Filed under: airstrikes, Baghdad, David Petraeus, federal crime, Genocide, georgia, green zone, Iran, Iraq, Military, military strike, moscow, nation building, occupation, Preemptive Strike, preemptive war, Russia, Shock and Awe, South Ossetia, staged provocation, Tehran, Troops, War Crimes, WW3, ww4 | Tags: dilyala province, georgian troops, soldiers, u.s. soldiers, u.s. troops
Petraeus: US is Flying Georgian Troops into Battle Zone
Information Clearing House
August 10, 2008
’US aircraft have started to fly some of Georgia’s 2,000 troops in Iraq back home to join the fight in the breakaway province of South Ossetia, General David Petraeus, the top US commander in Iraq said today.
“The flights are ongoing to redeploy the elements of the Georgian contingent so that they can deal with the security issues in their country,” General Petraeus told The Times in an interview at his office inside Baghdad’s Green Zone.
He said measures were already in place to mitigate the impact on operations in Iraq of the sudden departure of the soldiers.
“We can accommodate that. Obviously it was not expected but it is something, the effects of which we can certainly mitigate.”
The Georgian contingent has been taking part in an operation with US and Iraqi forces to clear the south-eastern corner of Diyala province, north of Baghdad, a known al-Qaeda stronghold.
Some 150 Georgian soldiers also guard the Iraqi Parliament building as well as other key structures inside Baghdad’s fortified Green Zone.
In addition, one battalion is helping to support the Iraqi security forces in Wasit province, south of the capital, near the Iranian border.
Filed under: Afghanistan, Baghdad, Britain, Europe, european union, George Bush, green zone, Iraq, Maliki, Military, nation building, neocons, occupation, Pullout, sovereignty, special forces, Troops, United Kingdom, War On Terror | Tags: tigris river
Iraq ready to kick U.S. out of green zone
Times Online
July 13, 2008
The green zone of Baghdad, a highly fortified slice of American suburbia on the banks of the Tigris river, may soon be handed over to Iraqi control if the increasingly assertive government of Nouri al-Maliki, the prime minister, gets its way.
A senior Iraqi government official said this weekend the enclave should revert to Iraqi control by the end of the year. “We think that by the end of 2008 all the zones in Baghdad should be integrated into the city,” said Ali Dabbagh, the government’s spokesman.
“The American soldiers should be based in agreed camps outside the cities and population areas.
“By the end of the year, there will be no green zone,” he added. “The separation by huge walls makes people feel angry.” Dabbagh acknowledged that getting rid of the green zone would be a huge undertaking, given the thousands of American soldiers, private contractors and foreign workers who live inside. He said the concrete walls that divide it from the rest of the city would be taken down slowly, “depending on the threat and circumstances”.
British government ‘to pull troops out of Iraq by mid-2009’
While there are no plans to withdraw before George W Bush hands over to the new American president at the turn of the year, the decision is now expected to be made “in the first half of 2009”.
Only troops training Iraqi military or police and special forces are likely to stay, unless there is a sharp change for the worse.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/7498904.stm
Spending Bill Suggests Long Stay in Afghanistan
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dy../07/13/AR2008071301644_pf.html
Maliki hands out money to Iraqis
http://ph.news.yahoo.com/ap/200807..weapon-d3b07b8.html?printer=1
U.S. Considers Increasing Pace of Iraq Pullout
http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/07/13/america/13military.php
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