You already know about the 35 people killed every day, and the number of Iraqis killed by the surge -- around 300 per day, 10,000 per month -- and the 1.2 million Iraqis dead since the invasion (not including the 1,654 killed in September), the U.S. military's 75 air raids a day, and the five-fold increase in air bombings, so you know this upcoming bit is ALL PROPAGANDA, folks!
Gonna sell us a SUCCESSFUL WAR for the campaign!
Doesn't it just make you wanna puke, reader?
"Soldier, civilian deaths decline in Iraq; Citizen groups working with troops credited"
By Steven R. Hurst, Associated Press | October 24, 2007
BAGHDAD - October is on course to record the second consecutive decline in US military and Iraqi civilian deaths and Americans commanders say they know why: the US troop increase and an Iraqi groundswell against Al Qaeda and Shi'ite militia extremists.
[I'm shocked!]
Major General Rick Lynch points to what the military calls "concerned citizens" - both Shi'ites and Sunnis who have joined the American fight. He says he's signed up 20,000 of them in the past four months.
[This is a PROP-OP SHOP JOB to throw off the "insurgents" and get them to turn on "Al-CIA-Duh" (read: each other) in mistrust.
It's garbage, folks!!]
Lynch said in a recent interview at a US base deep in hostile territory south of Baghdad:
"I've never been more optimistic than I am right now with the progress we've made in Iraq. The only people who are going to win this counterinsurgency project are the people of Iraq. We've said that all along. And now they're coming forward in masses."
Outgoing artillery thundered as he spoke.
Lynch, who commands the 3d Infantry Division and once served as the military spokesman in Baghdad, is a tireless cheerleader of the American effort in Iraq - and the death toll over the past two months appears to reinforce his optimism.
[Yeah, if you fudge with the #s]
As of yesterday, the Pentagon reported 28 US military deaths in October. The toll on US troops hasn't been this low since March 2006, when 31 soldiers died, an average of one death a day. In September, 65 US soldiers died in Iraq.
Part of the trend can be seen in a volatile and violent band of lush agricultural land on Baghdad's southern border.
The commander of the battle zone, Lieutenant Colonel Val Keaveny, 3d Battalion, 509th Infantry (Airborne), said his unit has lost only one soldier in the past four months despite intensified operations against both Shi'ite and Sunni extremists, including powerful Al Qaeda in Iraq cells.
Keaveny attributes the startling decline to a decrease in attacks by the large number of militants who are being rounded up based on information provided by the citizen force, which has literally doubled the number of eyes and ears available to the military.
[All PROP-OP SHOP-SHIT to deke the Amurkn people and the "insurgents."]
The efforts to recruit local partners began taking shape earlier this year in the western province of Anbar, which had become the virtual heartland for Sunni insurgents and Al Qaeda bands. The early successes in Anbar - coming alongside a boost of 30,000 US soldiers into the Baghdad area - led to similar alliances in other parts of Iraq.
Keaveny, whose forces operate out of Forward Operating Base Kalsu, about 35 miles south of Baghdad:
"People are fed up with fear, intimidation and being brutalized. Once they hit that tipping point, they're fed up, they come to realize we truly do provide them better hope for the future. What we're seeing now is the beginning of a snowball."
[Yeah, they are fed up all right. Wait until I get to the Times]
Although US death figures appear to be in sharp decline, the number of Iraqi civilians and security forces killed shows a less dramatic drop. And any significant attack - by insurgents or civilians caught in the crossfire - could quickly wipe out the trend.
[Oh, so it was really NOT THAT MUCH for IRAQIS, hanh?]
The current pace of civilian deaths would put October at fewer than 900. The figure last month was 1,023 and for August, 1,956, according to figures compiled by the Associated Press.
[Whatever! See the beginning of this piece, readers]
The AP tally comes from hospital, police, and military officials, as well as accounts from reporters and photographers. Insurgent deaths are not included. Other counts differ and some have given higher civilian death tolls.
["But we won't report those" -- MSM to public (with middle-finger salute)]
Although the decline in deaths is notable, it is only one of many measures of potential progress in Iraq, said Anthony Cordesman, a former Pentagon analyst now with the private Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, D.C.
[Now the qualifiers, if you've read this far]
Cordesman said a more balanced picture needs to include factors such as wounded civilians and soldiers, and the number of people fleeing their homes. The UN refugee agency said yesterday that between 1,000 and 2,000 Iraqis still leave their homes each day for safer havens elsewhere in the country or in neighboring nations.
Cordesman: "The numbers we're dealing with here are only major acts of violence, the number of times people are killed. This is certainly progress . . . but it has to be put in perspective."
[Oh]
Lynch's mission also shows the slow pace of reclaiming areas from militants. His soldiers and their new local allies must work town by town, village by village.
[Block-by-block, house-by-house, you know, what the antiwar crowd warned about.
And here we are, five years and BILLIONS spent already!]
Sunni Sheik Emad Ghurtani is among those helping.
Ghurtani told Lynch as the two stood talking at a newly established tribal check point near Haswa, a village just north of the Kalsu base:
"Honestly, I'm not going to hide this from you. There is some Al Qaeda here in this area. But, God willing, we will get rid of them. The citizens are coming out. They're not afraid any more."
[I guess that's good because then we can LEAVE, right?
Called off the "Al-CAI-Duh" dogs, did we?]
The guard detail at the checkpoint changed during the conversation. Three young men barely out of their teens, ancient Kalashnikovs in hand, strolled town the dirt road that led back into Ghurtani territory. Their US-provided uniforms are a vest with a reflective orange band akin to what road crews wear in the United States.
Ghurtani complained they hadn't been paid the $100 a month the Americans promised:
"If I get some of the money they need I can get them shoes, some vests and some ammunition. If they can find me cheap weapons, we can start getting these men ready. God willing, in the next few days."
[Well, you are learning a bit about America and her promises, sir sheik]
Most heartening, Lynch said, was the checkpoint just across the road and over an irrigation canal. It was run by Shi'ites. Lynch said the checkpoints on opposite sides of the road highlighted a kind of reconciliation by necessity: not fighting each other but protecting themselves from a common enemy.
Lynch said, clambering over a makeshift earthen bridge across the canal:
"They have to be convinced that we're not leaving. That's the issue. If they were to think we're leaving we'd have also sorts of trouble."
[Did you get that, readers? CONVINCED WE ARE NOT LEAVING, hanh?
Well, I ALREADY AM! Im SMELLING a DRAFT, kiddos!]
And about those lower casualties?
"US air strikes kill 11 Iraqis, including 5 women and a child; Attacks aimed at men said seen planting bombs" by Kim Gamel/Associated Press October 24, 2007
BAGHDAD - A US helicopter opened fire yesterday on men seen planting roadside bombs in a Sunni stronghold north of Baghdad, then chased them into a nearby house and continued to shoot, killing 11 Iraqis, including five women and one child, the military said.
[But death counts are down, blah-blah-blah!
Tell it to those families, assholes!]
Neighbors and relatives of those killed said 14 civilians were killed. They prayed and wept over the bodies, which were wrapped in colorful blankets for burial in the desert north of Samarra.
[Better than us! I'm sorry, Iraqis, for what my country has done to yours because of these monsters in charge.
I've done everything I can, and will continue to scream IMPEACHMENT at this BLOODY CRIMINAL CABAL!!!]
The attack began after men were seen placing bombs near the volatile city 60 miles north of Baghdad, said Major Peggy Kageleiry, a US military spokeswoman.
An Apache helicopter "engaged these enemy forces, and the enemy forces ran into a house and took over the structure," she said, adding the attack aircraft continued to fire at the suspected militants as they tried to escape.
A known member of a roadside bomb-making network was among five military-age men who were killed, but the dead also included five women and one child, the military said in a statement that cited Iraqi sources. The statement said the circumstances surrounding the air strikes were under review.
[Military-aged men, huh?
What's that mean?
14-years-old?
Just wait, readers!]
Kageleiry expressed regret for the deaths of the civilians but blamed the insurgents for putting lives in danger by running into the house to escape attack by the US forces.
[Yeah, it's the women and children's fault! Rape victims ask for it, too!]
Dhurgham Hamid, a man from the area that was hit, said the dead included a man who was a supervisor at the provincial education directorate, his wife, and an accountant at the agency:
"They were peaceful people who had nothing to do with the resistance or gunmen."
[It's MURDER, then!]
It was the third claim of civilian casualties from US air strikes in as many days, raids that have prompted complaints from both sides of the sectarian divide that too many Iraqis are losing their lives, particularly as the Americans increasingly rely on air power to attack militants.
[Kind of sums the whole situation up in a paragraph, doesn't it?
Hey, HEAL that NON-EXISTENT "sectarian" rift, AmeriKa!
Yeah, you got "Al-CIA-Duhs" or "Mahdis" or "INNOCENT PEOPLE!!!!"]
The hard-line Sunni Association of Muslim Scholars said the raid struck families who were celebrating the release of one of their sons from US custody.
[Nice going, assholes!]
The group "condemned the brutal crime that shows the savageness and brutality of the occupation in targeting disarmed civilians" and placed blame on the Shi'ite-led government and the US military.
The other two raids targeted Shi'ite militia fighters in the sprawling Sadr City district in eastern Baghdad.
[How can you be bitchin' then, Sunni?
Looks like Malaki's government can't be very popular, signing of on all this slaughter!
Why don't you Sunnis come together with Sadr?
BOTH being ATTACKED by the U.S.!
Oh, that's right, "terrorism" is all a bunch of WESTERN-RUN BLACK-OP FALSE-FLAG JOBS, so that "sectarianism" NEVER EXISTED for a THOUSAND YEARS!!!!
For JEWS and CHRISTIANS, too, so pfffffftttt!]
On Monday, relatives and police said a 42-year-old woman and her 4-year-old daughter were seriously wounded when attack helicopters opened fire on a duplex.
The US military said attack helicopters killed one extremist and wounded five after they were seen trying to plant a roadside bomb.
Ground forces also called for air support after encountering fierce resistance in a raid targeting a suspected Iranian-linked leader of a kidnapping ring in Sadr City on Sunday, although casualty tolls conflicted. The Americans said 49 militants were killed, but Iraqi officials insisted the number of casualties was 15 - all civilians.
The UN Assistance Mission to Iraq said in its most recent human rights report that it recorded at least 88 Iraqi civilians killed in US air strikes from April 1 to June 30."
[That's it? Way more than that!!! Pffffftttttt!]
"Helicopter Fire Kills Iraqis, Days After Sadr City Battle" by ANDREW E. KRAMER
BAGHDAD, Oct. 23 — Gunfire from an American helicopter killed 11 people, including women and children, after it came under fire north of Baghdad on Tuesday, according to a statement by the military. The episode was the second this week in which multiple Iraqi deaths resulted from a United States combat action.
The Iraqi police and witnesses put the toll higher, at 16 dead, and recounted a confusing scene in which local people were trying to help a wounded man who was apparently an insurgent as an American helicopter buzzed overhead.
According to Mohanad Hamid Muhsin, a 14-year-old who was wounded in the leg, the insurgent fired a machine gun at a helicopter around sunrise in a rural area near the city of Tikrit. The helicopter unleashed a barrage of gunfire in return, hitting the man who had fired the machine gun, he said.
[There is your MILITARY-AGED MALE, folks!
An INSURGENT!]
Mohanad, of the insurgent:
“The locals went to check if he was dead and gathered around him, but the helicopter opened fire again and killed some of the locals and wounded others.”
When another group tried to carry the wounded and dead to houses to provide first aid, Mohanad said, the helicopter shot at four houses, killing and wounding more people.
[Just WONDERFUL, 'eh, Amurka?
Some "LIBERATION,"huh?]
In its statement, the United States military said that “a known member of an I.E.D. cell was among the 11 killed during the multiple engagements,” using the abbreviation for improvised explosive device.
The statement said an additional four “military-age males” were among the dead and said that five women and one child were also killed. The statement said the helicopter had been fired at from a house.
[Is YOUR 14-year-old a CHILD, Amurkn?
HANH???!!!!!!!!!!!]
Mohanad said in a telephone interview from a hospital in Tikrit where the wounded were taken:
“I lost two of my brothers and my sister, who was a college student.”
[Killed THREE of his SIBLINGS, huh?
Bush's "LIBERATION!"]
A local police official, meanwhile, said that 16 people, including six women and three children, were killed and that an additional 14 were wounded.
The shooting took place two days after American soldiers killed 49 people in a gun battle on Sunday in Sadr City, the sprawling Shiite neighborhood in eastern Baghdad. The military said no civilians were killed, while a Shiite citizens’ council and other Shiite groups said innocent bystanders died.
[But why do they hate us?
BECAUSE WE ARE KILLING THEM, shit-eating Amurkn moron!!!!!!
Back to the PROP-OP!]
Also Tuesday, Sunni tribal sheiks who have allied with the United States played host to an improbable military parade, with a band and soldiers in spit-shined boots, down a main street in the city of Ramadi in Anbar Province, though with an extensive American military presence in the area.
The parade, which was led by children waving flowers and Iraqi flags, would have been unthinkable amid the insurgent violence in Ramadi a year ago, American commanders who attended said.
The sheiks’ movement, the Anbar Awakening Council, has used tribal ties to draw former insurgents into the government police force, while helping United States soldiers identify remaining militants. In Ramadi, United States patrols have not been targeted in the city since May, American commanders said.
The parade was a response to one held last year in Ramadi by the Mujahedeen Shura Council, an insurgent group linked to Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia, the homegrown Sunni insurgent group that American intelligence officials say has foreign leadership.
The parade on Tuesday formally commemorated the end of the 40-day period of mourning after the death of Sheik Abdul Sattar Buzaigh al-Rishawi, the leader of the Anbar Awakening Council, who was killed shortly after meeting President Bush in Anbar in September. His brother, Sheik Ahmed Abu Risha, took over as leader of the group.
[Yup, gotta SHOW "Al-CIA-Duh!
And SHOVEL SHIT into the Amurkn public's mouth!!!
And let the SHIT-SHOVELING commence!]
Sheik Abu Risha responded Tuesday to an audiotape of the Qaeda leader, Osama bin Laden, that was broadcast on Al Jazeera on Monday. The tape admonished Sunni Muslims in Iraq for allowing divisions within their ranks in the struggle against the United States, according to SITE, a group that monitors extremist Islamic groups.
[Ha-ha-ha-ha!]
Mr. Abu Risha:
“We invite bin Laden to tell us who his people are. Let them come out, and we will fight them. Here I am. I am willing to lead the fight."
[No wonder "CIA-Duh" is CLEARING OUT!!!]
