Thursday, June 22, 2006

A piece of good news from Iraq

This is really good news!

The amount of Iraqi civilians killed by coalition forces at checkpoints, roadblocks or alongside convoys is down from one killed every day in 2005 to one killed every week so far in 2006.

¨An average of one Iraqi civilian every day was killed by coalition forces during 2005 in incidents at checkpoints or roadblocks or alongside convoys, according to statistics compiled by the United States military in Baghdad.

That high number of civilian deaths so angered fresh commanders who arrived in Iraq at the start of the year that a three-star general ordered an internal review, resulting in new guidelines.



Thus far in 2006, the number of Iraqi civilians killed at checkpoints, roadblocks or along convoys has dropped to an average of one per week, according to the military.

The new measures, intended to lessen the chance for violent confrontations between American troops and innocent Iraqis during the daily routines, are distinct from the high-profile criminal investigations into killings of innocent Iraqis during combat operations.

But they are part of an effort initiated by Lt. Gen. Peter W. Chiarelli, the No. 2 American officer in Iraq, to find ways to carry out the military mission while minimizing brutal actions that wound or kill innocent Iraqis and anger and alienate the population.

The actions of American troops have earned the outrage of the new Iraqi government as well. Earlier this month, Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki lashed out at what he criticized as the "regular occurrence" of violence by American troops against Iraqi civilians.¨

Read the full article here

Saturday, June 17, 2006

Google news goes arabic

Google news launched their arabic website this week, i wonder how long it will take before the Arab world starts saying ¨i googled that¨ and get´s used to the fact that if u can´t google it, it dosen´t exist. The Arab word, now under siege by googleization!

Thursday, June 08, 2006

Abu Musab az Zarqawi dead

Iraqi PM Nouri al Maliki has announced that Abu Musab az Zarqawi was killed on wednesday according to the BBC