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
(DV)
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.
For the second year running, insurgent attacks shattered the commemoration of Ashoura, the holiest day of the Shiite religious calendar, but the violence produced a significantly smaller death toll than the 181 killed in twin bombings in Baghdad and the holy city of Karbala a year ago.
The dead this year included a U.S. soldier who was killed in Baghdad when American troops responded to calls for assistance from Iraqi forces unable to cope with a slew of attacks.
With majority Shiites poised to take control of the country for the first time in modern Iraqi history, the interim government and Shiite politicians vowed the bloodshed would not cause the nation to spiral into civil war.
The suicide bombings were attempts "to create a religious war within Iraq. Iraqis will not allow this to happen, Iraqis will stand united as Iraqis foremost, and Iraq will not fall into sectarian war," Mouwaffaq al-Rubaie, the national security adviser for the interim government, told The Associated Press.
"The bombings on Shiite mosques and shrines on Ashoura by terrorists that call themselves Muslims are in fact actions by terrorists only attempting to spill even more Muslim blood by encouraging sectarian violence," he said.
The Saturday carnage was the deadliest of any day since last month's elections for a new national assembly in which the Shiite ticket, the United Iraqi Alliance, won 48 percent of the vote in Iraq's first democratic balloting. The alliance was expected to name its candidate for prime minister in the coming days. Forty-four people died in election-day violence.
As the violence ravaged the country, a five-member U.S. Congressional delegation including Sen. Hillary Clinton, the New York Democrat, met with Iraqi government officials in Baghdad's heavily fortified Green Zone.
"The fact that you have these suicide bombers now, wreaking such hatred and violence while people pray, is to me, an indication of their failure," Clinton told reporters.
Bayan Jaber, a leading member of the Shiite Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, or SCIRI, said the attacks had failed to create a divide between Shiites and the Sunni Arab minority. Shiites account for about 60 percent of Iraq's 26 million people. The Sunnis make up 20 percent of the population, but dominated politics under Saddam Hussein and previous governments after Iraq gained independence from Britain.
Jaber called the attackers a small faction of Sunnis "who are extremist Wahhabis who want to spark a civil war in Iraq." But, he added, "a sectarian war will never occur in Iraq because Iraq is not like Afghanistan or Pakistan. We have tribal, marital, and historical relations with Sunnis and nothing will affect it."
The death toll built rapidly Saturday as the insurgents mounted attacks throughout the country employing suicide bombers responsible for most deaths mortar fire and gunmen, said Capt. Sabah Yassin, a defense ministry official.
One of the deadliest attacks was the work of a suicide car bomber at an Iraqi army checkpoint in Latifiya, 20 miles south of the capital, killing nine Iraqi soldiers.
At least seven other bombers staged attacks in Baghdad and the region. Explosions reverberated in the capital throughout the day and into the night.
It was unclear which of the attacks in Baghdad claimed the life of the American soldier. A second soldier was wounded in the assault, which also killed an Iraqi, the military said.
Insurgents appeared to have struck at will in some areas despite stepped-up security that was prompted by last year's deadly Ashoura blasts. But in Karbala, the Shiite holy city 50 miles south of Baghdad and site of one of last year's murderous explosions, no violence was reported on Saturday.
Hundreds of thousands people had gathered there to mark the holy day, which commemorates the death of the Imam Hussein, a grandson of the prophet Muhammad. Hussein was killed in a power struggle in 680 and is buried in a gold-domed shrine in Karbala.
Nearly all of Saturday's attacks inside Baghdad took place in the northern Azamiya and Kazimiya districts.
The assaults began before noon, when a bomber walked into a tent outside a Sunni mosque in western Baghdad and blew himself up, killing at least three people and injuring 10, police captain Hussain al-Ani said. About 50 people were inside the tent attending a funeral.
It was unclear why the attacker struck the tent full of Sunnis outside the Fatah Pasha mosque, but similar structures were in place outside Shiite mosques for the Ashoura celebration. Most attacks by insurgents who are thought to be predominantly Sunni extremists are aimed at Shiites.
Next, a suicide bomber killed two Iraqi National Guardsmen also in the north, while another suicide attacker blew himself up on a public bus in Kazimiya, killing one child and six adults. Ten people were injured.
Police officer Rashid Haroun said another suicide bomber blew himself up close to the Nada Mosque in Kazimiya and seven Shiites, including three members of the national guard, were killed. That blast also injured 55 people, he said.
According to police captain Hazim Ibrahim, two more suicide bombers died in the Kazimiya area, one who blew himself up in the Judges Institute an academic institution but killed no one, and another who was apparently shot dead by U.S. troops.
In other attacks, a suicide bomber blew up a car outside an Iraqi National Guard base in Baqouba, killing three Iraqi guardsmen and wounding a fourth.
Six Iraqi guardsmen were killed in a mortar attack on the main highway between Baghdad and Hillah.
Gunmen holed up in a building in Baghdad opened fire on a funeral procession as mourners carried the coffins of some of victims of a Friday bombing at the al-Khadimain mosque. Iraqi forces beat back that attack, capturing one of the assailants, said Sgt. Ali Hussein. No casualties were reported.
Yassin said eight other people were killed in unspecified insurgent violence in Baghdad and Mosul.
Also Saturday, authorities reported arresting two insurgent leaders, including a top aide to Iraqi al-Qaida leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the Jordanian-born terror mastermind.
Baqouba police chief Abdel Molan said his forces had captured Haidar Abu Bawari, also known as the "Prince of the Holy Warriors." He was described as a top aide to al-Zarqawi and the man behind the insurgency in the city, about 35 miles northeast of the capital.
The Iraqi government also said it arrested one of the key insurgent leaders in the northern city of Mosul. He was identified as Harbi Abdul Khudair al-Mahmoudi, 50, also known as Abu Nor, a former member of Saddam Hussein's Baath party.
Demonstrators call for release of journalist and troop withdrawal from Iraq
Demonstrators surround a placard reading '30,000 Iraqis dead' during the rally in Rome.
Thousands of people marched in the Italian capital Saturday demanding for the release of the kidnapped Italian journalist days after a video was aired in which she was seen pleading for Italians to pressure the government to withdraw their troops from Iraq.
The rally had been planned for days before the video was aired in which Giuliana Sgrena, a journalist with the communist newspaper Il Manifesto pleaded for her life and called for an end to the deployment of the 3,000 Italian troops in Iraq.
Guiliana's father Franco Sgrena said he was buoyed by the thousands of people who took part in the rally.
"The more people there are, the better," Sgrena said. "This is the nicer part of these anguished days."
The Rome daily Il Messaggero and Il Manifesto predicted a turnout of some 200,000 who were carrying banners that read 'Free Iraq, Troops out of Iraq'.
According to the organisers, some 2,000 journalists had pledged to turn out for the demonstration.
State radio announced that politicians from parties in Premier Silvio Berlusconi's coalition government took the decision of not taking part in the rally in order to avoid the risk of having it "turn into a protest" against the government's policies on Iraq.
Berlusconi has been one of the staunchest supporters of President Bush, backing his invasion of Iraq and sending in Italian troops following the ousting of Saddam Hussein.
Many marchers waved rainbow-colored peace flags, which were draped on windowsills and balconies throughout Italy in the months leading up to the war while other participants twirled the red flags of Italian Communists.
"I'm here to express solidarity toward Giuliana," said Alessandro Baudi, a 51-year-old school teacher in Rome. "It's terrible that free journalism is today dragged into questions of war and terrorism."
While another participant Irene Corradino said she'd come from Milan on behalf of Sgrena and "to deliver a protest message to our leaders who support the war."
Polls carried out in Italy on the Iraq war have shown widespread opposition to the invasion.
Berlusconi has said there is reason for optimism over Sgrena's fate, but hasn't given details of efforts for her freedom.
In Iraq, eight suicide bombers struck in quick succession Saturday in a wave of attacks that killed 55 people, as Shiites marched and lash themselves with chains in ritual mourning of the death of the founder of their Muslim sect. Ninety-one people have been killed in violence in the past two days.
At least 11 people were killed and more than 90 wounded in a series of suicide attacks and bombings in Shi'ite Muslim districts of Baghdad on Saturday, the holiest day of the Shi'ite religious calendar.
In the first attack, a suicide bomber on a motorbike detonated near a group of people attending the funeral of a woman killed in another suicide bombing on Friday. Four mourners were killed and 39 wounded, hospitalofficials said.
A bus exploded by a barrier preventing vehicles approaching a Shi'ite mosque in Baghdad's Khadamiya district, killing five people and wounding 46, police said.
And in another attack near the Khadamiya shrine, a suicide bomber blew himself up after an exchange of fire with security forces, killing two, including a U.S. soldier, the U.S. army said. In other incidents at least 10more people were wounded.
The attacks came as Iraq's long oppressed Shi'ite majority observed Ashura, marking the 7th century martyrdom of the Prophet Mohammad's grandson.
It raised fears of a repeat of the bloodshed seen at Ashura last year, when over 170 people were killed in attacks in Baghdad and the holy city ofKerbala.
On Friday, 27 people were killed in attacks on Shi'ite targets, on the bloodiest day since a historic election on January 30 gave Shi'ites parliamentary power at the expense of the Sunni Arabs who dominated under Saddam Hussein and before.
Shi'ite leaders have repeatedly urged the faithful not to retaliate against violence, apparently by Sunni insurgents, which many fear is specifically intended to provoke civil war.
I am resigning from the Territorial Army because I believe the war in Iraq is wrong. This has not been an easy decision. I have been in the TA for five years - years in which I have learned a lot; won a humanitarian award for helping save the life of a fellow soldier; made many friends; and, I hope, contributed something to this country.
I have no doubt that some of my fellow soldiers will feel I am letting them down. Since I have spoken out against the war in the last few weeks I have had a lot of support from soldiers, but I have also been called a coward. I am a trained medic and there is no doubt my skills could be used in the field to save lives. But after a lot of soul-searching I have concluded my priority must be to try to save lives by taking a public stand against this war.
Of course, when you join the armed forces you have to be prepared to fight. But not any war. Most people in Britain think the war in Iraq is wrong, and that is presumably because all the arguments used to justify it have proved to be hollow. We know there were no links between Iraq and international terrorism at the time the war started (though there are now). It is now official that there were no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, and the idea that the war has made the world a safer place is a sick joke.
Soldiers cannot be above moral considerations. Though the British army scandalously tries to hide this fact, the UN enshrines the right of members of the armed forces to object and opt out of particular wars on political, religious or moral grounds. Before the war started even our own generals were demanding firm commitments from Tony Blair that there was proof that Saddam Hussein was armed and dangerous. They were worried about the legality of the war. The UN resolutions used to justify the war only had force if Iraq was a threat to the world or to the region. We now know there was no evidence for this. So we are faced with a situation where even the UN secretary general, Kofi Annan, has said the war was illegal.
So I am resigning because I don't want to fight a war that is unjustified and illegal. But I also have a deep concern that British soldiers are being used in Iraq. Soldiers from my regiment tell me that much of their work in southern Iraq involves protecting convoys of oil tankers shuttling between Basra and the Kuwaiti border. Their stories have just confirmed my growing cynicism about the motives for the war. It has taken me two years to be able to say it, but I really believe that our foreign policy is being driven by the needs of US power, particularly the need to control the flow of oil.
This is a very bitter thing to say because the troops are suffering. Two close colleagues have suffered permanent injuries in Iraq. Their lives have been shattered and it must be said they have been treated very poorly by the army. Reports suggest that on top of the 80 dead, 7-800 British troops have been seriously wounded. Many more are suffering mental trauma. The experience of the Falklands and the first Gulf war shows that the scars of war run very deep, even among the officially uninjured. I know veterans who struggle daily with post-traumatic stress disorder more than 10 years after seeing active service. The legacy can last a lifetime. It is a scandal that young lives are being lost and ruined just so George Bush can keep control of the oil in the Middle East.
People have said to me that we created this mess, we should sort it out. The Iraqis need many things: they need medical supplies, they need their infrastructure rebuilt, they need jobs. The one thing they don't need is foreign troops on their streets. In fact, it is the presence of US and British troops that is creating the tension and violence, which seems certain to continue regardless of last month's elections. We have become symbols of foreign domination. That is why there is no way we can provide security. Only the Iraqis themselves can do that, and the longer we stay, the more the situation will get out of hand. We must allow the Iraqis to get on with building their own future - even if they make mistakes.
The continuing occupation is a disaster for the people of Iraq and a nightmare for the British and US troops on the front line. I am resigning as a conscientious objector because I don't want any part of it, and also because I hope my action might just encourage other soldiers to speak out or opt out.
George Solomou is a lance corporal in the Royal Army Medical Corps, attached to the London Irish Rifles. He is a member of Military Families Against the War. This is an edited version of the letter he is submitting to his commanding officer today
George Solomou The Guardian
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U.S. warns of online schemes that make reference to Iraq
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Federal authorities are investigating two e-mail scams, including one targeting families of troops killed in Iraq, that claim to be connected to the Homeland Security Department.
The scams "are among the worst we have ever encountered," Michael J. Garcia, director of the department's Immigration and Customs Enforcement bureau, said Friday.
Both of the online pleas for help -- and money -- link themselves to the bureau.
In one scheme, e-mail sent to families of U.S. soldiers killed in Iraq include a link to the bureau's Web site. The e-mail seeks to recover money from a friend of the slain soldier.
In the other, the e-mail identifies itself as being sent by a federal agent trying to track down funds looted from the Iraqi Central Bank by one of Saddam Hussein's sons. The e-mail also links to the bureau Web site and asks for confirmation of the recipient's address by urging, "There is a very important and confidential matter which I want us both to discuss."
Garcia called both e-mail campaigns "bogus" and urged people to ignore and delete them.
"Most troubling is the fact that some are targeting the relatives of U.S. soldiers killed in Iraq," Garcia said in a statement. "We are also concerned about the fact that these criminals are impersonating ICE agents and referring to ICE's official Web site in an effort to steal money from Americans who have lost loved ones."
Agents of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement bureau were withdrawn from Iraq in March 2004, the agency said.
The bogus e-mails resemble the so-called "Nigerian letter." In that persistent scam, victims are told they will receive money, often from the "Government of Nigeria," after paying a fee often characterized as a bribe to that government.
JAKARTA, Indonesia (CNN) -- The Indonesian government "will leave no stone unturned" in its efforts to free a pair of Indonesian journalists taken hostage in Iraq, Indonesia's Foreign Ministry has said.
The two journalists were traveling in an SUV from Amman, Jordan to Karbala, Iraq -- about 80 km (50 miles) south of Baghdad -- when they were captured by gunmen, according to their boss, Don Bosco, the news director at Metro TV.
Marty Natalegawa, a spokesman for the Indonesian Foreign Ministry, said the journalists were last heard from Tuesday, shortly after crossing the border from Jordan into Iraq.
"The Indonesian government and the public will leave no stone unturned, and we will use all available tools, to work on the conclusion of this and the release of the hostages," Natalegawa said Saturday.
"We will have to wait and see the next development," he said.
A crisis team from the Indonesian government has been sent to Amman and is working with the International Red Cross to gain their release, he said.
Sasha Yusharyahya, a spokeswoman for Metro TV, identified the two journalists as Meutya Hafid, a woman reporter, and Budianto, a cameraman, The Associated Press reported.
She said the station last had contact with the pair on Tuesday afternoon and was working with the foreign ministry to learn their fate. The two have been in Iraq since Jan. 31, she said.
Hafid just returned from a two-week stint in tsunami-devastated Aceh, while Budianto covered the Iraq war in 2003 for the station.
Scene of Saturday suicide blast at funeral tent in Baghdad Image:
BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- A suicide bomber on a bicycle has blown himself up inside a funeral tent at a Baghdad mosque, killing at least three people and wounding 38 others, Iraqi police said.
The Saturday morning attack happened the al-Baya'a district of southwestern Baghdad, police said.
Across the capital, three mortar rounds landed on a procession of Shiite worshippers marching toward a mosque in northern Baghdad, wounding 17 civilians and two Iraqi soldiers, Iraqi police said.
The worshippers were on their way to the al-Kadthimiya mosque in the al-Adthamiya district of Baghdad in a commemoration of Ashura when the mortar attack happened, police said.
Ashura is the commemoration of the death of Prophet Mohammad's grandson, Hussein, who was killed and entombed more than 1,300 years ago in Karbala.
Meanwhile, in downtown Baquba, a suicide car bombing killed an Iraqi soldier and a civilian Saturday morning, Iraqi police said.
The car exploded in front of Baquba's Civil Military Operations Center, killing the bomber, one Iraqi soldier and an Iraqi civilian who was riding a bike, said Diyala Province Chief of Police Col. Adel Moulam.
One Iraqi soldier and four Iraqi civilians also were wounded, Moulam said.
Saturday has been set aside in Iraq as Unity Day, when insurgents can voluntarily surrender. The Baquba blast happened just 500 yards (meters) from where a Unity Day event was set to be held a few hours later.
In late January, on the last Unity Day in Baquba, a suicide car bomb exploded just a few hundred yards (meters) away from Saturday's blast.
Unity Day was established by the U.S. military as an incentive to insurgents and Baathists to stop their attacks. 27 dead in Friday attacks
On Friday, several explosions ripped through Iraq, leaving at least 27 people dead and five dozen wounded as Shiite Muslims began observing Ashura, authorities said.
Shiite mosques were the targets of three suicide bombings and a rocket strike, officials said, while another bomber targeted Iraqi security forces at a checkpoint.
Four civilians were killed in the crossfire of U.S. troops battling insurgents south of Baghdad. Seventeen civilians on their way to a holy site in Karbala were wounded.
Iraqi national security adviser Mowaffaq al-Rubaie said the attacks were intended "to try to draw a rift, to dig a wedge between the Shia and Sunnis in this country."
He said the insurgents were "trying to portray themselves as defending Islam against the infidels and the foreigners."
"They are blowing up pilgrims; they are blowing up people who are attending the mosque to do their Friday prayers."
The bloodiest of Friday's attacks killed at least 15 and wounded more than 24 during an Ashura holiday procession to al-Khadimain mosque, according to Iraqi police and U.S. military sources.
The bomber walked up to the group and detonated a suicide vest, a witness said.
In Iskandariya, about 25 miles south of Baghdad in Babil province, seven people inside a mosque for evening prayers were killed, and 10 people were wounded when a car bomb exploded just outside the building, Iraqi police said.
In the Iraqi capital's western sector, at least two suicide bombers attacked a Shiite mosque, wounding eight people, U.S. military officials said.
Iraqi guards identified the two suicide attackers and shot and killed one of the men, whose bomb exploded. The other man was blown up as he fled, the military said.
Iraqi police said two people were killed, but it was unclear if the bombers were included in the death toll.
In northwestern Baghdad, a rocket fired in the direction of the Husseiniyat al Thaqilan mosque killed one person and wounded three at a coffee shop, police said.
Two Iraqi security officers were killed and 19 people were wounded when a suicide bomber attacked a checkpoint in a Sunni neighborhood in northern Baghdad.
A car bomb attack also occurred at an Iraqi army checkpoint in Iskandariya, the U.S. military said. Three casualties -- no details were given -- were reported.
Fearing this kind of violence, authorities closed Iraq's borders during the Shiite holy days.
Attacks last year during Ashura killed more than 180 people in Baghdad and Karbalal. Other developments
# In southern Iraq, an American soldier on patrol was killed Friday by a roadside bomb, the U.S. military said. Two others were wounded when the homemade bomb detonated near a vehicle southeast of Camp Scania, outside Diwaniya. The death bring the number of U.S. troops killed in the Iraq war to 1,471.
# The U.S. military also said two American soldiers were killed Thursday in separate attacks in northern Iraq.
# Najaf police chief Ghalib al-Jazari said Friday his two sons were found dead outside Karbala after being kidnapped the day before.
# An Indonesian TV company confirmed two journalists shown in a video being held at gunpoint by masked insurgents are 26-year-old Meutya Viada Hafid and 36-year-old Budiyanto. The two were last seen Tuesday in the Anbar province capital of Ramadi, where they were reportedly stopped by unidentified men in military uniforms.
Shia Muslims were oppressed by Iraq's Baathist regime for more than 30 years and excluded from the highest ranks of power.
They make up the majority of Iraq's population - accounting for as much as 60% - and their support is seen as vital if any new Iraqi government is to have legitimacy.
They were also the largest group by far, to turn out in the January 2005 elections, after their spiritual leader Ayatollah Ali Sistani ruled that voting was a national duty.
The so-called Shia list, a coalition backed by the ayatollah, was allocated just over half the seats in the transitional National Assembly.
Sunni Arabs, who make up barely 20% of Iraq's population, have dominated the politics of modern Iraq since it British rule began in 1921. More recently Saddam Hussein's Baath Party was dominated by Sunni Muslims and he centralised power in his Sunni clan.
Oppressed and neglected
The Shia heartland is in the south-east of the country. It includes Basra and the sacred cities of Najaf and Karbala - home to shrines revered by millions of Shia across the East.
Click here to see where Iraq's ethnic and religious groups live
Enlarge Map The Shia also make up a sizeable minority of the population in the capital Baghdad, where most live in poverty in sprawling slum areas on the outskirts.
One such area is Sadr City - formally called Saddam City. In Saddam's time the million or so Shia inhabitants of this slum lived under constant surveillance by the authorities. In the late 1990s, this oppression led to unrest that shook the government.
Shia both in Iraq and in exile had acknowledged that they had been waiting for Saddam Hussein's overthrow for decades.
Under his rule, Shia opposition groups were fiercely oppressed and political and religious leaders murdered.
As a result, the opposition tended to look to neighbouring Iran, which is also governed by Shia religious leaders, for support.
In the late 1970s, thousands of Iraqi Shia were expelled to Iran under the pretext of their "Persian connections".
HOLY CITIES Najaf, 190km south of Baghdad, was once the Shia power centre Karbala, 80km southwest of Baghdad, replaced Isfahan in Iran as the centre of Shia scholarship
Iraq's Shia shrines
In 1991, after the Gulf War, the first President George Bush encouraged Iraqis to rise up against their leader. The Shia believed this would mean the US would back a rebellion.
But, lacking US support, a massive southern rebellion was brutally suppressed by Saddam Hussein's cousin Ali Hassan al-Majid - otherwise known as Chemical Ali. He was captured by American troops in 2003.
The defeat of the uprising deeply alienated the Shia.
Muslim schism
In early Islamic history the Shia were a political faction ("party of Ali") that supported the power of Ali, son-in-law of the Prophet Mohammed and the fourth caliph (temporal and spiritual ruler) of the Muslim community.
Ali was murdered in 661AD and his chief opponent, Muawiya, became caliph. It was Ali's death that led to the great schism between Sunnis and Shias.
Caliph Muawiya was later succeeded by his son Yazid, but Ali's son Hussein refused to accept his legitimacy and fighting between the two resulted.
Hussein and his followers were massacred in battle near Karbala in AD680.
Both Ali and Hussein's death gave rise to the Shia cult of martyrdom and sense of betrayal.
Shia has always been the rigid faith of the poor and oppressed waiting for deliverance. It is seen as a messianic faith which awaits the coming of the "hidden Imam", Allah's messenger who will reverse their fortunes and herald the reign of divine justice.
Today, they make up about 15% of the total worldwide Muslim population.
Majority also believes attack on U.S. is likely By DON JORDAN Copyright 2005 Houston Chronicle Washington Bureau
RESOURCES
Results of a Scripps Research Center poll. It surveyed 1,000 adult Texans by telephone in January and February.
How likely is it that the election in Iraq will create a stable democratic government?• Very likely: 13% • Somewhat likely: 43% • Not very likely: 23% • Not likely at all: 19% • Don't know/no answer: 2%
How likely is it that there will be terrorist attacks in the U.S. in the next year?• Very likely : 16% • Somewhat likel y: 47% • Not very likely: 28% • Not at all likely: 6% • Don't know/no answer : 3%
In light of developments since the war began, do you believe it was a mistake for the U.S. to send troops to Iraq?• Yes: 42% • No: 53% • Don't know/no answe r: 5%
Do you think the war with Iraq has made the U.S. safer from terrorism?• Yes: 45% • No: 52% • Don't know/no answer: 3%
WASHINGTON - A shrinking majority of Texans believe the war in Iraq was justified even though the United States has uncovered no weapons of mass destruction it claimed Saddam Hussein had.
Support of the war has dropped from 74 percent in the spring to 56 percent now, according to a quarterly Scripps Research Center poll released today.
Forty percent said the war was not justified and and 4 percent had no opinion, the study found.
"What we're seeing in these questions is that certainly this is not a very ringing endorsement of the war," said Ty Meighan, the poll's director. "Texans are still very concerned about how things are going in Iraq."
War, terrorism issues The Scripps poll was conducted from Jan. 27-Feb. 14, 2005. It surveyed 1,000 random adult Texans by telephone on issues related to war and terrorism.
The poll found that a slight majority of Texans say it is "very likely" or "somewhat likely" the recent elections in Iraq will create a stable democratic government.
The poll also found that a majority of Texans agreed the war on terrorism is faring better than the war in Iraq.
In addition, a combined 63 percent of those polled say it is "very likely" or "somewhat likely" that the United States will fall victim to a terrorist attack in the next year.
A slight majority said the war with Iraq did not make the United States safer from terrorism.
More violence The findings come a day after explosions and attacks in Iraq killed dozens of Iraqis on Friday, making it the bloodiest day since the nationwide elections. Two U.S. soldiers also were killed.
"What people tell us is that American soldiers keep getting killed over there and until some of that stops, we're not going to see the numbers for supporting the war increase," Meighan said. "Not too many people think things are going excellent in Iraq."
A national Gallup Poll conducted earlier this month showed that President Bush's approval rating on terrorism fell from 60 percent to 55 percent in November.
MOSUL, Iraq (Reuters) - Five U.S. soldiers were killed in separate guerrilla attacks in Iraq, the U.S. military said Friday, three in or near the northern city of Mosul, one north of Baghdad and the fifth south of the capital.
The deaths brought to 1,119 the number of U.S. troops killed in action since the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in March 2003.
In the latest incident Friday, one soldier was killed and two were wounded when a roadside bomb exploded near a U.S. military base north of the town of Diwaniya, about 180 km (110 miles) south of Baghdad, the military said.
Earlier Friday, a soldier was killed and two were wounded in a car bomb blast about 40 km (25 miles) north of the capital, the military said in a statement.
The other incidents happened Thursday. In the first, a car bomb exploded next to a U.S. army patrol in Mosul, killing one soldier and wounding three.
Another soldier was shot dead in an exchange of fire with guerrillas in Mosul. In addition, a roadside bomb killed a soldier and wounded another in an attack near Tal Afar, about 60 km (40 miles) west of Mosul.
U.S. troops have been battling to keep order in Mosul, where an insurgency broke out in November when almost the entire police force in Iraq's third largest city deserted.
The 8,000-strong U.S. force in Mosul has said it is steadily returning stability to the city.
Thursday, a resident tipped off U.S. troops to the presence of six roadside bombs and the devices were defused, the military said.
Four Suicide Bombers Kill at Least Six People, As Iraqi Shiites Mark Holiest Day of Year
Feb. 19, 2005 - Four suicide bombers blew themselves up in Iraq on Saturday, killing at least six people, as Shiite Muslim worshippers around the country celebrated the holiest day of the year, one day after at least 36 people were killed in a string of attacks.
Saturday's bombings, during the religious festival of Ashoura, came despite stepped-up security around the country. Authorities had hoped to prevent a repeat of last year's attacks during Ashoura in which insurgents killed at least 181 people in twin blasts in Karbala and Baghdad.
On Saturday, a suicide bomber walked into a tent outside a Sunni mosque in western Baghdad and blew himself up, killing at least three people and injuring 10, police captain Hussain al-Ani said. About 50 people were inside the tent attending a funeral.
It was unclear why the attacker blew himself up inside a tent full of Sunnis, set up outside the Fatah Pasha mosque, but similar structures were set up outside Shiite mosques for the Ashoura celebration. Most attacks by insurgents who are thought to be predominantly Sunni extremists are aimed at Shiites.
Another suicide bomber who tried to kill a group Iraqi National Guard troops near a mosque in northwest Baghdad on Saturday detonated prematurely and killed only himself.
A third bomber blew up a car outside an Iraqi National Guard base in Baqouba, 35 miles northeast of Baghdad, killing one Iraqi guardsman and wounding another, police Col. Muthafar Shahab said. The suicide bomber also died in the blast, he said.
A fourth suicide bomber blew up his car at an Iraqi army checkpoint in Latifiya, 20 miles south of the capital, killing two Iraqi soldiers, an army officer said on condition of anonymity.
A car bomb has killed a member of Iraq's National Guard and a civilian in the northern city of Baquba, a National Guard official said.
The blast at the National Guard headquarters in Baquba wounded one National Guard and three civilians, he said. The driver of the car also was killed in the explosion.
The US military immediately sealed off the area.
A police officer said the bomber arrived just after the Diyala province army commander entered the base.
"General Hid Ayad went through the checkpoint, followed a little later by a Chevrolet, which the driver detonated," said Anas Karim, who was stationed opposite the headquarters.
The attack in this Sunni and Shia town 60km northeast of the capital coincides with Ashura, the most important Shia holiday.
Bomb attacks on mosques killed at least 44 Shia Muslims on Friday, raising fears of an outbreak of sectarian violence on Saturday.
Four civilians were killed during clashes between fighters and US troops just south of Baghdad overnight, a police official said on Saturday.
The fighting occurred in the town of Haswa, where the fighters attacked a US base, he said.
Explosion
A large explosion was heard in central Baghdad on Saturday.
It was not immediately clear what caused the blast, which took place at 10.45am (0745 GMT) and sent a plume of white smoke into the sky.
Five days after two Indonesian journalists have last been seen in the restive Iraqi city of Ramadi, friends and family are appealing for their release.
Mutia Hafiz, 26, a correspondent for Indonesia's Metro TV, and cameraman Budianto, 35, were last seen being pulled out of their hired car in Ramadi by a group of armed men on Tuesday.
Hafiz's mother, Mety Hafiz, appealed for her daughter's release after video footage was aired on Aljazeera showing Hafiz and Budianto clutching their passports and Metro TV staff cards while flanked by two men carrying rifles.
"I plead with the captors to release my daughter Mutia. I ask your kind heart as Muslims to free her soon," Hafiz said
A little-known Iraqi group, calling itself Jaysh al-Mujahidin, or Army of Warriors, issued the videotape demanding Indonesia explain what the journalists were doing in Iraq.
No ill intent
"She did not come there with any ill purpose. Please treat her well. She has just lost her father," Hafiz said, referring to the death of her husband nine months ago.
Fitri Hafiz, Mutia Hafiz's older sister, spoke to Aljazeera.net from their southern Jakarta home.
"My mother is very worried; she is too emotional to speak at the moment. She still has not gotten over the death of my father nine months ago and now she is struggling to cope with the kidnapping of her youngest child."
Firtri Hafiz said seeing her sister on Aljazeera reassured the family that she was still alive, but it also brought fear to the Hafiz household as the reality of Mutia Hafiz's became clear. Early reports before the kidnapping was confirmed only said the two journalists were missing.
Ashura coverage
"The kidnappers said they just need clarification why the two are in Iraq. So now we are putting our faith in the government to explain to them that they were just there to report on Ashura," Firtri Hafiz said.
The Foreign Ministry said a government team would leave for Jordan later on Saturday to coordinate efforts to secure the reporters' release. Speaking before the video was released, Mety Hafiz said she had reminded her daughter to use her knowledge of the Quran if she was ever taken hostage in Iraq.
"During the first two weeks in Iraq they covered the result of the election. They travelled to Iraq from Jordan by road and, praise be to Allah, they were safe. She later told me that they were going back to Iraq to report on Ashura," she said.
Friend and colleague Najwa Shihab, who has known Hafiz for four years, said she felt a duty to report on Iraq.
"Mutia was very excited about going to Iraq. She is a very determined character … but although she seems tough on the outside I know inside she is not as strong."
Shihab, also a correspondent at Metro TV, added: "She is nothing but a nice and lovely person who wanted to report on the positive things in Iraq.
"She wanted to show our Muslim brothers and sisters here what our fellow Muslim brothers and sisters are experiencing in Iraq.
"We all hope and believe she will be released. Our colleagues' capture will not stop us from travelling to Iraq, as reporting about global events is part of our job as journalist."
Budianto's wife is also appealing for their relea se.
US critic
Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim nation, has been a critic of the US-led invasion and occupation of Iraq.
Metro TV, Indonesia's only 24-hour news channel, said Hafiz and Budianto went to Iraq to cover this week's Ashura ceremony, one of the most important dates for Shia Muslims.
It is unclear how many Indonesians are working in Iraq, but they are thought to be fewer than nationals from other Asian countries such as the Philippines and India.
More than 120 foreigners have been kidnapped in Iraq over the past year and at least a third have been killed.
Fierce fighting erupted in the northern town of Tal Afar, near the northern city of Mosul between insurgents and U.S. troops on Friday (February 18) following frequent roadside bomb attacks on U.S. convoys in the city.
Residents of the tense city, 60 km (40 miles) west of Mosul, said the clashes started early on Thursday (February 17) after a roadside bomb attack on a U.S. convoy in the centre of the town. They said that clashes renewed onFriday following a roadside bomb attack on a U.S. convoy.
The U.S. military said in a statement on Friday that three U.S. soldiers were killed in separate attacks in and around Mosul on Thursday.
A car bomb exploded next to a U.S. army patrol, killing one soldier andwounding three. In a second attack, a soldier was shot dead in an exchange of fire with guerrillas. On the third attack a roadside bomb killed one soldier and wounded another near Tal Afar.
The deaths brought to 1,117 the number of U.S. troops killed in action since the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in March 2003.
Masked gunmen could be seen in the deserted streets of the town firing rocket-propelling grenades and automatic rifles as crackles of gunfire echoed across the city.
According to witnesses U.S. forces raided al-Qal'a an Hassan Koi neighbourhoods where most of the fighting took place, launching a house-to-house search for guerrilla fighters.
There are no official reports on the casualties, although witnesses said that at least seven people were killed and 18 others in the clashes.
The town, 500 km north of Baghdad is the scene of frequent clashesbetween US forces and guerrillas.
U.S. troops have been battling to keep order in Mosul, where an insurgency broke out in November when almost the entire police force in Iraq's third largest city deserted.
The 8,000-strong U.S. force in Mosul has said it is steadily returning stability to the city.
Thousands of Shi'ite Muslims on the streets of Baghdad mark the festival of Ashura in the time-honoured way.
Some beat themselves with metal chains.
The festival is to commemorate the seventh century martyrdom of Hussein, grandson of the Prophet Mohammed.
It was suppressed under the rule of Saddam Hussein.
These celebrations come a day after a Shi'ite political alliance was confirmed the victor in Iraq's landmark elections after decades of minority Sunni rule.
But Ashura takes place here in an atmosphere of tension.
There are fears of suicide attacks against pilgrims. Last year more than 170 were killed.
Borders between Iraq and its neighbours have been shut to prevent a flood of pilgrims into the country.
Border police say more than 250 from Iran and Afghanistan have been detained so far.
An explosion at a Shi’ite mosque in southwestern Baghdad killed 30 people and injured 22 others A powerful explosion at a Shi’ite mosque in southwestern Baghdad killed at least 30 people and injured more than 22 others, police sources said on Friday.
The blast took place near the al-Khadimain mosque in the Doura district of southwestern Baghdad, 1st Lt. Ahmad Ali said. Witnesses said that a man wearing an explosives belt blew himself up outside the Shi’ites mosque at Friday’s prayer time. All the casualties were taken to the Yarmuk hospital in the Iraqi capital.
A second explosion took place near the Ali al-Bayaa mosque in a Shi’ite neighborhood in western Baghdad, killing at least one person and injuring four others, the U.S. army said.
Police officers said that the explosion was caused by a mortar strike outside the mosque. The U.S. military confirmed the attack, but had no further details. Shi’ites worshippers are celebrating the Islamic holy month of Muharram, and Friday's blasts came one day before Ashura, the 10th day of Muharram and the holiest day of the year for the Shi’ites, which marks the death of Imam Hussein, the grandson of Prophet Muhammad.
During the same time last year two explosions at Shi’te shrines in Baghdad and Karbala killed more than 181 people. The attacks came as negotiations began among political parties in Iraq to set up the new government following last month’s landmark elections in which Shi’ites won almost half of the votes for the country’s National Assembly.
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - At least 13 people were killed and 22 wounded in an attack at a Shi'ite mosque in southern Baghdad on Friday, hospital and police sources said.
Survivors said a man wearing a suicide belt blew himself up in the mosque in the Doura district of southwestern Baghdad as worshippers marked Ashura, an holy Shi'ite religious ceremony.
Police initially thought it was an attack by rocket-propelled grenades, but later said it had been a suicide bomb. The U.S. military was not immediately reachable for comment.
The dead and wounded were taken to Yarmouk hospital, one of Baghdad's busiest, where family and friends filled the corridors.
Thousands of Shi'ites marched through Baghdad on Friday to mark Ashura, a ceremony commemorating the martyrdom of Imam Hussein, the grandson of the Prophet Mohammed, in 680 A.D.
Fears of suicide bombings and other attacks have remained high in the run up to Ashura, which climaxes on Saturday. Last year, more than 170 people were killed in suicide bombings in Baghdad and Kerbala during the ceremony.
A suicide bomber smiles for the camera as he reads a farewell statement and blows himself up in Iraq. The video is undated and the location unknown.The power of belief - suicide bomber Abu Mu'aad al-Janubee, a member of al-Qaeda in Iraq, smiles as he reads a farewell statement to his mother:
(SOUNDBITE) Al-Janoubi reads statement prior to his suicide bombing mission: (Arabic)"I sold my soul to God and he already bought it from me. Please don't be sad. You endure much more in this life for my sake and I know that. I can't say or do anything that would equal what you did for me in this life.
Please, mother, pray for me and ask God to choose me with those who will be in his paradise and I ask God that I might see you there in paradise with me."The macabre video then shows al-Janubee setting up explosives in his van, and indicating the trigger switch attached to the steering wheel.What happens next has an eery inevitability.
The attack is aimed at a building occupied by Americans, according to the caption. The video is undated, and the location of the attack unknown.
JAKARTA (Reuters) - Two Indonesian television journalists have been seized by Iraqi militants in the western city of Ramadi, an Iraqi guerrilla stronghold, a government spokesman in Jakarta said on Friday.
"We have received information ... from the owner of a car rented by two journalists from Metro TV that on February 15, their vehicle heading for Ramadi was halted by an armed group," foreign affairs spokesman Marty Natalegawa told reporters.
"The car, driver and the two journalists have been taken to an unknown location. However, I will not use the word abduction yet," he told a news conference.
Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim nation, has been a staunch critic of the U.S.-led invasion and occupation of Iraq.
Natalegawa said his office had been told by Metro TV, Indonesia's only 24-hour news broadcaster, that the journalists were in Iraq but had not contacted their employer recently.
"They said there were two staff assigned (in Iraq) whose whereabouts are now unknown," he said.
Natalegawa did not give the names of the journalists.
Last October, the rebel Islamic Army in Iraq kidnapped two Indonesian women working as maids before releasing them several days later.
An Indonesian engineer was shot dead in an ambush in the northern Iraq city of Mosul last August.
It is unclear how many Indonesians are working in Iraq, but there are believed to be fewer than nationals from other Asian countries such as the Philippines and India.
The militant Islamic Army in Iraq has previously demanded Indonesia's government free Muslim cleric Abu Bakar Bashir, who is facing trial in Indonesia on terrorism charges relating to deadly bombings in 2002 and 2003.
The journalists had rented a car from Amman, Natalegawa said. The car company reported a Jordanian driver had spoken to witnesses who saw the car being taken, he said.
Indonesia had sent an envoy to Ramadi to try to confirm the report, he said.
"We want to ascertain first ... whether this is an abduction. We want to concentrate on the truth of this report," he said.
"The (witnesses) said they saw the vehicle entering Ramadi around 1 p.m. It was stopped and taken away," he said.
Armed fighters have kidnapped an official of interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi's party while four Iraqi policemen have been killed in violence north of Baghdad, security sources say.
"Saif Abu Mishaal Hasan, in charge of the Iraqi National Accord (INA) in Salah al-Din, was kidnapped from his house in Dijla," near Samarra, 120km from Baghdad, they said on Thursday.
Armed and masked men in four cars snatched Hasan late on Wednesday. The INA, Allawi's party, says that more than 20 of its members have been killed this year and over 40 since the fall of Saddam Hussein's regime in April 2003.
Last month, the group led by Iraq's most wanted man, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, released a film showing the killing of an INA candidate for the 30 January elections.
Iraqi police attacked
Elsewhere, a bomb targeting a police patrol in Samarra killed a police officer and wounded four others on Thursday, a police officer said.
Fighters have captured many Iraqi and foreign workers
And three police officers and a fighter were killed in an assassination attempt on a police captain late on Wednesday near Samarra.
"The unknown man opened fire on my convoy, police returned fire and three of them were killed in the ensuing firefight, as well as the attacker," said Captain Mudir al-Baldawi.
Iraqi and US forces arrested former ruling Baath party member Malik al-Hmud at his home in the same area on Wednesday night, police said, adding that he was accused of helping the fighters.
Turkish found dead
Meanwhile, a Turkish national is thought to be among eight people found shot dead north of Baghdad, Iraqi police said on Thursday, adding that all the victims were employed on a US military base.
"Seven of the dead are Iraqis but the eighth is believed to be a Turk as he has the name 'Turkey' tattooed on his body"
Adil Abd Allah, Balad police officer
Initial reports after the corpses were found near the town of Balad on Wednesday had indicated that four foreigners might be among the victims.
"Seven of the dead are Iraqis but the eighth is believed to be a Turk as he has the name 'Turkey' tattooed on his body, but none of them were carrying identification papers," Balad police officer Adil Abd Allah said.
He said the eight were captured as they were heading to work on a US base some 10km from Balad.
A police officer who was a member of the patrol that discovered the bodies said most of the victims had their hands tied behind their backs. They had all been shot and one of them also had his throat slit, police said.
Dr Muhammad Jaafar of Balad hospital said the victims had been dead for at least three days when they were found.
Soldiers killed
Separately, two US soldiers were killed in a vehicle accident in southern Iraq, the US military said on Thursday.
"Two soldiers assigned to the First Marine Expeditionary Force were killed in a non-hostile vehicle accident yesterday (Wednesday), while conducting security and stability operations in the northern Babil province," said a statement.
Four other US soldiers died in Iraq on Wednesday, including three in non-hostile incidents.
Ten Iraqis, most of them members of the security forces, have been killed in a string of attacks that targeted oil pipelines.
Security and medical sources said on Wednesday an army colonel protecting oilfields was shot dead near the disputed northern city of Kirkuk while he was on patrol.
Police said Colonel Ibrahim Ahmad was killed in his car in the town of Ajil, west of Kirkuk.
Two fires broke out on oil pipelines in the same area. "The first is under control and the other one not yet," an oil company source said, adding that sabotage was the most likely cause of the fires.
Near Dhuluiya, north of the capital Baghdad, three Iraqi soldiers were killed and two others wounded by a bomb concealed in the burnt-out shell of a car abandoned on the roadside.
In Dujail, also north of the capital, two Iraqi soldiers and an Iraqi contractor were killed in a mortar attack on an army base, police said.
Clashes broke out overnight in the town of Baquba, leaving one Iraqi policeman and two armed men dead, security sources said. The fighting lasted most of the night.
Police also said two fighters were killed and two others captured in clashes with US troops in the Sunni town of Samarra.
Assasination attempt
In the northern town of Mosul, police Lt-Col Halab Abd al-Rahman escaped an assassination attempt that killed his driver and wounded his bodyguard, police said.
Iraqi police have been frequent targets of anti-US fighters
In other violence, an Iraqi woman was killed near the town of Tuz and her husband wounded when Iraqi forces manning a ckeckpoint apparently opened fire on their vehicle.
"The couple's vehicle was driving at high speed which is apparently why it was engaged," police Captain Ahmad Bayan al-Din said.
Also, the US military announced that a soldier was killed in action on Tuesday in the violence-wracked western province of Anbar.
Anbar province is a huge area stretching west of the capital to the Saudi, Jordanian and Syrian borders, and includes the Sunni strongholds of Falluja and Ramadi.
Tuesday's death brings to 1457 the total number of US servicemen who have died since the March 2003 invasion of Iraq, according to Pentagon figures.
Iran and Syria - both locked in rows with the US – have said they are to form a common front to face challenges and threats.
Iranian Vice-President Muhammad Reza Aref said in Tehran after meeting Syrian Prime Minister Naji al-Utari on Wednesday that both countries were ready to help "on all grounds to confront threats".
Al-Utari told reporters: "This meeting, which takes place at this sensitive time, is important, especially because Syria and Iran face several challenges and it is necessary to build a common front".
The announcement came barely minutes after an unknown aircraft fired a missile on Wednesday in a deserted area near the southern city of Dailam in the province of Bushehr where Iran has a nuclear power plant, Iranian state television said.
"A powerful explosion was heard this morning on the outskirts of Dailam in the Bushehr province. Witnesses said that the missile was fired from an unknown plane 20km from the city," Iran's Arabic language al-Alam said.
Accusations and claims
Earlier on Wednesday, Israel had said that Iran was just six months away from having the knowledge to build an atomic bomb while Tehran accused the US of using satellites "and other tools" to spy on its nuclear sites.
Israeli Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom said on a visit to London that he believed "in six months from today they [Iran] will end all the tests and experiments they are doing to have that knowledge."
Iran retaliated with its own claim that the US was using satellites to spy on Iran's nuclear sites, Iran's Intelligence Minister Ali Yunesi was quoted as saying on Wednesday.
"We believe the US has been spying against Iran for some time using satellites and other tools," he was quoted as saying on the official IRNA news agency, when asked about US denials that it was using drones over Iran.
Yunesi also denied allegations by Washington that Tehran was secretly trying to develop nuclear weapons. Iran says its nuclear activities are for generating electricity.
Pressure on Syria
Meanwhile, the US has stepped up political pressure on Syria by recalling its ambassador for urgent consultations to show its deep displeasure with Damascus after Monday's killing of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafiq al-Hariri.
US officials said they were considering imposing new sanctions on Syria because of its refusal to withdraw its 14,000 troops from Lebanon.
While acknowledging they do not know who was to blame for al-Hariri's car-bomb assassination, US officials argued Syria's military presence and its political power-broking role were generally responsible for Lebanon's instability.
Brutal assassinations continue to be the signposts of Lebanon's political history despite the passage of 15-odd years since the end of the civil war.
Between 1989, when the Taif Accords were signed, and 2005, armed militias that once called the shots, have largely disappeared from Lebanon's cities, towns and villages.
Yet the phenomenon of political assassination shows no sign of ending.
Rashid Karami, Bashir al-Jumail, Dani Shamun, Rene Muawad, Kamal Jumblatt, Hasan Khalid, Abbas al-Musawi and Rafiq al-Hariri - the list of Lebanese politicians and officials who have fallen prey to the assassin's bullet or bomb in the last three decades is a long one indeed.
The same technique that was used to kill president Muawad in October 1988 was used in last Monday's attack which killed present-day Lebanon's most prominent political figure Rafiq al-Hariri, the man regarded as the leader of Lebanon's reconstruction revolution after the civil war.
Blow against Syria
As in all the previous cases, al-Hariri's death is seen by many Lebanese politicians as a bid to destabilise their country.
Al-Hariri's assassination is part of a wider plot, says Bushra al-Khalil
Bushra al-Khalil, a Lebanese lawyer and political activist, told Aljazeera.net the plot against al-Hariri's life targeted Syria.
"If we look at the way the assassination has been conducted, it is very sophisticated, I knew al-Hariri's security measures - no local system could have breached them.
"The question is, who stands to benefit from his death? Syria's enemies. I think al-Hariri's death is part of the plan to divide the region into tiny helpless sectarian states. This plan has started in Iraq and it will continue to hit all other Arab countries."
Al-Khalil said the killing was an attempt to force Syria to leave Lebanon before hitting it and commencing the region's carve-up.
“Al-Hariri was the guardian of stable Arab-Western relations. His success had pulled the rug from under the feet of the traditional godfathers of such relationships"
Bushra al-Khalil, Lebanese lawyer
"If we look at who all have been adding fuel to the fire in the recent past, we will find sectarian leaders and promoters of sectarian division such as Walid Jumblatt and Amin al-Jumail, who had killed a lot of Lebanese people during the war just because they were not from their sects."
Al-Khalil considers the killing of al-Hariri as the most dangerous and destabilising incident since the assassination of Egyptian president Anwar al-Sadat in 1981.
"Al-Hariri was the guardian of stable Arab-Western relations. His success in this area had pulled the rug from under the feet of the traditional godfathers of such relationships.
Pan-Arab figure
According to al-Khalil, opposition leaders who have been pouring out their anger at Syria and claiming that al-Hariri was one of them and he was killed because he opposed Syria, are dissembling.
"Al-Hariri did not agree with them. He was grateful to Syria. He was a real pan-Arab figure who would not tolerate harm to come to any Arab country," she said.
Al-Hariri had said before his death that he knew there were people working to discredit his Arabism and nationalism.
Striking a similar note, Imad Fawzi al-Shuaibi, head of Strategic Studies Centre, Damascus, told Aljazeera the former Lebanese prime minister was not an enemy of Syria.
Jumblatt (R) and Amin al-Jumail have openly blamed the Syrians
"Obviously al-Hariri's assassination was a blow against Syria and Lebanon. He was not an enemy of Syria. He was a historic and traditional friend and ally of Syria.
"He did have disagreements with Syria lately, but he did not call for the withdrawal of Syrian forces from Lebanon, or stir up hostility towards Syria or demand an end to Syria's role in Lebanon. He only had a different point of view" al-Shuaibi said.
In his opinion, the huge crowds that bid farewell to al-Hariri on Wednesday were not demonstrating their support for the Lebanese opposition, but rather were expressing their gratitude to, and admiration for, al-Hariri."
People's emotions
Al-Shuaibi's views seem to be diametrically opposed to those of former Lebanese president Amin al-Jumail, who said the thousands of Lebanese citizens who attended al-Hariri's funeral wanted to express their desire for "independence".
"This is a Lebanese plea to the whole world, an attempt to get all countries to take note of Lebanon's misfortune - the violations of freedom and democracy going on in the country.
"This is a very important expression of people's emotions. They are disgusted with the current [political] dispensation and the Syrian presence in Lebanon. They want to deliver a message to the whole world that the Lebanese authorities do not represent them and do not share their emotions.
"Now they are all together in calling for Lebanon's liberty and independence", al-Jumail said.
Aljazeera
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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.
Picture: Mosque that been blown by the insurgent.
An explosion at a Shi’ite mosque in southwestern Baghdad killed 30 people and injured 22 others A powerful explosion at a Shi’ite mosque in southwestern Baghdad killed at least 30 people and injured more than 22 others, police sources said on Friday. 
