WASHINGTON (Agencies): A top US military commander in Iraq said Tuesday that troops have al-Qaeda on the run but will never be finished chasing them “because they may always come back.” Army Maj Gen Mark P. Hertling, commander of coalition forces in northern Iraq, said some 40 military operations in his area since the last week of December have killed more than 130 militants and netted more than 370 prisoners, including 40 so-called “high-value individuals.” Expanding security in the four-province area has “caused significant damage” to al-Qaeda, Hertling told a Pentagon news conference. Additionally, he said, commanders have intelligence that indicates the insurgents are “looking for a place to hide.” “A year ago, we were often reacting to al-Qaeda and what they were going to do next,” Hertling said by videoconference from Iraq. “Now I think the tables have turned a little bit, and they are attempting to react to where we’re going to go next. And that’s a critical difference.”
“They are trying to get away or find new safe havens and every time they think they have them, we attack there,” he said. He said 15 of his soldiers were killed during the recent operations. Asked if militants were being squeezed so much by the operations that they are experiencing their last stand, Hertling said he would never describe it that way. A major criticism of coalition operations in past years was that they would push insurgents out of an area, only to have them return after US forces left. “Whenever you feel comfortable that you’ve eliminated them in one area, they tend to re-emerge,” Hertling said. “We’ll never say that we’ve completed pursuing them because they may always come back.” A big difference this year is that Iraqi security forces have grown in size and abilities to help hold areas after they have been cleared of fighters, he said. Hertling has four Iraqi Army divisions working alongside his troops.
Bomber
A suicide bomber pushing an electric heater on top of a cart packed with explosives attacked a high school north of Baghdad on Tuesday, killing a bystander and wounding 21 people — mainly youngsters and teachers. The school attack and other recent bombings against funerals and social gatherings point to the frightening possibility that al-Qaeda in Iraq has shifted tactics to focus on so-called soft targets and undermine public confidence that things are looking better in Iraq. Tuesday’s bombing took place at a gate in front of the two-story schoolhouse about 8:30 am, half an hour after classes began. The blast, which left a crater in the road, killed a 25-year-old man and wounded 12 students, eight teachers and one policeman, according to a doctor at Baqouba General Hospital. Mohammed Abbas, 15, said he was walking outside his classroom after finishing a test when he heard a big boom.
“Immediately I fell down, and the next thing I was aware of was a doctor treating me in the hospital,” Abbas said, his wounded head in a bandage as his father stood near him. “We did not expect that explosions would reach our school. I can’t think of any reason to target students.” A police officer said the school appeared to be the target because the attacker blew himself up at the gate. The school is located more than 30 meters (yards) away from the back gate of the provincial governor’s office in Baqouba, 60 kms (35 miles) northeast of Baghdad. Both the officer and the doctor spoke on condition of anonymity because they feared reprisals. Baqouba is the turbulent capital of Diyala province, which has defied a nationwide trend toward lower violence over the past six months. One reason for the continued bloodshed in Diyala is that al-Qaeda in Iraq fighters fled there after Sunni insurgents and clan members joined with American troops to oust them from much of Baghdad and Anbar province to the west.
However, the Diyala attack followed three suicide attacks in as many days in Sunni Arab areas thought to have been largely rid of al-Qaeda militants. US commanders credit anti-al-Qaeda fighters from Sunni groups, a six-month cease-fire by a Shiite militia and the dispatch of 30,000 additional US soldiers last year for the reduction in violence. But there has been an uptick in high-profile bombings in recent weeks, suggesting al-Qaeda remains a potent threat. On Monday, a suicide bomber apparently targeting a senior security official blew himself up inside a funeral tent, killing 18 people in Hajaj, a village about midway along the nearly 20 miles (30 kms) between Saddam Hussein’s hometown of Tikrit and the oil hub of Beiji, 155 miles (250 kms) north of Baghdad. But police said the attack bore the hallmarks of al-Qaeda in Iraq.
Witnesses said about 70 people were inside the tent when the attacker set off his explosives soon after entering. Officials said the target appeared to be Ahmed Abdullah, deputy governor in charge of security for Salahuddin province, of which Tikrit is the capital. He escaped unharmed. Abdullah was a relative of the man being honored at the funeral, Antar Mohammed Abed, a former bodyguard of Saddam’s wife, Sajida Khairallah Tulfah, who became a farmer after returning to Hajaj following the ouster of the late dictator’s regime five years ago.
Killed
The US military has suffered a first fatality in one of a new fleet of heavily armoured vehicles designed to protect soldiers from roadside bombs, the military said on Tuesday. One soldier died and three were wounded when a bomb went off next to the Mine Resistant Ambush Protected (MRAP) armoured truck near Arab Jabour on Baghdad’s southern outskirts on Saturday. “It does appear that this was the first fatality involving an improvised explosive device on an MRAP,” US military spokesman Major Winfield Danielson said. The US military has about 1,500 of the vehicles operating in Iraq, reducing its reliance on the less well-protected Humvee military vehicles. MRAPs generally feature a raised, V-shaped hull and armour plating designed to protect troops inside by deflecting blasts from roadside bombs and mines away from the vehicle. Roadside bombs are by far the biggest killers of US troops in Iraq and acquisition of the vehicles became one of the Pentagon’s top priorities last year. A total of 3,929 US troops have died in Iraq since the March 2003 invasion to topple Saddam Hussein.
The New York Times newspaper reported on Tuesday that the dead soldier was a gunner. Gunners sit in turrets at the top of vehicles and are generally the most exposed of any crew, particularly if a vehicle is flipped or rolls in a blast. Danielson said the Arab Jabour incident was under investigation but did not think the soldier’s death would change the military’s attitude towards the vehicle. He said the other three wounded soldiers inside the vehicle had not suffered life-threatening injuries. The Pentagon had originally planned to ship 2,500 to 3,000 of the vehicles to Iraq by the end of 2007 but cut that number to 1,500 due to the amount of time needed to ship the large trucks, which can weigh up to 18 tonnes. A total of about 8,800 MRAPs have been ordered by the Pentagon at a cost of more than $12 billion. Much bigger than flat-bottomed Humvees, MRAPs can carry 6-10 soldiers.
Flag
Iraq’s parliament adopted a new, temporary national flag on Tuesday in a move long demanded by the country’s Kurdish minority who say the Saddam Hussein-era banner is a reminder of the cruelty of his rule. There was rare unity among members of parliament over the emotional issue, which represents a symbolic break with the past. A previous attempt to change the flag, by the interim government in 2004, was universally rejected by Iraqis. The debate over a post-Saddam flag was given urgency by a planned pan-Arab meeting of politicians in Iraq’s largely autonomous Kurdistan region on March 10. Kurdish officials had refused to fly the current flag, which is banned in Kurdistan.
The new flag will fly for only one year, while debate will continue on what the final flag should look like. There was no serious opposition from the Shiite, Sunni Arab and Kurdish blocs in parliament to the new flag – 110 of the 165 members present voted for the change – because it is almost identical to the old one.
Lawmakers loyal to fiery Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, who have 30 seats in parliament, voted against the proposal for that reason, saying they would prefer to keep the existing flag until a permanent one was chosen.
Other MPs, though, said the vote by parliament was symbolically important, changing a flag that was first flown after the coup by Saddam Hussein’s Baath Party in 1963.
“The new flag has no signs of Saddam’s regime and is a sign that change has been achieved in the country, said Humam Hamoudi, a prominent Shiite politician and member of the powerful Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council (SIIC) party.
It is still red, white and black, but the three green stars in the centre representing unity, freedom and socialism, the motto of Saddam’s now outlawed Baath party, have been removed.
The phrase Allahu Akbar (God is Greatest), added in green Arabic script on Saddam’s orders during the 1991 Gulf War, remains. The script was originally in Saddam’s handwriting but was changed unofficially in 2004 to Kufic, a prestigious early form of Arabic calligraphy that originated in Iraq. The Kurds had wanted the colour of the script changed to yellow to symbolise the Kurdish nation, but it was decided this would be too difficult to read on a white background. “We are not trying to create a new flag, but we are moving quickly to create a temporary flag that can be flown at the parliamentary conference in Arbil. Since the Kurds reject the current Iraqi flag we needed to find a new one,” said Mofeed al-Jazarie, head of the parliament’s culture committee. Kurdistan banned the use of the Iraqi flag on public buildings in 2006, causing a bitter row with the Shiite Islamist-led government of Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, who said the flag should be raised “over any square inch of Iraq”.
Kurds associate the flag with Saddam’s genocidal Anfal campaign against them in the late 1980s in which tens of thousands of people were bombed, shot and gassed. Kurdistan president Masoud Barzani wrote to the Iraqi parliament last year calling for the flag to be changed. He said then that any new flag would fly alongside Kurdistan’s. “It is unacceptable that this flag, which reflects the acts of the former regime in spreading hatred and death inside Iraq and between people of the region, is still adopted,” he wrote. The new flag will fly at the March 10 meeting of the Arab parliament in Arbil, capital of Kurdistan, believed to be the first major pan-Arab gathering in Iraq since the 2003 invasion. The parliament comprises representatives of Arab League members.