Team Infidel
Forum Spin Doctor
New York Times
February 15, 2008
Pg. 8
By Ian Fisher
BAGHDAD — Six members of an Awakening Council, groups composed mostly of Sunni Muslims who have turned against the insurgency, were killed early Thursday after they mistakenly fired on American soldiers in the north, the Iraqi police said.
The American forces fired back, killing them and two women in nearby houses, the police said. A police commander said the group had thought that the Americans were insurgents.
Local American commanders said they could not confirm the episode. But it appeared to underscore the growing danger to Awakening Council members, wedged between United States forces and the insurgent groups many of them once supported, amid a recently begun operation to go after insurgents more aggressively in certain areas.
In recent weeks, Sunni extremists have increasingly aimed their attacks at Awakening Council members, killing at least 33 people in car bombings aimed at the groups this week alone. The American military reported Thursday that it had killed 7 insurgents and arrested 16 in north and central Iraq.
The firefight between American troops and Awakening Council members occurred near the village of Raween in Salahuddin Province, northeast of Baghdad, an area that has remained restive despite a 60 percent decrease in violence in Iraq since last summer, after the United States military increased its troop strength by 30,000 soldiers.
Also on Thursday, nine members of the same family — a couple and their seven children — were found dead, apparently executed, in their house in Auja, 70 miles south of the firefight with Awakening Council members, in the same province. Auja is the hometown of Saddam Hussein. The children ranged in age from 7 to 17 years.
Ragi Ali, 25, the brother of the slain father, Labeeb Ali Khatir, 50, said each family member had been shot with one bullet in the head and another in the stomach. He said a note was left, signed in red by Tawhid Wal Jihad, a group that is part of the Sunni insurgency. The family is distantly related to Mr. Hussein and lives next to the cemetery where he was buried after he was executed in December 2006.
In Baghdad, a suicide bomber blew up a car at midday on Thursday at a busy market in the Shiite neighborhood of Sadr City. Hospital officials said one person was killed, a 13-year-old boy, though the Ministry of Interior said later that as many as four had died and 33 were wounded.
Lt. Gen. Raymond T. Odierno, the United States military’s second in command in Iraq, said Thursday as he was leaving Iraq for a new job in Washington that the recent overall decline in violence was fragile and that the gains needed to be reinforced by political and economic development.
“Security is at such a level now, I believe if you can create jobs, if you can develop an economy, if you can get proper leadership, you’re going to see another significant drop in violence,” he told reporters here after a ceremony in which he handed off his command to Lt. Gen. Lloyd Austin III, commander of the 18th Airborne Corps, based in Fort Bragg, N.C. General Austin has served in Afghanistan and Iraq.
Gen. David A. Petraeus, the top American commander here, praised General Odierno as one of the chief architects of the increase in American troops that the military says has helped bring about the reduction in violence over the last year.
“He recognized the importance of identifying and separating the ‘irreconcilables’ — hard-core Al Qaeda in Iraq — from the ‘reconcilable,’ ” General Petraeus said, referring to Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia, a homegrown Sunni Arab extremist group that American intelligence agencies say is led by foreigners.
General Petraeus said General Odierno, who has been named Army vice chief of staff, understood that “you cannot kill your way out of an insurgency.” While some critics said early in the war that General Odierno, as a brigade commander, had used overly aggressive tactics, he later encouraged the growth of the Awakening groups and a counterinsurgency strategy in which United States soldiers worked more closely with Iraqis.
Iraqi officials said that Iran, without giving any reason, had postponed a series of talks with American officials on improving security in Iraq. The two sides have met three times, most recently in August. The fourth round of talks was scheduled to begin shortly.
Iraq also announced that Iran’s president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, would visit Baghdad on March 2, the first trip from a leader of the Islamic republic. American officials, who accuse Iran of supporting anti-American fighters here, said they wanted to encourage good relations between the nations.
In Washington, Gordon D. Johndroe, a White House spokesman, said, “The fastest way for that to happen is for Iran to stop supporting extremists in Iraq who kill innocent Iraqis and Americans.”
An Iraqi employee of The New York Times contributed reporting from Salahuddin.
February 15, 2008
Pg. 8
By Ian Fisher
BAGHDAD — Six members of an Awakening Council, groups composed mostly of Sunni Muslims who have turned against the insurgency, were killed early Thursday after they mistakenly fired on American soldiers in the north, the Iraqi police said.
The American forces fired back, killing them and two women in nearby houses, the police said. A police commander said the group had thought that the Americans were insurgents.
Local American commanders said they could not confirm the episode. But it appeared to underscore the growing danger to Awakening Council members, wedged between United States forces and the insurgent groups many of them once supported, amid a recently begun operation to go after insurgents more aggressively in certain areas.
In recent weeks, Sunni extremists have increasingly aimed their attacks at Awakening Council members, killing at least 33 people in car bombings aimed at the groups this week alone. The American military reported Thursday that it had killed 7 insurgents and arrested 16 in north and central Iraq.
The firefight between American troops and Awakening Council members occurred near the village of Raween in Salahuddin Province, northeast of Baghdad, an area that has remained restive despite a 60 percent decrease in violence in Iraq since last summer, after the United States military increased its troop strength by 30,000 soldiers.
Also on Thursday, nine members of the same family — a couple and their seven children — were found dead, apparently executed, in their house in Auja, 70 miles south of the firefight with Awakening Council members, in the same province. Auja is the hometown of Saddam Hussein. The children ranged in age from 7 to 17 years.
Ragi Ali, 25, the brother of the slain father, Labeeb Ali Khatir, 50, said each family member had been shot with one bullet in the head and another in the stomach. He said a note was left, signed in red by Tawhid Wal Jihad, a group that is part of the Sunni insurgency. The family is distantly related to Mr. Hussein and lives next to the cemetery where he was buried after he was executed in December 2006.
In Baghdad, a suicide bomber blew up a car at midday on Thursday at a busy market in the Shiite neighborhood of Sadr City. Hospital officials said one person was killed, a 13-year-old boy, though the Ministry of Interior said later that as many as four had died and 33 were wounded.
Lt. Gen. Raymond T. Odierno, the United States military’s second in command in Iraq, said Thursday as he was leaving Iraq for a new job in Washington that the recent overall decline in violence was fragile and that the gains needed to be reinforced by political and economic development.
“Security is at such a level now, I believe if you can create jobs, if you can develop an economy, if you can get proper leadership, you’re going to see another significant drop in violence,” he told reporters here after a ceremony in which he handed off his command to Lt. Gen. Lloyd Austin III, commander of the 18th Airborne Corps, based in Fort Bragg, N.C. General Austin has served in Afghanistan and Iraq.
Gen. David A. Petraeus, the top American commander here, praised General Odierno as one of the chief architects of the increase in American troops that the military says has helped bring about the reduction in violence over the last year.
“He recognized the importance of identifying and separating the ‘irreconcilables’ — hard-core Al Qaeda in Iraq — from the ‘reconcilable,’ ” General Petraeus said, referring to Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia, a homegrown Sunni Arab extremist group that American intelligence agencies say is led by foreigners.
General Petraeus said General Odierno, who has been named Army vice chief of staff, understood that “you cannot kill your way out of an insurgency.” While some critics said early in the war that General Odierno, as a brigade commander, had used overly aggressive tactics, he later encouraged the growth of the Awakening groups and a counterinsurgency strategy in which United States soldiers worked more closely with Iraqis.
Iraqi officials said that Iran, without giving any reason, had postponed a series of talks with American officials on improving security in Iraq. The two sides have met three times, most recently in August. The fourth round of talks was scheduled to begin shortly.
Iraq also announced that Iran’s president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, would visit Baghdad on March 2, the first trip from a leader of the Islamic republic. American officials, who accuse Iran of supporting anti-American fighters here, said they wanted to encourage good relations between the nations.
In Washington, Gordon D. Johndroe, a White House spokesman, said, “The fastest way for that to happen is for Iran to stop supporting extremists in Iraq who kill innocent Iraqis and Americans.”
An Iraqi employee of The New York Times contributed reporting from Salahuddin.