A Soldiers Blog

Iraq's interim Government is planning a security crackdown in the lead-up to the official handover of power on June 30.
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The head of public affairs for Prime Minister Iyad Allawi has told the ABC the Government plans to make a noticeable difference to Iraq's security before the end of the month.
Meanwhile, the fledgling Iraqi security forces continue to come under attack.
Five Kurdish recruits in the new Iraqi Army have been killed near the town of Samara, north of Baghdad.
They were ambushed when their car broke down and their bodies were burned. They were heading home after completing military training.

British Prime Minister Tony Blair says he expects any further NATO role in Iraq to be limited to training security forces.
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" I don't believe we will see further troops come through NATO ," Mr Blair told Parliament.
" But I hope, and if the new Iraq government wishes it, we will see assistance with training provided for the Iraqi security forces ."
US President George W Bush and French President Jacques Chirac clashed over NATO 's role in Iraq at a Group of Eight (G8) summit last week.
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Mr Chirac remained reticent about NATO involvement even when Mr Bush sought to clarify his earlier remarks by saying he expected NATO to train Iraqi forces rather than offer more troops.
Mr Blair said the idea had always been that NATO soldiers would help with training.
He said he did not think NATO members would oppose that role provided the request came from the Iraqi Government.

Four British soldiers will be court-martialled on charges of abusing Iraqi detainees.
The four Royal Fusiliers members are accused of assault, indecent assault and prejudicing good order.
They are the first British officers to be charged over the alleged abuse.
British Attorney-General Lord Goldsmith says the charge of indecent assault involves making the victims engage in sexual activity between themselves.
In a statement, he says the abuse allegedly took place while the civilians were temporarily held, but not in a prison or detention centre.
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A date for the military trial is yet to be set but the proceedings will be public.
The Attorney-General says at least four other cases are likely to be referred to the Army prosecutor in the near future.
Another case concerning an alleged killing of an Iraqi during his arrest has been referred to Crown prosecutors and the metropolitan police are investigating.

Iraqi Interior Minister Falah al-Nakib says the people who carried out a suicide car bombing in Baghdad that has killed at least 13 people were foreigners from outside Iraq's immediate region.
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Mr Nakib has told the Dubai-based Al-Arabiya television station that " according to initial information, those who carried out the blast were not Iraqis ".
" They came from abroad ? They are not from a country neighbouring " Iraq, he said.
But Mr Nakib did not specify the attackers' nationality.
Two of the foreign contractors killed were British, one French and one American.
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Major Mohammed Saleh, the senior policeman at the scene, said a suicide car bomber drove between vehicles in the convoy and blew himself up.
Mr Nakib says the nature of the terrorist attacks in Iraq and the people involved suggest that the same mastermind is responsible.
Washington has fingered Jordanian militant Abu Mussab al-Zarqawi, with known ties to Al Qaeda, as the chief suspect behind a long list of bloody attacks in the country.

A large car bomb killed at least 16 people, including five foreign contractors, and injured more than 60 after it tore through a main commercial boulevard in the Iraqi capital, officials said today.
The US military said two British, one French and one American contractor had died in the attack yesterday. A diplomatic source identified the fifth foreign victim as a Filipino.
The bomber targeted a convoy of four-wheel drive vehicles in the city's second car bombing in 24 hours.
The earlier strike killed seven people and wounded more than 20, some two weeks before Iraq's sovereignty is due to be returned to an interim government.
Following the blast, another civilian contractor was killed in an ambush on a coalition convoy in east Baghdad, while the Turkish embassy said it was searching for two Turks feared taken hostage.
David Gompert, US overseer Paul Bremer's senior adviser on Iraq's national security, warned the violence would continue.
" It's going to be a while. The terrorists are hardened. They are professionals ," he said.
In Mosul, northern Iraq, insurgents attacked an Iraqi police station killing one police officer, while a Kurdish official said a funeral had been held for five Kurdish recruits to the new Iraqi army killed near Samarra, north of Baghdad.

Two Turkish nationals have been taken hostage in Iraq, local television station CNN Turk has reported, but there were no immediate details on their identities or who seized them.
A spokesman for the Turkish Foreign Ministry said officials had not yet received any information about a fresh abduction.

A contingent of Tongan soldiers is heading to the Middle East to join American forces in Iraq.
The 44 Tongan troops will travel to Kuwait first, and after acclimatising will then join the First US Marine Division.
Their exact role hasn't been determined, but at first it is likely they will be confined to camp duties and training.
The Tongan Government says the Kingdom's contribution to the effort to bring peace and stability to Iraq is relative to what the country can afford.