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BAGHDAD (Reuters) Jan. 4, 2008 – An Iraqi soldier is believed to have deliberately shot dead two US troops in Iraq – the first time this has happened there.
A couple of days after the December 26 attack, the US military said Captain Rowdy Inman and Sergeant Benajmin Portell were fatally injured by hostile small arms fire.
But the commander of the Iraqi army’s 2nd Division, Brigadier-General Mutaa al-Khazraji, has now said the men were killed during a joint patrol in Hermat, western Mosul. “They (the patrol) were attacked by gunmen and the soldier abused the situation and killed the two soldiers.”
“He was immediately arrested by the Iraqi Army and we are conducting interrogations.”
Also, Brigadier General Noor al-Din Hussein, commander of the Iraqi Army’s 4th Brigade, 2nd Division, said: “The shooting was deliberate, it was not an accident.”
US military spokesman Lieutenant-Colonel James Hutton said the incident was under investigation but gave no details.
Captain Inman, 38, came from Panorama Village, Texas, while Sergeant Portell, 37, lived in Bakersfield, California.
  ● The Top Eleven Myths about Iraq, 2007
(BBC News) – The number of civilians killed in Iraq has fallen in each of the past three months after hitting a six-month high in May, according to the latest estimates from Iraq Body Count.
The UN Assistance Mission in Iraq (Unami) says 34,452 civilians were killed and more than 36,000 wounded in 2006. Other surveys – notably by the Lancet in 2006 – suggest these figures may be huge underestimates.
Many of the killings involve torture and kidnapping, and are typically sectarian in nature. Most of the victims are men, but women and children are also dying in large numbers.
Another 22,586-24,159 civilian deaths have been recorded in 2007 through Iraq Body Count‘s extensive monitoring of media and official reports. These figures, though undoubtedly incomplete, are the most comprehensive and well-established currently available, and show beyond any doubt that civil security in Iraq remains in a parlous state. Figures for the most recent months indicate that violence in Iraq has returned to the monthly levels IBC was recording in 2005, a year which was itself (until 2006) the worst since the invasion.
BAGHDAD (US News & World Report) Jan. 2, 2008 – Most of those returning appear to be motivated more by economic hardship or visa problems than by any belief that the worst violence is behind them. Syria has tightened its visa rules, forcing many Iraqis to leave. Few jobs are available in Damascus, and a United Nations survey of Iraqi refugees in Syria last month found that a third say their financial resources will last for three months or less.
Saif Sadek, a former prison guard and taxi driver, sold his Baghdad house at a steep loss in 2005 to escape threats from Shiite militias. After two years in Syria, he spent all his money and had to return to Baghdad, where he is staying with a cousin. “As a man with a family, not having a house and without money, it is a challenge that no man can take,” says the 42-year-old father of four. “The only thing that God had mercy on me is that I finished my money when security conditions in my neighborhood had improved and the death squads were gone.”
Sadek and the others who are coming back are rediscovering a capital city that has changed dramatically. Many neighborhoods that were once mixed are now either almost entirely Sunni or Shiite. New cement walls close off many streets and alleys. Some of the changes are encouraging—neighborhood groups working to clean the yards of abandoned homes and streets, local barbershops and bakeries reopening, and new militias, called “awakening councils,” made up of residents paid to patrol the streets and man checkpoints. “There was a dramatic change in my Al Amel neighborhood, where Sunnis and Shiites are brothers again,” says Sadek. “I couldn’t believe my eyes.”
Iraqis carry their luggage through Baghdad after returning from Syria this month. Many refugees come back to find their houses occupied or ransacked, and their neighborhoods transformed into sectarian strongholds. (By Wathiq Khuzaie -- Getty Images)
But work is scarce, basic goods remain prohibitively expensive, and security remains tenuous. “Things are always on the edge here, where one day can be good but the next might not be,” says Sadek, who is applying for a job with the local awakening council. “I really don’t think that it’s a good time to be in Baghdad.” Many others are returning to find their homes destroyed, occupied by squatters, or surrounded by new, more hostile neighbors. When U.N. officials surveyed refugees returning on a government-sponsored bus convoy, they learned that only a third were able to return to their original homes.
U.S. officials pressured the Iraqi government into suspending the bus convoys because they are concerned that Baghdad has not made sufficient preparations should a larger number of refugees decide to return.
Lloyd Evans, The Spectator’s theatre critic, reviews last night’s Spectator / Intelligence Squared debate on the future of Iraq which featured Tony Benn, William Shawcross, Sir Christopher Meyer, Ali Allawi, Rory Stewart and Lt Peter Hegseth.
Proposition 1
Go. ‘Allied forces should leave Iraq as soon as is practical’
Rt Hon Tony Benn and Rory Stewart
Proposition 2
Quid pro Quo. ‘A withdrawal of troops as part of a negotiated settlement on the future of Iraq’
Sir Christopher Meyer and Dr Ali Allawi
Proposition 3
Stay. ‘The Surge is working. Let’s win before we leave.’
William Shawcross and Lt Peter Hegseth
The final Intelligence Squared debate of the year was staged in Westminster Methodist Hall where more than three thousand punters thrust their way in to hear an all-star panel. The presentation was a bit glam-rock too. A huge Iraqi flag was draped melodramatically across the podium and the motion was as expansive and flared as the issue. Three pairs of speakers proposed a trio of propositions. To quit Iraq now, to mount a negotiated withdrawal or to leave only after we’ve won.
Full audio of the debate is available here.
"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."
