Today the US military announced: "A Multi-National Division-Baghdad Soldier was killed during a small arms fire attack while conducting combat operations in a southern section of the Iraqi capital Sept. 18." In addition, there was a second announcement made late yesterday: "A Task Force Lightning Soldier died in a vehicle accident in Nineveh province on Tuesday." (Yesterday's first announcement from M-NF was when US military announced: "Three Task Force Lightning Soldiers were killed in Diyala Province, Tuesday, following an explosion.") Five US service members died on Tuesday (or at least five were announced).
ICCC's total number of US service members announced dead in the illegal war stands at 3789 (that's due to some announcements still coming from the Dept of Defense) Reuters' count is 3785. (ICCC's period details -- which you can add yourself -- is here.)
In this morning's New York Times, Alissa J. Rubin and James Glanz' "Migration Reshapes Iraq's Sectarian Landscape" covers the upcoming Red Cross report on Iraqi refugees
A vast internal migration is radically reshaping Iraq's ethnic and sectarian landscape, according to new data collected by thousands of relief workers, but displacement in the most populous and mixed areas is surprisingly complex, suggesting that partitioning the country into semiautonomous Sunni, Shiite and Kurdish enclaves would not be easy.
The migration data, which are expected to be released this week by the Iraqi Red Crescent Organization but were given in advance to The New York Times, indicate that in Baghdad alone there are now nearly 170,000 families, accounting for almost a million people, that have fled their homes in search of security, shelter, water, electricity, functioning schools or jobs to support their families.
The figures show that many families move twice, three times or more, first fleeing immediate danger and then making more considered calculations based on the availability of city services or schools for their children.
And of course some of the refugees are created by slaughters such as the Falluja residents living in tent cities after the November 2004 assault on Falluja. (No, the Times doesn't go into that.)
The e-mail address for this site is common_ills@yahoo.com.
the new york times
