XPost: alt.military.uk, alt.true-crime, sci.military.naval   
   XPost: uk.politics.parliament, us.military   
   From: theprof@jonez.net   
      
   "Five days or five weeks or five months, but it certainly isn't going to   
   last any longer than that," he said. "It won't be a World War III."   
                      --Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld,   
                        claiming the Iraq war wouldn't last long.   
                        Nov. 14, 2002   
      
      
   "Oh, no, we're not going to have any casualties."   
                  --President GW Bush,   
                  discussing the Iraq war with Christian broadcaster Pat   
   Robertson,   
                  after Robertson told him he should prepare the American people   
                  for the reality of war casualties   
      
      
   >> Three U.S. soldiers die in Iraq, toll nears 4,000   
   >> Sun Mar 23, 2008 12:42am EDT   
   >> By Mohammed Abbas   
   >>   
   >> BAGHDAD (Reuters) - A roadside bomb killed three U.S. soldiers in   
   >> Iraq on Saturday, pushing the U.S. death toll closer to the 4,000   
   >> mark at the start of the sixth year of the war for U.S. troops.   
   >>   
   >> The deaths, which brought the number of U.S. soldiers killed since   
   >> the U.S.-led invasion in 2003 to 3,996, came three days after   
   >> President George W. Bush said the United States was on track to   
   >> victory in Iraq. In an upbeat speech marking the fifth anniversary of the   
   >> war, Bush   
   >> acknowledged the "high cost in lives and treasure" but said a U.S.   
   >> troop build-up in Iraq had reduced violence there and opened the   
   >> door to a strategic victory in the war on terror.   
   >>   
   >> The war is a major issue in the presidential campaign, with   
   >> Democratic presidential candidates Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton   
   >> calling for an early troop withdrawal timetable.   
   >>   
   >> Presumptive Republican nominee John McCain wants to keep troops in   
   >> Iraq until it is more stable.   
   >>   
   >> The U.S. military said the three soldiers were killed when a   
   >> roadside bomb blew up near their vehicle northwest of Baghdad. Two   
   >> Iraqi civilians also died in the attack. It gave no further details   
   >> about where the incident occurred.   
   >>   
   >> Roadside bombs are the biggest killers of soldiers in Iraq.   
   >>   
   >> On Friday, a U.S. soldier died from wounds sustained from "indirect   
   >> fire", a term commonly used by the military to refer to a mortar or   
   >> rocket attack, south of Baghdad.   
   >>   
   >> Six members of a U.S.-backed neighborhood patrol group were killed   
   >> early on Saturday in a U.S. helicopter strike on their checkpoint in   
   >> Salahuddin province, police and a local tribal leader said.   
   >>   
   >> The U.S. military said it had conducted a helicopter attack in the   
   >> province, but denied it had attacked a checkpoint. It said the strike   
   >> killed six men suspected of placing roadside bombs. Investigations   
   >> were under way, the military said.   
   >>   
   >> SUNNI PATROL TENSIONS   
   >>   
   >> The U.S. military has credited the formation of what it calls   
   >> Concerned Local Citizen groups (CLCs), also known as Awakening   
   >> Councils, for playing a crucial role in a 60 percent drop in   
   >> violence across Iraq since last June.   
   >>   
   >> The mostly Sunni Arab neighborhood patrols have some 90,000 men in   
   >> western Anbar and provinces north and south of Baghdad. The U.S.   
   >> military pays them $300 a month to patrol their neighborhoods and   
   >> man checkpoints. Tribal leader Abu Faruq said Saturday's air strike took   
   >> place on a   
   >> CLC checkpoint near the town of Ishaqi, 100 km (60 miles) north of   
   >> Baghdad. "They knew all this area under is my control, and all the men were   
   >> in   
   >> uniform and were not firing their weapons, so why did this happen? If   
   >> Awakening checkpoints are hit this way, it is a disaster," he said.   
   >>   
   >> The incident is the latest in a string of disputes between the CLCs   
   >> and the U.S. military. In November, U.S. warplanes attacked a CLC   
   >> checkpoint north of Baghdad, killing 25 men.   
   >>   
   >> In February, CLCs in Jurf al-Sukr, south of Baghdad, said U.S. forces   
   >> killed three of their number, and in the same month, neighborhood   
   >> patrols in Diyala province, north of Baghdad, temporarily stopped   
   >> working to demand more pay and the removal of a local police chief.   
   >>   
   >> The southern Baghdad districts of Shurta and Hay al-Amil and the   
   >> southern city of Kut were reported to be quiet on Saturday after   
   >> Mehdi Army fighters loyal to Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr clashed   
   >> with Iraqi and U.S. forces a day earlier.   
   >>   
   >> Sadr imposed a unilateral ceasefire on his unruly militia last   
   >> August and extended it last month, a move U.S. commanders say has   
   >> helped to reduce violence in Iraq.   
   >>   
   >> But the gunbattles in Baghdad and Kut have raised fears that it may   
   >> be unravelling at a time when the U.S. military is in the process of   
   >> withdrawing 20,000 troops.   
   >>   
   >> Mehdi Army fighters have complained that the truce ties their hands   
   >> and opens them to attack by rival Shi'ite factions and U.S. forces.   
   >> U.S. commanders say they only target Mehdi Army units that have   
   >> ignored Sadr's ceasefire order.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
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