LATEST U.S. CASUALTY REPORT FROM IRAQ

The mainstream media has forgotten these KIA and wounded soliders, but we refuse to follow in lockstep with the mainstream media.

Casualty Reports: Click on BLUE for more details

http://warnewstoday.blogspot.com/

MNF-Iraq is reporting the deaths of three Multi-National Division – North Soldiers from small-arms fire in Hawija Iraq on Wednesday, June 4th. No other details were released.June 2 airpower summary:

lance corporal Gabriel Morse and the 2nd Battalion, 8th Marines arrived in Iraq for their tour of duty in July 2006 and were based in Saqlawiyah, near Fallujah. Morse, himself, was struck by shrapnel from hand grenades on the back of his body from the waist down to his shin. He was first evacuated to a hospital near Baghdad, then to a hospital on a U.S. base in Germany. Morse has had to undergo multiple surgeries to repair the shrapnel wounds, including a half-dollar size, six-inch deep hole in his backside, he said. In addition, he also had to have exploratory operations to determine if any of his internal organs had been affected.None were, but he did have to have a loop colostomy for six months, Morse said. But Morse is still on what is called a medical hold and even though he has recovered from his physical injuries, he is being treated for PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder) at the VA Medical Center in Minneapolis.

Sgt. Marcus Kuboy was hurt when his Humvee was bombed in Fallujah. He suffered significant back and leg injuries.

DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE HIRES CONTRACTORS TO OVERSEE CONTRACTORS LIKE KBR IN IRAQ

The Department of Defense (DOD) now employs contractors to keep contractors in check in Iraq, under a new framework for war industry management solidified last month.

DOD Contracts Out Contractor OversightWednesday 04 June 2008by: Maya Schenwar, t r u t h o u t Report
http://www.truthout.org/article/dod-contracts-out-contractor-oversight

In April, the Pentagon split its largest military contract in Iraq - formerly belonging to the Houston-based corporation KBR, Inc. - among companies Fluor and DynCorp, in addition to KBR.A fourth company, the British-American service provider Serco, is responsible for managing and overseeing the other three, according to its contract, signed last year and now in effect.

Based on the contract, Serco's duties include planning activities, managerial work, performance reviews, training and budget recommendations. According to an Army Sustainment Command news release last year, Serco is responsible for "analyzing performance contractors' costs," "working with the Army to measure contractor performance" and "recommending process improvements." The company also serves as a liaison between the other three contractors, and between the contractors and the government.

The Serco deal marks a new level of Defense Department privatization, according to Dina Rasor, the chief investigator of the Follow the Money Project, who founded the nonprofit Project on Government Oversight (POGO).

"It's gotten to the point where we're actually outsourcing the oversight," Rasor told Truthout.
Serco plays a direct role in oversight activities previously reserved for government officials, according to Rasor. When government auditors and investigators request material from contractors in Iraq, Serco now acts as their intermediary, summarizing and interpreting the documents.

Click on link above to read full story.

CNN REPORTS: THREE U.S. SOLDIERS KILLED IN IRAQ: SUICIDE BOMBER KILLS 15 IN BAGHDAD: 12 BODIES FOUND IN MASS GRAVE IN BAGHDAD

Suicide bomber kills 15 in Iraq
Story Highlights
NEW: Bomb explodes near home of police official; children among those killed
NEW: 10 to 12 bodies found in mass grave in Baghdad, U.S. military says
Three U.S. soldiers killed in small-arms attack in Sunni town near Kirkuk
Their deaths bring U.S. toll to 4,090 since war began; six deaths so far in June

http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/meast/06/04/iraq.main/index.html

BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) Three U.S. soldiers were killed on Wednesday in a small-arms fire attack in northern Iraq, the U.S. military said.The incident occurred in Hawija, a predominantly Sunni Arab town near Kirkuk. The soldiers were part of Multi-National Division-North.

The number of U.S. service members killed in the Iraq war is 4,090, including eight civilian employees of the Defense Department. The number killed in June now stands at six.

A suicide truck bomb targeting a senior police officer in Baghdad on Wednesday killed 15 people and wounded at least 65 others.

An Interior Ministry official said the bomb targeted the home of Brig. Nazem Tayeh, who works for the ministry and is head of police rescue units.
When the bomb exploded, Tayeh was not at his home in the predominantly Shiite northeastern neighborhood of Shaab.

One of Tayeh's nephews was killed, and three children and two women injured were Tayeh's family members. Civilian bystanders, including a woman and a child, were also among the people killed. Eight buildings collapsed in the blast, and police pulled people from the rubble.

Also in Shaab, a mortar round killed two people and wounded five others. Among the injured were a woman and a child, the ministry said.

Iraqi National Police and U.S. soldiers found human remains in eastern Baghdad on Tuesday, the U.S. military said.
A site was found with 10 to 12 bodies in a "water-filled well-like grave." The remains appear to have been buried for about two years.

CBS NEWS REPORTS: IRAQ SECURITY PACT PITS U.S. AGAINST IRAN

Iraq Security Pact Pits U.S. Against Iran

BAGHDAD, June 3, 2008
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/06/03/iraq/main4150401.shtml?source=RSSattr=World_4150401

(AP) A proposed U.S.-Iraq security agreement is shaping up as a major political battle between America and Iran, as the debate over the future of troops here intensifies ahead of the fall U.S. presidential election.

The agreement, which both sides hope to finish in midsummer, is likely to be among the issues discussed this weekend when Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki is due to visit Iran - his second trip there in a year. Ahead of the visit, his party sought to calm worries by insisting that the deal would not allow foreign troops to use Iraq as a ground to invade another country - a clear reference to Iranian fears of a U.S. attack.

For their part, congressional Democrats have urged the Bush administration not to bypass Congress, which they believe should approve any deal. They fear a long-term security deal with Iraq - if it committed the U.S. to protecting Iraq - could make it difficult for the next president to withdraw U.S. forces. But the toughest words have come from Iraqi politicians, especially those loyal to Muqtada al-Sadr, the anti-American cleric whose militiamen fought U.S. and Iraqi troops in Baghdad until a May truce ended seven weeks of fighting.

A lawmaker from al-Maliki's party told reporters Tuesday that the Iraqis and the Americans are far apart on the security agreement. He said negotiations "are at a standstill, and the Iraqi side is studying its options." "The Americans have some demands that the Iraqi government regards as infringing on its sovereignty," lawmaker Haidar al-Abadi said. "This is the main dispute, and if the dispute is not settled, I frankly tell you there will not be an agreement." U.S. Embassy spokeswoman Mirembe Nantongo described talks over the pact as "active" and said Tuesday that "texts are very much in flux." The deal would establish a long-term security relationship between Iraq and the United States, and a parallel agreement providing a legal basis to keep U.S. troops in Iraq after the U.N. mandate expires at the end of the year.

Click on link to CBS story for full account.

ALIVE IN BAGHDAD REPORTS: 5 MILLION IRAQI COLLEGE STUDENTS AFFECTED BY THE WAR

Baghdad, Iraq - Some of the people among Iraqi society most affected by the war are the students; there are about five million students all over Iraq.

http://aliveinbaghdad.org/

These students are facing a great danger because they go out in the streets regularly, heading to their schools, colleges, or universities. The girls are facing the risk of being kidnapped or attacked if they don’t wear a veil or scarf, the boys facing the risk of being kidnapped by the militias controlling the area around their school.

Unfortunately many accidents happened between the years of 2004 and 2007, such as the blast that took place in the Mustansariya University and killed 22 student and left more than 40 wounded, or the blast that took place at Al-Nahrein University and killed 15 and left about 50 wounded.

The other problems facing the students is transportation. For some students living in areas like Abu Ghraib or Ghazaliya, it’s too difficult for them to get to Baghdad University or any other university in the middle of Baghdad, because sometimes the roads are blocked due to the constant problems happening in those neighborhoods, such as car bomb attacks or battles occurring between insurgents and the US military.

When an attack happens, normally the US military or the Iraqi forces block the road or the neighborhood after a car bomb attack or a battle as a security and safety measure. In this situation, the students have to wait until the road is open again in order to continue on theri way to school. It became normal for a student to miss the first and the second class of the day due to the difficulties of the transportation and the road blocks.

Some students fled Iraq after they received death threats or were kidnapped by one of the militias. Some of them were lucky and have been able to continue their studies in Jordan or Syria.

The majority were not because most of them could not afford it or lost their high school or college certificates. Some projects such as the Iraqi Student Project are helping Iraqi students to get full scholarships in the US in order to continue their studies in the United States.

The security condition now in Baghdad appears to be much better than before. The Sahwa forces have helped with restoring security in some neighborhoods in and around Baghdad, and that helped the students improve the chance to go on with their studies.

However there are still a large number of students whom cannot reach their school, due to where they live in Baghdad or what school they are attending now. For example the schools in Sadr City are still controlled by the fear of being attacked or the risk of explosions and ongoing operations there.

Overall, the situation appears to be improving, and as this school year ends many are hopeful that the autumn will bring a more stable and comfortable learning environment.

NBC REPORTS: SOLDIERS: LONG TOURS CREATE "LOTS OF STRESS"

By John Rutherford, Producer, NBC News, Washington
http://fieldnotes.msnbc.msn.com/

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Three soldiers receiving Purple Hearts today at Walter Reed Army Medical Center spoke about the strains on soldiers in Iraq that contributed to a record number of suicides last year in the Army.

The Army reported last Thursday there were 115 suicides in 2007, the highest number since it began keeping records of suicides in 1980.

So far this year, there have been 38 confirmed suicides.

"There's a lot of strain because probably a lot of people are ready to come home," said Staff Sgt. Bennie Lamb, 40, of Macon, Ga., who was on his third tour in Iraq when he was wounded March 14 by a suicide bomber.

NAMES, HOMETOWNS OF LATEST U.S. IRAQ CASUALTIES

The war in Iraq is still going on even though you would never know it from watching TV or reading the newspapers, and young Americans are still dying every single day in Iraq.

Latest Coalition Fatalities
Source: http://icasualties.org/oif/ Click on "BLUE" for more infor

06/03/08 DoD Identifies Army Casualty
Spc. Christopher D. McCarthy, of Virginia Beach, Va., died 1 June 2008 at Forward Operating Base Ramadi, Iraq. His death is under investigation. He was assigned to the U.S. Joint Forces Command, Joint Reserve Unit, Norfolk, Va.

06/03/08 MNF: MND-B Soldier dies of non-battle related cause
A Multi-National Division - Baghdad Soldier died from a non-battle related cause at approximately 8 a.m. June 3. The Soldier's name is being withheld pending notification of next of kin and release by the Department of Defense.

06/03/08 DoD Identifies Army Casualty
Spc. Justin R. Mixon, 22, of Bogalusa, La., died June 1 in Baghdad Iraq, of wounds suffered when his vehicle encountered an improvised explosive device. He was assigned to the 1st Squadron, 2nd Stryker Cavalry Regiment, Vilseck, Germany.

06/02/08 DoD Identifies Marine Casualty
Cpl. Christian S. Cotner, 20, of Waterbury, Conn., died May 30 from a non-hostile incident in Al Anbar province, Iraq. He was assigned to Marine Wing Support Squadron 172, Marine Wing Support Group 17, 1st Marine Aircraft Wing...

06/02/08 MNF: MNF-W Soldier dies in non-combat related incident
A Multi-National Force - West Soldier died as the result of a non-combat related incident June 1. The Soldier’s name is being withheld pending notification of next of kin and release by the Department of Defense.

WASHINGTON POST: IRAQ LIKELY TO MISS DEADLINE FOR PACT WITH U.S.

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - A July target for negotiating an agreement on future relations between Iraq and the United States is likely to be missed, an Iraqi government spokesman said on Tuesday.

Iraq says likely to miss deadline for U.S. pact
ReutersTuesday, June 3, 2008; 1:51 PM

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/06/03/AR2008060301638.html

U.S. and Iraqi officials began talks in March on twin agreements on the status of U.S. military forces in Iraq after 2008 and a strategic framework agreement that defines long-term bilateral ties.

Washington has said it aims to wrap up the talks by July, but Iraqi government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh said that was unlikely to happen.

"I don't think that we can meet this date. There is a difference in viewpoints between Iraq and the U.S. I don't think that time is enough to end this gap and to reach a joint understanding ... Therefore, we are not committed to July as a deadline," he told al-Arabiya television.

He also said Iraq was looking into possible alternatives if it could not reach agreement with the United States on their long-term relations, but he gave no details.

The talks have angered many Iraqis who suspect the United States, which led the 2003 invasion of Iraq and has around 155,000 troops in the country, of wanting to keep a permanent presence there.

Click on link http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/06/03/AR2008060301638.html to read complete story.

VIDEO: "FOX AND FRIENDS" ACCUSE NBC/MSNBC OF BIAS

This video is a little like the kettle calling the pot black. No pun intended. But if anyone has shown they are a biased network it is FOX NEWS. What do they think Brit Hume and his nightly panel are when it comes to the news? They are ALL extreme right wingers. Then there is Bill O'Reilly, Sean Hannity and Neil Cavuto plus a host of so-called "correspondents" and so-called "reporters" at FOX NEWS who every single day show their right wing bias and bash the Democrats, and especially Barack Obama. Sean Hannity, IMO, is by far the worst. He never stops bashing Obama and keeps running over and over the Rev. Wright and Father Pfleger videos plus making accusations which cannot be supported by fact.

Take a look for yourself what the "crew" at "Fox and Friends" had to say in this video:
http://www.mediachannel.org/wordpress/2008/06/03/fox-accuses-msnbc-of-media-bias/

VIDEO: FIVE MILLION ORPHANS IN IRAQ. (THIS VIDEO WILL BREAK YOUR HEART)

Alive in Baghad, one of the best news services in Iraq, reports there are now five million Iraqi orphans as the result of the U.S. invasion and occupation of Iraq. This video shows one of the orphanages that is in good shape, but most of the orphanages in Iraq are a disgrace.

See Video here: http://therealnews.com/t/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&Itemid=74&jumival=1478

SUICIDE BOMBER KILLS 9 IN MOSUL: FEARS RISE SUNNI INSURGENTS ARE REGROUPING

Suicide car bomber kills 9 in northern Iraqi city

By SAMEER N. YACOUB, Associated Press Writer Mon Jun 2, 4:14 PM ET
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/iraq;_ylt=AmqAadGJ3H6oraaF2Vb5mOVX6GMA

BAGHDAD - A suicide car bomber targeted the provincial police headquarters in Mosul on Monday, killing at least nine people and wounding dozens, police said.

The attack underscored fears that Sunni insurgents are regrouping despite a U.S.-Iraqi offensive in the northern city.

Nobody claimed responsibility for the attack, but suicide operations are commonly associated with al-Qaida in Iraq — the main target of U.S.-Iraqi military operations to clear the city 225 miles northwest of Baghdad.

Salim Shakir said he was walking toward his house in the area when he was hit with shrapnel in the stomach and legs.

"We are shocked because we thought that the violent days had ended," the 47-year-old taxi driver said from his hospital bed. "This explosion shows that the insurgents are still active, and much is needed to stop them."

VIDEO: CLUSTER BOMBS: HELL FROM ABOVE

The Real News Network's Pepe Escobar reports 111 countries have banned cluster bombs, but the United States, Israel, China, Russia, Pakistan and India have not banned them.

This video http://therealnews.com/t/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&Itemid=74&jumival=1594&updaterx=2008-06-02+11%3A55%3A33
shows the devastation a cluster bomb can do and why many of them never explode and are left in areas where children playing can stumble across them and set them off.

DAHR JAMAIL REPORTS ABOUT A GROUP OF IRAQ VETERANS THE MAINSTREAM MEDIA CHOSE TO IGNORE

As we have been doing for months, we keep bringing to the readers of my blog stories about Iraq war veterans that NEVER make it to the mainstream press anymore.

Dahr Jamail, the award-winning reporter and author of "Beyond the Green Zone," reports on a group of Iraq war veterans and what took place in Seattle over the Memorial Day weekend.

It is worth reading not only because the story is steeped in facts, but it clearly points out how the mainstream media has decided anything to do with Iraq is not worthy of their time or effort anymore.

We still have 160,000 troops in Iraq, but you would never know by watching the news, especially FOX NEWS, or reading your local newspaper.

COMMENTARY BY BILL CORCORAN, EDITOR OF CORKSPHERE

"Enough Is Enough, It's Time to Get Out"

Inter Press ServiceBy Dahr Jamail

Click here to read story at original source with photo.

SEATTLE, Jun 2 (IPS) - Dozens of veterans from the U.S. occupation of Iraq converged in this west coast city over the weekend to share stories of atrocities being committed daily in Iraq, in a continuation of the "Winter Soldier" hearings held in Silver Spring, Maryland in March.

At the Seattle Town Hall, some 800 people gathered to hear the testimonies of veterans from Iraq. The event was sponsored by the Northwest Regional Iraq Veterans Against the War (IVAW), and endorsed by dozens of local and regional anti-war groups like Veterans for Peace and Students for a Democratic Society.

"I watched Iraqi Police bring in someone to interrogate," Seth Manzel, a vehicle commander and machine gunner in the U.S. Army, told the audience. "There were four men on the prisoner...one was pummeling his kidneys with his fists, another was inserting a bottle up his rectum. It looked like a frat house gang-rape."

Manzel joined the army after 9/11 for economic reasons -- he'd just been laid off, and his wife had just had a baby. Manzel told another story of military medics he was with in Tal Afar who refused to treat an elderly man in their detention centre. Manzel described the old man as being jaundiced and lying on the ground, writhing in pain.

"The medics said the old man was just being lazy and they were not authorised to treat detainees," Manzel said.

Jan Critchfield worked as an army journalist while attached to the 1st Cavalry in Baghdad during 2004. "I was with a unit that shot at a man and wife near a checkpoint," Critchfield said, "She had been shot through her shinbone, and that was the first story I covered in Iraq."

Critchfield told the audience that his unspoken job in Iraq was to "counter the liberal media bias" about the occupation.

"Our target audience was in the U.S., and the emphasis was reporting on humanitarian aid missions the military conducted," Critchfield said. "I don't know how many stories I reported on chicken drops (distributing frozen chickens in a community). I don't know what else you can call that, other than propaganda. I would find the highest ranking person I could get, and quote them verbatim without fact checking anything they said."

Other veterans told of lax rules of engagement that led to the slaughter of innocent civilians in Iraq.
"We were told we'd be deploying to Iraq and that we needed to get ready to have little kids and women shoot at us," Sergio Kochergin, a former Marine who served two deployments in Iraq, told the audience. "It was an attempt to portray Iraqis as animals. We were supposed to do humanitarian work, but all we did was harass people, drive like crazy on the streets, pretending it was our city and we could do whatever we wanted to do."

As the other veterans on the panel nodded in agreement, Kochergin continued, "We were constantly told everybody there wants to kill you, everybody wants to get you. In the military, we had racism within every rank and it was ridiculous. It seemed like a joke, but that joke turned into destroying peoples' lives in Iraq."

"I was in Husaiba with a sniper platoon right on the Syrian border and we would basically go out on the town and search for people to shoot," Kochergin said. "The rules of engagement (ROE) got more lenient the longer we were there. So if anyone had a bag and a shovel, we were to shoot them. We were allowed to take our shots at anything that looked suspicious. And at that point in time, everything looked suspicious."

Kochergin added, "Later on, we had no ROE at all. If you see something that doesn't seem right, take them out." He concluded by saying, "Enough is enough, it's time to get out of there."
Doug Connor was a first lieutenant in the army and worked as a surgical nurse in Iraq. While there he worked as part of a combat support unit, and said most of the patients he treated were Iraqi civilians.

"There were so many people that needed treatment we couldn't take all of them," he said. "When a bombing happened and 45 patients were brought to us, it was always Americans treated first, then Kurds, then the Arabs."

Connor added quietly, "It got to the point where we started calling the Iraqi patients 'range balls' because, just like on the driving range (in golf), you don't care about losing them."

Channan Suarez Diaz was a navy hospital corpsman who returned from Iraq with a purple heart, among other medals. He served in Ramadi from September 2004 to February 2005 with a weapons company. He is now the Seattle Chapter president of IVAW.

"Our commanding officer wanted us to go through a route that another platoon did and was completely wiped out in an ambush," Diaz explained. "We refused. They canceled that mission and we didn't go. I don't think these are isolated incidents. I think this is happening every day in Iraq. The military doesn't want you to know about this, because it's kind of like lighting a fire in a prairie."

The first Winter Soldier event was organised in 1971 by Vietnam Veterans Against the War in response to a growing list of human rights violations occurring in Vietnam.>From Mar. 13-16, 2008, IVAW held a national conference titled "Winter Solider: Iraq and Afghanistan" outside Washington, DC. The four-day event brought together veterans from across the country to testify about their experiences in Iraq and Afghanistan.

IRAQ DEATH TOLL 'ABOVE HIGHEST ESTIMATES' NEW STUDY REVEALS

IRAQ: Death Toll 'Above Highest Estimates'

By Ahmed Ali and Dahr Jamail*
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=42618

BAQUBA, Jun 2 (IPS) - The real number of the dead is far higher than even the highest declared in death tolls, many Iraqis say.

A study by doctors from the Johns Hopkins School of Health in conjunction with Iraqi doctors from al-Mustanceriya University in Baghdad, published in the British medical journal The Lancet in October 2006, estimated the number of excess deaths as a result of the occupation at above 655,000.

Just Foreign Policy, an independent organisation "dedicated to reforming U.S. foreign policy" offered an updated total of 1,213,716 at the time of this writing. On Sep. 14, 2007, Opinion Research Business (ORB), an independent polling agency located in London, produced a figure of 1,220,580 deaths as a result of the invasion.

These estimates are above any official figures from Iraq, but they do consider the reported official figures. Iraqis believe that the authorities are hiding these figures. "The U.S. military benefits from hiding the real totals," said a political analyst who declined to give his name because of the atmosphere of fear within Iraq. "And the Iraqi government is a puppet of the Americans, so their figures are ridiculously low as well." The report published in The Lancet did not take into account many circumstances of death, say residents in Baquba, capital of Diyala province 40km north of capital Baghdad. "All people know that a large number of bodies are dropped into the Diyala river," said a local resident. "I was kidnapped and taken to a village called Huwaider, which is completely Shia and located on the Diyala River. Sunnis there are killed and dropped in the river by militiamen, but I was freed by the U.S Army.

"People in all the villages on the river have gotten used to seeing bodies floating in the river," he added. "I lived in Gatoon district, the volatile stronghold of the militants in Baquba," Yasir al-Azawi, a 37-year-old truck driver told IPS. "Everyday I saw vehicles dropping bodies in the river. Everyone in my district knows this truth; that the river contained an extraordinary number of bodies to the extent that living in that place became impossible. We left our home and moved to live in the north of Iraq." An officer at the directorate-general of police for Diyala province said the number of dead is impossible to calculate exactly. "When the new security plan began in Diyala, some of the arrested militants confessed that they were burying bodies," the officer said. "Some of them led us to the places where they buried the bodies. We found hundreds by digging in the areas that are a stronghold of the militants, and sometimes in the gardens of the houses they were living in, or in a place nearby."

An eyewitness at the Baquba morgue spoke with IPS on condition of anonymity. "I was looking for my relative who was kidnapped and then killed, and I saw an ambulance moving the dead who were killed by militants," he said, "I asked the driver about these bodies. He said that the Iraqi army found them in houses and in holes dug within the houses. I also saw a skeleton among the bodies."

Many believe that the number of the dead is higher than these studies reflect also because the lack of access to areas controlled by militias and other fighters prevents police and army personnel from finding and collecting bodies. "These militia strongholds have prevented access to police for over two years now," Ali Hussein, a local vegetable seller told IPS. "Dozens, and sometimes hundreds were kidnapped everyday and taken to the militants strongholds. People heard nothing about thousands of them. Even today, thousands of families know nothing about their loved ones because they were not found in the morgue."

A policeman, speaking on condition of anonymity, told IPS that "we were moving the bodies from the main streets of the city through patrols. A body that may have been dropped in the street is a message for people. They dropped it purposely. But these are only a few; the bodies of most we believe were killed, were never found." "The morgue continues to receive bodies brought by the police or the ambulance," said an employee at the Baquba morgue. "We used to receive many daily. The capacity of the morgue was not enough, so they were buried after certain procedures like taking photos or waiting for the families to ask about them and to take them. Sometimes, at times of bombing and disastrous accidents, we were receiving hundreds of bodies." Other officials also offered bleak assessments.

"Hundreds of families come to the provincial office everyday to ask about their loved ones who were kidnapped; they do not know whether they are dead or alive," an employee at the governor's office told IPS. "Often the Iraqi army finds records of the dead from the militants through their confessions.

Every week there are new lists of names of those who were killed by the militants. People come to find out whether their loved ones are dead, in order to stop searching." New burial grounds are found often, and the dead are usually not recorded. Many residents told IPS that farmers commonly find bones in their fields.

(*Ahmed, our correspondent in Iraq's Diyala province, works in close collaboration with Dahr Jamail, our U.S.-based specialist writer on Iraq who has reported extensively from Iraq and the Middle East) (END/2008)

HUFFINGTON POST RELEASES VIDEO OF SOLDIERS DISCUSSING USING "DROP WEAPONS" TO COVER UP KILLING CIVILIANS IN IRAQ

Several soldiers who have returned from combat zones talk with the American News Project about what they say is the widespread practice of using "drop weapons" to cover up the killing of innocent civilians in Iraq and Afghanistan. We feature five veterans and current members of Iraq Veterans Against the War, plus retired Lieutenant Colonel Gary Solis, a Vietnam War veteran and legal scholar who taught "Law of War" at West Point. Watch the video from ANP below by clicking on this link: http://link.brightcove.com/services/link/bcpid1417423198/bctid1584805268 or go to this link:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/06/02/soldiers-discuss-using-dr_n_104682.html

SPECIAL WEBCAST TUESDAY, JUNE 3 RE AUTHORS AND THEIR BOOKS ON IRAQ WAR

On Tuesday,June 3,join the Center for Constitutional Rights for an exciting live webcast of the event "True Crimes: The Untold Story Behind the Devastation of Iraq." The event, which will take place at New York City's Town Hall, features bestselling author JEREMY SCAHILL, Pulitzer Prize-winning writer CHRIS HEDGES, journalist LAILA AL-ARIAN, and The New Yorker's SEYMOUR HERSH, as they go behind the headlines to tell the untold story of the occupation of Iraq, the daily plight of Iraqi civilians, and the ongoing role of private mercenaries in America's so-called "war on terror."The webcast will stream live on CCR'swebsite on Tuesday,June 3, 7p.m. EST.

Go herefor moredetails: http://www.ccrjustice.org/

WE HAVE NAMES, HOMETOWNS, CAUSE OF DEATH OF ALL 19 GIS KILLED IN IRAQ IN MAY

This is a complete list of confirmed deaths of US military personnel in Iraq during the month of May. Click on the name in "BLUE" and obtain information on hometown, where the GI died and cause of death.

Source: http://icasualties.org/oif/prdDetails.aspx?hndRef=4-2008


US
Christian Cotner
Al Asad - Al Anbar Province
Non-hostile
25-May-2008
3
US: 3 UK: 0 Other: 0



US
Sergeant Frank J. Gasper
Najaf
Hostile - hostile fire - IED attack

US
Sergeant Blake W. Evans
Al Jazeera Desert - Salah Ad Din
Hostile - hostile fire - IED attack

US
Sergeant 1st Class Jason F. Dene
Baghdad
Non-hostile - injury
22-May-2008
1
US: 1 UK: 0 Other: 0



US
Private 1st Class Kyle Phillip Norris
Iskandariyah (died in Balad) - Babil
Hostile - hostile fire - IED attack
18-May-2008
1
US: 1 UK: 0 Other: 0



US
Private Branden P. Haunert
Tikrit - Salah Ad Din
Hostile - hostile fire - IED attack
15-May-2008
1
US: 1 UK: 0 Other: 0



US
Sergeant John K. Daggett
Halifax, Canada - Baghdad
Hostile - hostile fire - RPG attack
14-May-2008
1
US: 1 UK: 0 Other: 0



US
Sergeant Victor M. Cota
Baghdad (Kadamiyah)
Hostile - hostile fire - IED attack
11-May-2008
1
US: 1 UK: 0 Other: 0



US
Corporal Jessica A. Ellis
Baghdad (northwest of)
Hostile - hostile fire - IED attack
10-May-2008
1
US: 1 UK: 0 Other: 0



US
Specialist Joseph A. Ford
Al Asad - Anbar
Non-hostile - vehicle accident
09-May-2008
1
US: 1 UK: 0 Other: 0



US
Specialist Mary J. Jaenichen
Iskandariyah - Babil
Non-hostile - injury
06-May-2008
2
US: 2 UK: 0 Other: 0



US
Private 1st Class Aaron J. Ward
Anbar Province
Hostile - hostile fire - small arms fire

US
Specialist Alex D. Gonzalez
Mosul - Ninewah
Hostile - hostile fire - small arms fire, RPG
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
21
US: 19 UK: 0 Other: 2

SHOCKING REPORT: US PAYING ALLIES TO FIGHT THE WAR

NEW DELHI: The tale of massive fraud and embezzlement of millions of dollars by the US military in its operations in Iraq continues.

By Subodh Varma - TNN
http://rinf.com/alt-news/war-terrorism/us-paying-allies-to-fight-war-in-iraq/3673/

Testifying before the US Congress Committee on Oversight and Government Reform on 22 May, Mary Ugone, deputy inspector general of accounts in the Pentagon said that an audit of $8.2 billion spending related to the Iraq war showed that $7.8 billion had been improperly spent.
Over 180,000 payments, mostly since the war started in 2003, were made by the defense department to contractors for everything from bottled water to vehicles to transportation services.

In her testimony, Ugone also revealed that $135 million were given to forces from three countries UK, South Korea and Poland to facilitate their participation in the war. This is the first time that the US has officially admitted paying its allies in the so-called Coalition of the Willing that invaded Iraq in March 2003.

In his opening statement, Henry Waxman, chairman of the committee, said that wounded soldiers are getting notices from the Pentagon to return signing bonuses with interest since they had not completed the full term. “There is something very wrong when our wounded troops have to fill out forms in triplicate for meal money while billions of dollars in cash are handed out in Iraq with no accountability,” he said.

In an earlier report released in November 2007, the Inspector General had concluded that the Defense Department couldn’t properly account for over $5 billion in taxpayer funds spent in support of the Iraq Security Forces. It said that thousands of weapons, including assault rifles, machine guns, and rocket-propelled grenade launchers were unaccounted for, and millions of dollars had been squandered on construction projects that did not exist.

Ugones testimony gave detailed examples of the bizarre manner in which US defense officials doled out huge amounts of money without recording where it was going. In one case a sum of $320 million was paid an Iraqi official for paying salaries with only an incompletely filled voucher signed by one official. Since no details of the spending plan were attached as required by Pentagon rules the auditors have no clue as to where the money went. This payment was made from assets seized from Iraq.

Auditors found that the Pentagon gave away $1.8 billion from seized Iraqi assets. There were 53 vouchers noting these payments but not even one adequately explained where the money went.

In another instance, two vouchers, one for $5 million and the other for $2.7 million showed payments to a vendor for goods and services provided except that there were no details of what goods or services were actually delivered.

Over $2.7 billion was spent on providing equipment and services to the Iraqi Security Forces (ISF). The auditors found that $2 billion of this was not properly accounted for.

For example, 31 heavy tracked recovery vehicles costing $10.2 million were given to the ISF, but 18 of them could not be traced because identification numbers were not recorded.

MUST READ: SHOCKING BUSH 'PEP TALK' TO WAR CABINET: "WE ARE GOING TO WIPE THEM OUT"

Shocking Bush 'Pep Talk' to His War Cabinet on Iraq: 'We Are Going to Wipe Them out!'

By Tom Engelhardt, Tomdispatch.comPosted on June 1, 2008, Printed on June 1, 2008

http://www.alternet.org/story/86890/

Here's a memory for you. I was probably five or six and sitting with my father in a movie house off New York's Times Square -- one of the slightly seedy theaters of that dawn of the 1950s moment that tended to show double or triple feature B-westerns or war movies. We were catching some old oater which, as I recall, began with a stagecoach careening dramatically down the main street of a cow town.

A wounded man is slumped in the driver's seat, the horses running wild. Suddenly -- perhaps from the town's newspaper office -- a cowboy dressed in white and in a white Stetson rushes out, leaps on the team of horses, stops the stagecoach, and says to the driver: "Sam, Sam, who dun it to ya?" (or the equivalent). At just that moment, the camera catches a man, dressed all in black in a black hat -- and undoubtedly mustachioed -- skulking into the saloon.

My dad promptly turns to me and whispers: "He's the one. He did it."

Believe me, I'm awed. All I can say in wonder and protest is: "Dad, how can you know? How can you know?"

But, of course, he did know and, within a year or two, I certainly had the same simple code of good and evil, hero and villain, under my belt. It wasn't a mistake I was likely to make twice.

Above all, of course, you couldn't mistake the bad guys of those old films. They looked evil. If they were "natives," they also made no bones about what they were going to do to the white hats, or, in the case of Gunga Din (1939), the pith helmets. "Rise, our new-made brothers," the evil "guru" of that film tells his followers. "Rise and kill. Kill, lest you be killed yourselves. Kill for the love of killing. Kill for the love of Kali. Kill! Kill! Kill!"

"Wipe Them Out!"

Kill! Kill! Kill! That was just the sort of thing the native equivalent of the black hat was likely to say. Such villains -- for a modern reprise, see the latest cartoon superhero blockbuster, Iron Man -- were not only fanatical, but usually at the very edge of mad as well. And their language reflected that.

I was brought back with a start to just such evil-doers of my American screen childhood last week by a memoir from a once-upon-a-time insider of the Bush presidency. No, not former White House press secretary Scott McClellan, who swept into the headlines by accusing the President of using "propaganda" and the "complicit enablers" of the media to take the U.S. to war in 2002-2003. I'm thinking of another insider, former commander of U.S. forces in Iraq, Lieutenant General Ricardo Sanchez. He got next to no attention for a presidential outburst he recorded in his memoir, Wiser in Battle: A Soldier's Story, so bloodthirsty and cartoonish that it should have caught the attention of the nation -- and so eerily in character, given the last years of presidential behavior, that you know it has to be on the money.

Let me briefly set the scene, as Sanchez tells it on pages 349-350 of Wiser in Battle. It's April 6, 2004. L. Paul Bremer III, head of the occupation's Coalition Provisional Authority, as well as the President's colonial viceroy in Baghdad, and Gen. Sanchez were in Iraq in video teleconference with the President, Secretary of State Colin Powell, and Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld. (Assumedly, the event was recorded and so revisitable by a note-taking Sanchez.) The first full-scale American offensive against the resistant Sunni city of Fallujah was just being launched, while, in Iraq's Shiite south, the U.S. military was preparing for a campaign against cleric Muqtada al-Sadr and his Mahdi Army militia.

According to Sanchez, Powell was talking tough that day: "We've got to smash somebody's ass quickly," the general reports him saying. "There has to be a total victory somewhere. We must have a brute demonstration of power." (And indeed, by the end of April, parts of Fallujah would be in ruins, as, by August, would expanses of the oldest parts of the holy Shiite city of Najaf. Sadr himself would, however, escape to fight another day; and, in order to declare Powell's "total victory," the U.S. military would have to return to Fallujah that November, after the U.S. presidential election, and reduce three-quarters of it to virtual rubble.) Bush then turned to the subject of al-Sadr: "At the end of this campaign al-Sadr must be gone," he insisted to his top advisors. "At a minimum, he will be arrested. It is essential he be wiped out."

Not long after that, the President "launched" what an evidently bewildered Sanchez politely describes as "a kind of confused pep talk regarding both Fallujah and our upcoming southern campaign [against the Mahdi Army]." Here then is that "pep talk." While you read it, try to imagine anything like it coming out of the mouth of any other American president, or anything not like it coming out of the mouth of any evil enemy leader in the films of the President's -- and my -- childhood:

"'Kick ass!' [Bush] said, echoing Colin Powell's tough talk. 'If somebody tries to stop the march to democracy, we will seek them out and kill them! We must be tougher than hell! This Vietnam stuff, this is not even close. It is a mind-set. We can't send that message. It's an excuse to prepare us for withdrawal.

"There is a series of moments and this is one of them. Our will is being tested, but we are resolute. We have a better way. Stay strong! Stay the course! Kill them! Be confident! Prevail! We are going to wipe them out! We are not blinking!'"

Keep in mind that the bloodlusty rhetoric of this "pep talk" wasn't meant to rev up Marines heading into battle. These were the President's well-embunkered top advisors in a strategy session on the eve of major military offensives in Iraq. Evidently, however, the President was intent on imitating George C. Scott playing General George Patton -- or perhaps even inadvertently channeling one of the evil villains of his onscreen childhood.

Click on link http://www.alternet.org/story/86890/
to read the full and fascinating story.

WATCH AS COST OF WAR GROWS AND TRADE OFFS FOR YOUR COMMUNITY

If you are interested in how much the Iraq war is costing you, and how many services the cost of the war could provide to you and your community, then click on this link: http://www.nationalpriorities.org/costofwar_home

ANOTHER DAY OF VIOLENCE ALL ACROSS IRAQ

The mainstream media and the Bush administration keep telling the American public that all is well in Iraq, but Iraqwarnewstoday http://warnewstoday.blogspot.com/ reports an entirely different picture.

BE SURE TO CLICK ON "BLUE" FOR EXPANDED INFORMATION ON EACH INCIDENT

Reported Security IncidentsBaghdadUpdate: U.S. soldier killed by explosively formed penetrator in northeast Baghdad.

No further details at this time.Car bomb near the Iranian embassy kills 2 civilians, injures 5. Note: There have been attacks in this vicinity previously. Not clear whether the embassy is the target. -- C And indeed, al Jazeera reports that the incident actually occurred in a parking lot used by the Iraqi Defense Ministry. This would seem to be the actual target.

U.S. Army says a helicopter crash "south of Baghdad" has injured two soldiers. The cause is under investigation. As they say 100% of the time, mechanical failure is suspected. That is just a ritual incantation which gives no indication of what may actually have happened. --

CFour civilians injured by car bomb in al-Tashria neighborhood, western Baghdad.Roadside bomb attack on police patrol in al-Ghazali, central Baghdad, injures four police officers.

Hit (Anbar Province)Suicide bomb attack on a police checkpoint kills 14, including 4 police, injures 10. The dead include a senior officer. The U.S. says it has sent reinforcements to the area. Reuters says 9 police were killed, identifies the "senior officer" as the city's Chief of Police. Also says11 police and 7 civilians injured.

Authorities have imposed a curfew on the city.al-Mafraq, near BaqubaFighting erupts between police and Sahwa council fighters. One child is killed and 3 civilians injured. Now this is fairly ominous. Many people have been concerned that by arming local Sunni militias, the U.S. created a potential for eventual armed conflict with government forces. Evidently so. --

CBaqubaRoadside bomb kills a woman.

KirkukRoadside bomb attack on a police patrol injures 6 police and 2 civilians.

Shurqat (near Mosul)After their patrol is attacked, Iraq police arrest 70 "suspected gunmen. Uh huh. How about they went out and grabbed everybody they could find?

BRITISH TROOPS ARE RESIGNING AT AN ALARMING RATE

Iraq and Afghanistan troops under pressure as more resign from Forces

By Aislinn Simpson
Last updated: 2:48 AM BST 30/05/2008
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/frontline/2051295/Iraq-and-Afghanistan-troops-under-pressure-as-more-resign-from-Forces.html

Almost a thousand servicemen have left the Armed Forces since the start of the year, prompting fears for the safety of troops serving in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Government figures released on Thursday showed that the number of full-time trained personnel leaving the services had accelerated.

From January to April 1, provisional figures showed that staff levels had fallen from 174,910 to 173,960, leaving the Armed Forces more than 5,000 troops short of its own target. The casualty rate in Iraq and Afghanistan, where the 97th soldier died this week, and the low pay of infantry soldiers have been identified as factors persuading recruits to leave early.

The latest losses represent a significant increase in the rate of departure from the Armed Forces. In the period between last October and January this year, the number of full-time service personnel increased by 130. The figures follow a report by the Commons Defence Committee, which said earlier this year that it was “deeply concerned” that the Armed Forces had been operating above the level of their resources for seven of the past eight years.

AUSTRALIAN TROOPS PULLOUT OF IRAQ

NASSIRIYA, Iraq (Reuters) - About 500 Australian combat troops pulled out of their base in southern Iraq on Sunday, fulfilling an election promise by Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd to bring the soldiers home this year.

http://www.boston.com/news/world/australia/articles/2008/06/01/australian_troops_begin_iraq_pullout/

A British military spokesman in the southern city of Basra said the pullout from Talil base in Nassiriya was under way, but a spokesman for the governor of Dhi Qar province said it had been completed, with U.S. forces replacing the Australians
.
"The Australian battle group is pulling out," the British military spokesman said.

McCAIN CAMPAIGN'S REACTION TO SENATOR'S MISTATEMENT ABOUT IRAQ: "SO WHAT?"

McCain Campaign Responds To Senator’s Inaccurate Iraq Statements: ‘So What?’»

Yesterday at a townhall meeting in Wisconsin, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) claimed that troops in Iraq are already down to “pre-surge levels”:

So I can tell you that it is succeeding. I can look you in the eye and tell you it’s succeeding. We have drawn down to pre-surge levels. Basra, Mosul and now Sadr city are quiet and it’s long and it’s hard and it’s tough and there will be setbacks.

Watch VIDEO OF McCAIN HERE: http://thinkprogress.org/2008/05/30/mccain-call-nitpicking/

This assertion is wrong. There are now 155,000 troops in Iraq — far above the 130,000 before the surge.

But today on a conference call with reporters, the McCain campaign tried to dismiss this factually inaccurate statement. “So what?” said Sen. Jon Kyl (R-AZ), a strong McCain supporter. “What does that amount to?”
He added that McCain just “misspoke.” According to adviser Randy Scheunemann, McCain meant to say that troops will be eventually drawn down to pre-surge levels. From his response to the AP’s Liz Sidoti:
SIDOTI: Randy, I’m a little confused here. If the question is over the tense of the statement, why is he not wrong?
RANDY: If the question is, are we drawing down to pre-surge levels? The answer is, yes. If the question is, have we drawn down? The answer is, yes. Liz, I don’t know how to make it any clearer than that. […]
SIDOTI: He said, “We have drawn down to pre-surge levels.” And what you’re saying is, we will have drawn down to pre-surge levels by June — or, I’m sorry, by July. He was speaking in the present tense: “We have drawn down to pre-surge levels.”
RANDY: And if we want to talk about verb tenses, we can talk about verb tenses. Everybody knows — it’s been publicly announced since before April — Gen. Petraeus and Amb. Crocker testified about it extensively. It is very well-known where we are in the surge force levels and that we are drawing down to pre-surge levels. That has not been fully completed yet, but will be completed within no more than 60 days.

CNN REPORTS CAR BOMB EXPLODES NEAR IRANIAN EMBASSY IN BAGHDAD: US HELICOPTER CRASHES NEAR BAGHDAD

BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- A car bomb killed two people and wounded five others when it exploded near the Iranian embassy in central Baghdad Sunday, the interior ministry said.

http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/meast/06/01/iraq.main/index.html

Also on Sunday, a U.S. military helicopter crashed south of Baghdad, wounding two American soldiers, the military said.

In a news release, the military said mechanical failure may have been the cause of the crash. However, authorities plan on investigating further to determine the actual reason.

SUICIDE BOMBER KILLS 10 WEST OF BAGHDAD. US MARINE KILLED

BAGHDAD -- A suicide bomber blew himself up at a police checkpoint west of Baghdad on Saturday, killing at least 10 people including the local police chief, an official said

The U.S. military also said an American Marine died Friday in a non-combat related incident in Iraq, pushing the number of Americans killed this month to 21 as May draws to a close.

By KIM GAMEL ; Associated Press Writer Published: May 31st, 2008 03:18 PM Updated: May 31st, 2008 03:19 PM
http://www.thenewstribune.com/tacoma/24hour/iraq/story/377142.html
.
Fearing more attacks, authorities imposed a vehicle ban and closed all entrances to the targeted town of Hit.

The attacker detonated his explosives belt after approaching the checkpoint, which was near a bridge, at about 9 p.m., said the town's administrator, Hikmat Jubeir.

Jubeir said six policemen were among those killed, including the town's police chief Col. Khalil Ibrahim. Four civilians also were killed and 12 other people were wounded, he said.

Hit, 85 miles west of Baghdad, is in Anbar province, which was the center of the Sunni-led insurgency before local tribal leaders joined forces with the U.S. military against al-Qaida in Iraq, a key factor in a steep drop in violence nationwide.

The town itself was among a series of communities along the Euphrates River used by al-Qaida and other insurgent groups to smuggle weapons, ammunition and fighters from Syria southeast toward Baghdad.
The bombing was a grim reminder of the dangers that continue to face Iraqis despite the recent security gains.

It raised the number of Iraqis killed in May to at least 532, the lowest monthly death toll this year, according to an Associated Press tally compiled from Iraqi police and military reports.

In political developments, loyalists of radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr stepped up their opposition to a long-term security deal being negotiated between the Iraqi government and the United States.

Senior Sadrists, including lawmakers Falah Hassan Shanshal and Maha Adel al-Douri, met in the cleric's Sadr City office in Baghdad and called on the Iraqi government to stop the negotiations and to hold a public referendum on the issue.

Al-Sadr, the hardline Shiite cleric whose Mahdi Army militia battled U.S.-Iraqi troops in Baghdad's Sadr City district until a truce this month, also has called for a referendum along with weekly protests against the deal.

Widespread opposition among the Sadrists and other Shiite and Sunni groups has raised doubts that negotiators can meet a July target to finalize a pact to keep U.S. troops in Iraq after the current U.N. mandate expires at the end of the year.

Although U.S. officials insist they are not seeking permanent bases, suspicion runs deep among many Iraqis that the Americans want to keep at least some troops in the country for many years.

Tensions also rose when Nassar al-Rubaie, the leader of the Sadrist bloc in parliament, was stopped at a police checkpoint outside Diwaniyah, south of Baghdad.

The six-car convoy, en route from Basra to the holy city of Najaf, was held up for nearly two hours without explanation, al-Rubaie told The Associated Press in a telephone interview. He called for the government to stop harassing Sadrists and put those responsible on trial.

Police Col. Asaad Ali, the director of the Diwaniyah operations center, said police stopped the convoy because gunmen are not allowed in the city and al-Rubaie was protected by armed guards. He said a patrol was sent to safely escort the convoy on its way out of the province.
Despite the truce, the U.S. military has continued to target what it calls Iranian-backed Shiite militia factions, warning key leaders have fled to other areas as American and Iraqi forces closed in on them in Sadr City.

American troops acting on tips in eastern Baghdad on Saturday captured a suspect believed to be a key assistant to one of the fugitive militia leaders, according to a military statement. The man captured was accused of kidnapping and managing funds for the so-called special groups.

ABC NEWS AND AP REPORT IRAQ DEATHS DOWN, BUT FOR HOW LONG?

Iraq Deaths Down, but for How Long?
Iraq deaths down to lowest monthly level in 4 years, but will the trend last?
By ROBERT H. REID Associated Press Writer
The Associated Press
BAGHDAD

http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory?id=4970162

U.S. military deaths plunged in May to the lowest monthly level in more than four years and civilian casualties were down sharply, too, as Iraqi forces assumed the lead in offensives in three cities and a truce with Shiite extremists took hold.

But many Iraqis as well as U.S. officials and private security analysts are uncertain whether the current lull signals a long-term trend or is simply a breathing spell like so many others before.

U.S. commanders also warn the relative peace is fragile because no lasting political agreements have been reached among the Shiite, Sunni and Kurdish communities.

Talks on returning Sunnis to the government broke down this week, and tensions among rival Shiite parties remain high despite a May 11 truce that ended weeks of bloody fighting in Baghdad's Sadr City district.

Iraqis have experienced lulls in the past — notably after the January 2005 elections — only to see violence flare again.

Click here for full story: http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory?id=4970162

IRAQI CHILDREN PLAYING SOCCER BLOWN UP BY BOMB

BAGHDAD, May 30 (Reuters) - One Iraqi child was killed and two wounded on Friday when a group of children playing soccer picked up a bomb and it exploded, police said.

Reuters North American News Service
http://wiredispatch.com/news/?id=191003


The children, aged about 5 or 6, were playing near a rubbish dump in Baquba, 65 km (40 miles) northeast of Baghdad, when they spotted a strange object, police said.
When they picked it up, the home-made device exploded.
Relatives brought the injured children to a local hospital, where they lay in bed, bandaged and blood-spattered.

WHEN McCAIN GOES TO IRAQ HE BETTER STAY AWAY FROM THESE CITIES AND PROVINCES

Before providing the list of cities and provinces Sen. John McCain better stay away from when he travels to Iraq to prove once again how "wonderful" things are going in Iraq, we will prove you with information of the latest US casualties in Iraq and Afghanistan. Remember: Click on the part in "BLUE" and you will get additional information on each topic or death of an American.

Source: http://warnewstoday.blogspot.com/

War News for Saturday, May 31, 2008
MNF-Iraq is reporting the death of a Multi-National Force – West Marine in a non-combat related incident in Iraq on Friday, May 30th. No other details were released and the incident is under investigation.

The Washington Post is reporting the death of a coalition soldier from a suicide car bomb in the eastern Afghan Nangarhar province on Saturday, May 31st. Six other people including three civilians and three soldiers were wounded in the attack. The military has not yet confirmed the death.May 29 airpower summary:

Reported Security incidents:Baghdad:#1: U.S. forces said they captured a key "special groups" suspect in eastern Baghdad. The suspect is accused of involvement in kidnappings and managing funds for the special groups.
#2: Gunmen on a motor bike kidnapped a 10 year old girl at Zayuna neighborhood (east Baghdad).
#3: A roadside bomb was defused by the Iraqi army in the Mansour neighborhood (west Baghdad) near a restaurant .No casualties or damage were reported.
Diyala Prv:#1: Gunmen assassinated the head of the Diyala morgue, Ahmed Foad, at Al-Sada, a town northeast of Baquba.
Baquba:#1: Three civilians were killed and seven others wounded when an improvised explosive device (IED) went off near a passenger mini-bus in central Baaquba on Saturday, police said.A roadside bomb exploded at the local market in downtown Baquba near a dentists’ clinic. Two people were killed, and eight others were injured
#2: A mortar round killed a woman and wounded three people, including a child, when it landed on a house in a village just east of Baquba, police said.
Nassiriya:#1: Three rockets wounded two U.S. soldiers when they landed on their base in Nassiriya, 300 km (185 miles) southeast of Baghdad, police said.
Basra:#1: Gunmen killed an off-duty police officer near his home in Dair neighbourhood in north Basra, 420 km (260 miles) south of Baghdad, police said.

Afghanistan:#1: Afghan and NATO officials say a bomb attack against a convoy of international troops has wounded four soldiers and four Afghans in eastern Afghanistan. Maj. Martin O'Donnell, a spokesman for NATO's International Security Assistance Force, confirmed the soldiers were wounded in Saturday's attack. He says it's not yet clear whether it was an improvised explosive device or a suicide car bomb. Interior Ministry spokesman Zemeri Bashary says the blast in the eastern city of Jalalabad wounded four Afghans and damaged five civilian vehicles. Bashary said the attack was a suicide car bomb.
#2: An Afghan district governor for Mezan district in southern Zabul and his bodyguard were killed by unknown gunmen in Qalat, the provincial capital on Friday night, police official Abdul Matin said. He said Mohammad Younus, the district governor, was shot dead in front of his house, adding that they had started a search operation to track down the assailants, reported dpa.
#3: Canadian troops have swept through a volatile district west of Kandahar in an operation designed to ferret out nests of insurgents. The four-day swing, code-named Operation Rolling Thunder, was conducted alongside Afghan government forces. The operation saw several firefights in Zhari district, long a hotbed of Taliban activity. No Canadian casualties were reported Friday by military officials who released information about the operation. An unknown number of militants were believed killed in the operation.
#4: Unknown gunmen on Friday shot dead two local tribesmen in Shar-i-Nau area of neighbouring Afghanistan`s Paktia province. Sources said the two men identified as Syed Muhammad Ibrahim and Gulab Hussain were on way to their hometown Parachinar when armed assailants intercepted their vehicle in Shar-i-Nau area of Paktia.
#5: One Afghan soldier was killed and two others wounded when they came under fire from insurgents at a military checkpoint on Friday in Sangin District in the southern province of Helmand, the defence ministry said in a statement on Saturday.