Reuters: Iraq to shut borders with Iran, Syria

[Eugene]

Iraq to shut borders with Iran, Syria

By Ross Colvin and Ibon Villelabeitia

30 minutes ago

BAGHDAD (Reuters) -
Iraq will shut its borders with
Iran and
Syria for 72 hours and extend the hours of a nightly curfew in Baghdad as part
of a U.S.- backed plan to rein in unrelenting violence, an official said on Tuesday.

The new measures were announced during another day of violence in the Iraqi
capital in which a suicide bomber blew up a truck rigged with explosives near
a Baghdad college, killing 18 people just a day after bomb blasts ripped apart
two crowded city markets.

The border closure moves are the clearest sign yet from the government of Shi'ite
Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki that a crackdown against militants who are tearing Iraq
apart was picking up.

The official in charge of the security plan, Lieutenant- General Abboud Qanbar,
who announced the moves on Iraqiya state television, gave no timeframe. But a
government official said an announcement would be made when the frontiers had
been closed.

-snip-

Full article: http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070213/ts_nm/iraq_dc_6

[Danieljay]

1. LOL! ya, right! They are so capable.....

[Buzz Clik]

4. No kidding. How will they do this? Change the locks on the doors?

[iconoclastic cat]

2. Hey, maybe they'll catch some Iranians that way! nt

[ChairmanAgnostic]

3. How? With what army? And what of that little detail to the south?

the thousands of miles with Saudi Arabia?

[Julius Civitatus]

5. Here we go: is this in preparation for an attack on Iran and Syria?

The situation is getting very uncomfortable. It feels like early 2003 all over again, and the media are doing the same propaganda job they did back then. Nothing has changed.

We are stuck in kafkian nightmare!

:scared:

[junior college]

28. Kafkian nightmare, LOL

So true.

[HuffleClaw]

6. are they serious?

really, how exactly are they going to accomplish this?

[truthisfreedom]

7. Lotta talkin' goin' on over there.

Lips-a-flappin'.

[TexasLawyer]

8. ain't democracy grand?

[cigsandcoffee]

9. Good luck with that one. n/t

[IndianaGreen]

10. With what troops?

Even a superpower like the United States has no means to close its border with Mexico. What makes the increasingly pathetic Maliki government think that it can do with Iran and Syria what the US can't do with Mexico?

This is more Maliki bullshit!

[Rydz777]

11. Smoke and mirrors victory charade

This is all part of Bush's victory charade. They "close" the border for three days, alSadr takes a holiday in Iran, there'll be a few arrests into some revolving door prisons, and more of our troops will die or be maimed, but then Tony Snow will announce that the "surge" has been successful, and Bush will say, "I agree with what Tony said."

[ohio2007]

12. Iraq says to close borders with Syria, Iran

I think the Iraqi govt. should "redeploy" the american forces to the borders and let the Iraqi's take charge of their own urban squabbles.Are troops don't deserve playing cops any longer.

Iraq says to close borders with Syria, Iran .

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iraq's government said on Tuesday it would close its borders with Syria and Iran and extend the hours of a night curfew in Baghdad under a U.S.- backed security plan to rein in violence in the capital.

The measures ordered by Shi'ite Prime Minister Nuri al- Maliki were announced on Iraqiya state television by Lieutenant General Abboud Qanbar, the Iraqi commander who is leading the U.S.-backed security offensive in Baghdad.Qanbar said the border with Iran and Syria would be closed for 72 hours. He did not say when the closures would take effect.

The measures would extend Baghdad's night vehicle curfew of 11 p.m.-6 a.m. to 8 p.m.-6 a.m. Baghdad's international airport, which has been closed down in security operations in the past, will not be affected.

U.S. officials accuse non-Arab, Shi'ite Iran of funding and training Iraqi militants attacking U.S. forces in Iraq. American and Iraqi officials have accused Syria of not doing enough to stop alleged foreign fighters from crossing into Iraq.

On Monday bombings in popular markets in Baghdad killed at least 77 people and maimed scores.


http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070213/ts_nm/iraq_security_measures_dc_3

The Iraqi govt has got to take charge,stand on their own feet and have us scale back our non Arab faces out of their daily lives.

[ohio2007]

13. Duplicate thread

I missed the entry further down the forum.


ooops

[no_hypocrisy]

14. Misnomer: There is no Iraq government.

The Bush Administration will close the borders with Iran and Syria.

[ixion]

15. "U.S.- backed security plan"

which means that it will do absolutely nothing except make matters worse.

[ohio2007]

16. maybe they are trying to stop the brain drain leaving Iraq

everybody is wanting out of the war zones

[olddad56]

17. Is this so that peopel can't get in, or so that people can't get out?

or both.

[brooklynite]

18. New Baghdad Crackdown Is Announced

BAGHDAD, Feb. 13 — The Iraqi government on Tuesday ordered tens of thousands of Baghdad residents to leave homes they are occupying illegally, in a surprising and highly challenging effort to reverse the tide of sectarian cleansing that has left the capital bloodied and Balkanized.

In a televised speech, Lt. Gen. Aboud Qanbar, who is leading the new crackdown, also announced the closing of Iraq’s borders with Iran and Syria, an extension of the curfew in Baghdad by an hour, and the setup of new checkpoints run by the Defense and Interior Ministries, both of which General Qanbar said he now controlled.

He said the government would break into homes and cars it deemed dangerous, open mail and eavesdrop on phone calls.

General Qanbar did not mention the role American forces would play in the crackdown, but his remarks were clearly timed to coincide with more aggressive efforts by American troops on the streets of Baghdad. The Americans have been establishing outposts — called joint security stations — to work alongside the Iraqi Army and police to end the sectarian bloodletting.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/14/world/middleeast/14iraq.html

Open mail? Eavesdrop on phone calls? Where could they have gotten ideas like that?

[The_Casual_Observer]

19. "Let Freedom Reign!"

[Amonester]

27. "The $ame Freedom We Have Here!"

Finally! /sarcasm

Imagine how much flowers they must be planting to throw at the Bu$che junta!

[ShortnFiery]

20. Yeah, kicking those doors in does wonders for winning Iraqis' hearts and minds. n/t

[uppityperson]

21. Why are 10s of thousands Badhdadians illegally occupying homes?

What happened to their homes?

[Kagemusha]

23. A lot, had their homes taken first by members of the opposite sect.

Insurgents or militia start the cycle, people lose their homes, their militia pushes other people out of THEIR homes to give those homes to people who lost their homes first, and the cycle continues enroute to religiously monogamous neighborhoods.

[uppityperson]

25. Bet some got bombed, destroyed, some in areas not safe to be so moved.

Moved to a less dangerous area perhaps also.

[Kagemusha]

26. Those some will be enraged to the extreme at this move by Iraq

That'll be fun. :sarcasm:

[OrangeCountyDemocrat]

22. Eavesdroping On Phone Calls?

Becoming more like America every day!

[Erika]

24. W's last chance at corporatism

Shut the locals down.

[rodeodance]

29. American officers expressed surprise

On Tuesday, senior American officers expressed surprise about the plan to resettle people who had moved from their homes amid sectarian cleansing. But they declined to be identified, saying they did not want to contradict the Iraqi general.

General Qanbar indicated that the plan would be carried out evenly across Baghdad. But critics said Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki, who has come under intense criticism for pursuing a sectarian Shiite agenda, might be trying to appease his detractors and may not actually carry out the plan. Some feared that his government might not apply the same pressure to residents of Shiite areas.

Since the bombing of a sacred Shiite shrine in Samarra a year ago, the sectarian map of Baghdad has been almost completely redrawn, as Shiites pushed Sunnis from neighborhood after neighborhood.

The general faces a monumental task. Even without the daily violence, continuing sectarian killings and a lack of security forces to perform basic policing tasks, there is no system in place to investigate the veracity of people’s claims. In addition, thousands of people took over homes immediately after the invasion, claiming basic squatters’ rights.

[rodeodance]

30. ..." or worse, a prelude to more sectarian cleansing"

Samantha Power, a public policy professor at the John F. Kennedy School of Government who has written widely on genocide, described the plan as either a public relations ploy that would never be enforced, or worse, a prelude to more sectarian cleansing and catastrophe.

“To do this in the middle of a war when tempers have been inflamed and militarization is ubiquitous seems to be putting the cart before the horse,” she said. “You haven’t stopped the willingness to ethnically cleanse, but you’re imposing the moral hazard of ethnic cleansing on the cleansee? Unless you create security first, you are paving the way for a potential massacre of returnees.”

General Qanbar did not explain how the houses would be checked except to say that people in homes that did not belong to them must have currently dated letters from the owners.

Apart from the resettlement issue, he promised swift justice for law breakers.

[rodeodance]

31. the Major Crimes Court, which will hold emergency trials,” he said.

“All the people who have done terrorist operations or major crimes like killing, stealing, rape, kidnapping, bombing public or private buildings and who have bought, sold or made weapons or bullets, we will hand them over to the Major Crimes Court, which will hold emergency trials,” he said.


The general also said all convoys — even those from the government — would be subject to search at the checkpoints. Government security forces have been infiltrated by criminals, militants and Shiite militias.

If they refuse to stop, he said, “They will be treated as illegals.”

[Supersedeas]

32. What a novel idea....how long did it take them to figure this?