BeautifulDisaster - banned
10-23-2006, 08:40 PM
BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- A search is under way for a U.S. soldier who went missing in Iraq Monday evening, amid fears the soldier might have been kidnapped.
A military official in Washington told The Associated Press the missing service member was an Army translator.
In the effort to find the soldier, U.S. forces searched the headquarters of Al-Furat TV. The AP reports the troops disarmed 40 guards, but allowed the management and editorial teams to continue working.
The search of the TV station, which is linked to Iraq's largest political bloc, prompted the country's national security adviser, Muwaffaq al-Rubaie, to go to the scene to ask why the raid was taking place, an Iraqi government security official told CNN.
Al-Rubaie demanded that the weapons be returned, and they were, according to CNN correspondent John Roberts, who was embedded with troops conducting the search.
The duty status of the soldier, who has not been identified, was listed as "whereabouts unknown" at 7:30 p.m. Baghdad time, according to a statement from Multi-National Corps - Iraq.
Roberts reported that when the soldier was first noticed missing at 5:30 p.m., the U.S. troops Roberts was with searched for more than two hours.
Coalition troops and Iraqi security forces will continue to search for the missing soldier, the military statement said.
Violent month
The soldier's disappearance comes during an especially violent period in Iraq.
Weekend attacks across Iraq brought the military's death toll for the month to 87 -- the highest this year.
Five Marines were killed by enemy action in Anbar on Saturday, while one soldier died in combat in Iraq's Salaheddin province. On Sunday, attacks across the Iraqi capital killed six U.S. soldiers
The number of U.S. military personnel killed since the Iraq war began in 2003 stands at 2,800. Seven American military contractors also have died.
Bombs target shoppers before end of Ramadan
Sectarian and insurgent attacks have increased during the holy month of Ramadan, which ends this week.
At least 12 Iraqis died in violence Monday in Baghdad, including six civilians, Iraqi emergency police said.
A bomb in a parked car detonated on Palestine Street in the eastern part of the capital, killing one civilian and wounding 13, police said. Shortly afterward, a car bomb went off in a busy market in the western neighborhood of Hurriya, killing four civilians and wounding six.
Both attacks targeted Iraqi civilians shopping for the Eid al-Fitr holiday marking the end of Ramadan.
Earlier Monday, a roadside bomb killed two policemen and wounded four others in western Baghdad's Ghazaliya neighborhood.
Gunmen opened fire on a car carrying members of security services for Iraq's oil facilities, killing four in the northern Baghdad neighborhood of Fadhel.
Gunmen also stormed a hairdresser's shop in the eastern Baghdad neighborhood of Zayouna, killing a woman who was the shop's owner.
An average of 43 Iraqis per day have been killed during Ramadan, which began in late September, according to a count by The Associated Press. This figure compares with an average daily death toll of about 27 since April 2005, the AP said.
White House denies 'stay-the-course' strategy
As the bloodshed rages in Iraq two weeks before U.S. midterm elections, the White House on Monday said that its policy for the war "has never been a stay-the-course strategy."
"Strategically, we think it's very important that we stay in Iraq and we win in Iraq," White House senior counselor Dan Bartlett told CBS' "The Early Show." "And if we were to cut and run and go and leave that country too early it would be a disaster for American policy.
"But what we aren't doing is sitting there with our heads in the sand. We're completely changing and making tactical changes on a week-by-week basis as we respond to the enemy's reactions to our strategies." (Full story)
Earlier, the White House had downplayed a Sunday New York Times article reporting the United States is drafting a "timetable" for the Iraqi government to deal with sectarian violence and help secure the country.
The Times article said that Iraq was being asked for the first time to "agree to a schedule of specific milestones, like disarming sectarian militias, and to a broad set of other political, economic and military benchmarks." A blueprint would be presented to Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki before the year's end, according to the paper.
With pressure growing in the United States and Britain to change strategy, Iraq's deputy prime minister urged the international community not "to cut and run" as he visited with British Prime Minister Tony Blair in London, Reuters reported. (Full story)
"The fate of Iraq is vital to the future of the Middle East and the world order," Barham Saleh, the Iraqi official, said, according to Reuters.
Saleh said the Iraqi government was seeking to speed up the process of taking control of the country's security, the news agency said.
The Iraqi Defense Ministry imposed a curfew Monday for the southeastern city of Amara after fighting last week between police and the Mehdi Army militia loyal to anti-American Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr. The curfew took effect Monday morning and will be in place until further notice, police said. Amara, the provincial capital of Maysan province, remains quiet after clashes killed at least 16 and wounded 90 others, a hospital official said. Amara is in the heart of the Shiite-dominated south near the Iraq-Iran border.
U.S.-led coalition forces killed five suspected insurgents Monday during a raid on a building south of Balad, north of Baghdad, the U.S. military said. Coalition forces believed "several suspected terrorists" were inside the building, according to the military.
Gunmen ambushed two busloads of Iraqi police recruits Sunday in Baquba, northeast of Baghdad, killing at least 13 and kidnapping dozens of others, security officials said. The attackers planted roadside bombs, which struck at least one of the buses. They then opened fire on the recruits, the Iraqi Interior Ministry said. The Iraqi army clashed with gunmen for hours, a security official said. After the attack, Iraqi police started to collect bodies but discovered -- after a bomb exploded near one of the corpses -- that the attackers had left an explosive next to each body, the Interior Ministry said. The police then called for the U.S. military, which defused 15 bombs.
A senior U.S. State Department diplomat apologized Sunday for having told the Arab satellite network Al-Jazeera on Saturday that there is a strong possibility history will show the United States displayed "arrogance" and "stupidity" in its handling of the Iraq war. (Full story) Alberto Fernandez is director of the Office of Press and Public Diplomacy in the Bureau of Near East Affairs.
A military official in Washington told The Associated Press the missing service member was an Army translator.
In the effort to find the soldier, U.S. forces searched the headquarters of Al-Furat TV. The AP reports the troops disarmed 40 guards, but allowed the management and editorial teams to continue working.
The search of the TV station, which is linked to Iraq's largest political bloc, prompted the country's national security adviser, Muwaffaq al-Rubaie, to go to the scene to ask why the raid was taking place, an Iraqi government security official told CNN.
Al-Rubaie demanded that the weapons be returned, and they were, according to CNN correspondent John Roberts, who was embedded with troops conducting the search.
The duty status of the soldier, who has not been identified, was listed as "whereabouts unknown" at 7:30 p.m. Baghdad time, according to a statement from Multi-National Corps - Iraq.
Roberts reported that when the soldier was first noticed missing at 5:30 p.m., the U.S. troops Roberts was with searched for more than two hours.
Coalition troops and Iraqi security forces will continue to search for the missing soldier, the military statement said.
Violent month
The soldier's disappearance comes during an especially violent period in Iraq.
Weekend attacks across Iraq brought the military's death toll for the month to 87 -- the highest this year.
Five Marines were killed by enemy action in Anbar on Saturday, while one soldier died in combat in Iraq's Salaheddin province. On Sunday, attacks across the Iraqi capital killed six U.S. soldiers
The number of U.S. military personnel killed since the Iraq war began in 2003 stands at 2,800. Seven American military contractors also have died.
Bombs target shoppers before end of Ramadan
Sectarian and insurgent attacks have increased during the holy month of Ramadan, which ends this week.
At least 12 Iraqis died in violence Monday in Baghdad, including six civilians, Iraqi emergency police said.
A bomb in a parked car detonated on Palestine Street in the eastern part of the capital, killing one civilian and wounding 13, police said. Shortly afterward, a car bomb went off in a busy market in the western neighborhood of Hurriya, killing four civilians and wounding six.
Both attacks targeted Iraqi civilians shopping for the Eid al-Fitr holiday marking the end of Ramadan.
Earlier Monday, a roadside bomb killed two policemen and wounded four others in western Baghdad's Ghazaliya neighborhood.
Gunmen opened fire on a car carrying members of security services for Iraq's oil facilities, killing four in the northern Baghdad neighborhood of Fadhel.
Gunmen also stormed a hairdresser's shop in the eastern Baghdad neighborhood of Zayouna, killing a woman who was the shop's owner.
An average of 43 Iraqis per day have been killed during Ramadan, which began in late September, according to a count by The Associated Press. This figure compares with an average daily death toll of about 27 since April 2005, the AP said.
White House denies 'stay-the-course' strategy
As the bloodshed rages in Iraq two weeks before U.S. midterm elections, the White House on Monday said that its policy for the war "has never been a stay-the-course strategy."
"Strategically, we think it's very important that we stay in Iraq and we win in Iraq," White House senior counselor Dan Bartlett told CBS' "The Early Show." "And if we were to cut and run and go and leave that country too early it would be a disaster for American policy.
"But what we aren't doing is sitting there with our heads in the sand. We're completely changing and making tactical changes on a week-by-week basis as we respond to the enemy's reactions to our strategies." (Full story)
Earlier, the White House had downplayed a Sunday New York Times article reporting the United States is drafting a "timetable" for the Iraqi government to deal with sectarian violence and help secure the country.
The Times article said that Iraq was being asked for the first time to "agree to a schedule of specific milestones, like disarming sectarian militias, and to a broad set of other political, economic and military benchmarks." A blueprint would be presented to Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki before the year's end, according to the paper.
With pressure growing in the United States and Britain to change strategy, Iraq's deputy prime minister urged the international community not "to cut and run" as he visited with British Prime Minister Tony Blair in London, Reuters reported. (Full story)
"The fate of Iraq is vital to the future of the Middle East and the world order," Barham Saleh, the Iraqi official, said, according to Reuters.
Saleh said the Iraqi government was seeking to speed up the process of taking control of the country's security, the news agency said.
The Iraqi Defense Ministry imposed a curfew Monday for the southeastern city of Amara after fighting last week between police and the Mehdi Army militia loyal to anti-American Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr. The curfew took effect Monday morning and will be in place until further notice, police said. Amara, the provincial capital of Maysan province, remains quiet after clashes killed at least 16 and wounded 90 others, a hospital official said. Amara is in the heart of the Shiite-dominated south near the Iraq-Iran border.
U.S.-led coalition forces killed five suspected insurgents Monday during a raid on a building south of Balad, north of Baghdad, the U.S. military said. Coalition forces believed "several suspected terrorists" were inside the building, according to the military.
Gunmen ambushed two busloads of Iraqi police recruits Sunday in Baquba, northeast of Baghdad, killing at least 13 and kidnapping dozens of others, security officials said. The attackers planted roadside bombs, which struck at least one of the buses. They then opened fire on the recruits, the Iraqi Interior Ministry said. The Iraqi army clashed with gunmen for hours, a security official said. After the attack, Iraqi police started to collect bodies but discovered -- after a bomb exploded near one of the corpses -- that the attackers had left an explosive next to each body, the Interior Ministry said. The police then called for the U.S. military, which defused 15 bombs.
A senior U.S. State Department diplomat apologized Sunday for having told the Arab satellite network Al-Jazeera on Saturday that there is a strong possibility history will show the United States displayed "arrogance" and "stupidity" in its handling of the Iraq war. (Full story) Alberto Fernandez is director of the Office of Press and Public Diplomacy in the Bureau of Near East Affairs.