - hostile fire - IED attack

US
Private Corey L. Hicks
Baghdad (eastern part)
Hostile - hostile fire - IED attack
01-May-2008
5
US: 5 UK: 0 Other: 0



US
Lance Corporal Casey L. Casanova
Al Anbar Province
Hostile - hostile fire - IED attack

US
Corporal Miguel A. Guzman
Al Anbar Province
Hostile - hostile fire - IED attack

US
Lance Corporal James F. Kimple
Al Anbar Province
Hostile - hostile fire - IED attack

US
Sergeant Glen E. Martinez
Al Anbar Province
Hostile - hostile fire - IED attack

US
Specialist Jeffrey F. Nichols
Baghdad (central)
Hostile - hostile fire - IED attack (VBIED)
Total
10
US: 8 UK: 0 Other: 2

CNN REPORTS: US MILITARY DOUBT IRAQI CLAIMS OF CAPTURE OF TOP AL QAEDA LEADER

BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- The leader of al Qaeda in Iraq was captured early Thursday in the northern city of Mosul, Iraqi officials said.

Abu Ayyub al-Masri was reportedly caught in Mosul. Intelligence officials are skeptical of the news.

http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/meast/05/08/iraq.alqaeda/index.html

U.S. military officials were surprised about the report of Abu Ayyub al-Masri's capture -- first reported by Iraqi media and picked up by The Associated Press. And intelligence officials said they were skeptical, even though Iraqi officials said al-Masri was already in U.S. military custody.

Al-Masri ("the Egyptian"), also known as Abu Hamza al-Muhajer, took the reins of the Iraqi al Qaeda offshoot in June 2006 after a U.S. missile strike killed his predecessor, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.

Since then, Iraqi officials have reported his death three times, his capture twice and a mortal wounding once. Watch more about al-Masri's role with al Qaeda in Iraq

IT'S ABOUT TIME: PRESSURE FOR IRAQ TO PAY ITS OWN WAY

Pressure for Iraq to pay its own way
By Jim Lobe WASHINGTON
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/JE09Ak02.html

Growing impatience in the US Congress over the enormous costs incurred by the Iraq war, as well as the Pentagon's belief that it needs more troops in Afghanistan to fight insurgents there, is putting the vaunted success of the George W Bush administration's "surge" strategy to the test.

Although the House of Representatives appears poised to approve an additional US$163 billion on Thursday for military operations in both Iraq and Afghanistan through the end of the year, most observers believe that Congress will impose unprecedented conditions on Iraq-related spending.

This could include requirements that the Iraqi government of Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki pays substantially more in reconstruction and related costs

MARINE CORPS TIMES REPORTS: 43,000 TROOPS CALLED MEDICALLY UNFIT SENT TO IRAQ ANYWAY

WASHINGTON — More than 43,000 U.S. troops listed as medically unfit for combat in the weeks before their scheduled deployment to Iraq or Afghanistan since 2003 were sent anyway, Pentagon records show.

By Gregg Zoroya - USA TodayPosted : Thursday May 8, 2008 12:56:45 EDT
http://www.marinecorpstimes.com/news/2008/05/gns_unfit_troops_050808/

This reliance on troops found medically “nondeployable” is another sign of stress placed on a military that has sent 1.6 million service members to the war zones, soldier advocacy groups said.

“It is a consequence of the consistent churning of our troops,” said Bobby Muller, president of Veterans For America. “They are repeatedly exposed to high-intensity combat with insufficient time at home to rest and heal before re-deploying.”

The numbers of nondeployable soldiers are based on health assessment forms filled out by medical personnel at each military installation before a service member’s deployment. According to those statistics, the number of troops that doctors found nondeployable but who were still sent to Iraq or Afghanistan fluctuated from 10,854 in 2003, down to 5,397 in 2005, and back up to 9,140 in 2007.

The Pentagon records do not list what — or how serious — the health issues are, nor whether they were corrected before deployment, said Michael Kilpatrick, a deputy director for the Pentagon’s Force Health Protection and Readiness Programs.

A Pentagon staffer examined 10,000 individual health records last year to determine causes for the nondeployable ratings, Kilpatrick said. Some reasons included a need for eyeglasses, dental work or allergy medicine and a small number of mental health cases, he said.

This is the first war in which this health screening process has been used, the Pentagon said.
Most of the nondeployable service members are in the Army, which is doing most of the fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan. Between 5 percent and 7 percent of all active-duty, National Guard and Reserve soldiers slated for combat were found medically unfit due to health problems each year since 2003, according to statistics provided to USA Today.

Unit commanders make the final decision about whether a service member is sent into combat, although doctors can recommend against deployment because of a medical issue, Army spokeswoman Kim Waldron said.

“The commander consults with health care professionals to determine whether the treatment a soldier needs is available in theater,” said Army Col. Steven Braverman of the Army Medical Command.
At Fort Carson, Colo., Maj. Gen. Mark Graham ordered an investigation into deployment procedures for a brigade deployed to Iraq late last year. At least 36 soldiers were found medically unfit but were still deployed, Graham told USA Today.

For at least seven soldiers, treatment in the war zone was inadequate and the soldiers were sent home, and at least two of them should never have been deployed, he said.
In testimony before the Senate Armed Services Committee in February, the panel’s chairman, Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., asked Army leaders about an e-mail from the surgeon for the Fort Carson brigade that said medically “borderline” soldiers went to war because “we have been having issues reaching deployable strength.”

“That should not be happening,” Army Secretary Pete Geren told the committee. “I can’t tell you that it’s not, but it certainly should not be happening.”

Meanwhile, soldiers with medical problems have also deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan from Fort Drum, N.Y., and Forts Stewart and Benning in Georgia, according to Brenda Farrell, who is leading an investigation into the practice for the Government Accountability Office. A report from that investigation sought by members of the House Armed Services Committee is due in June.

IRAQ BRACES FOR MAJOR OFFENSIVE ON MILITIAS: BLASTS HIT BAGHDAD

Baghdad_(dpa) _ The Iraqi government is bracing for a big offensive against loyalists of cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, according to a politician from his bloc, while three people were killed and 20 injured in attacks, including a former commander of al-Qaeda in Iraq group.

http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/RWB.NSF/db900SID/LRON-7EFHFA?OpenDocument&rc=3&cc=irq

Fighting between government and US troops and al-Sadr's Mahdi Army militia raging since the end of March has left around 1,000 people dead and over 2,500 wounded, many of them civilians.

"Iraqi and US military preparations are underway to move into Sadr City," Asma al-Musawi, a member of al-Sadr Bloc, told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa.

The government has told people in two of the 79 neighbourhoods that make up Sadr City to leave their homes in preparation for a push into the area, al-Musawi said.

"The area is on the brink of a big humanitarian disaster," she warned.
The battle has intensified recently with street to street and house to house fighting. Government and US forces have so far failed to subdue the militiamen despite almost daily airstrikes.
US troops have set up concrete barriers in the southern parts of the district.
Hundreds of people have fled the fighting in the past days.

Elsewhere in Baghdad, three people were killed and 16 injured in four blasts, security officials said.

In one incident, a bomb blast on a bus left one passenger and four others injured in Baladiyat in east Baghdad.

An Iraqi army patrol was hit by a bomb near a playground in Shaab. Five army personnel were injured.

In another blast, three civilians were injured by a bomb that went off near the National Theatre in the central Karada district, which was the scene of a bomb attack Tuesday targeting the wife of the Iraqi president.

Hiro Ibrahim survived the attack, in which several soldiers and civilians were injured.
A rocket attack in the centre of the city caused two fatalities and left four people wounded.

In the northern Salahaddin province, a commander of a tribal police unit, who was formerly a senior member of the al-Qaeda terrorist network in Iraq, was wounded along with three policemen in a suicide bombing.

A suicide bomber wearing an explosive belt attacked the motorcade of the police chief of Duluiyah and his companions, including Mullah Nazim al-Juburi, the commander of the local Awakening Council, police sources told the Voices of Iraq news agency.

Al-Juburi was lightly injured in the attack, which occurred in Duluiyah.
The Awakening Councils are US-backed tribal forces formed in Sunni areas to fight insurgents of Sunni extremist groups, such as al-Qaeda in Iraq.

Al-Juburi, who is now the imam of the main mosque in Duluiyah, was himself a leader of the al-Qaeda in Iraq group for the past four years until he turned against it and set up the local Awakening Council.

Also in Salahaddin, tribal policemen killed four insurgents and found a weapon cache in Tikrit, 175 kilometres north of Baghdad, the US military said Thursday. dpa str sf ds pmc mga

GREEN ZONE SHELLED AGAIN. 42 IRAQIS KILLED AND 71 WOUNDED THURSDAY IN IRAQ

At least 42 Iraqis were killed and 71 more were wounded in the latest violence. Clashes continue in Sadr City, while bombings killed and injured many in Baghdad. One British soldier was injured. Also, Abu Ayyub al-Masri, leader of the Iraqi branch of al-Qaeda, may have been captured in Mosul. Also, a Katyusha rocket landed in the Green Zone, but no casualties were reported.

http://www.antiwar.com/updates/?articleid=12808

A British soldier was injured during a rocket attack at the Basra International Airport; two, possibly foreign, civilians were killed. A vicious clash broke out nearby, in Zubair. There are no reports of casualties yet, but many rockets were fired at a National Police base. Also, 48 people were arrested during raids.

In Baghdad, a car bomb in Mansour killed seven people, including policemen, and wounded 19 others. Three people were killed and six were wounded during a Katyusha rocket attack on Sadoun Street, near the al-Nasr Cinema. Three people were wounded during a roadside bombing near the National Theater. In Zayouna, a roadside bomb left one dead and five wounded. A roadside bomb injured five Iraqi soldiers near Shabb Stadium. Seven people were injured near a mosque in the Jihad neighborhood. Four unidentified bodies were found. The body of a policeman was discovered in Abu Dsheer.

Seven people were killed and 20 were wounded during overnight clashes in Sadr City. U.S. forces killed 17 suspects in Baghdad and Sadr City. MNF forces, on Iraqi Cabinet orders, shut down a radio station loyal to the al-Sadr political bloc.

A suicide bomber in Dhuluiya wounded five people, including the police chief, an Awakening Council (Sahwa) leader and three of his security guards.

In Mosul, a bomb seriously injured a policeman. A dumped body was found. Also, soldiers killed a suicide bomber attempting to enter a hotel.

U.S. forces detained 17 suspects across Iraq.
Southwest of Baquba, a judge was kidnapped.

In Amara, two people were arrested and their cache of landmines was confiscated.
Two men making bombs at home in Diwaniya were captured.

Gunmen kidnapped a professor in Kut.

BAGHDAD IN COMPLETE CHAOS. SADR CITY ABOUT TO ERUPT. LIST OF MORE US CASUALTIES

Baghdad and Sadr City is exploding with violence and all across Iraq the chaos and mayhem continues and STILL the media in the United States prefers to write about the possibility that Hezbollah will be attacking Israel. Who the hell cares? We don't have a single soldier in Israel. Let them fight their own battles. Our 160,000 troops are in Iraq and 30,000 in Afghanistan and not ISRAEL.

Just watch how the US media now turns all their attention to what is taking place in Lebanon and Israel. That is because the mainstream media in the United States actually HATES the United States military. You can take it to the bank.

Editorial comment by BILL CORCORAN, editor of this blog and former GI who served as a United States Army Combat Engineer.

War News for Thursday, May 08, 2008

Casualty Reports:Pfc. Jeffrey Rosas, a 19-year-old Army soldier and 2007 Carroll High School graduate, was in critical condition at a Baghdad hospital after he was shot in the chest during a training exercise this week with his unit, his parents said. "All I was told was that he had suffered a gunshot wound to the chest," said Rosas' mother, Linda Rosas, who was contacted Tuesday afternoon at work by an official at Fort Carson, Colo., where her only child's unit is based. "Someone mentioned today -- one of the captains called today -- and said he was at a training exercise and they weren't able to release any more information," she said.

Marina Cpl. Jimmy Kinsey lost one leg and severely injured the other when his Humvee was struck by an improvised explosive device.

THE FOLLOWING IS LIST OF VIOLENCE IN BAGHDAD, SADR CITY AND OTHER PROVINCES ALL ACROSS IRAQ.

ANYONE WHO SAYS THE "SURGE" IS WORKING SHOULD BE TOSSED INTO THE MIDDLE OF ALL THIS CHAOS AND THEN SEE WHAT THEY HAVE TO SAY.

Baghdad:#1: Iraqi soldiers for the first time warned residents in the embattled Sadr City district to leave their houses Thursday, signaling a new push by the U.S.-backed forces against Shiite extremist who have been waging street battles for seven weeks. Iraqi soldiers, using loudspeakers, told residents in some virtually abandoned areas of southeastern Sadr City to go to nearby soccer stadiums, residents said. UNICEF says about 6,000 people have been forced to flee their homes in Sadr City, most of them from the southeastern section.#2: At least four people were killed and 13 injured in clashes late Wednesday in Sadr City, Iraqi health officials said Thursday. It was not clear whether any militants were among them.Fresh gunbattles between Shiite fighters and US occupation forces in Baghdad's Sadr City killed seven people and wounded 20 others, Iraqi security and medical officials said on Thursday.The U.S. military said it killed 17 gunmen in several clashes across Baghdad, including in the Shi'ite slum of Sadr City. It said the incidents took place on Wednesday and Thursday.#3: On Wednesday, Claire Hajaj, a UNICEF spokeswoman based in Jordan, said up to 150,000 people — including 75,000 children — were isolated in sections of Sadr City "cordoned off by military forces." She said about 6,000 have fled their homes.#4: Meanwhile, gunmen wearing police uniforms killed a police captain Wednesday after kidnapping him from a police station in Shiite neighborhood of Abu Dshir, police said Thursday. His body was found near the station.#5: A Katyusha rocket landed in central Baghdad, killing two people and wounding four, police said.2 Katyusha rockets slammed into the street next to al-Nasr cinema, Sadoon Street, central Baghdad killing 2 civilians, injuring 2 others and causing material damage to several civilian cars.#6: Iraqis employed at the British embassy in Baghdad's Green Zone claim to have been sexually abused, the Times reported Wednesday. An Iraqi woman, who worked as a cleaning lady, told British diplomats that the head of KBR had asked her to stay the night and promised to double her wage in return. Her refusal resulted in a pay cut and she was later dismissed.Two Iraqi cooks, who confirmed the woman's claims to Foreign Office staff, also lost their jobs shortly afterwards, the Times reported. They had worked in the canteen and said that KBR managers groped Iraqi staff regularly and paid or rewarded them for sex. Those who refused or spoke out were dismissed. The British embassy heard the complaints initially, but left KBR to investigate the claims. KBR later reported they were unfounded.#7: Baghdad's crumbling roads, burst sewage pipes and chronic water shortages are casualties of war that get little attention amid the daily litany of gunfights, bombs and bloodletting in Iraq. As summer approaches, the city is facing an acute shortage of drinking water despite the efforts of officials like Sadiq Shumari, its director of water services.#8: 1 Katyusha rocket slammed into the Green Zone at 9 am Thursday. No casualties were reported.#9: A roadside bomb exploded in Humat al-Watan intersection near Shaab stadium, east Baghdad. It targeted an Iraqi Army patrol injuring 5 servicemen.#10: An adhesive IED in a Kia minibus exploded killing 1 civilian, severely injuring 5 others. The incident took place in Zayuna neighbourhood, near the traffic fly over at around 3 pm Thursday.#11: A roadside bomb exploded behind the National Theatre in Karrada, central Baghdad injuring 3 civilians.#12: A parked car bomb exploded targeting a police patrol in Mansour neighbourhood, west Baghdad, near Samad restaurant in Rowad intersection at 5 pm Thursday. The explosion killed 3 policemen and 4 civilians and injured 2 policemen and 17 civilians amongst whom were 2 women and 1 child. The location is a central commercial centre and the explosion resulted in burning 4 civilian cars completely as well as the police vehicle in addition to extensive material damages to 10 stores and completely destroying the restaurant.#13: A roadside bomb exploded in Jihad neighbourhood, near Mohammed Rasool Allah Mosque at 7 pm injuring 7 civilians.#14: 4 unidentified bodies were found in Baghdad today by Iraqi Police. 1 in Nahdha; 1 in Dola’I and 2 in Abu Disheer.Diyala Prv:#1: Unknown gunmen on Thursday kidnapped a judge in Diala, a security source said.“Unknown armed group abducted judge Rasheed al-Manhal on the road linking Baldruz district and Kanaan district, south-west Baquba”, a Diala security source, who requested anonmity, told Aswat al-Iraq-Voices of Iraq.Kut:#1: In the southeastern Shiite city of Kut, gunmen on Thursday stormed the Technical Institute and abducted a professor, Nuri Kamil Khanjar, local police said. It was not clear why Khanjar was kidnapped.Basra:#1: Up to 20 rockets have been fired at the British base at Basra airport, say police in the southern Iraqi city. No British personnel are reported to have been seriously injured in the attack, thought to have happened at about 1415 local time (1215 BST). Iraqi and British Army units responded by sealing of part of the Zubair district of the city, from where the katyusha rockets had been fired.#2: Violent clashes broke out between the security forces and gunmen in al-Askari neighbourhood, Zubair district 35 km t the west of Basra city after many Katyusha rockets were fired targeting a Notional Police camp in Zubair. The fighting continues and no casualties report was available at time of publication.As a result, Iraqi army and police forces moved toward the missiles' launching location, and immediately clashes erupted with gunmen," he said."I heard explosions as security forces were approaching the area," he added. Another eyewitness from al-Rasheediya area of al-Zobair suburb said "fierce clashes broke out between the national police and gunmen for more than two hours." "Helicopters and jet fighters flew over the clashes field, but without bombarding any target," he added. "I saw an Iraqi Humvee vehicle damaged, while two houses were set on fire due to the random fire exchange," he noted. Security forces' sources could not be immediately reached for a comment.Dhuluiyah:#1: A former senior Al-Qaeda leader in central Iraq now working in one of the so-called Awakening groups alongside US forces survived a suicide bombing on Thursday north of Baghdad, officials said. The suicide bomber detonated the explosives as Mullah Nadhom Mahmud's convoy was driven by Dhuluiyah, a town some 70 kilometres (40 miles) north of Baghdad, Iraqi police official Mohammed al-Jubburi told AFP. Jubburi himself was in the vehicle targeted by the suicide bomber, but he escaped unhurt. He said Mahmud, 30, and three others were wounded.Mosul:#1: A policeman was seriously wounded when a bomb exploded near his home in the northern city of Mosul, 390 km (240 miles) north of Baghdad, police said.#2: The body of a man was found in Mosul on Wednesday, police said.Afghanistan:#1: Police say its officers have clashed with and killed six Taliban fighters in western Afghanistan. Provincial police chief Shah Jahan Noori said among militants killed during the clash Thursday was the Taliban-appointed governor for the western province of Ghor. He said about 10 militants had crossed into Ghor from the neighboring Helmand province before the clash. Noori said two police and one civilian were wounded during the firefight.#2: A suicide car blast rocked Afghan capital Kabul Thursday, injuring five civilians, an interior ministry spokesman told Xinhua. The attacker exploded his car and injured the civilians nearby,the official said, adding that the blast, of which the target has still been unidentified, caused no other casualties.

MSNBC/REUTERS REPORTS: IRAQ WAR STRAINS ARMY MENTAL HEALTH SYSTEM

Report finds not enough counselors or psychiatrists for returning troops

Reuters
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/24481935/

FORT DRUM, New York - Fort Drum, a bleak U.S. Army base in upstate New York, is a test case for how the military is handling a looming mental health crisis.

The military and its critics agree on one thing — there are not enough therapists to treat all the soldiers who return from Iraq and Afghanistan traumatized by the experience.

The 10th Mountain Division's 2nd Brigade Combat Team (2BCT) is the most-deployed brigade in the U.S. army since 2001. It served two tours in Afghanistan, totaling 11 months, and was sent to Iraq twice for tours of 12 and 15 months.

"They're kind of a canary in a coal mine," said Paul Rieckhoff, a former Army captain who founded the advocacy group Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America. "They're a good barometer to understand the human cost of the war."

A report by advocacy group Veterans for America said the mental healthcare system at Fort Drum was not meeting the demands placed on it and had prepared inadequately for the return of more than 3,500 soldiers from Iraq late last year.

Click on link for complete story

MSNBC BREAKING NEWS: THOUSANDS FLEE AS SADR CITY BATTLE LOOMS

Thousands flee as Sadr City offensive looms
Iraqi forces backed by U.S. warn residents to leave Mahdi Army stronghold

The Associated Press
updated 4:27 a.m. CT, Thurs., May. 8, 2008
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/24515828/

BAGHDAD - Iraqi soldiers for the first time warned residents in the embattled Sadr City district to leave their houses Thursday, signaling a new push by the U.S.-backed forces against Shiite extremists who have been waging street battles for seven weeks.

Iraqi soldiers, using loudspeakers, told residents in some areas of southeastern Sadr City, which were virtually abandoned, to go to nearby soccer stadiums, residents said. UNICEF says about 6,000 people have been forced to flee their homes in Sadr City, most of them from the southeastern section.

U.S. forces have increased air power and armored patrols in an attempt to cripple Shiite militia influence in Sadr City, a slum of 2.5 million people that serves as the Baghdad base for the Mahdi Army led by anti-American cleric Muqtada al-Sadr.

The U.S. military is trying to weaken the militia grip in the slum and disrupt rocket and mortar strikes from Sadr City on the U.S.-protected Green Zone, which includes the U.S. Embassy and key Iraqi government offices.

Several civilians were injured in rocket or mortar attacks that hit downtown Baghdad earlier this week.

Click on link to read full MSNBC story: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/24515828/

CNN REPORTS: BAGHDAD STADIUM USED TO SHELTER SADR CITY RESIDENTS FLEEING EMBATTLED CITY

Baghdad stadium to shelter Iraqis fleeing Sadr City danger

Story Highlights
Official says 400 families at most have left Sadr City neighborhood
He denies reports people ordered out, says they're rumors spread by "gangs"
Former insurgent, now in U.S.-backed group, injured in suicide bombing
At least 13 killed in incidents including car bombing in Baghdad on Thursday

http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/meast/05/08/iraq.main/index.html

BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- A top official in Baghdad said the capital's biggest stadium is one of three locations being prepared for residents fleeing Baghdad's Sadr City, where Iraqi and U.S. forces have been fighting Shiite militants for weeks.

An Iraqi mother and daughter walk near a checkpoint at the entrance to Baghdad's Sadr City on Wednesday.

Tahseen al-Sheikhly, the civilian spokesman for the Baghdad security plan, said no more than 400 families have fled the war-torn neighborhood so far. There have been reports that thousands of people have fled.

Al-Sheikhly discounted reports that soldiers have been using loudspeakers to tell people to leave. He said "criminal gangs" are spreading the rumor to generate fears among the populace that a big strike is being prepared by security forces. He said gangs are trying to generate hatred of security forces by distributing a "fabricated" video of coalition forces assaulting a woman.

Those families that are leaving, he said, are residents who have been cooperating with security forces, families of security forces who have been threatened, and people who have been "held hostage by the criminal gangs."

He said one man left after he protested to insurgents that they were planting a roadside bomb too close to his house and the insurgents told him to leave the area.

Click on link http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/meast/05/08/iraq.main/index.html to read full CNN story.

IRAQ: THE "DISGRACE" HAS TO STOP!!!! (WARNING: GRAPHIC VIDEO OF WOUNDED IRAQI CHILDREN)

The Iraq War has been a dismal failure for the United States and has turned the United States into the most HATED country in the entire world....and when you look at this video you will know why.

None of this had to happen but trigger happy President George W. Bush and his draft-dodging Vice President Dick Cheney, sold the American public a pack of LIES that Iraq was a threat to the United States.

Now FIVE YEARS later, over 4,100 young Americans have been KILLED and another 30,000 lay wounded at military hospitals, and in IRAQ the pain of the war is written on the faces of the young children who were caught in the middle of the Bush/Cheney folly of LIES.

In this GRAPHIC VIDEO the images of the innocent children of IRAQ are captured in scenes that should be shown over and over again on American television, but American television is owned by corporations who have subsidiaries making big bucks off the war so the media in the United States has pulled down the curtain on covering the IRAQ WAR.

WE WON'T AND THAT IS WHY WE PRESENT THIS VIDEO FOR REAL AMERICANS TO WATCH AND NOT THE CHICKENHAWKS WHO THINK WAR IS A VIDEO GAME:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Xa-7D8Mal4

VIDEO: WHY THE IRAQ WAR COSTS $720 MILLION A DAY

Senator Byron Dorgan, D-North Dakota, explains how the military in Iraq received towels with the KBR logo embroidered on the towels because that is what someone inside the Pentagon wanted. KBR, as most people know, was a subsidiary of Haliburton, the firm which Vice President Dick Cheney was CEO for before joining George W. Bush on the Republican ticket.

In this VIDEO, Sen. Dorgan talks about the "deal" KBR made with the Pentagon for the towels for our military with the KBR logo embroidered into them.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dX1IqCYmSZw

GRAPHIC VIDEO: THE IRAQ WAR YOU WON'T SEE ON THE NEWS

The mainstream media in the United States has put the Iraq War on the back burner and no longer feel the story of the war is worth covering.

THIS IS THE ONLY WAR THAT IS NOT BEING COVERED BY THE MEDIA IN THE UNITED STATES.....AND FOR THAT REASON WE BRING OUR READERS THE TRUE IMAGES FROM THE IRAQ WAR THAT NEVER MAKE IT TO THE NEWS.

This graphic video is just one of many we will be presenting because we feel the people of the United States have been given the shaft by the mainstream press who wanted this war in the worst way, but when the images of the war started to roll in the press turned their back on the war.

WE WON'T AND THAT IS WHY WE ARE PRESENTING THIS VIDEO AS GRAPHIC AS IT IS, BUT THAT IS WAR.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wSF1hv4227o

IRAQ WAR MUSIC VIDEO--LISTEN TO THE CHILDREN!!! (WARNING: GRAPHIC IMAGES)

All the reasons why the United States invaded and occupied Iraq have been proven to be nothing but LIES, and this is what the Bush administration has left in their wake of invading and occupying Iraq. The children---the innocent children---of Iraq are the ones who have suffered the most from the United States invasion of their country.

Sleep well, Mr. President.

Sleep well, Mr. Vice President.

This is what you have done. I doubt if you or any of your right wing chickenhawks have the guts to look at this video, but here it is for the people who care about what the Bush administration and the United States has done to the children of Iraq.

WARNING: THIS VIDEO IS VERY GRAPHIC.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d9rc39iQ6Bs

US WALLS OFF PARTS OF BAGHDAD

Compares Walled Baghdad Neighborhoods To American Gated Communties

Filed Under: Iraq

By Ali at 9:58 pm
http://thinkprogress.org/?tag=Iraq

Max Boot Compares Walled Baghdad Neighborhoods To American Gated Communties»

Today, Council on Foreign Relations Senior Fellow Max Boot continued to cheerlead for the “success” of the surge in Iraq in an online debate. Boot insisted that Iraq has met two-thirds of the original 18 benchmarks, that the government’s offensive in Basra was successful, and that the so-called Sons of Iraq will always remain loyal to the Shiite-controlled Iraqi state.
Boot concluded by conceding that there are walls separating Sunni neighborhoods from Shia, but dismissed the fact by stating simply that “there are walls around many gated communities in the U.S. too”:

It’s true that there are walls around Dora and other Baghdad neighborhoods. … But then there are walls around many gated communities in the U.S. too. The walls per se are not evidence of reconciliation, I’ll grant you that. But nor are they evidence that reconciliation is impossible. They are one of the important security measures implemented in the past year that is reducing violence and making possible political progress—which is real, whether you admit it or not.

There is a world of difference between American gated communities — where at least 7 million families have chosen to live — and the walls that divide Baghdad.

The policy, begun last April, of walling off neighboring communities with a “12-foot high, three mile long wall” is hardly the benign trend Boot describes.

The move was widely condemned by the Iraqi press, and Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki ordered a halt to its construction almost immediately. As one Iraqi put it, “This will make the whole district a prison.”

Despite what Iraq war hawks are willing to admit, the surge has transformed Baghdad into an ethnically-cleansed and religiously divided city that bears little resemblance to its former character.

BAGHDAD'S ACUTE WATER SHORTAGE-ANOTHER CASUALTY OF WAR

Iraq, U.S. move to avert Baghdad water shortage

By Tim Cocks 1 hour, 26 minutes ago
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080508/wl_nm/iraq_water_dc

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Baghdad's crumbling roads, burst sewage pipes and chronic water shortages are casualties of war that get little attention amid the daily litany of gunfights, bombs and bloodletting in Iraq.

As summer approaches, the city is facing an acute shortage of drinking water despite the efforts of officials like Sadiq Shumari, its director of water services.

Temperatures are set to reach 50 Celsius (122 Fahrenheit) and demand for the precious commodity will outstrip supply.

"We have a huge task to rehabilitate the water system, which has been neglected for decades, but it's a challenge with such poor security," Shumari told Reuters on a trip to the eastern neighborhood of New Baghdad, one of the city's poorest.

"Insecurity is a problem, but what doesn't get as noticed is how it hinders the provision of services which the people need to live," he said, before two loud blasts nearby sent him and some U.S. troops running for cover inside a building.

Lying far to the east of the Tigris River as it snakes through Baghdad's more upmarket districts, the dusty, overcrowded streets of New Baghdad are visibly poor.

Children in torn clothes play in the dirt, next to festering piles of trash and opaque puddles of stagnant water.

A man wearing a traditional long, white robe sits on a brick outside his house listening to an old battery-powered radio.

Next to him, a child attempts to negotiate a path between a ditch full of foul-smelling rainwater and a manmade mountain of polythene bags, Coke cans, plastic bottles and cigarette packets.

Even the services in Sadr City, a notoriously deprived slum to the north of New Baghdad and home to 2 million people -- where U.S. and Iraqi forces are battling Shi'ite militiamen loyal to populist cleric Moqtada al-Sadr -- are more reliable than here.

Click on link to read more...

IRAQ'S FOREIGN MINISTER TELLS US TO STOP ACCUSING AND START TALKING TO IRAN

Iraq asks U.S., Iran to stop accusing and start talking
By Leila Fadel McClatchy Newspapers
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/iraq/

BAGHDAD — After months of stalled talks between the United States and Iran, the Iraqi government said it was time for the two nations to stop trading accusations and come to the table.Iraq's foreign minister, Hoshyar Zebari, said that his government had proposed four dates to the United States and Iran for tri-lateral talks, but has stopped making suggestions and doesn't expect the talks to resume anytime soon.

The United States has accused Iran of supplying weapons that are being used to attack U.S. troops and civilians, while Iran has charged the United States with unnecessarily bombing the Shiite population in Baghdad. » read more

UPDATE ON CONFIRMED LIST OF US DEATHS IN IRAQ

U.S. Confirmed Deaths Reported Deaths: 4073

Confirmed Deaths: 4067

Pending Confirmation: 6 DoD Confirmation List

Latest Coalition Fatalities (Click on "BLUE" for more details)

05/07/08 MNF: Soldier attacked by enemy force in Anbar Province
A Multi-National Force - West Soldier was killed in action against an enemy force while on patrol in Anbar Province May 6.

05/06/08 MNF: MND-N soldiers attacked in Ninewah Province
A Multi-National Division – North soldier was killed from wounds sustained in an insurgent attack against the soldier’s patrol in Ninewah Province May 6. One soldier was also wounded in the attack and was taken to a Coalition force.

05/05/08 DoD Identifies Army Casualty
Pvt. Corey L. Hicks, 22, of Glendale, Ariz., died May 2 in Baghdad, Iraq, of wounds suffered when his vehicle encountered an improvised explosive device. He was assigned to the 1st Battalion, 66th Armor Regiment, 1st Brigade Combat Team...

ATTACKS BY US FORCES ON SADR CITY SEND RESIDENTS FLEEING

Entire sections of Baghdad's embattled Sadr City district have been left nearly abandoned by civilians fleeing a U.S.-led showdown with Shiite militias and seeking aid after facing shortages of food and medicine, humanitarian groups said Wednesday

Aid groups: Humanitarian woes grow in Baghdad's Sadr City By BRADLEY BROOKS, Associated Press Writer 42 minutes ago
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080507/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq
.
The reports by the agencies, including the U.N. children's fund, add to the individual accounts by civilians pouring out of the Sadr City area as clashes intensify.

U.S. forces have increased air power and armored patrols in the attempt to cripple Shiite militia influence in Sadr City, a slum of 2.5 million people that serves as the Baghdad base for the Mahdi Army led by anti-American cleric Muqtada al-Sadr.

The battles started in late March after the Iraqi government opened a crackdown on militias and armed gangs in the southern city of Basra, including some groups Washington says have links to Iran.

Claire Hajaj, a UNICEF spokeswoman based in Jordan, said up to 150,000 people — including 75,000 children — were isolated in sections of Sadr City "cordoned off by military forces."
She said about 6,000 people have been forced to flee their homes and that some areas of southeastern Sadr City were virtually abandoned.

The U.S. military is trying to weaken the militia grip in the slum and disrupt rocket and mortar strikes from Sadr City on the U.S.-protected Green Zone, which includes the U.S. Embassy and key Iraqi government offices.

There is more by clicking on link above.

75 RETIRED MILITARY OFFICERS WERE INVOLVED IN PENTAGON WAR PROPAGANDA ON TV

Propaganda Documents Go Online, but Will the TV Networks Ever Report this Scandal?

Submitted by John Stauber on Tue, 05/06/2008 - 13:53.
http://www.prwatch.org/node/7299

Eight thousand pages of documents related to the Pentagon's illegal propaganda campaign, known as the Pentagon military analyst program, are now online for the world to see, although in a format that makes it impossible to easily search them and therefore difficult to read and dissect. This trove includes the documents pried out of the Pentagon by David Barstow and used as the basis for his stunning investigation that appeared in the New York Times on April 20, 2008.
The Pentagon program, which clearly violated US law against covert government propaganda, embedded more than 75 retired military officers -- most of them with financial ties to war contractors -- into the TV networks as "message surrogates" for the Bush Administration. To date, every major commercial TV network has failed to report this story, covering up their complicity and keeping the existence of this scandal from their audiences.

News of the Pentagon's online posting of the documents came from Joe Trento of the National Security News Service, who notes that NSNS provided the New York Times "limited information about a military office early in the reporting process."

Here is the official Pentagon website with the 8,000 pages of documents, the most interesting and revealing of them previously secret and only available to the Pentagon and the New York Times:
http://www.dod.mil/pubs/foi/milanalysts/

More than two weeks after the New York Times reported on the Penatgon's military analyst program to sell controversial policies such as the invasion of Iraq, the broadcast television news outlets implicated in the program are hoping to tough out the scandal by refusing to report it. Recently Media Matters of America (MMA) reported that, according to a search of the Nexis database, "the three major broadcast networks -- ABC, CBS, and NBC -- have still not mentioned the report at all."

The Pew Excellence in Journalism project has a chart showing that " there was virtually no mainstream media follow up to The Times’ expose" with the only national TV coverage being the introduction segment and live debate featuring CMD's John Stauber on the PBS NewsHour.
Congresswoman Rosa L. DeLauro and three dozen colleagues have sent a letter to the Department of Defense Inspector General calling for an investigation of this "propaganda campaign aimed at deliberately misleading the American public."

PENTAGON: NO NEW TROOPS FOR AFGHANISTAN WITHOUT DEEPER CUTS IN IRAQ FORCES

No US troop increase in Afghanistan without deeper cuts in Iraq: Pentagon

http://www.spacewar.com/reports/No_US_troop_increase_in_Afghanistan_without_deeper_cuts_in_Iraq_Pentagon_999.html

by Staff WritersWashington (AFP) May 6, 2008The Pentagon said Tuesday that any sizeable increase in much-needed US forces in Afghanistan will depend on deeper troop cuts in Iraq than currently planned.

Military commanders, worried about a persistent and growing Taliban challenge, have said they require up to three more brigades, or about 10,000 troops, to fill gaps in a NATO-led force in Afghanistan.

But Pentagon press secretary Geoff Morrell made clear that relief in Afghanistan can only come from Iraq, where US forces now find themselves embroiled in a bloody struggle with Shiite militias.

"We really have to get down in Iraq below 15 brigade combat teams for us to consider adding multiple additional brigades to Afghanistan," Morrell told reporters.

"So, not until we get to that point can we even consider that prospect," he said.
US Defense Secretary Robert Gates had said after a summit of NATO leaders in Bucharest last month that he expects the United States to make a significant addition of its forces in Afghanistan next year.

DEATH OF 2 SOLDIERS RAISES QUESTIONS ABOUT MRAP VEHICLE

2 soldiers' deaths in Iraq raise doubts about MRAP vehicle

By Nancy A. Youssef McClatchy Newspapers
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/iraq/story/35931.html

WASHINGTON — The deaths of two U.S. soldiers in western Baghdad last week have sparked concerns that Iraqi insurgents have developed a new weapon capable of striking what the U.S. military considers its most explosive-resistant vehicle.

The soldiers were riding in a Mine Resistant Ambush Protective vehicle, known as an MRAP, when an explosion sent a blast of super-heated metal through the MRAP's armor and into the vehicle, killing them both.

Their deaths brought to eight the number of American troops killed while riding in an MRAP, which was developed and deployed to Iraq last year after years of acrimony over light armor on the Army's workhorse vehicle, the Humvee.

The military has praised the vehicles for saving hundreds of lives, saying they could withstand the IEDs, or improvised explosive devices, which have been the biggest killers of Americans in Iraq. The Pentagon has set aside $5.4 billion to acquire 4,000 MRAPs at more than $1 million each, making the MRAP the Defense Department's third largest acquisition program, behind missile defense and the Joint Strike Fighter.

But last Wednesday's attack has shown that the MRAPs are vulnerable to an especially potent form of IED known as an EFP, for explosively formed penetrator, which fires a superheated cone of metal through the vehicle's armor.

Click on link to read full story.

NEW YORK TIMES REPORTS: ATTEMPTED KILLINGS INCITE VIOLENCE IN IRAQ

BAGHDAD — Scattered violence struck areas of Baghdad as well as parts of central and northern Iraq on Tuesday, as a trickle of families began to leave Sadr City to escape bombings, and Iraqi security forces raided a hospital suspected of treating militia forces.

By ALISSA J. RUBIN
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/07/world/middleeast/07iraq.html?_r=1&ref=worldspecial&oref=slogin


In Baghdad, there were clashes in Abu Dshir, a mostly Shiite neighborhood on the city’s southern edge. The tensions were between the Mahdi Army, loyal to the Shiite cleric Moktada al-Sadr, and the National Police. Three civilians were killed and nine were wounded in the fighting. The area had been one of the most violent until late last summer, when it quieted down and the militia put away its weapons.

Prompting the clashes were the attempted assassinations of two dignitaries in Abu Dshir — one a leader in the local Badr Organization, a group linked to the Shiite cleric Abdul Aziz al-Hakim, a rival of Mr. Sadr’s who runs the Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq, and the other the neighborhood’s imam. Although both men survived, the episodes set off fighting between factions loyal to Mr. Hakim and those loyal to Mr. Sadr, said Sayyid Malik Abadi, , the head of Abu Dshir’s security committee.

Two mortar shells exploded Tuesday morning in the Baghdad municipal building, killing three civilians and wounding 15 people. And a rocket landed in Al Mansour University College, wounding five students, according to an official at the Interior Ministry who asked not to be quoted because he was not authorized to speak on the record.

Insurgents often fire mortar shells and rockets toward the Green Zone, headquarters of the Iraqi government and American Embassy, but their misses often harm civilians.

In the Shaula neighborhood, a Sadrist stronghold in western Baghdad, Iraqi forces captured several dozen police officers who were believed to be aiding militia fighters. Some of the officers were captured in a local hospital, which was believed to have been caring for militia fighters, according to a deputy of Qassim Atta, the military spokesman for the Baghdad security plan.
Families have begun to leave Sadr City over the past several days, trickling into the grounds of a sports stadium in Baladiat, which is on the western edge of Sadr City.

The families, who lived near the front lines of the fighting and the wall being built by the American military to partition the neighborhood, said they had fled because their children were terrified of the bombing.

As many as 1,500 families are expected to go to the area in the next few days, said Abu Wa’il, the informal mayor of the refugees who live in the area. Some came as recently as two days ago and others have been there for several years, squatting in abandoned buildings. The army will provide tents for the refugees, he said, but there appeared to be no latrines and it seemed doubtful that there would be enough water to supply so many families.

In Tikrit, a car bomb exploded in midafternoon, killing two civilians and wounding 26 people, including four policemen. A curfew was in effect on Tuesday evening.

In Nineveh, an American soldier died after his patrol was attacked on Tuesday, the military said in a statement. In a separate incident in the province, Sunni extremists killed three Iraqi women and wounded two others in an attack on Monday, according to a statement from the American military. The local police said the extremists were members of Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia, the statement said.

CNN REPORTS: 3,500 US TROOPS TO HEAD HOME FROM IRAQ

BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- A "surge" brigade deployed to Iraq last year is heading back to the United States, the U.S. military said.
http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/meast/05/06/iraq.main/index.html

About 3,500 soldiers from the 3rd Heavy Brigade Combat Team will go back to Fort Benning, Georgia, over the next few weeks. It is the third surge brigade to leave Iraq, as planned, and two more are scheduled to leave by the end of July.

The U.S. troop increase in 2007, referred to as the surge, was designed to take on the insurgency in and around Baghdad and provide stability for Iraqi politicians to develop legislation and reach accommodation on key national issues.

"The continued drawdown of surge brigades demonstrates continued progress in Iraq," said Gen. Dan Allyn, chief of staff of Multi-National Corps - Iraq.

The troops went to Iraq in March 2007 to fight insurgents near Baghdad, east of the Diyala River.

The soldiers improved security, captured more than 600 insurgents, found many weapons, helped lower the number of attacks, assisted merchants in reopening shops and aided the local government authorities, the military said.