White House eagerly highlights the departure of U.S. combat troops from Iraq

WASHINGTON As the White House eagerly highlights the departure of U.S. combat troops from Iraq, the small army of American diplomats left behind is embarking on a long and perilous path to keeping the volatile country from slipping back to the brink of civil war.Among the challenges are helping Iraq’s deeply divided politicians form a new government; refereeing long-simmering Arab-Kurd territorial disputes; advising on attracting foreign investment; pushing for improved government services; and fleshing out a blueprint for future U.S.-Iraqi relations.

President Barack Obama also is banking on the diplomats – about 300, protected by as many as 7,000 private security contractors – to assume the duties of the U.S. military. That includes protecting U.S. personnel from attack and managing the training of Iraqi police, starting in October 2011.The Iraq insurgency, which began shortly after U.S. troops toppled Baghdad in April 2003, is why the U.S. only now is entering the post-combat phase of stabilizing Iraq. Originally, the U.S. thought Iraq would be peaceful within months of the invasion, allowing for a short-lived occupation and the relatively quick emergence of a viable government.Although the insurgency has been reduced to what one analyst terms a “lethal nuisance,” it will complicate the State Department’s mission and test Iraq’s security forces.Much is at stake as the department negotiates with the Pentagon over acquiring enough Black Hawk helicopters, bomb-resistant vehicles and other heavy gear to outfit its own protection force in Iraq.

“Regardless of the reasons for going to war, everything now depends on a successful transition to an effective and unified Iraqi government and Iraqi security forces that can bring both security and stability to the average Iraqi,” says Anthony Cordesman of the Center for Strategic and International Studies. In his view that transition will take five years to 10 years.

The question is whether progress will be interrupted or reversed once American combat power is gone.The U.S. will have 50,000 troops in Iraq when the combat mission officially ends Aug. 31; they are scheduled to draw down to zero by Dec. 31, 2011. Until then, they will advise and train Iraqi security forces, and provide security and transport for the diplomats.

Gen. Ray Odierno, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, said in an interview to be broadcast Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union” that he believes Iraq’s security forces have matured to the point where they will be ready to shoulder enough of the burden to permit the remaining 50,000 U.S. soldiers to go home at the end of next year.”My assessment today is they – they will be,” Odierno said, according to an excerpt of the interview released Saturday by CNN.”We continue to see development in planning, in their ability to conduct operations,” he added. “We continue to see political development, economic development and all of these combined together will start to create an atmosphere that creates better security.”

Once the U.S. troops are gone, the State Department will be responsible for the security of its personnel.Obama administration officials say the diplomats are well prepared for what the State Department expects to be a three to five-year transition to a “normal” U.S.-Iraqi relationship.”We are fully prepared to assume our responsibilities as we move through this transition from a military-led effort to a civilian-led effort,” department spokesman P.J. Crowley said.

Iraq watchers have their doubts.Kenneth M. Pollack, a frequent visitor to Iraq as director of Middle East policy at the Brookings Institution, says the administration is in danger of underestimating the difficulty it faces.”One of the biggest mistakes that most Americans are making is assuming that Iraq can’t slide back into civil war. It can,” Pollack said. “This thing can go bad very easily.”Pollack, who does not consider himself a pessimist on Iraq, said the historical record on civil wars around the globe shows that about half repeat themselves.

“So it is a huge mistake to assume it can’t” happen in Iraq, whose civil strife in 2005-07 was so violent that many Americans assumed the war was lost and believed U.S. troops should give up and go home.Pollack considers the State Department ill-suited for its new tasks – starting with the police training mission and including the complex developmental problems such as improving Iraq’s water system.”What the State Department is being asked to do isn’t in their DNA,” Pollack said.The department has been strongly criticized for its past work in Iraqi police training. An October 2007 report by the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction, Stuart W. Bowen Jr., said the State Department had so badly managed a February 2004 contract for Iraqi police training that the department could not tell what it got for the $1.2 billion it spent.

In May 2004 President George W. Bush put the Pentagon in charge of all security force development.The newly departed U.S. ambassador to Baghdad, Christopher Hill, says he sees brighter days ahead for Iraq, but he also laments “woefully low” supplies of electricity and deeply ingrained tensions among the three main competitors for political power: Sunnis, Shiites and Kurds.”There is a mountain of mistrust,” Hill said.The diplomats’ postwar task would have been much easier if, as the administration once hoped, Iraq had formed a new government by now, nearly six months after its March 7 national elections.Instead, the political stalemate   with no end in sight – has created another hurdle to the central U.S. goal in Iraq: translating hard-fought security gains into stability.Still, there is optimism in some quarters.

“While there are no guarantees, the prospects for Iraq’s security and stability beyond 2011 look as good or better than they have at any time in the recent past,” John Negroponte, who was U.S. ambassador to Iraq in 2004-05, wrote Thursday in a ForeignPolicy.com blog.Another complication is the shake up of key U.S. players in Baghdad.Odierno leaves Baghdad on Sept. 1 for a new assignment in the U.S., and Gen. David Petraeus, who was Odierno’s boss as head of Central Command, switched last month to take command in Afghanistan. Hill was replaced in Baghdad this past week by James Jeffrey, who was the U.S. ambassador to Turkey.(AP)

Hurricane Threatens Gulf of Mexico

Low-pressure air in the southeastern United States will move toward the Gulf of Mexico, and potentially 50 percent turned into a tropical storm within 48 hours. According to the U.S. National Hurricane Center about the threat of bad weather in the area of the location of the worst oil spill in American history,According to weather forecasts, the low air pressure will cause the flow of warm water in the Gulf on Monday morning local time, and will be able to produce locally heavy rain and strong winds along the central Gulf Coast region.

Commander of the National Disaster Management Agency Thad Alen, who heads the government’s response in tackling the oil spill, said at the weekend, the activity of disposal wells that are designed to permanently block the oil wells will be finished after the giant energy company BP to end the period of testing and planning some time ago.Disposal wells by BP, the owner of the well which was leaked last week, also suspended because of bad weather.

General Stanley McChrystal threatened withdrawn from duty because of insulting President Barack Obama

Washington, Force Commander United States (U.S.) in Afghanistan General Stanley McChrystal threatened withdrawn after he and his assistants “making fun” President Barack Obama and his senior advisers. The White House criticism of the commander of U.S. forces and North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) is displayed after the statement quoted a magazine article “Rolling Stone” which will be published Friday. A spokesman for the White House, Tuesday, said the general who was also architect of President Obama’s war strategy has also been called to Washington DC to explain the “big mistake in his assessment was” directly to the president.

Would President Obama would consider withdrawal of the general, White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said all options are open. McChrystal himself had apologized for the article to be published in the magazine. Citing aides McChrystal, the magazine said an aide to President Obama as a “clown” and another as a “wounded animal”. General McChrystal own disparaging statement which also revealed the Vice President Joe Biden and U.S. Government Special Envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan, Richard Holbrooke.

The Pentagon criticized the general’s statement and lost confidence in his ability to continue the leadership of U.S. and multinational forces in the Afghan War that had lasted nearly nine years. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said, General McChrystal “already made keselahan big and bad assessment.” Admiral Mike Mullen who headed the joint chiefs also expressed “deep disappointment.” “General McChrystal has apologized to me or to people whose names are mentioned in the article,” he said.

In the midst of controversy over the general, President Hamid Karzai even defend him. President Karzai supports full-General McChrystal is believed to be the “commander of U.S. forces the best ever sent to Afghanistan over the last nine years.” About six months ago, President Obama will meet the demand for General McChrystal additional amount of U.S. troops to support the war against the Taliban and Al Qaeda. Until mid-June 2010, the number of foreign soldiers who have died since the U.S. invaded Afghanistan in 2001 reached 1831 people.

Iran's Revolutionary Guards said that in March next year it will spread-made unmanned aircraft /KhAI-112 aircraft

Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, on Saturday (04/24/2010), said that in March next year it will spread-made unmanned aircraft in the country capable of conducting air strikes.”Super-sophisticated unmanned aircraft is made by the Revolutionary Guards and will be operated in the second half of this year,” said the Guard Commander Brigadier General Amir Ali Hajizadeh, which refers to the end of Iranian year falling on March 20, 2011.

He did not give detailed explanation about the flight was unmanned. Iranian unmanned aircraft technology has raised concerns in the U.S..U.S. Defence Secretary Robert Gates recently warned they would make it harder for the military presence in Afghanistan.In February, Iran opened two production lines to manufacture the unmanned aircraft.Tehran said the unmanned aircraft will be capable of doing high-precision attack.

U.S. spy Aircraft Kill Seven People at Afghan border

Miranshah, Pakistan spy aircraft of the United States, Saturday, firing a missile into a complex three insurgents in Pakistan’s tribal regions near the Afghan border, killing seven militants, security officials said. The attack happened at 21 o’clock local time  in Marsikhel area, 20 km east of Miranshah, North Waziristan town of importance, known as a center of Taliban and Al Qaeda linked militants.

Citizenship seven guerrillas were killed was not immediately clear, said a senior Pakistani security officer told AFP on condition of anonymity. Another officer confirmed the attack and killed it, and added: “We do not know whether high-value target present in the area at the time of the attack.” The attack came a day after seven Pakistani soldiers were killed and 16 wounded, when militants armed with rifles and rocket launchers attacked their convoy, a routine mission to the town of Miranshah dai Dattakhel

U.S. forces have launched a spy plane attack against the commander hidden Taliban and Al Qaeda linked militants in tribal area in northwestern part of the country, where guerrillas build their hideouts in the mountainous areas outside the direct control of government. U.S. officials said spy plane attack is a very important weapon in the fight to defeat Al Qaeda and the Taliban insurgency in Afghanistan to reverse, where Washington’s troops led the big waves.

Critics say high-tech attack is risky to make the local population into a radical, especially if the civilians were killed. The importance of North Waziristan in the spy plane attack was increased from a Jordanian al-Qaeda double agent blew himself up killing seven CIA staff in a province neighboring Afghanistan in December. More than 870 people have been killed in nearly 100 spy plane attack in Pakistan since August 2008.

Washington calls the Pakistani tribal areas, the global headquarters of Al Qaidda and most dangerous regions in the world. Guerrillas in the area believed to have helped nearly nine-year insurgency in Afghanistan. North Waziristan is a stronghold of Al Qaeda, Taliban and Pakistani and Afghan militants affiliated with the Haqqani network, which was established by Jalaluddin Haqqani commander of the Afghan war and now led by his son, Sirajuddin, are ambitious. Taliban and associated groups of Al Qaeda blamed for a wave of suicide attacks and bombings that have killed nearly 3300 people in Pakistan since 2007. (AFP)

Oil Refinery Explosion Victim Search Suspended

New Orleans, The savior of the U.S. coast to stop the search eleventh offshore refinery employees who are listed as missing, on Friday (23/04/2010)They were missing after an explosion at the refinery, offshore Louisiana, Gulf of Mexico earlier this week.Supposedly Mary Landry, commander of the rescue beaches in the district are likely eleventh victim was near the blast site.”Conditions are very fragile new oil refineries. His position has been tilted, and going to drown,” she said.

Meanwhile, local authorities currently environmental pollution caused by oil that spilled from the refinery building structure which collapsed into the sea.”For a while, not feared. There is no oil leakage and environmental disasters of this incident,” said local official.

KABUL International troops opened fire on a civilian bus early Monday in a southern Afghan city

KABUL International troops opened fire on a civilian bus early Monday in a southern Afghan city, killing four people and wounding 18, the local governor’s spokesman said.NATO was sending investigators to the scene but didn’t immediately say its troops were responsible for the shooting in Kandahar.The governor’s spokesman, Zelmai Ayubi, said the shooting occurred soon after daybreak and that international troops took 12 of the wounded to a military hospital.Ayubi said the provincial government strongly condemned the shooting.NATO spokesman Mst. Sgt. Jeff Loftin said the alliance had dispatched a team to the scene to investigate. He said the local command in Kandahar had no further information on what happened.

The top NATO commander in Afghanistan, U.S. Gen. Stanley McChrystal, has issued strict orders to his troops to try to reduce civilian casualties. But these still occur regularly, unleashing raw emotions that highlight a growing impatience with coalition forces’ inability to secure the nation after more than eight years of war.The support of the local population in Kandahar is seen as essential for the success of a long-anticipated allied operation to clear the biggest city in the south of Taliban insurgents.(AP)

bomb that is controlled remotely detonated near a family who was traveling in southern Afghanistan

Kandahar, Afghanistan A bomb that is controlled remotely detonated near a family who was traveling in southern Afghanistan Wednesday, killing at least 13 people and wounding about 40, said some NATO officials and Afghanistan. Previous reports from the area, said that a suicide bomb attack on foot sparked an explosion near a group of local officials who are distributing seedlings to villagers as part of a program to persuade people not to plant opium.

A NATO officials and a spokesman for the provincial governor of Helmand said 13 people were killed and 40-45 people were injured in the blast. NATO officials said, a military helicopter flew the Afghans are injured from the scene, some of them died later of their wounds. He added that the incident happened in a district of Helmand province – the Nahr-e-Saraj or Gereshk.

In the past, the Taliban claimed responsibility for attacks in Afghanistan, where they led a rebellion against the government of Afghanistan and foreign troops. Last year, according to the UN, a large number of civilians were killed in that war, mostly due to guerrilla attacks.

The NATO commander has warned Western countries that are ready to face falling victim because they’re implementing a strategy to end the eight-year war in that country. U.S. Marines currently heads the 15,000 U.S. soldiers, NATO and Afghanistan in Operation Mushtarak which aims to quell the militants, which was launched before dawn Saturday (13 / 2) to pave the way for the Afghan government to control more areas of Helmand producer of opium.

Offensive was reportedly getting fierce resistance from the Taleban, who launched the attacks from behind human shields and put bombs on roads, buildings and trees. President Hamid Karzai has warned that the army had to take all steps necessary to protect civilians.

Currently there are more than 120,000 soldiers internationally, especially from the United States, which deployed to Afghanistan to assist the administration of President Hamid Karzai to overcome rebellion fought by the remnants of the Taliban. Taliban, who ruled Afghanistan since 1996, fomenting rebellion since ousted from power in that country by US-led invasion in 2001 because it refused to hand over leaders of al-Qaeda Osama bin Laden, accused of being responsible for attacks on American soil that killed about 3,000 people at 11 September 2001.

International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) led NATO force of more than 84,000 soldiers from 43 countries, which aims to restore democracy, security and rebuilding Afghanistan, but is still trying to quell the Taliban and its allies. The violence in Afghanistan reached its highest level in the war for more than eight years with Taliban insurgents, who broadened the rebellion from the south and east of the country to the capital and the regions that previously peaceful.

Eight years after the overthrow of the Taliban of power in Afghanistan, more than 40 countries preparing to increase the number of soldiers in Afghanistan until it reaches approximately 150,000 people within a period of 18 months, in a new effort to combat the guerrillas.

Approximately 520 soldiers foreigners were killed during 2009, which made that year as the year the deadliest for international troops since the US-led invasion in 2001 and create public support for the West against the war slump. Taliban insurgents rely heavily on the use of roadside bombs and suicide attacks against Afghan government and foreign troops stationed in that country. Homemade bombs known as an IED (improvised explosive) resulted in 70-80 percent casualties among foreign troops in Afghanistan, according to the military.(Reuters)

Pakistani troops killed at least 34 militants after about 150 Taliban attacked a military checkpost in the northwest on Friday

Pakistani troops killed at least 34 militants after about 150 Taliban attacked a military checkpost in the northwest on Friday, challenging government assertions crackdowns have weakened the group.Homegrown Taliban rebels are seeking to topple the U.S.-backed government of unpopular President Asif Ali Zardari, who has been pressured to hand over some of his key powers, such as dissolving parliament and appointing military chiefs.

A senior military officer and four paramilitary soldiers were also killed in the attack in Orakzai, a day after Pakistani jets killed nearly 50 people, mostly militants, in strikes on a school and a seminary in the same region, a government official said.Fourteen soldiers were wounded in the Taliban assault.

Orakzai, one of seven Pakistani tribal regions near the Afghan border, also known as agencies, has seen a surge in military attacks in recent months, targeting militants who were driven out of their bastion of South Waziristan.Pakistan mounted two offensives last year in the northwestern Swat Valley and in South Waziristan on the Afghan border, which it says threw al Qaeda-linked militants into disarray.But despite losing ground, the Taliban hit back with bombings that killed hundreds, prompting troops to step up attacks in other northwestern regions where militants are believed to have taken refuge after offensives.In the latest attack, about 150 Taliban launched a pre-dawn assault on a checkpoint in Orakzai, triggering fierce fighting.

“They attacked from three sides which continued for nearly three hours in which a lieutenant colonel and four other security officials were killed,” said government official Khaista Rehman.”Security forces launched the counter-attack in which 24 militants have been killed,” he said. A paramilitary official, said as many as 30 militants may have been killed.

Army jets and helicopter gunships later targeted suspected militant hideouts in various parts of Orakzai and killed another 10 militants, said government official Mohammad Asghar Khan.Orakzai is considered a militant stronghold of Pakistan Taliban chief Hakimullah Mehsud, who is widely believed to have been killed in a U.S. drone aircraft attack in January.

Pakistani action against militants along its Afghan border is seen as crucial to the U.S. efforts to bring stability to Afghanistan, particularly as Washington sends more troops there to fight a raging Taliban insurgency before a gradual withdrawal starts in 2011.

The two allies pledged increased cooperation in tackling militants during two days of talks in Washington that ended on Thursday, with Washington promising to speed up overdue military payments.U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates praised Pakistan for increased coordination over stabilizing Afghanistan, including the recent arrest of a key Afghan Taliban commander in what has been described as a joint American-Pakistani raid in Karachi.(Reuters)

Pakistan A pair of suicide bombers targeting army vehicles detonated explosives within seconds of each other Friday

LAHORE, Pakistan A pair of suicide bombers targeting army vehicles detonated explosives within seconds of each other Friday, killing at least 39 people in this eastern city and wounding nearly 100, police said. It was the fourth major attack in Pakistan this week, indicating Islamist militants are stepping up violence after a period of relative calm.About ten of those killed were soldiers, said Lahore police chief Parvaiz Rathore.

The bombers, who were on foot, struck RA Bazaar, a residential and commercial neighborhood where several security agencies have facilities. Security forces swarmed the area as thick black smoke rose into the sky and bystanders rushed the injured into ambulances. Video being shot with a mobile phone just after the first explosion showed a large burst of orange flame suddenly erupting in the street, according to GEO TV, which broadcast a short clip of the footage shot by Tabraiz Bukhari.”Oh my God! Oh my God! Who are these beasts? Oh my God!” Bukhari can be heard shouting after the blast in a mixture of English and Urdu.Senior police official Tariq Saleem Dogar said 39 people were killed, and another 95 were hurt. Some of the wounded were missing limbs, lying in pools of blood after the enormous explosions, eyewitness Afzal Awan said.

“I saw smoke rising everywhere,” Awan told reporters. “A lot of people were crying.”No group immediately claimed responsibility, but suspicion quickly fell on the Pakistani Taliban and al-Qaida.The militants are believed to have been behind scores of attacks in U.S.-allied Pakistan over the last several years, including a series of strikes that began in October and lasted around three months, killing some 600 people in apparent retaliation for an army offensive along the Afghan border.In more recent months, the attacks were smaller, fewer and confined to remote regions near Afghanistan.But on Monday, a suicide car bomber struck a building in Lahore where police interrogated high-value suspects – including militants – killing at least 13 people and wounding dozens. The Pakistani Taliban claimed responsibility.Also this week, suspected militants attacked the offices of World Vision, a U.S.-based Christian aid group, in the northwest district of Mansehra, killing six Pakistani employees, while a bombing at a small, makeshift movie theater in the main northwest city of Peshawar killed four people.The attacks show that the loose network of insurgents angry with Islamabad for its alliance with the U.S. retain the ability to strike throughout Pakistan despite pressure from army offensives and American missile strikes against militant targets.

The violence also comes amid signs of a Pakistani crackdown on Afghan Taliban and al-Qaida operatives using its soil. Among the militants known to have been arrested is the Afghan Taliban’s No. 2 commander, Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar.The Pakistani Taliban, meanwhile, are believed to have lost their top commander, Hakimullah Mehsud, in a U.S. missile strike in January. The group has denied Mehsud is dead but has failed to prove he’s still alive.

Militant attacks in Pakistan frequently target security forces, though civilian targets have not escaped.During the bloody wave of attacks that began in October – coinciding with the army’s ground offensive against the Pakistani Taliban in the South Waziristan tribal area – Lahore was hit several times.In mid-October, three groups of gunmen attacked three security facilities in the eastern city, a rampage that left 28 dead. Twin suicide bombings at a market there in December killed around 50 people.(AP)