United States Wars, News and Casualties

The War Criminals

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. (A year ago Mr. Bush was on “The Ellen DeGeneres Show,” dancing and talking about his paintings.)

The war criminals, Bush,Cheney,Rice,Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz, and Powell who sold us the war still go on doing what they do.

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 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.

The McGlynn

War News

NYT: 1 U.S. Soldier Is Killed and 4 Are Wounded in Somalia Firefight

WASHINGTON — An American Special Operations forces soldier was killed and four others were wounded on Friday in an attack in southwestern Somalia against fighters for the Islamic extremist group the Shabab, three Defense Department officials said. The casualties were the first to have been publicized in Africa since an ambush in Niger in October.

The American forces were alongside Somali troops at a small outpost near the town of Jamaame when they came under small arms and mortar fire, Defense Department officials said on Friday.

The American team was backed up by armed surveillance aircraft overhead, but it could not determine the location of the mortar fire in what one official called “a very quick engagement” by the militants. The Shabab, an affiliate of Al Qaeda, claimed responsibility for the attack; it has been fighting American forces in East Africa for more than a decade.

In a post picked up by the SITE Intelligence Group, which monitors online extremist message boards, the Shabab said that its fighters had struck a joint American-Somali base on the outskirts of Kismayo, mounting what it called a “fierce attack.”…………..It was the second American combat death in Somalia in the past 13 months. Last May, a member of the Navy SEALs was killed and two other American service members were wounded in a raid that the Pentagon initially described as an “advise, assist and accompany” mission.

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BBC: The city fit for no-one

Inside the ruined ‘capital’ of the Islamic State group

There is a moment in the journey into Raqqa when you leave the real world behind. After the bombed-out Samra bridge, any signs of normal life vanish.

Turn right at the shop that once sold gravestones – its owner is long gone – and you are inside the city.

Ahead lies nothing but destruction and grey dust and rubble.

This is a place drained of colour, of life, and of people. In six days inside Raqqa, I didn’t see a single civilian.

REU: Hezbollah leader says to stay in Syria

BEIRUT (Reuters) – Lebanon’s Iran-backed Hezbollah will remain in Syria as long as Syrian President Bashar al-Assad wants it there, the group’s leader said on Friday, defying renewed U.S. and Israeli pressure to force Tehran and its allies to quit the country.

“I will tell you that if the whole world comes together to force us to leave Syria, they will not be able to evict us,” Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah said in a televised address, adding that only the Syrian leadership could ask them to leave.

Israel has repeatedly struck Hezbollah and Iranian targets in Syria, saying they must leave the country, with which it shares a border. Washington has also demanded that Iran and forces it back quit.

Alongside Russia, Iran-backed forces in Syria have helped Assad drive rebels from the country’s biggest cities and reclaim swathes of the eastern deserts from Islamic State.

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REU: Iraqi cleric Sadr announces disarmament initiative

BAGHDAD (Reuters) – Iraqi cleric Moqtada al-Sadr called on Friday for a nationwide disarmament campaign and announced his Baghdad stronghold would be first to disarm just two days after an ammunitions cache exploded there and killed 18 people.

Sadr, whose political bloc won Iraq’s parliamentary election in May, called on all armed groups to hand in their weapons to the government and declared Baghdad’s Sadr City district would be a weapons-free area later this month.

“Everyone must obey the orders and not stand in the way of this initiative. Everyone should hand over their weapons without any discussion because the blood of Iraqis is more valuable to us than anything else,” he told his supporters in a statement.

The move appeared to be aimed at easing tensions between Sadr and the government.

At least 18 people were killed and over 90 wounded as a result of the detonation of an ammunitions cache in Sadr City just hours after parliament mandated a nationwide recount of votes for the May election, a measure rejected by Sadr’s bloc.

Sadr had urged his followers to remain calm after the explosion and ordered his office to investigate the incident.

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NYT: Turkish PM Says Troops 30 Km Inside Iraq, Could Move on Kurdish Stronghold

KARS, Turkey — Turkish forces are stationed 30 km inside northern Iraq and could advance further to target Kurdish PKK militants in their Qandil Mountains stronghold, Turkey’s Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said.

Stepping up Turkish warnings about expanding its military presence in Kurdish-controlled areas of Iraq, Yildirim told Reuters that Ankara would not hesitate to escalate an offensive against militants across its southern border.

The prospect of a major military operation comes less than three months after Turkish forces drove Kurdish fighters from the Syrian border region of Afrin. Turkey says that Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) bases in north Iraq are next in its sights, despite protests from the central government in Baghdad.

“Our forces have now been positioned some 30 km into northern Iraq, working to prevent infiltrations and terror activities there,” Yildirim said in an interview on his plane as he campaigned for June 24 elections in eastern Turkey.

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REU: Bomb kills one and wounds 14 in Iraq’s Kirkuk

KIRKUK, Iraq (Reuters) – At least one woman was killed and 14 people including women and children were wounded late on Friday when a bomb exploded in the ethnically-mixed Iraqi oil city of Kirkuk, the military said.

The improvised explosive device went off near a mosque in a crowded market area in the evening, a peak shopping time in the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan. A second explosive device went off near a coffee shop, injuring one man, the military said.

A missile was also fired at a school but there were no casualties, a military statement said.

Tensions are high in Kirkuk, where the results of a parliamentary election in May are being disputed by the Turkmen and Arab communities after a Kurdish party appeared to have won.

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AP: Taliban announce cease-fire over Eid holiday for 1st time

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — The Afghan Taliban announced a three-day cease-fire over the Eid al-Fitr holiday at the end of the holy month of Ramadan, a first for the group, following an earlier cease-fire announcement by the government.

A statement released Saturday by the Taliban said that they would defend themselves in case of any attack. They say foreign forces are excluded from the cease-fire and Taliban operations would continue against them.

The statement added that the leadership of the Taliban may also consider releasing prisoners of war, if they promise not to return to the battlefield.

Afghan President Ashraf Ghani on Thursday announced a weeklong cease-fire with the Taliban to coincide with the holiday.

A statement sent from the president’s office on Thursday said the government’s cease-fire will begin on 27 Ramadan, or June 12 on the Western calendar, and last through the Eid al-Fitr holiday, until around June 19, adding the cease-fire does not include al-Qaida or the Islamic State group.

The palace statement referred to a gathering of Afghanistan’s top clerics last week in which they issued a decree against suicide attacks and called for peace talks. A suicide bomber struck just outside the gathering as it was dispersing, killing at least seven people and wounding 20 in an attack claimed by the Islamic State group.

The Taliban had denounced the gathering, insisting that its jihad, or holy war, against foreign invaders was justified. It instead urged the clerics to side with it against the “occupation.”

NATO has led international security efforts in Afghanistan since 2003. It wound down its combat mission in 2014 but its Resolute Support mission comprises almost 16,000 troops from around 40 countries.

The conflict has been at a stalemate for several years, and NATO’s best chances of leaving lie in the Taliban agreeing to peace talks and eventually joining the government. The Trump administration has sent additional troops to try to change the course of America’s longest war.

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17 Afghan army soldiers martyred in Herat attack: officials

By Khaama Press on 09 Jun 2018 12:15pm .