- American troops fighting insurgents killed scores of
civilians in protracted battles in a remote town on Iraq's Syrian border
last week. The deaths, not previously reported due to the remoteness of
the area, will raise tensions still further in the country and make the
increasingly frantic attempts by the US-led coalition to ensure security
and stability even harder.
-
- Yesterday the fragile ceasefire in the western city of
Falluja, where around 600 civilians are believed to have been killed in
nearly two weeks of intermittent fighting between US marines and insurgents,
appeared close to collapse. Increasingly impatient American military commanders
promised action 'within days' if rebels continued to refuse their demands.
They would not give details for reasons of 'operational security'.
-
- The battles on the western frontier - seen as critical
to cutting off the flow of logistic support and volunteer fighters from
Syria - are going unnoticed. Last Saturday in al-Qaim, a city of around
100,000, US marines were surprised by a contingent of 'anti-coalition fighters'
- a loose alliance of former Baath party cadres and foreign militants behind
the recent upsurge in violence. Five marines were killed and nine wounded.
Medical sources in al-Qaim said the main hospital in the city had recorded
31 deaths, including the city's police chief, two women, a seven-year-old
boy and a five-month-old baby, and 47 wounded. Locals claim the dead were
civilians shot by snipers or caught in crossfire. US official sources say
most of those killed were armed fighters.
-
- The news will further inflame public opinion in Iraq
where many have been angered by heavy-handed US military tactics. The ongoing
siege of Falluja has sparked outrage throughout Iraq. Senior coalition
figures admit that attempts to pacify the country will founder if the rate
of civilian deaths does not fall.
-
- Locals say the number of civilian casualties in al-Qaim
could be much higher as street fighting prevented many dead and injured
being taken to hospital. Islamic custom is to bury bodies as soon as possible
and many casualties are said to have been interred in makeshift graves.
In Falluja a sports ground has been converted into a cemetery.
-
- Medical sources in al-Qaim say doctors treated people
by telephone because fighting made it impossible to bring the wounded to
hospital. 'They just gave instructions on the telephone,' said a source.
'That means we don't know how many were injured or might have subsequently
died of their injuries.'
-
- Last week saw widespread violence in Iraq. A series of
car bombs in Basra, the southern port city under British control and previously
free of such attacks, killed around 80 people including many schoolchildren.
The strikes were aimed at the new Iraqi police force, essential to coalition
plans to stabilise Iraq before the largely symbolic handover of sovereignty
to an Iraqi caretaker government on 30 June. Though several Iraqis have
been arrested in connection with the attacks, American military officials
told The Observer that al-Qaeda or an affiliated group was responsible.
Yesterday police revealed they had intercepted a truck full of munitions
being driven into Basra.
-
- On Friday Muqtada al-Sadr, the radical Shia cleric who
has seized control of the city of Najaf, threatened to unleash a wave of
suicide bombers if coalition troops attempted to oust him from his stronghold.
Hours earlier an attack by his Mahdi militia killed a coalition soldier.
Yesterday, a rocket attack killed four US soldiers at a base north of Baghdad,
bringing the number of US soldiers killed in April so far to 100, the highest
total for a single month since the end of the war last year. More than
900 have been injured, at least 600 seriously in the same period. With
fewer than half the 135,000 US soldiers in Iraq deployed on active combat,
military experts describe the death toll as 'significant'.
-
- One obstacle to restoring order is uncertainty over who
will take control on 30 June and whether sufficient power will be ceded
to any new administration to convince Iraqis that it is authentic. The
Iraqi Governing Council has been deeply tainted by its failure to rein
in the US military.
-
- 'Any rational man knows that it would be impossible for
the US to expend such massive human and material resources here and then
allow any regime that isn't in their interests,' said Mohammed al-Askari,
a retired general and political commentator. 'The Americans want influence
and a strong ally. The Iraqis want their own government.'
-
- Last week saw frantic politicking in Baghdad as candidates
pressed for roles in the caretaker administration. Adnan Pachachi, a former
Foreign Minister and likely choice for President, may have damaged his
credibility by involvement with the IGC.
-
- All Iraq's fractious minorities must be represented in
the new government if it is to receive broad support. If Pachachi, from
the Sunni minority, is appointed President then the Prime Minister will
have to be a Shia, who comprise 60 per cent of the Iraqi population.
-
- The new government also has to be acceptable to Iraq's
powerful clerics. Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, a Shia religious scholar
venerated by millions of Iraqis, has refused to deal with the Americans
or the IGC so far. His backing, which may be secured only by concessions
on the role of Islamic law, is critical to the success of any political
set-up.
-
- Last week the coalition authorities attempted to woo
the Sunni population by reversing a previous ban on the employment of former
cadres from Saddam's Baath party in the new army and civil service.
-
- Most Iraqis simply want someone who will provide security
and basic services. Zaineb Hamoody, a computer programmer in the Communication
Ministry, said fear of violence prevented her enjoying the new Iraq.
-
- 'I am better paid and can say what I like. But I can't
go out with my fiancé like most engaged couples do. These days should
be the best of my life but they are not,' she said. 'I don't expect much
good in the near future. Nobody knows what will happen.'
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- http://www.libertyforum.org/showflat.php?Cat=&Board=news_international&
Number=1441334&t=-1#Post1441334
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