Cardiff Stop the War Coalition
In solidarity with the people of Iraq struggling under foreign occupation.
News from Iraq this week: April 8th to 14th
Baghdad ranked worst city in world, getting worse.
Baghdad Morgue receives 85 bodies a day
`The people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the peacemakers for the lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in any country.`
An interview with Herman Goring during the Nuremberg War Crimes Trials
April 8th Iraqis arrested by US-led forces have been vanishing into a `black hole,` reported Tony Blair`s human rights envoy, Ann Clywd MP. Had the United States taken this problem seriously from the beginning, it may have helped prevent the abuse of prisoners in Iraq, she reported.
April 9th An internal US embassy report on Iraq`s provinces concluded that the stability of the strategic Baghdad region is a serious concern. The 10-page report, dated 3 weeks before the insurgent bombing of a Shi`ite shrine pushed Iraq to the brink of civil war, says the governorate is plagued by intimidation and assassinations of public officials, Iraqi security forces and civilians. The report finds 6 provinces have serious security situation, and only 3 of 18 are said to be secure. This is in contrast to repeated claims by the US that only 3 provinces have major security problems.
April 10th The U.S. military is conducting a propaganda campaign to overstate the threat to stability posed by the al Qaeda leader in Iraq. Col. Derek Harvey, who served as a military intelligence officer in Iraq, told a U.S. Army meeting last summer: `Our own focus on Zarqawi has enlarged his caricature, if you will … made him more important than he really is, in some ways.`
April 11th As a result of water-borne diseases and a lack of medical supplies, infants born in the southern city of Basra are subject to abnormally high mortality rates, say officials of European aid agency Saving Children from War. Many doctors in the area say that the local health situation has deteriorated markedly since the US-led invasion of the country in 2003. `The mortality of children in Basra has increased by nearly 30 percent compared to the Saddam Hussein era,` Dr Haydar Salah, a paediatrician at the Basra Children`s Hospital, pointed out. `Children are dying daily, and no one is doing anything to help them`.
April 12th The Iraqi National Blood Transfusion Centre (NBTC) in the capital, Baghdad, is making urgent appeals for blood donations due to a shortage caused by the rising violence. The demand for blood has tripled since last December and has escalated further within the last couple weeks of rising violence.
April 13th At least 65,000 Iraqis have fled their homes as a result of violence and intimidation, according to new figures from the Iraqi government. The rate at which Iraqis are being displaced is increasing. Figures from the Iraqi Ministry for Displacement and Migration show a doubling in the last two weeks of the number of Iraqis forced to move.
April 14th 11 employees of a building company in Basra were kidnapped and killed.
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The United States began planning a full-scale military campaign against Iran that involves missile strikes, a land invasion and a naval operation to establish control over the Strait of Hormuz even before the March 2003 invasion of Iraq, a former US intelligence analyst has revealed.
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Civilians reported killed by military intervention in Iraq since invasion*:
Minimum: 34446
Maximum: 38594
Source: Iraq Body Count
Total number of US soldiers killed in Iraq since invasion = 2376
Total number of US soldiers wounded in Iraq since invasion= 17549
Total number of UK soldiers killed in Iraq since invasion = 104
Total number of soldiers from other nations killed since invasion = 105
Source: Iraq Coalition Casualty Count
*This estimate is only of English language media reported deaths. A peer reviewed epidemiological survey (Roberts et al., The Lancet, Vol 364 Issue 9448 pp 1857 1864) estimated that in the 18 months following the invasion 100, 000 excess deaths or more have occurred. Violence accounted for most of the excess deaths and air strikes from coalition forces accounted for most violent deaths. Criticisms of IBC methodology can be found at medialens
For background to the current war in Iraq: see `Understanding the Us-Iraq Crisis` by Phyllis Benis and `Why Another War? A Backgrounder on the Iraq Crisis` by Sarah Graham-Brown and Chris Toensing.
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