Team Infidel
Forum Spin Doctor
USA Today
May 22, 2007
Pg. 6
Bush Places Call To Al-Maliki For Progress Report
By Robert H. Reid, Associated Press
BAGHDAD — Iraq's military is drawing up plans on how to cope in case the U.S. military quickly pulls its forces from the country, the defense minister said Monday.
"The army plans on the basis of a worst-case scenario so as not to allow any security vacuum," Defense Minister Abdul-Qader al-Obeidi said. "There are meetings with political leaders on how we can deal with a sudden pullout."
As violence rages, pressure mounts on Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's government to demonstrate progress on key advances or risk losing American support.
White House spokesman Tony Fratto said President Bush expressed confidence in al-Maliki during a telephone call Monday to the Iraqi leader.
The two talked about political progress in Iraq, and al-Maliki gave Bush updates on two key U.S. demands — oil-sharing legislation and changes to the country's constitution, Fratto said.
Two senior Iraqi officials told the Associated Press that Bush warned al-Maliki that Washington expected to see "tangible results quickly" on the oil bill and other legislation as the price for continued support.
The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren't supposed to release the information.
Also Monday:
•U.S. troops raided militant safe houses south of Baghdad but failed to find three soldiers missing since an ambush May 12 that left four other Americans and an Iraqi dead.
"We've (identified) some safe houses, and we targeted a couple of those today, and they were able to slip away from us. But we're going to come at things from a different angle," Maj. Webster Wright, a U.S. spokesman, said without elaborating. A massive search by thousands of U.S. and Iraqi troops may be forcing the kidnappers to move the three Americans frequently.
•Several mortar shells slammed into the U.S.-controlled Green Zone. One of them struck the Iraqi parliament building, but it caused no casualties.
•At least 58 Iraqis were killed or found dead across the country, including seven people who were ambushed on a bus northeast of Baghdad.
The dead also included 24 men whose bullet-riddled bodies were found across Baghdad — possible victims of sectarian death squads.
•British troops clashed with Shiite gunmen in the southern city of Basra, British military spokeswoman Capt. Katie Brown said. A British soldier and a civilian died. British and Iraqi forces sealed off all roads leading to the center of Basra, Iraq's second-largest city behind Baghdad.
•Shiite political leader Abdul-Aziz al-Hakim, was diagnosed with lung cancer at a hospital in Houston.
Al-Hakim, who left the USA for treatment in Iran, delivered a televised address Monday in which he confirmed he was suffering from a "limited tumor" but expected to return to Iraq soon.
May 22, 2007
Pg. 6
Bush Places Call To Al-Maliki For Progress Report
By Robert H. Reid, Associated Press
BAGHDAD — Iraq's military is drawing up plans on how to cope in case the U.S. military quickly pulls its forces from the country, the defense minister said Monday.
"The army plans on the basis of a worst-case scenario so as not to allow any security vacuum," Defense Minister Abdul-Qader al-Obeidi said. "There are meetings with political leaders on how we can deal with a sudden pullout."
As violence rages, pressure mounts on Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's government to demonstrate progress on key advances or risk losing American support.
White House spokesman Tony Fratto said President Bush expressed confidence in al-Maliki during a telephone call Monday to the Iraqi leader.
The two talked about political progress in Iraq, and al-Maliki gave Bush updates on two key U.S. demands — oil-sharing legislation and changes to the country's constitution, Fratto said.
Two senior Iraqi officials told the Associated Press that Bush warned al-Maliki that Washington expected to see "tangible results quickly" on the oil bill and other legislation as the price for continued support.
The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren't supposed to release the information.
Also Monday:
•U.S. troops raided militant safe houses south of Baghdad but failed to find three soldiers missing since an ambush May 12 that left four other Americans and an Iraqi dead.
"We've (identified) some safe houses, and we targeted a couple of those today, and they were able to slip away from us. But we're going to come at things from a different angle," Maj. Webster Wright, a U.S. spokesman, said without elaborating. A massive search by thousands of U.S. and Iraqi troops may be forcing the kidnappers to move the three Americans frequently.
•Several mortar shells slammed into the U.S.-controlled Green Zone. One of them struck the Iraqi parliament building, but it caused no casualties.
•At least 58 Iraqis were killed or found dead across the country, including seven people who were ambushed on a bus northeast of Baghdad.
The dead also included 24 men whose bullet-riddled bodies were found across Baghdad — possible victims of sectarian death squads.
•British troops clashed with Shiite gunmen in the southern city of Basra, British military spokeswoman Capt. Katie Brown said. A British soldier and a civilian died. British and Iraqi forces sealed off all roads leading to the center of Basra, Iraq's second-largest city behind Baghdad.
•Shiite political leader Abdul-Aziz al-Hakim, was diagnosed with lung cancer at a hospital in Houston.
Al-Hakim, who left the USA for treatment in Iran, delivered a televised address Monday in which he confirmed he was suffering from a "limited tumor" but expected to return to Iraq soon.