Air Strikes Kill 17 Iraq Al Qaeda Fighters
U.S. Helicopters Target Hardline Militants In Baqouba As Diyala Sweep Continues
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Play CBS Video Video U.S., Iraq Troops Vs. Al Qaeda U.S. and Iraqi troops are targeting an al Qaeda stronghold in Baqouba, Iraq. But Gen. Peter Pace says it is all about increasing Iraqis' confidence in their government. David Martin reports.
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Video New Operation Begins In Iraq CBS News RAW: The 4th Stryker Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division, continued their ground surge in Iraq with Operation Arrowhead Ripper, launched June 19. NO AUDIO
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Video On The Hunt In Baqouba Only On The Web: CBS News' Phil Ittner breaks down the daily grind for U.S. troops on the hunt for al Qaeda in Baqouba, capital of Iraq's deadly Diyala province.
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An Iraqi soldier secures an area in Baqouba, 35 miles northeast of Baghdad, on June 21, 2007. (AP Photo/Talal Mohammed)
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A regiment of the 2nd Infantry Division June 21, 2007, in the tense Dora neighborhood of Baghdad. The soldiers patrol their area almost daily in an effort to get to know the residents and find insurgents. (Getty Images/Chris Hondros)
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A soldier with U.S. Army's 3rd Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division rests in a bombed-out hospital in Baqouba, Iraq, 35 miles northeast of Baghdad, June 21, 2007. (AP Photo/Lauren Frayer)
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A man holds an Iraqi flag in front of the Khulani mosque after prayers, in Baghdad, on June 22, 2003. The mosque was heavily damaged in last week's bombing that killed more than 80 people and wounded more than 200. (AP Photo/Hadi Mizban)
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U.S soldiers of the 2nd Brigade, 23rd Infantry Regiment search a house during a patrol in southern Baghdad on June 20, 2007. (AP Photo/Petros Giannakouris)
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Interactive American Heroes Profiles of U.S. soldiers who've died in Iraq, a look at the war's toll and pictures of mourning.
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Photo Essay Baghdad Orphanage Horror U.S., Iraqi soldiers rescue 24 severely malnourished and abused boys.
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Photo Essay Iraq In Pictures A daily diary with scenes of the latest attacks and snapshots from the effort to rebuild a nation.
As the 10,000-troop mission to take back the volatile and extremely dangerous province intensified in its fourth day, so have concerns about keeping al Qaeda fighters on the run. The terrorist fighters and their allies already have been run out of Fallujah and Ramadi in Anbar province, only to regroup in Diyala's capital of Baqouba and surrounding districts.
The U.S. ground forces commander, Lt. Gen. Raymond Odierno, said more than three-quarters of Baqouba's al Qaeda leadership fled before the Americans moved into the city this week. At the time, drone observer planes spotted fighters planting dozens of roadside bombs on the main highway into Baqouba.
Brig. Gen. Mick Bednarek, assistant commander for operations with the 25th Infantry Division, estimated that several hundred low-level al Qaeda fighters remained.
"They're clearly in hiding, no question about it. But they're a hardline group of fighters who have no intention of leaving, and they want to kill as many coalition and Iraqi security forces as they possibly can," Bednarek said Friday.
"It's 24/7 for us here, and it's probably the same for our adversary as well," he said. "It's house-to-house, block to block, street to street, sewer to sewer — and it's also cars, vans — we're searching every one of them."
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki's government is also under threat from within. After dozens of interviews with Iraqi political leaders both inside and outside the government, it's clear a broad-based movement is underway to bring down al-Maliki, reports CBS News chief foreign correspondent Lara Logan.
Called the "Iraq Project," the movement's manifesto outlines a plan to overthrow al-Maliki using constitutional means: a no-confidence vote in the Iraqi parliament that will force the prime minister to resign.
In other developments:
An Associated Press employee in Baqouba reported heavy fighting as U.S. troops swept into three eastern neighborhoods in Friday's operation, which began after U.S. forces warned residents to leave or stay indoors.
The American military said the 17 al Qaeda fighters were killed trying to flee past Iraqi security blockades on the road to Khalis, a predominantly Shiite city northeast of Baqouba.
Earlier this week, creeping house-to-house through western Baqouba, U.S. soldiers made a startling discovery: a suspected al Qaeda field hospital stocked with oxygen tanks, heart defibrillators and other medical equipment.
The find displayed al Qaeda's sophisticated support network in Baqouba, a mostly Sunni town of about 300,000 people, located 35 miles north of Baghdad.
That may presage great problems in an outright defeat of al Qaeda even if U.S. forces succeed in ousting the group from Baqouba. The city has received little aid or other services from the central government, which feared supplies would end up in al Qaeda hands.
As the al Qaeda field hospital proved, much assistance did bypass residents and found its way to the terrorist organization. Until trust is mended, U.S. military commanders say, any success they have in this offensive could be lost on a city unable or unwilling to reconcile sectarian differences.
Historically a mixed province, Diyala has become predominantly Sunni as Shiites fled an influx of Sunni militants from Anbar province. The militants were welcomed by many of Saddam Hussein's former Baath party members.
The shifting population balance only increased tension between local Sunni tribal leaders and the Shiite-dominated federal government in Baghdad.
"There are a multitude of systematic functions that aren't working," said Maj. Robbie Parke, 36, of Rapid City, S.D., a spokesman for the 3rd Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division. "The Iraqi government has to say, `Look, Baqouba is in trouble, and we need to help.'"
So far that has not happened, U.S. officials say. But there are signs of hope.
"The (Iraqi) government is very immature, but they're getting better and saying the right things. We've got to hold them to that," said Odierno.
© MMVII, CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.
The secrets of tennis legend 
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See all 239 CommentsTestimony of Raymond Cafferata, British Police Chief in Palestine, August 1929:
"On hearing screams in a room I went up a sort of tunnel passage and saw an Arab in the act of cutting off a child's head with a sword. He had already hit him and was having another cut, but on seeing me he tried to aim the stroke at me, but missed; he was practically on the muzzle of my rifle. I shot him low in the groin. Behind him was a Jewish woman smothered in blood with a man I recognized as a[n Arab] police constable named Issa Sherif from Jaffa in mufti. He was standing over the woman with a dagger in his hand. He saw me and bolted into a room close by and tried to shut me out-shouting in Arabic, 'Your Honor, I am a policeman.' ... I got into the room and shot him."
Sixty-seven Jewish men, women and children were massacred in Hebron alone. It should be noted that several dozen Jewish residents of Hebron were hidden by their Arab neighbors, but most of the Jews were left unprotected or even attacked by the Arab police force and were forced to flee for their lives.
"One result of this calculated and deliberate Arab violence against Jews in 1929 (and in subsequent years) was that the British rewarded both the mobs and the Arab leadership that had done little, if anything, to stop the violence (indeed, they often facilitated it) by, among other things, curtailing Jewish immigration to the area."
-- editor, The Blue Octavio Notebooks
http://www.mideastweb.org/briefhistory.htm
It's been interesting, but I gotta go. Again, I'm not taking sides, just looking for points of view.
Live Long and Prosper.
Part 2
Had Britain remained in the Palestinian Mandate longer, rather of having been driven out by violence, the Jews would undoubtedly still have achieved independence, just like Burma and Ceylon achieved it in 1948 and just as Canada, South Africa, Australia and New Zealand had earlier received complete independence within the Commonwealth in 1939. Instead, continued terrorism by the Irgun and their sympathizers led Britain finally to dump the unwanted problem of Palestine unceremoniously onto the United Nations. Without the intense pressure exerted by America, it is questionable whether the U.N. would have followed through and created a Jewish state at all. Abandonment of the Palestinian Mandate to the U.N. by the British, although accelerated by terrorism, ultimately resulted in the creation of a state that was much smaller than it otherwise might have been
This will be the last two.
Within weeks of the establishment of the Jewish state, terrorism on the part of Jewish extremists completely disappeared. The implications for Palestinian terrorism, should a Palestinian state be created, seem obvious. However, there are significant differences. The Palestinians rejected the territory offered to them in 1948, as they have consistently done to this day. Thus, their objective in committing terrorist acts cannot be to create a Palestinian state, but rather is part of their long-standing attempt to destroy Israel. In other words, the Palestinians seem not to want a Palestinian homeland; they want the Jewish homeland instead.
Part 1
More examples:At the end of the war, when it became clear that the British Labour government, despite its pre-election promises, was intent on continuing Britain's anti-Zionist policy, the three Jewish resistance groups Haganah, Irgun, and Lohamei Herut Yisrael-Lehi (Fighters for the Freedom of Israel) (known as Lehi for short) reacted by forming the Unified Jewish Resistance Movement, for the purpose of ending the British Mandatory rule
On November 1, 1945, the Unified Resistance conducted its first joint attack, known to the Israelis as the "Night of the Trains"
On February 25, 1946, the Lehi attacked an airfield near Kfar Syrkin
On October 30, the Irgun under Begin blew up the Jerusalem Railway Station
On Saturday, March 1, 1947, Jewish terrorists attacked the British Officers' Club within a security zone at Goldschmidt House on King George Street in Jerusalem.
On July 26, 1938, Yaakov Raz was sent by the Irgun to the Old City of Jerusalem disguised as an Arab and carrying a basket of vegetables in which a mine was concealed. However, he was stabbed by Arabs before he could detonate the bomb and committed suicide after being arrested by the British CID.
Part 2
The sources I am using are "The Origins of Middle Eastern Terrorism" T.J. Nelson
Times Online-"British Anger at Terror Celebrations"
Don't get me wrong, I am not taking sides; I just don't understand alot of things and I ask questions. I am an Independent, not a "Lib" or "Con".
On Sunday, November 14, 1937 Irgun units started attacks against Arabs. This date came to be known as "Black Sunday" because it was the day on which the principle of havlaga was abandoned. The British police responded by carrying out large-scale arrests among the Revisionist party activists.
On March 28, 1938, in retaliation for an Arab terrorist attack, the Irgun started committing terrorist acts of its own against Arabs. Shlomo Ben-Yosef (Tabachnik) was executed by the British for one such act, whereupon Jabotinsky relieved the relatively moderate Rosenburg from command of Irgun and replaced him with David Raziel.
Part1
You don't cite the source for any of your postings. Considering their biased phrasing: "Jewish terrorism in Palestine", "The British were anxious to rid themselves of the problem" (failing to mention that the British were the ones who created the problem). "Jewish reaction was mixed (to the UN partition plan)" %u2013 failing to note that the Jewish population accepted the plan while the Muslims unanimously rejected it and attacked.
Then you post this favorite anti-Zionist blanket condemnation: "It is often not recognized that, in the years before the creation of the state of Israel, terrorism was practiced disproportionately by Jewish extremists" -- please sight examples, other than the King David Hotel bombing, which was the site of the British Military Command and was preceding by three warning calls -- something that the Islamic terrorists of course never issue, since their main intent is to cause as great a loss of life as possible.
The Arab pogroms against Jews in the Holy Land began in the early 1920's, resulting in more than a thousand dead and wounded and tens of thousands of Jews driven out of their ancestral villages and towns. There may have been "guerilla fighting between Arabs and Jews" by 1936, but you fail to mention the reason why the Jewish population began fighting back.
Are you out there?
However, terrorism in the Middle East has not been confined solely to Arabs. It is often not recognized that, in the years before the creation of the state of Israel, terrorism was practiced disproportionately by Jewish extremists who lived in the territory that was then called the Palestinian Mandate. Paradoxically, these activities are celebrated today by Israelis who claim that their terrorism was instrumental in eliminating British control and that, without terrorism, the United Nations would not have voted in 1947 to allow the creation of the state of Israel
British official policy continued to drift toward a pro-Arab position, eventually abandoning the Peel Commission recommendations altogether. The first Jewish actions directed against the British took place on June 2, 1939, when Irgun fighters blew up three telephone network junctions in Jerusalem and planted a mine ear the Old City wall, which killed five Arabs and injuring many more
The rightwingers, including Binyamin Netanyahu, the former Prime Minister, are commemorating the bombing of the King David Hotel in Jerusalem, the headquarters of British rule, that killed 92 people and helped to drive the British from Palestine.
Part4
Britain, anxious to rid itself of the problem, set the United Nations in motion, formally requesting on April 2, 1947, that the U.N. General Assembly set up the Special Committee on Palestine (UNSCOP). This committee recommended that the British mandate over Palestine be ended and that the territory be partitioned into two states. Jewish reaction was mixed -- some wanted control of all of Palestine; others realized that partition spelled hope for their dream of a homeland. The Arabs were not at all agreeable to the UNSCOP plan. In October the Arab League Council directed the governments of its member states to move troops to the Palestine border. Meanwhile, President Truman instructed the State Department to support the U.N. plan, and, reluctantly, it did so. On November 29, 1947, the partition plan was passed in the U.N. General Assembly.
Part 3
By 1936 guerilla fighting had broken out between the Jews and Arabs. Unable to maintain peace, Britain issued a white paper in 1939 that restricted Jewish immigration into Palestine. The Jews, feeling betrayed, bitterly opposed the policy and looked to the United States for support.
Britain and the United States, in a joint effort to examine the dilemma, established the "Anglo-American Committee of Inquiry." In April 1946, the committee submitted recommendations that Palestine not be dominated by either Arabs or Jews. It concluded that attempts to establish nationhood or independence would result in civil strife; that a trusteeship agreement aimed at bringing Jews and Arabs together should be established by the United Nations; that full Jewish immigration be allowed into Palestine; and that two autonomous states be established with a strong central government to control Jerusalem, Bethlehem, and the Negev, the southernmost section of PalestineBritish, Arab, and Jewish reactions to the recommendations were not favorable. Jewish terrorism in Palestine antagonized the British, and by February 1947 Arab-Jewish communications had collapsed.
Part2
"And as soon as they were able to claim independence from BriIn 1917 Chaim Weizmann, scientist, statesman, and Zionist, persuaded the British government to issue a statement favoring the establishment of a Jewish national home in Palestine. The statement which became known as the Balfour Declaration, was, in part, payment to the Jews for their support of the British against the Turks during World War I. After the war, the League of Nations ratified the declaration and in 1922 appointed Britain to rule in Palestine.
Part1
You are a very impressionable fellow. I mean, it's good to be open to new ideas and alternate viewpoints, but in the space of this one comments chain, you have permitted whitman, blue and Prinzo to warp your knowledge of history and basic facts.
The world didn't "decide to make the state of Israel". The spiritual and humanitarian efforts of Jews from around the world and the native Jewish population of the Holy Land reclaimed their ancestral home with hard work, fair compensation and dedication. This despite repeated pograms and riots waged against them by the more extremist and fanatical Muslims, as well as belligerent and often brutal repression by the occupying British. And as soon as they were able to claim independence from British rule, they were attacked by overwhelmingly larger and better armed forces bent on their destruction. In both 1948 and 1956 there was no military aid from the United States -- in fact, Eisenhower prevented U.S. involvement for fear of upsetting the Arabs and pushing them into the Soviet Camp (which Egypt's Nasser et al did anyway).
The U.N. recognized Israel's right to exist -- it did not "create" Israel. The Jewish people returned to the Holy Land from which they had been forcibly expelled and created modern-day Israel and reclaimed their capital, Jerusalem, which they had built three thousand years ago.
That's a good point. The descriptions "insurgent", "sectarian violence", "sunni", and "shiite" have unilaterally been replaced by "Al Qaeda". Anything that happens in Iraq is now done by "Al Qaeda".
But that's typical of this administration - after 9/11 everything bad that happened was because of "terrorism".
High unemployment numbers? - "terrorism".
Inflation too high? - "terrorism".
Agriculture production down? - "terrorism".
Rangers didn't make the playoffs? - "terrorism".
That's a nice boogeyman name to describe all of the people we kill - whether they are really Wahabi Saudis, or ***** and Sunni Iraqi citizens just wanting to get the occupiers out and get rid of the 75% PSAs and 14 US military bases.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070623/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq
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