US wounds 30 at Hospital;
Kills 14 in Separate Incidents;
Iraq MPS Dicker with Iran over Sadr
McClatchy reports that a US missile strike aimed at a suspected Mahdi Army HQ blew out the windows in a hospital next door in the densely populated slum of Sadr City. Flying glass produced by a missile is like lots of little missiles:
'The rocket strike near Sadr Hospital injured 30 people, shattered the windows of ambulances and sent doctors and hospital staff fleeing the scene, hospital officials said. That hospital and another major facility in Sadr City had already taken in 25 dead bodies between Friday afternoon and 10 a.m. Saturday, when the strike occurred, hospital officials said. None of the injuries was life threatening. The U.S. military is facing growing criticism over what residents describe as mounting civilian casualties in Sadr City, a densely populated slum of some 2.5 million people, which has seen heavy clashes over the past six weeks between U.S. and Iraqi forces and militiamen loyal to the hard-line Shiite cleric Muqtada al Sadr.'
It adds, "American troops also killed 14 people in separate incidents in and around Sadr City as bloody street battles continued to mark the U.S. effort to rid the area of suspected Shiite Muslim militants, military officials said."
Iran is threatening to pull out of scheduled talks with the US over the strikes on civilian neighborhoods by US missiles.
Al-Hayat reports that the Iraqi parliamentary delegation now in Iran, sent by PM Nuri al-Maliki, will ask Tehran's help in reestablishing the relationship between the elements of the United Iraqi Alliance (the Shiite coalition that includes the Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq and the Da`wa (Islamic Mission) Party, including the Sadrists. They are seeking to make up ahead of the provincial elections now scheduled for October. The delegation is demanding that Sadr dissolve his Mahdi Army militia and obey the central government's commands, in return for which he will be guaranteed a prominent role in the central government. This source on the delegation said that Muqtada is in Qom and that the delegation will attempt to conduct a direct dialogue with him.
Another member of the delegation, though, contradicted this account, saying that they had only come to see a high ranking official (presumably Qasim Sulaimani of the Quds Force). This member denied that they would seek discussions with Sadr.
Sadr spokesman Falah Shanshal said that no agreements reached between Maliki and the Iranians would be recognized by the Sadr Movement if Muqtada al-Sadr was not part of the parleys.
In other news, Al-Sharq al-Awsat reports in Arabic that The Iraqi National List of Iyad Allawi is demanding that PM Nuri al-Maliki apologize to Allawi for suggesting that he was behing the January, 2007 millenarian uprising in Najaf. Al-Maliki's people say that apologizing will be "difficult." (Maliki's accusation is bizarre).
McClatchy reports political violence on Saturday:
'Baghdad
- Around 8:30 am a roadside bomb targeted traffic policemen at Nafaq Al-Shurta (Shurta tunnel) neighborhood (west Baghdad). One civilian was killed and eight were injured (including 6 traffic policemen).
- Around 10 am, the Sadr hospital in Sadr city was hit by an American missile. Thirty people were injured and a number of ambulances were damaged, a hospital official said. The U.S. military said that a targeted strike destroyed a "criminal element command and control center." The center was near the hospital and the U.S. military said that only the windows were damaged at the hospital.
- Around 3pm, a roadside bomb targeted an American patrol at Amil neighborhood near Amil petrol station(west Baghdad). No casualties reported.
- Around 3pm, a roadside bomb targeted an American patrol at Mohammad Al-Qasim high way near Shaab neighborhood(north east Baghdad).No casualties reported.
-- Around 3pm, a roadside bomb targeted an American patrol at Shaab intersection (north east Baghdad). No casualties reported.
- Police found 4 dead bodies in Baghdad today: 2 were found in Karkh bank; 1 in Bayaa and 1 in Hurriyah. While 2 were found in Risafa bank; 1 in Shaab and 1 in Ur.
Mosul
- Saturday morning, clashes took place between gunmen and Iraqi army at Sumer neighborhood in Mosul city. One gunman was killed in those clashes.
- Around noon, a roadside bomb targeted a police patrol at Tal Al-Ruman(south west Mosul).Three people were injured (including two policemen).
Kirkuk
- Saturday morning a roadside bomb targeted a police patrol near the third bridge in downtown Kirkuk city. Three policemen were injured.
Diyala
- Saturday morning a 7-year-old child was injured when he picked up a flashlight in the street. The flashlight was rigged with explosives and it exploded. The child, Mohammed Omran, was killed in the Shurta neighborhood in downtown Khanaqin (north east Baquba). '
Labels: Iraq
posted by Juan Cole @ 5/03/2008 06:32:00 PM
|
Facebook
10 Comments:
If Iraqis knew that the Predator Drones canvassing their neighborhoods were being flown by operators in Fallon, Nevada, and Bangor, Maine, and that the people pulling the triggers that shoot the Hellfire missiles were not US military personnel, but contractors, how do you think they would react ?
And for you folks in Fallon and Bangor that attend church with these people, don't you wish that they weren't turning your own hospitals and schools into legitimate targets ?
It sounds to me like the target was the fleet of ambulances. There seems to be a long history of both US and Israeli forces targetting ambulances.
""They (the Americans) will say it was a weapons cache" that was hit, said the head of the Baghdad health department, Dr Ali Bistan, who arrived to assess the damage.
"But in fact they want to destroy the infrastructure of the country."
He charged that the attack was aimed at preventing doctors and medicines from reaching the hospital which is in an area that has seen increased clashes between American troops and militiamen loyal to Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr.
The hospital corridors were littered with glass shards, twisted metal and hanging electrical wiring. Partitions in wards had collapsed.
Huge concrete blocks placed to form a blast wall against explosions had toppled onto parked vehicles including up to 17 ambulances, disabling emergency response teams."
http://www.chycho.com/?q=node/1698
US wounds 30 at Hospital.
One is forced to question the motives of an occupier so full of angst and frustration, and devoid of viable options, that it must resort to selecting bombing targets adjacent to a hospital. I can already hear the heroes at CENTCOM accusing the Sadrists of "hiding behind civilians."
Hoarsewhiperer.
Thanks, as always, for your translations from Al-Hayat. We would never get any of that information from the Infotainers.
I compared you to Tiger Woods and your level of play is as much higher than that of the Infotainers as Tiger's was higher than that of the PGA beer bellies in 1996-1999, but I think now that the more fitting golfing metaphor is with the character and the play of Bobby Jones, who seems truly to have played for the love of the game and whose Grand Slam of 1936, according to wikipedia, has yet to be equaled.
I am not an authority on golf, nor even an aficionado, really, so I'll quit before my attempted accolades run sour. But the idea of someone of such talent giving so freely of himself is very attractive in these dark days, so I have put you on a pedestal as an American of repute whom I can admire. I apologize for dehumanizing you in the event.
The AFP has an account of the rocketing of the hospital in Baghdad by a reporter eyewitness. We all love McClatchy, curiously because they ate Knight-Ridder and we all loved Knight-Ridder, the only ray of light during the collapse of the American media into Infotainment... and worse. But the worm seems to be turning at McClatchy. Their editors seem to be "improving" upon the work of their reporters, making it more "fair and balanced".
Rather than mentioning "growing criticism over what residents describe..." the AFP actually has a quote and, mirabile dictu, and a non-anonymous attribution :
"They (the Americans) will say it was a weapons cache" that was hit, said the head of the Baghdad health department, Dr Ali Bistan, who arrived to assess the damage.
"But in fact they want to destroy the infrastructure of the country."
He charged that the attack was aimed at preventing doctors and medicines from reaching the hospital which is in an area that has seen increased clashes between American troops and militiamen loyal to Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr.
The hospital corridors were littered with glass shards, twisted metal and hanging electrical wiring. Partitions in wards had collapsed.
McClatchy spins on that 'None of the injuries was life threatening,' when it is shockingly and awfully clear that destroying 14 ambulances and causing severe damage to one of the two hospitals in their cordoned off ghetto is purposefully, six missiles full of purpose, threatening the lives of the blameless residents of Baghdad.
But then the Neocons are hands-on now in Baghdad, just as they've been in the West bank and Gaza these past four decades, so we can expect the two ghettos more and more to resemble each other, and most shockingly and awfully of all more and more to resemble their archetype in Warsaw, as their vile endgame proceeds.
Americans! Israelis! wake up! Stop this before all is irretreivably lost!
The USA is having difficulty finding support (outside of israel, of course) for military strikes against Iran, even amongst the Iraqi leadership.
Iraq on Sunday appeared to distance itself from U.S. accusations of Iranian meddling in Iraqi affairs, saying it would not be pushed into conflict with its neighbor and wanted its own inquiry into the evidence.
Iraqi government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh said Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki had ordered the formation of a special committee comprised of representatives of the various security ministries "to document any intervention in Iraqi affairs."
"The reason behind forming this committee is to find tangible information and not information based on speculation," Dabbagh told a news conference in Baghdad.
Full story Here.
.
interesting stuff at the New York Times Opinion website today.
There are 9 short essays from purported “experts on military affairs.” They were each asked to give one specific piece of advice to President Bush on what to do in Iraq before he leaves office.
The nine are: Nathaniel Fick, a guy who fought on the ground in Iraq; Paul D. Eaton, retired Infantryman; Anthony H. Cordesman, Arleigh Burke Chair; Frederick Kagan; L. Paul Bremer III; Danielle Pletka; Richard Perle; Anne-Marie Slaughter; and Kenneth M. Pollack.
By my count, only the first three in this list have any credibility on military affairs. Only the first two ever served in the military. And not a one of these, to my knowledge, questioned the wisdom, legality or propriety of invading Iraq.
If you’re going to read all of these, please read Perle last.
This Prince of Darkness appears to have either come to his senses,
or his essay was ghostwritten, and he didn’t see it before publication.
Either way, his is the most sensible.
On this 5th Anniversary,
The NYT editorial board is making the case with these essays that they were right to beat the war drums lo those many years ago.
Even if they knowingly printed lies to promote the war, these essays hint that the end justified the means.
Yeah, I buy that.
NOT.
Avid Student
.
There's plenty of money available to rebuild Iraq into a schlocky imitation of an American shopping mall, but the real Baghdad and Iraq continue to crumble. 'Taco Bell' and 'Kentucky Fried Chicken' outlets on every street corner come next.
The rot gnawing away at Baghdad's innards
04 May 2008
Before the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003, Al-Batawin's main thoroughfare Al-Sadun Street bustled with restaurants, hotels, upmarket stores and -- most famously -- medical centres.
Today just a scattering of businesses still bother to open their doors, residential blocks stand empty, and those buildings that are occupied have few tenants willing to risk living above the first floor.
Electricity is supplied only sporadically and water in a trickle, and there are no other services to speak of, so it makes no sense to live too far from the ground in what is now a rapidly eroding urban wasteland.
Full story Here.
In this undated image released by the U.S. military, planners envision an international village inside the U.S. embassy complex in the Green Zone in Baghdad, Iraq. The U.S. military is pushing a five-year, $5 billion development plan to dramatically transform Baghdad's Green Zone, the secured enclave where the American Embassy and the Iraqi government is based, The Associated Press has learned. Hotels, a shopping center, condos and a soccer stadium are all envisioned in the plan, which its creators call a 'dream list' and its critics say is beyond the realm of possibility for a nation at war.
US-backed plan sees shiny future for embattled Green Zone
04 May 2008
Forget the rocket attacks, concrete blast walls and lack of a sewer system. Now try to imagine luxury hotels, a shopping center and even condos in the heart of Baghdad.
That's all part of a five-year development "dream list" — or what some dub an improbable fantasy — to transform the U.S.-protected Green Zone from a walled fortress into a centerpiece for Baghdad's future.
But the $5 billion plan has the backing of the Pentagon and apparently the interest of some deep pockets in the world of international hotels and development, the lead military liaison for the project told The Associated Press.
For Washington, the driving motivation is to create a "zone of influence" around the new $700 million U.S. Embassy to serve as a kind of high-end buffer for the compound, whose total price tag will reach about $1 billion after all the workers and offices are relocated over the next year.
Full story Here.
.
Iraqi government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh again contradicts American claims, this time even more forcefully. Al-Dabbagh is obviously more interested in cultivating good relations with Iran than with the USA. Those sounds you're hearing are teeth gnashing in Washington.
Iraq: No Evidence Iran Is Arming Shiites
04 May 2008
A top Iraqi official said Sunday there was no "conclusive" evidence that Shiite extremists have been directly supplied with some Iranian arms as alleged by the United States.
Government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh said Iraq does not want trouble with any country, "especially Iran."
Al-Dabbagh was commenting on talks this week in Tehran between an Iraqi delegation and Iranian authorities aimed at halting suspected Iranian aid to some Shiite militias.
Asked about reports that some rockets made in 2007 or 2008 and seized in raids against militias were directly supplied by Iran, al-Dabbagh replied: "There is no conclusive evidence."
Full story Here.
.
Excuse me for being so dense, but what is wrong with other countries arming those Iraqis defending their country against an invasion/occupation force that has devastated the country for over 5 years - actually, has manipulated the political scene for decades, and punished the people relentlessly for over 15 years?
Didn't other countries help Resistance movements fight the Nazi occupation when Hitler invaded and occupied much of Europe, parts of Scandinavia, Africa, and Russia? What's the difference? The Nazis had puppet-governments installed in conquered nations as well - that didn't make them legitimate, except as targets, did it?
And isn't it the right of any people to resist - violently, if necessary - the occupation and destruction of their country by a foreign power? (Especially when they have no formal military left - no air force, no navy, no army, and certainly no marines?)
How can the UN - which was supposed to stop wars of aggression - be a party to such an atrocity? Has anyone actually read the articles and treaties signed by the 'free world' during and since the formation of the UN? What part of 'collective punishment' is that hard to understand?
I was at first shocked that the UN did not denounce US invasions - especially since the wars of aggression (the ultimate war crime) were always against nations that did not threaten the US, UK, or any other member of the 'coalition of the willing and/or coerced' - in fact, they were not a threat even to their immediate neighbors, thus negating even the flimsiest excuses of 'provocation' - and now the victims are denied any form of support with which to survive, let alone free their country? This is madness! I can't believe so many people are debating whether Iran is arming Iraqis or not - has everyone lost their mind? Where is the global outrage against such hypocrisy? I can't imagine why arms haven't flooded into Iraq - to stop the madness, oust the occupation, and allow Iraqis to rebuild their country - without the traitorous collaborators of the puppet goverment - those Quislings.
I can only conclude that there are no longer any 'sovereign' nations in the world - all are compromised by their fear of the US and/or Israeli military - just as they groveled before Hitler and Mussolini, hoping their country would not be next. But fascism knows no bounds - no limits - and has no restraints. To be silent in the face of great Evil is to give consent - are we all damned by these horrific atrocities? Will this madness never end?
I don't care if you don't print this - I just want you to read it and think - THINK - about what is happening. Think of a world ruled by fascism - torture, false imprisonment, murder with impunity, death squads - the whole rotten lot of the Third Reich Nazi ideology now raining down on the hapless victims in the Middle East. Have we no shame? Is there no one in the world who will call out for justice? For peace?
The silence is deafening. My parents - my family - fought, suffered, and died for nothing. Hitler's minions and their heinous ideology reign supreme again. And all I can do is cry.
I know nobody wants to hear this - but the Americans are the Nazis of the 21st century. Denial is not going to save anyone. It brings only more death and destruction as the bullies gloat and plan new attacks with impunity. Why doesn't the world wake up? Hitler didn't have nukes - but these unconscionable sociopaths do - and that's where this will inevitably end, if the silence and denial prevail.
I dont know why mr Mark Konrad uses my website URL for himself!
Post a Comment
<< Home