Team Infidel
Forum Spin Doctor
Media: The Associated Press
Byline: By CHRISTOPHER BODEEN
Date: 17 October 2006
BAGHDAD, Iraq_U.S. troops joined Iraqi forces and police Tuesday in
patrolling the city of Balad, where a surge in sectarian fighting has killed
at least 91 people.
American and Iraqi officials said the violence in the city 50 miles north of
Baghdad has eased but not stopped.
Unidentified gunmen in police uniforms hijacked 13 civilian cars and
abducted their occupants at a checkpoint outside Balad on Monday night after
the post had shut down for the night, an officer at the Salahuddin
provincial police headquarters said.
He said those abducted were taken to another neighborhood nearby, but there
was no further word on their fate. The officer spoke only on condition of
anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to media.
By Tuesday morning, the U.S. military said American forces had responded to
Iraqi requests to back up security forces in the town, which lies near a
major U.S. air base an hour's drive north of the capital. As the violence
had raged over the weekend, the American military initially said it had not
been asked for help.
"By coordinating all of our efforts, we have seen a marked decrease in
violence in the past 24 hours," said Lt. Col. Jeffery Martindale, commander
of 1st Battalion, 8th Infantry Regiment, 4th Infantry Division. He said U.S.
forces were also firing back at insurgents launching mortar attacks on
civilians in the area.
Martindale also said U.S. troops detained a pair of Iraqi police officers in
the neighboring Sunni town of Duluiyah. The men were suspected of being
involved in the slaying of 17 Shiite Muslim workers last week that sparked a
wave of revenge killings by Shiite militiamen, Martindale said.
That announcement reflects claims that local security forces have aided both
sides in the sectarian fighting. Sunnis fleeing Balad across the Tigris
River to Duluiyah said Shiite police in the city had teamed up with death
squads who killed at least 74 Sunnis.
Hadi al-Amiri, the head of the Iraqi parliament's security committee, said
Balad was being blockaded to prevent more fighters from entering.
"There are still painful incidents in there," said al-Amiri, a key member of
the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution, Iraq's main Shiite religious
party.
Iraq's Shiite-dominated Interior Ministry said removed two officers in
charge of commando units as part of its restructuring plan of the national
police force.
Brig. Abdul-Karim Khalaf, the ministry's spokesman, said the two officers _
Maj. Gen. Rashid Filah and Maj. Gen. Mahdi Sabbih _ were transferred from
their posts but denied their removal was a demotion or had anything to do
with widespread allegations that police commandos were involved in some of
the violence directed against Sunni Arabs.
"The leadership of the national police was changed to restructure the
Interior Ministry," said Khalaf, flanked by Filah and Sabbih in business
suits, rather than the camouflage fatigues associated with Iraq's police
commandos.
Across Iraq, bombings and shootings killed at least 32 people, including 10
who died in shootings in the southern, predominantly Shiite city of Basra,
340 miles southeast of Baghdad.
Among those killed by gunmen in both police and civilian vehicles were four
students outside the city's university and a well-known doctor who was
leaving her house for work, said a Basra police captain speaking on
condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals.
In Karmah, 50 miles west of Baghdad, a roadside bomb killed five Iraqi
soldiers as their convoy passed through the town, police Lt. Ahmed Ali said.
Gunmen stormed into the house of a Shiite family in Balad Ruz, 45 miles
northeast of Baghdad before dawn Tuesday, killing the mother and four adult
sons and injuring the father, provincial police official Khalil Yacoub said.
Iraqi deaths also are running at a high rate. According to an Associated
Press count, 708 Iraqis have been reported killed in war-related violence
this month, or more than 44 a day, compared with a daily average of more
than 27 since the AP began tracking deaths in April 2005.
Byline: By CHRISTOPHER BODEEN
Date: 17 October 2006
BAGHDAD, Iraq_U.S. troops joined Iraqi forces and police Tuesday in
patrolling the city of Balad, where a surge in sectarian fighting has killed
at least 91 people.
American and Iraqi officials said the violence in the city 50 miles north of
Baghdad has eased but not stopped.
Unidentified gunmen in police uniforms hijacked 13 civilian cars and
abducted their occupants at a checkpoint outside Balad on Monday night after
the post had shut down for the night, an officer at the Salahuddin
provincial police headquarters said.
He said those abducted were taken to another neighborhood nearby, but there
was no further word on their fate. The officer spoke only on condition of
anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to media.
By Tuesday morning, the U.S. military said American forces had responded to
Iraqi requests to back up security forces in the town, which lies near a
major U.S. air base an hour's drive north of the capital. As the violence
had raged over the weekend, the American military initially said it had not
been asked for help.
"By coordinating all of our efforts, we have seen a marked decrease in
violence in the past 24 hours," said Lt. Col. Jeffery Martindale, commander
of 1st Battalion, 8th Infantry Regiment, 4th Infantry Division. He said U.S.
forces were also firing back at insurgents launching mortar attacks on
civilians in the area.
Martindale also said U.S. troops detained a pair of Iraqi police officers in
the neighboring Sunni town of Duluiyah. The men were suspected of being
involved in the slaying of 17 Shiite Muslim workers last week that sparked a
wave of revenge killings by Shiite militiamen, Martindale said.
That announcement reflects claims that local security forces have aided both
sides in the sectarian fighting. Sunnis fleeing Balad across the Tigris
River to Duluiyah said Shiite police in the city had teamed up with death
squads who killed at least 74 Sunnis.
Hadi al-Amiri, the head of the Iraqi parliament's security committee, said
Balad was being blockaded to prevent more fighters from entering.
"There are still painful incidents in there," said al-Amiri, a key member of
the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution, Iraq's main Shiite religious
party.
Iraq's Shiite-dominated Interior Ministry said removed two officers in
charge of commando units as part of its restructuring plan of the national
police force.
Brig. Abdul-Karim Khalaf, the ministry's spokesman, said the two officers _
Maj. Gen. Rashid Filah and Maj. Gen. Mahdi Sabbih _ were transferred from
their posts but denied their removal was a demotion or had anything to do
with widespread allegations that police commandos were involved in some of
the violence directed against Sunni Arabs.
"The leadership of the national police was changed to restructure the
Interior Ministry," said Khalaf, flanked by Filah and Sabbih in business
suits, rather than the camouflage fatigues associated with Iraq's police
commandos.
Across Iraq, bombings and shootings killed at least 32 people, including 10
who died in shootings in the southern, predominantly Shiite city of Basra,
340 miles southeast of Baghdad.
Among those killed by gunmen in both police and civilian vehicles were four
students outside the city's university and a well-known doctor who was
leaving her house for work, said a Basra police captain speaking on
condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals.
In Karmah, 50 miles west of Baghdad, a roadside bomb killed five Iraqi
soldiers as their convoy passed through the town, police Lt. Ahmed Ali said.
Gunmen stormed into the house of a Shiite family in Balad Ruz, 45 miles
northeast of Baghdad before dawn Tuesday, killing the mother and four adult
sons and injuring the father, provincial police official Khalil Yacoub said.
Iraqi deaths also are running at a high rate. According to an Associated
Press count, 708 Iraqis have been reported killed in war-related violence
this month, or more than 44 a day, compared with a daily average of more
than 27 since the AP began tracking deaths in April 2005.