Zitat:Iraq's Sunni fighters leave U.S. payroll

The Sons of Iraq are now employed by the Iraqi army. Ruling Shiites still view the fighters with suspicion, and the feeling is mutual. In Baghdad, a bombing kills 31.
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Iraq's ruling Shiites still view the fighters with suspicion. The hostility reflects the deep mistrust between the country's newly assertive Shiite majority and the onetime Sunni elite, who are angry about their fall from power. If the government alienates the Sunni paramilitary fighters, who number nearly 100,000 countrywide, the fighters could restart their insurgency.

But as the U.S. military prepares to start pulling out of the country, responsibility for the Sons of Iraq was transferred to the Iraqi army. The payments Monday marked the last step in the transition.
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He and other U.S. military officials played down concerns expressed by many of the Sunni paramilitary members that the Iraqi government might renege on vows to find them jobs in the future.
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Zitat:U.S. to cut troop levels in Iraq this month
The cut to 14 brigades comes at least two months earlier than planned

WASHINGTON - Spurred on by a continued decline in violence, the U.S. military will reduce its presence in Iraq to 14 combat brigades this month — at least two months earlier than originally planned.

Military officials say two brigades from the 101st Airborne Division will leave Iraq this month and only one will be replaced.
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On Wednesday, however, the military announced the 2nd Brigade will instead return to its Fort Campbell, Ky., home base this month, after serving for 13 months, rather than the expected 15.
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The move leaves about 140,000 U.S. troops in Iraq.

Decline in troop fatalities
U.S. forces have also seen a dramatic decline in troop fatalities, with deaths falling to their second lowest monthly level in October. There were 14 U.S. troops killed last month, including seven lost in combat.
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Zitat:Irak billigt Abkommen über US-Truppen
"Das Abzugsdatum 2011 steht"

Die irakische Regierung hat den umstrittenen Entwurf für ein langfristiges Abkommen zur Truppenstationierung mit den USA akzeptiert. Sie sieht es als Erfolg - immerhin stehe das Abzugsdatum 2011 in dem Papier. Aber die irakische Bevölkerung bleibt skeptisch.

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Stand: 16.11.2008 18:14 Uhr

Zitat:Militants Turn to Small Bombs in Iraq Attacks

By KATHERINE ZOEPF and MUDHAFER AL-HUSAINI
Published: November 13, 2008
BAGHDAD — They are usually no bigger than a man’s fist and attached to a magnet or a strip of gummy adhesive — thus the name “obwah lasica” in Arabic, or “sticky bomb.”

Light, portable and easy to lay, sticky bombs are tucked quickly under the bumper of a car or into a chink in a blast wall. Since they are detonated remotely, they rarely harm the person who lays them. And as security in Baghdad has improved, the small and furtive bomb — though less lethal than entire cars or even thick suicide belts packed with explosive — is fast becoming the device of choice for a range of insurgent groups.

They are also contributing, in the midst of an uptick in violence, to a growing feeling of unease in the capital.

Zitat:Interview mit ABC
Bush gibt Fehler beim Irak-Krieg zu

...Stand: 02.12.2008 07:36 Uhr

Zitat: “I’d like to be a president [known] as somebody who liberated 50 million people and helped achieve peace”

“I would like to be a person remembered as a person who, first and foremost, did not sell his soul in order to accommodate the political process”

Zitat:Bagdad Blue

Die Gewalt hat nachgelassen in Bagdad und im ganzen Irak. Aber Sicherheit herrscht noch lange nicht. Die Amerikaner sind weiter verschanzt in der „Green Zone“ am Tigrisufer, das Bagdad der Iraker bleibt die „Red Zone“. Doch die grüne Zone soll schon Anfang 2009 formal den Irakern übergeben werden, und in der roten Zone blüht vielerorts orientalisches Leben. Irgendwo zwischen Krieg und Frieden, zwischen Grün und Rot liegt „Bagdad Blue“. Der Washington-Korrespondent der F.A.Z., Matthias Rüb, zum vierten Mal als „eingebetteter” Reporter im Schutz amerikanischer Truppen im Irak, versucht Messungen der Farbtemperatur.
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Seleukos schrieb:Er hatte ja schon welche - und sie auch eingesetzt, sogar gegen Nachbarländer (als ob gegen das eigene Volk nicht schlimm genug war)....

Seleukos schrieb:Das Einzige was mir mißfällt ist die Lage der Christen im heutigen Irak - die hat sich drastisch verschlechtert!

Zitat:Iraq violence at 5-1/2 year low, Petraeus says

ROME (Reuters) - Violence in Iraq has in the past few weeks fallen to its lowest level since summer 2003 and security gains, while still at risk of reversal, are less fragile than before, General David Petraeus said on Tuesday.
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Zitat:British forces to start leaving Iraq in March: down to 400 by summer

British troops will start pulling out of Iraq in March and, by next summer, there will be just 400 British personnel in the country, a senior defence source said yesterday.

The troops will make way for several thousand American soldiers who are to move into the British base at Basra airport, in the south of the country. The SAS squadrons that are currently operating from Baghdad on counter-terrorist missions will also be withdrawn and are expected to be transferred to Afghanistan to fight the Taleban.
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Some of the most valuable equipment, however, will be transferred to Afghanistan. This will include the half-dozen Merlin helicopters that are operating in Iraq and all the pilotless Desert Hawk drones.

Zitat:TERROR IM IRAK

Viele Tote bei Doppelanschlag in Bagdad

Die irakische Hauptstadt Bagdad ist von zwei Anschlägen erschüttert worden. Innerhalb kurzer Zeit explodierten zwei Bomben im Zentrum. Mindestens 25 Menschen wurden dabei getötet und über 50 verletzt.

Zitat:Da fliegen vor allem deshalb keine Schuhe durch den Raum, weil der Schuhwerfer 5min danach hinter dem Gebäude an die Wand gestellt würde...

Zitat:Wieso werden bewußt oppositionelle Gruppen aufgerüstet?