3.2.3(3)

C. The Insurgents, Iraqis and Others (following)

Iraqi security forces battled the Mehdi Army militia in Basra on Tuesday March 25, 2008, in a drive to win control of the southern oil city, but violence appeared to be spreading to Baghdad and other cities. Two powerful factions of Iraq's Shiite majority, the Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council and the Mehdi Army militia of Moqtada al-Sadr, are fighting for power in Basra along with a smaller Shiite party, Fadhila. Here are some details on the main players:

- SADR MOVEMENT: Loyalists of Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr are the most influential group on the streets of Basra. Sadr's political movement and Mehdi Army militia have popular support. Critics accuse them of using violence to impose strict Islamic rules, a charge Sadrists deny.

- SUPREME ISLAMIC IRAQI COUNCIL: The Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council (SIIC) has a strong following in Basra and, like the Sadrists, has built up support by running charities to help the poor.

- FADHILA PARTY: The Fadhila Party is a small Shiite Islamist party which has little clout in other parts of the country but controls the position of governor in Basra. Fadhila is believed to have influence in the Southern Oil Company, which through exports from Basra supplies nearly all of the government's funds.

- SECURITY FORCES: Iraq has 30,000 soldiers and police to keep the peace in Basra.

- BRITISH FORCES: After the handover of Basra, Britain has around 4,100 troops based in southern Iraq, almost all of them in a fortified encampment at Basra air base just outside the city.

On Monday April 14, 2008, we were told that Iraq fired some 1,300 soldiers and police who refused to fight Shiite Muslim militias during the recent government crackdown; desertions that raised questions about the likely performance of Iraqi forces as US troop levels diminish.

On May 6, 2008, Iraqi soldiers detained dozens of policemen and closed down a hospital suspected of treating Shiite militiamen in a Baghdad stronghold of cleric Muqtada al-Sadr's Mahdi Army.

The head of the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), Michael Hayden, said on May 30, 2008, that al-Qaida is essentially defeated in Iraq and Saudi Arabia, and on the defensive elsewhere. He added that US counter-terrorism successes extended to the Afghanistan-Pakistan border.

The U.S. military must charge or immediately release a Reuters cameraman detained in Iraq, the Committee to Protect Journalists said on Monday August 4, 2008. Ali al-Mashhadani, who also works freelance for the BBC and Washington-based National Public Radio, was detained in Baghdad on July 26 while he was in the Green Zone. U.S. forces have detained Mashhadani before. No charge has ever been filed against the cameraman, who is based in Ramadi, the capital of western Anbar province.

On Saturday November 1, 2008, Iraq is sending police reinforcements to the border with Syria. The rapid reaction force is aimed at preventing al-Qaeda combatants from penetrating Iraq. The measure follows the United States air strike last Sunday on the Syrian border city of Abu Kamal. According to the United States, the attack killed an al-Qaeda leader responsible for smuggling combatants over the border.

On December 26, 2008, six Iraqi policemen and seven detained militants have been killed in Ramadi as the prisoners attempted to escape from a police station. One of the militants overpowered an officer as he was being escorted from his cell in what appeared to be a well-planned operation

The militants were senior figures with links to al-Qaida. Nouri al-Maliki said in a televised address that "those who think that Iraqis are not able to protect their country and that the withdrawal of foreign forces will create a security vacuum are committing a big mistake." The streets of Baghdad were relatively quiet, as the Iraqi government named June 30 National Sovereignty Day and declared it a public holiday.

Gay Iraqi men are being murdered in what appears to be a co-ordinated campaign involving militia forces we were told on August 17, 2009. Hundreds of gay men have been targeted and killed in Iraq since 2004. So-called honour killings also account for deaths where families punish their own kin in order to avoid public shame. Members of the Mehdi Army militia group are spearheading the campaign, but police are also accused, even though homosexuality is legal. Witnesses say vigilante groups break into homes and pick people up in the street, interrogating them to extract the names of other potential victims, before murdering them.

On February 25, 2010, we were told that Iraq is to be given a $3.6bn loan by the International Monetary Fund -the biggest to the country so far. The money is aimed at helping Iraq rebuild its battered infrastructure. The IMF has lent smaller amounts before, loans that came with the conditions of removing subsidies from manufacturers and farmers.

The Pentagon is bracing for the possible release of as many as 400,000 potentially explosive secret military documents on the U.S.-Iraq war by WikiLeaks. The self-described whistleblower website could release the files as early as Sunday October 17, 2010. Defence officials are not sure exactly what documents WikiLeaks has.

The release of nearly 400,000 classified Iraq war documents by whistle blowing website Wikileaks could endanger UK service personnel, the Ministry of Defence said on Saturday October 23, 2010. The leaked material suggests US commanders ignored evidence of torture by the Iraqi authorities. The documents also suggest "hundreds" of civilians were killed at US military checkpoints after the invasion in 2003.

On October 25, 2010, we were told that there were weapons of mass destruction in Iraq after all. The 400,000 Iraq war documents released by the WikiLeaks Web site revealed that small amounts of chemical weapons were found in Iraq and continued to surface for years after the 2003 US invasion. The documents showed that US troops continued to find chemical weapons and labs for years after the invasion, including remnants of Saddam Hussein's chemical weapons arsenal -most of which had been destroyed following the Gulf War. In August 2004, American troops were able to buy containers from locals of what they thought was liquid sulphur mustard, a blister agent, the documents revealed. The chemicals were triple-sealed and taken to a secure site. Also in 2004, troops discovered a chemical lab in a house in Fallujah during a battle with insurgents. A chemical cache was also found in the city.

An al Qaeda-linked militant group in Iraq pledged support to the organization's second-in-command, Ayman al-Zawahiri, and vowed more revenge attacks for the death of Osama bin Laden at the hands of U.S. forces in Pakistan. In a statement posted on an Islamist website forum on Monday May 9, 2011, the caliph of the Islamic State of Iraq (ISI), Abu Baker al-Baghdadi al-Husseini al-Qurashi, mourned bin Laden's death.

The widow of the former leader of al-Qaida in Iraq is to be hanged on Wednesday May 11, 2011, after a court found her guilty of links to the terrorist mastermind. Hasna Ali Yehye Hussein was condemned to death despite not being found to have any operational role in a four-year terror campaign directed by her husband, Abu Ayyub al-Masri, who was killed during a joint raid by US and Iraqi forces in April 2010. Her fate appears in contrast to the treatment of the wives of Osama bin Laden. Pakistani authorities say they are likely to be sent back to their respective countries after the death of the al-Qaida leader, who was killed just over a week ago in northern Pakistan. Ali, from Yemen, has claimed she had no knowledge of her husband's deeds. Iraqi authorities have not alleged that she played a role in the sectarian attacks directed by her husband and another man killed during last year's raid, Abu Omar al-Baghdadi.

Timeline, Iraq, 2002 to 2011
Following the September 11, 2001 attacks, the US invaded Afghanistan with the goal of dismantling the al-Qaeda network and seizing its leader, Osama bin Laden.
Heightened security concerns in the US, and allegations that Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction, prompted an invasion by US and other western forces which led to the toppling of Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein, although no WMDs were ever found.
In the aftermath of the invasion, Iraq became a battleground between both coalition forces and local fighters and rival sectarian groups.
American troops have been a constant presence across Iraq's landscape since then. Some 45,000 are still on the ground, but under the terms of a security pact, they need to fully withdraw by the end of 2011.
With just six months to go until the deadline is reached, Al Jazeera takes a look at the last eight years in the battle for hearts, minds and military might in Iraq.
2002
US President George W Bush warns that the world needs to act in Iraq, against the gathering dangers posed by Saddam Hussein's pariah regime.
At the same time, UK Prime Minister Tony Blair publishes a dossier on Iraq's military capabilities, later seen to be suspect.
A UN resolution threatens serious consequences for Iraq if it breaches the terms of the accord.
UN weapons inspectors return to Iraq to investigate the validity of claims the country has WMDs.
2003
Hans Blix, the chief weapons inspector for the UN, says inspectors need more time to verify Iraq's compliance with the UN resolution.
Later, the UK's ambassador to the UN says the diplomatic process on Iraq has ended; arms inspectors leave the country.
A US-led invasion of the country begins on March 20, 2003 with a force of 150,000 American troops and 23,000 soldiers from other countries.
The capital, Baghdad, falls 20 days later, toppling Saddam's government.
In December, Saddam is captured after being found hiding underground at a farm in Tikrit.
2004
Loyalists of Moqtada al-Sadr, the Shia cleric, take on western coalition forces based in the country. Hundreds are reported killed in fighting during a US military siege of Falluja.
The US hands sovereignty to an interim government headed by Iyad Allawi.
Photographs are unearthed of US troops abusing and humiliating Iraqi prisoners at Abu Ghraib prison, sparking international outcry.
In July, Saddam appears in court for the first time, facing charges including war crimes and genocide.
2005
The first multi-party elections in 50 years are held.
Jalal Talabani, a Kurdish politician, is sworn in as president.
Masoud Barzani becomes the regional president for semi-autonomous Iraqi Kurdistan.
Voters accept a new constitution with aims to create an Islamic federal democracy. Iraqis vote for a government and parliament.
2006
The United Iraqi Alliance - a Shia-led party - wins the 2005 election.
President Talabani tasks new prime minister Nouri al-Maliki with forming a new government as Ibrahim al-Jaafari is forced out.
Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, al-Qaeda's leader in Iraq, is killed in an air strike.
In December, Saddam is executed for crimes against humanity.
The number of foreign troops in the country drops to just under 127,000 US soldiers and 20,000 from the other coalition countries.
2007
President Bush announces a new Iraq strategy, including a surge of over 21,000 more troops to be deployed for security in the country, following an escalation in insurgent activity.
The Iraqi Accordance Front, the main Sunni political bloc, withdraws from cabinet following a dispute.
Britain hands over security of Basra to Iraqi forces, as the country pushes towards reducing the number of its troops in Iraq.
2008
Parliament passes a law allowing former officials of Saddam's government to return to public life.
In April the British defence secretary says the final withdrawal of troops has been postponed after clashes between Shia fighters and Iraqi security forces.
In November, parliament approves a security pact with the US which says that all US troops will leave the country by the end of 2011.
2009
The new US embassy in Baghdad opens officially.
Iraq takes more and more control of key areas, including Baghdad's Green Zone.
President Maliki's party scores big gains in provincial elections.
US President Barack Obama announces the withdrawal of most US troops from Iraq by August 2010. Troops withdraw from towns and cities; but some will stay on to advise the Iraqi security forces until final withdrawal in 2011.
Britain officially ends combat operations in southern Iraq. They hand control of their Basra base over to US forces.
An independent inquiry into the Iraq war begins in London.
Barzani is re-elected in the presidential election, and the governing alliance retains its position despite new opposition parties gaining added support.
Prime Minister Maliki also announces the State of Law, a grouping of 40 political parties, after a split in the United Iraqi Alliance.
2010
'Chemical' Ali Hassan al-Majid, who was a key figure in Saddam's government, is executed.
Parliamentary elections are held in March and no coalition wins enough votes for a majority.
Iraq's leading army official criticises the planned withdrawal of US troops, saying that Iraq may not be ready for the move. The last US combat brigade leaves Iraq in August, but 50,000 troops remain for training and advisory purposes.
Wikileaks publishes thousands of classified US military logs on the war in Iraq.
The two main political blocs end talks on forming an alliance government.
In November, Jalal Talabani is appointed as president and Nouri al-Maliki as prime minister. Parliament approves a new government that includes the major factions.
2011
Moqtada al-Sadr returns to Iraq after years of self-imposed exile in Iran.
The Iraqi government plans a summit to decide whether US troops are needed in the country past the 2011 withdrawal deadline.
A top US intelligence official suggests that Iraq will ask the US to keep troops in the country beyond the withdrawal deadline set by Obama.

Al-Qaida in Iraq has vowed to carry out "100 attacks" across the country, starting in the middle of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, to exact revenge for the death of Osama bin Laden. The terror group's statement was released on militant websites late Friday August 19, 2011. It said the attacks will avenge bin Laden, who was killed by U.S. forces in Pakistan in May, and other slain senior al-Qaida leaders.

On Friday October 7, 2011, we were told that Iraq is reluctant to offer legal immunity to U.S. troops who stay in the country to help with the rebuilding effort. Iraqi officials said U.S. military troops are needed to help train Iraqi security forces. The United States, however, has said no troops will remain after the end of the year unless they are given immunity from prosecution. Immunity is a sticking point for Iraqis who have not forgotten the abuse reports from inside Abu Ghraib prison and alleged abuses by private contractors.

The Iraqi government has temporarily detained more than 100 international workers in recent weeks over visas and paperwork, prompting some of their employers to ask U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton to intervene we were told on January 17, 2012. Most, if not all, of those detained have been released. But the detentions, which last from hours to days, are hampering the work of Iraq-based American diplomats, who rely on contractors. The Government of Iraq has neither renewed 2011 visas nor issued new 2012 visas. Approved movements have been subject to stops, detentions, and confiscation of equipment without justification.

A video posted online Saturday April 7, 2012, show Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri, the highest ranking member of Saddam Hussein's ousted regime still at large, lashing out against Iraq's Shiite-led government. The man in the video, posted on a website linked to Saddam's now-outlawed Baath party, was introduced as al-Douri and bore a striking physical resemblance to the former Saddam deputy. He noted that nine years had passed since the 2003 U.S.-led invasion, suggesting the video was made recently. Wearing an olive military uniform and eyeglasses, he criticized Iraq's Shiite-dominated government, led by Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, and what he said was meddling by neighbouring Shiite powerhouse Iran. l-Douri has been reported dead or captured more than once in the past. He has not been seen in public since the U.S.-led invasion, though audio tapes purporting to be from him have been released. His whereabouts are not known.

Interpol called for the arrest of fugitive Iraqi Vice-President Tareq al-Hashemi at the request of Iraqi authorities on Tuesday May 8, 2012, on suspicion of planning attacks, a move likely to complicate attempts to defuse Iraq's simmering political crisis. Hashemi, a top Sunni Muslim politician with the Iraqiya block, fled Baghdad in December when the Shiite-led government accused him of running death squads, sparking a dispute that risked upsetting the country's delicate power-sharing agreement. The vice-president, who is thought to be in Istanbul, has denied he was involved in murdering six judges and other officials. He says the charges are politically motivated and has refused to stand trial in Baghdad.

The leader of al-Qaida's Iraq arm defiantly rejected an order from the terror network's global command to scrap a merger with the organization's Syria affiliate we were told on Saturday June 15, 2013. The latest alleged statement by Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, who heads the Islamic State of Iraq, reveals a growing rift within the terror network and highlights the Iraqi wing's determination to link its own fight against the Shiite-led government in Baghdad with the cause of rebels trying to topple the Syrian regime. ---

Despite sharp criticism from almost every political party in Iraq and pressure from friendly foreign powers to step down, Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki announced Friday July 4, 2014, that he would seek a third term as prime minister. He noted that the bloc of lawmakers that supported his nomination was the largest in the Parliament and that they should not be asked to meet any conditions imposed by other legislative groups, such as supporting a different candidate.

Iraq's deadlocked parliament has postponed its next session until mid-August, unable to decide how to split political power even as Baghdad faces a militant Islamic insurgency that has edged close to the capital. Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki told Western leaders last month a new government would be formed early in July. But Monday July 7, 2014, parliament put off its next session until August 12 in hopes of resolving who should fill the country's top three positions. Al-Maliki's Shi'ite political bloc won the most seats in the April elections, but not a majority. Many Iraqi lawmakers have accused him of failing to give enough political consideration to the country's minority Sunni population. He has balked at demands that he not seek a third term as prime minister. Insurgents linked to the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) have taken over much of northern and western Iraq, although analysts say Baghdad is in no immediate danger of falling to the rebels.

Iraq's parliament failed to agree on a new speaker during its second session on Sunday July 13, 2014, prolonging a political impasse that has dashed hopes of reaching a resolution to the worst security crisis since the U.S.-led invasion in 2003. U.S. diplomats and others have urged Iraqi politicians to reach a quick agreement over the three key government positions —the parliament speaker, president and prime minister— that are traditionally divided among Sunni Arabs, Kurds and Shiite Arabs, respectively. Parliamentarians met briefly but adjourned almost immediately after Mehdi Hafez, the legislature's interim speaker, said deputies hadn't yet reached an agreement on a new speaker. The next session will be held on Tuesday July 15, 2014.

On Wednesday July 23, 2014, we were told that most Christians left Mosul, Iraq's second-largest city, after the Islamic State group and other Sunni militants captured the city on June 10. As a religious minority, Christians were wary of how they would be treated by hard-line Islamic militants. Some remained, but the numbers have dwindled further after the militants gave them a deadline of last Saturday to convert to Islam, pay a tax or face death. That was the final straw for many.

Iraqi lawmakers elected a veteran Kurdish politician on Thursday July 24, 2014, to replace long-serving Jalal Talabani as the country's new president in the latest step toward forming a new government. The 76-year-old Fouad Massoum, one of the founders of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan party led by the previous president, Talabani, accepted the position after winning two-thirds of the votes in parliament.

Iraq's most influential Shi'ite cleric urged political leaders on Friday July 25, 2014, to refrain from clinging to their posts -an apparent reference to Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, who has defied demands that he step aside. Speaking through an aide who delivered a sermon after Friday prayers in the holy city of Kerbala, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani said leaders should show flexibility so that political deadlocks could be broken and Iraq could confront an insurgency. Maliki has come under mounting pressure since Sunni militants led by the hard-line Islamic State swept across northern Iraq last month and seized vast swathes of territory, posing the biggest challenge to Maliki's Shi'ite-led government since U.S. forces withdrew in 2011. Critics say Maliki is a divisive figure whose alienation of Sunnis has fuelled sectarian hatred and played into the hands of the insurgents, who have reached to within 70 km of the capital Baghdad. Sistani said it is time for politicians to think of Iraq's interests, not their own.

On Thursday October 30, 2014, we were told that Islamic extremists have destroyed an important 11th-century shrine in Iraq, in a continuation of their war on cultural sites they consider idolatrous. UNESCO did not name Islamic State as being responsible for the destruction of the shrine, which it identified as the Imam Dur Shrine in Salahuddin Province, north of Baghdad.

Militants from the Islamic State carried out a mass killing of hundreds of Iraqi prison inmates when they seized the country's second-largest city of Mosul in June we were told on Thursday October 30, 2014. Some 600 male Shiite inmates from Badoosh prison outside Mosul were forced to kneel along the edge of a nearby ravine and shot with automatic weapons. The Shiite prisoners were separated from several hundred Sunnis and a small number of Christians who were later set free. A number of Kurdish and Yazidi inmates were also killed. The prisoners had been serving sentences for a range of crimes, from murder and assault to nonviolent offenses. Before separating them, the gunmen herded up to 1,500 inmates onto trucks and drove them to an isolated stretch of desert about two kilometres from the prison. After taking several hundred away in trucks, they forced the Shiites to form one long line along the ravine edge and then count their number in the line before showering them with machine-gun fire.

Iraqi Prime Minister Haidar al-Abadi said Sunday November 30, 2014. An investigation had found a list of “ghost soldiers” in the Iraqi military and vowed to widen a crackdown on graft in the country. We are talking about 50,000 fictitious named in four military units.

Iraq's new government has discovered 50,000 "ghost soldiers" who received army salaries without showing up for work, a practice which accelerated the military's collapse in the face of ISIS fighters six months ago. The names were uncovered in an investigation launched by Prime Minister Haidar al-Abadi, who took office in September. "Ghost soldiers" were men on the army payroll who paid their officers a portion of their salaries and in return did not show up for duty, enriching their commanders and hollowing out the military force. Since taking over as premier from Nuri al-Maliki, Abadi has sacked dozens of military officials appointed during Maliki's eight-year rule and pledged to root out corruption. On Monday Abadi's office announced he had retired 24 senior Interior Ministry officials and replaced them with new officers under a reform plan to make the security forces "more effective in confronting terrorism."

Iraq's government and Kurdish regional authorities have announced a deal that could end a dispute between them over oil exports and the budget. Under the deal the Kurds will release 300,000 barrels per day of oil from Kirkuk. Another 250,000 barrels per day would be exported from the semiautonomous Kurdistan Region through Turkey. In return, Baghdad said it would release 17 percent of the budget allocated to the Kurdish region, and would also give an extra $1 billion to Kurdish peshmerga who are fighting the Islamic State militant group. Joint committees will follow up on the implementation of the deal. ---

Iraq's top Shia Muslim cleric called on the prime minister on Friday August 7, 2015, to "strike with an iron fist" against corruption, as fresh anti-government protests erupted in Baghdad and Basra. Public anger at power cuts as temperatures soar past 50 C and mismanagement of other services has triggered big protests in recent weeks in Baghdad and the southern oil city of Basra. As thousands filled main squares again on Friday, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani pushed Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi, who last month ordered cuts to top officials' salaries and perks including subsidized power for their homes, to go further.

In an effort to implement a series of political reform Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi decided Sunday morning August 9, 2015, to eliminate the post of Vice President and other high-ranking positions, and reduce the excessive number of official bodyguards. This decision removes Nouri al-Maliki as Vice President, a post he has been occupying since he was forced to step down as prime minister last year. The number of bodyguards of ministers, members of parliament as well as President, parliamentary speaker and prime minister would be shrunk. Abadi’s decision comes days after Iraqis have taken to the streets across the country, demanding better services and an end to corruption.

Iraq's parliament on Tuesday August 11, 2015, unanimously approved an ambitious reform plan that would cut spending and eliminate senior posts, including the three largely symbolic vice presidencies, following mass protests against corruption and poor services. Lawmakers approved the plan without debate. Iraq's most revered Shiite cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, had backed the plan, which was announced Sunday amid mounting public pressure. Parliament Speaker Salim al-Jabouri said he hoped that "today's move will be the first and not the last to continue in the path of the reform with the same spirit and without any hesitation." The plan, unveiled by Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi, would cut spending and eliminate the offices of the three vice presidents and the three deputy prime ministers, largely symbolic positions where appointments have long been determined by party patronage and sectarian loyalties. The move came after mass protests across Iraq against corruption and poor governance, focused on frequent power outages which have made a recent heat wave even more unbearable.

On Sunday August 16, 2015, we were told that Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi has cut his cabinet from 33 ministers to just 22, as he introduces further reforms in response to mass protests against corruption and poor governance. The second round of shake-ups will eliminate four ministries, including those of human rights and women’s affairs, and consolidate others. The move follows a far-reaching reform plan approved by parliament last week that eliminated the country’s three vice presidencies. In recent weeks Iraqis across the country have protested against corruption and poor government services, including power outages. Meanwhile, an Iraqi parliamentary investigative committee called for more than 30 political and security officials –including the former premier Nouri al-Maliki– to be put on trial over the fall of Iraq’s second city, Mosul, to Islamic State jihadists just over a year ago.

D. The UN and other International Organisations
A top Russian diplomat said Saturday May 21, 2005, Moscow believes the issue of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq has not been resolved and the United Nations is duty-bound to close the issue. UN inspectors said in spring 2003 that Iraq did not have ready-to-use weapons of mass destruction but questions remain regarding Iraq's industrial capacities, laboratories and materials that were earlier controlled by the United Nations, Deputy Foreign Minister Yury Fedotov said. Fedotov is a member of the College of Commissioners of the UN Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission (UNMOVIC) for Iraq. Russia endorses the return of UN inspectors to Iraq to continue their work, Fedotov said. The Russian diplomat also said it is necessary to clarify the fate of rockets discovered in Iraq before the war whose range slightly exceeded limits set by the UN Security Council.

On Wednesday May 25, 2005, Amnesty International published its annual report on human rights in the world in 2004. Among all the mistreatment of people in many countries, the case of the prisoners held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, stands out. There the US is still refusing to treat the prisoners as requested by the Geneva conventions. In their war against terrorism they have brought back the torture that was assumed to have stopped with the end of the Inquisition. Of course the Americans do not use the word "torture" but what they do in Guantanamo Bay, what they did in Abu Ghraib and what they are still doing in many detention centres in Afghanistan and Iraq is still repugnant. The USA are now showing and teaching other countries what to do to extract information from prisoners while, at the same time, pretending that they are liberating these two countries.

On May 29, 2005, the American General Richard Meyers, has said that Amnesty International was completely wrong when it said in its annual report 2004 that Guantanamo Bay prison was a gulag where prisoners are tortured. He said that they are well treated and that Guantanamo is a "model prison." He did not explain why prisoners are kept there without charge most of them for about three years. Outside the USA, his comments are described as laughable.

On May 31, 2005, President Bush said that the Amnesty International report published a few days ago that said the Guantanamo Bay prison is comparable to a "Gulag" is absurd. He said that each time there are some accusations of bad behaviour -such as torture- against American soldiers, there is an enquiry. What he did not say is that the American soldiers are always found "Not guilty" and their behaviour judged correct. There is no way he can be believed.

On June 13, 2005, the US has finally agreed to re-elect Mohammed El-Baradei for a third four-year term as head of the IAEA in Vienna, Austria. For the long time the USA was opposed to his re-election because he "dared" disagree with them on many subjects. Among other things, he disagreed on the invasion of Iraq, said loud and clear that Iraq had no weapons of mass destruction and tried -and still try- to play down the possible risk of the Iranian uranium enrichment programme.

On June 22, 2005, UN Secretary General Kofi Annan has said international support pledged towards rebuilding Iraq marks a "turning point" for the country. But he said the process would not be easy and Iraqis should take control of their own future. Mr Annan was speaking at the end of a conference in Brussels that issued a declaration of support for Iraq. The meeting was co-hosted by the EU and the US and attended by more than 80 countries and organisations.

The United States circulated a draft resolution at the United Nations on Wednesday July 27, 2005, condemning a surge in violence in Iraq that has killed hundreds including two Algerian diplomats and a Sunni Arab helping to draft a new Iraqi constitution. The draft would urge all 191 UN member-nations to bar arms and money from flowing to terrorists in Iraq and prevent terrorists themselves from entering or leaving the country. It would call on Iraq's neighbours to work together more closely to prevent terrorist acts and press all governments to help identify those sponsoring, organizing and carrying out such attacks in Iraq and bring them to justice.

United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan asked the UN Security Council on 5 August to extend the mission of the United Nations Assistance Mission to Iraq until August 2006.

On August 19, 2005, UN Secretary General Kofi Annan has paid tribute to the 22 workers killed in a bomb attack on the organisation's headquarters in Baghdad two years ago. He said the failure to find those behind the bombing was an example of the impunity that so often followed attacks on UN workers around the world. A UN investigation criticised security arrangements following the bombing, and faulted the UN's refusal to accept protection from American-led forces. The UN withdrew international staff from Iraq in October 2003 following a second attack on its offices. In August 2004, a small contingent, limited to 35 international staff, returned to Baghdad. There are currently approximately 260 UN civilian and military staff in Iraq. Other staff work on projects in Iraq from Kuwait and Jordan.

The 2005 Nobel peace prize has been awarded jointly to the United Nations' International Atomic Energy Agency and its director, Mohamed ElBaradei on October 7, 2005. The citation says the IAEA's director is a "fearless advocate" of curbing nuclear arms and the importance of his agency's work is "incalculable". Mr ElBaradei said the award recognised that the spread of nuclear weapons was the world's worst security threat. He began a third term at the IAEA last month after the US withdrew complaints that he was being "soft" on Iran. Ole Danboly Mjopes, head of the prize committee, stressed the award was not intended as a "kick in the shin" of any nation or leader but as a boost to disarmament.

A senior United Nations Human rights investigator accused US-led coalition troops on October 15, 2005, of depriving Iraqi civilians of food and water in breach of humanitarian law. Jean Ziegler said they had driven people out of insurgent strongholds that were about to be attacked by cutting supplies. Mr Ziegler, a Swiss-born sociologist, said such tactics were in breach of international law. A US military spokesman in Baghdad denied the allegations.

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and its Director General Mohamed ElBaradei have received the Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo. They were being recognised for their efforts to contain the spread of nuclear weapons. The award comes as the agency and its head are wrestling with the issue of Iran's nuclear ambitions.

The UN General Assembly formally elected Mr Ban Ki-moon Foreign Minister from South Korea on Friday October 13, 2006, to replace Kofi Annan at the end of the year. Mr Annan is due to step down on 31 December after heading the UN for two five-year terms. Mr Ban, 62, will be the first Asian to head the UN since Burma's U Thant, who held the post from 1961 to 1971. The general assembly confirmed Mr Ban's appointment by acclamation -without a vote- on the basis of approval by all 192 members.

On January 18, 2007, the new UN's Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said he could not agree to a request from US President George W. Bush to increase the UN presence in Iraq because of security concerns amid rising violence.

Former UN chief weapons inspector Hans Blix said on March 12, 2007, that Tony Blair replaced "question marks with exclamation marks" in intelligence dossiers used to justify the decision to invade Iraq in 2003. Blix, who led the UN search for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq until June 2003, said a later discredited dossier on Iraq's weapons programs had deliberately embellished the case for war. Blair's government published a dossier before the invasion, which claimed former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein had stockpiles of chemical and biological weapons and could deploy some within 45 minutes. Blix said that Blair and US President George W. Bush had "lost a lot of confidence" once failures in intelligence were exposed, according to interview excerpts released in advance. Britain's so-called "dodgy dossier" on Iraq's supposed possession of weapons of mass destruction was criticized by Lord Butler's 2004 official inquiry into intelligence on Iraq. No weapons of mass destruction were found after the war. Blix said that the US had acted like witch hunters.

BAN Ki-moon, the UN secretary general, received first-hand experience of life in Baghdad on March 21, 2007, when a rocket landed 50 metres from a building where he was giving a news conference. Security guards grabbed hold of Nuri al-Maliki, the Iraqi prime minister, who was standing next to Mr Ban at the time. They were both dusted by debris from the ceiling. Without commenting on the explosion, Mr Ban recovered his composure and took one further question before leaving the conference room.

The International Committee of the Red Cross said on April 11, 2007, the situation for ordinary Iraqis is getting steadily worse. Four years after the US-led invasion, the ICRC says the conflict is inflicting immense suffering, and calls for greater protection of civilians. The ICRC still has a presence in Iraq despite the bombing of its Baghdad offices three and a half years ago.

The UN head urged Iraq's neighbours on April 17, 2007, not to close their borders to refugees, and states further away to do more to help tackle the humanitarian crisis. Ban Ki-moon was speaking to a major UN conference in Geneva highlighting the plight of Iraqi refugees, which the UN says most countries have ignored. The UN wants help for Syria and Jordan, which host 2m Iraqis, and for the US and EU to offer more refugees asylum. It estimates up to 50,000 people flee the violence in Iraq each month. There are up to four million Iraqis now living away from home, including 1.9m living as internally displaced people.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon will attend a conference on the rule of law in Afghanistan to be held this summer in Rome, an Italian Foreign Ministry official said Thursday April 19, 2007. Ban is on a visit to Italy and the Vatican. On Wednesday, he met with Foreign Minister Massimo D'Alema and had an audience with Pope Benedict XVI. The conference on Afghanistan is scheduled to be held July 3-4.

Iraq is now the world's fourth highest user of the death penalty, human rights group Amnesty International said on April 20, 2007. At least 270 people have been sentenced to death since mid-2004 and more than 100 people have been hanged. Only China, Iran and Pakistan used the death penalty more frequently. Iraqi officials have dismissed criticism, saying that capital punishment is an intrinsic element of implementing an Islamic criminal code.

US Defence Secretary Robert Gates has met Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Maliki on April 20, 2007, to press US demands for faster progress to achieve national reconciliation. Mr Gates said he wanted to emphasise that US commitment to Iraq was not open-ended.

United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki Moon, in a report released June 12, 2007, has indicated that he would accept a larger role for the UN in Iraq, pending solutions to security problems.

The US and the UK have circulated on August 2, 2007, a new draft resolution to United Nations Security Council members proposing a bigger role for the UN in Iraq. Under the plan, the UN would get a wider mandate, to help promote political reconciliation in Iraq. The UN has had a low-key presence in Iraq since a truck bomb devastated its headquarters in Baghdad in August 2003.

The UN Security Council has decided to postpone until Friday its vote on a draft resolution that would expand the UN's role in Iraq, the US ambassador to the United Nations said Thursday August 9, 2007.

On August 10, 2007, the UN Security Council has unanimously approved a US-British resolution calling for a greater UN role in Iraq. The UN withdrew most of its staff in 2003 after a bomb attack on its Baghdad headquarters killed its top envoy, Sergio Vieira de Mello, and 21 others. But there is opposition to a wider role from the UN Staff Council, which wants all UN personnel to be pulled out of the country until security improves. The staff union can resist a further deployment of staff in Iraq. It believes UN personnel will not be properly protected by US-led forces in the country.

On September 22, 2007, Bolstered by improvement in security and stability in Iraq, the United Nations is considering boosting its presence in the country.

The United Nations Security Council has ended key international sanctions against Iraq. The 15-member council passed three resolutions Wednesday December 15, 2010. The resolutions lift sanctions over weapons of mass destruction, end the U.N. oil-for-food program for Iraq, and return control of Iraq's oil and natural gas revenue to the Iraqi government as of June 30. Iraq's minister of foreign affairs, Hoshyar Zebari, said the U.N. action marks the end of restrictions on Iraq's recovery. He said resolving outstanding issues with Kuwait will top the agenda of the new Iraqi government. Iraq is developing a renewed oil trade and will continue to pay 5 percent of its oil revenues to Kuwait as war reparations.

E. Others
On Tuesday May 31, 2005, an Italian AB-412 military helicopter crashed overnight killing its four Italian pilots and two gunmen attached to the army at about 13km southeast of Nasiriyah. The cause of the crash was not immediately clear.

The newly elected Norwegian government led by Jens Stoltenberg wants to withdraw Norwegian soldiers from Iraq, on Friday September 16, 2005. The current Prime Minister Kjell Magne Bondevik, however, criticized this plan. Stoltenberg assured Bush that Norway would continue its existing defence and security policy, and take part in the global struggle against terrorism.

Thousands of anti-war activists marched through London on Saturday September 24, 2005, demanding the immediate withdrawal of British troops from Iraq. Similar protests were planned in several other European countries including France, Italy, and Spain. Also in Washington thousands of protesters marched Saturday to demand the end of the illegal US occupation in Iraq. According to Stop the War Coalition, which organised London rally along with the Muslim Association of Britain, there were 100,000 demonstrators in Hyde Park.

A Danish soldier was killed and two were seriously wounded by a roadside bomb near Basra on Saturday October 1, 2005. The victim was the first Danish soldier killed in a hostile attack since the start of the US-led war on Iraq in March 2003. Denmark has deployed 500 soldiers under the command of British troops around Basra.

On October 5, 2005, Dutch Foreign Minister Ben Bot said that with hindsight, the US-led invasion of Iraq that was supported by the Dutch government, although it did not contribute troops, was 'maybe not wise'. According to Bot it 'would have been wiser' to continue on the path of diplomacy longer and to investigate the presence of weapons of mass destruction more thoroughly. After Iraqi president Saddam Hussein was toppled in April 2003 the Dutch sent about 1,400 soldiers as part of the multinational US-led forces. The Dutch mission in Iraq formally ended in March of this year. Dutch Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende on Thursday reprimanded his foreign minister for questioning the invasion of Iraq.

Osama bin Laden's deputy Ayman al-Zawahiri, in a letter to Iraq's insurgency leader, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi and published October 7, 2005, called upon for creating a caliphate in Iraq and expanding Jihad to neighbouring countries, specifically Jordan, Syria and Lebanon, and war against Israel in the final stage.

On December 2, 2005, we were told that Bulgaria and Ukraine are pulling back their troops from Iraq this month. Six other countries are planning either to pull out or to reduce their support soon: Australia, Britain, Italy Japan, Poland and South Korea. More than half the non-American troops could be out of Iraq by mid-2006. This will create a problem to the USA in preparing Iraqi troops and policemen to allow the Americans to leave too. Initially 38 countries participated in the so-called coalition, most contribution were more symbolic that real. Now the number is down too 27 and comport mainly non-combat personnel. At the beginning of 2005 The Netherlands had 1,400 troops in Iraq. Now their number is down to 19 including a single one in Baghdad!

On February 5, 2006, Iraqi police have arrested the fourth-ranking figure in al-Qaida in Iraq, Mohammed Rabei, also known Abu Dhar. The Iraqi government has received information that al-Zarqawi may have moved to neighbouring Iran after hot pursuit by US and Iraqi forces in western Iraq.

A Danish soldier was killed Thursday March23, 2006, by a roadside bomb in southern Iraq. He was the third Danish soldier to die in the conflict. The Danish soldiers conducted a patrol and two were wounded, one of them seriously. That soldier later died of his wounds. Denmark has 530 troops stationed near the southern city of Basra.

Three Italian soldiers and one Romanian' were killed by a bombing in southern Iraq on April 27, 2006. The troops had been travelling on an Italian military convoy in the city of Nasiriya when it was hit by a roadside bomb attack.

The number of Ugandans seeking civilian jobs in Iraq continues to soar on July 18, 2006, despite the prospect of working under extremely high temperatures in a country ravaged by insurgency. The latest group cleared by the recruitment firm, Askar Security numbers 1,688. The first batch will leave on a chartered flight to the Iraqi capital Baghdad on August 15 to replace 450 Ugandans who will return home after their six-months stint there.

Lawyers for an American citizen facing a death sentence in Iraq said Friday April 6, 2007, they will ask the Supreme Court to review the man's case. US courts have "no power or authority" to step in now that Muhammad Munaf has been convicted by an Iraqi criminal court for a role in the kidnapping of three Romanian journalists in Baghdad, a federal appeals court ruled. The appeals court noted that US military personnel hold Munaf in Iraq, but added that they are part of a multinational force authorized by the UN Security Council in coordination with the Iraqi government. However, the three-member appeals panel said that recent Supreme Court rulings "are grounds for questioning" the appeals court's decision.

The Iraqi defector whose fabricated account of Baghdad's biological weapons programme crucial to the US case for war was accused on November 3, 2007 of being a thief and a failed chemical engineering student. Known as Curveball by Western intelligence agencies, the man is now named as Rafid Ahmed Alwan. After escaping Iraq and reaching Germany in 1999, he claimed to be an engineer who had run a biological weapon plant for Saddam. But he earned low marks in chemical engineering at university and was accused of theft at an Iraqi TV station where he worked. Alwan, who is understood to be living in Germany under an assumed name, was briefly employed at the biological weapon site, allowing him to embellish his story

Iraq, July 2, 2010: Key figures since the war began
U.S. TROOP LEVELS:
October 2007: 170,000 at peak of troop buildup.
June 30, 2010: 82,000
CASUALTIES:
Confirmed U.S. military deaths as of June 30, 2010: at least 4,409.
Confirmed U.S. military wounded (hostile) as of July 1, 2010: 31,874.
Confirmed U.S. military wounded (non-hostile, using medical air transport) as of June 5, 2010: 39,612.
U.S. military deaths for June 2010: 8, one of the lowest monthly death tolls since the war began in March 2003.
Deaths of civilian employees of U.S. government contractors as of March 31, 2010: 1,471.
Iraqi deaths in June 2010 from war-related violence: at least 294, higher than last month's 278, and one of the highest months since December 2009, which was 383.
Assassinated Iraqi academics as of May 27, 2010: 438.
Journalists killed on assignment as of July 1, 2010: 141.
COST:
Over $731 billion, according to the National Priorities Project.
OIL PRODUCTION:
Prewar: 2.58 million barrels per day.
June 23, 2010: 2.41 million barrels per day.
ELECTRICITY:
Prewar nationwide: 3,958 megawatts. Hours per day (estimated): 4-8.
May 16, 2010: Nationwide: 5,580 megawatts. Hours per day: N/A.
Prewar Baghdad: 2,500 megawatts. Hours per day: 16-24.
May 16, 2010: Baghdad: N/A. Hours per day: N/A.
TELEPHONES:
Prewar land lines: 833,000.
April 2010: 1,300,000.
Prewar cell phones: 80,000.
April 2010: An estimated 19.5 million.
WATER:
Prewar: 12.9 million people had potable water.
April 30, 2010: More than 21.9 million people have potable water.
SEWERAGE:
Prewar: 6.2 million people served.
April 30, 2010: 11.5 million people served.
INTERNAL REFUGEES:
Prewar: 1,021,962.
June 23, 2010: At least 1.5 million people are currently displaced inside Iraq.
EMIGRANTS:
Prewar: 500,000 Iraqis living abroad.
June 18, 2010: Approximately 1.8 million Iraqis, mainly in Syria and Jordan.

Hundreds of Iraqi artefacts looted from museums and archaeological sites across the country -including a 4,400-year-old statue of an ancient king stolen during the U.S.-led invasion- have been returned to Iraq and were displayed Tuesday September 7, 2010. Iraq is home to relics of the world's most ancient urban civilizations. But its priceless heritage has been plundered during the country's wars and upheavals, and its precious antiquities sold to collectors abroad. The U.S. military was heavily criticized for not protecting the Iraqi National Museum's trove of relics and art following Baghdad's fall in 2003. Thieves ransacked the collection, stealing or destroying priceless artefacts that chronicled some 7,000 years of civilization in Mesopotamia, including the ancient Babylonians, Sumerians and Assyrians. About 15,000 pieces are still missing from the museum that reopened last year. More than 5,000 pieces have been returned since 2003.