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News archives for the week ending 31st October 2008

Government to spend £700m on Land Rovers

British troops in Afghanistan are to be better equipped against roadside bombs after the Ministry of Defence announced that it was spending £700 million on 760 new vehicles. John Hutton, the new Defence Secretary, admitted in a statement to the Commons that the poorly protected Snatch Land Rovers had "received considerable criticism".

One in eight of the deaths in Iraq and Afghanistan have been caused by insurgents deliberately targeting Snatch vehicles that were designed for protection against rioters in Northern Ireland. Now, after 34 troops have died in the vehicle and following excoriating criticism from coroners at inquests, the MoD has decided to upgrade its fleet of vehicles in the face of the growing bomb threat from the Taliban.

Daily Telegraph, 29/10/08

Iraq wants to ban US attacks on its neighbours

Iraq wants a security agreement with the United States to include a clear ban on U.S. troops using Iraqi territory to attack the country's neighbors, the government spokesman said Wednesday, three days after a U.S. raid on Syria.

Also Wednesday, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, the country's most influential Shiite cleric, expressed concern whether Iraqi sovereignty would be protected in the pact. Analysts say that explicit opposition on the part of Sistani could scuttle the deal.

The government spokesman, Ali al-Dabbagh, said the ban on attacks was among four proposed amendments to the draft agreement approved by the cabinet this week and forwarded to the United States. He said the Iraqis want the right to declare the agreement void if the United States unilaterally attacks one of Iraq's neighbors.

President George W. Bush said Wednesday he was confident that the security pact with Iraq would be approved despite the changes Baghdad wants, The Associated Press reported from Washington. The deal will govern U.S. presence in Iraq after this year.

International Herald Tribune, 29/10/08

Kurdish-Arab conflict could spawn new war

Iraq's relative calm is threatened by a festering Kurdish-Arab conflict over the oil-rich city of Kirkuk and other disputed territories, that could explode into the worst sectarian war the country has suffered since the 2003 invasion, a new report says today.

The report by the International Crisis Group (ICG) says the territorial dispute is blocking political progress in Iraq, contributing to the delay in passing a law on sharing oil revenue, and threatening to put off critical provincial elections.

Pointing out that the Arab-Kurdish dispute dates back to Britain's creation of modern Iraq after the first world war, the ICG report warns: "In its ethnically-driven intensity, ability to drag in regional players such as Turkey and Iran, and potentially devastating impact on efforts to rebuild a fragmented state, it matches and arguably exceeds the Sunni-Shia divide that spawned the 2005 - 2007 sectarian war."

At the heart of the dispute is the city of Kirkuk, home to 900,000 Kurds, Arabs and Turkmen, which sits on one of the country's biggest oil fields. It lies outside the northern zone run by the Kurdistan Regional Government, but is in practice run by Kurdish peshmerga fighters and a Kurdish intelligence service, the Asaish, which works closely with US intelligence.

Arabs and Turkmen residents, who represent 40% of Kirkuk's population, claim they live in fear, particularly of the Asaish.

Guardian, 28/10/08

US: Iraq security pact is 'best offer'

The White House poured cold water Tuesday on Iraq's push to reopen talks on a controversial accord governing the US troop presence there beyond December, calling the existing pact its "best offer."

"Anything that they would want to change would have to clear a very high bar for us. We think that the door is pretty much shut on these negotiations," spokeswoman Dana Perino said as Baghdad planned to push for changes.

AFP, 28/10/08

US says Syria attack is 'a warning'...

U.S. officials have long complained that the Syrian government has allowed Arab fighters to pass through the country to enter Iraq, but since last year, top military leaders have praised Syrian efforts to curb the flow. In recent months, officials have estimated that as few as 20 fighters a month have been crossing into Iraq, down from more than a hundred a month in 2006.

But officials said the raid Sunday, apparently the first acknowledged instance of U.S. ground forces operating in Syria, was intended to send a warning to th e Syrian government. "You have to clean up the global threat that is in your back yard, and if you won't do that, we are left with no choice but to take these matters into our hands," said a senior U.S. official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the cross-border strike.

Washington Post, 28/10/08

...as Miliband ducks answering questions

Walid al-Muallem, Syria's foreign minister, used a visit to London to lambast the US for its "cowboy politics" and hinted that Sunday's raid was designed to halt Syria's gradually improving relations with the EU and Britain. Iran and Russia also condemned the US for aggravating tensions in the region.

Muallem had been due to hold a press conference with David Miliband, the foreign secretary, but the event was cancelled by mutual agreement, apparently because Miliband did not want to be questioned about the raid.

Guardian, 28/10/08

Occupation force makes peace impossible

In Islamabad yesterday, the first serious moves at peace talks with the Taliban in both Pakistan and Afghanistan began when a tribal jirga (assembly) convened at the instigation of both governments. The jirga brings together more than 50 tribal elders from both sides of the Durand Line that notionally divides the two countries, and is seen as a modest first attempt to begin negotiations with the militants.

Participants said the viability of peace talks was likely to form the basis of the discussions, with strong opposition certain to emerge against US policy, including the Predator drone strikes, as well as the presence ofUS and other coalition forces in Afghanistan.

A leading participant, former Pakistani ambassador to Afghanistan Rustam Shah Mohmand, said it would be impossible to deal with the Taliban as long as Western forces remained in Afghanistan.

Sources close to the jirga said the latest Predator strike, and reports that Washington was intensifying its aerial bombardment, were likely to reinforce sentiment in favour of the militants and make it even more difficult to achieve peace.

Washington appears to take a different view. The New York Times reported yesterday that the CIA had intensified Predator strikes in the region after objections from Islamabad forced it to retreat from its plan to send ground forces in.

The Australian, 28/10/08

KBR in 'serious noncompliance'...

The Pentagon has rebuked its largest contractor in Iraq after a series of inspections uncovered shoddy electrical work and other problems on American military bases there, according to several Defense Department officials.

The Defense Contract Management Agency, the Pentagon agency in charge of supervising contractors in Iraq, determined in August that KBR, the Houston-based company that provides virtually all basic services for the American military in both Iraq and Afghanistan, has been guilty of “serious contractual noncompliance” in Iraq, the officials said.

The Pentagon’s finding could lead to cuts or delays in payments to KBR, and ultimately to a decision by the Army to withhold hundreds of millions of dollars in bonuses and fees due the company, officials said, but they added that no decisions on financial penalties had been made.

New York Times, 24/10/08

...but the money keeps rolling in

Engineering, construction and services company KBR Inc. said late Thursday it received multiple project task orders from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers totaling just over $197 million.

KBR will provide design, engineering, construction management and project management services. Work is expected to begin immediately.

Associated Press, 24/10/08

US attacks Pakistan...

A suspected US missile strike on a militant training camp in Pakistan's tribal belt bordering Afghanistan killed a top Taliban commander and at least 15 other people, officials said Monday.

The attack was the latest in a series on Pakistani soil which have sharply raised tensions between Washington and Islamabad, a key ally in the US campaign against Al-Qaeda and the Taliban. Sunday's strike was the 12th such incident in the past 10 weeks, all of which have been blamed on US-led coalition forces or CIA drones based in Afghanistan.

The US military has stepped up attacks on militants in Pakistani territory since a new civilian government came to power in Islamabad in March.

AFP, 27/10/08

...and now Syria

US helicopter-borne troops have carried out a raid inside Syria along the Iraqi border, killing eight people including four children, Syrian officials say. The official Syrian news agency Sana said the raid took place in the Abu Kamal border area, in eastern Syria. It said that American soldiers on four helicopters had stormed a building under construction on Sunday night.

If confirmed, the raid would be the first known attack by US forces inside Syrian territory, says BBC diplomatic correspondent Jonathan Marcus. Its timing is curious, coming right at the end of the Bush administration's period of office and at a moment when many of America's European allies - like Britain and France - are trying to broaden their ties with Damascus, our correspondent adds.

A US military spokesman was unable to confirm or deny the reports, saying it was a "developing situation". But later the Associated Press news agency quoted an unnamed US military official in Washington as saying that American special forces had attacked foreign fighters linked to al-Qaeda. "We are taking matters into our own hands," the official said.

The dead include a man, his four children and a married couple, the Syrian report said, without giving details of the children's ages.

BBC News, 27/10/08

Deal close to collapse

Senior Iraqi politicians have warned that a crucial deal between Baghdad and Washington governing the presence of American troops in the country is doomed to failure after eight months of talks.

"The Sofa [Status of Forces Agreement] is dead in the water," said one Iraqi politician close to the talks. He added that Nouri al-Maliki, the prime minister, believed that signing it would be "political suicide".

The collapse of the deal would severely undermine American policy. An agreement is needed to put America's presence on a legal basis after the United Nations mandate for its 154,000 troops in Iraq expires on December 31.

Robert Gates, the US defence secretary, claimed last week that the deal was "mostly done". The draft pact, painstakingly negotiated in Baghdad by Ryan Crocker, the American ambassador, and US generals, calls for a withdrawal of American forces from Iraq's main cities by the end of 2009 and a complete withdrawal by 2011.

Maliki also faces a general election in a year's time. Open support for the American presence is seen as a vote-loser, even though most Iraqis tacitly acknowledge the need for troops to remain in the country until their own army can enforce order. An unofficial poll of MPs last week revealed that the deal would fall far short of gaining majority support in parliament.

"It is absolutely impossible under any circumstances that we will accept this booby-trapped agreement," said Nasser al-Rubaie, a spokesman for the opposition group of Moqtada al-Sadr, the radical Shi'ite cleric. "This is an agreement which takes Iraq out of direct occupation and puts it under colonialism with the help of the government of Iraq. It only serves the occupier," said Rubaie, who is also an MP.

That view was echoed across the political spectrum. Politicians also pointed out that they saw no reason to sign such a contentious accord with the lame duck administration of President George W Bush. "From a political point of view, how is it possible to sign an agreement with an administration which only has a few days left in power, taking into consideration the changes that will possibly take place if the Democrats were to come to power?" said Hussein al-Falluji, an MP for Iraqi Accord, a Sunni party.

If the deal fails the Americans may be forced to ask Iraq to return to the UN security council for a temporary renewal of their mandate, but the legal status of many of their actions will become uncertain.

Times, 26/10/08

Iraq Sunni party severs US ties

Iraq's biggest Sunni Arab political party has suspended dealings with American military personnel and civilians following a raid by US-backed Iraqi forces near Fallujah in which one man was killed. The Iraqi Islamic Party (IIP), headed by Tareq al-Hashemi, the Iraqi vice-president, said that there had been a "hidden political motive" in the killing.

The IIP said it would suspend all communication with US personnel until it got "a convincing explanation of what happened, accompanied by an official apology". The incident has inflamed tensions in Anbar province, where Fullajah is located, ahead of provincial elections scheduled for the end of January.

Al Jazeera, 26/10/08

US considers special ops for Afghanistan

In a sign that the U.S. military is scaling back its goals in Afghanistan, senior Pentagon officials are weighing controversial proposals to send additional teams of highly trained special operations forces to narrowly target the most violent insurgent bands in the country.

The proposals are part of an acknowledgment among senior brass that a large-scale influx of conventional forces is unlikely in the near future because of troop commitments in Iraq. It also reflects the urgency to take some action to reverse recent setbacks in Afghanistan.

Three separate high-level reviews are underway on U.S. strategy in Afghanistan, where American forces have seen their highest death rate since the war began in 2001. According to military officials, the proposal for more special operations teams is being discussed in both the White House's review and one led by Navy Adm. Michael G. Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

Los Angeles Times, 26/1/01/08

US commander in Iraq holds talks with Turkey

The top U.S. commander in Iraq has held talks in Turkey on cooperation in the fight against Kurdish rebels. Gen. Ray Odierno met Friday with the deputy chief of the Turkish general staff Gen. Hasan Igsiz to discuss U.S.-Turkey military coordination, a U.S. military statement said.

The meeting centered on the U.S. military's ongoing assistance to Turkey in its effort to defeat the Kurdish rebel group known as the Kurdistan Workers' Party, or the PKK, the statement said. Odierno pledged U.S. support in technical assistance and information-sharing.

Associated Press, 25/10/08

NATO moves warships to Somalia...

Three NATO warships have been deployed off the Somali coast to help combat the rise in piracy in the area. The ships will escort world food program ships delivering aid to Somalia, and also patrol shipping lanes that are vulnerable to pirate attacks.

In a statement, NATO said a taskforce of three ships had split away from the larger group heading for the Gulf states.

ABC News, Australia, 25/10/08

...as mercenaries also scent a profit

In September, Somali pirates captured a Ukrainian ship bound for Kenya that had a cargo of 33 T-72 tanks and other military equipment. Despite the presence of a number of U.S. Naval vessels, the pirates have refused to return the ship until they receive a $35 million ransom.

The brazen assault made headlines around the world, but it was simply the highest-profile attack in the region of late. More than 70 shipping vessels have been attacked off the coast of Somalia in the past year. Eleven of those ships and 200 crew members are still being held for ransom by rogue Somali pirates.

It's bad news for shippers, but an opportunity for Blackwater Worldwide, the North Carolina-based private military contractor. Last week, the company announced plans to dispatch the MV MacArthur, a 183-foot vessel with a crew of 14 and a helicopter pad, to the Gulf of Aden to provide escort services for ships in need of security.

The mercenary outfit--founded by former Navy SEALs in 1997 and heavily involved in U.S. military efforts in Iraq--has tentative plans to build a small fleet of two or three anti-piracy vessels, each able to carry several dozen armed security personnel, according to reports in Lloyds List Maritime.

Forbes.com, 23/10/08