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Cardiff Stop the War Coalition
News from Iraq this
week: March 11th to March 16th
`The Americans have promised us a
better life, but we get only death.`
Ahmed Khalaf
after a US bomb was dropped on his house, killing nine members of his family
and four others, including 6 children on, March 15th .
In solidarity with the people of Iraq struggling under foreign occupation.
Join thousands
around the world
to demonstrate on
Saturday 18 March:
Troops Home From Iraq. Don't Attack Iran
Assemble 12 noon Parliament Square.
March 11th
A truck bomb ripped through a line of cars at a checkpoint in Fallujah
as bombings and shootings across Iraq killed at least 20 people, including a
U.S. Marine. Authorities in Baghdad discovered the
bodies of eight more men: blindfolded, handcuffed and shot in the back of
the head.
March 12th
An SAS soldier has refused to fight in Iraq and has left the Army over
the illegal tactics of United States troops and the policies of coalition
forces. Ben Griffen said he had witnessed `dozens of illegal acts` by US
troops, claiming they viewed all Iraqis as `untermenschen`- the Nazi term
for races regarded as sub-human. He said `I did not join the British Army to
conduct American foreign policy`, adding that he now believed that the Prime
Minister and the Government had repeatedly lied over the war.
March 13th
British businesses have profited by at least £1.1bn since coalition
forces toppled Saddam Hussein three years ago, the first comprehensive
investigation into UK corporate investment in Iraq has found. The company
roll-call of post-war profiteers includes some of the best known names in
Britain's boardrooms as well many who would prefer to remain anonymous. They
come from private security services, banks, PR consultancies, urban planning
consortiums, oil companies, architects offices and energy advisory bodies.
March 14th
Electricity output has dipped to its lowest point in three years, as
summer approaches. The decline of Iraq`s electrical system can be traced
back at least to the 1991 war when U.S. warplanes targeted the grid. The
government rebuilt the system to produce 4,400 megawatts, still short of
demand. But damage from the 2003 invasion, and particularly from looting
that followed, knocked production down to 3,200 megawatts and wrecked
transmission lines. Now the U.S. reconstruction money is running out and the
Iraqis may have to look to Iran to supply their power requirements.
March 15th
American forces have dramatically increased airstrikes in Iraq during
the past five months. The statistics, comfirmed by American Air Force
Officials in the region, show that U.S. and coalition planes dropped bombs
or missiles on Iraqi cities on at least 76 days from Oct. 1, 2005, through
to Feb. 28, 2006, or one out of every two days. This is an increase of more
than 50% over the same period last year. This year, U.S. warplanes have
struck at least 18 cities. Osama Jadaan al Dulaimi, a tribal leader in the
western town of Karabilah, a town near the Syrian border that was hit with
bombs or missiles on at least 17 days between October 2005 and February
2006, said `The people of Karabilah hate the foreigners who crossed the
border and entered their areas and got into a fight with the Americans, the
residents now also hate the American occupiers who demolished their houses
with bombs and killed their families ... and now the people of Karabilah
want to join the resistance against the Americans for what they did.`
March 16th
General John Abizaid, the US
General overseeing operations in Iraq, said that the US may want to keep a
long term military presence in the country to bolster moderates against
extremists in the region and protect oil supplies. Abizaid
also said the
United States
and its allies have a vital interest in the oil-rich region.
`Ultimately it comes down to the free flow of goods and resources on which
the prosperity of our own nation and everybody else in the world depend,` he
said.
STOP PRESS
US launches ‘Operation Swarmer’
with largest air offensive since 2003
********************************
GENERAL Moshe Ya`alon, a former chief of staff of the
Israel Defence Forces, has revealed that Israel could neutralise the Iranian
threat for several years by hitting dozens of targets spread around the
country. General Ya`alon told the Hudson Institute in Washington on Thursday
that the Iranian sites could be struck with greater accuracy than was
achieved by the air force in its frequent `targeted assassinations` of
Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip. A sharp counter-strike against
Israel could be expected, General Ya`alon said, including the launching of
missiles from Iran and action by the Hezbollah militia in Lebanon, who have
been provided by Iran with 12,000 rockets capable of hitting up to 80km
inside Israel.
********************************
Civilians reported killed by military
intervention in Iraq since invasion*:
Minimum: 33638
Maximum: 37754
Total number of US soldiers killed in Iraq
since invasion = 2314
Total number of US soldiers wounded in Iraq
since invasion= 17124
Total number of UK soldiers killed in Iraq
since invasion = 103
Total number of soldiers from other nations
killed since invasion = 103
*This
estimate is only of media reported deaths. A peer reviewed
epidemiological survey (Roberts
et al., The Lancet, Vol 364 Issue 9448 pp 1857 1864) estimated
that in the 18 months following the invasion 100, 000 excess deaths or more
have occurred. Violence accounted for most of the excess deaths and air
strikes from coalition forces accounted for most violent deaths. Criticisms
of IBC methodology can be found at
medialens