SUMMARY FROM IRAQI BATTLEFIELD
US Chopper Down, 12 British, 4 US Soldiers Killed
Mar 21, 2003
By Naseer Al-Watan, Jihad Unspun War Correspondent
A US Marine CH-46 Sea Knight helicopter carrying 16 soldiers, including 12 Americans and 4 Brits, crashed Thursday while conducting operations related to the campaign against Iraq, U.S. defense officials said on Thursday. "A Marine helicopter has gone down in the area of operations," the official said. All 16 passengers were killed.
The Pentagon was quick to point of that they did not believe the crash was due to hostile fire. The CH-46 Sea Knight is an assault helicopter, mostly used to move cargo and troops, equipped with two aerial gunners.
Earlier two other US military helicopters made crash landings during operations along the Kuwait-Iraq border. One was later destroyed by American warplanes to prevent it from falling into Iraqi hands.
Officially, US press billed these fatalities as the first causlaties of the war however four US soldiers died just outside New York just ove a week ago in training excerises. Iraqi offciails has reported 5 military and one civilian casualty so far that resulted from a cruise missile attack on Baghdad Wednesday evening.
Baghdad Set Ablaze
Mar 21, 2003
Source: Arab News
The United States attacked key targets in Baghdad with cruise missiles yesterday, setting government buildings on fire in an attempt to bring to an end the rule of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein.
Several explosions were heard here near government buildings as cruise missiles swooped down. There was relatively little Iraqi anti-aircraft fire. Missiles flew in at a very low altitude and hit several targets. Buildings were ablaze in the southeast of the city and around the Planning Ministry in the center of Baghdad.
US missiles targeted Saddam’s palaces and family residence, including the home of his elder son Uday, Iraq radio said. The Iraqi Army reported that four of its soldiers were killed and six were wounded in the US-led attacks.
Fire fighters and ambulances drove to the scene but the flames roared out of control and smoke rose high into the night sky.
It was the second round of US attacks after Saddam defied a US ultimatum to leave the country. The previous raid at dawn yesterday targeted the Iraqi president himself and his senior leadership but the results were not clear.
The main offensive was still being awaited here. US officials had vowed a massive assault against Iraqi leaders and soldiers to the point that they would be too dazed and demoralized to resist. That barrage had yet to unfold in its full ferocity.
In Washington, US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said the initial missile and bombing attacks in and around Baghdad were just a first taste of what would soon be unleashed.
“What will follow will not be a repeat of any other conflict. It will be of a force and scope and scale that has been beyond what has been seen before,” he said.
An Iraqi military spokesman said that a US helicopter had been shot down.
“An American aircraft of the Sikorsky type used in carrying troops and eqipment was downed as it was trying to infiltrate Iraqi airspace to carry out aggressive operations. Long live Iraq,” the spokesman said in a statement.
The Iraqi statement gave no further details. US military officials were not immediately available for comment.
Sikorsky Aircraft Corp. manufactures the Black Hawk helicopter, which is used by US forces to fly troops into combat.
Arab News in Baghdad heard the first explosions at 5.30 a.m., when many Iraqis were performing Fajr prayers in the local mosques. Black smoke billowed from one eastern district. The sound of air the raids came before the sirens were heard. There were explosions in many parts of the city.
“These are opening stages of what will be a broad and concerted campaign,” Bush had earlier said in a televised address to the Americans.
Baghdad retaliated weakly by firing six missiles into northern Kuwait.
A defiant Saddam appeared on state television within hours of the air raids, calling on his people to resist their attackers.
“You will be victorious against your enemies,” proclaimed Saddam, dressed in military garb and black beret. “We will resist the invaders... the devil will be defeated.”
“Unsheath your swords,” he told Iraqis, accusing Bush — “the tyrant of the century” — of committing “a crime against humanity”.
In northern Iraq, the leaders of the two Kurdish factions controlling the area said their forces had taken up defensive lines in their region, which has seen thousands of people pouring in from government-controlled areas.
The limited strikes followed reports from US intelligence operatives, who had been secretly deployed in Baghdad and other parts of Iraq for weeks, tracking the movements of senior Iraqi officials, a US official told journalists.
Following the missile strike, F-117 stealth fighter-bombers unleashed 900-kilogram (2,000-pound) bombs on their targets. US units have been making every effort to encourage Iraqi troops to give themselves up or to show they do not intend to fight back and were expecting to deal on the way to Baghdad with Iraqi forces surrendering en masse.
Armed security and police forces were deployed in Baghdad, particularly around government ministries, state buildings, offices of the ruling Baath Party and Saddam’s various palaces.
A US military commander in Kuwait said limited raids would go on for two or three days ahead of any huge assault, which US officials have said could involve a barrage of at least 3,000 satellite-guided bombs and cruise missiles.
Afghanistan Rumbles: 14 Coalition Soldiers Dead
Mar 21, 2003
Source: Daily Islam, Translated By Jihad Unspun
As soon as the attack on Iraq began Mujahideen in Afghanistan increased the number of their attacks on Coalition and Afghan troops which have killed 14 soldiers in total, critically injured dozens and several others are not yet accounted for.
More explosions rocked Kandahar and Jalalabad area while just in Khost in a single day 8 soldiers were killed and 7 missing. The attack took place at 12:30 am Wednesday night. In another operation, in a popular Jihadi district of Afghanistan, Zavar, a fierce battle between the Mujahideen and coalition forces continued for almost two and a half hours during which 3 soldiers were killed and 2 severely injured.
In Khost province’s district Gardez, Mujahideen destroyed a military checkpost in a rocket attackm setting three coalition vehicles on fire while in the aftermath the coalitions troops called in further military support and bombed the area. Meanwhile in Khost province’s Saidgi area on Pak-Afghan border Mujahideen attacked the check post with missiles which severely injured the local commander, Shah Wali Mangal and the other four.
In Spin ke luni corner area a bloody battle took place between Taliban and American local administration. Taliban managed to kill a local commander as well as 2 others in an attack on a military checkpost in Loya Karez. One thousand personnel including Americans as well as the local administration have reached Spin Boldak from Kandahar and have started a massive operation however no arrest has been made so far. The Americans and the local administration have taken guard in the barracks on the mountains. According to details, during an ambush on a check post last night in Spin Boldak’s district Loni Karez, Taliban managed to kill three including a commander.
In Khost, battle took place between Bacha Khan’s and local forces which killed ten. In Sar Pul and Dara Sauf fighting between Ustad Atta and Rashid Dostum claimed five lives and men were arrested from both sides. Several have been arrested in Gardez. In a separate incident, Bagram airport was attacked with rockets once again which destroyed a truck. Heavy bombing by American forces in Gardez, Khost and Paktia destroyed three vehicles. Similarly in Kandahar bombs have been exploding and rockets targeted during the last one week. Local forces have so far arrested twenty one men along with electronic equipment.
Saudi Regime Does Deal With The Devil
Mar 21, 2003
Source: Christian Science Monitor
On the grand scorecard of deft diplomacy before war, the Bush administration lost at the UN. But its quiet diplomacy did win a big victory in the one nation that's been both a source of terrorism and is now pivotal to ending it.
With all the stealth of a B-2 bomber, Saudi Arabia silently let itself slip onto the list of unnamed nations offering support for a United States war on Iraq.
By allowing the US to fly aircraft over their long border with Iraq and use a key command facility near Riyadh, the Saudi royal leaders have made the war much easier for the American military. Their move is a signal that they want Saddam Hussein out. That breaks a tradition among Arab rulers not to seek one another's overthrow.
For the Saudi royal family, the potential risks and rewards are high. Public resentment toward the regime could rise, forcing more political repression and motivating more Saudis to join Al Qaeda (remember, 15 of the 19 Sept. 11 hijackers were Saudis).
But if the US does set up a friendly government in Baghdad, it will end the Saudi need to have US forces on its territory as defense against a threatening Iraq. That will meet, albeit indirectly, a key demand by Osama bin Laden to remove the infidels from Islam's homeland, and thus perhaps weaken Al Qaeda's ability to recruit.
Despite that likely and likable outcome, the Saudis may have won a concession from President Bush for their permission: that the US take a strong stand for creating a Palestinian state under a US-drafted "road map" that Israel opposes. The US, too, may have won support from Saudi leaders for more political freedoms. That would allow Saudis to vent their frustrations peacefully at their own leaders instead of at the US.
All these steps are necessary to achieve Mr. Bush's vision of building a postwar, democratic Iraq that will spur reforms in Arab nations and quell terrorist tendencies. The Saudis seem to have bought into that vision.
Oilfields Set On Fire In Act Of Sabotage
Mar 21, 2003
Source: The Guardian
The long-feared sabotage of Iraq's oilfields appeared to have begun last night. Orange flames lit up the skies of southern Iraq near Basra, the country's oil centre.
At least three oilwells had been set ablaze, according to witnesses on both sides of Kuwait's border with Iraq, sending flames and black clouds up into the desert skies.
One commander of a US marine battalion reported that three wells had been ignited, and in Washington, Donald Rumsfeld, the defence secretary, confirmed that the Pentagon had received reports that Saddam Hussein's regime had torched "as many as three or four" oilwells.
The reports, denied by Baghdad's oil minister, Amir Mohammed Rasheed, sparked a buying panic on the world oil markets, with prices surging in the middle of the day. Prices dropped slightly before trading closed after the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Companies said its members had pledged to maximise output to compensate for a disruption in Iraqi supplies.
According to Al-Arabiya, an Arab satellite news channel, the fires were burning in the Rumeila South oilfield, 50 miles west of Basra, and a few miles north of the border with Kuwait. It is one of the country's largest, with reserves of more than 5bn barrels.
"Needless to say, it is a crime for that regime to be destroying the riches of the Iraqi people," Mr Rumsfeld said. He called on Iraqi troops to disobey any orders to destroy the wells.
The southern oilfields have always been one of Saddam Hussein's most important remaining assets in a conflict. Pentagon planners have been predicting that he may set more ablaze in an effort to dis rupt American and British air strikes. A desperate wholesale destruction of the fields - which contain the second-biggest proven reserves of crude in the world - remains the nightmare scenario.
Iraqi forces retreating in 1991 set Kuwaiti oilwells ablaze with plastic explosives, wreaking widespread environmental destruction. A huge operation to extinguish the blazes lasted months.
The Pentagon says it believes President Saddam has used recent months to war to rig the fields to make them easy for Iraqi forces to ignite.
The firing of the wells is not an environmental disaster in itself - but the fact the tactic is being used at all suggests a repeat of the 1991 destruction of many oilwells is likely.
Then, more than 700 onshore wells in Kuwait were set alight by departing Iraqi forces. The billowing fumes poisoned the air, blackened the sky over an area of 5,800 to 11,600sq miles and reduced atmospheric temperatures by up to 8C.
Sea temperatures in the Gulf fell and, says the UN, global warming was intensified as up to 10% of of the world's daily oil use was burned.
The wells took up to 18 months to fully extinguish, partly because of bickering over the financial contracts, and many Kuwaitis reported skin and respiratory problems. Burnt soot was deposited throughout the Gulf region and as far away as the Himalayas.
The UN Environment Programme reported contaminated rain falling more than 1,000 miles north of Kuwait.
Sabotaging oilwells should not be easy. Each well is meant to be fitted with two kinds of safety valve - a visible "Christmas tree" on the surface, and another one several hundred metres underground. Both kinds of valve should close automatically as soon as the pressure at the well head decreases.
However, many of the Kuwaiti wells did not have bottom valves installed - and it is feared that the same may apply to most of those in Iraq.
Can Arabs change and remain independent?
Events in the Arab world have moved into the realm of the incredible, crossing all the red lines that the Arabs drew for themselves in the past.
The most recent example: Facing the prospect of the occupation of Iraq and the damage to Arab interests, Arabs have been regaled with the spectacle of Arab leaders discussing the crisis and descending to an exchange of insults.
Today it is clear to the Arab public that their governments are unable to provide the basic conditions of national security, even to protect the independence and sovereignty of their own countries. One reason is the loss of trust between rulers and ruled, the total contempt shown for citizens’ rights and human rights as set down in constitutions, international covenants and accords. Then, too, there are the factors of corruption, economic weakness and the total lack of inter-Arab cooperation.
Arab states and people alike have lost self-respect and the world has lost respect for them.
Adding to the gravity of the situation, it is clear that the US administration has had, for some time, a clear road map for a major campaign against Arab states in the region. While the first signs of this were apparent before Sept. 11, 2001, the political ingredients needed for it to be acted upon multiplied after that.
The aim is to topple a number of the regimes in the region and change the policies and attitudes of some of the others. This campaign is being made possible both by the enormous clout of the US on the international stage and the debilitating cancer that is spreading through the Arab world.
The main goals of this policy are to boost US influence in the Middle East and to change the regimes in the region. The aim of this change is not to bring them into the US orbit because they are already there. Rather the goal is to change their nature, structure, laws, and political, economic and social cultures to make them conform to the demands of the neo-conservatives in the US administration.
These conditions, attractive at first sight, will demand living with Israel in line with the conditions of the Zionist right-wing. They will be or even more importantly they will be seen to be imposed from the outside, in coordination with a hard-line Israeli agenda.
What are these developments going to mean for Arabs? First of all, the imminent occupation of an Arab state a catastrophe comparable in scale to that which occurred in Palestine in 1948. The tragedy this time is that the occupation is being carried out by the most powerful state in the world in partnership with other states with a variety of claims and aspirations in the Arab world. Despite the welter of explanations relating to the nature of the forthcoming foreign occupation in Iraq, there will be only one outcome: military rule.
From that moment on, the operative words will be resistance to foreign occupation, with all that this implies.
This means a long period of unrest and turmoil stretching forward a decade or more. We will witness the appearance of political movements that are completely different from the ones we have known in the past. Some will advocate secularism, others religious extremism or ultra-nationalism.
Others will cooperate voluntarily with the new foreign initiative.
It is vital, then, that contemporary Arab political forces unite to bring large segments of the public together to achieve an Arab civil and democratic society in which all people feel they enjoy dignity and equality of citizenship.
Finally, the problem that is perhaps the most difficult to solve: dealing with our own governments in the region. It is clear there is a gap that cannot be bridged between the public and the regimes. There is no mutual trust and no intention to change on the part of governments that deal with the symptoms of the problem but leave the causes to get worse.
This was possible in the past. But not today. Now, there is impending occupation and with Arab citizens losing all semblance of dignity, in the region and elsewhere. Now, exile is the only way to build a decent life.
War will thus only cause an already bad situation to deteriorate if such a thing is possible.
Two challenges will face post-Saddam Iraq and the wider region: to check foreign hegemony, and to carry out internal reform and promote democratic regimes and constitutional institutions. Failing this, some young people will resort to acts of terrorism and anarchy, exacerbating the tragic situation that faces us today.
Walid Khadduri, an Iraqi journalist, is editor in chief of the Middle East Economic Survey. He wrote this commentary for The Institute for War and Peace Reporting, a London-based independent non-profit organization