Operation Phantom Fury--Day 499 - Now Operations River Blitz; Matador--Day 394

'US could wipe out Iran nuke program in two days'

YIGAL GRAYEFF - THE JERUSALEM POST

Mar. 20, 2006

Another voice has been added to those who believe that air strikes should halt Iran's quest to develop nuclear weapons.

Gary Berntsen, the former senior CIA operative who led the search for Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan in late 2001, believes the United States has the ability to easily destroy Iran's nuclear facilities. He said the US could use bunker-buster bombs and other weapons to carry out the operation.

"We can dig those things out. We can destroy them," he told The Jerusalem Post in an interview.

"We can take care of it in a couple of days with air strikes and they wouldn't be able to stop us," he added. "It wouldn't be difficult to plan. They'd be some dangers but I think the United States can do it." Berntsen, who left the CIA in June last year after more than 20 years of service, believes it will be difficult to persuade Iran to stop its nuclear program.

"I know the Iranians. I've worked against the Iranians for years. They are determined to get this no matter what, and they will lie and cheat and do whatever they have to do to get themselves a weapon," he said.

Berntsen ruled out covert action because of the scale of Iran's nuclear program.

"This is a huge system of facilities they have. This is not going to be a small sort of engagement. We are probably going to have to destroy 30 facilities in 30 locations. Or at least 15," he said.

Berntsen's comments came after former Pentagon adviser Richard Perle said earlier this month that Iran's prime nuclear facilities could be devastated in one night by a small fleet of US B-2 bombers.

In addition, Moshe Ya'alon, Israel's former chief of General Staff, said the IDF has the capabilities to attack Iran's nuclear facilities and could do it in conjunction with the US and some EU countries. However, Berntsen believes Israel should not carry out any operation.

"It's better for the United States to do it. If you (Israel) do it, we'll have all sorts of problems in the Middle East, all sorts of countries that will align themselves with the Iranians over this. Politically it makes more sense for the US to do it," he said.

Berntsen also ruled out a ground operation.

"This is huge country. There are 70 million people there. It's gigantic. We don't need to be getting into something like that," he said.

However, Berntsen believes that the US should first exhaust all the political options before carrying out a strike.

"We should do what we're doing right now. That means taking them to the United Nations and make this 'the world against Iran,' because the Iranians appear determined to create a weapon," he said.

"If by chance they disarm, then we can avoid this, but if they don't disarm we will need to take care of this ourselves," he said.

"The Iranians have to know that we mean business. They will either disarm or we will destroy their facilities. No ifs, ands, or buts. They present a threat to peace in the Middle East. They present a threat to Israel. We cannot accept that," he added.

Berntsen predicted that if Iran doesn't disarm, President George Bush would carry out an attack regardless of domestic opposition.

"I think that President Bush has demonstrated that he says what he means and he means what he says. A lot of people didn't think he would do Iraq. This is a guy who doesn't put his finger in the air to see which way the wind is blowing. President Bush means business.

"The problem right now is that the Iranians are going to miscalculate. They are going to believe that because 2006 is an election year (in Congress), and due to all this political opposition to the president because of Iraq, they're going to think that he's weak in the knees, he can't do it and they're not going to negotiate.

"That would be a very serious mistake for them. They're going to miscalculate. They think he's politically weak and George Bush won't care. He's going to do it anyway when it comes down to it," Berntsen said.

"I believe that we'll get past the mid-term election in 2006 and then the Iranians ought to disarm themselves or suffer the consequences," he added.

Berntsen recently released a book called Jawbreaker, which is about the search for bin Laden after al-Qaida's attacks on the US in September 2001. The book has been on the best-seller lists in the US but has yet to be released in Israel.

Elaborate U.S. bases raise questions about long-term stay in Iraq

A mile long helicopter ramp to provide space for parking of 120 helicopters is seen, in Balad air base, 44 miles north of Baghdad, Iraq on March 1. As the construction work goes on in full scale in Balad U.S. air base and handful of other installations, with Burger King and Pizza Hut already in, It is difficult to say weather U.S. forces in Iraq are here to stay for a short term or a long term. Nonetheless, if long term basing is on the horizon, there is no one to confer such plans. (Associated Press)

By: CHARLES J. HANLEY - Associated Press

EDITOR'S NOTE -- This report is based on interviews with U.S. military engineers and others before and during the writer's two weeks as an embedded reporter at major U.S. bases in Iraq.

AP Special Correspondent

BALAD AIR BASE, Iraq -- The concrete goes on forever, vanishing into the noonday glare, 2 million cubic feet of it, a mile-long slab that's now the home of up to 120 U.S. helicopters, a "heli-park" as good as any back in the States.

At another giant base, al-Asad in Iraq's western desert, the 17,000 troops and workers come and go in a kind of bustling American town, with a Burger King, Pizza Hut and a car dealership, stop signs, traffic regulations and young bikers clogging the roads.

At a third hub down south, Tallil, they're planning a new mess hall, one that will seat 6,000 hungry airmen and soldiers for chow.

Are the Americans here to stay? Air Force mechanic Josh Remy is sure of it as he looks around Balad.

"I think we'll be here forever," the 19-year-old airman from Wilkes-Barre, Pa., told a visitor to his base.

The Iraqi people suspect the same. Strong majorities tell pollsters they'd like to see a timetable for U.S. troops to leave, but believe Washington plans to keep military bases in their country.

The question of America's future in Iraq looms larger as the U.S. military enters the fourth year of its war here, waged first to oust President Saddam Hussein, and now to crush an Iraqi insurgency.

Ibrahim al-Jaafari, interim prime minister, has said he opposes permanent foreign bases. A wide range of American opinion is against them as well. Such bases would be a "stupid" provocation, says Gen. Anthony Zinni, former U.S. Mideast commander and a critic of the original U.S. invasion.

But events, in explosive situations like Iraq's, can turn "no" into "maybe" and even "yes."

The Shiite Muslims, ascendant in Baghdad, might decide they need long-term U.S. protection against insurgent Sunni Muslims. Washington might take the political risks to gain a strategic edge -- in its confrontation with next-door Iran, for example.

The U.S. ambassador to Iraq, Zalmay Khalilzad, and other U.S. officials disavow any desire for permanent bases. But long-term access, as at other U.S. bases abroad, is different from "permanent," and the official U.S. position is carefully worded.

Lt. Cmdr. Joe Carpenter, a Pentagon spokesman on international security, told The Associated Press it would be "inappropriate" to discuss future basing until a new Iraqi government is in place, expected in the coming weeks.

Less formally, U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, asked about "permanent duty stations" by a Marine during an Iraq visit in December, allowed that it was "an interesting question." He said it would have to be raised by the incoming Baghdad government, if "they have an interest in our assisting them for some period over time."

In Washington, Iraq scholar Phebe Marr finds the language intriguing. "If they aren't planning for bases, they ought to say so," she said. "I would expect to hear 'No bases."'

Right now what is heard is the pouring of concrete.

In 2005-06, Washington has authorized or proposed almost $1 billion for U.S. military construction in Iraq, as American forces consolidate at Balad, known as Anaconda, and a handful of other installations, big bases under the old regime.

They have already pulled out of 34 of the 110 bases they were holding last March, said Maj. Lee English of the U.S. command's Base Working Group, planning the consolidation.

"The coalition forces are moving outside the cities while continuing to provide security support to the Iraqi security forces," English said.

The move away from cities, perhaps eventually accompanied by U.S. force reductions, will lower the profile of U.S. troops, frequent targets of roadside bombs on city streets. Officers at Al-Asad Air Base, 10 desert miles from the nearest town, say it hasn't been hit by insurgent mortar or rocket fire since October.

Al-Asad will become even more isolated. The proposed 2006 supplemental budget for Iraq operations would provide $7.4 million to extend the no-man's-land and build new security fencing around the base, which at 19 square miles is so large that many assigned there take the Yellow or Blue bus routes to get around the base, or buy bicycles at a PX jammed with customers.

The latest budget also allots $39 million for new airfield lighting, air traffic control systems and upgrades allowing al-Asad to plug into the Iraqi electricity grid -- a typical sign of a long-term base.

At Tallil, besides the new $14 million dining facility, Ali Air Base is to get, for $22 million, a double perimeter security fence with high-tech gate controls, guard towers and a moat -- in military parlance, a "vehicle entrapment ditch with berm."

Here at Balad, the former Iraqi air force academy 40 miles north of Baghdad, the two 12,000-foot runways have become the logistics hub for all U.S. military operations in Iraq, and major upgrades began last year.

Army engineers say 31,000 truckloads of sand and gravel fed nine concrete-mixing plants on Balad, as contractors laid a $16 million ramp to park the Air Force's huge C-5 cargo planes; an $18 million ramp for workhorse C-130 transports; and the vast, $28 million main helicopter ramp, the length of 13 football fields, filled with attack, transport and reconnaissance helicopters.

Turkish builders are pouring tons more concrete for a fourth ramp beside the runways, for medical-evacuation and other aircraft on alert. And $25 million was approved for other "pavement projects," from a special road for munitions trucks to a compound for special forces.

The chief Air Force engineer here, Lt. Col. Scott Hoover, is also overseeing two crucial projects to add to Balad's longevity: equipping the two runways with new permanent lighting, and replacing a weak 3,500-foot section of one runway.

Once that's fixed, "we're good for as long as we need to run it," Hoover said. Ten years? he was asked. "I'd say so."

Away from the flight lines, among traffic jams and freshly planted palms, life improves on 14-square-mile Balad for its estimated 25,000 personnel, including several thousand American and other civilians.

They've inherited an Olympic-sized pool and a chandeliered cinema from the Iraqis. They can order their favorite Baskin-Robbins flavor at ice cream counters in five dining halls, and cut-rate Fords, Chevys or Harley-Davidsons, for delivery at home, at a PX-run "dealership." On one recent evening, not far from a big 24-hour gym, airmen hustled up and down two full-length, lighted outdoor basketball courts as F-16 fighters thundered home overhead.

"Balad's a fantastic base," Brig. Gen. Frank Gorenc, the Air Force's tactical commander in Iraq, said in an interview at his headquarters here.

Could it host a long-term U.S. presence?

"Eventually it could," said Gorenc, commander of the 332nd Air Expeditionary Wing. "But there's no commitment to any of the bases we operate, until somebody tells me that."

In the counterinsurgency fight, Balad's central location enables strike aircraft to reach targets in minutes. And in the broader context of reinforcing the U.S. presence in the oil-rich Mideast, Iraq bases are preferable to aircraft carriers in the Persian Gulf, said a longtime defense analyst.

"Carriers don't have the punch," said Gordon Adams of Washington's George Washington University. "There's a huge advantage to land-based infrastructure. At the level of strategy it makes total sense to have Iraq bases."

A U.S. congressional study cited another, less discussed use for possible Iraq bases: to install anti-ballistic defenses in case Iran fires missiles.

American bases next door could either deter or provoke Iran, noted Paul D. Hughes, a key planner in the early U.S. occupation of Iraq.

Overall, however, this retired Army colonel says American troops are unwanted in the Middle East. With long-term bases in Iraq, "We'd be inviting trouble," Hughes said.

"It's a stupid idea and clearly politically unacceptable," Zinni, a former Central Command chief, said in a Washington interview. "It would damage our image in the region, where people would decide that this" -- seizing bases -- "was our original intent."

Among Iraqis, the subject is almost too sensitive to discuss.

"People don't like bases," veteran politician Adnan Pachachi, a member of the new Parliament, told the AP. "If bases are absolutely necessary, if there's a perceived threat ... but I don't think even Iran will be a threat."

If long-term basing is, indeed, on the horizon, "the politics back here and the politics in the region say, 'Don't announce it,"' Adams said in Washington. That's what's done elsewhere, as with the quiet U.S. basing of spy planes and other aircraft in the United Arab Emirates.

Army and Air Force engineers, with little notice, have worked to give U.S. commanders solid installations in Iraq, and to give policymakers options. From the start, in 2003, the first Army engineers rolling into Balad took the long view, laying out a 10-year plan envisioning a move from tents to today's living quarters in air-conditioned trailers, to concrete-and-brick barracks by 2008.

In early 2006, no one's confirming such next steps, but a Balad "master plan," details undisclosed, is nearing completion, a possible model for al-Asad, Tallil and a fourth major base, al-Qayyarah in Iraq's north.

Russia lashes back at U.S. criticism of its democracy record

Monday, March 20, 2006 - 4:59 PM PST

By: VLADIMIR ISACHENKOV - Associated Press

MOSCOW -- Russia on Monday accused the United States of trying to enforce its vision of democracy on others, angrily rejecting President Bush's criticism that the Kremlin has rolled back freedoms.

In a National Security Strategy report released last week, Bush said recent trends in Russia "regrettably point toward a diminishing commitment" to democratic freedoms and institutions. "We will work to try to persuade the Russian government to move forward, not backward, along freedom's path," Bush said in the document, his first major foreign policy review since 2002.

The Foreign Ministry criticized what it called an "increasing emphasis on ideology" in the U.S. security strategy and indicated Moscow won't accept lectures from Washington.

"No one has ... a monopoly on interpreting what democracy is," the ministry said.

"Every country is walking its own path to democracy, taking into consideration specific historic and political conditions, as the United States itself has been doing," the statement said. "Attempts at artificial and moreover, forceful enforcement of democracy in other nations not only cannot bring success, but are fraught with discrediting the idea."

U.S.-Russian ties, which were given a boost by President Vladimir Putin's support for the U.S. war on terrorism after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, soured later over Moscow criticism of the U.S. military action in Iraq and U.S. concerns about an increasingly authoritarian streak in the Kremlin's domestic policy.

Critics say Russia has seen a steady rollback on democracy under Putin, pointing at the emergence of a tame parliament packed with Kremlin loyalists, the abolition of elections of provincial governors, effective state takeover of nationwide television and, most recently, the approval of a new law tightening restrictions on non-governmental organizations.

Putin has defended the moves as necessary stages in Russia's gradual movement toward a stronger democracy. Moscow, in turn, has accused the United States and other Western nations of encouraging regime change in the former Soviet republics of Georgia, Ukraine and Kyrgyzstan.

The Foreign Ministry criticized the U.S. national security strategy for "claiming an active democracy-building role in the countries neighboring Russia."

"The warning that Russia's attempts to 'hamper' such democracy-building would worsen its relations not only with the United States but with Europe sounds rather pretentious," it said.

The ministry also rebuked the U.S. document because it contained "no single word about ... cooperation between our nations ... mutual respect and consideration of each other's legitimate interests in practical policy, predictability of behavior and transparency of action."

http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2006/03/21/news/nation/15_55_313_20_06.txt

Bush: Success in Tal Afar Shows Evidence Iraqi Strategy Working

By Donna Miles - American Forces Press Service

WASHINGTON, March 20, 2006 – President Bush today pointed to the dramatic turnaround in Tal Afar, Iraq -- a city once gripped by terrorist oppression that's now undergoing a vibrant revitalization -- as concrete evidence that the national strategy for victory in Iraq is working.

Speaking at the City Club of Cleveland, a free speech forum, the president said developments in Tal Afar show clear progress on the political, security and economic fronts and proof that the Iraqi people want to live in freedom.

Calling the northern Iraqi city with its diverse population "a microcosm of Iraq," the president said its example "gives me confidence in our strategy."

Tal Afar's 200,000 residents lived under the intimidation of insurgents who were using the city as a base to organize, train and equip terror cells.

U.S. and Iraqi forces drove out the insurgents in "Operation Restore Rights," in fall 2005. Government forces are now rebuilding housing, schools and other facilities.

Iraqi forces took the lead in securing neighborhoods and, during two weeks of intense activity, killed 150 terrorists and captured another 850, the president said. In addition to ridding the city of terrorists who'd established a hotbed there, the effort won the citizen's confidence and encouraged them to participate in their country's new democracy, he said.

"In this city, we see the outlines of the Iraq that we and the Iraqi people have been fighting for," Bush said. "A free and secure people are getting back on their feet ... (and) participating in government and civic life."

The story of Tal Afar also shows that with a basic level of safety and security, Iraqis can live together peacefully, he said.

Bush said the strategy for victory is working, and "we know it because the people of Tal Afar are showing their gratitude." He cited a letter from Najim Abdullah Abid Al-Jibouri, the city's mayor, praising "the courageous men and women of the 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment, who have changed the city of Tal Afar from a ghost town, in which terrorists spread death and destruction, to a secure city flourishing with life."

The mayor called these soldiers "avenging angels sent by the god himself to fight the evil of terrorism."

Bush said it's understandable how U.S. citizens who see horrific news images from Iraq but never hear of successes like the one in Tal Afar might question the U.S. mission there. "I understand how Americans have had their confidence shaken," he said.

The war in Iraq has "tested our resolve" as a nation, the president said. "The fighting has been tough. The enemy has proved to be brutal."

In the face of this adversary, the United States has adapted to reflect realities on the ground. Bush described how the situation in Tal Afar gave rise to the new "clear, hold and build" approach that's being used throughout Iraq. That strategy builds on cooperation between coalition and Iraqi forces and new capabilities within Iraq's forces, he said.

"Under this new approach, Iraqi and coalition forces would clear a city of the terrorists, leave well-trained Iraqi units behind to hold the city, and work with local leaders to build the economic and political infrastructure Iraqis need to live in freedom," the president said.

Turning Tal Afar and other Iraqi cities over to Iraqi control enables U.S. forces to move on to other areas to hunt for "high-value targets" like Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, Bush said. But he noted that it also accomplishes another, even more important objective. "By turning control of these cities over to capable Iraqi troops and police, we give Iraqis confidence that they can determine their own destiny," he said.

Today, Tal Afar represents a shining example of democracy taking hold in Iraq, the president noted. And that's the United States' and coalition's ultimate goal for Iraq, he said. The decision to enter Iraq three years ago was difficult, Bush acknowledged, but he insisted, "The decision to remove Saddam Hussein was the right decision."

Bush called Iraq the central front in the war on terror, noting that if the United States wasn't fighting terrorists there, the extremists wouldn't be idle. Rather, they'd be busy planning more attacks against the United States, he said.

Staying the course in Iraq and seeing the U.S. strategy through to victory will help prevent that from happening, he said. "We will settle for nothing less than victory," Bush said. "The United States will never abandon Iraq. We will not leave that country to the terrorists who attacked America and want to attack us again."

Bush: NATO Key U.S. Ally in Anti-terror War

By Gerry J. Gilmore - American Forces Press Service

WASHINGTON, March 20, 2006 – President Bush today praised NATO for its help in Iraq and Afghanistan and made suggestions for dealing with the humanitarian crisis in Darfur, Sudan.

"NATO is effective, and that's one of the things that's really important for our citizens to understand -- that our relationship with NATO is an important part of helping us to win the war on terror," Bush said in a statement to reporters after meeting with NATO Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer at the White House.

Bush lauded NATO's assistance in Afghanistan, where it has deployed 10,000 troops, and in Iraq, where NATO personnel are helping to train Iraqi security forces. Another 6,000 NATO troops, led by Dutch forces, are slated to deploy to Afghanistan this year.

"I want to thank you for your very strong involvement in Afghanistan," Bush told Scheffer, calling NATO's presence in Afghanistan "really important."

Bush saluted NATO for helping to train Iraqi security forces "so they can end up protecting the Iraqi people from those who want to kill innocent life in order to affect the outcome of that democracy."

Scheffer agreed with Bush about the high stakes in Iraq and Afghanistan. "In Afghanistan, the fight against terror is an extremely important element," he said. He also noted that all 26 NATO allies participate in one way or another in the training mission in Iraq.

Bush said he also spoke with the NATO chief about the situation in Dafur, Sudan, where the U.N. estimates that 300,000 people have been killed and 2 million have been left homeless since a bloody civil war began in 2003. The security mission in the western province of Dafur has thus far been handled by the African Union, but it's apparent that more needs to be done.

Bush suggested that the African Union should petition the U.N. to take over security duties in Dafur. If that's done "NATO can move in with United States' help" and then assist peacekeeping and humanitarian aid efforts in Dafur, Bush said.

"We're intent upon providing security for the people there," Bush said, "and intent upon helping work toward a lasting peace agreement."

Again, Scheffer agreed. "I'm quite sure, as I told the president, that when the U.N. comes, the NATO allies will be ready to do more in enabling a United Nations force in Dafur."

America is NATO's most important ally, Scheffer said. Both he and Bush said they look forward to the upcoming annual NATO summit in Riga, Latvia, in November.

http://www.defenselink.mil/news/Mar2006/20060320_4555.html

Bush Remembers U.S. Troops on Third Anniversary of OIF

By Donna Miles - American Forces Press Service

WASHINGTON, March 19, 2006 – The best way for Americans to commemorate the third anniversary of U.S. operations in Iraq is to thank the servicemembers carrying them out and the families that support them, President Bush said today.

Speaking to reporters on the South Lawn of the White House, Bush called today, three years after the launch of Operation Iraqi Freedom, a time for reflection. "And this morning, my reflections were upon the sacrifices of the men and women in uniform," he said.

"Ours is an amazing nation, where thousands have volunteered to serve our country.... Many volunteered after 9/11, knowing full well at the time that their time in the military could put them in harm's way," the president said.

"So on this third anniversary, the beginning of the liberation of Iraq, I think all Americans should offer thanks to the men and women who wear the uniform, and their families who support them," he said. "May God continue to bless our troops in harm's way."

Bush said he was encouraged by a conversation this morning with the U.S. ambassador to Iraq, Zalmay Khalilzad, who he said reported progress the Iraqis are making in forming a unity government.

"I encourage the Iraqi leaders to continue to work hard to get this government up and running," the president said. He noted that about 75 percent of eligible Iraqi citizens went to the polls last December to vote for democracy. "And now the Iraqi leaders are working together to enact a government that reflects the will of the people," he said.

Bush said he's optimistic about the coalition mission in Iraq and long-term impact it will have, not only on Iraq, but also the United States.

"We are implementing a strategy that will lead to victory in Iraq," the president said. "And a victory in Iraq will make this country more secure, and it will help lay the foundation for peace for generations to come."

Related Site:

Bush remarks

Insurgents Kill 19 Iraqis in Prison Break

March 21, 2006 - 08:40 am

By VANESSA ARRINGTON - The Associated Press

BAGHDAD, Iraq —

Insurgents stormed a jail around dawn Tuesday in the Sunni Muslim heartland north of Baghdad, killing 19 police and a courthouse guard in a prison break that freed at least 33 prisoners and left 10 attackers dead, authorities said.

As many as 100 insurgents armed with automatic rifles and rocket-propelled grenades stormed the judicial compound in Muqdadiyah, about 60 miles northeast of the capital. The assault began after the attackers fired a mortar round into the police and court complex, said police Brig. Ali al-Jabouri.

After burning the police station, the insurgents detonated roadside bombs as they fled, taking the bodies of many of their dead comrades with them, police said. At least 13 policemen and civilians and 15 gunmen were wounded.

Meanwhile, a group of U.S. senators met with interim Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari in Baghdad to discuss prospects for forming a national unity government, a step viewed as important in working toward peace and a withdrawal of U.S. troops.

Al-Jaafari said he believed Iraq's most difficult political hurdles had been cleared and predicted a new government would be ready in the coming weeks.

"I hope that the formation of the new government does not last beyond April," al-Jaafari said.

Sen. Carl Levin, ranking Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee, said: "April is fine, but it is necessary that this commitment be kept in order for there to be continued support for the presence of American troops in Iraq."

The committee chairman, Sen. John Warner, R-Va., said decisions on the U.S. troop presence would be made by President Bush, Congress and other leaders. He said the American people would have "a strong voice" as well _ a seeming allusion to declining U.S. popular support for the war.

In show of Shiite support for al-Jaafari's bid for a second term as prime minister, Vice President Adil Abdul-Mahdi told reporters after meeting Iraq's top Shiite cleric that "Dr. al-Jaafari is still the (Shiite) Alliance nominee. The alliance has not presented anyone else."

The Shiite alliance is under pressure from Iraqi Kurds and Sunni Muslims to drop al-Jaafari because they claim he can not unify the country.

In the holy city of Najaf, Abdul-Aziz al-Hakim, the leader of the Shiite bloc in parliament, met the top cleric, Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, who told him to "speed the moves to form the new government," said al-Hakim aide Haitham al-Husseini.

Later Tuesday, a roadside bomb killed one policeman and wounded three in Baqouba, 35 miles northeast of Baghdad, authorities said.

Five other police were wounded in two separate roadside bomb attacks targeting patrols in northern and southern Baghdad early Tuesday, police said.

On Monday, 39 people were reported killed by insurgents and shadowy sectarian gangs, continuing the wave of violence that has left more than 1,000 Iraqis dead since the bombing last month of a Shiite Muslim shrine.

Police found the bodies of at least 15 people _ including a 13-year-old girl _ dumped around Baghdad. The discoveries marked the latest execution-style killings that have become an almost daily occurrence as Sunni and Shiite extremists settle scores.

As night fell Monday, a bomb struck a coffee shop in northern Baghdad, killing at least three people and injuring 23 others. The bomb was left in a plastic bag inside the shop in a market area of the Azamiyah neighborhood, police Maj. Falah al-Mohammadewi said.

At about the same time, gunmen killed two engineers leaving work at the Beiji oil refinery north of Baghdad, police Lt. Khalaf Ayed Al-Janabi said.

Separately, the owner of a small grocery in downtown Baghdad was shot and killed.

In southeast Baghdad, also toward evening, a roadside bomb blew apart a minibus, killing four pilgrims returning from the holy city of Karbala, where millions of Shiite faithful gathered to mark the 40th and final day of the annual mourning period for Imam Hussein, grandson of the Prophet Muhammad. Five pilgrims on their way to Karbala were wounded in a drive-by shooting earlier in the day, police said.

Otherwise, the commemoration passed largely without incident and absent the violent bomb attacks that have hit pilgrims there in the past two years.

Baghdad's international airport remained closed Tuesday by authorities citing the need to protect the Karbala commemoration.

Jordanian authorities closed their border with Iraq until further notice to "prevent those without valid travel documents from entering the country," said Maj. Bashir al-Da'ajah, spokesman of Jordan's Public Security Department. The New York Times reported the border was closed because a large number of Palestinians living in Iraq were trying to cross into Jordan without proper documents.

Associated Press

US turns attention to al-Qaeda in Iran

By Josh Meyer in Washington

March 22, 2006

AMERICAN intelligence officials, already focused on Iran's potential for building nuclear weapons, are struggling to solve a more immediate mystery: the relationship between the Tehran leadership and a contingent of al-Qaeda leaders living in the country.

Some officials, citing highly classified electronic eavesdropping, believe Iran is hosting much of al-Qaeda's remaining brains trust and allowing the senior operatives freedom to communicate and help plan the terrorist network's operations.

They suggest the President, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, may be forging an alliance with al-Qaeda operatives as a way to expand Iran's influence or, at least, that he is looking the other way as al-Qaeda leaders in Iran collaborate with their counterparts elsewhere.

"Iran is becoming more and more radicalised and more willing to turn a blind eye to the al-Qaeda presence there," one US counterterrorism official said.

The accusations by US officials about Iranian nuclear ambitions and ties to al-Qaeda echo charges made about Iraq before the US invasion three years ago.

Those claims have been largely discredited. And in the case of Iran, some intelligence officials and analysts are unconvinced. If anything, they suggest, escalating tensions between Shiites and Sunni Arabs in Iraq would logically cause Iran's Shiite government to crack down on al-Qaeda, whose Sunni leadership has denounced Shiites as infidels.

Ties between Iran and al-Qaeda were detailed by the US's September 11 commission, which said Iran and al-Qaeda had worked together throughout the 1990s, trading secrets, including how to make explosives.

Iranian representatives to the United Nations did not return repeated calls seeking comment. Three months ago Iran declared there were no more al-Qaeda members in the country. US officials reject that claim.

Al-Qaeda operatives and family members have lived in Iran for years, many since late 2001 when they fled the US bombing of Afghanistan. Iranian Government officials have said the al-Qaeda members in their country have been kept under house arrest and that their activities have been monitored.

In Tehran, analysts said US officials were misreading Iran's intentions. The fact Iran had not turned over al-Qaeda suspects to the US should be no surprise given the relations between the two countries, said Nasser Hadian, a political analyst at Tehran University.

Some of the al-Qaeda members have been indicted in the US for attacks, including the 1998 bombings of US embassies in Africa. Among them is Saif al-Adel, thought to be one of the highest-ranking members of al-Qaeda, behind Osama bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahri.

¡The UN Security Council's five permanent members and Germany have failed to reach agreement on how to respond to the Iranian nuclear crisis but said they would continue trying to break the impasse.

Russia, backed by China, blocked agreement on a statement aimed at quashing Iran's nuclear ambitions. Both fear that action by the council may prompt Iran to cut contact with the UN's nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency.

http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/us-turns-attention-to-alqaeda-in-iran/2006/03/21/1142703358742.html

Reuters

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