Mid East Daily

UN has a very strong presence in conflict zone of Darfur, Sudan. UN’s World Food Program (WFP) is carrying out one of the largest food aid operation; United Nations-African Missions Joint Peacekeeping Force (UNAMID) has been trying to protect people for almost five years. Yet, hundreds and thousands of people have died due to continuing conflicts and thousands in the relief camps are suffering. What exactly ails UN in Darfur?

That the situation in Iraq is changing from bad to worse after the US invasion has been proved once again in a recent United Nations report that said that the militia in Iraq are recruiting children for suicidal attacks. The Al-Qaeda is training children to use guns and carry out kidnapping and other terrorist activities. This trend is growing since 2004. The prevalence of large-scale poverty has increased the number of school dropouts in Iraq. Currently only 50 percent of Iraqi children are attending primary schools down from 80 percent in 2005. They do not have access to clean drinking water and adequate healthcare facilities. The impoverished country where resentment against the US and its allies are high has become the fertile spot for creating young jihadis.

With the completion of the withdrawal of 28,500 US troops posted in the recent military build up in Iraq, the country for now is taking in a gasp of fresh but temporary calm. According to Pentagon only 490 deaths have been reported in the month of June, a far cry from 3,700 Iraqi deaths in the fall of 2006. This has given some breathing space even to U.S. officials and politicians.

In Baghdad, people now can be found roaming on the streets, going to bars and generally conducting the normal peace time activities, though restricted to aware confines of their own districts. Tension, though, is prevalent across the land. The usual kidnapping, suicide attacks, and assassinations still occur but added to that is the question of what after the US withdrawal? The internal and difficult question over the distribution of power in the future is as yet unsettled and unanswered and thus, a cause of uneasiness among the competing groups.

Wild passion can be dangerous, especially when it comes from extremist groups like the al-Qaeda. Their latest weapon, according to The US Army is to deploy women for terrorist attacks, as women have the advantage of becoming almost sure shot live weapons, both emotionally and physically! Captain Matthew Shown, the intelligence officer for Sabre Squadron, 2nd Squadron, 3rd Armoured Cavalry Regiment, which is based in southeast Diyala, Baghdad, says,

Some Women are easy prey because their husband or children have been killed or detained by US forces. They will try to use whatever works best for them to attempt to exploit whatever political or cultural restrictions we have. Now they’ve adapted to try to use female suicide bombers.

Fighting and infighting continues in Gaza, Palestine. Intriguing part is, enemy keeps changing. Now the issue is no longer Palestine-Israel fight. It is a clash within two groups in Gaza, Hamas and Fatah. Further, there are rifts within clans supporting Fatah.

Hamas wants to control and rule over 1.5 million Palestinians in the coastal Gaza strip. On Saturday, in retaliation to earlier bombing, Hamas attacked the Hilles clan, whose chief had been associated with Fatah. Interestingly, the clan members sought refuge at Israeli border. More intriguing part unfolded when Fatah too tried to distance itself from this clan. So, members of Hilles, who fled during the attack by Hamas, had no option but to be at mercy of Israel!

Neither can constructing a wall divide the citizens of a country nor can it bring peace to the region. The Americans however has oversimplified the idiom that out of sight is out of mind and have thought that the only solution that lay in bringing peace to Sadr City in Iraq was to build a wall that will keep the warring Shiites and the US-sponsored Iraqi government away from each other’s view and establish peace in the region. Proving the Americans and the Iraqi government wrong supporters of Moktada al-Sadr the anti-American cleric is implementing overt as well as covert tactics to blow the wall.

The Americans are now builing a wall around southern parts of Sadr city, the Shia dominated area of Baghdad. The idea is to prevent more Shia fighters of the Mahdi army from entering the area.

After the Iraqi governemnt’s recent offensive against militants in Basra, a stung Shia strongman Moqtada Al Sadr, has moved his men into Sadr city, his stronghold in Baghdad. The US and Iraqi government forces are fighting a continuous war against the militants since the last few days.

More than 40 people died and 255 were injured as fresh violence broke out in Basra, the southern city of Iraq and the third largest city with a population of approximately 2.6 million, where Shia militants continue to battle the security forces. Nouri Maliki, the prime minister of Iraq personally led the Basra operations and warned the militants to lay down their arms before 72 hours or face serious consequences which triggered attacks in other parts of Iraq spreading to Baghdad and districts of Gazaiza, Garma, Khmasamene, Hayania and Maqal.

The war on iraq after the devastating attacks on World Trade Centre, took on the colour of anti-terror struggle, and after the crackdown of Saddam Hussain, it became very obvious that the responsibility of putting back Iraq on it’s proper way of life and proper government fell to United States. All that United states could do was help maintain a volatile situation, because there were still Sunni’s who were very powerful during the then government and Shias who were looking for opportunity to dominate Iraq. Basra became very troubled because of large Shia population and also due to economic considerations, which became Sunni targets and vice versa. So, it’s no surprise that war broke out among them, in fact it was long expected.

The dwindling patches of common ground between Tehran and the West - a 560 mile long stretch of dikes and trenches along Afghan border - may soon look desolate. This would be the dream-turn-true situation for the international drug lords of Afghanistan. Since Iran has repeatedly refused to back off from its uranium enrichment program, it is time to break the deadlock. Under the twist-or-break-arm tactics, European Union is now considering to link the fight against drug menace to making Iran uranium-free.