Mini Mini Battlefield Digest: Iraq, Week 46

notes:

Army reports mortar attacks are way down, confirming the speculation here about overall number of attacks on coalition forces based on wounded figures.

Lots of roadside bombs going off.

Targeted violence is hardly low: policemen, academics, and all aspects of reconciliation and leadership.

The scheduled pullout of troops is coming from the North, which is surprising, as that seems to be where a great deal of the violence today is centered, rather than Baghdad.

Developments in the Blackwater investigation may further throw the security situation into question, causing concern for the volunteers that allowed the State Department to delayed its directed assignments tactic.

Battlefield News, Iraq

Political Developments and Major Campaign Resource Shifts

• WaPo: The U.S. effort to organize nearly 70,000 local fighters to solidify security gains in Iraq is facing severe political and logistical challenges as U.S.-led forces struggle to manage the recruits and the central government resists... -Monday, November 12, 2007
• Roggio: Al Qaeda killed a tribal leader in the Diyala Awakening movement and two others in a suicide attack north of Khalis. -Friday, November 9, 2007
• Roggio: Over 340 Karbala police were fired. A Sadrist leader was detained in Diwaniyah. -Sunday, November 11, 2007
• AAP: The head of police intelligence in Iraq's Karbala province has been detained after roadside bombs and other weapons were found in a raid on his house, a police spokesman said on Sunday. -Sunday, November 11, 2007
• Xinhua: Unidentified gunmen shot dead a member of the provincial council of Nineveh in the provincial capital of Mosul on Tuesday, a police source said. "Aref Yousif Qunber, the Nineveh council member and chairman of the council's culture..." -Tuesday, November 6, 2007
• Guardian: Four Turkish soldiers were killed in clashes with Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) guerrillas yesterday and Turkey sent hundreds of anti-terrorism special forces to the troubled region bordering Iraq. -Tuesday, November 13, 2007
• NPR: Sunni tribal leaders from Iraq's Anbar province, who have joined the fight against al-Qaida, are demanding greater recognition and support from the Shiite-dominated government in Baghdad. -Tuesday, November 13, 2007
• MCT: The U.S. government is ''unforgivably slow'' in resettling Iraqi refugees and has failed to coordinate with its Arab allies to address the suffering of an estimated 4.5 million displaced Iraqis, according to a report released Tuesday... -Tuesday, November 13, 2007
• Reuters: The U.S. military is sending 3,000 soldiers home from Diyala province, the second large unit to leave Iraq -Tuesday, November 13, 2007
• AFP: A top parliamentarian from radical Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr's political bloc on Tuesday called for the dissolution of Iraq's parliament and the holding of fresh legislative elections. -Tuesday, November 13, 2007
• LATimes: Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki on Sunday prodded U.S. officials to hand over three former aides of Saddam Hussein who have been condemned for their role in a campaign that killed as many as 180,000 Kurds. -Monday, November 12, 2007
• WaPo: During an address in which he described the changes in Iraqi security as "remarkable" and pronounced the country "revived," Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki on Sunday announced his latest push for an amnesty program for insurgents... -Monday, November 12, 2007
• Reuters: The quantity of Iranian bomb-making components being found in Iraq is increasing despite a fall in attacks and 20 Iranian-trained agents are still operating south of Baghdad, a top U.S. general said on Sunday. -Sunday, November 11, 2007

COIN: Actions, Reactions, Counteractions, etc.

• AP: Rocket and mortar attacks in Iraq have decreased to their lowest levels in more than 21 months, the U.S. military said Monday. -Monday, November 12, 2007
• NYTimes: [Police Academy barracks barely functional] More than a year after the Parsons Corporation, the American contracting giant, promised Congress that it would fix the disastrous plumbing and shoddy construction in barracks the company built at the Baghdad police academy... -Tuesday, November 6, 2007
• KUNA: A case of cholera has been identified at Dar El-Hanan (care house) for the Severely Handicapped, but no deaths have resulted, said the Health Ministry's General Inspector Dr. Adel Mohsen on Wednesday. -Wednesday, November 14, 2007
• CBS4: According to a recent CBS4 I-team investigation, tens of thousands of weapons, paid for by the U S government are missing, weapons that were supposed to go to Iraq but are now unaccounted for. -Tuesday, November 13, 2007
• AP: [Intimidation feeds flight] The Shiite militia's threat came in a typed letter tossed at Mohammed Abdul-Wahab's door: "Leave this house within 48 hours or you will face death." -Tuesday, November 6, 2007
• NYTimes: Federal agents investigating the Sept. 16 episode in which Blackwater security personnel shot and killed 17 Iraqi civilians have found that at least 14 of the shootings were unjustified and violated deadly-force rules in effect for security contractors... -Wednesday, November 14, 2007
• AP: The State Department says enough diplomats have volunteered for transfer to the U.S. Embassy in Iraq to let it delay the act of forcing people to serve in the combat zone. -Tuesday, November 13, 2007
• NPR: For several years, doctors have been concerned that many of the troops returning from Iraq suffer mental-health problems but are not seeking help. When soldiers return from the war in Iraq, it often takes several months for mental health... -Tuesday, November 13, 2007

VIOLENCE: Tactical Developments

• MCT: In this desolate tiny town in what was once called the Triangle of Death, signs of the violent past mix oddly with evidence of today's more tranquil life. -Tuesday, November 13, 2007
• MCT: Sgt. Brian Kerrigan...Command Sgt. Maj. Jeffrey Du...are among hundreds of soldiers from the 3rd Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division, just now back from 15 months in Iraq, who are dealing with what has been called the signature injury of the Iraq war [mild traumatic brain injury]-Monday, November 12, 2007
• dailymail: A young soldier was so traumatised by the prospect of his first Iraqi posting, he took an overdose which killed him. Private Jason Chelsea couldn't come to terms with the thought that he might have to "shoot children" carrying suicide bombs. -Wednesday, November 14, 2007
• AFP: A roadside bomb attack targetting a US patrol near Baghdad's heavily fortified Green Zone killed two Iraqi civilians and wounded three on Wednesday, security officials said. -Wednesday, November 14, 2007
• Reuters: Two policemen were killed and two others were wounded by a roadside bomb on Monday in Mussayab, 60 km (35 miles) south of Baghdad, police said. -Tuesday, November 13, 2007
• Reuters: A roadside bomb killed four Iraqi soldiers and wounded seven others in an attack on their patrol west of Baquba, 65 km (40 miles) north of Baghdad, the Iraqi army said. -Tuesday, November 13, 2007
• Reuters: A roadside bomb wounded three policemen and five people when it targeted a police patrol in the al Masbah neighbourhood, in central Baghdad, police said. -Tuesday, November 13, 2007
• IRIN: Male gynaecologists are being targeted by Islamic extremists in Iraq as they are accused of invading the privacy of women. Women's NGOs have raised concerns as there are few women gynaecologists in the country and their male counterparts... -Tuesday, November 13, 2007
• MCT: Iraqi police said an American military convoy killed Khalaf Hussein and his wife Safra Ibraheem as he was approaching the convoy on a main road west of Kirkuk yesterday. The US military said the shooting was related to convoy operation... -Monday, November 12, 2007
• MCT: Gunmen burned two houses in Al Zubair, 35 kilometers west of Basra, near a Sunni mosque yesterday. Iraqi police said the gunmen didn' target the mosque but they were angry tribal men seeking for revenge from the owners as they accused... -Monday, November 12, 2007
• Xinhua: Iraqi soldiers fought gunmen near the town of Tal Afar in Nineveh province early on Monday, killing four gunmen and detaining two others, a military source said. -Monday, November 12, 2007
• newsobserver: Patty Desens wanted to shake the men in uniform standing in her living room. She wanted to tell them no, you're wrong. Instead, she pushed past them and out onto the back deck, where she clutched the railing and screamed her son's name... -Monday, November 12, 2007
• MCT: the governor of Mosul , Dureed Kashmoola and the general brigadier Wathiq Al-Hamadni , the chief in command of Mosul police , survived from two assassination attempts by two roadside bombs , one in the forest area and the second one was few minutes... -Sunday, November 11, 2007
• AP: An American soldier has been acquitted of murder charges in the deaths of three Iraqis but was convicted of lesser charges, the U.S. military said Sunday. -Sunday, November 11, 2007
• Reuters: U.S. and Iraqi forces have detained more than 200 suspected insurgents and three "high-value" al Qaeda operatives in a major operation in northern Iraq, the U.S. military said on Sunday. -Sunday, November 11, 2007
• Reuters: Gunmen fired 12 missiles at Camp Echo, which houses Polish, U.S. and other coalition forces, in Diwaniya...the soldiers returned fire with six rockets or mortars that landed in Nahdha district. The local hospital said one person was killed... -Sunday, November 11, 2007

Economic Developments, Reconstruction, and General Good News

[this space purposely left blank because of lack of de-classified, systematic data]

• UPI: A former employee of a Tennessee defense company is accused of sleeping with an Air Force contracting officer to secure Iraq contracts. Eric W. Barton, who worked for EOD Technology Inc., which won at least $2.5 million in Iraq contracts... -Monday, November 12, 2007