U.S. military deaths in Iraq hit 2,500
Thu Jun 15, 2006 2:16 PM BST

By Omar al-Ibadi

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - The number of U.S. military deaths in Iraq has reached 2,500, the Pentagon said on Thursday, more than three years into a conflict that finds U.S.-led forces locked in a struggle with a resilient Sunni Arab insurgency.

The news came after a senior Iraqi official in Baghdad said his country's security forces had seized al Qaeda in Iraq documents giving key information about the militant group's network and the whereabouts of its leaders.

"We believe this is the beginning of the end of al Qaeda in Iraq," national security adviser Mowaffaq al-Rubaie told a televised news conference in the Iraqi capital.

In Washington, the Pentagon also said 18,490 U.S. troops had been wounded in the war, which began in March 2003 with a U.S.-led invasion to topple President Saddam Hussein.

Tens of thousands of Iraqis have been killed.

Rubaie told Reuters earlier this year the insurgency against the U.S.-backed, Shi'ite-led government had been defeated. But violence has continued to rage across Iraq, killing hundreds of people and showing no signs of abating.

Iraqi and U.S. officials have also in the past said al Qaeda, blamed for some of the bloodiest attacks in Iraq in the last three years, was on the defensive.

They have hailed last week's death of al Qaeda leader in Iraq Abu Musab al-Zarqawi in a U.S. air raid as a major blow to the insurgency, while cautioning it would not end violence.

About 50,000 Iraqi troops, supported by more than 7,000 U.S.-led forces, launched a security crackdown in Baghdad this week aimed at putting further pressure on militants.

"The government is on the attack now ... to destroy al Qaeda and to finish this terrorist organisation in Iraq," Rubaie said.

AL QAEDA HIDEOUT

He added that some documents were found in an al Qaeda hideout where Zarqawi had been, but did not make clear whether this was the place where the Jordanian militant was killed.

Holding what he said was one of them in his hand, he added:

"I present to you a document that was found in one of Zarqawi's computers that reveals many dangerous things and gives details on strategy and plans of the al Qaeda terrorist organisation in Iraq."

But a copy of the unsigned document, whose authenticity could not be independently verified, did not identify the anonymous author as an al Qaeda member or give specific information about any planned attacks.

Instead, it suggested that insurgent forces were being weakened by U.S. raids and propaganda and proposed ways to counter this, for example by infiltrating Iraq's armed forces, recruiting new members and manufacturing more weapons.

It also said the best way to get out of "the crisis" was to foster conflict between the United States and another country, like Shi'ite Iran, and by stirring U.S.-Shi'ite tension in Iraq.

Rubaie said the confiscated material showed that al Qaeda's central strategy was to "divide, destroy and rule".

He added: "These documents have given us the edge over al Qaeda and (they) also gave us the whereabouts of their network, of their leaders, of their weapons and the way they lead the organisation and the whereabouts of their meetings."

Al Qaeda has vowed to fight on and its new leader in Iraq, little known Abu Hamza al-Muhajir, vowed in a Web statement earlier this week to avenge Zarqawi's death.

The U.S. military said on Thursday it believed the real name of the group's new leader was Abu Ayyub al-Masri. Al-Masri, an Egyptian, trained in Afghanistan and formed al Qaeda's first cell in Baghdad.

(Additional reporting by Will Dunham in Washington)

Light at the end of the tunnel.....or an oncoming train ???

EVERY death is a tragedy...

__________________
1991 560 SEC AMG, 199k <---- 300 hp 10:1 ECE euro HV ...

1995 E 420, 170k "The Red Plum" (sold)

2015 BMW 535i xdrive awd Stage 1 DINAN, 6k, <----364 hp

1967 Mercury Cougar, 49k

2013 Jaguar XF, 20k <----340 hp Supercharged, All Wheel Drive (sold)

http://www-fars.nhtsa.dot.gov/

40,000 people die on the highways every year

RIP 40,000 United States of America drivers

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95 Honda Shadow ACE 1100.
1999 Plymouth Neon Expresso. 2.4 swap, 10.5 to 1 comp, big cams. Autocross time attack vehicle!
2012 Escape, 'hunter" (5 sp 4cyl)

Only Mr. Bush doesn't order me to go on the highway. Also, what is the cause of those accidents? Because we ne need to make sure Israel is safe?

Get a clue. If there were no oil in the Middle East Israel would be left to twist in the wind.

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-Marty

1986 300E 220,000 miles+ transmission impossible
(Now waiting under a bridge in order to become one)

Reading your M103 duty cycle:
http://www.peachparts.com/shopforum/831799-post13.html
http://www.peachparts.com/shopforum/831807-post14.html

I don't think Israel has any oil, so why do we bother?

What's your point?

Hegemony over the sources of supply and the shipping routes through the suez = delivery of the product with much greater efficency = cash

Egypt is right behind Israel in U.S. aid every year, creating a balance of power in the canal zone where no one entity has total control over it use.

It's a disfunctional policy that has less to do with a Jewish conspiracy than military industrial one.

__________________
-Marty

1986 300E 220,000 miles+ transmission impossible
(Now waiting under a bridge in order to become one)

Reading your M103 duty cycle:
http://www.peachparts.com/shopforum/831799-post13.html
http://www.peachparts.com/shopforum/831807-post14.html

Interesting stat Nate.

Thanks for the reminder.

__________________
Current Benzes

1989 300TE "Alice"
1990 300CE "Sam Spade"
1991 300CE "Beowulf" RIP (06.1991 - 10.10.2007)
1998 E320 "Orson"
2002 C320 Wagon "Molly Fox"

Res non semper sunt quae esse videntur

My Gallery

Not in this weather!

Iraq has maybe, 20% to do with oil (Haliburton) -- the rest, it is so obvious, is ALL about Israel. We are there for one main reason. Very simple. Nobody in the region can stand Israel. Israel doesn't want to go - so we need to protect them, because we THINK they are our friend (I'm still waiting for my Jewish friends on this forum to tell me something that Israel has doen for us -- positive thing... NOT the USS Liberty. *That* wasn't positive.)

Oh well.

I think it's more like 100% oil. Do you think Iraq really threatened Israel? With what, their ineffective SCUD missiles? Israel has an extremely effective military and doesn't seem to need our help (the equipment we sell them notwithstanding) to keep its enemies at bay. The balance of power militarily has not changed all that much in the region since 1967, it would seem. That's why Israel's enemies resort to suicide bombings and other 'terror' tactics - they don't have any other means of fighting, as they would be crushed if they attempted to use conventional tactics.

Israel has done some pretty nasty things over the years, and IMO the enmity they are on the receiving end of is not entirely undeserved. I don't think they can be blamed for the current mess, however.

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Ralph

1985 300D Turbo, CA model
248,650 miles and counting...

I personally would atribute it to the HUGE Jewish lobby in the U.S. Congress, like it or not it is there; don't forget there are FAR more Jewish people living in the USA than in Israel, and they are concerned with the survival of Israel.

I don't have any problem with people being concerned with their fate...
not when radical Islamists deny the holocaust and people like the madman running Iran wants to push them into the sea and Saddam Hussein starting
to lob scud missiles at them in the first gulf war. I don't blame Israel for blowing up the Iraqi nuclear reactor to smithereens in 1981 when they learnt of it.

The land they claim as their home - Israel - has been contested for thousands of years, the blood shed over that real estate probably will never end.

I am no Zionist but I thinkthey have a right to live in peace in Israel, without fear of suicide bombings or rocket attacks on a daily basis. It ought to be remembered they also provide a standard of living to thousands of Palestinians who otherwise would not have one.

Not that FOR ONE MOMENT does that excuse the excesses of the Israeli army, those are terrible, and just serve to provoke the Arab revenge-fed attacks

After dozens of years, the oil rich Gulf states have done nothing to help eliminate the squalid, overcrowded conditions inthe Palestinian refugee camps, preferring instead to channel money towards the terrorists that the conditions in those camps breed. What's up with that? To a casual observer like me it almost seems that other Muslim countries that could actually do something to alleviate the suffering in Palestine would rather see the horrid economic conditions maintained in Palestine so that Israel can be blamed as the enemy.


And look at the mess in Palestine...Israel gave up large portions of the Gaza strip to the Palestinians, and what do we get? Lots of buildings destroyed there immediately upon the Palestinian takeover there, and now a bloody internecine battle between Hamas and Fatah, each of which harbor ill will towards Israel. Poor Abbas, trying to be a voice of moderation in the midst of all the violence and shooting there. I hope he can make a difference.

.03

__________________
1991 560 SEC AMG, 199k <---- 300 hp 10:1 ECE euro HV ...

1995 E 420, 170k "The Red Plum" (sold)

2015 BMW 535i xdrive awd Stage 1 DINAN, 6k, <----364 hp

1967 Mercury Cougar, 49k

2013 Jaguar XF, 20k <----340 hp Supercharged, All Wheel Drive (sold)

Israel can do as it likes, but they also reap what they sow--I just don't want to pay for it. They'll do just fine without the billions we caugh up on their behalf every year. Same goes for Egypt,Colombia, et al.

Y que?

__________________
1991 560 SEC AMG, 199k <---- 300 hp 10:1 ECE euro HV ...

1995 E 420, 170k "The Red Plum" (sold)

2015 BMW 535i xdrive awd Stage 1 DINAN, 6k, <----364 hp

1967 Mercury Cougar, 49k

2013 Jaguar XF, 20k <----340 hp Supercharged, All Wheel Drive (sold)

You make valid points... However, Iraq alone may not have been a threat, but collectivly the Non-Jewish people there would be a threat.

Also, you do know, (and I don't know your position on the WMD BS) But, anyway, you do know that you just totally killed any chance to go with the WMD story, don't you.