The XM25 fires a High Explosive (HE), air bursting 25mm round capable of defeating an enemy behind a wall, inside a building or in a foxhole.
Posted on 04/30/2005 6:07:30 PM PDT by Gucho
The XM25 fires a High Explosive (HE), air bursting 25mm round capable of defeating an enemy behind a wall, inside a building or in a foxhole.
Minneapolis MN (SPX) Apr 28, 2005 Alliant Techsystems has delivered the first six prototype XM25 advanced airbursting weapon systems to the U.S. Army for field-testing.
The XM25 fires a High Explosive (HE), air bursting 25mm round capable of defeating an enemy behind a wall, inside a building or in a foxhole.
The advanced design allows the operator to program the round so that it flies to the target and detonates at a precise point in the air. It does not require impact to detonate.
The XM25 is ideal for urban combat. It puts precision firepower in the hands of the soldier, allowing them to eliminate threats without causing significant collateral damage.
"The initial field tests are very promising," said LTC Matthew Clarke, U.S. Army project manager, individual weapons.
"A weapon system like the XM25 will prove invaluable to our warfighters. It will be a clear differentiator on the battlefield."
The revolutionary fire control system for the XM25 employs an advanced laser rangefinder that transmits information to the chambered 25mm round.
As the round flies downrange to the target, it precisely measures the distance traveled and detonates at exactly the right moment to deliver maximum effectiveness.
The XM25 increases the warfighter's probability of hit-to-kill performance by up to 500 percent over existing weapons.
It also extends the effective range of the soldier's individual weapon to more than 500 meters.
Looks cool.
Sat Apr 30, 2005 08:13 PM ET
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Guerrillas fired at least seven rockets into the city of Falluja on Saturday, killing three Iraqi civilians and wounding another, the U.S. military said.
Two mortar bombs were also fired into Falluja, about 30 miles west of Baghdad, but caused no casualties, the military said in a statement.
Falluja was a guerrilla stronghold until a U.S.-led military offensive last November in which scores of insurgents were killed or captured. U.S. officials said Falluja had been a nerve center of the insurgency in Iraq.
A U.S. soldier was killed by small arms fire in the town of Khaladiyah on Saturday.
The military said the soldier belonged to the 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 2nd Marine Division, II Marine Expeditionary Force.
More than 1,200 U.S. soldiers have been killed in action since the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in March 2003.
© Reuters 2005.
By CAPT. PETER C. RICHARD - For The Tampa Tribune
Published: May 1, 2005
TIKRIT, Iraq - April 18: For the next two days our mission was to escort a battalion of Iraqi Army soldiers part of the way north to their new operating base. It was an eventful trip from eastern part of Iraq to the north near Tikrit.
While driving down ``IED Alley'' through Baquba, we took small arms fire from individual insurgents who decided to take the opportunity and fire off a few shots at some coalition forces. This fire is poorly aimed and on most occasions consists of a few rounds before the insurgent ducks and runs away.
After a very long convoy north, we finally reached the objective and handed the Iraqi forces off to the escort who would take them further north. Finally, after 15 hours of escort duty, we went to sleep for a few hours of much needed rest.
At 7 a.m., we were abruptly awakened by a Vehicle Borne Improvised Explosive Device, which detonated outside the front gate of the base. The loud boom and following shock wave woke us and sent us scurrying under our bunks. In that explosion, some Iraqi police and one American soldier were wounded.
Prior to our departure from the base, we had an opportunity to explore one of the many palace complexes in Iraq that Saddam Hussein called home. The Iraqi dictator spared no expense in building these beautiful palaces.
In the main palace, a staircase is at least 120 feet high and made entirely of fine marble. Embossed every 5 feet on the staircase handrail in pink marble are the letters ``SH'' for Saddam Hussein. Saddam Hussein clearly liked to be reminded of his great power within Iraq.
The main palace is surrounded by a man-made lake and a series of satellite palaces and suites.
When walking through these grand structures it is easy to understand why the people of Iraq live in poverty without infrastructure or basic services.
I recently returned from my two weeks of leave at home. It was wonderful to go home and see my family. I was very happy when I came home and my children almost instantly reconnected with me. They are at such a young age that they do not understand why America is in Iraq. The only thing they know is that Daddy is not home with them.
The hardest part of going home on leave is returning to Iraq after my break is over and saying goodbye to my family one more time. One of the final things I said to them when I left was, ``the next time Daddy comes home it is for good.''
Upon my return to Iraq, the job of training the Iraqi Army continues. At some point in the future, these Iraqi soldiers will be responsible for providing security for their own nation. Our groups of American advisers do our jobs with great zeal because we know the sooner the Iraqi Army can do the job the sooner we go home.
29.04.05 11.20am
BRUSSELS - Belgian doctors sent an Iraqi girl home on Thursday after treating her for leg wounds caused by a bomb during the US invasion - and sent the US$66,650 (NZ$91,490) bill to the US embassy.
"We haven't heard from them yet," said Bert De Belder, coordinator of the humanitarian agency Medical Aid for Third World which brought the girl to Belgium.
"I'm curious to know their reaction," he told Reuters. "We're giving them 10 days to respond ... I don't think they will pay it."
The girl, 15-year-old Hiba Kassim, smiled to reporters as she waited for her flight to Jordan to meet her father.
"Thank you, Belgium," she said.
Doctors brought Kassim to Belgium last year to try to save her left ankle, seriously injured by a cluster bomb that also killed her brother in Baghdad in 2003.
After five operations and weeks of physiotherapy, Kassim is able to walk again, but with a slight limp.
De Belder said he sent the bill to the US embassy because international law dictated that an occupying force was responsible for the well-being of the country's people. US embassy officials were not immediately available for comment.
- REUTERS
May 01, 2005
Uzi Mahnaimi, Doha
THE government of Qatar is paying millions of pounds a year to Al-Qaeda in return for an undertaking to spare it from further terrorist attacks, official sources in the wealthy Gulf state claimed last week.
The money, paid to spiritual leaders sympathetic to Al-Qaeda, is believed to be helping to fund its activities in Iraq. In a recent message broadcast via the internet, Osama Bin Laden told followers that operations in Iraq were costing Al-Qaeda more than £500,000 a month.
The sources said a deal between Qatar and Al-Qaeda was first made before the 2003 invasion of Iraq amid fears that the oil state, a close ally of Washington, could become a terrorist target. The US Central Command for the invasion was based in Qatar.
A senior government source said that the agreement was renewed in March after an Egyptian suicide bomber — thought to be associated with Al-Qaeda — struck a theatre in Doha, Qatar’s capital, killing a British teacher during a performance of Twelfth Night.
“We’re not sure that the attack was carried out by Al-Qaeda, but we ratified our agreement just to be on the safe side,” said a Qatari official. “We are a soft target and prefer to pay to secure our national and economical interests. We are not the only ones doing so.”
Qatar is one of the richest Gulf states and many of its 840,000 inhabitants have a high standard of living. It is also an important base for business.
Al-Qaeda would not be the first terrorist organisation to take protection money in the Arab world. During the 1970s and 1980s Arab rulers paid extremist groups such as the Abu Nidal organisation.
The financial pressures on Al-Qaeda would be a great incentive for it to offer protection to anybody willing to pay. But the deal with Qatar is not purely financial. Qatar has offered a haven for a number of extremists. Federal prosecutors in Miami recently indicted Kifah Jayyousi, a former Detroit school administrator, on charges of conspiring to murder, kidnap, and maim people in other countries, and of providing financial support to Islamic jihadists overseas. He was arrested at a Detroit airport after returning from Qatar.
Security in Qatar is noticeably relaxed compared with that in many Gulf states. While patrol cars and armed men are seen throughout much of the Arab world, they are not obvious in Doha. Even around hotels there are few guards. Locals in brand-new German and Japanese cars drive freely along the city’s wide boulevards.
But it may not be advisable to be too complacent. Al-Qaeda was widely believed at one time to have an unwritten pact with Saudi Arabia. If so, the deal lasted only until it suited the organisation to renege.
7:21 AM May 1
Defence Minister Robert Hill has visited Australian troops based in the southern Iraqi city of Samawah.
Senator Hill says he believes the Australian troops, currently sweltering in the heat at their new base Camp Smitty, will be up to the task ahead.
"They do well in every mission we give them," Senator Hill said.
The Minister says the troops face some risk of attack.
"There is an insurgency in this country," he said. "It has tended to focus further north but it is possible there could be incidents in this province."
About 70 Australian soldiers are already in Iraq's southern Al Muthanna province, with the force to grow to about 450 by the middle of May.
The soldiers are in the area for a six-month tour to train local forces and protect Japanese personnel.
Senator Hill says he is using his visit to talk with local officials and coalition commanders prior to the dispatch of the remaining Australian troops.
"With Australian forces moving into the province for the first time, I wanted to visit the Governor to express to him the wishes of my country to be helpful in the process of building peace and security within the country," he said.
The local Governor has said the area is already secure and the local people complain they need reliable electricity and water more than they need extra troops.
But Senator Hill has rejected suggestions that the Australian troops should be focused on improving services rather than security.
He says their presence is essential to attract reconstruction workers.
"[It is essential to] convince the international community that this is a safe and stable environment within which non-government persons can come and make that contribution," he said.
Source: ABC
SANAA (AFP) May 01, 2005
Yemen has taken delivery of 10 Australian coastal surveillance patrol craft, and is negotiating a deal to buy German warships, the official news agency SABA reported Saturday.
The news came as Yemeni President Ali Abdallah Saleh attended an inaugural ceremony of the patrol vessels at the naval base at Hudaydah.
Yemen will celebrate on May 22 the 15th anniversary of the reunification of the country and Saleh said the country would soon be "inaugurating modern and sophisticated (Russian) MiG-29" military aircraft.
He announced in December 2002 while on a visit to Russia that Yemen would buy six MiG-29 SMT warplanes with ground attack capabilities.
Friday, April 29, 2005
By KEITH EDWARDS - Staff Writer
KENTS HILL -- While television broadcasts of U.S. soldiers in Iraq tended to focus on violent combat with insurgents, much of the work of the Maine National Guard's 133rd Engineer Battalion focused on building schools and security checkpoints and organizing Iraqi contractors to help rebuild the country.
Lt. Col. John Jansen, commander of some 600 soldiers who returned from duty in Iraq last month, presented Kents Hill students with a summary of troops' activities Thursday.
"You're going to see some things you didn't see on the news," Jansen said before starting a slide show of 133rd soldiers and some of the work they did in northern Iraq.
"The greatest experience for many soldiers was our humanitarian projects in the Kurdish areas," he said.
"We built schools, renovated medical clinics, brought in large generators to villages that had no power. It was heartwarming to go into a village where every single thing had been destroyed, and see people coming back, and houses going up."
Students said he showed them a side to U.S. actions in Iraq they hadn't heard much about.
"On the news, we just hear about people getting killed," said freshman Catherine Kendall. "It was really interesting to hear what we're doing for the people. It really changed my opinion about what we were doing there."
Jansen, a 1980 graduate of Kents Hill, spoke at an awards ceremony at which honor roll students and other high achievers were recognized.
"I got a flood of memories coming in here," Jansen said. "My experiences here helped me a lot. It was, however, nerve-wracking, coming back to school today and going to the principal's office and, for the first time, not being in trouble."
The hardest days in Iraq, he said, were when soldiers were killed. Three 133rd soldiers were killed in action in Iraq, and a fourth died of illness in New York while on his way home. The battalion also had 42 people injured in Iraq.
The best day in Iraq, for Jansen, was election day. He said that in the days before the election, insurgents spread the word throughout the large city of Mosul that citizens who voted would be killed. Usually an optimist, Jansen said even he didn't have many expectations that Mosul residents would vote in force.
"We sat back and watched that day and, in Mosul, 56 percent of the people came out and voted," he said. "It surprised me how emotional that was for me. It hit me, this is an amazing thing. That people who were afraid they could be killed went out and did something for the future of their country. Think about that the next time you have an opportunity to vote."
4/30/05 - (47 minutes ago)
By ELIZABETH WOLFE, Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON - First lady Laura Bush stole the show with a surprise comedy routine that ripped President Bush and brought an audience that included much of official Washington and a dash of Hollywood to a standing ovation at a dinner honoring award-winning journalists.
The president began a speech late Saturday at the 91st annual White House Correspondents' Association dinner, but was quickly "interrupted" by his wife in an obviously planned ploy.
"Not that old joke, not again," she said to the delight of the audience. "I've been attending these dinners for years and just quietly sitting there. I've got a few things I want to say for a change."
The president sat down and she proceeded to note that he is "usually in bed by now" and said she told him recently, "If you really want to end tyranny in the world, you're going to have to stay up later. "
She outlined a typical evening: "Nine o'clock, Mr. Excitement here is sound asleep and I'm watching `Desperate Housewives'." Comedic pause. "With Lynne Cheney. Ladies and gentlemen, I am a desperate housewife."
The line earned particularly rambunctious applause from the area of the Hilton Washington hotel ballroom where actor James Denton from the hit ABC show sat.
Laura Bush added that she and her husband obviously were destined to be together as a couple because "I was the librarian who spent 12 hours a day in the library and yet somehow I met George."
The guest professional comedian, Cedric the Entertainer, next came to the microphone to deliver one-liners, but not before conceding the first lady was a hard act to follow.
Joining the Bushes were Vice President Dick Cheney and wife, Lynne. News organizations hosted show business and sports stars such as Goldie Hawn, Richard Gere, Jane Fonda, Mary Tyler Moore, tennis sisters Venus and Serena Williams and a few supermodels.
Award winners announced earlier this month:
_Ron Fournier of The Associated Press, the Merriman Smith Award for presidential coverage under deadline pressure for his stories on Bush's victory over John Kerry.
_Susan Page of USA Today, the Aldo Beckman Award for her stories on the presidency and the presidential campaign.
_Mark Fainaru-Wada and Lance Williams of the San Francisco Chronicle, the Edgar A. Poe Award for a series of stories on athletes' steroid use.
Presidents since Calvin Coolidge have attended the dinner hosted by the association, which was established in 1914 as a bridge between the press corps and the White House.
Bump :)
Sunday, May 01, 2005
Saturday 30 April, 2005
By Adam Brookes BBC News, Guantanamo Bay
The journey into Guantanamo Bay takes you deep into the dilemmas of wartime.
This place is part US naval outpost, part comfortable American suburb, and part penal colony for the 21st century.
Behind the wire are about 550 prisoners - enemy fighters, says the US government, in the global war on terrorism. The evidence against them, though, is secret.
A white uniform means the prisoner is compliant. He'll have some privileges and can mix with others.
The orange uniform means he is resistant, and held in isolation.
The guards complain that some prisoners hurl insults and excrement at them.
"We're taking abuse from faeces, the urine, the spit - and we can't do nothing about it," said one.
"We have to look at them and smile and act professional. And to know that he probably killed one of our soldiers. That's not good."
'High intelligence value'
The camps are now taking on a very permanent look.
In some of the cells are the detainees who the US military and US intelligence feel are among the most hardcore of all those detained in its war against terrorism.
Segregated from other prisoners, their cells are absolutely Spartan - a basic toilet and a sink, a mattress, a towel, a copy of the Koran.
The men who are kept in these cells are still deemed to be of high intelligence value. Some now face military trials and indefinite detention.
But a major legal offensive on their behalf is under way. Lawyers are challenging the detentions in American courts.
Tom Wilner argues that Guantanamo Bay violates the US constitution.
"The way we have treated these people has put us to the whole world as a hypocrite," he said.
"Someone who preaches human rights and civil liberties but who won't stick to them when our own security is tested. It's been terrible."
His clients allege serious mistreatment by the US military. The claims are unproven, and the military insists that Guantanamo is vital in the war on terrorism.
"We are collecting information here that will help us fill in all the operational techniques of al-Qaeda, and many of the detainees currently being held here have information that can help us fill in that giant mosaic of information," said Brig Gen Jay Hood.
It is an old dilemma. The needs of war versus the rights of the individual. And it is playing out once again in these camps at the very edge of American democracy.
Insurgents Kill 17 Iraqis, U.S. Soldier
By JAMIE TARABAY, Associated Press Writer
Sat Apr 30, 9:22 PM ET
BAGHDAD, Iraq - Insurgents unleashed a second day of deadly bombings in Iraq's capital and beyond Saturday, staging a series of carefully coordinated and increasingly sophisticated assaults that killed at least 65 over two days and appeared timed to deflate hopes in Washington and Baghdad that the installation of the nation's first democratically elected government would curb spiking violence.
At least 17 Iraqis and one U.S. soldier were killed in the bloodletting Saturday. The military also announced that six other U.S. soldiers had been killed and six wounded in Iraq since Thursday.
The U.S. Army, meanwhile, released a report clearing American soldiers in the death of an Italian intelligence agent in Iraq and recommending no disciplinary action. The agent was escorting a released Italian hostage when American soldiers fired on their car.
The Italian Foreign Ministry had no comment on the American report. But on Friday, Foreign Minister Gianfranco Fini said Italy did not agree with the U.S. version of events.
"The Italian government could not sign off a reconstruction of events that, in our opinion, does not capture 100 percent what happened," he said.
Italy was expected to release its own report on the shooting within days.
At least five car bombs rocked Baghdad on Saturday, the heart of the Iraqi government and American occupation, U.S. military spokesman Greg Kaufman said. Six more exploded in the northern city of Mosul, which also has seen frequent attacks.
U.S. and Iraqi officials had hoped to curb support for the militants by including members of the Sunni Arab minority in a new Shiite-dominated Cabinet that will be sworn in Tuesday. Sunnis, who held monopoly power during the rule of Saddam Hussein, are believed to be the backbone of Iraq's insurgency. Most stayed away from landmark Jan. 30 parliamentary elections — either in protest or out of fear of attack.
However, the lineup named by incoming Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari after months of political wrangling excluded Sunnis from meaningful positions and left the key defense and oil ministries — among other unfilled posts — in temporary hands.
Approval of the Cabinet Thursday was met with an onslaught of bombings — including a number of highly coordinated suicide attacks — in the capital and elsewhere.
Saturday's attacks included a suicide bombing that targeted a joint U.S. military and Iraqi police patrol in western Baghdad, killing one Iraqi and wounding seven, including four policemen, police Maj. Mousa Abdul Karim said.
Minutes later, a second suicide bomber plowed into a civilian convoy near the offices of the National Dialogue Council, a coalition of 10 Sunni Arab factions that was negotiating for a stake in the new government. The blast killed at least one council guard and injured 18 other Iraqis, said police Capt. Kadhim Abbas at al-Yarmouk Hospital.
A third suicide car bomb targeting an Iraqi army patrol exploded near the Mohammed Rasoul Allah Mosque in eastern Baghdad, killing two Iraqi women and a girl, and seriously wounding four soldiers, police Lt. Col. Ahmed Abboud Effait said.
Later, a fourth suicide attacker targeted an American patrol near al-Shaab stadium in eastern Baghdad, killing two civilians in passing cars and injuring four, police said.
Two Iraqis — a policeman and a former official in Saddam's Baath Party — also died in shootings Saturday in Baghdad, police said.
At least five Iraqis were killed and 12 wounded in the attacks in Mosul, 225 miles northwest of Baghdad, the U.S. military said. Two U.S. soldiers also were injured.
A bomb hidden in a Mosul shrine killed a woman and two children, and injured one American soldier, the military said. A suicide car bomber targeting an American convoy killed two more Iraqis and wounded three, and another targeting Iraqi police injured four officers and five civilians, the military said in a statement.
Two civilian bystanders were wounded when a roadside bomb aimed at a police patrol exploded south of Baqouba, 35 miles northeast of Baghdad, Iraqi army Brig. Hamid Al-Timimi said.
West of Baghdad, the U.S. military said three civilians were killed and at least one wounded when rockets and mortars slammed into Fallujah. A young girl was among those killed, and Associated Press Television News footage showed a weeping man kissing the child's corpse at Fallujah General Hospital. Officials there reported nine people injured in the attack 40 miles west of the capital.
Fearing the violence could spread, Iraq's neighbors pledged at a meeting Saturday in Turkey to boost border security and increase intelligence sharing with the country's newly elected government, steps that could stem the flow of insurgents slipping across the poorly patrolled frontiers. Syria, meanwhile, announced it would restore relations with Iraq after more than two decades.
The U.S. investigation into the March 4 checkpoint killing of Nicola Calipari said the incident might have been prevented by better coordination between the Italian government and U.S. forces in Iraq.
Calipari was mistakenly shot soon after he had secured the release of Italian journalist Giuliana Sgrena from Iraqi militants, who had held her hostage for a month. U.S. soldiers fired on the Italians' vehicle as it approached an American checkpoint near Baghdad's airport. Sgrena and another Italian agent were wounded.
The U.S. investigation concluded the vehicle failed to slow down as it approached the checkpoint, and the soldiers who fired at it acted according to the rules of engagement.
But testimony from the two survivors clashed with the U.S. military's account. While the Americans maintain the soldiers fired warning shots in the air, then shot at the engine block because the car was speeding, the survivors insist they saw the beam of a warning light virtually at the same time gunfire broke out. The surviving intelligence agent also testified he was driving slowly.
The American deaths announced Saturday included one American killed Saturday in gunfire in Khaldiyah, 75 miles west of Baghdad, two killed Friday in a roadside bombing west of Baghdad and four killed and two injured in another bombing Thursday in Tal Afar, near the Syrian border.
Four more U.S. soldiers were wounded when their Humvee rolled into a ditch Friday night near Abu Ghraib prison, west of Baghdad, the U.S. military said.
At least 1,581 members of the U.S. military have died since the Iraq war started in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count.
http://story.news.yahoo.com/s/ap/iraq;_ylt=AmB37WW4FrfgA2YETALxHgsHcggF;_ylu=X3oDMTBiMW04NW9mBHNlYwMlJVRPUCUl
Iraqi soldiers find rusty but serviceable anti-aircraft gun
By Sandra Jontz, Stars and Stripes Mideast edition
Sunday, May 1, 2005
KARMAH, Iraq — Iraqi Security Forces, under the supervision of U.S. Marines, unearthed a rusted but serviceable anti-aircraft weapon on Saturday, buried on the grounds of a mosque in the city of Karmah.
The find came during a multiple-day mission that started about 3 a.m. Saturday as Marines from 3rd Battalion, 8th Marine Regiment, and the ISF soldiers launched Operation Clear Decision, shutting down streets and confining residents to their homes as troops searched every house and business.
The ISF soldiers from the 2nd Battalion, Muthanna Brigade, found the weapon while using a metal detector to scan the grounds of the Ibraheen Ali Alhasoon Mosque after receiving permission from the iman, or religious leader.
The soldiers first found a flier in the imam’s office. It was written in Arabic and, according to a translator, advised insurgents that God would help them in their missions.
Outiside in a yard between palm trees, they uncovered the 23 mm anti-aircraft gun, wrapped in blankets and buried under about two feet of dirt.
“When I see this, it makes me happy,” Col. Dhaif Kheif Abed, the ISF battalion commander, said before the iman was detained by U.S. forces.
The Iraqis conducted the search alone because cultural sensitivities restrain U.S. forces from entering religious buildings in Iraq, even though insurgents have used mosques and schools for weapons caches and attacks in the past.
U.S. Marine leaders had expressed concern that during the raid, the brigade of mainly Shiite ISF soldiers might wreak havoc on the predominantly Sunni city, exacerbating tensions between the two religious factions.
“This could be like bringing the Ku Klux Klan to a Martin Luther King Jr., rally,” Capt. Mark Liston, commanding officer of 3-8’s Company I, said after hearing an Iraqi translator say that ISF soldiers were excited about “getting revenge.”
Liston instructed the translator to tell the ISF soldiers the mission had to be conducted with the utmost professionalism. During the first nine hours of Saturday’s raid, the ISF followed proper rules of engagement.
The Marines detained some men whose names appeared on a list of high-value targets, and held others who had more than the allotted one weapon per household.
While the mission itself will last several days, the Marines and ISF soldiers plan to maintain a constant presence in the city to ward off insurgents, said Lt. Col. Stephen Neary, the 3-8 battalion commanding officer.
The mission’s goal is to deny insurgents free movement in Karmah and access to the population, from which they recruit, Neary said.
In November, when U.S. Marines took the neighboring city of Fallujah, foreign fighters moved to Karmah, a city of 70,000 residents about 20 minutes northeast of Fallujah, Liston said.
Karmah is also where many former Iraqi intelligence officers, top police officials and high-ranking Baathists, the country’s former reigning party, have retirement homes, Liston said. “There are still a number of [Saddam Hussein] loyalists” here, he said.
Five Iraqi police slain by gunmen
Sunday, 1 May, 2005
Insurgents in Iraq have killed five policemen at a checkpoint in the outskirts of Baghdad, police said. The attack, carried out by some 30 gunmen, took place on a main road leading south out of the capital, an Interior Ministry spokesman said.
The police officers might have been asleep at the time of the attack, the official told the AFP news agency.
The attack near a military college used as a camp for US troops was reportedly followed by an explosion in the area.
"The policemen were taken by surprise at about 0600 (0200 GMT) at their checkpoint some 20 km (12 miles) south of Baghdad by armed men who shot them and took their weapons," the official said.
01/05/2005
Three men have been arrested over the kidnap and killing of British aid worker Margaret Hassan.
The British embassy in Iraq confirmed the arrests after Iraqi and US forces raided homes in Madain, 25 miles south east of Baghdad.
Personal items belonging to Mrs Hassan were reportedly recovered from the buildings.
The 59 year old's body has never been recovered after she was kidnapped and killed by terrorists.
Unconfirmed reports suggest that Iraqi police have confessions from five suspects over the killing.
A Foreign Office spokeswoman said: "We understand US forces recovered some items belonging to Margaret Hassan in an operation this morning.
"The UK authorities are carrying out urgent further investigation and liaising closely with the US authorities."
Mrs Hassan's death drew huge amounts of press coverage as her humanitarian works in Iraq were well documented and she was a innocent victim of terrorist activity.
She began working for Care International soon after it began operations in Iraq in 1991 and provided humanitarian relief to the country's most needy individuals.
5/1/05
CAIRO, Egypt - Iraqi militants have kidnapped an Australian man who pleaded for U.S.-led coalition forces to leave Iraq in order to save his life, according to a videotape released Sunday.
The tape showed a man who identified himself as Douglas Wood seated between two masked militants pointing automatic weapons at him.
A sign shown on the tape carried the name of the militant group responsible for the kidnapping, Shura Council of the Mujahedeen of Iraq.
Wood appealed to President Bush, British Prime Minister Tony Blair and Australian leader John Howard to pull their soldiers out of Iraq and leave the country to Iraqis to look after themselves, saying he did not want to die.
More than 200 foreigners have been abducted in Iraq since April 2004 and some 30 were killed by their kidnappers.
Good afternoon Gucho, all. I'm baaaaaaaaaaack!!
A US Army soldier questions an Iraqi man after a US Army convoy was attacked by a car bomb in the western part of Baghdad, Iraq, Sunday, May 1, 2005. Insurgents launched a third straight day of stepped up attacks in Iraq on Sunday, including ambushes, car bombs and shootings, killing at least nine Iraqis and wounding 21, police said. (AP Photo/Khalid Mohammed)
US Army soldiers arrive at the scene after a US Army convoy was attacked by a car bomb in the western part of Baghdad, Iraq, Sunday, May 1, 2005. Insurgents launched a third straight day of stepped up attacks in Iraq on Sunday, including ambushes, car bombs and shootings, killing at least nine Iraqis and wounding 21, police said.
Iraqi men cross the street after a US Army convoy was attacked by a car bomb in the western part of Baghdad, Iraq, Sunday, May 1, 2005. Insurgents launched a third straight day of stepped up attacks in Iraq on Sunday, including ambushes, car bombs and shootings, killing at least nine Iraqis and wounding 21, police said.(
U.S. soldiers and Iraqi officials inspect a car bomb scene where a U.S. Army humvee was destroyed in Baghdad, May 1, 2005. Photo by Akram Saleh/Reuters
Iraqi army officers discuss problems of oil pipline protections with members of the US Army, 116 engeneers and 163 InBn, near Beiji, 250 kms, (155 miles), north of Baghdad, Iraq, Sunday, May 1. 2005. Persistant sabotage of important piplines seriously hampers oil production from Kirkuk in the north of Iraq. Kirkuk area holds 6.4
Soldiers from the Iraqi Army's 204th Battalion and soldiers from the US Army's 269th Armor Battalion hoist detainees into a truck, Sunday, May 1, 2005 in Udaim 108 km (67 miles) north of Baghdad, Iraq. Over 500 Iraqi and American soldiers raided the village of Udaim, detaining 16 people and seizing weapons and bombs. (AP
A man who identified as Australian Douglas Wood is seen in this image taken from a video delivered by Iraqi militants to news agencies Sunday May 1, 2005. On the two-minute video, the blond-haired man identifies himself as Douglas Wood, a 63-year-old who lives in California and is married to an American. He appeals to U.S., Australian and British authorities to withdraw from the country. "I don't want to die," he says on the tape. (AP Photo/Via APTN)
Soldiers from the Army's Third Infantry Division plan a raid with the Iraqi Army at an indisclosed location in Iraq, Saturday, April 30, 2005. Iraqi Army forces will search for suspected insurgents and weapons while US troops provide logistics, security and backup support. (AP Photo/Jacob Silberberg)
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Reports: N.Korea May Have Launched Missile Near Japan
Sun May 1,10:18 AM ET
TOKYO (Reuters) - North Korea, embroiled in an international dispute over its nuclear weapons ambitions, may have launched a short-range missile into the Sea of Japan on Sunday, Japanese media reported.
The missile, which had a likely range of around 100 km (60 miles), may have been launched from North Korea's east coast, state broadcaster NHK said, quoting unnamed defense sources.
NHK quoted one government source as saying the missile was of "very short range and no danger to Japan."
Kyodo news agency, citing unnamed Japanese government sources, said the missile was launched around 8 a.m. Japanese time (2300 GMT Saturday) and the U.S. military had informed Japan of it. It said the Japanese government believes the missile may have been a land-to-ship or small ballistic missile.
The reports did not say whether the reported launch was a test.
The United States accused North Korea of trying to be "bullies in the world."
"They've tested missiles before. This is not the first time of alleged testing of a missile," White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card told U.S. television.
Asked what North Korea's intentions were, Card said: "I think they're looking to kind of be bullies in the world. And they're causing others to stand up and take notice."
A senior South Korean official told Reuters the reported firing could not be confirmed, but added that indications pointed to a possible launch of a very short-range missile with a range of less than 100 km.
"There have been indications that North Korea might test a tactical weapon, but whether a launch actually took place is still doubtful," the official said, on condition of anonymity.
South Korea's YTN television quoted an unnamed senior government official as saying he understood the North had launched a short-range missile.
He added there was no need to give particular significance to the launch because such events are customary in the North.
Other South Korean government officials said they could not comment on the report, saying it was an intelligence matter.
National Security Council spokeswoman Lee Ji-hyun said the government was checking the situation.
South Korea's Foreign Ministry was not available for comment.
No one was available for comment at Japan's Defense Ministry or the Prime Minister's office Sunday. A spokeswoman for the U.S. military in Japan said she could not comment on intelligence matters.
HEIGHTENED TENSIONS
The news comes amid heightened tension over North Korea's nuclear ambitions. Six-party talks aimed at ending the reclusive state's nuclear program have been stalled for almost a year, and recent efforts to restart them have shown little progress.
Washington warned the International Atomic Energy Agency that North Korea has been preparing for an underground nuclear test since March and could carry it out as early as June, Kyodo said Saturday, citing diplomatic sources in Vienna.
The previous day, the chief U.S. negotiator to stalled talks said Washington believed North Korea might be trying to harvest material for a nuclear bomb from a shut-down reactor.
North Korea threatened in March to resume testing, saying it was no longer bound by a 1999 missile test moratorium to which it agreed when it was in talks with the United States.
North Korea has occasionally test fired short-range missiles before. In 1998, it fired a long-range missile over Japan into the Pacific Ocean, stunning the Japanese government.
The North has also tested and deployed a missile with a range of about 1,000 km (620 miles), and the head of the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency said recently that North Korea might have mastered the technology for mounting a nuclear warhead on a missile capable of hitting the U.S. West Coast.
In the past, the North has resorted to such saber rattling before returning to dialogue. Analysts said such behavior was intended to bolster domestic support and keep international exposure high in a bid to strengthen its position. (Additional reporting by Kim Miyoung and Jack Kim in Seoul)
Britain's Prime Minister Tony Blair waves after delivering a speech to party supporters at Westfield Community College in Watford, May 1, 2005. Blair said that the opposition parties were talking continuously about Iraq as they had nothing to say about Britain's future. (Stefan Rousseau/Reuters)
Blair: Britain Discussed Early Plan to Topple Saddam
By Katherine Baldwin
Sun May 1, 8:15 AM ET
LONDON (Reuters) - Britain discussed supporting the United States to bring about a change of government in Iraq eight months before the March 2003 invasion, Tony Blair said on Sunday.
But the prime minister, facing an election on Thursday in which the divisive war could cost him votes, denied suggestions his government took an early decision to topple Saddam Hussein.
His comments came in response to a leaked memo in a newspaper that said Blair and President Bush were determined to oust Iraq's former leader as early as July 2002.
"I actually talked about regime change if it wasn't possible to get him (Saddam) to comply with international law," Blair said in a phone-in on British commercial radio stations.
Blair confirmed he discussed removing Saddam in a July 2002 top-level government meeting after the Sunday Times printed what it said were secret minutes of that meeting.
"Of course all the time what you are thinking is what happens if we can't do this in a peaceful way," Blair told BBC Television, when asked about the contents of the leaked memo.
"The idea we'd decided definitively for military action at that stage is wrong and disproved by the fact that several months later we went back to the United Nations to get a final resolution.
"If the U.N. resolution had been adhered to by Saddam then that would have been an end to it," he added.
The leaked document gave fresh ammunition to Blair's political opponents who accuse him of lying to the public and parliament over Iraq and of striking a pact with Bush to launch an invasion well before seeking U.N. backing.
The prime minister built his case for war on the basis Iraq's banned weapons were a threat and has said "regime chance" was never his aim.
Blair's opponents seized on the memo to support their attacks on his integrity but opinion polls show Blair's Labour party is likely to win a third term on Thursday, although its huge parliamentary majority is expected to shrink.
CASE FOR WAR "THIN"
According to the minutes, Blair spoke to his cabinet explicitly in terms of toppling Saddam.
"If the political context were right, people would support regime change," Blair is recorded as saying. "The two key issues were whether the military plan worked and whether we had the political strategy to give the military plan the space to work."
Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said the case for war was "thin" because "Saddam was not threatening his neighbors and his WMD (weapons of mass destruction) capability was less than that of Libya, North Korea or Iran," the minutes said.
Straw proposed giving Saddam an ultimatum to allow in U.N. weapons inspectors, provoking a confrontation that would "help with the legal justification for the use of force."
Britain's spy chief, Sir Richard Dearlove, fresh from a trip to Washington, had concluded that war was "inevitable" because "Bush wanted to remove Saddam through military action," and "intelligence and facts were being fixed around the policy."
Blair ordered his chief of defense staff, Sir Michael Boyce, to present him with war plans later that week, the minutes said.
(Additional reporting by Peter Graff)
Egyptian soldiers surround the site where two women opened fire at a tour bus and at least one of them was shot dead by area guards, in Cairo, Saturday, April 30, 2005, two hours after a primitive bomb blast near the Egyptian museum in Cairo. (AP Photo/Nasser Nouri)
200 Detained After Violence in Cairo
By PAKINAM AMER, Associated Press Writer
Sun May 1,11:54 AM ET
CAIRO, Egypt - Police on Sunday detained about 200 people from the home villages of the three attackers responsible for a bomb blast and tour bus shooting near Cairo tourist sites the day before, authorities said.
The records of the detainees, from the villages of al-Ammar and Ezbet al-Gabalawi north of Cairo, are being examined for any connections with local terror networks, police said.
On Saturday afternoon, a man identified as a suspect in an April 7 bombing blew himself up as he leapt off a bridge during a police chase, officials said. Less than two hours later, two veiled women — reportedly the man's sister and fiancee — attacked a tour bus. Egyptian police officials and the government-guided Al-Ahram newspaper said the bus was carrying Israeli tourists.
Nine people, four of them foreigners, were wounded in the apparent revival of violence against Egypt's vital tourism industry.
Egyptian authorities denied major militant groups have returned to the violence that plagued the country during a bloody campaign by Islamic extremists in the 1990s. They said Saturday's violence was a result of the government crackdown on a small militant cell it says carried out the April 7 suicide bombing near a Cairo tourist bazaar that killed two French tourists and an American.
Tourism is Egypt's biggest foreign currency earner, and the industry had made a strong recovery after the 1990s violence.
In an official statement Sunday, the opposition Al-Ghad Party said the violence was the result of the "environment of oppression and depression," a reference to the emergency laws the country has lived under since 1981. Opposition groups have repeatedly called on President Hosni Mubarak to revoke the laws.
Mohammed Mahdi Akef, leader of the banned Muslim Brotherhood, said the attacks were "illogical and irresponsible" and condemned by tradition and religion.
"We only hope that these attacks do not stand in the way of political reform," he said in a statement, acknowledging that Mubarak had no plans to end emergency law "whether these attacks take place or they don't."
"The country is in a state of anger and the people are suffering and these individual attacks are a reaction to the injustice," Akef said.
Saturday's attacks occurred within two hours and at locations just 2 1/2 miles apart.
The Interior Ministry said the bombing was a result of the police roundup of those behind the bazaar bombing in early April. It said police earlier in the day captured two suspects — Ashraf Saeed Youssef and Gamal Ahmed Abdel Aal — in connection with that attack and were chasing a third, Ehab Yousri Yassin, on a highway overpass when he jumped off, setting off the nail-filled bomb.
The explosion in the center of Cairo, near the Egyptian Museum, included three Egyptians, an Israeli couple, a Swedish man and an Italian woman.
The two women who carried out the later shooting attack near the prominent historic Citadel site were identified as Negat Yassin, the bomber's sister, and Iman Ibrahim Khamis, his fiancee, both in their 20s. After firing on the tour bus, Negat Yassin then shot and wounded her companion before killing herself. Khamis died later of her wounds. Officials said they acted in revenge for Yassin's death.
Police officials said the women were waiting for any tourist bus to attack and did not know that Israeli tourists were on board.
Witnesses said police opened fire on the women. Two other Egyptians were wounded in the shooting, and none of the tourists on the bus was hurt, police said.
Women are not known to have carried out past attacks in Egypt.
The six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council denounced the "criminal, un-Islamic acts that target innocent souls" and offered the alliance's support to any measures taken by Egypt to stand up to these "cowardly terrorist operations."
Two militant groups posted Web statements claiming responsibility for the twin attacks — the Mujahedeen of Egypt and the Abdullah Azzam Brigades. Neither claim's authenticity could be verified.
The Abdullah Azzam Brigades said Saturday's violence was in revenge for the arrests of thousands of people in Sinai after bombings at two resorts there killed 34 people last October. The group claimed responsibility for those attacks as well. Egyptian authorities have said the October attack was connected to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, not domestic politics.
Fouad Allam, a retired general in Egypt's anti-terrorism security apparatus, said there is no way to compare the recent attacks with those in the 1990s, which were led by larger, more organized groups that have since been marginalized by a protracted, harsh government crackdown.
Sunday, 1 May, 2005
An apparent suicide attack in Iraq has left at least 15 people dead and injured more than 30 others. The bombing is reported to have targeted a Kurdish funeral in the northern town of Talafar, near Mosul.
Earlier, at least five policemen and four civilians were killed in two separate attacks in Baghdad.
In another development, Iraqi police said they had arrested several men over the kidnapping and killing of British aid worker Margaret Hassan.
Police said they found documents, clothing and a handbag belonging to Dublin-born Mrs Hassan, who was abducted on 19 October 2004.
A video showing her apparent death was released a month later but her body has never been recovered.
News of the arrests came as a video was released showing an Australian citizen believed to have been kidnapped in Iraq. On the tape, the man identifies himself as Douglas Wood, saying he is 63 and lives in the US.
Growing insurgency
Details of the attack in northern Iraq are still sketchy, but local officials say a suicide car bomber drove into mourners attending the funeral of a Kurdish official.
The official, Taleb Wahab, was a member of the Kurdistan Democratic Party - he was killed by insurgents in Mosul on Saturday.
Reports say gunmen then blocked the road, attacking US troops, Iraqi police and ambulances who were trying to reach the scene of Sunday's explosion.
Since the latest spate of attacks started on Friday, some 90 people have been killed.
Correspondents say insurgent activity has intensified in the past two weeks, as Iraq's leaders struggle to complete the formation of a new government.
An incomplete cabinet was installed on Thursday, but key ministries, including defence, remain vacant.
UPDATE --
Report: Suicide Bomber Kills 25 in Northern Iraq
Sun May 1, 2005 01:56 PM ET
DUBAI (Reuters) - A suicide bomber attacked the headquarters of a Kurdish party in north Iraq Sunday, killing around 25 people, satellite television Al Arabiya reported.
The Arabic-language news channel, citing its correspondent, said the attack took place in the town of Tal Afar near Mosul, about 240 miles north of Baghdad.
The channel said around 30 people were wounded in the attack on the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), but gave no more details. The report could not immediately be confirmed.
Insurgents have in recent days carried out a furious sequence of attacks, including more than 15 car bombings in Baghdad that have killed dozens.
The upsurge comes after Iraq Thursday formed its first democratically elected government in 50 years.
Iraqi officials say militants have capitalized on months of political haggling over the government's formation to step up attacks.
© Reuters 2005
http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml;jsessionid=WTCYMAKTFGSTMCRBAE0CFFA?type=topNews&storyID=8354122
U.S. Releases 85 Afghans From Afghanistan Jails After Deciding They Posed No Threat
By STEPHEN GRAHAM Associated Press Writer
KABUL, Afghanistan May 1, 2005 — The U.S. military released 85 Afghans from its jails in Afghanistan on Sunday after deciding they posed no threat and hearing them swear loyalty to the government.
Seventy men were brought from the main American base at Bagram to the capital and freed after a closed-door ceremony, Rahmat Nadim, an Afghan intelligence service official, told The Associated Press.
Fifteen more were released from a base near the southern city of Kandahar, where they received gifts and cash as well as a warning not to side with Taliban militants.
"We hope you will go back to your families, live a quiet life and not cooperate with the Taliban," Kandahar Gov. Gul Agha Sherzai told the men before they were released. "If you work with the government and the coalition, your country will progress."
There was no apology for the 15 released in Kandahar, but the governor handed each of them $234 and a new turban as well as a letter from the U.S. military confirming their release.
American forces have detained thousands of people since entering Afghanistan in 2001 to oust the former Taliban government and end the country's role as a haven and training ground for al-Qaida militants after the Sept. 11 terror attacks.
Most have been released, but many others have spent years in the U.S. jail for terror suspects at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, or in rough military jails across Afghanistan, especially the holding facility at Bagram, where several have complained they were abused by U.S. soldiers.
Sunday's group release was one of the largest yet and came after 17 Afghans arrived home from Guantanamo on April 19.
A U.S. spokeswoman said it was the result of a regular review rather than any drive to reduce the number of people held at the American bases.
"They said they would be committed to the government and were deemed to no longer pose a threat to the government of the coalition," Lt. Cindy Moore told AP.
The U.S. military had been holding about 600 prisoners prior to Sunday's release, Moore said.
Most of the prisoners were from the south, southeast or southwest of the country, where the 18,000-strong U.S.-led combat force focuses its operations against Taliban-led insurgents.
Nadim said they had been in custody for between three months and nearly three years.
"They were detained for a variety of crimes, some of them perhaps based on mistaken intelligence," Nadim said.
Mohammed Wali, who said he was 15, said he was detained three months earlier along with his father-in-law when Afghan and U.S. forces burst into his house in Uruzgan province.
He said Afghan troops beat him when he was seized but that he had suffered no abuse in American custody. Copyright 2005 The Associated Press
Sun May 1, 2005 02:35 PM ET
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. and other foreign troops in Iraq will likely start pulling out in large numbers by the middle of next year, Iraq's national security advisor said on Sunday.
"I will be very surprised if they (U.S. and other foreign troops) don't think very seriously of starting pulling out probably by the end of the first half of next year," said Iraqi national security adviser Mowaffak Al-Rubaie in an interview with CNN's "Late Edition."
When pressed on exact numbers expected to leave, Al-Rubaie said this depended on how quickly Iraqi troops could be trained and armed to take over.
Twenty-five months after the invasion to topple Saddam Hussein, the United States has 138,000 troops in Iraq battling a relentless insurgency and training Iraqi security forces.
The United States has not given a timetable for withdrawing its troops and President Bush has said repeatedly that U.S. soldiers will leave only when their job is finished and Iraqi forces can take over.
Last week, America's top general, Air Force Gen. Richard Myers, said rebels were attacking 50 or 60 times a day in Iraq -- about the same as a year ago. Sunday, a suicide bomber killed 15 people at a funeral procession at the northern Iraqi town of Talafar.
Al-Rubaie said the new Iraqi government was determined to quell violence in Iraq by the end of this year.
"I think we are winning -- on the winning course, there is no doubt about it. The level of violence is not measured only by the number of explosions every day, or the number of casualties," he said.
He added: "There is no shadow of doubt in my mind, that by the end of the year, we would have achieved a lot, and probably the back of the insurgency has already been broken."
Entire pages of the US report had been blackened out
Italy media reveals Iraq details
By David Willey
BBC News in Rome
Entire pages of the US report had been blackened out Italian media have published classified sections of an official US military inquiry into the accidental killing of an Italian agent in Baghdad. The 40-page report was censored by the Pentagon before being officially published on Saturday.
Italy has refused to accept the US report's findings and is to publish its own version of events later this week.
Details of the official report were published in newspapers on Sunday with censored material restored in full.
Missing text
A Greek medical student at Bologna University who was surfing the web early on Sunday found that with two simple clicks of his computer mouse he could restore censored portions of the report.
He passed the details to Italian newspapers which immediately put out the full text on their own websites.
The missing text contains the names and ranks of all of the American military personnel involved in the killing of Nicola Calipari, the Italian agent who was given a state funeral and awarded Italy's highest medal of valour.
It also reveals the rules of engagement in operation at the military checkpoint near Baghdad airport which have been contested by the Italian authorities.
The censored sections include recommendations that the American military modify their checkpoint procedures to give better and clearer warning signs to approaching vehicles.
The official Italian report on the incident expected to be published this week will accuse the American military of tampering with evidence at the scene of the shooting.
The Americans invited two Italians to join in their inquiry, but the Italian representatives protested at what they claimed was lack of objectivity in presenting the evidence and returned to Rome.
Relations between Rome and Washington remain tense.
Khamenei says the US cannot decide who has nuclear technology
Iran issues nuclear warning to US
By Frances Harrison
BBC News, Tehran
Khamenei says the US cannot decide who has nuclear technology The spiritual leader of Iran, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has warned the United States to stay out of his country's nuclear programme. Speaking on a tour of south-east Iran, Ayatollah Khamenei said the US was arrogant, rude and deserved a punch in the mouth.
He also said Iran's presidential elections in June would not make any difference to its nuclear policy.
The US has expressed fears Iran is trying to build nuclear weapons.
Enrichment warning
Ayatollah Khamenei said it was not up to the US to decide which countries needed nuclear technology.
He also warned that Iran's forthcoming presidential elections were nothing to do with the Americans.
No president would dare violate the country's national interests because the people would not allow it, he said.
His comments came as Iran warned on Saturday it might resume suspended enrichment-related activities next week in defiance of an agreement that is underpinning nuclear talks with Europe.
Iran is concerned that negotiations are dragging on too long and has proposed a phased resumption of its nuclear activities.
Posted 05-01-2005 13:43:56 GMT 5-1-2005 18:43:56)
BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- Iraqi and U.S. forces found belongings of kidnapped CARE worker Margaret Hassan and arrested three people in connection with the case, officials said Sunday.
A handbag, ID and clothing that belonged to Hassan was seized during a raid in a Baghdad suburb, Iraqi police said.
The three suspects were among those apprehended in the overnight raid, British Embassy spokesman Martin Cronin told CNN.
Hassan, former director of the humanitarian organization CARE in Iraq, is a British citizen who was taken hostage in October. A video purportedly showing her being shot to death surfaced about a month later on the Arabic-language Al-Jazeera satellite television channel.
"We believe this is the first evidence that's been found regarding her since her death," Cronin told The Associated Press.
Some of the people who were detained acknowledged taking part in killing Hassan, Reuters reported.
Hassan, 59, Irish-born and with dual British and Iraqi nationality, was seized by gunmen on her way to work in western Baghdad. (Full story) Baghdad attacks
At least 13 Iraqis were killed and 12 were wounded in three attacks in Baghdad on Sunday, Iraqi police said.
A suicide car bomber targeted a U.S. military convoy in the southeastern district of al-Za'faraniyah, killing five Iraqi civilians, including a 5-year-old. Iraqi police said the car bomb also wounded twelve people. There was no immediate word about U.S. casualties.
In southeastern Baghdad, five Iraqi police officers were killed in a battle with about 30 insurgents at a police checkpoint, Iraqi police said. Insurgents used small arms to launch their attack, which occurred in the al-Rustumiya neighborhood, police said. After the battle, the insurgents took weapons from the bodies and fled, police said.
In another attack, gunmen killed Ahmed al-Lu'aibi, director general of Baghdad's al-Mansour sewage facility and two of his guards, Iraqi police said. The drive-by attack happened in the al-Jihad neighborhood of western Baghdad, police said.
With her appointment as secretary of state, Condoleezza Rice takes the lead on the problem of North Korea's pursuit of nuclear arms under the leadership of Kim Jong Il.
Can Rice deal with North Korea's Kim — and the nuclear problem?
Bush is a hooligan,' North Korea says
May 02, 2005 ¤Ñ In response to U.S. President George W. Bush's remarks Thursday in which he labeled North Korean leader Kim Jong-il a "tyrant," Pyongyang called Bush a "hooligan" over the weekend.
Quoting a ministry spokesman on Saturday, North Korea's state-run Korean Central News Agency said, "Bush is a hooligan bereft of any personality as a human being." The agency also said Pyongyang did not expect a solution to the nuclear issue during Mr. Bush's term. The exchange came amid increasing pessimism about the prospects for resuming the six-party talks over the North's nuclear arms programs. Pyongyang has repeatedly insisted on an apology for U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's January characterization of North Korea as an "outpost of tyranny" before talks resume. In other developments, Japan's NHK reported yesterday that the U.S. military had notified Japan that North Korea might have fired a short-range missile over the East Sea in Japan's direction yesterday morning. A South Korean Defense Ministry official said the report, which cited unnamed Tokyo officials, could not be confirmed.
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