| Topic: |
Religions > Atheism |
| User: |
"Yang, AthD h.c" |
| Date: |
06 Nov 2007 09:11:03 PM |
| Object: |
2007 Deadliest Year for Us Troops. The Surge Is Working! |
http://www.salon.com/wires/ap/world/2007/11/06/D8SOFGSG1_iraq/index.html
Nov 6th, 2007 | BAGHDAD -- The U.S. military announced six new deaths
Tuesday, making 2007 the bloodiest year for American troops in Iraq
despite a recent decline in casualties and a sharp drop in roadside
bombings that Washington links to Iran.
With nearly two months left in the year, the annual toll is now 853 —
three more than the previous worst of 850 in 2004.
But the grim milestone comes as the Pentagon points toward other
encouraging signs as well — growing security in Baghdad and other
former militant strongholds that could help consolidate the gains
against extremists.
A senior Navy officer, meanwhile, announced the planned release of
nine Iranian prisoners and was at pains to say that a major cache of
Iranian-made weapons and bombs displayed for reporters Tuesday
appeared to have been shipped into Iraq before Tehran made a vow to
stop the flow of armaments.
Defense Secretary Robert Gates said last week that Iran had made such
assurances to the Iraqi government. He did not reveal when the pledge
was issued.
A decline in Iranian weapons deliveries could be one of several
factors for the decrease in both Iraqi and American deaths over the
past two months.
"It's our best judgment that these particular EFPs ... in recent large
cache finds do not appear to have arrived here in Iraq after those
pledges were made," Rear Adm. Gregory Smith, director of the
Multi-National Force-Iraq's communications division, told reporters
Tuesday.
Among the weapons Washington has accused Iran of supplying to Iraqi
Shiite militia fighters are EFPs, or explosively formed projectiles.
They fire a slug of molten metal capable of penetrating even the most
heavily armored military vehicles, and thus are more deadly than other
roadside bombs.
The No. 2 U.S. commander in Iraq, Lt. Gen. Ray Odierno, said last week
that there had been a sharp decline in the number of EFPs found in
Iraq over the last three months. At the time, he and Gates both said
it was too early to tell whether the trend would hold, and whether it
could be attributed to action by Iranian authorities. Iran publicly
denies that it has sent weapons to Shiite militias in Iraq.
Two of the Iranians who will be freed "in the coming days" were among
five captured in January in a U.S. raid on an Iranian government
facility in Irbil, the capital of Iraq's autonomous Kurdish region in
the north of the country.
The Americans said the five were members of Iran's elite Quds Force,
an arm of the Revolutionary Guards. Iran said the five were diplomats
working in a facility that was undergoing preparations to be a
consular office.
Smith told reporters the identities of the nine Iranians would be
released later. He said the decision to release the nine was made
after they were determined not to be a threat to U.S. forces.
The positive moves toward Iran on Tuesday coincided with the opening
of two Iranian consulates, the facility in Irbil that was shut by
American forces after the raid, and a second in Sulaimaniyah, the
largest city in the Kurdish zone.
Kurdish Prime Minister Nechirvan Barzani and Iranian Ambassador Hassan
Kazemi Qomi inaugurated the building in Irbil and said both would have
full diplomatic status.
"This is a very important step to enhance relations and facilitate the
commerce between the two sides," Barzani told reporters.
The Iranian ambassador charged the United States ran roughshod over
Iraqi sovereignty in conducting the raid in January.
"The American forces breached Iraqi sovereignty by detaining the five
Iranian diplomats at this same office in Irbil," Qomi said.
"Iran has strong ties with Iraqi society, and opening these consulates
will strengthen these ties. It will also strengthen commerce and
travel between the two sides," Qomi said.
The U.S.-backed Iraqi government has close ties to neighboring Iran,
and Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has sought to bring the
antagonists together in hopes that would reduce violence.
Iraqi Kurds, like the country's Shiite Arabs, maintain close ties with
Shiite-dominated Iran, despite their warm relationship with the U.S.
Also Tuesday, government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh rejected as
interference in Iraq's affairs an Iranian offer of troops to help
stabilize the country when U.S. forces leave. Iran floated the
proposal at the weekend meeting in Istanbul, Turkey, of Iraq's
neighbors, the European Union and the G-8.
"The Iraqi government rejects the plan offered by the Iranian Foreign
Ministry. It (the Iraqi government) will not accept interference in
Iraq's internal affairs by any country of the region," he said in a
statement.
The noticeable drop in U.S. and Iraqi deaths in recent months follows
a 30,000-strong U.S. force buildup, along with a six-month cease-fire
order by radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, among other factors.
There were 39 deaths in October, compared to 65 in September and 84 in
August.
Five U.S. soldiers were killed Monday in two separate roadside bomb
attacks, according to Smith, the military spokesman. Later the
military said a sailor had died of wounds from an explosion in
Salahuddin province north of Baghdad.
The previous annual record for U.S. military deaths in Iraq, in 2004,
coincided with larger, more conventional battles such as the campaign
to cleanse Fallujah of Sunni militants as well as U.S. clashes with
Shiite militiamen in the sect's holy city of Najaf.
But the American military in Iraq reached its highest troop levels in
Iraq this year — 165,000. Moreover, the military's decision to send
soldiers out of large bases and into Iraqi communities means more
troops have seen more "contact with enemy forces" than ever before,
said Maj. Winfield Danielson, a U.S. military spokesman in Baghdad.
"It's due to the troop surge, which allowed us to go into areas that
were previously safe havens for insurgents," Danielson told The
Associated Press on Sunday. "Having more soldiers, and having them out
in the communities, certainly contributes to our casualties."
Also Tuesday, the U.S. military said Iraqi troops had discovered 22
bodies in a mass grave northwest of Baghdad over the weekend. The
bodies were found during a joint operation Saturday. It was the second
mass grave found in the area in less than a month.
After the discovery, U.S. and Iraqi forces launched an operation
Sunday, including ground raids and air assaults targeting al-Qaida in
the area, the U.S. statement said.
About 30 suspects were detained, it said. Two car bomb facilities and
a number of weapons caches also were found.
--
Yang
a.a.#28
"I can hardly wait for your head to explode when the Repubs hold onto
both houses of Congress this November. And Yang can quote me on that."
-Fred Stone, 6/14/2006
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