Iraq

30 August 2008 -- The U.S. military says it has released more than 11,000 Iraqis from military detention centers this year.

In a statement issued Saturday coalition forces said the prisoners who were once considered a security threat, have completed their detainment and can go on to lead productive lives.

American military spokesman Major Neal Fisher says less than one percent of those released have been detained again.

He also said at the current rate, the U.S. military expects to reach its goal of having released more than 12,000 detainees by mid-September.

Source: DoD

27 August 2008 -- The U.S. Defense Department says it wants to turn over security responsibility to Iraqi forces as quickly as possible, but that the timing should be based on conditions. A spokesman repeated the position Tuesday in response to a statement by Iraq's prime minister calling for a full U.S. withdrawal by 2011.

Iraqi policemen and US soldier: Iraqi policemen gather around U.S. Army Staff Sgt. Ian Putansu of Camden, MN, 2nd Squadron, 14th Cavalry Regiment, 25th Infantry Division, as he instructs tactical maneuvers at the Hammiyat police station in Taji, Iraq, August 4, 2008.    » read more »

August 22, 2008 -- Chicago, IL - "I am glad that the Administration has finally shifted to accepting a timetable for the removal of our combat troops from Iraq. Success in Iraq depends on an Iraqi government that is reconciling its differences and taking responsibility for its future, and a timetable is the best way to press the Iraqis to do just that. I welcome the growing convergence around this pragmatic and responsible position.    » read more »

25 August 2008 -- Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki says the United States has agreed in negotiations to withdraw all its troops from Iraq by 2011. But U.S. officials insist no deal has been reached.

Mr. Maliki Monday said his government has reached an agreement with Washington that any foreign presence on Iraqi soil will end by 2011. He did not offer any further details.

Iraqi Army soldiers, Mahmudiyah, Iraq: Photo by James Gordon (CC)

Meanwhile, a spokesman for U.S. President George Bush said there has not been any final security deal with Iraq.    » read more »

24 August 2008 -- Iraqi officials say a suicide bomber has struck a dinner feast west of Baghdad, killing at least 25 people and wounding 32 others.

Officials say the attacker blew himself up at the home of a local sheikh who was celebrating his son's release from U.S. detention. The guests at the dinner included members of a Sunni Awakening council -- a U.S.-allied militia group that has turned against al-Qaida.

In other violence Sunday, a double bomb attack in Baghdad against Iraqi security forces killed four people. In the eastern province of Diyala, a roadside bomb killed four Iraqi soldiers in the town of Balad Ruz, while gunmen also killed two policemen in Baquba, the provincial capital.    » read more »

23 August 2008 -- A suicide bomber blew himself up in the northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk Saturday, killing at least five people and wounding at least eight others.

Local police say among those killed at a car dealership in the southern part of the city was a senior member of a U.S.-allied Sunni group from Diyala province.

Earlier Saturday, unknown gunmen killed an adviser to Iraq's culture minister in a drive-by shooting in Baghdad. Authorities say Kamel Shiya was driving on a highway when the gunmen opened fire, killing him and wounding his bodyguard.    » read more »

WASHINGTON, Aug. 21, 2008 – Washington and Baghdad are close to reaching a status of forces agreement, but negotiations on the deal to determine the future U.S. military role in Iraq are ongoing, a Defense Department official said today.

“We’ve made good progress on it; we are close,” Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said. “There are still some issues to work out, but … it’s very premature at this point to say that we have an agreement.”

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, in a surprise one-day visit to Baghdad today, said the discussion about the status of forces is possible only because of recent security progress leading up to negotiations.    » read more »

8/13/2008 -- UMM QASR, Iraq (NNS) -- As part of Iraq Navy Day celebrations, USS Firebolt (PC 10) made a port visit to Umm Qasr, Iraq Aug. 13, marking the first visit by a U.S. ship to Iraq in more than 15 months.

"Our port visit to Umm Qasr demonstrates the great confidence we have in our Iraqi partners, and reflects the marked improvements in security that they have achieved within the past several months," said Lt. Cmdr. Trent Thompson, Firebolt's commanding officer.

The coastal patrol craft USS Firebolt (PC 10) underway in the Persian Gulf.: U.S. Navy photo by Photographer's Mate 3rd Class Randall Damm    » read more »

13 August 2008 -- U.S. and Iraqi officials say car bomb attacks have killed at least four people and wounded at least 28 in northern Iraq.

Police say a bomb exploded in a parked car in the town of Qayara, south of Mosul Wednesday, killing two civilians. At least nine people were wounded in the blast.

Elsewhere, police say a suicide car bomber detonated his explosives near a convoy carrying Abdul-Karim Ali Nsaif, the mayor of the town of al-Multaqa, near the oil-rich city of Kirkuk. Officials say the bomb wounded the mayor and at least three of his bodyguards.

Police say another suicide car bomber struck an Iraqi army patrol in Mosul, killing an Iraqi soldier and a civilian and wounding at least 15 people.    » read more »

12 August 2008 -- Iraqi officials have imposed a curfew in the capital of eastern Diyala province after a suicide bomber killed at least two people and wounded at least seven others Tuesday.

U.S. and Iraqi officials say the blast occurred near a convoy carrying the Diyala governor Raad Rasheed and an Iraqi army commander in the provincial capital, Baquba. The two were unharmed in the attack.

The U.S. military says the bomber, dressed as a woman, was attempting to approach the convoy when soldiers identified him as a threat and opened fire, causing the explosives to detonate.

Iraqi and U.S. forces recently launched an offensive in Diyala to crack down on insurgents. Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki is offering amnesty to militants who surrender.    » read more »

12 August 2008 -- A new report says the United States has spent about $100 billion on private contractors to support operations in Iraq since the 2003 invasion to oust Saddam Hussein.

At the height of last year's military surge in Iraq, the United States had roughly 168,000 troops deployed in the country.

Blackwater security guards, Republican Palace, Baghdad: US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) photograph by ACoE photographer Jim Gordon.

But America's armed forces have been outnumbered by what some see as a private army funded by the federal government: contractors that provide a wide array of services, from security operations to rebuilding projects to logistical support.    » read more »

Current military health insurance denies access to proven therapies

August 5, 2008 -- WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator Claire McCaskill this week asked the Department of Defense to expand health care coverage for the nearly 20 percent of soldiers returning from Iraq and Afghanistan who may be suffering from traumatic brain injuries (TBI). McCaskill and nine of her Senate colleagues are urging Secretary Robert Gates to expand TRICARE, the military’s health insurance program, to include cognitive rehabilitation therapy, a proven treatment for TBI which is currently excluded from the insurance policy.    » read more »

August 5, 2008 -- WASHINGTON – Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Carl Levin, D-Mich., and senior Committee Member John Warner, R-Va., today announced the release of a report [PDF] by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) detailing annual Iraqi oil revenues and Iraqi government contributions to security and reconstruction efforts in the country. This report was requested by the Senators in a March 6th letter to the Comptroller General.    » read more »

05 August 2008 -- Iraqi lawmakers failed again Tuesday to resolve a dispute about power-sharing proposals for the oil-rich city of Kirkuk.

Deputy Parliamentary Speaker Khalid al-Attiya told reporters they postponed a vote on the draft local elections law, scheduled for today, to Wednesday.

He said lawmakers are considering a United Nations proposal that calls for holding local elections across the country, but leaves Kirkuk's elections for a later date.

Iraq's parliament has been debating a draft local elections law that would allocate seats in Kirkuk's provincial council equally among its ethnic groups - Kurds, Arabs and Turkomen. Iraqi Kurds and their allies want to keep their majority in the assembly.    » read more »

August 1, 2008 -- Washington, DC – Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee Joseph R. Biden, Jr. (D-DE) and Senators Chuck Hagel (R-NE), Bob Casey (D-PA), George Voinovich (R-OH) and Jim Webb (D-VA) today introduced legislation which prohibits the Bush Administration from entering into a binding security agreement without the approval of Congress.    » read more »