U.S. troops bomb Tel Affar despite parliament speaker’s warning

[evermind]

(This is from Az-Zaman (www.azzaman.com) at http://www.azzaman.com/english/index.asp?fname=news%5C2005-08-21%5C10492.htm which has been described as "probably Iraq’s biggest selling independent newspaper", however it is also "Published by Sa'd al-Bazzaz, Sadaam's former press secretary, who fled Iraq and founded az-Zaman in London. The website continues to publish the London edition and a recent one from Iraq. It's [sic] international edition is distributed globally. In Arabic and English." according to http://www.loc.gov/rr/international/amed/iraq/resources/iraq-media.html Whether the source is within the scope of LBN, I leave to the moderators - there doesn't seem to be any more mainstream reportage on this story.)

U.S. troops bomb Tel Affar despite parliament speaker’s warning

Azzaman, August 21, 2005

U.S. troops have been bombing the city of Tel Affar in the past four days despite warnings from parliamentary speaker Hajim al-Hassani.

<snip>

In interviews with Azzaman correspondent in Tel Affar, the residents described the U.S. shelling of their city “as fires of hell.”

International media organizations, whose representatives have shut themselves up in luxury hotels in Baghdad for fear of kidnapping, have apparently imposed a news blackout on the situation in Tel Affar, our correspondent says.

<snip>

“U.S. troops have ringed the city and now prevent people from either leaving or entering the city,” he said.

( http://www.azzaman.com/english/index.asp?fname=news%5C2005-08-21%5C10492.htm )

There's some support for the allegation of a Tal Afar news blackout in a story from the Tucson Citizen, Aug 12, 2005, which says: "Hundreds of U.S. troops recently were sent to the border to try to curb the infiltration. [...] In the past month, the U.S. military has only allowed one embedded reporter, for the German magazine Armored Gun Trucks of the U.S. Army in Iraq, inside the city." ( http://www.tucsoncitizen.com/index.php?page=national&story_id=081205b10_iraqbackagain )

[mom cat]

1. God damn massacre.George must have run out of Viagra again!

[SpiralHawk]

2. Urgent memo to USA corporate media

This is another story we know you will ignore. We are so totally on to you. goodbye.

[bribri16]

3. Time for Dems with spine to speak up about this -- but are we asking

too much of Conyers. He's already taken the lead on so much of this shit. He needs some help..

[xchrom]

4. fallujah redux.

of course only a few of the insurgents will really be caught -- but the civilian suffering -- dear lord.

[reprobate]

5. There is nothing we can do about this now. But just you wait, George.

It will be up to ALL of us when this administration is out of office to raise holey hell in the media and use this as just another count of war crimes.

You can all count on me to pummel the media with letters and phone calls aout the attrocities commited in the name of American Citizins, none of whome are responsible for this shit. Well, maybe except for the freepers.

[VegasWolf]

6. Iraq, the Sovereign Nation!! Yeah, right!! nt

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

7. Way to win the Iraqi peoples hearts and minds

Their hearts and minds will be scattered all over the place after the bombings

[whatelseisnew]

8. Other reports on Tal (Tel) Affar (Afar)

Azzaman story posted on Lookingglass:

http://www.lookingglassnews.org/viewstory.php?storyid=1729

Tel Affar is a big city with 300,000 people, plus another 270,000 in the suburbs, giving a total of 570,000.

Most of them are Turkomen, an ethnic Turkish group in Iraq, long neglected by the Arab-dominated central government in Baghdad and the Kurdish regional authorities in Arbil.

From Arabic News:

http://www.arabicnews.com/ansub/Daily/Day/031210/2003121019.html

The American forces in Iraq yesterday received three blows, with one hour difference among netween them, leading to 60 soldiers being wounded in an operation targeting a base for the US forces in Tel Affar town, near Musil, and in another operation at the occupation base in northern Baghdad, while one American reconnaissance was downed by missile.

As the American forces announced a decrease in the number of attacks against it, the series of operations yesterday came to stress the failure of the inspection and breaking in campaign in deterring the resistance.

From Radio Free Europe Sept 1994 report: (note spelling: Afar)

http://www.rferl.org/reports/iraq-report/2004/09/34-160904.asp

U.S. Ambassador to Ankara Eric Edelman tried to allay Turkish fears in a 13 September meeting with Foreign Ministry Undersecretary Ali Tuygan, Turkey's TRT2 television reported the same day. Edelman reportedly said that the situation would soon be under control, and that insurgents were slowly being removed from the town. "We are carrying out a limited military operation and we are trying to keep civilian losses to a minimum," Reuters quoted Edelman as saying. Turkish officials reportedly said that the Turkoman Front estimated as many as 500 civilians killed in recent days. U.S. sources estimated that 50 people had died, according to the news agency. Meanwhile, the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), led by Jalal Talabani posted a statement on its website on 13 September that said: "The Iraqi Army did not take part in the current operations in Tel Afar on the request of the tribal leaders and residents of the town with the view to protecting their assets, properties, and families." (Kathleen Ridolfo)

New York Times June 2005:

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/06/16/international/middleeast/16talafar.html?ex=1124769600&en=4ea8381bf1fedfef&ei=5070&pagewanted=print

TAL AFAR, Iraq, June 15 - Nine months ago the American military laid siege to this city in northwestern Iraq and proclaimed it freed from the grip of insurgents. Last month, the Americans returned in force - to reclaim it once again.

After the battle here in September the military left behind fewer than 500 troops to patrol a region twice the size of Connecticut. With so few troops and the local police force in shambles, insurgents came back and turned Tal Afar, a dusty, agrarian city of about 200,000 people, into a way station for the trafficking of arms and insurgent fighters from nearby Syria - and a ghost town of terrorized residents afraid to open their stores, walk the streets or send their children to school.

It is a cycle that has been repeated in rebellious cities throughout Iraq, and particularly those in the Sunni Arab regions west and north of Baghdad, where the insurgency's roots run deepest.

From CNEWS Aug 10, 2005 (Canada):

http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/World/Iraq/2005/08/10/1167390-ap.html

In June, the 3rd Armored Cavalry launched an offensive in Tal Afar. Now American officers say they are seeing slow progress, including the recent capture of key insurgent financiers, McMaster said. In addition, more than 250 suspected insurgents were recently arrested.

"We've taken away the enemy's main strengths: their ability to hide in the population," McMaster said.

Tal Afar is strategically important to both the insurgency and the U.S. military. As the closest major city to the northern border with Syria, it serves a way station for foreign insurgents sneaking into Iraq, officials say.

Hundreds of U.S. troops recently were sent to the border to try to curb the infiltration.

Tal Afar, located about five miles from the U.S. military's Camp Sykes, is one of the most inaccessible areas in the country. In the last month, the U.S. military has only allowed one embedded reporter - for the German magazine Armored Gun Trucks of the U.S. Army in Iraq - inside the city.

[JanusAscending]

9. Two questions??

Remember the "rumor" in the news last week that OSAMA had been invited to go to Iraq ? Is this where he could be at this time? Question two is, how close is this area of Iraq to where the 82nd Airborn recently "dropped" 700 Rangers???:shrug: I remember that they were dropped in Northern Iraq.

[NYC]

10. I didn't hear they were dropped anywhere.

I heard they were being sent, hints they would be there for prison security, but could be something else.

I don't remember if the article said where they would be sent, but I had the impression it was more southern.

When did they go?

Anyway, here's a map of Iraq.

http://www.defendamerica.mil/iraq/iraqmap1.html