US troops open fire on rioting Iraqi prisoners, killing four News
US troops open fire on rioting Iraqi prisoners, killing four

[JURIST] US Central Command [official military website] said Monday that about 3000 Iraqi detainees held at the Camp Bucca detention facility [Knight Ridder report; Wikipedia article] in southern Iraq rioted shortly after Noon local time, and that the riot was only quelled after US troops opened fire. Four prisoners were killed and six others injured. A Central Command press release said that "the violence erupted after a routine search for contraband in one of the camp’s 10 compounds." Camp Bucca holds some 5300 detainees. The 2004 US Army Taguba Report [PDF] on abuses of Iraqi prisoners – including at least one reported incident at Camp Bucca for which four soldiers were charged – noted that the Camp was "significantly over [its] intended maximum capacity while the guard force is undermanned and under resourced." Bloomberg has more.

THIS DAY @ LAW

UN General Assembly approves Palestine partition plan

The UN General Assembly approved UN Resolution Resolution 181 (II) on November 29, 1947, recommending that the British Mandate for Palestine be split into a Jewish state, an Arab state, and an international zone for Jerusalem. The vote in the assembly was 33 for to 13 against, with 10 abstentions. The resolution sparked a war between Palestinian Arabs and Jews in 1947 and a wider war after Egypt, Syria, Jordan, Iraq, and Lebanon invaded the new State of Israel in 1948. Read Resolution 181 (II).

UN divided Palestine between Arabs and Jews

On November 29, 1947, the UN General Assembly voted to partition Palestine into Jewish and Arab territories, leading to the establishment of a Jewish state the following year. Read UN General Assembly Resolution 181.

Defense Secretary Robert McNamara resigns during Vietnam Conflict

On November 29, 1967, Secretary of Defense Robert S. McNamara announced that he was resigning from his office to accept an appointment as head of the World Bank. The announcement came as the Vietnam Conflict was becoming increasingly unpopular in the United States and abroad.