CNN REPORTS: BRITS HALT TROOPS CUTS IN IRAQ

UK defense minister says number of British troops in Iraq to stay at 4,000

http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/meast/04/01/uk.iraq/index.html

LONDON, England (CNN) -- The British defense minister on Tuesday said the number of British troops in Iraq will remain at the current level of around 4,000 for the time being.

Des Browne, briefing the House of Commons, said it would be "prudent" to halt any further reductions, particularly in light of the violence in Basra over the last week.

That was when Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki launched an offensive against "outlaws" and "criminals" in the city, and clashes broke out between troops and Shiite militants.

The fighting, which involved Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr's Mehdi Army militia, spread to other southern Shiite cities and Shiite neighborhoods of Baghdad and left hundreds dead. Watch as Iran works to bring Iraq cease-fire »

The fighting subsided after Iraqi Shiite lawmakers, Iranian officials and al-Sadr held talks and al-Sadr on Sunday urged his followers to stand down. But the operation is ongoing.

"Before the events of the last week, the emerging military advice, based on our assessment of current conditions, was that further reductions might not be possible at the rate envisaged in the October announcement -- although it remains our clear direction of travel," Browne said.

FOX NEWS 'SPECIAL REPORTS' HOST AND PANELISTS PUT ON PUBLIC DISPLAY THEIR IGNORANCE ON U.S. TROOP DEPLOYMENTS

Brit Hume, host of "Special Report" on FOX NEWS, allowed his panel of pundits, Fred Barnes, Mort Kondracke and Charles Krauthammer, to draw a comparison to the U.S. troops in Germany, Japan and South Korea, and U.S. troops in Iraq.

The trio of right-wing pundits led by Hume had the unmitigated gall to say the U.S. has had troops in Germany, Japan and Korea for over 50 years, and that Republican Presidential candidate John McCain was right when he said the U.S. might have to keep troops in Iraq for 100 years.

There is one BIG DIFFERENCE that neither Hume, Barnes, Kondracke or Krauthammer made as they sounded off about keeping troops in Iraq for another 100 years.

Not one (I repeat) not ONE U.S. soldier has been killed in Germany, Japan or Korea by enemy fire since the wars ended in those countries over a half-century ago.

To try and draw a comparison between troops in Iraq and those in Germany, Japan, and Korea is patently ignorant.

Nobody is shooting at American troops in Germany, Japan or Korea, but they sure as hell are shooting and killing Americans every single day in Iraq.

Is this what the Fox News "Special Reports" panelists want? One or two or three deaths of American troops for the next 100 years?

It boggles the mind that grown men like the panelists, and the host Brit Hume, of FOX NEWS' Special Report" can be so stupid and to think there are Americans who are just as dumb as they are and believe their convoluted explanation why Sen. McCain was right about keeping troops in Iraq for the next 100 years.

Editorial comment by BILL CORCORAN editor of CORKSPHERE

U.S. FINISHES A 'STRONG SECOND' IN IRAQ WAR

BAGHDAD--After 19 months of struggle in Iraq, U.S. military officials conceded a loss to Iraqi insurgents Monday, but said America can be proud of finishing "a very strong second."

By , The OnionPosted on April 1, 2008, Printed on April 1, 2008

http://www.alternet.org/story/80941/

"We went out there, gave it our all, and fought a really good fight," said Gen. George W. Casey, the top U.S. commander in Iraq. "America's got nothing to be ashamed of. We outperformed Great Britain, Poland, and a lot of the other top-notch nations, but Iraq just wouldn't stay down for the count. It may have come down to them simply wanting it more."

American tanks and infantry surged out to an impressive early lead in March 2003, scoring major points by capturing Baghdad early in the faceoff. The stage seemed set for a second American victory in as many clashes with Iraq, with commentators and generals alike declaring the contest all but decided with the fall of Tikrit in April 2003.

"In spite of jumping out to an early lead and having the better-trained, better-equipped team, I'm afraid we still came up short in the end," Casey said. "Sometimes, the underdog just pulls one out on you. But there's no reason for the guys who were out in the field to feel any shame over this one. They played through pain and injury and never questioned the strategy, even when we started losing ground."

"The troops were great out there," Casey continued. "It's not their fault the guys with the clipboards just couldn't put this one away."

IRAQI DEATH TOLL CLIMBS 50 PERCENT IN MARCH

The monthly figure of people killed in Iraq rose by 50% in March compared with the previous month, according to official government counts.

A total of 1,082 Iraqis, including 925 non-combatant civilians, were killed, up from 721 in February.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7324106.stm

The figures come from the combined counts of the health, defence and interior ministries.
March also saw an increase in bombings and intense fighting between Shia militiamen and government forces.

The number of deaths last month seems to confirm a trend of rising deaths due to violence.
More than 1,800 people were killed in August 2007. This declined to 540 in January 2008, but the figure has risen steadily since.

Although most victims appear to have been civilians, the rise in death rates among Iraqi troops and police was comparatively higher.

One hundred and two policemen and 54 soldiers were killed, compared with 65 and 20 respectively in February. The government says 641 suspected insurgents were killed.
Correspondents say the figures will be a blow to the Baghdad government and the US, which had claimed overall levels of violence had been reduced by last year's US troop surge.

Hundreds of people died in fighting last week in the southern city of Basra after Prime Minister Nouri Maliki ordered a crackdown on Shia militias.

Reports say many of the dead were civilians caught in the crossfire.

The spiritual leader of the Mehdi Army militia, Moqtada Sadr, has ordered his fighters off the streets in a deal with the authorities, who agreed to stop rounding them up.

Mr Maliki hailed the crackdown as a "success" and pledged to recruit 10,000 extra troops to keep order in Basra.

McCAIN GETS HIS FACTS WRONG AGAIN ON WHO ORDERED CEASE-FIRE IN BASRA

Yesterday, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) said he was “surprised” by violent clashes between central Iraqi government and militias connected to Shi’ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr last week in the southern Iraqi city of Basra. “Maliki decided to take on this operation without consulting the Americans,” McCain told reporters on his campaign bus.

As MSNBC’s Keith Olbermann noted last night, at the same time McCain expressed surprise about the developments in Basra, he also got basic facts wrong about the ceasefire that halted the violence on Sunday. McCain claimed that “it was Sadr who asked for the ceasefire,” not Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Malki:

Asked if the Basra campaign had backfired, he said: “Apparently it was Sadr who asked for the ceasefire, declared a ceasefire. It wasn’t Maliki. Very rarely do I see the winning side declare a ceasefire. So we’ll see.’’

Watch video here: http://thinkprogress.org/?tag=Iraq

As Mother Jones’ Jonathan Stein notes today, McCain’s description of what happened is “completely misleading” and wrong. In fact, Sadr’s call for a ceasefire only came after members of Maliki’s political party traveled to Iran to broker a deal with him:

The backdrop to Sadr’s dramatic statement was a secret trip Friday by Iraqi lawmakers to Qom, Iran’s holy city and headquarters for the Iranian clergy who run the country.
There the Iraqi lawmakers held talks with Brig. Gen. Qassem Suleimani, commander of the Qods (Jerusalem) brigades of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps and signed an agreement with Sadr, which formed the basis of his statement Sunday, members of parliament said.

Ali al Adeeb, a member of Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki’s Dawa party, and Hadi al Ameri, the head of the Badr Organization, the military wing of the Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq, had two aims, lawmakers said: to ask Sadr to stand down his militia and to ask Iranian officials to stop supplying weapons to Shiite militants in Iraq.

According to the AP, “the peace deal between al-Sadr and Iraqi government forces” not only “left the cleric’s Mahdi Army intact,” but it also left Maliki “politically battered and humbled within his own Shi’ite power base.”

This is not the first time in recent memory that McCain has gotten basic facts about Iraq wrong. Two weeks ago, he repeatedly made false claims that Iran was training al Qaeda fighters in Iraq.

AP VIDEO SHOWING US ARMY SOLDIERS FROM KILLER TROOP IN MOSUL

On the ground coverage in Mosul, Iraq

AP video essay showing US Army soldiers from Killer Troop, 3rd Squadron, 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment

Tuesday April 1st, 2008

http://therealnews.com/web/index.php?thisdataswitch=0&thisid=1261&thisview=item

NEWEST U.S. MILITARY DEATHS CONFIRMED BY DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE

U.S. Deaths Confirmed By The DoD:
4003

Reported U.S. Deaths Pending DoD Confirmation:
9
Total

4012

DoD Confirmation List

http://icasualties.org/oif/

Latest Coalition Fatality: Mar 31, 2008
04/01/08 MNF: MND-C Soldier attacked by IED (Baghdad)
A Multi-National Division – Center Soldier was killed as a result of an improvised explosive device attack south of Baghdad March 23. The Soldier died of his wounds at Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Landstuhl, Germany March 29.

03/31/08 DoD Announces Change in Status of Army Soldier
The armed forces medical examiner confirmed on March 29, human remains recovered in Iraq were those of Staff Sgt. Keith M. Maupin, 24, of Batavia, Ohio. Maupin had been listed as missing-captured since April 16, 2004...

03/31/08 MNF: MND-B Soldier attacked by IED
A Multi-National Division – Baghdad Soldier was killed at when the vehicle he was riding in was struck by an improvised-explosive device approximately 4 p.m. in northeast Baghdad March 31.

2 U.S SOLDIERS KILLED IN BAGHDAD

The following is a list of casualties in Iraq and other incidents across Iraq and Afghanistan on Tuesday. As we mentioned before, when the death of a soldier is listed as a MNF (multi national force) soldier, that is just a way the Department of Defense gets around saying it was a soldier from the United States military.

MNF-Iraq is reporting the death of a Multi-National Division - Baghdad soldier in a roadside bombing in an northeastern neighborhood of Baghdad on Monday, March 31. No other details were released.

MNF-Iraq is reporting the death of a Multi-National Division - Center Soldier in Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Landstuhl on Saturday, March 29th. He was wounded in a roadside bombing in south of Baghdad on Sunday, March 23rd. No other details were released.

http://warnewstoday.blogspot.com/

Security incidents:Baghdad:#1: A total of 923 civilians were killed in March, up 31 percent from February and the deadliest month since August 2007, according to data compiled by Iraq's interior, defence and health ministries and obtained by Reuters.

#2: A roadside bomb wounded four people, including two policemen, in Karrada district in central Baghdad, police said.

#3: Around 3 pm, 2 mortar shells hit Zafaraniyah neighborhood near the Al-Ali Al-Adheem mosque . Three people were injured with two houses destroyed in that incident.Mahaweel:#1: Police killed one gunman in clashes on Monday in Mahaweel, 75 km (45 miles) south of Baghdad, police said.

Lake Tharthar:#1: Six fighters affiliated to anti-Qaida Awakening Council groups were gunned down by unknown gunmen in Salahudin province, a provincial police source said on Tuesday. "Gunmen in a convoy of vehicles approached on Monday evening a checkpoint manned by local Awakening Council fighters in an area near the al-Tharthar Lake and opened fire, killing six fighters," Col. Hasan Ahmed from the provincial police command told Xinhua. The gunmen were pretending as they were in a wedding procession in order to approach closer to the checkpoint, Ahmed said.

Mosul:#1: One mortar bomb landed in eastern Mosul on Monday, killing one person, police said.#2: Around 12 pm, a roadside bomb exploded by mistake killed five Sahwa members and injured three others .The Sahwa members found that IED at Shurqat in Mosul and they thought they defused it.

Afghanistan:#1: A top Taliban commander who had escaped government custody twice was arrested in fighting that left three insurgents dead in southern Afghanistan, police said Tuesday. A Taliban force headed by Mullah Naqibullah attacked a police patrol Monday in Kakaran village, 12 kilometres north of Lashkargah, the capital of Helmand province, said Mohammad Hussain Andewal, provincial police chief. “The police returned their attack with small-arms fire and killed three Taliban militants,” Andewal said, adding, “After the gun battle calmed down, police discovered and arrested Mullah Naqibullah, who was wounded in the fighting.”

#2: Three civilians were killed as NATO aircraft targeted suspected position of Taliban insurgents in Afghanistan's southern Kandahar province, a local official said Tuesday. "NATO aircraft pounded three persons all of them farmers when they were busy in irrigating their lands in Panjwai district Monday night killing the trio," Hajji Shah Baran the district chief of Panjwai told Xinhua.

ROCKETS SLAM INTO GREEN ZONE

Rockets have smashed into Baghdad's heavily-fortified Green Zone, a day after radical Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr called a ceasefire with Iraqi and coalition troops.

There have been no reports of fatalities from the attack, which hit the compound housing the Iraqi government and the U.S. Embassy.Despite the violence, a citywide curfew was lifted Monday.

Big News Network.com

Businesses opened for the first time since al-Sadr's militants began fighting Iraqi and coalition forces nearly a week ago.A vehicle ban remains in place in three Baghdad neighborhoods where al-Sadr's Mahdi Army has a strong presence. Iraqi lawmakers say Iranian officials helped broker the truce with Al-Sadr's group Sunday. They say Iraqi politicians close to Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki traveled to Iran to ask authorities to pressure al-Sadr to stop the violence.

Iran has not confirmed the reports.

DEADLY MONTH IN IRAQ. 923 CIVILIANS KILLED

A total of 923 civilians were killed in March, up 31 percent from February and the deadliest month since August 2007, according to data compiled by Iraq's interior, defense and health ministries and obtained by Reuters.

Iraqi casualties at highest level since August
By Randy Fabi 21 minutes ago

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080401/ts_nm/iraq_dc

Fighting between Iraqi security forces and Shi'ite militiamen last month has driven civilian deaths in the country to their highest level in more than six months, government figures showed on Tuesday.

A total of 923 civilians were killed in March, up 31 percent from February and the deadliest month since August 2007, according to data compiled by Iraq's interior, defense and health ministries and obtained by Reuters.

The figures are a blow to the Iraqi government and the United States, which have pointed to reduced overall levels of violence in recent months as evidence that a major security offensive has made significant progress.

Hundreds of people were killed and many more wounded in last week's fighting after Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki ordered a crackdown on Shi'ite militiamen in the southern city of Basra. Many of the dead were civilians caught in the crossfire.

Basra was relatively calm for a second straight day on Tuesday after Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr called his fighters off the streets on Sunday.

"May God bless the families of the martyrs and ask God to give them patience for what God has chosen for them," Sadr told his followers in a written statement obtained by Reuters.

A Reuters reporter in Basra said more shops had opened for business and streets were filling up with residents and cars. But many schools and government offices remained closed.
The crackdown exposed a deep rift within Iraq's Shi'ite majority -- between the political parties in Maliki's government and followers of the populist cleric Sadr.

Despite the sharp rise in casualties last month, the March figure was still much lower than the 1,861 civilians who died violently in the same month a year ago at a time when Iraq was on the verge of all-out civil war. A total of 1,358 civilians were wounded last month, compared with 2,700 a year ago.

The Iraqi data also showed 102 policemen and 54 soldiers were killed in March, compared with 65 and 20 respectively in February. It showed 641 insurgents had been killed in March and 2,509 detained.

Overall attacks have fallen since last June when 30,000 extra U.S. troops became fully deployed. Another key factor bringing down attacks was a unilateral ceasefire declared by Sadr last August. Last week's fighting had jeopardized that.

U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said on Monday the recent violence in southern Iraq would not deter U.S. plans to withdraw 20,000 troops by July. U.S. commanders say they expect to have 140,000 soldiers in Iraq once the drawdown is complete.

The U.S. military commander in Iraq, General David Petraeus, and U.S. ambassador Ryan Crocker will give a much-anticipated status report on Iraq to Congress next week.
Petraeus is expected to recommend a pause in troop withdrawals to avoid losing the gains made in recent months.

UNEASY CALM
Sadr ordered his Mehdi Army fighters off the streets after government authorities agreed to stop rounding up his followers and implement an amnesty to free prisoners.

Maliki on Tuesday reiterated his order to Iraqi security forces to stop their raids on Mehdi Army fighters and only arrest gunmen with a warrant.
But Sadr supporters said raids had continued.

"We have information about many operations targeting Sadr followers, especially in Basra," said Nasir al-Isawi, a member of Sadr's parliamentary bloc.
"This is very dangerous and it threatens the deal."

Iraqi security forces on Monday arrested at least 12 "criminals" in Basra and three in nearby Zubair, said Interior Ministry spokesman Brigadier Abdul Karim-Khalaf.
Isawi said at least 70 were arrested in the al-Hamza neighborhood in the southern Shi'ite city of Hilla.

Analysts warn that fighting could easily flare up again as various factions vie for political influence ahead of provincial elections expected to take place by October.

The government says the military operation in Basra last week was intended to impose law and order, but Sadr's followers say it was an attempt to dilute their influence ahead of the polls.

IRANIAN WHO BROKERED IRAQ PEACE IS ON US TERRORIST WATCH LIST

WASHINGTON — The Iranian general who helped broker an end to nearly a week of fighting between Iraqi government forces and Shiite Muslim militiamen in southern Iraq is an unlikely peacemaker.

Warren P. Strobel and Leila Fadel McClatchy Newspaperslast updated: March 31, 2008 08:04:08 PM

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/227/story/32141.html

Brig. Gen. Qassem Suleimani, who helped U.S.-backed Iraqi leaders negotiate a deal with radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al Sadr to stop the fighting in Iraq's largely Shiite south, is named on U.S. Treasury Department and U.N. Security Council watch lists for alleged involvement in terrorism and the proliferation of nuclear and missile technology.

His role as peacemaker, which McClatchy first reported Sunday, underscores Iran's entrenched political power and its alliances in Iraq, according to analysts.

"The Iranians are into a lot of things, and have a lot of influence," said Judith Yaphe, a former CIA analyst who's now at the National Defense University in Washington.

Suleimani, about whom little is known publicly, commands the elite Quds (Jerusalem) force of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. U.S. officials allege that the force is responsible for sending sophisticated roadside bombs, known as explosively formed projectiles, and other weaponry that Iran's Shiite allies in Iraq sometimes have used to kill U.S. troops.

MARRIED TROOPS CAN LIVE TOGETHER IN IRAQ

When American soldiers get off duty in Iraq, the men usually return to their quarters, the women to theirs. But Staff Sgt. Marvin Frazier gets to go back to a small trailer with two pushed-together single beds that he shares with his wife.

By BRADLEY BROOKS and RUSS BYNUM, Associated Press Writers 2 minutes ago
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080401/ap_on_re_us/combat_marriages

In a historic but little-noticed change in policy, the Army is allowing scores of husband-and-wife soldiers to live and sleep together in the war zone — a move aimed at preserving marriages, boosting morale and perhaps bolstering re-enlistment rates at a time when the military is struggling to fill its ranks five years into the fighting.

"It makes a lot of things easier," said Frazier, 33, a helicopter maintenance supervisor in the 3rd Infantry Division. "It really adds a lot of stress, being separated. Now you can sit face-to-face and try to work out things and comfort each other."

Long-standing Army rules barred soldiers of the opposite sex from sharing sleeping quarters in war zones. Even married troops lived only in all-male or all-female quarters and had no private living space.

But in May 2006, Army commanders in Iraq, with little fanfare, decided that it is in the military's interest to promote wedded bliss. In other words: What God has joined together, let no manual put asunder.

"It's better for the soldiers, which means overall it's better for the Army," said Command Sgt. Maj. Mark Thornton of the 3rd Infantry.

Military analysts said this is the first war in which the Army even gave the idea any serious consideration — a reflection not only of the large number of couples sent to war this time, but also of the way the fighting has dragged on and strained marriages with repeated 12- and 15-month tours of duty.

BAGHDAD'S BEGGARS HIT THE STREETS AGAIN

A woman wrapped in a dirty abaya sits beneath a tree in the Green Zone, her palms turned upward awaiting the kindness of strangers.

By QASSIM ABDUL-ZAHRA, Associated Press Writer 48 minutes ago
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080401/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq_green_zone_beggars

The sidewalks around the Convention Center are an ideal place for 50-year-old Um Mohammed — a nickname that means "mother of Mohammed" — to hustle for spare cash.

Beggars are reappearing in the Green Zone and elsewhere in the capital, an indication that police seem to be losing interest in carrying out orders last month to round them up. The Interior Ministry's directive followed a series of suicide attacks by homeless or disabled people who had been lured by insurgents.

"This segment of the population is an easy target for terrorist groups trying to deceive them and make them walking bombs," said Brig. Gen. Qassim al-Moussawi, an Iraqi military spokesman.
Um Mohammed, a beggar who would not give her real name, said she preferred the Green Zone.
"I'm getting older and weaker, and I don't have the ability to walk and beg on the streets," she said.

Except for the occasional rocket or mortar, the heavily fortified area is a haven of relative peace in the middle of a city torn by war. Home to the Iraqi government and the U.S. Embassy, the 3.5-square-mile area is safer than the streets where daily bombings and shootings are an ever-present threat.

And the Green Zone is full of people — Americans, Iraqi officials and others — who can afford the occasional generosity.

It is unclear where those asking for handouts are coming — from outside the Green Zone or from within the homes and villas cordoned off from the rest of Baghdad inside the Green Zone boundaries.

The Green Zone is by no means infested with beggars. But a handful do get through regularly — especially when Iraq's parliament is in session inside the protected zone. Although entries to the Green Zone are guarded, Iraqis can gain access by producing proper identification cards and submitting to a search to make sure they aren't carrying explosives or weapons.

Yaqdhan al-Dikhil, security director for the Convention Center in the Green Zone, acknowledges the risk in allowing beggars into the protected area. He said photographs of beggars have been posted at checkpoints.

HOW MOQTADA AL-SADR WON IN BASRA

The Iraqi military's offensive in Basra was supposed to demonstrate the power of the central government in Baghdad. Instead it has proven the continuing relevance of anti-American cleric Moqtada al-Sadr. Sadr's militia, the Mahdi Army, stood its ground in several days of heavy fighting with Iraqi soldiers backed up by American and British air power. But perhaps more important than the manner in which the militia fought is the manner in which it stopped fighting. On Sunday Sadr issued a call for members of the Mahdi Army to stop appearing in the streets with their weapons and to cease attacks on government installations. Within a day, the fighting had mostly ceased. It was an ominous answer to a question posed for months by U.S. military observes: Is Sadr still the leader of a unified movement and military force? The answer appears to be yes.

By CHARLES CRAIN/BAGHDAD1 hour, 47 minutes ago
http://news.yahoo.com/s/time/20080401/wl_time/howmoqtadaalsadrwoninbasra

In the view of many American troops and officers, the Mahdi Army had splintered irretrievably into a collection of independent operators and criminal gangs. Now, however, the conclusion of the conflict in Basra shows that when Sadr speaks, the militia listens.

That apparent authority is in marked contrast to the weakness of Iraq's prime minister, Nouri al-Maliki. He traveled south to Basra with his security ministers to supervise the operation personally. After a few days of intense fighting he extended his previously announced deadline for surrender and offered militants cash in exchange for their weapons. Yet in the ceasefire announcement the militia explicitly reserved the right to hold onto its weapons. And the very fact of the ceasefire flies in the face of Maliki's proclamation that there would be no negotiations. It is Maliki, and not Sadr, who now appears militarily weak and unable to control elements of his own political coalition.

Sadr, in fact, finds himself in a perfect position: both in politics and out of it, part of the establishment and yet anti-establishment. Despite the fighting, he never pulled his allies out of the government or withdrew his support from Maliki in Parliament, which he could have done. Nor did he demand that all his followers leave Parliament and work outside the current political system. He has kept his hand in as a hedge.

Sadr has proven increasingly adept at politics. Last summer, he ordered his hand-picked ministers out of Maliki's cabinet after the prime minister refused to demand a timetable for withdrawal of U.S. troops. To the public, it looked like he was taking a principled stand against the occupation. But the boycott did nothing to dilute his influence in the government. All the ministries his party once headed are still staffed to the gills with his followers, who continue to create jobs for other loyalists and operate Sadr's growing political machine. Sadr is, in addition to being a military force, a source of political patronage.

He can now play the victim card, arguing that Maliki and the Americans had attacked him and his loyalists, even while allowing the militias of his Shi'ite rivals to prosper - as well as the U.S.-paid Sunni militias that are now being integrated into the Iraqi police and army. He can reasonably argue that he is the one true Iraqi patriot, the Iraqi leader the Americans fear most. How else to explain the attack on his Mahdi Army while he was observing a unilateral ceasefire? Furthermore, like Hizballah in Lebanon after the Israeli invasion in 2006, the Mahdi Army can claim a victory by simply surviving an assault by an Iraqi government backed by the Americans.

BRIEF UPRISING IN BASRA BLOODIED NOSES OF BUSH AND AL MALIKI

President Bush and Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki had high hopes when the "Battle for Basra" was launched that the Iraqi Army would roll right through the Mehadi Army.

Nothing could be further from the truth.

Al-Maliki found many of the Iraq Army refused to fight, and others just surrendered. Bush sent in U.S. warplanes to help, but all the U.S. warplanes did was drop their "precision-guided" bombs on civilians killing scores of women and children.

The "Battle of Basra" was a debacle for Bush and al-Maliki.

Iraq: Sadr's Brief Uprising Bloodied Maliki's Nose (and Bush's)

By Robert Dreyfuss, The NationPosted on April 1, 2008, Printed on April 1, 2008

http://www.alternet.org/story/80839/

At the start of the military offensive launched last week into Basra by U.S. -trained Iraqi army forces, President Bush called the action by Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki "a bold decision." He added: "I would say this is a defining moment in the history of a free Iraq."

That's true -- but not in the way the President meant it. As the smoke clears over new rubble in Iraq's second city, at the heart of Iraq's oil region, it's apparent that the big winner of the Six-Day War in Basra are the forces of rebel cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, whose Mahdi Army faced down the Iraqi armed forces not only in Basra, but in Baghdad, as well as in Kut, Amarah, Nasiriyah, and Diwaniya, capitals of four key southern provinces. That leaves Sadr, an anti-American rabble rouser and nationalist who demands an end to the U.S. occupation of Iraq, and who has grown increasingly close to Iran of late, in a far stronger position that he was a week ago. In Basra, he's the boss. An Iraqi reporter for the New York Times, who managed to get into Basra during the fighting, concluded that the thousands of Mahdi Army militiamen that control most of the city remained in charge. "There was nowhere the Mahdi either did not control or could not strike at will," he wrote.

The other big winner in the latest round of Shiite-vs.-Shiite civil war is Iran. For the past five years, Iran has built up enormous political, economic and military clout in Iraq, right under the noses of 170,000 surge-inflated U.S. occupying forces. (For details, see my March 10 Nation article, "Is Iran Winning the Iraq War?") Iran has strong ties to Iraq's ruling Shiite alliance, which is dominated by the Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq, whose militia, the Badr Corps, was armed, trained, financed and commanded by Iranians during two decades in exile in Iran. Since then, hedging its bets, Iran built a close relationship to Sadr's Mahdi Army as well, and Sadr himself has spent most of the time since the start of the U.S. surge last January in Iran*. In addition, Iran has armed and trained a loose collection of fighters that U.S. military commanders call "Special Groups," paramilitary fighters who've kept up a steady drumbeat of attacks on American troops.

Thus, it was no surprise when Hadi al-Ameri, the commander of the Badr Corps and a leading member of ISCI, traveled over the weekend to Iran's religious capital of Qom to negotiate the truce with Sadr that resulted in a shaky ceasefire in Basra.

US-BACKED IRAQI GOV. FIRES THOUSANDS WHO REFUSED TO FIGHT IN BASRA

Thousands of police officers were reported to have refused fighting the militiamen and at least two army regiments joined them with their weapons in Baghdad.

US-Backed Iraqi Gov Fires Thousands of Cops and Soldiers who Refused to Fight Sadr

By AzzamanPosted on April 1, 2008, Printed on April 1, 2008

http://www.alternet.org/story/80876/

Interior Minister Jawad Boulani has ordered the dismissal of thousands of police members and officers who allegedly refused orders to take part in the fight against the militiamen of cleric Moqtada al-Sadr.

The decision covers most of the police force in the predominantly Shiite neighborhoods of Baghdad and also several cities in the southern Iraq including Basra where most of the recent fighting took place.

The government's crackdown on Mahdi Army, the military arm of the Sadr movement in the country, which started a few days ago, came to a halt yesterday.

Several cities in southern Iraq, among them Baghdad and Basra, were placed under tight curfews as battles between the militiamen and government troops raged.

U.S. occupation troops backed the government in its bid to disarm the militias.

But the Mahdi Army has once again emerged intact as the ceasefire announced yesterday does not call for the militiamen to surrender their weapons.

HAS THE SECRETARY OF DEFENSE LOST HIS MIND?

Secretary of Defense Robert Gates on Monday said the Iraqi Army "appears to have performed well."

Is he kidding?

Even right wing FOX NEWS pundits say the Iraqi Army were routed by the Mahadi Army in the "Battle for Basra."

Gates apparently doesn't know that almost 100 Iraqi Army members surrendered rather than continue the fight in Basra.

Everyone who knows anything about Iraq is saying the resistance the Iraqi Army found in Basra was a major defeat for Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki.

Gates must have been "out to lunch" when all hell was breaking loose in Basra.

Editorial comment by BILL CORCORAN, editor of CORKSPHERE

Gates says Iraqi army appears to have performed well

Mon Mar 31, 3:09 PM ET

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20080331/pl_afp/denmarkusiraqunrestgates

Iraqi forces appear to have done "a pretty good job" in an offensive to regain control of Basra from Shiite gangs and militias, US Defence Secretary Robert Gates said Monday.

"We're obviously hopeful that he will achieve most of his objectives, and see calm return as well," Gates told reporters enroute here from Brussels, referring to Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki.

His comments came as radical Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr called off his fighters, signalling an end to six days of clashes in Basra, Baghdad and other cities that left 461 people dead.

"I think we've all known at some point that the situation in Basra was going to have to be dealt with. It is the economic lifeline of the country. To have it under control of gangs and militias over the long term is not acceptable," Gates said.

"So I think all of us in the government were pleased to see Prime Minister Maliki take this on, take the initiative and go down there himself with Iraqi forces and try to resolve the issue."
Asked how the Iraqi army performed, he said first hand information was limited because the Iraqis were directing the campaign.

But based on that, he said, "they seem to have done a pretty good job."
US plans to reduce the size of its 156,000-member force in Iraq in the coming months hinges on the performance of the Iraqi army and whether it is capable of filling the void left by departing US troops.

Gates said he had seen nothing to indicate that the violence in the south would prompt changes in Washington's plans to draw down US "surge" forces from Iraq by July.
So far, two of five combat brigades sent to Iraq last year to put a lid on spiralling sectarian violence have gone home. But some 156,000 US troops remain in Iraq.

ANOTHER BUSH IRAQ LEGACY: MILLIONS OF IRAQI WOMEN'S LIVES DESTROYED

President George W. Bush keeps piling up one Iraq legacy after another, but they are not the kind of legacies which historians will point to as major milestones in the war with Iraq.

The legacies Bush is racking up in Iraq are the kind of legacies that will go down in history as showing the invasion and occupation of Iraq by the Bush administration was the biggest foreign policy blunder in the HISTORY of the United States.

Editorial comment by BILL CORCORAN, editor of CORKSPHERE

On International Women's Day in 2004, nearly a year after the invasion of Iraq, George Bush, the US President, addressed 250 women from around the world who had gathered at the White House. "The advance of women's rights and the advance of liberty are ultimately inseparable," he said.

Supported by his wife Laura, who herself hailed the administration's success in achieving greater rights for Afghan women, the president claimed that "the advance of freedom in the greater Middle East has given new rights and new hopes to women there."Advance.

New rights. New hopes.

Stirring stuff, but totally empty claims.

In fact, Iraq's women have become the biggest losers in the post-invasion disaster. While men have borne the brunt in terms of direct armed violence, women have been particularly hard-hit by poverty, malnutrition, lack of health services and a crumbling infrastructure, not least chronic power cuts which in some areas of Iraq see electricity only available for two hours a day.

By Nadje Al-Ali, Comment Is FreePosted on March 31, 2008, Printed on March 31, 2008

http://www.alternet.org/story/80609/

More than 70 percent of the four million people forced out of their homes in the past five years in Iraq have been women and children. Many have found temporary shelter with relatives who share their limited space, food and supplies. But this, according to the UN refugee agency, has created "rising tension between families over scarce resources." Many displaced women and children find themselves in unsanitary and overcrowded public buildings under constant threat of eviction.

Meanwhile, rampant political violence has also engulfed women in Iraq. Islamist militias with links to political parties in government and insurgent groups opposing both the government and the occupation have particularly targeted Iraqi women and girls. A new Islamist puritanism is seeing women and girls being violently pressured to conform to rigid dress codes. Personal movement and social behaviour are being "regulated," with acid attacks (deliberately designed to disfigure "transgressive" women's faces), just one of the sanctions of the new moral guardians of post-Saddam Iraq.

Suad F, a former accountant and mother of four children who lives in a previously mixed neighbourhood in Baghdad, was telling me during a visit to Amman in 2006: "I resisted for a long time, but last year also started wearing the hijab, after I was threatened by several Islamist militants in front of my house. They are terrorising the whole neighbourhood, behaving as if they were in charge. And they are actually controlling the area. No one dares to challenge them. A few months ago they distributed leaflets around the area warning people to obey them and demanding that women should stay at home."

By 2008, the threat posed by Islamist militias and extremist groups has gone far beyond dress codes and calls for gender segregation at universities. Despite -- or even partly because of US and UK rhetoric about liberation and women's rights -- women have been pushed back into their homes.

Women who have a public profile -- as teachers, doctors, academics, lawyers, NGO activists or politicians -- are now systematically threatened, seen as legitimate targets for assassinations. Criminal gangs have joined in. Though rarely reported in Britain, the criminal kidnapping of women for ransom, for trafficking into forced prostitution outside Iraq, and for out and out sexual abuse have all taken root in post-Saddam Iraq.

Killings in Basra in 2007 provide a snapshot. According to a study by the Basra Security Committee, 133 women were killed last year in the UK-controlled city, either by religious vigilantes or as a result of so-called honour killings. Of these, 79 were deemed to have "violated Islamic teachings," 47 were killed to preserve supposed family honour, and the remaining seven were targeted for their political affiliations. As Amnesty International said last year, "politically active women, those who did not follow a strict dress code, and women [who are] human rights defenders are increasingly at risk of abuses, including by armed groups and religious extremists."

The invasion and occupation of Iraq has also directly added to suffering of women. While aerial bombings of residential areas have been responsible for thousands of civilian deaths, many Iraqis have lost their lives while being shot at by American or British troops. Whole families have been wiped out as they approached a checkpoint or did not recognize areas marked as prohibited.

In addition to the killing of innocent women, men and children, the occupation forces have also been engaged in other forms of violence against women. There have been numerous documented accounts of physical assaults at checkpoints and during house searches. American and British forces have also arrested wives, sisters and daughters of suspected insurgents in order to pressure them to surrender. Recent figures show that the US and Iraqi forces are currently holding (mostly without charge) many thousands of detainees, and even where women have not been detained as bargaining chips they have spent frantic months or even years trying to discover where their family members were being held and why.

Women in Iraq suffered from discrimination and violence well before 2003. Deep-rooted patriarchy (especially in rural and tribal areas) and the pervasive repression of all women politically resistant to Saddam's Ba'athist project were hallmarks of life in Iraq in the 1960s, 70s and 80s.

But there were subtleties which gave women relative freedom. First, Saddam's political acuity meant that he was perfectly capable of a policy of "state feminism" that partly shifted patriarchal power away from fathers, husbands and brothers, investing this power in the state itself -- Saddam himself becoming the father of the nation. As long as you steered clear of all oppositional politics, this created 20 years (from the late 1960s on) of moderate liberty for at least Iraq's urban middle-class women.

Then, with the growing militarization of Iraq after the Iran-Iraq war and the major reverse of the Gulf war of 1991, Saddam switched policy toward cultivating political allegiance through tribal leaders. The upshot for women? A re-assertion of traditional conservative values that saw women's rights used as bargaining chips and their bodies the repositories of tribal and familial "honor."

As he stood before his female audience in 2004 did President Bush actually understand any of this? Was it factored at all? Or instead, did the US's infamous lack of post-invasion planning include a blind spot over women's rights? Perhaps George and Laura would like to update us.

NEW U.S. DEATHS: DEPT. OF DEFENSE CALLS THEM MULTI NATIONAL FORCES

In a never ending attempt to keep the American public in the dark about U.S. deaths in Iraq, the Department of Defense lists the deaths of U.S. soldiers in Iraq as "multi national forces" or MNF.

U.S. Deaths Confirmed By The DoD:
4003
Reported U.S. Deaths Pending DoD Confirmation:
8
Total
4011

DoD Confirmation List
Latest Coalition Fatality: Mar 31, 2008
03/31/08 DoD Announces Change in Status of Army Soldier
The armed forces medical examiner confirmed on March 29, human remains recovered in Iraq were those of Staff Sgt. Keith M. Maupin, 24, of Batavia, Ohio. Maupin had been listed as missing-captured since April 16, 2004...

03/31/08 MNF: MND-B Soldier attacked by IED
A Multi-National Division – Baghdad Soldier was killed at when the vehicle he was riding in was struck by an improvised-explosive device approximately 4 p.m. in northeast Baghdad March 31.
03/30/08 MNF: MND-B Solider attacked by IED
A Multi-National Division – Baghdad Soldier was killed from wounds sustained after the vehicle he was riding in was struck by an improvised-explosive device north of Baghdad at approximately 5 p.m. March 30.

03/30/08 MNF: Marine attacked by IED
A Multi-National Force – West Marine was killed March 30 as the result of wounds received in action when his vehicle was attacked by an enemy force with an improvised explosive device in al Anbar Province March 29.

U.S. SOLDIER KILLED MONDAY: FRESH GREEN ZONE ATTACKS

New Green Zone attacks. U.S. soldier killed

http://thinkprogress.org/2008/03/31/new-green-zone-attacks/

The fortified Green Zone “came under fresh attack Monday, less than 24 hours after anti-American Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr told his fighters to stand down following a week of clashes with government forces.”

No serious injuries were reported today, but at least “two Americans working for the U.S. government died in attacks on the zone last week.”

A U.S. soldier was also “killed by a roadside bomb in northeast Baghdad on Monday.”

NEW VIDEO: IRAQI REFUGEES IN SYRIA

http://therealnews.com/web/index.php?thisdataswitch=0&thisid=1244&thisview=item

Iraqi refugees in Syria

Alive in Baghdad: A look at the daily struggle to make ends meet facing Iraqis in Syria

We show this segment courtesy of www.aliveinbaghdad.org.

Alive in Baghdad employs Iraqi journalists to produce video packages each week about a variety of topics on daily life in Iraq.

"BATTLE OF BASRA" PROVES IRAQI ARMY CAN'T HANDLE SECURITY

President Bush and Republicans like Sen. Lindsay Graham were all over TV, especially the Bush White House "darling" FOX NEWS, singing the praises of the Iraqi Army, but upon a closer examination the "Battle for Basra" proved the Iraqi Army is not up to the task of handling security in Iraq.

The United States military had to be called in when the Iraqi Army floundered against the Mehadi Army.

There were also reports last week that many members of Iraq Army were surrendering rather than fight. Forty Iraqi Army fighters surrendered at one time when the battle heated up.

The poor showing of the Iraq Army is an ominous sign for the United States military and especially Gen. David Petraeus who travel to the United States next week to meet with President Bush and give a status report to Congress.

The fact the Iraqi Army couldn't handle a security crackdown in Basra means the United States military could be in Iraq for an even longer time than anyone ever anticipated.

Editorial comment by BILL CORCORAN, editor of CORKSPHERE.

Clashes highlight Iraq army’s woes

Self-sufficiency as distant as ever in war’s 6th year; 2008 dropped as target
By Charles J. Hanley

AP Special Correspondent
The Associated Press
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23864495/

Iraq’s new army is “developing steadily,” with “strong Iraqi leaders out front,” the chief U.S. trainer assured the American people.

That was three-plus years ago, the U.S. Army general was David H. Petraeus, and some of those Iraqi officials at the time were busy embezzling more than $1 billion allotted for the new army’s weapons, according to investigators.

The 2004-05 Defense Ministry scandal was just one in an unending series of setbacks in the five-year struggle to “stand up” an Iraqi military and allow hard-pressed U.S. forces to “stand down” from Iraq.

The latest discouraging episode was unfolding this weekend in bloody Basra, the southern city where Iraqi government forces — in their toughest test yet — were still struggling to gain the upper hand in a five-day-old battle with Shiite Muslim militias.

Year by year, the goal of deploying a capable, free-standing Iraqi army has seemed always to slip further into the future. In the latest shift, with Petraeus now U.S. commander in Iraq, the Pentagon’s new quarterly status report quietly drops any prediction of when homegrown units will take over security responsibility nationwide, after last year’s reports had forecast a transition in 2008.

Earlier, in January last year, President Bush said Iraqi forces would take charge in all 18 Iraqi provinces by November 2007. Four months past that deadline, they control only half the 18.
Not enough resources?Responsibility for these ever-unfulfilled goals lies in Washington, contends retired Maj. Gen. Paul D. Eaton, who preceded Petraeus as chief trainer in Iraq.
“We continue to fail to properly resource and build the very force that will enable a responsible drawdown of our forces,” Eaton told The Associated Press.

Retired Gen. Barry R. McCaffrey, a West Point professor and frequent Iraq visitor, also sees insufficient “energy” in the U.S. effort. “Even now, there is no Iraqi air force; there’s no national military medical system; there’s no maintenance system,” he told a New York audience on March 13.

The current chief trainer counters that his Multi-National Security Transition Command-Iraq, known as MNSTC-I, has made “huge progress in many areas, quality and quantity.”

Editorial comment: "SURE."

IRAQI CRACKDOWN BACKFIRES: STRENGTHENS SADRISTS

The news media in the U.S. would have you believing the cease-fire by rebel leader Muquta al-Sadr was a victory for the Iraqi Army when just the opposite is true. Here is how it is explained:

ANALYSIS-Iraqi crackdown backfires, strengthens Sadrists

Mon Mar 31, 2008 3:49pm BST

http://uk.reuters.com/article/homepageCrisis/idUKCOL144127._CH_.242020080331?rpc=401&

By Ross ColvinBAGHDAD, March 31 (Reuters)

Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's crackdown on militias in the southern oil port of Basra appears to have backfired, exposing the weakness of his army and strengthening his political foes ahead of elections.

U.S. President George W. Bush has praised the crackdown, calling it a "defining moment" for Iraq, but it has unleashed a wave of destabilising violence in southern Iraq and in Baghdad that risks undoing the security improvements of the past year.It has also exposed a deep rift within Iraq's Shi'ite majority -- between the political parties in Maliki's government and followers of populist cleric Moqtada al-Sadr.Analysts say Iraqis may be about to witness a new phase in the cycle of violence that has gripped the country since the U.S.-led invasion in 2003 -- intra-Shi'ite bloodletting that could tear Iraq apart and more deeply embroil U.S. forces.Sadr on Sunday pulled back from all-out confrontation against Iraqi security forces and their U.S. backers, ordering his Mehdi Army militia to stop fighting.

While Basra was reported to be calm on Monday, mortar attacks shook Baghdad."It will be a short honeymoon, especially with election time coming up," said Mustafa Alani, an analyst at the Dubai-based Gulf Research Centre.Provincial elections are due to take place by October, with the Sadrists, who boycotted the last polls in 2005, vying for control of the mainly Shi'ite, oil-producing south with a powerful rival, the Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council."The stand-off is not over yet, it's only a truce ... provincial elections will trigger the battle again," predicted Hazem al-Nuaimi, a political analyst based in Baghdad.

ARMY UNPREPARED Maliki flew to Basra last Tuesday to personally oversee a military operation he said was aimed at "cleaning up" the lawless city, which is controlled by criminal gangs and militias allied to various Shi'ite political parties.The operation was lauded by U.S. and British officials as evidence of the growing strength of the Iraqi army, but by the weekend it had largely stalled, with Iraqi troops having failed to dislodge the gunmen from their strongholds.Embarrassingly, Iraq's defence minister had to admit that despite much preparation, his forces were not ready for such fierce resistance. U.S. and British forces have intervened, launching air and artillery strikes to support Iraqi troops.

The fighting provoked a furious backlash by Mehdi Army fighters in other towns and cities in the oil-producing south. Hundreds have been killed in violence that Iraqi security forces have struggled to contain without U.S. military help."What has happened has weakened the government and shown the weakness of the state. Now the capability of the state to control Iraq is open to question," said Izzat al-Shahbander, a moderate Shi'ite politician from the Iraqi National List party.Gareth Stansfield, a professor of Middle East politics at the University of Exeter in England, said Maliki had staked his political credibility on the show of force in Basra and lost."Maliki's credibility is shot at this point. He really thought his security forces could really do this. But he's failed," he said.

SADR LOOKS STRONGER While Maliki has sought to portray the operation as an effort to reassert his government's control over Basra and crack down only on "criminals", not political parties, many analysts believe it is politically motivated.The Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council, the biggest Shi'ite party in government and an ally of Maliki's Dawa party, is battling for control of Basra in an often violent turf war that pits it against Sadrists and the smaller Fadhila party, which controls the local oil industry.Sadrists accuse Maliki and the Supreme Council of trying to crush them ahead of the October provincial elections in which they are expected to make big gains at the expense of the Council, which controls many local authorities in the south."This is him (Maliki) basically preparing for an election.

They need to disarm Sadr. The strongest militia in the city will control the vote," said Alani.But Sadr aides say the Mehdi Army will not give up their weapons, raising the prospect of another confrontation, as the Iraqi military says it will press on with the Basra operation.Sadr, ironically, may emerge stronger from the affair."Clearly Sadr has gained a victory. This was not a fight he picked and his forces looked strong. He has consolidated his position," said Stansfield.The cleric, who is widely believed to be in Iran furthering his religious studies, now looks like the victim of political manoeuvring by Shi'ite parties in government."The Sadrists may have been strengthened in many people's minds.

Many have seen the onslaught as unfair," said Reidar Visser, an expert on southern Iraq who edits the Web site www.historiae.org.Iraqis will now be watching to see what happens next, but after enduring a bitter Sunni Arab insurgency and then a wave of sectarian violence between Shi'ites and Sunnis, they have become accustomed to expecting the worst."It's true there are no clashes, gunmen or explosions," said Jabbar Sabhan, a civil servant in Basra, "but the situation is still dangerous. I don't trust the words of politicians."

NEW U.S. AND BRITISH CASULATIES FROM IRAQ: VIOLENCE SWEEPS ACROSS IRAQ

We have the latest U.S. and British casualty reports from Iraq and a long list of violence that continues to sweep across Iraq.

War News for Monday, March 31, 2008

Casualty Reports:Commando Ben McBean lost an arm and leg when he was blown up by a Taliban landmine in Afghanistan a month ago. The 21-year-old, recovering at a military hospital in Birmingham. Speaking of the incident from Selly Oak military hospital in Birmingham, Ben said: ? I was on patrol in a group of eight Marines checking the Taliban?s position. We were sprinting from one checkpoint to another. "As I was running I suddenly heard this huge bang. I was blown ten feet into the air and landed to see my severed foot lying several feet in front of me. Then I looked down to see my arm had snapped completely in half.

Staff Sergeant Jerry Majetich was struck by an Improvised Explosive Device (IED), critically injuring him and causing 3rd degree burns over 100% of his face, neck and scalp along with numerous other serious injuries. Jerry was deployed to Iraq in March of 2005 with the 304th Psychological Operations (PSYOP) Company, stationed south of Baghdad in support of the 184th (AA), 3rd ID. On October 18th, 2005, while traveling as the 27th vehicle in a 69-vehicle convoy as part of Operation Clean sweep, he was hit by an Improvised Explosive Device (IED). His vehicle had a bounty on it. The rear half of the vehicle disintegrated immediately, killing a member of the security detachment, who was a friend and room mate of Jerry's, and the Battalion Information Officer, also a good friend. The driver's door blew off and he was ejected from the vehicle, receiving minor burns to his right arm and leg. The gunner was thrown about 50 feet into a nearby field from the explosion, shattering his right leg and suffering 2nd and 3rd degree burns on his arm, leg, and lower back. The propane tank in the IED set the vehicle on fire, and Jerry was trapped inside, unable to escape because the door next to him had been welded closed. His injuries include: -35% total body surface 3rd degree burns.-100% face, neck and scalp 3rd degree burns, causing the loss of all hair, both ears (his hearing is fortunately ok), most of his nose, and his vision was gone for two months, with the inability to close either eye for almost three months.-His intestines were ruptured and stomach bruised, causing the loss of 1/3 of his small intestines. Because of the multiple surgeries to his stomach, his muscles were unable to heal and he now has what is referred to as "swiss cheese" by his doctor: a total of six hernias (five in his stomach and one on his right side), which required another surgery. If not taken care of, their size would have increased, interfering with other organs.-Total amputation of his right thumb and pinky, and remaining three fingers down to the second knuckle.-Finger tip amputations to all of the fingers on his left hand.-Loss of use to right arm and shoulder beyond ten pounds.-Unable to straighten either arm due to bone growth caused body in reaction to the burns.-Unable to stay in sun light for more than a few minutes, and his body does not react well to either extreme cold or heat.-Two gunshot wounds in his upper, rear right leg with a loss of muscle and tendons.-Frequent loss of memory, both short and long term, due to Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI).-Frequent bouts with anxiety in and out of crowds, depression and fatigue.

MNF-Iraq is reporting the death of a Multi-National Division - Baghdad soldier in a roadside bombing in a northern neighborhood of Baghdad on Sunday, March 30th. No other details were released.

MNF-Iraq is reporting the death of a Multi-National Force – West Marine in a roadside bombing in al Anbar Province on Saturday, March 29th. No other details were released.

The British MoD is reporting the deaths of two Royal Marines in an explosion near Kajaki, Helmand province, Afghanistan on Sunday, March 30th. Here's NATO's official statement.

The father of a soldier listed as missing-captured in Iraq since 2004 said Sunday that the military had informed him that his son's remains were found in Iraq. Keith Maupin said at a news conference in suburban Cincinnati that an Army general told him DNA testing identified the remains of his son, Sgt. Keith Matthew Maupin. He was commonly known as Matt.

Security incidents:Baghdad:#1: The fortified Green Zone in Iraq's capital came under mortar or rocket attack again Monday. The U.S. Embassy confirmed the attacks and said no serious injuries were reported. The U.S. military said it had no reports of major damage.

#2: In another blow to Maliki, his security adviser, Saleem Qassim Taee, known as Abu Laith Kadhimi, was killed in the fighting in Basra. The Dawa party member had lived in exile under Saddam's regime for 20 years.

#3: US air strikes and military assaults have killed 41 "criminals" in Baghdad, including 25 who died when an alleged mortar team was bombed, the American military announced on Monday. The killings occurred on Sunday in eastern and northeastern Baghdad where US and Iraqi forces have been battling the Mahdi Army militia

#4: A US military statement said American soldiers were hunting for the launch site of a rocket or mortar attack in eastern Baghdad on Sunday when their Mine Resistant Ambush Protected (MRAP) vehicle was hit by a roadside bomb, injuring one soldier.

#5: In northeast Baghdad, another eight "criminals" were killed when they attacked US soldiers, a separate statement said.

#6: The Iraqi Olympic Committee said Monday that its assistant secretary-general died of wounds sustained from gunmen attack last week. "Dr. Ra'ad Jaber died of wounds in a Baghdad hospital on Sunday after being attacked by gunmen in the Sa'doun Street in central Baghdad on Wednesday," Hussein al-Amidi, the acting secretary-general of the committee, told Xinhua. Ra'ad Salman, an Iraqi basketball referee was killed instantly during the attack while Fikrat Toma, coach of national basketball team, escaped the attack with a gunshot wound in his thigh, he said. The attack came as fierce clashes between Shiite Mahdi Army militiamen and the U.S.-backed Iraqi security forces spiraled in several southern Iraqi cities in addition to Baghdad.

#7: One U.S. soldier was killed after his vehicle was struck by a roadside bomb on Sunday north of Baghdad, the U.S. military said.

Diyala Prv:Buhriz:#1: Elsewhere, unknown gunmen in a car attacked a checkpoint manned by U.S.-backed Sunni fighters near Buhriz, about 35 miles north of Baghdad, police said. Four of the fighters were killed.Balad

Ruz:#1: Around 7 am, a roadside bomb targeted a lorry at Balad Ruz (40 km east Baquba) killing its driver.

Muqdadiysh:#1: Around 10:45 am, a roadside bomb targeted the vice governor’s convoy at Moqdadiyah (40 km east Baquba).Two of his guards were killed in that incident who were Iraqi policemen.

Latifiya:#1: Six handcuffed and blindfolded bodies were found with gunshot wounds in a deserted area near Latifiya, 40 km (25 miles) south of Baghdad, police said.

Basra:#1: In Basra, Mahdi Army militants fought to keep their strongholds but were overrun by an Iraqi Security Force in the eastern neighborhood of Tanuma. U.S. and British aircraft conducted four air strikes in the city, the U.S. military said. In downtown Basra in the area of al Timimiyah, Iraqi forces surrounded the neighborhood as coalition aircraft struck Sunday morning, residents said.Sami al-Askari also said most of Basra, where the government attempted to crack down on militia fighters, was "under control" a day after Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr took his Mahdi Army off the streets.

#2: Residents buried their dead and swept rubble from the streets after quiet returned to the southern Iraqi city of Basra on Monday. Life slowly returned to normal in Basra where Sadr's masked Mehdi Army militia fighters were no longer to be seen openly brandishing weapons in the street as they had for days. "We have control of the towns around Basra and also inside the city. There are no clashes anywhere in Basra. Now we are dismantling roadside bombs," said Major-General Mohammed Jawan Huweidi, commander of the Iraqi Army's 14th division. Shops were beginning to reopen, some for the first time in a week. Authorities said schools would reopen on Tuesday. Residents hosed down the hulks of burnt-out cars. Others drove with coffins in their trunks carrying the unburied dead.

Balad:#1: Gunmen killed six Iraqi policemen on Sunday in an ambush on their patrol northeast of Balad, 80 km (50 miles) north of Baghdad, the U.S. military said.

Mosul:#1: Two gunmen were killed on Sunday and another was wounded by U.S. helicopter fire in Mosul city, while police forces there released a kidnapped citizen and wounded two armed men, official spokesperson of Ninawa Police Operations Command said. "One gunman was killed and another was wounded when a U.S. helicopter opened fire on one of the streets in al-Wahda neighborhood, southeast of Mosul," Brigadier Khalid Abdul-Sattar told Aswat al-Iraq – Voices of Iraq.

#2: Unknown gunmen on Sunday kidnapped a brother of former minister of Human Rights in Mosul, northern Iraq, A Ninewa police source said. "Unknown gunmen abducted a brother of former minister of Human Rights Zuhir al-Chalabi in 17 July district, western Mosul", A Ninewa police source, who requested anonmity, told Aswat al-Iraq-Voices of Iraq.

Al Anbar Prv:#1: One U.S. soldier was killed after his vehicle was struck by a roadside bomb on Sunday in Anbar province, western Iraq, the U.S. military said.

Fallujah:#1: One civilian was wounded when an improvised explosive device went off near an Iraqi army patrol in central Falluja city on Monday, police said. "A roadside IED planted in al-Dhbbat neighborhood, central Falluja, went off on Monday near an Iraqi army patrol, wounding one civilian nearby," a security source, who asked not to have his name mentioned, told Aswat al-Iraq – Voices of Iraq.

#2: Around 8:30 am, a bicycle bomb which was parked near Al-Khulafa mosque targeted one of the Falluja governing council members’ car downtown the city. One person was killed in that incident who had bought the car from the governing member yesterday. Also four people were injured in that incident.

Afghanistan:#1: A blast struck a NATO patrol in southern Afghanistan, killing two British soldiers, officials said Monday. The British troops were airlifted to a military hospital after they were caught in the explosion during a routine patrol Sunday, NATO said in a statement. Both died at the hospital of their injuries.

#2: In neighboring Kandahar province, a roadside bomb hit a car carrying Afghan private security guards protecting a road construction crew in Zhari district on Monday, killing three guards, said district chief Niyaz Mohammad Sarhadi.

#3: The Spanish Defence ministry confirmed yesterday that a Spanish patrol from the Qala i Naw Provincial Reconstruction Team came under fire at around 1am local time yesterday lunchtime near Moqur. The Spanish troops were taking part in a joint reconnaissance mission with Afghan police when they were attacked by a gang of unidentified individuals, who soon ran off when their fire was returned. There were no casualties and given that the troop carrier was also undamaged, the patrol completed its mission before returning to base, the Defence ministry spokesman went on to explain.

#4: Three Dutch soldiers from NATO-led forces in Afghanistan were hospitalized on Sunday after their vehicle hit an improvised explosive device near the town of Tarin Kowt, the Defence Ministry said. One soldier lost both his legs in the explosion and his condition was critical, the ministry said in a statement posted on its Web site.Dutch soldiers serving with Nato forces in Afghanistan were involved in two separate roadside bomb attacks on Sunday, leaving five wounded, the defence ministry said. In the first incident three people were wounded driving over a bomb while patrolling near Tarin Kowt. One man, who lost both legs in the blast, is said to be in a critical condition. The second attack came seven hours later, leaving two soldiers injured. The defence ministry said they are in a stable condition.

#5: Around 150 Norwegian soldiers and 50 Latvian soldiers were in the base when it came under attack around 4am Norwegian time. None of the rockets hit the base at Meymaneh, and no injuries were reported, Lt Colonel Jon Inge Øglænd told Aftenposten.no. All personnel were evacuated into the base's bomb shelter for two hours, said Petter Lindqvist of the defense ministry. It wasn't clear who was behind the attack or what type of rockets were used.

#6: Four New Zealand soldiers in Afghanistan were fortunate to escape without injury after a roadside device exploded next to their patrol vehicle today. A four-vehicle New Zealand Defence Force patrol from the provincial reconstruction team (PRT) was travelling to a village near the border of the Baghlan province with a doctor to set up a mobile medical clinic. An improvised explosive device (IED) went off beside one of the vehicles, damaging the front and smashing the windscreen, but no shrapnel reached the four occupants.