6) British, Australian and Japanese troops will transfer security responsibilities in southern Iraq to Iraqi authorities next week, and withdraw from the area soon afterward, Kyodo News said Friday. (AP via Yahoo! News)

June 16, 2006:


1) Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi will announce next week that Japan is ending a military mission in Iraq, its first since World War II to a country where fighting is underway, reports say. (AFP via Yahoo! News)


2) At least 19 people were killed across Iraq, including 11 in Baghdad when a suicide bomber blew himself up inside a massive Shiite mosque despite a security crackdown in the capital, police said. (AFP via Yahoo! News)


3) An Egyptian explosives expert who trained with Abu Musab al-Zarqawi in Osama bin Laden's camps in Afghanistan is the new face of al-Qaida in Iraq, the U.S. military says. (AP via Yahoo! News)


4) Rancorous election-year debate in the House culminates Friday as Republicans force Democrats to vote on a resolution that praises U.S. troops, labels the Iraq war part of a global fight on terrorism and says an "arbitrary date for the withdrawal or redeployment" of troops is not in the national interest. (CNN.com)


5) A top government official said Friday that Iraq has an agreement to take over security responsibilities from foreign forces in southern Iraq this month. (AP via Yahoo! News)





Regards,
angelfalls!!

June 17, 2006:


1) The U.S. troops searched Saturday for two soldiers who went missing after an attack that killed one of their comrades at a traffic checkpoint in the so-called "Triangle of Death" just south of Baghdad, the military said. (Los Angeles Times)


2) Secretary-General Kofi Annan, responding to a call for assistance from Iraq's new premier, has agreed to help muster political and economic support for the country's new government, the U.N. spokesman said Friday. (AP via Yahoo! News)


3) British officials said Friday there will be no swift repatriation of British troops in Iraq despite the Iraqi government's assertion that its forces could begin taking over southern provinces from coalition forces next month.(AP via Yahoo! News)


4) President George W. Bush said the U.S. continues to face serious challenges in Iraq that will require ``more sacrifice'' and ``continued patience,'' and vowed to support the nation as it builds its military, security forces and economy. (Bloomberg.com)


5) The House on Friday rejected a timetable for pulling U.S. forces out of Iraq after a ferociously partisan debate, forcing lawmakers in both parties to go on record on a major issue in re-election campaigns nationwide.(AP via Yahoo! News)


6) At least 17 people have been killed and nearly 60 wounded in a string of attacks across Iraq, most of them in Baghdad where a massive security crackdown by Iraqi and US troops entered its fourth day, security officials said. (AFP via Yahoo! News)


7) Japanese peace activists have called for an end to the war in Iraq and for compensation to be paid to those affected by US military action during a protest near the US embassy in Tokyo.(AFP via Yahoo! News)


8) President George W. Bush on Saturday urged other nations to make good on $13 billion in pledges to help the new Baghdad government and said the United States had come too far to abandon Iraq now. (Reuters via Yahoo! News)




Regards,
angelfalls!!

__________________
It’s better to be defeated on principles than to win on lies!!!

9) Australian troops will still have a role in Iraq after foreign forces hand over security to Iraqi forces in the country's south, Prime Minister John Howard said Sunday, indicating his country's troops would not be brought home soon. (AP via Yahoo! News)


June 18, 2006:


1) U.S. Special Operations troops employed a set of harsh, unauthorized interrogation techniques against detainees in Iraq during a four- month period in early 2004, long after approval for their use was rescinded, according to a Pentagon inquiry. (International Herald Tribune)


2) At least nine people were killed in Iraq, including six in and around the restive city of Baquba, and 10 employees of a Baghdad bakery were kidnapped despite a heavy security crackdown, security officials said. (AFP via Yahoo! News)


3) No upbeat presidential trip to Baghdad or flag-waving U.S. Congressional resolution can long divert attention from the sorry reality in Iraq. (International Herald Tribune)




Regards,
angelfalls!!

__________________
It’s better to be defeated on principles than to win on lies!!!

4) Sen. Pat Roberts said Sunday that setting a timetable to pull U.S. troops from Iraq would show American resolve to be "very shaky," but Sen. Dianne Feinstein said the U.S. commitment is unsustainable. (CNN.com)


5) The dumping and burning of "black oil" is a potential environmental disaster and has exposed major gaps in Iraq's reconstruction plan. (New York Times)


6) Top Japanese officials delayed a decision Monday on when to withdraw the country's troops from southern Iraq, Kyodo News agency reported. (AP via Yahoo! News)


June 19, 2006:


1) A group linked to Iraq's al Qaeda said on Monday it had abducted two American soldiers near Yusufiya, according to a statement posted on the Internet. (Reuters via Yahoo! News)


2) President Bush understands there is growing U.S. concern over his handling of the Iraq war but will not rely on polls to determine when to withdraw troops, his spokesman said Sunday. (AP via Yahoo! News)


3) Japan has pledged to keep supporting Iraq after it ends its historic troop mission and offered loans to build bridges and roads in the area where its forces have been working. (AFP via Yahoo! News)




Regards,
angelfalls!!

__________________
It’s better to be defeated on principles than to win on lies!!!

June 20, 2006:


1) Japan announced Tuesday that it would start pulling its ground troops out of Iraq, putting an end to the country's most significant military mission since the end of World War II. (International Herald Tribune)


2) Two missing U.S. soldiers in Iraq have been killed and their bodies were found, the spokesman for Iraq's Defense Ministry said on Tuesday. (Reuters via Yahoo! News)


3) U.S. forces hunting insurgents linked to al Qaeda in Iraq killed 15 gunmen in simultaneous raids north of Baghdad on Tuesday, the U.S. military said in a statement. (Reuters via Yahoo! News)


4) Senate Democrats presented two plans for winding down U.S. involvement in Iraq on Monday, one to pull out U.S. combat forces by July 2007 and another to begin withdrawing this year without a deadline for completion. (Reuters via Yahoo! News)





Regards,
angelfalls!!

__________________
It’s better to be defeated on principles than to win on lies!!!

June 22, 2006:


1) Prime Minister John Howard is to commit Australian troops in Iraq to a new and more risky role when the Japanese military engineers they are guarding are withdrawn. (AFP via Yahoo! News)


2) The gruesome deaths of the two young American soldiers, Pfc. Kristian Menchaca and Pfc. Thomas Tucker, as well as the death of another at the sight of the ambush this past week, Spc. David Babineau, is likely a move by Al Qaeda in Iraq to herald its resiliency following the death of its leader, Abu Musab al- Zarqawi. (The Christian Science Monitor via Yahoo! News)


3) US-led coalition forces in Iraq have found some 500 chemical weapons since the March 2003 invasion, Republican lawmakers said, citing an intelligence report. (AFP via Yahoo! News)


4) Iraq's trade minister threatened on Thursday to reconsider trade deals with wheat supplier Australia after Australian troops killed one of his bodyguards in a shooting incident in the capital. (Reuters via Yahoo! News)


5) The governor of Iraq's southern province of Muthanna said foreign troops began their withdrawal on Thursday, days after Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki announced a handover of security in the region. (Reuters via Yahoo! News)


6) Ahead of votes on U.S. troop presence in Iraq, Republicans argued Thursday that the United States must stay put to help the fledgling Iraqi government while Democrats demanded the Bush administration make clear that American forces won't be in Iraq forever. (AP via Yahoo! News)


7) President Bush on Thursday acknowledged the world's impatience with Iraq's turbulent transition to democracy, but said Hungary's decades-long struggle to break the grip of Soviet oppression underscores the power of freedom. (AP via Yahoo! News)





Regards,
angelfalls!!

__________________
It’s better to be defeated on principles than to win on lies!!!

June 23, 2006:


1) The US military is relying ever more on space satellites to help wage combat in places like Iraq and Afghanistan, though analysts say that Washington's space supremacy could be threatened by rivals in the future. (AFP via Yahoo! News)


2) Vice President Cheney yesterday offered an unusually revealing glimpse of his worldview -- one in which a withdrawal from Iraq may have less to do with Iraq, and more to do with the message it would send to the world about the limits of American power. (Washington Post)


3) Republican senators weighing a 2008 presidential bid united behind President Bush's Iraq policy, while potential Democratic candidates favored troop withdrawals but split over a deadline for ending the U.S. military's combat presence. (AP via Yahoo! News)


June 24, 2006:


1) Sen. Hillary Clinton defended her party's division over the Iraq war yesterday, arguing that Democrats debated the issue this week while the GOP "blindly" embraced President Bush's desires. (New York Daily News)


2) U.S. forces apologised to a senior Sunni Arab religious leader and his two sons after arresting them in a raid on the family's home they said was based on bad intelligence, an Iraqi security source said. (Reuters via Yahoo! Asia News)


3) When two Democrats looking toward 2008 pushed hard for a firm date on withdrawing U.S. troops from Iraq, they crashed headlong into Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid's effort to retake the Senate this year. (AP via Yahoo! News)




Regards,
angelfalls!!

__________________
It’s better to be defeated on principles than to win on lies!!!

4) The top US commander in Iraq foresees a major reduction in US forces there by the end of 2007, and the first cuts in September, The New York Times has reported. (AFP via Yahoo! News)


June 25, 2006:


1) Japan have begun withdrawing its forces from Iraq five days after deciding to end its first overseas military deployment since World War II in a country where hostilities are under way. (AFP via Yahoo! News)


2) The top American commander in Iraq has drafted a plan that projects sharp reductions in the U.S. military presence there by the end of 2007, with the first cuts coming this September, American officials say. (International Herald Tribune)



Regards,
angelfalls!!

__________________
It’s better to be defeated on principles than to win on lies!!!

3) Senate Democrats reacted angrily yesterday to a report that the U.S. commander in Iraq had privately presented a plan for significant troop reductions in the same week they came under attack by Republicans for trying to set a timetable for withdrawal. (Washington Post)


June 26, 2006:


1) Four Russian hostages were brutally executed in Iraq by Al-Qaeda insurgents even as Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki talked of peace with rebel groups in a national reconciliation plan. (AFP via Yahoo! News)


2) Oil slipped under $71 on Monday as investors balanced higher supplies from Iraq against demand in China and the United States that remains robust despite costly fuel. (Reuters via Yahoo! News)


3) Gunmen attacked a convoy assigned to Iraq's most senior Sunni Arab politician Monday, killing one bodyguard, police said. (AP via Yahoo! News)


4) A plan for troop withdrawal drafted by the top U.S. commander in Iraq is just one option being considered and a reduction in troops will be dictated by conditions on the ground, White House spokesman Tony Snow said on Monday. (Reuters via Yahoo! News)




Regards,
angelfalls!!

__________________
It’s better to be defeated on principles than to win on lies!!!

June 28, 2006:


1) Russia's president orders special services to "find and destroy" the killers of four diplomats taken hostage in Iraq. (BBC News)


2) Iraqi security forces have arrested a Tunisian (Al-Qaeeda militant) who played an "active" role in the Feb. 22 bombing of the Askariya Mosque in Samarra, a Shiite shrine, Iraq's national security adviser announced Wednesday. (CNN.com)


3) Russian lawmakers have blamed Washington over the execution of four Russian diplomats in Iraq, claiming the occupying forces there could have prevented the tragedy. (AFP via Yahoo! News)




Regards,
angelfalls!!

__________________
It’s better to be defeated on principles than to win on lies!!!