Free the Captives: Witness Against Illegal Detention and Torture

There was no news on Wednesday February 8 of Tom Fox and the other CPT peaceworkers held captive in Iraq. Other reports from the area concern the Shi'ite Muslim holiday of Ashura, the spread of bird flu, and more US casualties.

from Reuters: What is the Islamic event of Ashura?

Ashura is the 10th day of the lunar month of Muharram when according to Islamic tradition Imam Hussein, grandson of the Prophet Mohammad, was killed in battle in AD 680.

Ashura, the biggest event in the Shi'ite religious calendar, is observed in Iraq and in other countries with sizeable Shi'ite communities, including Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Iran, Lebanon, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Syria.

Sunni Muslims also mourn Hussein's death, but less fervently, and Ashura is a reminder of Sunni-Shi'ite rifts dating from disputes over the Prophet Mohammad's succession. [ more ]

Iraqis urged to kill birds amid new bird flu fears

Police cars and ambulances drove through the streets of Amara on Wednesday using loudspeakers to warn residents of the southern city to kill their birds amid fears that bird flu was spreading in Iraq.

The avian virus, which has already claimed the life of an Iraqi teenager, was previously thought to have been confined to the girl's village in the country's largely autonomous northern region of Kurdistan.

But the World Health Organisation (WHO) said on Tuesday, the Iraqi Health Ministry had reported a new suspected human case in the southern city of Amara.

from the Associated Press: A Look at U.S. Military Deaths in Iraq

... at least 2,264 members of the U.S. military have died since the beginning of the Iraq war in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count. The figure includes six military civilians. At least 1,772 died as a result of hostile action, according to the military's numbers. [...]

The British military has reported 100 deaths; Italy, 27; Ukraine, 18; Poland, 17; Bulgaria, 13; Spain, 11; Slovakia, three; Denmark, El Salvador, Estonia, Netherlands, Thailand, two each; Hungary, Kazakhstan, Latvia, one death each.

Since May 1, 2003, when President Bush declared that major combat operations in Iraq had ended, 2,125 U.S. military members have died, according to AP's count. That includes at least 1,666 deaths resulting from hostile action, according to the military's numbers.

[NOTE: Iraqi casualties, including civilians, have been plausibly estimated as in excess of 100,000.]

The latest deaths reported by the military:

• A Marine died Monday when his vehicle hit by an explosive near Baghdad.
• A soldier died Wednesday of wounds from a roadside bombing three days earlier in Anbar province.