posted on January 28, 2007 10:29:26 AM
Mortars Hit Iraqi Girls' School; 5 Dead
Updated 11:29 AM ET January 28, 2007
By SAMEER N. YACOUB
BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - Mortar shells rained down Sunday on a girls' secondary school in a mostly Sunni area of western Baghdad, killing five pupils and wounding 20, witnesses and police said. At least seven other people died in a series of bombings and shootings across the capital, mostly in Shiite areas.
Elsewhere, Iraqi troops backed by U.S. helicopters battled insurgents 12 miles northeast of the Shiite holy city of Najaf, Iraqi officials said. Provincial Gov. Assad Sultan Abu Klil said a U.S. helicopter went down during the fighting, but U.S. officials would not confirm the report.
Klil said the operation was launched after reports that insurgents planned to assassinate Shiite clerics and pilgrims during the Ashoura festival, which reaches its climax Tuesday.
Two car bombs exploded within a half-hour of each other in the northern oil city of Kirkuk, killing a total of 11 people and wounding 34, police Brig. Gen. Sarhad Qader said. The first blast, which killed six and wounded 19, occurred at a popular car market and the second went off near a restaurant.
Also Sunday, U.S. troops captured 21 suspected terrorists including an al-Qaida courier in a series of raids in Baghdad and Sunni areas north and west of the capital, the U.S. command said. Three of the suspects were believed to have close ties to the leadership of al-Qaida in Iraq, the military said.
The U.S. military also reported the deaths of three more American service members _ all on Saturday. A Marine died from wounds suffered in fighting in Anbar province, a stronghold of Sunni insurgents, and two soldiers were fatally injured in separate bombings in the Baghdad area, the military said.
Sunday's mortar attack occurred about 11 a.m. at the Kholoud Secondary School in the Adil neighborhood of western Baghdad, police and school officials said. Several projectiles exploded in the courtyard, shattering windows and spraying pupils with glass. AP Television News footage showed blood smeared on the stone steps and walkways.
Hours after the attack, grieving parents wept as the bodies of the victims were placed inside wooden coffins. Police said four girls were killed instantly and a fifth died later. AP television footage showed the fin from one of the mortars lying in a walkway.
The area has been the scene of reprisal attacks by Sunni and Shiite extremists that have persisted as U.S. and Iraqi soldiers prepare for a security crackdown. A Sunni group, the General Conference of the People of Iraq, accused Shiite militias and said the markings on the mortars indicated they were manufactured in Iran.
More than 150 people, mostly Shiites, have died in bomb attacks in the last week as the majority Islamic sect in Iraq celebrates a 10-day festival leading up to Ashoura, the holiest date in the Shiite calendar.
Elsewhere, a bomb exploded about 7:30 a.m. in a minibus carrying passengers to a predominantly Shiite neighborhood in Baghdad on Sunday, killing one and wounding five, police said.
The explosive device was hidden in a bag left by a passenger who got off the bus before it detonated in the Baladiyat neighborhood in eastern Baghdad. The bus was heading to the adjacent Shiite district of Sadr City, which has been targeted several times in the past.
A parked car bomb exploded in an intersection near an outdoor market in Sadr City about five hours later, killing at least four people, two of them women, and wounding 39, police said. The sprawling Shiite slum is a stronghold of the Mahdi Army that is loyal to radical cleric Muqtada al-Sadr and has blamed for much of the country's spiraling violence.
About five minutes later, a bomb hidden in a bag exploded in an outdoor market in the Baiyaa neighborhood in western Baghdad, an area that is mostly Shiite, although a significant number of Sunnis live there. At least two people were killed and 17 wounded, including two children, police said.
Outside the capital, a car bomb exploded near a mosque in the Sunni city of Fallujah, 40 miles west of Baghdad, killing two civilians and wounding four, police said.
Iran, meanwhile, closed several border crossings with Iraq for Ashoura, which culminates on Tuesday with processions and ceremonies, including self flagellation, to mark the Shiite saint Imam Hussein's death in a battle.
Iranian state television said the crossings were closed to "contain the large number of pilgrims" bound for the Shiite holy city of Karbala in southern Iraq who were planning to cross into Iraq without "legal documents." The report indicated that not all border crossings had been closed and that some pilgrims were allowed through elsewhere.
Also Sunday, drive-by shooters killed a high-ranking Shiite official at the Iraqi industry and mines ministry, along with his 27-year-old daughter and two other people.
posted on January 28, 2007 12:46:08 PM
Mingotree, Now because of our commander and failure BUSHY looks like the civil war in Iraq could be about to spread see below.
Hamas-Fatah Violence Continues; 25 Dead
Sunday, January 28, 2007 10:09 AM EST
The Associated Press
By IBRAHIM BARZAK
Listen to Audio
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AP) — Hamas and Fatah gunmen battled each other in the streets Sunday, having sent civilians fleeing from their homes in an increasingly bloody power struggle that left more than two dozen Palestinians dead over the weekend.
An explosion early in the morning rocked the Gaza City home of a bodyguard to Fatah strongman Mohammed Dahlan, but the guard was not in the building and no casualties were reported. At least eight people were wounded in exchanges of fire between the sides overnight, Palestinian security officials said.
The latest round of fighting began late Thursday after a Hamas activist was killed in a bombing. By Saturday night, 25 Palestinians — including a 2-year-old and a 12-year-old — had been killed and at least 76 were wounded, bringing to a standstill fitful efforts to unite the two rival factions in a coalition government.
posted on January 29, 2007 07:06:36 AM
And On And On And Worse And Worse....
the new battle cry of the surrender monkey demo party as led my craw and babasheepa.
"When I talk to liberals, I don't expect them to understand my positions on various issues. I spend most of my time trying to help them understand their own." —Mike Adams
posted on January 29, 2007 12:57:41 PM
I don't happen to 'feel' like I'm in the 'tiny minority'.
It's MY CIC making the decisions and your party is doing NOTHING but 'talking' about how they don't like what's he's doing.
Maybe you think I should feel 'bad' because your party is TOO GUTLESS to stop the Iraq war the ONLY way they can? LOL LOL LOL
Not one bit. I think it's VERY showing to the American voters that they 'talk the talk'...but don't have the guts to 'walk the walk'. So they do all they can to let our enemies KNOW whose side they're on.
tsk tsk tsk
I'd rather be on our CIC side than on the side of a whole 'majority' of losers.....aiding and abetting our enemies.
"While the democratic party complains about everything THIS President does to protect our Nation": "What would a Democrat president have done at that point?"
"Apparently, the answer is: Sit back and wait for the next terrorist attack."
posted on January 29, 2007 02:18:24 PMtiny minority
I aint no demoncRAT.
"When I talk to liberals, I don't expect them to understand my positions on various issues. I spend most of my time trying to help them understand their own." —Mike Adams
posted on January 29, 2007 02:24:01 PM
False claims undermining U.S. troops
By W. Thomas Smith, Jr
Monday, January 29, 2007
A joint statement issued by Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and Senator Harry Reid (D-NV), on the evening of President Bush’s State of the Union address, says, “The OVERWHELMING MAJORITY of Americans, MILITARY LEADERS, and a bipartisan coalition in Congress oppose the President's plan to escalate the war.”
Not that the president plans to escalate the war, but instead wants to rework our efforts in Iraq by reinforcing and realigning our ground forces. We’ll save that for another discussion. For now, let’s keep in mind the reference to “overwhelming majority” of “military leaders,” because it’s clever how they included “military leaders” in the list without any supporting facts that an “overwhelming majority” of those leaders oppose any plan.
Surely it was obvious to Pelosi, Reid, and their writers that by placing the term second in the series, it could easily be perceived by readers that an “overwhelming majority” of “military leaders” oppose a plan by the president. Yet if called to present hard numbers to support the so-called “overwhelming majority,” Pelosi and Reid could easily deny they were referring to “military leaders,” only to “Americans.” Oh so slick.
Then there was Senator Jim Webb (D-VA) who, in his televised rebuttal to the president’s address, said, the MAJORITY of OUR MILITARY “no longer supports the way this war is being fought.” Webb’s comments were probably based on a recent poll of active-duty subscribers to the independent Military Times newspapers.
But in the comments by both Webb and the Nan-Harry tagteam, a definite “majority” is both flat wrong and a dangerous attempt to sway the thinking – thus undermine the morale – of our combat forces in the field.
Of course, this is nothing new: Recent Pelosi soundbites include such gems as “there is no success …” and “The policy and the practice is not making the American people safer … .” Then there is Reid’s latest line before the National Press Club: “The United States forces have been given an impossible mission;” and my favorite posturing-snippet from the Nan-Harry tagteam which said, “Congress will not ignore this president’s failed policy.” (Don’t forget: Though Dems seem to love to posture after their own election victories, many of them damned the remarkable Iraqi elections with cynical, faint praise.)
Yet the Dems still continue to qualify many of their statements with something along the lines of “but we support the troops.”
How can anyone honestly say they support the troops when they make false claims that a majority of both military leaders and the rank-and-file no longer support what their organization is doing, particularly when the majority does?
Testifying before the House Armed Services Committee on Thursday, Marine Corps Commandant Gen. James T. Conway said, “Though the troops in the operating forces are being pushed hard by the operational tempo and the frequency of deployments, morale has never been higher, because they believe they are making a difference.”
Granted, that may be a difficult concept for Pelosi and Reid to grasp. Obviously and understandably they have no frame of reference as regards to the fluid dynamics of warfighting (Imagine either of those two flying a jet, carrying a rifle, or leading combat troops.). But Webb, a former Marine infantry officer, should know better. And Gen. Conway’s comments may be proven-out by the numbers of his Marines who voluntarily remain in service when they have the opportunity to leave.
As I stated in my latest piece at National Review Online, “Marines have far-exceeded all retention {reenlistment] goals for the past six years, and have already achieved 82 percent of their goal for Fiscal Year 07, and there are eight more months remaining in FY07.”
For FY06, Marines who were eligible for reenlistment for the first time (having just completed one hitch in the Corps) re-upped at 102 percent of the Corps’ goal. Older, more-seasoned, career Marines – those who have reenlisted previously – re-upped at 114 percent of the Corps’ goal.
What’s even more interesting is that those Marines tasked with some of the most dangerous missions like fighting as Marine riflemen or driving trucks in ambush-vulnerable convoys, re-upped in numbers that not only exceeded the Corps’ goals for FY06; but the overwhelming number of those Marines had already been deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan at least once, and most more than once. So contrary to what the Dems would have us believe, those volunteer Marines are not brainwashed high schoolers. They’ve been to war. They know the score.
Army retention figures are also high: And like the Marines, those goals have been met and exceeded since before September 11, 2001 with the highest percentages of reenlistments being recorded annually since the invasion of Iraq in 2003.
Fact is, the majority of the combatants on the ground in Iraq believe in the mission and the overall direction of that mission. They want the mission to succeed. They believe it will. They are sacrificing and re-sacrificing. They are willing to see the war through to completion. And to suggest that those combatants are so brainwashed and loyal that they would remain aboard a sinking ship – as some of my Dem friends like to suggest – is both condescending and baseless.
There are serious problems with the Iraq war; there is no question about that. But make no mistake, if our efforts in Iraq were truly void of success, a “disaster,” a “failure,” and “an impossible mission” – as so many Dems have said – the ones doing the fighting and suffering the most would not be nearly as eager to reenlist. The American military is sticking with the fight. Pelosi and her crowd should stick with the facts.
W. Thomas Smith Jr. is a former U.S. Marine infantry leader, parachutist, and shipboard counterterrorism instructor and co-author of The Complete Idiot's Guide to Pirates.
"When I talk to liberals, I don't expect them to understand my positions on various issues. I spend most of my time trying to help them understand their own." —Mike Adams
[ edited by Bear1949 on Jan 29, 2007 02:24 PM ]
posted on January 30, 2007 02:25:00 AM
This civil war as you call it is actually a war of religious sects and has been going on steadily for the last 1400 years....that's right....1400 years.
Amen,
Reverend Colin http://www.reverendcolin.com
posted on January 30, 2007 05:44:32 AM
REMEMBER "FIGHT WITH THE ARMY YOU GOT NOT THE ONE YOU WISH YOU HAD". ONE REASON AMERICA NOW HAS 3,100 DEAD TROOPS.
Equipment For Added Troops Is Lacking
New Iraq Forces Must Make Do, Officials Say
By Ann Scott Tyson
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, January 30, 2007; Page A12
Boosting U.S. troop levels in Iraq by 21,500 would create major logistical hurdles for the Army and Marine Corps, which are short thousands of vehicles, armor kits and other equipment needed to supply the extra forces, U.S. officials said.
The increase would also further degrade the readiness of U.S.-based ground forces, hampering their ability to respond quickly, fully trained and well equipped in the case of other military contingencies around the world and increasing the risk of U.S. casualties, according to Army and Marine Corps leaders.
"The response would be slower than we might like, we would not have all of the equipment sets that ordinarily would be the case, and there is certainly risk associated with that," the Marine Corps commandant, Gen. James Conway, told the House Armed Services Committee last week.
President Bush's plan to send five additional U.S. combat brigades into Iraq has left the Army and Marines scrambling to ensure that the troops could be supported with the necessary armored vehicles, jamming devices, radios and other gear, as well as lodging and other logistics.
Trucks are in particularly short supply. For example, the Army would need 1,500 specially outfitted -- known as "up-armored" -- 2 1/2 -ton and five-ton trucks in Iraq for the incoming units, said Lt. Gen. Stephen Speakes, the Army's deputy chief of staff for force development.
"We don't have the [armor] kits, and we don't have the trucks," Speakes said in an interview. He said it will take the Army months, probably until summer, to supply and outfit the additional trucks. As a result, he said, combat units flowing into Iraq would have to share the trucks assigned to units now there, leading to increased use and maintenance.
Speakes said that although another type of vehicle -- the up-armored Humvee -- continues to be in short supply Army-wide, there would be "adequate" numbers for incoming forces, and each brigade would receive 400 fully outfitted Humvees. But he said that to meet the need, the Army would have to draw down pre-positioned stocks that would then not be available for other contingencies.
Still, U.S. commanders privately expressed doubts that Iraq-bound units would receive a full complement of Humvees. "It's inevitable that that has to happen, unless five brigades of up-armored Humvees fall out of the sky," one senior Army official said of the feared shortfall. He expects that some units would have to rely more heavily on Bradley Fighting Vehicles and tanks that, although highly protective, are intimidating and therefore less effective for many counterinsurgency missions.
Adding to the crunch, the U.S. government has agreed to sell 600 up-armored Humvees to Iraq this year for its security forces. Such sales "better not be at the expense of the American soldier or Marine," Speakes told defense reporters recently, saying U.S. military needs must take priority.
Living facilities in Iraq are another concern for the additional troops, who would be concentrated in Baghdad, Army officials said. The U.S. military has closed or handed over to Iraqi forces about half of the 110 bases established there after the U.S.-led invasion in 2003. Decisions are being made on where to base incoming units in Baghdad, but it is likely that, at least in the short term, they would be placed in existing facilities, officials said.
Lt. Gen. David H. Petraeus, the new top U.S. commander in Iraq, has requested that additional combat brigades move into Iraq as quickly as possible. But accelerated deployments would mean less time for units to train and fill out their ranks. Brigades are required to have an aggregate number of soldiers before deploying but may still face shortages of specific ranks and job skills.
Meanwhile, the demand for thousands more U.S. forces in both Iraq and Afghanistan is worsening the readiness of units in the United States, depleting their equipment and time to train, Army officials said. "We can fulfill the national strategy, but it will take more time and it will also take us increased casualties to do the job," Speakes said.
Army Chief of Staff Peter J. Schoomaker testified last week before the House Armed Services Committee that, regarding readiness, "my concerns are increased over what they were in June."
"To meet combatant commanders' immediate wartime needs, we pooled equipment from across the force to equip soldiers deploying in harm's way," he said. "This practice, which we are continuing today, increases risk for our next-to-deploy units and limits our ability to respond to emerging strategic contingencies."
Schoomaker called for additional funding to fix "holes in the force" and "break the historical cycle of unpreparedness."
The equipment shortages are pronounced in Army National Guard units, which have, on average, 40 percent of their required equipment, according to Army data. Senior Pentagon and Army officials say they expect to have to involuntarily mobilize some National Guard combat brigades earlier than planned to relieve active-duty forces. But the Guard as a whole is not expected to return to minimum equipment levels until 2013, Army figures show.
"FIGHT WITH THE ARMY YOU GOT NOT THE ONE YOU WISH YOU HAD"
