These are the archives for the week ending 16th June 2006
Crackdown in Baghdad
Iraq's prime minister launched the biggest security crackdown in Baghdad since the U.S.-led invasion, with tens of thousands of security forces deploying throughout the capital on Wednesday and increased checkpoints causing some traffic jams.
An Iraqi army official, who declined to named because he was not authorized to release the information, said two divisions had been deployed in the capital, which would be about 20,000 soldiers, along with some 50,000 Interior Ministry forces.
Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki also announced plans for an extended curfew and a weapons ban, saying he would show "no mercy" to terrorists. The government did not say how long the crackdown would last.
Boston Herald, 14/6/06
More than 900 killed in Afghanistan this year
An explosion has killed more than 10 people and wounded 15 in the southern Afghan city of Kandahar, police say. The target appeared to be a mini-bus carrying labourers working for US-led forces, police said.
The latest incident in a wave of the worst violence in Afghanistan since the Taliban were ousted in 2001 happened during rush hour on Thursday in the heart of the city. More than 900 people have been killed in violence in Afghanistan this year.
Aljazeera, 15/6/06
Blair does not want police to be 'inhibited'
Tony Blair has told anti-terror police not to be "inhibited" in the wake of controversy over the Forest Gate raid. Mr Blair told MPs he fully endorsed the apology given by Metropolitan Police Assistant Commissioner Andy Hayman for the "hurt" caused in the raid. But he said Mr Hayman's team were doing a superb job and he stood "101%" behind them when they acted on intelligence.
The man shot during the Forest Gate raid, Mohammed Abdul Kahar, has criticised Mr Blair's stance. Mr Kahar, one of the two brothers arrested and later released in the raid, said on Tuesday: "Is he 101 per cent behind the bullet which went into my chest? "I am the same age as his son. I am as innocent as his son."
Police have been accused of being heavy-handed in using 250 officers for the raid. And community leaders are demanding more details about the intelligence which sparked the operation.
BBC News, 14/6/06
Iraq costs Blair in Scotland and Wales
Last week, a group of Welsh MPs had the courage to tell Tony Blair to his face what most of his Scottish counterparts didn't dare to - the best way to ensure victory in May's devolved elections is for him to go. The Prime Minister was understandably stunned at the defiant criticism he received from his own parliamentarians around the Cabinet table in 10 Downing Street.
But similar mutterings can often be found from unnamed Scottish MPs and MSPs lurking in the columns of the newspapers. So far, only serial rebel Ian Davidson has been prepared to put his head above the parapet. However, there is a growing perception that his insistence on keeping up the reform agenda and failure to apologise for the war in Iraq will cost the party votes on both wings, when the Holyrood Parliament is elected in just under 11 months' time.
The problem is undoubtedly worse in Wales, where the majority in the referendum for a Cardiff Assembly was wafer thin, and Labour has never held the proper majority since it started.
Edinburgh Evening News, 13/6/06
Public believes US bigger threat than Iran
The presence of U.S. troops in Iraq is a greater threat to Mideast stability than the government in Iran, according to a poll of European and Muslim countries. People in Britain, France, Germany, Spain and Russia rated America's continuing involvement in Iraq a worse problem than Iran and its nuclear ambitions, according to polling by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press. Views of U.S. troops in Iraq were even more negative in countries like Indonesia, Egypt, Jordan, Turkey and Pakistan.
Iran's nuclear program is seen as a serious threat by international leaders, who have been pressuring Iran to drop that program. But the war in Iraq trumps the Iranian situation as a perceived danger to the world at a time when the image of the United States and its war on terrorism continues to drop internationally.
The 15-nation poll also found that overall support for the U.S.- led war on terrorism has declined even among close allies. Support for the war on terror has dropped in Britain from 63 percent in 2004 to 49 percent now. Majorities in 10 of 14 foreign countries - including Britain - say the Iraq war has made the world more dangerous.
Houston Chronicle, 13/6/06
US claims Guantanamo deaths are a publicity stunt
Three suicides at the US's Guantanamo prison camp have been described as a publicity stunt by a senior US official. Colleen Graffy, US deputy assistant secretary of state for public diplomacy, told the BBC World Service the suicides were a "good PR move to draw attention".
Meanwhile, a British man held for two and a half years at the prison camp said he was shocked that three inmates had hanged themselves but said treatment of prisoners there made suicide attempts inevitable. Shafiq Rasul, who was held at the Guantanamo camp in Cuba after being arrested in Afghanistan, said that while he was there, inmates who were subjected to constant beatings and interrogations had attempted to take their own lives.
New Zealand Herald, 12/6/06
Civilians fleeing Ramadi
Fears of an imminent offensive by the U.S. troops massed around the insurgent stronghold of Ramadi intensified Saturday, with residents pouring out of the city to escape what they describe as a mounting humanitarian crisis. The image pieced together from interviews with tribal leaders and fleeing families in recent weeks is one of a desperate population of 400,000 people trapped in the crossfire between insurgents and U.S. forces. Food and medical supplies are running low, prices for gas have soared because of shortages and municipal services have ground to a stop.
U.S. and Iraqi forces had cordoned off the city by Saturday, residents and Iraqi officials said. Airstrikes on several residential areas picked up. Thousands of families remain trapped in the city, those who have fled say. Many can't afford to leave or lack transportation, whereas other families have decided to wait for their children to finish final examinations at school before escaping.
"The situation is catastrophic. No services, no electricity, no water," said Sheik Fassal Gaood, the former governor of Al Anbar province, whose capital is Ramadi. "People in Ramadi are caught between two plagues: the vicious, armed insurgents and the American and Iraqi troops."
Los Angeles Times, 11/6/06
Iraqi province cuts links with British
A provincial council in southern Iraq has suspended all cooperation with the British military after overnight clashes between troops and Shiite militiamen left five Iraqis dead.
"We in the province of Maysan are in mourning for the shedding of the innocent blood of our martyrs and the injuring of old men, women and children by the occupation forces," the provincial council said in a statement on Sunday.
Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki told a May news conference with British Prime Minister Tony Blair that Maysan province would be under complete Iraqi security control by July. The governor of Maysan, Adel al-Maliki, told AFP that the provincial council would not meet Monday in protest at the deaths.
"The handover of security is just an illusion, and they are just making fun of our beards," the governor said. "Judging by the actions of the multinational forces, like these raids and arrests and killings of innocents, we don't think they have any intention of handing over security."
AFP, 11/6/06
Iraq's oil fears deepen
Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Maliki's hurried visit to Basra at the end of May following increasing violence indicated mounting concern that the country's fragile oil exports could be about to suffer even greater disruption. Basra is the country's second largest city and only access to the sea. Given the ongoing sabotage to Iraq's northern oil pipelines the city's port is the outlet for most of the country's crude production.
If exports are curtailed it will be catastrophic for the economy. Iraq is producing less oil than before the U.S.-led coalition's 2003 invasion which also means added pressure on other Persian Gulf producers to maintain and increase their production levels to meet a continuing and robust international demand for oil.
Tehran Times, 10/6/06
Terror raid brothers freed without charge
Two men arrested in an anti-terror raid in east London were released without charge last night. One week after police swooped on their home in Forest Gate, Mohammed Abdul Kahar, 23, who was shot in the shoulder during the raid, and his brother Abul Koyair, 20, were freed.
Both had been detained under the Terrorism Act 2000, suspected of being involved in a plot to make a chemical device that could be used in a terrorist act. They had denied any involvement in a terrorist plot and the raid, which involved 250 officers, some dressed in chemical suits, has attracted severe criticism from the local community and prominent Muslim leaders.
Independent, 10/6/06
US compensation payments to Iraqis quadruple
The local custom is known as "solatia" --it means families in Iraq receive financial compensation for physical damage or a loss of life. The practice has earned more attention in recent weeks, with news that the U.S. military paid about $2500 per victim to families in Haditha following the alleged massacre there last November.
A chilling report from the Boston Globe on Thursday reveals that the amount of cash the U.S. military has paid to families of Iraqi civilians killed or badly injured operations involving American troops "skyrocketed from just under $5 million in 2004 to almost $20 million last year, according to Pentagon financial data." The payments can range from several hundred dollars for a severed limb to a standard of $2500 for loss of life.
Defense Department officials stressed to Globe reporter Bryan Bender that the payments shouldn't be seen as an admission of guilt or responsibility. But Bender observes that "the fourfold increase in condolence payments raises new questions about the extent to which Iraqi civilians have been the victims of U.S. firepower."
Editor & Publisher, 8/6/06