12 Oct
United States Wars, News and Casualties
United States Wars, News and Casualties
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The war ended for those children, but it has never ended for survivors who carry memories of them. Likewise, the effects of the U.S. bombings continue, immeasurably and indefensibly.
Damn The WarCriminals,Bush,Cheney,Rice,Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz, Powell and Blair from England.
How many Iraqis have died as a result of the invasion 15 years ago? Some credible estimates put the number at more than one million. You can read that sentence again.
The invasion of Iraq is often spoken of in our country as a “blunder,” or even a “colossal mistake.” It was a crime.
Those who perpetrated it are still at large. Some of them have even been rehabilitated thanks to the horrors of a mostly amnesiac citizenry.
We condemned children to death, some after many days of writhing in pain on bloodstained mats, without pain relievers. Some died quickly, wasted by missing arms and legs, crushed heads. As the fluids ran out of their bodies, they appeared like withered, spoiled fruits. They could have lived, certainly should have lived – and laughed and danced, and run and played- but instead they were brutally murdered. Yes, murdered!
The McGlynn
War News
GUARD: Yemen: End airstrikes and give child victims justice, says UN body
Committee on the rights of the child issues report as pressure grows on Saudis to rethink war
FILE PHOTO: Mukhtar Hadi, who survived a Saudi-led air strike that killed dozens including children, stands outside his house in Saada, Yemen September 4, 2018. Picture taken September 4, 2018. REUTERS/Naif Rahma/File PhotoReuters
A UN human rights body has called on Saudi Arabia to end airstrikes in Yemen and start ensuring the perpetrators of attacks on children are brought to justice.
The call by the UN committee on the rights of the child will add further pressure on the Saudis to rethink the four-year war in Yemen.
In the US, a cross-party group of senators have urged the US secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, to rethink his decision to certify that arms sales can go ahead because Saudi Arabia is taking steps to protect civilians. The senators say the judgment is impossible to reconcile with the known facts, including the recent increase in the death toll.
It is possible that wider controversy over the alleged Saudi killing of the journalist Jamal Khashoggi will swell the number of US lawmakers demanding their country end its support for the war in Yemen.
The Saudis say they have been locked in a war since 2015 to oust Iranian-backed Houthi rebels that have dislodged the UN-recognised government. A fresh Saudi military offensive is under way after UN-sponsored peace talks in Geneva failed to get off the ground last month.
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NATION: American Officials Could Be Prosecuted for War Crimes in Yemen
Under international law, Washington—during both the Obama and Trump administrations—has been a co-belligerent with Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.
An injured child rests in a hospital on August 10, 2018, a day after a Saudi-led coalition air strike in Saada, Yemen, hit a bus full of children. (AP Photo / Kareem al-Mrrany)
On October 2016, warplanes from a Saudi-led coalition bombed a community hall in Yemen’s capital, Sanaa, where mourners had gathered for a funeral, killing at least 140 people and wounding hundreds. International condemnation was swift after that attack—the deadliest since Saudi Arabia and several of its allies launched a war against Houthi rebels in Yemen in March 2015. Within days, United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon called for an international investigation into whether the attack constituted a war crime. “Aerial attacks by the Saudi-led coalition have already caused immense carnage and destroyed much of the country’s medical facilities and other vital civilian infrastructure,” Ban said, adding, “Parties cannot hide behind the fog of this war. A man-made catastrophe is unfolding before our eyes.”
The Saudi coalition, which includes the United Arab Emirates, was not the only party potentially implicated in war crimes. The attack on the funeral hall, which targeted services for the father of a prominent Houthi leader, renewed international attention on the United States and its deepening involvement in the Saudi-led war. President Barack Obama’s administration pledged to conduct “an immediate review” of its logistical support for the Saudi coalition. (In addition to providing intelligence assistance and refueling support for warplanes, Washington had rushed billions of dollars in missiles, bombs, and spare parts to help the Saudi air force continue its bombing campaign.) The National Security Council’s then-spokesman, Ned Price, said the administration was “deeply disturbed” by the attack, and was prepared to adjust its level of support. He added, “US security cooperation with Saudi Arabia is not a blank check.” Human Rights Watch reviewed footage and photos after the attack and found that the Saudi coalition used at least one US-made 500-pound laser-guided bomb. The group deemed it “an apparent war crime.”……………..
For a brief time, it seemed that the attack on the funeral hall could lead to real change in US policy. But the Obama administration’s review led only to minor steps: The Pentagon withdrew a handful of personnel from Saudi Arabia and suspended the sale of some munitions. And after Donald Trump was elected president in November 2016, concerns about US involvement in war crimes evaporated. Few Trump administration officials are publicly worried about US exposure to war crimes. But members of Congress are trying to rein in the Pentagon’s role in an undeclared war that has precipitated the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.
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NYT: Journalist’s Disappearance Hardens U.S. Congress Stance on Saudi Arms Deals
WASHINGTON — The disappearance of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi has hardened resistance in the U.S. Congress to selling weapons to Saudi Arabia, already a sore point for many lawmakers concerned about the humanitarian crisis created by Yemen’s civil war.
Even before Turkish reports said Khashoggi was killed at a Saudi consulate in Istanbul, Democratic U.S. lawmakers had placed “holds” on at least four military equipment deals, largely because of Saudi attacks that have killed Yemeni civilians.
President Donald Trump was wary of halting arms sales over the case, saying on Thursday the kingdom would just move its money into Russia and China.
The Gulf Arab states have been battling since 2015 to restore a government driven out by the Houthis, Shi’ite Muslim fighters Yemen’s neighbors view as agents of Iran. The war has killed more than 10,000 people and created the world’s most urgent humanitarian emergency.
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REU: Plight of stranded Syrians worsens as food blocked
AMMAN (Reuters) – Thousands of Syrians stranded on Jordan’s border with Syria are running out of food as routes leading to their camp are closed by the Syrian army and Jordan is blocking aid deliveries, relief workers and refugees said on Thursday.
FILE PHOTO: Syrian refugees wait to board a Jordanian army vehicle after crossing into Jordanian territory with their families, in Al Ruqban border area, near the northeastern Jordanian border with Syria, and Iraq, near the town of Ruwaished, 240 km (149 miles) east of Amman September 10, 2015. REUTERS/Muhammad Hamed/File Photo
The Syrian army has tightened its siege of the camp, in Rukban, near the northeastern Jordanian border with Syria and Iraq, preventing smugglers and traders from delivering food to its 50,000 inhabitants, mostly women and children.
“More than a week ago the Syrian regime cut all the routes of supplies towards the camp. There are now only very small amounts of food that smugglers bring,” Abu Abdullah, the head of the civil affairs council that runs the camp, told Reuters.
“The camp is a balloon that could explode at any moment because of hunger, sickness and lack of aid … if the situation continues like this there will be real starvation,” he added by phone.In the last three years, tens of thousands of people have fled to the camp from Islamic State-held parts of Syria that were being targeted by Russian and U.S.-led coalition air strikes.
Rukban is located near a U.S. garrison in southeastern Syria at Tanf on the Iraqi-Syrian border. The camp falls within a so-called deconfliction zone set up by the Pentagon with the aim of shielding the Tanf garrison from attacks by pro-Assad forces.
Damascus says the U.S. forces are occupying Syrian territory and providing a safe-haven in that area for rebels it deems terrorists.
Jordan has since the start of the year blocked any aid deliveries to the camp over its frontier and says now that the Syrian government had recovered territory around the camp, it could not be made responsible for delivering aid.
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AP: IS reverting to insurgency tactics after losing caliphate
BEIRUT (AP) — Nearly defeated on the battlefields of its would-be caliphate, analysts say the Islamic State group has reverted to what it was before its spectacular conquests in 2014 — a shadowy insurgent network that targets civilian populations with guerrilla-style attacks and exploits state weaknesses to incite sectarian strife.
In Iraq and Syria, hardly a week goes by without the group staging an attack on a town or village, keeping its opponents on edge even as it fights U.S.-backed forces advancing on the last remaining slice of territory under its control near the countries’ shared border.
Hisham al-Hashimi, an IS expert who advises the Iraqi government, said the group now operates like it did in 2010, before its rise in Iraq, which culminated four years later with the militants seizing one of Iraq’s biggest cities, Mosul, and also claiming the city of Raqqa in Syria and declaring an Islamic caliphate across large areas of both countries.
Al-Hashimi said the world’s most dangerous insurgent group is trying to prove that despite losing its territorial hold, “it still has long arms to strike.”
While it fends off attacks on its remaining pockets in Syria, a recent surge in false claims of responsibility for attacks also signals that the group is struggling to stay relevant after losing its proto-state and its dominance on the international news agenda. The main figures behind the group’s once sleek propaganda machine have mostly been killed. Raqqa fell a year ago this month, and the group has lost all but 2 percent of the territory it held in Iraq and Syria.
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NYT: Afghan Official: Taliban Attacks Kill 8 in Country’s North
KABUL, Afghanistan — An Afghan official says attacks by the Taliban in the country’s north have killed eight people — four soldiers and four civilians.
Military spokesman Hanif Rezaie says the troops died in Kunduz province when the Taliban attacked a military outpost in the district of Archi on Friday morning. He says six were wounded in the assault.
Rezaie says the civilians were killed on Thursday, when a car bomb targeting an election campaign headquarters in Faryab province exploded prematurely.
He says several Taliban fighters died in both incidents.
Afghanistan is holding parliamentary elections on Oct. 20. The campaign has already been marred by violence.
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NYT: Rebel Afghan Militia Leader Defies Government as Arrest Bid Fails
KABUL — A standoff over a militia commander in central Afghanistan who has defied attempts to arrest him has highlighted tensions over President Ashraf Ghani’s crackdown on local strongmen operating outside central government control.
On Friday, security forces arrived in Lal Sar Jangal, a district in the remote and largely lawless province of Ghor, to arrest Alipur, a commander from the mainly Shi’ite Hazara minority accused of serious human rights abuses.
Their arrival set off a gunbattle that killed four police and eight civilians. Alipur, known as “Commander Sword”, escaped but a few days later reappeared in Wardak province, west of Kabul, holding a defiant rally of hundreds of supporters.
“You rescued me and as long as I have your support, no government can touch me,” Alipur, seen by supporters as a Robin Hood-style figure who defends his people, told a cheering crowd. “I stand beside you and will defend your rights to my last day.”
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NYT: Dozens Killed in Afghan Clashes as Election Nears
KUNDUZ, Afghanistan — At least 15 Afghan border police were killed battling Taliban insurgents on Thursday, an official said, as fighting continues ahead of this month’s elections, with 21 Taliban killed in an operation in Wardak, west of the capital Kabul.
Amruddin Wali, a member of the provincial council in Kunduz in northern Afghanistan, said 15 members of the paramilitary border police were killed when Taliban fighters attacked a checkpoint in Qala-e Zal district.
Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid put the casualty total at 25 and said seven police were wounded.
The latest violence follows increasing pressure by the Taliban on Kunduz, the northern city they twice overran in 2015 and 2016. The city has remained relatively secure over the past two years, but the insurgents control many of the surrounding districts.
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Taliban militants, civilians suffer heavy casualties in a premature car bomb explosion
By Khaama Press on 12 Oct 2018 12:08pm .
At least nineteen, people including Taliban militants and ordinary civilians, were killed or wounded in a premature car bomb explosion in northern Faryab province of Afghanistan.
The 209th Shaheen Corps of the Afghan Military in the North in a statement said the incident has taken place in the vicinity of Khwaja Namosi Bazar, leaving at least ten militants and five civilians dead.
The statement further added that the Taliban militants were looking to detonate the car bomb in Maimana city to target security forces or the electoral campaigns.
However, the 209th Shaheen Corps said the car bomb went prematurely as the militants were transporting it to the city, leaving ten militants dead and four others wounded.
According to the 209th Shaheen Corps, at least five civilians also lost their lives in the explosion.
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Children among 9 killed, wounded in separate IED explosions
By Khaama Press on 11 Oct 2018 1:22pm .
At least nine civilians including children were killed or wounded in separate Improvised Explosive Device (IED) explosions in southeastern Ghazni and Paktika provinces.
The 203rd Thunder Corps of the Afghan Military in the Southeast in a statement said at least three children lost their lives in an explosion triggered by an IED planted by the Taliban militants in Orgun district of Paktia province.
The statement further added that another IED planted by the militants in Moqor district of Ghazni province went off targeting a civilian vehicle which left one civilian dead and five others wounded.
The Taliban militants and other militants often use improvised explosive device as the weapon of their choice to target the security forces and government officials.
However, in majority of such attacks the ordinary civilians are killed while in some cases the Taliban militants are themselves blown up in premature explosions.
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Recent Casualties:
Color Denotes Today’s Confirmation
The Department of Defense announced today the death of a soldier who was supporting Operations Resolute Support and Freedom’s Sentinel.
Spc. James A. Slape, 23, from Morehead City, North Carolina, died Oct. 4, 2018, in Helmand Province, Afghanistan, as a result of wounds sustained from an improvised explosive device. The incident is under investigation.
Slape was assigned to 60th Troop Command, North Carolina Army National Guard, Washington, North Carolina.
War Casualties By Name
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Care for Veterans:
PTSD: National Center for PTSDPTSD Care for Veterans, Military, and FamiliesSee Help for Veterans with PTSD to learn how to enroll for VA health care and get an assessment.
All VA Medical Centers provide PTSD care, as well as many VA clinics.Some VA’s have programs specializing in PTSD treatment. Use the VA PTSD Program Locator to find a PTSD program.
If you are a war Veteran, find a Vet Center to help with the transition from military to civilian life.
Call the 24/7 Veteran Combat Call Center1-877-WAR-VETS (1-877-927-8387) to talk to another combat Veteran.DoD’s Defense Centers of Excellence (DCoE) 24/7 Outreach Center for Psychological Health & Traumatic Brain Injury provides information and helps locate resources.
Call 1-866-966-1020 or email resources@dcoeoutreach.orgMilitary OneSourceCall 24/7 for counseling and many resources 1-800-342-9647.Need further assistance? Get Help with VA PTSD Care
A Walk Through Arlington
Originally Published In 2007
The McGlynn
