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News archives for the week ending 7th May 2010

Sunni-backed party in Iraq warns of sectarianism

The Sunni-backed alliance that got the most votes in Iraq's election warned Thursday against the rise of sectarian politics after two religious Shiite blocs joined together to try to form a government.

The Iraqiya party led by secular Shiite Ayad Allawi won the most seats in parliament with strong backing from the nation's disaffected Sunnis in the March 7 elections, but it cannot form a majority government alone. It now looks as though Iraqiya will be squeezed out of first place by the new Shiite alliance, effectively losing the first chance to form a governing coalition.

"We hope that the motive and the reason behind this new alliance is purely politics and not to take sides according to the sect," Iraqiya said. "The time of sectarian and ethnical polarization has gone after it proved to be a threat to the unity of Iraqi people."

Associated Press, 6/5/10

US to increase drone attacks on Pakistan

The Central Intelligence Agency has been granted approval by the US government to expand drone strikes in Pakistan's tribal regions in a move to step up military operations against Taliban and al-Qaeda fighters, officials have said.

Federal lawyers backed the measures on grounds of self-defence to counter threats the fighters pose to US troops in neighbouring Afghanistan and the United States as a whole, according to authorities.

The US announced on Wednesday that targets will now include low-level combatants, even if their identities are not known.

Barack Obama, the US president, had previously said drone strikes were necessary to "take out high-level terrorist targets".

Al Jazeera, 6/5/10

KBR Gets no-bid contract despite corruption charges

KBR Inc., the Army’s largest contractor in Iraq, was picked for a no-bid contract worth as much as $568 million through 2011 for military support services in Iraq, according to Army officials.

The Army announced the new work order only hours after the Justice Department said it will pursue a lawsuit accusing the Houston-based company of taking kickbacks from two subcontractors on Iraq-related work.

The Army also awarded the work to KBR over objections from members of Congress, who have pushed the Pentagon to seek bids for further logistics contracts.

Businessweek, 6/5/10

Government can't use secret evidence to defend torture allegations

The British government cannot use secret evidence to defend a legal case brought by six former Guantanamo detainees over torture allegation, the Court of Appeal ruled Tuesday.

Three senior judges dismissed an attempt by MI5 security service and MI6 intelligence agency to suppress evidence of their alleged complicity in the torture and secret transfer of British residents to Guantánamo Bay.

In a damning judgement, Master of the Rolls Lord Neuberger, Britain’s second most senior judge, said that a “clear stand” must be taken.

The six former British detainees are suing MI5, MI6, the Foreign Office, the Home Office and attorney general for playing an alleged part in, or for failing to stop, their detention and ill-treatment in the US camp.

Muslim News, 5/5/10

UN refugee chief: Security worse in Afghanistan

Security in Afghanistan has deteriorated in recent months to the extent that foreign staff of the U.N.'s refugee agency are unable to travel to half of the country, its top official said Wednesday.

The agency has to rely on local staff or Afghan partner organizations to reach tens of thousands of displaced people and returning refugees it is trying to aid, said U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees Antonio Guterres.

"There was a worsening security situation in the recent past," he told reporters in Geneva. "Access of our international staff to the territory is now limited to about 50 percent."

Associated Press, 5/5/10

Iraq: Shi'ite blocks form alliance

Iraq's two big Shi'ite political coalitions, one led by Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki and one whose leaders have close ties to Iran, agreed on Tuesday on an alliance to form a single bloc in parliament, officials said.

But the two groups have not yet agreed on the contentious issue of a nominee for prime minister, the major stumbling block in talks so far, an official with Maliki's State of Law said.

The announcement, nearly two months after a parliamentary election Iraqis hoped would bring stability after years of war, could signify a breakthrough in stalled negotiations to form the next government amid fears of renewed sectarian violence.

But the union of Maliki's State of Law, which took 89 seats in the March 7 parliamentary election, and the Iraqi National Alliance which won 70, could also heighten tension. State of Law, a mainly Shi'ite bloc, finished second in the vote, two seats behind the cross-sectarian Iraqiya coalition headed by secularist former Prime Minister Iyad Allawi, who was supported strongly by minority Sunnis.

Allawi had warned that if the two major Shi'ite blocs joined forces and tried to exclude his coalition from government, there could be a return to violence in Iraq, which was torn by sectarian bloodshed that killed tens of thousands in 2006-07.

Reuters, 4/5/10

Kurd's seek more power in election deadlock

Emboldened by his party’s electoral success, the president of Iraq’s semiautonomous Kurdistan region is intensifying his demands for greater sovereignty and control of oil, adding more complexity to an already tumultuous government formation period.

As the deadlock in Baghdad has deepened with the recent disqualification of some winning Sunni candidates and the coming vote recount in the capital, important bloc leaders like the Kurdish president, Massoud Barzani, have been heavily courted for support in forming coalitions.

But no one has been more openly aggressive in the jockeying for position than Mr. Barzani, and he is being closely watched because the issues he seeks to influence all have stark ramifications for Iraq’s stability. In particular, his demands for a federalist approach to governing Iraq — a weakened national government and stronger regional control — have revived fears that his Iraqi Kurdistan region may eventually try to secede.

During a recent interview, Mr. Barzani said he was determined to extract upfront commitments from any prospective coalition partners in Baghdad on potentially explosive issues like the settlement of disputed internal borders, including those of the oil-rich northern city of Kirkuk, and the sharing of oil revenues.

New York Times, 2/5/10

Obama renews sanctions on Syria

US President Barack Obama has renewed sanctions against Syria, saying it supported terrorist groups and was pursuing weapons of mass destruction.

In a statement, he said Syria "continues to pose... an extraordinary threat" to US security and policy.

Former President George W Bush imposed the sanctions in 2004.

BBC News, 4/5/10

Iraq locked in two-man power struggle

Two months after a general election that produced no outright winner, Iraq has become locked in a battle between two men fighting for power that threatens its fragile security and hopes for stability.

Whether or not Shi'ite Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki and ex-Prime Minister Iyad Allawi are putting personal ambition ahead of the nation's good, their battle could stoke sectarian tensions and invite foreign interference, analysts say.

"The battle in many ways boils down to the personal antipathy between the two, something which is now threatening political stability," IHS Global Insight Middle East analyst Gala Riani said.

Both want the prime minister's office, and the impasse that has resulted could imperil U.S. plans to end combat operations in August, and invite deeper meddling by neighbors such as Shi'ite Iran and Sunni Saudi Arabia.

Reuters, 3/5/10

Iraq civilian death toll rises sharply in April

The number of civilians killed by violence in Iraq rose sharply in April from the month before, a sign that insurgents may be trying to exploit political tensions after an election that produced no outright winner.

A total of 274 civilians were killed by bomb blasts or other attacks last month, compared with 216 in March and 211 in February, government figures showed on Saturday. April's toll was a far cry from the dark days of all-out sectarian war in 2006/07 but remained high.

Washington Post, 1/5/10

Drone attacks fuel Pakistani suspicion of US

Drones have transformed combat against Islamic militants in Pakistan's tribal areas, the rugged belt of villages and badlands hugging the border with Afghanistan. Since 2004, analysts say, Predator and Reaper drones operated by the CIA have killed at least 15 senior Al Qaeda commanders, as well as several top Pakistani Taliban leaders and hundreds of fighters.

The attacks cost no American lives. But civilians who had nothing to do with the Taliban or Al Qaeda also die in these strikes. Calculations of how many vary widely, from fewer than 30 since 2008 to more than 700 just last year. The Pakistani government restricts access to the tribal areas and has only nominal control there. Militants seal off attack sites, and victims are buried quickly, according to Islamic tradition.

Still, the deaths inflame anti-American suspicions, particularly among middle- and upper-class Pakistanis outside the tribal areas, many of whom are convinced that Washington wants to colonize their country or wrest control of its nuclear arsenal.

Los Angeles Times, 2/5/10

Clinton sets stage for Israeli aggression

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has issued a strong warning to Syria over the alleged transfer of sophisticated weapons to Lebanon.

Two weeks ago, Israel accused Syria of supplying long-range Scud missiles to Hezbollah, the Lebanese guerrilla movement and political party. No evidence has been offered for the allegations by the Israel or the US.

Damascus and Beirut deny this, saying Israel is trying to set the stage for military "aggression".

Mrs Clinton warned, in a speech in Washington to a Jewish lobbying organisation, that weapons transfers could spark new conflict in the Middle East.

BBC News, 30/4/10

Iraq stumbles towards recount

An election recount in Baghdad will start on Monday and may take three weeks, Iraqi officials said on Thursday, further delaying the formation of a new government as U.S. troops prepare to leave.

Sectarian tensions are rising almost two months after the March 7 vote as Shi'ite-led factions including the incumbent prime minister's bloc seek to overturn the slim, two-seat lead of a cross-sectarian alliance heavily backed by minority Sunnis.

The precarious security situation was highlighted by a car bomb blast in southwest Baghdad that killed eight people and wounded 20. Five were killed on Wednesday when suicide bombers attacked police checkpoints in the south of the capital and dozens died last Friday in a series of blasts in Shi'ite areas.

Washington Post, 29/4/10

NATO kills Afghan lawmaker's relative

NATO and Afghan forces raided a lawmaker's home in eastern Afghanistan and fatally shot her relative during a nighttime operation, dealing another setback to the U.S.-led coalition's aim of reducing civilian deaths and gaining public support for anti-insurgency efforts.

The confrontation at the home of lawmaker Safiya Sidiqi late Wednesday set off an angry protest in the Surkh Rod district of eastern Afghanistan, with residents blocking the highway to Kabul for hours and shouting "death to America."

In a statement, NATO officials said a patrol with international and Afghan troops killed an "armed individual," while pursuing a Taliban "facilitator." They said they tried to get the person to lower his gun with hand signals and commands through a translator.

Sidiqi said that story was false. In phone calls to police and relatives, Sidiqi said she learned that dozens of Afghan and U.S. soldiers had entered the family compound, blindfolded and handcuffed men and women, and shot her relative, whose name was Amanullah, as he stood in a doorway. Based on those accounts, she said, she did not believe her relative was armed.

Civilian deaths at the hands of U.S. and other international forces are highly sensitive in Afghanistan.

Dallas News, 30/4/10

Pentagon: Taliban is expanding, has popular support, and may never be defeated

A Pentagon report presented a sobering new assessment Wednesday of the Taliban-led insurgency in Afghanistan, saying that its abilities are expanding and its operations are increasing in sophistication, despite recent major offensives by U.S. forces in the militants' heartland.

The report, requested by Congress, portrays an insurgency with deep roots and broad reach, able to withstand repeated U.S. onslaughts and to reestablish its influence, while discrediting and undermining the country's Western-backed government.

The new report offers a grim take on the likely difficulty of establishing lasting security, especially in southern Afghanistan, where the insurgency enjoys broad support. The conclusions raise the prospect that the insurgency in the south may never be completely vanquished, but instead must be contained to prevent it from threatening the government of President Hamid Karzai.

The report concludes that Afghan people support or are sympathetic to the insurgency in 92 of 121 districts identified by the U.S. military as key terrain for stabilizing the country. Popular support for Karzai's government is strong in only 29 of those districts.

Los Angeles Times, 29/4/10