http://original.antiwar.com/updates/2012/04/19/iraq-carnage-69-killed-176-wounded/
Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta says that the administration is looking to last year’s Libya war as a model for intervention in Syria, but that this depends on being able to secure international support for the attack.
Iraq Carnage: 69 Killed, 176 Wounded
by Margaret Griffis, April 19, 2012
Iraq suffered significant bomb attacks in multiple cities today, leaving at least 69 dead and 176 more wounded. The multiple large-scale attacks were apparently coordinated, took place mostly during a 75-minute span, and focused on security personnel. In stark contrast, recent violence has largely resulted in only one or two deaths at a time.
Hamid Mutlaq, a Sunni member of parliament, blamed Baghdad for the slaughter, noting that Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki’s office has been stoking political tensions in recent weeks and causing several groups to call for an end to Maliki’s budding "dictatorship." Among the most aggrieved parties is Vice President Tareq al-Hashemi who fled to Iraqi Kurdistan. He fears that Maliki’s machinations are tearing the country apart.
The carnage cut short a relatively quiet period for Iraq. According to the Interior Ministry, March saw the lowest death toll since the U.S.-led invasion in 2003. Their figures came up to 112 killed. The deadliest day last month left 63 dead and 257 wounded.
The gravest single attack today took place near Kirkuk in Malhaa/Dibis, where a multiple bomb attack killed nine people and wounded 24 more.
In Baghdad, a bomb targeted Health Minister Majeed Hamad Amin but insteadkilled two bodyguards and wounded six others on Palestine Street. Three people were killed and 20 more were injured in a blast in Kadhimiya. A bomb in Amil killed two construction workers and wounded 18 more. Two people were killed as they allegedly tried to plant a bomb in Ghazaliya. Five civilians were wounded in a Zaafaraniyablast. A judge was assassinated in Saidiya. Two civilians were killed in a blast inHarthiya.
A car bomber exploded his cargo at a Sahwa checkpoint in Samarra, killing five militia members and wounding eight more. Nearby, another bomb killed two people and wounded a Sahwa member. Three policemen were killed in a third but separate blast.
Eight civilians were killed in two separate bombing in Ramadi. As many as 10 others were also wounded.
A suicide bomber in Taji killed five people and wounded nine more. Two more bombskilled a civilian and wounded five others.
Two bombs in Kirkuk itself left four dead and 19 wounded. The police chief from Muqdadiya was among the wounded.
In Mosul, a suicide bomber was killed by security personnel before he could pull off his attack. A blast near a college left two dead and three wounded. A separate blast left three dead and two wounded at a restaurant.
One person was killed and 13 more were wounded in a blast, the first attack in the series, in Baquba.
In Tarmiya, a bomb targeting police killed one civilian and wounded six others, including three policemen.
Four policemen were killed when a roadside bomb exploded near Falluja.
Last night, a bomb in Amiriyat al-Fallujah killed a policeman and wounded another.
Gunmen attacked a checkpoint in Khales, killing one person and wounding three more.
Gunmen stormed a home in Mansouriyat al-Jabal where they killed a Sahwa member.
A car bomb exploded in Dujail, but only killed the driver of the car.
A roadside bomb killed a soldier in Ishaqi.
Gunmen killed a man in Mussayab.
The body of a four-year-old who had been shot was found in Imam Weis.
Six oil policemen were wounded in a blast near Jalawla.
At least five more people were wounded across Diyala province.
A blast in Hawija wounded three soldiers. Gunmen wounded a policeman.
In Kanaan, an I.E.D. blast wounded five people at a stadium.
In Jurf al-Sakhar, three people were wounded when the bomb they were allegedly planting exploded prematurely.
Mortars were launched into Balad and Tikrit, but no casualties were reported.
A car bomb was defused in Mafraq.
and.....
http://news.antiwar.com/2012/04/19/us-pushing-libya-model-for-upcoming-syria-war/
US Pushing ‘Libya Model’ for Upcoming Syria War
Clinton Demands More Sanctions on Syria During Ceasefire
by Jason Ditz, April 19, 2012
One week in, the UN-brokered ceasefire in Syria seems to be holding. That doesn’t mean the Obama Administration can’t dream, however, of a day when the ceasefire collapses and they can use it as an excuse to attack.
Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta says that the administration is looking to last year’s Libya war as a model for intervention in Syria, but that this depends on being able to secure international support for the attack.This is likely to be much more difficult because of Libya, as many in the UN Security Council didn’t realize that an authorization for a no-fly zone in Libya would quickly snowball into a war of regime change. There is no illusion this time, and those opposed to the war have been careful to reject any nebulous language in UN resolutions specifically to prevent the US from starting this war.
Further complicating the “Libya model” is what a disaster Libya is actually turning into, with the rebel factions NATO installed at the end of the war engaging in wholesale human rights violations and fighting one another, seemingly on the verge of a new civil war at any given time.
In the meantime, US officials aren’t waiting for the ceasefire to actually end to escalate the rhetoric, with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton demanding a new round ofsanctions against the Assad regime and a full arms embargo to punish it for “non-compliance” with the ceasefire, even though by all accounts the ceasefire actually is still in effect. Clinton conceded that the resolution is almost certain to be vetoed but as usual didn’t appear to understand why.
and....
http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/breaking-news/taliban-vows-revenge-over-us-soldier-photos/story-e6frf7jx-1226333647228
AFGHANISTAN'S Taliban has condemned photographs of US soldiers posing with the remains of their militants, calling the two-year-old photos "inhuman" and vowing revenge.
The pictures, which date back to 2010 but were published by the LA Timeson today, add to a string of recent scandals that have ignited anti-Western feeling and complicated NATO-US efforts to build towards a 2014 withdrawal.
The Taliban "strongly condemns the brutal and inhuman act by the American invading force and their uncultured slaves", they said.
In some of the pictures Afghan police are also seen posing with mangled remains of the Taliban bombers with their US allies.
"This is what the invading Americans teach to their Afghan slaves," the statement said, referring to the members of the Afghan security forces trained and funded by the US-led troops.
The militant group, which has waged a brutal insurgency since being ousted from power in late 2001, said it would avenge the dead militants.
There are about 130,000 NATO troops, the bulk of them from the United States, in Afghanistan fighting the Taliban.
Similar incidents have in the past led to violent protests by Afghans.
The release in January of video clips online showing US Marines urinating on the bodies of Afghan combatants sparked outrage in Kabul.
That was followed by the inadvertent burning of Korans by US soldiers in mid-February, which triggered anti-US protests that claimed 30 lives and may have motivated a surge of "insider" attacks on NATO troops by Afghan forces.
and...
KABUL: The Pakistan-based Haqqani network was responsible for a series of attacks in Afghanistan this week, the US ambassador to Kabul said Thursday, and Islamabad is being pressed hard to take action against them.
The attacks on Sunday, including the biggest assault on the capital in 10 years of war, saw squads of militants fire on government offices, embassies and foreign bases.
"There is no question in our mind that the Haqqanis were responsible for these attacks," ambassador Ryan Crocker told reporters in Kabul.
"We know where their leadership lives and we know where these plans are made. They're not made in Afghanistan. They're made in Miranshah, which is in North Waziristan, which is in Pakistan," Crocker said.
"We are pressing the Pakistanis very hard on this. They really need to take action."
Islamabad denies any support for Haqqani activities, but former US military chief Admiral Mike Mullen described the network a "veritable arm" of the Pakistan Inter-Services Intelligence agency.
Closely affiliated with the Taliban, the group was founded by Jalaluddin Haqqani during the war against the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan in the 1980s, when it received covert US aid.
Apart from Kabul, the eastern capitals of Paktia, Logar and Nangarhar provinces also came under attack Sunday, with a total of 51 people, including 36 militants, killed.
In September last year, US officials accused the network of a similar attack on the US Embassy in Kabul as well as a truck bombing on a NATO outpost in the same month that injured more than 70 US soldiers.
Washington and Islamabad are in the process of trying to rebuild their fractious relations, in crisis after last year's discovery of Osama bin Laden in Pakistan and a US air raid that mistakenly killed 24 Pakistani soldiers. (AFP)
and...
http://www.e-ariana.com/ariana/eariana.nsf/allDocs/C4E4D945A2710558872579E50058F112?OpenDocument
NATO to offer jobs to Afghan soldiers after 2015
Pajhwok
04/19/2012
By Javid Hamim Kakar
[Printer Friendly Version]
BRUSSELS - NATO special civil representative on Afghanistan Simon Gass on Thursday said they would provide work opportunities for Afghan soldiers who would lose their jobs after Afghanistan downsizes its troops in 2015.
Simon Gass told Pajhwok Afghan News in an exclusive interview, on the sidelines of the NATO members’ defence and foreign ministers meeting on security transition to Afghan forces, in Brussels, Belgium.
He said till end of the current year the number of Afghan security forces would reach approximately 352,000 but it would not be reduced sharply.
He added after 2015 based on the security needs the number of soldiers would be decreased gradually and the process would continue till 2017.
“So far we have reached no decision on the issue. However NATO ministers have debated over the issue but the final result would come out at the Chicago meeting in late May,” said Gass.
He added plans have been mapped out to assist jobless local soldiers then and the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) new mission in Afghanistan would be to advise and train Afghan soldiers.
He added beyond 2014 -- a deadline for foreign troop’s withdrawal -- the international community would provide $4.1 billion yearly to the Afghan security forces, which would only support 230,000 soldiers, adding that the US will contribute the major portion.
Afghanistan will provide $500 million to its soldiers and NATO and ISAF would have to denote $1.3billion, he added.
04/19/2012
By Javid Hamim Kakar
[Printer Friendly Version]
BRUSSELS - NATO special civil representative on Afghanistan Simon Gass on Thursday said they would provide work opportunities for Afghan soldiers who would lose their jobs after Afghanistan downsizes its troops in 2015.
Simon Gass told Pajhwok Afghan News in an exclusive interview, on the sidelines of the NATO members’ defence and foreign ministers meeting on security transition to Afghan forces, in Brussels, Belgium.
He said till end of the current year the number of Afghan security forces would reach approximately 352,000 but it would not be reduced sharply.
He added after 2015 based on the security needs the number of soldiers would be decreased gradually and the process would continue till 2017.
“So far we have reached no decision on the issue. However NATO ministers have debated over the issue but the final result would come out at the Chicago meeting in late May,” said Gass.
He added plans have been mapped out to assist jobless local soldiers then and the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) new mission in Afghanistan would be to advise and train Afghan soldiers.
He added beyond 2014 -- a deadline for foreign troop’s withdrawal -- the international community would provide $4.1 billion yearly to the Afghan security forces, which would only support 230,000 soldiers, adding that the US will contribute the major portion.
Afghanistan will provide $500 million to its soldiers and NATO and ISAF would have to denote $1.3billion, he added.
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