Iraq: Oil prices may drag budget lower

BAGHDAD – Iraq’s parliament pushed back voting Saturday on this year’s budget and could be forced to make further cuts because of falling oil prices.

The latest delay in trying to ratify the current $64 billion budget proposal highlights the financial squeeze facing Iraq as declining oil revenues cut into reconstruction plans such as new roads and improved utilities — which the Shiite-led government hopes to use as showcases in national elections later this year.

The pinch has also brought calls by Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki for proposals to diversify Iraq’s oil-dependent economy with expansion of agriculture and other trade. But Iraq’s plans for this year have been dragged down along with the price of oil, which is now less than $45 a barrel after hitting highs last summer of $150 a barrel.

A Sunni lawmaker, Ayad al-Samarraie, predicted the budget will face more trimming after several previous cuts from its original $79 billion. The current budget is based on a $50 a barrel projection.

“We don’t expect that oil will reach this price,” said al-Samarraie, a member of the chamber’s financial committee.

He urged lawmakers to take a comprehensive look at all spending, suggesting that more money go to electricity and other public projects at the expense of deeper cuts in other areas.

Shatha al-Mousawi, the Shiite member of the finance committee, called for possible sharp reductions in the National Security Adviser office, which was established shortly after the fall of Saddam Hussein in 2003. She said it has 377 employees and suggested cutting it to just 16.

“The studies and reports show that the falling oil prices will continue for two or three years,” she said.

It was unclear when the budget could eventually come for a vote.

Army Lt. Gen. Frank Helmick, commander of Multi-National Security Transition Command, told The Associated Press that the budget crisis would force Iraq to make some very difficult decisions about how to grow its security forces.

“They are many, many hard decisions that they are going to have to make,” he said.

He said U.S. military advisers have been making recommendations to the Iraqi security officials on possible ways to deal with the shrunken budget. An example, Helmick said, could be reducing the number of Abrams tanks sought by Iraqi forces.

He said essential services such as Iraqi police and military payroll, electricity and water could not be cut.

In Diyala province northeast of Baghdad, Iraqi forces arrested 11 suspected insurgents including the so-called “oil minister” of the self-styled Islamic State of Iraq, a purported political faction linked to al-Qaida in Iraq.

An Interior Ministry statement said Ali Mahmoud Mohammed and 10 other suspected insurgents were arrested in a raid in a Diyala village. No other details were given.

An al-Qaida front group announced the formation of an “Islamic Cabinet” in April 2007 in a bid to challenge the Iraqi government. The Cabinet purportedly includes the leader of al-Qaida in Iraq as “war minister.”

Iraqi authorities accuse Mohammed of hijacking oil tanker trucks, kidnapping and killing the drivers and blowing up oil pipelines.

In Baghdad, the head of the Iraqi High Tribunal said a mid-April trial date is planned for the first war crimes trial of Iraqis since the U.S.-led invasion.

Two members of Saddam’s former Baath Party are accused of executing two British soldiers taken captive by a mob in southern Iraq in 2003. The exact trial date has not been set, said Aref al-Shaheen, the head of the Iraqi High Tribunal, which was set up to hear the cases against members of Saddam’s regime.

The trials of Saddam and others have been under charges of crimes against humanity.

“It is the first case of war crimes … The two wounded soldiers were killed instead of given medical treatment,” said al-Shaheen.

At least 15 U.S. troops died in Iraq in February, including 12 who were killed in combat, according to an Associated Press tally. That compared with nine U.S. combat deaths in January.

A report from Iraq’s Interior and Health ministries said 211 civilians were killed and 437 wounded in February — compared with 138 killed and 303 wounded in January. The figures were given by officials from the ministries who spoke in condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to release the information.

___

Associated Press writers Sameer N. Yacoub, Sinan Salaheddin and Chelsea J. Carter contributed to this report

source : news.yahoo.com

Leaving Iraq: Shift to south, exit through desert

BAGHDAD – The U.S. military map in Iraq in early 2010: Marines are leaving the western desert, Army units are in the former British zone in the south and the overall mission is coalescing around air and logistics hubs in central and northern Iraq.

Meanwhile, commanders will be shifting their attention to helping Iraqi forces take full control of their own security.

The Pentagon has not released the full details of President Barack Obama’s plan to end America’s combat role in Iraq by Aug. 31 of next year, but the broad contours are taking shape.

Statements from military officials, U.S. government reports and interviews by The Associated Press with Iraqi and U.S. planners offer a wide-angle view of the expected American formation in Iraq when the pullout quickens early next year.

Between 35,000 and 50,000 soldiers are expected to remain in a transition period before all troops must leave by the end of 2011 under a joint pact. In his speech Friday, Obama outlined the roles ahead.

“Training, equipping, and advising Iraqi security forces as long as they remain nonsectarian; conducting targeted counterterrorism missions, and protecting our ongoing civilian and military efforts within Iraq,” he said at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina.

There should be little immediate change in the American presence in 2009.

The bulk of the current 138,000 U.S. troops are expected to remain until Iraq’s national elections scheduled for late this year. Maintaining security for the balloting is considered a top priority by the top U.S. commander in Iraq, Gen. Ray Odierno, and other high-ranking Pentagon officials.

Then the pullout will accelerate.

The first significant shift could be with the 22,000 Marines in Anbar province, a broad wedge of western desert where insurgents once held sway over key cities such as Fallujah and Ramadi.

The Marines have already tested exit routes through Jordan with plans for a full-scale exodus during the “2010 calendar year,” said Terry Moores, deputy assistant chief of staff for logistics for Marine Corps Central Command.

The Marines could possibly leave a small contingent, but expect to turn over military duties to the Army.

The early exit from Anbar carries two important messages.

It’s part of Washington’s shift of military focus to Afghanistan. Obama plans to send 17,000 more soldiers and Marines to Afghanistan, to join 38,000 already fighting a strengthening Taliban-led insurgency.

Anbar also represents a critical turning point of the nearly six-year-old Iraq war. A U.S.-directed effort in late 2006 began to recruit and fund tribal leaders to join the fight against al-Qaida in Iraq and other insurgent groups — which were eventually uprooted in Anbar and began to lose their hold in and around Baghdad.

In the south, the U.S. Army is making plans to fill the void left by the departure this spring of 4,000 British troops based outside Basra, the second-largest city in Iraq and a hub of the nation’s southern oil fields.

Odierno has said a division headquarters — about 1,000 personnel — plus an undetermined number of troops would be sent to Basra. The transition is expected to begin in late March, and it’s likely a U.S. force will remain around Basra until the final pullout in 2011.

Basra is a proving ground for Iraq’s ability to handle security on its own. Iraq launched an offensive last year that — with U.S. help — crippled Shiite militia control in parts of the city. But the small British contingent has largely stayed out of direct security operations, leaving it mostly to Iraqi commanders.

During a tour of Basra on Friday, British Foreign Secretary David Miliband said some military personnel will remain to train Iraq’s navy, but the primary British goal is humanitarian aid and development.

“We will focus upon cultural, economic and educational topics,” he told Basra Gov. Mohammed al-Waili.

Northern Iraq, meanwhile, poses the greatest uncertainties for the Pentagon.

Mosul — Iraq’s third-biggest city — remains one of the last havens for al-Qaida in Iraq and its streets are among the most dangerous in the country.

On Tuesday, two Iraqi police opened fire during a U.S. military inspection of an Iraqi security unit in Mosul, killing one American soldier and an interpreter. The attack deepened worries of possible infiltration of security forces in the Mosul area.

U.S. combat support for Iraqis is likely to continue — and perhaps expand — in the coming 18 months. It then could become high on the agenda for the counterterrorism missions, which could include ground forces and aerial surveillance.

U.S. troop strength in the Mosul area is relatively light, but there is a U.S. base on the city’s edge.

Obama left open the option for more extensive U.S. military backup if needed.

“There will surely be difficult periods and tactical adjustments,” he said. “But our enemies should be left with no doubt: This plan gives our military the forces and the flexibility they need to support our Iraqi partners, and to succeed.”

The northern city of Kirkuk is another potential trouble spot. Tensions between Kurds and Sunni Arabs over control of the city — and center of the northern oil fields — show no signs of easing.

Two bases north of Baghdad will likely take more prominent roles next year.

Balad Air Base, home to more than 20,000 U.S. forces, provides air power, logistics and counterterrorism support, as well as training for Iraqi security forces. Its location — 50 miles (80 kilometers) north of Baghdad — offers a rich vantage point for intelligence gathering and analysis across the entire north and specific areas such as the Iranian border.

Another major U.S. air and logistics base in Taji, 12 miles (20 kilometers) north of Baghdad, sits next to Iraq’s new supply and logistics hub.

The two sites would be a natural centerpiece for U.S. training and advising of the Iraqi military, Army Brig. Gen. Steven Salazar, the deputy commanding general at Multi-National Security Transition Command, told the AP recently.

Salazar said the Taji National Supply Depot was designed by the Iraqis to be the “top end” of the supply and logistics chain for its security forces.

In Baghdad, the U.S. military is already making changes in anticipation of the first step of the withdrawal timetable: U.S. forces out of major cities by June.

The United States has handed over the Green Zone to the Iraqi government, closed forward operating bases and combat outposts in the city or turned them into smaller stations where U.S. troops work alongside Iraqi security forces.

But Camp Victory, a huge base on the outskirts of Baghdad in a former Saddam palace complex, will continue to serve as the U.S. nerve center in the capital.

A military official with knowledge of the military planning process told the AP that Camp Victory’s proximity to many Iraqi government ministries and the Baghdad International Airport make it a prime location for the U.S. military, and one they are not likely to give up anytime soon.

The base also is expected to expand as it absorbs troops pulling out of Baghdad before the June 30 deadline, said another military official. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to release the information.

source : news.yahoo.com

War tours strain US military readiness

WASHINGTON: Strained by repeated war tours, persistent terrorist threats and instability around the globe, there is a significant risk the U.S. military may not be able to respond quickly and fully to new crises, a classified Pentagon assessment has concluded.

This is the third year that the risk level has been set at “significant” _ despite improved security conditions in Iraq and plans to cut U.S. troop levels there. Senior military officials spoke about the report on condition of anonymity because it is a classified document.

The risk assessment, drawn up by Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, paints a broad picture of the security threats and hot spots around the world and the U.S. military’s ability to deal with them. Mullen has delivered it to Defense Secretary Robert Gates. The assessment is prepared every year and routinely delivered to Congress with the budget. Because the threat is rated as significant, Gates will send an accompanying report to Congress outlining what the military is doing to address the risks. That report has not yet been finished.

source : jang.com.pk

German FM on surprise visit to Iraq

BAGHDAD: German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier flew in on a surprise trip to Iraq on Tuesday, in the first such visit for more than 20 years ago, Iraqi officials said.

Steinmeier is due to meet President Jalal Talabani and Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki during his trip, which comes exactly a week after a surprise mission by French President Nicolas Sarkozy.

Like France, Germany was an opponent of the US-led invasion of 2003, which toppled Saddam Hussein’s regime. Steinmeier was chief of staff to then-chancellor Gerhard Schroeder when the war broke out. Steinmeier was also expected to open a German consulate in Arbil, capital of Iraqi Kurdistan in the north of the country, according to the Kurdish press.

source : jang.com.pk

OPEC should cut oil supply, if demand slow: Iraq

DOHA: OPEC should look to reduce oil supply further if demand is insufficient to absorb supplies, Iraq’s oil minister said on Tuesday.

“If there is not sufficient demand for OPEC crude we will have to consider a reduction,” Oil Minister Hussainal-Shahristani told reporters on the sidelines of a conference. OPEC, supplier of more than a third of the world’s oil, has raced to cut supply to match falling demand from a slowing global economy. The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries next meets in March to discuss supply.

Shahristani said earlier this month he expected OPEC to reduce supply targets at the March meeting. The group pledged cutting 4.2 million barrels per day (bpd) since September had stabilized the market, he said on Tuesday. “After our previous decision, it has not kept slowing down, “Shahristani said.

U.S. crude has fallen by more than $110 from its July peak to trade at under $37 a barrel on Tuesday. Oil has mostly traded in a $35 to $45 range since December.

source : jang.com.pk

Turkish bombs kill Kurdish rebels in Iraq

ANKARA: Turkey’s state-run news agency says 13 Kurdish rebels were killed in northern Iraq during Turkish bombing last week.

The Anatolia news agency said Friday that the aerial attack also caused heavy damage to a Kurdish rebel camp. The report cited unnamed security officials and could not be independently confirmed. Military officials were not immediately available for comment. It was the latest of a series of Turkish strikes against rebel hideouts in northern Iraq.

Rebels have staged hit-and-run attacks on Turkish targets from there for decades in a fight for autonomy in Turkey’s southeast. Turkey launched several aerial attacks and one major ground operation against rebel bases across the border with Iraq early last year.

source : jang.com.pk

32 killed in Iraq suicide attack

BAGHDAD: Suicide bomber kills 32 people and 84 others in south of Baghdad, Iraqi police said on Friday.

Turkish bombs kill 13 Kurdish rebels in Iraq

BAGHDAD: Turkish armed forces killed 13 Kurdish PKK rebels during an air strike last week in northern Iraq, the state-run news agency Anatolian reported on Friday. The air strike also badly damaged a PKK operations and logistics base, according to Anatolian. Kurdish separatist fighters use northern Iraq’s autonomous northern region as a base to launch attacks on targets in southeastern Turkey, and Turkish forces have frequently retaliated with air and artillery strikes. In early 2008, Turkey sent thousands of troops across the border in an attempt to flush out the PKK guerrillas and end their cross-border attacks. Ankara, like the European Union and United States, calls the PKK a terrorist organisation. Around 40,000 people have been killed since 1984, when the PKK took up arms with a view to establishing an ethnic homeland in southeast Turkey. source : jang.com.pk

Iraq sorts out pensions for Saddam’s officer cadre

BAGHDAD: Army officers who served under ousted dictator Saddam Hussein can return to claim pensions in Iraq and some of lower rank may be able to find employment again in the armed forces, a military spokesman said on Monday.

Many of the leaders of the army under Saddam fled the country after the 2003 U.S.-led invasion, fearing they would be arrested or hunted down as members of the once-dominant and iron-fisted Baath party.

Most of the officer cadre under Saddam was Sunni Arab Muslims, while majority Shi’ite Muslims ruling Iraq now. Defence Ministry spokesman Major-General Mohammed al-Askari said the government wanted to sort out once and for all who may be entitled to a pension as an ex-military member and so was reaching out to former officers abroad. “We formed a committee in Amman, and also decided to do so in Sanaa, Egypt, Dubai and Damascus. We want former officers to fill in forms so we can create a database of those who want to come back or who want to collect pensions,” Askari said.

source : jang.com.pk

Gunmen kill family, including women, child in Iraq

BAGHDAD: Gunmen shot dead nine members of a family, six of them women and a child, in an overnight raid on their home in Iraq’s volatile northern Diyala province, police said.

The attackers then abducted two other family members, a man and woman, from the house in a village of near the town of Balad Ruz, 90 km (55 miles) north of Baghdad.

Diyala is still one of Iraq’s most violent provinces, a place where Sunni Islamist al Qaeda and other militant groups still roam despite repeated attempts to stamp them out.

Police did not know who was behind the attack or why the family, all Arabs from the Sunni sect, were targeted.

source : jang.com.pk

Iraq PM urges strong turnout, no vote abuse in polls

BAGHDAD: Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki on Friday urged Iraqis to put their faith in democracy and not sell out their right to vote in the country’s provincial elections, little more than a week away.

Maliki, speaking in Baghdad to tribal chiefs, appealed for a strong turnout in the polls, seen as a crucial step to consolidating Iraq’s fragile security and political situation. “Your participation in the election is the price you pay for keeping freedom in this country,” Maliki said. “But some want to influence and put pressure on these elections — like buying and selling of votes. “You know that this is haram (forbidden) as mentioned by the esteemed marjaiya (the highest Shia religious authority).” Iraq’s Independent High Election Commission, with the help of the United Nations, is holding elections on January 31 in 14 of Iraq’s 18 provinces — the first vote in the country since 2005. Iraq’s Sunnis largely boycotted the provincial elections four years ago, but they are contesting this month’s polls in large numbers.

source : jang.com.pk

Gunmen kill family, including six women, in Iraq

BAGHDAD: Gunmen shot dead eight members of a family, six of them women, in an overnight raid on their home in Iraq’s volatile northern Diyala province, police said.

The attackers then abducted two other family members, a man and woman, from the house in a village of near the town of Balad Ruz, 90 km (55 miles) north of Baghdad. Diyala is still one of Iraq’s most violent provinces, a place where Sunni Islamist al Qaeda and other militant groups still roam despite repeated attempts to stamp them out. Police did not know who was behind the attack or why the family, all Arabs from the Sunni sect, were targeted.

source : jang.com.pk

Joe Biden arrives in Iraq

BAGHDAD: US vice president-elect Joe Biden arrived in Baghdad on Monday for talks with Iraqi leaders and senior US officials, Iraqi state media reported.

The Delaware senator, who will surrender his seat to assume the US vice presidency on January 20 and also visited international soldiers in southern Afghanistan on Sunday, arrived in Iraq via Kuwait.

There was no official announcement of his visit.

Biden, the outgoing chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and Republican Senator Lindsey Graham were also in Pakistan on Friday for talks with President Asif Ali Zardari.

US president-elect Barack Obama has vowed to pull one or two combat brigades out of Iraq every month over a period of 16 months, leaving just a residual security force of unspecified size remaining.

Washington, which currently has 146,000 soldiers in Iraq, signed a bilateral agreement with Baghdad in November, allowing its combat forces to remain in the country until the end of 2011.

source : jang.com.pk

U.S. soldier killed in Iraq

BAGHDAD: An American soldier has been killed by a roadside bomb in eastern Baghdad, the US military said in a statement on Sunday.

“A soldier died when an improvised explosive device struck his vehicle in eastern Baghdad at approximately 800 pm (1700 GMT) on January 10,” it said.

source : jang.com.pk

Joe Biden visits int’l soldiers in southern Afghanistan

KABUL: US vice president-elect Joe Biden visited international soldiers in southern Afghanistan Sunday as part of a pre-inauguration tour that will also take him to Iraq, the NATO-led force said.

Biden, due to take office beside president-elect Barack Obama on January 20, was briefed by military commanders on activities and plans for the insurgency-hit south, NATO’s International Security Assistance Force said.

“I am very interested in what becomes of this region because it affects us all,” an ISAF statement quoted Biden as saying.

The bulk of the 20,000-30,000 extra US soldiers due this year in Afghanistan’s own Iraq-style “surge” are expected to head to the south.

Biden reaffirmed his and president-elect Barack Obama’s pledge to “fully support troops and their efforts in the region,” ISAF said.

In Kabul on Saturday, Biden met President Hamid Karzai and a host of Afghan and international officials for briefings on developments in the country, which was battered by a rise in insurgent attacks last year.

The United States led the invasion that removed the Taliban regime from power in 2001, provides the bulk of the international troops fighting an insurgency by the extremists and is also pouring in development aid.

Biden was in Islamabad on Friday where he met Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari, another ally in the US-led “war on terror”.

The Delaware senator, who will surrender his seat to assume the US vice presidency, will conclude the trip later this week with stops in Iraq to meet with military officials there, the ISAF statement said.

source : jang.com.pk

Iraq, India, Mexico deadliest for media

GENEVA: Iraq remained the deadliest country for media workers in 2008, followed by India and Mexico, although the number of deaths was down sharply from the previous year, a study showed.

A total of 109 journalists and support staff in 36 countries died while covering the news last year, most of them murdered because of their work, the International News Safety Institute (INSI) reported.

The figure was down from 172 such deaths in 2007, largely due to a decline in the number of media workers killed in Iraq. The death toll there fell to 16 from 65, reflecting a drop in overall violence, the institute said on Tuesday.

“Journalists in far too many countries continue to be targeted for murder for what they do,” said Rodney Pinder, director of INSI, which provides security training for reporters covering dangerous situations.

Since the 2003 U.S.-led invasion, 252 journalists and other media workers such as translators and drivers have been killed in Iraq.

India and Mexico followed Iraq as the most dangerous places for media professionals with 10 deaths each. Eight journalists were known to have died in the Philippines and seven in Pakistan, according to INSI.

INSI also noted that three reporters were killed in the first four days of 2009, two in a suicide bombing in Pakistan and one gunned down in Somalia.

source : jang.com.pk

U.S. hands over control of Green Zone to Iraq

BAGHDAD: The United States handed over control of the Green Zone and Saddam Hussein’s presidential palace to Iraqi authorities on Thursday in a ceremonial move described by the country’s prime minister as a restoration of Iraq’s sovereignty.

At a ceremony marking the transition, Nouri al-Maliki said he will propose Jan. 1 be declared a national holiday to commemorate what he called “Sovereignty Day” — the day Iraq took the lead in security away from U.S. forces, regained control of its airspace and reclaimed a wide swath of Baghdad’s heavily fortified Green Zone.

The area that became known as the Green Zone on the west bank of the Tigris River was occupied by the United States shortly after the 2003 U.S. invasion and walled off from the rest of the city.

Until Wednesday, Saddam’s former palace formally served as the U.S. Embassy and headquarters of the U.S military in Iraq. Thursday’s palace handover was mostly ceremonial, as most U.S. diplomats and military officials long since moved to a new embassy building on the other side of the Green Zone, which is also known as the International Zone.

“This palace is the symbol of Iraqi sovereignty and by restoring it, a real message is directed to all Iraqi people that Iraqi sovereignty has returned to its natural status,” al-Maliki said.

“We have the right to be proud and to be happy and to hold celebrations these days, especially on this day,” said al-Maliki, adding he would submit his national holiday proposal to the cabinet. “This day is to be remembered and we have the right to consider it a national day.”

The 4-square-mile area along the Tigris is separated from the city by a 13 foot high wall of reinforced concrete, dotted with watch towers and machine gun nests.

Restricted to U.S. and Coalition personnel, several other embassies, Iraqi ministries and parliament, it was considered the most potent and visible sign of American occupation and had often come under insurgent attacks.

source : jang.com.pk

Iraq gov’t gets control of Green Zone, US troops

BAGHDAD – The U.S. formally transferred control of the Green Zone to Iraqi authorities Thursday in a pair of ceremonies that also handed back Saddam Hussein’s former palace. Iraq’s prime minister said he will propose making Jan. 1 a holiday marking the restoration of sovereignty. Under the new security agreement between Washington and Baghdad to replace a U.N. mandate for foreign troops in Iraq, the Iraqi government also now has control of American troops’ actions and of the country’s airspace.

The moves came amid a dramatic fall in violence over the past year. However, insurgents still stage daily attacks and could try to expand the fight now that U.S. troops cannot take unilateral action.

Two Iraqi soldiers and three policemen were killed in attacks Thursday. In the northern city of Kirkuk, Iraqi and U.S. troops killed three suspected al-Qaida gunmen during a raid, police said.

Many of the changes inaugurated on New Year’s Day won’t bring immediately visible results. The Green Zone, the country’s government and military command center, remains ringed by concrete blast walls and off limits to most Iraqis. U.S. troops still man its checkpoints, although now as trainers rather than leaders.

But the Americans have moved out of the Republican Palace, the sprawling former headquarters of Saddam’s regime that they took over shortly after the 2003 invasion. Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki formerly took control of the building Thursday and exulted over the security pact under which U.S. troops are to leave the country by 2012.

“A year ago, the mere thought of forces withdrawing from Iraq was considered a dream,” al-Maliki told reporters afterward. “The dream that no one had the right to think about became true.”

He called for making Jan. 1 a national holiday called “Sovereignty Day.” Iraq already officially observes New Year’s Day as a holiday.

Also on Thursday, British troops turned over to Iraqi officials the airport in Basra, the country’s second-largest city. Britain says it will withdraw its approximately 4,000 soldiers in Iraq by May 31.

“Iraq is taking another step toward the future, signaling to its citizens and the international community that it is indeed a new day for sovereign Iraq,” U.S. Army Col. Steven Ferrari said at a separate ceremony handing over control of the Green Zone.

The Green Zone was the most potent symbol of the U.S. invasion and occupation.

The 4-square-mile area, which nestles into the start of an oxbow bend of the Tigris River, formally is called the International Zone. Sarcastically, it’s called “The Bubble” because the foreigners who live and work there often have little contact with the shabby and violent city on the other side of the 13-foot-high, reinforced concrete blast walls around the perimeter.

But the sense of security is only relative. The zone was a favorite target for rockets and mortars fired by insurgents. In 2007, the attacks were so heavy that the U.S. Embassy ordered its workers to wear flak jackets and helmets anywhere outside.

Asked whether insurgents could resume attacks now that the area is under Iraqi control, Ferrari said, “Common sense says they’ll probably test the Green Zone.”

The walls and the seemingly endless series of checkpoints inside have been worrisomely porous. A suicide bomber attacked the parliament’s dining hall in 2007, killing one person. Suicide vests wired with explosives have been found on the grounds.

Although Baghdad is calmer now, the Green Zone is full of unsettling reminders of war. Duck-and-cover bunkers dot sidewalks under lush date palms. Walls bear signs warning drivers not to stop for any reason and frequent speed bumps force vehicles to a near crawl.

Even before U.S. troops took control of the area in 2003 and put up the walls, the neighborhood had an air of intimidation. Saddam and his sons had lavish residences there and motorists who drove through understood they shouldn’t stop.

Now, Iraqi officials have their eyes on making the area accessible, inspiring and educational, even though it’s not yet clear when they will feel confident enough to take down the walls.

“It depends. There are many steps to take,” Iraqi Security Minister Sherwan al-Waili said when asked about prospects for opening the zone.

In July, the National Investment Commission approved plans to build a $100 million luxury hotel in the zone.

And in the next couple of months, the Iraqi High Tribunal plans to open a museum in the zone detailing the brutality of Saddam’s regime. It will include a replica of the hole-in-the-ground hideout where Saddam was captured in 2004, two years before he was executed, tribunal head Arif Abdul-Razzak Al-Shaheen told the newspaper Asharq al-Awsat last month.

Violence around Iraq plunged in 2008, with attacks declining to an average of 10 a day from 180 a year ago. The murder rate in November was less than 1 per 100,000 people — far lower than many cities in the world.

U.S. military deaths in Iraq plunged by two-thirds in 2008 from the previous year, a reflection of the improving security following the American counterinsurgency campaign and al-Qaida’s slow retreat from the battlefield.

According to a tally by The Associated Press, at least 314 U.S. soldiers died in Iraq during 2008, down from 904 in 2007. In all, at least 4,221 U.S. military personnel have died in Iraq since the war began in 2003.

___

Associated Press writer Patrick Quinn contributed to this report.

source : news.yahoo.com

Iraq signs military accords with Britain, Australia

BAGHDAD: Baghdad signed on Tuesday military accords with Britain and Australia that give their troops a legal basis to stay in Iraq after the expiry of the UN mandate on December 31, the Iraqi government said.

“With the authority of the government of Iraq given to the defence minister, an agreement was signed with Britain today which will be implemented from the start of the new year until June 30,” defence ministry spokesman Major General Mohammed al-Askari told media.

“A little while ago an agreement was also signed regarding the withdrawal of the Australian forces in Iraq. It was signed between the Iraqi defence minister and the Australian ambassador,” Askari said.

The long-awaited agreements come just a day ahead of the expiry of the UN mandate, effectively legalising the presence of non-US foreign troops in the country at the eleventh hour.

Deals will also need to be signed by Iraq with Estonia, Romania, El Salvador and NATO, each of whom have small numbers of troops stationed in Iraq.

Under the agreement, Britain, which has about 4,100 troops based at Basra airport in southern Iraq, will play only a supportive role in their area.

“British troops will only support, consolidate and develop the Iraqi security forces without having any combat mission. July 31 will be the last day for the withdrawal of the British forces from Iraq,” Askari said.

The United States, which has 146,000 soldiers in Iraq, in November signed an agreement with Baghdad which allows its combat forces to remain in the country until the end of 2011.

source : jang.com.pk

Suspected US drone attack in Pakistan kills at least seven Taliban

Suspected US attacks by unmanned drones killed at least seven (some reports claim eight) suspected Taliban members in the tribal areas of northwest Pakistan on Monday morning, according to Pakistani officials.

It’s the latest in a series of such air attacks. US officials, citing policy, have refused to comment on most of the strikes.

The attacks are believed to be carried out by “Predator” unmanned aerial vehicles, remotely controlled from CIA. headquarters in the US, targeting Al Qaeda terrorists and Taliban militants from Afghanistan who are hiding out across the border in tight-knit tribal communities.

Pakistan has condemned the attacks as a violation of its sovereignty, and warned that they are counterproductive.

The airstrike came after a US commander on Saturday said Washington will deploy up to 30,000 additional US troops to Afghanistan by the middle of next year, in a mirror of the “surge” strategy that proved effective in Iraq.

Incoming US President Barack Obama has promised to draw down troops in Iraq and increase deployments in Afghanistan, according to The Boston Globe.

Citing local intelligence officials, CNN reported that the attacks in South Waziristan targeted suspected Taliban militants.

Three missiles reportedly targeted vehicles mounted with anti-aircraft guns, according to the sources. One missile missed its intended target and landed near a house.

The dead were suspected Taliban militants, a local intelligence official said.

Another local official said nine other militants were wounded in the attack.

The missile strikes took place Monday morning about nine miles (15 km) from the town of Wana in South Waziristan.

Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported that the attacks started massive fires in two villages and sent residents fleeing in panic. Local residents later told AFP that hundreds of Taliban had gathered near the sites of the attacks for funeral prayers.

The suspected US strikes have continued despite a warning by Taliban militants based in tribal territory last month that any more would lead to reprisal attacks across Pakistan.

A missile attack late last month by a US jet killed Rashid Rauf, the alleged Al-Qaeda mastermind of a 2006 transatlantic airplane bombing plot, as well as an Egyptian Al-Qaeda operative, security officials have said.

The Voice of America (VOA) reported that media reports suggest the US has carried out some 30 air attacks in Pakistan this year. “The Pakistani government has publicly condemned the air strikes, saying they undermine Pakistan’s counter-terrorism efforts,” the VOA reported.

Al Jazeera noted that the attacks came a day after the Taliban killed two Afghan brothers they suspected of being spies for the US.

Pakistani police found the bodies strewn with bullets in an abandoned village in North Waziristan, Khan Zada, a local police official said.

A note signed by the Taliban was left with the bodies. It said that the brothers were from the Afghan city of Khost, near the Pakistan border, and had been abducted and killed.

The chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, Adm. Mike Mullen, said at a news conference in Kabul on Saturday that the US would potentially double its deployment to Afghanistan by mid-2009, according to AFP.

A total of 70,000 foreign troops are currently deployed in Afghanistan to fight the Taliban insurgency, AFP said, but violence is on the rise.

This year has been the bloodiest for international forces here since the Taliban fell, with nearly 290 soldiers killed. About 1,000 Afghan troops and police, as well as more than 2,000 civilians, have also been killed in 2008.

In a recent Christian Science Monitor dispatch from Kabul, experts warned that the US is increasingly facing a similar problem in Afghanistan as the Soviets did in the 1980s: attacks on vulnerable supply roads, lack of control of the countryside, and an enemy with hideouts across the border in Pakistan.

From the perspective of Zamir Kabulov, the former Soviet official, President-elect Barack Obama’s proposed troops surge for Afghanistan is not enough….

The Soviets had nearly 400,000 Soviet and Afghan soldiers at their disposal – more than twice what the US and NATO have here – and yet they still failed, he notes.

The coalition’s stretched resources have created an unwanted echo of the worst of Soviet times, Professor Goodson [of the US Army War College in Carlisle, Pa.] says.

In a commentary in Dawn, a Pakistani English-language daily, Muhammad Khakwani said the problems in the north Pakistan tribal areas were aggravated by ill-defined borders.

Whether it is wheat being smuggled, water rights, or militants crossing unchecked, addressing the root causes of the problems always gets complicated by the absence of agreed upon borders….

How can we fence a border when the neighbor does not agree on where to draw the line? We have unofficial agreements with tribal elders regarding the role of our troops from the lawless zone between Afghanistan and Pakistan. This guarantees that the tribal, lawless zone will remain tribal and lawless