Iraq criticises US pull-out bill
Hoshyar Zebari accuses US legislators of "politicking"
Attempts by US Democrats to hasten the withdrawal of US troops from Iraq are "damaging to security" in the country, Iraq's foreign minister says.
Hoshyar Zebari was responding to a vote in the US House of Representatives making further funding of the war conditional on a withdrawal timetable.
The top US general in Iraq said there was still "vastly more work" to do.
The Senate votes on the bill later on Thursday. President George W Bush has promised to veto it.
This is part of the politicking, basically, in Washington
Hoshyar Zebari,
Iraq foreign minister
Partisan duel heats up
National Guard bears burden
Although the Democrats, who sponsored the bill, control both houses of Congress, they do not have enough votes to overrule a presidential veto.
The Democrats have been locked in confrontation with President Bush's Republicans over the future of the war in Iraq.
Mr Zebari said the bill was "part of the politicking, basically, in Washington, and this has been damaging in fact to the security, political development, not only in Iraq, but in the entire region".
He said a decision to withdraw US troops "should depend on conditions on the ground".
"The moment that Iraqi forces, security, military, are self-reliant, capable of standing on their own, defending their own country, providing security, then definitely there would be a way for the troops to leave."
'Surrender date'
The commander of US forces in Iraq, Gen David Petraeus, has met US politicians to argue against the bill.
He is overseeing the "surge" strategy, in which thousands of extra US troops are being poured into Baghdad in an attempt to pacify the Iraqi capital.
Surge strategy faltering
US jail chief arrested in Iraq
He did not give a direct opinion on the bill at a press conference in Washington on Thursday, but said the US effort "clearly is going to require an enormous commitment over time".
He said the first few months of the surge had led to improvements in Iraq, but said it had still to get fully into its stride, and admitted that progress was "often eclipsed by sensational attacks which overshadow our achievements".
He described the situation there as "exceedingly complex and very tough", and said "there is vastly more work to be done across the board".
The Democrats' bill provides $100bn (£50bn) in new war funds, if troops start leaving in October, with the withdrawal planned to be complete by March 2008.
In other developments in Iraq:
- The commander of a major US military prison in Baghdad, Lt Col William Steele, is arrested on suspicion of offences including aiding the enemy
- Ten Iraqi soldiers are killed and 15 people injured in a suicide car bomb attack on an Iraqi army checkpoint in the town of Khalis
- In Tikrit, gunmen kill the sister-in-law and niece of Ali Hassan al-Majid, the genocide suspect better known as Chemical Ali
- Three people are killed in an attack outside Kurdistan Democratic Party offices in Mosul
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26-04-2007, 09:00 PM #841
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26-04-2007, 09:01 PM #842
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Habakkuk 2:2-3 Then the LORD answered me and said: “ Write the vision And make it plain on tablets,
That he may run who reads it. 3 For the vision is yet for an appointed time; But at the end it will speak, and it will not lie. Though it tarries, wait for it; Because it will surely come, It will not tarry.
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26-04-2007, 09:07 PM #843
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Analysis: Sadr raises Maliki pressure
By Jim Muir
BBC News, Baghdad
Mr Sadr himself has not appeared - the US says he is abroad
The decision by radical Shia cleric Moqtada Sadr to order his six ministers to quit the Iraqi government was not a surprising development.
Although electorally allied to Prime Minister Nouri Maliki's own al-Daawa party and partners in the big Shia coalition which dominates government and parliament, the two sides had been increasingly at odds as the pressures in the country mount.
Nobody expects Mr Sadr's move to bring the government down. Nor did observers believe that was his intention.
Rather than leave the cabinet seats empty, he himself suggested that the six abandoned portfolios be given to non-partisan independents, and some of his aides urged that competent technocrats be appointed.
That gesture was welcomed in a statement from Prime Minister Maliki, who also said he appreciated the Sadr movement's support for the political process.
Huge protest
The prime minister owes his position to the firebrand young cleric, who tilted the balance in his favour in the internal voting within the Shia alliance that produced Mr Maliki as its candidate for the job early last year.
Hundreds of thousands attended the Najaf rally against the US
Mr Sadr's decision to withdraw from the government appears to have been triggered primarily by its failure to heed the big popular demonstration he called in Najaf a week earlier to demand a withdrawal of coalition forces.
Hundreds of thousands of people, mainly Shias, attended the demonstration, waving banners and chanting slogans calling for the Americans to leave. It passed off peacefully.
The Sadr movement's demand for a withdrawal timetable has been turned down by Mr Maliki, who said last week during a visit to Japan that the timing would depend on when the Iraqi forces were ready to take full responsibility for security nationwide - a position he reiterated in his reaction statement to the Sadrist pullout.
The Sadr bloc has 32 of the 275 seats in the current parliament, and intends to continue its activities there and in the Shia coalition, despite withdrawing from government.
Another member of the Shia coalition, the Fadhila party, announced early last month that it was pulling out of that alliance because of the government's poor performance and sectarian quota composition. But only if other major factions such as the main Sunni bloc and Iyad Allawi's secular Iraqi List were also to walk out of government, would it be at risk of collapse. Nonetheless, the Sadr movement's defection from cabinet is likely to increase the pressure on the embattled prime minister.
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26-04-2007, 09:09 PM #844
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US prison chief arrested in Iraq
US handling of Iraqi detainees has been controversial from the start
The commander of a major US military prison in Iraq has been arrested for offences including aiding the enemy.
Lt Col William Steele is accused of giving detainees free use of a mobile phone at Camp Cropper and fraternising with the daughter of a detainee.
It is the latest of several scandals involving US jails in Iraq, the worst being the 2003 Abu Ghraib abuse case.
Col Steele is also accused of improper behaviour with his Iraqi interpreter and holding unauthorised information.
There are four overall charges against Col Steele and nine specific alleged offences. He was arrested last month and is being detained in Kuwait, a US military spokeswoman said.
CHARGES AGAINST COL STEELE
Providing unmonitored mobile phone to detainees
Mishandling classified information
Fraternising with detainee's daughter
Inappropriate relationship with interpreter and providing her special privileges
Failing to obey a lawful order
Possessing pornographic videos
Failing obligations as approving authority for expenditure
Others offences include dereliction in the performance of his duties, failing to obey an order and wrongfully possessing pornographic videos. The alleged offences took place between October 2005 and February 2007, a US statement said. Col Steele was arrested in March. "His current status is that he is in confinement and waiting for his Article 32 hearing," the spokeswoman said.
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26-04-2007, 09:11 PM #845
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god you have to love translations...... and i quote
" As I mentioned to parliamentary sources, the Prince said : «that serious action must be characterized by spiritual work in the coming period, and if we work well we can make it good for our country and we are only losers"Oh the drama....
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26-04-2007, 09:12 PM #846
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Massacre fuels northern Iraq tensions
By Roger Hardy
BBC Middle East analyst
Yazidis are viewed with suspicion by other religious groups
Sectarian tensions are high in the Mosul area of northern Iraq following the killing of 23 members of the Yazidi minority.
The Mosul area has long been religiously mixed. It is home to a variety of Muslim and Christian communities, as well as to the Yazidis - a small, ancient heterodox sect who are ethnic Kurds.
Yazidis are to be found in Iran, Russia and Turkey, but the largest number are in northern Iraq.
Traditionally the different communities in and around Mosul have lived together in relative harmony.
But now there is a new tension in the area, focused on the village of Bashika, which is mainly Yazidi with Christian and Muslim minorities.
Cycle of killings
The trouble started when a Yazidi woman from the village recently converted to Islam and ran off with a Sunni Muslim man.
This was not the first incident of its kind, and the woman's relatives were so incensed that they kidnapped her, brought her back to the village and stoned her to death.
Sunnis, and the local police, demanded the villagers hand over the culprits to face justice, but the villagers refused.
On 22 April, gunmen - presumed to be Sunnis - stopped a bus bringing textile workers from Mosul back to the village.
They separated 23 Yazidis from the others and shot them dead.
According to an eyewitness, the gunmen shouted at the Yazidis, "God curse your devil". Some Muslims regard Yazidis as devil-worshippers because they revere an angel in the form of a blue peacock. It appears the dispute is local - though there is some speculation that insurgents are trying to drive a wedge between Muslims and Yazidis.
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26-04-2007, 09:18 PM #847
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26-04-2007, 09:21 PM #848
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Iraq petrol queues ease as prices rise
Reuters
Baghdad: Long petrol queues were once among the most common sights on Baghdad's busy streets, but the snaking lines of cars waiting to refuel have disappeared in the past month following a 60 per cent price hike.
Queues outside gas stations used to stretch for kilometres.
"Months ago I would stop my car near the petrol station at dawn just to fill up by midday. Now things are much better. I can do so within minutes," said shopkeeper Ali Naem.
Iraq is still a long way from reviving its shattered oil sector and fully tapping the world's third largest oil reserves.
But the government and officials from the northern Kurdistan region will meet this week to discuss a draft oil law that could at least set the stage for a revival of foreign investment in the industry - if Iraq's parlous security situation improves.
Many Baghdadis say the demise of long fuel lines is a mixed blessing because it came on the back of a March 15 price hike to 400 Iraqi dinars (31 cents) a litre, from 250 dinars.
"We feel better when we enter the petrol station, there's no jam and no long lines, which could kill your whole day two months ago," Akram Hameed, 35, said.
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26-04-2007, 09:22 PM #849
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Peloisi Needs to see this!
I agree. Someone send it to her. And copy all the rest of the Dems.
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26-04-2007, 09:25 PM #850
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IHS: Iraq's Oil Production Capacity Could Double in Near Term
Rig Zone
IHS Inc. on Wednesday announced the upcoming launch of the Iraq Atlas, the first and only detailed analysis of oil reserves, production and development opportunities developed since the start of the Iraq conflict. The Iraq Atlas, which will be available from IHS on May 9, is a unique overview of all known prospects and fields in Iraq, and estimates oil reserves at up to 116 billion barrels, ranking the country number three in the world. The Iraq...
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