Insurgents have been very successful taking out US tanks. The American premire Abrams tank has all of its armor on the front end. Naturally, rocket propelled grenades can be used from the side and the back of the tank. Roadside bombs take out the underside of the tank. While, the US lost only 18 tanks in Iraqi War I, they've lost 69 tanks this time around. One of the keys to the Afghani win against the Soviets was from its success destroying tanks.
The number of insurgents held in prison by US troops has doubled to 10,000 since last October. That suggests the insurgency has been more successful in recruiting within Iraq, despite talk of more non-Iraqis contributing.
Perhaps worst of all, the Iraqi people are losing faith in the democratic process. Bread, butter, and security are the primary concerns, and the government can't settle on leadership much less solve problems of the Iraqi on the street.
Iraqi voters aren't happy. They don't care that some of the biggest political changes ever to happen in their lifetime are going on in their country. All they know is that the electricity still is off for hours every day, the water doesn't always flow out of the faucets, there are still long gas queues at the stations, and the situation still seems pretty lawless in the streets.
"We're very disappointed," said Hathem Hassan Thani, 31, a political science graduate student at Baghdad University."Some personalities are trying to make the political operation fail, and they don't want to give positions to the Sunni Muslims."
[...]
"The Iraqi people are very itchy.The street is very nervous," said Saad Jawar Qindeel, a spokesman for the Supreme Council of Islamic Revolution in Iraq, one of two dominant religious-based parties that won the United Iraqi Alliance ticket."There's a lot of talk of people ready to protest."
Leadership | Abrams Tank Vulnerable | Iraqi Prisoners
Iraq voters under pressure to name leaders
[World News] By BETH POTTER, UPI Baghdad Correspondent BAGHDAD, March 29 : Iraqi voters aren't happy.They don't care that some of the biggest political changes ever to happen in their lifetime are going on in their country. All they know is that the electricity still is off for hours every day, the water doesn't always flow out of the faucets, there are still long gas queues at the stations, and the situation still seems pretty lawless in the streets.
"We're very disappointed," said Hathem Hassan Thani, 31, a political science graduate student at Baghdad University."Some personalities are trying to make the political operation fail, and they don't want to give positions to the Sunni Muslims."
The fledgling 275-member parliament elected Jan. 30 failed to agree on who would be speaker Tuesday, after Sunni Muslim Ghazi al-Yawar, currently the interim president, declined the post.He and interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi stormed out of the session after it was closed to journalists.
"Al-Yawar did not want to lose his credibility as a politician.That's why he didn't come," said Hiba Jameel Mahmoud, 25, another political science student."Maybe we need to hold another election to make sure everybody is participating.
A Shiite-Muslim-dominated list, the United Iraqi Alliance, received almost 50 percent of the Jan. 30 vote to name a new national assembly.Ethnic Kurds in northern Iraq received another 27 percent.Sunni Muslims largely boycotted the vote, but now want to be involved in writing a new constitution.
Deep divides appeared between the assembly's Shiite, Sunni and Kurdish members Tuesday morning, even before the session started.Shiites blamed Kurds and al-Yawar for holding up progress of forming a government.
"The Iraqi people are very itchy.The street is very nervous," said Saad Jawar Qindeel, a spokesman for the Supreme Council of Islamic Revolution in Iraq, one of two dominant religious-based parties that won the United Iraqi Alliance ticket."There's a lot of talk of people ready to protest."
Negotiations appear to be stalled not only on who is to be speaker, but also in key cabinet posts, including ministers of oil, defense and interior.Members were also originally expected to approve a president, two vice presidents and a prime minister in Tuesday's session.
Insurgents are taking advantage of the indecision in government ranks, said Interior Minister Fallah al-Nakib, who appeared to be lobbying to keep his job at Baghdad's Convention Center, where the National Assembly was meeting.He is also a member of the Iraq National Alliance list led by interim Prime Minister Allawi.
"We don't have a Sunni/Shiite problem, the problem is one of national unity," al-Nakib said."During Arbaeen, terrorists may set off car bombs.But the problem is a national issue."
Shiite Muslims make a pilgrimage to holy sites in southern Iraq during Arbaeen, which starts Wednesday.Already, a car bomb Monday in Musayyib targeted the pilgrims.
"We don't want to see casualties, we want to stop the bloodshed," al-Nakib said.
If Sunnis don't choose representatives for various posts, other elected members will choose for them, said Jalal al-Din al-Saqheer, a conservative Shiite Muslim member who wore the traditional clerical robes to Tuesday's session.
"We have given them many chances, and time is running very close," al-Saqheer said."We are thinking of a mature political process.There are certain time periods we have to look up to."
But other squabbling continues among members of the United Iraqi Alliance and Kurdish leaders as well.For example, Jalal Talabani, a Kurdish leader who is expected to be named president, did not show up to the assembly session.
Neither did many Sunnis, who now want to be involved in the government, said Sharif Ali bin Hussein, a Sunni candidate who is expected to be named to head a committee to write a new constitution.
"They believe the election would be delayed and would not be successful," bin Hussein said in his office, a guest house of former president Saddam Hussein with beautifully manicured grounds and a commanding view of the Tigris River."Now they're willing to recoup.They're saying you can't form a government without us, without Sunni representation."
Other parliament members feel the same way -- an estimated six minister posts have been set aside for Sunnis, along with other key government positions, even though the number of them elected, 17, does not warrant such a large representation.
Security was tight Tuesday, with traffic blocked from getting near the heavily fortified "green zone" where the assembly was held.Mortars hit the first National Assembly meeting on March 16.
At the same time, three Romanian journalists were kidnapped Monday near their hotel, their employers said.And police said a car bombing in the northern oil-rich city of Kirkuk killed one person and wounded more than 12 others.
- -- Copyright 2005 by United Press International.
USA TODAY
Tanks take a beating in Iraq
By Steven Komarow, USA TODAY
WASHINGTON — The U.S. military's Abrams tank, designed during the Cold War to withstand the fiercest blows from the best Soviet tanks, is getting knocked out at surprising rates by the low-tech bombs and rocket-propelled grenades of Iraqi insurgents.
Abrams' heavy armor is up front, however, insurgents sneak up from behind, fire from rooftops above and set off mines below.
In the all-out battles of the 1991 Gulf War, only 18 Abrams tanks were lost and no soldiers in them killed. But since the March 2003 invasion of Iraq, with tanks in daily combat against the unexpectedly fierce insurgency, the Army says 80 of the 69-ton behemoths have been damaged so badly they had to be shipped back to the United States. (Related graphic: Upgrading the Abrams tank)
At least five soldiers have been killed inside the tanks when they hit roadside bombs, according to figures from the Army's Armor Center at Fort Knox, Ky. At least 10 more have died while riding partially exposed from open hatches. (Related story: Tanks adapted for urban fights they once avoided)
The casualties are the lowest in any Army vehicles, despite how often the Abrams is targeted — about 70% of the more than 1,100 tanks used in Iraq have been struck by enemy fire, mostly with minor damage.
The Army will not discuss details of how tanks have been damaged by insurgents, lest that give tips to the enemy. "We have been very cautious about giving out information," says Jan Finegan, spokeswoman for Army Materiel Command.
Commanders say the damage is not surprising because the Abrams is used so heavily, and insurgents are determined to destroy it.
"It's a thinking enemy, and they know weak points on the tank, where to hit us," says Col. Russ Gold, who commanded an armored brigade in Iraq and now is chief of staff at the Armor Center.
Because it was designed to fight other tanks, the Abrams' heavy armor is up front. In Iraq's cities, however, insurgents sneak up from behind, fire from rooftops above and set off mines below.
A favorite tactic: detonating a roadside bomb in hopes of blowing the tread off the tank. The insurgents follow with rocket-propelled grenades, mortars and gunfire aimed at the less-armored areas, especially the vulnerable rear engine compartment.
It's "a dirty, close fight," says an article in Armor, the Army's official magazine of tank warfare, by a group of officers led by Maj. Gen. Peter Chiarelli of the 1st Cavalry Division.
"Be wary of eliminating or reducing ... heavy armor" as the Army modernizes, the officers warn, arguing it is crucial against insurgents' "crude but effective weapons."
The Army says most of the "lost" tank hulls can be rebuilt and returned to battle someday. Meanwhile, the Army is upgrading the Abrams, including better protection for the tank's engine compartment.
Find this article at:
http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/iraq/2005-03-29-abrams-tank-a_x.htm
Number of prisoners held by U.S. in Iraq doubled in five months? (updated PM 5:01)
2005/3/30
WASHINGTON (AP)
The United States is holding about 10,500 prisoners in Iraq, more than double the number held in October, the U.S. military says.
About 100 of those prisoners are under age 18, said Army Lt. Col. Guy Rudisill, a spokesman for detention operations in Iraq.
Five months ago, the military said it was holding about 4,300 prisoners in Iraq. The growth in the prison population has come amid a lingering insurgency in Iraq and despite the formal transfer of power to an interim Iraqi government last June.
The number of U.S.-held prisoners in Iraq declined last summer after international outrage over abuses at the Abu Ghraib prison near Baghdad. Revelations of abuse have continued since then; on Friday, the Army released documents detailing a half-dozen prison abuse investigations in Afghanistan and Iraq.
The reports said soldiers had stripped prisoners naked and released them to walk home, beaten detainees with their fists and feet, broke a prisoner's jaw and forced detainees to exercise to the point of exhaustion. One investigator concluded prisoners at a temporary jail near Mosul were systematically mistreated and possibly tortured in December 2003.
Spokesmen for U.S. Combined Forces Command-Afghanistan did not respond Monday and Tuesday to e-mailed questions about the number of prisoners there. The military estimated in January that it was holding about 500 people in Afghanistan.
FOLLOWING MATERIAL EMBARGOED for 1300GMT
A human rights group was issuing a report Wednesday saying the rising number of detainees increases the risk that the prisoners will be mistreated. The report from New York-based Human Rights First says secrecy about the prisoners is also increasing, citing the refusal of military officials to discuss the number of prisoners in Afghanistan since January.
"We're seriously concerned about overburdening of what the Pentagon has called transient facilities, the field prisons," Human Rights First lawyer Deborah Pearlstein said Tuesday. "These are places where conditions are terrible, where the worst abuses occurred from 2002 to 2004, and ICRC (International Committee of the Red Cross) access is limited to nonexistent."
END EMBARGOED MATERIAL
About 1,200 of the prisoners in Iraq are being held at temporary facilities at forward bases, Rudisill said. He said the other 9,300 are held in three permanent prisons: the Abu Ghraib jail near Baghdad, Camp Cropper at the Baghdad International Airport and Camp Bucca in southern Iraq.
In December, U.S. officials said they were holding about 65 prisoners age 16 and under. The 100 or so under-18 prisoners in custody now are being held separately from adult prisoners, Rudisill said.
In an interview transcript made public earlier this month, the former head of prison operations in Iraq described meeting an imprisoned boy who said he was 11 years old but looked more like an 8-year-old. Brig. Gen. Janis Karpinski said the boy was crying for his mother, but did not say what happened to him.
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