Post Latest Iraq War News Here - Part III

[Arrian]

Here's a link to a story on the same incident, in the AFP:

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/afp/20030415/wl_mideast_afp/iraq_war_us_mosul_030415151253

[Ned]

Iraq Western command surrenders. Wishes Americans well.

"I am ready to help. Thank you for liberating Iraq and making it stable," said a clearly emotional General Mohammed Jarawi, after inking the formal agreement under a broiling sun at a remote outpost in the western Iraqi desert.

"I hope we have a very good friendship with the United States," Jarawi said, shaking the hand of US Colonel Curtis Potts, commander of the 4th brigade of the US 3rd Infantry Division."

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story2&u=/afp/20030415/wl_mideast_afp/iraq_war_west_surrender_030415135726&e=2

[Ned]

US shuts down pipeline to Syria that violate(d) UN sanctions.

1st Armor to be deployed. 1st Cav will not.

Two carriers, 4 B2's, and all aircraft based out of Incirlik Turkey return to America.

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story2&cid=540&e=3&u=/ap/20030415/ap_on_re_mi_ea/war_us_military

[Ming]

Ned... please reread my latest post in this thread, and PM me if you still don't understand it.

I just deleted your last post.

[CrONoS]

Ten dead

Elsewhere in Iraq, there are reports of at least 10 dead and up to 100 wounded after witnesses say US troops fired on a hostile crowd in the northern town of Mosul.

The incident happened while the city's new governor, Mashaan al-Juburi, was making a pro-US speech.

US forces said troops opened fire on at least two gunmen who had shot at them first and that they had not fired into the crowd.

http://www.sky.com/skynews/article/0,,30200-12287738,00.html

==
Understand Ming..

[Promethus]

Planner of Achille Lauro Hijacking Is Reported Captured
By DAVID STOUT


WASHINGTON, April 15 — The Palestinian guerrilla leader who masterminded the 1985 hijacking of the cruise ship Achille Lauro, in which a New York City man was slain, was reported today to be in American custody in Iraq.

The guerrilla leader, Abu Abbas, is being held in Baghdad, CNN reported. The network said he had been captured by United States forces in Iraq, although in recent years he has hardly been reclusive.

Mr. Abbas, also known as Muhammad Abbas, is the leader of the Palestinian Liberation Front. The group hijacked the liner in the eastern Mediterranean and, on Oct. 7, 1985, executed Leon Klinghoffer, 69, in front of his wife, Marilyn.

The shooting of Mr. Klinghoffer, who was disabled, was met with wide revulsion.

Mr. Abbas, who is in his mid-50's, had been living in Baghdad under the protection of President Saddam Hussein. The ouster of Mr. Hussein's government by America-led military forces, may have effectively deprived Mr. Abbas of his shelter.

http://www.nytimes.com/2003/04/15/international/worldspecial/15CND-ABU.html

[gsmoove23]

European Leaders May Help Stabilize Iraq
By ROBERT WIELAARD Associated Press Writer
published 08:58 AM - APRIL 16, 2003 Eastern Time

Several European leaders suggested Wednesday they may quickly send peacekeeping troops to help stabilize Iraq, while U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan sought to sort out his organization's postwar role.

"There is a desperate need for stabilization forces in Iraq, here and now," Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen said. "We cannot wait for a U.N. resolution."

He and the leaders of the Netherlands and Spain _ three backers of the U.S.-led war _ said Iraq needed to be stabilized quickly. At separate briefings, Fogh Rasmussen and Dutch Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende said that their governments were considering sending troops but that it was to early to say when.

.

In the former Soviet state of Belarus, meanwhile, President Alexander Lukashenko, a pariah in the West for his crackdown on political opponents and news media, criticized the war in Iraq and said his country wouldn't be intimidated by Washington.

He said Belarus has weapons that can reach "a significant distance" outside its borders. Lukashenko, who pursued close ties with Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein, said Belarus should develop closer military cooperation with Russia.

http://www.rr.com/v5/2/news/frame/0,2331,,00.html?150~ap~1~9000_392166

[SlowwHand]

Russia against lifting UN sanctions on Iraq
Thu Apr 17, 8:16 AM ET


MOSCOW (AFP) - Russia will not support a US proposal to lift UN sanctions on Iraq if UN inspectors do not confirm the country has no weapons of mass destruction, a Russian foreign ministry official said.

"Regime change in Baghdad is not a condition for lifting economic sanctions on Iraq," the official told the Interfax news agency on condition of anonymity.


"There is a UN Security Council resolution for this, which clearly stipulates the disarmament of Iraq -- something international inspectors must decide," he said, adding that Russia supported the return of UN inspectors.


US President George W. Bush (news - web sites) said Wednesday he would soon propose a UN resolution ending the 12-year-old crippling economic sanctions, which put an embargo on the trade of Iraqi oil.


Russia -- a fierce opponent to the US-led war that earlier cast doubt on US accusations that Iraq possessed biological, chemical or nuclear weapons -- fears opening the floodgates of Iraqi oil could hurt its own economy, which is heavily reliant on oil exports.


It has called for the United Nations (news - web sites) to play a central role in the reconstruction of post-war Iraq, also fearing lucrative contracts could end up in the hands of the US-led coalition that ousted Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein (news - web sites).


Dmitry Rogozin, head of parliament's foreign affairs committee, said the US announcement that it favored lifting sanctions less than one week after the fall of Baghdad and Saddam's regime seemed "wrong" and "mercenary."


"We should determine just what the United State is after -- something seem wrong, the approach is too mercenary," he was quoted by Interfax as saying.


"Today the United Nations controls practically nothing in Iraq, so the sanctions will actually be lifted not from Russian companies -- which should be working in the region -- but from Americans, who will be given the juciest parts of the Iraqi oil industry," he said.


The United Nations imposed sweeping sanctions on Iraq after Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait in August 1990. They included a ban on all trade with Iraq, an embargo on its oil exports and an arms embargo.


Bush also called for an end to the UN-administered "oil-for-food" program, which since 1996 has enabled Iraq to export limited amounts of oil and use the revenues to buy basic humanitarian supplies.

[SlowwHand]

Statements of Support

Forty-three countries which have offered various levels of support for Operation Iraqi Freedom are willing to be publicly named as members of the coalition, U.S. defense officials said March 20. Some countries prefer to remain anonymous, but that number becomes smaller every day as more countries publicly join the coaliton.
Publicly listed coalition members include: Afghanistan, Albania, Australia, Azerbaijan, Bulgaria, Colombia, Czech Repbulic, Denmark, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Eritreat, Estonia, Ethiopia, Georgia, Honduras, Hungary, Iceland, Italy, Japan (post conflict), Kuwait, South Korea, Latvia, Lithuania, Macedonia, Marshall Islands, Micronesia, Mongolia, Netherlands, Nicaragua, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Rwanda, Singapore, Slovakia, Solomon Islands, Spain, Turkey, Uganda, United Kingdom, United States, Uzbekistan.

http://defendamerica.mil/iraq/worldviews041703.html

[Ned]

The Director of the FBI annouced that he was sending agents to Iraq to investigate the apparently well organized theft from the Iraqi National Museum.

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nm/20030417/pl_nm/iraq_antiquities_dc_6

Meanwhile,

Koichiro Matsuura, director-general of the U.N. Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, called Thursday for a U.N. resolution imposing a temporary embargo on trade in Iraqi antiquities.

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story2&cid=540&e=19&u=/ap/war_iraq_museums

[CrONoS]

Robert Fisk - The Independant UK
17 april 2003
Here news about Bagdad and I see just before that 3000 Iranian army have crossed the Iraqi border... I will search the news for that
==
...Now here's another question the Iraqis are asking - and to which I cannot provide an answer. On 8 April, three weeks into the invasion, the Americans dropped four 2,000lb bombs on the Baghdad residential area of Mansur. They claimed they thought Saddam was hiding there. They knew they would kill civilians because it was not, as one Centcom mandarin said, a "risk free venture" (sic). So they dropped their bombs and killed 14 civilians in Mansur, most of them members of a Christian family.

The Americans said they couldn't be sure they had killed Saddam until they could carry out forensic tests at the site. But this turns out to have been a lie. I went there two days ago. Not a single US or British official had bothered to visit the bomb craters. Indeed, when I arrived, there was a putrefying smell and families pulled the remains of a baby from the rubble.

No American officers have apologised for this appalling killing. And I can promise them that the baby I saw being placed under a sheet of black plastic was very definitely not Saddam Hussein. Had they bothered to look at this place - as they claimed they would - they would at least have found the baby. Now the craters are a place of pilgrimage for the people of Baghdad.

Then there's the fires that have consumed every one of the city's ministries - save, of course, for the Ministry of Interior and the Ministry of Oil - as well as UN offices, embassies and shopping malls. I have counted a total of 35 ministries now gutted by fire and the number goes on rising.

....Because there is also something dangerous - and deeply disturbing - about the crowds setting light to the buildings of Baghdad, including the great libraries and state archives. For they are not looters. The looters come first. The arsonists turn up later, often in blue-and-white buses. I followed one after its passengers had set the Ministry of Trade on fire and it sped out of town....
===
The Independent UK

http://www.truthout.org/docs_03/041903E.shtml

http://argument.independent.co.uk/commentators/story.jsp?story=397925

[Bosh]

http://www.spacewar.com/2003/030418122117.z2ppxoki.html

Cleric slams US presence in sermon at Shiite holy site
KARBALA, Iraq (AFP) Apr 18, 2003
The cleric at one of Shiite Islam's holiest shrines denounced the presence of US troops in the country during Friday prayers, saying it amounted to imperialism by "unbelievers."
"We reject this foreign occupation, which is a new imperialism. We don't want it anymore," Sheikh Kaazem al-Abahadi al-Nasari told thousands of worshipers at the mausoleum of Imam Hussein, a grandson of the Prophet Mohamed who is revered by Shiites.

"We don't need the Americans. They're here to control our oil. They're unbelievers, but as for us, we have the power of faith," he said.

Friday prayers resumed at the sacred site in Karbala last week after being banned for nearly a year under president Saddam Hussein. The ousted regime included no Shiites in senior leadership positions, even though the sect makes up more than 60 percent of Iraq's population.

Tens of thousands of worshippers were expected in Karbala, 80 kilometers (50 miles) southwest of Baghdad in the coming days to mark the death of Hussein in battle in the year 680.

The commemoration, which will culminate Tuesday, will also provide an opportunity for the Shiites to flex their new political muscle.

In his sermon Friday, Sheikh Nasari denounced "these politicians who are coming back to Iraq supported by the Americans and the British, who given the opportunity would only obey American orders."

He also called for Shiites to stand united behind the Hawza, the Shiite religious school in another holy city, Najaf, about 100 kilometers (60 miles) to the south.

"Yes, yes, yes to the union (of Shiites)! Yes, yes, yes to the Hawza!" chanted the imam, with the worshippers repeating his words.

[Ned]

Creator of Saddam's Vx chemical weapons surrenders.

http://apnews.excite.com/article/20030419/D7QG9TH00.html

[Ned]

Iraqi's pay respect to new Baghdad governor, Mohammed Mohsen al-Zubaidi.

Chalabi holds news conference in Baghdad. Says interrim government will take over in three weeks.

http://apnews.excite.com/article/20030419/D7QG9K180.html

[Promethus]

Army Hospital Is a Haven for Wounded or Ill Iraqis

Mr. Thijeel is one of 13 Iraqis, including 4 wounded prisoners, being treated at the tented hospital in the desert, about 20 miles south of Baghdad. The hospital, less than three weeks old, will soon turn into the largest Army hospital in Iraq, a well-lighted and remarkably clean 42-bed facility on the sand.

The hospital was set up not only for emergency battlefield surgery, but also to deal with health issues involving cardiology, obstetrical and gynecological problems, orthopedics, blood disorders, even transplants and other medical services for soldiers in the field.

But the war was over quickly. So the hospital, like every other United States military hospital in Baghdad, is treating mostly noncombat-related illnesses and injuries involving American soldiers. The bulk of the patients are Iraqis with war wounds.

Few questions are asked of the Iraqis once they are taken to the hospital (sometimes by American soldiers after families plead with them). Often families bring Iraqis to the Americans after Iraqi hospitals have botched a patient's surgery and postoperative care, leaving the wounded seriously infected and even close to death.

Colonel Pritchett, an assured and low-key health-care administrator from Buffalo who has served in the Army for 24 years, said it was often impossible to determine who caused an injury, and the Americans did not really care. A war wound is a war wound.

http://www.nytimes.com/2003/04/21/international/worldspecial/21HOSP.html