NSN Iraq Daily Update 11/1/07

Starting today the National Security Network will be cross posting its Iraq Daily Update. The purpose of the update is to track daily events on the ground in Iraq.

U.S. DIPLOMATS CALL FORCED IRAQ DUTY "A POTENTIAL DEATH SENTENCE"

Diplomats challenge State Department officials in forced duty to Iraq. In a town hall meeting in the State Department's main auditorium, U.S. diplomats criticized aspects of the State Department's personnel policies in Iraq. The Foreign Service officers challenged the decision to order some of them to serve at the U.S. embassy in Baghdad or risk losing their jobs. Service in Iraq is "a potential death sentence," said one man who identified himself as a 46-year Foreign Service veteran. "Any other embassy in the world would be closed by now," he said to sustained applause. No directed assignments have been ordered since the 1960's, during the Vietnam War. [Washington Post, 11/1/07]

SECTARIAN VIOLENCE CONTINUES TO RAGE

Bombs killed at least 16 people Thursday in attacks across the Iraqi capital and its northern suburbs. A roadside bomb killed five people near a shelter used as a police recruiting center in northeast Baghdad's Shi'a-dominated neighborhood of Binouk. Six other people were wounded, they said. Most of the victims were recruits lining up outside the shelter. In Balad Ruz, an ethnically mixed city 45 miles northeast of the capital, another roadside bomb exploded near a convoy carrying the police chief of Balad Ruz, Col. Faris al-Amirie, police said. Six of al-Amirie's guards were killed and eight others were hurt, but the chief escaped injury, they said. In Sadiyah, 60 miles north of Baghdad, police said a cluster of three attacks took place around 10:40 a.m., killing five people and wounding 18 others. The U.S. military announced the deaths of two American soldiers, killed by an explosion near their vehicle in Iraq's northern Ninevah province. Two other soldiers were wounded by the blast. [AP, 11/1/07]

IRAQ ASKS FOR IRAN'S HELP IN CALMING KURDISH CRISIS

Iraqi officials asked for Iran's help on Wednesday in negotiating a diplomatic solution to the standoff with Turkey over Kurdish guerrillas who have been using northern Iraq as a base to stage raids on Turkish troops across the border. Tensions between Iraq and Turkey over the issue threaten to overshadow other topics at a regional meeting that starts Thursday in Istanbul, which Iraq hoped would focus on its internal security. "The prime minister asked the Islamic Republic to present their full support to Iraq during the Istanbul meeting and also to participate in solving the border crisis between Turkey and the P.K.K.," a statement from Mr. Maliki's office said. Iran has been sympathetic to Turkey's position, because Kurdish guerrillas have also been attacking Iran, but it has loyalties to Iraq which, like Iran, has a Shi'a-majority government. Iran has also worked closely with the Kurdish leadership in Iraq. [NY Times, 11/1/07]

TENSIONS IN NORTHERN IRAQ CONTINUES TO INCREASE

Shelling by Turkey leads many to flee. Turkish forces have been shelling the area surrounding Deshtetek, in northern Iraq, for several months now in an effort to root out Kurdish guerrillas. Deshtetek's community of Chaldean Christians was driven from the region, their ancestral homeland, during the rule of Saddam Hussein. Two years ago, they came back to the region to escape religious persecution and sectarian violence. "The Turks always say their target is the PKK," said Col. Hussein Thamer, the regional head of Iraq's border guards, whose men patrol 125 miles of Iraq's border with Turkey. "But since February, nobody from the PKK has been injured." Michael, Deshtetek's mayor, is worried about history. He sees parallels with Turkish massacres of Armenian Christians in the waning days of the Ottoman Empire. "We believe what happened in Armenia can happen to us at any moment," Michael said. [Washington Post, 11/1/07]

Tensions with Turkey could undermine regional conference on Iraq. Senior Iraqi officials have expressed concern Wednesday that the crisis in northern Iraq between Turkey and Kurdish guerillas could undermine a regional conference on the future of Iraq. The meeting is set to begin this week in Istanbul, on the broader security problems of Iraq. "This meeting is very important -- it should not be hijacked by the current tension and crisis over the PKK terrorist activities in Turkey," said Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari, referring to the rebel Kurdistan Workers' Party by its initials. "It is very important to keep the focus on Iraq and not be diverted." [Washington Post, 11/1/07]

Comments

[oldpotsmuggler]

Mutiny in the State Department! Gotta love that surge. These folks are ultra sophisticated when it comes to evaluating this type of security situation, and will probably tend to have information that is at least as relaible as that possessed by the rest of us. Their friends/colleagues are in Iraq "protected" by the Green Zone and hiding behind their Blackwater body guards. The ones there obviously don't want to stay, and they can't talk anyone into wanting to come replace them.

If these folks are this afraid, is it reasonable for us to even stay there? Fear breeds "spray and pray" and we already have far too many enemies in Iraq to justify our continued presence.