US War Update: Blasts Target Iraqi Police Recruits in Baghdad and Mosul

[XXPANTHAXX]

Afghan Attacks Continue


Monday, December 01, 2008
16:16 Mecca time, 13:16 GMT

Blasts target Iraqi police recruits

The two blasts in Baghdad occurred within minutes of each other, killing
mainly police recruits

At least 16 people have been killed and another 45 wounded in Baghdad,
the Iraqi capital, in a double bomb attack.

Iraqi officials said a teenage suicide bomber blew himself up as police
rushed to respond to a prior car bomb blast on Monday.

The two blasts occurred within minutes of each other on Palestine Street
outside the heavily fortified police academy in eastern Baghdad, where
recruits had gathered, according to police and witnesses.

Those killed included five policemen and 11 recruits, while the 46
wounded included 11 policemen and 35 recruits, according to police and
hospital officials.

Bloodied police uniforms were scattered with the crumpled metal hulk of
the car bomb on the charred street in the aftermath of the bombing,
footage from the Associated Press Television News showed.

Mosul bombing

Elsewhere in the country on Monday, 15 people were killed and about 30
wounded in a suicide car bombing against a joint US-Iraqi patrol in the
centre of the northern Iraqi city of Mosul, police said.

"A suicide bomber blew his car up in the path of a joint patrol between
Iraqi police and the American military in Mosul al-Jadida," a police
officer at the scene was reported by the AFP news agency as saying.

The interior minister said the majority of the victims were policemen.

The latest bombings follow the Iraqi parliament approval of a security
pact with the US that lets American forces remain in Iraq for three more
years.

Source: Agencies


Iraq: bombs kill more than 30 in Baghdad, Mosul

By HAMID AHMED, Associated Press Writer

BAGHDAD – A series of bombs struck U.S. and Iraqi security forces in
Baghdad and the northern city of Mosul on Monday, killing at least 32
people and wounding dozens more, Iraqi officials said.

The bloody attacks were a grim reminder of the dangers facing Iraqis as
they try to take over their own security. The Iraqi parliament last week
approved a security pact with the United States that would let the
Americans stay in Iraq for three more years to help maintain stability.

At least 16 people were killed and 46 wounded in a nearly simultaneous
double bombing near a police academy in eastern Baghdad.

A suicide attacker detonated his explosives vest packed with ball
bearings at the entrance to the academy, then a car bomb exploded about
150 yards away, apparently aimed at those responding to the initial
blast, the U.S. military said.

The blasts occurred within minutes of each other on Palestine Street,
according to police and witnesses.

Bloodied police uniforms and a military boot left by victims were
scattered with the crumpled metal hulk of the car bomb on the charred
street in the aftermath of the bombing, according to Associated Press
Television News footage.

The attacker apparently was a teenage boy whose head was taken to a
local hospital, a police officer said. An AP photographer saw the head
and confirmed it appeared to be a teenage boy.

Those killed included five policemen and 11 recruits, while the wounded
included 11 policemen and 35 recruits, according to police and hospital
officials who spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren't
authorized to release the information.

The U.S. military initially said the death toll appeared to be about 20
but later said reports indicated six people were killed and 20 wounded.

In Mosul, a suicide car bomber detonated his explosives as a joint
U.S.-Iraqi convoy drove by in a crowded commercial area, a police
officer said. The officer also declined to be identified for the same
reason.

At least 15 people — most civilians — were killed and 30 wounded in that
attack, the officer said. An official at the morgue where the bodies
were taken confirmed the death toll.

The U.S. military said initial reports show eight Iraqi civilians were
killed in Monday's attack. It says two U.S. soldiers and 30 Iraqis were
wounded.

Conflicting casualty tolls are common in the chaotic aftermath of
bombings in Iraq.

Earlier Monday, a senior Defense Ministry official was wounded in a
roadside bomb attack that killed one of his bodyguards, Iraqi military
spokesman Maj. Gen. Qassim al-Moussawi said.

The blast occurred in the Sulaikh neighborhood, a mainly Sunni area in
northern Baghdad.

The wounded official, Maj. Gen. Mudhir al-Mola, is in charge of affairs
related to the Sunni guards known as the Sons of Iraq who have joined
forces with U.S. troops against al-Qaida in Iraq, according to
al-Moussawi.

The move is considered a key factor in the overall decline in Iraq
violence.

The Shiite-led government assumed responsibility for the Sunnis in
Baghdad this fall.

Associated Press writer Sameer N. Yacoub contributed to this report.


Dozens killed in Iraqi bombings

At least 32 people have been killed in bomb attacks in the Iraqi capital
Baghdad and the northern city of Mosul, officials say.

Two bombs exploded near Baghdad's police academy, killing 15 people,
many of them reported to be civilians.

At least another 14 died and 30 were wounded in a suicide car bombing in
the centre of Mosul.

Earlier, three people died and a general was seriously wounded in a
roadside bomb attack in north Baghdad.

Gen Mudhar al-Mawla was reported to be one of the senior officials
handling the transfer of US-backed Sunni armed neighbourhood groups to
government control.

Official figures showed that 296 civilians were killed in Iraq last
month, 58 higher than in October, partly because of more bombings in
Baghdad.

At the same time US military deaths continue to decrease with six US
troops killed in November compared to 29 in the same month last year.

'Iran-linked arrests'

In the police academy bombings, reports say the first device exploded in
a car parked near the building in the north of Baghdad.

A suicide bomber then blew himself up as police and people gathered at
the scene of the car bombing.

A few hours later, a suicide attacker blew up his car, apparently
targeting a joint US-Iraqi patrol in a western district of Mosul.

Also on Monday, the US military in Iraq said it had detained four
suspected members of an Iranian-backed militant organisation.

The group, Kataib Hezbollah, is believed by the US to act as a surrogate
for Iran.

"Its members are believed to be responsible for recent attacks against
Iraqi citizens and coalition forces," said a US military spokesman.

Iran denies the US charge that it is responsible for training, arming
and funding anti-coalition attacks.

The four detained suspects were picked up in raids in Baghdad's Adhamiya
district and in an area just south of Sadr City.

The US says it apprehended 33 Iranian-sponsored militants in November
2008.

Story from BBC NEWS:
BBC NEWS | Middle East | Dozens killed in Iraqi bombings
Published: 2008/12/01 12:54:04 GMT


UN contractors killed in Iraq

Two foreign contractors working for the UN have been killed and 15
wounded in a rocket attack on Baghdad's high-security Green Zone, the UN
says.

The Green Zone houses government offices and many foreign embassies.

It is not known who carried out the attack, which comes just days after
the Iraqi parliament approved a new security pact with the United
States.

The victims worked for a catering company contracted by the UN
Assistance Mission for Iraq, officials say.

There have been many such attacks in the past, but they stopped after a
ceasefire earlier this year between the Iraqi government and supporters
of the anti-American Shia cleric Moqtada Sadr, says the BBC's Humphrey
Hawksley in Baghdad.

On Thursday, the Iraqi parliament voted in favour of a new security pact
with the United States, under which American troops are to leave Iraq by
the end of 2011.

Moqtada Sadr condemned the agreement and called for three days of
protests against the plan, but he specified they should be peaceful.

Levels of violence in Iraq have fallen to a four-year low, but bombings
continue on an almost daily basis.

The UN's presence in Iraq has been limited since a suicide bombing of
its Baghdad headquarters in 2003 killed 22 people, including its top
envoy, Sergio Vieira de Mello.

Story from BBC NEWS:
BBC NEWS | Middle East | UN contractors killed in Iraq
Published: 2008/11/29 13:07:45 GMT


Inside Baghdad's Rusafa prison

By Andrew North
BBC News, Baghdad

It took some time to make sense of the scene in front of us.

A jailer at Baghdad's Rusafa prison had just swung open the heavy
metal-barred door.

Inside a small dimly lit room, the first sight was the iron-framed
double bunks, packed together and hung with plastic bags, clothes and
towels.

Then, staring back at us from the bunks, faces and faces, bearded,
unshaven, balding, greying.

And then into a larger room and in almost every conceivable space there
was a human being.

Four or five men perched on a bunk, some even tucked on the floor
underneath.

It was astonishing to see so many people packed into one space. It's the
first time the foreign media have had such access to an Iraqi jail since
the US invasion in 2003.

They were nervous at first, at seeing their jailers at the door behind
us and no doubt at seeing foreign journalists suddenly appear in their
midst. Everything is fine here, was the first thing they said.

But then a man in a long white robe or dish-dash jumped down from a
bunk.

"Don't listen to that," he said. "The conditions are terrible here.
There are people sleeping next to the toilets. Some stand so that others
can sleep."

Another man, sitting on a top bunk said: "I feel like I'm dead in here."

He said a court had ordered his release, then he had been re-arrested.

Because there is no proper exercise area, the inmates are rarely allowed
out.

A few feet from one of the bunks, a fraying curtain covered the three
toilets and one shower, which serve more than 100 people.

There were also blankets on the floor outside the toilets, where people
sleep.

"We have to take it in turns to wash, once every three days," one
prisoner explained.

Allegations of abuse

It was a cool November day when we visited, but the air was warm and
thick inside. It's hard to imagine what it must be like during Baghdad's
50 degree Celsius summer heat.

We'd been brought here by Iraqi Interior Ministry officials, after we
had asked to check on allegations of abuse and beatings in Iraqi
prisons.

To our surprise, the ministry's second in command said we could see for
ourselves. And once we were inside, we were able to talk to the inmates
freely without our conversations being monitored.

Some prisoners said they had been beaten and abused, although most at
the time of arrest. What stood out, and what concerned them most was the
conditions in which they are now being kept.

Some of these men are suspected insurgents detained by Iraqi police and
army units, others accused of crimes like robbery.

But they often have to wait months just to be charged - let alone tried
- because Iraq's creaking judicial system cannot cope with the caseload.

With thousands arrested in security operations over the past few years,
the system has become progressively more overloaded.

After an explosion or violent incident, Iraqi police and soldiers often
round up anyone who happens to be nearby, so many innocent bystanders
get trapped in this legal limbo, incarcerated in places like Rusafa.

'Changing culture'

The situation here is not unique. Mobile phone footage filmed by Iraqi
MPs who have visited other jails, seen by the BBC, shows similar
conditions.

"We do have a problem with overcrowding," admits General Abdul Kareem
al-Khalaf, the operations commander for the Interior Ministry. "And the
increasing number of prisoners is putting a lot of pressure on the
system."

He says there are still "some isolated cases" of violations such as
torture or beatings in prisons, but insists the culture is changing.

It's the "exceptional situation" in the country that is to blame for the
way the inmates are forced to live in the prison, said Rusafa's deputy
governor, who didn't want to be named when we interviewed him. But he
said the conditions were not "inhumane".

If you had seen the jails in Saddam Hussein's time, "then you would have
seen really inhumane conditions".

There is less torture and other abuse now, from reports we have
gathered. But Iraqis we have spoken to who have been imprisoned in
Saddam's time and since say conditions haven't changed much.

And they could get even worse. As the United States and Britain
gradually make their exit from Iraq, they are due to transfer thousands
of prisoners into the custody of the Iraqi prison system.

Story from BBC NEWS:
BBC NEWS | Middle East | Inside Baghdad's Rusafa prison
Published: 2008/11/25 16:05:32 GMT


Monday, December 01, 2008
13:52 Mecca time, 10:52 GMT

Civilians killed in Afghan blast

Eight civilians and two police officers have been killed after a suicide
bomber detonated his explosives in a crowded market in southern
Afghanistan.

Asadullah Sherzad, Helmand's police chief, said on Monday the bomber
targeted a police vehicle at a market in Musa Qala.

"Ten people including two policemen were killed and another 27,
including two policemen, were wounded in the suicide attack today," he
said.

Taliban suicide bombers frequently target Afghan and international
military forces in their attacks.

But many more Afghan civilians die in such attacks than do government
officials or military personnel.

Source: Agencies


Inside US hub for Afghan air strikes

US military officials have defended the use of air strikes in
Afghanistan, amid increasing criticism about the numbers of civilians
killed as a result of aerial bombing.

BBC Afghanistan correspondent Ian Pannell, granted rare access to the
main US Air Force targeting base at an undisclosed location in the
Middle East, spent a day looking at how decisions are made about where
to attack and when.

It is the centre of gravity for all air operations in Iraq and
Afghanistan. It is home to some 8,000 military personnel.

We are told that we are the first foreign journalists to be allowed
inside the top secret operations room, but we are not allowed to say
where we are or take any recording equipment inside.

"It is frustrating because we take a large effort to avoid civilian
casualties," says Col Gary Brown, the judge advocate for the US Air
Force Combined Air and Space Operations Centre.

There are hundreds of people working around-the-clock to draw up the
"air-tasking order".

This is the master-list for the day's operations. Some 300 missions are
controlled from here every day, including air strikes against the
Taliban.

Insurgent clashes

Unfortunately, sometimes the target is missed. Thousands of innocent
people have died in Afghanistan since the US-led war in 2001.

The vast majority have been at the hands of the Taleban. But Human
Rights Watch has reported that in the past three years, civilian deaths
from US and Nato air-strikes have tripled.

Most of these deaths arise not from pre-planned operations but from
rapid responses to incidents on the ground, usually clashes with the
insurgents.

We were given a guided tour of the top secret "combat operations room".
We watched clear images from drones flying hundreds of miles away over
remote parts of Afghanistan.

Giant screens track the movement of planes supporting US troops in
action.

We were allowed in because America wants to defend its record, to show
how much effort goes into minimising casualties.

Col Brown says air power is one of America's great asymmetric advantages
but bemoans the Taleban's use of the media, what he calls "their
asymmetric advantage".

Every civilian casualty at the hands of the US or Nato generates
headlines and angry statements in Afghanistan. Every incident makes the
task of the government and the coalition harder.

Now American military officials are accusing the Taleban of deliberately
increasing the risk of civilian casualties.

Col Eric Holdaway, director of intelligence, says there is clearly
documented evidence that "some of our enemies have clearly located
themselves amongst civilian populations or [have] moved into buildings
occupied by civilians and increased the risk to those civilians".

Raw grief

We travelled to a village in Shindand, a remote part of Afghanistan,
which was the scene of the worst case of civilian casualties this year.

Back in August, US planes attacked an alleged Taleban leader here.

Locals say 90 people died. An investigation by the United Nations
supported their claim.

The US originally said there were just seven deaths but after video
evidence emerged that contradicted that, an investigation was carried
out. It concluded there were 33 deaths, still far-short of the number
claimed by the villagers.

Everyone we met had lost someone. Hama, an angelic-looking
three-year-old girl sat among a group of grieving grandmothers. She lost
both her parents in the air strike.

We met Karzai, a six-year-old boy, named after the Afghan president, who
lost a brother and his mother.

Three months after the attack, the grief and pain at what happened is
still raw.

What has made it worse is that there has been no compensation for the
lives and homes destroyed here, despite promises by visiting US and Nato
officials.

Hajji Gul Ahmed, a tribal leader, says: "This area was improving but
this has made a lot of problems for us.

"When the Americans leave this country, we want them to have a good name
but instead they will have a bad name because they came here and killed
our people."

The US has apologised for what happened but its investigation concluded
that the attack was justified and that the correct "rules of engagement"
were followed.

If that is the case, then more innocent people will almost certainly die
in Afghanistan.

Story from BBC NEWS:
BBC NEWS | South Asia | Inside US hub for Afghan air strikes