http://www.hipakistan.com/en/detail.php?newsId=en46043&F_catID=&f_type=sourceWASHINGTON-There has been an implicit acknowledgement by the US that the bloody occupation of Iraq, faced with fierce resistance with about 35 daily maiming and killing incidents, does resemble with the occupation of another Muslim land a few hundred miles away: the universally recognised illegal occupation of the Gaza Strip and West Bank by a defiant Israel.
An extensive report published in Saturday’s Los Angeles Times tracks back the cooperation between the United States and Israel over an out of control insurgency by guerilla fighters in Iraq. Quoting high-level US and Israeli officials, The Times reports that in the last six months, US Army commanders, Pentagon officials and military trainers have sought advice from Israeli intelligence and security officials on everything from how to set up roadblocks to the best way to bomb suspected guerilla hide-outs in an urban area.
“Those who have to deal with like problems tend to share information as best they can,” The Times quotes Stephen Cambone, under-secretary of Defence for intelligence, as having said on Friday at a defence writers breakfast here.
On Saturday, more than 16 were killed at two police stations in separate bombings, and for the first time a plane was hit by a heat-seeking surface-to-air missile. More US soldiers-more than killed during the invasion—and countless Iraqis, have been killed after President Bush announced the end of formal combat operation in Iraq in May.
The Israelis “certainly have a wealth of experience from a military standpoint in dealing with domestic terror, urban terror, military operations in urban terrain, and there is a great deal of intelligence and knowledge sharing going on right now, all of which makes sense,” a senior US Army official told The Times on condition of anonymity. “We are certainly tapping into their knowledge base to find out what you do in these kinds of situations.”
Many of the tactics, the report says, recently adopted by the US in Iraq - increased use of airpower, aerial surveillance by unmanned aircraft of suspected sites, increased use of pinpoint search and seizure operations, the levelling of buildings used by suspected insurgents - bear striking similarities to those regularly employed by Israel.
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