June 22, 2008
Aussie Combat Troops Home From Iraq
Woman Suicide Bomber Kills 15 In Diyala Province; Top Shiite Opposes U.S. Bases
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Leigh Rich hugs her son, Australian soldier Private Kenneth Pegg, on his return home from Iraq at the Brisbane International Airport Sunday, June 22, 2008. The return of the soldiers from the Overwest Battle Group (West) Four marks the end of Australian soldier combat deployment in Southern Iraq. (AP Photo/ Tony Phillips)
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Iraqi men and police officers inspect bodies outside a morgue who were killed after a female suicide bomber attack in Baqouba, Sunday, June 22, 2008. (AP Photo)
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An Iraqi woman reacts at the scene were a female suicide bomber detonated her explosives in Baqouba, 35 miles northeast of Baghdad, Iraq, on Sunday, June 22, 2008. A female suicide bomber struck near a government compound northeast of Baghdad on Sunday, killing at least 15 people and wounding 40, the police said. (AP Photo)
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Female Bomber's Deadly Attack
"CBS News RAW": A female suicide bomber struck near a government compound northeast of Baghdad, killing at least 15 people and wounding 40, police said. At least 21 suicide attacks have been carried out this year by women.
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Iraq: 5 Years At War
Five years after the U.S.-led invasion, the war wears on.
Family and friends cheered the "Diggers" at Brisbane Airport.
About 300 Australian troops remain in Iraq in non-combat roles.
The Aussies were based in southern provinces of al-Muthanna and Dhi Qar, which were the first to transfer control to Iraqi security forces.
U.S. troops now provide backup security for the Iraqis in that region.
Woman Suicide Bomber Kills 15 In Iraq
A woman suicide bomber concealing explosives beneath her black robe struck outside a government complex northeast of Baghdad on Sunday, killing at least 15 people and wounding more than 40, U.S. and Iraqi officials said.
It was the 21st suicide mission carried out by a woman in Iraq this year, the U.S. military said, as al Qaeda and other Sunni militant groups try to regroup from major losses suffered at the hands of U.S. and Iraqi forces.
The blast occurred about 1 p.m. as dozens of people were leaving a walled compound that includes a courthouse and the provincial governor's office in Baqouba, capital of Diyala province and a former al Qaeda in Iraq stronghold 35 miles northeast of Baghdad.
A car bomb across the street from the same compound killed at least 40 people in April.
It appeared that the latest attack was timed to maximize casualties since many people were leaving the compound because the government offices there were to close soon for the day.
A U.S. military statement said the dead included seven Iraqi police and eight civilians. Ten police were among the wounded. Iraqi authorities said 16 people were killed and 42 wounded.
"I was trying to leave the court when the explosion took place," said one witness, who was wounded by shrapnel but refused to give his name because of fears for his own safety.
"I heard some of the injured people saying they saw a woman wearing a black robe blow herself up."
Al Qaeda has been increasingly using women because their black, billowing abaya robes easily conceal explosives. Iraqi police often lack enough policewomen to search women carefully.
The number of female suicide attacks has risen from eight in 2007 to 21 so far this year, according to U.S. military figures. Eight of the attacks were in Diyala province.
Last year, U.S. soldiers regained control of Baqouba, which had been declared the capital of the Islamic State of Iraq, an al Qaeda front organization.
But the terror movement has been trying to regroup in the strategic Diyala province, which extends from the Iranian border to the eastern gates of Baghdad.
To the north, a roadside bomb Sunday apparently targeting a police patrol struck a civilian vehicle instead, killing four people including two women, near Kirkuk, police reported.
A suicide car bomber attacked a police checkpoint Sunday in the northwestern city of Mosul, wounding 14 people, including four policemen, provincial police said.
The violence occurred as U.S. and Iraqi authorities are trying to meet a July target date for completing a security agreement that would allow American troops to remain in the country after the U.N. mandate expires at the end of this year.
Talks bogged down over several key issues, which Iraqi lawmakers said violated the nation's sovereignty. Last week, however, Iraqi authorities said prospects for a deal had brightened after the Americans submitted new, unspecified proposals.
In Lebanon, however, the country's top Shiite cleric called Sunday on Iraqis to reject any deal that would allow the U.S. "to continue its occupation" and hijack the country's sovereignty.
"We specifically warn Iraqis not to submit to American temptation or pressures to sign an agreement with the Americans that will enable them to continue their occupation of Iraq under new slogans," Grand Ayatollah Mohammed Hussein Fadlallah said.
Fadlallah's remarks are significant because he is one of the founders of Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's Dawa party and serves as the spiritual guide for many key Iraqi Shiite leaders.
Elsewhere Sunday, police said they have arrested six men suspected in the killing of the head of Saddam Hussein's tribe earlier this month.
Sheik Ali al-Nida, the head of Iraq's Albu Nasir tribe, and one of his guards were killed on June 10 when a bomb planted on their car exploded in Tikrit.
Police said three of those arrested were related to the sheik. Another was his longtime personal driver and trusted family employee, who police said accepted money to stick a bomb on the undercarriage of the victim's car.
Last year, al-Nida founded a so-called Awakening Council in Saddam's home village of Ouja, partnering with U.S. forces to fight Sunni militants in the area.
The officer said investigators suspected al Qaeda in Iraq was behind the attack as part of its campaign of violence against Sunni tribal leaders who have joined forces with the Americans.
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See all 68 CommentsAS FAR AS THE BASES GO AMERICAN PEOPLE DONT WANT OUR TROOPS BASED IN IRAQ EITHER...SO IF THE PEOPLE OF BOTH COUNTRIES DONT WANT AMERICA TO BE THERE WHO IS PUSHING THE BASE THING?
Posted by TruUSA at 06:01 PM : Jun 22, 2008
I"ll help to clear your mind. I"ll tell you the truth so you can rest in peace.
In the next few years America will have to nuke IRAN but the DEMONCRATS dont have stomach to do this so the DNC decided that the next President must be a republican and the only way is nominating BARRACK OSAMA do face McCain. BARRACK OSAMA is easier to beat than Hillary. Pure and simple.
We have one last opportunity to change things in 11/2008 if we elect Obama. If not, we deserve what we get - 100 more years in Iraq.
We have one last opportunity to change things in 11/2008 if we elect Obama. If not, we deserve what we get - 100 more years in Iraq.
Posted by ramos937 at 06:40 PM : Jun 22, 2008
Those countries ran away with their tail between their legs because they dont have the balls we have to fight terrorists.
IF YOU WANT TO SURRENDER TO TERRORISTS, IF YOU WANT A NUCLEAR IRAN AND IF YOU WANT GASOLINE AT 10 BUCKS THEN VOTE BARRACK OSAMA 08.
Re: "Last Aussie Combat Troops Home From Iraq"
Congratulations Australia!
Excellent decision!
May we soon follow your example.
%u201CWhy we stand for immediate withdrawal of all US troops from Iraq%u201D
%u201CTHE U.S. occupation of Iraq has not liberated the Iraqi people, but has made life worse for most Iraqis.%u201D
%u201CTens of thousands of U.S. service people have been killed or maimed, and hundreds of thousands of innocent Iraqis have lost their lives as a result of the U.S. invasion in 2003, the ongoing occupation, and the violence unleashed by them.%u201D
%u201CIraq''s infrastructure has been destroyed, and U.S. plans for reconstruction abandoned. There is less electricity, less clean drinking water, and more unemployment today than before the U.S. invasion.%u201D
%u201CAll of the justifications initially provided by the U.S. for waging war on Iraq have been exposed as lies; the real reasons for the invasion %u2014 to control Iraq''s oil reserves and to increase U.S. strategic influence in the region %u2014 now stand revealed.%u201D
%u201CThe Bush administration has insisted again and again that stability, democracy, and prosperity are around the next bend in the road%u2026But the U.S. has deliberately stoked sectarian divisions in its ongoing attempt to install a U.S.-friendly regime, thus driving Iraq towards civil war.%u201D
%u201CWe call on the U.S. to get out of Iraq %u2014 not in six months, not in a year, but now.%u201D
www.ipetitions.com/petition/OutNow
FeelFree,,,We dont give a shiite for Iraqi infrastructure. We dont give a shiite for Iraqi reconstruction. We dont give a shiite if they want our model of democracy. As long as they keep pumping oil and as long as we keep the flow of oil in the Persian Gulf. We will stay there as long as they have oil, when their oil is over, and I think its gonna be within 10 years, then we can get out of that ******** piece of desert and stop feeding those fanatic nuts Muslim.Period.
Re: "Woman Suicide Bomber Kills 15 In Iraq"
Sounds like another Blackwater/al-CIA''duh orchestrated bombing.
It has all the hallmarks.
Posted by guadalcanal3 at 06:55 PM : Jun 22, 2008
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ramos937...Those countries are running away with their tail between their legs because GWB the greatest terrorists hunter in history is about to leave office and they are scared about what is about to come. They cant fight suicide warriors without GWB. Pure and Simple.
Sounds like another Blackwater/al-CIA''''duh orchestrated bombing.
It has all the hallmarks.
Posted by FeelFree4U at 07:02 PM : Jun 22, 2008
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You mean Blackwater and CIA have carried out this kind of attack in Palestine,Lebanon,Israel,Egypt,Afghanistan and Pakistan? Your conspiracy theory has driven you nuts FeelFree.
Australian are running away with their tail between their legs because they have lots of kangaroos to hunt. Hunting kangaroos is safer than hunting suicidal terrorists.
The Australians left because their recently-elected government told them to. It was part of their policy. Having spoken with Australian soldiers returned from Iraq, they believe the intervention was worth it and many were reluctant to leave.
That''s true. But there weren''t any suicidal terrorists in Iraq before the US attacked it. And Iraq did not attack the US. And as long as US troops are in Iraq (helping Exxon/Mobil/Shell/BP/etc steal their oil), there will be an endless supply of suicidal "terrorists" (usually called "freedom fighters") for them to "hunt". Is that something we should be proud of? Are YOU proud of it, BagdadsHere2? We create the "terrorists", then we "hunt" them. What a sick little game!
Americans won''t heal from Iraq, any more than they did from Vietnam. We just scab over, and later pick at the scab until it starts bleeding, all over again. The last thing Americans will admit is that when they said ''freedom isn''t free'', the particular freedom they meant was their freedom to drive their Hummer to their best friends soldier-sons funeral.
In the aftermath of Vietnam, Australia had a real problem. With Carter gutting the US military, the then Soviet Union ruled the Indian Ocean and looked like cutting off Australian sea supplies from Europe and the Middle East. Fortunately, Carter lasted only four years and this threat lessened.
There are only two practical ways to get gas and oil out of land-locked Central Asia to the sea: Through Iran, or through Afghanistan to Pakistan. Iran is taboo. That leaves Pakistan, but to get there, the planned pipeline must cross western Afghanistan, including the cities of Herat and Kandahar.
That''s what they''re losing lives over, a pipeline. If we were after Al-Qaida we''d have deployed HALF our troops in Pakistan, and NONE of them in taking out the Taliban, who had nothing to do with 9-11 (its amazing how many military adventures that tragedy has been corrupted into justifying). Instead, we took over all of Afghanistan (1/10th of which was controlled by Al-Qaida) NOT FOR JUSTICE BUT FOR OIL. And now we and the Australians are losing lives for that oil! I just hope, when payback time comes, we remember the Aussies for their sacrifice with some cheap gas.
Posted by ubrew12 at 08:47 PM : Jun 22, 2008
ubrew12,,,Are you 12 years old? You think you know much but in fact you know nothing. Saddam Hussein had a dream (destroy America or control it controlling the flow of oil in Middle East), somebody told him that the only way to destroy almighty America was hurting our economy. Saddam died because of his dream. Now IRAN,TALEBAN,AL-QAEDA and a lot of Americas enemies are trying to hurt our economy so they can defeat us. How are they trying do do that? They are attacking Nigerias oil facilities, attacking the pipelines that supply America, threatening to spark an open war in the Persian Gulf. Bush was right, Is not about oil, its about everything, including our lives. We cant let the extremists destroy America can we? Your suggestion that we should leave Iraq and deploy our troops to Afghanistan is foolish. I dont think that leave Iraq with the second worlds largest oil reserve in the hands of extremists who want to kill us is such a good idea.
Posted by Element51 at 08:06 PM : Jun 22, 2008
I agree completely. A BIG THANKYOU goes out to our Aussie friends down under. I too would choose Australia to live in. If you had a 4 year work visa, I might want to move down there every time the liberals take over our government!! LOL...
Newsflash: The liberals own their government. You can run, but you cant hide.
Even the war-mongering Brits want out.
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Posted by cdfoxtrot at 05:42 PM : Jun 22, 2008
If you are an American, is the above statement not a perfect example of the pot calling the kettle black?
Particuarly over the last 8 years of G.O.P. rule.
Your comment is about the same as military intelligence, the two do not go togetther.
Of course the Taliban was tied to 9/11. They housed Osama and his terrorist training camps.
Obviously you have no understanding of oll. Australians pay nearly twice as much for gasoline as Americans, hardly cheap oil. Oil is transported by ship and not by pipeline to Australia. It is an island continent.
Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Iraq and the UAE are not landlocked. If you had a proper look at your map the area of land between these countries and Afghanistan is called Iran.
To ascribe Australia''s motives in Afghanistan as being about oil is both cynical and ignorant.
"Newsflash: The liberals own their government. You can run, but you cant hide."
Just another example of your ignorance. The Labor Party has the Australian Federal Government and every State and territory government. The only major place where the Liberal Party is in power is the city of Brisbane, but not the State of Queensland where it is housed.
Well, I''ll leave the ignorance to you, if you think I was talking about SAUDI oil having to pass through Afghanistan instead of Iran. Take a look at YOUR atlas: Central Asia is south of Siberia. Not that it matters to you: the Aussies get their oil from Indonesia. The Aussie ''good guys'' are at the international forefront in wave energy technology (which generates usable power in waves down to 2ft, but has already survived 100 year storms and waves up to 100ft along the Southern coast). The Aussie ''sheep'' followed their American owners into Afghanistan to impose an oil pipeline from central asia to the Pakistani coastline that''s owned by the Americans (rather than the Argentinian consortium the Taliban preferred, and for which they were executed). But, don''t worry, the American right will remember your contribution (by moving there once they are kicked out of America).
I take it then you are an apologist for the Taliban and think that they were wonderful democratic people who respected women''s rights, the rights of others to religious freedom and were just providing hotel space for Osama.
The Taliban are a grass-roots Islamic movement in Afghanistan that is deeply popular. They aren''t a cabal or a Saddam-like dictator that can be taken out and forgotten. I have enough respect for democracy, popular movements, and the right to self-determination for Americans as well as other people, to respect what the Taliban represent to the AFGHANS, which at the end of the day are the only people who''s opinions MATTER on the Taliban.
If we keep this ''imposition of will'' on the Taliban, we may end up losing not only Afghanistan but also Pakistan. Ironically, the last American president to understand the value of popular independence movements against foreign aggression was Jimmy Carter, who used the precursors to the Taliban to embroil the Soviets invaders of Afghanistan in their own private Vietnam (and thereby hastening the end of the Soviet Union far more than Reagan ever did). And What did the Soviets want from Afghanistan? (ownership of the VERY same pipeline we''re now claiming ownership over). In the end, either the Afghans will own that pipeline, or no-one will own it. That''s not a threat. That''s an historical observation of the power of locals over the self-determination of their own lands and cultures.
Don''t you agree that the Taliban had some nasty habits, eg amputation or death for those that opposed their regime, the treatment of women as cattle, the blowing up of symbols of other religions, helping Osama, training people to go overseas and blow up those who do not toe their narrow Islamist line, etc.
YEs. They were about as bad as the Saudi regime that currently own Saudi Arabia and does all you just mentioned. Funny though. THOSE guys are our best buds.
I don''t want the see the Taliban back in Afghanistan. I just don''t think its our beef, let the Afghans settle it themselves. For some reason a substantial fraction LIKE what the Taliban represent (probably MORE because they are anti-NATO than for any other reason). Build the pipeline, work to keep Pakistan as an ally. No one can long ignore the U.S., including the Afghans. But, impose our own regime against the locals? When has that EVER worked?
It worked in the rebuilding of Japan after World War II. Other than whaling, they have been excellent world citizens since America rebuilt that country''s governmental institutions. The US even introduced trade unionism to Japan.
Maybe thats the problem. America is always trying to recreate the conditions of WWII under which we were the good guys, saving the world against its own fascist desires. Reality: when WWII started, our military was smaller than Romanias. Maybe we were the good guys because we had NO CHOICE but to enter the war as pacifists, true reluctant warriors who would rather be doing ANYTHING other than fighting. And we paid dearly for our ignorance of the ''killing arts'' in our first forays into combat.
Today, we ''shock and awe'' with the best that $600 billion a year in military spending, and an entire warrior culture dependent on that social spending, can generate. But, when the dust lifts, we''re no longer seen as the good guys. The people we''ve conquered see us as an empire, and with some justification recognize we''re an empire of oil. You talk to ordinary Americans, and they don''t even know where these countries are, or why we''re invading them. Furthermore, they seem to accept the notion that we invaded them because THATS WHAT WE DO! I mean, why else would we have this kick-*ss military! We are not reluctant warriors, we are all too happy to be out and about, killing a hundred thousand here, a hundred thousand there, bringing oil, I mean democracy, to their world. Eisenhower warned us about ''them'' (the military/industrial complex): but he didn''t warn us about US.
Posted by zeeZedzee at 11:31 PM : Jun 22, 2008
Tell that to Mr. Bush.
Shortly after the outbreak of World War II, the British abandoned all but Europe and the Middle East. Had it not been for the Marshall Plan, all of Europe might have been under Stalinist rule after World War II. As it was, a hasty withdrawal of US troops after the war led to Russian troops over-running Eastern Europe. Without the Berlin Airlift all of Berlin would have fallen to Stalinist forces. Without US-led forces, Korea would have fallen to Kim Il Sung.
Perhaps the neoisolationists would not have minded these outcomes, but it is doubtful if they had come to pass we would be having this free and open communication today.
Had it not been for the Marshall Plan, all of Europe might have been under (Stalinist Rule) after World War II. As it was, a hasty withdrawal of US troops after the war led to Russian troops over-running Eastern Europe.
Without the Berlin Airlift all of Berlin would have fallen to (Stalinist forces). Without US-led forces, Korea would have fallen to Kim Il Sung.
Perhaps the neoisolationists would not have minded these outcomes.
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Japan and Most of Western Europe is (Socialist) A$$ Hole an None of them are ******* & Bemoaning those facts either.
Stop trying to Fear Monger & Muslim Mongering, because these people have their life and nothing you say here can detract from their Lifestyle.
Canada & India are Socialist too.
The World does not march to our Drums, its called Variety of Life.
What Works here will Not an Does Not Ring well Elsewhere.
We Live in a Militarily Ran, Capitalist Society..Simple an Plain.
The `Patriot Act` has taken Much of what was Freedom, in this Country and You said Nothing about it, yet Agreed without Reading, the Fine Print.
You can`t do anything without Big Brother looking at You on Public Camera, Your Phones being Tapped, The Websites you visit, being used against you and Your Email being read.
Will 2009 then be looked upon by historians as the year that the US went and hid under its bed?
I don''t know how you can come up with those ridiculous statements, but I assume it is because you haven''t traveled much or read material other than that which supports your narrow point of view.
The countries you mention are in many ways no more socialist than the US. They are mixed economies. The US has Social Security, a socialist concept not found in many other countries. Education in the US is more socialist than in many countries with a higher percentage attending public schools than private schools. Some countries like Singapore that is nominally socialist have virtually no social welfare system. As to Europe not bemoaning socialism, you haven''t been following the gas price strikes and demonstrations lately.
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