- The bloodiest month since the United States led the invasion
and occupation of Iraq has come to a deadly close after insurgents killed
14 people from five nations in a weekend of apparently carefully calculated
attacks.
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- Days after President George Bush slipped briefly into
the country on Thanksgiving, his opponents responded by killing civilian
contract workers, military intelligence agents, diplomats and soldiers.
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- Last night, the Americans claimed they had killed 46
Iraqis who were involved in a series of ambushes on US convoys in the central
city of Samarra. Eighteen Iraqi fighters and five US soldiers were also
injured.
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- During the past month, however, America's allies bore
the brunt of the assaults which were intended to fuel opposition within
their countries to the occupation and to hinder efforts to rebuild Iraq.
The latest military deaths bring the number of troops to die in November
in Iraq to 105 79 American soldiers and 26 allied troops the highest
yet. That figure includes 19 Italians blown up in Nasiriyah by a suicide
truck bomber, and 17 American soldiers who died when two Black Hawk helicopters
crashed in an incident that the US military now say might have started
with a missile strike. That is the largest monthly casualty total since
the war began on 20 March a grim statistic that gives the lie to claims
by the US military that the guerrilla war is under control.
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- If the deaths of six US soldiers in Afghanistan last
month are added, November was the most costly month for the American military
since February 1991, when 162 US troops were killed in the 1990-91 Gulf
war. In the space of 48 hours, insurgents killed two South Korean electricians,
a Colombian contractor, seven Spanish military intelligence officers, two
Japanese diplomats and two American soldiers.
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- The South Korean electricians became the latest victims
when they were shot yesterday in a car while travelling to Tikrit. The
attacks five in all began several hours after the US's top commander in
Iraq, Lieutenant-General Ricardo Sanchez, declared that the situation was
getting better.
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- The Bush administration sees the spate of attacks against
non-US and non-military personnel in Iraq as a deliberate shift in tactics
by the resistance. The aim is to hit the allies where they are perceived
to be weakest, to make it harder to recruit civilians to work in Iraq and
to undermine the resolve of America's allies to stay the course.
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- Until last night's attack, direct attacks against US
troops were thought to have declined in the second half of November, partly
in response to Iron Hammer, an operation to stamp out insurgents,and partly
thanks to tighter precautions taken by American troops. As a result, foreign
elements in Iraq are being targeted along with Iraqis who co-operate with
the allies.
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- The United Nations and many aid groups have shut down
or scaled back operations; now it may be the turn of civilian contractors.
Lt-Gen Sanchez said of the 14 deaths: "The insurgents' goal was to
intimidate the population, to create fear and uncertainty and drive people
away from the coalition." The attacks came as American forces claimed
to have captured three members of Osama bin Laden's al-Qa'ida in northern
Iraq. The Pentagon has claimed that "foreign fighters" are working
with what Donald Rumsfeld, the US Defence Secretary, calls "dead-ender"
Saddam loyalists.
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- The Bush administration has sought to speed up the transfer
of political responsibility to Iraqis. But these plans are complicated
by opposition from the senior Shia cleric Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani,
who wants direct elections.
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- That presents Washington with a dilemma. The Shias constitute
60 per cent of the population, and yielding to their demands might pave
the way to a Shia-ruled Iraq, conceivably an Islamic theocracy along similar
lines to Iran, which the US does not want. But to refuse could provoke
a breach with the Shias, raising the spectre of a civil war in the future.
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- A month of casualties
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- 30 November: Two South Korean workers killed near Tikrit.
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- 29 November: Seven Spanish intelligence officers killed
and one wounded near Hillah; two Japanese diplomats and their Iraqi driver
killed near Tikrit; two American soldiers killed near the Syrian border;
one Colombian contractor killed and two wounded near Balad.
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- 28 November: US soldier killed when rebels shelled a
military base in Mosul; a second US soldier died from gunshot wounds.
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- 27 November: A US soldier found dead in his barracks
in Ramadi from a gunshot wound.
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- 26 November: A US soldier found dead in Mosul.
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- 23 November: Five US soldiers killed in three separate
incidents. One died when his patrol vehicle rolled into a canal. Another
from the 4th Infantry Division killed by an explosive device in Baqubah.
Three killed in West Mosul.
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- 22 November: Two US soldiers from the 1st Armoured Division
killed in a traffic accident near Baghdad airport.
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- 21 November: Two US soldiers killed. One from the 4th
Infantry Division drowned when his vehicle rolled into a canal in Tikrit;
another from the division is killed by an explosive device near Ghalibiyah.
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- 20 November: Soldier from the 82nd Airborne Division
killed in a bomb attack near Ramadi.
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- 17 November: Three soldiers killed. One from the 1st
Armoured Division died in non-hostile gunfire in Baghdad, another from
the 4th Infantry Division killed by a bomb in Balad and another from the
division killed in a grenade attack on a patrol in Abu Shukayr.
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- 15 November: Seventeen soldiers from the 101st Airborne
Division killed when two Black Hawk helicopters are brought down in Mosul.
A soldier from the 1st Armoured Division killed by an explosive device
in the Azamiyah area of Baghdad.
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- 14 November: A soldier from the 1st Armoured Division
killed by an explosive device in central Baghdad. Special Operations Force
soldier dies when his vehicle struck a landmine. Two Task Force Ironhorse
soldiers killed when their convoy was attacked with explosives north of
Samarra.
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- 12 November: Nineteen Italians killed when a suicide
bomber drives a petrol tanker into the Italian base in Nasiriyah. A soldier
from the 1st Armoured Division was killed by a bomb in Baghdad.
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- 11 November: One member of Task Force Ironhorse killed
when his vehicle struck an explosive device north of Baghdad. Another from
the 1st Armoured Division killed by an explosive device in Baghdad.
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- 10 November: One US Military Police Brigade soldier killed
in rocket-propelled grenade attack west of Iskandariyah.
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- 9 November: A US soldier from the 18th Military Police
Brigade killed in a grenade attack west of Iskandariyah.
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- 8 November: A member of the 1st Armoured Division killed
by an explosive device in the Wehda district of Baghdad. A soldier from
the 82nd Airborne Division killed near Fallujah.
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- 7 November: Six soldiers from the 101st Airborne Division
killed when their helicopter caught fire on landing near Tikrit. A member
of the 101st Airborne Division killed during a grenade attack in Mosul.
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- 6 November: One soldier from the 3rd Armoured Division,
the Cavalry Regiment, killed when a military truck hit a landmine on a
border road near Husaybah. Another from the 101st Airborne Division killed
by an explosive device east of Mosul.
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- 5 November: A US soldier from the 82nd Airborne Division
killed and two wounded during a grenade attack on a patrol near Mahmudiyah.
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- 4 November: One soldier from the 1st Armoured Division
died from non-hostile gunshot wounds sustained in Iraq. A second killed
by an explosive device in Baghdad.
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- 3 November: US soldier from the 4th Infantry Division
killed by an explosive device in Tikrit.
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- 2 November: Fifteen soldiers killed when their helicopter
was shot down near Amiryah. A US soldier from the 1st Armoured Division
dies from wounds sustained in an explosives attack in Baghdad.
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- 1 November: Two soldiers from the 101st Airborne Division
killed by an explosive device near Mosul.
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- © 2003 Independent Digital (UK) Ltd
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- http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/story.jsp?story=468919
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