IRAQ and AFGHANISTAN: 'Good medicine, bad places'

A memorial service for the 210 U.S. medics, corpsmen, doctors and nurses killed in Iraq and Afghanistan was held Wednesday at Arlington National Cemetery.

"Their motto was 'good medicine, bad places,' " Dr. S. Ward Casscells, assistant Defense secretary for health affairs, told a gathering at the first Remembrance Ceremony in Dedication to Fallen Military Medical Personnel. "When it mattered most, they answered the call."

Casscells said that the skill of medical personnel was the top factor in reducing the fatality rate of wounded personnel from 23% in Vietnam to 10% in Iraq and Afghanistan.

— Tony Perry in San Diego

Photo: Army bugler at remembrance ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery. Credit: Navy Petty Officer Chad McNeeley

U.S. to lift ban on pictures of flag-draped caskets; Marine-congressman objects

Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates said Thursday that he is lifting the ban on photography of caskets arriving at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware, pending the working out of details that will allow individual families to veto picture taking.

Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-Alpine), a Marine who served in Iraq and Afghanistan, immediately expressed his opposition to the policy change. Hunter believes that the current ban, in place since 1991, has worked well and that there is no need to subject traumatized family members to requests from the news media for permission to take pictures.

"Allowing the media to photograph the flag-draped caskets of America's fallen heroes dishonors their service and sacrifice," Hunter said, "and is a disservice to all those who have ever served in our nation's military."

-- Tony Perry, San Diego

Photo: Caskets being unloaded at Dover Air Force Base. The picture was among 300 released by the Air Force after a Freedom of Information Act request made by the website www.thememoryhole.org.

EGYPT: Cairo bomb witness recalls terrifying scene

About 33 feet separated Amr Hassan, a theater director, from death in Sunday’s bombing in old Cairo -- the capital's first deadly terrorist attack in three years.

“I had a rehearsal right behind al Hussein mosque," Hassan said in an interview today. "I was waiting for the executive director in front of the mosque so we could go together to rehearsal. I was standing [about 33 feet] away from the blast.

“The minute the bomb exploded, we heard a terrifying noise and a blue oracle covered the place. A minute earlier, I saw a beggar. ... The beggar was terribly injured and he had definitely died. I saw his body thrown [about 13 feet] into the air. Everybody rushed; tourists were terrified, they were running in all directions. Victims were lying on the ground with injuries to faces and legs. 

"The police were watching a football game on TV at coffee shops when the explosion happened. The timing must have been well calculated [by the perpetrators]; the police were very relaxed ahead of the bombing." 

The bombing that rocked the Khan el Khalili bazaar, one of Cairo’s most famous tourist sites, left one French woman killed and 24 injured, according to Egyptian health ministry officials. Three suspects have reportedly been arrested. No group has claimed responsibility.

There were conflicting reports on the reason behind the explosion. Some reports claimed that a bomb was thrown from the top of a building while others said that the explosion occurred when a bomb hidden beneath a stone bench was detonated. Hassan found the latter account more conceivable; however, he believed the death toll was higher.

“I don’t think the bomb was thrown from the top because we would have noticed it before it hit the ground," he said. "I don’t think there was only one killed. ... The beggar’s body was lying right next to the French woman who was killed. I saw the police telling the rescuers to remove the woman’s body first. We as Egyptians are always left behind; were not they both victims? Why would the police remove the body of one and wait on the other?" 

-- Noha El-Hennawy in Cairo

Photo: Egyptian security personnel use a metal detector to search the tourist area of Khan el Khalili in Cairo. Credit: Agence France-Presse

IRAQ: Controversy boils over Iraq death estimate

It is one of the enduring questions of the Iraq war: How many civilians have died in sectarian bloodshed, terrorist bombings and other war-related violence since the U.S. invasion of March 2003? Estimates have ranged from tens of thousands to more than 1 million, but in the latest controversy arising from attempts to answer the question, researchers in the United States have taken issue with a 2006 study that put the number then at more than 600,000.

The number made headlines because it was far higher than anything the Iraqi government was reporting. The reactions, including a dismissal of the estimate from then-President George W. Bush, underscored the sensitivity of the mortality issue as Iraqi and U.S. officials sought to quell what they said were gross inaccuracies that could make things appear worse in Iraq than they already were.  Now, the American Assn. for Public Opinion Research has accused the study's lead author, Johns Hopkins University professor Gilbert Burnham, of violating professional ethics by not responding to its requests for information on how he reached his conclusions.

IRAQ: U.N.'s Iraq report still missing casualty count

The latest United Nations report on the human rights situation in Iraq once again does not include the number of Iraqis killed in bombings, sectarian murders and other war-related violence, but U.N. envoy Staffan de Mistura says that should change when the next report comes out.

For years, the regularly issued reports have been considered a barometer of the progress, setbacks, successes and failings of Iraqi and U.S. officials overseeing life in Iraq, and they take into account everything from prison conditions to women's rights. Until April 2007, the reports also included mortality rates based on numbers provided by government ministries, hospitals and medical officials. But after the January 2007 U.N. report came out and estimated that 34,452 Iraqis had been killed in war-related violence in 2006, the Iraqi government refused to give out the numbers anymore. It had put the 2006 death toll at 12,357.

As The Times wrote at the time, the official and unofficial reasons given by the government for withholding numbers varied. Publicly, Iraq's government said it did not have the organizational capabilities to ensure accurate counting of war victims. But privately, U.N. officials at the time said the Iraqis were worried that the large numbers would tarnish the country's image, so they decided to withhold information.

"The truth, as usual, is in between," de Mistura said at Tuesday's briefing presenting the newest report, the 13th in the series. He said pressure from the United Nations had led to the expectation that the next report, which will cover the last six months of 2008, will include mortality rates again.

If so, they should be far lower than the earlier reports. According to numbers provided by sources inside Iraqi ministries, who are not authorized to release such figures, the monthly death tolls from war-related violence have been dropping steadily for the last year. In early 2007, monthly death tolls topped 2,000. Last October, the total was 278, the lowest since the start of the war in March 2003.

Last month saw the first increase in several months, with 339 Iraqis reported killed. U.S. military officials say the number of attacks, though, are at the lowest since 2003 and say they do not see the November increase as a sign of an uptick in violence or an expansion of insurgent activities.

In presenting the new U.N. report, de Mistura said there was "no question" of a significant improvement in Iraq's security situation and that this was giving Iraqi officials an opportunity to make changes to bring lasting peace. These changes should include improving prison conditions for tens of thousands of detainees and prosecuting "honor" killings of women by male relatives or people hired by male relatives to punish women for allegedly bringing shame on their families.

The U.N. envoy said that in one detention center, 123 detainees were squeezed inside a cell measuring about 150 square feet. Regarding "honor" killings, de Mistura there were rumors that men could pay $100 to $120 to someone to kill a female relative. Asked if he could confirm the stories, de Mistura said he could not but added, "I would not be totally surprised."

See the full report here.

--Tina Susman in Baghdad

KUWAIT: U.S. dead walk off the battlefield

It may be the saddest place linked to the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.

Before soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines killed in the wars can be returned home to their families for burial (like that above), their bodies pass through a nondescript building tucked away in a corner of the Abdullah Al Mubarak Air Base in Kuwait, which the U.S. shares with the Kuwaitis.

It is here that military mortuary workers repack the bodies in ice for the long flight home. Possessions are carefully inventoried.

In Iraq and Afghanistan, there are "collection centers" where the bodies are taken initially. Once they arrive in Kuwait, the flag-draped caskets are put on a flight to the military mortuary at Dover, Del., for an official autopsy.

Work at the Casualty Processing Center in Kuwait is done quickly and with great solemnity, said Army Sgt. Ryan Dunn, a member of a mortuary affairs unit from Fort Lee, Va., now in charge of the center. There are measurements to take: the amount of ice depends on the size, and condition, of the body.

Rituals are carefully observed. There are ceremonies when the caskets are taken off the plane from Iraq or Afghanistan and then put back on a plane for Dover.

When a casket is brought to the Kuwait center, it is wheeled in so the feet are in the lead, symbolic of a soldier walking off the battlefield for the final time.

--Tony Perry, Kuwait

Photo credit: Los Angeles Times

EGYPT: New confrontation with Sinai Bedouins

A new spate of violent standoffs between Egyptian police and Bedouins has rocked the Sinai Peninsula, leaving three Bedouins dead and 30 policemen wounded.

Violence escalated after a tribesman was killed in a shootout on Monday.

Though firefights are somewhat common in the peninsula, the killing provoked outrage. Bedouins seized a police station, temporarily held 25 policemen hostage and confiscated 72 automatic rifles and 20,000 bullets as well as walkie-talkies and night-vision goggles, according to press reports.

The rumblings of the disenchantment of Sinai tribes date to police crackdowns that began four years ago, leading to large waves of arrests, detentions without charges, gun battles and the use of illegal interrogation methods.

Tightened security followed two large-scale bombings that rocked the peninsula in 2004 and 2005. Since then, the police tactics in Sinai have been condemned by local and international human rights groups.

IRAQ, AFGHANISTAN: From the battlefield to Section 60 at Arlington National Cemetery.

From a journalistic standpoint, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan may become known as the time and place where documentary film making excelled as a way to tell of the service and sacrifice of U.S. military personnel and their families.

If so, special praise will be bestowed on filmmakers Jon Alpert and Matthew O'Neill for bringing the wars not just into the living rooms of Americans but into their hearts as well.

First came their "Baghdad ER" which showed the frantic efforts of medical personnel to save wounded Americans. Then, teamed with James Gandolfini (star of "The Sopranos") their "Alive Day Memories: Home from Iraq" presented U.S. personnel who talked of their injuries, their survival and their determination to regard each day as a gift.

IRAQ: U.S. soldiers save a dying Iraqi policeman

This is the story of a high-ranking Iraqi police officer who was recently shot seven times outside his home in the Hurriya neighborhood of Baghdad.

He was saved by American soldiers and doctors. Because of danger to his family, the officer asked to be identified only as Sajad. These are his words:

"My wife went to see who was knocking at the door. She does that as a precaution because there might be a bad guy there. Our neighborhood is not completely safe. There are  bad elements who might wish to hurt a senior police officer.

" 'Who’s there?' my wife asked.

" 'Me,' came the reply.

"It was a boy who answered her. She knew him from his voice, she had talked to him before, so she felt safe. She opened the door and she saw a 16-year-old boy standing there. He asked to talk to her husband, and she said, 'He is breaking his fast, come another time.'

"The boy insisted. I went to the door. My 6-year-old daughter was with me; she was following me. When I went outside the house, more than five young men came from two sides holding pistols.

IRAQ, AFGHANISTAN: In Fisher House, 'Hope and solace' for families of wounded

The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have created a kind of building boom as the Fisher House Foundation and its financial partners build facilities across the country to accommodate families of wounded military personnel who are undergoing medical treatment.

In 2006, the foundation opened a house (above) near the Veterans Affairs Polytrauma Rehabilitation Center in Palo Alto. In a few weeks a Fisher House will open in Dallas, and a few months later one will open adjacent to the VA hospital in West Los Angeles.

Projects for 2008, according to the foundation's website, www.fisherhouse.org, include houses in West Roxbury, Mass.; Fort Bragg, N.C.; Camp Lejeune, N.C.; Elgin Air Force Base, Fla.; and Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio. Begun in 1991, the foundation's goal is to provide free accommodations for family members as military personnel receive medical treatment.

On Friday, military personnel and foundation officials gathered at the Naval Medical Center San Diego for the grand opening of the 41st Fisher House, the second at the medical center. The Navy will provide maintenance and management of the 8,000-square-foot, 12-suite house.