More progress in Iraq

Confiscated weapons pile up in Iraq http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/iraq/2007-07-30-weapons-caches_N.htm?csp=34 By Jim Michaels, USA TODAY Coalition forces have uncovered more insurgent weapons caches in the first six months of this year than the entire previous year, Gen. David Petraeus, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, said Monday.The record number of seizures is due largely to a new U.S. strategy that has moved American forces off bases and into neighborhoods, generating more tips from civilians. Offensives have also disrupted insurgent sanctuaries, Petraeus said.Uncovering weapons caches are one of several signs of recent military progress, Petraeus said. Petraeus and Ambassador Ryan Crocker will travel to Washington in September to give an assessment of the new strategy in Iraq, which is backed by an additional 30,000 American troops."We feel as if we have momentum, tactical momentum," Petraeus said in a telephone interview from Baghdad.Petraeus cautioned that challenges remain and insurgent groups maintain the ability to carry out large attacks. "I don't want to paint a rosy picture," he said.Uncovering the caches, which can include everything from rockets and surface-to-air missiles to assault weapons and components for roadside bombs, gets weapons out of the hands of insurgents.It's also a sign of how prevalent weapons and ammunition are in Iraq. The numbers of arms caches uncovered so far this year is 3,698, up from 2,726 last year, according to the military command in Iraq. "It's staggering," Petraeus said. Despite tactical success on the battlefield, Iraq's national government has made almost no progress in passing legislation that would help win Sunni support for Iraq's Shiite-dominated government.The legislation is included in the 18 military and political benchmarks Congress will be using to measure progress in Iraq. On Monday, Iraq's parliament adjourned for a month despite the lack of progress.Petraeus will likely highlight progress on reconciliation at the local level when he comes to Washington. A growing movement of mainly Sunni groups are fed up with violence and a strict interpretation of Islam and have turned on al-Qaeda, he said.The U.S. military is not arming the groups but is providing support in other ways, including paying salaries for some, Petraeus said. The goal is for the groups to eventually become part of Iraq's security forces. "I think there is a mind-set shift among Sunni Arabs," Petraeus said.More recently, locals have begun turning on Shiite extremists in parts of heavily Shiite southern Iraq, Petraeus said.Patreus could include recommendations on troop levels as part of his assessment.If no action is taken, the additional forces would remain until next spring. "We all know the surge is going to end," Petraeus said.The question is whether reductions will be made before then.Petraeus said he is still studying troop levels, but any drawdown will need to be designed so as not to lose momentum, Petraeus said. "It is about … not surrendering the gains we have made," he said.The report in September will likely be an interim assessment and not a final report on whether the new strategy has failed or succeeded. The last of the additional forces arrived in Iraq in June.

The Surge is working

The Campaign Spot: "Two thoughts on the op-ed of the day, Michael E. O’Hanlon and Kenneth M. Pollack's vivid potrait of an Iraq in which U.S. military forces are steadily achieving their goals, that concludes, "there is enough good happening on the battlefields of Iraq today that Congress should plan on sustaining the effort at least into 2008." First, I disagree with Dean Barnett's characterization of the Brookings Institution as "hard left." Gregg Easterbrook, William Galston, Stuart Taylor, former #2 at the CIA John McLaughlin... these are not hard lefties, and it's silly to describe an institution that has them in their ranks as such. I understand the impulse to argue that progress in Iraq is not just being reported by conservatives or administration allies, but let's not overstate the liberal bona fides of these folks. But these men are generally regarded as trustworthy asessors of Iraq by left, right, and center, and their description is based on eight days in Baghdad, Ramadi, Tal Afar, Mosul and Ramadi. So my second thought is, if the Democratic presidential candidates disagree with their assessment (I presume they disagree with their conclusion) then I'd like to know how and why. Did O’Hanlon and Pollack not see what they think they saw in Iraq? Is someone in Washington, or New York, or Chicago getting a clearer picture of the state of affairs on the ground in Iraq than someone who walked the streets of Baghdad and Ramadi? I'm willing to be persuaded that a pullout is the best course of action for the United States. Right now the argument from Democrats is endlessly repeating the mantra, "civil war, civil war, civil war." Well, tell that to O’Hanlon and Pollack, or even better, listen to them and tailor your policy prescriptions accordingly. Has the Democratic candidates' message on Iraq become, in essence, "Who are you going to believe, me, or your lying eyes?"

Iraqi security forces continue to strengthen

Iraqi Security Forces, U.S. Special Forces detain rogue Jaysh al-Mahdi leader Thursday, 26 July 2007 Multi-National Corps – IraqPublic Affairs Office, Camp VictoryAPO AE 09342 BAGHDAD – Iraqi Security Forces, with U.S. Special Forces as advisors, detained a cell leader of a rogue Jaysh al-Mahdi militia July 25 in southwestern Baghdad. The Iraqi Forces detained their primary suspect without incident and captured four other suspicious individuals who were present during the operation. The primary suspect is believed to command a rogue Jaysh al-Mahdi cell that is allegedly responsible for the death squad killings of more than 150 Sunni Arab Iraqis. The detainees are being held for questioning. No Iraqi or Coalition Forces were injured in the operation

Winning in iraq

http://www.nypost.com/seven/07262007/postopinion/opedcolumnists/winning_in_iraq_opedcolumnists_ralph_peters.htm New York Post By RALPH PETERS July 26, 2007 -- TO a military professional, the tactical progress made in Iraq over the last few months is impressive. To a member of Congress, it's an annoyance. The herd animals on Capitol Hill - from both parties - just can't wait to go over the cliff on Iraq. And even when the media mention one or two of the successes achieved by our troops, the reports are grudging. Yet what's happening on the ground, right now, in Baghdad and in Iraq's most-troubled provinces, contributes directly to your security. In the words of a senior officer known for his careful assessments, al Qaeda's terrorists in Iraq are "on their back foot and we're trying to knock them to their knees." Do our politicians really want to help al Qaeda regain its balance? Gen. David Petraeus and his deputies sharply prioritized the threats we face in Iraq: Al Qaeda is No. 1, and Iran's Shia proxies are No. 2. Our troops hunt them relentlessly. And we don't face our enemies alone: Iraq's security forces have begun to pick up their share of the fight. A trusted source in Baghdad confirmed several key developments that have gone largely unreported. Here's what's been happening while "journalists" focused on John Edwards' haircuts: * Al Qaeda lost the support of Iraq's Sunni Arabs. The fanatics over-reached: They murdered popular sheiks, kidnapped tribal women for forced marriages, tried to outlaw any form of joy and (perhaps most fatally, given Iraqi habits) banned smoking. In response, the Arab version of the Marlboro Man rose up and started cutting terrorist throats. * Since the tribes who once were fighting against us turned on al Qaeda, our troops not only captured the senior Iraqi in the organization - which made brief headlines - but also killed the three al Turki brothers, major-league pinch-hitters al Qaeda sent into Iraq to save the game. Oh, and it emerged that the Iraqi "head" of the terrorists was just a front - in the words of one Army officer, Omar al Baghdadi was "a Wizard of Oz-like creation designed to give an impression that al Qaeda has Iraqis in its senior ranks." * Al Qaeda has been pushed right across Anbar, from the once Wild West to the province's eastern fringes. The terrorists are still dug in elsewhere, from the Diyala River Valley to a few Baghdad neighborhoods - but, to quote that senior officer again, "our forces have been taking out their leaders faster than they can find qualified replacements." Even the Democrats yearning to become president admit, when pressed, that al Qaeda's a threat to America. So why didn't even one of them praise the success of our troops during their last debate? But let's be fair: Congressional Republicans, terrified of losing their power and glory and precious perks, haven't rushed to applaud our progress, either. They'll give up Iraq, as long as they don't have to give up earmarks. * It isn't only al Qaeda taking serious hits. After briefly showing the flag, Muqtada al-Sadr fled back to Iran again, trailed by his senior deputies. Mookie's No. 2 even moved his family to Iran. Why? Though he's been weak in the past, Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki is now green-lighting Iraqi operations against the Jaish al Mahdi, the Mookster's "Mahdi Army." With its descent into criminality and terror, the Mahdi Army, too, has been losing support among Iraqis - in this case, among Shias. And Iraq's security forces increasingly carry the fight to the militia: * The Iraqi Police Tactical Support Unit in Nasiriyah came under attack by Mahdi Army elements accustomed to intimidating their enemies. Supported by a brave (and tiny) U.S. advisory team, the police commandos fought them off. Instead of a walkover, the militia thugs hit a wall - and got hammered by airstrikes, for good measure. Then the Iraqi police counter-attacked. The Mahdi Army force begged for negotiations. * In Mosul, Iraqi army and police units stuck to their guns through a series of tough combat engagements, with the result that massive arms caches were seized from the terrorists and insurgents. In Kirkuk, Iraqi police reacted promptly to last week's gruesome car-bombing - in time to stop two other car bombs from reaching their intended targets. * In Baghdad, the surge isn't only about American successes - Iraqi security and intelligence forces conducted a series of hard-hitting operations against both al Qaeda and Iran-backed Special Group terrorists. What were you, the American people, told about all this? Well, The New Republic published a pack of out-of-the-ballpark lies concocted by a scammer claiming to be a grunt in Baghdad. Our soldiers, he wrote, spent their time playing games with babies' skulls, running over dogs for fun and mocking disfigured women in their mess hall. Anyone who knows our troops or has visited Iraq could instantly spot the absurdities in this smear and the soldiers in the unit denied that any of it happened - but The New Republic (which refuses to produce its source) isn't exactly staffed by military veterans. The editors wanted to believe evil about our men and women in uniform, and ended up doing evil to our troops. (Those editors ought to be sentenced to spend August in Baghdad with the infantrymen they defamed, cleaning out military port-a-johns in the 130-degree heat.) Is success suddenly guaranteed in Iraq? Of course not. The situation's still a bloody mess. But it's also more encouraging than it's been since the summer of 2003, when the downward slide began. Gen. Dave Petraeus and his subordinate commanders are by far the best team we've ever had in place in that wretched country. They're doing damned near everything right - with austere resources, despite the surge. And they're being abandoned by your elected leaders. Maybe the next presidential primary debate should be held in Baghdad.

Shocker: Al Qaeda is actually in Iraq

Bush links al Qaeda to Iraq militias http://washingtontimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070725/NATION/107250073/1001 July 25, 2007 Washington Times By Joseph Curl - In his most direct effort to date to connect al Qaeda to the Iraq war, President Bush yesterday cited declassified intelligence to tie terrorists operating in Iraq with September 11 mastermind Osama bin Laden, saying new evidence "clearly establishes this connection." Taking direct aim at Democrats who charge the president has exaggerated the al Qaeda presence in Iraq, Mr. Bush declared that the highest echelon of bin Laden's terrorist organization has masterminded the foreign insurgency in Iraq, dispatching terrorists to the country to fight U.S. forces there. "Al Qaeda in Iraq is a group founded by foreign terrorists, led largely by foreign terrorists, and loyal to a foreign terrorist leader — Osama bin Laden," the president said in a speech at an Air Force base in Charleston, S.C. "They know they're al Qaeda. The Iraqi people know they are al Qaeda. People across the Muslim world know they are al Qaeda. And there's a good reason they are called al Qaeda in Iraq. They are al Qaeda. In. Iraq," he said, making dramatic pauses for emphasis. Just a day after Democrats held a presidential debate in Charleston — and every candidate rejected the Bush administration's justification for remaining in Iraq — Mr. Bush laid out his case that the war is the central front in the global battle against Islamic extremism. "There's a debate in Washington about Iraq. ... Some say that Iraq is not part of the broader war on terror. They complain when I say that the al Qaeda terrorists we face in Iraq are part of the same enemy that attacked us on September 11, 2001. They claim that the organization called al Qaeda in Iraq is an Iraqi phenomenon, that it's independent of Osama bin Laden and that it's not interested in attacking America." The president said that view would "be news to Osama bin Laden." He's proclaimed that the 'third world war is raging in Iraq.' Osama bin Laden says, 'The war is for you or for us to win. If we win it, it means your defeat and disgrace forever.' I say that there will be a big defeat in Iraq and it will be the defeat of al Qaeda," Mr. Bush said to applause. Sen. John Kerry, Massachusetts Democrat, delivered the Democratic response to the speech, saying Mr. Bush was ignoring U.S. intelligence reports to "spin a false rationale for the escalation of the war in Iraq." "The National Intelligence Estimate contradicted what the president said today and made it clear that al Qaeda is stronger because of our massive military presence in Iraq," Mr. Kerry said. "No surplus of presidential scare tactics changes the fact that Iraqis will only stand up if we give them deadlines and engage in diplomacy. The president continues to traffic in the politics of fear rather than give our troops a policy based on truth." The president has long fought with Democrats who claim he overstates the al Qaeda-Iraq connection. While the al Qaeda presence in Iraq was negligible at the time of September 11, foreign members of the terror group have since flooded into Iraq to fight U.S. forces. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid yesterday also rejected Mr. Bush's contention, and instead said that "despite what the president would like us to believe, it has been established that al Qaeda had no active cells in Iraq when we invaded, and we have long known that we were not attacked from Iraq on 9/11." Mr. Bush yesterday methodically laid out a case that al Qaeda has sought to establish Iraq as a safe haven from which to operate, and even declassified some U.S. intelligence to strike back at Democrats who say the Iraq war has nothing to do with al Qaeda. "If they can convince America we're not fighting bin Laden's al Qaeda there, they can paint the battle in Iraq as a distraction from the real war on terror. ... The problem they have is with the facts. We are fighting bin Laden's al Qaeda in Iraq; Iraq is central to the war on terror," he said. The president ticked off the facts: Al Qaeda in Iraq was founded by foreign terrorists linked to senior al Qaeda leadership. The founder of the Iraqi branch was Abu Musab Zarqawi, a Jordanian terrorist who had pledged his allegiance to bin Laden. The successor to Zarqawi, killed by U.S. forces in 2006, was Abu Ayyub Masri, who also has ties to al Qaeda's senior leadership. Before the September 11 attacks, the Egyptian terrorist trained in Afghanistan and taught classes indoctrinating others in al Qaeda's Islamist ideology. Other top foreign terrorists of al Qaeda have headed to Iraq, including a Syrian who is al Qaeda in Iraq's emir in Baghdad; a Saudi who is al Qaeda in Iraq's top spiritual and legal adviser; an Egyptian who fought in Afghanistan in the 1990s and has met with bin Laden; and a Tunisian who U.S. intelligence agencies think plays a key role in managing foreign fighters. While some of the al Qaeda in Iraq's rank-and-file fighters and some of its leadership are Iraqi, all are led by foreign terrorists loyal to bin Laden. "Some will tell you that al Qaeda in Iraq is not really al Qaeda — and not really a threat to America," Mr. Bush said. "Well, that's like watching a man walk into a bank with a mask and a gun, and saying he's probably just there to cash a check."

The surge in iraq succeeds

The Surge Succeeds http://www.americanthinker.com/2007/07/the_surge_succeeds.html By J.R. Dunn July 24, 2007 American Thinker Magazine It's now quite clear how the results of the surge will be dealt with by domestic opponents of the Iraq war. They're going to be ignored.They're being ignored now. Virtually no media source or Democratic politician (and not a few Republicans, led by Richard "I can always backtrack" Lugar) is willing to admit that the situation on the ground has changed dramatically over the past three months. Coalition efforts have undergone a remarkable reversal of fortune, a near-textbook example as to how an effective strategy can overcome what appear to be overwhelming drawbacks.Anbar is close to being secured, thanks to the long-ridiculed strategy of recruiting local sheiks. A capsule history of war coverage could be put together from stories on this topic alone - beginning with sneers, moving on to "evidence" that it would never work, to the puzzled pieces of the past few months admitting that something was happening, and finally the recent stories expressing concern that the central government might be "offended" by the attention being paid former Sunni rebels. (Try to find another story in the legacy media worrying about the feelings of the Iraqi government.) What you will not find is any mention of the easily-grasped fact that Anbar acts as a blueprint for the rest of the country. If the process works there, it will work elsewhere. If it works in other areas, that means the destruction of the Jihadis in detail. Nor is that all. Diyala province, promoted in media as the "new Al-Queda stronghold" appears to have become a death-trap. The Jihadis can neither defend it nor abandon it. The Coalition understood that Diyala was where the Jihadis would flee when the heat came down in Baghdad, and they were ready for them. A major element of surge strategy - and one reason why the extra infantry brigades were needed - is to pressure Jihadis constantly in all their sanctuaries, allowing them no time to rest or regroup. A blizzard of operations is occurring throughout central Iraq under the overall code-name Phantom Thunder, the largest operation since the original invasion. It is open-ended, and will continue as long as necessary. Current ancillary operations include Arrowhead Ripper, which is securing the city of Baqubah in Diyala province. Operation Alljah is methodically clearing out every last neighborhood in Fallujah. In Babil province, southeast of Baghdad, operations Marne Torch and Commando Eagle are underway. (As this was being written, yet another spinoff operation, Marne Avalanche, began in Northern Babil.) The Coalition has left the treadmill in which one step of progress seemed to unavoidably lead to two steps back. It requires some time to discover the proper strategy in any war. A cursory glance at 1943 would have given the impression of disaster. Kasserine, in which the German Wehrmacht nearly split Allied forces in Tunisia and sent American GIs running. Tarawa, where over 1,600 U.S. Marines died on a sunny afternoon thanks to U.S. Navy overconfidence. Salerno, where the Allied landing force was very nearly pushed back into the sea. But all these incidents, as bitter as they may have been, were necessary to develop the proper techniques that led to the triumphs of 1944 and 1945.Someday, 2006 may be seen as Iraq's 1943. It appears that Gen. David Petreaus has discovered the correct strategy for Iraq: engaging the Jihadis all over the map as close to simultaneously as possible. Keeping them on the run constantly, giving them no place to stand, rest or refit. Increasing operational tempo to an extent that they cannot match ("Getting inside their decision cycle", as the 4th generation warfare school would call it), leaving them harried, uncertain, and apt to make mistakes. The surge is more of a refinement than a novelty. Earlier Coalition efforts were not in error as much as they were incomplete. American troops would clean out an area, turn it over to an Iraqi unit, and depart. The Jihadis would then push out the unseasoned Iraqis and return to business. This occurred in Fallujah, Tall Afar, and endless times in Ramadi. Now U.S. troops are remaining on site, which reassures the locals and encourages cooperation. The Jihadis broke (and more than likely never knew) the cardinal rule of insurgency warfare, that of being a good guest. As Mao put it, "The revolutionary must be as a fish among the water of the peasantry." The Jihadis have been lampreys to the Iraqi people. Proselytizing, forcing adaptation of their reactionary creed, engaging in torture, kidnapping, and looting. Arabic culture is one in which open dealings, personal loyalty, and honor are at a premium. Violate any of them, and there is no way back. The Jihadis violated them all. The towns and cities of Iraq are no longer sanctuaries. The results have begun to come in. On July 4, Khaled al-Mashhadani, the most senior Iraqi in Al-Queda, was captured in Mosul. On July 14, Abu Jurah, a senior Al-Queda leader in the area south of Baghdad, was killed in a coordinated strike by artillery, helicopters, and fighter-bombers. These blows to the leadership are the direct outgrowth of Jihadi brutality and the new confidence among the Iraqis in what they have begun to call the "al-Ameriki tribe". We will see more of this in the weeks ahead. The Jihadis have come up with no effective counterstrategy, and the old methods have begun to lose mana. The last massive truck-bomb attack occurred not in Baghdad, but in a small Diyala village that defied Al-Queda. An insurgency in the position of using its major weapons to punish noncombatants is not in a winning situation.

Iraqi tribes coming together across country

Iraqi tribes reach Security Accord http://www.washingtontimes.com/article/20070723/FOREIGN/107230051/1003 July 23, 2007 By David Enders - TAJI, Iraq — U.S. forces have brokered an agreement between Sunni and Shi'ite tribal leaders to join forces against al Qaeda and other extremists, extending a policy that has transformed the security situation in western Anbar province to this area north of the capital. The extremists struck back yesterday with a suicide car bomb aimed at one of the Sunni tribes involved in the deal, killing three militiamen and wounding 14. Members of the First Calvary Division based at nearby Camp Taji helped broker the deal on Saturday with the tribal leaders, who agreed to use members of more than 25 local tribes to protect the area around Taji from both Sunni and Shi'ite extremists. Yesterday's suicide attack took place at a checkpoint that was set up under the security plan and run by members of the al-Zobaie tribal militia, nicknamed "Freedom Fighters" by the U.S. troops. The Americans say they were attacked daily in the area 12 miles north of Baghdad before Saturday's deal. "We want to protect innocent civilians from killing and kidnapping," said Nadeem al-Tamimi, a Shi'ite tribal leader. "We have been working against al Qaeda for two years and paying for it from our own pocket. But we're not just against al Qaeda. We're against all murderers and thieves." Shortly after that meeting, Mr. al-Tamimi received a call saying one of his relatives had been assassinated in what was described as a "warning" from the Mahdi Army, a Shi'ite militia nominally loyal to radical cleric Muqtada al-Sadr. The Mahdi Army fought U.S. troops openly in 2004 when Sheik al-Sadr openly opposed participation in the U.S.-backed Iraqi government. But the militia splintered as sectarian violence increased, and Sheik al-Sadr allowed his followers to participate in the government as an opposition party. Despite yesterday's attack, U.S. troops believe they are making headway. Immediately after Saturday's agreement, soldiers from the Seventh Regiment of the First Cavalry Division calmly walked through Jurf al-Mila and nearby Falahat, both Sunni areas, to demonstrate the change since the tribal leaders first approached them. Men from the village, most of the them carrying weapons, greeted the soldiers warmly, shaking hands and kissing cheeks in traditional Iraqi fashion. Mr. al-Tamimi was to make formal the arrangement today at a meeting with Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and two other Shi'ite politicians, including Bahaa al-Araji, a member of Sheik al-Sadr's parliamentary bloc. U.S. Capt. Martin Wohlgemuth, who presided over Saturday's meeting, said that step would allow members of the tribes to be officially hired and trained in the Iraqi police and military. The proposed deal is the latest in a series of agreements that have brought the U.S. and Iraqi government into collaboration with various tribes and guerrilla groups that had in many cases been part of the insurgency. Similar agreements in Anbar province have been credited with putting al Qaeda and its foreign extremists on the defensive while bringing relative peace to some of Iraq's most violent areas. The Taji agreement, however, is the first involving both Sunni and Shi'ite sheiks, and the U.S. military hopes it will help temper the increasing influence of the Mahdi Army in and around Baghdad. "A month ago, every single one of these people was shooting at us," said Sgt. Richard Fisk as he walked through Falahat pointing out places where his troops had been hit by roadside bombs. Capt. Wohlgemuth said the tribal leaders approached the United States for support after a number of raids and detentions, coupled with increasingly brutal treatment of the local population by the group calling itself al Qaeda in Iraq. The captain said that in some cases he has helped members of the new militia to get relatives released from U.S. and Iraqi custody, provided they were not linked to al Qaeda. The militiamen indicated a fear of the Mahdi Army as well as of the Sunni insurgents and said they worried that Shi'ite families driven out of the area in the last two years might return to take revenge. "They are both dangerous," said one militiaman as he stood in front of a kabob stand in Falahat with a Kalashnikov around his neck while U.S. troops sat nearby. Capt. Wohlgemuth arrived at the scene of yesterday's bombing minutes after the explosion. There, he met with Hassan Naji al-Zobaie, the sheik in charge of the militiamen in Jurf al-Mila. "For four years, different initiatives have fizzled. We can't let this one fail," he said of Saturday's agreement. Despite the initial success of such security arrangements, many Iraqis worry that the formation and arming of new militias will ultimately widen a civil war that has already killed thousands. After yesterday's car bombing, tensions between the Sunni militiamen and mostly Shi'ite Iraqi troops — who had failed to stop the car at a nearby checkpoint — nearly erupted into shooting. "It is like raising a crocodile," said Saad Yousef al-Muttalibi, a member of Mr. al-Maliki's Cabinet who is in charge of negotiating reconciliation agreements. "It is fine when it is a baby, but when it is big, you can't keep it in the house."

Italian police to train iraqi national police

Italian police to train Iraqi National Police 20 Jul 07 Spc. Emily GreeneCombined Press Information Center BAGHDAD — Italian Army Maj. Gen. Alessandro Pompegnani, Deputy Commander of NATO Training Mission-Iraq spoke about his country’s efforts to help train the Iraqi National Police at a press conference at the Combined Press Information Center Thursday. Since 1814 the Arma dei Carabinieri (Force of Carabinieri) has ensured the rights of the Italian people, both at home and abroad. The Carabinieri are Italian military police whose mission is to control the crime and to serve the community through respect for the Law. Now the Carabinieri will share their training techniques with the Iraqi National Police as part of the efforts of the NATO Training Mission in Iraq. “The Gendarmeria-type training provided by the Carabinieri will help establish the Iraqi National Police as a professional military police force, filling the gap between the police and the armed forces,” said Pompegnani. This will not be the first time the Carabinieri have worked with the Iraqi National Police. In 2005 they helped train a specialized police unit at the regional police level in Nasiriyah. “The training will build on the very effective basic training that the Civilian Police Assistance Training Team (CPATT) already provides for the national police since 2004,” said Pompegnani. “It is not intended to replace that training in any way, it is a specialization that builds upon the basis that CPATT has laid and continues to provide for the national police.” Pompegnani said the Carabinieri have a two-year plan to train Iraqi National Police leadership. Eight battalions of national police will train at Camp Dublin, close to the Baghdad International Airport. Each course will last three months and will initially be staffed by about 40 Carabinieri in training and support roles, he said. The training will focus primarily on counterinsurgency methods and forensic investigation to help the Iraqi Police fight the terrorism they are faced with daily said Pompegnani. “The national police can connect with the public in a way that armed forces cannot and the NATO Training Mission in Iraq considers that the training the Carabinieri provides will help build the Iraqi people’s trust in the national police,” Pompegnani said. Currently there is an advance planning team in Baghdad which is working with the Iraqi National Police authorities to adapt the European Gendarmerie training model to the needs of the Iraqis, said Pompegnani. “The NATO Training Mission in Iraq has had success in helping build up leadership training for the Iraqi Armed Forces and is committed to support the Iraqi National Police training to its fulfillment,” Pompegnani said.

Al Mashadani is captured by the good guys, and sings..

US Military Captures Top Iraqi Member of al-Qaida in Iraq http://voanews.com/english/2007-07-18-voa16.cfm Voice of America: By Margaret Besheer Irbil, Iraq 18 July 2007 The U.S. military says it has captured the top Iraqi member of al-Qaida in Iraq. Officials say Khaled al-Mashhadani was an intermediary among top al-Qaida leaders including Osama bin Laden. From Iraq, VOA's Margaret Besheer has more. Khaled al-Mashhadani, also known as Abu Shahid, was captured July 4 in the northern city of Mosul. U.S. Brigadier General Kevin Bergner told reporters in Baghdad that Mashhadani is believed to be the most senior Iraqi national in the al-Qaida in Iraq network, and is a close associate of Abu Ayub al-Masri, the Egyptian-born head of the group. General Bergner also said Mashhadani served as an intermediary between top al-Qaida leaders Abu Ayub al-Masri, Osama bin Laden and his deputy Ayman al-Zawahri. Last year, Mashhadani and Abu Ayub al-Masri started a virtual organization on the Internet called the Islamic State of Iraq, as the new Iraqi pseudonym for al-Qaida in Iraq. "In his words, the Islamic State of Iraq is a front organization that masks the foreign influence and leadership within al-Qaida in Iraq in an attempt to put an Iraqi face on the leadership of al-Qaida in Iraq," Bergner said.The Islamic State in Iraq has identified its leader as Abu Omar al-Baghdadi, but the general says Mashhadani told interrogators that al-Baghdadi does not exist and an actor directed by al-Masri is used to portray him in audiotapes.The general says Mashhadani's capture has confirmed that foreign al-Qaida leaders, not Iraqis, make the operational decisions for the group inside Iraq. "The capture of Mashhadani and his statements give us a more complete picture of al-Qaida in Iraq. Although the rank and file are largely Iraqi, the senior leadership of al-Qaida in Iraq, as we have previously stated, is mostly foreign," Bergner said.General Bergner accused al-Qaida in Iraq of driving the country's sectarian violence. "They are without question the main threat to the government of Iraq and to the stability of Iraq because of the role they play in accelerating and fueling sectarian violence," Bergner said.Iraqi and coalition forces have intensified their pursuit of al-Qaida in Iraq recently in operations in several provinces around Baghdad. There has been significant success in the former al-Qaida stronghold of Anbar province, where local tribal leaders have turned against the group.

Major al qaeda leader assumes room temperature

U.S.: Major al-Qaeda figure killed in precision strike BAGHDAD (AP) — The most wanted al-Qaeda in Iraq figure south of Baghdad was killed last weekend by a precision-guided artillery round, the U.S. military said Tuesday. Abu Jurah, an al-Qaeda cell leader, died Saturday in the Arab Jabour area just south of the city after U.S. troops received word that he and 14 others were meeting at a house there, a U.S. statement said. About an hour later, the 1st Battalion, 9th Field Artillery Regiment fired two Excalibur precision-guided shells at the house, destroying it. An unmanned aerial vehicle saw people leaving the rubble and loading the injured into a vehicle. An AH-64 Apache helicopter attacked the vehicle and destroyed it, the statement said. Three people were seen fleeing into a second house, which was destroyed by a U.S. Air Force F-16 jet that dropped two 500-pound guided bombs on it.

Iran is lair for al qaeda leaders

From Eli Lake in the New York Post WASHINGTON — One of two known Al Qaeda leadership councils meets regularly in eastern Iran, where the American intelligence community believes dozens of senior Al Qaeda leaders have reconstituted a good part of the terror conglomerate's senior leadership structure. That is a consensus judgment from a final working draft of a new National Intelligence Estimate, titled "The Terrorist Threat to the U.S. Homeland," on the organization that attacked the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001. The estimate, which represents the opinion of America's intelligence agencies, is now finished, and unclassified conclusions will be shared today with the public. The classified document includes four main sections, examining how Al Qaeda in recent years has increased its capacity to stage another attack on American soil; how the organization has replenished the ranks of its top leaders; nations where Al Qaeda operates, and the status of its training camps and physical infrastructure. The judgment that Iran has hosted Al Qaeda's senior leadership council is likely to draw some criticism from those outside the government who doubt Iran plays a significant role in bolstering Sunni jihadist terrorism. Iran's Shiite Muslims are considered infidels by the Salafi sect of Sunnis that comprise Al Qaeda. While there is little disagreement that a branch of Al Qaeda's leadership operates in Iran, the intelligence community diverges on the extent to which the hosting of the senior leaders represents a policy of the regime in Tehran or the rogue actions of Iran's Quds Force, the terrorist support units that report directly to Iran's supreme leader. In the estimate's chapter on Al Qaeda's replenished senior leadership, three American intelligence sources said, there is a discussion of the eastern Iran-based Shura Majlis, a kind of consensus-building organization of top Al Qaeda figures that meets regularly to make policy and plan attacks. The New York Sun first reported in October that one of the Shura Majlis for Al Qaeda meets in the federally administered tribal areas of Pakistan, one of the areas the Pakistani army this week re-engaged after a yearlong cease-fire. Both Osama bin Laden and his deputy, Ayman al-Zawahri, participate in those meetings. The other Shura Majlis is believed to meet in eastern Iran in the network established after Al Qaeda was driven from Afghanistan in 2001. Following that battle, a military planner trained in the Egyptian special forces, Saif al-Adel, fled to Iran. Mr. Zawahri then arranged with the then commander of Iran's Quds Force, Ahmad Vahidi, for safe harbor for senior leaders. The three main Al Qaeda leaders in Iran include Mr. Adel; the organization's minister of propaganda, Suleiman Abu Ghaith, and the man who some analysts believe is the heir apparent to Mr. bin Laden — one of his sons, Saad bin Laden. The locations of the senior leaders include a military base near Tehran called Lavizan; a northern suburb of Tehran, Chalous; an important holy city, Mashod, and a border town near Afghanistan, Zabul, the draft intelligence estimate says. In 2003, Iran offered a swap of the senior leaders in exchange for members of an Iranian opposition group on America's list of foreign terrorist organizations, the People's Mujahadin. That deal was scuttled after signal intercepts proved, according to American intelligence officials, that Mr. Adel was in contact with an Al Qaeda cell in Saudi Arabia. In the aftermath of the failed deal, Al Qaeda's Iran branch has worked closely in helping to establish the group in Iraq. The late founder of Al Qaeda in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, had multiple meetings with Mr. Adel after 2001. In the past year, the multinational Iraq command force has intercepted at least 10 couriers with instructions from the Iran-based Shura Majlis. In addition, two senior leaders of Al Qaeda captured in 2006 have shared details of the Shura Majlis in Iran. "We know that there were two Al Qaeda centers of gravity. After the Taliban fell, one went to Pakistan, the other fled to Iran," Roger Cressey, a former deputy to a counterterrorism tsar, Richard Clarke, said in an interview yesterday. "The question for several years has been: What type of operational capability did each of these centers have?" A senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations and Iran expert, Vali Nasr, said he did not know that the Shura Majlis had reconstituted in eastern Iran, but he did say his Iranian contacts had confirmed recent NATO intelligence that Iran had begun shipping arms to Al Qaeda's old Afghan hosts, the Taliban in Afghanistan. Mr. Nasr, however, said Iran's recent entente with Al Qaeda could be simply a matter of statecraft. "Iran and Al Qaeda do not have to like one another," he said. "They can hate each other, they can kill each other, their ultimate goals may be against one another, but for the short term Iran can unleash Al Qaeda on the United States." Mr. Cressey said the Iranian regime's relationship with Al Qaeda is one of tolerance as opposed to command and control. "I think the Iranians are giving these guys enough latitude to operate to give them another chit in the game of U.S.-Iranian relations," he said. An intelligence official sympathetic to the view that it is a matter of Iranian policy to cooperate with Al Qaeda disputed the CIA and State Department view that the Quds Force is operating as a rogue force. "It is just impossible to believe that what the Quds Force does with Al Qaeda does not represent a decision of the government," the official, who asked not to be identified, said. "It's a bit like saying the directorate of operations for the CIA is not really carrying out U.S. policy." Some intelligence reporting suggests, the source said, that the current chief of the Quds Force, General Qassem Sulamani, has met with Saad bin Laden, Mr. Adel, and Mr. Abu Ghaith. The link between Iran and Al Qaeda is not new, in some cases. The bipartisan September 11 commission report, for example, concluded: "There is strong evidence that Iran facilitated the transit of Al Qaeda members into and out of Afghanistan before 9/11, and that some of these were future 9/11 hijackers." According to the commission, a senior Al Qaeda coordinator, Ramzi bin al-Shibh, said eight of the September 11 hijackers went through Iran on their way to and from Afghanistan. In 2005, both Undersecretary of State Nicholas Burns and the then ambassador at large for counterterrorism, Cofer Black, disclosed that America believes that senior Al Qaeda leaders reside in Iran.

Army officers see need for sustaining surge- no defeat

U.S. General in Iraq Speaks Strongly Against Troop Pullout By JOHN F. BURNS BAGHDAD, July 15 — An American general directing a major part of the offensive aimed at securing Baghdad said Sunday that it would take until next spring for the operation to succeed, and that an early American withdrawal would clear the way for “the enemy to come back” to areas now being cleared of insurgents. Maj. Gen. Rick Lynch, commanding 15,000 American and about 7,000 Iraqi troops on Baghdad’s southern approaches, spoke more forcefully than any American commander to date in urging that the so-called troop surge ordered by President Bush continue into the spring of 2008. That would match the deadline of March 31 set by the Pentagon, which has said that limits on American troops available for deployment will force an end to the increase by then. “It’s going to take us through the summer and fall to deny the enemy his sanctuaries” south of Baghdad, General Lynch said at a news briefing in the capital. “And then it’s going to take us through the first of the year and into the spring” to consolidate the gains now being made by the American offensive and to move enough Iraqi forces into the cleared areas to ensure that they remain so, he said. The general spoke as momentum is gathering in Congress for an early withdrawal date for the 160,000 American troops, as well as an accelerated end to the troop buildup, which have increased American combat casualties in the past three months to the highest levels of the war. In renewed debate over the past week, Congressional opponents of the war have demanded a withdrawal deadline, with some proposing that Congress use its war-financing powers to end the troop increase much sooner, possibly this fall. General Lynch, a blunt-spoken, cigar-smoking Ohio native who commands the Third Infantry Division, said that all the American troops that began an offensive south of Baghdad in mid-June were part of the five-month-old troop buildup, and that they were making “significant” gains in areas that were previously enemy sanctuaries. Pulling back before the job was completed, he said, would create “an environment where the enemy could come back and fill the void.” He implied that an early withdrawal would amount to an abandonment of Iraqi civilians who he said had rallied in support of the American and Iraqi troops, and would leave the civilians exposed to renewed brutality by extremist groups. “When we go out there, the first question they ask is, ‘Are you staying?’ ” he said. “And the second question is, ‘How can we help?’ ” He added, “What we hear is, ‘We’ve had enough of people attacking our villages, attacking our homes, and attacking our children.’ ” General Lynch said his troops had promised local people that they would stay in the areas they had taken from the extremists until enough Iraqi forces were available to take over, and said this had helped sustain “a groundswell” of feeling against the extremists. He said locals had pinpointed hide-outs of Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia, an extremist group that claims to have ties to Osama bin Laden’s network, that had been used to send suicide bombers into Baghdad and they had helped troops locate 170 large arms caches. The general said the locals had started neighborhood patrol units called “Iraqi provincial volunteers” that supplied their own weapons and ammunition. The general declined to be drawn into what he called “the big debate in Washington” over the war, saying American troops would continue to battle the enemy until ordered to do otherwise. But he made it clear that his sympathies were with the Iraqis in his battle area, covering an area about the size of West Virginia, mostly between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, that extends about 80 miles south of Baghdad and includes 4 of Iraq’s 18 provinces. The offensive he commands is part of a wider push by American and Iraqi forces in the areas surrounding Baghdad, and in the capital, that began in February. “What they’re worried about is our leaving,” he said. “And our answer is, ‘We’re staying,’ because my order from the corps commander is that we don’t leave the battlespace until we can hand over to the Iraqi security forces.” To hold on to recent gains, he said, would require at least a third more Iraqi troops than he now has, and they would have to come from other battle areas, or from new units yet to complete their training. “Everybody wants things to happen overnight, and that’s not going to happen,” he said. General Lynch’s outspoken approach contrasted with the more cautious remarks made recently by other senior American officers, including the top American commander here, Gen. David H. Petraeus. General Petraeus has said in recent interviews that the troop buildup has made substantial gains. But he has declined to say whether he will urge a continuation of it when he returns to Washington by mid-September to make a report on the war to President Bush and Congress that was made mandatory by war-financing legislation this spring. General Lynch said he was “amazed” at the cooperation his troops were encountering in previously hostile areas. He cited the village of Al Taqa, near the Euphrates about 20 miles southwest of Baghdad, where four American soldiers were killed in an ambush on May 12 and three others were taken hostage. One of the hostages was later found dead, leaving two soldiers missing. Brig. Gen. Jim Huggins, a deputy to General Lynch, said an Iraqi commander in the area had told him on Saturday that women and children in the village had begun using plastic pipes to tap on streetlamps and other metal objects to warn when extremists were in the area planting roadside bombs and planning other attacks. “The tapping,” General Huggins said, was a signal that “these people have had enough.”General Lynch also challenged an argument often made by American lawmakers who want to end the military involvement here soon: that Iraqi troops have ducked much of the hard fighting, and often proved unreliable because of the strong sectarian influence exercised by the competition for power between Shiite, Sunni and Kurdish political factions.“I don’t know,” he said, how American war critics had concluded that the new American-trained Iraqi Army was not up to the fight. “I find that professionally offensive,” he said, after noting that there were “many Iraqi heroes” of the fighting south of Baghdad. “They’re competent,” he said. “There’s just not enough of them.” General Lynch said that he and other American commanders were worried that extremist groups under attack by the buildup might retaliate with a spectacular, focused attack on American troops aimed at tipping the argument in Washington in favor of withdrawal.

Good News from Northern Iraq

My Little Bit For the "Surge of Facts", a Report from the Kurdish Region- Jim Geraghty Candidate Spot "As noted over in the Corner, Bill Bennett wants the Republican field to come out and make clear their thoughts on the current debate in Iraq right now. (To his credit, of sorts, I think we know where Ron Paul stands.) I was delighted to receive this e-mail from a .mil address: I am an American officer currently stationed in Kurdish Iraq. You mentioned women being trained at a Peshmerga base near (if it’s the one I’m thinking of, then it’s actually within the city limits of) Sulaymaniyah. I may have visited this base, and have visited quite a few. Americans, you see, are rock stars here. Why? Because for decades the Kurds have been hunted and killed by everyone around them; the Iraqis, Syrians, Turks and Iranians. Everybody hates them. But the Americans came to their aid. So Kurds love Americans. I am one of two Americans embedded with the Iraqi military academy near here. We are the only Americans in a 40 mile radius. I am not on a base, but am surrounded by hundreds of Peshmerga. We go shopping in the city (population: 1.2 million) and walk around freely. Everyone who sees us waves, shakes our hands, or asks us to take a photo with them. We spent several hours walking around Freedom Park, which was Saddam’s detention (and murder) facility before 1992. The Kurds turned it into a garden park. The Kurds never want the Americans to leave; actually, they want us to build permanent bases here. Why? Because they know if we’re here, no one will attack them anymore. All they want to do is live without being exterminated. If those who support the war can get our friends on the left side of the aisle to recognize that the work we're doing over there is important, that it is a good thing, and that we should not abandon communities like the ones described in the e-mail above, the debate will be more than halfway won. At that point, we would no longer be arguing over what the goal should be (U.S. troops out as soon as possible vs. a stable Iraq), but the best way to get there.

Another very good day in Diyala Province..

Iraqi and Coalition Forces kill 20 militants in Diyala http://www.news24.com/News24/World/Iraq/0,,2-10-1460_2145415,00.html 11/07/2007 19:27 - (South African Press) Baghdad - United States and Iraqi forces killed 20 al-Qaeda militants in Iraq and detained another 20 in the restive province of Diyala, the military said on Wednesday. Operation Saber Guardian was launched on Tuesday as US and Iraqi forces targeted militant strongholds near the town of Sherween in the province, northeast of Baghdad, the military said. The operation was backed by close air support and warplanes dropped eight 2000-pound (907 kg) bombs and 14 500-pound bombs on three river crossings and a bridge to cut off the militants. "The locations were used by al-Qaeda to conduct their attacks and were engaged to prevent their escape," it said. Massive military sweep The US military statement quoting Major General Abdul Kareem, commander of Iraqi forces in Diyala, said the operation led to the discovery of "a big hideout of terrorists". "It was a very big surprise for the terrorists and the people that support them." Iraq forces also cleared a local mosque suspected of being a haven for militants, the statement said, adding that a large weapons cache was found. "The political impact will strengthen the local population's confidence in the IA (Iraq Army) and the local government," said US Major John Woodward. "It will also facilitate Sunni resistance fighting in the Muqdadiyah area as the people have grown tired of the destruction Al-Qaeda offers." About 10 000 US and Iraqi troops are currently conducting a massive military sweep in the province which has emerged as the second most dangerous region after Baghdad.

The Surge is working..

Give the 'Surge' a Chance By PETE HEGSETH July 9, 2007; Page A15 Wall Street Journal This week, Democrats on Capitol Hill are expected to present several different bills meant to undermine the war in Iraq. I fear that it will be difficult for Americans to discern the facts, as members on the Hill (including some Republicans) will revisit past failures and lament unfortunate losses rather than undertake a serious critique of the new counterinsurgency strategy. Why? Because for some members of Congress, there is a growing fear that Gen. David Petraeus just might have a winning strategy in Iraq. Despite four years of failed policy, the strategy we have in Iraq today is sound, both in principle and in practice, as my combat tour in Iraq confirmed. Gen. Petraeus is bringing safety and stability to Baghdad and Anbar Province, putting insurgents on the run. Now it's a question of whether House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and wobbly Republicans will give him the time and resources he needs. So, before the debate reconvenes, I thought a brief refutation of the top four Iraq falsehoods would be instructive :• Falsehood No. 1: The "surge" is already a failure. Fact: The surge is just beginning. All of the brigades Gen. Petraeus requested have only been in place since mid-June and already there are promising indicators. Since January, sectarian murders are substantially down, arms caches are being found at three times the rate of last year and young Sunnis and Shiites are joining the Iraqi security forces in record numbers.• Falsehood No. 2: Gen. Petraeus believes the military has done all it can do in Iraq.Fact: Sen. Reid often quotes Gen. Petraeus to support his position that the war is "lost." But a fair survey of Gen. Petraeus's remarks confirms that he believes the U.S. military must set the conditions for political progress. The ultimate solution to Iraq's problem is political reconciliation, which can only come with the improvements in security the surge is designed to achieve.• Falsehood No. 3: The U.S. is playing insurgent "whack-a-mole" throughout Iraq. Fact: Gen. Petraeus's mission is called the Baghdad Security Plan for a reason: Its limited aim is to pacify Iraq's capital and center of gravity, thereby shifting the country's balance of power. The strategy is for U.S. and Iraqi forces to clear multiple insurgent safe havens in and around Baghdad at once to prevent insurgents from relocating, then to maintain security by remaining within the communities and building trust with the locals who were being intimidated by Sunni insurgents and Shiite militiamen.• Falsehood No. 4: U.S. troops are not fighting an enemy in Iraq, just policing a "civil war." Fact: America's enemies are invested in our defeat in Iraq. Al Qaeda leaders like Osama bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri say they want to "expel the Americans from Iraq" and establish a "caliphate" to "extend the jihad to the secular countries neighboring Iraq." These killers are intent on spreading their violent ideology, and believe stoking sectarian violence is the best way to achieve their goals. Al Qaeda may only make up 10% of the insurgency in Iraq, but what they lack in numbers, they make up for in lethality. Gen. Petraeus has said that "80 to 90% of suicide bombers are foreign fighters," and by neutralizing them, we could stomp out the low-level civil war. In light of these facts, our country faces an important decision: listen to David Petraeus and the generals in Iraq, who believe we finally have a winning strategy that will take time to execute, or bow to the political demands of Republicans and Democrats in Congress who are more interested in avoiding defeat in their home districts than defeating al Qaeda & Co. in Iraq. Gen. Petraeus promised a candid report in September. Until then, for the same senators who unanimously confirmed him and his counterinsurgency strategy in January to undercut his efforts is extremely irresponsible, and exposes how quickly war-time leadership can transform into election-season pandering. Mr. Hegseth, a first lieutenant in the Army National Guard and executive director of VetsforFreedom.org1, served in Iraq with the 101st Airborne Division from September 2005 to July 2006.

General Petraeus lays out the plan for iraq

General Petraeus discusses Iraq By RALPH PETERS New York Post July 10, 2007 -- GEN. David Petraeus, our nation's senior soldier in Iraq and the commander of Coalition forces, this week took the time to explain to Post readers where he believes we are right now - and where Iraq is headed. Ralph Peters: The current military operations in Iraq appear comprehensive and tenacious, part of a long-term, integrated plan. What can we realistically expect to achieve? Petraeus: Our primary goal is to work with our Iraqi counterparts to improve security for the Iraqi people. This is intended to give Iraqi leaders the time to resolve the tough political issues they face and to pursue internal reconciliation. We're working to eliminate the capability for al Qaeda and any other extremist groups to plan, assemble forces and mount attacks. We're clearing extremist sanctuaries in Baghdad, as well as in the belts around the city and in Diyala Province - while pursuing terrorist and extremist leaders throughout Iraq. As to reasonable expectations, we can expect a reduction in sectarian deaths and the gradual spread of Iraqi government authority. The level of sectarian deaths in Baghdad in June was the lowest in about a year. Nonetheless, extremists still have been able to carry out car bomb and other attacks. Obviously, there's considerable work to be done to reduce that ability. Q: There's a strong focus on going after al-Qaeda-in-Iraq in this offensive. How are you bringing our strengths against their weaknesses? A: Al-Qaeda-in-Iraq's key weaknesses are an ideology that does not resonate with Iraqis and an indiscriminate brutality that alienates the people. Popular sentiment has begun to shift against them. To break al Qaeda's grip on troubled areas, we employ the full range of our combat and support capabilities, as well as interagency assets. At the end of the day, though, it's a Marine or Soldier on foot who does the final clearing, and our troops have been magnificent - as have, in many cases, our Iraqi partners, though their performance remains uneven. Wherever we operate, we try to reconnect Iraqi ministries and local governments to meet the needs of the people. Finally, we provide opportunities for Iraqis to use their local knowledge to help root out al Qaeda. Successful operations of this nature have played out in recent months in Ramadi, Hit and Baquba. In each case, Iraqis turned against al Qaeda and sided with the Coalition. Q: After more than four years of often frustrating operations in Iraq, troop morale remains remarkably resilient by historical standards. Even re-enlistment rates are impressive. How do our men and women in uniform remain so committed? A: They know they're engaged in a critical endeavor, one that's "larger than self." They recognize the mission's importance not just to Iraq, but to the entire region and to our own country. Despite multiple tours and separations from loved ones, not to mention the impatience, frustration and other emotions we all feel at times, our men and women in uniform want to see Iraqis succeed - and, of course, they have a fierce desire not to let down their buddies. The bonds of those who have served together in combat are particularly strong. We celebrated the 4th of July with a wonderful ceremony in Baghdad. It included what may have been the largest re-enlistment ceremony in history: 588 of our men and women raised their right hands and signed up for another tour in the Armed Forces. Following that, 161 soldiers and Marines became United States citizens, reciting the oath to the nation they had been serving in combat, but that had not yet been their own. They were proud Americans, and we were all proud of them. Q: The performance of Iraqi security forces still seems to be a mixed bag. What are their strengths and weaknesses? Do they really have a national identity? A: There is a national identity in the Iraqi security forces, though it varies in intensity and some units still exhibit the sectarian behavior that was so destructive in late 2006. The Iraqi security forces often reflect the quality of their leaders. There are some very good units that are largely operating on their own, and there are some that need considerable Coalition assistance. Of course, their strengths include a level of cultural awareness that no amount of training can give us. They have knowledge of the local areas that's particularly helpful, and their human intelligence networks can be of considerable value. Beyond that, they've been willing to fight - especially when their leaders set the example. Their losses in June were three times ours. Their key weaknesses are a lack of logistical self-sufficiency, heavy weaponry shortages (improving) and the lack of the infrastructure so important in modern warfare - all of which we're helping them build up. In the case of the local police, recruits and their families can be vulnerable to intimidation and coercion, if the situation where they live gets tough. Q: The defection of Sunni tribes in Anbar from their alliance with al-Qaeda-in-Iraq to cooperate with Coalition forces is one of the most encouraging developments we've seen. Can this be sustained and expanded? Are there risks? A: The "flipping" of the tribes in Anbar has been a very heartening development, and we do believe it can be sustained and expanded. That's precisely what the Iraqi government and our units are striving to do as Sunni tribes in Diyala, Salah ad Din and Ninevah Provinces turn against al Qaeda and its extremist affiliates. We're beginning to see a revolt of the middle against both extremes. That's potentially decisive. Of course, there are risks involved, should these groups turn on one another or on government forces after they're done with al Qaeda, but the risk looks manageable. Key to all this is to incorporate those who want to fight extremists into Iraqi government institutions as quickly as possible, so that they're responsive to a government chain of command (and get their salaries that way, too). Q: While there's a feel of military progress just now, there hasn't been corresponding progress within the Iraqi government, whose members continue to squabble. Why should Americans believe the Iraqis can get their act together? A: The political dimension is the most significant current challenge. Iraqi leaders are grappling with first-order questions - akin to our own debates at the birth of our nation over states' rights and so on. And the progress has been less than what all of us - the Iraqis as well as Coalition leaders - had hoped to see. There have been some encouraging signs, such as progress on some critical legislation and the rise of opposition to extremists in many areas, but, ultimately, the political issues must be resolved by Iraqis in an Iraqi way. Our role is to create an environment in which political compromise becomes possible - by breaking the cycle of sectarian violence and lifting the pall of fear. Q: Now that the surge is fully in place, what's your sense of the positives and negatives thus far? If you could have more of any one item, what would it be? Troops? Time? Iraqi unity? A: I can think of few commanders in history who wouldn't have wanted more troops, more time or more unity among their partners; however, if I could only have one at this point in Iraq, it would be more time. This is an exceedingly tough endeavor that faces countless challenges. None of us, Iraqi or American, are anything but impatient and frustrated at where we are. But there are no shortcuts. Success in an endeavor like this is the result of steady, unremitting pressure over the long haul. It's a test of wills, demanding patience, determination and stamina from all involved.

enterprise sails to join arabian flotilla

U.S. Navy sends third carrier to 5th fleet region Reuters - Tuesday, July 10 01:24 pm MANAMA (Reuters) - The U.S. navy has sent a third aircraft carrier to its Fifth Fleet area of operations, which includes Gulf waters close to Iran, the navy said on Tuesday. "USS Enterprise (aircraft carrier) provides navy power to counter the assertive, disruptive and coercive behaviour of some countries, as well as support our soldiers and marines in Iraq and Afghanistan," a U.S. Navy statement said. The move comes weeks after a flotilla of U.S. warships sailed through the narrowest point in the Gulf to hold exercises off Iran's coast in a major show of force. Tension over Tehran's nuclear ambitions has raised regional fears of a military confrontation. Recent U.S. naval presence in the Gulf has been the largest since the 2003 Iraq war. The Fifth Fleet area of operations includes the Arabian Gulf, Arabian Sea, Red Sea, Gulf of Aden, Gulf of Oman and parts of the Indian Ocean.

USS Enterprise sets sail for Arabian Gulf

If we would only actually ACT against the Iranians, we would be in a stronger position to deal with Iraq. U.S. Navy sends third carrier to 5th fleet region Reuters - Tuesday, July 10 01:24 pm MANAMA (Reuters) - The U.S. navy has sent a third aircraft carrier to its Fifth Fleet area of operations, which includes Gulf waters close to Iran, the navy said on Tuesday. "USS Enterprise (aircraft carrier) provides navy power to counter the assertive, disruptive and coercive behaviour of some countries, as well as support our soldiers and marines in Iraq and Afghanistan," a U.S. Navy statement said. The move comes weeks after a flotilla of U.S. warships sailed through the narrowest point in the Gulf to hold exercises off Iran's coast in a major show of force.Tension over Tehran's nuclear ambitions has raised regional fears of a military confrontation. Recent U.S. naval presence in the Gulf has been the largest since the 2003 Iraq war. The Fifth Fleet area of operations includes the Arabian Gulf, Arabian Sea, Red Sea, Gulf of Aden, Gulf of Oman and parts of the Indian Ocean.

Congress confirms Petraeus, then doesn't listen to him...

New York Sun Editorial July 9, 2007 Congress, without waiting for General Petraeus to send back the progress report it asked him to write when it sent him to Baghdad in January, will launch phase two of the campaign to declare defeat in the Battle of Iraq. The majority leader in the Senate, Harry Reid, the Speaker, Nancy Pelosi, and their Democratic Party are maneuvering to set a date for withdrawal of troops even as General Petraeus is preparing for delivery in September two reports that will conclude that it is possible to bring enough security to Iraq for political reconciliation. What is shaping up may be the most astounding act of perfidy in the history of the Congress. The senate voted 82 to zero to confirm General Petraeus. The Congress underwrote his surge in a bipartisan show of support for a campaign to get control of Baghdad. It put only one basic condition on the expedition, which is that General Petraeus would have to come back in the fall with a thorough report. Our troops are now in the field, fighting heroically in one of the deadliest phases of the Battle to do just what the Congress ratified — and is making real progress. That turns out to be just what the Democrats are afraid of. One of the things we hear the general is preparing to report concerns the success of the efforts of his officers to turn many of Iraq's sheikhs in Anbar into an anti-terrorist front, with prospects for going national. He will compare the levels of violence in Iraq today to the ghastly reality of Iraq when he arrived. Violent though the battle has been these past few weeks, the level of violence is actually declining — though it's so much lower than, say, the U.S. Civil War or the European wars, or even Iraq's war with Iran, that single car bombs can sharply affect monthly casualty statistics. One of the things that concerns General Petraeus is the morale and the stamina of his troops in the pincer between the enemy in Iraq and the politicians on the Hill. The general is expected to warn that the army and marines need more incentives, like pay raises, to signal a priority of re-enlisting and volunteering to deploy to the theater. He will also make the case, we hear, for more political support in Washington for what he is doing in Baghdad. The commander has his work cut out for him with the Democrats. It seems that the Democratic Party, which only a year ago demanded that Mr. Bush listen to his generals, is uninterested in what the general in command of forces in Iraq will have to say. So the next phase of the maneuvering to force a retreat will begin at a hearing on the 2008 Defense Authorization bill. The majority party in Congress will offer a series of amendments aimed at fixing a date to begin a rearward march. One of these amendments — from Senator Webb, who had a great record in Vietnam and in the Reagan administration but who is now in the anti-war camp — would make it impossible to relieve the GIs on the ground come January and March, by which point most would have to redeploy home. Other amendments, like one offered by Senator Feingold, would fix a date in April for the full retreat. The Democrats are counting on a growing number of Republicans who, in respect of the war, are now opposing the president from their own party. Senators Domenici and Lugar, of Arizona and Indiana, have in the last two weeks added their voice to the caucus of waverers. It would not be surprising were the ranking Republican on the Armed Services Committee, Senator Warner, to go overboard on Monday. The right move for President Bush is to fight this thing all the way through, the way Washington did at Valley Forge, another moment when the summer soldiers were abandoning the fight. He could go into the Valley and address the nation from the spot where it found its courage and won the right to exist. He could talk, as he has so eloquently, about what's at stake in this battle. He could go over the heads of the Democratic Congress and the quailing editorial writers to talk to the nation about the importance of what General Petraeus is getting ready to report to them. And of how the fight is not yet lost and of how we need to keep our troops in the battle, well-supplied and paid, so that a year hence the American people themselves will be in a position to choose between the counsels of defeat and the prospect of victory.

Army winning in Baquba with Sunni alliance..

G.I.’s Forge Sunni Tie in Bid to Squeeze Militants

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/06/world/middleeast/06military.html?pagewanted=print

By MICHAEL R. GORDON New York Times July 6, 2007 BAQUBA, Iraq , — Capt. Ben Richards had been battling insurgents from Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia for three weeks when he received an unexpected visitor. Abu Ali walked into the Americans’ battle-scarred combat outpost with an unusual proposal: the community leader was worried about the insurgents, and wanted the soldiers’ help in taking them on. The April 7 meeting was the beginning of a new alliance and, American commanders hope, a portent of what is to come in the bitterly contested Diyala Province. Using his Iraqi partners to pick out the insurgents and uncover the bombs they had seeded along the cratered roads, Captain Richards’s soldiers soon apprehended more than 100 militants, including several low-level emirs. The Iraqis called themselves the Local Committee; Captain Richards dubbed them the Kit Carson scouts. “It is the only way that we can keep Al Qaeda out,” said Captain Richards, who operates from a former Iraqi police station in the Buhritz sector of the city that still bears the sooty streaks from the day militants set it aflame last year. The American military has struggled for more than four years to train and equip the Iraqi Army. But here the local Sunni residents, including a number of former insurgents from the 1920s Revolution Brigades, have emerged as a linchpin of the American strategy. The new coalition reflects some hard-headed calculations on both sides. Eager for intelligence on their elusive foes, American officers have been willing to overlook the past of some of their newfound allies. Many Sunnis, for their part, are less inclined to see the soldiers as occupiers now that it is clear that American troop reductions are all but inevitable, and they are more concerned with strengthening their ability to fend off threats from Sunni jihadists and Shiite militias. In a surprising twist, the jihadists — the Americans’ most ardent foes — made the new strategy possible. Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia, a predominantly Iraqi organization with a small but significant foreign component, severely overplayed its hand, spawning resentment by many residents and other insurgent groups. Imposing a severe version of Islamic law, the group installed its own clerics, established an Islamic court and banned the sale of cigarettes, which even this week were nowhere to be found in the humble shops in western Baquba to the consternation of patrolling Iraqi troops. The fighters raised funds by kidnapping local Iraqis, found accommodations by evicting some residents from their homes and killed with abandon when anyone got in their way, residents say. A small group of bearded black-clad militants took down the Iraqi flag and raised the banner of their self-proclaimed Islamic State of Iraq. “They used religion as a ploy to get in and exploit people’s passions,” said one member of the Kit Carson scouts, who gave his name as Haidar. “They were Iraqis and other Arabs from Syria, Afghanistan, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and Egypt. They started kicking people out of their houses and getting ransom from rich people. They would shoot people in front of their houses to scare the others.” Collaborations like the one with the scouts in Baquba are slowly beginning to emerge in other parts of Iraq. In Baquba they face some notable obstacles, primarily from the Shiite-dominated provincial and Baghdad ministries that are worried about American efforts to rally the Sunnis and institutionalize them as a security force. But with Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki’s government showing scant progress toward political reconciliation and the American military eager to achieve a measure of stability before its elevated troop levels begin to shrink, American commanders appear determined to proceed with this more decentralized strategy — one that relies less on initiatives taken by Iraqi leaders in Baghdad and more on newly forged coalitions with local Iraqis. A West Point graduate, Idaho native and former Mormon missionary who worked for two years with Chinese immigrants in Canada, Captain Richards commands Bronco Troop, First Squadron, 14th Cavalry Regiment. When the 31-year-old officer was first sent to Buhritz in mid-March as part of a battalion-size task force, he encountered a deeply entrenched foe who numbered in the thousands. Many of the members of Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia were ensconced in a sprawling palm grove-laden sanctuary south of Baquba and east of the Diyala River. The area, which is still under the group’s control, is still so replete with arms caches, insurgent leaders, fighters and their supporters that American soldiers have taken to calling it the Al Qaeda FOB, or forward operating base in American military jargon. The insurgents also had a firm grip on the city, the provincial capital of Diyala, which Abu Musab al-Zarqawi made the center of his self-styled Islamic caliphate before he was killed in an airstrike near Baquba last year. The key supply and communications lines between the insurgents’ rural staging area and the city ran through Buhritz, making it vital ground for Al Qaeda. The militants’ hold on the region was facilitated, senior American officers now acknowledge, by American commanders’ decision to draw down forces in the province in 2005 in the hopes of shifting most of the responsibility for securing the region onto the Iraqis. That strategy backfired when the Iraqi authorities appointed overly sectarian Shiite army and police regional commanders, alienating the largely Sunni population, and otherwise showed themselves unable to safeguard the area. “Up until Captain Richards went in and met the 1920s guys, we fought,” recalled Lt. Col. Mo Goins, the commander of the First Battalion, 12th Infantry Regiment, which held the line in Baquba until reinforcements began to arrive in March. “That is what we did. Small arms. Mortars. I.E.D’s.”Captain Richards’s soldiers arrived in Buhritz in mid-March as part of a battalion-sized operation. Unlike many earlier operations, the Americans showed up in force and did not quickly withdraw. The residents saw an opportunity to challenge Al Qaeda, and for a week, the two sides battled it out in the streets. Initially, the Americans stood on the sidelines, concerned that they might be witnessing a turf fight among insurgents and militias. “We were not sure what was going on,” Captain Richards recalled. “We were not sure we could trust the people not to turn on us afterwards.” But after the militants gained the upper hand and more than 1,000 residents began to flee on foot, the Americans moved to prevent the militants from establishing their control throughout the neighborhood. The soldiers called in an airstrike, which demolished a local militant headquarters. The meeting between the residents and the Americans was Abu Ali’s initiative. The locals wanted ammunition to carry on their fight. Captain Richards had another proposal: the residents should tip off the Americans on which Iraqis belonged to Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia and where they had buried their bombs. At first, no more than a dozen of the several hundred Sunnis who were taking on the militants served as Kit Carson scouts, but they made a vital difference. Unlike Anbar Province, where the American military has formed similar alliances, Diyala lacks a cohesive tribal structure. Nor did another Sunni insurgent group, the 1920s Revolution Brigades, deliver fighters en masse. Even so, some of the main obstacles that the Americans have faced in institutionalizing the arrangement with the scouts have come from the United States’ ostensible allies in the Iraqi government. According to Captain Richards, the provincial police chief, Maj. Gen. Ghanen al-Kureshi, repeatedly resisted efforts to hire the local Sunnis. Captain Richards rejected a group of Shiite police recruits from Baghdad, fearing they might be penetrated by Shiite militias. Determined to get his scouts hired, he loaded 50 scouts and other residents on his Stryker vehicles and drove them to the provincial headquarters over the insurgent-threatened roads. Today, the police number only 170, a fraction of the police force in adjoining areas. The small police force, made up of scouts and Sunni residents, was provided with only two trucks, seven radios and a paltry supply of ammunition that the Sunni residents have managed to supplement by buying ammunition on the black market from corrupt Interior Ministry officials in Baghdad. Another 150 scouts participate as unpaid monitors in a neighborhood watch program to guard key routes in and out of the area that Captain Richards oversees. “The people in the community think that he is actively trying to prevent the Buhritz police from establishing themselves because the Shia government does not want a legitimate Sunni security force in Diyala Province,” Captain Richards said, referring to General Ghanen, the provincial police chief. Colonel Goins had a more charitable view of the provincial chief’s actions, saying that he was coping with personnel and weapons shortages, as well as Interior Ministry guidance to build up the force in other areas. “Right now, his resources are extremely limited,” Colonel Goins said. The new police and neighborhood watch monitors appear to work well with the local Iraqi Army unit and police officials. But a local Iraqi Army commander expressed doubts that the scouts, in uniform or not, amounted to a disciplined, military unit that could take and hold ground. During a quick visit to two villages, Guam and Abu Faad, the Americans and their Iraqi allies tried to persuade welcoming but still wary residents that they needed to overcome their fears of Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia and provide tips for their own security. The American military is trying to expand the alliance into the western sector of the city, which a Stryker brigade recently wrested back from Qaeda militants. During the recent American assault in the western sector, soldiers from Blackhawk Company got a glimpse of an alliance the Americans hope to see. An Iraqi seemingly emerged from nowhere, announced himself as a member of the 1920s Revolution Brigades and warned the soldiers that insurgents could be found on the far side of a sand berm around the corner. The tip was accurate.

Army National Guard passes goals for new recruits

By Oren Dorell, USA TODAY New recruiting techniques and appeals to patriotism have helped the National Guard achieve its highest level of troops since 2001. The Guard, which has struggled to fill its ranks during the war in Iraq, pins its success on a new recruitment program. It includes paying a bonus to Guard members who signed up a recruit. The regular Army and Army Reserves have adopted a version called "Every Soldier a Recruiter." The Army is meeting its recruitment goals. Many Guard members, who are not full-time uniformed recruiters, served overseas and told recruits they, too, would probably be deployed "in defense of America," said Col. Mike Jones, chief of recruiting and retention for the Army Guard. "We thought the candid approach would depress our enlistment," Jones said. "Rather … that strategy had more people joining." Through May, the Guard had 351,400 troops, the most since November 2001, according to data provided by the National Guard Bureau. It's also the first time the Guard has exceeded its target of 350,000 troops for three consecutive months since May 2002. Wednesday, President Bush paid a Fourth of July visit to the West Virginia Air National Guard in Martinsburg, calling for "more patience, more courage and more sacrifice" in Iraq. Guard leaders overhauled recruiting practices in 2004, when it became clear that recruitment problems "weren't temporary," Jones said. In response, the Guard: • Started a "buddy program," in which members earn $2,000 for every recruit they sign up and who enters boot camp. The Guard says the program has brought in 35,000 enlistments since December 2005. • Sent recruiters to more high school sporting events, NASCAR races and shopping malls. Pacheco says less chance of serving overseas probably had an impact on retention. In the three years the Guard fell short of its manpower target it also saw its largest deployments, peaking at 98,493 in 2005. That year Guard membership bottomed out at 333,177 members. This year 44,723 members have been deployed. The Guard's message also changed, from promoting educational opportunities to emphasizing the warrior-soldier, says military sociologist David Segal of the University of Maryland. The new recruiters had experience in Iraq or Afghanistan so they could talk to parents "honestly and frankly about the risk," Jones says. He says that helped young men and women in decision-making. The results were surprising, said Loren Thompson of the Lexington Institute, a think tank on military and education issues.

Iraq near to passing Oil Revenue law

Iraq takes step closer to landmark oil law

http://www.reuters.com/article/topNews/idUSL0333645120070703?feedType=RSS&rpc=22&sp=true

Tue Jul 3, 2007 9:18AM EDT By Alister Bull and Dean Yates BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iraq's cabinet approved changes to a draft hydrocarbon law on Tuesday and sent it to parliament for immediate debate, taking a big step towards meeting a key political target set by the United States. Washington has pushed Iraq for months to speed up passage of the law and other pieces of legislation, which are seen as vital to curbing sectarian violence and healing deep divisions between majority Shi'ites and minority Sunni Arabs.The law is intended to ensure a fair distribution of the world's third largest oil reserves, which are located mainly in the Shi'ite south and the Kurdish north of the country.Sunni Arabs, the backbone of the insurgency, live mainly in central provinces that have little proven oil wealth and have long feared they would miss out on any windfall should violence ease enough to revive the struggling industry."The law was approved unanimously (by the cabinet) it was referred to the parliament which will discuss it tomorrow," Shi'ite Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki told a press conference, calling it the "most important" law in Iraq."I call on all our partners in the political process and in this national unity government to respect this deal."In the latest violence, U.S. forces killed 23 militants suspected of links with al Qaeda during a fierce battle in the western Anbar province over the weekend, the military said.The U.S. military also said was reviewing an F-16 air strike on insurgent targets in the southern city of Diwaniya after local officials said 10 civilians were killed in the attack. A hospital source said six children were among the dead.The draft oil law was originally approved by the cabinet in February but faced opposition from the government in autonomous Kurdistan, which felt it was getting a raw deal.Besides deciding who controls the country's oil reserves and setting up a new oil firm to oversee the industry, the law aims to provide a legal framework for attracting foreign investment.Other major laws also need to be passed that set provincial elections by the end of the year and that allow some members of Saddam Hussein's Baath party to return to government and the military. Maliki said these would be discussed next week. CLOCK TICKINGBut parliament is running out time to debate and approve the series of laws. It has already extended its current session to the end of July, before legislators take a month off.That leaves little time before the U.S. military commander in Iraq, General David Petraeus, and Ambassador Ryan Crocker have to present a report to Washington in the middle of September on Iraq's security and political progress.The report is being viewed as a political watershed, with U.S. President George W. Bush under mounting pressure to show his Iraq strategy is working and with campaigning in the 2008 U.S. presidential race already well under way.In Anbar province, U.S. and Iraqi forces backed by war planes and helicopters confronted a large group of militants as they were preparing to launch a series of suicide bomb attacks in the Anbar capital Ramadi, 110 km (70 miles) west of Baghdad."The group, affiliated with al Qaeda in Iraq, intended to regain a base of operations in Al Anbar with suicide car and vest bomb attacks," the U.S. military said in a statement.Anbar was once the heart of the Sunni Arab insurgency and the most dangerous region for American soldiers in Iraq.But Sunni Arab tribes began to turn against Sunni Islamist al Qaeda last year, angered by the group's indiscriminate killing of civilians and harsh interpretation of Islam.The air strikes in Diwaniya were ordered after insurgents fired some 75 mortar bombs and rockets at a coalition military base in the city before dawn on Monday, the U.S. military said in a statement. Three soldiers were wounded.It said the engagement was being reviewed to determine whether "appropriate and proportionate force" was used.

Hmm...Iraqi civilian casualties going down..

Iraqi Civilian Casualties Declined in June, Officials Say By ALISSA J. RUBIN New York Times http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/02/world/middleeast/02iraq.html?_r=1&ref=world&pagewanted=print&oref=slogin BAGHDAD, Monday, July 2 — American and Iraqi officials said Sunday that they saw a decline in the monthly civilian casualty count in June, a development that occurred as the American troop increase reached full strength. However, the size of the decline was hard to gauge because death counts in Iraq are highly inaccurate. Some bombing victims’ bodies are never recovered, families often collect their dead before they can be counted by officials, and the dead bodies found around Baghdad, while generally taken to the city morgue, are sometimes taken to hospitals where they may not be counted. An American military spokesman, Lt. Col. Christopher Garver, said there had been only “a slight decrease in the month of June.” He added that it was “a potential downward trend” and that the military would be closely watching the numbers in the coming weeks. The Americans do not make specific figures public. He added that American and Iraqi troops were just two weeks into a major operation against Sunni insurgents in the belts around Baghdad. “We can’t tell yet the effect we’re having,” he said. “But reducing deaths in the civilian population is why we’re doing what we’re doing.” Iraqi officials estimated that civilian deaths nationwide had dropped 36 percent in June, down to about 1,200. Civilian casualties in May had topped 1,900, they said. The Web site icasualties.org, which tabulates news reports of civilian deaths, put the number of deaths in June at about 1,342, down from 1,980 in May. In Baghdad, 730 civilians were reported killed in June from assassinations, bombs or small-arms fire. That was down from 1,070 in May, a decline of almost 32 percent, an Interior Ministry official told The New York Times. However, the number of dead bodies found in Baghdad, a measure of sectarian killings, while lower in June than in May, was still higher than in April, according to the Interior Ministry official. In April, there were 411 dead bodies found in Baghdad; in May, there were 726; in June, the number dropped to 540. Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki’s government no longer reports civilian mortality statistics and has refused to provide figures to the United Nations. Some officials, however, sometimes make reports available to the news media on a not-for-attribution basis. The influx of American soldiers in the capital has been accompanied by increased raids on insurgent groups and, recently, by a broader offensive in the belts around Baghdad in order to curb the car- and roadside-bomb factories widely believed to supply many of the weapons used by insurgents in the capital. On June 23, American troops in Mosul found one of the largest bomb factories uncovered to date: an elaborate complex spread over three buildings — one used to manufacture car bombs, one to make roadside bombs and one to manufacture homemade explosives. The raid found several vehicles, including a truck, being prepared for use as car bombs. A number of other factories have been found closer to Baghdad.

Two more cities have Iraqi men flocking to join Police forces

Police Recruiting in Nasir Wa Salam a 'Resounding Success' http://www.defendamerica.mil/cgibin/prfriendly.cgi?http://www.defendamerica.mil/articles/jun2007/a062907ej3.html

Iraqi citizens pour out to fight al Qaeda. BAGHDAD, June 29, 2007 — Hundreds of volunteers from area tribes, willing to fight against al Qaeda, turned out for a screening to become Iraqi Police candidates in Baghdad’s Nasir Wa Salam and Abu Ghraib neighborhoods starting June 25. "This recruitment drive is a success because the tribes in this area want to reconcile their differences with the Coalition and the Iraqi government and participate in the legitimate legal process." U.S. Army Lt. Col. Peter Andrysiak. The three-day recruiting drive by the Ministry of Interior saw more than 600 men participate. During the recruiting drive, potential candidates were screened for identification, health, and fitness.“The first day was a resounding success,” said U.S. Army Lt. Col. Peter Andrysiak, deputy commander for 1st “Ironhorse” Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division. “The large turn out was not entirely unexpected. We have been working with reconcilable tribal leaders and the government of Iraq to make this happen.” Soldiers from 2nd Battalion, 5th Cavalry Regiment assisted the identification screening process while workers from the Ministry of Interior conducted the heath and fitness screening to determine the candidate’s eligibility for work as Iraqi Security Forces. The additional police presence in the area will allow us to focus our soldiers more on key insurgent leaders and individual insurgent cells,” Andrysiak said. “This recruitment drive is a success because the tribes in this area want to reconcile their differences with the Coalition and the Iraqi government and participate in the legitimate legal process.” In a few weeks, the Ministry of Interior is expected to select 1,700 candidates from area volunteers to begin training as Iraqi Police.

1B) Yusufiyah men flock to Iraqi Police recruitment drive June 28, 2007

http://www.mnfiraq.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=12578&Itemid=128 Multi-National Division – Center PAO BAGHDAD — Over 1,200 Iraqi men came to Joint Security Station Yusufiyah during a three-day police recruitment drive which ended June 25.The drive, orchestrated by the 4th Battalion, 31st Infantry Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain Division (Light Infantry) from Fort Drum, N.Y., the 23rd Military Police Company, 503rd MP Bn., 16th MP Bde., from Fort Bragg, N.C., and the 4th Brigade, 6th Iraqi Army Division, began June 23 to increase Iraqi Police manning in the 4-31 “Polar Bears’” area of operations.The goal was to find 200 qualified Iraqi Police recruits. When the drive began at 8 a.m., there were almost 200 men waiting in line to apply.Gen. David Petraeus, the Commanding General of Multi-National Force – Iraq, visited the recruitment efforts the first day and spoke to several potential recruits and encouraged them to serve their country.Five hundred seventy-seven applicants were processed the first day. Another 150 were waiting in line the second day and by mid-afternoon 361 had filled out applications and spoken with the troops.Officials accepted 252 applications on June 25.The surplus applications – including one from a local woman - will be kept and as the JSS expands, those individuals will be the first called for new hires.Applicants represented all major Sunni and Shia tribes in the area with the majority coming from Yusufiyah and Mulla Fayad. Also represented was Carguoli Village, a longtime hotbed of terrorist activity, which has recently begun making strides toward peace. Each applicant completed a basic literacy test. Other requirements included being between the ages of 20 and 35, not being part of the Iraqi Army, having no ties to extremist groups, and a willingness to move at the government’s need. Applicants must be Iraqi citizens. The recruits’ records will be checked by the Ministry of the Interior to prevent terrorist groups from infiltrating into the IP forces.