Thread: Iraq/Dinar News. 09/05 to 01/14/07

Originally Posted by CharmedPiper

Pentagon Review Seeks Iraq Options - washingtonpost.com

Monday, Nov. 27, at noon ET to answer questions about the ongoing violence in Iraq, the Pentagon's review of possible options and the country's political climate.

Is ET/ Entertainment Tonight, I do know a lot of us have to work tomorrow. Would you do a big favor for all of us that can't watch it and do a over view on
it. So the rest of us can read what they were talking about on that station.
I do love all of the work you and everyone else is doing to keep us informed you all do a great job, and also a thumbs up in my book.

Now this is interesting.

Iran denies plans for Iraq summit | Iraq Updates

Iran has denied reports that it was trying to organise a summit that would bring together its president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, and the leaders of Iraq and Syria.

Mohammed Ali Hosseini, the foreign ministry spokesman told journalists on Sunday in response to reports that Iran had planned to hold a summit Saturday with its two neighbors: "Holding such a summit was not on the agenda, as some media mentioned."

"Such a summit needs certain preliminaries," he said, but did not give details.

The reports of a meeting came at a time when the White House is under increased pressure at home to approach Iran and Syria for help in Iraq. Such a measure is believed to be one of the recommendations by a panel on Iraq led by former Secretary of State James Baker.

An Iranian-Syrian-Iraqi summit would appear to fit into US hopes that Iraq's neighbors will step in to help stem the violence. Iran is believed to back Iraqi Shia militias blamed in sectarian killings that have killed thousands this year. Iran has denied the charges.

But Hosseini said Iran has already been active trying to support Iraq's security.

The Islamic Republic of Iran has been participating in providing security in Iraq and the region and will continue doing so," he said but did not elaborate. "Iran will discuss security with other countries including Syria, if necessary."

The spokesman confirmed that Iran has invited Syrian President Bashar Assad for an official visit to Tehran, the Iranian capital.

"Discussions to set a date will continue, but are not related to a trilateral summit," Hosseini said of the invitation extended to Assad.

Jalal Talabani, the Iraqi president, will visit Iran, the spokesman told journalists, but he did not say when. "

"His visit will be about cooperation between the two countries," Hosseini said.

Talabani was scheduled to visit Tehran on Saturday, on a trip that the Iranian side said last week was for bilateral talks. But the Iraqi president postponed his trip on Friday until Baghdad's airport - closed in a security clampdown - reopens.

Syrian officials have been silent about any plans Assad might have to travel to Iran, which is Damascus' only close ally.

ET = Eastern Time

With Baghdad shaken daily by outbreaks of sectarian violence, in Iraq's western al-Anbar province Sunnis have begun fighting Sunnis for control of this largely-desert region near the Syrian border.

Local people say that this new and increasingly bloody conflict, pitting former Iraqi Baathists against well-armed Islamic groups, may signal the start of a new phase in the country's three-year-old war.
They believe the conflict is creating divisions within Iraq's Sunni minority that has the potential to destabilise the region long after the US military has gone home.

Amid increasing bloodshed in Iraq, many Sunnis desire an end to the violence

The latest fighting began when former members of Saddam's disbanded Baath party started attacking other Sunnis who were working with Al-Qaeda and foreign Islamists to carry out attacks against the American army, Iraqi police and the country's majority Shias.

The ex-Baathists' offensive has been so successful, local people say, that Iraqi groups working with al-Qaeda have been forced to divert their attacks away from the Americans to focus on fighting the al-Awda party, as the new secular Sunni movement is called.
'Islamic state of Iraq'

In early November, this growing conflict took a new turn when masked gunmen linked to al-Qaeda distributed flyers and posters throughout al-Anbar province threatening to execute anyone from Al-Awda.

"The Baath secular party will find no quarter in the new principality of the Islamic State of Iraq"

Leaflet distributed in al-Anbar province by groups allied with al-Qaeda.

"The Baath secular party will find no quarter in the new principality of the Islamic State of Iraq," read one flyer.

Since then, several high-ranking officials from the former Iraqi army have been found murdered throughout Anbar province.

These include former Major General Saab Al-Rawi, Major General Saud Al-Naimi and Wagih Dherar Al-Mawla, a former senior officer in the Iraqi Air Force stationed in Habbaniyah.

On November 11 another senior member of the Baath party, Loay Yassin, was found shot in the head in Al-Jamia, the western district of the town of Hiyt.

Hiyt residents told Al Jazeera that Yassin was known to have recruited fighters for the Jaysh Mohammed (Mohammed's Army).

The Jaysh Mohammed is one of the largest Sunni insurgent groups and in the past it has claimed numerous attacks against US forces in Baghdad and Anbar.

The assassination of Yassin may suggest that al-Qaeda and its allies fear that the Jaysh Mohammed and its thousands of experienced fighters may be close to joining the al-Awda neo-Baathist alliance.

Changing alliances

In the past year, the Jaysh Mohammed has already clashed several times with another group, Al-Tawheed wa Al-Jihad, a mainly Iraqi group which is affiliated with al-Qaeda in Iraq.

The increasingly heavy fighting between the rival armed groups in Hiyt and other urban centres in Anbar has led many Sunnis to believe that a new war between secularist and Islamist factions could be beginning.

Although both groups are in principle opposed to the US presence in Iraq and the Shia-led government in Baghdad, Anbar residents say a rapprochment between the two is unlikely.
The growing divisions between Anbar's Sunnis is also being felt in Baghdad.

Sheikh Abdel Sattar Abu Risha of Ramadi has called on Sunnis to resist Al-Qaeda

Harith al-Dhari, head of the Association of Muslim Scholars, which supports Iraqis' rights to fight the Americans, referred to the tribes fighting Al-Qaeda in the province of Al-Anbar in western Iraq as "bandits".

"They are groups of bandits and thieves used by the government to fight against Al-Qaeda which is struggling against the American occupation," he said on 9 November.

This provoked a sharp response from Sheikh Abdel Sattar Abu Risha, a leading member of the Al-Awda grouping.

"If there is a bandit then it is you. If there is a killer it is also you," he said of al-Dhari.

"You go around the country raising funds for takfiris and death squads. You are a beggar for the takfiris," he said refering to Islamist fighters.

The former Baathist fighters of Al-Awda are believed to be relatively secular.

Many of their opponent's share Al-Qaeda's dream of founding a Sunni caliphate in Iraq which will then be the launchpad for attacks on Americans, Shias and Arab governments around the region.

A history of conflict

Local people point out that the root of the two groups' mutual antagonism is based not only on ideological differences but also in events that occured long before the March 2003 US-led invasion.

In 1996, Saddam Hussein's Baathist security forces scoured Anbar province looking for men who might be plotting against the government.

Dozens of young men were rounded up by the Iraqi army and police. Many belonged to the highly-conservative Wahhabi branch of Islam.

Several of those arrested were sent to prisons in Baghdad such as the Al-Hakmiyah in Al-Rusafa district and the Al-Rathwaniyah jail near Baghdad International Airport.

Sunni Iraqis fear what may happen if the US leaves and a Shia government takes over.

For more than six years they imprisoned men and their families and their tribes nursed bitter grudges against members of the Baath party in Anbar.

Then, in 2003, just a few months before the March 2003 invasion, Saddam ordered political and criminal prisoners released from prison.

Among those released were the imprisoned Wahhabists.

With Saddam gone and the country in chaos, the men and their families saw their chance to get even.

Furious at their years of imprisonment, ill-treatment and torture at the hands of the Baathists, the men and their families swore to take revenge.

With Iraq in chaos, they began assassinating the former Baathists who they believed had spied on the nascent Islamist movements and then given their names and addresses to Saddam Hussein's security forces.

The series of killings helped sow the seeds for the present conflict in Anbar province, and has convinced both sides that the latest round of fighting is no mere ideological conflict but rather a fight to the death that is likely to continue even after the US leaves Iraq.

Iraq's Sunnis face new conflict | Iraq Updates

Now let me get this straight. We have Sunnis that are old members of the Saddam Regime that are helping to fight the terrorist members from the Sunni population however they are Anti-American. So we have infighting within infighting.

I really feel as if these people just enjoy sheding blood and will use any reason that they can find to end life...

Originally Posted by Cyberkhan

Iraq's Sunnis face new conflict | Iraq Updates

Now let me get this straight. We have Sunnis that are old members of the Saddam Regime that are helping to fight the terrorist members from the Sunni population however they are Anti-American. So we have infighting within infighting.

I really feel as if these people just enjoy sheding blood and will use any reason that they can find to end life...

Exactly...twisted, but true.

Originally Posted by tiffany

ET = Eastern Time

Ya see it also means Entertainment Tonight also, so any who can help in letting us all know what the out come is on the information.

I am sorry my brain is fried to the extreme.

I have been away and I am now getting caught up on all of the posts and gee wiz, I am over whelmed.

Thanks

By THOMAS WAGNER, Associated Press Writer 1 hour, 20 minutes ago

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Sunni, Shiite and Kurdish leaders called Sunday for an end to
Iraq's sectarian conflict and vowed to track down those responsible for the war's deadliest attack.
ADVERTISEMENT

But as they went on national television to try to keep Iraq from sliding into an all-out civil war, fighting between Iraqi security forces and Sunni Arab insurgents raged for a second day in Baqouba, the capital of Diyala province north of Baghdad.

By the end of the day, the province's latest casualty figures were a microcosm of the brutality in Iraq: 17 insurgents killed, 15 detained, 20 civilians kidnapped and three bodies found. The mayor of a municipality also narrowly escaped an assassination attempt that killed one of his guards and wounded three.

During Saturday's fighting in Baqouba, police killed at least 36 insurgents and wounded dozens after scores of militants armed with assault rifles and rocket-propelled grenades attacked government buildings in the city center, police said. The fighting raged for hours in the city, about 35 miles northeast of Baghdad.

Also Saturday, a U.S. soldier was killed and two were wounded when a roadside bomb exploded near their vehicle in Diyala province, the military said.

Officials including Defense Minister Abdul-Qader al-Obaidi and Gen. George Casey, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, decided Saturday to fire Diyala's police commander, saying he was unable to stop infiltration of the force by Sunni insurgents, two Iraqi officials said on condition of anonymity as is often the case in areas subjected to widespread fighting and revenge killings.

One of the main challenges for U.S.-led forces in recruiting and training Iraqi military and police forces is that they are often infiltrated by insurgents who kill and kidnap in disguise.

"We promise the great martyrs that we will chase the killers and criminals, the terrorists, Saddamists and Takfiri (Sunni extremists) for viciously trying to divide you," Shiite Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, Sunni Parliament speaker Mahmoud al-Mashhadani and Kurdish President Jalal Talabani said in their joint statement on state-run TV.

In addressing "the great martyrs," they were referring to the 215 people who died when suspected Sunni insurgents attacked Sadr City, the capital's main Shiite district, on Thursday.

Al-Maliki also urged his national unity government of Sunnis, Shiites and Kurds to end their public disputes and curb sectarian violence.

"The crisis is political, and it is the politicians who must try to prevent more violence and bloodletting. The terrorist acts are a reflection of the lack of political accord," al-Maliki said.

He is facing strong criticism from top Shiite and Sunni Arab leaders alike as he prepares for a summit in neighboring Jordan with
President Bush on Wednesday and Thursday.

Al-Maliki visited Sadr City on Sunday afternoon and paid condolences to some of the relatives of those killed Thursday in the bombings, but as he drove away at the end of his visit, several teenagers hurled stones at his motorcade, residents said.

The challenges that Bush faces across the region were evident to Jordan's King Abdullah, who said the problems in the Middle East go beyond the war in Iraq and that much of the region soon could become engulfed in violence unless the central issues are addressed quickly.

"We could possibly imagine going into 2007 and having three civil wars on our hands," he said, citing conflicts in Iraq, Lebanon and the decades-long strife between the Palestinians and Israelis.

"Therefore, it is time that we really take a strong step forward as part of the international community and make sure we avert the Middle East from a tremendous crisis that I fear, and I see could possibly happen in 2007," he told ABC's "This Week."

Elsewhere, two U.S. Marines were killed Saturday in Anbar province, the area of western Iraq where many Sunni-insurgent groups are based, raising to at least 2,875 the number of U.S. servicemen who have died since the beginning of the Iraq war in March 2003. So far, 56 American service members have died in November.

In Baghdad, the government partially lifted a 24-hour curfew it had imposed in response to the bombing and mortar attack in Sadr City, and some Iraqis went shopping at vegetable and fruit markets after being confined to their homes for two full days.

"The situation is better today because we can finally get out and buy food for the first time in two days," said Hussein Fadel, a Shiite civil servant, as he shopped in Sadr City, where memorial services were still being held for people killed in Thursday's attack. "I hope the city is less tense today."

A traffic ban remained in place, and the capital's streets were empty of cars and trucks, except those of Iraqi and U.S. security forces. On Saturday, the government lifted a 24-hour curfew that had closed the southern port city of Basra to all vehicular traffic and shipping.

But mortar attacks and shootings continued in Baghdad, killing a total of seven people and wounding seven, police said. A tortured body also was found in the Tigris River.

Two mortar rounds hit a U.S. military post in eastern Baghdad, setting it on fire and leaving a dark cloud of smoke above the Baladiyat neighborhood, police and witnesses said. Lt. Col. Scott Bleichwehl, a U.S. military spokesman, confirmed that "indirect fire rounds" hit the area, but declined to provide details. No casualties were reported.

Adnan al-Dulaimi, Sunni lawmaker who heads a large Sunni bloc in Parliament, also escaped unharmed when gunmen attacked his home in Baghdad and were repelled by his armed guards, the legislator said.

A total of 44 people were killed or found dead in Iraq on Sunday, police said.

An Iraqi security detainee died at a U.S. prison in southern Iraq two days after being taken to a hospital after suffering chest pains, the military said. The detainee, whose name was not given, died Saturday "from what appears to be natural causes" at Camp Bucca near Basra, the military said.

Originally Posted by CharmedPiper

Just for that PAN....I am going to dig up a couple more trivia coincidences just for you....!!!!

Keep em coming.....getting ready for a ride!!!!!!!

I've been traveling for the past week. Am I to understand that there is no info at this moment on a new auction? The last one was the one with only 6 banks participating, right?

Sure hoping to get some fantastic news VERY soon!

But for now.....no new auction???

Caroline

Originally Posted by willie 2

Here goes..........LOPP!!!!!

Ya misspelled it