Conversation Among Friends

2007

July 22: profile of an actor and resident of Los Angeles, a mechanical engineer by training, who is now "Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Maliki's advisor on judicial matters and executions and the go-to man for all things gallows" - link  

July 22: Aide to Iraq's Top Shiite Cleric Fatally Stabbed; 1 US soldier killed by roadside bomb; Iraqi prime minister asks parliament to cancel or shorten August recess - link

July 20: "Two U.S. soldiers were charged with premeditated murder and their battalion commander was relieved of duty in connection with the death of an Iraqi, the U.S. military said Thursday." - link

July 12: "Clashes in a southeastern neighborhood here between the American military and Shiite militias on Thursday left at least 16 people dead, including two Reuters journalists who had driven to the area to cover the turbulence, according to an official at the Interior Ministry."; also 1 US soldier was killed - link

July 12: "The Bush administration's decision to set benchmarks for measuring the progress of the Iraq mission is now seen by some U.S. officials as a costly blunder that has only aided the White House's critics in Congress and its foes in Iraq." - link

July 8: "The Iraqi government is unlikely to meet any of the political and security goals or timelines President Bush set for it in January when he announced a major shift in U.S. policy, according to senior administration officials closely involved in the matter. As they prepare an interim report due next week, officials are marshaling alternative evidence of progress to persuade Congress to continue supporting the war." - link

July 8: ~150 Iraqis dead "...after a suicide bomber drove a load of watermelons and vegetables to the center of a village marketplace in northern Iraq...he blast occurred hours after a car bomb killed 22 Shiite Kurds in a remote northeastern corner of Diyala province near the border with Iran." 3 US troop deaths were also announced - link

July 7: "A growing number of Republican lawmakers are dissenting from the administration and urging for a change of course." - link

July 6: Succesful relationship between an American platoon leader and an Iraqi army captain is sabotaged by the interference of Iraq interior ministry acting on behalf of sectarian interests - link

June 21: 14 Americans killed - link

June 4: 14 US troops killed, 62 Iraqis found dead or reported killed - link

June 3: attacks on US troops grow in lethality and complexity, civillian deaths fall sharply in Baghdad - link

June 3: surge not meeting its goals, milestone for secruing Baghdad slips from July to Sept, "...military planners had expected to make greater gains by now, that has not been possible in large part because Iraqi police and army units, which were expected to handle basic security tasks, like manning checkpoints and conducting patrols, have not provided all the forces promised, and in some cases have performed poorly." - link

June 3: insurgents increasingly target Iraqi infrastructure, especially bridges - link

June 1: 3 US soldiers killed; "The number of unidentified corpses discovered in Baghdad soared more than 70 percent during May, according to new statistics from the Iraqi Ministry of Interior, an indication that sectarian killings are rising sharply as militias return to the streets after lying low during the first few months of the troop "surge." In May, 726 unidentified bodies were found in Baghdad, many bound and shot in the head or showing signs of torture and execution, compared with 411 during April...despite May's increase in corpses, the numbers remain far below the peak of sectarian executions last year. In July and August, for example, a total of 5,106 people died violent deaths in Baghdad alone..." - link

May 31: "...security control of Iraq's three northern Kurdish provinces were officially handed over at a ceremony in Irbil. Iraqi authorities now have responsibility for seven of the country's 18 provinces."; "Hundreds of U.S. and Iraqi troops raided Baghdad's Sadr City slum Wednesday, a day after five British citizens were kidnapped from a nearby government building in an assault that the Iraqi foreign minister said had the hallmarks of a militia strike. Two Iraqis working for the U.S. Embassy were reported kidnapped Wednesday, and at least 48 Iraqis were killed or found slain in other violence. Among them were two journalists." - link

May 31:"Sunni residents of a west Baghdad neighborhood used assault rifles and a roadside bomb to battle the Sunni insurgent group al-Qaeda in Iraq this week, leaving at least 28 people dead and six injured, residents said Thursday. The mayor of the Amiriyah neighborhood, Mohammed Abdul Khaliq, said in a telephone interview that residents were rising up to try to expel al-Qaeda in Iraq, which has alienated other Sunnis with its indiscriminate violence and attacks on members of its own sect."; 5 US soldiers killed in roadside bombings - link

May 29: Suicide bomber kills 24 near Sunni mosque in Baghdad, "Elsewhere in Baghdad, eight other explosions from bombs, mortars or rockets killed at least 21 people. Gunmen were blamed for one additional death, police said." - link

May 29: Military officers doubt top objectives -- sharing of oil revenue, provincial elections and integration of Sunni Arabs -- will be achieved before a September report to Congress - link

May 28: based on a tip from a local, US troops raid an Al Qaeda hide-out northeast of Baghdad and free 41 prisoners;on the same day at least 64 Iraqis were killed or found slain across Iraq - link

May 28: "The Iraq war, which for years has drawn militants from around the world, is beginning to export fighters and the tactics they have honed in the insurgency to neighboring countries and beyond, according to American, European and Middle Eastern government officials and interviews with militant leaders in Lebanon, Jordan and London." - link

May 28: GIs in Iraq become disillusioned as they find themselves being attacked by people they have trained - link

May 26: 7 more troops die - link

May 26: "Months before the invasion of Iraq, U.S. intelligence agencies predicted that it would be likely to spark violent sectarian divides and provide al-Qaeda with new opportunities in Iraq and Afghanistan, according to a report released yesterday by the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence. Analysts warned that war in Iraq also could provoke Iran to assert its regional influence and "probably would result in a surge of political Islam and increased funding for terrorist groups" in the Muslim world." - link

May 24: body of 1 of 3 missing soldiers found floating in the Euphrates, 9 soldiers were killed the previous Mon and Tues in bombings and shootings - link

May 24: sectarian killings are rising again, though they haven't reached last years highest levels - link

May 23: US troops working with local tribes are having success against Al Qaeda in Anbar province, Shi'ite factions have little interest in making concessions to the Sunnis - link

May 22: Iran fighting proxy war to push US out of Iraq - link

May 21: One building that's been built on time and on budget in Iraq: America's fortress embassy - link

May 21: 7 soldiers and an interpreter killed, > 24 Iraqis killed - link

May 19: > 146 contractors killed in the 1st Q of 2007, nearly 1,000 dead and 12,000 wounded and nearly 3,400 US soldiers dead since war began - link

May 18: 5 soldiers and 2 journalists die in Baghdad and Diyala - link

May 15: kidnapped soldiers held by Al-Qaeda and 6 more soldiers die - link

May 13: 5 soldiers killed in ambush - link

May 10: A majority of members of Iraq's parliament have signed a draft bill that would require a timetable for the withdrawal of U.S. soldiers from Iraq and freeze current troop levels - link

May 10: Iraqi lawmaker's plan to take 2-month vacation starting July 1 - link

May 6: 8 soldiers killed; 42 civillians killed in market blast - link

May 1: Sunni ministers threaten to quit cabinet - link

April 30: US death toll in April surpasses 100 - link

April 30: "a rare success story" Col. McFarland has some success in Ramadi - link

April 30: "some glimmers of hope", e.g. Ramadi and Petraeus taking over - link

April 29: in a sampling of eight projects that the United States had declared successes, seven were no longer operating as designed because of plumbing and electrical failures, etc. - link

April 24: Al-Maliki support eroding in Iraq, Officials doubt he can unite factions - link

April 23: 9 soldiers killed - link

April 23: parallels to Vietnam, Lebanon, and Somalia - link

April 22: top US officers see mixed results from surge - link

April 21: Bush argues that the surge is working as violence slows in Baghdad and Anbar province - link

April 6: Captured Iraqi documents and intelligence interrogations of Saddam Hussein and two former aides "all confirmed" that Hussein's regime was not directly cooperating with al-Qaeda before the U.S. invasion of Iraq - link

April 5: by a 2 to 1 margin, Iraqis belief life is better today than under Saddam - link