"Torture rooms" found
Coalition forces in Iraq have recently uncovered what they call "torture rooms" operated by Sunnis on Sunnis in Anbar province, a military commander said Wednesday.
Maj. Gen. William Caldwell in an interview on CNN's "The Situation Room" and in an earlier press briefing, said 17 kidnapped Iraqis had been found in two hideouts.
He said one of the tortured people was a 13-year-old boy, who "literally had been tortured, electrocuted, whipped, beat by these al Qaeda terrorists." He said freed people told troops that one or two captives had died during the torture sessions, and the remaining captives expected to be ransomed off to their families, with the funds going to support the al Qaeda insurgency.
"This is the nature of the enemy that the Iraqi people are facing here in Iraq," Caldwell said.
Is it any wonder that the Iraqi's have turned against al-Qaeda?
Most observers agree that the Sunni insurgency in Iraq, particularly in the western province of Anbar, is splintering. The ruptures have allowed Iraq's Shiite-dominated central government and U.S. military forces to make some new friends and allies who can aid in the continuing fight against Al Qaeda and its affiliates in Iraq and against old Baathist stalwarts.
Experts disagree, though, over whether this is a short-term phenomenon or a longer-term trend that could help turn the tide against the insurgency.
Some argue that these splits are merely factional jostling among Sunni groups that remain implacably opposed to the U.S. presence and to the Iraq government. Others say the divisions indicate that Al Qaeda in Iraq is trying to commandeer the entire Sunni insurgency. Still others contend that the fissures demonstrate a fundamental turnaround -- a decision by increasingly desperate Sunnis to abandon their post-U.S. invasion goal of overthrowing the elected government in Baghdad and regaining power.
The splits "matter immensely," said Samir Shakir Mahmoud Sumaidy, the Iraqi ambassador to the United States, who offered one of the more optimistic assessments of the developments. The government is working hard to split the insurgent groups, he said. "I'm sure there will be more splits to come.... This is a process that is gradual."
Retired U.S. Army Gen. Barry McCaffrey, recently back from Iraq, said, "There are unmistakable signs that [the splintering] is happening." Optimism over the Sunni splits "is not frippery or [just] positive thinking," he said. But he pointed out that it could be all for naught if Al Qaeda's spectacular bomb attacks against Shiites provoke Shiite militias into launching an all-out civil war against Sunni communities.
Evidence of a deep break between Qaeda-affiliated forces in Iraq and the various other Sunni insurgent groups is mounting. Al Qaeda's high-profile suicide bomb and chlorine gas bomb attacks against its former allies in Anbar's Sunni communities who are now siding with the government certainly tell of a fundamental split. In addition, the 1920 Revolution Brigades, an insurgent group generally described as more nationalist than Islamist, has divided into pro- and anti-Qaeda factions.
We also have Pro-American Iraqi Sunni leader paying a visit to Shiite stronghold in Baghdad.
A pro-US Sunni tribal leader made a rare visit to the Iraqi capital's Shiite bastion of Sadr City on Tuesday in a bid for national reconciliation. An Iraqi parliamentary committee has failed to finalize an agreement on amending key articles in the constitution, one of the political benchmarks Washington says are important to end sectarian violence.
After six months of talks, the Constitutional Reform Committee had been expected to present Parliament with a final draft of their recommendations on Tuesday.
Sheikh Hamid al-Hayis, the armed wing chief of an alliance of Sunni tribes fighting Al-Qaeda alongside US forces in Anbar province of western Iraq, visited supporters of hard-line Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr.
"This meeting is a message to Iraqi politicians to get rid of their differences and to seek real reconciliation," Hayis said.
For all the ignorant people that keep saying the Iraqi's need to stand up and help, they are, you are simply ignoring those attempts because you are so filled with Bush Derangement Syndrome you do not bother to read the stories about the Iraqi's helping by fighting alongside the US and coalition forces against al-qaeda, nor do you bother mentioning the bravery of the civilian Iraqi's that are passing along tips to our forces which is responsible for hundreds of weapons caches being found an destroyed.
I will update this post once the body that was pulled from the Euphrates River is identified.
[Update] Iraq news source, Voices of Iraq, says two other bodies in US uniforms have been found south of Baghdad.
Hilla, May 23, (VOI) - Babel police said two more bodies believed to be of the kidnapped U.S. soldiers were found on Wednesday near a bank of the River Euphrates in al-Masayeb area. “Babel police patrols today found two bodies believed to be from the two kidnapped U.S. soldiers near the Euphrates bank in al-Masyeb area,” the source, who asked not to be named, told the independent news agency Voices of Iraq (VOI).
If, I repeat IF these are the three US soldiers that our forces have been searching for, our condolences go out to the familes, if not, then they go out to the families of whoever lost these three men.
I will update when we get confirmation of the Voices of Iraq information and after the bodies have been identified and the families have been notified.
The soldiers names are Army Pvt. Byron W. Fouty, Army Specialist Alex R. Jimenez and Pfc. Joseph J. Anzack.
Tracked back by:
Maj. Douglas Zembiec: A "Purposeful" Life from Maggie's Notebook...
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