Text 25295, 140 rader
Skriven 2006-11-19 22:15:00 av Jeff Binkley (1:226/600)
Ärende: Iraq
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First we have the terrorists and now Syria both sounding like the democrats...

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http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,230558,00.html

Syrian Foreign Minister Calls for U.S. Withdrawal Timetable as 112 Die in Iraq
Sunday, November 19, 2006

 BAGHDAD, Iraq    Syria's foreign minister called for a timetable for the
withdrawal of American forces to help end Iraq's sectarian bloodbath, in a
groundbreaking diplomatic mission to Iraq that comes amid increasing calls for
the U.S. to seek cooperation from Syria and Iran. At least 112 people were
killed nationwide, following a week that had already seen hundreds of deaths.

Walid Moallem, the highest level Syrian official to visit since the 2003 ouster
of Saddam Hussein, on Sunday denounced terrorism in Iraq even as Washington
mulled its own overture to Damascus for help in ending Iraq's violence.

Syria and Iraq share a long and porous desert border and both Baghdad and
Washington have accused Damascus of not doing enough to stop the flow of
foreign Arab fighters.

Moallem spoke at the end of a day that saw suspected Sunni Muslim bombers kill
at least 33 Shiites and the kidnapping of a deputy health minister  believed
the senior-most government official abducted in Iraq. Many Sunni attackers are
believed to have infiltrated from Syria.

A suicide bomber in the predominantly Shiite city of Hillah south of Baghdad
lured men to his KIA minivan with promises of a day's work as laborers, then
blew it up, killing at least 22 and wounding 44, police said.

Babil province police Capt. Muthana Khalid said three suspected terrorists, two
Egyptians and an Iraqi, were arrested on suspicion of planning the suicide
attack with the bomber, a Syrian.

Within hours, a roadside bomb and two car bombs exploded one after another near
a bus station in Mashtal, a mostly Shiite area of southeastern Baghdad, killing
11 and wounding 51, police said.

Besides the victims of the bombings in Hillah and Baghdad, at least 23 other
people were killed nationwide. In addition, the bodies of 56 murder victims,
many of them tortured, were dumped in three Iraqi cities, 45 of them in Baghdad
alone.

Also Sunday, gunmen kidnapped Iraq's deputy health minister from his home in
northern Baghdad, the Iraqi army and police reported. They said the gunmen wore
police uniforms and arrived in seven vehicles to abduct Ammar al-Saffar, a
Shiite.

Al-Saffar was snatched nearly a week after dozens of suspected Shiite militia
gunmen in police uniforms kidnapped scores of people from a Ministry of Higher
Education office in Baghdad. That ministry is predominantly Sunni.

In the deep south of Iraq, security forces searching for five private security
contractors, four Americans and an Austrian who were kidnapped near the Kuwait
border, detained about 200 suspected insurgents, police said Sunday. Police
Maj. Gen. Ali al-Moussawi said none of the hostages was found.

Family members identified one of the American captives as Jonathon Cote, 23. He
worked as a security guard for Crescent Security Group, his stepmother said.
Family members spoke to The Associated Press anonymously out of fear for Cote's
safety. A second American captive was identified late last week as Paul Reuben,
39, a former police officer.

In one of the most significant diplomatic breakthrough since the ouster of
Saddam, a restoration of contacts between Damascus and Baghdad was seen as a
means of convincing Damascus to exert tighter control over its border.

The frontier has been a major crossing point for Sunni Arab fighters who
infiltrated to join the insurgency that has been responsible for the deaths of
most U.S. soldiers since the American led invasion in 2003.

Fighters for Al Qaeda in Iraq and allied terror groups, who also have crossed
from Syria, have killed hundreds of Americans as well as tens of thousands of
Iraqis in bombings, drive-by shootings and mortar attacks.

Syria broke diplomatic ties with Iraq in 1982, accusing Iraq of inciting riots
by the banned Muslim Brotherhood in Syria. Damascus also sided with Iran in the
1980-88 Iran-Iraq war. Trade ties were restored in 1997.

In addition to Baghdad and Washington's complaints about poor border control,
the two countries have blasted Syria for supporting the insurgency by allowing
Saddam loyalists to take refuge in Damascus to organize financing and arms
shipments. Syria denies the charges.

A U.S. blue ribbon panel on Iraq, led by former Secretary of State James A.
Baker III and Democratic former Congressman Lee Hamilton, will soon release
recommendations on how to avoid the collapse of an increasingly violent and
chaotic Iraq.

The proposals were expected to include openings to Syrian and Iran in a bid to
internationalize efforts to clamp the sectarian conflict.

Iran is believed to be financing and arming Shiite militias in Iraq who have
engaged insurgents and Sunni civilians in civil-war style conflict in Baghdad
and surround cities and towns. Many of the Shiite militia fighters were trained
by Iran's elite Revolutionary Guard.

Even as diplomacy gained some traction, former Secretary of State Henry
Kissinger, who negotiated an end to the Vietnam War more than 30 years ago,
said a conventional victory was no longer an option for Washington.

"If you mean, by 'military victory,' an Iraqi government that can be
established and whose writ runs across the whole country, that gets the civil
war under control and sectarian violence under control in a time period that
the political processes of the democracies will support, I don't believe that
is possible," he told the BBC's Sunday AM program.

Kissinger has also said Iran and Syria need to be drawn into efforts to curb
violence.

By luring workers to his bomb in Hillah, the suicide attacker used a technique
has been employed repeatedly in poor Shiite regions throughout Iraq where
unemployment is especially high and men often must hire themselves out daily to
feed their families. Sunday is a working day in mostly Muslim Iraq.

"The sudden explosion shook the whole area and shattered the windows of a store
where I was standing," said Muhsin Hadi Alwan, 33, one of the wounded
jobseekers. "The ground was covered with the remains of people and blood, and
survivors ran in all directions."

"How will I feed the six members of my family when I return home without work
and without money?" Alwan asked.

The U.S. military announced that five-days of joint operations with Iraqi
forces in the region between Tikrit and Kirkuk killed nearly 50 Sunni insurgent
fighters and led to the capture of 20. The announcement detailed the discovery
of huge arms caches, usable portions of which were turned over to the Iraqi
army to equip its soldiers. The military did not say when the operation began
or ended nor precisely where it took place.

U.S. and Iraqi forces also killed 12 insurgents, detained 11 and freed eight
Iraqi hostages during raids in Baqouba and two villages near Kirkuk, 180 miles
(290 kilometers) north of Baghdad, police said. Iraqi forces also killed a
local Al Qaeda in Iraq leader and his son in a village 60 miles (100
kilometers) north of Baghdad.

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