Five months into a Baghdad-centred 聯security crackdown聰, US officials continue to claim that the 160,000 US troops occupying Iraq are making 聯progress聰 in reducing 聯sectarian violence聰 in the war-ravaged country. But, according to a July 26 Associated Press tally, at least 1759 Iraqis were killed in war-related violence in July 聴 a 7% increase on the 1640 who were reported killed in June.
Iraq
聯Seven of the most important Sunni-led insurgent organisations fighting the US occupation in Iraq have agreed to form a public political alliance with the aim of preparing for negotiations in advance of an American withdrawal聰, the July 19 British Guardian reported it was told by leaders of the groups.
聯A previously undisclosed US Army investigation into an audacious January attack in Karbala that killed five US soldiers concludes that Iraqi police working alongside American troops colluded with insurgents聰, the July 12 USA Today reported.
Iraqi children are worse off today than they were before the US-led March 2003 invasion, Dan Toole, director of emergency programs for the United Nations Children聮s Fund (UNICEF), told reporters in Geneva on July 16.
聯Nearly five months into a security strategy that involves thousands of additional US and Iraqi troops patrolling Baghdad, the number of unidentified bodies found on the streets of the capital was 41% higher in June than in January, according to unofficial health ministry statistics聰, the July 4 Washington Post reported.
聯One week after American forces mounted their assault on insurgent strongholds in western Baquba, at least half of the estimated 300 to 500 fighters who were there have escaped or are still at large, the colonel who is leading the attack said Monday聰, the June 26 New York Times reported.
On June 13, explosions destroyed the two 100-year-old minarets of the highly revered Shiite Askariya mosque in the largely Sunni inhabited city of Samarra, 100 kilometres north of Baghdad. 聯The Askariya shrine means a lot to us, the people of Samarra聰, Abu Abdullah, a Sunni who lives next to the shrine, told the June 13 Washington Post, adding: 聯To lose the shrine hurt us a lot, and made us afraid about what will happen next. Someone wants to create sectarian strife by doing this act.聰
鈥淭he Bush administration and top military commanders are looking beyond the promised September progress report on Iraq and are preparing Congress and the American public for a long-term presence of US troops in the occupied nation鈥, the June 8 New York Times reported, adding: 鈥淥fficials have started downplaying the importance of the September assessment by Army General David Petraeus and US Ambassador Ryan Crocker as they work to lower public expectations about any quick progress in Iraq.鈥
On June 5, the Iraqi parliament approved a law giving itself the formal authority to block the extension beyond December of the UN Security Council mandate under which US and allied foreign troops are deployed in Iraq.
There is little mystery behind Iraqis' tenacious resistance to US President George Bush's war of occupation: over four years of war have left the country devastated and resulted in the deaths of over half a million Iraqis, according to a study published in the influential British medical journal The Lancet.
鈥淲e鈥檙e helping guys that are trying to kill us. We help them in the day. They turn around at night and try to kill us鈥, the May 27 New York Times reported being told by US Army Staff Sergeant David Safstrom, who was commenting on the US-recruited and trained Iraqi Army.
On May 25, Moqtada al Sadr, Iraq聮s widely popular Shiite cleric whose Madhi Army militia has been accused by US officials of being responsible for a wave of killings of Sunni Muslims since February 2006, emerged publicly for the first time in months to deliver a Friday evening prayer speech in the southern holy city of Kufa, in which he called for US forces to get out of Iraq and vowed to protect Iraqi Sunnis and Christians.
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