IRAQ. Patrick Cockburn

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      Saturday, 20 January 2007

SHE HEEDED AMERICA’S CALL AND PAID WITH HER LIFE

      All foreigners are targets in Iraq, Americans especially. Even those who come to the country to do good share the fate of those who come to kill.

      Moments after Andrea Parhamovich, a 28-year-old from Ohio, left the offices of a Sunni Arab political party in Baghdad this week, her car was caught in withering crossfire and burst into flames, killing her and her two bodyguards. Unlike the 20,000 troops who have started arriving in the country as part of President George Bush's "surge", she was not a soldier who had come to Iraq to fight: her mission was to teach the people how to vote.

      The ambush was a deadly reminder of the danger all foreigners face. It should, but probably will not, give pause to the plan to embed more US soldiers with Iraqi military units in Baghdad. Polls show about four out of five Iraqis in the capital approve of armed attacks on US-led forces.

      It may have been an attempted kidnapping. Some of the attackers first attempted to break into her car. It was only when they failed to break the locks that they used grenades and machine guns. Another guard was killed and two more wounded in a second car.

      Ms Parhamovich was working for the National Democratic Institute giving lessons to Iraqi political parties. She had gone to meet Sunni politicians of the Iraqi Islamic Party at its headquarters in the Yarmouk district. Most probably the insurgents were tipped off by a guard at the headquarters. Ms Parhamovich had followed her boyfriend, Michael Hastings, a Newsweek journalist, to Baghdad 15 months ago. In the US she raised funds for the liberal radio network Air America. In Baghdad, she first worked for the International Republican Institute and joined the National Democratic Institute at the end of 2006.

      Most likely, the ambushers did not know who she was or what she was doing. Jill Carroll, the Christian Science Monitor correspondent, was kidnapped in similar circumstances in January last year after leaving the office of a political party.

      There was little the guards could do. The first vehicle of the little convoy escaped and then returned to help the two survivors who had been wounded. Ms Parhamovich appears to have died in the first assault.

      Much of west Baghdad is under the control of the insurgent fighters. "With God's assistance, we have succeeded in the destruction of two SUV vehicles belonging to the Zionist Mossad, attacking them by light and medium weapons," wrote one group on a Sunni insurgent website. The insurgents sometimes have armed units waiting in basements and safe houses for opportunities to attack as soon as they are tipped off by security guards, shopkeepers and cigarette sellers.

      The extent of insurgent dominance in Baghdad is such that it will be extremely difficult for Mr Bush's "surge" in troop numbers to work effectively. It is easy enough for guerrillas to pull back, stockpile weapons or even leave Baghdad for a period. Mr Bush's answer is that US troops will stay in place instead of withdrawing as they did in the past. But saturation of whole districts of Baghdad with troops over an extended period would require a far bigger army than the US is ever likely to field in Iraq.

      The Mehdi Army, the largest Shia militia, has been removing its checkpoints and adopting a low profile in order to avoid a confrontation with US troops. The Iraqi government has even arrested some of its militants and is holding them in what appears to be a carefully calculated ploy to make it difficult for the US to assault Shia neighbourhoods.

      The Mehdi leaders may also calculate the natural friction between US troops and local people - particularly if US forces use heavy artillery and air power inflicting heavy civilian casualties - will ultimately work in their favour. The "surge" in US troop numbers does not resolve the problem that few Iraqi military units are loyal to the state before their own communities.

      In one Sunni area of west Baghdad, US troops have distributed leaflets telling people to ring a hotline telephone number if they come under attack from sectarian militias. "But we don't know how long the Americans are going to be around," said one resident. "Maybe calling them on the phone is not a great idea."

      The killing of Ms Parhamovich is typical of ambushes and assassinations in Baghdad. Kidnappings of foreigners - unlike the abduction of Iraqis- have tailed off in recent months because there are few foreigners outside the Green Zone and other heavily defended localities in Baghdad. The US has hinted that if the Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki does not move against the Shia militias, he might well lose Washington's support. That has led to a recurrence of rumours there might be so-called "moderate" government installed. But that would mean ignoring the results of the elections of 2005 won by the Shia parties. Washington's closest allies performed dismally at the polls then and are even more unpopular now. A new coalition would be more dependent on the US than that of Mr Maliki and would have less credibility among Iraqis.

      Sunday, 18 February 2007

ROADSIDE BOMBS ARE NOTHING NEW

      There is something ludicrous about the attempt by the US military in Iraq to persuade the world that the simple but devastating roadside bomb or IED (improvised explosive device) is a highly developed weapon requiring Iranian expertise. Here is the official police report of one IED attack. It reads: "At about 8.25am, 100 men of the X Regt with their colonel in charge, marched with their band from the military barracks at Y to their rifle range via fixed route. When they got to place Z a land mine exploded, killing three outright and wounding 22 others, three of these died shortly afterwards. The mine was connected to an electric battery by about 150 yards of cable. It is believed that there were only two men involved in carrying out this outrage."

      This is fairly typical of a roadside bomb. It might have happened in Iraq yesterday- except it didn't. The IED in question exploded in the town of Youghal in County Cork on 21 June 1921. I happen to have read the Royal СКАЧАТЬ