U.S. Hands Key Base Over to Iraqi Control

BAGHDAD - The United States on Dec. 2 handed over to Iraqi control the sprawling Victory Base Complex near Baghdad, the main base from which the U.S. war in Iraq was run, a U.S. military spokesman said.

U.S. SOLDIERS LEAVE Al-Fao palace at Camp Victory, one of the last U.S. bases Iraq, after a special ceremony in Baghdad on Dec. 1. The United States handed over control of the sprawling Victory Base Complex near Baghdad, the main base from which the (Khalid Mohammed / AFP)

"The Victory Base Complex (VBC) was officially signed over to the receivership of the Iraqi government this morning. The base is no longer under U.S. control and is now under the full authority of the government of Iraq," said Col. Barry Johnson, a spokesman for United States Forces - Iraq (U.S.F-I).

"There was no ceremony, just a signing of paperwork akin to the closing of a home sale," Johnson said in a statement emailed to AFP.

Lt. Col. Angela Funaro, a spokeswoman for USF-I, said that U.S. troops had pulled out from VBC in advance and that just five U.S. bases in Iraq now remain to be handed over.

"All U.S. troops departed as of last night," she said. "The air base which adjoined VBC has transferred to the control of the State Department, but has some troops there."

At its peak, VBC housed more than 100,000 people - some 42,000 military personnel and more than 65,000 contractors, according to the U.S. army's top historian in Iraq.

The complex includes an area known as Camp Victory, a sprawling collection of canals, man-made lakes, palm trees and palaces from which the U.S. war in Iraq was run.

The top U.S. generals in Iraq lived in the 25,000-square-foot, 20-room waterfront Al-Ez palace in the area, which also includes the 450,000-square-foot, 62-room Al-Faw palace, which served as the headquarters for various Iraq-wide military commands.

Al-Faw was also used to host speeches and ceremonies, including one on Dec. 1 that was attended by U.S. Vice President Joe Biden, Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, President Jalal Talabani, and U.S. ambassador James Jeffrey.

"This palace, a grotesque monument to a dictators greed, is totally filled with American and Iraqi warriors, who are bound together by a shared sacrifice in the service of both their countries - an appropriate use of this palace today," Biden said in his remarks at the palace.

The complex also contains two apparently decrepit, bombed-out villas on a small island, which is accessible only by a drawbridge.

While their exteriors would seem to mark them as unimportant, one houses a secret prison that once held now-executed dictator Saddam Hussein, as well as his also-executed cousin Ali Hassan Majid, known as "Chemical Ali" for his involvement in poison gas attacks.

President Barack Obama announced on Oct. 21 that U.S. troops would leave Iraq by the end of 2011, bringing to a close an almost nine-year war that has left thousands of U.S. soldiers and tens of thousands of Iraqis dead, and cost hundreds of billions of dollars.

As of late Thursday, there were less than 12,000 U.S. military personnel, including both soldiers and Department of Defense civilians, remaining in Iraq.

That is down from a peak of about 170,000 soldiers in 2007 at the height of a U.S. troop surge ordered to rein in rampant sectarian bloodshed.

On Dec. 2, eight people were killed and 12 wounded in bomb and gun attacks in Iraq, according to security officials.

Violence has declined in Iraq since its peak in 2006 and 2007, but attacks remain common. A total of 187 people were killed in November, according to official figures.

Pakistan has developed smartest nuclear tactical devices

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan s nuclear programme has made some extraordinary progress by developing one of the world s smartest nuclear tactical devices, it has been learnt.According to a western diplomat, the former dictator and the then President General Pervez Musharraf, during one of his meetings with US officials, had deemed it proper to convey it to the Americans what Pakistan possessed and how the country s nuclear scientists had secured the defence of Pakistan.The diplomatic source said that New Delhi also knows what Pakistan has produced and what is really unmatched. The Indians got this source said and believed that Musharraf intentionally conveyed this to the Americans so that the country is not treated by the US like Afghanistan and Iraq Pakistan is neither a signatory to NPT nor CTBT, however, it has unilaterally decided to use its nuclear programme only as deterrence against any foreign aggression.After becoming the target of the Western capitals particularly Washington, which have been unleashing all sorts of propaganda against Pakistan s nuclear programme, Islamabad has developed one of the most credible and foolproof command and control systems for its nuclear programme. The US authorities have acknowledged the credibility and security of Pakistan s nukes.Wikipedia quotes a Washington-based science think tank as saying that Pakistan is increasing its capacity to produce plutonium at its Khushab nuclear facility. The website said that the estimated Pakistani nuclear weapons was probably in the neighbourhood of more than 200 by the end of 2009. It, however, adds that the actual size of Pakistan s nuclear stockpile is hard for experts to gauge owing to the extreme secrecy, which surrounds the programme. Pakistan s nuclear programme was started by Zulfikar Ali Bhutto while the country conducted its nuclear test on May 28, 1998 during Nawaz Sharif s tenure.

Germany Lends Air-Defense Radar to Israel

TEL AVIV - Germany recently delivered a Patriot air defense radar to Israel as a cost-free loaner pending conclusion of a three- to four-year refurbishment in the United States of Israel's own AN/MPQ-53 radars for its PAC-2 force.

German, U.S. and Israeli sources confirmed the trilateral cooperation, aimed at filling potential gaps in Israeli air defense coverage while Israel Air Force radars are being serviced at Fort Sill, Okla.

The loaner radar provided by the German Bundeswehr arrived here in mid-October, shortly before the first of three Israeli Patriot radar sets was shipped to the United States for servicing. The German delivery marks an expansion of strategic cooperation with Israel, which received two full-up Patriot PAC-2 batteries from Luftwaffe stocks in 2003 in the run-up to the U.S.-led coalition war in Iraq.

Sources said it will take about a year to replace aging components of each radar, extend service life, and improve its ability to interoperate with U.S. European Command's Patriot batteries that participate in biannual U.S.-Israel exercises and could be rushed here for emergency deployment during wartime.

The refurbishment program is estimated at $15 million and will be funded through annual U.S. Foreign Military Financing (FMF) assistance to Israel. Israeli and German officials confirmed that the German loaner radar would remain here until the upgrade program is complete and all Israeli radars are redeployed and integrated with other elements of the Air Force's Air Defense Force.

"Germany has contributed to the air defense system of Israel since 2003 with the loan of two Patriot systems. Additional components are temporarily on loan to maintain the operational capability of the systems," said Lt. Col. Holger Neumann, a German MoD spokesman.

An Israel Air Force officer emphasized that the recently launched Patriot radar upgrade is more logistical in nature and is not aimed at converting Israel's PAC-2 air defense force to the PAC-3 ballistic missile intercepting configuration.

Israel has no plans to procure PAC-3 missile interceptors from Lockheed Martin, he said. Instead, the Air Defense Force is looking to deploy the David's Sling air and missile defense system now in development by Rafael and Raytheon.

Nevertheless, the Air Force officer said Israel "is looking very closely" at a so-called Config-3 program that would render its existing PAC-2 force more capable of operating with PAC-3 intercepting batteries.

No decision has been made on the estimated $60 million Config-3 program with Raytheon, producers of the Patriot radar, engagement control stations, launching units, and improved PAC-2 interceptor missiles.

Up to 763 Contractors to Train Iraqi Forces: U.S.

BAGHDAD - A maximum of 763 civilian contractors and 157 U.S. military personnel will train Iraqi security forces post-2011, if the Iraqi government gives its approval, a U.S. officer said Nov. 23.
U.S. President Barack Obama announced Oct. 21 that U.S. troops would depart Iraq by year's end, after negotiations with Baghdad on a larger-scalepost-2011 U.S. military training mission broke down.

The military personnel and contractors are part of the Office of Security Cooperation - Iraq (OSC-I), which falls under U.S. embassy authority, Lt. Col. Tom Hanson, director of strategic communications for OSC-I, told AFP.
"The 157 (military personnel) are here, and the up to 763 number is based on the number of active foreign military sales cases at any given time," he said.
As not all are active at once - the 763 contractors will probably not be in Iraq at the same time, he added.
The contractors are "involved in some aspect of bringing the equipment to the Iraqis and helping them learn how to operate it, and bringing (them) to a minimum level of proficiency on it, whether it's a tank or an airplane or an air traffic control system or a radar," Hanson said.
Meanwhile, "most of the uniformed personnel are program managers, so they're supervising contractors." The aim "is to help the Iraqi security forces build their capability, build the proficiency, and modernize their equipment," he said.
The contractors are not required to be American citizens, Hanson said, adding that there are OSC-I contractors of various nationalities, including some Iraqis. OSC-I military personnel have immunity from Iraqi prosecution, but the contractors do not.
"The uniformed military personnel are protected the same way that the diplomats in the embassy are. The contractors do not have any immunity, any legal protections right now," Hanson said.
The issue of immunity scuppered the talks on a post-2011 U.S. military training mission.
Washington insisted that the trainers must have immunity, while Baghdad said that was not necessary.
Both Iraq and the U.S. have consistently said that Iraqi forces still require significant improvement.
Iraqi military chief of staff, Lt. Gen. Babaker Zebari, was quoted in an October report from a U.S. watchdog as saying Iraq "will be unable to execute the full spectrum of external defense missions until sometime between 2020 and 2024."
Gen. Lloyd Austin, the top U.S. commander in Iraq said earlier this week that Iraqi forces were near "having the ability to control the internal security environment".
But "I don't think they have very much of a capability at all to address an external threat," Austin said.

Iraq Set for 'Turbulence' as US Departs: General

BAGHDAD, Nov 21 - Iraq's security situation is likely to be "turbulent" as U.S. forces depart, with al-Qaida among the groups that will seek to take advantage, the top U.S. general in the country said Monday.
"I think as we leave, you can expect to see some turbulence in security initially, and that's because you'll see various elements try to increase their freedom of movement and freedom of action," Gen. Lloyd Austin told reporters at a roundtable in Baghdad.

"Al-Qaida will be one of those elements," said Austin, the commanding general of U.S. forces in Iraq. "We expect that al-Qaida will continue to do what it has done in the past," he said, referring specifically to the situation in northern Iraq. "We expect that it's possible that they could even increase in their capability."
"Of course, that will depend on how effectively the Iraqi security forces and the government of Iraq are able to focus on that network."
Austin also pointed to Iranian-backed militias as a threat to stability. "When you look at the environment in the south, we've seen activity over the last several months that are from the Iranian-backed militants," he said. "We expect that that type of activity could possibly continue into the future."
"The Iraqi government has to treat [Shiite militias] based upon what they really are, and again, these are elements that are really focused on creating a Lebanese Hezbollah kind of organization in this country," he said.
That means "a government within a government, and those elements would have their own militia - that sort of thing. I think as we leave, if these elements are left unchecked, they will then eventually turn on the government."
"We really intend to remain engaged with Iraq," Austin said. "There's likely to be some setbacks, some tough days ahead, but I am very hopeful that we'll stay on course."
U.S. President Barack Obama announced Oct. 21 that U.S. troops would depart Iraq by year's end.
Austin said on Monday that there are less than 20,000 U.S. soldiers left in Iraq, while eight military bases remain to be handed over

Britain's Iraq Inquiry Delayed by 6 Months: Website

LONDON - The release of an official British inquiry into the Iraq war will be delayed by at least six months due to debates over access to secret files, a statement on the inquiry's website said Nov. 17.
Inquiry chairman John Chilcot previously said the five-member panel would publish its report on Britain's role in the 2003 U.S.-led invasion before the end of the year, but the conclusions are now not expected until mid-2012.

"The Inquiry has advised the government that it will need until at least summer 2012 to produce a draft report which will do justice to the issues involved," said the statement. "As well as drafting the report, the Inquiry will need to negotiate the declassification of a significant volume of currently classified material with the government, to enable this to be quoted in, or published alongside, the Inquiry's report.
"The Inquiry has made clear that it will need co-operation from the government in completing this in a satisfactory and timely manner," it added.
The inquiry was set up to learn lessons from the conflict, in which 179 British troops died. More than 100,000 Iraqi civilians died in the conflict, according to the NGO Iraq Body Count.
Despite the delay, "very considerable progress has already been made," according to the statement.
The inquiry was launched after British troops left Iraq in July 2009 and public hearings began in London that November.
Former prime ministers Tony Blair and Gordon Brown were among the wide cast of diplomats, ministers, military chiefs and civil servants who were called as witnesses, some of them - including Blair - more than once.
The inquiry has looked at the justification for the invasion and its legality, the conduct of the war and the supply of military equipment to Britain's troops, and Iraq's descent into chaos after the invasion.

UAE Also Eyeing Typhoon in Combat Aircraft Competition

DUBAI - The United Arab Emirates (UAE) has asked Britain to bid the Eurofighter Typhoon for its combat aircraft fleet competition, a British government spokesman said, dealing a blow to French efforts to sell the Rafale to the Gulf state.
"We have received the request for proposal for the Eurofighter Typhoon," an official from the U.K. Defense & Security Organization said Nov. 13 on the opening day of the Dubai Airshow. "We're working on it."

No figures were immediately available for the British bid.
The U.K. Minister for International Security Strategy, Gerald Howarth, was attending the exhibition as part of London's official support to place the Eurofighter in the UAE.
The British Chief of the Air Staff, Sir Stephen Dalton, was also in Dubai, flying the flag for the Royal Air Force, which flew two Eurofighters to the show. A Eurofighter was scheduled to fly in the daily display, as was the Rafale.
Dassault Aviation declined comment.
French Air Force officers heard of the Eurofighter news on Nov. 11, through a London embassy attaché.
The UAE has been in talks with France since 2008 on a sale of 60 upgraded Rafales, but the negotiations suffered political upsets along the way and Gulf officials saw the initial $10 billion tag as excessive.
On the Rafale talks, French defense minister Gérard Longuet told journalists here "the final stage has been well engaged and a flick of the eyebrows could mean hundreds of millions of euros either way."
Each side was defending its interests, but the talks were essentially between the Rafale commercial team and the UAE, he said.
The UAE's request for a Eurofighter bid was a case of "livening up the procedure," Longuet said, adding he still expected the UAE would order the Rafale in December when the Gulf state celebrated its 40th anniversary of founding.
An important price element was the Rafale's multirole capability, which meant the same crew could perform air combat, reconnaissance and close air support missions, Longuet said. For a country with a small population, that was a big saving in crew costs.
On the UAE's Mirage 2000-9 fleet, any decision in an "innovative solution" was a decision at the state level as part of a strategic relationship, above that of the ministry or manufacturer, he said.
Some Mirage 2000-9 units were aging, others were more recent, he said.
In the official opening of the show, UAE Prime Minister Sheikh Muhammad Bin Rashid Al-Makhtum made the briefest of visits at the Rafale stand in his tour of the exhibition.
Lockheed Martin has been in talks with the UAE on F-16 upgrades, mainly communications, to allow the U.S.-built fighters to talk to the F-35, F-16 business development executive William Henry said here.
In an upgrade that took units out of service, Lockheed offered sales of new F-16s to allow operators to maintain force levels, he said.
Lockheed also has talked to the UAE about sales of the F-35, Henry said.
"As air forces look to the future, the F-35 is going to be a key element of their force planning," he said.
Lockheed sees potential sales of 50 to 100 F-16s around the world, Henry said. On top of 18 F-16s ordered by Iraq, 52 units are on the backlog.
Maj. Gen. Ibrahim Naser Al Alawi, deputy commander of the UAE Air Force and Air Defense, told an air chiefs conference Nov. 12 that, in a new generation combat aircraft, the air force was looking for network capability, open architecture and interoperability.
A future weapon system would be versatile, multirole, and capable of handing modular sensors and payloads, Al Alawi said.
Other elements of the future aircraft would include upgradeable and expandable hardware and software, and the plane would be fast, agile and easily serviceable, he said.
The systems should also draw on dual use military-civil technology and offer versatility.
MBDA Chief Executive Antoine Bouvier said the European missile company has not received a request from Eurofighter or the UAE to work on an offer of weapons for the Typhoon.
The UAE Air Force flew its F-16 and Mirage 2000-9 fighters in the NATO-led coalition operation over Libya. Qatar also flew alongside with French missions.
That deployment yielded many "firsts," including the UAE's first time flying as a non-NATO member in a coalition air campaign, Al Alawi said.
Among the lessons learned from Libya were the need for integration of non-NATO elements into the alliance procedures, need for a well thought out communications plan among partner nations and the importance of exchange liaison officers, Al Alawi said.
The UAE is still in talks with the French government and industry for the Rafale, a Gulf source said.
UAE foreign minister Abdullah Bin Zayed Al Nahyan recently held a first meeting with his counterpart Alain Juppé, who has been tasked by president Nicolas Sarokzy to lead the export drive for the Rafale.
The request for a Eurofighter bid is the latest setback for France's Rafale foreign sale campaign. UAE officials asked Lockheed for information on the F-16s, on which the Gulf state has invested in co-development on its Block 60 version.
The U.S government was also out in force at the show, displaying the V22 Osprey tilt-rotor aircraft for the first time here, as well the F-15, F-16 and F-18 fighters. The Apache attack helicopter was also at the show.
Bilateral ties between France and the UAE were back to normal after a hitting a low patch last year, when the Gulf state viewed the Paris government as ignoring its concerns.

Kuwait Minister: No Plan for More U.S. Troops

KUWAIT CITY - The Kuwaiti defense minister has denied reports about plans to bolster U.S. troops in the Gulf emirate after their withdrawal from Iraq by year's end, local media reported on Monday.
"Not at all. We have [no plan] to relocate U.S. troops to Kuwait or increase their numbers," Sheikh Jaber Mubarak Al-Sabah was cited as saying by Al-Watan newspaper. "They [U.S. troops] will only pass through Kuwait from Iraq [on their way] to the United States. Their presence is governed by the U.S. Kuwait [defense] pact and nothing will surpass this agreement," the minister said.

The 10-year defense pact expires next year.
Around 23,000 U.S. troops are permanently stationed at Arifjan in Kuwait, one of the largest military bases in the Gulf. The emirate has been used as a transit point for U.S. troops both to Iraq and Afghanistan.
The Kuwaiti minister's comments came in response to reports that Washington was studying options to relocate some of the 39,000 U.S. troops due to leave Iraq to neighboring Kuwait apparently due to concerns over the perceived Iranian threat.
"We will not allow or accept for our country to be used as a launching pad for attacks on any state, not Iran or others," Sheikh Jaber said.

Iraq Declines Military Training From Turkey, Iran

BAGHDAD - Iraq has declined offers from Turkey and Iran to train its forces, after the failure of negotiations with the U.S. on a post-2011 training mission, a high-ranking Iraqi official said on Nov. 1.
"Tehran and Ankara offered to train Iraqi forces, but we did not accept either due to the sensitivity of the situation," the official in the prime minister's office told AFP on condition of anonymity.

"We cannot accept one state without another," said the official. "We prefer that the file of training the forces be outside the framework of neighboring countries."
An Oct. 29 statement from the Iraqi presidency said that Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan had offered for his country to help train Iraq's forces, during a meeting with Iraqi Vice President Tareq al-Hashemi.
U.S. President Barack Obama announced on Oct. 21 that all U.S. troops will leave Iraq by year's end after failed negotiations with Iraq about a post-2011 U.S. military training mission in the country.
The issue of immunity from prosecution for U.S. trainers was the main sticking point, with Washington insisting its troops be given immunity, while Baghdad said that was not necessary.
The roughly 39,000 U.S. soldiers still in Iraq are now in the process of drawing down, after a nearly nine-year campaign that has left thousands of American soldiers and tens of thousands of Iraqi dead and cost billions of dollars.
Although both Iraqi and American officials generally say that Iraqi forces are ready to handle internal security after the U.S. leaves, they admit that there is still much work to be done to improve the capabilities of the Iraqi military.
The Iraqi military's chief of staff, Lt. Gen. Babaker Zebari, for instance, was quoted in an Oct. 30 report from a U.S. watchdog as saying the defense ministry of "will be unable to execute the full spectrum of external defence missions until sometime between 2020 and 2024."

U.N.: 'Critical time' for Iraq as U.S. withdraws

BAGHDAD - Iraq faces a "very critical time" as U.S. forces leave, the United Nations envoy to Baghdad said Oct. 24, calling on Iraqis to work together to address the myriad challenges the country faces.
"We are in a very critical time, a very important period and phase of the history of Iraq, after the announcement of President [Barack] Obama ... to withdraw troops completely," Martin Kobler, the U.N. secretary general's special representative for Iraq, told a news conference.

Obama said Oct. 21 that all American troops will leave Iraq by the end of 2011, bringing to a close a war that has stretched for over eight years.
"Many are already speculating about what will happen in Iraq come January the first," Obama said in a speech at a ceremony marking the 66th anniversary of the U.N's founding. "Yes, [it] may be there will be challenges ahead. But I do see a tremendous opportunity for Iraqis to prove to the world that they are able to deliver on the commitment they made to themselves and the international community to ensure a democratic, stable, peaceful and prosperous Iraq."
"It is an opportunity for all Iraqis to come together and build the Iraq they can be proud of," Kobler said.
During the news conference, he emphasized the importance of dialogue between Iraq's autonomous Kurdistan region and the central government, which are at odds over control of swathes of north Iraq.
"Wherever there is a chance to support the dialogue between Baghdad and Arbil, we are doing it," he said, referring to the capital of the Kurdistan region.
"The question of the ... disputed internal boundaries is a very important one," Kobler said, adding that one of the U.N.'s main focuses "will be the Baghdad-Arbil relations."
He also said that "for the government of Iraq, it's very important to improve relations with Kuwait" so it can exit "the Chapter VII resolutions."
Sanctions against Iraq were imposed following its 1990 invasion of Kuwait, under Chapter VII of the U.N. Charter.

Obama Says All Troops Will Leave Iraq By Dec. 31

WASHINGTON - President Obama said Oct. 21 that all U.S. troops will leave Iraq by the end of the year, ending a long, bloody war after the failure of talks on keeping a small American training force in the country.

President Obama announces Oct. 21 that all U.S. troops will leave Iraq by Dec. 31. (Jim Watson / Agence France-Presse)

After the deaths of more than 4,400 U.S. troops, tens of thousands of Iraqi civilians and the expenditure of hundreds of billions of dollars, Obama said the last American soldier would leave with his head held high.

"Today I can report that, as promised, the rest of our troops in Iraq will come home by the end of the year. After nearly nine years, America's war in Iraq will be over," Obama said at a White House news conference.
"Today, I can say that our troops in Iraq will definitely be home for the holidays," said Obama, who rose to power in opposing the unpopular Iraq war and pledged as a presidential candidate to bring all U.S. troops home.
"The United States is moving forward to a position of strength. The long war in Iraq will come to an end by the end of this year," he said, nearly nine years after President George W. Bush invaded Iraq and ousted Saddam Hussein.
Obama made the announcement after holding a video conference with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, and the failure of talks between the two sides on keeping a small number of troops in Iraq after the end of 2011.
It also came after his credentials as commander in chief, bolstered by the killing of Osama bin Laden and top al-Qaida suspects, were further enhanced by the Oct. 20 death of Moammar Gadhafi after a NATO mission in support of Libyan rebels.
"Just as Iraqis have persevered through war, I'm confident that they can build a future worthy of their history as a cradle of civilization," Obama said, as officials said Iraqi forces were up to the task of ensuring security.
"We'll partner with an Iraq that contributes to regional security and peace, just as we insist that other nations respect Iraq's sovereignty," he said, in an apparent reference to Iraq's neighbor Iran.
Talks on extending the U.S. presence broke down because the sides were unable to agree on granting legal immunity for American troops who would have stayed in place to help train Iraqi forces and to counter Iran.
Al-Maliki said in a brief statement that he and Obama agreed on the decision to withdraw all U.S. troops.
"The two points of view of the two leaders were the same, of the necessity of beginning a new phase of strategic relations after carrying out the withdrawal at the specified date at the end of the year," he said.
Despite the disagreement, Obama said U.S. troops will leave Iraq "with their heads held high, proud of their success."
"The transition in Afghanistan is moving forward and our troops are finally coming home," Obama said.
The 39,000 remaining U.S. troops in Iraq must withdraw by Dec. 31 under an accord between the two countries.
Obama said that he had invited Maliki to visit the White House in December, as the two sides revert to a normal sovereign relationship between two nations.
He also placed the withdrawal from Iraq in the context of efforts to transfer responsibility for security to Afghan forces and the stepped-up U.S. battle against al-Qaida in Yemen and Pakistani tribal areas.
"I would note that the end of war in Iraq reflects a larger transition. The tide of war is receding," Obama said. "The drawdown in Iraq allowed us to refocus our fight against al-Qaida and the chief major victories against its leadership, including Osama bin Laden."

Turkish Troops, Planes Attack Kurds in Iraq

HAKKARI, Turkey - Turkish forces crossed into Iraq Oct. 20 to strike at Kurdish rebels and warplanes pounded their bases in retaliation for the death of 24 soldiers, officials said.
"A large-scale land operation, backed by air strikes, has begun in five separate spots inside Turkey and across the border with 22 battalions," the Turkish military said in a statement posted on its website.

The 22 battalions comprise commando units as well as gendarmerie and special forces, it added, without specifying how many had entered Iraq. Analysts said a total of 10,000 troops to 15,000 troops would be deployed.
"The air and land operation is under way," Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan told reporters right after the military announcement.
"The operation is result-oriented," he said, without elaborating.
The separatist Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), through spokesman Dozdar Hammo, reacted defiantly, saying: "If they want to come, let them come. We will welcome them here."
Hammo said no Turkish troops had yet crossed the border into northern Iraq, but said Ankara's jets were flying overhead.
The Turkish air force kept up bombing raids overnight in response to Oct. 19's coordinated attacks by PKK guerrillas on military posts in Turkey, which caused the worst loss of life for the army since 1993, local security sources said.
According to press reports, between 200 and 250 Kurdish rebels entrenched in the mountains of northern Iraq, crossed into Turkey late Oct. 18 to carryout raids which left 24 Turkish soldiers dead and 18 wounded.
The United States voiced support for Turkey actions.
"We very clearly support Turkey's right to self-defense," State Department spokesman Mark Toner told reporters.
At the same time he urged cooperation between Turkey and Iraq through the committee set up in 2008 by Ankara, Baghdad and Washington to take up the issue of the PKK, long an irritant in Turkey's ties with Iraq and by extension the United States.
Earlier on Oct. 20, a military ceremony was held in Van, a city in eastern Turkey 90 miles north of Oct. 20's combat zone.
The coffins, draped with the red and white flag of Turkey, were loaded into military aircraft to be taken to their home towns for burial. President Abdullah Gul, Prime Minister Erdogan, as well as several Cabinet ministers and opposition party leaders, attended the Oct. 20 funeral in Ankara of one of the fallen soldiers.
The latest attacks sparked widespread outrage throughout the country.
Thousands of people, many of them students, visited the mausoleum of Turkey's founder Mustafa Kemal Ataturk in Ankara and denounced terrorism.
In Istanbul, some 500 people including members of several trade unions took to street and shouted "Turkey is Turkish and will remain so."
Unidentified individuals in rage of the attacks assaulted the offices of the pro-Kurdish Peace and Democracy Party (BDP) in four different provinces on Oct. 19 and Oct. 20, causing material damage, according to the press office of the party.
Turkey's parliament began discussing further measures against the PKK in a closed doors session Oct. 20. Iraq in an official statement on Oct. 20 pledged to cooperate with Ankara on security issues.
"The Iraqi government condemns this terrorist activity by the PKK, and expresses its sympathy for the families of the Turkish soldiers," the foreign ministry said in a statement.
It continued: "(Iraq) is committed to collaborate with the Turkish government on security issues to prevent a repeat of such actions."
Erdogan also had a telephone conversation with Massoud Barzani, the president of Iraq's autonomous Kurdistan region, media reported. He is expected to visit Turkey soon.
Ankara has repeatedly urged Baghdad not to allow its territory to be used as a springboard by the PKK for attacks on Turkey.
Nechirvan Barzani, a former prime minister of the Kurdish regional government, who paid a surprise visit to Ankara, said: "We strongly condemn this attack," after meeting Turkey's Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu on Oct. 20. He also met with Erdogan, who was accompanied by the intelligence chief of Turkey, according to Anatolia news agency.
Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi will come to Turkey on Oct. 21 in a surprise visit to discuss "regional issues and terrorism," a Turkish diplomat told AFP on Oct. 20.
Since July Tehran has been carrying out a major offensive against the Party of Free Life of Kurdistan (PJAK), which Turkey considers as a branch of the PKK.
Clashes between the PKK and the army have escalated since the summer.
Five police and four civilians were killed in a landmine explosion in the southeast on Oct. 18.
The PKK, listed as a terrorist organization by Turkey and much of the international community, took up arms in Kurdish-majority southeastern Turkey in 1984, sparking a conflict that has claimed about 45,000 lives.

No Firm Decision on Keeping U.S. Troops: Iraq

Defense Secretary Leon Panetta on Aug. 19 said the Iraqis want to extend the presence of U.S. troops into 2012 - but the Iraqi government in Baghdad said it has made no final decisions yet.

"My view is that they finally did say yes," Panetta said. "There was unanimous consent among the key leaders of the country to go ahead and request that they negotiate on what a training presence would look like."

In an interview with Defense News, Panetta said he viewed the Iraqis recent decision to begin formal discussions with the U.S. about a possible troop extension beyond December, the current withdrawal deadline, as a sign of Iraqi political support for U.S. forces to stay there in some capacity.

"We have made progress and as a result of that we are going to be engaging with them and trying to negotiate what that presence would look like," Panetta said.

But a spokesman in Baghdad said no deal has been finalized.

"We have not yet agreed on the issue of keeping training forces," Ali Mussawi, media advisor to Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, told Agence France-Presse. "The negotiations are ongoing, and these negotiations have not been finalized."

A spokesman for Panetta later clarified the secretary's remarks. "He made clear that the Iraqis have said yes to discussions about the strategic relationship beyond 2011, and what that relationship might look like," said George Little, a Pentagon spokesman.

In July, Panetta went to Baghdad and told the Iraqis publicly to "damn it, make a decision" about whether to request U.S. troops to say there beyond December, when the current U.S.-Iraqi security agreement expires.

"There were obviously a number of us that went to Iraq and delivered the same message and that message was basically three- or four-pronged, which was, you've got to make a decision about whether or not - what kind of presence you want to maintain," Panetta said.

The U.S. is also pushing the Iraqis to forge a new status of forces agreement that will provide legal protection for any U.S. troops who remain beyond December. "There had been some dispute as to whether or not that was needed. I think they now recognize that they have to get that enacted as part of it," Panetta said.

It remains unclear how many of the roughly 44,000 U.S. troops in Iraq today might stay and what their mission would be.

"The issue then will become what is the kind of training and assistance presence that Iraq feels it needs in order to be able to defend itself and secure itself," he said.

Iraq Cleric Warns of War if U.S. Presence Extended

NAJAF, Iraq - A radical anti-U.S. Shiite cleric warned of "war" if U.S. forces stayed in Iraq beyond a year-end deadline for their withdrawal, in a brief statement viewed on Aug. 17.

Asked whether he would negotiate directly or indirectly with U.S. forces over a security training mission to last beyond the end of this year, the cleric replied simply: "No, there will be war."

Moqtada al-Sadr did not give any further details in the written reply to a follower's question, released by his office in the holy Shiite city of Najaf.

The statement was at least the fourth message in the past two weeks from Sadr calling for American forces to leave the country, following an Aug. 3 announcement by Iraqi political leaders that they would open talks with Washington over a training mission.

On Aug. 6, he warned that a post-2011 U.S. presence "should be resisted through military means".

About 47,000 U.S. troops are still stationed in Iraq, all of whom must leave by the end of the year under the terms of a 2008 bilateral security pact, which would remain in force if a training deal is not agreed.

U.S. and Iraqi military officials assess Iraq's security forces capable of maintaining internal security, but say the country is lacking in terms of capacity to defend its borders, airspace and territorial waters.

Sadr's movement has 40 deputies in parliament and five ministers in Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's national unity government.

Before it was disbanded in 2008, Sadr's Mahdi Army militia numbered some 60,000 fighters with fierce loyalty to the cleric. It fought bloody battles with the U.S. Army in the years following the 2003 invasion which ousted Saddam Hussein. On July 10, Sadr said he would not revive the Mahdi Army, complaining it had been infested with "criminals."

Turkey Continues Bombing Northern Iraq

ANKARA, Turkey - Turkey kept pressure on Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) separatists in northern Iraq on Aug. 19, with a rebel spokesman saying Turkish jets were carrying out air strikes for a third straight day.
"The attacks started again this morning against Qandil only," Dozdar Hammo said, referring to an area of north Iraq close to the border with Turkey.

He added that bombings by the Turkish air force lasted for around three hours on the night of Aug. 18 against Qandil and other bases close to the Iraq-Turkey border.
The Turkish military said its jets had bombed 28 targets on a second day of attacks on bases in northern Iraq used by PKK.
Following bombing raids on 60 targets on Aug. 17, the air force launched an "effective" operation Aug. 18 against 28 targets in the Qandil, Hakurk, Avasin-Basyan and Zap regions of northern Iraq, the military said in a statement on its website.
In coordination with the air strikes, 96 more targets in the region were kept under intense artillery fire, the statement said.
"The targets were positively identified as belonging to the PKK, and the necessary sensitivity is paid to protect civilians," it said.
"The actions under the struggle against terror will go on with determination inside and outside the country based on the requirements of military needs," it added.
The military launched a first wave of bomb attacks on Aug. 17 against rebel targets in Iraq in response to a deadly attack by the rebel group against a military unit in Cukurca town in southeast Turkey, killing nine security officials.
It is the first time in more than a year that the Turkish military has carried out air strikes on PKK bases in northern Iraq.
The second bombing raid by Turkey also followed a new rebel attack earlier on Aug. 18 in the southern province of Siirt, killing two soldiers, media reports said.
The escalation in violence came as the National Security Council (MGK), which brings together top civilian and military officials, met for five hours on Aug. 18 before pronouncing support for a tougher stance against the PKK.
The council, led by Turkish President Abdullah Gul, spoke of the need for "better coordination" of military and police resources in suppressing the Kurdish rebels.
The council's statement also called on Turkey's neighbors "to accept their responsibilities" to eradicate the PKK from their territory, without naming any countries.
The PKK, listed as a terrorist group by Ankara and much of the international community, took up arms in the Kurdish-majority southeast in 1984, sparking a conflict that has claimed about 45,000 lives.

U.S., South Korea Begin Drills; North Warns of War

SEOUL, South Korea - South Korea and the United States launched a massive joint military exercise on Aug. 16, prompting the North to condemn the maneuvers as provocative and warn that war could erupt.
The two allies have described the 10-day Ulchi Freedom Guardian exercise as defensive and routine, but the North habitually terms such joint drills a rehearsal for invasion and launches its own counter-exercises.

"The exercise started this morning," a spokesman of the U.S.-South Korea Combined Forces Command (CFC) told AFP, referring to the annual computer-assisted simulation command-post exercise.
All of CFC's major units are taking part, involving more than 530,000 troops, including some 3,000 military personnel from the United States and other bases around the Pacific region, CFC said.
CFC commander U.S. Gen. James D. Thurman said the drill was focused on "preparing, preventing and prevailing against the full range of current and future external threats" to South Korea and the region.
"We are applying lessons learned out of Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as those garnered by the Alliance's recent experiences with North Korean provocations on the peninsula and past exercises," he said.
Pyongyang condemned the exercise as "extremely provocative," calling it a preparation for an "all-out war" against the North and the "largest-ever nuclear war exercise".
"The Korean peninsula is faced with the worst crisis ever. An all-out war can be triggered by any accidents," the North's ruling communist party newspaper Rodong Sinmun said in a commentary.
Seoul and Washington wanted to use the latest exercises to build up their capability to mount surprise attacks on the North's nuclear and missile facilities, it said.
"The U.S. warmongers are planning to carry out a realistic war drill to remove our nuclear facilities with a mobile unit led by the U.S. 20th Support Command, which was sent to Iraq to find and disable weapons of mass destruction," it said.
"Our military and the people will not sit idle as U.S. imperialists mobilize massive military forces and threaten our sovereign rights," the commentary said.
It accused the United States of seeking to bring war to the Korean peninsula after Afghanistan and Iraq as a way to "extricate itself from its worsening economic crisis."
The CFC spokesman said that during the exercise, troops would train for a "wide variety of missions including those involving the location and security of chemical, biological, nuclear and radiological threats."
The allies will simulate the detection and destruction of North Korean atomic bombs, missiles and chemical weapons, Yonhap news agency said last week.
Professor Yang Moo-Jin of the University of North Korean Studies in Seoul said the North was unlikely to escalate tensions despite its criticism of the exercise, one of two annual Korean peninsula-wide drills by the CFC.
"The North is unlikely to raise tension at a time when diplomatic efforts are underway to resume dialogue" even though the North's statement is strongly-worded, Yang told AFP.
The North's military urged Seoul and Washington last week to show their willingness to work toward denuclearization by scrapping the exercise.
In an open letter published by its state media, Pyongyang also called for a peacekeeping mechanism to replace the current armistice that ended the 1950-1953 war.
A flurry of diplomatic efforts have been underway to resume stalled six-party disarmament talks involving the two Koreas, Russia, China, Japan and the United States.
Senior Pyongyang officials met their counterparts in Seoul and Washington last month. The meetings raised hopes that the talks - last held in December 2008 - could resume.
The North has repeatedly expressed a desire to return to the forum, but the United States has urged it to show more sincerity and mend ties with the South first.

U.S., Iraq to Discuss Fighter Jet Deal: Pentagon

WASHINGTON - An Iraqi delegation will visit the United States this month to discuss the purchase of 18 fighter jets, a Pentagon spokesman said Aug. 1.
"Iraq has requested 36 F-16s, (and) a delegation is coming here this month to discuss moving forward on 18 of the jets," Col. David Lapan told reporters.

He added that the two sides were in "just the initial stage" of the purchase and that if a formal agreement were to be reached it would take time to provide the aircraft and train pilots.
"It's a long process. It could be years," he said.
Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki said July 30 he had revived talks to purchase 36 U.S. F-16 fighter jets, rather than the originally mooted 18, in a multibillion-dollar deal that has been on the works for several months.
U.S. officials in Iraq - where 47,000 U.S. troops are still stationed - have said Baghdad can provide for its own internal security but does not have the necessary arms to police its air space, territorial waters and borders.
U.S. Adm. Mike Mullen, the outgoing chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said Aug. 1 that Iraq must make a decision quickly over whether it wants any U.S. troops to remain in the country past the end of this year.
A 2008 military pact requires the withdrawal of all U.S. forces by the end of 2011 but could be amended by mutual consent, and proposals for some U.S. trainers to remain have been gaining traction among Iraqi leaders.
The F-16, manufactured by Lockheed Martin, is one of the most widely used fighter jets in the world and has been exported to over 20 countries.

Iraq Plans to Double Planned F-16 Purchase

BAGHDAD - Iraq will ask for future defense contracts to include provision for trainers, bypassing MPs to allow some U.S. soldiers to stay past a year-end pullout deadline, Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki said.
Maliki also told reporters on July 30 that he had revived talks to purchase 36 U.S. F-16 fighter jets, rather than the originally mooted 18, in a multi-billion-dollar deal that has been on the cards for several months.

"Training missions do not need the approval of parliament," the premier told a news conference. "The government will include in agreements to purchase weapons that there should be trainers to train Iraqi forces to use these weapons."
Maliki said he submitted a report to parliament which concluded Iraq's security forces still required training on purchased weapons. He did not give details on the report.
Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari said this month that plans for a contingent of U.S. military trainers were gaining traction among Iraqi leaders, but no agreement has yet been reached on the future of the American presence here.
Iraqi leaders have already missed a self-imposed July 23 deadline to reach agreement and, in the past, political deals have rarely been reached during the holy Muslim fasting month of Ramadan, which is set to start Aug. 1.
Politicians have previously noted the difficulty of reaching an agreement in parliament on a prolonged American troop presence, as many Iraqis still view U.S. forces as occupiers.
Maliki said he had signed documents restarting talks to purchase F-16s from the United States, a deal that had been close to agreement earlier this year but was put off due to widespread protests railing against poor basic services.
The original deal had involved the acquisition of 18 jets, but Maliki said the new contract would lead to the purchase of 36 F-16s.
"The new contract will be larger than what we agreed earlier, to provide security for Iraq," he said.
Any potential deal would be worth billions of dollars and take years to implement, as it would require the manufacture of the planes and the training of Iraqi pilots.
U.S. commanders say that while Iraq's forces are able to maintain internal security in the country, improvement is required in protecting Baghdad's airspace, territorial waters and borders.

Iraq FM Hopeful Some U.S. Troops Stay Past 2011

BAGHDAD - Iraq's president has called a meeting to decide whether U.S. troops should stay beyond a year-end deadline, Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari said July 27, adding there could be consensus to keep a small number of trainers.

President Jalal Talabani had set last weekend as the deadline for the Iraqi government to give a unified yes or no answer to Washington about some troops remaining, but it expired without an answer from Baghdad.

Zebari told reporters that Talabani had now called another meeting for July 30 to discuss the issue.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki said in a telephone conversation with U.S. Vice President Joe Biden that the issue would be decided in parliament, his office said.

"The prime minister assured Mr. Biden that in the end it is up to the parliament to decide whether the country needs American forces to stay or not after the end of this year," a statement from Maliki's office said, adding it was Biden who had called Maliki.

Zebari said he believed that some U.S. troops were needed beyond 2011 to train Iraqi forces.

"Is there a need for trainers and experts? The answer is 'yes,'" Zebari said. "I think it is possible to reach a consensus on this," he added.

"The Iraqi government alone cannot reach a decision on this issue. It needs political and national consensus; it's an issue all political leaders should back."

"President Talabani has announced a decision to gather all political leaders this Saturday" to discuss the issue.

"In my assessment, it is possible to reach an acceptable agreement."

The discussions about some troops staying on comes as the nearly 47,000 U.S. troops now in Iraq are packing to pull out at the end of this year under the terms of 2008 pact.

Iraq in Talks To Buy U.S. Fighter Jets: Report

WASHINGTON - Iraq has renewed talks to buy up to 36 U.S. F-16 fighter jets in a deal worth billions that Washington hopes will help contain neighboring Iran, the Wall Street Journal reported July 11.

Iraq had frozen a $4.2 billion deal to buy 18 fighter jets earlier year because of instability related to the Arab Spring but is now considering an even larger purchase, the Journal said, citing U.S. and Iraqi officials.

The newspaper said the renewed interest was linked to higher-than-expected Iraqi oil revenues and concerns on both sides ahead of the withdrawal of the remaining 46,000 U.S. troops from the country by the end of the year.

Any potential deal would be worth billions of dollars and take years to implement, as it would require the manufacture of the planes and the training of Iraqi pilots.

The Journal said Iraq has also requested ground-based air defense systems, including ground-to-air missiles and large guns.

It said Oman was also looking to purchase 18 F-16s at an estimated cost of $3.5 billion.

U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said earlier July 11 during a surprise visit to Baghdad that U.S. forces were continuing to pursue Iran-backed insurgents, saying they had killed a "heck of a lot" of U.S. troops.

Washington has been pressing Iraq to make a decision on whether it wants US troops to remain in the country beyond the end of the year, when all U.S. forces are to be withdrawn under a 2008 security pact.