1904

Military: Troop deaths hit 1,904 in Iraq

Steven R. Hurst / Associated Press

BAGHDAD, Iraq - The U.S. military said Tuesday that four U.S. soldiers died in two roadside bombings near the insurgent stronghold of Ramadi and a fifth died in a blast north of Baghdad, pushing the toll of American forces killed in Iraq past 1,900.

Also Tuesday, the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad said a suicide car bombing killed four other Americans - a diplomatic security agent and three private security agents - traveling in a convoy Monday in Mosul. The four were attached to the embassy's regional office in the northern city, Iraq's third-largest, said spokesman Peter J. Mitchell.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice identified the Diplomatic Security officer as Stephen Eric Sullivan, calling his death "a tragic loss for all of us at the Department of State." His age and permanent address were not given.

Four of the soldiers were killed in two separate bomb attacks Monday during combat operations in Ramadi, a volatile city 70 miles west of Baghdad. The victims were U.S. Army soldiers attached to the 2nd Marine Division, II Marine Expeditionary Force.

The fifth soldier, from the 18th Military Police Brigade, was killed Tuesday by a roadside bomb 75 miles north of the capital.

As of Tuesday, 1,904 members of the U.S. military have died since the beginning of the war in 2003, according to an Associated Press count. At least 1,483 died from hostile action, according to the military. The figures include five military civilians.

Ramadi has been the scene of intense but sporadic fighting since the insurgency gained strength and began its offensive against U.S. forces in the summer of 2003.

The Euphrates River city is the capital of Anbar Province, a huge region that stretches from Baghdad to the Saudi, Jordanian and Syrian borders. Many cities, towns and villages along the river are insurgent strongholds, where Saddam Hussein loyalists have teamed with foreign fighters of al-Qaida in Iraq to battle the Americans and U.S.-trained Iraqi army and police.

There have been reports of fighting in the region since Thursday, when al-Qaida in Iraq said in an Internet posting that its forces battled the Americans.

In recent weeks, rebel bombs have been responsible for 70 percent to 80 percent of American soldiers killed or wounded, according to U.S. military spokesman Lt. Col. Steven Boylan.

Since the start of the war, about 32 percent of U.S. military deaths have been from improvised explosives, suicide bombs or other such blasts - compared with about 48 percent in firefights and other combat. About 19 percent died in accidents.

The Sunni-dominated insurgency has conducted a rampage of violent attacks since a suicide bomber blew himself up a week ago amid a group of men seeking work in Baghdad, killing 112 people, mostly Shiites. Thirteen more bombings in the next 10 hours left a death toll of 167, the bloodiest day in the capital since the invasion.

Al-Qaida in Iraq claimed responsibility, and its leader, Jordanian-born terrorist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, declared war on Iraq's Shiite majority.

A spokesman for Iraq's prime minister, meanwhile, described as "very unfortunate" an incident in the southern city of Basra in which British armored vehicles broke down the wall of a jail to try to free two British soldiers later found in the custody of local militiamen elsewhere in the city.

"My understanding is, first, it happened very quickly. Second, there is lack of discipline in the whole area regarding this matter," said Haydar al-Abadi, a spokesman for Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari. "It is (a) very unfortunate development that the British forces should try to release their soldiers the way it happened."

British authorities said their soldiers were being held illegally and that their captors had refused an order from the Iraqi Interior Minister for their release.

Photos from the jail Tuesday showed a concrete wall broken through, several cars crushed - apparently by armored vehicles - and prefabricated structures demolished.

Basra provincial Gov. Mohammed al-Waili condemned the British for raiding the prison, an act he called "barbaric, savage and irresponsible."

British Defense Minister John Reid defended the action as "absolutely right," saying laws under which the Iraqi government was given sovereignty in 2004 require that coalition forces detained by Iraqi authorities be handed over to the U.S.-led multinational force.

"I understand also that the minister of the Interior, at the highest level, instructed that they should be(handed over), that the local judicial authorities said the same," Reid told the BBC.

"And that is why in the course of the day, while we were negotiating, in view of that fact that they weren't handed over, we got increasingly worried and the commander on the spot, with hindsight, was absolutely right to do what he did, because we discovered they weren't in the police station, they were somewhere else, but are now safe," Reid said.

Aquil Jabbar, an Iraqi TV cameraman who lives across the street from the jail, said about 150 Iraqi prisoners fled as British commandos stormed inside to rescue their comrades. Iraqi and British officials said that was not true.

The Shiite-dominated south of Iraq, where 8,500 British troops are based, has been far quieter than Sunni regions to the north, but Britons have come under frequent attacks recently. The British military has reported 96 deaths since the war began.

The latest violence in Basra began early Monday when authorities reported arresting the two Britons, described as special forces commandos in civilian clothing, for allegedly shooting two policemen, one of whom reportedly died.

Al-Abadi said the men were arrested because they acted suspiciously.

British armor then encircled the jail where the two were held.

Cameramen from Arab satellite broadcasters were allowed to photograph the men, who appeared to be Westerners and were sitting on the floor, their hands tied behind them.

One of the men had a bandage on his head, the other had blood on his clothes.

A melee broke out in the streets outside the jail as demonstrators attacked the British armor with stones and Molotov cocktails. During the chaos, one British soldier could be seen scrambling for his life from a burning Warrior armored fighting vehicle.

Press Association reported that three British soldiers were hurt, but said none of the injuries was life-threatening. Iraqi authorities said three demonstrators were killed and 15 others wounded.

Tensions have been mounting in Basra for weeks.

On Friday, a local commander of al-Mahdi Army, a militia loyal to the radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, was arrested, prompting a demonstration for his release.

On Sunday, Fakher Haider, 38, an Iraqi journalist working for The New York Times was killed after men claiming to be police officers took him from his home, the newspaper said.

Last month, freelance journalist Steven Vincent was killed after he wrote a column in the Times accusing Basra police of being infiltrated by Shiite militiamen.

 

 

Bring Them Home Now Tour : Index

Bring Them Home Now Tour Events in Washington DC

Wednesday, September 21
Noon: The tour arrives at the Capitol!
Press Conference at 3rd St and the Capitol Steps

1:30pm Tour Delivers Questions to the President
The Bring Them Home Now Tour will deliver our questions to President Bush: What is the noble cause? How many more lives are you willing to sacrifice? What are you going to do to end the war?

2:30pm Building of Camp Casey Memorial at Constitution Gardens

8:00pm Vietnam and Iraq: the Lessons Ignored and Forgotten
American University: Kay Spiritual Center
Free and Open to the Public

Friday, September 23
7:30pm Vigil at Camp Casey: Constitution Gardens

Saturday, September 24
GSFP, IVAW, MFSO and VFP will march in contingent
Join us at the at the Real Support for the Troops Means Bring Them Home Now and the Camp Casey Reunion tents
location to be announced - check back here for details ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  

North Tour

September 18th, 2005

By Stacy Bannerman

I am so tired of standing at memorials for soldiers; tired of weeping for the victims of this war.
I am tired of watching parents plant crosses for their dead children, day after day after godforsaken day.

Iam tired of placing flowers in empty boots and baby shoes; of the way my body shakes at the first readings of the names that were added to the casualty count this week.

What’s wearing me out is bearing witness to this war. This foreverness of death, and the unrelenting loss.

It drains my spirit to meet the widow’s eyes; to watch the fathers falter, falling to their knees. Christ, that makes me weak.

To stand at the lip of the mouth of a grave that will never get enough
catching mothers tears, a nation driving by the dead, is exhausting to my soul.

I am deathly tired today.

     *************************************************

  An Antiwar Speech in Union Square Is Stopped by Police Citing Paperwork Rules - New York Times   September 20, 2005

An Antiwar Speech in Union Square Is Stopped by Police Citing Paperwork Rules

BY SHADI RAHIMI

An antiwar speech by Cindy Sheehan, the mother of an American soldier killed in Iraq, was cut short yesterday after the organizer of the event was arrested and police officers confiscated his audio equipment.

The claps and cheers that had greeted Ms. Sheehan's arrival at the rally in Union Square quickly turned to furious chants of "Let her speak!" as officers ushered away the organizer, Paul Zulkowitz, who the police said lacked audio permits for the event.

Angry activists followed officers as they led Mr. Zulkowitz away, waving their fists and shouting, "Shame, shame, shame." Ms. Sheehan, who was visiting New York on the last leg of a bus tour across the country, was nearing the end of her speech when the police officers arrested Mr. Zulkowitz. She was whisked to a car by two supporters just before the police officers seized the microphone. Mr. Zulkowitz was arrested because he did not have a permit, said the commanding officer of the 13th Precinct, Inspector Michael J. McEnroy.

Detective Kevin Czartoryski said Mr. Zulkowitz was charged with unauthorized use of a sound device and disorderly conduct, and was released after being given a court summons.

Detective Czartoryski said the police had taken the "appropriate action" in response to a lawbreaker.

But many people attending the event, dozens of whom yelled accusations into the faces of the more than 20 police officers who blocked them from following Mr. Zulkowitz, interpreted the arrest as a demonstration of citywide disdain for free speech, referring to last year's arrests of protesters at the Republican National Convention.

"This is what's been happening for the last couple of years," said Daniel Starling, the co-chairman of the Green Party chapter in Manhattan, who attended the event yesterday. "Every time we try to hold a demonstration, they arrest us."

The crowd of New Yorkers had waited more than an hour to catch a glimpse of Ms. Sheehan, who was thrust into the national spotlight in August when she sought a meeting with President Bush by camping out for days near his ranch in Crawford, Tex. Though soft-spoken, Ms. Sheehan has not shied away from controversy, opening her New York visit on Sunday night in Brooklyn by accusing Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton of failing to challenge the Bush administration's policies in Iraq.

Ms. Sheehan, who did not mention Ms. Clinton yesterday, urged her supporters in Union Square to continue pushing to end the war in Iraq. One supporter, Lien Corey, a 51-year-old Manhattan resident who was living in Vietnam during the war there, said that Ms. Sheehan had become a larger-than-life figure who represents the sentiments of many people across the country. "She's beyond herself now, she's a symbol," Ms. Corey said. "She's a catalyst, and we all unite behind her."

Ms. Sheehan, who has been credited by many activists with reinvigorating the antiwar movement in the United States, began speaking out against the war in Iraq soon after her 24-year-old son, Casey, was killed in Baghdad on April 2, 2004. She attributes her sudden fame to the news media's need to find a "focal point" on certain high-profile issues like the Iraq war.

At a news conference in Chelsea earlier in the day, she said she regretted not speaking out sooner.

"I didn't think that one person could make a difference," Ms. Sheehan said. "After Casey was killed, I thought, well if I can't make a difference, at least I'm going to my grave knowing I tried."

Although many opponents of the war said they were thrilled by the attention Ms. Sheehan has attracted to the cause, some are frustrated by her celebrity status, which they said can deflect the focus away from other issues.

After the news conference, George Weber, 57, a Vietnam War veteran from Warwick, N.Y., said little attention was being paid to issues of concern to veterans, like the possible closing of the Manhattan Veterans Affairs hospital.

Ms. Sheehan's message has been heard across the nation on television ads sponsored by antiwar groups and at well-publicized stops on her bus tour, which was launched from Crawford on Aug. 31 and has visited 51 cities in 28 states. She has been joined on her journey by families of soldiers and veterans, many of whom have been working for years to rally people against war.

Many New Yorkers said yesterday that Ms. Sheehan gave them back hope that was lost when war was declared on Iraq.

Laurie Arbeiter, 46, of Brooklyn, said she flew to Crawford in August and spent two weeks camped out with Ms. Sheehan and others.

Ms. Arbeiter said that the arrest of the event organizer, Mr. Zulkowitz, was another example of the "country's suppression of dissent."

"We are being railroaded toward a state in which we can't speak up," she said.