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Europe

Europe puts its finger on the trigger.

2015-07-21

[OZY] Hedgehog. Seemingly innocent, this word takes on extraordinary significance in a tiny Northern European country, reminding their population of barely 1 million of the constant threat of invasion by their former conquerers. You see, Hedgehog is the code name of Estonia's largest-ever military exercise, which took place in early May, where tanks and aircraft from around the world joined with some 13,000 Estonians to practice avoiding the same fate that has befallen Ukraine. Government video shows everyday volunteers, who make up about half of the Estonian Defense Forces, firing automatic weapons from wooded hideouts and tossing smoke grenades before calling out, "The battle is over, all are friends!" But the message to Russia is clear and backed by unprecedented force: We are not friends. But it's not just Estonia that's hiding behind an armor of troops and tanks. At the same time, Operation Lightning Strike brought out 3,000 troops in Lithuania, while Operation Dynamic Mongoose included another 5,000 in the North Sea off Norway. It's Europe's latest show-and-tell of military capability, which, in a reversal of a trend that has lasted many years, is increasing dramatically. From Germany to Scandinavia to the Balkans, there arguably hasn't been this much activity in European barracks since the end of the Cold War, some experts say. Military budget spending from European nations with the biggest increases will total some $51 billion over the next seven years, according to a report by the Royal United Services Institute, a think tank. That's almost a 50 percent increase from their total defense spending in 2013, according to European Defense Agency data.

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Africa Subsaharan

Why Obama is sending troops to Africa

2011-11-01

The money graf, in Three Paragraphs: Noah Gottschalk, a senior humanitarian policy advisor for Oxfam America, says that a military operation is just one of many potential tools for combating the LRA, and one that could put countless thousands of civilians in harm's way. The Ugandan military has tried a military solution in dealing with the LRA in the past, Gottschalk said, most recently with their Operation Lightning Thunder at the end of 2008. "That operation was designed to go after the LRA with the stated intent of making the LRA go away, but it left civilians a lot worse off." In the long run, the solution may be the boring work of development, Gottschalk says. "The LRA goes to places where there is little development, they don't go to places where there are big roads," he says. "So if you start to squeeze that area, building roads, bringing in infrastructure, you're not only bringing development to the most neglected corners of Africa, you're also reducing the territory that the LRA can operate in."

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Iraq

Update On Corps-Sized Operation Lightning Hammer II

2007-09-18

...Officials in northern Iraq launched Operation Lightning Hammer II at the start of the month. The offensive partners 12,000 coalition forces with 14,000 Iraqi security forces to drive al Qaeda out of the provinces of Salah Ad Din, Ninewa, Diyala and Kirkuk. Officials are supporting the forces with attack helicopters, close-air support, Bradley fighting vehicles, Stryker vehicles, and tanks. Its predecessor, Operation Lightning Hammer, focused operations on the Diyala River Valley, northeast of Baqubah, where they believe the insurgents have fled to once they were driven from their previous stronghold. Officials there also are working hard with local tribal sheiks to garner support from tribes disenchanted by al Qaeda’s tactics. It is more difficult there, though, to mimic the much heralded successes of similar operations in Anbar province, Bednarek said. Anbar is predominately Sunni. The Diyala province is home to 23 major tribes and as many as 100 sub-tribes, and its makeup is Sunni, Shiia and Kurdish. Still, Bednarek said, he has seen progress. "The reaction of the citizens has been very positive. I think not only in Diyala province, but also in our other provinces where the citizens are starting to stand up and take a position on their own," the general said. "They have seen what al Qaeda has to offer, which is nothing. They have seen that the horrific acts of violence against women, family, children, infrastructure is not the future. They see that they can have a future of prosperity and security without al Qaeda and are starting to fight back." Locals also are starting to trust the local Iraqi security forces, he said, which was a problem in the past. Locals are starting to report weapons caches and emplaced bombs to security forces patrolling the areas. "Engaging the tribal sheiks, coming together to be part of the future as opposed to the dark past is something that we’re putting huge amount of senior-leader energy in every day," Bednarek said. And I wonder how much Corps level training the Iraqi divisional command staffs are getting at the same time.

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Iraq

Premature explodulation as Iraqi Army thwarts suicide bomber

2007-09-17

An Iraqi Army patrol’s vigilance thwarted a suicide bomber in Mosul Saturday, causing him to prematurely detonate his suicide vest. The Soldiers from 2nd Brigade, 2nd Iraqi Army Division noticed the individual suspiciously approaching their position. They began shouting at the suspect and fired warning shots. The suicide bomber immediately detonated his vest. There were no injuries to civilians or ISF. In a different operation, acting on a tip from a local Iraqi citizen, Iraqi Army Soldiers and Coalition Forces raided the residence of a suspected improvised explosive device facilitator in the northern Iraq city of Aitha, Sept. 12. Though the target suspect was not at home, the soldiers from 3rd Brigade, 2nd Iraqi Army Division discovered a weapons cache containing 50 lbs. of assorted homemade explosive and artillery propellant, 20 hand grenades, one assault rifle, one machine gun and assorted IED-making materials. Iraqi Security Forces confiscated additional weapons and explosives and seized three fully-loaded black market fuel trucks found at the site. “The ISF are truly leading the way and taking the fight to the enemy here in Nineveh,” said Col. Stephen Twitty, commander of the 4th Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division. “They are continuously reacting to intelligence and executing strikes that have resulted in the capture of a large number of suspected enemy fighters and the removal of large amounts of IED-making materials and supplies from the province.” In the past 10 days, ISF and CF have killed eight enemy fighters, captured over 200 suspected enemy fighters, and seized numerous caches of small arms, ammunition, explosives, and IED-making materials in support of Operation Lightning Hammer II, a joint ISF and Coalition effort.

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Fifth Column

Robert Fisk: Even I Question The 'Truth' About 9/11

2007-08-27

Someone's gotta do it. By Robert Fisk Each time I lecture abroad on the Middle East, there is always someone in the audience – just one – whom I call the "raver". A 'troofer'? Cindy Sheehan? Medea Benjamin? Oh, no, he's going elsewhere with this ... Apologies here to all the men and women who come to my talks with bright and pertinent questions – often quite humbling ones for me as a journalist – and which show that they understand the Middle East tragedy a lot better than the journalists who report it. And especially you, Bob, especially you. But the "raver" is real. He has turned up in corporeal form in Stockholm and in Oxford, in Sao Paulo and in Yerevan, in Cairo, in Los Angeles and, in female form, in Barcelona. No matter the country, there will always be a "raver". His – or her – question goes like this. Why, if you believe you're a free journalist, don't you report what you really know about 9/11? Why don't you tell the truth – that the Bush administration (or the CIA or Mossad, you name it) blew up the twin towers? Why don't you reveal the secrets behind 9/11? The assumption in each case is that Fisk knows – that Fisk has an absolute concrete, copper-bottomed fact-filled desk containing final proof of what "all the world knows" (that usually is the phrase) – who destroyed the twin towers. Sometimes the "raver" is clearly distressed. Fisk is so important that he refers to himself in the third person. One man in Cork screamed his question at me, and then – the moment I suggested that his version of the plot was a bit odd – left the hall, shouting abuse and kicking over chairs. Usually, I have tried to tell the "truth"; that while there are unanswered questions about 9/11, ... What questions are those Bob? Any question about who did it? Any question as to why? ... I am the Middle East correspondent of The Independent, not the conspiracy correspondent; that I have quite enough real plots on my hands in Lebanon, Iraq, Syria, Iran, the Gulf, etc, to worry about imaginary ones in Manhattan. Does this mean we'll get an article from you about Syrian plots in Lebanon? My final argument – a clincher, in my view – is that the Bush administration has screwed up everything – militarily, politically diplomatically – it has tried to do in the Middle East; so how on earth could it successfully bring off the international crimes against humanity in the United States on 11 September 2001? There's a back-handed compliment. Does anyone think the Clinton or Reagan administration could be more 'competent', or is it just that no sane American political official of either party would do such a thing? Well, I still hold to that view. Any military which can claim – as the Americans did two days ago – that al-Qa'ida is on the run is not capable of carrying out anything on the scale of 9/11. "We disrupted al-Qa'ida, causing them to run," Colonel David Sutherland said of the preposterously code-named "Operation Lightning Hammer" in Iraq's Diyala province. "Their fear of facing our forces proves the terrorists know there is no safe haven for them." And more of the same, all of it untrue. In what way, Bob? al-Q has a battalion of shock troops? al-Q is standing tall and tough in Fallujah? Anbar? Baghdad? About the only place we know of where al-Q is supreme is Wazoo. Care to venture why? Within hours, al-Qa'ida attacked Baquba in battalion strength and slaughtered all the local sheikhs who had thrown in their hand with the Americans. No word from Bob whether that's a good thing, assuming it happened. It reminds me of Vietnam, the war which George Bush watched from the skies over Texas – which may account for why he this week mixed up the end of the Vietnam war with the genocide in a different country called Cambodia, whose population was eventually rescued by the same Vietnamese whom Mr Bush's more courageous colleagues had been fighting all along. Perhaps if we'd just delivered the ammo we promised the South Vietnamese it wouldn't have happened. But – here we go. I am increasingly troubled at the inconsistencies in the official narrative of 9/11. Oh dear, Bob is, deep down inside, a troofer allright. He just knows better than to admit it. It's not just the obvious non sequiturs: where are the aircraft parts (engines, etc) from the attack on the Pentagon? Because you don't punch a neat, airplane-outline hole in a stone and steel structure, Bob. Per the Popular Mechanics review, the hole was 75 feet wide at impact on ring E (the plane, with wings, was 124 feet wide). The wings were sheared off and didn't punch through. You've been watching too many cartoons. Why have the officials involved in the United 93 flight (which crashed in Pennsylvania) been muzzled? Who exactly has been muzzled? How about a name, Bob? Why did flight 93's debris spread over miles when it was supposed to have crashed in one piece in a field? Because that's what airplanes do when they hit the ground violently, Bob. Slam a plane into the ground at 500 mph and parts fly everywhere. Again, I'm not talking about the crazed "research" of David Icke's Alice in Wonderland and the World Trade Center Disaster – which should send any sane man back to reading the telephone directory. Perhaps you could generate random names for our visitors? I am talking about scientific issues. If it is true, for example, that kerosene burns at 820C under optimum conditions, how come the steel beams of the twin towers – whose melting point is supposed to be about 1,480C – would snap through at the same time? Because the steel weakened from the heat causing a loss of tensile strength. Once the weight of the building above them was greater than the weight the weakened beams could bear, they failed, and all it took was the beams from a single floor to fail for the whole structure to pancake down. Steel heated to ~ 900C loses a considerable amount of tensile strength according to the experts quoted by Popular Mechanics: at 1100F, about 50%. And it wasn't just jet fuel burning, it was also the contents of the WTC floors hit by the plane, including lots of paper, furniture, rugs, etc. You might want to try a little research, Bob. (They collapsed in 8.1 and 10 seconds.) What about the third tower – the so-called World Trade Centre Building 7 (or the Salmon Brothers Building) – which collapsed in 6.6 seconds in its own footprint at 5.20pm on 11 September? Why did it so neatly fall to the ground when no aircraft had hit it? Because it had taken substantial damage, especially to its south face, along with a long-burning fire that wasn't put out, according to the experts quoted in PM, Bob. The American National Institute of Standards and Technology was instructed to analyse the cause of the destruction of all three buildings. They have not yet reported on WTC 7. Two prominent American professors of mechanical engineering – very definitely not in the "raver" bracket – are now legally challenging the terms of reference of this final report on the grounds that it could be "fraudulent or deceptive". Actually they have reported, Bob. Care to guess in how many ways they disagree with you and the troofers? Journalistically, there were many odd things about 9/11. For example, just how many journalists put up with all the troofer nonsense. Initial reports of reporters that they heard "explosions" in the towers – which could well have been the beams cracking – are easy to dismiss. Less so the report that the body of a female air crew member was found in a Manhattan street with her hands bound. Guess we all missed that one, since the bodies were all incinerated in the initial collision with the jet fuel. OK, so let's claim that was just hearsay reporting at the time, just as the CIA's list of Arab suicide-hijackers, which included three men who were – and still are – very much alive and living in the Middle East, was an initial intelligence error. Or a press error, or a dim-witted troofer error. But what about the weird letter allegedly written by Mohamed Atta, the Egyptian hijacker-murderer with the spooky face, whose "Islamic" advice to his gruesome comrades – released by the CIA – mystified every Muslim friend I know in the Middle East? Atta mentioned his family – which no Muslim, however ill-taught, would be likely to include in such a prayer. He reminds his comrades-in-murder to say the first Muslim prayer of the day and then goes on to quote from it. But no Muslim would need such a reminder – let alone expect the text of the "Fajr" prayer to be included in Atta's letter. Atta was a little nuts. Diabolical genius to figure out how to make 9/11 work, but also nuts. Does his letter have to make sense? Let me repeat. I am not a conspiracy theorist. You just like shoving a sharp stick at us Americans whenever you get the chance. Spare me the ravers. Spare me the plots. But like everyone else, I would like to know the full story of 9/11, not least because it was the trigger for the whole lunatic, meretricious "war on terror" which has led us to disaster in Iraq and Afghanistan and in much of the Middle East. Afghanistan is and has been no disaster -- we rid ourselves of an evil regime and a base of operations for al-Qaeda. Iraq is and has been no disaster -- with all the faults one could point out, we rid the world of an evil, genocidal thug and his evil spawn, and we've given the Iraqis a chance to grad hold of their own country. And we either make war on terrorists or we suffer the consequences, amply demonstrated by 9/11. And 7/7. And 3/11. And Bali ... Bush's happily departed adviser Karl Rove once said that "we're an empire now – we create our own reality". True? At least tell us. It would stop people kicking over chairs. You might do well to let Karl create a reality for you, Bob. Beats the one you have.

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Iraq

Operation Lightning Hammer disrupts al-Qaeda in Diyala

2007-08-24

Operation Lightning Hammer concluded Aug. 22 after a 12-day, large-scale operation to disrupt al-Qaeda and other terrorist elements in the Diyala River Valley, a complex area of villages and palm groves in Iraq’s Diyala province. The operation, which involved approximately 16,000 Iraqi and Coalition Forces clearing approximately 50 villages, was a key element in Multinational Corps-Iraq’s overall operation, Phantom Strike; and resulted in 26 al-Qaeda members killed, 37 suspected terrorists detained and the discovery of 10 weapons caches. “The strength and determination of the fighting men and women from the Iraqi and Coalition Forces showed great results during Lightning Hammer,” said Col. David W. Sutherland, commander of Coalition Forces in Diyala province. “We have continued to diminish their supplies and disable al-Qaeda’s abilities to disrupt the population.” Soldiers from the 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division, partnered with members of the 5th Iraqi Army Division, initiated the operation with a late-night air assault into targeted locations Aug. 13, and conducted an additional three air-assaults during the course of the operation. Residents of most villages welcomed the security forces, providing tips and intelligence about recent activities in their towns; and were interested in joining the Iraqi Security Forces. Following clearing operations, the Iraqi army provided medical assistance and humanitarian aid to the local citizens, many of whom said their villages were recently influenced by al-Qaeda. More importantly, more than 80 tribal leaders and representatives, some of whom had not spoken in over a year, met Aug. 19 to discuss their grievances and swore on the Quran to unite in their fight against terrorists and become one tribe of Diyala. “As I conducted my battlefield circulation and talked with many of the citizens, they repeatedly thanked our Soldiers, but more importantly, their security forces, for liberating their towns from the terrorists – specifically al-Qaeda,” Sutherland said. “Because their villages have been cleared, the local and central governments will now be able to provide those essential services al-Qaeda destroyed; and the people feel a sense of security they have not known for some time.” Throughout the operation, the Task Force Lightning Soldiers also discovered 22 improvised explosive devices, 11 of which were discovered based on tips from a police chief in the river valley; and reduced three house-borne IEDs and six vehicle-borne IEDs, all of which could have been used to harm a large portion of the population or security forces. Additionally, an al-Qaeda command post was discovered in the village of Shadia, and an al-Qaeda medical clinic was located in Qaryat Sunayjiyah. The command post, which was surrounded by fighting positions, contained bed space for 20 individuals, supply requests, records of munitions, a list of families supporting the element, a list of al-Qaeda members detained by Coalition Forces and other terrorist propaganda. “Although we didn’t find many of the terrorists, the operation proved to be a great success because we disrupted al-Qaeda, causing them to run,” Sutherland continued. “Their fear of facing our forces proves that the terrorists know there is no safe haven for them in Diyala. And though this specific operation is over, our fight is not over. We will continue to aggressively target al-Qaeda, and ultimately, they will be brought to justice.” The results of Lightning Hammer cleared the Diyala River Valley of al-Qaeda and allowed Iraqi and Coalition Forces to maintain a permanent presence in Mukeisha, a village in the heart of the river valley area.

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Iraq

Four caches discovered in the Diyala River Valley during Operation Lightning Hammer

2007-08-22

Soldiers assigned to 5th Squadron, 73rd Cavalry Regiment, assigned to 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division, discovered four weapons caches in Qubbah and Mukeisha villages, in the Diyala River Valley, Iraq, during Operation Lightning Hammer, Aug 18. While conducting a clearance operation in the village of Qubbah, Soldiers discovered two caches consisting of small-arms ammunition and magazines, 20 sticks of dynamite, detonation cord, 78 blasting caps, one pistol, a suicide vest carrier, six DVDs of suicide bombers, land contracts to rent land to members of the Islamic State of Iraq, propaganda encouraging extremists to kill Coalition Forces and a Wahabbist handbook. Two other caches were discovered in the village of Mukeisha, which contained 14 Katusha rockets, 10 rocket-propelled grenades, 20-60mm mortar rounds, five 60mm mortar tubes, eight sticks of dynamite, and a DSHKA anti-aircraft weapon system. “The discovery of these caches will significantly degrade al-Qaida’s ability to conduct operations in the Diyala River Valley,” said Col. David W. Sutherland, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division commander. “Taking away their weapons systems further allows the local and provincial government to begin rebuilding the systems that provide essential services like food, water, and electricity to the citizens in this area.”

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Iraq

Odierno Highlights Operations Phantom Strike, Phantom Thunder

2007-08-17

Iraqi and coalition forces are pursuing extremist leaders in Iraq’s remote areas in coordinated “quick strikes” that launched this week, the commander of Multinational Corps Iraq told Pentagon reporters today. Operation Phantom Strike is a series of joint operations that extend from Operation Phantom Thunder, a corps-level offensive that began in June targeting al Qaeda, Sunni insurgents and Shiia extremists in, near and around Baghdad, said Army Lt. Gen. Raymond T. Odierno. “With the elimination of safe havens and support zones due to Phantom Thunder, al Qaeda and Shiite extremists have been forced into ever-shrinking areas. It is my intent to pursue and disrupt their operations,” Odierno said. Over the coming weeks, the general said, combined forces will conduct quick-strike raids against extremist sanctuaries and staging areas. Using precision-targeting operations, troops will target terrorist leaders and members of lethal improvised-explosive-device and car-bomb networks, he said. “We will continue to hunt down the leadership, deny them safe haven, disrupt their supply lines and significantly reduce their capability to operate in Iraq,” Odierno added. In the first 24 hours of one “quick-strike” raid, Multinational Division North soldiers captured and killed several enemies and seized weapons caches in the Diyala River Valley. Called Operation Lightning Hammer, this operation targeted extremists as they tried to re-establish sanctuaries, the general said. Odierno highlighted some successes of Operation Phantom Thunder, which launched June 15. In 142 battalion-level joint operations, Iraqi and coalition forces detained 6,702 suspects, killed 1,196 enemies and wounded 419 others. Combined forces also killed or captured 382 high-value targets, he said. Troops also cleared 1,113 weapons caches and scores of IEDs and car bombs. “The number of found and cleared IEDs, (car bombs) and caches are approximately 50 percent higher than the same period last year due, in large part, to effective tips provided by concerned Iraqi citizens,” the general added. Odierno warned that high-profile attacks may rise as two important dates approach. In the early weeks of September, Ramadan, Islam’s holiest month, begins. Army Gen. David H. Petraeus, commander of Multinational Force Iraq, is slated to present an anticipated report to Congress around the same time. “Our enemy is ruthless and will no doubt attempt to exploit the upcoming Ramadan season, as well as influence political opinions in the coming weeks by increasing attacks with particular emphasis on high-profile terror attacks,” he said. But extremists’ efforts are increasingly hampered by civilians who cooperate with coalition forces as troops ramp-up raids around the country, Odierno said. “Al Qaeda and other extremist elements will have to contend with an Iraqi population that no longer welcomes them,” he said, “as well as quick-hitting offensive operations by coalition and Iraqi forces.” In the past two months we have annihilated the equivalent of a heavy brigade of enemy.

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Iraq

At least 10 killed as bomber strikes Baghdad bridge

2007-08-15

A suicide truck bomber struck a strategic bridge outside Baghdad on Tuesday, sending vehicles plunging into the river and killing at least 10 people in the second attack on the span in three months, police said. The attack came as 16,000 US and Iraqi troops began a new operation north of the Iraqi capital targeting insurgents who have fled a crackdown in the restive city of Baqouba, the military said Tuesday. On the political front, leaders of Iraq's divided factions held a flurry of meetings in preparation for a crisis council planned by Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki as he seeks to save his crumbling government, which faces allegations of a Shiite bias. "I think that the circumstances require us to do our best to bring the country out of this difficult situation," Iraq's Sunni Vice President Tariq Hashemi told reporters after holding talks with Kurdish leader Massoud Barzani, who traveled from his autonomous northern region to Baghdad this week to help broker a compromise . The Thiraa Dijla bridge in Taji, a town near a US air base some 20 kilometers north of the capital, came under attack around noon, police said, giving the casualty toll. The bridge, which stretched across a canal on the main highway that links Baghdad with the northern city of Mosul, was bombed three months ago and only one lane had reopened, according to the police officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to release the information. The attacker detonated his payload in the middle of the bridge after avoiding an Iraqi army checkpoint that was only monitoring traffic going the other direction, a police officer said, adding that 40 meters of the bridge had collapsed. Rescue crews were trying to recover bodies trapped inside three minibuses and the truck that had fallen into the canal, which links the Tigris and the Euphrates rivers, the officials said. US and Iraqi troops cordoned off the area to evacuate the wounded, the military said, without providing a casualty toll. The US and Iraq operation farther north of the capital, dubbed Operation Lightning Hammer, began late Monday with an air assault and was part of a broader US push announced Monday to build on successes in Baghdad and surrounding areas by targeting al-Qaida in Iraq and Iranian-allied Shiite militia fighters nationwide. Maj. Gen. Benjamin Mixon, commander of US forces in northern Iraq, said the troops were pursuing al-Qaida cells that had been disrupted and forced into hiding by previous operations. "Our main goal with Lightning Hammer is to eliminate the terrorist organizations ... and show them that they truly have no safe haven - especially in Diyala," he said in a statement. Four more US soldiers were reported killed in separate attacks - three in an explosion near their vehicle Monday in the northwestern Ninevah province and another who was died of wounds sustained during combat operations in western Baghdad. A US transport helicopter also went down Tuesday near the Taqaddum air base, west of Baghdad, the military said. The CH-47 Chinook helicopter was conducting a routine post-maintenance test flight when it went down in Anbar province, Marine spokesman 1st Lt. Shawn Mercer said, adding the site had been sealed off and the cause was being investigated. He gave no immediate information about how many people were on the helicopter or their status. Local officials, meanwhile, said four civilians, including a young girl, were killed and five wounded Tuesday during a raid by joint US-Iraqi forces in Baghdad's Shiite district of Sadr City. The US military said four gunmen were killed and eight detained after a fierce gunfight, but it had no reports of civilian deaths.

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Iraq-Jordan

Iraqi Police Arrest More than 100 Suspects with Afghan Nationality

2005-09-10

(3rd item) A responsible source in the Ministry of Interior said that 112 suspects having Afghani nationality cards were arrested by police forces. The source said one of them worked as a driver with Abu Musab al-Zarqawi in the town of Tal Afar. They also arrested 13 suspects and captured guns and explosives in raids carried out by joint forces of the army and police yesterday in areas of al-A'dhamiyyah, Qahira, al-Nidhal street. It was part of Operation Lightning, which is still being carried out in Baghdad.

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Iraq-Jordan

Minister: Al-Zarqawi Fled Baghdad Recently

2005-07-16

The leader of Iraq's most feared terror group fled Baghdad about two weeks ago because a U.S.-Iraqi military operation in the capital was threatening his al-Qaida movement, Iraq's interior minister said in a television interview aired Friday. Bayan Jabr told the U.S.-owned Al Hurra television that the Jordanian-born Abu Musab al-Zarqawi and many of his al-Qaida in Iraq followers fled Baghdad because of the success of Operation Lightning, launched May 28. Despite claims that the operation was successful, at least 30 people were killed in a wave of car-bombings and roadside explosions in the capital Friday. Jabr said "the terrorists" often have more weapons than the police. He nonetheless claimed many al-Qaida members had left the capital "because they have lost the battle." Al-Zarqawi fled Baghdad 12 days ago after several car-rigging factories were discovered in a security operation, he said. "Al-Zarqawi is in his last months," Jabr added. In the past, Iraqi officials have variously placed al-Zarqawi in the Fallujah area west of Baghdad and in eastern Iraq. Some accounts claimed he had even been wounded and had fled to Iran, a charge the Iranians deny.

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Iraq-Jordan

U.S. Troops Kill 14 Insurgents in Iraq

2005-07-12

U.S. soldiers killed 14 insurgents in two days of fighting in a strategic northern city, the American military said Monday, and gunmen killed 10 Iraqi soldiers in the central Sunni heartland. A hard-line Sunni clerical group accused Iraqi government commandos of torturing and killing 10 Sunni Arab civilians in Baghdad, fueling sectarian tensions between the country's two major religious groups. Soldiers of the U.S. 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment killed four insurgents in a gunbattle Sunday, and 10 more were killed Monday as fighting raged in Tal Afar, 260 miles north of Baghdad, the U.S. command reported. American troops suffered no casualties, the statement said. However, insurgents bloodied an Iraqi force in Khalis, 45 miles north of Baghdad. Guerrillas firing mortars, machine guns and semiautomatic weapons stormed an Iraqi checkpoint about 5 a.m., killing eight Iraqi soldiers, Khalis police chief Col. Mahdi Saleh said. About 90 minutes later, a car bomb exploded a few miles away as an Iraqi army patrol passed, killing two soldiers, Saleh said. Two soldiers and three civilians were wounded in the attacks. Al-Qaida in Iraq claimed responsibility for the attacks in a Web statement, but the authenticity of the posting could not be confirmed... Six civilians were also killed in the Tal Afar fighting and 22 were wounded, according to the city police chief, Brig. Gen. Najim Abdullah al-Jubouri. Some of the wounded were hospital workers, officials said. The city is home to Arabs, Kurds and Turkmen and is located along a major road to Syria, which U.S. and Iraqi officials say is a jumping off point for Islamic extremists infiltrating Iraq. Two U.S. Marines were killed Sunday by "indirect fire" _ presumably mortar shells _ in the insurgent stronghold of Hit, the U.S. command said. Hit is on the Euphrates River in western Iraq, along another major route from Syria. On Sunday, suicide attacks, car bombings and ambushes killed about 60 people in Baghdad and elsewhere. The spike in violence occurred despite an ongoing military operation in the capital, codenamed Lightning, that has sharply reduced suicide attacks in the capital. Nevertheless, Defense Minister Saadoun al-Duleimi insisted Operation Lightning had been successful and would be followed by other offensives until "we break the back of the terrorists _ one after another." Such operations have curbed insurgent attacks, but have also angered some Sunnis, who claim their neighborhoods have been unfairly targeted by security forces of the Shiite and Kurdish-dominated government. Sunni Arabs form the core of the insurgency. On Monday, an influential Sunni clerical organization accused Iraqi security forces of detaining, torturing and killing 10 Sunnis in Baghdad. Government officials had no comment, but a doctor at Yarmouk hospital confirmed receiving the bodies, which he said showed signs of abuse. The doctor spoke on condition of anonymity, fearing reprisal. The Association of Muslim Scholars said members of an Interior Ministry commando brigade detained the men Sunday as they visited relatives in Baghdad's predominantly Shiite neighborhood of Shula. "The men were taken to a detention center where they were tortured, then locked in a container where they suffocated," the association said. However, the doctor said one of the men was killed and the other nine detained after the troops came under fire Sunday in Shula. Defense Ministry officials declined comment, referring queries to the Interior Ministry. An Interior Ministry official said he had no immediate comment. A U.S. soldier died of injuries he sustained when his patrol struck a land mine Monday west of Baghdad, the U.S. military said Tuesday. Also Monday: _ U.S. and Iraqi officials signed four economic agreements in Amman, Jordan, at the end of talks headed by Undersecretary of State Robert Zoellick to boost reconstruction in Iraq. _ Iraq's Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari said Egypt's top envoy did not make any illegal or inappropriate contacts with insurgents in Baghdad. The statement came as Iraq tried to mend a rift with Egypt after Iraqi officials suggested slain envoy Ihab al-Sherif may have been meeting with Iraqi insurgents before he was kidnapped July 2. _ Two of the 15 Sunni Arabs on a committee drafting Iraq's constitution have quit after receiving threats, committee members said.

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