United Nations Food Aid Intended for 750,000 Palestinian Refugees in Gaza Blocked by Israel

On Wednesday Israel pledged to allow minimum shipments of fuel and 33 truckloads of food into Gaza.On Thursday the ritualistic behavioral Israeli government changed their mind set, the pledge to ease its blockade of the Gaza Strip. Read more

Satellite images show ethnic cleanout in Iraq

Satellite images taken at night show heavily Sunni Arab neighborhoods of Baghdad began emptying before a U.S. troop surge in 2007, graphic evidence of ethnic cleansing that preceded a drop in violence, according to a report published on Friday.

The images support the view of international refugee organizations and Iraq experts that a major population shift was a key factor in the decline in sectarian violence, particularly in the Iraqi capital, the epicenter of the bloodletting in which hundreds of thousands were killed.

Minority Sunni Arabs were driven out of many neighborhoods by Shi’ite militants enraged by the bombing of the Samarra mosque in February 2006. The bombing, blamed on the Sunni militant group al Qaeda, sparked a wave of sectarian violence.

“By the launch of the surge, many of the targets of conflict had either been killed or fled the country, and they turned off the lights when they left,” geography professor John Agnew of the University of California Los Angeles, who led the study, said in a statement.

“Essentially, our interpretation is that violence has declined in Baghdad because of intercommunal violence that reached a climax as the surge was beginning,” said Agnew, who studies ethnic conflict.

Some 2 million Iraqis are displaced within Iraq, while 2 million more have sought refuge in neighboring Syria and Jordan. Previously religiously mixed neighborhoods of Baghdad became homogenized Sunni or Shi’ite Muslim enclaves.

The study, published in the journal Environment and Planning A, provides more evidence of ethnic conflict in Iraq, which peaked just before U.S. President George W. Bush ordered the deployment of about 30,000 extra U.S. troops.

The extent to which the troop build-up helped halt Iraq’s slide into sectarian civil war has been debated, particularly in the United States, with supporters of the surge saying it was the main contributing factor, and others arguing it was simply one of a number of factors.

“Our findings suggest that the surge has had no observable effect, except insofar as it has helped to provide a seal of approval for a process of ethno-sectarian neighborhood homogenization that is now largely achieved,” Agnew’s team wrote in their report.

Agnew’s team used publicly available infrared night imagery from a weather satellite operated by the U.S. Air Force.

“The overall night light signature of Baghdad since the U.S. invasion appears to have increased between 2003 and 2006 and then declined dramatically from 20 March 2006 through 16 December 2007,” their report said.

They said the night lights of Shi’ite-dominated Sadr City remained constant, as did lights in the Green Zone government and diplomatic compound in central Baghdad. Lights increased in the eastern New Baghdad district, another Shi’ite enclave.

Satellite studies have also been used to help document forced relocations in Myanmar and ethnic cleansing in Uganda.

Latest US Drone Strike in North Waziristan Kills at Least 14

Pakistan’s military has confirmed that at about 5:30 AM this morning a US drone struck a home and a former government school near the North Waziristan town of Miramshah. The strike killed at least 14 people and injured 12 others.

Residents said the shuttered school had been occupied by militants but the home reportedly belonged to local tribesman named Yousaf Khan Wazir, who had no apparent ties to the militants. Among those killed in the strike were Wazir and at least six women and children.

This is the second US strike this week near Miramshah. On Monday, US drones attacked a religious school in the same area, killing at least 23 people. And while Pakistan’s military has taken a strong stance against ground forces operating in the tribal regions, they have largely chosen to ignore strikes by unmanned US drones.

It also comes at a time when US-Pakistan tensions are rising over the a reported secret July directive by President Bush which allowed the use of ground forces in Pakistan. The directive was brought to attention after an attack last week involving US ground troops in South Waziristan killed 20 civilians. According to both US and Pakistani officials, the Bush directive came entirely without approval from either Pakistan’s military or its government.

The US strikes have outraged many of the tribesman living in the the border region, and led yesterday to Wazir tribesmen in South Waziristan Agency threatening to pull out of a long-standing peace agreement unless the government does something to prevent future attacks. It also sparked a warning from retired Pakistan General Hamid Gul, who said “Instead of solving the problem it has only exacerbated it. If those people in those areas were not part of the Taliban forces before these strikes they will be now”.

Antiwar | Jason Ditz | Friday, September 12, 2008

At Least 23 Killed as US Drones Attack School in North Waziristan

This morning two US Predator Drones attacked a small village two miles north of Miramshah in Pakistan’s North Waziristan Agency, killing at least 23 and wounding 20 others. Ten of those killed were said by officials to be militants, although a previous official was quoted as saying “no foreign militant was killed” in the strike. At least four women and two children were reported among the dead and most of the wounded are also reported to be women and children.

The attack centered on a religious school founded by Jalaluddin Haqqani, a religious scholar and veteran commander of the US-backed mujahideen who fought against the Soviet Union’s invasion of Afghanistan. Haqqani is well-connected in both militant and government circles, having been accused of ties with both al-Qaeda and Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence by US officials.

Haqqani has recently been accused of a role in the bombing of India’s embassy in Kabul, and was also allegedly linked to an assassination attempt earlier this year against Afghan President Hamid Karzai. Incredibly enough, the United States attempted to install Haqqani as Prime Minister of Afghanistan, a position which he refused citing the number of Afghans killed in the 2001 invasion. Haqqani was reportedly in Afghanistan at the time of the attack.

The strike comes just days after an earlier US drone strike on another village not far from Miramshah, but on the Afghan side of the mountainous border, killed at least five civilians. It also comes less than a week after US ground troops killed 20 civilians in an attack on a village in South Waziristan, an action which led to widespread condemnation from Pakistan’s government and military, as well as anti-US protests among the tribesmen in the area. Pakistan’s government recently cut off supply lines to NATO troops in Afghanistan though there was some disagreement, even within the Pakistani government, whether this was in retaliation for last week’s South Waziristan attack. So far the only comment came from Pakistan’s military, who admitted the incident had occurred and said it was investigating the cause.

Antiwar | Monday, September 8, 2008

US-led forces alleged involved in Pakistan attack

US-led forces alleged involved in Pakistan attack; at least 15 said killed

At least 15 people, including women and children, were killed in an attack involving U.S.-led forces in a remote Pakistani village near the border with Afghanistan, intelligence officials and a witness said Wednesday.

The U.S.-led coalition in Afghanistan said it had no report of such an incursion, said to have happened in the militant-infested South Waziristan tribal region. Pakistan’s army confirmed an attack but did not specify if it believed foreign troops were involved.

The U.S. and Pakistan, allies in the war on terror, have had tensions over cross-border attacks, including suspected American missile strikes in Pakistani territory. In one high-profile incident earlier this year, Pakistan said 11 of its soldiers died when U.S. aircraft bombed their border post.

Habib Khan Wazir, an area resident, said the latest incident happened before dawn, shortly after an American helicopter landed in the village of Musa Nikow in South Waziristan.

He said as the owner of a home nearby came outside with his wife, the “American and Afghan soldiers starting firing.”

Khan said later the troops entered the house and killed seven other people, including women and children. He said the troops also killed six other residents.

Two local intelligence officials confirmed the account on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to media. One official said 19 people died.

The U.S. embassy in Islamabad declined to comment.

Maj. Murad Khan, a spokesman for Pakistan’s army, said it could confirm an attack on a house near the Pakistan-Afghan border.

“We are collecting details,” Khan said, without specifying if Americans were involved.

American officials say Pakistan’s tribal regions along the Afghan border have turned into havens for al-Qaida and Taliban-linked militants involved in attacks on U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan. South Waziristan is the base for Pakistan’s top Taliban leader, Baitullah Mehsud.

The U.S. has pushed Pakistan to crack down on the militancy inside its territory, and there have been debates in Washington over how far the U.S. can go in carrying out its own strikes.

U.S. rules of engagement allow ground forces to go a few miles into Pakistan when in “hot pursuit” and when forces were targeted or fired on by the enemy. U.S. rules also allow aircraft to go several miles into Pakistan air space.

AP | ISHTIAQ MAHSUD | Tuesday, September 02, 2008

U.S. and NATO Forces Kill 13 Afghans in Strikes Said to Be Mistakes

KABUL, Afghanistan - United States and NATO missile and mortar strikes continued to exact a heavy toll on Afghans over the weekend, killing at least 13 in two attacks that Afghan officials said were mistakes.

In addition, one NATO soldier was killed in the eastern province of Khost on Sunday. Although NATO did not give the nationality of the soldier, United States forces are deployed in Khost.

Nine Afghan police officers were killed Sunday and five others were wounded in western Afghanistan when a convoy of Afghan and United States forces called in airstrikes on the officers, thinking they were militants. A presidential spokesman, Homayun Hamidzada, said the strikes were a case of unintended fire on allies.

At least four people were killed in the other episode when two mortar shells fired by the NATO-led force in Afghanistan went astray.

The United States military said it was beginning an investigation into the first episode, in Farah Province. The Afghan and United States forces were attacked by an unknown group during operations in Ana Darreh district, a statement issued from Bagram Air Base said. The allied forces returned fire and then called in airstrikes on the group attacking them.

The district’s police chief was among those badly wounded, the deputy provincial governor said, according to Agence France-Presse.

In the second episode, a NATO statement said, at least four civilians were accidentally killed and four other civilians wounded in mortar strikes by the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force in the eastern province of Paktika. The deaths of an additional three people had not been confirmed, the statement said.

The strikes occurred Saturday night at Barmal, on the border with Pakistan in an area where militants frequently cross from Pakistan’s tribal regions.

The wounded civilians were taken to a NATO base and were evacuated by helicopter to a medical facility, the statement said, adding: “ISAF deeply regrets this accident, and an investigation as to the exact circumstances of this tragic event is now under way.”

The latest casualties came as Senator Barack Obama, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, was on his first visit to Afghanistan with a Congressional delegation.

The humanitarian organization Oxfam used the opportunity to warn against the growing human cost of the war. “The security situation in Afghanistan has deteriorated, with an alarming increase in civilian casualties,” it said in a statement on Sunday. “All parties to the conflict must do everything possible to avoid causing harm to civilians.”

The statement also said that unless the next American president “builds on the existing commitments to help lift the Afghan people out of extreme poverty and protect civilians, it will be impossible for the country to achieve lasting peace.”

Oxfam urged the United States government to stop spending aid money on expensive foreign contractors and instead to find more creative and sustainable ways to help Afghans directly, especially in rural development.

Afghan governors and ministers who met Mr. Obama for dinner on Saturday night asked that financing be directed through the government so it could build up its own institutions, said Arsala Jamal, the governor of Khost.

When Mr. Obama asked what Mr. Jamal needed most for his province, the governor said that the entire border region had no paved roads, but needed them.

In Kabul, American lawyers working on the cases of Afghans detained at Bagram Air Base called on the United States government to end the legal “black hole” of hundreds being held by American forces in Afghanistan.

The lawyers, from the International Justice Network, cited the case of Jawed Ahmad, an Afghan journalist detained for about nine months at Bagram with some 650 other Afghans.

None of the detainees have been charged and none are allowed lawyers, according to the lawyers, Tina M. Foster, the director of the organization, and Barbara Olshansky, a human rights professor at Stanford University.

NYT | CARLOTTA GALL | Monday, July 21, 2008

US Bombing Kills Dozens of Afghan Civilians

There are conflicting reports of civilian casualties in a US-led military operation in west Afghanistan.

Nato forces say two Taleban commanders were killed in Herat province. One of them is a leading tribal elder.

Local tribal elders claim dozens of people, including civilians, also died in the American attack.

Earlier, US forces admitted killing eight civilians in a neighbouring province - the latest in a series of bombing incidents involving civilians.

‘Prisoners’

The first reports of the operation in Herat province came from tribal elders who claimed huge numbers of people had been killed or injured in a US-led attack from midnight until mid-morning in Shindand district.

They said a high-profile tribal leader had died and houses had been destroyed.

There were also unconfirmed reports of demonstrations in the Zerkoh valley, a fiercely independent tribal area where US forces have clashed with local fighters before.

But Nato put out a statement saying that the coalition and Afghan security forces had conducted a successful operation against high priority Taleban targets.

They confirmed a significant number of insurgents had been killed, including Haji Nasrullah Khan, who they described as a Taleban leader.

He is an important tribal elder and last year when US forces were accused of killing civilians in the same area, President Karzai sat alongside him at a shura, or public meeting, and passed on his condolences for those killed or injured.

A spokesman for the Nato-led International Security Assistance Force (Isaf) said they had no evidence of civilian casualties or accidental damage and added that more than a dozen men were found handcuffed and imprisoned in appalling conditions in one of the compounds.

There have been reports in Shindand of smuggling and links between the tribes and the Taleban but Haji Nasrullah Khan was well connected and his death could see President Karzai coming under pressure from tribal allies to whom he was linked.

The different accounts and the complexities of Afghan tribal structures show how confusing the line is between those considered insurgents or Taleban and powerful local leaders, particularly when it comes to the issue of reconciliation and trying to encourage those opposed to the government to switch sides.

‘Air support’

Earlier, US forces said they had killed eight civilians in neighbouring Farah province after they were attacked from a number of houses in Bakwa district.

Their statement said a routine patrol came under sustained attack from machine-gun fire on Tuesday from houses adjacent to the road.

“The coalition returned fire and called for close air support on the enemy positions,” the statement said.

“A house was hit - eight civilians were killed, two others injured. Coalition forces never intentionally target non-combatants, and deeply regret any occurrence such as this where civilians are killed and injured as a result of insurgent activity and actions.”

The issue of civilian casualties has again come up as there have been a number of incidents over the last couple of weeks.

On Thursday President Hamid Karzai visited families of those killed in the eastern province of Nangarhar who had reported that more than 50 people from a wedding party died after being bombed by American aircraft.

President Karzai offered them his condolences and some financial assistance.

BBC | Alastair Leithead | Thursday, July 17, 2008

Turkish General Issues Warning on Bill

ISTANBUL, Turkey (AP) - Turkey’s top general warned that ties with the U.S., already strained by attacks from rebels hiding in Iraq, will be irreversibly damaged if Congress passes a resolution that labels the World War I-era killings of Armenians a genocide.Turkey, which is a major cargo hub for U.S. and allied military forces in Iraq and Afghanistan, has recalled its ambassador to Washington for consultations and warned that there might be a cut in the logistical support to the U.S. over the issue.

“If this resolution passed in the committee passes the House as well, our military ties with the U.S. will never be the same again,” Gen. Yasar Buyukanit told the daily Milliyet newspaper.

Despite the general’s strong words, it is not clear how far Turkey will go to express its dismay to Washington.

Turkey suspended its military ties with France last year after the French parliament’s lower house adopted a bill that that would have made it a crime to deny that the Armenian killings constituted a genocide.

But there is more at stake for NATO’s only Muslim member when it comes to its relations with the U.S. The Turkish military, and especially the air force, is heavily dependent on the American defense industry, experts say.

Still, when Washington imposed an arms embargo against Turkey in 1975 due to a dispute over Cyprus, Turkey ended all its logistical support to U.S. troops and sharing of intelligence until the embargo was lifted, said Onur Oymen, the country’s former permanent representative to NATO.

President Bush has said the resolution is the wrong response to the Armenian deaths, but House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said the measure’s timing was important “because many of the survivors are very old.”

In an interview broadcast Sunday with ABC’s “This Week,” Pelosi noted that the resolution would make the U.S. the 24th country to label the killings a genocide.

Rep. John Boehner, R-Ohio, said the measure was “irresponsible.”

“Listen, there’s no question that the suffering of the Armenian people some 90 years ago was extreme. But what happened 90 years ago ought to be a subject for historians to sort out, not politicians here in Washington,” he told “Fox News Sunday.”

About 70 percent of U.S. air cargo headed for Iraq goes through Turkey as does about one-third of the fuel used by the U.S. military there. Turkish truckers also carry water and other supplied to U.S. bases.

In addition, cargo planes fly supplies to U.S. soldiers in remote areas of Iraq from Incirlik, avoiding the use of Iraqi roads vulnerable to bomb attacks. U.S. officials say the arrangement helps reduce American casualties.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has “urged restraint” from Turkey and sent two officials to Ankara in an apparent attempt to ease fury over the measure, which could be voted on by the House by the end of the year.

At issue in the resolution is the killing of up to 1.5 million Armenians by Ottoman Turks. Many international historians contend the deaths amounted to genocide, but Turkey says the mass killings and deportations were not systematic and that many Turkish Muslims also died in the chaos of war.

The congressional resolution comes as the Turkish parliament debates authorizing a military campaign into northern Iraq to root out rebels who seek a unified, independent nation for Kurds in the region.

U.S. officials have urged Turkey not to send troops and appealed for a diplomatic solution with Iraq. The Kurdish region in northern Iraq is one of the country’s few relatively stable areas, and the Kurds here are also a longtime U.S. ally.

A Kurdish rebel commander on Saturday said Turkey would face a long and bloody conflict if it launched a large-scale offensive in northern Iraq.

Speaking to The Associated Press deep in the Qandil mountains straddling the Iraq-Turkish border, some 94 miles from the northern Iraqi Kurdish city of Sulaimaniyah, Murat Karayilan, head of the armed wing of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, warned that an eventual Turkish incursion would “make Turkey experience a Vietnam war.”

The PKK has been fighting for autonomy in southeast Turkey since 1984. The conflict has claimed tens of thousands of lives. Turkey says the rebels use Iraqi Kurdish territory as a safe haven. Iraqi and Kurdish authorities reject the claim.

___

Associated Press writer Yahya Barzanji in Iraq’s Qandil Mountains contributed to this report.

(This version CORRECTS that Turkey says many Turkish Muslims, not non- Kurds died in the war.)

AP | C. Onur Ant | Sunday, October 14, 2007

FACTBOX: Report says Blackwater Iraq shootings at 1.4 per week

(Reuters) - Blackwater, the embattled U.S. security contractor, defended itself in Congress on Tuesday over “escalation of force” incidents in Iraq that a congressional report said equal 1.4 shootings per week.The report prepared by Democratic staff of the House of Representatives Committee on Oversight and Government Reform said Blackwater has been involved in 195 shooting incidents since 2005 and shot first 84 percent of the time despite a contract agreement to use force only in defense.

The report said Blackwater usually does not remain at the scene to determine if there are casualties. But Blackwater’s own incident reports still record 16 Iraqi casualties and 162 instances of property damage, mainly to Iraqi vehicles.

Blackwater activities came under intense scrutiny in Washington after a September 16 shooting killed 11 Iraqi civilians, wounded 14 and initially prompted the Iraqi government to revoke the company’s license.

Following are five other incidents listed in the Democratic report from the committee chaired by U.S. Rep. Henry Waxman of California.

* June 2005, a Blackwater team killed an Iraqi man with a shot to the chest. The victim’s brothers reported to the State Department that the father of six was killed as an innocent bystander. An internal State Department document said the Blackwater personnel who fired the shots initially failed to report the shooting and sought to cover it up.

* October 2005, a Blackwater team protecting a motorcade in Mosul encountered a vehicle that appeared to be turning into the motorcade’s path. When the driver did not heed warnings to stop, a Blackwater gunner released “a burst of fire” that apparently disabled the vehicle. A civilian nearby was hit in the head by a bullet. Blackwater continued on without stopping but reported the incident as a probable killing. An ambulance was sent to the scene.

* November 2005, a Blackwater motorcade collided with 18 vehicles during a round trip journey. Written statements from team members were determined by Blackwater to be “invalid, inaccurate, and at best, dishonest reporting.” According to a Blackwater contractor who was on the mission, the tactical commander “openly admitted giving clear direction to the primary driver to conduct these acts of random negligence for no apparent reason.” Two employees were fired as a result.

* September 2006, a Blackwater team with four vehicles was driving on the wrong side of the road in a maneuver called “counter flowing.” The driver of an Iraqi car heading toward the Blackwater team lost control while trying to avoid them. The car swerved, skidded into a Blackwater vehicle, crashed into a telephone pole and caught fire. The Blackwater team collected people and sensitive equipment from its own disabled vehicle and left the scene without trying to assist the occupants of the Iraqi vehicle, which Blackwater described as “a ball of flames.”

* Christmas Eve 2006, a drunken Blackwater contractor killed a security guard for Iraqi Vice President Adel Abdul-Mahdi. The State Department allowed the contractor to leave Iraq within 36 hours. The U.S. embassy’s charge d’affaires recommended that Blackwater apologize to the dead man’s family and pay them $250,000. But the State Department’s Diplomatic Security Service said the sum was too high and could cause Iraqis to “try to get killed.” In the end, Blackwater agreed on a $15,000 payment.

Reuters | Tuesday, October 2, 2007

Iraqis: Video shows Blackwater fired 1st

Official in Baghdad says U.S. contractors were responsible for 11 deaths

Saturday, September 22, 2007

AP

BAGHDAD - Iraqi investigators have a videotape that shows Blackwater USA guards opened fire against civilians without provocation in an incident last week in which 11 people died, a senior Iraqi official said Saturday. He said the case had been referred to the Iraqi judiciary.

Iraq’s president, meanwhile, demanded that the Americans release an Iranian arrested this week on suspicion of smuggling weapons to Shiite militias. The demand adds new strains to U.S.-Iraqi relations only days before a meeting between President Bush and Iraq’s Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki.

Interior Ministry spokesman Maj. Gen. Abdul-Karim Khalaf said Iraqi authorities had completed an investigation into the Sept. 20 shooting in Nisoor Square in western Baghdad and concluded that Blackwater guards were responsible for the deaths. Read more

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