Posted on 07/12/2005 4:35:48 PM PDT by Gucho
(Cpl. C. Alex Herron / U.S. Marine Corps)
By Joseph Giordono - Stars and Stripes Mideast edition
Tuesday, July 12, 2005
Two Marines killed by indirect fire during combat in Hit
BAGHDAD — As U.S. Marines rounded up at least 22 suspected insurgents near Fallujah in the latest of a series of operations in western Iraq, two other Marines were killed in fighting farther west in Hit, military officials said Monday.
The Marines, who were assigned to Regimental Combat Team 2, 2nd Marine Division, II Marine Expeditionary Force (Forward), were killed Sunday “by indirect fire while conducting combat operations,” Marine officials said in a news release Monday.
Hit is along the Euphrates River northwest of Fallujah. Since spring, it has been the site of several offensives by Marines aiming to stem the flow of weapons, money and fighters from across the Syrian border.
Operation Scimitar, or “Qmtia” in Arabic, is focused on the area around Fallujah and is the latest in a series of operations in Anbar province. It began July 7 in the town of Zaidon, about 20 miles southeast of Fallujah.
More than 500 Marines and 100 Iraqi soldiers are involved in the effort to “deny anti-Iraqi [forces] sanctuary for planning, training and storing ammunition,” the Marine command at Camp Blue Diamond said in the release.
The last major operation in the area, Operation Sword, took place in the area between Hit and Hadithah from June 28 to July 7. No major fighting was reported during that operation.
Elsewhere, in Tikrit, Task Force Liberty soldiers detained 13 people suspected of manufacturing and setting roadside bombs. Soldiers from the 1st Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Infantry Division, found weapons, ammunition and bomb-making materials on several of those detained, Army officials said.
Farther north, in Mosul, soldiers from the 1st Battalion, 24th Infantry Division arrested 11 people; soldiers from the 2nd Battalion, 8th Field Artillery Regiment detained several others in Tal Afar.
July 12, 2005 7:46 PM
(Rochester, NY) 07/12/05 - Because of a local army reservist, a 9-year-old Iraqi boy will receive lifesaving heart surgery.
Staff Sergeant Charles Cutler of the 98th army reserve division, befriended young Ali during a patrol near Baghdad last spring. Ali's congenital heart condition requires surgery that he can't get in Iraq.
Cutler arranged for the surgery and his mother and friends are holding a fundraiser at a local dance studio to raise money to cover Ali's anticipated medical costs.
July 12, 2005
BAGHDAD, Iraq - During a routine patrol in the Ameriyah District July 10, Soldiers of Alpha Company, 4th Battalion, 1st Brigade, 6th Iraqi Army Division noticed a black BMW parked in the driveway of a house that was typically unoccupied.
The Soldiers stopped to talk to a local citizen about it, and observed that the man’s demeanor seemed very suspicious.
With assistance from Soldiers of 1st Battalion, 69th Infantry Regiment, the Iraqi Soldiers searched the house and found a bag of raw C-4 plastic explosives and four other containers believed to be filled with explosives.
Also hidden in the house were 20 hand grenades, one machine gun, a sniper rifle, an AK-47 assault rifle, a loaded 9 millimeter pistol with a silencer, and 500 to 700 rounds of ammunition.
A team of explosives experts safely removed the munitions.
"It was a joint Iraqi and US patrol. The Iraqi Soldiers took the lead," said Capt. Mike Benoit of 1-69th Infantry. "They were aggressive and used their insight, which led us to the cache."
By 256th Brigade Combat Team PAO
An Iraqi Soldier inventories a sniper rifle, a loaded 9 millimeter pistol with silencer, and anti-Coalition forces propaganda found hidden at a house in the Ameriyah district of west Baghdad. (photo courtesy of U.S. Army)
By Sayed Salahuddin / July 12, 2005
KABUL (Reuters) - One of four Arab al Qaeda militants who escaped from the main U.S. military detention center in Afghanistan was recaptured on Tuesday, a senior Afghan official said.
The man was found hiding in a mosque about two km (one mile) northwest of the giant U.S. base at Bagram that houses the prison from which the militants escaped early on Monday, said the official, who did not want to be identified.
"He was found in the mosque at about 9.30 (0500 GMT)," he said. "He was hiding there. The others are still at large."
He said the unidentified Arab was recaptured unhurt in an operation involving the Afghan police Rapid Reaction Force and was handed over to U.S.-led forces.
A spokesman for the U.S. military said he had no information to confirm the report, but was checking it.
The reported arrest came amid a big ground and air operation involving hundreds of U.S. and Afghan troops after the first ever escape from the heavily guarded center deep within Bagram Air Base, the largest U.S. base in Afghanistan.
The escape was a major embarrassment for the U.S. military, which invaded Afghanistan in 2001 to overthrow the fundamentalist Taliban government after it refused to hand over Osama bin Laden and other al Qaeda leaders responsible for the Sept. 11 attacks.
The U.S. military said there would be an investigation.
"It is a very serious matter for us," Lieutenant-Colonel Jerry O'Hara said when asked if the escapees might have received inside help from guards. "We will carry out an investigation on the issue certainly."
"DANGEROUS ENEMY COMBATANTS"
He declined to name the men he termed "dangerous enemy combatants," but Afghan officials said they were Syrian Abdullah Hashimi, Kuwaiti Mahmoud Ahmad Mohammad, Saudi Mahmoud Alfatahni and Libyan Mohammad Hassan.
The U.S. military provided Afghan security forces with photographs of the escapees, which showed bearded men in orange prison uniforms whose ages appeared to range from 20 to 40.
O'Hara said there had been no U.S. casualties in the escape and he had no reports of violence or any U.S. personnel missing.
Kabir Ahmad, the chief of Bagram district, said he had heard the men may have escaped the base by a car.
Bagram has housed hundreds of militant suspects, including senior al Qaeda members arrested in neighboring Pakistan and elsewhere, since the Taliban's ouster. A U.S. military spokeswoman about 450 were being held there.
Monday's escape follows a painful two weeks for the U.S. military, which saw 19 troops killed in a single combat operation.
The losses have made 2005 the bloodiest year for U.S. forces in the country and come amid an intensification of militant violence ahead of Sept. 18 parliamentary elections, the next big step in Afghanistan's difficult path to stability.
Taliban guerrilla spokesman Abdul Latif Hakimi called the escape a propaganda disaster for the Americans.
"It's a big embarrassment for them," he said. "In the past, there was this feeling the Americans were so powerful they could work miracles, but this shows clearly they can be vulnerable."
By YAHYA BARZANJI - Associated Press Writer
Tue Jul 12, 8:05 AM ET
KHUNERA, Iraq - In the jagged mountains here along the Iranian border, a leader of the Kurdish rebels who have been battling Turkish soldiers for two decades vowed to keep up his fight until Turkey agrees to open a dialogue with militants.
But it is a call that Turkey refuses, saying all the guerrillas of the Kurdistan Workers Party, or PKK, must surrender or die. Recently, the fighting has intensified.
Since May, 30 soldiers and 24 rebels have been killed as the rebels stepped up attacks, concentrating more on bombings than direct assaults. On Sunday, a bomb planted by a rebel splinter group injured 18 Turks and three tourists in Cesme, a popular Turkish resort.
Both sides are looking to Washington to help create a solution to a two-decade fight that has left some 37,000 people dead and parts of southeastern Turkey in ruins.
Turkish generals say the United States, which controls Iraq, must do more to stop rebels from crossing the border and carrying out attacks.
Murat Karayilan, the military leader of the PKK, says that Washington, which is pressing for more democracy in the Middle East, must allow the Kurds a voice and vows to keep fighting on.
"We seek peace, but Turkey seeks war and wants our surrender," he said in an interview with The Associated Press "It wants to get rid of us entirely. The Kurds' resistance will continue."
He also said that the rebels, who were once fighting for a Marxist Kurdish state in the southeast of Turkey, now want to be part of a democracy.
"We want to live in a democratic way and establish a democratic Kurdish movement while giving up extremist socialist ideas," Karayilan said. "We also notice a change in American policies, which now support democratic governments. America came to change the Middle East, and Kurds have a great role in this matter."
Turkish officials have dismissed that claim as a mere change in tactics by the group, which the Turkish government and the United States consider a terrorist organization.
Turkish land forces commander Gen. Yasar Buyukanit recently rebuffed a suggestion that the army end its offensive against the rebels.
"In Turkey, no one in their right mind could say yes" to that request, the Cumhuriyet newspaper quoted Gen. Yasar Buyukanit as saying last month. "Our struggle against terrorism is continuing and will continue."
Turkey considers all of its Muslim citizens to be Turks and has rejected Kurdish aspirations as an attempt to break apart the country. It was illegal in Turkey to speak Kurdish until 1991, and broadcasting in Kurdish only began in 2004.
Statements from the rebels are rarely printed in Turkey, where such comments could be considered as aiding a terrorist organization, and rights activists have been jailed for saying that there should be a negotiated solution to the fighting in the southeast.
The PKK announced a unilateral cease-fire in 1999 shortly after its leader Abdullah Ocalan was captured but annulled it in 2004, saying that Turkey had not responded.
During a recent visit, Kurdish fighters escorted a journalist along a curvy, five-hour nighttime route to meet Karayilan. The visit included a stop at the PKK's "Martyr's Cemetery," which contains the graves of 25 fighters killed in battle and a large picture of Ocalan.
"We no longer believe only in armed struggle as we did in the past," Karayilan said. "Today we believe in the diplomatic and political struggle in order to obtain our legitimate rights."
The presence of an estimated 3,500 PKK fighters in Iraq, which effectively remains under U.S. control more than two years after the U.S.-led invasion, complicates American efforts to rebuild this country after decades of dictatorship, war and the ongoing insurgency. There are believed to be some 2,000 PKK fighters in Turkey.
Confident of the safety of their mountain redoubt, the PKK fighters appeared to enjoy good relations with local villagers and Iraqi arms merchants who sell them weapons. As a concession to Iraqi sensitivities, however, PKK fighters routinely move about only at night.
"We want to solve the problem through dialogue," Karayilan said. "But if they attack us, we will defend ourselves."
July 12, 2005
By EARL KELLY, Staff Writer
Some pedal with one leg, and at least one uses only his hands, but a group of severely disabled veterans in Annapolis yesterday said they will complete their 4,200-mile cycling trek and dip their front wheels in the Atlantic Ocean.
Members of Soldier Ride met with Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. before riding through the Naval Academy and heading north to Baltimore. They met President Bush at the White House on Sunday.
At the academy yesterday, about 120 plebes welcomed the roughly 20 veterans with chants of "USA! USA! USA!"
Soldier Ride raised $2 million last year to help severely disabled veterans through the Wounded Warrior Project. The goal is $5 million this year, but a spokesman said the group has received only $400,000 in donations.
"People thought that when the (Iraq) war ended, the casualties stopped, but that is so untrue. We have even more," said retired Army Staff Sgt. Heath Calhoun.
Sgt. Calhoun lost both legs above the knees in Iraq on Nov. 7, 2003, when a rocket-propelled grenade hit the truck he was riding in.
He spoke while sitting in his wheelchair, holding his 7-month-old daughter Brystal in his lap and servicing his three-wheel, hand-pedaled cycle.
"I get annoyed; everywhere I go, I hear 'Support the troops.' Unfortunately, their thoughts and prayers don't do it," said Chris Carney, Soldier Ride's founder.
A Long Island, N.Y., resident who is not a veteran, Mr. Carney got motivated after visiting Walter Reed Medical Hospital and seeing the hardships severely disabled veterans and their families must endure. More than 1,700 American service members have been killed in Iraq and more than 13,000 have been wounded.
Lance Cpl. Aaron Rice of Hattiesburg, Miss., was one of these who was on the ride yesterday. He was wounded in March and pedaled yesterday with one leg. He was accompanied by Kelly, his wife of 7 1/2 months whom he married just before shipping out for Iraq.
Many young families can't afford to pay the rent or mortgage when a wounded soldier's spouse misses work to be with him or her. And the military will pay to fly in only one family member to visit every six months.
Because combat-wounded soldiers need more family contact than that, Wounded Warrior helps pay for more family visits.
Injured combat personnel arrive in military hospitals "with nothing but their gowns," Mr. Carney said.
Wounded Warrior provides them backpacks filled with basics, such as toothbrush, toothpaste and a CD player to help them pass the time.
Also, the project provides peer counseling for the injured warrior and his family.
Kirk Bauer of Rockville, founder of Disabled Sports America and a veteran who lost his left leg in the Vietnam War, said getting help to wounded veterans quickly is important.
"There is a steady stream of wounded soldiers," Mr. Bauer said. "The public needs to realize that despite the outstanding medical treatment, a lot of things fall through the cracks."
Sgt. Calhoun and Mr. Carney, along with retired Army Staff Sgt. Ryan Kelly, who lost his right leg in Iraq, are the three members of Soldier Ride who have made full trip, which started in May 21 in Marina Del Ray, Calif., and is scheduled to end on July 19 in Montauk, N.Y.
Other veterans and supporters have joined in the ride at various phases.
Mr. Ehrlich thanked the veterans for their service. As he was addressing the crowd outside Government House, Sen. John Astle, D-Annapolis, came up to show his support.
Mr. Astle was wearing casual clothing but wore the Purple Heart he received in the Vietnam War pinned to his chest. He was hit in the leg when a helicopter he was piloting was shot down.
Dr. John Hawley, a Navy commander and neurologist living in Jacksonville, Fla., but who grew up in Crofton and attended the Naval Academy, joined the ride from Washington to Annapolis, and on to Baltimore.
Dr. Hawley said it is important to support the young service members and their families that suddenly must face devastating injuries.
"It is not something you can plan for," he said.
---
For more information or to make donations, visit www.soldierride.org or www.woundedwarriorproject.org
NETANIA, Israel, July 12 (UPI) -- A Palestinian suicide bomber killed three women and injured 61 people outside a shopping mall in Netania, Israel Radio reported.
The blast occurred at about 6:30 p.m. when the bomber, carrying a 22-pound charge in a suicide belt blew up while crossing the street, police and witnesses said.
Earlier another militant reportedly driving a stolen car laden with gas cylinders, entered the West Bank settlement of Shavei Shomron. The car burst in flames and the attacker was injured, settlers said.
The Al-Quds Battalions, the military wing of Islamic Jihad, said it was behind the attacks.
The Islamic Jihad does not accept the tahadiya, or period of calm, the Palestinian Authority and other movements including, Hamas, have declared. It identified the bomber killed in Netania as Ahmed Abu Halil, 18, from a-Til near Tul Karem in the West Bank.
Israel said it would crack down on terrorism if the Palestinian Authority fails to do so.
Copyright 2005 by United Press International
One London bomber died in blast
Tuesday, 12 July, 2005
Police believe at least one of the suspected London bombers died in Thursday's blasts.
They said there was forensic evidence that the bomber responsible for the train explosion at Aldgate died there.
Personal documents of three suspects were also found close to the explosions suggesting all four died in the blasts.
One man has been arrested in Yorkshire and taken to London for questioning after police raids in Leeds and the seizure of a car in Luton.
In a press conference police said they had identified four suspects who travelled to London on the morning of the attacks - three of them from West Yorkshire.
One of the men from West Yorkshire had been reported missing by his family and his property was found at the bus blast scene.
The development came after a day of of dramatic developments in the hunt for those behind the bomb attacks in London.
Earlier police carried out controlled explosions in Leeds and Luton and searched six houses.
Meanwhile police in Leeds are looking for explosives and have already seized some material.
An unoccupied house in the Burley area of Leeds was one of six raided in Leeds after the attacks.
Up to 600 people have been evacuated from the area.
Police cleared people from homes as well as a mosque, a health centre and an old people's home.
His great sense of humour and personable nature put him centre stage with family and friends
Bomb victim Jamie Gordon's family statement
More victims named
Parts of the Beeston area of Leeds has been cordoned off, as well as a street in Dewsbury near the city.
Inspector Miles Himsworth said the operation was being led by the Metropolitan Police Anti-Terrorist officers with the support of West Yorkshire Police and the Army Bomb Disposal Unit.
He said officers were searching for explosives and other material at the house where a controlled explosion took place.
He said that may include computers, and a "careful and meticulous search" would be carried out.
Luton station closed
Anti-terrorism officers launched the first raids in the Leeds area on six houses at about 0630 BST.
One evacuated resident Nathan Clark, said people were "shocked" at what was happening.
"Everyone is amazed that it is happening on their doorstep," he told BBC News.
Meanwhile in Luton the railway station has been closed and a cordon placed around an area that also covers the bus station and parts of Luton University campus.
Police said a car they believe may be connected to the London bombs has been found in the car park.
Earlier the Met commissioner Sir Ian Blair confirmed the operation "is directly connected to the outrages on Thursday".
Sir Ian said London, as well as New York, continued to be "major terrorist targets".
He said: "Another attack is likely, there's no question about that. When, who knows."
The Yorkshire searches were carried out after warrants were issued under the Terrorism Act 2000.
BBC security correspondent Frank Gardner said the police were acting on information from searches at the scenes of the crimes in London.
Five victims have been formally identified out of 52 people confirmed killed in last Thursday's explosions on three Underground trains and a bus.
Several families have received official confirmation of the deaths of loved ones.
Queen donates
The police released the names of two further victims on Tuesday - Philip Stuart Russell, 28, of Kennington, south London, and Jamie Gordon, 30.
Mr Gordon's family described him in a statement as a "kind, caring person who always put other people first".
Two other victims were formally identified on Tuesday, but their families asked for the names not to be released immediately.
On Monday, Susan Levy, 53, from Hertfordshire, was the first victim of the bombings to be officially identified by coroners.
Meanwhile in London, Prime Minister Tony Blair has signed the official book of condolences for victims at city hall.
The Queen has made a "substantial donation" to a fund set up to help the families of people killed and injured in the attacks, it has been announced.
Buckingham Palace did not reveal how much had been pledged to the London Bombings Relief Charitable Fund set up on Friday by Mayor Ken Livingstone and the British Red Cross.
An anti-terrorist hotline for anyone who might have information for the police has been set up on 0800 789 321.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/4674463.stm
Jul 12, 2005
St Louis, MO - Boeing has started installing satellite communications and air traffic management upgrades on the first of 32 U.S. Air Force AWACS aircraft.
"Enhanced satellite communications will boost the fleet's capability by providing crews with multiple channels for voice and data," said Ed Froese, vice president of Boeing Airborne Warning Systems. "This improves the AWACS system's ability to communicate with other AWACS aircraft, platforms and ground stations."
The Global Air Traffic Management upgrade permits AWACS to efficiently operate in congested airspace worldwide, especially in Europe and the East coast corridor of the U.S., by allowing the AWACS to fly in closer proximity to other aircraft. Additional enhancements include a traffic collision avoidance system, which sounds an alert and provides a message – climb or descend – to the AWACS flight crew in order to prevent a collision.
Retrofit of the first AWACS is scheduled to be completed in January 2006. The entire fleet will be completed by the end of 2010.
SEOUL (AFP) Jul 13, 2005 US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice welcomed Wednesday South Korea's ambitious offer of energy aid to North Korea to persuade the Stalinist state to dismantle its nuclear weapons drive.
"It gives an opportunity for North Korea to address questions of energy needs," Rice said at a press conference.
Her South Korean counterpart Ban Ki-Moon said at the same briefing that Rice had praised the aid offer as a "very creative and beneficial" move that would help resolve the nuclear issue.
07-12-2005
BAGHDAD - Iraqi Prime Minister Ibrahim Jaafari told his violence-weary nation to brace for even larger attacks as insurgents exact revenge on the government for its "success" in rebuilding the country.
At least 10 Iraqis were killed in a new spate of attacks that followed a bloody sequence of days for the Iraqi security forces, as US Deputy Secretary of State Robert Zoellick met Jaafari in Baghdad in a bid to boost the reconstruction process.
Speaking in parliament, Jaafari said the recent kidnapping and killing of Egypt's top envoy to Baghdad by alleged Al-Qaeda militants was a direct response to the success of the Brussels donors conference for Iraq's reconstruction held on June 22.
"The killing of the late Ihab al-Sharif was nothing but an expression of the success of the political process," Jaafari said.
"So we must prepare ourselves that every time we make progress in the process and every time we make big achievements the reaction will be big. This operation (Sharif's killing) aims to undermine the major political progress we achieved in a short time."
An Iraqi foreign ministry delegation is being dispatched to Cairo to try to close the rift between the two countries that emerged after the killing of Sharif, who was kidnapped from a Baghdad street on July 2. Egypt has cut its staff at its Baghdad mission and has vehemently rejected accusations by Iraqi officials that Sharif may have compromised his security by contacts he may have had with Sunni Arab militants, saying these statements were attempts by Iraq to absolve itself of responsibility for Sharif's death.
Sunni Arab hardliners are blamed for fueling the raging insurgency more than two years after Saddam Hussein's fall and for preventing their community from taking part in the political process.
US forces arrested late Monday Sheikh Talal Abdelkarim al-Matar, a senior Sunni Arab tribal leader from the area around Samarra, north of Baghdad, Iraqi police said.
And in fresh violence, the US military said four suspected insurgents and an Iraqi policeman were killed in clashes in the restive northern city of Mosul.
Three civilians were killed and 14 wounded in a suicide car bomb attack targeting a US military patrol in the northern city of Kirkuk, police said.
Another civilian was killed and nine wounded further north in Tal Afar when a package placed in the back of a car blew up, said the US military.
US soldiers shot dead one Iraqi soldier and wounded another when the car they were travelling in failed to stop at a checkpoint in Fallujah, west of Baghdad, the US military said.
In Baghdad, an Iraqi police colonel was killed while traveling in his car and a police captain was gunned down outside his flat in the capital, security sources said, adding that another policeman and an Iraqi soldier were killed in separate attacks north of the capital.
At least 47 Iraqi security force members or men applying for jobs with the security forces have been killed in violence since Sunday, including in a major attack on a recruitment centre in Baghdad.
Zoellick meanwhile met with Jaafari to discuss reconstruction aid to the war-torn country ahead of the July 18-19 international conference on the issue in Amman and reiterate Washington's support in training and equipping the country's fledgling forces.
"As (US) President (George W.) Bush has emphasized US forces intend to continue to support Iraqi people and that we will stand down as the Iraqi forces stand up, and that means that the US connection will be based on the conditions by which the Iraqi forces are able to meet the effort to deal with the counter-insurgency," Zoellick told reporters after the meeting.
He later visited a police academy in the predominantly Shiite central city of Hilla, south of Baghdad. He watched cadets simulate house raids.
The fight against insurgents is still led by US troops, which is why Jaafari reiterated his position that any timetable for the withdrawal of foreign forces hinges on how prepared Iraqi forces are to take over, adding that they still had some way to go in terms of numbers and skill.
"Security forces have to meet a threshold in terms of their capabilities," he said.
Efforts to stand up Iraqi forces are complicated by a relentless campaign of killing and attacks against them.
Al-Qaeda's frontman in Iraq Abu Musab al-Zarqawi vowed again to continue his attacks on the country's empowered Shiites and the security forces, according to a purported Internet letter attributed to him.
"They are disguising themselves under the uniforms of the police and infidel (national) guards, and they are loyal to the Crusaders," Zarqawi said in reference to US-led forces in Iraq.
13 Jul 2005 Source: Reuters
WASHINGTON, July 12 (Reuters) - American forces have captured a key operative in the organization of Iraq's al Qaeda leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the top U.S. general said on Tuesday.
Air Force Gen. Richard Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told the PBS program "The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer" that Monday's capture of Abu Abd Al-Aziz, whom he called Zarqawi's "main leader in Baghdad," was "going to hurt that operation of Zarqawi's pretty significantly."
Myers said Al-Aziz was picked up "on the battlefield," but provided no other details.
A defense official, speaking on condition of anonymity, added, "When you look at the picture of the Zarqawi network of the different elements that are known to exist, he's the second-in-command of the Baghdad element and has the reputation of being the 'emir of Baghdad' for Zarqawi."
The official said American forces were involved in the operation that snared Al-Aziz, but was unable to say whether Iraqi government forces played a role.
Al Qaeda Organization for Holy War in Iraq, led by the Jordanian-born Zarqawi, has carried out some of the deadliest attacks against U.S. forces, the Iraqi government and Shi'ite Muslims in Iraq as part of a tenacious insurgency.
AlertNet news
Wednesday, Jul. 13, 2005
SOFIA, July 12 (Xinhuanet) -- An Iraqi army battalion trained by Bulgarian and Polish troops in the country has been put on active duty on Tuesday, according to a report by Bulgarian news agency.
The battalion, which completed its training on Tuesday, took over the same day an area in southern Baghdad from foreign troops,it said.
Under an agreement among the Iraqi government, Bulgaria and Poland, the two East European countries will help train part of the new Iraqi army and police forces, which, upon end of the training, would be able to provide security service in areas patrolled by foreign troops.
Bulgaria had sent a special mission formed by military trainingpersonnel to Iraq and has also agreed to sell light arms to the new Iraqi army and police forces.
Bulgaria sent 500 troops to Iraq following the US-led war in the Arab country in May 2003, and the congress has decided to pull out the troops by the end of 2005.
London bombers 'were all British'
Updated: Tuesday, 12 July, 2005, 23:58 GMT 00:58 UK
Detectives now believe the London bombings were carried out by four British-born men in what were possibly the country's first suicide attacks.
Security sources said it was likely at least three of the men, said to be of Pakistani descent, are dead, after belongings were found at the scenes.
The details emerged as explosives were found in Leeds and Luton after a series of raids. One man has been arrested.
The BBC's Frank Gardner said an expert may have offered the bombers guidance.
The security correspondent said the suspected bombers - one of whom is thought to have been as young as 19 - may have been helped by someone who would have left the country before the bombs went off.
Police revealed details of the breakthrough in their investigation into the attacks, which killed at least 52 people, on Tuesday.
It emerged that relatives of one of the men had reported him missing last Thursday morning.
On Monday night, police had viewed CCTV footage of four suspects together at London King's Cross last Thursday.
They all had rucksacks and were seen just 20 minutes before the three Tube bombs started going off at 0851 BST. A bus bomb went off in Tavistock Square at 0947 BST.
Three of the men had travelled to Luton from Leeds by train, before catching a Thameslink train to London. They had been joined at Luton by a fourth man who had driven to the Bedfordshire town.
'Shock and horror'
Tuesday's police raids, which began at 0630 BST, centred on two properties in Dewsbury, West Yorkshire, and four in Leeds.
Police said they had arrested a relative of one of the four suspects in Yorkshire and taken them to London for questioning.
Explosives were also found in a car at Luton railway station, where experts have carried out seven controlled explosions, with three more expected to follow.
A second car believed to be linked to the attacks was also found at the station and towed to Leighton Buzzard, 10 miles (16km) west of Luton, for further examination.
Sir Iqbal Sacranie, of the Muslim Council of Britain, said it had received news of the suspects with "anguish, shock and horror".
He said: "It appears our youth have been involved in last week's horrific bombings against innocent people.
"While the police investigation continues we reiterate our absolute commitment and resolve to helping the police bring to justice all involved in this crime of mass murder. Nothing in Islam can ever justify the evil actions of the bombers."
Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Ian Blair said the searches, carried out under the Anti-Terrorism Act, were intelligence-led and "directly connected" to last week's attacks.
Head of the Metropolitan Police anti-terrorist branch Peter Clarke said documents identifying three of the men were found near three blast sites.
But there is no identity for the fourth bomber and police do not know if his remains are at the King's Cross blast site or if he has fled.
Three of the four men were from the West Yorkshire area, said Mr Clarke.
His colleague, assistant commissioner Andy Hayman, said: "I want to conclude by making it absolutely clear that no-one should be in any doubt the work last Thursday is that of extremists and criminals.
"No-one should smear or stigmatise any community with these acts."
Evidence found at each London location
Following developments on Tuesday he described the investigation as "complex and intensive" and "moving at great speed".
Police said there was forensic evidence that one of the bombers died in the Aldgate Tube explosion.
Property belonging to one of the suspects from West Yorkshire, who was reported missing by his family just after 1000 BST on Thursday, was also found on the devastated bus.
A third man's property was found at both the Aldgate and Edgware Road blasts.
Mr Clarke said: "We are trying to establish their movements in the run up to last week's attacks and specifically to establish if they all died in the explosions."
Eleven victims of the blasts have now been formally identified.
Eight inquests will be opened on Wednesday, including those of Londoners Jamie Gordon, 30, and Phillip Russell, 29.
Police are asking for anyone with information on the bombs to contact their anti-terrorist hotline on 0800 789 321.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/4676577.stm
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