1. School damaged in American missile attack on Sadr city.
2. Child being brought to hospital.

The green zone government have admitted that since they launched their attack on the Mahdi Army in an attempt to avoid defeat in the forthcoming elections that at least 925 people have been killed and 2605 wounded.

During the news conference the green zone government spokesman Tahseen al-Sheilhly flat out lied and accused those defending the city against the American assault of:

Denying access to ambulances and vehicles carrying blood for patients.

As our members who live and work in Sadr city confirm this is a flagrant and blatant lie. The armed group preventing preventing ambulances from getting into, out of, and moving around Sadr city are the Americans. The armed group preventing blood supplies, medicines, surgical equipment, and dressings from getting into, Sadr city are the Americans. The armed group preventing doctors from getting into the city so that they go work in the hospitals that employ them are the Americans.

At the news conference U.S. military spokesman Major-General Kevin Bergner whose record of deliberate untruthfulness has been noted here before  said that what he called “Islamic extremist groups” had killed  40 civilians and wounded 370 in the last few weeks in Baghdad by indiscriminately launching missiles particularly from Sadr City and adjacent areas. There was nothing indiscriminate about those missile attacks. They were launched from Sadr city at the green zone where the headquarters of the American attempts to subjugate Irak is located. The quisling green zone government headed by Nouri al-Maliki is also headquartered in the green zone. Not even slightly indiscriminate - they were trying to kill American invaders.

Saba Ali Ihsaan,
Baghdad,
Irak

English Summary:

The GZG have announced in the green zone parliament that they intend reintroducing conscription.

Commentary:

This is an excellent idea. What Irak really needs  is yet more badly trained, badly led, badly paid, and badly armed men running around the place. Sadly they haven’t said when they intend performing this stroke of genius or the exact details of the “law”. It’s most likely a kite flying exercise which is a pity as introducing it would give the resistance a massive boost in support and a good supply of partially trained fighters for them to do a proper job of training with.

Text of the declaration:

Based upon our responsibilities under the law [shariah] and for the sparing of Iraki blood and for the protection of the reputability of the Iraqi people, and for their unity both in terms of people and in terms of territory, and in preparation for its independence and liberation from the armies of oppression; and in order to put out the fires of fitna which the occupier and his followers wish to keep burning between Iraki brothers, we call upon the beloved Iraki people to measure up to their responsibility and their cognisance of law in sparing bloodshed and preserving peace in Irak, and its stability and independence.

The following is resolved:

1. Ending armed manifestations in Basra governorate and all the other governorates.
2. Ending of attacks and illegal arbitrary detentions.
3. Demand that the government apply the law on general amnesty, and release all prisoners who have not had charges confirmed against them, in particular prisoners belonging to the Sadrist current.
4. We announce that we will repudiate those who carry weapons and target the government and service agencies and institutions, or the offices of political parties.
5. Cooperation with government agencies to bring about security and to charge criminals, according to due process of law.
6. We reassert that the Sadrist movement does not possess heavy weapons.
7. Efforts [meaningful efforts are to be made] for the return to their residential areas of those who were forced out as a result of security incidents.
8. We demand respect for human rights by the government in all of its security activities.
9. Working [meaningful efforts are to be made] towards the realisation of development and service projects in all governorates.

The first thing that must be said is that these are exactly the same demands that al-Sadr has been making for months. He reiterated them again when the fighting started. Maliki has been forced to accept every single one of them. I wonder how he managed to delude himself that the spectacularly misnamed “Saulat al-Forsan” (Charge of the Knights) would succeed.

Basrah is the country’s economic lung and the Mahdi army, the Badr Brigade, and Virtue (Fadhila) party all have a heavily armed presence there. Politically it is arguable whether it is the Virtue party or the Sadrists who are likely to do best in the forthcoming elections both are likely to do very well indeed, the SIIC is unlikely to do well, they will be lucky if the retain and significant presence.

The Mahdi Army was well-prepared:

The Mahdi army took the lessons of recent events to heart. Since the fighting in Karbala followed by further recent operations to reduce if not eliminate, their presence the Mahdi army have been digging in and preparing a defense in depth in Basrah. They plainly also planned to interdict the arrival of reinforcements for GZG troops once the fighting which everyone could see was coming got underway. They succeeded in their goals:

• They successfully prevented attempt after attempt after attempt to retake the Qurnah bridge.
• Far from being dislodged from their strongholds they successfully carried out a very difficult military operation — a tactical retreat under heavy fire to ready prepared defensive positions.
• They successfully counter-attacked repeatedly.

During several of those counter-attacks they captured and/or destroyed heavy weaponry from GZG forces they also on several occasions cut off and then destroyed attacking forces.

We can now confirm that in regard to al Taminmiyah the reports from residents in this earlier posting “Other residents report that GZG troops attempted an incursion and are now trapped there are similar reports from Zubair and al-Ashar“turns out to have been no more than the truth and that the same is true of Zubair and al-Ashar.

The GZG defense minister admitted that his forces were unprepared either for the ferocity with which the Mahdi army fought or for the sophistication of much of their weaponry. Nor were they prepared for the combination of a simple refusal to fight by many of the soldiers coupled with wholesale defections.

That was not all they were unprepared for. The South erupted. That is a dramatic way of saying that the Mahdi Army successfully opened a number of new fronts in the fighting, Nasiriya, Karbala, Hilla, Diwaniyah, and Kut all saw very fierce fighting. Apart from the benefit to its fighters in Basrah there was the added benefit of reducing the pressure on its fighters in Karbala. They successfully seized Kut - they remain in control of that city for the moment, and in Nasiriyah, Dawa’s heartland, they not only seized ground they laid siege to the governor in his palace and the large number of GZG troops who were protecting him. Every time those troops tried to effect a breakout they were easily beaten back. Desperate negotiations ensued before the final Mahdi army assault, and the governor remains alive, and under siege, - for now.

As to what happens next on these secondary fronts it is hard to tell. My guess, and it is no more than an educated guess, is that the Mahdi army will gradually cede partial control of Kut and the other cities once the local GZG authorities demonstrate good faith. The problem of course lies in those two words “good faith” - at no point have Dawa and SIIC ever done so and I find it difficult to believe GZG officials loyal to those parties will do so now. I hope to be proved wrong in this but I am not optimistic. The fact that operations by GZG forces are continuing in several places including in Basrah makes me even less optimistic.

Let us get back to what we know instead of guesswork. It is clear that the GZG was also unprepared for the ferocity of the fight back in Baghdad. The Mahdi army not only were not dislodged they succeeded in gaining territory and will not lightly give it up. A measure of how desperate the situation was the GZG in Baghdad can be found in the fact that they had to massively reinforce Karrada and prevent all access to Kazhimiya. They had to get the Americans to help them besiege Sadr city. They lost badly in al-Shula. Baghdad did not see the wholesale defections of Basrah but there were enough of them including among elite units - army and police, to make the GZG military leadership very doubtful of their men.

Another measure of GZG desperation is that they used peshmerga forces in Basrah (and in Baghdad). I find it hard to find the words to describe how thoroughly hated the Peshmerga regiments have made themselves in the central and southern governorates. They see themselves as entitled to exact every piece of revenge they possibly can at every possible opportunity and do so. This may be understandable but it is very bad tactics.

What happens next? I do not know. But on past performance we can expect a lot of chest thumping from the GZG and from the Americans. We can also expect a lot of “incidents” of varying severity from the GZG side - probing attacks in other words.

What of Maliki - the man whose arrogance and disastrous lack of judgement has drastically weakened the GZG. What will happen to him?

Who cares …

Saba Ali Ihsaan,
Baghdad,
Irak

قال عضو لجنة الثقافة والاعلام في مجلس النواب حميد معلة ان النشيد الوطني سيتم تغييره خلال الفصل التشريعي المقبل لمجلس النواب.
واشار في تصريح صحفي الى ان موضوع النشيد الوطني سيطرح بجدية من قبل لجنة الثقافة في البرلمان لايجاد القانون الخاص بتشريعه لافتا الى ان مسألة تغيير النشيد الوطني ليست مسألة ذوقية او اختيارية بل هي مسألة قانونية ودستورية والدستور يفرض ايجاد نشيد وطني جديد للعراق.

It seemed that rebellion must have an unassailable base, something guarded not merely from attack, but from the fear of it: such a base as we had in the Red Sea Parts, the desert, or in the minds of the men we converted to our creed. It must have a sophisticated alien enemy, in the form of a disciplined army of occupation too small to fulfil the doctrine of acreage: too few to adjust number to space, in order to dominate the whole area effectively from fortified posts. It must have a friendly population, not actively friendly, but sympathetic to the point of not betraying rebel movements to the enemy. Rebellions can be made by 2 per cent. active in a striking force, and 98 per cent. passively sympathetic. The few active rebels must have the qualities of speed and endurance, ubiquity and independence of arteries of supply. They must have the technical equipment to destroy or paralyse the enemy’s organized communications, for irregular war is fairly Willisen’s definition of strategy, “the study of communication” in its extreme degree, of attack where the enemy is not. In fifty words: Granted mobility, security (in the form of denying targets to the enemy), time, and doctrine (the idea to convert every subject to friendliness), victory will rest with the insurgents, for the algebraical factors are in the end decisive, and against them perfections of means and spirit struggle quite in vain.

Source: “THE EVOLUTION OF A REVOLT” BY T. E. LAWRENCE (LATE LIEUT.-COLONEL GENERAL STAFF, E.E.F.)

48 hours and a press conference.

48 hours in the fields arround their village with a gunfight still going, none of the promised soldiers, no food, no water, followed by a press conference by the local collaborators and their American overlords saying how wonderful progress was.

During that 48 hours more than 500 people were left unprotected, without food, without water, without shelter, they couldn’t return to their homes because based on previous experience they knew that those homes would be booby trapped with bombs.

48 hours and a press conference.

Who did turn up - at considerable risk to themselves were the local Red Crescent. They managed to get some food and water to the people and then managed to somehow find space in the refugee camp in Sadr City for the 90 people in most desperate need. There are still more than 400 who dare not return to their homes and are sleeping in the fields surrounding their village.

Saba Ali

This early report from the independent Iraki newsagency Aswat Al Iraq (Voices of Iraq) gave initial casualties as 6 dead and 16 wounded.

However later reports from Reuters say that at least eight people were killed and 40 wounded in the attack on a police outpost in a residential neighbourhood in Baiji, police said. Reuters attribution text for this photo quotes an eyewitness who said it was a suicide car bomb attack.

As the posting هجوم إنتحاري يستهدف منزل ضابط كبير في بيجي ويخلف 44 قتيلاً وجريحاً immediately below makes clear the "police outpost" was in fact the home of Ali al-Juburi, a green zone government "counter terrorism officer" in Salah ad Din (Governorate) it confirms that the attack was a suicide car bomb attack and says that Colonel al-Juburi was one of those wounded by the bomb.

The photo is by Sabah al-Bazee of Reuters.

Saba Ali

8 people including 2 green zone government policemen were killed by a bomb in the Diyala Bridge district in Southern Baghdad. 
The bomb was in the  Diyala Bridge area of the capital and led to the killing of 8 and the wounding of 13, including two police officers.

It was placed in a garbage sack close to a busy restaurant and timed for a time when there would be many commuters arriving or departing from the South. The location is also a departure point for those who want to get to the centre of the capital. Earlier this week Jisr Diyala saw another such bombing recently targeting day labourers who had gathered to seek work very close to the scent of this bombing. 

Other developments:

• 16 rockets were fired at the American base in Diwaniyah.
• Green zone government security forces detained a leader of Sadr’s office in Diwaniyah (there is a campaign against the Mahdi Army in Samawah.)
• The green zone government claim calm has returned to Basrah with little loss of life and property — this "news" comes as a considerable surprise to Gorilla’s Guides team members living there.

Reuters reports:

• BAGHDAD - U.S. forces said they killed two Shi’ite militiamen, including one wearing a suicide vest, during a raid north of Baghdad to capture a rogue leader of cleric Moqtada al-Sadr’s Mehdi Army.
• SALAHUDDIN PROVINCE - One U.S. soldier was killed by small arms fire during operations in Salahuddin province north of Baghdad, on Thursday, the U.S. military said.
• SUWAYRA - Two bodies with gunshot wounds and signs of torture were recoverd from the Tigris River in Suwayra, 60 km (40 miles) south of Baghdad, police said.
• KUT - Gunmen killed a policeman in a drive by-shooting in central Kut, 170 km (100 miles) southeast of Baghdad, police said.

السبت 27/10/2007

8 شهداء جراء انفجار عبوة ناسفة في منطقة جسر ديالى

انفجرت عبوة ناسفة في منطقة جسر ديالى التابعة للمدائن أدت الى استشهاد 8 وجرح 13 من ضمنهم 2 من افراد الشرطة .

"عبوة ناسفة كانت موضوعة داخل كيس للقمامة قرب مطعم شعبي في منطقة جسر ديالى جنوبي بغداد انفجرت، ظهر السبت، ما أدى إلى مقتل ثمانية اشخاص واصابة 13 آخرين بينهم عدد من أفراد الشرطة كانوا داخل المطعم."

التي وقع فيها الانفجار ازدحاما يوميا للمارة والمسافرين.. حيث تحولت هذه المنطقة الى مايشبه محطة او كراج لتجمع سيارات وباصات نقل المسافرين القادمين من المناطق الجنوبية والذين يرومون الوصول الى مركز بغداد.…

امنيا  ايضا وفي محافظة الناصرية اطلق عدد من صواريخ الكاتيوشا على القاعدة الهولندية في المحافظة ولم تتوفر نتيجة الخسائر من جراء ذلك فيما اطلق 16 صاروخا على القاعدة الامريكية في الديوانية تبعها  تحليقا مكثفا للطيران الامريكي في اجواء المدينة .

على الصعيد ذاته اعتقلت القوات الامنية احد عناصر مكتب الشهيد الصدر في الديوانية  فيما القي القبض على قيادي في جيش المهدي في محافظة السماوة .

هذا وقد عاد الهدوء الى محافظة البصرة بعد يوم من انتشار المسلحين في المحافظة دون حدوث خسائر تذكر في الارواح والممتلكات .

بغداد - قالت القوات الامريكية انها قتلت اثنين من أعضاء الميليشيات الشيعية أحدهما يرتدي سترة ملغومة خلال غارة شمالي بغداد للقبض على زعيم من جيش المهدي التابع لرجل الدين الشيعي مقتدى الصدر.

محافظة صلاح الدين - أعلن الجيش الامريكي مقتل أحد جنوده بنيران أسلحة صغيرة خلال عمليات في محافظة صلاح الدين شمالي بغداد يوم الخميس.

الصويرة - ذكرت الشرطة العراقية أنه تم انتشال جثتين عليهما اثار أعيرة نارية وتعذيب من نهر دجلة في الصويرة الواقعة على بعد 60 كيلومترا جنوبي بغداد.

الكوت - قالت الشرطة ان مسلحين قتلوا رجل شرطة في اطلاق للنيران من سيارة مارة في وسط الكوت الواقعة على بعد 170 كيلومترا جنوب شرقي بغداد.

.

A constant theme here is that if you want to know what the Americans are really like and why we Irakis both despise and hate them is because of their unthinking racism. It screams from every sentence of that posting. Nowhere does the author pause even for a millisecond to reflect upon his country’s victims there is a quick mention a hasty bow in the direction of the American need to assuage their conscience and that is it. Here in Irak we view things differently.

The American “surge” as with everything else they have done is a failure. It’s the American way. It makes no difference to me as an Iraki whether you are one of the “nice” racists who call themselves “Democrats” or one of the nasty ones who call themselves “Republicans”. All I care about is that your country has its troops in my land raping its people, raping its resources, slaughtering our children, and defiling our Holy Places. The puppet government that rode in behind American tanks cannot pass the laws their American masters so desperately desire passed and is close to collapse. Now would be a good time to “make nice”. But that is not the American way either. Not when sand niggers are involved. The Americans in Irak are reflecting their culture. Racist, callow, shallow, and seemingly unable read a map, it’s just that they are a little more honest, a little bit more openly barbaric about it.

There is only one measure of progress that matters in Irak and that is the progress in chewing the invader forces into pieces and then spitting them out. Progress on that is excellent.

They came here as predators and now they are prey. The only thing an American understands is force, we sand niggers know a thing or two about that.

Saba Ali Ihsaan,
Baghdad,
Irak

• Ramadi
• Hit
• Kubaysah
• Haditha
• Fallujah

are without electricity for the third (fourth I have just checked) consecutive day because of the bombing of three towers for transmission of electricity. This means they are also without water as the purification plants depend on outside electricity supplies.

The pylons were bombed on Monday morning. Two were repaired but the third could not be repaired until now because of the presence of explosive devices under the third tower which needed to be removed before repairs could start. 

Kubaysah cement plant (208 km west of Baghdad) has also stopped production.

In related news according to Gorilla’s Guides team members in Karbala, Karbala governorate is also still without electricity.

Source for Anbar electricity story : اصوات العراق - خمس مدن فى الانبار بلا كهرباء لليوم الثالث

Saba Ali