Sunday, January 6, 2008

Occupation Iraq: Silent Sunday

But if you look and listen real closely, you can almost hear the explosions halfway around the world -- at least, the ones the Zionist-controlled War Dailies tell you about.

"Iraqi held in killing of 2 US troops; Accused soldier may have ties to militants" by Elena Becatoros, Associated Press | January 6, 2008

BAGHDAD - An Iraqi soldier is accused of turning on two decorated American servicemen and shooting them to death last month during a joint operation in northern Iraq, the US military said yesterday. An Iraqi official said the suspect might have links to militant groups.

The shooting, which occurred Dec. 26 in the northern city of Mosul, left three other US soldiers and a civilian interpreter wounded. It was the second known attack by a member of the Iraqi military on the American troops who train and work closely with Iraqi forces.

This isn't good news!


Brigadier Mutaa Habib Jassim al-Khazrachi, commander of the Iraqi Army's Second Division, said the US soldiers were shot during a firefight between the joint forces and gunmen. Troops often come under attack when moving into new areas to establish patrols or outposts.

Which is why the violence is allegedly down; we aren't patrolling in places anymore.

See:
Occupation Iraq: How the Surge "Succeeded"

Separately yesterday, the US military rejected reports of a roadside bomb striking a passing minibus and killing six people north of the town of Muqdadiyah, about 55 miles north of Baghdad.

But an official in the joint coordination center of Diyala Province and an officer in Diyala police said the attack had occurred, and both confirmed the casualty figure. It was impossible to independently confirm either account."

Translation: The MSM DOESN'T KNOW SHIT!!!

Yet they report PROPAGANDA as if it is the God's Honest Truth!

Pfffffffffftttttttt!!!!!!


So was the Iraqi who killed the U.S. soldiers part of the Sunni Awakening, reader, and does it matter?

"Political rift divides Sunnis in Anbar Province" by Alexandra Zavis, Los Angeles Times | January 6, 2008

RAMADI, Iraq - Anbar is the success story of the US strategy to combat the insurgency from the ground up by striking alliances with local leaders. But although the tribal sheiks' rebellion against the militants they once backed has calmed the region and opened the door to political dialogue with Iraq's majority Shi'ites, it has deepened divisions among Sunnis.

As the violence has faded, an argument has been raging over who speaks for Iraq's Sunni Arab minority: the province's largely secular and fiercely independent tribal leaders who resisted the US invasion or the main Sunni political party, an Islamist group led by former exiles who cooperated with the Americans from the start.

Translation: Saddam's guys against U.S. tools!!!!


In slightly more than a year, Anbar's sheiks have helped accomplish what US military might, and endless rounds of political negotiations, could not: driving out the extremists who had flourished in Iraq's western desert since the invasion in 2003. Pockets of resistance remain in Anbar, but the US command says many of the Sunni insurgents, now allied with Al Qaeda in Iraq, are seeking new sanctuaries north of Baghdad.

Now, the sheiks say, it's payback time. They want more schools, better healthcare, clean water, and reliable electricity for their war-ravaged province. They want jobs for their followers.

The sheiks accuse the Iraqi Islamic Party, which controls the local councils in most Sunni areas, of hijacking development funds and monopolizing jobs for their own supporters.

Sheik Hameed Farhan Hays said, raising his hand to his forehead:

"There is corruption up to here."

Nooooooo! Talk about stating the obvious!


Leaders of the Iraqi Islamic Party countered that the sheiks had only themselves to blame for boycotting the 2005 elections that ushered in representative government in Iraq. And they challenged the sheiks to take their accusations of corruption to court.

Whether true or not, the accusations underscore the mistrust between the two sides. For now, it is a war of words. But some worry that the dispute could escalate.

US officials play down the danger
posed by the power struggle, noting that the province is recording its lowest level of violence since the war began. But they say such conflicts underscore the need for new elections to decide who controls Iraq's provinces.

Yup, RIGGED ELECTIONS are the U.S.' answer to everything!


New provincial elections have been postponed pending agreement on a law setting out the relationship between national and regional governments. The bill is one of several key power-sharing measures that have stalled in parliament."

Pffffffttt!


"Officials Say Iraqi Soldier Killed 2 U.S. Soldiers" by RICHARD A. OPPEL Jr. and STEPHEN FARRELL

BAGHDAD — Two American soldiers killed last month during an operation in the northern city of Mosul appear to have been deliberately shot to death by an Iraqi soldier on patrol with them, senior Iraqi officers said on Saturday. Another Iraqi soldier has also been detained in connection with the shootings, the military said, suggesting that there might have been at least one accomplice.

And maybe more? That's not good!


The investigation, by American and Iraqi authorities, may renew longstanding questions about the loyalties of Iraqi forces.

At least the surge worked!


The American military did not disclose the circumstances of the shootings until Saturday afternoon, shortly after Reuters reported that Iraqi commanders had said that the American troops had been deliberately shot by an Iraqi soldier.

Previously, the American military had said only that [the men] died from “small arms fire during dismounted combat operations.”

While violence has fallen off in western and central Iraq, Mosul and other parts of northern Iraq remain volatile, and many areas still are under the sway of extremist Sunni militant groups like Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia, a homegrown insurgent group that American intelligence agencies say has foreign leadership.

You mean, THIS
"Al-CIA-Duh?"

Also see:
"Al-CIA-Duhs" Catch-and-Release Program

In Diyala Province, perhaps Iraq’s most troubled region, insurgents planted a bomb north of Muqdadiya that exploded on Saturday, killing six civilians and wounding four others, an Iraqi police official in Diyala said.

But, but, but... the U.S. military denied that happened!


The American military reported that a United States soldier was also killed in Diyala on Saturday, when an improvised bomb exploded near his vehicle.

In the provincial capital of Baquba, another improvised bomb wounded three civilians, the police said. Gunmen killed a truck driver in northeast Diyala."

Isn't Iraq a whole pant-load better since Bush invaded, readers?