[A-List] 1, 000 Iraqis Killed, 2, 000 Wounded In Past 50 Days: Iraqi Health Ministry

[Rick Rozoff <r_rozoff@xxxxxxxxx>]

1) Najaf: 24 Iraqis Killed, 50 Wounded In US Raid To
Capture Al-Sadr Aide
2) Iraqis Slain, Wounded In Najaf; Mosque Destroyed In
Karbala
3) US Forces Blamed For Damage To Holiest Shiite
Shrine; 1,000 Iraqis Killed, 2,000 Injured In Past 50
Days
4) Baghdad: Three Killed, 18 Wounded In Car Bomb
Explosion Aimed At US Convoy
5) Six Iraqis Killed, One US Soldier Wounded In
Northern Iraq Firefight
6) Russian Employees To Be Evacuated From Iraq After
Two Citizens Killed, Several Wounded
7) Baghdad: Two Iraqis Killed, Six Injured As Bomb
Explodes At Police Checkpoint
8) Iraq Plagued By More Mayhem As Bush Outlines 'New
Strategy'
9) Washington-Dispatched General Urged Use Of Guard
Dogs Against Iraqi Prisoners: Washington Post
10) Commentary: Talk Of Independence, But US Wants To
Keep Iraq On A Leash



1)
http://www.dw-world.de/english/0,3367,4789_W_1218054,00.html


Deutsche Welle
May 26, 2004


24 die as US captures key al-Sadr aide


US troops in Iraq have captured a key aide of radical
Shiite leader Muqtada al-Sadr in the holy city of
Najaf. During the operation 24 people died and 50 were
wounded, according to local hospital sources. Riyadh
al-Nouri, al-Sadr's brother-in-law, offered no
resistance when American troops raided his home.
Elsewhere, masked gunmen opened fire on a bus carrying
Russian technicians to work at a Baghdad power
station, killing two men and wounding five. The
Russian company Interenergoservis now plans to
withdraw its 230 employees from Iraq.
------------------------------------------------------
2)
http://www.arabicnews.com/ansub/Daily/Day/040526/2004052616.html

Arabic News (Morocco)
May 26, 2004

Seven killed in al-Najaf, one mosque destroyed in
Karbala


Seven Iraqis were killed and other 45 injured in
fighting that took place in the last hours between
al-Mahdi army of the Shiite leader Muqtada al-Sader
and the American occupation forces. Medical sources in
the city said that ten of the wounded were injured
inside the shrine of Imam Ali after was hit by a
mortar shelling.

News reports in the city said that atmospheres of
unrest are overwhelming following the incident and
that al-Sader supporters indicated that the shelling
which fell on the tomb was an American.

The news reports added that several Iraqis
demonstrated immediately before " al-Sahn al-Haidari "
in protest of what they called the violation of holy
sites "dignity."
------------------------------------------------------
3)
http://news.ft.com/servlet/ContentServer?pagename=FT.com/StoryFT/FullStory&c=StoryFT&cid=1084907813773&p=1012571727172

Financial Times
May 25, 2004


US blamed for damage to Shia shrine
By Roula Khalaf in Baghdad


-The troubles in Najaf came as local newspapers quoted
the Iraqi ministry of health as saying more than 1,000
Iraqis had been killed and 2,000 injured in the last
50 days.


The holiest shrine in Shia Islam on Tuesday came under
attack as US troops fought Shia militia in Najaf.

The US denied causing the modest damage to the inner
gate of the Imam Ali shrine in the southern holy city.
But any perceived violation of the sanctity of the
site is a sensitive issue for Shias in Iraq and
Muslims around the world.
....
Residents of Sadr city, the Shia stronghold in
Baghdad, on Tuesday insisted that Mr Sadr's forces
deserved their support because their primary goal was
the protection of the holy sites.

The violence in Najaf has provoked calls from
Ayatollah Ali Sistani, the leading cleric for the Shia
majority of Iraq, for both the US and Mr Sadr's forces
to leave the city. It also sparked demonstrations in
Shia Iran and in Lebanon.

The troubles in Najaf came as local newspapers quoted
the Iraqi ministry of health as saying more than 1,000
Iraqis had been killed and 2,000 injured in the last
50 days.

Despite heavy casualties suffered by the Mehdi army in
southern cities, followers of Mr Sadr insisted he not
would bow to US demands for his surrender and the
disbanding of his militia.

The US-led Coalition Provisional Authority in Baghdad
has blamed the 30-year-old Mr Sadr for last year's
killing of Abdel-Majeed al-Khoi, an exiled cleric and
US ally who had returned to Najaf during the Iraq war.

Sayyed Hassan al-Naji, an official at Mr Sadr's office
in Sadr City, said yesterday that Iraqis were willing
to continue fighting to prevent the US from
maintaining its control.

At the same time, however, he left open the prospect
that Mr Sadr could strike a deal with the caretaker
government that will assume Iraqi sovereignty on June
30. Coalition troops are eager to resolve the
stand-off with Mr Sadr before the transfer of
sovereignty to avoid burdening the next government
with the crisis.
------------------------------------------------------
4)
http://www.hindustantimes.com/news/181_782896,00050004.htm

Agence France-Presse
May 26, 2004


Three killed, 18 wounded in car bomb explosion in
Baghdad


Baqubah - Three Iraqis were killed and 18 others
wounded, including a senior police officer, on
Wednesday, when a car bomb exploded at Balad Ruz, 75
kilometres northeast of Baghdad, police said.

"A car bomb exploded at 7:45 am (0915 IST) as Colonel
Ali Ismail, head of the Baqubah police investigation
department, was driving by in a convoy," local police
chief General Mohammed Dawd said.

"Three people were killed and 18 wounded, including
four policemen," he added.

Ismail and three of his aides were among those hurt in
the blast, which set four cars and a minibus on fire.

Police said earlier the bomb went off shortly after a
US military convoy passed by.
-----------------------------------------------------
5)
http://www.hipakistan.com/en/detail.php?newsId=en65953&F_catID=&f_type=source

Hi Pakistan
May, 26

US troops kill six anti-coalition insurgents in
firefight, one US soldier hurt


BAGHDAD: U.S. forces killed six insurgents during
fighting in Tikrit and one 1st Infantry Division
soldier was slightly wounded, the military said today.


The insurgents were killed when U.S. forces returned
fire after coming under attacked with small-arms,
rocket propelled grenades, mortars and improvised
explosive devices, according to a statement.
------------------------------------------------------
6)
http://en.rian.ru/rian/index.cfm?prd_id=160&msg_id=4368888&startrow=11&date=2004-05-26&do_alert=0

Russian Information Agency (Novosti)
May 26, 2004

RUSSIAN EMPLOYEES TO BE EVACUATED FROM IRAQ


MOSCOW - The Russian-based Interenergoservis company
asked the Russian Emergencies Ministry to evacuate all
its employees from Iraq, Russian Foreign Minister
Sergei Lavrov told journalists in the Kremlin on
Wednesday.

According to company executive director Alexander
Rybinsky, all the 240 Interenergoservis employees will
be evacuated on Saturday.

However, it is possible that they will leave Iraq
earlier, he added.

Now the Foreign and Emergencies Ministries are
discussing the evacuation details with the
Interenergoservis management and US authorities as
they are to give permission to fly via Iraqi territory
and land in Baghdad's airport. The lists of the
employees to be evacuated are specified, as well, said
a source in the Emergencies Ministry.

"Two or three flights will be made to Baghdad as the
Interenergoservis management asked to evacuate all the
company employees," the source noted.

Several doctors and rescuers of the Emergencies
Ministry are expected to fly to Baghdad to help the
injured.

On Wednesday morning the bus with Interenergoservis
employees involved in the restoration of the Dora
power plant in Baghdad was attacked by unknown
malefactors, said official spokesman for the Russian
Foreign Ministry Alexander Yakovenko.

Two people were killed and several wounded as a
result. Two of them were taken to a US hospital. They
are in grave condition, according to medics.

The Emergencies Ministry's forthcoming operation on
the evacuation of Russian nationals from Iraq will be
the second one in 2004.

Most Russian and CIS citizens (about 500 people) were
evacuated from Iraq by mid-April. All in all, 816
Russian and CIS citizens stayed in Iraq before the
first evacuation.
------------------------------------------------------
7)
http://www.rferl.org/newsline/6-swa.asp

Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
May 26, 2004

BOMB DETONATES AT POLICE CHECKPOINT


Two Iraqis were killed and six others were wounded in
an explosion at a police checkpoint in Baghdad on 26
May, Al-Jazeera reported. Two police officers were
among the wounded. Meanwhile, Al-Arabiyah television
reported on 26 May that Mahmud Khalid al-Fahdawi, the
Awqaf director in the Al-Anbar Governorate, died as
the result of a 25 May assassination attempt. KR
------------------------------------------------------
8)
http://frontierpost.com.pk/topstories.asp#1

Frontier Post (Pakistan)
May 26, 2004

Iraq in mayhem as Bush outlines new strategy

BAGHDAD (Agencies): Iraq was shaken by a bomb blast in
the capital and fighting between US troops and Shiite
militiamen after US President George W. Bush outlined
his strategy for a return to self-rule, warning of
more bloodshed. The United States and Britain
submitted a draft resolution to the UN Security
Council which promised to hand over full sovereignty
to an interim Iraqi government on June 30, but leading
anti-war campaigner France said the text needed more
work. Up to five Iraqis were wounded in the Baghdad
blast, one of them critically, which took place
outside a hotel close to Australia?s diplomatic
mission in Baghdad. The mission is opposite the hotel
in the central Jadriyah district and Iraqi police said
they believed it was the target, although Australian
diplomats disagreed. ?It was a car bomb. We don?t know
yet if it is a suicide car bomb,? Colonel Mike Murray
of the 1st Cavalry Division said at the scene. ?Up to
five Iraqis were wounded. One of them ? a boy aged 11
or 12 ? is in a critical condition,? he added.
Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said the
bombing showed the importance of keeping Australian
troops in Iraq, despite an opinion poll showing a
voter backlash at involvement in the US-led
campaign....
Meanwhile seven people were killed and 45 wounded in
fighting in Iraq?s central holy city of Najaf, where a
mortar round exploded inside Shiite Islam?s holiest
shrine, medics said. There was no immediate
independent confirmation of who fired the mortar.
....
------------------------------------------------------
9)
http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=story_27-5-2004_pg4_13

Agence France-Presse
May 26, 2004


?US general linked to use of dogs at prison?


WASHINGTON: The US Army general sent by the Pentagon
to bolster the collection of intelligence from
prisoners at Abu Ghraib is said to have urged the use
of guard dogs to frighten Iraqis detainees, The
Washington Post reported on Wednesday, citing sworn
testimony by the top US intelligence officer at the
prison. Col Thomas Pappas testified that the idea came
from Maj Gen Geoffrey Miller, then commander of the US
detention center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and was
implemented under a policy approved by Lt Gen Ricardo
Sanchez, the top US military officer in Iraq, the
newspaper reported. Senior defense officials said on
Tuesday that Sanchez was being replaced as the US
commander in Iraq. But they argued the change was not
triggered by the Abu Ghraib Iraqi prisoner abuse
scandal. According to a transcript obtained by The
Washington Post, Pappas told the Army investigator,
Maj. Gen. Antonio Taguba: ?It was a technique I had
personally discussed with General Miller, when he was
here? visiting the prison. ?He said that they used
military working dogs at Gitmo [the nickname for
Guantanamo Bay], and that they were effective in
setting the atmosphere for which, you know, you could
get information? from the prisoners, Pappas said in
the testimony.
------------------------------------------------------
10)
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2004/05/26/1085461830629.html

Sydney Morning Herald
May 27, 2004

Talk of independence but US wants to keep Iraq on a
leash
May 27, 2004


Behind the rhetoric, one thing is clear: the Americans
intend to retain control, writes Paul McGeough.


-Add to all of that Bush's declaration that the US
wants to "make sure that the reconstruction money we
have set aside is well spent" and his announcement
that its embassy in Baghdad is to have regional
offices across Iraq to ensure just that, and it seems
the US plans to stay in control of Iraq's purse
strings.



Diplomatic language is funny stuff. You'd think that
"occupation" and "sovereignty" were mutually
exclusive, but not in the great Iraq debate. The
experts will split hairs about whether sovereignty or
administrative power comes into play on June 30.

So let's call it control, and look at who will
exercise it - Iraqis or foreigners?

In his Monday speech, the US President, George Bush,
spoke of "full sovereignty".

But if it is to be "full" and "sovereign" there should
be none of the palaver we have at the UN where the
Security Council is being asked to vote on a motion
that would authorise US forces in Iraq to "take all
measures" to keep order and which leaves their
presence in the country open-ended.

Equally, if a Security Council motion is needed to
legitimise an ongoing foreign presence in Iraq, why
the unseemly plan for an exchange of letters at a
later date on a range of vital issues, like the
relationship between the Iraqis and foreign forces and
the treatment of detainees and prisoners?

Prime Minister, Tony Blair, would not be saying that
the Iraqis have veto power over foreign troops when,
clearly, Bush wants to keep that power for himself.

The US Secretary of State, Colin Powell, very decently
conceded that the US would "consult" the Iraqis on
security issues, and Blair seemed to be all the way
with Baghdad, when he said: "The final political
control remains with the Iraqi government".

But there's no room for consultation when Powell says:
"Ultimately, however, it comes down to the US armed
forces protecting themselves or in some way
accomplishing their mission in a way that might not be
in total consonance with what the Iraqi interim
government might want to do at a particular moment in
time". Blair, too, seems to be buying wriggle room
with his talk of Iraqi "political" decisions as
opposed to what Powell might describe as American
"security" decisions.

Add to all of that Bush's declaration that the US
wants to "make sure that the reconstruction money we
have set aside is well spent" and his announcement
that its embassy in Baghdad is to have regional
offices across Iraq to ensure just that, and it seems
the US plans to stay in control of Iraq's purse
strings.

Even Iraqi control of the country's single greatest
asset - its massive reserves of oil - is in some
doubt, with reports that its petroleum revenue will be
supervised by a five-man international committee on
which there will be only one Iraqi.

So, with all this caveat confetti hanging in the air,
it was hardly surprising when Bush briefed reporters
in the Oval Office after Monday night's speech, that
he baulked when asked if it was imperative that Iraq
become a democracy or that it have free elections. In
other words, were they free as a nation to decide
their own fate?

Bush would have us believe in his speech that the
enemy in Iraq is world terrorism - but only days
earlier one of his senior military chiefs in the
region admitted that the Americans didn't really have
a clue about who the enemy was. And despite his
failure to find weapons of mass destruction or to
prove an Iraqi link to global terrorism, the President
tied American "sons and daughters in Mosul and Karbala
and Baghdad" to "battles in the mountains of
Afghanistan and ... orange alert(s) and ricin and
dirty bomb(s)".

The White House's new Iraq plan is its old plan -
repackaged as "five points" in the hope that some
might be fooled into believing that Washington knows
what it's doing, even if voters are deserting Bush in
droves.

However, if the Americans stay in Iraq for the long
haul - and there is enough on the record to indicate
that is the plan - then so, too, are the insurgents
and so, too, is violence; and therefore so, too, are
all the failures that we can see on the ground in
US-liberated Afghanistan where there is little
stability and no security. Without these, there will
be no useful economic or civil development in Iraq or
in Afghanistan.

This week the British academic Adam Robert invoked the
withering 1939 description of Slovakia's independence
to make his point on Iraq post-June 30: "... the same
independence as a dog on a leash. As long as the dog
trots quietly and cheerfully at his master's side -
and in the same direction - he is quite free; if he
starts out on any tangent of his own, he feels the
pull at once."

His point is well made. The US is discovering at great
cost that it's very difficult to put a pitt bull on a
lead and, come July 1, the Iraqi terrier will probably
be just as obstreperous as it has been for the past
year.








	
		
__________________________________
Do you Yahoo!?
Friends.  Fun.  Try the all-new Yahoo! Messenger.
http://messenger.yahoo.com/