Thread: Archive Latest News - Think Tank - 01/01/08 - 14/04/08

Iraq PM proclaims Basra assaults a success

Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki said on Tuesday that a crackdown on militiamen in Basra was a success and that 10,000 extra troops would be recruited to keep order in the southern oil hub.

His statement came as officials said the toll from a military assault the Premier ordered on militias a week ago had helped propel the March tally of Iraqis killed to 1,082, the highest monthly total since August.

Figures obtained by AFP from the Interior, Defence and Health Ministries showed that 925 civilians, 54 soldiers and 103 policemen were killed -- up 50 percent on February`s figure of 721.

Of the Iraqis killed, around 460 were casualties of a week of fighting between Iraqi forces and the Mahdi Army of cleric Moqtada al-Sadr which began in Basra but quickly spread to other areas of central and southern Iraq and to Baghdad.

Maliki said he had decided to implement a seven-point programme in Basra following "the stability and success of the security plan which achieved the aim of imposing law in the city and restoring normalcy."

The new plan includes boosting security forces in Basra by recruiting 10,000 new troops, restoring services, imposing a strict check on vehicles without licences, building new houses for the poor and turning government-owned palaces into tourist destinations.

Basra has emerged as a major turf for infighting between factions of Sadr and the Supreme Iraqi Islamic Council of politician Abdel Aziz al-Hakim and the lesser known Fadhila Party.

Earlier Tuesday, Maliki had ordered security forces to stop raiding and arresting militiamen randomly but said they should "deal strongly with any groups carrying arms in public".

Sadr leaders have accused the security forces of continuing to arrest Mahdi Army members in Basra and other areas.

Harith al-Athari, chief of Sadr`s office in Basra, said the militiamen were being "exposed to random arrests and raids, houses of the members were being burned. This is in violation of what has been agreed upon."

Sadr hailed the Mahdi Army for resisting the Iraqi security forces during the fighting.

"I greet you and thank you for facing the difficulties, being patient, obedient, supportive of each other, defending your land, people and honour," Sadr said in a statement released by his office in the shrine city of Najaf late Monday.

The special representative of the UN secretary general to Iraq, Staffan de Mistura, on Tuesday called upon Baghdad to coordinate with the international community to address the humanitarian crisis in Basra.

The March death tally confirms a reversal of the trend of gradually decreasing violence since June and follows tolls of 541 in January, 568 in December, 606 in November, 887 in October, 917 in September and 1,856 in August.

The number of people wounded in March was 1,630, almost double February`s tally of 847.

US military losses in Iraq also rose in March, with 37 killed, up from 29 in February, according to an AFP tally based on independent website icasualties.org.

The death toll in January had reached a 23-month low, with US commanders saying all types of attacks were down to levels not seen before the February 2006 bombing of a shrine in the town of Samarra that unleashed a wave of violence.

The bloodshed that erupted after the shrine attack peaked in January 2007, with 1,992 deaths reported by the three ministries.

First Iraq PM proclaims Basra assaults a success

Maliki threatens to bar Sadr party from politics
Iraqi PM warns Sadr movement will be barred from political process if Mahdi Army not disbanded

Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki said the movement of radical cleric Moqtada al-Sadr will be barred from taking part in the political process unless it disbands its feared Mahdi Army militia.

"A decision was taken... that they no longer have a right to participate in the political process or take part in the upcoming elections unless they end the Mahdi Army," Maliki said in an interview with US television network CNN broadcast on Monday.

Iraqi and US forces have been fighting Shiite militiamen, mostly from the Mahdi Army, since Maliki ordered a crackdown on "lawless gunmen" on March 25 in the southern city of Basra.

There have been fierce clashes in Sadr City, the cleric's Baghdad bastion, where dozens of people have been killed and wounded in the past two days.

Maliki said he was determined to pursue militias across the country, including those in Sadr City.

"We will not stop until we have full control of these areas. The operation has started and will not stop until a decisive victory is achieved ... a victory that will not allow these people to attack the Green Zone or other areas," Maliki said.

The Green Zone, a highly fortified area of Baghdad where the Iraqi government and the US embassy are sited, has for the past two weeks come under sustained attack by rockets and mortar rounds fired allegedly from Sadr City.

Three US soldiers were killed on Sunday in such attacks in Baghdad, including two in the Green Zone, while two US government employees were killed in the first wave of attacks.

Maliki said the Iraqi forces were still far away from winning control of the militias.

"Yes, confronting the militias does still need more effort. Our readiness is not at full level yet. But what is happening in Sadr City is less than what some people expected us to do. Many people expected to see a decisive victory of the Iraqi security forces," he said.

"But this did not happen. Today again Iraqi forces went into Sadr City and are pursuing the criminal militiamen who are on the run."

Maliki threatens to bar Sadr party from politics | Iraq Updates

Iran Says U.S. Requests New Talks on Iraq Security

Iran said on Monday it had received a request from the United States for a new round of talks on ways to improve security in Iraq and was considering it.

Easing a diplomatic freeze lasting almost three decades, Iranian and U.S. officials met three times in Baghdad last year, but a planned fourth meeting has been repeatedly postponed.

The United States accuses Iran of stoking violence in its neighbour by funding, training and equipping Iraqi militants. Iran denies this and blames the presence of U.S. troops for the bloodshed.

"We have received a new request by American officials in a formal note for the holding of negotiations on the Iraqi developments and we are looking into the case," Foreign Ministry spokesman Mohammad Ali Hosseini told a news conference.

He said the U.S. note had been delivered via the Swiss embassy in Tehran, which handles U.S. interests in the Islamic Republic. The United States severed ties with Iran about a year after its 1979 Islamic Revolution.

U.S. and Iraqi officials in Baghdad were not immediately available for comment.

The adviser of a leading Iraqi politician was also quoted last week as saying the United States had asked for a new meeting with Iranian and Iraqi officials.

Mohsen Hakim, whose father Abdul Aziz al-Hakim heads the Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council (SIIC), told Iran's Mehr News Agency in an interview published on Friday:

"In the last week, America has requested a new round of trilateral talks with Iran and Iraq and announced that the reason for the delay of the fourth round of talks had been technical issues."

Shi'ite Iran's influence in Iraq has grown since the U.S.-led invasion in 2003 to topple Sunni Arab strongman Saddam Hussein, Tehran's sworn enemy.

U.S. President George W. Bush said last month he wanted to send a "clear message" to Iran that it could not have its way in the Middle East.

Washington and Tehran are also embroiled in a deepening standoff over Iran's disputed nuclear plans, which the West suspects are aimed at making nuclear bombs. Tehran denies this and says the aim of its nuclear programme is solely to generate electricity.

PUKmedia :: English - Iran Says U.S. Requests New Talks on Iraq Security

KRG PM Visits Kurdistan Region’s Investment Institution

Today, Mr. Nichervan Barzani, the KRG Prime Minister paid a visit to the Investment Institution of Kurdistan Region. He was received by Mr. Herish Moharam Amen, the Head of the Investment Institution and the Directors Generals there.

They discussed various ways of activating the role of the Institution. Barzani called the employees to work transparently in order to facilitate the investors work and serve the interests of Kurdistan Region. He also asked the Institution to participate in the International Seminars and Conferences to get more information and maintain contact with other global institutions.

Barzani also said that no one has the right to interfere with the Institution’s business. The KRG put the institution’s development as a top Priority.

PUKmedia :: English - KRG PM Visits Kurdistan Region’s Investment Institution

Sources: Bush to Address Nation on Iraq, but not in Prime Time

President Bush is planning to address the nation Thursday morning about the Iraq war, according to sources in the Bush administration and on Capitol Hill.

The address will come after Gen. David Petraeus and Ambassador Ryan Crocker wrap up two days of testimony to Congress.

Republican and Democratic officials said the president is expected to discuss the administration's decision to reduce combat tours of duty from 15 months to 12 months, as well as the future in Iraq.

"It will be an update -- having been briefed by Petraeus and Crocker, here's where we are," one Republican official said of the president's plans.
Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Adm. Michael Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, are scheduled to testify Thursday to the Senate Armed Services Committee.

When Petraeus and Crocker finished their first progress report to Congress last September, the president addressed the nation. But while that speech was delivered in prime time, officials said this week's speech will come in the daytime, a sign the electorate is more focused on the economy than the war in Iraq right now.

After delivering his speech, Bush is scheduled to head to Texas for a few days of rest at his Crawford ranch.

White House officials are not commenting on whether the president will address the nation on the situation in Iraq, with spokesman Tony Fratto saying the White House is focused on waiting to hear directly from Petraeus and Crocker.

"We would prefer to listen to the facts, listen to our commanders on the ground, and then make the responsible decision to protect our national security interests," Fratto told CNN Sunday. "We look forward to hearing General Petraeus and Ambassador Crocker testify this week."

Offering a glimpse on what he might say this week, Bush said last month that how the Iraqi government deals with the recent spate of violence is a "defining moment" in the war.

"I have said in my remarks there's been substantial progress, and there has been," Bush said. "But it's still a dangerous, fragile situation in Iraq."
In advance of this week's events, Democrats are saying once again that they believe the war in Iraq has made the United States less safe.

"Based on everything we have heard so far, the president has no intention of bringing home any more troops anytime soon and is instead leaving the tough decisions to the next administration," said Jim Manley, a spokesman for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nevada. "In effect, he is going to kick the can down the road."

Reid and 46 of his Senate Democratic colleagues sent the president a letter Sunday demanding that he refocus the nation's counter-terrorism strategy on Afghanistan and Pakistan.

"While violence and the drug trade have surged in Afghanistan and Pakistan's security remains fragile, we are distracted by an endless civil war in Iraq," Reid said in a prepared statement. "To make America more secure, we must refocus on hunting down a resurgent al Qaeda, securing a troubled Afghanistan and rebuilding our overburdened and misused military."

White House officials responded that the administration is committed to victory in both Afghanistan and Iraq.

"What everyone should have seen this past week in Romania is that we and our NATO allies are clearly committed to success in Afghanistan," Fratto said of the NATO Summit in Eastern Europe. "NATO allies are committing more combat troops and resources, and, as [French] President [Nicolas] Sarkozy said, we all signed up in Afghanistan to succeed -- and we will."

Fratto added: "We all understand, after scores of failed votes, that Democrats would prefer to walk away from our mission and abandon our responsibilities in Iraq, regardless of all evidence of success. And we also understand that they would prefer to change the subject rather than to hear reporting on progress in Iraq" from Petraeus and Crocker.

PUKmedia :: English - Sources: Bush to Address Nation on Iraq, but not in Prime Time

Establishing World Trade Center in Erbil Discussed

Today the KRG Minister for Planning, Osman Shwani, met with the Representative of the World Trade Center Association, John Dixon.

In a meeting attended by high officials and advisors of the ministry, Dixon clarified the purpose of his visit to Kurdistan region, saying they intend to establish a world trade center in Erbil.

On his part the KRG Minister for Planning in addition to expressing his support to their project pointed out the importance of such project to the economy of Kurdistan region.

He also stressed the need for establishing a new bank system in Kurdistan region and Iraq to replace the classic systems, demanding the Representative of the World Trade Center Association to help Kurdistan region in this regard.

The KRG Minister for Planning asked the Representative of the World Trade Center Association, after they would finish their survey on the project, to brief the KRG on the project to be discussed via the Kurdistan Region Supreme Economy Council.

Finally Shwani expressed all facilitations by his ministry to succeed the project.

PUKmedia :: English - Establishing World Trade Center in Erbil Discussed

Iraq's Sadr to Disband Mehdi Army if Clerics Order

Iraqi Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr will consult senior religious leaders and disband his Mehdi Army militia if they instruct him to, a senior aide said on Monday.

The surprise announcement came on the day Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, in a television interview, ordered the Mehdi Army to disband or Sadr's followers would be excluded from Iraqi political life.

It was the first time Sadr has offered to disband the Mehdi Army, whose black-masked fighters are principle actors in Iraq's five-year-old war and the main foes of U.S. and Iraqi forces in a recent upsurge in fighting.

Senior aide Hassan Zargani said Sadr would seek rulings from Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, Iraq's most senior Shi'ite cleric, on whether to dissolve the Mehdi Army, and would obey their orders.

That effectively puts the militia's fate in the hands of the reclusive Sistani, 77, a cleric revered by all of Iraq's Shi'ite factions and whose edicts carry the force of Islamic law, but who almost never intervenes in politics.

Iraqi government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh said he could not comment on the statement by Sadr's aide. Sistani's spokesman, Hamed al-Khafaf, declined to comment.

PUKmedia :: English - Iraq's Sadr to Disband Mehdi Army if Clerics Order

Huge demand for U.S. dollar at Iraqi Daily Auction

Demand for the dollar was significantly up in the Iraqi Central Bank's auction on Monday, registering at $174.520 million compared to $72.290 million on Sunday.

"The demand hit $17.770 million in cash and $156.750 million in money transfers outside the country, all covered by the bank at an exchange rate of 1,204 Iraqi dinars per dollar, a tick lower than yesterday, " according to the central bank's daily bulletin which was received by Aswat al-Iraq- Voices of Iraq- (VOI).

The 20 banks, the largest number over 2008, that participated in the auction offered to sell 4.400 dollars, which the bank bought all at a rate of 1202 dinars per dollar.

Speaking to VOI, Ali al-Yasseri, a trader, attributed the huge demand for the dollar to the one-tick-change of the dinar rate against the dollar and to the high number of banks that participated in today’s session.

The Iraqi Central Bank runs a daily auction from Sunday to Thursday.

Aswat Aliraq

Tribal conference in Baghdad to stem Iraqi bloodshed

Notables and chieftains in the Iraqi capital Baghdad will hold a tribal conference on Monday to discuss ways to stem Iraqi bloodshed and respect the rule of law, an Iraqi cabinet source said.

"The gathering, to which 200 tribal figures and notables as well as politicians and lawmakers in Baghdad were invited, will be held under the auspices of Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki," the source, who is one of the event organizers, told Aswat al-Iraq – Voices of Iraq – (VOI) on condition of anonymity.

Iraqi clerics and scholars had signed the Makkah Document in 2006, which provides for bringing Iraqi views closer to end sectarian strife and realize security, stability and coexistence.

Aswat Aliraq

Sadr did not refer dissolving al-Mahdi army to top Shiite clerics

The official spokesman for al-Sadr’s office on Monday denied that Shiite Cleric Muqtada al-Sadr had referred the dissolution of al-Mahdi army to Shiite clerics, describing reports in this regard as inaccurate.

“Shiite Cleric Muqtada al-Sadr did not think of dissolving al-Mahdi army,” Sheikh Salah al-Ubeidi told Aswat al-Iraq – Voices of Iraq – (VOI), noting that “we have no right to interfere in freezing or dissolving al-Mahdi army because it is an exclusive right of Muqtada al-Sadr.”

Al-Ubeidi had said that any effort to prevent Sadrists from political participation would be unconstitutional.

Al-Mahdi army, the military wing of the Sadrist bloc under Shiite Cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, was established in July 2003.

Basra province, 590 km south of Baghdad, witnessed six days of bloody armed confrontations between governmental forces and Mahdi Army militia.

Clashes ended when the Shiite leader, Muqtada al-Sadr, ordered his followers to abort "all armed scenes," and to cooperate with governmental forces to impose security and law.

The clashes left 210 gunmen killed and 600 others wounded as well as the arrest of 155 during Operation Saulat al-Foursan (Knights’ Assault), aimed at eliminating all armed groups in the southern Iraqi city.


Aswat Aliraq