Air Strikes Kill 17 Iraq Al Qaeda Fighters

U.S. Helicopters Target Hardline Militants In Baqouba As Diyala Sweep Continues

(CBS/AP) 
He spoke to AP during a trip to Baqouba on Thursday as American forces began in earnest to squeeze al Qaeda, Sunni insurgents and Shiite militiamen after the arrival of the final brigade of an additional 30,000 troops dispatched by President Bush.

Diyala province is one of a quartet of operations targeting militants entrenched in the so-called "belts" of Baghdad — regions on the capital's flanks where mostly Sunni insurgents are believed to have based car-bomb factories, weapons stashes and militant safe houses.

High-level U.S. military officials and diplomats are exerting pressure on the Shiite-led government to back national reconciliation and ensure that basic services are restored in Baqouba, Odierno said. Those measures are needed to earn public trust and sustain any U.S. military successes here, he said.

"It goes all the way to the prime minister, and they've promised to do this thing," Odierno told midlevel U.S. commanders involved in the fighting here. "It's my job to hold their feet to the fire, because we're not going to waste this (military) effort — and we're not going to allow al Qaeda to come back here."

Baqouba, the largest consolidated U.S. military effort in Iraq right now, follows the same strategy as the four-month-old Baghdad security plan: U.S. forces clear militants in an effort to allow local Iraqi politicians to regain control of their city. The maintenance — keeping insurgents out for good — will be left to Iraqi security forces.

But U.S. commanders acknowledge that Baqouba's prognosis is tenuous even without al Qaeda unless Iraqis themselves can get a grip on security issues and put aside sectarian divisions.

"Sure, there's tension between Shiites and al Qaeda. But once we get rid of al Qaeda here, we have to see whether there remains Shiite-Sunni tension," Odierno said. He also sought to reassure Sunnis that extremists from their sect were not the only ones responsible for Baqouba's spike in violence.

"The real thing here is our ability to hold and control these areas (once the major fighting is over)," Odierno said. "We'll have to go into Shiite areas as well, to see if there are any extremists there fueling the tension."

In recent months, the Baqouba police chief and the head of the 5th Iraqi Army division, which is in charge of all of Diyala province, both were fired on suspicion they were fueling sectarian tension, said Col. David Sutherland, 45, from Toledo, Ohio. Several members of a Shiite death squad were discovered serving in an Iraqi battalion in Baqouba in February, and were also removed from duty, he said.

The 5th Division is the only Iraqi Army unit in the country that has not been transferred back to full Iraqi ground force control, U.S. officials said.

"They're minimally equipped," said Bednarek. "It takes a while to get them up to the level of proficiency to perform a difficult role against a sophisticated enemy — al Qaeda."

[j-whitman]

radio,,, Looks like a good link, thanks... I haven't read it all yet. But it is unbiased so far

[honest_news]

AJMarine:

Testimony 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

[radiob-2009]

This is about the most unbiased history of Israel that I have read.

http://www.mideastweb.org/briefhistory.htm

[ajmarine1]

Honest-News,

It's been interesting, but I gotta go. Again, I'm not taking sides, just looking for points of view.

Live Long and Prosper.

[hungry1968]

Again - how do we know that they are Al Qaeda fighters? Were they wearing name tags or other identifying marks?

[ajmarine1]

Honest-News,

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

[ajmarine1]

Honest-News,

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

[ajmarine1]

Honest-News,

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.

[ajmarine1]

Honest-news,Under Raziel, the Irgun stepped up terrorist activities against the Arabs. The most significant acts were explosions in the Arab markets of Haifa and Jerusalem. On July 6, 1938, a member of the Irgun, disguised as an Arab, went to the Arab market in Haifa, placed a large parcel beside one of the barrows in the center of the market and left. Shortly afterwards there was a heavy explosion, which killed 21 Arabs and injured more than 50. A week later a similar incident took place in Jerusalem. A member of the Irgun concealed an electric mine in the Arab market in the Old City. It exploded shortly after the end of the prayer service in the mosque, when a large crowd had emerged onto the street. Eight Arabs were killed and more than 30 injured.

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

[ajmarine1]

Honest News,

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

[honest_news]

AJ --

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.

[ajmarine1]

Honest-news,

Are you out there?

[ajmarine1]

Honest-news,
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

[ajmarine1]

Honest-news,

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

[ajmarine1]

Honest-news,
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

[ajmarine1]

honest_news,

"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

[honest_news]

AJ --

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.

[hungry1968]

cattlekate

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".

[cattlekate]

The US Military & Fauz Nooz are unilaterally replacing the descriptor "insurgent" with "Al Qaeda" to label who we are now fighting in Iraq.

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.

[smirk5]

BAGHDAD - Roadside bombs killed seven American troops in Iraq on Saturday, including four in a single strike outside Baghdad, the military said, as U.S. and Iraqi troops captured two senior al-Qaida militants in Diyala province.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070623/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq