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Sunday is Mrs G's day off from the Dawn Patrol, but it's no slow news day. Here's a quick roundup of the latest.
The New York Times reports that the death of Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri, the last of Saddam Hussein's inner circle still at large in Iraq, has been confirmed
:"On the blessed soil of Iraq, the soul of our comrade in struggle, and field commander of the heroic resistance, Izzat Ibrahim, passed away to his creator at dawn yesterday," the posting said. The Web site, which is considered an authentic voice of the Baathist underground, gave no cause of death, though Mr. Ibrahim was known to have had leukemia since the late 1990's.Regardless of whatever "effect Mr. Ibrahim's death would have on the insurgency", The Los Angeles Times says that some insurgents want "a deal":American officials would not immediately speculate on the effect Mr. Ibrahim's death would have on the insurgency.
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For many Iraqis, Mr. Ibrahim, 63, a former interior minister and vice chairman of the Baath Party's ruling council, was the embodiment of the brutality that characterized many of Mr. Hussein's closest associates.He was widely feared and despised by the public, on a par with Mr. Hussein's two sons, killed by American troops in 2003, and Ali Hassan al-Majid, the man known as Chemical Ali, who is in American military custody with Mr. Hussein and dozens of other former top Baathist officials.
BAGHDAD — Some Sunni Arab insurgent groups linked to Saddam Hussein's Baath Party are putting out feelers for a negotiated end of fighting in exchange for a timetable for a U.S. pullout from Iraq, a former government minister asserted Saturday, amid fresh signs that upcoming elections have altered the country's political climate.Deal or not, Iraqi President Jalal Talabani is cautiously optimistic on the pullout of coalition forces:
In a TV interview to be broadcast in Britain today, Talabani said no Iraqis wanted foreign troops to remain indefinitely in their country, adding that homegrown troops should be ready to take over from British forces in the southern provinces around Basra by the end of next year.Meanwhile the Washington Post notes that the security in Iraq has improved to the point where even UN officials are no longer afraid to venture into the country:But he warned that an immediate withdrawal of U.S.-led forces would be a catastrophe for Iraq and would lead to civil war, with harmful consequences for the whole Middle East.
U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan visited Iraq on Saturday for the first time since the U.S.-led invasion more than 2 1/2 years ago -- a war he had condemned as illegal -- and called for reconciliation among political factions vying for the country's leadership.Annan's visit followed that of US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who's next stop is Jordan:
Condoleezza Rice, the United States secretary of state, is to make an unscheduled visit to Jordan tomorrow, in a highly visible show of support for one of America's leading Arab allies after last week's terrorist bombings in Amman.That al-Qaeda attack has led to a call for Jihad
King Abdullah II called for a global fight against terrorism yesterday as Jordan acknowledged for the first time that al Qaeda in Iraq used foreign suicide bombers to attack Amman hotels, killing 57.The terrorists, meanwhile, continue to find innovative ways to win converts to their cause. The London Sunday Times:The devastating strike was masterminded by Jordanian-born militant Abu Musab Zarqawi, signaling his group is able to launch terror attacks outside war-ravaged Iraq.
King Abdullah called Zarqawi a growing threat to the Middle East and put the international community on notice that it must cooperate to fight terrorists.
"Terrorism is a sick and cross-border phenomenon. Therefore, eradicating it is the whole world's responsibility," he told the state-run Petra news agency. "The body parts we saw in Amman we see every day in brotherly Iraq and have also seen in Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Morocco and other countries around the world."
CHILDREN orphaned by the Kashmir earthquake are being “adopted” by terrorist groups that hope to train them to fight in the jihad, or holy war...Pakistan’s leading human rights organisation, the Ansar Burney Welfare Trust, said jihadi groups fighting the Indian government were taking orphans off the streets and putting them in training camps.
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“We have heard from very reliable sources and seen with our own eyes that orphaned and lost children are being taken by jihadi organisations in northern Pakistan to be trained,” said Fahad Burney, of the trust.Jamaat-ud Dawa, one of the largest jihadi groups in Pakistan, has called openly for orphans to be handed over for an “Islamic education”.
Pakistan moved quickly following the quake to ban adoptions after aid agencies warned of child trafficking.
