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Charity Group: U.S. Troops Stormed Afghan Hospital; 90 Arrested in British Racial Clash

ewiley — Mon, 07 Sep 2009 12:30:29 +0000

Charity Group: U.S. Troops Stormed Afghan Hospital
A Swedish charity accused American troops Monday of storming through a hospital in central Afghanistan, breaking down doors and tying up staff in a search for militants, The Associated Press reports. The U.S. military said it was investigating the allegation. The Swedish Committee for Afghanistan accused the U.S. Army’s 10th Mountain Division of entering the hospital without permission to look for insurgents in Wardak province, southwest of Kabul, according to the charity’s country director, Anders Fange. Fange said Monday that the troops’ actions were a violation of the sanctity of medical facilities in combat zones. “This is simply not acceptable,” he told AP. The U.S. troops entered the hospital looking for Taliban insurgents late at night last Wednesday, Fange said. He said they kicked in doors, tied up four hospital employees and two family members of patients, and forced patients out of beds during their search. When they left two hours later, the unit ordered hospital staff to inform coalition forces if any wounded militants were admitted, and the military would decide if they could be treated, Fange said. Navy public affairs officer Lt. Cmdr. Christine Sidenstricker confirmed that the hospital was searched last week but had no other details. She said the military is looking into the incident. “We are investigating and we take allegations like this seriously,” she told AP. “Complaints like this are rare.”

90 Arrested in British Racial Clash
Authorities arrested 90 people after racially charged violence erupted between a group protesting Islamic extremism and counter-demonstrators in the central English city of Birmingham, police said Sunday. The clashes erupted Saturday when a rally by the English Defense League ran into counter-demonstrators including anti-fascists and youths of South Asian descent, West Midlands Police said. About 200 people were involved in the clashes in downtown Birmingham, police said. Television footage showed masked or hooded youths throwing projectiles and running from riot police through the diverse city’s downtown area. Police said the 90 people detained — all males aged 16 to 39 — were arrested on suspicion of criminal damage and violent disorder. It was not immediately clear how many were protesters and how many were counter-demonstrators. Clashes also erupted last month at a similar demonstration in Birmingham, a diverse city of about 1 million where nearly a third of the population is non-White. The English Defense League blames counter-demonstrators for inciting violence at its rallies. It has planned protest marches in other cities, including one next month in Manchester.

U.S. General: Troops Out of Iraq in 2011

ewiley — Mon, 13 Apr 2009 11:19:39 +0000

American troops should be out of Iraq within the next two years, the U.S. military’s top commander said Sunday. “As you ask me today, I believe it’s a 10 – that we will be gone by 2011,” Gen. Ray Odierno told CNN when asked to gauge, on a scale of one to 10, the likelihood that the withdrawal meet the timeline agreed upon by U.S. and Iraqi governments. Read more.

POLITICS: Obama Reverses Media Policy on Dead Troops

ewiley — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 08:17:14 +0000

Once again, the media will be permitted to cover deceased military personnel as their bodies are returned to the United States from Iraq and Afghanistan. The practice was banned during the first Gulf war 18 years ago. On Sunday, U.S. Air Force officials announced that the family of Staff Sgt. Phillip Myers consented to allowing coverage of his casket being returned to Dover Air Force Base in Delaware. The 30-year-old from Hopewell, Va., was part of an engineering unit based in Britain. He was killed Saturday by a roadside bomb in southern Afghanistan, the U.S. military reported. In February, President Obama and Defense Secretary Robert Gates overturned the no-coverage policy that was enacted in 1991. Now, media will be permitted to observe the remains of American troops being returned to the U.S. military mortuary at Dover – as long as families agreed.

Obama Orders Troop Withdrawal

ewiley — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 12:13:24 +0000

President Barack Obama has ordered 12,000 U.S. military personnel to start marching home over the next six months. This is the president’s first step toward meeting his goal of withdrawing all combat forces from Iraq by August 2010. Critics have argued that Iraq is unlikely to be ready for the withdrawal, and a major act of violence in Baghdad on Sunday – a suicide bomber on a motorcycle rammed a crowd, killing 28 people – seemed to substantiate their concerns. Read the rest.

Obama: Time for Troops to Come Home

ewiley — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 09:38:16 +0000

Sounding a familiar theme, President Barack Obama said that he would begin withdrawing U.S. troops from war-ravaged Iraq with a year. “We are in a position to start putting more responsibility on the Iraqis, and that’s good news for not only the troops in the field but also their families, who are carrying an enormous burden,” Obama said Sunday in an interview with Matt Lauer, anchor of NBC’s TODAY show. Read more about it here.