Wednesday, September 15, 2010

As the war continues....

"Wednesday's raid, in which at least six people were killed, was in the former insurgent stronghold of Fallujah — highlighting the persistent danger that al-Qaida-linked militants still pose despite years of efforts by both Iraqi and U.S. forces to root them out.

Insurgents seem to have redoubled their efforts this summer to target Iraqi security forces taking over from the departing Americans — nine Iraqi soldiers died Wednesday in a roadside bombing while two police officers in Baghdad were shot and killed. The militants are trying to undermine the so-called "Sons of Iraq" — the anti-al-Qaida militia that was instrumental in reducing violence.

The anger with which Fallujah officials reacted to the raid — conducted by Iraqi troops from Baghdad instead of local forces — spotlights another persistent threat to Iraq's security: deep divisions between the minority Sunnis in places like Fallujah and the Shiite majority that rules the country."

37 comments :

Bruno said...

American soldiers train Iraqis in their techniques:

"Another indication that the US War in Iraq is not over: they are still killing civilians. A joint US and Iraqi military raid against a neighborhood on the outskirts of Fallujah left at least eight people dead, including a number of civilians, and wounded an unknown number of others. According to local officials a soldier (it was not clear if it was an Iraqi or US soldier) threw a hand grenade into the yard of a sleeping family, killing a 70 year old man and four of his sons. "

http://news.antiwar.com/2010/09/15/us-iraqi-troops-kill-civilians-in-fallujah-raid/

Bruno said...

Nothing like a spot of mass murder to 'prove' your abilities!

Bruno said...

I guess these are some of those "non combat", combat troops. Maybe some murkins could clear this up?

Maury said...

I read the same article Bruno. Iraqi officials said this, and Iraqi officials said that. These officials didn't have names, and could be dog catchers for all we know. The only source quoted who had both a name and identifiable job was this guy.

"Late Wednesday, a U.S. military spokesman disputed the local Iraqi officials' account. Maj. Rob Phillips said that four suspected al-Qaeda militants were killed and three were wounded after security forces were fired upon as they approached the building they were targeting.

Iraqi forces fatally shot two residents as they emerged from their homes, reportedly armed, Phillips said, adding that four suspects were also arrested."

Of course, you won't believe him. He's an amreekan. You'd rather believe the Iraqi Army tosses hand grenades in back yards at random. Whatever.

Bruno said...

"Maj. Rob Phillips said that four suspected al-Qaeda militants were killed "

That means squat. Americans routinely call any brown person they shoot in Iraq a "terrorist". Hell, they even made an argument that because an American kills an Iraqi he is automatically a terrorist because of that fact.

Key in this statement is "suspected". Just goes to show that I'm right. They didn't know who they were shooting. They just thought (or later said they thought) that the guys they killed were "terrorists" and voila! Maury is happy.

Maury said...

They shot after they were fired on Bruno. Who gives a fuck what you thought they thought? Who made you the thought police anyway?

Bruno said...

GEE, Maury, funny that according to the article I referenced, the family was ASLEEP.

GOSH, these "suspected terrorists" are becoming teh d3adly, aren't they? Evidently their ninja skills allow them to shoot folks even while asleep!

I know! They were sleepwalking!

LOL

Bruno said...

Meanwhile, here's something for Maury to reflect on:

"Moon brought back a video that shows his sergeant declaring, “The difference between an insurgent and an Iraqi civilian is whether they are dead or alive.” Moon explains the thinking: “If you kill a civilian he becomes an insurgent because you retroactively make that person a threat.”"

http://www.progressive.org/mag_jarmail0408

Bruno said...

[channelling maury] "That's not true! It was on the internetz! I get abducted by aliens every other Thursday! WAAAAH!"

Maury said...

Someone says this....

Rob Phillips said that four suspected al-Qaeda militants were killed and three were wounded after security forces were fired upon as they approached the building they were targeting.

And Bruno says this....

Key in this statement is "suspected". Just goes to show that I'm right. They didn't know who they were shooting. They just thought (or later said they thought) that the guys they killed were "terrorists" and voila! Maury is happy.

They went after suspected terrorists, and were shot at by men in the building they targeted. But yeah, they just "thought up" the terrorist label Bruno. Care to tell everyone what I'm thinking now?

Bruno said...

Well, here's what I'M thinking:

"Hicks confirms reports of illegal detention of innocent Iraqis and willful destruction of their property. “You drive around Baghdad and most of these houses don’t have numbers, none of the streets are named, all the houses and streets look the same, and the interpreters, half the time they don’t even know where the hell they are,” he says. “So we’re always raiding the wrong house but you still have to bring in some prisoners. You can’t come back without prisoners. So we just rounded up any fighting-aged male we could find.”

http://www.progressive.org/mag_jarmail0408

PLUS

"According to local officials a soldier (it was not clear if it was an Iraqi or US soldier) threw a hand grenade into the yard of a sleeping family, killing a 70 year old man and four of his sons. "

http://news.antiwar.com/2010/09/15/us-iraqi-troops-kill-civilians-in-fallujah-raid/

PLUS

"“The difference between an insurgent and an Iraqi civilian is whether they are dead or alive.” Moon explains the thinking: “If you kill a civilian he becomes an insurgent because you retroactively make that person a threat.”"

=

"But yeah, they just "thought up" the terrorist label Bruno."

Yes. That is correct.

Bruno said...

GOSH, I hope that THIS doesn't stress MAURY out:

"Iraqi officials said eight civilians were killed, while the U.S. military said four suspected members of al-Qaeda in Iraq and two civilians died in a firefight that erupted as forces tried to capture a presumed member of the militant group who allegedly was responsible for attacks in the region.
[...]
"The security situation in Fallujah may deteriorate because of what happened today," said Abdulfattah Izghear, a local city council member. "We asked U.S. troops and the Iraqi government to explain this unjustified action and this naked aggression against civilians."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/09/15/AR2010091506900.html

Two observations:

1) Here we have an actual Iraqi official, with a name, not a dog-catcher.
2) Some of the 'terrorists' have already turned into 'civilians' by the American's own admission.

Not looking good for you, Maury.

Don Cox said...

Almost all terrorists are civilians. If a terrorist wears a uniform, it is usually a disguise.

Iraqi Mojo said...

'An Iraqi counter-terrorism force backed by U.S. soldiers battled gunmen early Wednesday during a raid in a village in western Iraq that left at least six people dead. No Americans were among the casualties.

The predawn shootout highlighted the reemerging tensions between the central government in Baghdad and residents in Anbar province, the former bastion of the Sunni Arab insurgency.

The raid began with an elite Iraqi unit surrounding a street in Jubail, just outside Fallouja, Iraqi police and the U.S. military said. According to the Americans, the counter-terrorism unit was looking to arrest an insurgent leader with Al Qaeda in Iraq when gunfire erupted from several directions.'

Iraqi Mojo said...

A couple of years ago I heard an American soldier in an interview saying that many car bombs were manufactured in Fallujah and sent to Baghdad for detonation.

Iraqi Mojo said...

'Two years ago, as violence steadily dropped from the heights of Iraq's sectarian war, Abu Fatma's Baghdad business nearly died. Merchants were selling their weapons back to him. They no longer needed them to protect against assassinations, sectarian attacks and looters, they told him.

But the fear has returned as killings with guns capped with silencers and with "sticky bombs" attached to vehicles are on the rise, according to Iraqi police statistics. Sunni insurgents are escalating their bomb attacks to coincide with the political impasse and the U.S. drawdown.

A suicide bombing this month killed more than 60 Iraqi army applicants. Less than two weeks later, coordinated blasts across the country killed another 60 people. At least three judges were killed and seven wounded in targeted attacks this month. Sunni insurgents have also taken to robbing gold shops, money exchangers and banks to supplement their funding.

In the Borsa market in the western city of Fallujah, heists by Sunni insurgents have caused some merchants to shut down their businesses and forced many to arm themselves.

Violence levels in Fallujah, once the heartland of the Sunni insurgency, had plunged over the past three years. But the fear is back.

"The Americans sit in their bases doing nothing now," money exchanger Razaq Kobaissi said on a recent afternoon in the Borsa market. "The security situation will collapse." '

C.H. said...

Mojo,

That Washington Post article is a disgrace...it shows the sorry state of the world, where THAT is the closest the US media can come to saying anything remotely positive (acknowleding violence has fallen). Reading Al-Jazeera's new article about "torture prisons" in Iraq today is less agonizing.

Interestingly enough, WaPo were writing stories like this 2 years ago, when they doubted things would succeed. What a sham...maybe it won't be such a bad thing if print news dies off.

Bruno said...

[mojo] "A couple of years ago I heard an American soldier in an interview saying that many car bombs were manufactured in Fallujah"

A couple of years ago I read a US marine saying that the moment Iraqi kids turned 16, they were "evil". No guesses as to what marines do to people they think are "evil".

Bruno said...

[mojo] "A couple of years ago I heard an American soldier in an interview saying that many car bombs were manufactured in Fallujah"

A couple of years ago I read a US marine saying that the moment Iraqi kids turned 16, they were "evil". No guesses as to what marines do to people they think are "evil".

Bruno said...

[ch] "That Washington Post article is a disgrace"

Yes, yes. Goddamn them to Hell for even mentioning that US troops may have done something wrong.

They should be talking about the "reconstruction" instead, and how awfully grateful Iraqis are for it.

Ain't that right, CH?

Bruno said...

What a pity:

"A U.S. soldier was killed and another wounded in a blast inside the joint base of Balad, north of Baghdad, the third announced U.S. fatality this month, according to the U.S. army on Thursday."

http://en.aswataliraq.info/?p=136875

Bruno said...

"The Iraqi city of Fallujah has declared three-day long mourning after a joint U.S.-Iraqi attack on the city killed at least 10 civilians and injured many others. The raid on Wednesday has raised tensions and angered the city’s inhabitants as well as the nearly two million Muslim Sunnis who live in the Province of Anbar, west of Baghdad. The Muslim Scholars Association, a group of powerful Muslim Sunni clerics in Iraq, described the raid as “a massacre in which two children were killed.”"

http://www.azzaman.com/english/index.asp?fname=news\2010-09-16\kurd.htm

I wonder if "dog catchers" declared the three days of mourning? Soon, Maury will be here to say that this is so.

Jeffrey -- New York said...

Bruno, how is it possible that you still haven't figured out how to make a clickable link? I mean, it's been six or seven years, hasn't it?

*

Jeffrey -- New York said...

Still one of my favorites from ///Rhuslancia:

Bruno Gives Up, Accepts Allied Terms.

*

Dolly said...

C.H:
"Reading Al-Jazeera's new article about 'torture prisons' in Iraq today is less agonizing."

And, what exactly do you find agonizing about reading reports on Iraqi torture prisons?

Does the agony come from: a) you empathizing with the victims of abuse carried out by Iraqi Shia sub-animals

b) the fact that the news even surfaced, and you preferred to have the torture going on in secret.

David All said...

How sucessful was the US effort to re-build Iraq? Two different views can be read at http://hurryupharry.org/2010/09/15/nation-building-a-success-in-iraq/#more-39161

Dolly said...

C.H., are you a jew? You tweeted something about plane tickets to Israel being expensive

Americans are pigs said...

David All said...
How sucessful was the US effort to re-build Iraq? Two different views can be read at http://hurryupharry.org/2010/09/15/nation-building-a-success-in-iraq/#more-39161

9/17/10 8:20 PM

I guess you can debate that issue, but obviously the US was much more succesful in destroying Iraq and killing over a million people.

Anonymous said...

Hello. And Bye.

C.H. said...

Dolly,

They were expensive...that's why I decided to do my next project in Bogota, Colombia instead.

Maury said...

They aren't asking for much Aton. They just want the U.S. to roll over and die. They think the world would be just peachy without Amreeka upsetting their apple cart. Bin Laden could kill with impunity. Bruno's master race could reclaim power. Baathists could reclaim Iraq. The possibilities are endless.

The fact Bruno, Dolly, and Anon hate the US makes me more proud than ever to be an American. We're obviously doing something right.

Bruno said...

[maury] "They think the world would be just peachy without Amreeka upsetting their apple cart"

Remind me again WHO killed those civilians in Fallujah?

Oh, yes, Americans and their American trained troops.

But, what were Americans doing in Fallujah, an Iraqi city?

Oh, yes, America illegally invaded Iraq in a bogus search for non-existent 'weapons of mass destruction'.

Against the world's wishes.

[maury] "the world would be just peachy without Amreeka upsetting [the] apple cart"

Not peachy, but better.

Bruno said...

[maury] "Bruno's master race could reclaim power."

Evidently some sort of "white power" slur against me, if Maury's past comments are anything to go by.

But, let's see:

The biggest white power organisation today:

"Stormfront began in 1990 as an online bulletin board for white nationalist activist David Duke's campaign for United States Senator of Louisiana."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stormfront_%28website%29

'Scuse me, was that an AMERICAN organisation? Founded by AMERICANS?

Must be some confusion, here.

Maybe Maury can clear that up?

Bruno said...

[maury] "Baathists could reclaim Iraq."

WHO wanted the Baath in power in Iraq in the first place?

America.

WHO supported the Baath coup getting rid of Qassem?

America.

[maury] "the world would be just peachy without Amreeka upsetting [the] apple cart"

Not peachy, but better.

Bruno said...

[maury] "We're obviously doing something right."

Yes, you are. Please eat some more donuts and die of a heart attack already.

Maury said...

Did I hit a nerve Bruno?

Bruno said...

Given the scale of Maury's reply, it appears that he has no answer for the substance of my rebuttal.

In other words, he got blown out of the water.