Pakistan warns that if tension with India escalates in the wake of the Nov. 26-29 Mumbai terrorist attack, it would move troops from its western frontier with Afghanistan, where security forces are battling Taliban and al-Qaida fighters as part of the U.S.-led war on terror, to the Indian border.

Tensions High Between India and Pakistan After Attacks

By Rina Chandran

Nov. 30, 2008 

MUMBAI – The fallout from a three-day rampage that killed nearly 200 people in Mumbai threatened on Sunday to unravel India’s improving ties with Pakistan and prompted the resignation of India’s security minister.

New Delhi said it was raising security to a “war level” and had no doubt of a Pakistani link to the attacks, which unleashed anger at home over the intelligence failure and the delayed response to the violence that paralyzed India’s financial capital.

Officials in Islamabad have warned any escalation would force it to divert troops to the Indian border and away from a U.S.-led anti-militant campaign on the Afghan frontier. …

Indian officials have said most, if not all, of the 10 Islamist attackers who held Mumbai hostage came from Pakistan.

The tension between the nuclear rivals has raised the prospect of a breakdown of peace efforts going on since 2004. The two nations have fought three wars since 1947, when Muslim Pakistan was carved out of Hindu-majority India.

They went to the brink of a fourth conflict after a 2001 militant attack on the Indian parliament which New Delhi also blamed on Pakistan.

“We will increase security and strengthen it at a war level like we have never done it before,” Sriprakash Jaiswal, India’s minister of state for home affairs, told Reuters on Sunday.

“They can say what they want, but we have no doubt that the terrorists had come from Pakistan,” Jaiswal said.

An official in Islamabad said the next one to two days would be crucial for relations. Pakistan has condemned the assaults and denied any involvement by state agencies. …

1/14/10 Update: Related story

U.S. terror suspects indicted in Mumbai attack (AP, Jan. 14, 2010) — Two Chicago men were indicted Thursday on charges they planned a violent attack on a Danish newspaper and helped lay the groundwork for the November 2008 terrorist rampage that killed 166 people in the Indian city of Mumbai. David Coleman Headley [formerly named Daood Gilani] and businessman Tahawwur Hussain Rana were named in a 12-count superseding indictment that for the first time alleged Rana was in on the planning of the attacks by a team of 10 terrorists. Headley, 49, an American citizen, and Rana, 49, a Canadian national who has been in business in Chicago for more than a dozen years, are both in federal custody in Chicago. …

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IRAQ UPDATE

Iraq’s Sistani Has Concerns About U.S. Pact

Nov. 29, 2008 

NAJAF, Iraq – Iraq’s influential Shi’ite cleric Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani has reservations about a pact allowing U.S. troops to stay for three more years, but politicians must decide its value, a source said on Saturday. …

The revered cleric’s acceptance of the pact is crucial for it to be accepted by Iraq’s mostly Shi’ite population, many of whom are at best ambivalent about the continuing presence of U.S. troops on their soil.

“In this agreement there are unsatisfactory things … Therefore he declares his reservations. His reservations do not mean rejection, but neither does that mean absolute acceptance,” a source close to Sistani’s office told Reuters.

Sistani had signalled the week before the vote that he would abstain from judging the pact and leave it to lawmakers to decide its fate, on two conditions: that it does not violate Iraq’s sovereignty and that it gets consensus from all of its communities. Shi’ites have eagerly awaited his final verdict. …

The pact replaces an expiring U.N. mandate and gives Iraq authority over about 150,000 U.S. troops in the country. 

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Security Developments in Iraq

Following are security developments in Iraq on Nov. 29, 2008, as reported by Reuters.

BAGHDAD – Rocket or mortar attacks killed at least two foreign workers on Saturday near the United Nations offices inside the Green Zone, a U.N. official and police said. A Green Zone security source said two rocket or mortar attacks killed three foreign workers and wounded 15 other people.

BAGHDAD – U.S. forces killed four suspected al-Qaeda militants and arrested seven in an operation in Tuz Khurmato,105 miles north of Baghdad, on Friday and Saturday, a U.S. military statement said.

KUT – A rocket attack killed a child and wounded two women from the same family in the al-Zahraa residential area of central Kut, 95 miles southeast of Baghdad, on Friday, police said.

BAGHDAD – A suicide car bomber killed two people and wounded 14 others in central Baghdad on Friday, police said.

BAGHDAD – U.S. forces captured a key member of the Iraqi militia group the Hezbollah Brigade, killing two of his associates and arresting three others in a raid early Friday in Baghdad’s south central Karrada district, the U.S. military said.

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Mumbai Terrorist Attack

Latest News & Video from CNN

Terrorism video

Buchanan: Attacks alter U.S. foreign relations (MSNBC, Nov. 29, 2008) — A panel of experts discuss what impact the Mumbai attacks will have on future U.S. foreign policy as well as the relationship between India and Pakistan. (07:46)

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Attack on U.N. Site in Iraq Kills 2
Rocket lands near Baghdad compound in Green Zone

Nov. 29, 2008

BAGHDAD – A rocket attack against a U.N. compound in Baghdad has killed two foreigners and wounded 15, an official said on Saturday. The victims were working for a catering company that provides services for the U.N. Their nationalities have not been released. …

The U.N. presence in Iraq has been limited since the organization’s Baghdad headquarters was bombed on Aug. 19, 2003, killing 22 people.

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Suicide Bomber Kills 12 al-Sadr Followers
Shiite movement blames U.S. for creating ‘battlefield’

Firemen hose down the site where a suicide bomber blew himself up at the entrance of a Shiite mosque in Musayyib, south of Baghdad, Friday, Nov. 28, 2008, killing at least 12 people. (Photo credit: Ahmed Alhussainey / AP)

Nov. 28, 2008

BAGHDAD – A suicide bomber struck Shiite worshippers Friday at a mosque run by followers of anti-American cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, killing at least 12 people, a day after Iraqi lawmakers approved a security pact with the United States.

The blast underlined fears on both sides of the argument — proponents of the deal warn the Iraqis aren’t ready to take over their own security while opponents, led by the Sadrists, say the American presence is the main reason for the instability plaguing the country. …

The bomber blew himself up among a group of men waiting to be searched near the green iron gate at the entrance of the main mosque in Musayyib, 40 miles south of Baghdad. …

The U.S. military has warned Sunni insurgents are trying to provoke revenge attacks by Shiites in order to re-ignite sectarian warfare. …

“The explosion that took place today near a Shiite mosque in Musayyib town is one of the consequences of the security agreement,” Sheik Abdul-Hadi al-Mohammadawi said during a sermon in the Sadrist stronghold of Kufa. “The Iraqi government cannot survive without the U.S. presence and as long as the Americans remain here, Iraq will be still a battlefield.”

A car bomb also exploded in a central square in Baghdad, killing at least three people and wounding 13, according to police and hospital officials …

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U.S.-IRAQ PACT: ANALYSIS

Iraq’s Prime Minister may be Weakened by Dealmaking over Pact

A child holds a poster of Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki during a demonstration in support of a U.S.-Iraqi security pact in central Baghdad, Iraq, Sunday, Nov. 23, 2008. (Photo credit: Khalid Mohammed / AP)

By Hamza Hendawi

Nov. 28, 2008

BAGHDAD – Parliament’s approval of a security pact with the U.S. has propelled Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki into a position of strength unsurpassed among Iraqi political leaders since the fall of Saddam Hussein.

Furious dealmaking preceded the vote Thursday, compelling al-Maliki to make a wide range of concessions to Sunni lawmakers in exchange for their support. As a result, he emerged with his main goal intact: a historic agreement in which the last American soldier would leave Iraq by Jan. 1, 2012, and restore the country’s full national sovereignty. …

Experts are divided on how long will the prime minister’s political dominance will last however.

“The prime minister is involved in political struggles that have only just begun, and it is far from clear how well he can survive the power struggles and elections to come,” said Anthony Cordesman, a former Pentagon analyst now at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington.

“The insurgency is still there, Arab-Kurdish rivalries are growing, Shiite-Sunni tensions are still critical, and no one can predict the future power struggle within each key ethnic and sectarian faction,” Cordesman said.

Al-Maliki risked his future on the agreement with the United States, which many Iraqis see as an occupying power. Failure to win approval might have forced him to step down. …

Realizing the stakes, a group of mostly Sunni lawmakers sought concessions from al-Maliki in exchange for their support. Al-Maliki said that amounted to blackmail but, in the end, he met most of their demands in a three-page “Charter of Political Reform.”

The declaration doesn’t have the force of law. But it has committed al-Maliki to make changes on several thorny issues he had been reluctant to undertake. Chief among them are the full integration into the security forces and government agencies of thousands of U.S.-backed Sunni fighters who revolted against al-Qaida in Iraq and recruiting more Sunnis in the Shiite-dominated army and police. …

“Assuming (the 2009 elections) are free and fair … I am not sure al-Maliki can survive them and get re-elected,” said prominent U.S.-based Iraq expert Juan Cole.

Al-Maliki is already showing some of the trappings associated with authoritarian Arab rulers, something certain to be used against him in the run-up to the 2009 elections. He has exploited the dramatic drop of violence as a tribute to his leadership and coverage of his activities, even the most mundane, dominates the state media’s news. There are signs to suggest he intends to do the same with the security pact.

“It’s a historic day for our glorious Iraqi people,” he said in a televised speech several hours after the passage. “We have realized one of our most important achievements in approving the agreement,” he said in a kind of flowery Arabic usually reserved for a military victory.

Prior to the broadcast, state television showed footage of demonstrators hoisting portraits of the prime minister and a recital of a poem that praised his rule, but without mentioning him by name.

Related articles

Iraq-U.S. pact leaves Prime Minister Maliki stronger than ever

Iraq agreement leaves U.S. troops powerless

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Mumbai Terrorist Attack

Latest News & Video from CNN

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Qaeda’s Zawahri Says U.S. Wars Behind Financial Crisis

 
Nov. 28, 2008

DUBAI – Al Qaeda’s second-in-command said in an Internet video the U.S. financial crisis was caused by Washington’s military campaigns in Iraq and Afghanistan and taxpayers were paying the price.

“This crisis is one of … the series of American economic hemorrhages after the strikes of September 11… And these … will continue as long as the foolish American policy of wading in Muslim blood continues,” Ayman al-Zawahri said on the video, posted on Islamist websites on Friday.

“The ones shouldering the burden are taxpayers, whose money was spent to rescue senior capitalists and to protect the fraudulent interest-based system from collapse,” Zawahri said.

Asked by an off-camera interviewer whether Washington would be able to resolve the crisis, Zawahri said: “They might be able to lighten their losses if they were to stop the insane hemorrhaging of funds which they are spending on wars against Muslims.” …

The video appeared to have been made earlier than an audio recording issued on November 19, in which Zawahri criticized U.S. president-elect Barack Obama for vowing to back Israel during his campaign, and warned he would fail if he follows the policies of Bush.

Related reports

Al-Qaida tape blasts Iran for working with U.S.

Personality profile of Dr. Ayman al-Zawahiri

——

IRAQ UPDATE

Iraq-U.S. Pact Leaves Prime Minister Maliki Stronger Than Ever

 
Nov. 28, 2008

BAGHDAD – Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki was written off a year ago as weak and sectarian, but a pact requiring U.S. troops to withdraw has enabled him to emerge as a nationalist strongman.

His critics now complain he is overbearing and authoritarian.

Initially derided by both Sunni Arab and Shi’ite opponents as a U.S. puppet, yet also accused of being manipulated by America’s foe Shi’ite Iran, there were mutterings in Washington and Baghdad of replacing Maliki back in 2007.

Parliament’s passing of a pact on Thursday requiring U.S. troops to leave Iraq in three years shows how much things have changed. Maliki used the U.S. military presence to strengthen his power base, then negotiated its withdrawal on his own terms.

“He is by far the Iraqi politician who has benefited most from the (U.S. presence) because he has been able to exploit it to strengthen his personal prestige,” said Reidar Visser, an Iraq expert and editor of the historiae.org website.

“(The pact) crowns Maliki’s efforts: a gradual drawdown that focuses on training Iraqi security forces that (is) slow enough to give him a maximum of possibility of staying in power.” …

With the help of the U.S. military, Maliki has cracked down on al Qaeda and other Sunni Arab insurgents in northern Iraq, but also on gunmen loyal to Shi’ite cleric Moqtada al Sadr — leading Sunni Arabs to rally around him and enabling him to rebuff the charge of sectarianism. …

Parliament passed the pact with 149 votes out of 198 deputies present, after he agreed to put it to a referendum next year. …

But analysts fear that he will become more authoritarian.

One effect of the pact will be that the United States will no longer be able to make its military support conditional on reforms Washington says are crucial for reconciling Iraq’s fractious sectarian and ethnic groups. …

Festering disputes with ethnic Kurds over oil reserves and land threaten to undermine Maliki’s coalition and boil over into violence.

“There will be little room for the United States to make demands in terms of national reconciliation … Maliki may feel confident to increase his assertiveness towards the Kurds, who no longer will be needed to secure his dominance,” said Visser. …

Conflict in Iraq video

New Iraqi agreement sets U.S. withdrawal timeline (MSNBC, Nov. 27, 2008) — A new Iraqi agreement sets a timeline for the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq but also grants the Iraqis new authority over U.S. troops and imposes new restrictions on the U.S. military. NBC’s Jim Miklaszewski reports. (01:50)

Thousands of Iraqis Protest U.S. Security Pact

 
Nov. 28, 2008

BAGHDAD – A suicide bomber killed 12 people in an Iraqi mosque on Friday while thousands of followers of anti-American Shi’ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr demonstrated in Baghdad after parliament passed a pact allowing U.S. troops to remain through 2011.

Some 9,000 people protested in Baghdad’s Shi’ite slum of Sadr City after Friday prayers, burning a U.S. flag and holding banners reading “No, no to the agreement.” About 2,500 people held a similar rally in the southern city of Basra.

“I express my condolences to the Iraqi people on this grave occasion, in which they are harmed by the … pact of shame and degradation,” Sadr, whose militia has fought U.S. troops many times, said in a statement read to followers on his behalf.

Earlier on Friday, a suicide bomber wearing an explosives-packed vest killed 12 people and wounded 17 others inside a Shi’ite mosque visited mainly by Sadr supporters 40 miles south of Baghdad, police said.

The U.S. military said the bomber killed eight people and wounded 15 others as they lined outside the mosque to enter for Friday prayers.

U.N. officials say such attacks are aimed at provoking renewed sectarian fighting between minority Sunni Arabs, once affiliated with al Qaeda, and the majority Shi’ites who are now in charge of Iraq.

In Sadr City, a roadside bomb targeting a U.S. patrol wounded one person.

Sadrist lawmakers opposed the security deal with the United States to the last, banging desks and chanting slogans during the parliamentary session that passed it on Thursday.

They consider the U.S. military presence, in place since the 2003 invasion and the toppling of Saddam Hussein, an occupation and want an immediate withdrawal. …

The deal curbs U.S. military powers to arrest Iraqis and conduct operations, shifting greater responsibility onto Iraq’s security forces to keep the peace. Violence is at four-year lows, but car bombings and suicide blasts are still common.

In the first comments by a senior Iranian figure since the passage of the pact, Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati, who heads a powerful constitutional watchdog, said Washington had forced its passage with pressure and threats.

“Yesterday, this pact was finally approved despite the … problems it had. This ratification was not a normal one,” Jannati, head of the Guardian Council, told Friday prayer worshippers in Tehran in a sermon broadcast on state radio. …

Iran, which enjoys close ties with Maliki’s Shi’ite-led government, has repeatedly blamed the United States for the violence and bloodshed in Iraq in the last five years.

The U.S. military has long accused Iran of arming, training and funding small Shi’ite militia units which attack U.S. troops and Iraqi forces, a charge Tehran denies.

Under the security pact, the United States will no longer be able to hold Iraqi suspects detained during the insurgency and around 16,000 mainly Sunni Arab prisoners will have to be handed over to Iraqi authorities or released.

Human rights group Amnesty International said thousands could face torture or possibly execution as a result as the pact provided no safeguards for prisoner rights. …

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Blast Kills Four Near U.S. Embassy in Kabul

Suicide bomber hits as people enter compound for Thanksgiving celebration

Afghan firefighters wash the road at the site of a suicide attack outside the U.S. Embassy in Kabul on Thursday, Nov. 27, 2008. (Photo credit: Shah Marai / AFP – Getty Images)

Nov. 27, 2008

KABUL, Afghanistan – A suicide car bomber targeting an American convoy exploded about 200 yards outside the U.S. Embassy in Kabul on Thursday, killing at least four Afghan bystanders as people entered the compound for a Thanksgiving Day race.

Four Afghans were killed and at least 18 more wounded in the 8:30 a.m. attack, said Abdullah Fahim, a health ministry spokesman. …

No U.S. Embassy personnel were killed or injured in the blast, an Embassy statement said. …

Insurgents attacks in Kabul have been rare this year, although they have launched a few spectacular assaults, including one targeting the Indian Embassy on July 7 that killed 60 people and left over 140 others wounded.

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Iraqi Parliament Approves U.S. Security Pact
Paves way for American forces to withdraw by 2012

Seen on television, Iraqi members of parliament raise their hands as they vote on Nov. 27, 2008, in Baghdad. Iraq’s parliament today endorsed by a large margin a wide-ranging military pact that will govern some 150,000 U.S. soldiers stationed in 400 bases across the country. (Photo credit: Ali Al-Saadi / AFP – Getty Images)

Nov. 27, 2008

BAGHDAD – Iraq’s parliament approved Thursday a security pact with the United States that lets American troops stay in the country for three more years.

The vote in favor of the pact was backed by the ruling coalition’s Shiite and Kurdish blocs as well as the largest Sunni Arab bloc, which had demanded concessions for supporting the deal. …

A bloc of 30 lawmakers loyal to anti-American Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, who opposed the pact, chanted protests and hoisted banners that said “No, no to the agreement” during the 25-minute session.

The deal must now be ratified by the Presidential Council, which is expected to approve it.

Under the agreement, U.S. forces will withdraw from Iraqi cities by June 30 and the entire country by Jan. 1, 2012. Iraq will have strict oversight over U.S. forces.

The security pact meets an Iraqi goal of a clear timetable for the departure of American forces …

Analysis

Iraq agreement leaves U.S. troops powerless

Iraq-U.S. pact leaves Prime Minister Maliki stronger than ever

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Security Developments in Iraq

Following are security developments in Iraq on Nov. 26, 2008, as reported by Reuters.

BAGHDAD – A roadside bomb killed two civilians and wounded ten others when it struck near Firdos Square in central Baghdad, targeting members of Baghdad’s provincial council, police said.

BAGHDAD – A roadside bomb wounded five policemen when it struck their patrol in eastern Baghdad, police said.

BAGHDAD – A roadside bomb wounded four policemen when it struck a patrol in central Baghdad, police said. The patrol specializes in guarding Iraq’s oil industry.

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Fearful Christians Hope to Flee

Iraq has lost more than half its 1-million Christian population  

Iraqi Christian Robert Esho, 35, walks in Tal Kaeef, north of Mosul, 225 miles northwest of Baghdad, on Nov. 11, 2008. Since the U.S.-led invasion in 2003, Iraqi Christians have been targeted by Islamic extremists who label them “crusaders” loyal to the United States. (Photo credit: Petros Giannakouris / AP) 

 
Nov. 25, 2008

TAL KAEEF, Iraq – Young Christian women in tight jeans mingle easily with Arab matrons draped in black, head-to-toe robes. Both church spires and mosque minarets rise above the low-slung houses. Violence is rare.

“The people here look out for each other — Arabs, Christians, Kurds, Yazidis. If all of Iraq was like this, it would be a great place,” said 1st Lt. Jeremy Glosson, leading a U.S. Army patrol through Tal Kaeef’s medieval-like alleys.

And yet, many Christians here say they want to flee a town where their ancestors have lived for generations and, if possible, to abandon a country where their religion has survived for some 2,000 years — longer than in Europe — but one they fear is growing ever more violent.

“Nobody is threatening us, but it’s still dangerous. All the Christians want to leave. I want to leave now,” said Robert Esho, a 35-year-old resident, reflecting a national community on nerve-edge, where even small-scaled incidents can spark panic.

Leaving Mosul

Last month, in the nearby northern city of Mosul, about 10,000 Christians by government estimate bolted from their homes after several killings and intimidating incidents, generally believed to have been carried out by Islamic militants. …

The recent flight of Christians occurred against a backdrop of violence against the faith.

Churches, priests and businesses of the generally prosperous, well-educated community have been attacked by militants who denounce Christians as pro-American “crusaders” — a reference to the European knights who warred against the Muslim Middle East in the 9th through the 11th centuries. Some Christian women now wear Islamic veils for fear of being set afire or killed.

In an exodus which began after the 1991 Gulf War, and escalated dramatically after the U.S.-led invasion in 2003, Iraq has lost more than half its Christian population of some 1 million.

Deadliest city

In Mosul, now Iraq’s deadliest city, this year opened with coordinated attacks on churches and monasteries as Christians celebrated Epiphany. The body of Paulos Rahho, the Chaldean Catholic archbishop of Mosul, was found in March following his abduction by gunmen after a mass. …

Tal Kaeef, with some 20,000 people, has been largely spared the worst violence, having made an effort to isolate itself from Mosul, some 12 miles to the south, and retain its traditional tolerance. …

It is encircled by a defensive earthen wall erected in recent years and protected by Iraqi forces and Kurdish militia, said Glosson, a platoon leader with the 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment from Huntsville, Ala. …

Atmosphere of fear

When a car bomb exploded this summer at the town’s police station, Christian families living nearby fled their homes in the mistaken belief that they had been the targets, the lieutenant said.

And last month, some 200 Mosul families found refuge here, further fueling anxiety. These included Hanny Kamel Nasser, his wife, five children and other relatives, who fled to the town after his cousin was killed by gunmen in Mosul “just because he was a Christian.”

Nasser said he was more afraid of the climate of violence in Iraq than the religious divide between Christians and Muslims. …

Nasser said he wants to sell his vehicle repair shop and move his family to where many are fleeing — villages farther north and west in Nineveh province which are predominantly Christian and protected by the Kurds and even their own armed guards. Some Christian groups harbor what is probably a hopeless dream: carving out an autonomous zone in this region. …

Down a narrow, winding alley crowded with square, stone and mud houses with high walls and inner courtyards — variously reminding Glosson’s soldiers of medieval Italy and biblical times — stands the imposing Church of the Sacred Heart of the Chaldean Catholic Church, some of whose members still speak Aramaic, the language of Christ, and recognize the authority of the pope. …

Related reports

Gunmen kill two Christian sisters in Iraq’s Mosul (Nov. 12, 2008)

Christians flee Iraqi city (Oct. 12, 2008)

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Two U.S. Troops Killed in Iraq Shooting
Gunman in Iraqi army uniform opened fire in Mosul area

 
Nov. 25, 2008

BAGHDAD – Two American servicemen were killed Tuesday when a gunman in an Iraqi army uniform opened fire while they were distributing humanitarian aid in northern Iraq, the U.S. military said.

It was the third such shooting in the Mosul area in less than a year purportedly involving Iraqi soldiers, raising concerns about infiltration of the Iraqi security forces in one of the most dangerous areas in Iraq. …

The attack killed a Marine and an Army soldier on a transition team working with the Iraqis, a military statement said. Two Marines and three Iraqi civilians also were wounded, it said. …

The attack came two weeks after an Iraqi soldier ambushed U.S. soldiers in a courtyard of an Iraqi military base in a dangerous Sunni Arab neighborhood in Mosul, killing two Americans and wounding six before he died in the subsequent gunbattle. …

Last December, an Iraqi soldier also allegedly shot and killed a U.S. captain and a sergeant during a joint operation in Mosul, which is 225 miles northwest of Baghdad. …

Related report:

Iraqi soldier kills U.S. troops (Nov. 13, 2008)

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Security Developments in Iraq

Following are security developments in Iraq on Nov. 25, 2008, as reported by Reuters.

NINAWA PROVINCE – Two U.S. soldiers were killed in a small-arms fire attack. Two Marines and three civilians were also wounded in the attack, the U.S. military said.

SUWAYRA – Police recovered bodies of two men with gunshot wounds and signs of torture from the Tigris river in the northern town of Suwayra, 30 miles southeast of Baghdad, police said.

BAGHDAD – A roadside bomb wounded two people on Palestine Street in eastern Baghdad, police said.

SALMAN PAK – Two mortar bombs wounded six people on Monday when they landed on residential areas of Salman Pak, 20 miles southeast of Baghdad, police said.

BAGHDAD – The Iraqi army detained 65 militants in the previous 24 hours across Iraq, the Defense Ministry said.

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Contractor for Military Committed Serious Violations

 

WASHINGTON (CNN) — A contractor providing services to the U.S. military in Iraq and Afghanistan has committed serious violations of its contract, mainly by conducting inadequate inspections of electrical wiring and grounding at American bases, according to Pentagon sources.

The Pentagon findings on Houston, Texas-based KBR stem from the widely publicized death of Sgt. Ryan Maseth, a highly decorated 24-year-old Green Beret from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Maseth was electrocuted while taking a shower at his base in Baghdad.

Army Green Beret Staff Sergeant Ryan Maseth, 24

His January 2 death was just one of many deaths now believed to be linked to shoddy electrical work done at U.S. bases, managed by U.S. contractors, according to Pentagon sources.

The Pentagon’s Defense Contract Management Agency recently gave KBR a “Level III Corrective Action Request” — issued only when a contractor is found in “serious noncompliance” and just one step below the possibility of suspending or terminating a contract, Pentagon officials said.

In KBR’s case, it means that the contractor’s inspections and efforts to ensure electrical safety for troops have been unacceptable, and must be significantly improved, Pentagon sources told CNN.

Just after Maseth’s electrocution, Pentagon officials estimated that about a dozen troops had been electrocuted in Iraq. But Pentagon officials now say at least 18 troops have been electrocuted since 2003 — many due to faulty wiring and improper grounding.

The number could be higher than that when Afghanistan is included, say congressional sources.

“I can’t make sense around Ryan’s death, that he died like that, that he was so trained. So highly trained to survive,” said Maseth’s mother, Cheryl Harris, in an interview earlier this year. “It just feels so surreal. It’s so painful to think about how he died.”

Largely because of Harris’ efforts to demand answers about her son’s death, the U.S. Senate and House have held oversight hearings in recent months in hopes of finding out how the electrocutions occurred.

“The fact that there’s an assessment made at this level — a level three — which is very serious, indicates to me, and to a lot of people, how serious this problem is,” said Sen. Robert Casey, D-Pennsylvania.

“It’s really a question in the end about justice. The only way we can have justice in a case like this for the families and for the American people is to have serious accountability. That has not happened yet. There’s still a lot of parties here that have not been held to account for what happened here,” Casey said. [...]

Since CNN first reported the story about Maseth’s death last spring, the network has repeatedly asked the Pentagon and its contract agency for an interview. They have never agreed to an interview to answer questions about Maseth’s death or other similar cases. [...]

There are at least two lawsuits now against KBR, including one by Maseth’s family, and they are trying to determine precisely what role, if any, KBR played in the specific circumstances that led to those deaths.

“I want KBR to be exposed. More than anything, I just want them to step up and take care of what they’re being paid to take care of, and to do the work that they are contracted to do. More than anything, let’s put the security and the safety of our troops first,” Harris said.

Watch Ryan Maseth’s mother discuss the case »

Pentagon officials told CNN that KBR’s initial corrective efforts have not been sufficient. KBR will now have to come up with a corrective plan that is acceptable to the Pentagon. The company could still receive fines or penalties.

So far, the company has not been held responsible in any of the deaths. The company has denied liability in the lawsuits.

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IRAQ UPDATE

Security Developments in Iraq

Following are security developments in Iraq on Nov. 24, 2009, as reported by Reuters.

BAGHDAD – A roadside bomb killed one man and wounded five other people, including three policemen, when it struck their patrol in Karrada district in central Baghdad, police said.

BAGHDAD – A roadside bomb killed 13 female employees of the Trade Ministry and wounded seven others, including some women, when it blew up their bus in the district of New Baghdad, eastern Baghdad, police said.

BAGHDAD – A female suicide bomber killed at least five people and wounded 12 others at a checkpoint by the entrance to the heavily-fortified Green Zone diplomatic compound in central Baghdad, police said.

KIRKUK – Gunmen killed a lawyer in a drive-by shooting in central Kirkuk, 155 miles north of Baghdad, police said.

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Three Baghdad Blasts Kill At Least 20

Female bomber strikes Green Zone; separate attacks target minibus, police 

Policemen inspect a burnt bus at the site of a bomb attack in eastern Baghdad on Monday, Nov. 24, 2008. (Photo credit: Thaier Al-Sudani / Reuters)

Nov. 24, 2008

BAGHDAD – A female suicide bomber blew herself up near an entrance to the U.S.-protected Green Zone and a bomb tore through a minibus carrying Iraqi government employees in separate attacks on Monday, killing at least 20 people, Iraqi officials said.

Three more people were killed in bomb attacks on police patrols in Baghdad and Baqouba, northeast of the capital, police said.

The violence came as Iraqi lawmakers prepared for a vote Wednesday on a security pact with the United States that would enable American forces to stay in Iraq for up to three more years under strict Iraqi oversight. …

Video

3 Blasts kill at least 20 in Iraq (MSNBC, Nov. 24, 2008) – At least 20 people are dead after three separate bomb attacks in Baghdad. (00:27)

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Previous report on the mujahidaat

Iraq — An Emerging Threat (click and scroll down)

Farhana Ali (RAND Corporation) and Jerrold M. Post, M.D. (George Washington University) at a counterterrorism panel at the International Society of Political Psychology meeting in Paris, July 12, 2008. (Photo: Aubrey Immelman)

Related posts:

Three female suicide bombers kill 32, wound 100 (July 28, 2008)

Iraqi mujahidaat becoming norm (Aug. 12, 2008)

Woman suicide bomber kills 26 in Iraq (Aug. 14, 2008)

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Security Developments in Iraq

Following are security developments in Iraq on Nov. 21, 22 and 23, 2008, as reported by Reuters.

BAGHDAD – A roadside bomb at a checkpoint in Baghdad’s southern Doura neighborhood killed three people and wounded 15 others, police said.

BAGHDAD – A roadside bomb wounded four people, including two Iraqi soldiers, when it exploded next to their patrol in the Mansour district, western Baghdad, police said.

ISKANDARIYA – Police found a mass grave containing at least 10 decomposed bodies, including the bodies of two women, in Iskandariya, 25 miles south of Baghdad, police said.

MAHAWEEL – Gunmen killed a man in an attack on his car on Friday in Mahaweel, 35 miles south of Baghdad, police said.

MOSUL – A parked car bomb wounded seven people including one Iraqi soldier when it blew up next to an army patrol in southern Mosul, 240 miles north of Baghdad, police said.

NEAR TIKRIT – Gunmen wounded two policemen in a drive-by shooting on their checkpoint just south of Tikrit, 95 miles north of Baghdad, police said.

BAGHDAD – The Iraqi army arrested 52 suspected militants in the previous 24 hours across Iraq, the Defense Ministry said in a statement.

BAGHDAD – A roadside bomb killed one person and wounded six others in the Karrada district in central Baghdad, police said.

BAGHDAD – A bomb blast wounded four people including one policeman in the Yarmouk district in western Baghdad, police said.

BAGHDAD – Four people were wounded by a bomb attached to their car in the Bab al-Muadham district in central Baghdad, police said.

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St. Francis Xavier Catholic Church in Sartell, Minnesota.

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Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) at the Sinclair service station on Century Ave., Woodbury, June 16, 2008, using charts to explain her plan to bring down the price of gasoline to $2 by increased drilling, including offshore drilling and drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. (Photo credit: Mark Zdechlik / MPR)

Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) at the Sartell SummerFest Parade, Saturday, June 14, 2008, promising $2 gas with a “Drill Here, Drill Now” strategy of increasing supply. (Photo credit: St. Cloud Times)

Why Falling Gas Prices Could Be Bad News
Crude in free-fall, shedding two-third of its value since July

Strapped consumers see falling prices as bit of welcome relief. But some economists warn of the growing risk of a ruinous downward spiral called deflation. Here’s what’s at stake.

Justin Sullivan / Getty Images

Nov. 21, 2008

HOUSTON – Only four months after peaking at an unheard of $4.11 a gallon, the national average price for gasoline tumbled below $2 Friday, its lowest point in more than three years. Yet the global economic contrast between then and now could not be more stark.

On March 9, 2005, the last time gasoline cost less than $2, the Dow Jones Industrial Average closed at 10,805.63. After a huge rally Friday, the Dow closed at 8,046.42.

There was muted joy for consumers wading through an economy that’s almost certainly in recession, with thousands of jobs being lost and mortgage foreclosures continuing to rise to record levels.

On the New York Mercantile Exchange, where oil futures seemed destined to breach $200 a barrel just a few months ago, pessimism was an understatement.

“At this point, all we can say with any degree of confidence is that crude oil … will not trade below zero,” trader and analyst Stephen Schork said Friday in a tongue-in-cheek analysis of the market’s swoon.

Crude has been in free-fall, shedding two-thirds of its value since July, and gasoline prices have followed. Some say oil could be headed below $40 a barrel, and gasoline below $1.50.

Motorists in Independence, Mo., on Friday said they were paying $1.37 for a gallon of gas. …

“It’s impossible to know exactly how low the price of gasoline will eventually go,” AAA spokesman Geoff Sundstrom said Friday. “Households can, however, reasonably anticipate that lower fuel prices will be the norm throughout the rest of this year and probably into early 2009.”

The Federal Highway Administration reported this week that Americans drove 10.7 billion fewer miles in September than a year ago, the 11th straight monthly decline.

But there’s some evidence that motorists may be heading back to the pump in greater numbers as gasoline prices fall.

MasterCard SpendingPulse reported Tuesday that even though gas consumption last week was down 2.8 percent from a year ago, it was the smallest year-over-year decline in more than two months. …

For traders, there have been only a few good weeks on the New York Mercantile Exchange since crude peaked on July 11, and the past week was particularly bad. … On Thursday, crude fell to levels not seen in three years. …

OPEC lowered production quotas by 1.5 million barrels a day last month, and some analysts predict even lower levels to come out of the cartel’s next official meeting Dec. 17. …

Oil prices have been crushed as the global economic downturn has diminished demand. How low prices can go is anyone’s guess.

“Do not trust anyone in this market who tries to convince you that oil cannot go below $40,” Schork said in his report Friday. “The same way no one had a clue how high prices could go last July, there is no telling how low we can go now.”

Video

Gas prices tanking (NBC Nightly News, Nov. 21, 2008) – Lower gas prices may be giving American drivers a financial reprieve, but they’re a symptom of a very sick global economy. Tom Costello reports. (02:04)

12/5/08 Update

Return to $1 Gas? Energy Prices Evaporate

 
Dec. 5, 2008

Oil prices hit four-year lows Friday as employers cut the highest number of jobs in 34 years. The continuing decline in prices is so dramatic and so sudden that it is raising the prospect that gas prices could soon fall below $1 a gallon.

The worst jobs data in 34 years on Friday just added more fuel to the deepening global recession as U.S. employers slashed a far worse-than-expected 533,000 jobs in November and the unemployment rate rose to a 15-year high of 6.7 percent. …

Full story 

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$2.00 Gas … What a Relief!

By Michele Bachmann
Townhall.com
Oct. 29, 2008

Driving through the district today, gas station after gas station displayed gas prices around the $2 mark. The lowest price I saw today was $2.06 in Elk River. It seems like only yesterday papers and pundits in my district and around the country were mocking the mere notion of $2 gas — but here we are.

What happened the past few months to lower the cost of gas? Several things, but perhaps most importantly, Congress has let the ban on offshore oil exploration and oil shale expire, sending a signal to the markets that the United States may finally be ready to up their supply. …

Full story

Video update

Gulf CEO: Gas may get back to $1 per gallon (CNBC, Dec. 5, 2008) — Gulf Oil CEO Joe Petrowski tells CNBC’s Melissa Lee that 2009 may bring the return of one dollar per gallon gas. (06:21)

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Bachmann Says More Drilling Will Bring Down the Cost of Gas

Diane and Gary Baran of Woodbury, standing with Rep. Michele Bachmann, said they are concerned about gas prices. Bachmann called for more domestic oil exploration and production Monday, June 16, 2008. (Photo credit: Mark Zdechlik / MPR)

By Tim Pugmire
Minnesota Public Radio
June 16, 2008

As gasoline prices continue to soar, 6th District U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann says she has a plan to get back to $2 a gallon. Bachmann, who’s running for re-election to a second term, outlined a strategy Monday to lower gas prices by expanding domestic oil exploration and production. But Bachmann’s chief political rival says the election-year promise is based on bad policy.

St. Paul, Minn. — The national average for a gallon of gas is just over $4. The price at the pump was $3.83 at the Sinclair station on Century Ave. in Woodbury, where Bachmann stood with charts and explained her plan to give motorists a break.

“It is the No. 1 issue that I hear from constituents of mine all across the 6th Congressional District,” she said. “I think it’s safe to say for the bulk of my colleagues as well, they are hearing from their constituents that they’re being negatively impacted by the high cost of energy.”

Bachmann is backing a Republican proposal to address high gas prices, called the No More Excuses Energy Act. The plan would increase the nation’s oil refining capacity and open up drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska.

Bachmann also wants additional oil and gas exploration, more nuclear power facilities and expanded tax credits for alternative fuels.

Bachmann said her $2 a gallon goal would take a few years to reach. But she said passage of the measures would have an immediate impact on prices.

“One thing we need to do is send a signal to the market that the United States is serious about exploring its own resources,” Bachmann said. “The minute we make that announcement and begin to explore American resources, we will see prices start to fall. Because people who purchase energy contract futures get the signal that America is actually going to increase its source of supply.”

Bachmann describes the GOP plan as a common sense approach.

The Democrat who wants to win her congressional seat this fall said the plan is inadequate and shortsighted.

DFLer Elwyn Tinklenberg said he supports additional domestic oil exploration as part of a broad energy plan. But he said more drilling, including in ANWR, would offer only a short-term, stopgap solution. …

Tinklenberg, a former state transportation commissioner, said he doesn’t think a return to $2 gas is possible unless there’s a significant drop in oil consumption.

His energy plan calls for the development of a more efficient transportation system, higher mileage vehicles, alternative fuels and greater conservation.

A recent federal report also raises questions about the price impact of tapping new Alaska oil.

The U.S. Energy Information Administration concluded last month that drilling in ANWR would at best lower the price of a $130 barrel of oil by $1.44. The report said the reduction could also be as small as 41 cents per barrel.

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Bachmann Oil Drilling Plan Draws Skepticism

This undated photo shows the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska. (Photo credit: U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service / Getty Images)

By Tim Pugmire
Minnesota Public Radio
July 22, 2008

The high price of gasoline has become a major pain for consumers this summer and a major campaign theme for politicians. Sixth District Republican Rep. Michele Bachmann insists gas prices would drop significantly if oil companies could drill in Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. But even some of her fellow Republicans question that approach.

St. Paul, Minn. — Michele Bachmann returned from a weekend tour of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge even more committed to the idea of drilling for oil there.

She shared her experience first with the National Review, writing that ANWR is a treasure trove of energy. Bachmann repeated the message during an appearance on Fox News. During the brief television interview, Bachmann described ANWR as a perfect place for oil drilling.

Rep. Michele Bachmann

“It’s perfectly situated because it’s adjacent to the current Trans-Alaska pipeline,” she said. “This is our energy lifeline for the United States. It’s over 800 miles of pipeline. This is only 74 miles away. It would be relatively simple to build a spur line.”

Bachmann is backing a GOP proposal that would open up oil drilling in Alaska, the nation’s coastal waters and other closed areas.

She also favors increasing oil refining capacity, expanding natural gas exploration, building more nuclear power plants and extending tax credits for alternative fuels.

Bachmann has even claimed the overall strategy to boost energy production could bring back $2 a gallon gas.

But much of the first-term Republican’s attention is on ANWR. During a conference call with reporters, Bachmann said oil drilling could be done in a small area with minimal environmental impact.

“This has not been repelling wildlife. This has been a situation where wildlife actually coexists very well, and in fact in some ways, you may say is enhanced,” Bachmann said. “We were told how dramatically the caribou herd has even increased since inputting the pipeline 31 years ago.” …

ANWR drilling is a divisive issue, even among Republicans. Presidential candidate John McCain favors a hands-off approach there. So does Minnesota Sen. Norm Coleman. Coleman said he supports an increase in domestic oil exploration, but not everywhere. He said ANWR drilling is unrealistic. …

Environmentalists and other critics also question Bachmann’s claim that ANWR drilling could soon reduce pump prices.

They cite a recent analysis from the U.S. Energy Information Administration that concluded oil drilling there would take more than a decade to develop.

The agency also estimates the added supply would lower the price of a barrel of oil by no better than $1.44, which means the reduction of the price of a gallon of gasoline would be far less.

Bachmann is running for re-election to a second term. Her DFL opponent, Elwyn Tinklenberg, said he also supports more domestic oil exploration as part of a broader strategy that also lowers oil consumption. But Tinklenberg said Bachmann’s pledge of $2 a gallon gas isn’t realistic.

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Video

A protester uses his shoe to strike an effigy of President Bush, as thousands of followers of Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr converge on Firdous Square in central Baghdad, Iraq, for a protest against a proposed U.S.-Iraqi security pact, on Friday, Nov. 21, 2009. (Photo credit: Karim Kadim / AP)

Thousands of Iraqis Protest U.S. Security Pact
Sermon by al-Sadr brands America ‘the enemy of Islam’

Thousands of demonstrators march during a rally at Firdous Square in Baghdad, Nov. 21, 2008. Followers of Shi’ite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr marched on Friday against a pact letting U.S. forces stay in Iraq until 2011, toppling an effigy of President George W. Bush where U.S. troops once tore down a statue of Saddam Hussein.

Nov. 21, 2008

BAGHDAD – Followers of a Shiite cleric on Friday stomped on and burned an effigy of President George Bush in the same central Baghdad square where Iraqis beat a toppled statue of Saddam Hussein with their sandals five years earlier. Chanting and waving flags, thousands of Muqtada al-Sadr’s followers filled Firdous Square to protest a proposed U.S.-Iraqi security pact that would allow American troops to stay for three more years.

The Bush effigy was placed on the same pedestal where U.S. Marines toppled the ousted dictator’s statue in one of the iconic images of the 2003 U.S.-led invasion. After a mass prayer, demonstrators pelted the effigy with plastic water bottles and sandals. One man hit it in the face with his sandal. The effigy fell head first into the crowd and protesters jumped on it before setting it ablaze.

Khalid Mohammed / AP

Before it fell, the effigy held a sign that said: “The security agreement … shame and humiliation.”

Iraq’s parliament is expected to vote next week on the plan to keep U.S. forces in Iraq for another three years. But the noisy opposition by the Sadrists indicates that even if it is approved, the deal could remain divisive in a country struggling for reconciliation. Opponents view the security deal as a surrender to U.S. interests despite Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, a Shiite, saying the pact would eventually lead to full sovereignty.

‘Enemy of Islam’

Al-Sadr, who is believed to be in Iran, was not at the protest, though he wrote a sermon read by his representative, Sheik Abdul Hadi al-Mohammadawi, calling the U.S. “the enemy of Islam.”

“The government must know that it is the people who help it in the good and the bad times. If it throws the occupier out all the Iraqi people will stand by it,” the sermon read, using common rhetoric for the United States. Al-Sadr reiterated in the sermon that his followers in both the armed and the peaceful factions of his movement will continue to work for the removal of U.S. forces.

Thousands of Iraqi Shiite protesters rally against the U.S.-Iraqi security pact near Firdous Square, Baghdad, on Friday, Nov. 21, 2009. (Photo credit: Ali Al-saadi / AFP – Getty Images)

Security was tight for the demonstration, with the area closed to traffic and heavily guarded by Iraqi soldiers in Humvees. Army snipers took positions on top of buildings overlooking the square. The Sadrists also provided their own security, searching worshippers as they approached the square.

The protesters included two Sunni clerics. Many arrived at the square on foot or by bus and carried prayer rugs, pieces of cardboard or newspapers for the mass prayer. They waved Iraqi flags and green Shiite banners, chanting, “No, no to the American agreement!” and, “No, no to the agreement of humiliation!” …

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Statement on the Iraq War

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Al Qaeda Message Fails the Test

By Ahmed Benchemsi
Newsweek Web Exclusive
Nov. 20, 2008

The video message from Al Qaeda’s No. 2, Ayman al-Zawahiri, in which he called Barack Obama a “house Negro,” demonstrates, if anything, that the terrorists are always damn good in PR. You feel disgusted? Horrified? That’s exactly their aim.

In this regard, Zawahiri’s diabolical comparison of Obama and Malcolm X (“an honorable American who converted to Islam,” as Zawahiri put it) is an even bolder move: not only do they insult the American president-elect, but they rub it into one of America’s deepest wounds — the racial divisions and the profound antagonisms generated by Malcolm X’s radical claims. In terms of “hatred arts,” this is just brilliant.

Those who are shocked by Zawahiri’s words have merely to remember: spreading hate is the terrorists’ job. Hating you is not enough; they also need you to hate them, so the struggle goes on unchallenged. Al Qaeda and all its followers badly need to perpetuate Samuel Huntington’s “clash of civilizations” paradigm. The West and Islam are deadly enemies, in the radicals’ view. The more irreconcilable the former, the happier the latter.

In this regard, the agenda of Bush and the neocons was a true blessing for the terrorists. Consider this: after 9/11 and the U.S. strike on Afghanistan, Al Qaeda was badly hit and its leaders were piteously hiding in caves. Later, by attacking Iraq for no valid reason — which caused, as a direct or indirect consequence, hundreds of thousands of deaths among innocent civilians — Bush’s administration provided Al Qaeda leaders with a new rationale. They reinvigorated, prospered and recruited hundreds, if not thousands, of brand-new followers, infused with a strong willingness for jihad.

“War on terror”? If they could, they would just keep it on forever.

Al Qaeda’s true problem with Obama has indeed nothing to do with the color of his skin. By proposing to meet Iran’s Ahmadinejad without preconditions instead of just bombing him out, the American president-elect thinks outside of the confrontation box. The radicals just hate that. And above all, they hate the idea of the United States resuming the chase of Al Qaeda operatives in the mountains of the Pakistan-Afghanistan borders. He’s coming to them; how could they not react fiercely?

There is something else, which I witness everyday in the streets of Casablanca, where I live: Muslims tend to claim Obama as their own — because he’s black, because he comes from an oppressed minority, because his middle name is Hussein. I presume this holds true for all the nonradical Muslims (the vast majority of them) throughout the world. Not that they think Obama is a Muslim himself — he made clear that he was not. Yet he could have been. His father was.

Anyway, this man looks like a “brother” to many Muslims, which is indeed a good thing for the prospect of global peace. Not surprisingly, Zawahiri’s video message targeted this specific point: “Obama is not a Muslim, he’s a renegade who abandoned his ancestor’s religion to embrace the ‘crusaders faith’ and the ‘Zionists’ ideology’,” Zawahiri suggests. The genuine message being: please don’t like him! Well, too bad for them: we do.

We will like him more, of course, if he keeps his promise of backing out of Iraq within 16 months and putting the Israeli-Palestinian peace process back on track. Meanwhile, let’s all of us, Muslims and Westerners, take advantage of the honeymoon period. And let’s enjoy the terrorists’ embarrassment: it’s a rare occasion.

Benchemsi is editor and publisher of the Moroccan newsweekly magazines TelQuel and Nichane

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Personality Profile of Dr. Ayman al-Zawahiri

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Security Developments in Iraq

Following are security developments in Iraq on Nov. 19 and Nov. 20, 2008, as reported by Reuters.

BAGHDAD – Two roadside bombs exploded in quick succession, wounding five people in central Baghdad’s Karrada district, police said.

BAGHDAD – The Iraqi army killed 3 suspected militants and detained 23 others in different parts of Iraq during the past 24 hours, the defense ministry said in a statement.

MOSUL – A roadside bomb wounded one Iraqi soldier in western Mosul, 240 miles north of Baghdad, police said.

MOSUL – A suicide car bomber hit an Iraqi army patrol, wounding two soldiers in eastern Mosul, police said.

MOSUL – The Iraqi army arrested 92 wanted people during a raid and search operation in towns and villages near the city of Mosul, the defense ministry said in a statement.

MOSUL – The bodies of five people, including two women, were found bearing gunshot wounds on the outskirts of the city of Mosul, 240 miles north of Baghdad, police said.

BAGHDAD – A bomb attached to a car belonging to presidential guards wounded three of the guards in central Baghdad’s Karrada district, police said.

SHWAN – Police found the body of a woman with gunshot wounds in the town of Shwan, near Kirkuk, 155 miles north of Baghdad, police said.

DOUR – Six militants were killed and three villagers wounded on Wednesday during clashes between a local U.S.-backed neighborhood patrol and militants in a village near the town of Dour, 95 miles north of Baghdad, police said.

KUT – Gunmen stormed a house and killed five members of the same family, including two children, on Wednesday near the city of Kut, 95 miles southeast of Baghdad, police said.

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U.S. Military Says It Can Meet Obama Demands
Adm. Mike Mullen is planning ways to get troops from Iraq into Afghanistan

WASHINGTON – The top U.S. military officer said Tuesday the Pentagon is developing plans to get troops quickly out of Iraq and into Afghanistan to battle a more confident and successful Taliban.

Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told the AP in an interview that the military has already identified and practiced traveling out of Iraq along exit routes through Turkey and Jordan to determine “what the challenges might be.” The governments in those two countries, he said, have supported that effort.

While he was careful to note that he is still following the orders of President Bush, Mullen said he was clearly aware of President-elect Barack Obama’s battle plan to withdraw from Iraq in 16 months.

“I’ve been listening to the campaign, and I understand,” Mullen said. “And he has certainly reinforced that since the election, so from a planning standpoint we are looking at that as well.”

He said he is working to get as many troops into Afghanistan as quickly as possible and noted he’s not surprised that Taliban leaders said this week that they would not entertain settlement talks with the Afghan government as long as foreign forces remained in the country.

“It’s my belief that you negotiate from a position of strength and right now the Taliban is doing pretty well,” said Mullen. “I think that’s important as we discuss how we negotiate, and with whom we negotiate, that we do so from a position of strength.”

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