Maliki condemns US raid in Karbala

Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maiki has condemned the recent US raid in Karbala Province, saying the incident infringed Iraq’s sovereignty.

On Friday, American soldiers killed an unarmed Iraqi civilian and arrested four others in an early-morning military raid in Ganaga district, which is the birthplace of the Iraqi premier.

Maliki described the operation as a clear example of ‘breaking the law and infringing Iraq’s sovereignty’.

The control of security of the province has been handed over to Iraqi authorities.

According to Iraqi officials in Karbala province, before the operation US military airplanes deployed dozens of American troops to the area without informing them.

Earlier, outraged Iraqi officials had ordered an investigation into the lethal incident which drew the ire of Iraqi people.

They said that the US military operation violated the terms of the agreement on the handover of Karbala province to Iraqi troops.

“We denounce the operation and demand an explanation from US forces, as security forces in Karbala did not know about it,” said Oqeil al-Khazaali governor of Karbala city on Friday.

The civilians, who were killed and detained in the operation in the Ganaga district, were not outlaws nor did they belong to any armed group, he added.

DT/DT

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‘Olmert to cede Shebaa Farms to UN’

The Israeli premier has voiced his willingness to evacuate Israeli troops from Shebaa Farms to hand the area to the UN, a report says.

Ehud Olmert is ready to cede the farms to the UN as early as July, Israeli website Debkafile reported on Monday.

Olmert informed the US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice about his decision when they met in al-Quds on Sunday, the report added.

Rice took the news to Beirut Monday at the end of her talks with Israeli and Palestinian leaders.

“The United States hopes for an early settlement to the Shebaa Farms issue,” she told Lebanese president Michel Sleiman and Prime Minister Fouad Siniora.

Israel captured the Shebaa Farms, a 25-square-kilometer (10-square-mile) area of land on the Israel-Lebanon-Syria border, during the 1967 Six Day War.

MGH/DT

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Israel releases Lebanese prisoner

Lebanese prisoner Nassim Nasser imprisoned by the Zionist regime for six years has been released from the Nitzan Prison in Ramallah.

Nasser was to be accompanied by immigration police officers to the Rosh Hanikra crossing point, where he was to be returned to Lebanon.

He was detained by Israeli troops in 2002 on charges of spying for the Lebanese resistance movement Hezbollah.

The movement is expecting the release of five other Lebanese prisoners detained during Israel’s 33-day war against Lebanon in 2006. Israel had previously announced it would only release them in exchange for two Israeli soldiers held by Hezbollah.

MSH/BGH

Source: www.insight-info.com

US Death Toll in Iraq Rises to 4,076

 

A US trooper has been killed in a road side blast in the Iraqi capital Baghdad increasing the total number of troops killed since the March 2003 invasion of the country to 4,076, the military said on Monday. The US military said in a statment that the victim was hit by an improvised explosives device while on a route clearing patrol in northwestern Baghdad on Sunday night. It said the soldier’s name was being withheld until his family could be informed. The blast was in an area outside Baghdad’s Sadr City where gunmen agreed to halt attacks from Sunday under a deal with the government. The latest US military death raised the number of US troops confirmed killed in Iraq to 4,076 since the invasion of the country in March 2003. The figure includes eight military civilians. The British military has reported 176 deaths; Italy, 33; Ukraine, 18; Poland, 21; Bulgaria, 13; Spain, 11; Denmark, seven; El Salvador, five; Slovakia, four; Latvia, three; Estonia, Georgia, Netherlands, Thailand, Romania, two each; and Australia, Hungary, Kazakhstan, South Korea, one death each.

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