yahya ayash
08-01-04, 13:19
BAGHDAD, January 8 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) - Iraqi resistance fired mortars at a U.S. occupation military base west of Baghdad, killing one soldier and wounding 34, while the U.S.-led occupation forces readied to release 100 Iraqi prisoners following behind the scenes pressure from British officials in Baghdad.
Six mortars struck Logistical Base Seitz northwest of Baghdad at 6:45 pm (1545 GMT) Wednesday, January 7, hitting soldiers' barracks, U.S. officials said according to Agence France-Presse (AFP).
"One soldier was killed and 34 wounded," a military spokesman said Thursday, January 7.
The toll had earlier been put at 35 wounded, with some of the soldiers listed as seriously injured.
The seriously wounded soldiers were evacuated for treatment.
The latest death raised to 216 the number of U.S. soldiers killed in Iraq since U.S. President George W. Bush declared major hostilities over on May 1.
One soldier was killed and two wounded in a mortar strike on January 3 south of Balad, 75 kilometers (47 miles) north of Baghdad.
Attacks on U.S. occupation troops even after the arrest of former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein on December 13. The U.S. officials have been accusing Saddam sympathizers to be behind such attacks.
Prisoners “Held Without Charge” Released
This comes as U.S. overseer Paul Bremer, with current interim Governing Council chairman Adnan Pachachi at his side, announced the imminent release of 100 prisoners held without charge, with hundreds more to follow.
The British daily, the Guardian, said that the move follows pressure behind the scenes from British officials in Baghdad who have been alarmed at the large numbers of Iraqis scooped up by the American military during routine operations.
In a move apparently designed to deflect growing criticism of America's human rights record in Iraq, Bremer said today's release of prisoners was in the interests of "reconciliation", the Guardian added.
"It is time for Iraqis to make common cause in building the new Iraq," he said.
Officials at the U.S. occupation Provisional Authority (CPA) in Baghdad have recently reviewed the issue of detainees after numerous complaints from Iraqis that their relatives have simply disappeared, the Guardian said.
"There needs to be a process which is conciliatory to the degree that those who are not involved in gross crimes are released back to their communities as soon as possible, in the spirit of broader reconciliation," one British official said.
"All they do is put a bag on their heads, bind their hands behind them with plastic handcuffs and take them away. Families don't know where they go," Malek Dohan al-Hassan, the head of the Baghdad lawyers' syndicate complained last month. "They violate human rights up to their ears."
According to the guardian, the 506 detainees to be freed represent about 4% of the 12,800 prisoners in U.S. custody in Iraq, a figure that includes 4,000 members of an anti-Iranian militia. None of the detainees has been charged. Some have been in jail for nine months. The U.S. military has refused to allow them to see a lawyer. There have also been consistent complaints from former detainees that U.S. soldiers have beaten them up or forced them to stand for hours with their hands in the air.
Reward Program
Bremer announced the imminent release of 100 prisoners held without charge
Bremer also unveiled a 200,000-dollar reward program for the capture of more "wanted individuals".
The prison release program is aimed at bringing a new bounty of intelligence from those Iraqis being freed under the new policy, a U.S. occupation spokesman said.
"We're hoping these people will take this opportunity to help the new Iraq by giving information on those who are going out killing and hurting people," the spokesman told AFP.
Those released will be set free on the understanding they "must renounce violence" and have a community sponsor, possibly a religious or tribal leader, to watch them, Bremer said.
According to U.S. occupation troops figures, 9,300 "security detainees" are being held in the U.S.-run prisons. That does not include 3,800 detained members of the Iranian armed opposition People's Mujahedeen, which enjoyed Saddam's patronage.
U.S. occuaption officials have repeatedly warned of more "big bang" attacks.
Meanwhile, assailants raked a checkpoint with bullets Wednesday, killing a policeman and a civilian near the northern city of Kirkuk.
Kirkuk Police chief General Turhan Yussef said armed men opened fire on a Northern Oil Co. (NOC) patrol, killing one of the guards and wounding three others, just outside the oil center.
A firefight between U.S. forces and guerrillas in the restive town of Fallujah left an Iraqi couple dead late Tuesday, January 6, Iraqi police and witnesses said, although the U.S. military was unable to confirm the accounts.
Elsewhere, attackers blew up a pipeline 135 kilometers (85 miles) west of Kirkuk near the Syrian border, a senior Iraqi oil official told AFP Wednesday
Six mortars struck Logistical Base Seitz northwest of Baghdad at 6:45 pm (1545 GMT) Wednesday, January 7, hitting soldiers' barracks, U.S. officials said according to Agence France-Presse (AFP).
"One soldier was killed and 34 wounded," a military spokesman said Thursday, January 7.
The toll had earlier been put at 35 wounded, with some of the soldiers listed as seriously injured.
The seriously wounded soldiers were evacuated for treatment.
The latest death raised to 216 the number of U.S. soldiers killed in Iraq since U.S. President George W. Bush declared major hostilities over on May 1.
One soldier was killed and two wounded in a mortar strike on January 3 south of Balad, 75 kilometers (47 miles) north of Baghdad.
Attacks on U.S. occupation troops even after the arrest of former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein on December 13. The U.S. officials have been accusing Saddam sympathizers to be behind such attacks.
Prisoners “Held Without Charge” Released
This comes as U.S. overseer Paul Bremer, with current interim Governing Council chairman Adnan Pachachi at his side, announced the imminent release of 100 prisoners held without charge, with hundreds more to follow.
The British daily, the Guardian, said that the move follows pressure behind the scenes from British officials in Baghdad who have been alarmed at the large numbers of Iraqis scooped up by the American military during routine operations.
In a move apparently designed to deflect growing criticism of America's human rights record in Iraq, Bremer said today's release of prisoners was in the interests of "reconciliation", the Guardian added.
"It is time for Iraqis to make common cause in building the new Iraq," he said.
Officials at the U.S. occupation Provisional Authority (CPA) in Baghdad have recently reviewed the issue of detainees after numerous complaints from Iraqis that their relatives have simply disappeared, the Guardian said.
"There needs to be a process which is conciliatory to the degree that those who are not involved in gross crimes are released back to their communities as soon as possible, in the spirit of broader reconciliation," one British official said.
"All they do is put a bag on their heads, bind their hands behind them with plastic handcuffs and take them away. Families don't know where they go," Malek Dohan al-Hassan, the head of the Baghdad lawyers' syndicate complained last month. "They violate human rights up to their ears."
According to the guardian, the 506 detainees to be freed represent about 4% of the 12,800 prisoners in U.S. custody in Iraq, a figure that includes 4,000 members of an anti-Iranian militia. None of the detainees has been charged. Some have been in jail for nine months. The U.S. military has refused to allow them to see a lawyer. There have also been consistent complaints from former detainees that U.S. soldiers have beaten them up or forced them to stand for hours with their hands in the air.
Reward Program
Bremer announced the imminent release of 100 prisoners held without charge
Bremer also unveiled a 200,000-dollar reward program for the capture of more "wanted individuals".
The prison release program is aimed at bringing a new bounty of intelligence from those Iraqis being freed under the new policy, a U.S. occupation spokesman said.
"We're hoping these people will take this opportunity to help the new Iraq by giving information on those who are going out killing and hurting people," the spokesman told AFP.
Those released will be set free on the understanding they "must renounce violence" and have a community sponsor, possibly a religious or tribal leader, to watch them, Bremer said.
According to U.S. occupation troops figures, 9,300 "security detainees" are being held in the U.S.-run prisons. That does not include 3,800 detained members of the Iranian armed opposition People's Mujahedeen, which enjoyed Saddam's patronage.
U.S. occuaption officials have repeatedly warned of more "big bang" attacks.
Meanwhile, assailants raked a checkpoint with bullets Wednesday, killing a policeman and a civilian near the northern city of Kirkuk.
Kirkuk Police chief General Turhan Yussef said armed men opened fire on a Northern Oil Co. (NOC) patrol, killing one of the guards and wounding three others, just outside the oil center.
A firefight between U.S. forces and guerrillas in the restive town of Fallujah left an Iraqi couple dead late Tuesday, January 6, Iraqi police and witnesses said, although the U.S. military was unable to confirm the accounts.
Elsewhere, attackers blew up a pipeline 135 kilometers (85 miles) west of Kirkuk near the Syrian border, a senior Iraqi oil official told AFP Wednesday