Posted on 08/20/2005 4:49:50 PM PDT by Gucho
Seriously, y'all need to coordinate. Straight Vermonter does a daily terrorist roundup, with ping list, that you folks should be a part of.
Is there a ping list for this series of posts, Gucho?
By OMAR SINAN, Associated Press Writer
Sat Aug 20, 2005 - 7:10 PM ET
BAGHDAD, Iraq - The family of former Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz visited him in detention for the first time Saturday and remains confident he did nothing wrong during his years in the Iraqi leadership, his daughter said.
Zainab Tariq Aziz said her sister, mother and aunt were allowed to see Aziz for the first time more since he surrendered in April 2003 and was arrested by U.S. forces.
"He was tired, he had lost a couple of kilos, but he was in good spirits and felt relief when he saw us," she told The Associated Press by telephone.
She said the family drove from Amman, capital of neighboring Jordan, for the half-hour visit.
"Although we did not see my father for two years, they only gave us 30 minutes to meet him and in the presence of two Arabic speaking U.S. soldiers," she said.
She said her father, who was also a former foreign minister, asked about other members of the family and wanted news about what was going on elsewhere in Iraq.
"He asked us about what was going on in the outside world, and also what was the latest news about the constitution." she said. Negotiations are underway to draft a new constitution by Monday night.
She said Aziz met with the family in a wooden trailer divided by a glass partition. One American soldier stood behind the partition and the other was inside the part where they met with Aziz, she said.
"They did not even allow us to show him his grandchildren's pictures or letters," Zainab said. "He was worried about us and how we were doing and kept asking about his grandsons and how are they doing in schools."
Aziz told his family he was not afraid of standing trial. She quoted him as saying "I did not hurt anybody and my page is clean. So I am not anxious about the trial."
Aziz, a Christian in a Muslim-dominated ruling circle, has not been formally charged, but is under investigation for his alleged role in Saddam Hussein's regime. He allegedly was involved in several party purges in the 1970s and 80s during which an unspecified number of people died. Along with ten other senior aides, Aziz and Saddam remain in U.S. custody and are expected to be brought to trial soon.
Please, that would be much appreciated.
Aug 21, 2005
LUKE BAKER AND MICHAEL GEORGY IN BAGHDAD
US CONCESSIONS to Islamists on the role of religion in Iraqi law marked a turn in talks on a constitution, negotiators said yesterday as they raced to meet tomorrow's deadline to clinch a deal.
Shi'ite, Sunni and Kurdish negotiators all said there was accord on a bigger role for Islamic law than Iraq had before.
But a secular Kurdish politician said Kurds opposed making Islam the main source of law - a reversal of interim legal arrangements - and subjecting all legislation to a religious test.
"We understand the Americans have sided with the Shi'ites," he said. "It's shocking. It doesn't fit American values. They have spent so much blood and money here, only to back the creation of an Islamist state. I can't believe that's what the Americans really want or what the American people want."
Washington, with 140,000 troops still in Iraq, has insisted Iraqis are free to govern themselves yet made it clear it will not approve the kind of clerical rule seen in Shi'ite Iran, a state US President George Bush describes as "evil".
US ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad has been shepherding intensive meetings since parliament averted its own dissolution last Monday by giving constitution drafters another week to resolve crucial differences over regional autonomy and division of oil revenues.
Failing to finish by midnight tomorrow could provoke new elections and, effectively, a return to the drawing board for the entire constitutional process. But a further extension may be more likely, as Washington insists the charter is key to its strategy to undermine the Sunni revolt and leave a new Iraqi government largely to fend for itself after US troops go home.
An official of one of the main Shi'ite Islamist parties in the interim government confirmed the deal on law and Islam.
It was unclear what concessions the Shi'ites may have made, but it seemed possible their demands for Shi'ite autonomy in the oil-rich south, pressed this month by Islamist leader Abdul Aziz al-Hakim, may be watered down in the face of Sunni opposition.
Sunni Arab negotiator Saleh al-Mutlak also said a deal was struck which would mean parliament could pass no legislation that "contradicted Islamic principles". A constitutional court would rule on any dispute on that, the Shi'ite official said.
"The Americans agreed, but on one condition - that the principles of democracy should be respected," Mutlak said.
"We reject federalism," he repeated, underlining continued Sunni opposition to Hakim's demands. Hundreds demonstrated in the Sunni city of Ramadi yesterday, echoing Mutlak's views. He urged Sunnis, dominant under Saddam Hussein but who have largely shunned politics and, in some cases, taken up arms in revolt, to vote in an October referendum to back a constitution.
It would now be written to defend "the unity of Iraq", he said. "We call on all Iraqis to register their names to participate in the coming referendum and elections," Mutlak said.
The Kurdish negotiator rushed to make clear his outrage at a deal on Islam. "We don't want dictatorship of any kind, including any religious dictatorship. Perhaps the Americans are negotiating to get a deal at any cost, but we will not accept a constitution at any cost," he said, adding that he believed Shi'ite leaders had used the precedent of Afghanistan to win over the ambassador's support.
Khalilzad, who said this month there would be "no compromise" on equal rights for women and minorities, helped draft a constitution in his native Afghanistan that declared it an "Islamic Republic" in which no law could contradict Muslim principles. It also, however, contained language establishing equal rights for women and protecting religious minorities.
Meanwhile, President Bush said yesterday that US troops in Iraq were fighting to protect Americans at home from terrorism such as the September 11 attacks four years ago.
"Our troops know that they're fighting in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere to protect their fellow Americans from a savage enemy," Bush said in his weekly radio address.
"They know that if we do not confront these evil men abroad, we will have to face them one day in our own cities and streets, and they know that the safety and security of every American is at stake in this war, and they know we will prevail," he said.
His comments came as the public shows more discontent with his handling of Iraq. Cindy Sheehan, the mother of a soldier killed in Iraq, became a symbol for anti-war protesters after camping near Bush's Crawford, Texas, ranch, where he is on vacation, urging him to bring US troops home.
Bump - Your on.
By Khalid Amin
KUWAIT CITY, Aug 20: Insurgents in Iraq have abducted a bus including 11 Pakistanis and demanded in return KD 60,000 to release them, sources told Dawn. According to reliable sources the labourers were hired by a local construction company, Al Hamrah and were sent to Iraq a week ago but still have not reached to their destination. They said the kidnapped bus containing 11 Pakistanis, three Egyptians and two Indians
The bus carrying mostly labourers, drivers, and electricians were kidnapped near Nasaryia area of Iraq and the abductors have demanded KD 60,000 to release them, sources added.
Kidnapped Pakistanis were identified as Abdul Lal from Rawalpindi, Qazafi from Lahore, Zahid Khan, Noor Rehman, Tehsil and Musafar from Warsak Peshawar. Relatives of the kidnapped Pakistanis in Kuwait have demanded an immediate intervention of embassy and government of Pakistan for their secured release.
Jordan swoops on suspects after rocket attack
20/08/2005 - 6:08:30 PM
Police in Jordan today detained several suspects as the hunt widened for the militants who fired the rockets that narrowly missed a US Navy ship anchored off Aqaba.
Those arrested included Iraqis, Syrians, Egyptians and Jordanians, according to a Jordanian security official.
In what he called a breakthrough, Interior Minister Awni Yirfas said that security forces had found the launcher used to fire the three rockets.
The Gulf of Aqaba, a narrow northern extension of the Red Sea, is bordered by Egypt, Israel, Jordan and Saudi Arabia with the frontiers of the four countries touching or within view of one another.
The Abdullah Azzam Brigades – an al Qaida-linked group that responsibility for the bombings which killed at least 64 people at Sharm el-Sheik in July and 34 people at two other Egyptian resorts last October – said in an internet statement that its men had fired the missiles.
Officials said a warehouse – overlooking Aqaba from a hillside industrial zone - was used to launch the notoriously inaccurate Katyusha rockets. It had been rented days beforehand by four men carrying Iraqi and Egyptian identity papers.
A Jordanian soldier was killed and another wounded when one Katyusha flew across the bow of the USS Ashland and hit a warehouse used by the Americans to store goods headed to Iraq.
Two more rockets were fired toward Israel, whose border is next to Aqaba. One fell short and hit the wall of a Jordanian military hospital. The other landed close to Israel’s Eilat airport, lightly wounding a taxi driver.
http://www.eecho.ie/news/bstory.asp?j=187302931&p=y873x3794&n=187303874
Aug 20, 2005
SALT LAKE CITY With President Bush scheduled to speak in Salt Lake City Monday, a local T-V station is refusing to air an anti-war ad.
It features Cindy Sheehan (SHEE'-han) -- the woman who's been staging a vigil near Bush's Texas ranch. She lost a son in Iraq.
The ad shows Sheehan pleading with Bush for a meeting. She also accuses him of lying about the reasons the U-S invaded Iraq. And, Sheehan adds, "it's time to admit mistakes and bring our troops home now."
The ad is already running on other T-V stations in the Salt Lake City area. But K-T-V-X, an A-B-C affiliate, found it "inappropriate commercial advertisement" that could "be offensive to our community in Utah."
President Bush is scheduled to speak Monday in Salt Lake City at the national convention of the Veterans of Foreign Wars.
Associated Press
21 August 2005
NEVE DEKALIM: Israeli forces have evacuated more than 85 per cent of Gaza's Jewish settlers after nearly 40 years of occupation and all should be out by tomorrow, police say.
Following three days of forced evacuations, during which settlers were carried weeping from their homes and protesters pulled screaming from synagogues by unarmed soldiers, only four of the 21 settlements in the Gaza Strip remain.
The removal of settlements is the first from land that Palestinians want for a state under Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's plan for "disengagement" from conflict, backed by Washington as a possible step to peace.
In the Gaza Strip, Hamas militants said the withdrawal was a victory for the Palestinian uprising and vowed to turn the fight to the West Bank and Jerusalem after Israel quits Gaza. The group is committed to destroying the Jewish state.
Police spokesman Avi Zelba said 85 per cent of the houses in Gaza that were once home to 8500 settlers were now empty. Some 1.4 million Palestinians live in Gaza's densely populated cities and refugee camps.
There were no evacuations yesterday, the Jewish Sabbath.
Security forces hope to clear three remaining settlements in Gaza's main Gush Katif settlement bloc today and outlying Netzarim on Monday, before turning attention to two of four West Bank settlements that are also due to be evacuated.
"We expect all the settlements to be evacuated during the next week," Zelba said.
A core of radicals opposes giving up any of the land captured in the 1967 war, which they see as a biblical birthright.
Aug 20, 2005
A bomb denonated by remote control killed at least three police officers on patrol in Dagestan on Saturday, the latest violence to hit the troubled Russian region amid continuing fears about spreading violence in the Caucasus.
The bomb exploded Saturday afternoon as a four-man patrol walked past a grove of trees along a downtown street in Makhachkala, the capital of the Caspian Sea region, said city police Lt. Col. Akhmed Magomedov.
An Associated Press reporter saw two dead bodies with police uniforms lying on the street as armed police, firefighters and paramedics rushed to the scene. Dazed residents watched as workers swept broken glass from the street.
Two officers died at the scene, and one died en route to the hospital, officials said. A fourth officer was hospitalized in serious condition.
"I was walking by the fence, and suddenly I heard the explosion. I ran up and saw four police men on the ground. Two of them were dead," Timur Aliyev said.
NTV showed footage of a partially collapsed blue fence and a blue van with its windows blown out.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the blast.
Near-daily attacks on police and authorities in Dagestan have raised fears that violence is spreading from neighboring Chechnya. Since the beginning of the year, a series of explosions has killed more than 30 police and security officers and wounded scores of others in Dagestan.
Some blame Islamic militants working with Chechen rebels, while others say the violence could be rooted in rivalry between the region’s more than 100 ethnic groups or among feuding criminal gangs.
Last month, a radio-controlled bomb tore into a truck carrying federal Interior Ministry soldiers outside a bath house in Makhachkala, killing at least 11 troops and wounding over 20 other people, including civilians.
A group calling itself Islamic Jamaat of Dagestan "Shariat" claimed responsibility for that explosion and promised more attacks on what it called "Russian occupiers."
Makhachkala is 1,000 miles south of Moscow.
Chechnya, to the west of Dagestan, remains plagued by violence and rampant abductions nearly six years after Russian forces re-entered the province to end a separatist insurgency there.
Protesters rally against federalism in the new Iraqi constitution in Ramadi, 113km (70 miles) west of Baghdad, Saturday, Aug. 20, 2005. Talks on Iraq's new constitution have stalled over the role of Islam and the distribution of the country's oil wealth, negotiators said Saturday. Iraqis have until Monday night to complete work on the draft, otherwise parliament must dissolve. (AP Photo/Omar Aboud)
Iraq: Jordan Letting Saddam Kin Aid Terror
By SAMEER N. YACOUB, Associated Press Writer
BAGHDAD, Iraq - The Iraqi government accused Jordan on Sunday of allowing members of Saddam Hussein's family living there to fund a network seeking to destabilize Iraq.
Government spokesman Laith Kubba said the former Iraqi dictator's relatives in Jordan have "huge amounts of money" to support efforts to revive his Baath Party organizations. Kubba did not specify the family members, but Saddam's two oldest daughters live in the Jordanian capital, Amman.
"It is regrettable to say that there still are large numbers of elements, not only former regime elements, but supervisors of some terrorist groups, who are in Jordan," Kubba told reporters.
Relations between Jordan and Iraq have been strained since the collapse of Saddam's regime in 2003 over various issues. However, it appeared Kubba's statements were aimed in part at deflecting criticism from Jordan about the possible involvement of Iraqis in subversive operations in Jordan.
Jordanian police have detained an undetermined number of Iraqis as well as other foreign Arab suspects in the Friday rocket attack that barely missed a U.S. warship in Aqaba.
"We don't want Jordan to harm a quarter of a million Iraqis (living in Jordan) because of one Iraqi" involved in the Friday attack, Kubba said.
There was no immediate comment from the Jordanian government, which has been seeking to improve relations with its eastern neighbor — once its closest trading partner and only supplier of oil.
Kubba said a major electricity line between the northern town of Beiji and Baghdad was attacked two days ago, "and this will, of course, affect the power supply in Baghdad." He added that repairs have already begun.
Kubba expressed hope that political leaders would complete the draft of the new constitution in time for the Monday night deadline for parliamentary approval. He said a basic agreement had been worked out "but everybody is playing with everybody else's nerves."
On the day before another constitutional deadline, Sunni Arab negotiators met among themselves on Sunday and warned they would reject the new charter if Shiites and Kurds push it through parliament without Sunni consent.
However, most of the latest agreements have been reached between Shiite and Kurdish negotiators, prompting Sunni Arabs to complain of being sidelined. They have warned they will reject the new constitution if Shiites and Kurds push it through parliament without Sunni consent.
Sunnis object to several proposals, including federalism, distribution of oil wealth and a special status for the Shiite clerical hierarchy in Najaf.
"They will surprise us in the final hour," Saleh al-Mutlaq, one of four main Sunni negotiators, told The Associated Press late Saturday. "We will reject it and the people will be angry, the street will be angry and as a result we will be back to square one."
Shiites and Kurds have enough seats in the 275-member parliament to push through a constitution without Sunni approval. Doing so, however, risks a backlash among Sunni Arabs, who are at the forefront of the insurgency. That would undermine the U.S. goal of a constitution that would satisfy all Iraqi communities and in time lure Sunnis away from the insurgency.
Al-Mutlaq alleged that the Americans, Shiites and Kurds were cutting deals and "we have no idea what is going on."
Once the constitution is approved by parliament, it will go to the voters in a national referendum Oct. 15.
U.S. officials have expressed hope that a new constitution will allow for a reduction in the American force there — it now numbers about 138,000 troops. But Gen. Peter Schoomaker, the Army's top general, said Saturday the Army is planning for the possibility of keeping the current number of soldiers in Iraq for four more years.
As the constitutional haggling dragged into its final hours, violence continued unabated.
Two officials of the Interior Ministry's security department were shot dead as they drove through western Baghdad, police Lt. Majid Zaki said.
In Samarra, 60 miles north of Baghdad, a policeman and a civilian were was killed by insurgents in a drive-by shooting, and five members of a single family were found shot dead overnight, a police spokesman said.
A Danish maker of industrial pumps, Grundfos, on Friday admitted paying kickbacks to authorities in Saddam Hussein's Iraq under the U.N. oil-for-food program. 'We deeply regret that two employees have taken part in bribery in connection with Grundfos's sales of pumps under the oil-for-food program,' Grundfos Chief Executive Jens Joergen Madsen said in a statement. The company said an internal investigation in May 2004 had revealed that the employees had paid bribes to Iraqi authorities in 2001-2002 to win two orders. It fired them and notified the Danish Foreign Ministry and the United Nations about the matter. The company, which sold products worth up to 100 million Danish crowns under the oil-for-food plan during 1996-2003, declined to comment on the size of the bribes.The original oil-for-food report is shown being released in New York February 3, 2005. (FILE/Chip East/Reuters)
Saddam Vows in Letter to Sacrifice Himself
By JAMAL HALABY, Associated Press Writer
AMMAN, Jordan - Facing trial soon on charges he massacred fellow Muslims, Saddam Hussein purportedly vowed in a letter published Sunday to sacrifice himself for the cause of Palestine and Iraq, and he urged Arabs to follow his path.
The letter, published in two Jordanian newspapers, allegedly was delivered through the International Committee of the Red Cross to an old friend now living in Jordan. Those who made the letter public said the man refused to be identified. It was believed to have been the first letter since Saddam was captured in December 2003 that he sent to someone other than a family member.
"My soul and my existence is to be sacrificed for our precious Palestine and our beloved, patient and suffering Iraq," the letter said.
Tayseer Homsi, Secretary General of the Jordanian Arab Baath Socialist Party, said the missive was delivered through the ICRC to an "independent Jordanian political figure who wished to remain anonymous."
The ICRC said it was checking the authenticity of the letter, according to Iraq delegation spokeswoman Rana Sidani, who is based in Amman. Saddam and other such political detainees to whom the ICRC has access are only allowed to write letters to family members.
Saddam was expected to stand trial in Iraq this fall on charges that could bring the death penalty. His letter appeared to include his musings on that possible fate.
"Life is meaningless without the considerations of faith, love and inherited history in our nation," the letter said.
"It is not much for a man to support his nation with his soul and all he commands because it deserves it since it has given us life in the name of God and allowed us to inherit the best," he wrote in what appeared to be a clear call to Arabs to follow his footsteps.
"My brother, love your people, love Palestine, love your nation, long live Palestine."
The Jordanian Baath party, which publicized the letter and espouses ideology similar to Saddam's now-defunct Baath party, has no links to Iraq. Homsi, the party secretary general, said the letter's recipient gave his party a copy of the letter two days ago.
"The Jordanian man wished to remain anonymous. He's an old friend of Saddam, he's not a member of our party nor is he a party functionary," Homsi told the Associated Press.
He declined to identify the man.
Ad-Dustour and al Arab Al Yawm, Jordan's second- and third-largest daily newspapers, said the letter was given to them by Homsi's party at a press conference Saturday.
The letter became public as Iraq geared up for a series of trials, the first beginning this fall, concerning Saddam's alleged role in the 1982 massacre of an estimated 150 Shiites in Dujail, north of Baghdad, in retaliation for an assassination attempt on the former leader. Saddam is a Sunni, and his minority sect ruled over majority Shiites, Kurds and other ethnic groups until he was ousted in April 2003 after the U.S.-led invasion.
Others indicted in the Dujail massacre are Barazan Ibrahim, intelligence chief at the time and Saddam's half brother; former Vice President Taha Yassin Ramadan; and Awad Hamed al-Bandar, at the time a Baath party official in Dujail.
The assassination attempt was organized by the Dawa Party, whose members include Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari.
In addressing his correspondent, Saddam said: "My brother, love your people, love Palestine, love your nation, long live Palestine."
Also Sunday, Iraq criticized Jordan for allegedly allowing Saddam's family to fund an Iraqi network seeking to destabilize the country. The Iraqi rebuke appeared designed to blunt bad publicity for Iraq after Jordanian police detained an undetermined number of Iraqis and other foreign Arab suspects in the Friday rocket attack that barely missed a U.S. warship in Jordan's Red Sea resort of Aqaba.
Iraqi women, supporters of the Iraqi Workers-Communist Party, stand behind a banner reading in English 'No to a fascist nationalist Islamist constitution' as they rally in central baghdad, Sunday, Aug. 21, 2005. Talks on Iraq's new constitution have stalled over the role of Islam and the distribution of the country's oil wealth. Iraqis have until Monday night to complete work on the draft, otherwise parliament must dissolve.(AP Photo/Samir Mizban)
Iraq Sunnis Urge U.S., U.N. to Block Draft
By SAMEER N. YACOUB, Associated Press Writer
BAGHDAD, Iraq - One day before the deadline for the new constitution, Sunni Arab negotiators appealed Sunday to the United States and the international community to prevent Shiites and Kurds from pushing a draft charter through parliament without Sunni consent.
An Iraqi government spokesman suggested that if the factions cannot agree on a draft by Monday night, parliament may have to amend the interim constitution yet again to extend the deadline to prevent the dissolution of parliament.
The deadline was already extended by one week last Monday after negotiators failed to reach agreement on a number of contentious issues including federalism, distribution of Iraq's oil wealth, power relationships among the provinces and the role of the Shiite clerical hierarchy in Najaf.
The 15-member Sunni Arab bloc issued its statement after complaining that it was being sidelined by Shiites and Kurds, who were cutting deals without them.
"At a time when there are few hours left to announce the draft, we still see no active coordination and seriousness to draft the constitution," the statement said.
Sunni Arabs said they were only invited to a single meeting with the other community negotiators since Monday. That session was held on Friday.
The statement urged the United States, the United Nations and the international community to intervene to prevent a draft constitution moving forward without unanimous agreement, "which would make the current crisis more complicated."
Vice President Adil Abdul-Mahdi, a Shiite, told Forat television that 97 percent of the document had been agreed upon and would be submitted to parliament by the deadline.
Government spokesman Laith Kubba also expressed hope that political leaders would complete the draft in time. If not, Kubba said there were two options: amend the interim constitution again and extend the deadline or dissolve parliament.
Iraqi government spokesman Leith Kubba answers questions during a press conference on August 9. Iraq called on neighbouring Jordan to extradite members of Saddam Hussein's former regime it accused of fomenting 'terrorism' on its soil.(AFP/File/Sabah Arar)
Shiites and Kurds have enough seats in parliament to push through a draft even without the Sunnis. Because so many Sunni Arabs boycotted the Jan. 30 elections, they won only 17 seats in the country's 275-member National Assembly. Sunni Arabs form an estimated 20 percent of the national population.
But Sunni Arabs could in theory scuttle the constitution in the Oct. 15 referendum. Under current rules, the constitution would be defeated if it is opposed by two-thirds of the voters in three of the 18 provinces. Sunni Arabs form the majority in at least four.
Meanwhile, the Iraqi government criticized its neighbor Jordan for allegedly allowing Saddam Hussein's family to fund a network seeking to destabilize Iraq and re-establish the banned Baath Party.
"It is regrettable to say that until now there are big numbers of elements, not only former regime elements, but supervisors of some terrorist groups who are in Jordan," Kubba, the government spokesman, said.
Kubba cited Saddam's relatives who live in Jordan, where they have "huge amounts of money" to "support ... efforts to revive Baath Party organizations." Kubba did not specify individual family members, but Saddam's two oldest daughters live in the Jordanian capital Amman.
Relations between Jordan and Iraq have been strained since the collapse of Saddam's regime in 2003 over various issues. However, it appeared Kubba's statements were aimed in part at deflecting criticism from Jordan about the possible involvement of Iraqis in subversive operations in Jordan.
Jordanian police have detained an undetermined number of Iraqis as well as other foreign Arab suspects in the Friday rocket attack that barely missed a U.S. warship in Aqaba.
"We don't want Jordan to harm a quarter of a million Iraqis (living in Jordan) because of one Iraqi" involved in the Friday attack, Kubba said.
There was no immediate comment from the Jordanian government, which has been seeking to improve relations with its eastern neighbor — once its closest trading partner and only supplier of oil.
In other developments:
• A prominent member of the Baghdad city council, Sabir al-Issawi, was in serious condition Sunday after an ambush the day before in which one of his bodyguards was killed and three others wounded, officials said.
• Two officials of the Interior Ministry's security department were shot dead Sunday as they drove through western Baghdad, police Lt. Majid Zaki said.
U.S. troops secure the area as bodies of two Iraqi interior ministry officers killed by unidentified gunmen lay on the ground in Baghdad, Sunday, Aug. 21, 2005. Gen. Peter Schoomaker, the Army's top general, said Saturday the Army is planning for the possibility of keeping the current number of soldiers in Iraq for four more years. (AP Photo/Hadi Mizban)
• In Samarra, 95 kilometers (60 miles) north of Baghdad, a policeman and a civilian were was killed by insurgents in a drive-by shooting, and five members of a single family were found shot dead overnight, a police spokesman said.
Ali Nasir Jabur, 10, sits on the back of a truck loaded with the bodies of his family members, outside Tikrit hospital, 130 kilometers (80 miles) north of Baghdad, Sunday, Aug. 21, 2005. Ali's parents, two brothers and sister were killed when unknown gunmen wearing Iraqi security forces uniforms raided their home the previous night, while he was hidden under a blanket.(AP Photo/Bassim Daham)
Two Jordanian policemen stand guard near a warehouse in Jordan's port town of Aqaba, from where attackers fired three Katyusha rockets early Friday, Aug. 19, 2005, killing a Jordanian soldier. One rocket narrowly missed a U.S. Navy ship docked in the Jordanian port and another fell close to a nearby airport inside neighboring Israel, officials said. The rocket fire narrowly missed the USS Ashland, an amphibious vessel attached to the Marines, in the Jordanian Red Sea port of Aqaba, marking the most serious attack on an American naval vessel since the 2000 bombing of the USS Cole in Yemen that killed 17 sailors. (AP Photo/ Nader Daoud)
Several Arrested in Jordan Rocket Attacks
By SHAFIKA MATTAR, Associated Press Writer
Sun Aug 21, 7:23 AM ET
AQABA, Jordan - Police detained several suspects on Saturday as the hunt widened for the attackers who fired and supplied the rockets that narrowly missed a U.S. Navy ship anchored in the bay of this Red Sea port best known for beach vacations and Mideast summits.
Those arrested included Iraqis, Syrians, Egyptians and Jordanians, according to a Jordanian security official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to comment publicly. He would not give the number of detainees.
Interior Minister Awni Yirfas told The Associated Press that security forces had found the launcher used to fire the three Katyusha rockets.
Police found four more rockets when they seized the launcher in a warehouse in an industrial zone on a hillside overlooking Aqaba, state TV reported Saturday. The four rockets were defused, the report said.
The newscast did not say whether anyone had been detained for Friday's attack.
The Gulf of Aqaba, a narrow northern extension of the Red Sea, is bordered by Egypt, Israel, Jordan and Saudi Arabia with the frontiers of the four countries touching or within view of one another.
A further outbreak of terrorism in the region would be particularly worrisome not only because of U.S. Navy targets in the area but also because Muslim extremists want to topple governments in Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Jordan — all longtime American allies. Egypt and Jordan have peace treaties with Israel.
The Abdullah Azzam Brigades — an al-Qaida-linked group that claimed responsibility for the bombings which killed at least 64 people at Sharm el-Sheik in July and 34 people at two other Egyptian resorts last October — said in an Internet statement that its fighters had fired the Katyushas, bolstering concerns that Islamic extremists had opened a new front in the region.
Authorities said the warehouse used to launch the notoriously inaccurate rockets had been rented days beforehand by four men carrying Iraqi and Egyptian identity papers.
The security official who disclosed Saturday's arrests said an Iraqi detainee was suspected of taking part in the attack, but he cautioned against assuming the others arrested were equally involved.
A Jordanian soldier was killed and another wounded when one Katyusha flew across the bow of the USS Ashland and hit a warehouse used by the Americans to store goods headed to Iraq.
Two more rockets were fired toward Israel. One fell short and hit the wall of a Jordanian military hospital. The other landed close to Israel's Eilat airport, lightly wounding a taxi driver.
Police said Saturday they were searching for as many as six people — including one Syrian, Egyptians and Iraqis — who escaped in a vehicle with Kuwaiti license plates.
Security was tightened nationwide, including in the capital Amman, which has been the target of several failed al-Qaida terrorist plots — including one using chemicals in April 2004. Police at road blocks were stopping cars and checking identity papers. Pictures of suspects were distributed to border checkpoints.
Although the rockets missed the USS Ashland, the Navy decided to sail both of its ships out of Aqaba bay as a precaution. They had arrived earlier in the week for a military exercise with the Jordanian navy.
Jordan is trying to determine the source of the rockets, and how they were smuggled into the country, which has tight border security.
Lebanon's Shiite Muslim militant group Hezbollah, which is backed by Syria and Iran, has thousands of Katyushas.
Doug Richardson, of the London-based Jane's Defense Review, said the rockets have been widely copied from their original Russian design and modified by many countries, including those in eastern Europe and China.
Iran and Hezbollah would be "potential sources" of the weapon, he said in a telephone interview.
In Lebanon, a Hezbollah official declined to comment when asked about the group's involvement.
In Syria, Elias Murad, chief editor of Al-Baath newspaper, mouthpiece of the country's ruling Baath Party, said attempts to involve Damascus were "ridiculous because Katyusha rockets exist in two-thirds of the world."
Hezbollah pounded Israel's north with Katyusha rockets for two decades in a guerrilla war that ended with Israel's pullout from southern Lebanon in 2000.
In Iraq, insurgents have used Katyusha rockets against U.S. military installations. ___
Associated Press reporter Jamal Halaby in Amman, Jordan, contributed to this report.
U.S. troops patrol the road in Baghdad, Iraq, Sunday, Aug. 21, 2005. Gen. Peter Schoomaker, the Army's top general, said Saturday the US Army is planning for the possibility of keeping the current number of US soldiers in Iraq for four more years. (AP Photo/Hadi Mizban)
Private David Stanislowski(R) from Pocatell, Idaho, of the Lighting Troops 3rd Squadron, 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment and First Lieutenant Mike Smith from Kansas, watch a military convoy passing along a highway from the top of a Bradley Fighting Vehicle on the outskirts of Baghdad.(AFP/Liu Jin)
The USS Kearsarge leaves the Red Sea port of Aqaba. Jordanian security forces arrested an Iraqi suspect thought to be one of four militants behind a rocket attack on US warships moored in the port of Aqaba and a neighboring Israeli resort.(AFP/Abraham Faroujian)
Two US soldiers of the 3rd Squadron, 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment watch television as others sleep at a temporary rest station on the outskirts of Baghdad. US President George W. Bush said that the best way to honor fallen troops was to win the war on terrorism.(AFP/Liu Jin)
The shadow of a US soldier is seen during a patrol in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul. Iraq said the rush-hour bombings that rocked Baghdad sought to create a sectarian crisis in the war-torn country as fresh rebel violence killed 12, including four US soldiers.(AFP/File/Tauseef Mustafa)
A crater is seen at a roadside after a blast in the district of Paghman, 20 km (12 miles) west of Kabul, Afghanistan August 21, 2005. Two officials of the U.S. embassy in Kabul were hurt by a roadside bomb that hit their convoy near the Afghan capital on Sunday, officials said. REUTERS/Ahmad Masood
4 U.S. Soldiers Killed in Afghan Bombing
By DANIEL COONEY, Associated Press Writer
KABUL, Afghanistan - A roadside bomb killed four U.S. soldiers and wounded three others Sunday as they patrolled southern Afghanistan — the deadliest attack on American forces here in nearly two months, the U.S. military said.
Militant assaults elsewhere killed a senior pro-government Islamic leader and two Afghan policemen, as Taliban-led rebels step up a campaign to subvert key Sept. 18 legislative elections. Seven U.S. soldiers have been killed in Afghanistan during the past four days.
On the outskirts of the capital, Kabul, a roadside bomb exploded near a U.S. Embassy convoy, wounding two American officials, an embassy spokesman said.
"The vehicle was part of a convoy on routine embassy business," spokesman Lou Fintor said, adding that the Americans suffered minor injuries.
The blast is believed to be the first attack on U.S. embassy officials in Kabul in months.
The blast that killed U.S. troops occurred in Zabul province's Daychopan district, the military said in a statement. The three wounded soldiers were hit by shrapnel and were in stable condition, the military said.
"The unit was conducting offensive operations in support of an ongoing mission to find and defeat enemy forces in the area when the attack occurred," the statement said.
"The unit's mission is part of a much larger operation to disrupt enemy forces and to thereby provide a safe environment for upcoming September elections."
The statement quoted Maj. Gen. Jason Kamiya, the U.S.-led coalition's operational commander, as saying the attack would "strengthen, not weaken, the resolve" of the force.
Some 187 U.S. service members have been killed in and around Afghanistan since the start of Operation Enduring Freedom in late 2001 — including 64 during an upsurge of insurgent attacks in the last six months that also have left about 1,000 others dead.
On Friday, a U.S. Marine was killed in a clash near Asadabad in eastern Afghanistan, while a day earlier, a roadside bomb killed two U.S. soldiers protecting road workers on a U.S.-funded project in southern Kandahar province, a former Taliban stronghold.
U.S. officials have warned that fighting could escalate ahead of the parliamentary and provincial assembly elections, seen as the next step in building Afghanistan's democracy after a quarter-century of civil strife and war.
In attacks elsewhere, a roadside bomb exploded late Saturday under a police vehicle also in Zabul province, killing two police officers, said local government chief Rozi Khan.
In southern Kandahar province Sunday, gunmen riding a motorbike shot dead cleric Mawlawi Abdullah, the latest in a string of attacks on religious leaders who have openly condemned the Taliban and other extremists.
Abdullah — a senior figure in the Islamic Ulama Council — and a colleague were killed as they walked out of a mosque after praying at dawn, Interior Ministry official Dad Mohammed Rasa said.
In the eastern province of Kunar, rebels ambushed two tanker trucks hauling fuel to an American military base, burning the vehicles but letting the drivers go, officials said.
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