PressTV & Tehran Times – 2011-04-29 18:41:38
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/174186.html
Video: US Troops Fire on Iraqi Detainees
(April 11, 2011) — Amateur footage recently posted on the Internet shows American troops firing live ammunition on Iraqi prisoners during a riot in a US detention facility in Iraq back in January 2005.
The footage shows US forces using disproportionate force and live rounds against prisoners at the US prison facility Camp Bucca located in Iraq. The Iraqi detainees were protesting the American troops’ desecration of Islam’s holy book, the Qur’an.
At the time, the US military tried to cover up the bloodshed, saying the riot happened when the prisoners confronted a search for contraband in the prison. But the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) later revealed that the real cause of the riot was the desecration of the Holy Qur’an by US troops.
Four prisoners were shot dead and five others wounded during the violence.
In 2008, the US military revealed that it held a total of around 20,000 detainees, some 17,000 of whom at Camp Bucca near Basra in southern Iraq, and more than 3,000 others at Camp Cropper in the capital Baghdad.
Iraq Rejects US Demand for Longer Military Presence in Country
Teheran Times
TEHRAN (April 13, 2011) — The Iraqi government officially turned down a call by the US Defense Secretary, Robert Gates, for a longer US military presence in the country. Speaking to the Fars News Agency in Baghdad on Monday, Iraqi government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh said that Gates had raised the demand in a meeting with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki.
“Mr. Maliki rejected Gates’ demand, saying that Iraq will deal with the issue based on the security pact (signed between Washington and Baghdad),” Dabbagh added.
Media reports said that the US defense secretary pressed senior Iraqi officials Friday to decide whether they want US troops to remain in the country beyond their scheduled departure in the yearend.
In a meeting with US troops on Friday, Gates said his three-day visit to Iraq had been “all about” whether American boots will remain on the ground in Iraq beyond the current Dec. 31 withdrawal deadline.
During the course of his trip, Gates met with Iraq’s top leaders — Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, Deputy Prime Minister Saleh al-Mutlaq, President Jalal Talabani and Kurdistan Regional Government President Massoud Barzani.
Meantime, Sabah Barzandi, a member of the parliament of Iraq’s Kurdistan region, denied media reports that Iraqi Kurds have asked for a longer US military presence in the country’s autonomous region of Kurdistan.
Speaking to FNA Barzandi stressed that based on the security pact, Iraq’s central government is the sole authority to decide the US forces’ presence on Iraqi soil, reminding that Kurdistan’s representatives have also approved and endorsed the pact.
“The security pact is the reference for dealing with the issue of the US (military) presence,” the Kurdish lawmaker noted.
“It is not related to Iraq’s Kurdish officials and they have no role in the US forces’ stay or exit. It is up to the central government to decide on the issue,” Barzandi said.
Meantime, Tens of thousands of Iraqi people rallied on Saturday in Baghdad to mark the eighth anniversary of the US occupation, demanding its troops to leave Iraq.
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