The Iraq War -2003 - Latest News and Views

These pages include current news and opinion and key documents concerning the war. Older news is archived at MEWNews and the MEW Web Log
Note - MidEastWeb makes no claims regarding the accuracy of the reports, which are often conflicting, and usually has no way of verifying them. There have been many conflicting claims. Headlines We'd like to see + Your Comments on the war

Possible Link to 9-11 Attacks Found
US Foray in Baghdad
Friendly Fire Kills Kurds, Special Forces
British Enter Basra; Chemical Ally Dead
Al-Zubayr: execution site; Nasiriyeh: Poisoned Water
Britain, Pentagon and State Department split over Occupation Gov't
Palestinians Express Solidarity with Iraq
Arab League Plans Regional Organization
OP-ED - The News from Baghdad is Not Good
Iraqi Agents in Jordan Plotted To Poison Water Supply
Opinion - Iraq: The Incomplete Menu!
Letter to a Friend

Possible Link to 9-11 Attacks Found

[Mewnews, April 7] At Salman Pak base near Baghdad, US forces found classroom equipment and gymnastics equipment suggesting that the base had been used for training terrorists. The soldiers also found a mock-up fuselage of a passenger airplane, that was possibly used to train hijackers. Prior to the war, defectors had described a mock fuselage like the one found, and teams of people who they believed were trained for hi-jacking. Supporters of the war had repeatedly cited these reports as proof of the connection between the Iraqi regime and the attacks on the NY World Trade Center on September 11, 2001.

Extensive Foray in Baghdad

[Mewnews, April 7] On Monday, a large US column entered Baghdad in a show of force, and went about visiting presidential palaces and mopping up resistance where encountered. This followed a long battle at the airfield Monday morning, in which US forces claim about 100 Iraqi soldiers were killed. More than 70 tanks and 60 Bradley fighting vehicles took part in the foray by the Army's 3rd Infantry Division, with tank-killing A-10 Warthog planes and pilotless drones providing air cover against mostly disorganized resistance. The drones can acquire targets with precision laser optics and then attack the targets, and constitute a key weapon in the strategy for conquering built up areas.

US forces are convinced that forays such as the one today demonstrate to Iraqis that they are free and that the "regime is over." "I hope this makes it clear to the Iraqi people that this is over and that they can now enjoy their new freedom," said a US Colonel. Soldiers who reached the gold-and-blue-domed New Presidential Palace used the toilets, rifled through documents in the bombed-out compound, and looted ashtrays, pillows, gold-painted Arab glassware and other souvenirs. The Americans also blew up a statue of Saddam on horseback in the center of the city.

Nonetheless, Iraqi radio continued to broadcast assurances from Information Minister Mohamed El Sahaf that the city was secure and safe in Iraqi hands.

Refugees are still streaming out of Baghdad en-masse, in anticipation of the US assault. Earlier US spokespersons have given various estimates for the number of Iraqi casualties in the battle of Baghdad, yesterday going as high as 2,000. Iraqi civilian casualties for the entire war are over 1200 according to Iraqi government estimates. During Sunday and Monday intense fighting resulted in unprecedented casualties, with the Iraqi wounded streaming into Baghdad hospitals. Crossfire wounded Russian embassy personnel in a convoy.

Health officials expect that the sanitary situation in the city will deteriorate rapidly. The city is practically surrounded, except for highway 2, leading north out of the city.

After dark Sunday a US C-130 cargo plane had landed at Baghdad airport, indicating increasing readiness of the runways. About 7,000 US troops have concentrated at Baghdad airport so far, and work continues to repair runways and allow massive landings of US aircraft.. Toward evening Sunday, it was reported that Iraq forces had detonated charges beneath a bridge over the Tigris in central Baghdad, making it too weak to allow passage of US armor, and delaying the US advance.

Friendly Fire Kills Kurds, Special Forces

[Mewnews, April 7] A bomb or missile from a US airplane hit a convoy of Kurdish fighters and their Special Forces reinforcements, killing at least 18 and critically wounding the brother of Kurdish resistance leader Mehdi Bazargan. Reports say as many as 22 were killed, including US special forces personnel and a news photographer. The mishap was witnessed by a BBC correspondent.

British in Basra-Chemical Ali Dead

[Mewnews, April 7] British forces announced Monday they had found and identified the body of Ali Hassan al-Majid, "Chemical Ali," who initiated numerous poison gas attacks, in the ruins of his house in Basra, which was bombed previously. British forces are mopping up in Basra, second largest Iraqi city, after entering the town on Sunday. British and U.S. forces had been nibbling away at Basra since nearly the beginning of the Iraq war.

"Yes it's happened," an officer of the Irish Guard who asked not to be identified told Reuters correspondent Rosalind Russell when asked about reports by Iraqi civilians leaving the city that they had seen the tanks on Basra's central Baghdad Street.

"Yes, they're in the center. They're on Baghdad street," verified an Iraqi civilian.

The British were meeting light resistance from Iraqi Fedayeen.

Iraqis Threaten "Unconventional" warfare

[Mewnews, April 5] Information Minister Mohammed Saeed al-Sahaf said in a news conference Friday, referring to US forces nearing Baghdad, "We will commit a non-conventional act on them, not necessarily military."

Asked if Iraq would use weapons of mass destruction, Sahaf said: "No, not at all. But we will conduct a kind of martyrdom (suicide) operations."

Chatter overheard on Iraqi military communications referred to "unconventional" acts, and US soldiers war anti-WMD suits as a precaution, despite the heat.

On Saturday there were unconfirmed reports of a suicide attack at Baghdad Airport.

US: Finding Saddam Not Essential

[Mewnews, April 5] White House spokesperson Ari Fleischer said Friday that finding Saddam dead or alive would be "helpful," President Bush's "definition of victory" was removing the current government from power and eliminating the country's alleged weapons of mass destruction. The US is preparing to install an interim government in areas under its control as early as next Thursday, and may try to isolate and ignore Saddam Hussein, rather than attempting a frontal assault on Baghdad. Meanwhile, troops at the airport just outside Baghdad are being reinforced.

Al-Zubayr: execution site; Nassiriyeh- Poisoned Water

[Mewnews, April 6] American troops found traces of mustard gas and cyanide in river water in Nassiriyeh. These may represent an attempt by Iraqi forces to dispose of incriminating WMD evidence, or they may be due to waste water of WMD factories.

At a site in Al-Zubayr, Hundreds of human remains were discovered Saturday by British soldiers in a makeshift morgue in southern Iraq. The remains, including bundles of bone in strips of military uniform, were found by officers from the 3rd Regiment of the Royal Horse Artillery in an abandoned Iraqi military base on the outskirts of Al Zubayr. Pictures of the remains and of documents identifying the dead, shot in the head for the most part, were shown on Sky news.

Al Zubayr is 20 kilometers (12 miles) southwest of Iraq's second city Basra. Captain Jack Kemp, 40, said that he discovered "approximately 200 makeshift coffins" when he led a team of soldiers into the building for a security check.

"I wouldn't like to speculate, but the bones inside are obviously years old," he told the Press Association. "It is certainly not from the recent conflict but it could be from the one before." He said the building had been declared off-limits to all personnel "and we will treat it as a mass grave."

In a graphic description of the scene, Press Association chief reporter Vanessa Allen, who is embedded with the British army's Royal Logistic Corps, told of cardboard coffins "stacked five deep in a warehouse."

A neighboring building "contained apparent cells and catalogues of photographs of the dead, most of whom had died from gunshot wounds to the head."

"Others were mutilated beyond recognition, their faces burned and swollen in the faded black and white photographs," she reported. "Outside stood what one soldier described as 'a purpose-built shooting gallery'."

She said a tiled plinth, about a foot (30 centimeters) in height, stood in a courtyard, with the brickwork behind it riddled with bullets. Behind it was a drainage ditch.

"Inside the warehouse, one of the bags and coffins contained an identity card written in Arabic, while military webbing and boot soles were visible in others," she reported.

"Human skulls, their teeth broken and missing, looked out from other bags, bundled into the coffins."

The news from Baghdad is not good. By this I mean that the news reporting has been mediocre to poor and unreliable. Some blame the system of "embedded reporters" that requires that reporters refrain from reporting "sensitive" information. Israeli reporter Dan Scemama was booted out of Iraq for attempting to report on the news as a non-"embedded" reporter. Scemama was bitter after being mistreated by US forces for 48 hours and handled as a terrorist and spy. He said the embedded reporting system had created a vast number of managed journalists, "a huge apparatus of disinformation." Reporters for Christian Science Monitor were also asked to leave Iraq because they were ostensibly reporting sensitive information.

Though embedded journalism contributes to the problem, journalists themselves have contributed a fair amount of confusion and disinformation. Reports are often disjointed and semi-coherent, and sometimes get the facts wrong. Hastily written copy contains contradictory statements about disposition of troops and outcomes of battles, as new data are added in editing and old information is not removed. The same items may be repeated in a dozen unrelated stories. The suicide bombing on Saturday March 29 was mentioned in practically every story from different news services, regardless of whether the stories were about the pause in the advance, about the raid on Kifl or the bombing of Baghdad. AP managed to move Al-Najaf to the north of Iraq, and reported that the suicide had occurred in the North. Initially, five soldiers were killed in this attack, but later it turned out that only four were dead. Umm Qasr was conquered and then lost several times in a day. Some stories about the taking of Umm Qasr also included copy describing the continuous resistance. Saddam Hussein himself died and rose from the grave several times. While sources may make unreliable claims, it is part of the job of journalists to check the claims, and of editors to use their judgment in repeatedly featuring dubious claims that turn out to be false time and again. The BBC apologized for poor reporting, but not before it had reported the conquest of Umm Qasr no less than five times. Some errors are inevitable, but this war seems to be inviting an unusual amount of disinformation and silly commentary.

If the "embedded journalist" system is meant to give coalition forces a tactical advantage by hiding plans and sensitive moves, the coalition is doing a poor job of managing the system and the news. The landing of US paratroops in the north, their numbers and the purpose of their mission were described clearly, and any element of surprise regarding coalition intentions was lost. The pause in fighting in the south and plans for reinforcements are likewise discussed openly. An enemy that knows it will not be attacked by land for some time has gained a significant advantage. Denials of such stories by Tommy Franks and others will do no good unless the coalition forces produce an actual land attack in the next few days.

As usual, "pro-" and "anti-" reporters turn out commentary and "facts" that generate talking points for their side. Chemical warfare protection suits are touted at "proof" that the Iraqis have WMD. Syrian President Assad threatens the US and gets no complaints, but Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld's comments regarding Syria raise eyebrows and elicit predictions that Syria is definitely next on the US list of countries to subdue. Perhaps the epitome of such partisan absurdity was produced by The Observer. Commenting on the choice of General Jay Garner to oversee reconstruction of Iraq, industrial editor Oliver Morgan offered as a serious criticism of Garner, the he was President of a firm that was connected in a minor way to the development of Patriot missiles (developed by Raytheon). The clincher for Oliver? "The Ministry of Defence has confirmed that it was a Patriot missile that was involved when a British Tornado was hit last week." This man should get an award for critical thinking.

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Iraq Watch - A collection of documents and resources on Iraq. A bibliography is promised.

Iraq Foundation - Non-governmental organization working for democracy and human rights in Iraq. Includes news culled from the western press, and extensive human rights resources.

Permanent mission to the UN - Site which harnesses information from a wide range of sources - including a statement by Tony Benn - to support the Iraqi government line.

Iraq's WMD Capabilities - Detailed technical information on missiles, chemical and biological agents at global security Web site.

Iraqi National Congress Iraqi opposition to Saddam Hussein, based in the UK. Includes an archive of resources.