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Associated Press
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Apr 7, 08 8:32 AM CDT
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Muqtada al-Sadr and his loyalists will be banned from upcoming elections if the Mahdi Army doesn't disband, Nouri al-Maliki said today, in his toughest rhetoric yet against the popular cleric. Sadrists say the Iraqi PM has no constitutional power to make that threat, but even if lawmakers succeed in banning parties that operate militias, the backlash could be violent, the AP reports.
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CNN
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Apr 6, 08 5:18 PM CDT
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Battles erupted in Baghdad today as rocket attacks killed three US soldiers and wounded 31, CNN reports. The first strike killed one and wounded 14 at a military outpost; “a couple of rounds of fire” killed two more and wounded 17 in the Green Zone soon after, a military official said. Earlier, US troops fought cleric Muqtada al-Sadr's militia, killing at least 20 and wounding 52 in Baghdad, the AFP reports.
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Newsweek
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Apr 6, 08 1:43 PM CDT
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Women's rights in Iraq are devolving under the rule of US-backed militias, Newsweek reports. These Sahwa or "Awakening" groups have stabilized regions, but rule with medieval laws and customs: In some areas, women are commonly kept at home, forced to wear headscarves, or are married into polygamous relationships, Newsweek reports.
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Washington Post
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Apr 6, 08 1:10 PM CDT
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George Bush and top Iraq commander David Petraeus have a close relationship unusual for wartime presidencies, the Washington Post reports. The president skips over several middlemen, including Defense Secretary Robert Gates, to speak directly and regularly with Petraeus, and has fully deferred to the general on controversial Iraq decisions. But some top officials worry that the views of one man are trumping their own.
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Divorce360.com
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Apr 6, 08 12:40 PM CDT
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Female troops divorce at nearly twice the rate of their male comrades, Divorce360 reports, and the military is stumped as to why. Data from 2006 show male soldiers divorce at a rate of 2.7%—lower than the general population's 3.6%—but that leaps to 7% among women. The rate was high even in peacetime and has risen further during the Iraq war.
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Reuters
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Apr 6, 08 8:30 AM CDT
(Newser) -
Iraqi police and soldiers have freed at least 40 students kidnapped by suspected members of Sunni Islamist al-Qaeda, Reuters reports. The young men had been seized by gunmen near Mosul in northern Iraq who set up a fake checkpoint and stopped two busloads of students returning to classes from a weekend break. One bus managed to escape but students were wounded by gunfire.
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New York Times
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Apr 5, 08 5:56 AM CDT
(Newser) -
A jump in divorce rates since the start of the Iraq war has the Army concerned. Marriages are falling apart as soldiers return home from tours of combat duty emotionally distant and unwilling to discuss their experiences. The military has now launched 'marriage education' retreats to try and repair the damage, the New York Times reports.
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Associated Press
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Apr 5, 08 5:20 AM CDT
(Newser) -
American troops in Iraq and Afghanistan are to have their combat tours cut from 15 months to 12 beginning late this summer. The White House plans a formal announcement next week, an insider told the AP. Tours were lengthened last year to boost troop levels in Iraq, and the Army has warned that the "unsustainable" extended deployments are wearing down its soldiers.
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Associated Press
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Apr 4, 08 7:55 PM CDT
(Newser) -
Washington renewed Blackwater USA's multimillion-dollar contract for another year today pending two probes into the contractor's conduct in Iraq, the AP reports. The FBI is still investigating a Baghdad shooting last year in which Blackwater guards gunned down 17 civilians and sparked outrage among Iraqis; US lawmakers are also probing claims that Blackwater smuggled arms into the country. Blackwater has denied guilt in both cases.
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Reuters
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Apr 4, 08 1:40 PM CDT
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The US will boost the number of its troops committed to NATO's effort in Afghanistan in 2009, President Bush told fellow alliance members at this week's summit, Reuters reports. Defense Secretary Robert Gates related the pledge to reporters as he left the Bucharest summit. He didn’t specify a figure, saying only that it would be a “significant contribution.”
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Associated Press
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Apr 4, 08 9:48 AM CDT
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Nouri al Maliki reversed course today, ordering a stop to raids against suspected Mahdi Army militants. The move is an apparent olive branch to Shiite rival Muqtada al Sadr, who had complained that raids against his militia fighters were continuing, even after he’d ordered them off the streets. Just yesterday, Maliki was calling for raids in both Basra and Sadr City.
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Wall Street Journal
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Apr 4, 08 5:20 AM CDT
(Newser) -
A new, top-secret intelligence report asserts that conditions on the ground in Iraq have markedly improved, reports the Wall Street Journal . Only a select number of House and Senate members have seen the report, but top Democrats are already blasting the document as an effort to bolster the administration's Iraq policy ahead of testimony by Iraq commander Gen. David Petraeus and others next week.
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New York Times
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Apr 4, 08 5:00 AM CDT
(Newser) -
Desertions from Iraqi forces during last week's Basra battles have raised fresh doubts about the effectiveness of the country's US-trained security forces, the New York Times reports. Over 1,000 soldiers and policemen—including dozens of officers—either deserted or refused to fight. The US has linked American troop withdrawals to the readiness of Iraqi forces to take charge.
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New York Times
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Apr 3, 08 6:37 AM CDT
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American officials were expecting a gradual, methodical operation when Nouri al-Maliki moved Iraqi troops into Basra to restore order in the city. What they witnessed instead was a rush job: an Iraqi raid that had little forethought and began even before the last of the soldiers had arrived. "He went in with a stick and he poked a hornet's nest," one coalition official told the New York Times .
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Reuters
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Apr 3, 08 4:25 AM CDT
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Seven years after 9/11, Osama bin Laden is alive and well, according to his deputy. "Sheik Osama bin Laden is in good health. The ill-intentioned always try to circulate false reports about him being sick," said Ayman al-Zawahiri in a 104-minute recording posted on the internet. The comments were in response to questions from the public solicited by web sites linked to al-Qaeda.
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Associated Press
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Apr 2, 08 4:05 PM CDT
(Newser) -
Two journalists seriously injured in Iraq won Peabody Awards today for their stories on wounded veterans, the AP reports. Bob Woodruff of ABC and Kimberly Dozier of CBS each won for their profiles of soldiers returning home from Iraq. Woodruff suffered a brain injury in an IED attack in 2006, and Dozier sustained leg injuries in a car bomb attack the same year.
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Orlando Sentinel
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Apr 2, 08 2:50 PM CDT
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A Jamaican national was arrested after checking a bag at Orlando International Airport that contained the makings of pipe bombs, the Orlando Sentinel reports. The FBI detained Kevin Brown, 32, after a TSA “behavior specialist” spotted him during check-in yesterday. He was charged with attempting to carry an explosive device onto an aircraft; a federal judge denied him bail at a hearing today.
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