Marine LCpl. Brandon Collingwood returns to his sandbagged sleeping quarters after serving his time on guard duty on March 30, 2009 in Now Zad in Helmand province of southern Afghanistan. Marines from Lima Company of the 3rd Battalion, 8th Marine Regiment man an observation post overlooking the Taliban frontline. Unlike in many other areas of Afghanistan, where American forces are engaged primarily in counterinsurgency warfare, in Now Zad, both Taliban and American forces hold territory and can see each other across their linear frontline positions.
http://www.concordmonitor.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20090331/FRONTPAGE/903310363
Article published on March 31, 2009
Manchester
A Marine laid to rest
Fellow officers travel from far away to honor Ouellette
By MADDIE HANNAMonitor staff
A cold drizzle fell upon the hundreds of people who gathered to say goodbye to Cpl. Michael Ouellette yesterday.
They stood among gravestones at the New Hampshire State Veterans Cemetery in Boscawen, circling the wooden casket that held Ouellette, the 28-year-old Manchester Marine killed last week in Afghanistan.
They listened as Alan Ouellette spoke of how his older brother had lived - by reaching out to people - and proposed that friends and family do the same in his memory.
They watched as two Marines held an American flag over the casket and began to fold it into crisp triangles, their hands in white gloves, their movements deliberate.
Marines came from far away yesterday to honor Ouellette, who was a member of the 3rd Battalion, 8th Marine Regiment, 2nd Marine Division, II Marine Expeditionary Force. He was killed March 22 while
supporting combat operations in Helmand province of southwestern Afghanistan. Another Marine, Cpl. Anthony Williams, 21, of Pennsylvania, was killed the same day. The military hasn't disclosed additional details.
Ouellette, who was buried with full military honors, earned seven commendations since joining the Marines in 2005. Afghanistan was his third deployment; he previously served two tours in Iraq. It was during the first tour that Lance Cpl. Christopher Escher came to know him.
"He was always a leader, even as a junior guy," Escher said yesterday, recalling the days they spent together on patrol in Anbar province. ("Every day," he said, smiling and shaking his head slightly.) Ouellette became a team leader and then a squad leader, he said.
"He didn't even have to go on this deployment," said Escher, who came from Camp Lejeune, N.C., for the service. But "the guys under him didn't have combat experience." Ouellette, he said, wanted to make sure they were taken care of.
Ouellette is the 28th person from New Hampshire killed since 2003 while serving in Iraq or Afghanistan. Flags flew at half-staff across the state yesterday. Sen. Judd Gregg mentioned Ouellette on the floor of the U.S. Senate, saying that he'd spoken to Ouellette's mother, "and of course he was an exceptional individual." And Gov. John Lynch came to yesterday's ceremony, standing among the mourners after taps was played.
But the crowd yesterday numbered many more than officials and Marines and members of the military. Tai Ahmad, one of Ouellette's closest friends from high school, said many of their Manchester Memorial High School classmates had come to Ouellette's wake and services to pay their respects.
"He had no problems with anybody, not one person I can recall," Ahmad said in a conversation last week. "He was truly, truly, truly just genuine."
Young men lingered in small circles long after yesterday's service had ended, giving out hugs as they patted each other on the back.
They waited in line to walk past Ouellette's casket, under the tarpaulin where his family stood. Alan Ouellette, the younger brother, greeted each person with a handshake and a hug.
"Thank you so much for coming," he told one woman as he hugged her tightly. "I'm proud of my family. They're doing much better than I am."
Leading Newspaper Headlines ~ Most papers continue to lead with the troubles facing General Motors and Chrysler. Yesterday, President Obama delivered what the New York Times describes as an "ultimatum" to the troubled automakers warning that they'll be headed for bankruptcy unless they quickly make major changes. GM's shares plunged 25 percent and the Dow Jones industrial average fell 3.3 percent. The Los Angeles Times and Wall Street Journal point out that if the companies have to go into bankruptcy, the Obama administration wants to divide their "good" and "bad" assets. http://www.slate.com/id/2215029/
The WP and NYT front news that militants stormed a police academy near Lahore, Pakistan that led to a daylong battle and left at least 11 people dead and more than 100 wounded. The Punjab province, where the attack took place, is the country's most populous and had been relatively peaceful, but yesterday's attack came around a month after militants in Lahore opened fire on a Sri Lankan cricket team, killing seven people. The attack yesterday was impressive in its intensity and coordination. It was yet another wake-up call that Pakistan's problems aren't confined to the lawless tribal regions and now threaten the entire country.
Early Bird stories are all over the map with reports on SecDef’s role in the new administration’s strategy for Afghanistan, the GAO report on weapons development, the lift on the ban of media coverage at Dover, and Poppy eradication in Afghanistan. http://ebird.osd.mil/ebfiles/e20090331aaindex.html
Other news:
1. UK TROOPS BEGIN IRAQI WITHDRAWAL
2. Lahore 'was Pakistan Taleban op' - The chief of the Pakistani Taleban, Baitullah Mehsud, has told the BBC his group was behind Monday's deadly attack on a police academy in Lahore.
3. Emergency declared in Philippines
4. A state of emergency has been imposed on a southern Philippine island where militants holding three aid workers have threatened to kill one of them.
5. Iraq: Suicide bomber kills 8 in Mosul
11:23 GMT, Tuesday, 31 March 2009 12:23 UK
UK troops begin Iraqi withdrawal
British forces have begun their official withdrawal from Iraq after the UK's commander in the south of the country handed over to a US general.
Major General Andy Salmon has transferred authority for what will become Multi-National Division South to US Major General Michael Oates.
The generals' pennants were raised and lowered in a handover ceremony.
Most of Britain's 4,000 troops will leave by 31 May, the official end-of-combat date.
About 400 will stay after that, either in HQ roles or to train the Iraq Navy.
'Dedication and commitment'
A Royal Marine band from Plymouth played as the Marines' flag was lowered in the ceremony at Basra airbase and replaced with the standard of the US Army's 10th Mountain Division.
Britain's Maj Gen Andy Salmon then shook hands with his American successor and embraced him.
In a speech at the handover ceremony, Air Chief Marshal Sir Jock Stirrup, the Chief of Defence Staff, paid tribute to the troops who had served in Iraq.
"This occasion is about the countless numbers of young men and women from the far flung corners of the US and and the various reaches of the British Isles, who have together striven here with such dedication, with such commitment, and such courage, over so long a period," he said.
"We remember particularly at such a time those who paid the ultimate price in this endeavour, those who suffered injury and disablement, in order that we might get to this point today."
"The bottom line, the aim of the transition itself is to make sure it is seamless" Lt Colonel AJ JohnsonSince the 2003 invasion, 179 British personnel have lost their lives in Iraq.
The head of coalition forces in Iraq, US General Ray Odierno, expressed his gratitude to British forces and public in a speech.
"I am grateful not only for the outstanding accomplishments of the brave troopers of the UK, but for the courage and selfless dedication of all the UK forces who served in Iraq, and for the unwavering commitment of the British people in the cause of liberty around the world."
Before he took formal control, Maj-Gen Oates said the US "gladly" accepted the responsibility.
"The citizens, elected government and security forces of Basra can expect our full co-operation and support. We look forward to the opportunities of service to the Iraqi people, and forging our new relationships here in Basra," he said.
'Stability and freedom'
Maj Gen Salmon says much has been achieved over the past six years.
He told BBC Radio 4's Today programme that the work of British forces had changed the lives of ordinary Iraqis.
"For those who are old enough to realise, and compare it with the past gloom of Saddam's era, they look back to 30 years ago and say 'We're seeing stability that we haven't had before; we're seeing levels of freedom that we haven't had before'," he said.
"We trust the Iraqi security forces. We can see economic investment start to take hold. We just had safe and secure free fair and an open set elections which have now been ratified and we now look to the future with considerable amounts of optimism."
The US role in southern Iraq will be slightly different, focusing more on training the Iraqi police, and keeping open the supply route between the south and Baghdad.
The BBC's defence correspondent Caroline Wyatt says US soldiers are now a visible presence in Basra, with British troops handing over many of the buildings and duties at the camp as they pack up after six years in Iraq.
But Lt Colonel AJ Johnson, the American taking over the job of liaising with the Iraqi Army at Basra Operations Centre, says there will not be much difference in the US approach in Basra - which means ensuring the Iraqi Army and police remain the most visible presence on the streets.
Lt Col Johnson told the BBC: "The bottom line, the aim of the transition itself is to make sure it's seamless and that there's generally no perception that the US army is here and they are going to do things different than the British did when they were here."
The Americans are also reducing their numbers, with two brigades due to leave the province of Al-Anbar, once the heartland of Al-Qaeda in Iraq.
However, the bulk of US troops are not due to leave until the end of 2011.
Maj Gen Salmon said he did not regret that the British forces were leaving Basra before a credible police force was working in the city.
"I don't think I have got any regrets over that; it's just the way it is. With the forces we have had and the resources we have had, we have concentrated on training the army," he said.
"We've trained the 10th division and trained the 14th division. The 10th division has performed really well further north and the 14th division has performed brilliantly over the last year in Basra, so we've got something to be very proud of."
09:04 GMT, Tuesday, 31 March 2009 10:04 UK
Lahore 'was Pakistan Taleban op'
The chief of the Pakistani Taleban, Baitullah Mehsud, has told the BBC his group was behind Monday's deadly attack on a police academy in Lahore.
He said the attack was "in retaliation for the continued drone strikes by the US in collaboration with Pakistan on our people".
He also claimed responsibility for two other recent deadly attacks.
Baitullah Mehsud said the attacks would continue "until the Pakistan government stops supporting the Americans".
Security officials are interrogating at least four suspects captured after the attack, police say.
"We will continue our attacks until the Pakistan government stops supporting the Americans" Pakistan Taleban chief Baitullah MehsudProfile: Baitullah Mehsud Eighteen people, including two civilians, eight policemen and eight militants, were killed and 95 people were injured during the eight-hour battle to wrest back control of the academy, the interior ministry said.
Pakistan's interior minister earlier identified the Taleban as well as other extremist groups as possible perpetrators and suggested a foreign state could also be involved.
'Retaliation'
Baitullah Mehsud is the supreme commander of the Tehrik-e-Taleban Pakistan group (Movement of Taleban in Pakistan).
He operates out of a stronghold in the Pakistani tribal region of South Waziristan and the US state department recently issued a $5m (£3.5m) reward for his capture.
Speaking to the BBC by phone, he also claimed responsibility for two other attacks:
A suicide attack on a security convoy, also on Monday, near the town of Bannu in North West Frontier Province, which killed seven security personnel
An attack on the offices of a police station in Islamabad on 25 March
But he denied responsibility for the bombing of a mosque in north-west Pakistan on 27 March, in which at least 50 people died.
US DRONE STRIKES
Approx. 300 people killed in at least 30 drone strikes since Aug 2008
Drone strikes target tribal regions, mostly Waziristan
Hellfire missiles fired from unmanned Predator drones is main method
Baitullah Mehsud warned the attacks would continue in Pakistan and threatened future attacks on American soil, while he shrugged off the risk of "martyrdom".
Local attacks are expected to increase in line with the newly announced US strategy for Afghanistan and Pakistan, says the BBC's Barbara Plett in Lahore.
Different Taleban factions in the border region, including Baitullah Mehsud's, have joined forces in readiness to confront the planned American troop increase in Afghanistan, she says.
Meanwhile, as the Pakistan government attempts to build a national consensus to fight the Taleban, it is faced with trying to overcome deep opposition among its people to an American role in that struggle.
Pakistan's 'choice'
Earlier on Tuesday, Pakistan's interior minister urged the country to unite against insurgents after the attack on the police academy in Lahore.
Rehman Malik said the country had a choice between letting the Taleban take over and uniting to fight them - adding that Pakistan's integrity was "in danger".
He told reporters that the militants were believed to be fighters loyal to Mehsud and included an Afghan national.
The minister also suggested that a foreign country was interfering in Pakistan's domestic affairs.
"Some rival country, or some hostile [intelligence] agency is definitely out to destabilise our democratic forces," he said, in a possible reference to Pakistan's long-time foe, India.
Indian officials have condemned the attack on Lahore.
Carnage
Gunmen seized the Manawan police training school on the outskirts of the city during a morning drill on Monday.
MAJOR PAKISTAN ATTACKS
27 March 09: Suicide bomber demolishes crowded mosque near the north-western town of Jamrud, killing dozens
3 March 09: Six policemen and a driver killed, and several cricketers injured, in ambush on the Sri Lanka cricket team in central Lahore
20 Sept 08: 54 die in an attack on the Marriott hotel in Islamabad
6 Sept 08: Suicide car bombing kills 35 and wounds 80 at a police checkpoint in Peshawar
Aug 08: Twin suicide bombings at gates of a weapons factory in town of Wah leave 67 dead
March 08: Suicide bombs hit police headquarters and suburban house in Lahore, killing 24
Helicopter gunships backed up troops who confronted the militants. They were armed with grenades and some are believed to have blown themselves up with suicide vests.
Our correspondent, who witnessed the aftermath, saw broken glass, bullet casings and body parts scattered over the floor of the academy.
The attack came days after US President Barack Obama pledged to put Pakistan, along with Afghanistan, at the heart of his fight against al-Qaeda militants.
He said "al-Qaeda and its extremist allies" were "a cancer that risks killing Pakistan from within".
US officials have pledged to help Pakistan target so-called "safe havens" for militants in Pakistan's north-west tribal region bordering Afghanistan.
07:39 GMT, Tuesday, 31 March 2009 08:39 UK
Emergency declared in Philippines
A state of emergency has been imposed on a southern Philippine island where militants holding three aid workers have threatened to kill one of them.
The declaration puts all security forces on alert on Jolo island and curtails the movement of people.
The Abu Sayyaf rebels had threatened to behead one of the three Red Cross hostages by 1400 (0600 GMT) if security troops did not pull back.
But there has so far been no word on the fate of the hostages.
Swiss national Andreas Notter, Italian Eugenio Vagni and Filipina Mary Jean Lacaba were seized on 15 January, and have since been held in the jungles of Jolo.
The three aid workers were abducted after a visit to a local prison, where the International Committee of the Red Cross is funding a water project.
Guide to the Philippines conflict The head of the Philippine Red Cross has made a last-minute appeal to the militants to spare the hostages' lives.
"The whole family of the Red Cross prays for you and I'm proud of the way you've comported yourself," said Senator Richard Gordon in a tearful televised address.
"I'm sorry I should be stronger than you because I'm not in midst of the ordeal you're in now," he said.
At least 800 soldiers out of 1,000 have pulled back on Jolo island.
However the government says it cannot complete a full withdrawal as that would leave the island's civilian population exposed to militant attacks.
The Abu Sayyaf has a history of beheading captives.
In 2001, American Guillermo Sobero was killed after the government turned down attempts by the rebels to negotiate for hostages on the nearby island of Basilan.
Iraq: suicide bomber kills 8, wounds 12 in Mosul
SINAN SALAHEDDIN ASSOCIATED PRESS Originally published 06:52 a.m., March 31, 2009, updated 05:56 a.m., March 31, 2009
BAGHDAD (AP) - A suicide truck bomber plowed through a sandbag barrier to strike a police station in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul on Tuesday, killing at least eight people and wounding 12, U.S. and Iraqi officials said.
It was yet another sign that security forces have still not managed to stamp out extremists in Mosul, only three months before U.S. troops are due to withdraw from Iraqi cities.
The British military, meanwhile, transferred over coalition command of the oil-rich southern province of Basra to the United States on Tuesday. It was the latest step toward the full withdrawal of the remaining 4,000 British troops from Iraq by the end of May.
"As the Iraq people continue to stand on their own, we will support them and we will stand together shoulder-to-shoulder united against our common enemies and committed to peace and prosperity," the top U.S. commander in Iraq, Gen. Ray Odierno, said at a ceremony to mark the Basra handover.
The bomber in Mosul broke through the first checkpoint on the station's perimeter, which was made of sandbags, then detonated his explosives when he reached the concrete wall a few yards (meters) away from the building, according to local police.
The attack occurred about 6:30 a.m. at the Mahta police station in central Mosul, police Maj. Jassim al-Jubouri said.
The U.S. military confirmed the attack, saying at least four Iraqi police officers and four civilians were killed while three Iraqi policemen and nine civilians were wounded.
However, Maj. Derrick Cheng, a spokesman for American forces in northern Iraq, said the truck bomber detonated his explosives after Iraqi police began firing at the truck when it took a sharp turn toward a train terminal.
Al-Jubouri said earlier that seven people were killed, including four policemen and three civilians and that most of the casualties were in the partly destroyed police station. Two hospital officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because they weren't authorized to release the information, confirmed the casualty toll.
Nobody claimed responsibility for the attack. But vehicle bombings are the signature attacks of suspected Sunni insurgents who remain active in Mosul, 225 miles (360 kilometers) northwest of Baghdad.
The No. 2 U.S. military commander in Iraq, Lt. Gen. Lloyd Austin, acknowledged earlier this month that problems in Mosul "can put us off track and cause violence to really re-ignite in a greater way."
Tuesday's bombing is the latest in a string of attacks in Iraq this month that has raised fears insurgents are trying to regroup as the U.S. prepares to leave Iraqi cities in three months and the entire country by the end of 2011.
U.S. forces have been handing over responsibility for American installations in preparation for the withdrawal. On Tuesday, it transferred control of one of its largest bases in Baghdad _ Forward Operating Base Rustamiyah.
The base was heavily rocketed during fierce fighting before violence ebbed about 18 months ago.
Underscoring the dangers still facing Iraqis, a rocket or mortar slammed into a residential area in the southeastern neighborhood of Zafaraniyah, wounding at least three Iraqi civilians, according to the U.S. military. Iraqi officials said six Iraqis were wounded in the attack.
Iraqi security forces have increasingly been targeted in attacks even as the number of slain Americans declines in Iraq, reflecting the changing nature of the fight, with the Iraqis increasingly taking the lead.
At least nine U.S. troop deaths were reported this month _ less than half from combat, according to an Associated Press tally.
The latest death occurred Tuesday, when a Marine died as the result of a non-combat incident in Anbar province, west of Baghdad, the U.S. military said.
In all, at least 4,263 American service members have died in Iraq since the war began in March 2003, the AP tally shows.
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