BUSH'S "COALITION OF THE WILLING" IS SHRINKING
Head of Australian military says, "We have achieved our objectives in southern Iraq...It's time to leave." Australian military personnel have been deployed in Iraq since the US-led invasion in 2003. Most Australian troops are in the stable south, which has largely escaped the bloodshed in other parts of the country. The new Prime Minister has promised to withdraw combat troops from Iraq by mid-2008, amid polls showing 80 percent of Australians oppose Iraq involvement. Instead, Australia will send additional military trainers to Afghanistan, where it has around 1,000 troops fighting Taliban militants in the south. [BBC, 2/19/08. Reuters, 2/20/08]
VIOLENCE CONTINUES TO RAGE
As many as 15 Iraqi policemen responding to an attack against U.S. bases were killed Tuesday when rockets, set to be launched from the back of a truck, exploded before the officers could defuse them. Four U.S. soldiers were wounded when the initial rockets slammed into their outposts in the capital, the military said, the second rocket attack against American targets in as many days. Nobody claimed responsibility for the anti-U.S. attacks, but in both cases the rockets apparently were launched from Shii'a militia strongholds in the capital, raising concern about renewed activity ahead of a deadline for cleric Muqtada al-Sadr to renew a cease-fire order. The blast that killed the Iraqis took place after police, acting on a tip, discovered the rockets primed for firing in the back of a truck behind a deserted ice factory in the predominantly Shi'a area of Obeidi in eastern Baghdad. [AP, 2/19/08]
SADR TO MAKE DECISION ON CEASEFIRE IN COMING DAYS
U.S. military officials say Sadr's six-month truce order on August 29 has played a big part in reducing sectarian violence and clashes between the militia and U.S. and Iraqi forces. "It's critical that [Moqtada al-] Sadr continues to observe the ceasefire," said Stephen Biddle, a senior fellow and Iraq expert at the Council on Foreign Relations in Washington. Many Mehdi Army members and Sadrist political leaders say they want the truce ditched, accusing the security forces of using it to detain many of Sadr's followers. A Sadr spokesman said the cleric would issue a statement around February 23 if he was renewing the truce. Silence would mean it was over. Another official said he may announce a partial lifting of the truce, perhaps in some provinces where followers had been targeted. Sadr led two uprisings against U.S. forces in 2004. But this past August, he imposed the ceasefire after clashes between the Mehdi Army and security forces allied with a rival Shi'a organization, the Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council (SIIC), killed dozens in the holy city of Kerbala. [Reuters, 2/20/08]
NEW COUNTER-INSURGENCY TACTIC: CLEAR STREETS OF MENTALLY DISABLED AND HOMELESS
In a nationwide campaign, Iraqi Interior Ministry ordered police to round up beggars, itinerants and the mentally disabled, fearing they could be unwittingly used as suicide bombers by insurgent groups. The Iraqi government has said that a number of recent suicide attacks were carried out by the mentally impaired. Iraqi and U.S. officials said a suicide bombing this month that killed nearly 100 people was unwittingly carried out by two women with Down syndrome. According to an Interior Ministry spokesman beggars younger than 18 would be brought to shelters, professional panhandlers would be charged with crimes, and the mentally disabled would be taken to hospitals. However, the campaign is off to a slow start. News of the crackdown leaked out, Khalaf said, and all the beggars and mentally disabled people "disappeared" from the streets. "We couldn't arrest anybody because they were not available," he said. "But we will continue our campaign." [Washington Post, 2/20/08]