TASEK PAUH blogspot

Cortez, wearing a dress green uniform and flanked by his civilian and military lawyers, described how he, Spc. James Barker and a since-discharged soldier, Pvt. Steven Green, planned the attack over liquor and a game of cards. "While we were playing cards Barker and Green started talking about having sex with an Iraqi female. Barker and Green had already known..." Cortez said before breaking down. He bowed his head and remained silent, sniffling occasionally, for a full minute before continuing.

"Barker and Green had already known what, um, house they wanted to go to ... knew only one male was in the house, and knew it would be an easy target," Cortez said. Once at the house, Green, the suspected ringleader, took the girl's mother, father and little sister into a bedroom, Cortez said, while he and Barker took the teenager, Abeer Qassim al-Janabi, to the living room.

"She kept squirming and trying to keep her legs closed and saying stuff in Arabic," Cortez said. "During the time me and Barker were raping Abeer, I heard five or six gunshots that came from the bedroom. After Barker was done, Green came out of the bedroom and said that he had killed them all, that all of them were dead," Cortez said.

"Green then placed himself between Abeer's legs to rape her," Cortez said, sniffing audibly. When Green was finished, he "stood up and shot Abeer in the head two or three times." The entire crime took about five minutes to carry out, he added.

Cortez said the girl knew her parents and sister had been shot while she was being raped. He said she screamed and cried throughout the assault."

The terror regimes of USA and UK are abusing, torturing, raping, killing innocent Iraqis, yet the world is keeping silent over whatever is going on there. May Allah destroy these kuffars regimes and give victory to our Mujahideen. KC

Labels: Iraq, Luar Negeri, U.S.

Major Troy Gilbert's F-16 fighter jet crashed on November 27 on a combat mission in an area just northwest of Baghdad.

His complete body was never recovered but about a week later he was declared as having been killed in action following DNA tests on remains found in the wreckage of his aircraft.

"His body was removed from the crash site by anti-coalition personnel before US forces could arrive to secure the area," the air force said overnight.

This week the so-called Islamic State in Iraq, an umbrella organisation of Sunni insurgent groups in Iraq, released an image of Gilbert's US military "Geneva Conventions Identification Card" on an Internet site.

A statement accompanying the image of the card - issued to US servicemen in Iraq - said the group would shortly release a video entitled The Missing.

"We are aware of the attempts by anti-coalition forces to exploit Major Gilbert's death," said Lieutenant General Gary North, commander of United States Central Command Air Forces.

"It is appalling and cowardly that they did not treat his remains with the respect deserved of an honourable warrior," he added.

Gilbert had been based in Balad airbase in central Iraq as part of the 332nd Aur Expeditionary Wing, part of the 140,000-strong US military force in Iraq. news.com.au

Labels: Iraq, Luar Negeri, U.S.

March 9 - The Iraqi judge who sentenced Saddam Hussein to death has fled Iraq and sought asylum in the UK.

Al Jazeera's correspondent in London quoted British official sources as saying that Raouf Abdel-Rahman, a member of Iraq's Kurdish minority, has requested political asylum in Britain with his family.

Abdel-Rahman headed the Supreme Iraq Criminal Tribunal that heard Saddam's genocide trial and found the former Iraqi president guilty, leading to his execution.

Saddam was accused of killing more than a hundred Shia in the village of Dujail following a failed assassination attempt on him.

Saddam was hanged in the early hours of December 30. Lagi di alJazeera

Labels: Iraq, Luar Negeri, Saddam

February 21 - Australia has said it will maintain its current deployment in Iraq and will not set a timetable for withdrawal despite reports that Britain will set a timetable for leaving the country.

Brendan Nelson, the defence minister, said Britain's move was not to "cut and run" but evidence of progress in southern Iraq.

He said the plan showed the British were "confident enough to reduce their troop numbers to around 5,000".

Australia's mission, he said, was to ensure that Iraqis being trained were able to "look after their own people and their own security".

On Wednesday reports in UK media said Tony Blair, the British prime minister, was expected to announce plans to start pulling out British troops by the end of the year.

Some reports said the first batch of 1,500 would return within the next few weeks.

Britain's move comes days after John Howard, Australia's prime minister, announced the deployment of more military instructors to train Iraqi forces, defying increasing domestic pressure to withdraw Australian troops.

In the wake of Wednesday's media reports, Australia's foreign minister was quick to reject suggestions that Howard was moving in the wrong direction.

Alexander Downer said Britain was only reducing troop numbers and not pulling out altogether.

"They will be leaving several thousand troops in Iraq and the important point to make here is the British are not withdrawing from Iraq.

"What we are all trying to do is increasingly transfer responsibility for the security to the Iraqi security forces," Downer said.

Australia has some 1,400 troops in and around Iraq, with the biggest force of several hundred based in the south of the country. Agencies

Labels: Australia, Iraq, Luar Negeri

Labels: Iraq, video

BAGHDAD, Feb 14 (KUNA) -- Head of the Sadrist Parliamentary bloc, Nassar Al-Rubaie, denied Wednesday reports that the Shiite leader Moqtada Al-Sadr had left for Iran with the implementation of a new security plan in Iraq.

Al-Rubaie stressed to KUNA the leader was still in Iraq, pointing out that it would be normal for Al-Sadr to embark on a regional tour "for he is a prominent figure of much influence regarding the situation in Iraq." "He is now inside Iraq and has left for nowhere," Al-Rubaie said "There is no need for an official statement or a press conference to make the denial." In answer to reports the figure fled in fear for his life in view of new security plans, Al-Rubaie said "the security plan does not target us and we back it." He noted that there was no rift between Al-Sadr and the Iraqi government. "We are now part of the political process," he stressed.

Al-Rubaie also said the Iraqi military had the right to stem any form of armament or armed action and confiscate any weapons.

"We back this, and we have made it known before the (Iraqi) Prime Minister and the Parliament as Sadrist representatives." ABC Television had reported that Al-Sadr "fled" to Iran for what it claimed to be fears he might be targeted by American attacks, besides worries over his safety in view of rift amid the Sadrist ranks.

There is no such rift and Al-Sadrists are unified; no part in their ranks opposes the security plan, Al-Rubaie said.

Labels: Berita, Iraq, Luar Negeri

Al-Qaeda: Bush gambling in Iraq

Kavkaz, February 14 - Al-Qaeda's deputy leader has described the US plan to send 21,500 more troops to Iraq as a gamble that is bound to fail. In an audio tape posted on the internet on Tuesday, Ayman al-Zawahiri also criticised the Democratic Party for not changing US policies.

"[Bush's] addiction to gambling ... motivates him to continue to place losing bets until he goes completely bankrupt," he said.

"Were the Americans to leave [Bush] alone, he would continue to send their forces to Iraq until the Mujahideen kill the last one of their soldiers."

Al-Zawahiri's statement was transcribed on the website of the SITE Institute, a US private organisation that tracks Islamists' use of the internet.

It was not immediately possible to authenticate the statement.

US Democrats, who removed Republicans from power in Congress in November last year amid growing dissatisfaction with policies on Iraq, were also criticised by al-Zawahiri.

He said: "The people chose you [Democrats] due to your opposition to Bush's policy in Iraq, but it appears that you are marching with him to the same abyss, and it appears that you will take part with him in the defeat."

He also said US-allied governments in Iraq and Afghanistan should consider their future.

"These traitors in Iraq and Afghanistan must face their inevitable fate, and face up to the inescapable facts. America ... is about to depart and abandon them, just as it abandoned their like in Vietnam."

Al-Zawahiri repeated his previous condemnation of the Fatah faction led by Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president.

He said: "I'm not asking them to join Hamas, the Islamic Jihad or al-Qaeda, but rather I'm asking them to return to Islam, in order to fight for the establishment of an Islamic state over all of Palestine and not for the establishment of a secularist state which will please America."

Addressing Lebanon's Muslims, al-Zawahiri urged them to reject the UN Security Council resolution that ended last summer's war between Hezbollah and Israel.

"I call on the brothers of Islam and of jihad [struggle] in Lebanon not to yield to resolution 1701 and not to accept ... the presence of international and Crusader [Western] forces in south Lebanon.

Security Council resolution 1701 led to an August 14 ceasefire in the 34-day war that broke out when Israel retaliated to a cross-border raid by Lebanese Hezbollah fighters which resulted in the capture of two of its soldiers. Agencies

Labels: Berita, Iran, Iraq, Luar Negeri, U.S., Zawahri

PETALING JAYA: There is a good reason why the scholarly-looking Ali Shalah keeps his left hand close to his chest and tucked under the flowing robe he wears over his shirt and trousers.

His hand is badly deformed, scarred and twisted like the root of a tree. His last two fingers are blunt stumps.

He is quite self-conscious of the deformed hand and only shows it when asked. Then he pulls the cloak over it again.

It is a glaring reminder of the six months he spent in the notorious Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq.

Ali is the man in the hood. He is just 46, but looks much older.

Ali said he was the torture victim whom his American tormentors draped in a dark hood and cloak and forced to stand atop a concrete block with his arms spread out, crucifixion-like. Electrical wires hanging from both hands were attached to an electrical point.

Photographs of the degrading and brutal abuse in Abu Ghraib two years ago stunned and outraged the world.

It was not just a pose because Ali was electrocuted by American soldiers five times, often until he passed out.

“It feels like fire passing through your veins and you are blinded by flashes and your eyes feel like they are going to explode,” he said, speaking through translator Dr Mahmoud Khalid, the former Iraqi ambassador to Malaysia.

Once when blood flowed from his mouth, a doctor was called in. But when it was found that the blood was from a bleeding tongue, the doctor said: “Continue with the torture.”

Ali was a university lecturer in Baghdad when he was arrested due to his vocal criticism of the American invasion.

The electrocutions and his deformed hand, which was the result of soldiers stamping on it with their heavy boots, were just a small part of the torture that he went through.

Sexual abuse was a prevalent part of the prison torture. Ali speaks reticently about guns and broomsticks being thrust into “parts of my body.”

“Men or women, they don't care. They do it to them,” he said.

Men were stripped naked and made to serve meals to women detainees. If the women detainees averted their eyes, the men were beaten up.

His body is riddled with scars as a result of being kicked, stamped on and beaten with metal rods.

“They poked a rod into one of my bleeding wounds and twisted it around. Once they beat me until I was semi-conscious. I can still remember the song they were playing – By the Rivers of Babylon.”

The worst were the screams of those being tortured around him.

“Men raped in front of women and women raped in front of men. Have you heard of the 'Black and Decker torture'? They used the power drill to make holes in your leg, arms, stomach and even in your eye.

Throughout his imprisonment, they demanded from him names of people who were a threat to the invasion forces.

One day, they piled him into a truck with others. He had no idea where they were heading until the truck stopped and he was pushed off onto the road. Only then did he realise he had been freed.

The 1.8m-tall Ali looked like a skeleton. He weighed only 40kg, less than half of the 95kg when he was taken in.

Ali is today the founder and co-ordinator of the Association of Victims of American Occupation Prisons.

He will be one of the speakers at an international conference-cum-exhibition entitled Expose War Crimes: Criminalise War to be held at the Putra World Trade Centre from Feb 5 to Feb 7. This report was published by the StarOnline on January 8, 2007

Labels: Abu Gharib, Berita, Bush, Iraq, Luar Negeri

Bush seeks record $245bn for war

George Bush, the US president, is to ask congress for $245bn to fight the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan - while proposing curbs in spending on the US health care system.

Bush, speaking in his weekly radio address on Saturday, said Monday's budget proposal would emphasise restraint on domestic spending and make military funding the top priority.

Bush is to request $100bn for the rest of the current fiscal year and $145bn for next year, an administration official told Reuters news agency.

His budget also proposes squeezing about $70bn in savings from the US Medicare and Medicaid health programmes over the next five years.

Record spending

But the New York Times said budget documents show the actual figure is more than $100bn.

The budget proposal totals $170bn for the current fiscal year, including $70bn that congress has already approved, making it the highest spending level to date for the military campaigns.

Under the proposal, wealthier senior citizens would have to pay more for prescription drugs and the services of doctors under the Medicare system, The Washington Post and New York Times reported, citing a senior administration official and budget documents.

Bush's proposed cuts in Medicare and Medicaid far surpass what he or any other US president have sought before, the New York Times reports.

The Washington Post said the president would seek an increase of more than 10 per cent for Pentagon spending, increasing its budget to $481bn.

Non-military areas would receive a one per cent increase in spending for the fiscal year in 2008, an administration official told Reuters.

The sum amounts to a decrease in many US domestic programmes after accounting for inflation, which is running at about 2.5 per cent.

'Fiscally reckless'

Bush said: "Controlling spending also requires us to address the unsustainable growth of entitlement programmes such as social security, Medicare, and Medicaid.

"Spending for these programmes is growing faster than inflation, faster than our economy, and faster than our ability to pay for it."

The proposal will be the first budget that Bush has submitted to a congress controlled by rival Democrats.

Many Democrats have called Bush "fiscally reckless" and say his huge domestic tax cuts are unaffordable and favour the wealthy. Agencies

Labels: Afghanistan, Berita, Bush, Iraq, Luar Negeri, U.S.

AlJazeera, January 31 - The US may have to lower expectations for Iraq as it embarks on a new war plan, a senior American military official has said.

William Fallon, George Bush's choice to become the most senior US military commander for the Middle East, told the senate armed services committee: "What we've been doing is not working."

His statement echoed that of other senior US government and military officials in recent months who have also said the US is not winning in Iraq.

As head of US central command, Fallon would have overall responsibility for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Fallon also accused Iraq's neighbour, Iran, which has been identified by US officials as a source of increasing concern, of fomenting violence beyond its borders and called its behaviour "destabilising and troubling".

Extra US troops

He would oversee Bush's plan to stabilise Iraq, announced this month, which involves the deployment of 21,500 extra US troops.

"I believe the situation in Iraq can be turned around, but time is short," Fallon told the committee, meeting to consider his nomination.

He sounded a note of caution when asked about the prospects of a democratic Iraq emerging from current levels of violence.

"I think that we would probably be wise to temper our expectations here," he said.

"The likelihood that Iraq is suddenly going to turn into something that looks close to what we enjoy here in this country is going to be a long time coming."

Sectarian violence

Many tens of thousands of Iraqis and more than 3,000 US troops have died since the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003, with the country in the grip of sectarian violence, an insurgency, Islamist militant attacks and crime.

In the lead-up to and aftermath of the invasion, US officials spoke of creating a new Iraq which could serve as a beacon of democracy for the entire Middle East.

"Going back to 2003, we had hundreds of good ideas of things that we would like to see in Iraq that are more reflective of the kind of society and process that we enjoy here," Fallon said.

"And it seems to me that we probably erred in our assessment of the ability of these people to take on all of these tasks at the same time.

"Maybe we ought to redefine the goals here a bit and do something that's more realistic in terms of getting some progress and then maybe take on the other things later."

Priorities

Fallon said establishing security and getting progress from Iraq's feuding political leaders should be priorities.

If confirmed by the senate, Fallon would take over central command from Army General John Abizaid, who is retiring.

He would oversee the work of Army General David Petraeus, who is to become the senior US commander in Iraq.

Fallon told the committee that the US should watch Iran very closely.

"Iranian support for terrorism and sectarian violence beyond its borders and its pursuit of nuclear capability is destabilising and troubling," he said.

Fallon said he believed that Iran wanted the ability to prevent the US from operating in the Strait of Hormuz area, a key oil supply route in the Gulf.

But he also said that Iran needed to be able to move freely in the same area to transport its own oil exports. Agencies

Labels: Berita, Iraq, Luar Negeri, U.S.

Fierce battle in Najaf

Kavkaz Center, January 29 - US occupation force and Shia puppet formation forces claim to have killed more than 250 Mujahidden in a battle involving tanks and helicopters on the outskirts of the Shia city of Najaf.

The US military said a helicopter has been shot down in the fighting, resulting in the death of two troops on board. An puppet Shia military commander said the day-long battle was continuing.

Assad Abu Gilel, the puppet "governor" of Najaf province, said US occupation troops and Shia puppet formation fought a day-long battle with up to 1000 Mujahiddeen, including "foreign fighters", holed up in orchards on the northern outskirts of the city.

According to one Iraqi collaboration "political source", hundreds of fighters drawn from both Sunni and Shia communities were still fighting.

A Reuters reporter at the scene, 160km south of Baghdad, saw US tanks and heard blasts after dark and an Iraqi officer said F-16 jets were bombing the area.

Details of the day's fighting were sketchy. A puppet Shia formation source said some of the dead wore headbands declaring themselves a "Soldier of Heaven".

Abu Gilel said that the authorities had uncovered a plot to kill some Shia clerics on Monday, to coincide with the climax of Ashura, the Shia "holy festival".

"There is a conspiracy to kill the clergy on the 10th day of Muharram," Abu Gilel asserted.

Earlier on Sunday, five schoolgirls were killed and another 15 injured when a school in Baghdad came under mortar attack in Sunni areas.

In Baghdad, at least 15 people were killed in bombings in mainly Shia areas, puppet Shia "police" said.

Two car bombs targeting ethnic Kurds killed 16 people in the northern oil city of Kirkuk.

In a videotape sent to Al Jazeera, the Council of Shura al-Mujahideen group said it has destroyed a US tank by a roadside explosive device in the western Iraqi province of Anbar.

In another videotape, the Jaish al-Mujahideen group said that it has destroyed a US military vehicle in the northern Iraqi city of Samarra. Agencies

Labels: Berita, Iraq, Luar Negeri

Washington,January 26 - George Bush, the US president, has challenged Congress and skeptical politicians not to prematurely condemn his plan in Iraq.

In an oval office meeting with senior military advisers on Friday, Bush said: "I'm the decision-maker" about sending more troops to fight the war in Iraq.

"I've picked the plan that I think is most likely to succeed," Bush said.

He also challenged Democratic and Republican politicians, who are lining up to support resolutions opposing his decision to send 21,500 troops to Iraq, to put up their own ideas.

"Some are condemning a plan before it's even had a chance to work," he said.

Iranian 'explosive devices'

Also on Friday, Bush authorised US forces in Iraq to take whatever actions necessary to counter Iranian agents deemed a threat to American troops or to the public at large.

The aggressive new policy came in response to intelligence that Iran is supporting terrorists inside Iraq and is providing bombs - known as improvised explosive devices (IEDs) - and other equipment to anti-US fighters.

Gordon Johndroe, a National Security Council spokesman, said: "The president and his national security team over the last several months have continued to receive information that Iranians were supplying IED equipment and or training that was being used to harm American soldiers, "

While promising tougher action, the White House said the United States does not intend to cross the Iraq-Iran border to attack Iranians.

New Iraq commander

Meanwhile, the US Senate confirmed on Friday army general David Petraeus as the next commander of US forces in Iraq.

Confirmed on a vote of 81-0, Petraeus will be charged with implementing Bush's plan to send more US troops to Iraq in an effort to halt attacks and sectarian violence.

Petraeus, who will replace US army general George Casey, is just one of the new faces Bush is bringing to his team of top military and diplomatic officials in Iraq and the Middle East.

He has served two previous year-long tours in Iraq as commander of the 101st Airborne Division during the invasion in March 2003 and as commander of the training programme for the Iraqi army in 2004-05. Agencies

Labels: Berita, Iran, Iraq, Luar Negeri, U.S.

By Margaret Talev - Mcclatchy Washington Bureau

In a stinging Democratic Party response to President Bush's State of the Union address, freshman Sen. James Webb of Virginia said Bush "took us into this war recklessly" and "we are now as a nation held hostage to the predictable and predicted disarray that has followed."

Webb, who has a son serving in the Marines in Iraq, said Bush has lost the support of the majority of the country and the military.

"We need a new direction," he said, from "the greatest strategic blunder in modern times."

"Not one step back from the war against international terrorism. Not a precipitous withdrawal that ignores the possibility of further chaos," Webb said. "But an immediate shift toward strong regionally based diplomacy, a policy that takes our soldiers off the streets of Iraq's cities and a formula that will in short order allow our combat forces to leave Iraq."

The Democrat-led Senate and House of Representatives plan to pass nonbinding resolutions opposing the president's plan to send 21,500 additional troops to Iraq, but as of now they aren't threatening to withhold funding for it.

Before Webb was a Vietnam War hero, or President Reagan's Navy secretary, or a best-selling author, or the Republican-turned-Democrat who beat Sen. George Allen last year to give Democrats the last seat they needed to take control of the Senate, he was a boxer at the U.S. Naval Academy.

On Tuesday night, he delivered his harshest blows against the war in Iraq.

But he also jabbed at other openings, saying that now that Democrats control Congress for the first time in Bush's presidency, they will challenge him to deliver on promises to improve public education, health care and the plight of Hurricane Katrina survivors.

Webb also called on Bush to support the House-passed minimum wage increase and nurture an economy that restores the middle class. And he said Democrats would work with Bush to promote energy independence.

But he chose harsher rhetoric for what he framed as Bush's abuse of the public's loyalty, trust and welfare in the rush to war.

"The war's costs to our nation have been staggering," he said. "Financially. The damage to our reputation around the world. The lost opportunities to defeat the forces of international terrorism, and especially the precious blood of our citizens who have stepped forward to serve."

Invoking the legacies of two past Republican presidents -- Theodore Roosevelt for taking on corporate robber barons and Dwight D. Eisenhower for ending the Korean War -- Webb challenged Bush to follow their examples.

"If he does, we will join him," he said. "If he does not, we will be showing him the way

Labels: Berita, Iraq, Luar Negeri, U.S.

January 23 - Al-Qaeda's deputy leader has dismissed the US president's plan to send thousands more soldiers to Iraq, challenging him to send "the entire army", a group that tracks al-Qaeda messages said on Monday.

Ayman al-Zawahiri vowed that al-Qaeda's supporters will defeat the US in the new videotape intercepted by the Washington based SITE Institute.

In the video, al-Zawahiri said it was the "duty" of all Muslims to take up arms against Islam's enemies, and said the US strategy for Iraq outlined by George Bush, the US president, would fail.

SITE said the message was broadcast on al-Qaeda's multimedia arm, as-Sahab, which the group monitors.

Al-Zawahiri said in the message: "I ask [Bush], why send 20,000 [troops] only - why not send 50 or 100,000? Aren't you aware that the dogs of Iraq are pining for your troops' dead bodies?

"So send your entire army to be annihilated at the hands of the mujahideen [holy warriors] to free the world from your evil ... because Iraq, land of the caliphate and jihad [struggle], is able to bury ten armies like yours, with Allah's help and power."

The message is the first reaction from al-Qaeda's leadership to the new Iraq strategy.

Bush plans to send a further 21,500 US troops to Iraq.

Al-Zawahiri addressed Americans, saying they must "accept the facts of what is happening on the ground, and reject the fantasies with which Bush tries to deceive you".

He said: "You must honestly try to reach a mutual understanding with the Muslims, for then, and only then, you might enjoy security.

"Security is a shared destiny, if we are secure, you might be secure, and if we are safe, you might be safe. And if we are struck and killed, you will definitely - with Allah's permission - be struck and killed. This is the correct equation."

Al-Zawahiri also said that Muslim fighters were in control in Afghanistan.

He said: "Among [Bush's] ravings is that he has deprived al-Qaeda of a safe haven in Afghanistan.

"The entire world bears witness to his naked, barefaced lie, because al-Qaeda and the Taliban under the command of the commander of the faithful Mulla Muhammad Omar are the ones who have deprived America of a safe haven in Afghanistan."

Al-Qaeda's second-in-command also said Islamist fighters would "break the back" of the Ethiopians who got "bogged down" by the US in "a real disaster" in Somalia.

"I announce the good news to Bush: he has bogged down his Ethiopian slaves in a real disaster in Somalia. The mujahidin will break their back."

The Somali government, with the aid of Ethiopian and US forces, recently pushed the Union of Islamic Courts movement out of the capital Mogadishu and southern Somalia.

There was no immediate independent confirmation of the video's authenticity.

The video is the third message by al-Zawahiri in just over a month. In an audiotape posted on the internet on January 5, he urged Somalia's Muslim fighters to carry out suicide attacks on Ethiopian troops fighting in their country. Agencies

Labels: Berita, Iraq, Luar Negeri, U.S.

January 23 - More than 600 fighters loyal to Moqtada al-Sadr, the Shia leader, and 16 of their commanders have been captured in a crackdown on the Mahdi Army, US military officials say.

"There are currently over 600 illegal Jaish al-Mahdi [Mahdi Army] militia in detention awaiting prosecution from the government of Iraq," the US military said in a statement.

The military added that five "high-level individuals" detained were from Sadr City, Baghdad's Shia bastion loyal to al-Sadr and a Mahdi commander was killed during a series of operations.

The US military said: "Criminal activities by these individuals propagated instability within Iraq and their removal from the social structure is a critical start to providing the Iraqi populace with a safe and stable environment."

Combined Iraqi and US forces have carried out 52 operations in the past 45 days focused on the Mahdi Army and 42 operations aimed at Sunni fighters, the statement said.

The recent detentions are in addition to six other Mahdi militia leaders who have been detained since the beginning of October.

The operations against the Sunni fighters resulted in the capture of 33 cell leaders in Baghdad, it said.

Iraqi and US forces, reinforced by up to 10 brigades, are preparing a broad offensive against Sunni fighters and Shia militia groups focused on Baghdad in an attempt to quell sectarian violence that has killed tens of thousands of Iraqis last year.

Sectarian killings

The US military has regularly charged that al-Sadr's Mahdi Army is heavily involved in sectarian killing of Sunni Arabs in Baghdad and other regions of the country.

On Friday, security forces captured a top al-Sadr aide from Baghdad, Sheikh Abdul Hadi al-Darraji, the group's Baghdad spokesman.

He was detained in an early morning raid along with four others from a Shia religious site near Sadr City. Agencies

Labels: Berita, Iraq, Luar Negeri

Kavkaz, 22 January - At least 24 Americans died in Iraq on Saturday - the third deadliest single day for U.S. troops since the war began in March 2003. That total included four soldiers and a Marine killed in the violent Anbar province whose deaths were announced Sunday.

The gunmen who killed five U.S. troops in the Shiite holy city of Karbala wore military uniforms and used vehicles commonly driven by foreign dignitaries - an apparent attempt to impersonate Americans, Iraqi officials said Sunday. Saturday's carnage also included 12 soldiers killed in a Blackhawk helicopter crash northeast of Baghdad and two slain in roadside bombings.

The first reinforcements of U.S. troops have already started to flow into the region. A brigade of the U.S. 82nd Airborne Division, part of the buildup, has arrived in Baghdad and its 3,200 soldiers will be ready to join the fresh drive to quell sectarian violence in the capital by the first of the month, the American military said Sunday.

But the deadly toll among U.S. forces comes at a critical time of rising congressional opposition to President Bush's decision to dispatch 21,500 additional soldiers to the conflict.

The U.S. military statement about the Karbala attack said "an illegally armed militia group" attacked the provincial headquarters building with grenades, small arms and "indirect fire," which usually means mortars or rockets.

"A meeting was taking place at the time of the attack to ensure the security of Shiite pilgrims participating in the Ashoura commemorations," said a statement from Brig. Gen. Vincent K. Brooks, deputy commander of the Multi-National Division-Baghdad.

Thousands of Shiite pilgrims are flocking to the city to mark the 10-day Ashoura festival commemorating the death of one of Shiite Islam's most sacred saints, Imam Hussein, grandson of the Prophet Muhammad.

Provincial Gov. Akeel al-Khazaali, who was not at the security meeting, said the gunmen were able to drive their black SUVs through a checkpoint on the outskirts of the city, 50 miles south of Baghdad, because police assumed it was a diplomatic convoy and informed headquarters that it was coming.

"The group used percussion bombs and broke into the building, killed five Americans and kidnapped two others, then fled," the governor said, adding that Iraqi troops later found one of the SUVs with three bodies dressed in military uniforms.

The U.S. military, which has said that five U.S. soldiers were killed and three were wounded while repelling the attack, denied that two U.S. troops were kidnapped.

Lt. Col. Christopher Garver, a military spokesman, said all American forces "were accounted for after the action."

A security official in Karbala, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to disclose the information to the media, said the gunmen drove to Babil province after the attack. The Babil police commander confirmed that they entered the region before disappearing.

Although Babil province is predominantly Shiite, some parts of it, just south of Baghdad, are Sunni and insurgents are known to be active there.

Saturday was the deadliest day for U.S. forces in two years. It was also the third-highest of any single day since the war began in March 2003, eclipsed only by 37 U.S. deaths on Jan. 26, 2005, and 28 on the third day of the U.S. invasion. U.S. authorities also announced two American combat deaths from Friday. more..

Labels: Berita, Iraq, Luar Negeri, U.S.

BBC News, 20 January - US forces in Iraq have suffered some of their heaviest casualties in recent months, with 18 personnel killed.

A website linked to the former ruling Baath party said an Islamic group shot down the aircraft, but there is no independent verification.

In a separate incident, the US military said five of its soldiers were killed in a clash with militants in Karbala.

The clash occurred at the provincial government headquarters in the Shia holy city, 110 km (70 miles) south of Baghdad.

It happened as thousands of pilgrims gathered in Karbala for the Shia mourning ceremony of Ashura, due to begin on Sunday.

Claim

The latest crash comes weeks after a US military helicopter crashed in western Anbar province, killing four troops.

A military statement said: "A US forces helicopter went down north-east of Baghdad this afternoon. Emergency Coalition Forces responded and secured the scene," Reuters news agency reported.

Map of Iraq with Baghdad, Baquba and Karbala

"Thirteen passengers and crew members were aboard the aircraft and all were killed," it said.

AFP news agency quoted Lt Col Josslyn L Aberle as saying there were nine passengers and four crew on board.

The BBC's Mike Wooldridge in Baghdad says a short while before the announcement, Medivac helicopters had been seen flying out of the city.

A Baathist website says a group calling itself Jaish al-Mujahideen [the Mujahideen army] says it shot down the helicopter.

Our correspondent says groups have often made such claims in similar situations in the past.

There have been previous US military helicopter crashes in Iraq but rarely causing casualties on a scale like this, our correspondent adds.

In 2005, 31 US troops died in a helicopter crash in bad weather near the Jordanian border, and in November 2003 two Black Hawks collided under fire over Mosul, killing 17 service personnel.

Labels: Berita, Iraq, Luar Negeri, U.S.

BAGHDAD, 19 January 2007 (Reuters) - US and Iraqi troops seized an aide to Shia cleric Moqtada Al Sadr on Friday, confronting a movement that is a key element in the ruling coalition.

The raid near Baghdad’s Sadr City district came as Defence Secretary Robert Gates flew in to the southern city of Basra to meet the US commander in Iraq, General George Casey.

Dealing with Sadr and his Mehdi Army militia is a burning issue for the Americans and Shia Prime Minister Nuri Al Maliki as they prepare what many see as a last-ditch effort to rein in sectarian violence that is pushing Iraq into civil war.

Sadr, a young populist cleric with a mass following and some backing from Shia Iran, is a key ally of Maliki, who has been criticised by Washington and leaders of the once dominant Sunni Arab minority for failing to disarm the Mehdi Army.

Maliki, however, has said this month he will crack down on Shia militias and said some 400 Mehdi Army members had been arrested in mainly Shia southern Iraq over recent days.

The US military said in a statement that Iraqi special forces backed by American advisers seized an unnamed man they described as a death squad leader wanted for kidnap, torture and murder and linked to fugitive Shia warlord Abu Deraa.

Aides to Sadr said the man held was Abdul-Hadi Al Darraji, a prominent media spokesman for their movement. An official in Sadr’s political office branded his detention a deliberate ”provocation” but said they would not respond with violence.

“He was arrested at midnight (2100 GMT) with two cousins,” Abdul-Mehdi Al Matiri told Reuters, adding that a guard was shot dead during the arrest and that he believed the two others detained had since been released.

“Angry”

The US statement made no mention of any violence and US officials had no immediate comment. Though the statement did not identify Darraji, details of the operation given by the US military coincided with those given by Sadr’s office.

Matiri said: “We are angry. This is a kind of revenge. Sheikh Darraji deals with the media. He is not a military man.”

The US military said: “In an Iraqi-led operation, special Iraqi army forces captured a high-level, illegal armed group leader during operations with Coalition advisers.”

It said he was suspected of leading “punishment” activities -- an apparent reference to informal courts meting out rough justice according strict interpretations of Islamic law. These included “kidnapping, torture and murder”.

There was no immediate comment from the Iraqi government.

Maliki has in the past criticised raids on Shia groups conducted by Iraqi army special forces under the direct command of US officers, saying he has not been adequately consulted.

However, he has announced that the coming crackdown in Baghdad, backed by most of the 21,500 American reinforcements being sent by President George W. Bush, will tackle Shia militias as well as Sunni insurgents.

A senior figure close to Sadr was shot dead last month by a US soldier during a raid in the Shia holy city of Najaf.

Sadr himself has publicly distanced himself from violence blamed on his Mehdi Army supporters, whom the United States has called the biggest threat to the security of Iraq.

Fellow Shia leaders say they are negotiating to keep Sadr and his political movement inside the main Shia bloc while at the same time they hope to disarm his militia followers.

In other violence, after a bloody few days of bombings in Baghdad, an official in Sadr’s movement said a Shia mosque in the violent southern district of Dora was badly damaged in an explosion. And in the northern oil capital of Kirkuk, police said gunmen killed the preacher of a major Sunni mosque. Khaleej Times

Labels: Berita, Iraq, Luar Negeri

The US defence secretary has said he wants to raise the US military's profile in the Gulf.

Robert Gates arrived in Riyadh, the Saudi capital, on Wednesday (17 January) on a visit to discuss the new US strategy in Iraq and win Saudi support for its approach to Iran, which is accused of trying to build nuclear weapons.

Iran has said its nuclear programme is for civilian purposes only, ignoring UN Security Council demands that it halt uranium enrichment work.

The UN has imposed limited sanctions on Iran over the issue.

Gates, who will hold talks with King Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz, said: "I think we can always use Saudi co-operation on these issues in the Gulf region."

Abdullah and Crown Prince Sultan bin Abdul Aziz, the Saudi defence minister, received Gates on Wednesday at a desert camp at Rawdhat Khuraim.

"Prince Meqrin bin Abdul Aziz, the head of Saudi's intelligence services, was also present, the Saudi press agency reported.

Patriot deployment

The visit comes against the backdrop of the US president's decision to deploy a Patriot missile defence battalion to the region. The Bush administration says it is intended as protection against any possible Iranian ballistic missile threat.

The move was announced last week as part of the US strategy for the region, which includes the deployment of an additional 21,500 troops to Iraq.

Gates flew to Saudi Arabia from Afghanistan, where he said that US commanders had also asked for more troops.

Donald Rumsfeld, Gates predecessor as US defence secretary, visited Saudi Arabia in April 2003. alJazeera.net

Labels: Iran, Iraq, Luar Negeri, Saudi, U.S.