The group operating the Russian-intel news site at http://iraqwar.ru (translated into English at http://www.aeronautics.ru) are ending their reporting of the news in Iraq, as current combat & press conditions have made their work impossible.

They were followed by many information-seekers as one of the best sources for impartial analytical information about troop movements & military developments in Iraq. Cutting through the confusion that reigns supreme on most mainstream media outlets (how many times have we taken Basra this week?), these reports provided a quite clearer picture of events as they happened. Unfortunately, they seem to have become another victim of the media and information war.

I applaud their efforts and courage and hope they can resume their work soon. I have attached a text file of all reports they had broadcast over the course of the war.

Below is a copy of their final letter to the public.

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April 8, 2003, 1846hrs MSK (GMT +4 DST), MOSCOW -

Events of the last 2 days have made further work of Ramzaj group in its current format impossible.

With the embassy personnel and journalists having left Iraq and most of Iraqi information services evacuated from Baghdad, analysis of the situation in Baghdad and Iraq as a whole becomes ineffective.

The quickly changing course of street fights leaves any informational updates far behind. Direct TV broadcasts are far more evident than any analytics. At the same time, we do not have the right to reveal classified, “top secret” information.

Apart from that, our actions meet increasing opposition from the official quarts and in fact are turning into confrontation the outcome of which is not difficult to forecast.

Therefore we have to discontinue our work and thank everybody for taking part in the project.

In conclusion we would like to say:

All the “updates” came out from a compact group formed a few years ago in the framework of a special service. The group used to work for the government for a long time but all its members have left the service and now act as an independent analytical group that has kept some capabilities. This gives an answer to the most common question – about the sources of our information.

We participated in the ongoing events on a “non-profit” basis and had no object other than to stand the US-British informational blockade of the war in Iraq.

Our updates were not genuine materials from any of Russian or other special services, but rather an “intellectual product” of the group itself, product of its operative, informational and analytical abilities. But compiling the updates we used materials available from our friends from special information structures. The very form “operativnaya informatsiya” never claimed to be “military information updates” but served as additional data for self-dependent analysis.

The main goal of the project was to present intelligible military analytics on the war in Iraq, which is currently missing, to the informational space. We had both success and obvious fails along the way.

We are grateful to the iraqwar.ru and forum.vif2.ru administration that took the risk and burden of working with us and we understand how many problems they have to endure because of that.

With all responsibility we state that no messages, letters, appeals and other materials, apart from the daily “updates” on iraqwar.ru and forum.vif2.ru were made by Ramzaj group and any other statement in our name is nothing but mystification.

The author with the nickname “Kondor” is the only authorized source of information about the group and its “official contact person”. In cases of uncertainty or “nickname cloning” authentication is possible using his personal photo that supplements one of images published on iraqwar.ru and comes as its logical continuation.

With unfailing respect to all of you,

Ramzaj

(source: iraqwar.ru, 04-08-03, translated by Necroman)

The War in Iraq report database

The IRAQWAR.RU analytical center was created recently by a group of journalists and military experts from Russia to provide accurate and up-to-date news and analysis of the war against Iraq. The following is the English translation of the IRAQWAR.RU report based on the Russian military intelligence (the Main Intelligence Directorate, or GRU) reports.

Table of Contents:

April 8, 2003, 1846hrs MSK (GMT +4 DST), Moscow (UPDATE)

April 8, 2003, 1613hrs MSK (GMT +4 DST), Moscow

April 7, 2003, 2400hrs MSK (GMT +4 DST), Moscow (UPDATE)

April 7, 2003, 1914hrs MSK (GMT +4 DST), Moscow

April 6, 2003, 2000hrs MSK (GMT +4 DST), Moscow (UPDATE)

April 6, 2003, 2000hrs MSK (GMT +4 DST), Moscow

April 5, 2003, 1357hrs MSK (GMT +4 DST), Moscow

April 4, 2003, 1507hrs MSK (GMT +4 DST), Moscow

April 3, 2003, 1301hrs MSK (GMT +4 DST), Moscow

April 2, 2003, 1335hrs MSK (GMT +4 DST), Moscow

April 1, 2003, 1404hrs MSK (GMT +4 DST), Moscow

March 31, 2003, 1828hrs MSK (GMT +4 DST), Moscow

March 30, 2003, 2042hrs MSK (GMT +4 DST), Moscow

March 29, 2003, 0924hrs MSK (GMT +4 DST), Moscow

March 28, 2003, 1448hrs MSK (GMT +3), Moscow

March 27, 2003, 2321hrs MSK (GMT +3), Moscow (UPDATE)

March 27, 2003, 1425hrs MSK (GMT +3), Moscow

March 26, 2003, 1230hrs MSK (GMT +3), Moscow

March 25, 2003, 1230hrs MSK (GMT +3), Moscow

March 24, 2003, 0800hrs MSK (GMT +3), Moscow

March 23, 2003, 1200hrs MSK (GMT +3), Moscow

March 22, 2003, 1300hrs MSK (GMT +3), Moscow (UPDATE)

March 22, 2003, 0800hrs MSK (GMT +3), Moscow

March 21, 2003, 0930hrs MSK (GMT +3), Moscow

March 20, 2003, 1015hrs MSK (GMT +3), Moscow

April 8, 2003, 1846hrs MSK (GMT +4 DST), Moscow - Events of the last 2 days have made further work of Ramzaj group in its current format impossible.

With the embassy personnel and journalists having left Iraq and most of Iraqi information services evacuated from Baghdad, analysis of the situation in Baghdad and Iraq as a whole becomes ineffective.