While all eyes will be fixed on today's Middle East conference in London, the biggest and most immediate crisis remains that of Iraq. Yesterday's suicide attack in Hilla, south of Baghdad, which killed over 110 and wounded more than 130 Iraqi civilians queuing up to apply for government jobs, was the deadliest suicide attack so far in Iraq. It took place less than one month after elections were supposed to have opened up a whole new era of self-determination.
A suicide car bomber drove into a crowd of people applying for work in a government office south of Baghdad and detonated his explosives on Monday, killing 25 people and wounded 71, a senior Interior Ministry official and witnesses said.
The attack occurred in Hilla, about 60 miles south of Baghdad, where a suicide car bomber drove into a crowd looking for work at the government office, witnesses said.
The Interior Ministry official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said 25 people were killed and 71 wounded, and added that the death toll was likely to rise.
Dozens of bodies could be seen laying on the ground after the blast, and half a dozen ambulances ferried casualties to a nearby hospital, witnesses said.
The huge blast damaged nearby shops and parked cars, and sent panicked people fleeing.
New evidence suggests that British Prime Minister Tony Blair committed himself to the invasion of Iraq nearly a year before the US-led assault began in March 2003, according to a UK newspaper.
The prime minister's office has consistently refused to disclose the date on which Blair promised US President George Bush that Britain would join the US in an invasion of Iraq.
However, evidence obtained by the UK newspaper Independent on Sunday suggests that it was as early as April 2002, when Blair met Bush at his ranch in Texas.
A ruling by the parliamentary ombudsman says the government sought advice about the legality of a possible invasion of Iraq in the spring of 2002 as the result of "statements made in a particular press release", the newspaper said. The paper said it has seen the ruling.
Press release
The press release is understood to have been in the name of the Foreign Secretary Jack Straw, who condemned Israel for failing to comply fully with United Nations resolutions calling for it to withdraw after an armed incursion into Palestinian areas, the newspaper said.
"To be asserting the authority of the UN when there were discussions about possibly breaking the UN Charter is double standards at the very least"
Sir Menzies Campbell, Liberal Democrats spokesman As well as demanding that Israel "respect international law", the press release quoted Britain's then ambassador to the UN, Sir Jeremy Greenstock, who said the "political and moral authority of the UN is not to be cast aside lightly".
The date of the release was 9 April 2002, the day after Blair completed his two-day summit with Bush in Texas.
The implication is that, immediately after the Downing Street official spokesman had denied that the meeting was a "council of war", the government was investigating the legality of such a war.
The issue is now being raised by the Liberal Democrats opposition party, who are concerned about the sudden urgency of ministers' inquiries immediately after the summit with President Bush.
"To be asserting the authority of the UN when there were discussions about possibly breaking the UN Charter is double standards at the very least," their foreign affairs spokesman, Sir Menzies Campbell, said.
"It underlines the need to know precisely when this request (for legal advice) was made."
U.S. losses in Afghanistan, Iraq wars cost $570 million
Replacing military hardware lost in U.S. wars in Iraq and Afghanistan will cost 570 million dollars
Senior army officials estimated that replacing military hardware lost in U.S. wars in Iraq and Afghanistan will cost the military nearly 570 million dollars this year.
They, moreover, estimated that it might cost additional four billion dollars to repair, rebuild and refurbish other gear such as tanks and trucks damaged in operations there. “It’s only 570 million (dollars) in terms of battle losses,” an army official said.
This includes 372 million dollars to replace 13 AH-64 Apache attack helicopters and five UH-60 Black Hawk helicopters that were lost in the operations, the officials said.
Those costs, suggested by army officials, represent only a fraction of the 81.9 billion dollars Bush has asked Congress to provide to cover costs of wars in Iraq and Afghanistan this year.
Earlier this month, Bush's administration submitted its request for supplemental funding in 2005, a week after sending Congress a 419 billion dollar defense budget proposal for 2006.
Bush stated the additional money for the remainder of the 2005 budget year would help Iraq and Afghanistan pursue "the path of democracy and freedom," and that the funds would help protect U.S. troops, track down "terrorists" and enhance Middle East peace prospects.
However, Bush's reasons did not bode well with the Democrats who said the proposal did little to correct the problems surrounding the U.S. effort in Iraq, where national elections were held last month amid the continuing violence which has slowed reconstruction efforts.
"This supplemental request provides support for our men and women in uniform, but it provides little basis for optimism for a stable and secure Iraq," said Senator Robert Byrd one of the president's most persistent and vocal war critics.
The Democrats believe the request, which Bush wants to be financed through borrowing, underscores the budget's problems.
No details had ever been mentioned on the army’s portion of the proposed supplemental, and army officials who estimated the costs insist on anonymity.
About 17.5 billion dollars of the army’s supplemental funding will go for operations and maintenance.
This includes an extra 1.5 billion dollars for a logistics contract with Halliburton subsidiary Kellogg Brown and Root.
Officials said they had predicted logistics costs for the year to be 4.5 billion dollars.
Also included in the army’s request is a 13.8 billion dollars for personnel costs.
Also keeping 25,000 more soldiers on active duty than the 482,000 soldiers the army budgeted for will cost the army extra 1.5 billion dollars.
According to figures released by the army, recent boost in death benefits and insurance coverage for troops killed in action will cost 250 million dollars.
Also, the army intends to spend nearly 3.2 billion dollars to acquire Bradley Fighting Vehicles, armored Humvees, armored security vehicles, trucks and other vehicles, the officials said. Adding that the army also needs a billion dollars to buy radios and another 875 million for missiles and munitions.
Most of the procurement will go to equip new combat brigades that are to be created under the army’s seven year, 48 billion dollar reorganization, the officials said.
About 4.5 billion dollars have been allocated for investment in the newly created units, and additional 500 million dollars for construction required for them.
Earlier this month, Bush asked Congress to set up a $400 million fund to reward Iraq and Afghanistan war allies for the political and economic risks they took in joining the U.S.-led wars in both countries.
The money is a reward for "nations such as Poland, which have taken political and economic risks in order to act on their convictions," the White House previously said.
Four Iraqi civilians and a policeman were wounded when a car bomb exploded near a taxi and minibus station in the town of Musayib in Babil governorate, police and hospital sources said.
Police said the bomb was placed in a car parked next to the taxi station in the town just south of Baghdad on Sunday.
A day earlier, an Iraqi soldier was killed and seven other people were wounded when a car bomb attack occurred near a police checkpoint in the town.
The US military said two US soldiers were killed in a bomb and gunfire attack in Baghdad on Saturday.
"Two Task Force Baghdad soldiers were killed and two others wounded after a combined improvised explosive device and small arms attack in southeast Baghdad on 26 February," the military said.
The US military had also earlier announced a US marine was killed in action on Saturday in Babil governorate.
Town hall bombing
In Hammam al-Alil, 20km south of the main northern Iraqi city of Mosul, a bomb ripped through the town hall, killing at least five people and wounding three, security officials said.
Police chiefs in Najaf are feuding over who is in control The blast at 10.20am killed a guard, a worker and three civilians and wounded another three guards, said Major Abd al-Rahman Ali of the Iraqi facilities protection force.
"We don't know how the explosives were planted inside the building," he added.
The US military said there were eight dead and two wounded in the attack.
Body found
Also on Sunday, Iraqi police found the body of a headless woman in Baghdad, with a note attached denouncing her as a spy, security sources said.
"A police patrol found a headless woman with a note attached, denouncing her a spy," said policeman Walid Khalid.
The body was discovered at 8am in the western al-Adl district on the road leading out from the capital to the city of Falluja.
"A piece of paper, with the word spy written on it, was found near the body of the woman dressed in a black robe," he said.
Najaf police feud
In Najaf, a feud has erupted over who is in charge of security in the sacred Shia city.
Police chief Ghalib al-Jazairy insists he is still boss even after Baghdad's Interior Ministry appointed Brigadier Abd al-Shahid Abd al-Razzaq to take over the post.
Some residents fear the feud will destabilise the city To add to the confusion, al-Jazairy's rage is vented not at al-Razzaq, but at Abd al-Aal al-Koufi, who he believes has been put in charge of overall security in Najaf by his rival, Najaf Governor Adnan al-Zurfi.
"Koufi took control of police stations and he detained four of my relatives who are senior police officers and he released the murderers suspected of killing my two sons," said al-Jazairy.
"He was following the orders of the Najaf governor. He is not a policeman and he has no rank. He is just a supporter of the governor," he said.
Al-Jazairy's sons, also police officers, were dragged off a bus and shot while protecting pilgrims travelling from Najaf to Kerbala during the Shia Ashura ritual about 10 days ago.
Causing trouble?
But the US-backed governor has accused Jazairy of stirring up problems.
"Al-Jazairy is trying to cause trouble and disobeying a decision of the ministry," said Zurfi.
Najaf, a spiritual capital of Shia around the world, is vital to the stability of Iraq, where a Shia political alliance won last month's election.
Some Najaf residents fear the crisis could invite trouble again after a period of relative stability.
"This will lead to disorder and problems inside the city. This could be exploited by terrorists who will enter the city again," said Sabah Muhammad, 28, a fabrics trader.
"This is rejected and the authorities must act quickly to end these problems to safeguard security."
British troops to face investigation over crimes in Iraq
Britain's top soldier, Chief of the General Staff General Mike Jackson.
One of Britain's leading papers, The Sunday Telegraph, has reported that nearly more than 50 British troops are facing prosecution for murder, manslaughter, assault and other crimes in Iraq.
The report comes days after three British soldiers were found guilty in a court martial and sentenced to prison over their roles in the mistreatment and abuse of Iraqi detainees.
The claims made by the paper are contained in secret military documents and include two cases in which soldiers deliberately drowned Iraqi civilians.
The leaked Ministry of Defense documents show that almost three times as many soldiers face charges of abuse - more than had been admitted by the ministry.
The latest revelations follow on the announcement made by the head of the army, General Sir Mike Jackson on Friday, of a wide-ranging inquiry to be launched into allegations of abuse by British soldiers serving in Iraq.
Speaking after the sentencing of the three British soldiers at a court martial in Germany, Jackson said "I do apologise on behalf of the Army to those Iraqis who were abused and to the people of Iraq as a whole. The Army sets high standards. . . those who fail to meet those standards are and will be called to account.''
Details of the investigation involving the SAS soldier are contained in documents marked "Restricted - Investigations Not For Disclosure. Ministerial Update of Service Police Investigations."
Furthermore, it discloses that until September 13, 2004, the Royal Military Police had carried out 137 investigations into incidents - including shootings, road accidents, and allegations of corruption, murder and manslaughter - involving British troops in Iraq.
One particular incident included could lead to the first member of the elite Special Air Service (SAS) being charged with the murder of an Iraqi civilian.
The Iraqi civilian, named as Mr. GGHD Roomi, was shot dead by Special Forces in Basra on January 1 last year and the inquiry was passed to Special Investigations Branch for completion.
"Final report being compiled. One soldier to be reported," said the document quoted in The Sunday Telegraph.
According to the Telegraph, the SAS's commanding officer and the Director of Special Forces are trying to dissuade military prosecutors from charging the soldier because they believe no crime has been committed and fear that such an action might undermine the operational effectiveness of the unit.
Other incidents being investigated involves the alleged murder of 16-year-old Ahmed Jabber Kareem who was arrested by three Irish Guards on May 8, 2003.
While in another similar incident, an officer and two soldiers from 32 Engineer Regiment were reported to be facing a joint manslaughter charge over the death of Said Shabram, a sheep herder.
A ministry spokesman said he could not comment on individual cases, but that four more cases, involving 18 soldiers serving in Iraq, had been directed for trial.
They include seven members of the Parachute Regiment accused of the fatal beating of an 18-year-old Iraqi at a roadside in May 2003.
Another nine cases involving around 30 soldiers were being considered by the Army Prosecuting Authority and involve various offences including shootings and road traffic accidents.
The documents indicate that at least 12 soldiers face charges of murder, manslaughter or assault.
A half-brother of former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein has been nabbed in Iraq, the Arab-languageal-Arabiya satellite TV reported Sunday.Sabawi Ibrahim al-Hasan al-Tikriti Hassan, ranking 36 on the 55 most-wanted former regime officials in Iraq, was Saddam's advisorand intelligence chief.
Sabawi Ibrahim Hasan, a half brother of former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein, shown in this Department of Defense playing card, has been captured in Iraq, Feb. 27, 2005. Hasan is No. 36 on the U.S. list of 55 most-wanted Iraqis.
BAGHDAD, Feb. 27 (Xinhuanet) -- A half-brother of former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein has been nabbed in Iraq, the Arab-languageal-Arabiya satellite TV reported Sunday.
Sabawi Ibrahim al-Hasan al-Tikriti Hassan, ranking 36 on the 55 most-wanted former regime officials in Iraq, was Saddam's advisorand intelligence chief.
A government spokesman has confirmed the detention. Media reports quoted an intelligence official in the Iraqi Interior Ministry as saying that half-brother of ousted Iraqi president Saddam Hussein has been arrested.
"Sabawi Ibrahim al-Hassan has been arrested in Iraq," said the official, adding "he is certainly a big catch," without giving any further details.
About 10 of the most wanted officials have so far escaped arrest or death, including Ezzat Ibrahim al-Duri, Saddam's former deputy and vice president of the former ruling Revolution Command Council.
Two other half-brothers of Saddam, Barzan and Watban, have already been detained at a US army-run jail near Baghdad and will be tried in the coming months.
BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- A major joint operation of U.S. and Iraqi forces continued for a seventh day as troops searched for suspected insurgents Saturday in towns along the Euphrates river in violent Anbar province.
A CNN correspondent embedded with U.S. Marines said forces are trying to surround insurgents who have found sanctuary in cities like Ramadi and Falluja, and smaller towns like Haditha.
"The main focus of the operations is to isolate these towns," senior Baghdad correspondent Jane Arraf said Saturday. "We went into Haditha this morning where tanks had rolled in overnight. They met very little resistance. But what they're trying to do is isolate the towns, surround them, so insurgents have nowhere to go."
Earlier in the week, Iraqi and U.S. forces launched Operation River Blitz, which has resulted in the detention of more than 100 suspected insurgents and the capture of piles of weapons and ammunition in the towns of Anbar, the military said. A huge swath of land that takes up nearly one-third of the country, Anbar is dotted with Sunni towns along the Euphrates River west of Baghdad to the Syrian border.
A U.S. soldier assigned to the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force was killed in action Friday, military officials said.
The death brings the total number of U.S. fatalities in the war to 1,492.
In western Baghdad, two Iraqi civilians were killed and a third was wounded Saturday when a suicide car bomber targeted -- but missed -- a U.S. military convoy, Iraqi police said.
The explosion went off about 8:55 a.m. (12:55 a.m. ET) near a supermarket on al-Adil highway, only a few meters from the convoy, police said. There were no U.S. casualties. Journalist mourned
Raiedah Mohammed Wazan, a 40-year-old television anchorwoman in Ninevah province, was found shot to death Friday in the al-Wahda neighborhood in eastern Mosul, her husband said.
Wazan was buried Friday, and family members kept a mourning service on Saturday private for fear of attacks.
Wazan was abducted a week ago by unknown gunmen. She was found shot in the forehead and chest.
Mosul is the most populous city in northern Iraq, with about 1.74 million residents, according to globalsecurity.org. Other developments
* Ibrahim al-Jaafari, who leads the religious Dawa Party, told reporters on Friday that he had picked up the backing of Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, the senior Shiite cleric in Iraq. He had met with al-Sistani earlier Friday in Najaf. (Full story)
* U.S. and Iraqi soldiers have made four arrests and discovered bomb-making material, the U.S. military said Saturday. Tenth Mountain Division soldiers arrested four Iraqis in western Baghdad late Friday. The suspected insurgents were taken for questioning after the car they were in was deemed suspicious. Iraqi soldiers discovered the explosives Saturday morning while on patrol, Task Force Baghdad said.
US and Iraqi troops are targeting insurgents in Ramadi It has been a day of scattered violence in Iraq, with at least 10 people reported killed in incidents, mainly in Sunni areas west and north of Baghdad.
Reports said three died in a gun battle in Ramadi, as US and Iraqi forces try to clear insurgents from key areas in the so-called Sunni Triangle.
People in Ramadi said there was a prolonged exchange of fire.
The violence came as talks continued in Baghdad over forming a new government following last month's elections.
Ramadi is a largely Sunni town about 70km (45 miles) west of Baghdad and one of the insurgents' most stubborn strongholds.
Iraqi policemen, and others regarded by the militants as collaborators, have in recent months been shot dead or beheaded in public in broad daylight in the town streets.
Now it is one of the focal points in a week-old campaign by the Americans and Iraqi government troops to get a grip on the town and its province, Unbar, where just 2% of the population voted in last month's elections.
The Americans and their allies have also been raiding suspected insurgent hideouts further up the Euphrates valley, towards the Syrian border.
They are hoping to catch Iraq's most wanted man, the militant Islamist leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.
Iraqi officials believe they are close to capturing him, but such predictions in the past have proven premature.
Other areas have not been spared the violence. In western Baghdad, a car bomb apparently missed a US patrol and damaged three civilian vehicles, killing two people.
And police sources told the BBC that four merchants who were selling material for Iraqi National Guard uniforms were singled out and shot dead.
Oil pipeline destroyed in northern Iraq, bomb kills two in capital
BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) An oil pipeline in northern Iraq was ablaze Saturday after saboteurs blew it up in the latest attack against the insurgent-wracked country's vital oil industry. In the capital, a roadside bomb killed two people, officials and witnesses said. The violence came one day after the government announced the arrest of a man it described as a key figure in the country's most feared terrorist group, and a top official said the noose was tightening around its leader, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. The pipeline connecting oil fields in Dibis with the northern city of Kirkuk about 20 miles away was blown up late Friday, an official of the state-run North Oil Co. said on condition of anonymity. He said it would take at least four days to repair the line. Insurgents have regularly targeted Iraq's oil infrastructure, cutting exports and denying the country funds badly needed for reconstruction. In Baghdad, insurgents detonated a roadside bomb in the west of the city, killing two civilians. Their slumped bodies could be seen in a small white car, its windshield smashed in the blast. It was not clear whom the attack targeted. U.S. Lt. Col. Clifford Kent said a U.S. tank was nearby at the time, but it was not damaged. One Iraqi said he was on his way to work when the bomb detonated. ''We just arrived near those tanks (when) the blast occurred. And as you see, blood soaked us for doing nothing,'' Mohammed al-Duleimi told Associated Press Television News. A separate car bomb exploded near a convoy of Iraqi National Guard troops in Iskandariyah, south of Baghdad, witnesses said. No casualties were reported. Also Saturday, a female Iraqi television presenter kidnapped in the northern city of Mosul was found dead. Several masked gunmen abducted Raiedah Mohammed Wageh Wazan last week. Her corpse was found Friday, said her husband, Salim Saad-Allah. She had been shot in the head. Wazan was working for a local state-owned television station in Mosul. It was unclear what prompted the kidnapping, but her station was attacked last week with mortar rounds after it aired interviews with alleged insurgents in captivity. The U.S. command on Saturday announced the death a day earlier of a U.S. soldier west of the capital in Anbar province, where the military launched a massive sweep last week to root out insurgents. The operation included U.S. military vehicles equipped with loudspeakers, which drove through city streets offering $25 million for information leading to the arrest of al-Zarqawi thought to be one of the masterminds behind a wave of car bombings, kidnappings, and beheadings across Iraq. ''We are very close to al-Zarqawi, and I believe that there are few weeks separating us from him,'' Iraq's interim national security adviser, Mouwafak al-Rubaie, told The Associated Press. He described the latest alleged terrorist capture as another blow to al-Zarqawi's organization, known as al-Qaida in Iraq. The group is still reeling from previous arrests and the killing of Omar Hadid, another of his senior aides, in November's assault on the city of Fallujah. Iraqi security services arrested Talib Mikhlif Arsan Walman al-Dulaymi, also known as Abu Qutaybah, on Sunday in a raid in Annah, a town in the so-called Sunni triangle of fierce opposition to the U.S. occupation. The government said Al-Dulaymi was a top aide to the Jordanian-born al-Zarqawi, who has described himself as al-Qaida's leader in Iraq. Al-Dulaymi was responsible for finding safe houses and transportation for members of the terrorist group, according to the announcement. Also arrested in Sunday's raid was Ahmad Khalid Marad Ismail al-Rawi, identified as one of al-Zarqawi's drivers. Both have family names indicating they are from the insurgent stronghold of Ramadi, west of Baghdad. Iraqi authorities have been eager to promote the message that they are making headway in their fight against the insurgency. On Thursday, the government said it had captured the leader of an al-Qaida-affiliated terrorist cell in Baqouba, north of Baghdad, who was allegedly responsible for carrying out a string of beheadings in Iraq. And last week, police said they'd arrested two other leaders of the insurgency in Baqouba, including a top aide to al-Zarqawi named Haidar Abu Bawari. Associated Press writer Yahya Barzanji in Kirkuk contributed to this report.
Larkin pleaded guilty to one charge of assault The head of the British Army has ordered an inquiry into the abuse of Iraqi prisoners by three British soldiers near Basra in May 2003.
General Sir Michael Jackson, who had apologised to the people of Iraq, said lessons needed to be learned.
His announcement was welcomed by shadow defence secretary Nicholas Soames.
Defence Secretary Geoff Hoon said he was "profoundly disturbed" by the case, which saw three men jailed by a military court martial in Germany.
Mr Soames told BBC Radio 4's Today programme that an inquiry "needs to cover a very substantial amount of ground in order that we can minimise the possibility of these things going wrong".
He said soldiers appeared to have been given inadequate orders, blaming a lack of preparation for post-war Iraq and lack of resources.
"It looks as though the instructions they were given and the people they were given to deal with this were not adequate," he said.
Lawyers for L/Cpl Mark Cooley, Cpl Daniel Kenyon and L/Cpl Darren Larkin said the men, sentenced at a trial in Osnabrueck, felt they had been made "scapegoats" for the abuse.
The men were dismissed from the Army in disgrace. Cooley, 25, was jailed for two years while Kenyon, 33, received an 18-month sentence and Larkin, 30, 140 days.
'Difficult job'
General Sir Michael said he wanted to "place on record how appalled and disappointed I was when I first saw those photographs at the outset of the trial".
But he said the case had to be put in the context of the actions of thousands of British servicemen and women "continuing to do a most difficult job in Iraq".
IRAQ ABUSE SENTENCES Cooley found guilty of disgraceful conduct of a cruel kind after he drove a forklift truck with a bound Iraqi suspended from the prongs Cooley also convicted of simulating a punch in a picture Larkin pleaded guilty to assault after he was pictured standing on top of an Iraqi Kenyon found guilty of failing to report that a soldier under his command had caused an Iraqi detainee to be raised on the forks of a forklift truck Kenyon also convicted of aiding and abetting Larkin to assault a prisoner Kenyon found guilty of failing to report that soldiers under his command forced two naked prisoners to simulate sex Kenyon found not guilty of two charges of aiding and abetting unknown persons to force the detainees to simulate a sex act
Army chief's statement in full Iraq abuse men 'scapegoats' Army chief's apology
General Sir Michael said four other known cases involving allegations of deliberate abuse had been, or may be, referred to the authorities, but did not comment further on the cases.
The fate of the soldiers, from the 1st Battalion The Royal Regiment of Fusiliers, was decided by Judge Advocate Michael Hunter and a panel of seven senior officers.
After the sentences were announced, one of the soldiers' lawyers said his client felt that "a significant number of other soldiers, including many senior to him, some of whom have been promoted, were involved in the mistreatment of Iraqis that day".
Defence Secretary Geoff Hoon said the Army had shown it took such allegations seriously.
He said: "The Army set high standards and demand that they are met. The recent court martial has demonstrated that those who fail to meet those standards are called to account."
Army's Chief of General Staff, Sir Mike Jackson Sir Mike said he was appalled by the abuse pictures
The abuse came to light when photographs taken by a fourth soldier, Gary Bartlam, were left in a Staffordshire shop to be developed.
In their defence, the soldiers claimed abuse stemmed from an unlawful mission which took place at the aid camp to capture and deter looters.
The mission, codenamed Operation Ali Baba, was ordered by the camp's commanding officer, Major Dan Taylor, who told his troops looters should be "worked hard".
Prosecutors said the operation was in breach of the Geneva Convention.
General Sir Michael said that, although no criminal action had been taken against Maj Taylor, "administrative action" remained a possibility.
In a separate court martial last year, the soldier who took the photos, Bartlam, admitted taking photographs of the Iraqis simulating sex acts.
He was sentenced to 18 months in a youth detention centre and disgracefully discharged from the Army.
Cooley, driving the forklift, was found guilty of cruel conduct
Three British soldiers who abused Iraqi civilians have been jailed and dismissed from the Army in disgrace by a military tribunal in Germany.
L/Cpl Mark Cooley, 25, was jailed for two years, Cpl Daniel Kenyon, 33, received an 18 month sentence and L/Cpl Darren Larkin, 30, 140 days.
Britain's top soldier, General Sir Michael Jackson, apologised on behalf of the Army to the abused Iraqis.
The men's lawyers said they had been made "scapegoats" for the abuse.
Photos of the incidents at Camp Bread Basket, Basra, in May 2003, have been shown all over the world.
General Sir Michael said a "senior, experienced officer" would be appointed to assess "what lessons we need to learn" from this case and other abuse allegations.
L/Cpl Mark Cooley aims a simulated punch at an Iraqi detainee
Army chief's statement in full Iraq abuse men 'scapegoats'
He said he had been "appalled and disappointed" by the photos.
Defence Secretary Geoff Hoon said he had been "profoundly disturbed" by the case and that it was right "to apologise on behalf of the Army to the victims and the people of Iraq".
Both emphasised that the guilty men were not representative of the wider British Army.
But one of the soldiers' lawyers said his client felt that "a significant number of other soldiers, including many senior to him, some of whom have been promoted, were involved in the mistreatment of Iraqis that day".
The fate of the soldiers from the 1st Battalion The Royal Regiment of Fusiliers was decided by Judge Advocate Michael Hunter and a panel of seven senior officers.
'Terrified' prisoner
The abuse came to light when photographs taken by a fourth soldier, Gary Bartlam, were left in a Staffordshire shop to be developed.
Cooley was found guilty on two charges - one of disgraceful conduct of a cruel kind after he drove a forklift truck with a bound Iraqi suspended from the prongs.
In passing sentence, the judge told him he had "used the prisoner to amuse himself" and "that man was absolutely terrified".
He had told the court that he was moving the man out of the sun's glare.
He was also convicted of simulating a punch in a picture. His two-year sentence was the maximum possible.
General Sir Michael said the case of the men and four other cases of alleged abuse against Iraqis had to be put in the context of the actions of thousands of British servicemen.
He said he did not believe in the concept of an "endemic rotten apple" in the British Army.
'Trophy photographs'
Kenyon, the most senior soldier on trial, was found guilty of failing to report that a soldier under his command had caused an Iraqi detainee to be raised on the forks of a forklift truck.
In passing sentence, the judge told Cpl Kenyon "you were part of a scheme to produce trophy photographs".
He was also convicted of aiding and abetting Larkin to assault a prisoner.
And he was found guilty of failing to report that soldiers under his command had forced two naked prisoners to simulate sex.
L/Cpl Larkin Larkin pleaded guilty to one charge of assault
However, Kenyon was found not guilty of two charges of aiding and abetting unknown persons to force the detainees to simulate a sex act.
Larkin was sentenced to nearly five months after pleading guilty to assault after he was pictured standing on top of an Iraqi.
In their defence, the soldiers claimed that the abuse stemmed from an unlawful mission which took place at the aid camp to capture and deter looters.
The mission, codenamed Operation Ali Baba, was ordered by the camp's commanding officer Maj Dan Taylor.
Maj Taylor told his troops that the looters should be "worked hard", to try to stop them returning to Camp Bread Basket.
Prosecutors said the operation was in breach of the Geneva Convention.
General Sir Michael said that although no criminal action had been taken against Maj Taylor, "administrative action" remained a possibility.
And he denied assertions by the guilty trio's legal team that they had been made scapegoats, with more senior officers escaping justice.
In a separate court martial last year, the soldier who took the photos, Bartlam, admitted taking photographs of the Iraqis simulating sex acts.
Bartlam had been due to stand trial alongside the three soldiers but his lawyers negotiated a plea bargain which saw four of seven charges against him dropped.
He was sentenced to 18 months in a youth detention centre and disgracefully discharged from the Army.
25 Killed as Insurgents Strike in Wide Area of Iraq
TIKRIT, Iraq, Feb. 24 - Insurgents unleashed a wave of attacks across central and northern Iraq today, killing at least 25 people and injuring scores in one of the deadliest days of violence since the country held free elections less than a month ago.
In the most lethal assault, a suicide bomber detonated a car packed with explosives at police headquarters here, in Saddam Hussein's hometown, killing at least 10 Iraqis and wounding at least 35, American military officials said. The powerful blast could be heard across the city in the morning and set nearby cars ablaze.
The bomber was apparently wearing a police uniform, underscoring the fact that insurgents have infiltrated Iraqi security forces and have access to equipment from the Iraqi police and military.
The explosion took place on the same day that senior Iraqi security officials and American commanders, including the top American general in Iraq, attended a conference in Tikrit, but it was unclear whether the attack was timed to coincide with the meeting.
Elsewhere, two American soldiers were killed in separate incidents by roadside bombs, the deadliest weapon employed by insurgents against the American military.
Most of the attacks today unfolded in the so-called Sunni triangle, where opposition to the American presence and the Iraqi government run high. The fiery violence indicated that that the insurgency, led by the former governing Sunni Arabs, has not quieted down despite the elections. In fact, the vote on Jan. 30 may have left the Sunni Arabs feeling more disenfranchised than ever, since Sunni voters and politicians largely boycotted the electoral process, allowing the long-oppressed Shiites and Kurds to seize an overwhelming majority of seats in the constitutional assembly.
As the victorious politicians jockey to form a new government, they will have to confront one of the toughest problems plaguing Iraq since the fall of Mr. Hussein: How to bring recalcitrant Sunni Arabs into the political process and persuade them to lay down their arms and accept their minority status in the new society. Shiite and Kurdish leaders have said they intend to give senior positions in the government to Sunni Arabs to ensure broad representation.
The Sunni Arabs, who ruled the country for decades until the toppling of Mr. Hussein, make up a fifth of the population, while the Kurds account for another fifth and the Shiite Arabs at least 60 percent. If the Shiites and Kurds fail to reach a peaceful accord with the Sunni Arabs, then the country could very well slide toward a large scale civil war.
One of the attacks today raised the specter of sectarian civil violence: In the insurgent stronghold of Iskandariyah, south of the capital, a suicide car bomber blew himself up in front of the office of a prominent Shiite party, killing at least five people, including three police officers and a child who was strolling along the road at the time, The Associated Press reported, citing government officials. The Shiite party, the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, won a large share of seats in the 275-member constitutional assembly and is expected to be a powerful force in the new government.
The party is a member of a broad Shiite political alliance assembled by Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, the most revered Shiite cleric in Iraq. As a whole, the alliance won a slim majority of assembly seats and on Tuesday named Ibrahim al-Jaafari, leader of the Dawa Islamic Party, as its candidate for prime minister. Mr. Jaafari is popular among many Shiite voters, but his conservative Islamic values could alienate more secular political groups with whom the Shiite politicians need to ally to form a government.
Prime Minister Ayad Allawi has already announced that he is pulling together a diverse coalition of secular-learning parties, including possibly the Kurds, who hold more than a quarter of the assembly seats, to oppose the religious Shiites.
Sunni Arab politicians hold only a tiny percentage of assembly seats, and one danger in the continuing negotiations is that the Sunnis could get ignored since they have little political leverage. That would likely fuel the insurgency, which has shown no signs of abating.
Other attacks today included two roadside bomb explosions in the embattled Sunni city of Qaim, near the Syrian border, killing four Iraqi National Guardsmen, The Associated Press reported. Another roadside bomb in the oil-rich northern city of Kirkuk killed at least two policemen and injured three. In Baghdad, gunmen opened fire inside a bakery, killing two people and injuring a third.
Iraq Blasts Kill 12, U.S. Says; AFP Says 3 More Die
Feb. 24 (Bloomberg) -- At least 10 Iraqis and two U.S. soldiers were killed in three separate blasts north of Baghdad, the U.S. military said today. Agence France-Presse said a car bomb south of the Iraqi capital killed three people. A car bomb exploded near the main police station in Tikrit, killing 10 Iraqis, 1st Sergeant Brian Thomas, a U.S. military spokesman in the city, said in a telephone interview. A U.S. soldier was killed in a blast in Qaryat, and a second was killed by a homemade bomb north of Samarra, the military said in e- mailed statements. The police and other security forces in Iraq are regularly targeted by insurgents who accuse them of working with the U.S.- led occupying troops. Tikrit was the scene of a double car bombing on Jan. 11 that left at least six police officers dead. Today's car bomb exploded at about 9 a.m. local time near the city's police station, and also wounded 20 people, Thomas said. It wasn't known if the casualties were civilians or police officers. No further details were available. Tikrit is the home town of ousted dictator Saddam Hussein, and lies about 150 kilometers (93 miles) north of Baghdad. Car Bomb A car bomb exploded in Hilla, south of Baghdad, killing two police officers and a child, AFP said, without providing further infprmation. Two soldiers were wounded by the Samarra blast, which occurred at about 9 a.m. local time today. As of 10 a.m. New York time yesterday, 1,472 U.S. military personnel and four Department of Defense civilian workers have been killed in Iraq since the March 2003 invasion, according to a Pentagon tally. As many as 18,339 Iraqi civilians have died as a result of the U.S.-led invasion and subsequent violence, according to a tally by Iraq Body Count, a London-based group that opposes the war and compiles its casualty toll from media reports and official statements.
US and British occupation of Iraq is regarded as the re-emergence of the old colonialist practices of the western empires in some quarters. The real ambitions underlying the brutal onslaught are still highly questionable - and then there are the blatant lies over weapons of mass destruction originally used to justify the war. There were no great victory marches by the occupiers, nor were they thrown garlands of flowers and greeted in triumph. More US soldiers have died in Iraq since George Bush declared an end to the war on 1 May 2003 prompting the question: Will Iraq turn into a new Vietnam eventually bringing the US to its senses ... or perhaps to its knees?
Iraq's history, and along with it that of the Arab Muslim world, speaks of several similar encounters. In the past, enemies attacked from East and West before they were swallowed by the moving sands of the region, or forced to retreat, leaving behind a phoenix-like people who adore life and still accept to die for their freedom.
The escalating Iraqi resistance seems to be setting the stage for another act which might usher in a new Arab World or set the clock ticking for the end of yet another empire.
The British government's top lawyer warned less than two weeks before the US-led invasion of Iraq that military action could be illegal, the Guardian newspaper has reported.
Lord Goldsmith expressed his doubts to Prime Minister Tony Blair, Washington's staunchest ally on Iraq, in a document on 7 March 2003, the paper revealed on Wednesday.
Yet two weeks later, a summarised statement read out by the Attorney General to the British Parliament expressed only that Iraq was in likely breach of material sanctions.
Crucial linkage
Crucially, Lord Goldsmith did not go further in his prepared remarks to Parliament -leaving it in the governments hands to go ahead and link a violation of material breaches by Iraq, with a legal basis to authorise war.
"It was political, not legal grounds to make war on Iraq and Tony Blair is fully responsible for this decision -an illegal decision"
Lawyer Phil Shiner
With Goldsmith doubting the legal validity of this argument, the British government became so worried that it set up a team of lawyers to prepare for any action in an international court challenging Britain's case.
The paper said it based its revealation on a book to be published this week called Lawless World, by law professor and lawyer Philippe Sands of Matrix Chambers -who shares the London offices of the prime minister's barrister wife, Cherie Blair.
Goldsmiths's advice
According to Sands' book, Goldsmith raised doubts about the legality of military action in advice given to Blair in a 13-page document dated 7 March 2003.
He warned: "If the argument were to come before a court of law it might well be unsuccessful, so the use of force could be found to be illegal."
According to Phil Shiner of Public Interest Lawyer, a human rights law practice, speaking to Aljazeera net, the crucial bit of Mr Sands revelation was that the statement made by the Attorney General to the British Parliament on 17 March was legally unequivocal, meaning without full legal weight.
"The Attorney General can claim that his legal opinion to Tony Blair on 7 March was legally equivical -a considered opinion that the grounds for war without a second UN resolution was shaky.
Political Decision
Blair's legal case for war appears to have been shaky "Yet the legal opinion presented to Parliament by Goldsmith [but prepared for him by two lawyers close to Tony Blair] did not make a case to go to war on Iraq, because there was no sound legal basis."
"Therefore, it was infact on political, not legal grounds to make war and Tony Blair is fully responsible for this decision -an illegal decision," said Shiner, who was named as Britain's human rights lawyer of the year last year by the Bar Council and Law Society.
Since today's news, Goldsmith has not been available for comment. Previously, he has denied claims he swallowed his own doubts about the case for war to give Blair legal cover after London and Washington failed to gain United Nations backing for a resolution authorising military action.
The British government has only published a summary of his advice.
Misleading Parliament
However, Sands says that 10 days later, on 17 March, Goldsmith said in answer to a parliamentary question that it was "plain" that Iraq was in breach of UN resolution 1441 which required it to comply with disarmament obligations.
"Plain to whom?" Sands asks in his book. "[This answer] was neither a summary nor a precis of any of the earlier advices which the attorney-general had provided."
Blair, who is preparing to fight an election expected in May, has refused calls to publish the legal advice Goldsmith gave him.
The war on Iraq dragged down Blair's once sky-high public ratings and divided his ruling Labour Party.
The operation is intended to tackle fighters in al-Anbar
Three Iraqis have been killed after US marines entered Haqlaniya, intensifying a campaign to bring Iraq's western province of al-Anbar under control.
The Iraqis were killed on Wednesday when they drove towards a building occupied by the marines.
"A pickup truck drove towards the building. Iraqi soldiers waved at it to stop but they didn't stop. They didn't pay attention. They turned around, and that's when we shot them," said Major Richard Seagrist.
There were no US casualties.
A column of tanks and armoured vehicles rolled into the town, 240km west of Baghdad on the Euphrates river, before dawn and were immediately ambushed.
Marines responded with heavy machine gun fire and several tank rounds.
"We were hit by an IED (improvised explosive device), a daisy chain (three IEDs linked together) and then we took a rocket-propelled grenade," said Sergeant Larry Long.
Tackling fighters
The offensive was part of Operation River Blitz, launched this week to tackle fighters hiding out in the huge western province of al-Anbar that stretches to the borders with Syria, Jordan and Saudi Arabia.
"Our intent was to come out to the city, own the terrain and disrupt their activity. We're here to make them do something, and if they get scared, pack up and leave, that's disruption"
Lieutenant-Colonel Stevens "The situation in al-Anbar has gone too far, which is why we enacted River Blitz. We don't want to present a weak spot to the insurgents," Lieutenant-Colonel Greg Stevens of the 1st Marines Expeditionary Force told his troops on Tuesday.
"We're going into the city and we're staying."
Haqlaniya has been a focal point of anti-US activities for months. Four marines were killed in an ambush near the town in January.
Little resistance
The US military said it was expecting strong resistance from foreign fighters who they say have links to al-Qaida.
"You don't bring a rifle to a tank fight," Stevens said on Wednesday when asked about the relative lack of resistance from fighters.
"We're going into the city and we're staying"
Lieutenant-Colonel Greg Stevens
"Our intent was to come out to the city, own the terrain and disrupt their activity. We're here to make them do something, and if they get scared, pack up and leave, that's disruption."
Iraqi soldiers working with the US forces were given the job of clearing Haqlaniya's two mosques in an effort not to offend Muslim sensibilities.
US forces took up positions in two schools and planned to stay for about 24 hours.
Amnesty said that Iraqi women are living under the threat of extreme violence and sexual abuse
The human rights group Amnesty International said that Iraqi women are living under the threat of extreme violence and sexual abuse and that their conditions are worse than under the rule of the toppled leader Saddam Hussein.
The organization said in a report, entitled "Iraq -- Decades of Suffering," that Saddam’s regime was replaced by increased killings and sexual assaults, including those committed by U.S. occupation forces.
The U.S. claimed that removing Saddam’s regime would free the Iraqi people and set the ground for democracy in the country, but Amnesty said that post-war insecurity left Iraqi women at risk of violence and reduced their freedoms.
"The lawlessness and increased killings, abductions and rapes that followed the overthrow of the government of Saddam Hussein have restricted women's freedom of movement and their ability to go to school or to work," Amnesty said.
"Women have been subjected to sexual threats by members of the U.S.-led forces and some women detained by U.S. forces have been sexually abused, possibly raped," it added.
Amnesty also said that many women detained by U.S. forces told the organization of beatings, threats of rape, humiliating treatment and long periods of solitary confinement.
The Pentagon said that it didn’t see the report, but noted that it took any detainee abuse allegations seriously.
"We have demonstrated our commitment to ensuring that kind of behavior is identified and dealt with properly," spokesman Lieutenant-Colonel Joe Richard said.
"With this report, we would like the opportunity to review it and to test the validity of the allegations." He added.
However, a spokesman for Amnesty said that it wasn’t trying to compare between Iraq under Saddam and now, "But we are saying that the situation of women then was very bad and it is still very bad,"
Amnesty also urged the Iraqi authorities and newly elected members of the National Assembly to include the rights of women in the new constitution.
U.S. Marine who killed unarmed Iraqi won’t be charged
The marine was seen on TV killing an unarmed wounded Iraqi man inside a Fallujah mosque
A U.S. marine, captured on a video killing an unarmed wounded Iraqi man inside a Fallujah mosque during November’s deadly offensive, will not be formally charged by the U.S. military due to lack of evidence.
The shooting occurred on November 13, and was aired by several TV stations.
CBS News broadcast a still photo from the footage showing the marine standing above the wounded helpless man, and pointing his rifle at the man's body, then a rifle shot could be heard.
The video showed the bullet hitting the already wounded man in the head. Blood splatters were seen covering the wall behind him and his body goes limp.
The incident sparked worldwide outrage and was described by the International Committee of the Red Cross as an "utter contempt for humanity."
At the time, the Pentagon ordered NBC and other TV networks to hide the Marine's identity because "they (the military authorities) are anticipating a criminal investigation as a result of this incident and do not want to implicate anybody ahead of that."
According to CBS, the Marine claimed that he shot the Iraqi because he “thought he saw moving” and that the man “could have been going for a weapon."
CBS News said that military investigators had concluded insufficient evidence existed to formally charge the marine.
"At the very least, Navy legal experts believe the situation is ambiguous enough that no prosecutor could get a conviction," CBS said.
Any punishment within the Uniform Code of Military Justice was to be decided by Marine commanders, the TV network added.
Iraqi police carry away body of colleague killed in car bombing Insurgents have frequently targeted Iraqi police At least 10 people are reported to have been killed and 25 injured by a car bomb at a police station in Saddam Hussein's home town. Police in Tikrit said the bomber drove his car into the parking lot of the police station and then blew it up. More than a dozen cars were set ablaze and charred bodies could be seen in the street, reports said. Despite a relentless militant campaign, Tikrit has been relatively quiet over the past few months. Positions bombed US troops sealed off the area immediately after the explosion and set up checkpoints across the city, according to the Associated Press news agency. Witnesses said the bomber had dressed in police uniform in order to gain access to the police station compound. The casualty toll was high because the blast occurred at one of the station's busiest times, as dozens of officers arrived to relieve colleagues who had been working overnight, police said. The attack comes as the Americans continue a big operation against insurgents in the western province of Al Anbar. The US military says its aircraft have dropped two large bombs on what it called insurgent fighting positions. There is no word on casualties but the Americans say more than 80 suspects have been detained since the operation they have dubbed Operation River Blitz began on Sunday. Earlier on Thursday, two policemen were killed in the northern city of Kirkuk in a roadside bomb apparently targeting the local police chief.
OSNABRUECK, GERMANY - A military court has found two British soldiers guilty of physically abusing Iraqi civilian detainees two years ago. Picture released by a British Court Martial shows Lance Corporal Mark Cooley with an Iraqi detainee. (AP photo / British Court Martial)
* FROM JAN. 19, 2005: British soldiers accused of abusing Iraqis
After a five-week court martial, the panel of seven senior officers convicted Lance-Cpl. Mark Cooley, 25, of pretending to punch one prisoner and of tying up another man and hoisting him on a forklift.
Cpl. Daniel Kenyon was convicted of aiding and abetting the abuse and failing to report it.
Lance-Cpl. Darren Larkin, 30, pleaded guilty earlier to one count of battery after he was shown in a photo standing with both feet on an Iraqi who was tied up on the ground.
Cooley and Kenyon face up to two years in prison and Larkin faces up to six months in jail when they are sentenced, probably on Friday.
In a separate trial in January, Fusilier Gary Bartlam, 20, pleaded guilty to taking photos of several incidents of abuse, including forcing prisoners to simulate sex acts, and to aiding and abetting Cooley in the forklift incident. He was sentenced to 18 months.
Bartlam was arrested after he returned to Britain and took his film to be developed. The film lab alerted police.
The photos caused widespread revulsion – and comparisons to the U.S. Abu Ghraib prison scandal – when they were later published around the world.
The abuses occurred in May 2003, following the invasion of Iraq, when members of the Royal Regiment of Fusiliers found civilians looting a humanitarian aid warehouse outside the southern city of Basra.
The trials were conducted in Germany, where the regiment is based.
Iraq's Kurdish interim vice president on Wednesday said negotiations to pick the country's new prime minister were far from over, as Iraq's new political king-makers sought to secure top jobs, including the largely ceremonial post of president.
Haggling over senior positions in the upcoming government came against the backdrop of more violence. A car bomb killed two people and wounded 14 in the northern city of Mosul, and a U.S. soldier was killed in a separate bomb attack north of Baghdad, officials said.
The dominant Shiite coalition on Tuesday chose Ibrahim al-Jaafari, one of two interim vice presidents and leader of a religious party that fought Saddam Hussein, as its candidate for prime minister making him the overwhelming favorite for the post.
But for al-Jaafari to take the premiership he must build a coalition to gain agreement from Kurds and others on the presidency and candidates for Cabinet posts before seeking the support of a majority of the National Assembly elected Jan. 30.
Incumbent premier Ayad Allawi has shown no sign of giving up his own bid for the powerful post, reports the Boston Globe.
According to the New York Times, Ibrahim al-Jaafari, a Shiite doctor with an Islamist bent, was chosen Tuesday by the victorious Shiite alliance as its candidate to become Iraq's new prime minister. The decision may well open a period of protracted and rancorous negotiations with a coalition of secular leaders intent on sharply curtailing Dr. Jaafari's powers or blocking him and his clerical-backed coalition.
Ayad Allawi, the current prime minister, and Barham Salih, a Kurdish politician and deputy prime minister, said in separate interviews on Tuesday that without guarantees renouncing sectarianism and embracing Western democratic ideals they were poised to block Dr. Jaafari's nomination and possibly peel off enough members from the Shiite's United Iraqi Alliance to form a government of their own.
The New York City Department of Education (search), red-faced over Brooklyn sixth-graders who slammed a GI with demoralizing anti-Iraq-war letters as part of a school assignment, will send the 20-year-old private a letter of apology Tuesday.
Deputy Schools Chancellor Carmen Farina (search), who has a nephew serving in Iraq, plans to personally contact Pfc. Rob Jacobs (search) and his family, said department spokeswoman Michele McManus Higgins.
"She knows how difficult it is to have a loved one in a war zone," Higgins said.
Jacobs is stationed 10 miles from the North Korean border and who has been told he may be headed to Iraq in the near future.
The GI got the ranting missives last month from pint-sized pen pals at JHS 51 in Park Slope.
Filled with political diatribes, the letters predict GIs will die by the tens of thousands, accuse soldiers of killing Iraqi civilians and bash President Bush.
Teacher Alex Kunhardt (search) had his students write Jacobs as part of a social-studies assignment.
He declined to comment Monday on whether he read the rants before passing them along, but said he planned to contact Jacobs soon to explain the situation.
In an accompanying letter to Jacobs, Kunhardt had written that the students "come from a variety of backgrounds and political beliefs, but unanimously support the bravery and sacrifice of American soldiers around the world."
"Support" was not the word that came to Jacobs' mind when he read the letters.
One girl wrote that she believes Jacobs is "being forced to kill innocent people" and challenged him to name an Iraqi terrorist, concluding, "I know I can't."
Another girl wrote, "I strongly feel this war is pointless," while a classmate predicted that because Bush was re-elected, "only 50 or 100 [soldiers] will survive."
A boy accused soldiers of "destroying holy places like mosques."
Even one kid smitten with soldiers couldn't keep politics out of the picture, writing, "I find that many extreme liberals are disrespectful to you."
Uplifting letters from children are dear to soldiers, Jacobs said. He looks at a batch he got from a Girl Scout troop from his hometown of Middletown, N.J., whenever he feels lonely.
At the time the 21 JHS 51 letters were penned, Jacobs, who has been stationed in Korea for nearly a year, was told that he may be headed to Iraq. But no official order for deployment was given.
"If I were in Iraq and read that the youth of our nation doesn't want me to be there and doesn't believe in what I'm doing, it would mess up my head," Jacobs said.
Jacobs said he would welcome a letter from the Department of Education and the teacher.
"I want to think these letters were coached by the teacher or the parents of these children," Jacobs said in an interview from Camp Casey, Korea.
"It boggles my mind that children could think this stuff."
Shiite coalition nominates al-Jaafari for prime minister
Ahmad Chalabi drops out of consideration, official says
IBRAHIM AL-JAAFARI Al-Jaafari is the prime minister-nominee of the Shiite-led United Iraqi Alliance # One of two vice presidents in the Iraqi interim government # Member of the Dawa movement, which seeks to modernize Iraq's religious institutions # Medical doctor born in Karbala, Iraq, in 1947 # Fled Iraq in 1980 and has since lived in exile in Iran and Britain
BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- The United Iraqi Alliance, Iraq's main Shiite political coalition, has named Ibrahim al-Jaafari as its nominee to be the country's next prime minister, an Iraqi political official said.
The official, a member of the Supreme Council of the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, said that Ahmad Chalabi, another candidate for the post, dropped out of consideration.
Al-Jaafari told CNN last week that he would accept the prime minister position if he was offered it.
Asked whether he would support an Iraq based on an Islamic republic model, al-Jaafari noted that Iraq's government would reflect its distinct personality: "We have to adapt our system according to the character and nature of our society."
He said "security, services and the economy" are the main arenas that need attention.
The 58-year-old doctor maintains popularity in Iraq and is viewed as a moderate. He told CNN last week that he wants to bring the alienated Sunni Arabs into the country's political fold.
His Dawa movement, a religious-oriented party with ties to Iran, resisted the Saddam Hussein regime and al-Jaafari himself had been in exile for years during the Saddam era.
Al-Jaafari has served as one of the deputy presidents in the interim government.
Chalabi -- long a controversial figure in the Iraqi conflict -- was a key source of U.S. intelligence that former dictator Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction. Such weaponry has never been found, despite a dogged search for them.
The UIA won a bare majority of the 275-seat national assembly in elections at the end of last month -- 140 seats -- followed by the Kurdish alliance with 75 seats and Interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi's Iraqi list with 40 seats.
Al-Jaafari would need the support of others to get the nomination, including the Kurdish bloc.
Interim Finance Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi of the Supreme Council for the Iraqi Revolution in Iraq has also been mentioned for the post along the way. The main task of the transitional government will be to write a permanent constitution, which -- if approved -- will form the legal underpinning of a permanent government.
Baghdad bomb comes as Marines tighten noose west of capital
BAGHDAD, Iraq - Three U.S. soldiers were killed and eight were wounded on Monday when a roadside bomb detonated near a helicopter as it was carrying out a medical evacuation, the U.S. military said.
The medical team was sent by helicopter to attend to a soldier injured in a vehicle accident in a southwestern neighborhood of Baghdad when the explosion occurred, the U.S. military said in a statement. It gave no further details.
Insurgents attack U.S. troops regularly in Baghdad, although it is rare that more than one soldier is killed in a single attack.
The deaths bring to 1,124 the number of U.S. troops killed in action in Iraq since the launch of the war in March 2003.
The bombing came as U.S. Marines broke down doors and raided houses on the second day of an offensive aimed at cracking down on insurgent activity in several troubled cities west of Baghdad.
In Ramadi, U.S. Marines fanned out across the city, setting up checkpoints, searching cars and sealing off areas to prevent people from entering or leaving as they carried out raids. The operation came one day after launching the operation and putting in place a nighttime curfew.
Iraqi Maj. Abdul Karim al-Faraji said troops detained a prominent Sunni Muslim sheik, Mohammed Nasir Ali al-Ijbie, who heads the al-Bufaraj tribe, along with 12 of his relatives.
The new operation was under way in several other Euphrates River cities in Anbar, including Heet, Baghdadi, Hadithah and the provincial capital Ramadi, the military said. Hadithah residents reported parts of the city were bombarded by coalition aircraft overnight. There was no word on casualties.
Shiites to selelect PM candidate The raids occurred as Shiites of the winning United Iraqi Alliance met in Baghdad to discuss their candidate for prime minister.
Ahmad Chalabi, a secular Shiite once known for his ties to Washington, and Ibrahim al-Jaafari, the conservative interim vice president, will face off in a secret ballot Tuesday to determine who will be the Shiite majority’s choice for Iraqi prime minister, officials said.
TV announcer kidnapped Meanwhile, gunmen in the northern city of Mosul abducted an Iraqi television presenter, an official from her network said Monday. Raiedah Mohammed Wageh Wazan was abducted by several masked gunmen Sunday night while she was returning home, said the official, speaking on condition of anonymity.
The U.S. military said insurgents targeted the local TV station “several times in the past week because they have been broadcasting programs that highlighted the negative effects of insurgent activity. Those programs have had rapidly growing support from Iraqi citizens and therefore have caused the station to be targeted.”
The U.S. announcement added that “insurgents contacted the station and threatened to continue to target employees.”
In another kidnapping, two Indonesian journalists and their Jordanian driver missing since last week were freed by militants and arrived safely Monday at the Iraq-Jordan border, according to a spokeswoman for Metro TV, their employer. The three were abducted last week outside Ramadi, west of Baghdad.
A video delivered anonymously to Associated Press Television News in Baghdad on Monday apparently showed the two journalists — Meutya Viada Hafid and Budiyanto, who like many Indonesians goes by one name — shaking hands with a militant before they were released.
A masked person in the video, reading from a notebook, said that “based on the good will they showed, and respecting the feelings of brotherhood and Islam between the two countries, and respecting the Indonesian anti-occupation role, we decided to release the two journalists without any conditions and ransom.”
Indonesia, the world’s largest Muslim country, was critical of the U.S.-led 2003 invasion of Iraq, and has refused to send troops to the country.
Australia announces new troops In Canberra, Prime Minister John Howard announced Australia will send 450 more troops to southern Iraq to help protect Japanese engineers and help bolster the country’s fledgling democracy. The new detachment will include a cavalry squadron, infantry company and a team to train local forces, he told a news conference.
Australia, a staunch U.S. ally, sent 2,000 troops to take part in the invasion of Iraq and still has nearly 900 troops in and around the country. Howard said it would take about 10 weeks for the new troops to prepare for the trip to Iraq and that they would likely stay there for a year.
Nearly 1500 US troops have been killed since March 2003
Three US soldiers have been killed and eight wounded in a bomb attack in Iraq, the US military said.
"At approximately 8.00am (0500 GMT) on 21 February, three US soldiers were killed and eight were wounded when an IED (improvised explosive device) detonated during a medical evacuation of a soldier," a statement said on Monday.
"The soldier was injured in a convoy accident caused by a civilian vehicle," it added, without specifying where the attack took place.
The death brings to 1482 the number of US military personnel killed in Iraq since the US-led war in March 2003.
Presenter seized
In other developments, armed fighters in Iraq seized a female Iraqi television presenter in the northern city of Mosul, an official from her local television network said.
The two Indonesian journalists were released on Monday
The news of Raida Muhammad Wajih Wazan's capture came the same day that two Indonesian journalists were released.
Wazan, who works for a branch of the local station Iraqiya, was taken by several masked armed men on Sunday night while she was returning to her house in Mosul's al-Shahwan neighbourhood, an official said on Monday.
No other details were immediately available.
Last Wednesday, half a dozen mortar rounds were fired at the Mosul TV station, wounding three technicians working there.
Iraq round-up
In the city of Baquba, armed fighters killed a truck's driver and set ablaze three trucks carrying supplies to the Iraqi army. In the city of Hiyt, two US military vehicles were destroyed by rocket-propelled grenades.
In another town - Haditha - US warplanes bombed government buildings including a municipality office following clashes between US forces and armed fighters.
In the city of Siwara, Aljazeera has learned that Iraqi police found eight bodies in the Tigris river which are thought to be of truck drivers kidnapped days ago.
A still from the video allegedly showing two missing Indonesian journalists and their captors The pair were abducted last week Two Indonesian reporters held hostage in Iraq have been released, their captors say.
In a video broadcast on Indonesian TV, a little-known rebel group, the Army of Warriors, said the pair were being freed "without any condition."
The unconfirmed reports say the pair were freed in Ramadi, west of Baghdad, in the so-called Sunni Triangle.
Meanwhile, it emerged that an Iraqi TV reporter was seized with her son in the northern city of Mosul on Sunday.
"Raeda Wazzan was kidnapped by armed men in the Maidan district in the centre of Mosul, with her 10-year-old son," said Ghazi Fyacal of Iraqia TV.
Transferred
Indonesian reporter Meutya Hafid and cameraman Budiyanto were abducted last week on a road from Jordan to Baghdad.
A member of the Committee of Muslim Scholars, Iraq's leading Sunni organisation, also said the pair had been released.
"The two Indonesians have been freed and will be transferred to the headquarters of the committee in Baghdad, where they will have the choice of going to their embassy or leaving Iraq," said the man, who was not named in news reports.
The video broadcast on the journalists' own Indonesian TV channel, Metro TV, showed the captors saying: "We are going to release them without any condition. God is greatest."
An official at the Indonesian embassy in Baghdad said they had been told of the journalists' apparent release and were trying to establish their whereabouts.
Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono last week appealed for the reporters' immediate release.
The Army of Warriors group had demanded an explanation from Indonesia of the pair's activities in Iraq.
Hundreds of demonstrators protested in Brussels on Sunday (February 20) on the eve of U.S President George W. Bush's five-day trip to Europe. Both the far left and far right were demonstrating, with the right wanting him to pull U.S. troops out of Europe and the left criticising what they say is his disdain for international law.
Several hundred left-wing demonstrators with banners and placards gathered in the historical heart of Brussels -- home to NATO and the EU
to criticise Bush for not signing up to the Kyoto treaty to tackle global warmingand for the U.S.-led war in Iraq.
"The peace movements, the environment movements and the human rights movements, they all agree that the policy of the Bush administration is dangerous. It is not only dangerous, it is, in fact, according to the strictmeaning of the word, criminal. Because it is dangerous for the planet, it is dangerous for the international law, and it is of course a huge breach of human rights," Lieven de Cauter, one of the organisers of a demonstration outside the historic stock exchange, said.
While the human rights and environmental activists were demonstrating in the historic centre of Brussels, a few dozen Dutch right wing activists tried to demonstrate in front of the U.S. ambassador's residence where Bush is expected to stay overnight.
Members of the Dutch group "Nationalists against NATO"protested against Bush visiting Europe and called for all U.S. troops to be withdrawn from Europe. "We are against US imperialism in general. NATO is of course an instrument for the U.S. to gain control over Europe", Herve Vab Laethen told Reuters on behalf of "Nationalists against NATO.'' The U.S. president is due to meet Belgian leaders on Monday and European Union and NATO leaders on Tuesday to talk about Iran, Syria and Iraq as well as NATO's future.
More protests are expected over the coming days with environmental, human rights and peace groups, the far left, socialists and anti-globalists all planning to take to the streets.
DUBAI (Reuters) - Al Qaeda's deputy leader said in a videotape broadcast on Sunday that governments could not stop al Qaeda attacks and that the security of the West depended on respect for Islam and an end to aggression against Muslims.
Ayman al-Zawahri said in the tape aired by satellite channel Al Jazeera that the "new crusader campaign" -- al Qaeda's term for the U.S.-led "war on terrorism" -- would end in defeat.
The Arabic television channel said the tape, which was not dated, was new. That was not immediately possible to verify. It did not mention recent events such as last month's elections in Iraq.
Osama bin Laden's right hand man, who was wearing a white turban and seated with a machinegun next to him, said his comments came three years after the first prisoners were taken from Afghanistan to the U.S. Naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
"If you Western nations believe that these carton governments will protect you from our responses then you are deluded. Your real security lies in cooperating with the Muslim nation on the basis of respect and ending aggression," said the bearded and bespectacled Zawahri in the broadcast excerpts.
"Your new crusader campaign will end, God willing, in defeat as did those that preceded it but after the deaths of tens of thousands, the destruction of your economy and exposing you in the pages of history," he added.
ABUSE ALLEGATIONS
In Washington, a U.S. intelligence source said it was too early to make a determination on the tape's authenticity, adding: "We will certainly be looking very closely at it."
The Egyptian militant said U.S. calls for democracy in the Middle East were a farce after allegations of abuse of prisoners in Iraq, Afghanistan and in Guantanamo Bay, which holds hundreds of suspects detained during the 2001 U.S.-led war to oust al Qaeda and the ruling Taliban from Afghanistan and in other operations.
"It has been three years since the first group of Muslim prisoners were sent to Guantanamo prison ... One may ask why all this interest in Guantanamo when our countries are filled with a thousand Guantanamos under U.S. observation," he said.
"It is because it exposes the truth of reform and democracy that America claims it aims to spread in our countries.
"The reform which emerges from U.S. prisons like Bagram, Kandahar, Guantanamo, Abu Ghraib, and from the launch of cluster bombs and rockets and the appointment of the likes of (Afghanistan's President Hamid) Karzai and (Iraqi interim Prime Minister Iyad) Allawi," he said.
Zawahri and bin Laden, believed to be hiding in the border region between Pakistan and Afghanistan, have eluded capture since the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on the United States, carried out by al Qaeda.
The last videotape from Zawahri was aired in November, warning that al Qaeda would continue to attack the United States until Washington changed its policies toward the Muslim world.
CHICAGO (Reuters) - Peace activists from around the United States gathered in St. Louis on Sunday, part of a three-day meeting to develop plans to pressure the Bush administration to exit Iraq.
The weekend gathering, which brought together representatives from more than 35 states and Canada, comes as the death toll of American soldiers there nears 1,500 and March 19 marks the two-year anniversary of the U.S.-led invasion.
The meeting was coordinated by United for Peace and Justice, an umbrella coalition of some 1,000 anti-war groups ranging from large organizations like Women for Peace and Black Voices for Peace, to local campaigns such as the St. Louis Instead of War Coalition.
"The way we support our troops is by calling for an immediate end to the war and to bring them home now," said Charley Richardson, a member of Military Families Speak Out.
The group represents some 2,000 U.S. military families, said Richardson, whose son, a Marine, was deployed to Iraq early in the war but has returned to the United States.
A spokesman for United for Peace and Justice said the estimated 450 attendees hoped to develop clear plans on how to push the Bush administration to end the war.
"This is the first major gathering of peace organizations since (President George W.) Bush's re-election," said the spokesman, Bill Dobbs. "Today and tomorrow they're going to be many proposals considered ... for campaigns, actions, protests, demonstrations."
New York-based United for Peace and Justice was formed in October 2002 before the war and has since evolved into the largest U.S. anti-war coalition. It staged several major protests, including ones at the Republican and Democratic national conventions last summer, Dobbs said.
"We're building a community to build the world we want, to challenge this administration," said Lisa Fithian, a member of Root Activist Network of Trainers, which helps other groups develop and organize.
Six more Iraqis have been killed in separate incidents in Iraq Iraq, police and US military said, after some 70 others died during the two-day Shiite Ashura religious festival which ended Saturday.
In the northern city of Mosul, Iraqi security forces killed an insurgent after their patrol came under attack, the US military said, adding that US forces had killed a taxi driver in Tall Afar, west of Mosul, after he failed to stop.
In the Saturday shooting, the troops were trying to disable the taxi but killed the driver. His son, who was in the car, was taken home, the military said.
Southeast of Mosul, in Kirkuk, one Iraqi was killed by a car bomb and two more in an apparently accidental blast, police said.
"A car bomb exploded on a provincial road near Hawija and the driver of the car was killed," said Kirkuk police chief General Turhan Yussef, adding that there were no US soldiers or Iraqi patrols in the area, west of Kirkuk, at the time.
In Kirkuk, two Kurds were killed in the apparently accidental explosion of an ammunition dump dating back to before the US-led invasion, Yussef said.
East of Baquba, some 65 kilometres (40 miles) northeast of Baghdad, gunmen ambushed and killed an Iraqi soldier as he went home, an army officer said.
In the southern city of Basra, two civilians were wounded when a bomb exploded as an Iraqi police patrol passed, a police spokesman said.
The patrol pursued a suspect who filmed the attack and detained him after he hid in a tree nursery where they found ammunition and explosives, he said.
Mosul's main medicine warehouse burnt down after catching fire during a clash between insurgents and US troops who were attacked in the city centre, said the man in charge of the building's security.
IRAQ-US-UNREST-MARINES-AN BAR
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HADITHA (IRAQ), 02/20 (AFP) - Marines from the 1st Battalion 23rd Marines sit atop their Amphibious Armored Vehicles in Haditha, 250 kms northwest from Baghdad, 20 February 2005. The 1st Marine Division of the I Marine Expeditionary Force and Iraqi Security Forces kicked off Operation River Blitz, aimed to enhance security in and around the western Iraqi al-anbar province and its capital the restive Sunni Muslim city of Ramadi. AFP PHOTO/JAIME RAZURI
Iraq says Zarqawi propaganda chief killed; Indonesia seeks hostage release
Iraqi security forces have killed or captured three insurgents producing websites showing hostages being tortured, officials said, as Indonesia stepped up efforts to try to free two of its journalists kidnapped in Iraq.
Time magazine meanwhile reported that rebel leaders had held secret talks with US officials seeking to end the deadly insurgency in which thousands of people have died since the US-led invasion ousted Saddam Hussein nearly two years ago.
Six more Iraqis were killed in separate incidents, police and the US military said on Sunday, after some 70 others died during the two-day Shiite Ashura religious festival which ended on Saturday.
The government said security forces had "killed the terrorist Adel Mujtaba, known as Abu Rim, who disseminated propaganda for Abu Musab al-Zarqawi's terrorist network".
Mujtaba was the third Zarqawi propaganda chief to be killed or detained after the first and second in command, Abu Sufiyan and Husam Abdullah Muhsin al-Dulaymi, were respectively killed and detained, a statement said, without providing further details on the latter two.
"Abu Rim (Mujtaba) specialised in creating terrorist websites which encouraged terrorism," it said, adding that he was killed in a raid on February 11.
"He glorified the murder of innocent people and published images which included terrorists torturing hostages."
Zarqawi, who has a 25-million-dollar US bounty on his head, is believed to be behind a string of deadly attacks and kidnappings and is the frontman here for Osama bin Laden's Al-Qaeda network.
Zarqawi's group is one of several in Iraq that have abducted foreigners, made videos of them pleading for their lives or being tortured or beheaded. The footage has then been displayed on websites or sent to television stations. Iraqi police remove ammunition they found in a house of a man that was detained after an attack Iraqi police remove ammunition they found in a house of a man that was detained after an attack AFP
The latest foreigners to be kidnapped in Iraq, two Indonesian journalists, went missing last Tuesday near the rebel hotspot of Ramadi while driving from neighbouring Jordan Jordan to Baghdad.
Their abductors later sent a video to Al-Jazeera television showing the captives flanked by gunmen who demanded that Indonesia, which opposed the US-led invasion of Iraq, explain their presence in Iraq.
Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said Saturday the two journalists had no political agenda, while the mother of one of the hostages made an emotional appeal to her fellow Muslims to help secure her daughter's release.
"They are reporting on the activity of our brothers and sisters in Iraq because Indonesia, as the world's largest Muslim country, obviously wants to know how their brothers and sisters in Iraq are doing," said the president.
A Indonesian negotiator arrived in Amman on Sunday to try to seek the release of the two.
The hostages, Meutya Hafid, a reporter for Metro TV news channel, and cameraman Budiyanto, were being held by a previously unknown Islamist group, the Jaish al-Mujahedeen, or Army of Warriors, according to Al-Jazeera.
In an apparently unrelated development, the US military said it had increased security operations in the restive western province of Al-Anbar, of which Ramadi, near where the journalists were abducted, is the capital.
The US weekly Time reported that US officials had been in direct contact with representatives from Iraq's Sunni insurgency, to try to negotiate an end to attacks against US and Iraqi troops there.
Secret contacts with insurgent leaders are being conducted mainly by US diplomats and intelligence officers, Pentagon sources told Time in an article published on its website.
Although they have no immediate plans to halt their attacks on US troops, insurgents told the magazine that their aim is to establish a political identity to represent disenfranchised Sunnis and eventually negotiate an end to the US military's offensive in the so-called Sunni triangle.
Insurgent negotiators have told their US interlocutors that they would accept a UN peacekeeping force as the US troop presence recedes, Time wrote.
There were no immediate claims for most of the attacks that together left some 70 dead across Iraq Saturday and Sunday during the Asura festival.
But Sunni militants had vowed to target the Shiite community, which won a majority of the seats in the new parliament following Iraq's first democratic election in decades.
Sunni leaders on Sunday called on the Shiites not to exclude them from the political process, despite their boycott of, and subsequent poor showing in, last month's vote.
The results of the January 30 vote simultaneously confirmed the rise to power of Iraq's long-oppressed Shiite majority and the fall of the Sunni minority who had dominated under Saddam.
Negotiations to pick Iraq's new president and two vice presidents were due to resume on Monday after a break for Ashura, which marks the death 1,300 years ago of the Prophet Mohammed's grandson Hussein, an event which widened the split between Sunni and Shia Islam.
Nearly one fifth of the Mesopotamian marshes of southern Iraq, almost completely drained by Saddam Hussein, are once again flooded with water, according to experts working on an international effort to restore the wetlands.
Considered the cradle of western civilization -- the location of the Garden of Eden, the marshes, fed by the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, are key to the economy, politics and ecosystem of the region.
"The future of the 5,000-years-old Marsh Arab culture and the economic stability of large portions of southern Iraq are dependent on the success of this effort," said Curtis Richardson, an environmentalist from Duke University, at the annual conference of the American Association for the Advancement of Science Science here this weekend.
"I think you could stabilize huge, vast areas of Iraq by doing this project," Richardson said.
Originally covering 15,000 square kilometers, the marshes were once the habitat for millions of birds, as well as fish and crustaceans, and served as a natural filter for river waters en route to the Gulf.
Saddam Hussein drained the swamps in retaliation for an uprising against his regime. Today only about 100,000 people remain of the more than half a million who once lived in and around the marshes.
With the fall of Saddam following the US-led invasion in March 2003, Iraqi farmers destroyed some of the dams and canals that had turned once lush wetlands into deserts.
Contrary to experts' fears, the returning waters did not bring damaging chemicals or salts that could have prevented the renewal of flora and fauna, Richardson said.
Further restoration of the marshes is complicated by an enormous dam in Turkey Turkey build in 1998 and another in Iran Iran, on the frontier with Iraq.
US seeks negotiated settlement with Iraq insurgents: report
Pentagon officials have been in direct contact with representatives from Iraq's Sunni insurgency, to negotiate an end to ongoing attacks against against US troops there.
Time quoted a senior insurgent negotiator who told the magazine that two meetings have already taken place, and also cited unnamed sources in Washington Washington confirmed the US contacts with insurgent leaders, Time Magazine reported on its website Sunday.
Pentagon officials told Time that the secret contacts with insurgent leaders are being conducted mainly by US diplomats and intelligence officers.
The persistence and intensity of the insurgency, along with signs of internal divisions in the ranks of the insurgents, have prompted some US officials to seek a negotiated solution, Time wrote.
Although they have no immediate plans to halt their attacks on US troops, the insurgents told Time their aim is to establish a political identity that can represent disenfranchised Sunnis and eventually negotiate an end to the US military's offensive in the Sunni triangle.
Insurgent negotiators have told their US interlocutors that they would accept a UN peacekeeping force as the US troop presence recedes, Time wrote, in an article that will appear in editions appearing on newsstands Monday.
US seeks negotiated settlement with Iraq insurgents: report
Iraqi police arrest man believed to have link to terrorist leader
Insurgents engage in street fighting in Ramadi, an insurgent stronghold west of Baghdad Saturday.
BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- On a day when bombers in Iraq launched attacks that killed at least 16 people and wounded more than 100, Iraqi police announced the arrest of a man they say is linked to terrorist mastermind Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.
Iraqi police arrested Haidar Mulaqatah during a raid in the Maffaraq area of western Baquba, about 30 miles north of Baghdad in Diyala province. The area has been a frequent site for insurgent attacks against coalition troops and Iraqi security forces.
Police said they also found weapons, including mortars, and equipment used to make counterfeit identification during the raid.
In another raid near Mosul on Saturday, Iraqi security forces captured another suspected insurgent.
Harbi Abdul Khudier Hammudi, who served as a colonel in the old Iraqi air force, is a leader of the Salafist Jihadist terrorist group and is believed to have been involved in several attacks against coalition forces, including the bombing of an Iraqi national guard convoy last year, police said.
Another leader in Hammudi's group, Faris Addula Younis, was also captured in the raid, police said.
The bombings in and around Baghdad -- coinciding with the celebration of Ashura, one of the holiest days on the Shiite calendar -- came a day after a flurry of similar violence that killed 31 people.
Thousands of Shiites took to the streets in Baghdad and Karbala to commemorate the day, which marks the death of Hussein, grandson of the Prophet Mohammad.
The attacks are the latest examples of sectarian violence aimed at Shiites, who make up the majority of the population in Iraq. The Shiite-backed United Iraqi Alliance won a plurality of votes in the National Assembly elections held January 30.
Sunnis dominated the government under Saddam Hussein's regime, and many boycotted the assembly elections.
A flurry of attacks occurred in Baghdad, according to U.S. and Iraqi authorities, and coincided with a visit by a bipartisan delegation of U.S. senators, including John McCain of Arizona and Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York, who have often challenged the Pentagon's planning and management of the Iraq war. (Full story)
# In Adhimiya neighborhood, in northern Baghdad, three suicide bombers detonated bombs in a procession of pilgrims participating in Ashura prayers. An Iraqi policeman, two Iraqi soldiers and two civilians were killed, and 40 civilians were wounded.
# Three people were killed and 38 wounded when a man rode a bicycle into a funeral tent in the al-Baya'a area of southwestern Baghdad, and detonated a bomb.
# A U.S. soldier with Task Force Baghdad, three policemen and a civilian were killed in al-Khadhimiya, in central Baghdad. The U.S. military said 24 people were wounded, including a U.S. soldier and an Iraqi national guardsman, in the attack. After U.S. troops responded to a rocket-propelled grenade attack on an Iraqi police car, a suicide bomber on a nearby bus of Shiite pilgrims detonated a bomb.
# In al-Waziriya, in northern Baghdad, three people launched suicide attacks, police said. One detonated, killing an Iraqi soldier. Another bomber was killed by Iraqi soldiers, and a third was detained by the Iraqi army.
# Two suicide bombers detonated near a mosque southwest of Baghdad, the U.S. military said. Initial reports described many casualties.
U.S. Marine killed in action
A U.S. Marine was killed in action Saturday during an operation in the Al Anbar province of Iraq, the U.S. military said.
This death brings the number of U.S. troops killed im the Iraq war to 1,474. Baquba bombing
An Iraqi soldier and a civilian were killed by a suicide bomber in Baquba, Iraqi police said. Five people were wounded, including an Iraqi soldier.
The blast happened just 500 yards (457 meters) from where a Unity Day event was set to be held a few hours later.
Unity Day was established by the U.S. military as an incentive to insurgents to voluntarily surrender.
Aljazeera ran a video of the two reporters in captivity
The Indonesian government has sent its top crisis expert to Jordan to lead efforts to secure the release of two Indonesian journalists held hostage in Iraq.
The head of the foreign ministry's special crisis handling team, Triono Wibowo, left late on Saturday accompanied by another member of staff, according to ministry spokesman Lutfi Rauf on Sunday.
"He will maintain contact with the local governments as well as with public figures there in an effort to help get the release of the two journalists," Rauf said.
He said Wibowo, who also assisted in the release of two Indonesian women seized in Iraq last year, would work with both the International Red Cross and Red Crescent organisations. Rauf did not provide more details.
But an official from the pair's employer, Metro TV, said on Saturday that company owner and media tycoon Surya Paloh would also travel to the region to seek their release.
Presidential call
The two Indonesians were snatched on their way from Jordan to Iraq last week and were shown on Aljazeera by armed fighters demanding Jakarta explain their presence in the country.
Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono on Saturday called for their safe release, saying they had no political agenda and were seeking to inform Indonesians about the plight of Iraqis.
Indonesia, which is home to the world's largest Muslim population, was firmly opposed to the US-led invasion in 2003 and subsequent occupation of Iraq.
The two Indonesians were being held by a previously unknown Islamist group, the Jaish al-Mujahidin. Meutya, a reporter, and cameraman Budiyanto were shown by Aljazeera holding their passports up to the camera, flanked by two fighters.
US troops have also imposed a curfew in the volatile city
US forces in Iraq have launched a major security operation around Ramadi, saying they hope to impose order on the western Iraqi city.
Troops from the 1st Marine expeditionary force, backed up by Iraqi security forces, ordered an 8pm curfew on Sunday in and around the city, 110km west of Baghdad, as part of what has been dubbed Operation River Blitz.
"The operation is designed to target insurgents and terrorists who have attempted to destabilise the Anbar province by terrorising the populace through wanton acts of violence and intimidation," the US military said in a statement.
"We were asked by the Iraqi government to increase our security operations in the city to locate, isolate and defeat anti-Iraqi forces and terrorists," Marines Major General Richard Natonski said in the statement.
US camp targeted
The US military camp in the city is the target of mortar fire almost daily since the March 2003 war by groups opposed to the foreign military presence.
"The security measures in and around the provincial capital are designed to ensure the safety of the populace by controlling access into the city," Major General Natonski said.
The operation will involve intense patrols of towns and cities "Control points leading into the city will screen vehicles for terrorists and insurgents as well as weapons, munitions and materials to produce improvised-explosive devices."
As well as putting a security cordon around the city, the operation will involve more intense patrols of towns and cities along the Euphrates river, which flows through the city.
In a seperate development, a US marine was killed in action during a military operation west of the capital, the US command said on Sunday.
The marine was killed in al-Anbar province but did not say exactly where or give other details.
Peacekeapers to leave
Also on Sunday, the bodies of three Iraqi soldiers were discovered on a country road west of Baghdad outside the city of Falluja and transported to a hospital in nearby Ramadi where doctors said they had died of gunshot wounds.
Residents of Falluja said the city was sealed off by soldiers after fighters launched a missile at a roadblock operated by US and Iraqi soldiers.
Several military vehicles were set ablaze, but residents said they were unable to determine whether there were casualties.
Meanwhile, Ukrainian peacekeepers are preparing to leave Iraq, Ukrainian television TV 5 Kanal reported on Sunday.
The peacekeepers started a planned handover of their zone of responsibility to the Iraqi army, in particular, the powers to guard a bridge in al-Suwaryra, a facility of strategic importance in al-Wasit province, will be handed over, added the TV report.
8 Suicide Bombers Strike in Wave of Iraq Attacks That Kills 55 on Holiest Day of Shiite Calendar
Feb. 20, 2005 - Eight suicide bombers struck in quick succession Saturday in a wave of attacks that killed 55 people as Iraqi Shiites marched and lashed themselves with chains in ritual mourning of the 7th century death of a leader of their Muslim sect. Ninety-one people have been killed in violence in the past two days
BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) An oil pipeline in northern Iraq was ablaze Saturday after saboteurs blew it up in the latest attack against the insurgent-wracked country's vital oil industry. In the capital, a roadside bomb killed two people, officials and witnesses said. The violence came one day after the government announced the arrest of a man it described as a key figure in the country's most feared terrorist group, and a top official said the noose was tightening around its leader, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. The pipeline connecting oil fields in Dibis with the northern city of Kirkuk about 20 miles away was blown up late Friday, an official of the state-run North Oil Co. said on condition of anonymity. He said it would take at least four days to repair the line. Insurgents have regularly targeted Iraq's oil infrastructure, cutting exports and denying the country funds badly needed for reconstruction. In Baghdad, insurgents detonated a roadside bomb in the west of the city, killing two civilians. Their slumped bodies could be seen in a small white car, its windshield smashed in the blast. It was not clear whom the attack targeted. U.S. Lt. Col. Clifford Kent said a U.S. tank was nearby at the time, but it was not damaged. One Iraqi said he was on his way to work when the bomb detonated. ''We just arrived near those tanks (when) the blast occurred. And as you see, blood soaked us for doing nothing,'' Mohammed al-Duleimi told Associated Press Television News. A separate car bomb exploded near a convoy of Iraqi National Guard troops in Iskandariyah, south of Baghdad, witnesses said. No casualties were reported. Also Saturday, a female Iraqi television presenter kidnapped in the northern city of Mosul was found dead. Several masked gunmen abducted Raiedah Mohammed Wageh Wazan last week. Her corpse was found Friday, said her husband, Salim Saad-Allah. She had been shot in the head. Wazan was working for a local state-owned television station in Mosul. It was unclear what prompted the kidnapping, but her station was attacked last week with mortar rounds after it aired interviews with alleged insurgents in captivity. The U.S. command on Saturday announced the death a day earlier of a U.S. soldier west of the capital in Anbar province, where the military launched a massive sweep last week to root out insurgents. The operation included U.S. military vehicles equipped with loudspeakers, which drove through city streets offering $25 million for information leading to the arrest of al-Zarqawi thought to be one of the masterminds behind a wave of car bombings, kidnappings, and beheadings across Iraq. ''We are very close to al-Zarqawi, and I believe that there are few weeks separating us from him,'' Iraq's interim national security adviser, Mouwafak al-Rubaie, told The Associated Press. He described the latest alleged terrorist capture as another blow to al-Zarqawi's organization, known as al-Qaida in Iraq. The group is still reeling from previous arrests and the killing of Omar Hadid, another of his senior aides, in November's assault on the city of Fallujah. Iraqi security services arrested Talib Mikhlif Arsan Walman al-Dulaymi, also known as Abu Qutaybah, on Sunday in a raid in Annah, a town in the so-called Sunni triangle of fierce opposition to the U.S. occupation. The government said Al-Dulaymi was a top aide to the Jordanian-born al-Zarqawi, who has described himself as al-Qaida's leader in Iraq. Al-Dulaymi was responsible for finding safe houses and transportation for members of the terrorist group, according to the announcement. Also arrested in Sunday's raid was Ahmad Khalid Marad Ismail al-Rawi, identified as one of al-Zarqawi's drivers. Both have family names indicating they are from the insurgent stronghold of Ramadi, west of Baghdad. Iraqi authorities have been eager to promote the message that they are making headway in their fight against the insurgency. On Thursday, the government said it had captured the leader of an al-Qaida-affiliated terrorist cell in Baqouba, north of Baghdad, who was allegedly responsible for carrying out a string of beheadings in Iraq. And last week, police said they'd arrested two other leaders of the insurgency in Baqouba, including a top aide to al-Zarqawi named Haidar Abu Bawari. Associated Press writer Yahya Barzanji in Kirkuk contributed to this report.
Feb. 24 (Bloomberg) -- At least 10 Iraqis and two U.S. soldiers were killed in three separate blasts north of Baghdad, the U.S. military said today. Agence France-Presse said a car bomb south of the Iraqi capital killed three people. A car bomb exploded near the main police station in Tikrit, killing 10 Iraqis, 1st Sergeant Brian Thomas, a U.S. military spokesman in the city, said in a telephone interview. A U.S. soldier was killed in a blast in Qaryat, and a second was killed by a homemade bomb north of Samarra, the military said in e- mailed statements. The police and other security forces in Iraq are regularly targeted by insurgents who accuse them of working with the U.S.- led occupying troops. Tikrit was the scene of a double car bombing on Jan. 11 that left at least six police officers dead. Today's car bomb exploded at about 9 a.m. local time near the city's police station, and also wounded 20 people, Thomas said. It wasn't known if the casualties were civilians or police officers. No further details were available. Tikrit is the home town of ousted dictator Saddam Hussein, and lies about 150 kilometers (93 miles) north of Baghdad. Car Bomb A car bomb exploded in Hilla, south of Baghdad, killing two police officers and a child, AFP said, without providing further infprmation. Two soldiers were wounded by the Samarra blast, which occurred at about 9 a.m. local time today. As of 10 a.m. New York time yesterday, 1,472 U.S. military personnel and four Department of Defense civilian workers have been killed in Iraq since the March 2003 invasion, according to a Pentagon tally. As many as 18,339 Iraqi civilians have died as a result of the U.S.-led invasion and subsequent violence, according to a tally by Iraq Body Count, a London-based group that opposes the war and compiles its casualty toll from media reports and official statements.
Iraqi police carry away body of colleague killed in car bombing Insurgents have frequently targeted Iraqi police At least 10 people are reported to have been killed and 25 injured by a car bomb at a police station in Saddam Hussein's home town. Police in Tikrit said the bomber drove his car into the parking lot of the police station and then blew it up. More than a dozen cars were set ablaze and charred bodies could be seen in the street, reports said. Despite a relentless militant campaign, Tikrit has been relatively quiet over the past few months. Positions bombed US troops sealed off the area immediately after the explosion and set up checkpoints across the city, according to the Associated Press news agency. Witnesses said the bomber had dressed in police uniform in order to gain access to the police station compound. The casualty toll was high because the blast occurred at one of the station's busiest times, as dozens of officers arrived to relieve colleagues who had been working overnight, police said. The attack comes as the Americans continue a big operation against insurgents in the western province of Al Anbar. The US military says its aircraft have dropped two large bombs on what it called insurgent fighting positions. There is no word on casualties but the Americans say more than 80 suspects have been detained since the operation they have dubbed Operation River Blitz began on Sunday. Earlier on Thursday, two policemen were killed in the northern city of Kirkuk in a roadside bomb apparently targeting the local police chief.
Hundreds of demonstrators protested in Brussels on Sunday (February 20) on the eve of U.S President George W. Bush's five-day trip to Europe. Both the far left and far right were demonstrating, with the right wanting him to pull U.S. troops out of Europe and the left criticising what they say is his disdain for international law.
