June marks deadliest month for U.S. forces in Iraq since 2008
Read more: dailystar
BAGHDAD: U.S. forces still deployed in Iraq have suffered in June their
deadliest month in three years, as Iranian-backed insurgents put the
heat on them to pull out on schedule at year’s end.
In Kurdistan, a potential flashpoint for tensions among ethnic Kurds, Turkmen and Iraqi Arabs, and most of its residents say U.S. troops should remain after the end of this year to keep apart rival groups making claims on the oil-wealthy territory.
“The withdrawal of U.S. troops will bring nothing but disaster,” said Asos Hardi, director of Awene, an independent newspaper in Kurdistan. “There is a danger of civil war, there is a danger for some forces to return to the past.”
The 47,000 U.S. troops in Iraq are scheduled to leave by the end of this year when a security pact finishes and U.S. officials say Iraq’s government must ask soon if they want the troops to stay on.
U.S. officials are pressing Baghdad to keep a contingent of soldiers beyond 2011.
“In all my meetings in America, U.S. officials expressed their wish to maintain a military presence in Iraq,” Parliament Speaker Osama al-Nujaifi, who recently returned from the United States, said Thursday.
His comments come a day after three U.S. soldiers were killed “in a hostile event” in southern Iraq, the military said in a statement that gave no other details.
The latest deaths brought to 14 the number of American troops slain in Iraq in June – the deadliest toll in three years since June 2008 when 23 were killed.
U.S. troops formally ended combat mission in Iraq last September and largely withdrew from their bases, with the last soldiers due to pack up and go home by year’s end.
But as the clock ticks, Shiite groups backed by Iran have stepped up attacks on U.S. forces and other targets, according to the military.
“We have seen an increase in attacks throughout the country, but dominantly in Baghdad and through the south by the three major militia groups,” the spokesman for U.S. forces in Iraq said.
Major General Jeffrey Buchanan identified these groups as Kataeb Hezbollah, Asaib Ahel al-Haq and the Promised Day Brigade, adding that all three were backed by neighboring Iran.
The bloodiest day for U.S. forces was on June 6 when rockets slammed into a military base in Baghdad, killing six American soldiers.
Kataeb Hezbollah, a Shiite militant group that Washington says is sponsored by neighboring Iran, claimed responsibility for the rocket attack.
“The occupiers are still staining our soil,” the Arabic-language claim said, referring to the nearly 50,000 U.S. troops still in Iraq, down from a high of 170,000 after the 2003 U.S.-led invasion.
The Promised Day Brigade is directly linked to Muqtada al-Sadr, a radical, anti-American Shiite cleric who divides his time between Iran and the city of Najaf in southern Iraq.
The other two are offshoots of his now-disbanded Mehdi Army, which fought repeatedly against Iraqi and U.S.-led coalition forces between 2004 and 2007 and has been identified by the Pentagon as the main threat to stability in Iraq.
In a statement last week, Sadr said his supporters had offered to carry out suicide attacks against U.S. troops in Iraq, and in April he threatened to reactivate the Mehdi Army if American forces stayed beyond their scheduled departure.
 | |
In Kurdistan, a potential flashpoint for tensions among ethnic Kurds, Turkmen and Iraqi Arabs, and most of its residents say U.S. troops should remain after the end of this year to keep apart rival groups making claims on the oil-wealthy territory.
“The withdrawal of U.S. troops will bring nothing but disaster,” said Asos Hardi, director of Awene, an independent newspaper in Kurdistan. “There is a danger of civil war, there is a danger for some forces to return to the past.”
The 47,000 U.S. troops in Iraq are scheduled to leave by the end of this year when a security pact finishes and U.S. officials say Iraq’s government must ask soon if they want the troops to stay on.
U.S. officials are pressing Baghdad to keep a contingent of soldiers beyond 2011.
“In all my meetings in America, U.S. officials expressed their wish to maintain a military presence in Iraq,” Parliament Speaker Osama al-Nujaifi, who recently returned from the United States, said Thursday.
His comments come a day after three U.S. soldiers were killed “in a hostile event” in southern Iraq, the military said in a statement that gave no other details.
The latest deaths brought to 14 the number of American troops slain in Iraq in June – the deadliest toll in three years since June 2008 when 23 were killed.
U.S. troops formally ended combat mission in Iraq last September and largely withdrew from their bases, with the last soldiers due to pack up and go home by year’s end.
But as the clock ticks, Shiite groups backed by Iran have stepped up attacks on U.S. forces and other targets, according to the military.
“We have seen an increase in attacks throughout the country, but dominantly in Baghdad and through the south by the three major militia groups,” the spokesman for U.S. forces in Iraq said.
Major General Jeffrey Buchanan identified these groups as Kataeb Hezbollah, Asaib Ahel al-Haq and the Promised Day Brigade, adding that all three were backed by neighboring Iran.
The bloodiest day for U.S. forces was on June 6 when rockets slammed into a military base in Baghdad, killing six American soldiers.
Kataeb Hezbollah, a Shiite militant group that Washington says is sponsored by neighboring Iran, claimed responsibility for the rocket attack.
“The occupiers are still staining our soil,” the Arabic-language claim said, referring to the nearly 50,000 U.S. troops still in Iraq, down from a high of 170,000 after the 2003 U.S.-led invasion.
The Promised Day Brigade is directly linked to Muqtada al-Sadr, a radical, anti-American Shiite cleric who divides his time between Iran and the city of Najaf in southern Iraq.
The other two are offshoots of his now-disbanded Mehdi Army, which fought repeatedly against Iraqi and U.S.-led coalition forces between 2004 and 2007 and has been identified by the Pentagon as the main threat to stability in Iraq.
In a statement last week, Sadr said his supporters had offered to carry out suicide attacks against U.S. troops in Iraq, and in April he threatened to reactivate the Mehdi Army if American forces stayed beyond their scheduled departure.
Comments