2 posts tagged “iraq”

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iraq - the price of petrol - 5 years of shock and awe

Mar 13, 2008
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Since the US-led invasion five years ago this month, the conflict has gone beyond the worst nightmare scenarios envisaged when a quarter of a million American and British troops poured across the border from Kuwait. Even by the most conservative estimates 80,000 Iraqi civilians have been killed, 4 million refugees have fled to neighbouring countries and sectarian tensions still threaten to explode into an all-out civil war between Sunnis and Shias.

Nearly 4,000 US and 175 British troops have been killed. The war has cost more than £200 billion, including a fortune squandered on failed reconstruction efforts. Baghdad today is in far worse shape than it was when American tanks executed the “thunder run” into the capital three weeks after the invasion.

iraq occupation

iraq pow

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iraq telecoms centre

iran tells foreign powers that it's time to leave iraq

Mar 7, 2008
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President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has told the United States, Britain and other foreign powers to leave the region as he wrapped up an historic trip to Iraq that demonstrated Iran’s growing influence across its western border. “We believe that the major powers who have come to the region from thousands of kilometres away should respect the will of nations and leave this region,” the Iranian leader told reporters in Baghdad. “That's the best service they can offer these nations,” - The United States has 158,000 troops in Iraq, while Britain has 4,100, largely based near the Iranian border in the south of the country. The comments came at the end of a divisive two-day trip to Baghdad by Mr Ahmadinejad, the first by an Iranian leader since the Islamic Revolution in 1979. He also became the first regional leader to visit Iraq since the 2003 invasion. [news source - the times on-line]