Bible Coins

Iraqis furious after Marine hands out Bible coins

Friday, May 30, 2008 2:58 AM

By Richard A. Oppel Jr. and Stephen Farrell

The New York Times



BAGHDAD -- A U.S. Marine guarding a checkpoint on the western outskirts of Fallujah handed out coins with an Arabic translation of a biblical verse to Iraqis entering the city, angering residents and city leaders who denounced it as an affront to Islam and an attempt to convert them to Christianity.

As the Marines quickly apologized yesterday for the episode, Sunni guerrillas struck in northern Iraq , killing at least 19 people in two suicide bombings.

Gunmen near Tikrit also used a water tanker as a Trojan horse to attack an Iraqi checkpoint, but Iraqi security forces repelled the assault and killed 14 attackers.

In Fallujah, the Marines pledged to discipline the Marine who handed out the coins, inscribed with one of the Bible's most widely known verses, John 3:16.

U.S. military officials emphasized yesterday that military regulations barred service members in Iraq from "proselytizing any religion, faith or practices."

The controversy cropped up only a week after the military and President Bush apologized for a U.S. soldier who used a Quran for target practice near Baghdad .

Marine spokesman Mike Isho confirmed the incident and said the Marine had been removed from his duties.

In a day of renewed violence in Iraq , insurgents converted a water tanker into a latter-day Trojan horse to mount a surprise attack on a checkpoint near Saddam Hussein's birthplace, Awja, Iraqi police said yesterday.

They said the police responded with heavy fire, killing 14 of the attackers, while two officers were seriously wounded. The U.S. military estimated the number of dead insurgents at eight and the truck driver, who detonated a suicide vest but killed only himself.

In Sinjar, an ethnically mixed Yazidi and Sunni town in northern Iraq , the police said a bomber wearing an explosive belt blew himself up outside the town's police station, killing 16 would-be recruits.

Among the people killed in the attack yesterday were two policemen. Fifteen others were wounded, including five police officers.

In a separate attack in Mosul , a police battalion commander said a suicide bomber, driving a car packed with explosives, attacked his convoy, killing three people.



Iraqi prime minister: National reconciliation nearly complete



STOCKHOLM (AP) — Iraq 's prime minister says economic and security progress shows that reconciliation between the nation's feuding factions is close to being completed.

Nouri al-Maliki says that does not mean that "everyone gets an equal piece of the pie but it means that one must show a commitment for a unified, democratic Iraq ."

Al-Maliki spoke to reporters in Stockholm on Friday.

His Shiite-dominated government is under pressure to show progress in reconciliation among the country's Sunni Arabs, Shiites and Kurds. Iraq 's Sunni Arab minority has long felt it is being sidelined by the majority Shiites and the Kurds, who dominate the Iraqi parliament and al-Maliki's government.

Al-Maliki also met with Sweden 's prime minister on Friday, a day after a U.N. conference.

U.S. troop deaths in May near lowest level of war

By Charles Levinson, USA TODAY



BAGHDAD — This May has been one of the least violent months of the Iraq war. The relative calm follows a cease-fire agreement by Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr and his militia in the face of steady pressure from U.S. and Iraqi forces.

Eighteen U.S. servicemembers have been identified as having died in Iraq so far in May, according to the Pentagon. To date, the least deadly month of the five-year war was February 2004, when 21 U.S. troops were killed in a 29-day period. The number of wounded also has fallen.

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Overall, militant attacks in Iraq have dropped to levels not seen since spring 2004, U.S. military spokesman Rear Adm. Patrick Driscoll said this week. Attacks are down 70% since President Bush ordered a U.S. troop increase, or "surge," early last year.

Al-Sadr agreed to a truce earlier this month after two months of clashes with U.S.-backed Iraqi security forces. The fighting followed a decision by the Iraqi government to rein in al-Sadr's Mahdi Army and other Shiite militant groups. Iraqi forces have also intensified their offensive against Sunni militants, including al-Qaeda, in the northern city of Mosul .

"We're seeing progress because we're getting more capability out of the Iraqi security forces," said Lt. Gen. Lloyd Austin III, the number two U.S. commander in Iraq .

The deal with al-Sadr could unravel at any time. His followers have issued statements on an almost daily basis threatening to resume fighting as they accuse the government of breaking promises.

Al-Qaeda militants have proven difficult to drive out of Mosul , their biggest remaining urban stronghold. A suicide bomber in Sinjar, 75 miles west of Mosul , killed 16 Iraqis crowded around a police recruiting station Thursday, the Associated Press reported.

The U.S. ambassador to Iraq , Ryan Crocker, who has been guarded in making proclamations of success, said last week that al-Qaeda in Iraq has "never been closer to defeat than they are now."

Iraqi President Jalal Talabani also has sounded a surprisingly upbeat tone. Talabani criticized Iraqi Army Chief of Staff Babakir Zebari for saying his forces would not be ready to handle security on their own for four years. Instead, Talabani predicted last week that Iraqi forces would be able to maintain control of the country by year's end.

Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki told a United Nations conference in Sweden on Thursday that " Iraq has achieved major success in the battle against terrorism."

The U.S. death toll so far in May marks a dramatic decline from 126 deaths in May 2007, when U.S. forces were battling for control of Baghdad in one of the deadliest months of the war.

Injuries among U.S. troops also are at their lowest level this year. Just 31 Americans were hurt in combat last week, with half returning to duty within three days, the Pentagon said. That's down from a recent peak of 130 in a single week in March, at the height of the fighting with Shiite militants.

Iraqi police, soldiers and civilians are benefiting from the lull in violence. Seventy-eight people died in bombings across Iraq in April, the lowest level since November 2004, when 75 died, according to the Brookings Institution, a Washington think-tank that tracks the data.

After five grim years, however, Iraqis are cautiously optimistic.

"The situation is better now, but we still have fears," Ayad Chathem Hanid, 33, a bank teller, said while shopping with his wife Thursday on Baghdad 's Palestine Street . "We don't know if the situation is going to blow up again or not."

Contributing: Paul Overberg in McLean , Va.