Gorilla’s Guides

Incidents In Irak May 17th 2007 Summarised From Arabic

American And Green Zone Government Troops Attack Fallujah Hospital

Doctors, nurses, administrators, and all other staff in Fallujah hospital have gone on indefinite strike after the second episode in as many months in which the American controlled, directed, trained, and financed, green zone forces and police in Fallujah supported by American troops violently stormed the hospital, severely beat staff, and destroyed equipment and supplies. 

The strike was called as the result of an attack on members of the rescue crews by green zone forces and green zone police. The police and militia beat the doctors and staff, smashed doors and windows and destroyed quantities of  hospital supplies.

Accroding to the young doctor in the hospital who alerted the news agency to this latest attack the attackers:

“justified their attacks on the pretext that hospital staff treated the gunmen inside it”

(Medical staff have been repeatedly the target of such attacks and he declined to give his name.)

Previously all Red Crescent workers in Fallujah had ceased operations in Fallujah because of repeated such attacks upon them.

On May 1st there was a similar attack on Naaman hospital in Adhamiya Baghdad,  - the same Adhamiya that the Americans have walled off. During that episode all patients, except for three in the intensive care unit who were too desperately ill to be unhooked from their respirators, were ejected from the hospital onto the street, sometimes violently, and snipers were posted on the roof.

Today’s attack follows the pattern set during the initial assault of Fallujah, the bombing of the field clinic in AL-Qaim, the storming and occupation of the hospital in Haditha, to name but three similar attacks on medical facilities and personnel.

Readers familiar with the behaviour of American troops under the command of Generals Petraeus and Odierno during their previous tours of duty in Irak will be doubtless be as unsurpised as I am that this vicious, criminal, and ugly pattern of activity has reestablished itself.

markfromireland

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Taji Attack

The American invasion forces in Irak have admitted that one of their helicopters was destroyed on the ground and nine others were damaged in Sunday’s missile/artillery attack on Camp Taji, north of Baghdad. This is the first time they have confirmed such losses.

Commentary:

This attack isn’t particularly important in and of itself. It is however an important indicator of the increasing loss of control of the terrain by American forces and should be take in context with other recent attacks. The report says:

This is the first time for the U.S. army to announce the destruction of some of its helicopters, which were landed at one of its bases, as a result of a missile or artillery attack since the U.S.-led invasion in March 2003.

Losing a number of military aircraft during the past few months, U.S. military officials have started to consider the possibility of a change in the types of arms used by Iraqi armed groups against the U.S troops.

(emphasis added)

The U.S: invasion forces in Irak have consistently underestimated their opponents skill and numbers. This attack like the recent mortar attacks on the green zone indicate a considerable level of technical skill on the part of the attackers. The skill comes from the fact that they are by now very experienced and well-trained - indeed many of them were that to start off with. They have been given the time and opportunity to enchance those skills and pass them on to others.

• You don’t need to change armaments when what you have is working and working well. Doing so is likely to be counterproductiive.

  some examples:

• All you need to shoot down a helicopter is for it to be within range and a very slightly adapted RPG.
• All you need for a well planned and executred bridge demolition is access to the bridge over a period of time.
• All you need for a well executed series of time on target barrages of the green zone is the time to set them up. Mortars are primarily an area denial weapon and that’s what they’re being used as.
• All you need for a well executed mortar barrage on Taji is the time to set it up and calibrate your weapons.
• All you need to blow up American armour is technology that’s been well understood literally for centuries.
• All you need to overrun a patrol and capture some of its members is the time to set up the attack and the knowledge that your target won’t be able to call in timely assistance.

Technically adept commanders keep it simple and don’t introduce complicated new weaponry in the midst of battle. What American troops are facing is a highly skilled and flexible set of foes commanded by techically adept and flexible commanders who are operating in a target rich environment against an overstretched, out-thought, and increasingly out-fought invasion force. 

That these attacks are increasing in scale, frequency, complexity, and size is an indication not of new weaponry but rather of an increasingly experienced and confident set of foes.

Hassan Abu Omar, Hussein Al-Bayati, markfromireland, Saba Ali. 

Further Reports:

The green zone government interior ministry has pubished an order for the licensing of fire arms. Citizens are required to register at any police station of Interior ministry office between May 30th 2007 and August 30th 2007 after that period unregistered arms are subject to confiscation and their owners to prosecution. There are also provisions for civil servants and protection personnel to be licensed. The measure is bein introduced as part of Fard Qanoon.

(Maybe, just maybe, that “law” passed by Bremer mandating the possession of firearms in every Iraki home was a seriously fucking stupid idea from a seriously fucking stupid self-styled “terrorism expert” (and boot fetishist) who ran what has to be one of the most corrupt and inept regimes ever seen anywhere and who is now busy trying to cash in on his time in Irak by running an anti-terrorsim commercial consultancy - markfromireland) 

The green zone government has agreed with Iran to start laying oil pipelinea between the two countries to export Iraki oil to the Iranian refineries in Abadan. Capacity is to be more than 200.000 barrels per day of Iraki crude oil to Iran. (The agreeement is on terms highly favourable to Iran as Iraki capacity was decimated first by the American invasion and then by the complete failiure of the invasion forces to protect the country’s oil infrastructure while simultaneously handing out large no-bid contracts to American firms such as Haliburton with strong connctions to American vice-president Cheney.)

Kirkuk:

Turkoman and Arab tribes have rejected the application of Article (140) in Kirkuk.

The body of Emad Ahmed Sharif was discovered near Kirkuk, three abductees were found and freed from a cave in the Hamrin mountains.

Six car bombs exploded yesterday evening in various parts of the city of Mosul at least 4 green zone government policemen were killed, at least 14 green zone government police were woulded, at least 16 civilians were wounded. At least 15 gunmen were killed in the fighting that broke out yesterday in the city. The city is still under curfew and local reports say that a massive operation is underway. The local green zone government police forces deputy commander Brigadier Mohammad Abdul Aziz al-Wakaa has claimed in a statement that 300 fighters have been detained during this sweep. There are still no indications of who bombed the Badoush bridge.

Yasser Jabr President of the Municipal District of Diyala escaped death this morning in an assasination attempt as he was being driven to work from his home in Zafaraniyah his driver was seriously wounded.

In Basrah an armed group kidnapped two women from their home in the north of the city, the joint coordination center in the centre of the city came under sustained attack by fighters armend with light weapons again today. Abdul Karim Kadim Matshar a major in the Interior ministry police was shot dead along with his two sons in Al-Zubair district of (30 km west of the city).

The bombing in Amarah of council offices caused no casualties. Four gunmen attacked a police patrol in central Amarah, two attackers were seriously wounded the other two were captured three members of the patrol were wounded during the clash.

Najaf:

The situation in Najaf continues to deteriorate rapidly:

• This mornings bombing in Najaf near the Al-Husseinwaste disiposal point (2 km north of the city) seriously injured a cleaner who was clearing a waster container, he died later of his wounds in hospital. The other 2 people who was wounded in this bombing are not seriously wounded and were sent from hospital.
• There was a  bombing yesterday 40Km west of Najaf yesterday.
• Also this moring several unidentified bodies were found on the Najaf - Karbala road.
• Last Sunday’s bombing killed 4 green zone government police.
• There have been protests in Najaf, Karbala, and Kufa, at the ineffectiveness of the SIIC dominated security services. Also the local authorities have not paid many of the police.

Dhi Qar:

Eleven were killed and seventy others wounded in the fighting that flared up between SIIC(SCIRI) dominated police forces and Sadrist fighters in al-Nassiriyah . An uneasy truce now prevails following a peace agreement negotiated by clerics led by Ayatollah al-Yaqubi, tribal chiefs, and political figures in the city who initiated efforts to contain the crisis and settle the dispute. (Ayatollah al-Yaqubi is the spiritual leader of the Fadhila party. - markfromireland)  The main heads of the truce agreement are:

• The police forces are the only body responsible for security in the city.
• The police withdraw from Sadrist office in Nassiriyah.
• No further armed appearances (rallys) in the city.
• Jaish al Mahdi agree not to carry arms on the city streets.

(Readers will note the similarity to the other truce agreements such as the one in Diwaniyah which markfromireland wrote about here on Tuesday, September 19, 2006 see also: December 23rd News From Iraq Translated and Summarised From Arabic by the late Laith Abu Mohammed, For Once I Believe General Casey (Diwaniyah Update) and “If fighting erupts again, and this is very likely, we will have a very bad situation” - Hussein Al-Bayati)
Maliki has “vowed to act strictly” in the matter following a meeting of The Political Council for National Security.  ( The council consists of Irak’s president, the premier, the speaker of the parliament, the two vice presidents, the premier’s two deputies, president of the  Kurdistan region, the head of the supreme court and heads of the parliamentarian blocs.)

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Brigadier Najib Abdullah Alehyale, director of the joint operations room at the Diyala police command survived a determined assassination attempt against his convoy in Baquba this afternoon one of his bodyguards was wounded. There has been a noticeable increase in the numbers of bodys found recently.

Late breaking news:

• 11 people wounded 2 killed mortar attacks Baghdad. Police patrol attacked 2 patrol members killed one wounded.
• Colonel Faraj al-Maliki died of his wounds shortly after being shot at his home in Gaza, Amarah Maysan’s capital this evening.
• 30 bodies were recovered in Baghdad today 25 of them from various parts of al-Karkh.
• The American base at Rustumiyyah came under mortar attack this evening.
• An armed group wearing Iraqi army uniforms abducted 12 civilians on the Kirkuk-Baghdad road north-east of Baquba.
• Gunmen set fire to two homes of families who had fled Al Ba’iaa, Baghdad, threatening to shoot neighbours who approached to extinguish the flames.
• The armed robbery in Baqubah today is now known to have have netted one billion Iraqi dinars.
• Three bodys one of them of a woman were recovered in Baqubah. A hospital employee was shot. 
• An electrical engineer working in Basrah university was shot as he left work this evening.

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Joint posting prepared by:

Hassan Abu Omar, Hussein Al-Bayati, markfromireland, Saba Ali. 

Indexed under: Al Anbar (Governorate), Amarah, Baqubah, Basrah, Bombings, Briefings, Death Squads, Disputed Areas, Fallujah, Follow Up, Haditha, Jaish al-Mahdi, Joint Postings, Karbala, Kirkuk, Kirkuk (At-Ta'mim) Governorate, Mahdi, Mahdi Army, Maysan (Governorate), Militia, Mosul, Najaf, Ninawa (Governorate)