Reaching Out at Fallujah Outpost

Behind Heavy Security, Marines Put On a Friendly Face

By Jackie Spinner

Washington Post Staff Writer

Monday, November 1, 2004; Page A01

NEAR FALLUJAH, Iraq, Oct. 31 -- The road, sticky with mud from an overnight downpour, passed through a narrow alley of sand blast walls and into a heavily guarded U.S. military compound. Inside, a battle-worn Marine staff sergeant pruned the miniature roses that ringed a small grassy courtyard, where a fountain burbled in the middle.

This is the last military outpost on the violent frontier that surrounds insurgent-held Fallujah, a city about 35 miles west of Baghdad that the U.S. Marines last entered six months ago. Since pulling back, the military has approached only to within about a mile of the city limits, to this secure zone. It feels like a small oasis -- until a mortar round explodes outside, as it did on Saturday morning, sending everyone running for their battle gear and, once it is donned, raising their eyebrows in that universal sign of relief: Whew. Still here.

It was the second close call of the day. A mortar shell whizzed....

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A14511-2004Oct31.html

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/iraq_more_troops&cid=540&ncid=716

Fresh American Troops Arriving in Iraq

By JIM KRANE, Associated Press Writer

BAGHDAD, Iraq - A brigade of fresh U.S. troops arriving in Baghdad will push the total U.S. troop presence in the Iraqi capital to an estimated 40,000 by Monday, as planners prepare for an expected assault on insurgent hotspots to the west and for Iraqi elections in January.

Army units slated to depart were being held back until after the elections, causing the overall number of U.S. troops in Iraq to swell to around 142,000, the highest level since the summer of 2003.

At Camp Victory North, the sprawling headquarters of the Army's 1st Cavalry Division, the mess hall and housing trailers were brimming to capacity with the arrival of the 3,700-member Louisiana-based 256th Enhanced Separate Brigade, a National Guard unit that has been rolling into the Iraqi capital over the past few days.

The arrival of the 256th was supposed to have been timed with the departure of the 1st Cavalry's 2nd Brigade, which was scheduled to prepare to return to Fort Hood, Texas, in November. But the Pentagon (news - web sites) delayed the 2nd Brigade's departure by two months, military officials said.

Iraq's impending elections and expected offensives in Iraq's western Anbar province were expected to soak up much of the extra U.S. combat power.

About 850 British troops, mostly from the Black Watch regiment, have taken positions south of Baghdad, allowing U.S. Marines once stationed there to reposition in Anbar province, home of guerrilla strongholds of Fallujah, Ramadi, Hit and Husaybah.

The troop boost leaves Maj. Gen. Peter Chiarelli, commander of the 1st Cavalry, in charge of eight Army brigades, or more than 32,000 soldiers. Baghdad is also home to the 89th Military Police Brigade and other units reporting to the Army's III Corps, which runs the war.

The five elemental brigades of Chiarelli's division were expected to begin the process of pulling out of Iraq in late January, after the return of the Army's Georgia-based 3rd Infantry Division, which arrives for its second tour in Iraq. The 3rd Infantry led the charge to Baghdad and captured the city in April 2003.

Three brigades under Chiarelli's command will stay behind in Iraq: the 256th, the Arkansas-based 39th Enhanced Separate Brigade and the 2nd Brigade of the Army's 10th Mountain Division, based at Fort Drum, N.Y.

Also staying longer will be 3,000 soldiers of the Tikrit-based 1st Infantry Division headquarters. They previously were to have been replaced in January, before the elections, by incoming troops from the 42nd Infantry Division, New York National Guard.

Early next year, the Army's III Corps will transfer control of overall war fighting duties in Iraq to the 18th Airborne Corps, based in Fort Bragg, N.C.

Even as it builds up its forces here, the U.S. military has softened one of its more aggressive symbols.

The Army has renamed 17 of its bases in and around the Iraqi capital, dropping cocky names like Camp Steel Dragon for more benign ones like Camp Honor.

Gone also is Camp Headhunter, Camp Banzai, Camp Warhorse and Camp Gunslinger. Since mid-September, those bases have been renamed camps Independence, Justice, Freedom and Solidarity.

The new names have been given Arabic translations, which have become the official titles that now appear on signs and news releases.

Already, on Camp Victory North, now renamed Camp Liberty, signs declare that travelers have entered Camp Al-Tahreer -- or Camp Liberation.

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/041101/325/f5oir.html

1 November

 BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Gunmen have assassinated the deputy governor of Baghdad and wounded four of his bodyguards, police say.

They said the drive-by shooting that killed Hatem Karim on Monday occurred in the southern Dora district of the Iraqi capital.

No other details were immediately available on the killing, the latest in a series of attacks targeting officials linked to Iraq's U.S.-backed interim government.

http://www.manoramaonline.com/servlet/ContentServer?pagename=manorama/MmArticle/CommonFullStory&
c=MmArticle&channel=News&cid=1099232224527&colid=1002258272837&count=10&p=100236
6458817&WebLogicSession=QYXZ3l1CyOUKmGNPfaoDL2bwuTZw8v9H5esGKWNrH5LHk65cgWTq|-2

1 November

Baghdad: Iraq's Electoral Commission has received death threats signed by militants using the old name of a group led by al Qaeda ally Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, a spokesman for the commission said on Saturday.

Spokesman Farid Ayar said typewritten letters in the name of Tawhid wal Jihad (One God and Holy War) Assassinations Squad had

been sent to the commission's offices in Baghdad and the northern city of Mosul this week.

The letters said members of the commission would be killed, along with their families, if they stayed at their posts.

The Electoral Commission is leading preparations for Iraq's national assembly elections due to take place in January.

Zarqawi's group announced earlier this month that it had changed its name from Tawhid wal Jihad after allying itself with Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network. The group's new name translates as al Qaeda Organisation for Holy War in Iraq.

Ayar said the warnings attributed to the Jordanian militant's outfit would not deter commission members.

"We will continue to work until the end of the elections because we are not afraid of these terrorist threats," he said.

http://www.tampatrib.com/News/MGBY3FR701E.html

By PATRICK J. McDONNELL  Los Angeles Times

Published: Nov 1, 2004

 NEAR FALLUJAH, Iraq -  The Marines are getting ready for an all-out assault.

Troops are disassembling and cleaning their weapons, stocking up on supplies, studying tactics and participating in numerous drills in preparation for a large-scale assault. A sense of exhilaration is evident among the Marines training at dusty bases near Fallujah, a rebel stronghold now firmly in the cross-hairs of the U.S. military and the Iraqi interim government.

``I've been waiting for this fight ever since I joined the Marines,'' said Staff Sgt. Dennis Nash, an 11-year Marine veteran whose platoon has been fine-tuning its skills. ``This battle is going to be written about in history books. . . . The terrorists who want to fight us are in that city, and we're going to get 'em.''

The day and night are filled with detonations: Mortars coming in, artillery fire going out, airstrikes on Fallujah, some three miles to the east.

Helicopter rotors rumble and F-16 fighter jets zoom overhead. The ground shakes, a slight wind ripples and mushroom clouds rise from massive controlled explosions of 2,000 pounds or more of captured weapon caches from Saddam Hussein's forces.

On Saturday, nine Marines were killed and nine others were wounded when insurgents ambushed a U.S. convoy on the outskirts of Fallujah. The car bomb attack was the deadliest incident involving U.S. troops in nearly nine months.

Marine commanders stress that they are still awaiting final orders, and will abide by a negotiated settlement if a deal emerges from ongoing talks between Fallujah representatives and Iraqi government officials.

In a news conference Sunday, Interim Iraqi Prime Minister Ayad Allawi warned that the window was closing for reaching a negotiated resolution with the insurgents, calling it ``the final phase'' of efforts to avoid an all-out attack.

Using much the same language as the Americans, he described Fallujah residents as victims of foreign fighters and eager to be rescued from them.

U.S. troops are openly skeptical of any settlement. ``The terrorists are barking up the wrong tree,'' said Cpl. Anibal Paz, a 21-year-old from Boston. ``They're taking us on and they won't be able to back it up.''

The upbeat mood contrasts with the generally spartan conditions here, where many Marines are billeted in bombed- out barracks that once housed Iranian fighters sponsored by Saddam. Arabic slogans meant to inspire the Iranians are still scrawled on many walls. Saddam's image stares down in one large room converted to a mess hall.

For many, there is a feeling that any assault will complete a job abandoned in April, when Marines were ordered to cut short an assault into Fallujah.

Commanders downplayed such motivation. ``It doesn't matter what happened in April,'' said Lt. Col. Gareth Brandl, who commands the 1st battalion of the 8th Marine Regiment. ``There's an enemy [in Fallujah], and my men are ready to go in and destroy the enemy.''

Military officials will not say how many troops are preparing, or when the assault is scheduled to begin. But the number of Marines this time is sure to exceed the fewer than 3,000 who participated in April's operation.

Joining the Marines will be Army units and an unknown number of Iraqi troops. Officials stress the need that any assault be perceived as an Iraq operation ordered by Allawi.

``Even more important than the battle is the aftermath,'' said one senior commander. ``The Iraqis need to go in there like the American government goes into Florida after a hurricane. They need to be seen on the ground helping people.''

Several thousand Iraqi police, national guardsmen and Army personnel are said to be poised to move into Fallujah to help maintain order once the Marines have secured the city. Most are from outside of Fallujah, and thus immune from the intimidation and threats that contributed to the failure of the Fallujah Brigade, the special unit of Iraqi forces set up in April to help maintain the peace. Many turned out to be insurgents or sympathizers.

In addition, tens of millions of dollars in reconstruction funds may be spent on projects in Fallujah once the fighting stops. Marine lawyers are traveling with combat units, ready to handle compensation claims for battle damage.

But first, commanders say, the city must be wrested from criminals, religious militants, foreign fighters including Jordanian militant Abu Musab al- Zarqawi, and nationalist elements, including many former Iraqi army personnel still loyal to Saddam.

Using Vietnam-Era Tactics, Army Maxing Helicopters in Counterinsurgency War

http://ap.tbo.com/ap/breaking/MGBA4GPA01E.html

By Jim Krane  Associated Press Writer

Published: Nov 1, 2004

TAJI, Iraq (AP) - The U.S. military is increasingly turning to attack helicopters to battle guerrillas in Iraq, using tactics closer to those from Vietnam or Israel than the Gulf war formations that blasted Iraqi tanks.

The Army is also pushing its fleets of transport helicopters as hard as it can, ferrying U.S. troops and Iraqi leaders by air, rather than letting them drive the country's ambush-prone roads.

"When we fly, soldiers don't die," said Col. Jim McConville, who commands the 1st Cavalry Division's aviation brigade. "We're basically flying as much as we can. And we can't fly them enough."

Since February, McConville's 4th Brigade, headquartered on this dust-blown air base just north of Baghdad, has flown 50,000 combined hours in its nearly 100 helicopters, the highest airborne rate in division history.

Helicopters have emerged as the most important weapon in the U.S. air war in Iraq. Pairs of Apache, Kiowa and Marine Cobra attack helicopters often act as the eyes - and arms - for small bands of ground troops.

And they are expected to be critical to the forthcoming attempt to retake guerrilla-held Fallujah.

Helicopters have proven themselves in dozens of counterinsurgency battles, with pilots radioing directions or firing rockets, allowing ground troops to overcome ambushes or blocked streets.

"It's an adrenaline rush, guys flying 140 miles per hour just above the trees and firing rockets," said McConville, whose own helicopters have been rocked by rocket-propelled grenades or punched with bullets.

The Black Hawk, which entered service in 1979, has become a taxi for soldiers and contractors hopping from the safety of one U.S. base to another.

"If everyone had a choice no one would drive," said McConville, 45, of Quincy, Mass. "But there's not enough aircraft to fly every soldier who wants to fly."

The ominous thumping sound of American helicopters roaring over Baghdad's rooftops is becoming as emblematic of this war as it was of Vietnam.

In February, an Iraqi reporter asked Army Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt, spokesman for the occupation forces, what he would recommend Iraqi mothers tell their children frightened by low-flying helicopters.

"What we would tell the children of Iraq is that the noise they hear is the sound of freedom," Kimmitt said.

American helicopters provoke dread among insurgents as well, McConville said. The shooting often stops when one shows up.

"The Iraqis are afraid of helicopters," McConville said. "We think they're pretty deadly. But they think they're a lot more deadly than they are."

The 1st Cavalry, whose pioneering of Vietnam "Air Cav" operations was featured in the 1979 movie "Apocalypse Now," has seen two of its helicopters shot down. Two other 1st Cavalry Kiowas collided and crashed, for unknown reasons, in October.

Heavy armor, like the Black Hawk's Kevlar flooring, helps bring the machines back after they've been hit.

"They'll come in with holes and we'll repair them," said Maj. John Agor, 42, striding through a Taji hangar filled with disassembled Black Hawks and Apaches. "More likely than not we'll put them back into battle that night."

Helicopter tactics here resemble those that emerged at the end of the Vietnam war, when the Viet Cong acquired Soviet-made SA-7 missiles that were able to pick off high-flying choppers. U.S. pilots began flying low and fast, skimming the trees and fields in a technique known as "mapping the earth."

When the Apache gunship entered service, tactics evolved again.

The Army trained pilots to hover behind front lines and blast tanks with long-range missiles. Apache pilots did just that in the Gulf war.

But Iraqi insurgents have no front lines or tanks. After rebels with shoulder-fired missiles took down a pair of helicopters, including a Chinook transport in November that killed 16 U.S. troops, the Army stopped flying at high altitudes.

"We used to hover around. We can't do that now because you get shot down," McConville said. "People thought it was safer to come down low and risk small arms fire and wires."

So the Army went back to mapping the earth, with improvements. Helicopters have better armor and are loaded with precision weapons and night targeting systems, including those that can detect a person's body heat.

Apaches and Kiowas operate in street battles much the same way as in the Israeli military: rocketing single cars or buildings sheltering insurgents.

"You try to shoot them in an alleyway or shoot one car that's moving along a street," said Capt. Ryan Welch, 29, an Apache pilot with the 4th Brigade. "It's not something we used to train for."

The urban fighting puts big decisions into the hand of a 20-something flier.

When a 1st Cavalry Apache team fired on a disabled Bradley armored vehicle in August, among those killed was an Al-Arabiya television reporter who was broadcasting live. The widely viewed carnage brought criticism on the U.S. military. McConville said his pilots are well aware of their potential for instant infamy.

The Army relies so heavily on its helicopters that some are being flown at rates beyond military recommendations.

Lt. Col. Mike Lundy, commander of the 1st Cavalry's Kiowa regiment, said each of his armed Kiowas flies around 105 hours per month, well over the recommended 65 hours.

Major overhauls normally done every two years are now needed every six months, said Agor, the maintenance chief.

In the case of the Apache, the interval between complete overhauls been pushed back from once every 250 hours to once every 500 hours, said Agor.

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2004-11/01/content_2165359.htm

2004-11-01 19:07:23

    BAGHDAD, Nov. 1 (Xinhuanet) -- An Iraqi television cameraman working for Reuters was killed on Monday during heavy fighting between US forces and insurgents in Ramadi, west of Baghdad, policeand witnesses said.

    Dhiaa Najem was shot in the head and the back as he was filming the fierce fighting in a street near his house, the police said.

    Najem in his 40s was a freelance cameraman, who leaves his wife and three daughters and a son, local residents said.

    They said that his body was laying in the street for more than an hour before rescuers could evacuate his body. Enditem

http://www.breakingnews.ie/2004/11/01/story173758.html

01/11/2004 - 08:08:39

One US marine was killed and four others wounded when a bomb exploded in the central Iraqi city of Ramadi, the US military said today.

The marines were hit yesterday with an improvised explosive device, the US command said. There were no other details available.

The name of the marine killed was being withheld until his next of kin have been notified.

US forces have been clashing with insurgents for weeks in Ramadi, an insurgent-heavy Sunni Muslim area about 70 miles west of Baghdad.

Posted on Mon, Nov. 01, 2004

Lack of vehicle armor keeps troops on edge

BY HAL BERNTON

The Seattle Times

SEATTLE - (KRT) - For Sgt. Joseph Bryson, driving an unarmored 10-ton truck across Iraq was like Russian roulette. In 15 months of duty, a bomb went off next to his rig and several bullets narrowly missed as they whizzed in through an open side window.

"The lack of armor was a big concern," said Bryson, who returned home to Okanogan, Wash., in August along with the rest of the 1161st Transportation Company of the Washington Army National Guard. "Multiple trucks had bullet holes, in the seat, in the windshields and the cabs."

The plight of Army truck drivers in Iraq received national attention in October when 18 Army Reserve soldiers defied an order to go out on a convoy, in part out of a concern about a lack of armor.

The hazards of driving Iraq roads in unarmored trucks have been evident for more than a year, prompting many units to sandbag the floors of their cabs and weld on extra steel plating, dubbed "hillbilly armor."

Only in recent months has the U.S. military moved to systematically upgrade the truck fleet, which ferries food, fuel and ammunition to 135,000 troops.

That effort involves adding armor and ballistic windshields and beefing up the cabs' undercarriages, which sometimes bear the brunt of roadside bombs. The upgrades also will improve suspensions to carry the extra weight of the armor and add air conditioning so soldiers do not bake in sealed confines.

But the effort is far from complete, with the timeline for production and installation extending at least to March, according to congressional and military officials.

The truck overhaul reflects a broader rethinking of U.S. military operations in Iraq. Military planners had hoped the post-invasion Iraq would be relatively peaceful and the vulnerable trucks that make up the bulk of the transportation fleet could operate with little risk of hostile fire. But every time U.S. convoys venture out from fortified bases, they face the possibility of roadside bombs, rocket-propelled grenades and small-arms fire.

To help troops survive these attacks, the military-contracted upgrades include:

_Adding armor kits to at least 2,806 medium-weight trucks. As of Sept. 17, just 385 of the "up-armor" kits had been produced and shipped to Iraq, according to the House Armed Services Committee.

_Adding the armor kits to at least 1,600 heavyweight trucks. As of Sept. 17, just 446 armor kits for these trucks had been sent to Iraq, according to the committee.

The upgrade is expected to include some of the trucks used by the Washington Army National Guard's 81st Brigade, which has about 3,500 soldiers stationed at bases in Iraq and Kuwait.

"When our troops will get those armor kits is hard to say - it's going to be determined on need," said Master Sgt. Jeff Clayton, a spokesman for the Washington National Guard.

The truck-armor overhaul has had congressional watchdogging, with both Republicans and Democrats at times critical of the pace of military efforts to protect the troops.

"We got an acquisition system that absolutely has a case of the slows. You guys can't tie your shoelaces," Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-Calif., chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, said last spring.

Army officials say they are acting to upgrade the vehicles now in Iraq as well as those headed for deployment. In an April hearing before Hunter's committee, Acting Undersecretary Michael Wynne said these tasks involved testing new designs, ramping up production and ensuring efficient delivery. But he acknowledged "there are some things that we could do better."

Contractors say they are fully engaged in the effort.

"The government is putting constant pressure on us, asking us to produce as many as we possibly can," said Bob Mecredy, president of the Aerospace & Defense Group of Armor Holdings, a subcontractor involved in the production of the new kits. "We're adding several thousand pounds of weight, and it takes a fair amount of engineering to come up with the protection that is needed and still allows the missions to be completed."

It is not clear how many of the more than 1,100 U.S. military deaths in Iraq involved soldiers traveling in unarmored vehicles.

The military also is boosting protection on Humvees. Early in the occupation, some of the biggest risks involved thousands of unarmored Humvees, which were frequently used in patrols and as convoy escorts. As the insurgency flared in the spring and summer of 2003, these Humvees proved easy targets for insurgents.

As casualties mounted, soldiers turned to improvised methods of reinforcement. Meanwhile, angry parents of dead and wounded soldiers helped prod Congress - and the military - to speed up production of the armor kits.

"Our son called us a week before he was killed and told us that they were exceedingly vulnerable in these unarmored Humvees, and were going to get ambushed," said Brian Hart, of Bedford, Mass., whose 20-year-old son, John, died in an ambush a year ago this week.

The drive to beef up the Humvees gained momentum last winter as the Army contracted for thousands of armor kits. Currently, the Army plans to put armor kits on more than 8,300 of the Humvees in Iraq. That job is roughly 60 percent complete; the entire Humvee armoring job is expected to be finished in March, according to the Army.

In a news conference Oct. 18 in Baghdad, Iraq, Brig. Gen. Jim Chambers, commander of the 13th Corps Support Command, said soldiers had been working hard to add steel protection to some 4,000 trucks in four brigades.

"We've come a long, long way in 10 months," Chambers said. The brigade that included the soldiers involved in last week's disobedience, for example, had 80 percent of its trucks reinforced with extra steel, according to a transcript of his remarks.

Chambers said he was proud of the 13th Corps record, which involved 75,000 missions since April. During those missions, the Corps suffered 26 deaths.

"I take everyone of those fatalities personally, but most of the missions have gone on with success."

The Washington Army Guard's 1161st Transportation Co. served under the 13th Support Corps during its Iraq duty that ended in August. Six of the soldiers were significantly wounded, but there were no deaths among the more than 100 men and women in the unit.

On June 12, 2003 - early on in their duty - the 1161st soldiers were sensitized to the dangers of the unarmored vehicles when a bomb concealed in a black plastic bag exploded beneath a truck cab. The attack seriously injured Spc. Audra Hauer and Sgt. Jeff Elliott, who continues to suffer severe back pain.

Bryson said in the months that followed, the unit's truckers thought about fortifying the cabs with steel. But, Bryson said, the unit could not secure metal or welders to tackle the task. And there were fears the added weight might increase the chance of mechanical breakdowns in hostile territory.

So, the convoy trucks ventured out each day with unarmored cabs. They used sandbags to fortify the floor of the cabs, and attempted to scout for hostile forces with rifles poked out of the side windows.

"I can honestly say that the good Lord rode with us - every day," Bryson said.

These are the happy, peaceful days in Iraqi Kurdistan

1 November

http://www.iht.com/articles/2004/11/01/news/kurds.html

Arbil - Iraq: Truck drivers here say they are not worried about ambushes, shopkeepers report that security is not an issue, and local residents shrug off questions about violence and kidnappings.

.

"We have not closed our shutters at night in seven years," Abdul Wahid Hassan said inside his shop filled with brand-new refrigerators, televisions and air conditioners.

.

While cities like Baghdad and Falluja are riven by insurgency, this dusty, sprawling city is part of the other Iraq, a region that stays out of headlines and where life resembles something closer to normalcy.

.

Populated mainly by Kurds, Iraq's northernmost region forms a thin peace crescent around the upper rim of the country, extending from Duhok to Arbil and Sulaimaniya, cities that are less familiar abroad precisely because they have largely avoided attacks.

.

One northern governor talks about promoting tourism, a seemingly outlandish idea in a country gripped by violence but a measure of the security that Kurds feel they have achieved.

.

"People find it very difficult to believe that there is a safe area in Iraq," said Barzan Dezayee, the minister of municipalities in the regional Kurdish government, who is leading a campaign to raise funds for water and sewage projects.

.

"We need to convince people that not all of Iraq is Falluja, that Kurdistan is safe," Dezayee said.

.

Iraqi Kurdistan covers about 36,000 square kilometers, or almost 14,000 square miles, an area slightly smaller than Switzerland, and is home to about 3.5 million of Iraq's 25 million people.

.

Today it provides a glimmer of hope for the rest of Iraq: parents and their children linger at restaurants and shops long after darkness sets in, foreign aid workers walk unarmed through the streets, and the police and most soldiers wear soft hats.

.

While it might be tempting for President George W. Bush to cite Iraqi Kurdistan as an example of what has gone right in Iraq, the relative peace here is not a result of the 2003 U.S. invasion.

.

Iraqi Kurdistan has been autonomous since the end of the first Gulf war in 1991 and thus has had a lot more time to stabilize and rebuild. Much of the area was protected by the no-flight zone patrolled by U.S. and British aircraft after that war and was largely free from the grip of Saddam Hussein during that period.

.

For several years, Kurds who fled Saddam's Iraq decades ago have been returning to take posts in the government, private sector and universities here.

.

Dezayee, who left Iraq in 1974, was educated in Britain and worked as a civil engineer in Saudi Arabia and other Gulf countries, returned three months ago to take up his government post. Like many other returnees he is building a house, contributing to a construction boom in Kurdistan.

.

"I had been away for 30 years, and it was time to come back and do something for my people," Dezayee said.

.

Iraqi Kurdistan has not been entirely peaceful. In February, two simultaneous suicide attacks at the offices of Kurdish political parties in Arbil killed more than 65 people. Since then, however, there have been no reported attacks in the region, a stark contrast to the dozens of daily attacks against U.S. forces and civilians in the central and southern parts of the country.

.

Aziz Weysi, the commander of special forces of the Kurdish army in northwestern Iraq, attributes the relative stability here to the fact that Kurdish people identify with their regional government and feel they have a stake in maintaining peace.

.

"If you rule a country with oppression and force you have to surround it with fortresses," Weysi said in his office in the mountains outside of Duhok. "But if the people are on your side they become your fortress."

.

There is very little U.S. military presence in the north and thus people say they do not feel occupied; Kurdistan is also relatively homogeneous.

.

Insurgents had tried "many times" to stage attacks by bringing explosives into the Kurdish areas but had been caught, he said, declining to elaborate. But he said would-be attackers have no "base" in Iraqi Kurdistan.

.

"There's very good relations between all parts of society - the police, the army and the people," Weysi said.

.

Nechervan Ahmed, the governor of Duhok Province, says there is a consensus among the Kurdish political parties - notoriously divided in the past - on the paramount importance of security. "This is a golden age for the Kurds in Iraq," Ahmed said. "What has been achieved here has never been seen before."

.

The local prison in Duhok, used in the 1980s by Saddam Hussein's government to jail political opponents, now houses low-income families. For wealthier residents, workers are building multistoried villas on the fringes of the city.

.

Yet for all the good news here there are many questions dogging Iraqi Kurdistan.

.

Relations with the rest of Iraq are shaky, and many Arabs consider the Kurds traitors for working with the United States and its allies.

.

"What happens to the Kurds when the Americans leave Iraq? That's the question," said Jonathan Randal, an expert on the region and author of a book about the Kurds, "After Such Knowledge What Forgiveness?" Randal noted that the Kurds have a saying: "We have no friends but the mountains."

.

Turkey, Iran and Syria, all of which have Kurdish populations, are wary of the autonomy achieved by Iraqi Kurds, fearing the effects it might have on Kurds in their own countries.

.

"The Kurds are surrounded by countries that are enemies with each other except when it comes to the Kurds - then they are friends," said Hamed Ali, an aide to Governor Ahmed.

.

With most roads linking Kurdistan to the rest of Iraq often too dangerous to travel, essential supplies like cement and steel come mostly from Turkey. But because the Turks only allow a limited number of trucks to cross the border daily, Kurdistan is suffering from shortages in essential building supplies.

.

Officials are seeking to connect themselves with the outside world through more direct means: an international airport terminal in Arbil is nearing completion, and the runway is already used by Kurdistan's leaders to fly in and out of Iraq. Another airport in Sulaimaniya is under construction.

.

With security seemingly under control the most pressing problem here is more old-fashioned: poverty.

.

Sabah Humir, a 24-year-old construction worker, says he makes the equivalent of $75 a month, barely enough to pay his rent, let alone buy food.

.

The United Nations provides Iraqis monthly rations of sugar, oil, flour, tea and powdered milk, but that only lasts half-way through the month, Humir said. He described his situation using a local Kurdish expression: "I only eat sorrow and misery."

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=540&ncid=736&e=6&u=/ap/20041101/ap_o
n_re_mi_ea/iraq_helicopter_war

Copters Maxed in Counterinsurgency War

Mon Nov 1, 3:13 AM ET   Middle East - AP

By JIM KRANE, Associated Press Writer

TAJI, Iraq - The U.S. military is increasingly turning to attack helicopters to battle guerrillas in Iraq (news - web sites), using tactics closer to those from Vietnam or Israel than the Gulf war formations that blasted Iraqi tanks.

The Army is also pushing its fleets of transport helicopters as hard as it can, ferrying U.S. troops and Iraqi leaders by air, rather than letting them drive the country's ambush-prone roads.

"When we fly, soldiers don't die," said Col. Jim McConville, who commands the 1st Cavalry Division's aviation brigade. "We're basically flying as much as we can. And we can't fly them enough."

Since February, McConville's 4th Brigade, headquartered on this dust-blown air base just north of Baghdad, has flown 50,000 combined hours in its nearly 100 helicopters, the highest airborne rate in division history.

Helicopters have emerged as the most important weapon in the U.S. air war in Iraq. Pairs of Apache, Kiowa and Marine Cobra attack helicopters often act as the eyes -- and arms -- for small bands of ground troops.

And they are expected to be critical to the forthcoming attempt to retake guerrilla-held Fallujah.

Helicopters have proven themselves in dozens of counterinsurgency battles, with pilots radioing directions or firing rockets, allowing ground troops to overcome ambushes or blocked streets.

"It's an adrenaline rush, guys flying 140 miles per hour just above the trees and firing rockets," said McConville, whose own helicopters have been rocked by rocket-propelled grenades or punched with bullets.

The Black Hawk, which entered service in 1979, has become a taxi for soldiers and contractors hopping from the safety of one U.S. base to another.

"If everyone had a choice no one would drive," said McConville, 45, of Quincy, Mass. "But there's not enough aircraft to fly every soldier who wants to fly."

The ominous thumping sound of American helicopters roaring over Baghdad's rooftops is becoming as emblematic of this war as it was of Vietnam.

In February, an Iraqi reporter asked Army Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt, spokesman for the occupation forces, what he would recommend Iraqi mothers tell their children frightened by low-flying helicopters.

"What we would tell the children of Iraq is that the noise they hear is the sound of freedom," Kimmitt said.

American helicopters provoke dread among insurgents as well, McConville said. The shooting often stops when one shows up.

"The Iraqis are afraid of helicopters," McConville said. "We think they're pretty deadly. But they think they're a lot more deadly than they are."

The 1st Cavalry, whose pioneering of Vietnam "Air Cav" operations was featured in the 1979 movie "Apocalypse Now," has seen two of its helicopters shot down. Two other 1st Cavalry Kiowas collided and crashed, for unknown reasons, in October.

Heavy armor, like the Black Hawk's Kevlar flooring, helps bring the machines back after they've been hit.

"They'll come in with holes and we'll repair them," said Maj. John Agor, 42, striding through a Taji hangar filled with disassembled Black Hawks and Apaches. "More likely than not we'll put them back into battle that night."

Helicopter tactics here resemble those that emerged at the end of the Vietnam war, when the Viet Cong acquired Soviet-made SA-7 missiles that were able to pick off high-flying choppers. U.S. pilots began flying low and fast, skimming the trees and fields in a technique known as "mapping the earth."

When the Apache gunship entered service, tactics evolved again.

The Army trained pilots to hover behind front lines and blast tanks with long-range missiles. Apache pilots did just that in the Gulf war.

But Iraqi insurgents have no front lines or tanks. After rebels with shoulder-fired missiles took down a pair of helicopters, including a Chinook transport in November that killed 16 U.S. troops, the Army stopped flying at high altitudes.

"We used to hover around. We can't do that now because you get shot down," McConville said. "People thought it was safer to come down low and risk small arms fire and wires."

So the Army went back to mapping the earth, with improvements. Helicopters have better armor and are loaded with precision weapons and night targeting systems, including those that can detect a person's body heat.

Apaches and Kiowas operate in street battles much the same way as in the Israeli military: rocketing single cars or buildings sheltering insurgents.

"You try to shoot them in an alleyway or shoot one car that's moving along a street," said Capt. Ryan Welch, 29, an Apache pilot with the 4th Brigade. "It's not something we used to train for."

The urban fighting puts big decisions into the hand of a 20-something flier.

When a 1st Cavalry Apache team fired on a disabled Bradley armored vehicle in August, among those killed was an Al-Arabiya television reporter who was broadcasting live. The widely viewed carnage brought criticism on the U.S. military. McConville said his pilots are well aware of their potential for instant infamy.

The Army relies so heavily on its helicopters that some are being flown at rates beyond military recommendations.

Lt. Col. Mike Lundy, commander of the 1st Cavalry's Kiowa regiment, said each of his armed Kiowas flies around 105 hours per month, well over the recommended 65 hours.

Major overhauls normally done every two years are now needed every six months, said Agor, the maintenance chief.

In the case of the Apache, the interval between complete overhauls been pushed back from once every 250 hours to once every 500 hours, said Agor.

http://news4colorado.com/topstories/topstories_story_305195404.html

GIs Lack Armor, Radios, Bullets

U.S. Has $400 Billion Defense Budget

Oct 31, 2004 5:52 pm US/Mountain

(CBS) Two weeks ago, a group of Army reservists in Iraq refused a direct order to go on a dangerous operation to re-supply another unit with jet fuel.

Without helicopter gunships to escort them over a treacherous stretch of highway, and lacking armored vehicles, soldiers from the 343rd Quartermaster Company called it a suicide mission.

The Army called it an isolated incident, a temporary breakdown in discipline, and an investigation is underway.

But the 343rd isn't the first outfit to be put in harm's way without proper equipment, and commanders in Iraq acknowledged that the unit's concerns were legitimate, even if their mutiny was not.

With a $400 billion defense budget you might think U.S. troops have everything they need to fight the war, but that's not always the case.

Correspondent Steve Kroft talks to a general, soldiers in Iraq, and their families at home about a lack of armored vehicles, field radios, night vision goggles, and even ammunition - especially for the National Guard and reserve units that now make up more than 40 percent of U.S. troops.

In this report, Kroft also talks to Sen. John McCain about how pork-barrel politics have shortchanged troops on the ground.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Every couple of weeks Karen Preston gets a telephone call from her son Ryan who is serving in Iraq with the Oregon National Guard.

But Karen Preston has been worrying a lot ever since last summer when Ryan returned home on leave and showed her these photos of the unarmored vehicles his unit was using for convoy duty in Iraq.

Lacking the proper steel plating to protect soldiers from enemy mines and rocket propelled grenades, they had been jerry-rigged with plywood and sandbags.

"They were called cardboard coffins," Preston says.

There have been more than 9,000 U.S. casualties in Iraq so far - more than 8,100 wounded and 1,100 killed. Nearly half of those casualties are the result of roadside bombs, known as improvised explosive devices or IEDs in military jargon. Yet the U.S. military still lacks thousands of fully armored vehicles that could save American lives.

Specialist Ronald Pepin, who serves in Baghdad with the New York National Guard, says, "They have no ground plating. So if you hit something underneath you, then it's going to kill the whole crew, you know? And that's just something you have to live with."

Staff Sgt. Sean Davis from the Oregon National Guard was critically wounded last June when his unarmored Humvee hit an IED outside of Baghdad. He suffered shrapnel wounds, burns, and was unable to walk for six weeks.

Davis said his Humvee was armored with plywood, sandbags, and armor salvaged from old Iraqi tanks.

He considers himself lucky that he wasn't killed in the blast. His friend and fellow guardsman Eric McKinley, who was riding in the same vehicle, wasn't so fortunate. The 24-year-old Army specialist died of his wounds. His father Tom said his son was supposed to have been discharged from the Oregon National Guard a few months before his death, but was held over because of the war.

McKinley says his son would have stood a lot better chance of surviving had his vehicle been fully armored.

"Our troops need to be protected over there to the best ability that we can protect them and it's not being done," he says.

The Department of Defense denied a 60 Minutes request for an on-camera interview to explain the situation. But responding to a written question about vehicles traveling dangerous routes in Iraq being armored with plywood and sandbags, the Army told us, "As long as the Army has a single vehicle without armor, we expect that our soldiers will continue to find ways to increase their level of protection."

60 Minutes went to a man more familiar with the problems facing the Oregon National Guard than anyone else - its commanding general, Ray Byrne. General Byrne was somewhat reluctant to talk when 60 Minutes showed him pictures of his men's Humvees and trucks, armored with plywood and sandbags.

"If you have nothing then that's better than nothing. The question becomes then again when - when are they going to receive the full up armored Humvees? And I don't have that answer," says Gen. Byrne.

"It distresses me greatly that they do not have the equipment. I don't have control over it. The soldiers don't have control over it. The question becomes, 'When is it going to be available? When is it going to be available? When will they have it?'"

There are still no good answers to those questions. Most of the vehicles in Iraq arrived there without armor plating, because the Pentagon war planners didn't anticipate a long, bloody insurgency.

But 18 months after President Bush declared an end of major combat, the Pentagon is still struggling to provide the equipment needed to fight the war.

Oregon Congresswoman Darlene Hooley, a Democrat whose district includes Gen. Byrne's National Guard, complained to the secretary of defense. She says she thinks the vehicles are not fully armored yet because military planners didn't anticipate an insurgency.

"We didn't have enough armored vehicles," she says. "They weren't manufactured."

Congress has appropriated additional money for armored trucks and Humvees, over $800 million in the current defense bill.

The Army told 60 Minutes they will have produced 8,100 fully-armored Humvees by March.

However, production is lagging behind the urgent need, and the Pentagon's interim solution is shipping so-called "add-on armor" kits to Iraq, where they are being bolted on to thousands of vehicles.

But most of those add-ons don't protect the bottom of the vehicle, leaving them vulnerable to an explosive device.

And it isn't the only equipment problem facing soldiers in Iraq.

Oregon guardsman Sean Davis told us that his unit was short ammunition and night vision goggles, and lacked radios to communicate with each other.

He says guardsman were using walkie-talkies that they or their families purchased from a sporting goods or similar store. "And anybody can pick up those signals, you know," he says. "And we don't have the radios that we need."

Gen. Byrne says stories about families in Oregon having to go out and buy for their sons and daughters radio equipment, body armor, GPS gear, computers and night vision goggles because they weren't being issued are true.

He said some Guard units are also using Vietnam era M-16 assault rifles, which he calls adequate for state duty but not acceptable for duty in Iraq. There is also a bullet shortage for training, he says.

It bothers him, but "there's nothing I can do about it," he says.

"If I was making the decisions, I would readjust," he says. "The soldier on the ground should be a focus. When that's taken care of you can take care of other stuff."

The Army acknowledged to 60 Minutes that there is a shortage of radios in Iraq and a shortage of bullets for training, and says both are in the process of being remedied. There have also been problems with maintenance and replacement parts for critical equipment like Abrams tanks, Bradley personnel carriers and Black Hawk helicopters.

Winslow Wheeler, a long time Capitol Hill staffer who spent years writing and reviewing defense appropriations bills, thinks he knows one reason why those shortages exist, after looking at the current Defense budget. Army accounts that pay for training, maintenance and repairs are being raided by Congress to pay for pork-barrel spending.

Wheeler says $2.8 billion that was earmarked for operations and maintenance to support U.S. troops has been used to "pay the pork bill."

Wheeler, who has written a book called "The Wastrels of Defense," says congressmen routinely hide billions of dollars in pet projects in the defense bill.

And buried in the back of this one, Wheeler found a biathlon jogging track in Alaska, a brown tree snake eradication program in Hawaii, a parade ground maintenance contract for a military base that closed years ago, and money for the Lewis and Clark Bicentennial celebration.

By law, these projects can't be cut, so Pentagon bookkeepers will have to dip into operations and maintenance accounts to pay for them.

"They do all kinds of things that adds up to: 'We're basically eating our own young to support the war,'" he says.

According to Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., a member of the Armed Services Committee who speaks out against pork-barrel spending, there is a total of $8.9 billion of pork in this year's defense bill, which would go a long way toward upgrading all the equipment used by the National Guard.

"I don't think that this war has truly come home to the Congress of the United States," McCain says. "This is the first time in history that we've cut taxes during a war. So I think that a lot of members of Congress feel that this is just sort of a business-as-usual situation."

"The least sexy items are the mundane - food, repair items, maintenance - there's no big contract there," says McCain. "And so there's a tendency that those mundane but vital aspects of war fighting are cut and routinely underfunded."

It is not a comforting thought for families with loved ones in Iraq, who lack armored vehicles, radios or things they need to stay alive. It's on Karen Preston's mind every time she talks to her son.

"He's very pro-military, as am I," she says. "I just want them to have the best equipment."

Some armored vehicles have now been shipped to her son's unit, but without protection on the bottom of the vehicle, an insurgent's explosive is just as deadly.

Specialist Pepin on the New York Guard says, "It's kind of like an act of faith. When you get in your vehicle, you just hope, you know. Say a little prayer before you go out."

This weekend, Acting Secretary of the Army Les Brownlee wrote to 60 Minutes saying, "The Army has made great strides in improving the capabilities of all units deploying to Iraq as the nature of the conflict has changed." He noted the president approved spending $840 million to improve the armor on Humvees in Iraq.

http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=6677533

1 November

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Gunmen kidnapped an American, a Nepali and two Arabs from their office in western Baghdad on Monday, police said.

"They stormed the villa with automatic rifles and rocket-propelled grenades," said a police source. "They had no chance."

The source said one man had been killed in the attack. He was thought to one of the kidnappers shot by a security guard at the Saudi Arabian company where the foreigners worked.

The nationality of the Arabs snatched from the villa in Baghdad's affluent Mansour district was unclear.

Militants and criminals have kidnapped scores of foreigners, some of whom have been killed.

Monday, November 1, 2004  

'Skunk Werks' armor shop helps soldiers through better protection for U.S. vehicles

By Juliana Gittler, Stars and Stripes

Mideast edition, Sunday, October 31, 2004

LSA ANACONDA, Iraq -- Every time a convoy returns to the base, Capt. Michael DeLaughter gets nervous.

"Every time I have a convoy on the road, they're shot at or something is blown up against them," he said.

As the 7th Transportation Battalion's maintenance officer, DeLaughter is responsible for about 1,500 vehicles. As roadside attacks intensified, it's been his job to help create ways to guard against them.

Most of the battalion's convoys are protected by trucks -- vehicles with no armoring. And unlike the thousands of armored kits added to Humvees across Iraq, the Army hasn't supplied armoring kits for the battalion's trucks.

"We're not going to wait for them," DeLaughter said. "On any given day, I can have up to 300 trucks on the road. It's our soldiers that are on the road.

"This is a truck drivers' war, unfortunately."

In his small plywood office inside the maintenance area, pieces of battered and punctured steel fill the walls. They demonstrate some of the techniques his unit employs to protect its vehicles.

One sharp dented triangle is proving the most effective, a ballistic steel called Armox designed to stop small arms rounds.

But DeLaughter doesn't just take anyone's word, he said. "We always have [explosive ordnance disposal teams] go out and shoot at it."

His battalion has attached more than $80,000 worth of Armox to its vehicles this year.

In Al-Asad this April, a Humvee with an Armox gunner's box rolled over a land mine, DeLaughter said. The Humvee was mangled, but the intact box -- and the soldiers in it -- survived.

A photo of the wreck sits on the office wall, with a collage of other mangled and wrecked vehicle images. Never wasteful, they reused the shattered Humvee's Armox box on another vehicle, DeLaughter said.

"It is helping, it's there for a purpose," said Spc. Scott LaClair, one of two soldiers working in the 7th Transportation's armoring shop called the Skunk Werks.

"You see in the trucks that come in after being hit by an IED how it worked. It definitely makes it worthwhile," LaClair said.

LaClair and his coworker, Staff Sgt. Doug Stenberg, are truck drivers for the New Hampshire National Guard and welders in their civilian lives. For that experience, they were selected for the Skunk Werks.

As truck drivers, they can appreciate the need for armor. The battalion has lost eight soldiers to convoy attacks this year. A ninth is missing.

A transportation soldier was killed in a convoy attack Wednesday, 10 miles from base. His unit was pulling supplies on a flatbed trailer.

"Each [improvement] kind of builds up your confidence a little. This stuff has been tested," LaClair said. "Deep down, everyone knows it's there."

Members of the 724th Transportation Company have driven trucks and Humvees with and without added armor.

Their Humvees now have add-on armor kits and Armox in areas where the kits don't protect.

"It restricts your movement but it's safe," said Spc. Craig McDermott, a gunner and driver with the 1st Platoon, the Bulldogs. "I haven't had a bullet come through yet."

But the Skunk Werks inventors aren't resting on their laurels.

As vehicles were increasingly attacked by roadside explosives this year, DeLaughter's team went a step further.

Armox stops bullets, but as a hard steel, it can crack under the pressure of improvised explosive blasts.

This summer, two sailors attached to the Skunk Werks -- both with experience working on heavy armored ship hulls -- suggested an improvement. They added a layer of soft steel to the Armox to withstand the blast pressure, with rubber in between.

The EOD crew proved it worked against small arms and explosives. They called it dreadnought, named after early 20th-century armored warships. A dreadnought gunner's box now adorns the back of most of the battalion's gun trucks.

The trucks are evolving in other ways. The battalion's communications unit is creating radios that allow the crew to communicate amid the clamor of battle.

At Skunk Werks, the vehicles may lack elegance, but they're designed to work.

"It's handmade, the seams might not match," DeLaughter said. "But we have given [soldiers]the best protection possible."

http://www.estripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=25228

Six Iraqis killed in Ramadi as Fallujah braces for all-out assault

http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/afp_world/view/114758/1/.html

November 1

RAMADI, Iraq : Six Iraqis were killed as violence flared in the flashpoint city of Ramadi as nearby Fallujah braced for an all-out assault with US and Iraqi troops massing in the rebel heartlands.

Prime Minister Iyad Allawi has vowed to restore order to the war-weary country ahead of January elections and issued another ultimatum to Fallujah even as the interim president declared his opposition to a military offensive.

In a step towards the landmark poll, Iraq began registering voters and potential candidates despite the violence, which claimed another victim with the shooting of Baghdad's deputy governor on his way to work.

Six Iraqis were killed and 15 others wounded in another day of unrest in Ramadi, a Sunni Muslim bastion west of Baghdad, hospital officials said. The cause of the deaths was not immediately clear.

An AFP photographer embedded with the US military in Ramadi said that marines securing the route for a daily convoy were attacked by small arms and rocket propelled grenade fire. They responded, downing at least one of the attackers.

"It is a daily hit and run," said Captain Patrick Rapicault, referring to the insurgents' tactics to target the convoy and flee the scene.

The city was relatively calm by the afternoon, with combat helicopters buzzing overhead, but rebel fighters and US troops clashed over the weekend in fierce fighting that left one marine dead and four others wounded.

Time is fast running out for the people of Ramadi and other hotspots such as neighbouring Fallujah as US and Iraqi troops intensify a campaign to crush pockets of insurgency ahead of the vote.

US war planes bombed insurgent targets in Fallujah at the weekend, but there were no reports of what has become a near daily bombardment on Monday.

Allawi, soon to depart on a trip to Europe, issued an ultimatum to residents of Fallujah on Sunday to surrender insurgents believed to be residing within its walls or face a US-Iraqi military assault.

"We have entered the final phase to solve the Fallujah problem," Allawi told a news conference in Baghdad. "If we cannot solve it peacefully, I have no choice but to take military action. I will do so with a heavy heart."

The prime minister has offered three conditions that would spare Fallujah and other rebel cities from military action.

These include the exit of foreign fighters and insurgents, the handover of heavy and medium-sized weapons and allowing the government to begin the process of reconstruction in these cities.

But Iraqi President Ghazi al-Yawar, on a landmark visit to Kuwait, declared his opposition to an assault on Fallujah, in an interview published Monday.

"I totally differ with those who believe there is a need for a military solution to the (Fallujah) issue," Yawar said, describing the US-led coalition's managing of the crisis as wrong and instead calling for continued dialogue.

"This will encourage neutral citizens to stop sympathizing with the rebels, most of whom are Saddam Hussein loyalists and forces which came from outside Iraq," Yawar said.

He also accused neighbouring Iran of playing a "negative role in Iraq" and blamed it for assassination of more than 18 Iraqi intelligence officers.

Since October 14, US troops have encircled Fallujah, where the military has repeatedly launched air strikes and some limited ground incursions. They are also doubling their troop strength to 2,000 in Ramadi.

Despite the strength and size of the US-led military in Iraq, an insurgency that flared up in the aftermath of last year's invasion has unleashed daily bombings and mortar attacks against army targets.

In a badly aimed strike late Sunday, 17 Iraqis were killed and eight wounded when two mortars, apparently aimed at a US base in the northern city of Tikrit, slammed into a hostel used by workers at a local factory.

Members of the US-backed government and other figures of Iraqi authority are also favourite targets in the insurgency.

In the latest assassination, a deputy Baghdad governor, Hassam Kamel Abdel Fattah, was shot dead by unknown assailants as he was driving to work, Iraq's interior ministry said. Two bodyguards were also injured.

Foreign civilians have similarly been caught in the violence as militants use hostages as political weapons to undermine the US-led military coalition and interim government.

Shosei Koda became the first Japanese hostage at the weekend to be executed in Iraq after Tokyo refused to bow to his kidnappers' demands to pull its 550 troops from the country.

In a separate crisis, a Polish woman held hostage by a militant group in Iraq has pleaded for the withdrawal of Polish troops and the release of women prisoners to save her life.

- AFP

Twenty Iraqi security officials begin training by NATO in Norway

(AFP)

1 November 2004

BRUSSELS - Twenty Iraqi security officers began receiving training Monday at a NATO center in Stavanger, Norway, under an assistance program set up in June, the Atlantic Alliance announced in Brussels.

The week-long course at the newly created Joint Warfare Center for "intermediate and high-ranking" officers focuses on security headquarters operations, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization said in a statement.

The course is a pilot project and "may be used for other training activities" either in Stavanger or in Iraq, "the ultimate goal being to help this country create its own training structures," the statement said.

The 26-member alliance decided at its June summit in Istanbul to help Iraq reconstitute its security forces, and has since begun to put together this assistance, not without internal discord.

Fewer than 70 NATO personnel are in Baghdad where they have begun to train Iraqi chief of staff officials. NATO also plans to assist in the creation of a military academy on the outskirts of the Iraqi capital.

US General James Jones, supreme commander of NATO forces, said last week that NATO hoped to train around 1,000 high-ranking Iraqi officers each year.

Jones said 16 or 17 of the 26 member states have voiced willingness to contribute to the program inside Iraq, while others, in particular France and Germany, have said they would help outside the country.

In the statement Monday, NATO said that another training session for Iraqi security forces will take place at the end of the month at the NATO School in Oberammergau, Germany.

http://www.khaleejtimes.com/DisplayArticle.asp?xfile=data/focusoniraq/2004/November/focusoniraq_Nove
mber11.xml&section=focusoniraq

http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2004/713/re8.htm

October 27, 2004

Who are the terrorists in Falluja and how are they terrorising the civilian population? Nermeen Al-Mufti finds out

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Relatives of Ateka Abdel Hamid, 24, did not know that this seven-month pregnant woman was a terrorist until the day she died. As the family collected the mutilated bodies of Ateka and her family, a United States spokesman boasted that the "multinational forces" killed a number of terrorists and Al-Zarqawi supporters during an offensive in Falluja. The terrorists, it turned out, were Ateka, her three-year-old son Omar, her husband Tamer and six other members of her family.

Abdul-Rahman Abdul-Hamid, Ateka's brother, said that the only survivor of his sister's family was her nine month-old daughter, whose picture has already been flashed across television screens worldwide. Ateka and her children had fled their home in the military district in Falluja to her parents' house. On the day she died, her mother-in- law had taken her home to the "relatively-safe" Al- Jumhuriya district. At midnight, US planes bombed the area and Ateka, her family and her husband's family were killed. Ateka's parents did not know of the tragedy until the morning of the next day. Relatives buried the nine bodies. Like many others in Falluja, their former home was now but a smouldering shell. This is a charred testimony to dashed hope -- Ateka and her family did not reach safety.

Today, Abdul-Rahman is taking his family to Al- Taji, a neighbourhood of Baghdad where they have a relative. It is not an entirely safe area but it beats Falluja. Falluja inhabitants have been running away since mid-April 2003, when the first US attacks were mounted against the city. The Iraqi government has even asked the inhabitants of Falluja to evacuate the city, and yet US forces have laid siege to it, cutting it off from the highway -- the only route linking Falluja to other Iraqi cities.

Despite the government instruction to leave, the people of Falluja are finding it hard to do so. There are also those who cannot leave the city, those who are not fortunate enough to have relatives to house them elsewhere. They have stayed, alongside those who simply won't leave their homes.

Falluja was once called the city of minarets. It once echoed the Euphrates in its beauty and calm. It had plentiful water and lush greenery. It was a summer resort for Iraqis. People went there for leisure, for a swim at the nearby Habbaniya lake, for a kebab meal. The Abu Hussein restaurant was one of Falluja's best Kebab houses. But US forces, acting on an Iraqi intelligence tip, decided that Abu Hussein was a terrorist den. They destroyed the establishment, killing its two guards. The bodies of the guards were never found, only the traces of blood.

On both sides of the highway scenes of destruction abound. Mansions and tiny houses have become equal -- all were destroyed. Sometimes curiosity would bring a visitor, an adult or a child who used to know the owners, to stare at the rubble. The air is thick with tragedy. I wonder, with a lump in my throat, where are the Arab brothers? Where are the Muslim kinfolk? Where is the civilised world? What do they make of the orgy of blood in Iraq? Today, I know how the Palestinians feel, when they are slaughtered while the Arabs and the world look the other way.

Are there Arab fighters in Falluja? "Some Arab brothers were among us, but when the shelling intensified, we asked them to leave and they did," says Ahmed Al-Deleimi. He added, "Why has America given itself the right to call on UK and Australian and other armies for help and we don't have the same right? We can't call on others for help."

Kamel Mohamed, who was getting ready to leave Falluja, said that he had heard that there were Arab fighters in the city, but he never saw any of them. Then he had heard that they had left. "Regardless of the motives of those fighters, they have provided a pretext for the city to be slaughtered, exactly as the mass destruction weapons gimmick provided a pretext for Iraq to be slaughtered. It is our right to resist and it is the opponent's right to be honest, but is there such a thing as an honest occupier?"

The suffering spreads along with the destruction. This is the second Ramadan under occupation, and bloodshed is everywhere. Iyad Allawi has visited Sadr City, which has laid down its arms, and said that he is determined to uproot terror. No Iraqi or US official has yet told the Iraqis, who live in constant danger, exactly what terror is. Does the US warning people to stay away because a force with a licence to kill operates, not qualify as terror? Does murder by "friendly" fire not qualify as terror? Does occupation by a foreign force not qualify as terror?

These are all acts of terror and the Iraqis are paying a price that rises every day. Until Al-Zarqawi is apprehended, operations against the Iraqis are going to continue. These operations have bizarre code names, such as "Angry Ghost". The Angry Ghost is now screaming through Falluja. Will it ever be laid to rest?

© Copyright Al-Ahram Weekly. All rights reserved

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fallujah

Interesting history of events in this town since the first Gulf War leading to the pending bloodbath.

Iraq's Yawar lambasts planned Falluja offensive

KUWAIT, Nov 1 (Reuters) Iraqi interim President Ghazi al-Yawar criticised a plan to attack Falluja in remarks published today, as US forces prepared an assault on insurgents and Islamist militants in the western Iraq city.

Yawar, whose remarks to the Kuwaiti daily al-Qabas contradicted views expressed by his prime minister in Baghdad, also accused Iran of meddling in Iraq's internal affairs. He said he expected the outcome of tomrrow's US presidential elections to have little impact on Washington's Iraq policy.

''I completely disagree with those who see a need to decide the (Falluja) matter through military action,'' said Yawar, who ended a three-day visit to Kuwait today.

''The coalition's handling of this crisis is wrong. It's like someone who fired bullets at his horse's head just because a fly landed on it; the horse died and the fly went away,'' Yawar said.

''What's needed is that the coalition forces continue dialogue so that the Iraqi armed forces will come, which will prompt those on the sidelines not to join the rebels ...'' Yawar contradicted interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi's comments yesterday -- that his US-backed government was still offering an olive branch to Falluja but its patience was running thin.

Today, US forces battled rebels in Ramadi and shelled Falluja, but there was no sign of an all-out offensive.

On the US elections, Yawar said he saw little difference between the two contenders as far as Iraq policy was concerned.

On Iraq's elections, due in early 2005, Yawar said they would be held on time ''unless there's a technical recommendation from the international monitors that they can't be held for technical reasons.'' He accused Iraq's neighbour and former foe Iran of having a role in the deteriorating security situation in Iraq.

Yawar also said his talks in Kuwait did not touch on the issue of Iraq's $16 billion debt to Kuwait. Kuwait has agreed to cut Iraq's debt but says the issue should be discussed with a permanent government in Baghdad.

Kuwait, invaded and accupied by Iraq in 1990, was the launchpad for last year's US-led invasion of Iraq which removed President Saddam Hussein.

http://www.deepikaglobal.com/ENG4_sub.asp?ccode=ENG4&newscode=78983

http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=worldNews&storyID=6687741

2 November

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - The U.S. military said Tuesday a cameraman killed in the Iraqi city of Ramadi while on assignment for Reuters had died in a gunbattle between Marines and insurgents.

"Marines from the 1st Marine Division of the I Marine Expeditionary Force engaged several insurgents in a brief small arms firefight that killed an individual who was carrying a video camera earlier Monday morning," it said in a statement.

It was the military's first response to questions from Reuters about the killing.

Video footage of the incident showed no apparent fighting and no sounds of shooting in the vicinity before Dhia Najim was killed by a single bullet. He filmed heavy clashes between Marines and insurgents earlier in the day but that fighting had subsided.

Najim's colleagues and family said they believed he had been shot by a U.S. sniper.

Reuters Global Managing Editor David Schlesinger said: "We reject the clear implication in the Marines' statement that Dhia was part of an insurgent group.

"This claim is not supported by the available evidence. I strongly urge the U.S. military to conduct a proper investigation into this tragic event."

The cameraman was near his house in the Sunni Muslim city's Andalus district when he was hit by a single bullet in the back of the neck that killed him instantly.

Video shot from an upper floor of a building nearby shows Najim, at first half-hidden by a wall, move into the open. As soon as he emerges, a powerful gunshot cracks out and he falls to the ground, his arms outstretched.

Civilians are seen gathering calmly at the scene immediately afterwards to look at his lifeless body.

Marine snipers are posted in Ramadi, news photographs taken Sunday show.

CONCERN AT JOURNALIST DEATHS

State Department spokesman Adam Ereli told reporters in Washington Monday that officials were "deeply disturbed" by deaths of journalists in Iraq, including Najim's. "We rededicate ourselves now to providing an environment in which the free press can do its work," he said.

Ereli was commenting on a spate of attacks on journalists in Iraq, including a bomb attack on Al Arabiya television at the weekend which killed seven people. He was speaking before the Marines' statement.

The military statement said: "Identification badges found on the dead man confirmed employment with a major news agency.

"Inspection of videotape in the camera revealed footage of previous attacks on Multi-National Force military vehicles that included the insurgent use of RPGs (rocket-propelled grenades), an IED (roadside bomb) and small arms fire."

It was not immediately clear how the U.S. military had been able to view the tape in Najim's camera or check his identity cards. Reuters has asked for the camera to be returned. "The insurgents fled the scene with their wounded but left the body of the dead man along the side of the road," the military statement said.

Najim, who left a wife, three daughters and a son, worked freelance, supplying occasional material to Reuters Television. He was born in 1957.

The last footage received by Reuters from him Monday was shot from behind a red metal container in a dusty street. It shows U.S. Humvee vehicles speeding across an intersection amid flashes from gunfire and explosions.

Marines are gearing up for an expected offensive against insurgents and Islamist militants in Ramadi and Falluja as part of efforts to pacify Iraq before elections in January.

Ramadi, 110 km (68 miles) west of Baghdad, lies in mainly Sunni central Iraq where anti-U.S. sentiment runs high.

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