By Linda Sieg TOKYO, March 7 (Reuters) - A top Japanese diplomat on Tuesday dismissed reports that Tokyo could start withdrawing troops from Iraq as early as this month, saying a decision had to take into account public order and nation-building in the troubled country.

Japan has about 600 non-combat troops in Iraq on the nation's riskiest military mission since World War Two, a deployment that won praise from Tokyo's close ally the United States but was opposed by most Japanese voters.

"It is important for them (Iraqis) to be able to maintain public order themselves as much as possible and to achieve stability of civilian life," Senior Vice Minister for Foreign Affairs Yasuhisa Shiozaki told Reuters in an interview. "We will decide on whether to withdraw the Self-Defence Forces (military) while watching whether such things are becoming possible," he said.

The Yomiuri newspaper reported last month that Japan planned to move its troops from Samawa in southern Iraq to Kuwait starting in late March and bring all personnel home by the end of July, but it said the start of the withdrawal might be delayed.

"I don't know why, but there has been talk of withdrawing in March," Shiozaki said. "That is not possible. Currently, Iraq is in an extremely difficult situation as to whether it can form a real government, and terrorism among religious groups...has intensified. While looking at the situation overall and to what degree we have achieved our basic goal, we will decide what to do."

Sectarian violence has killed hundreds in Iraq since the Feb. 22 bombing of Samarra's Golden Mosque.

NATION-BUILDING PROGRESS

Shiozaki said progress in Iraqi nation-building was another factor in deciding the timing of Japan's troop withdrawal.

Iraqi President Jalal Talabani said on Monday he would convene parliament in six days, but political wrangling means a government of national unity is unlikely to be formed soon.

"We have to decide this based on discussions with other countries involved," Shiozaki said.

"Other countries are deciding in the context of Iraq's nation-building. Japan needs to consider that as well."

With their activities strictly limited by Japan's pacifist constitution, Japanese troops have been engaged in reconstruction activities such as repairing buildings and providing medical training. They rely heavily on British and Australian forces to maintain security in the area.

An Australian newspaper reported on Tuesday that Canberra had committed its forces to remain in Iraq until 2007.

Britain's most senior officer in Iraq, Lieutenant General Nick Houghton, told the Daily Telegraph newspaper that Britain planned to pull out nearly all its 8,000 troops by mid-2008 but also said the timeline would only work if sectarian tensions did not worsen and a national unity government was formed.

Britain's Defence Ministry said no timetable had been finalised. - alertnet.org

SECURITY DEVELOPMENTS

* MAHMUDIYA - Three people were killed, including two Iraqi soldiers, and five wounded when two car bombs, about 10 minutes apart, one driven by a suicide bomber, detonated in the town of Mahmudiya, 40 km (25 miles) south of Baghdad, police said.

One civilian was killed and five people were wounded, including two policemen, when a car bomb went off in Mahmudiya earlier in the day, police said.

* BAGHDAD - Mubdir al-Dulaimi, a senior Iraqi Army official, was assassinated while travelling in his convoy in the western Ghazaliya district of the capital, police said.

BAGHDAD - Three policemen were killed and one was wounded when a car bomb went off near their patrol in central Baghdad, police said.

BAGHDAD - Three civilians were wounded when a car bomb went off in central Baghdad, police said. The target was not known.

BAGHDAD - Ali Hussein al-Khafaji, the dean of the college of engineering, was abducted by gunmen while going to work in Baghdad, police said.

BAQUBA - A car bomb exploded in a busy market in Baquba northeast of Baghdad on Monday, killing six people, including two girls under four, and wounding 23, police said, adding most of the casualties were children.

BAGHDAD - One civilian was killed and 10 were wounded when a car bomb went off in northern Baghdad, police said.

BAGHDAD - One civilian was wounded when four mortar rounds landed in Sadr city in eastern Baghdad, police said.

ANBAR PROVINCE - A U.S. soldier was killed by "enemy action" on Sunday in western Anbar province, a Sunni insurgent stronghold, the U.S. military said.

BAGHDAD - Two civilians and two policemen were wounded when a suicide bomber blew himself up near a bank in Baghdad's Doura district, police said.

BAGHDAD - Two policemen and four civilians were wounded when a car bomb exploded as their patrol passed by in northern Baghdad, police said.

BAQUBA - Three civilians were killed by gunmen in separate attacks in Baquba, 65 km (40 miles) north of Baghdad, police said.

POLITICAL DEVELOPMENTS

President Jalal Talabani said on Monday he would summon Iraq's new parliament to hold its first sitting on March 12. - alertnet.org

By JOHN WARD ANDERSON and ANN SCOTT TYSON The Washington Post - BAGHDAD, Iraq -- The top commander of the Iraqi army division in Baghdad was killed Monday afternoon when his car came under small-arms fire while traveling through the capital, the U.S. military said.

Maj. Gen. Mubdar Hatim Hazya al-Dulaimi was one of the highest-ranking members of the new Iraqi army to be killed in insurgent violence. Under his leadership, the 6th Iraqi Army Division has been gradually assuming control over parts of the capital from U.S. forces.

His killing could set back security efforts in Baghdad, particularly after the recent outbreak of sectarian violence, according to a senior U.S. commander who worked closely with him.

"It could be a blow that takes a long time to overcome," said Maj. Gen. William G. Webster Jr., commander of the Army's 3rd Infantry Division, who oversaw U.S. troops in Baghdad for a year ending in January. "Losing a strong commander for even a little while in Baghdad could cause a further power shift toward what looks like the Shia control of the city."

The attack was one of a number of violent incidents across Iraq on Monday that left more than 20 people dead after a relative lull in bloodshed over the weekend.

President Jalal Talabani, meanwhile, announced that Iraq's new parliament, which was elected Dec. 15, will hold its first meeting on Sunday, the deadline set by the constitution for its first session. Lawmakers and political parties have been unable to agree on the composition of a new government, delaying the opening of parliament.

A U.S. military statement said Dulaimi "had been visiting his soldiers in Kadamiyah and was returning to his headquarters when his convoy came under small-arms-fire attack." It was not clear whether anyone else had been killed or injured in the incident.

Iraqi forces are in charge of security in about 60 percent of Baghdad. Only two weeks ago, Dulaimi had predicted that insurgent activity would decline because of the Iraqi army's operations.

A Sunni Arab sheik from southern Baghdad, Dulaimi led a division under Saddam Hussein during the Iran-Iraq war in the 1980s, and since Saddam's fall had commanded two other divisions before being selected by the Defense Ministry for the crucial job in Baghdad. "He was certainly destined to be a senior leader of all the armed forces," Webster said.

But Dulaimi's hands-on style and unique drive to lead from the front -- as well as his habit of shunning body armor -- also put him in greater danger. "He knew he had to be out with his soldiers for them to trust him," Webster said. "He put himself at more risk than his predecessors."

Elsewhere in the capital on Monday, at least four car bombs exploded, killing four people and injuring 24, police said. Four more people were killed and 10 wounded when three car bombs detonated in the town of Mahmudiyah, about 15 miles south of the capital, security officials said.

The U.S. military reported the death of a U.S. soldier in Anbar province on Sunday. Additional details were not available. - www.dfw.com

* KHALIS - A car bomb killed three Iraqi soldiers and wounded one other in the town of Khalis, north east of Baghdad, the Iraqi army said.

* BAGHDAD - Six civilians were wounded when two car bombs parked on the side of the road were detonated in northern and northeastern Baghdad, police said. The target of the explosions was not clear, they said.

* BAGHDAD - A roadside bomb exploded in the New Baghdad district in the east of the capital, police said. There were no casualties.

BAQUBA - Gunmen killed three members of radical Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr's office in Baquba, police and hospital sources said. Two other members were wounded.

BAGHDAD - Three mortar rounds landed on the headquarters of the National Dialogue Front, a Sunni Arab party headed by Salih al-Mutlak. No casualties were reported.

KIRKUK - Three students and a soldier were wounded when a roadside bomb exploded as an Iraqi army patrol drove by Kirkuk University in central Kirkuk, 250 km (150 miles) north of Baghdad, police said.

HAWIJA - A policeman was killed and another wounded in a drive-by shooting on the Kirkuk-Hawija highway, 60 km (40 miles) southwest of Kirkuk, police said.

BAGHDAD - Five civilians were wounded when a car bomb exploded in southern Baghdad, police said. The target of the explosion was not clear.

BAGHDAD - A civilian was killed and his wife was wounded when a car bomb struck at a U.S. patrol in western Baghdad, police said.

BAQUBA - A car bomb killed one civilian and wounded three police officers. The policemen had arrived at the scene after gunmen had killed a policeman on a patrol.

HILLA - Three traffic policemen and four civilians were wounded when a car bomb went off in central Hilla, 100 km (60 miles) south of Baghdad. Another car bomb exploded in northern Hilla but no casualties were reported.

BALAD - A policeman was wounded when four mortar rounds landed in and around Balad police station in Balad, 90 km (55 miles) north of Baghdad, police said.

BAIJI - Three policemen were killed and four were wounded when gunmen attacked their patrol in the oil refinery city of Baiji, 180 km (110 miles) north of Baghdad, police said.

TIKRIT - A Sunni shrine was destroyed on Monday when gunmen planted bombs inside it in the city of Tikrit, 175 km (110 miles) north of Baghdad, police said. - alertnet.org

Big News Network.com Wednesday 8th March, 2006

Iraqi police say a roadside bomb blast hit an Interior Ministry security convoy in central Baghdad Wednesday, killing at least two people.

Earlier, a security patrol found the bound bodies of 18 young men in an abandoned vehicle in Amiriyah, a predominantly Sunni Muslim neighborhood of the capital.

Iraqi officials say two of the men appear to have been shot, and most had their hands bound and were blindfolded. They say most of the victims had been strangled recently.

There is no word on who the victims were, or the motive for their killing, but the grisly discovery comes during a surge in sectarian violence. Hundreds of Iraqis have been killed following last month's bombing of a landmark golden-domed mosque in Samarra that was a shrine for Shi'ite Muslim faithful.

The U.S. ambassador to Iraq, Zalmay Khalilzad, says the sectarian attacks could develop into a civil war. He told the Los Angeles Times that the toppling of Saddam Hussein's regime in 2003 opened a "Pandora's box" of volatile ethnic and sectarian tensions.

President Bush's defense secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, said Tuesday he does not believe Iraq is in a state of civil war now, but he acknowledged the potential for such a conflict has always been present in the country.

Meanwhile, Iraqi political parties are continuing their efforts to form a new government, amid efforts by the main Shi'ite alliance to delay the scheduled opening of Parliament.

President Jalal Talabani has ordered Parliament to convene on Sunday, in order to meet a deadline mandated by the nation's post-Saddam constitution. However, the Shi'ite alliance - the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq - told Mr. Talabani Tuesday the naming of a prime minister could not take place until several days after March 12. - bignewsnetwork

Big News Network.com Wednesday 8th March, 2006

U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has accused Iran of sending members of an elite military force into Iraq to stir up trouble.

U.S. officials have long accused Iran of allowing insurgents and their supporters to cross its border with Iraq. Some media reports have indicated that Iran is sending in specially trained soldiers. But this is the first time Secretary Rumsfeld has made such an accusation.

"They are currently putting people into Iraq to do things that are harmful to the future of Iraq," said Donald Rumsfeld. "And we know it. And it is something that they, I think, will look back on as having been an error in judgment."

Secretary Rumsfeld said the people being sent are part of what is called the "Quds" Force, an elite unit of Iran's Republican Guards.

"They're putting Iranian 'Quds' Force type people into the country," he said. "I don't think we could consider them religious pilgrims."

Secretary Rumsfeld and the top U.S. military officer, General Peter Pace, indicated that some of the Iranian soldiers have been intercepted recently. But they could not say how long such forces have been operating in Iraq. General Pace said he has an idea how many are there, but he would not share that information. He noted that in the past, the U.S. military has found weapons and bombs in Iraq that it believes had come from Iran. But he said the latest reports refer to what he called "individuals crossing the border."

Secretary Rumsfeld said he does not have specific evidence that the Iranian government is behind the deployment of the "Quds" operatives, but he indicated he believes it is a reasonable assumption.

"Of course, 'Quds' Force, the Revolutionary Guard, doesn't go milling around willy nilly, one would think," stated Donald Rumsfeld.

Secretary Rumsfeld called the development a threat to Iraqi security, which could result in the deaths of more Iraqis. And he said the alleged Iranian operation stems from concerns about the effort to establish democracy in Iraq.

"It's certainly not to be in support of placing on their border a country that's democratic and notably unlike the regime in Iran," said U.S. defense secretary.

The allegation that Iran is sending the specially trained forces into Iraq comes as Iraqi leaders are trying to maintain order in spite of anger generated by the bombing of an important Shiite mosque two weeks ago. Secretary Rumsfeld said the attack and its aftermath have delayed the formation of a new Iraqi government. But he praised the Iraqi security forces, officials and political party leaders for preventing the outbreak of a civil war. And he accused the media of exaggerating the violence that followed the mosque bombing. - bignewsnetwork

By ALEXANDRA ZAVIS Associated Press Writer BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - 9th March 2006 - Gunmen wearing commando uniforms of the Shiite-dominated Interior Ministry on Wednesday stormed an Iraqi security company that relied heavily on Sunni ex-military men from the Saddam regime, spiriting away 50 hostages. The ministry denied involvement and called the operation a "terrorist act."

On Thursday, two roadside bombings targeting Iraqi patrols killed at least two civilians and injured 10, police said.

One blast missed an army patrol in Amariyah, a mostly Sunni neighborhood in west Baghdad, but killed two civilians and injured seven, said police Capt. Jassim al-Wahish.

Another was aimed at a police patrol in Jihad, a mostly Sunni western neighborhood, injuring three civilians bystanders, said police Lt. Mohammed Kheyoun.

Meanwhile, police and the U.S. military reported finding the bodies of 24 men garroted or shot in the head, most of them in an abandoned bus in a tough Baghdad Sunni neighborhood. They also reported the deaths of at least 15 others across Iraq, including a U.S. soldier and two Marines.

The Sunni minority, which was dominant in the country under Saddam Hussein, has complained bitterly that it is under attack from death squads associated with the Interior Ministry, in charge of Iraq's police. And, over the past two weeks - since the bombing of a Shiite shrine in Samarra - violence has become increasingly sectarian. Nearly 600 people have been killed since Feb. 22.

Many of the dead in that period were Sunnis, killed at close range after apparently being captured by overwhelming numbers of attackers. The nature of the killings suggested that a well-armed and organized force carried out the attacks.

There have also been repeated attacks against the Shiite-led security forces. Interior Minister Bayan Jabr and one of his assistants may themselves have been targets of assassination attempts Wednesday.

A bomb hidden under a parked car detonated as police from Jabr's protection force were driving through Baghdad, killing two officers and wounding a third, police said. Four bystanders were injured.

And gunmen attacked the convoy of Interior Ministry Undersecretary Hekmet Moussa in west Baghdad, killing two bodyguards and injuring two others, police said. Neither Jabr nor Moussa were in the convoys.

The sectarian bloodshed has complicated Shiite Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari's bid for a second term. Al-Jaafari is opposed by a coalition of Sunni Arab, Kurdish and secular Shiite politicians - led by President Jalal Talabani, a Kurd.

The president has openly challenged al-Jaafari's candidacy on grounds he is too divisive and would be unable to form a government representing all Iraq's religious and ethnic factions. There was also great unease over al-Jaafari's close ties to radical anti-American cleric Muqtada al-Sadr.

On Wednesday, Shiite Vice President Adil Abdul-Mahdi finally co-signed a presidential decree to call parliament into session for the first time since the Dec. 15 elections. The about-face appeared to break a political deadlock that had blocked attempts to begin the process of forming the country's first permanent, post-invasion government.

"He signed the decree today. I expect the first session to be held on Sunday or by the end of next week at the latest," said Nadim al-Jabiri, head of one of seven Shiite parties that make up the United Iraqi Alliance, the largest bloc in parliament.

At the same time, however, Abdul-Mahdi's change of heart signaled a potentially dangerous and growing internal dispute among the country's majority Shiite political factions over the nomination of al-Jaafari, who has been criticized for not addressing Sunni complaints about the Interior Ministry.

The al-Rawafid Security Co. was attacked after gunmen arrived in a convoy of vehicles, including several white SUVs and a pickup truck mounted with a heavy gun, that they used to carry away the hostages, said Interior Ministry Maj. Falah al-Mohammedawi. He said the victims, who included bodyguards, drivers, computer technicians and other employees, did not resist because they believed their abductors were police special forces working for the Interior Ministry. "It was a terrorist act," ministry Undersecretary Maj. Gen. Ahmed al-Khefaji said.

Al-Rawafid, which employs a large number of Saddam's former military officers, is one of dozens of companies providing security against the rampant violence in Iraq. Company headquarters are in Zayouna, a volatile and mixed Sunni-Shiite neighborhood in east Baghdad. One of its main clients is Iraqna, a cell phone company owned by Egyptian telecom giant Orascom.

Meanwhile, the U.S. military said an American soldier was killed Tuesday in a roadside bombing in the northwestern city of Tal Afar and a Marine died the same day in enemy action in western Anbar province. Another Marine was killed in Anbar on Wednesday.

Their deaths raised to at least 2,303 the number of U.S. military members who have died since the beginning of the war in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count. The figure includes seven military civilians.

The grisly discovery of corpses began when an American military patrol found 18 bodies - all men - in a bus on a road between two dangerous and mostly Sunni west Baghdad neighborhoods.

The bodies were brought to Yarmouk Hospital and lined up on stretchers for identification. Most had bruises indicating they were garroted and two were shot, said Dr. Muhanad Jawad. Police believed at least two of the men were foreign Arabs. Police found the bodies of six more men - four of them strangled and two shot - discarded in other parts of the city.

One often overlooked undercurrent of the daily bloodshed in today's Iraq is its effect on children. At least two boys were killed Wednesday in a roadside bombing, police said. And gunmen stopped a school bus carrying about 25 high school girls, shooting the driver in front of his terrified passengers. He later died of his injuries, police said.

Wednesday's political breakthrough - the signing of the decree calling parliament into session - did not mean the country's political crisis was over. It could, however, bring the deepening feud to a head.

The Shiite Alliance is itself divided over al-Jaafari's candidacy. He defeated Abdul-Mahdi, a Shiite and one of two vice presidents, by a single vote in the Shiite caucus last month, largely because of al-Sadr's backing.

Talabani, whose job it is to call parliament into session, sought to do that three days ago but was unable to persuade Abdul-Mahdi to sign as required by the constitution. Talabani was trying to force the hand of Abdul-Aziz al-Hakim, the country's senior Shiite politician and head of the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq.

Abdul-Mahdi heads the Shiite parliamentary bloc loyal to al-Hakim.

A senior Shiite politician, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity nature of the information, said Abdul-Mahdi signed Talabani's presidential decree after U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad sought al-Hakim's intervention during a meeting Tuesday.

Political insiders now say al-Jaafari's candidacy depends on how the bloc loyal to al-Hakim and Abdul-Mahdi decides to vote. Al-Hakim and Abdul-Mahdi are widely said by politicians to oppose his nomination but have held back from outright opposition because they fear incurring the wrath of al-Sadr.

Nadim al-Jabiri, head of one of six other Shiite political factions, said the decision to sign was made on advice Wednesday from Iraq's Federal Court, which said parliament could be convened through an alternative process if Abdul-Mahdi continued to hold out. By law, parliament has 15 days after it is convened to elect a new president. It then has 15 more days to approve the prime minister, and 30 days after that to vote on his Cabinet. - associated press

* MOSUL - Hospital and police sources said they received five bodies shot dead by U.S. forces in Mosul, 390 km (240 miles) north of Baghdad. No details of the incident were available. The U.S. military said it was checking the report.

BAGHDAD - Gunmen attacked the house of Interior Minister advisor Major General Hikmat Moussa Salman in western Baghdad. Police said two of his bodyguards were killed and two wounded.

BAGHDAD - Gunmen wearing Iraqi police commando uniforms seized about 50 employees from the offices of a security company in eastern Baghdad, police said.

BAGHDAD - Four civilians were wounded when a car bomb exploded near a U.S. patrol in the western part of Baghdad, police said.

BAGHDAD - Two Interior Ministry personnel were killed and five wounded when a roadside bomb went off near minister of interior's convoy in eastern Baghdad, an Interior Ministry official said.

TAL AFAR - A U.S. soldier was killed and four others wounded on Tuesday when a roadside bomb went off near their patrol in Tal Afar northwest of Mosul, 390 km (240 miles) north of Baghdad, U.S. military said in a statement.

BAQUBA - Iraqi army and police arrested 19 suspects in raids in Baquba, 65 km (40 miles) north of Baghdad, police said.

BAGHDAD - The bodies of 18 men, bound and blindfolded, were found on Tuesday night in a minibus in western Baghdad, an Interior Ministry spokesman said.

FALLUJA - Four civilians were killed and two wounded when a roadside bomb exploded in a main road in Falluja, police said.

BAGHDAD - Two policemen were killed and six civilians and two policemen wounded when a roadside bomb went off near a police patrol in central Baghdad, police said.

BAGHDAD - The bodies of two people were found, bound and blindfolded, after they were shot dead in eastern Baghdad, police said. - alertnet.org

BAGHDAD - The bodies of 18 men, bound and blindfolded, were found on Tuesday night in a minibus in western Baghdad, an Interior Ministry spokesman said.

FALLUJA - Four civilians were killed and two wounded when a roadside bomb exploded in a main road in Falluja, police said.

BAGHDAD - Two policemen were killed and six civilians and two policemen wounded when a roadside bomb went off near a police patrol in central Baghdad, police said.

BAGHDAD - The bodies of two people were found, bound and blindfolded, after they were shot dead in eastern Baghdad, police said. - alertnet.org

BAGHDAD - President Jalal Talabani to meet political leaders to agree a plan on when parliament will convene. Under a constitutional deadline, deputies should meet by Sunday.

BAGHDAD - Six civilians were killed and eight wounded when a roadside bomb went off near an Iraqi army patrol in western Baghdad, police and hospital officials said.

FALLUJA - A U.S, Marine was killed in combat on Wednesday in Anbar Province, the U.S. military said.

BAGHDAD - Gunmen killed two people employed in the Green Zone, home to the Iraqi government and foreign embassies. The two were on their way to work when they were attacked in the western Mansour district, police said. -

SECURITY DEVELOPMENTS

BAGHDAD - A roadside bomb killed one person and wounded two others near Yarmouk Hospital on the western side of Baghdad, sources at the hospital said.

ISKANDARIYA - One person was killed and two wounded by a roadside bomb in Iskandariya, 50 km (30 miles) south of Baghdad, police said.

BAGHDAD - A U.S. Abrams tank was set ablaze when a roadside bomb exploded in eastern Baghdad, the U.S. military said. The tank crew was not injured.

* FALLUJA - At least 11 people, including five policemen, were killed when a suicide truck bomber struck a checkpoint manned by U.S. soldiers and Iraqi security forces in eastern Falluja, 50 km (30 miles) west of Baghdad, police said. The U.S. military, apparently referring to the same incident, said a U.S. Marine, an Iraqi soldier and three Iraqi civilians from one family were killed. The U.S. statement made no mention of policemen.

SAMARRA - An imam of a Sunni mosque was killed and two people wounded when a car bomb exploded in front of a mosque in central Samarra, 100 km (60 miles) north of Baghdad, police said.

SAMARRA - Two civilians were killed and another two were injured when a roadside bomb targeting a police patrol missed its target in southwestern Samarra, police said.

TIKRIT - Two roadside bombs targeting a police patrol exploded in the centre of the town of Tikrit 175 km (110 miles), killing one policeman and injuring another four, police said.

POLITICAL DEVELOPMENT

BAGHDAD - Iraq's president Jalal Talabani invited parliament to convene on March 19, a statement from the presidential office said. - alertnet.org

(AP) WASHINGTON A State Department spokesman says American hostage Tom Fox has been killed.

Al-Jazeera television on Monday broadcast a 25-second, silent videotape showing three of four hostage Christian Peacemaker activists, and said that the men asked their governments and countries in the Persian Gulf to work for their release. Absent from the tape was the only American among the four captives.

The hostages disappeared on Nov. 26 and the previously unknown Swords of Righteousness Brigades had claimed responsibility for his caputer. The tape broadcast Tuesday carried a Feb. 28 date.

The four were last seen together on a videotape, also broadcast by al-Jazeera, on Jan. 28. It was dated seven days earlier.

In that broadcast, an al-Jazeera newsreader said the hostage-takers issued a statement saying it was the "last chance" for U.S. and Iraqi authorities to "release all Iraqi prisoners in return of freeing the hostages otherwise their fate will be death." No deadline was set. - cbs13.com

FALLUJA - Three civilians, one Iraqi soldier and a U.S. soldier were killed when a suicide car bomb detonated near the western city of Falluja on Friday, the U.S. military said.

BAGHDAD - The body of American hostage Tom Fox was found with gun shot wounds and his hands tied behind his back near a railway line in western Baghdad on Thursday, police said on Saturday.

BAGHDAD - A director of Al-Iraqiya state owned television Amjad Hameed was killed and his driver wounded when gunmen ambushed his car in western Baghdad, police said.

BALAD - A roadside bomb exploded near a mosque killing two people and wounding one in the small town of Yathrib near Balad 85 km (55 miles) north of Baghdad on Friday, police said on Saturday. In a separate incident a U.S. military unit raided a house and killed a 25-year-old man in al-Thuluya near Balad on Friday, police said on Saturday. (IRAQ-DEVELOPMENTS; reporting by Gazwan Hassan in Tikrit, Faris al-Mahdawi in Baquba and Baghdad newsroom; writing by Ahmed Rasheed)) - alertnet.org

SECURITY INCIDENTS

* BAGHDAD - At least 40 people were killed and 95 wounded in three car bombs that exploded almost simultaneously in two markets in the Shi'ite Sadr district of Baghdad on Sunday. Police dismantled a fourth bomb in the same area, they said.

* LATIFIYA - Gunmen ambushed and killed a local football player (Mohammad Najah) in Latifiya 40 km (25 miles) south of Baghdad, local police said.

* BAGHDAD - Two civilians were killed and four wounded when a mortar round landed on a paint shop in central Baghdad, police said.

BAGHDAD - Eight bodies were found with their hands tied and gun shot wounds to the head in Rustamiya, a suburb in eastern Baghdad, police said.

BAGHDAD - Six people were killed and 14 wounded, including policemen, when a roadside bomb exploded as a U.S convoy passed by in southern Baghdad, police said.

BAGHDAD - Gunmen killed two police officers in separate incidents in Baghdad, police said.

BAGHDAD - Two soldiers were killed and four wounded when a roadside bomb went off near their patrol in central Baghdad, police said.

BAGHDAD - Five soldiers were wounded when a roadside bomb went off near an Iraqi army patrol in eastern Baghdad, police said.

BAGHDAD - Yarmouk hospital in Baghdad received at least twenty bodies overnight, some with gun shot wounds, a source in the hospital said.

DHULUIYA - Gunmen killed two army officers who work in the Joint Coordination Centre in Dhuluiya, 40 km (25 miles) north of Baghdad, the Joint Coordination Centre of Dhuluiya said.

OTHER DEVELOPMENTS

BAGHDAD - The trail of Saddam Hussein and seven co-defendants resumed on Sunday in the heavily fortified green zone. Saddam and seven others are charged with crimes against humanity in connection with the execution of 148 villagers from Dujail after an assassination attempt on his life there in 1982.

BAGHDAD - Iraq's president said on Sunday he was bringing forward the first session of parliament to March 16 from March 19, the date of a Shi'ite Muslim religious festival. - alertnet.org

(AFP) 12 March 2006 LONDON - An elite British soldier revealed on Sunday that he quit the army after refusing to fight in Iraq anymore on moral grounds because of the "illegal" tactics used by US troops on the ground.

Ben Griffin, a member of the Special Air Service (SAS) described in an interview with the The Sunday Telegraph the experiences that led him to end his impressive army career after just three months in Baghdad. The 28-year-old, who was discharged last June, is believed to be the first SAS soldier to refuse to go into combat and to quit the army on moral grounds.

"I saw a lot of things in Baghdad that were illegal or just wrong," Griffin told the weekly newspaper in his first interview since leaving the SAS. "I knew, so others must have known, that this was not the way to conduct operations if you wanted to win the hearts and minds of the local population. "And if you can't win the hearts and minds of the people, you can't win the war."

Griffin, who worked in the SAS's counter-terrorist team, recalled joint operations to tackle insurgents with his American counterparts. "We would radio back to our headquarters that we were not going to detain certain people because, as far as we were concerned, they were not a threat because they were old men or obviously farmers, but the Americans would say: "No, bring them back'," Griffin said. "The Americans had this catch-all approach to lifting suspects. The tactics were draconian and completely ineffective."

The SAS soldier spoke of another operation, which netted a group of innocent civilians who were clearly nothing to do with the insurgency. "I couldn't understand why we had done this, so I said to my troop commander: "Would we have behaved in the same way in the Balkans or Northern Ireland?' He shrugged his shoulders and said: 'This is Iraq', and I thought: "And that makes it all right?'"

Griffin said he believed US soldiers had no respect for Iraqis, whom they regarded as "sub-human". "You could almost split the Americans into two groups: ones who were complete crusaders, intent on killing Iraqis, and the others who were in Iraq because the army was going to pay their college fees," he said. "They had no understanding or interest in the Arab culture. The Americans would talk to the Iraqis as if they were stupid and these weren't isolated cases, this was from the top down. "There might be one or two enlightened officers who understood the situation a bit better but on the whole that was their general attitude. Their attitude fuelled the insurgency. I think the Iraqis detested them."

Griffin said he had reservations about going to Iraq in the first place, but went because he was a soldier and had to obey orders. He soon found it impossible to separate his personal views from his work.

"It was at that stage that I knew I couldn't carry on. I was very angry, and still am, at the way the politicians in this country and America have lied to the British public about the war," Griffin said. "But most importantly, I didn't join the British army to conduct American foreign policy."

In March 2005, Griffin told his commanding officer while on leave that he had no intention of returning to Iraq because he thought the war was morally wrong. The Ministry of Defence, when contacted by The Sunday Telegraph, declined to comment. - financialexpress

*BAGHDAD - A child was killed and three people wounded when a mortar round landed on a house in the Shula district of Baghdad, police said.

*BAGHDAD - Two civilians were killed and four wounded when a car bomb targeting a U.S. military convoy exploded in southern Baghdad, police said.

BAGHDAD - A U.S. soldier died of wounds from a roadside bomb in eastern Baghdad, the U.S. military said.

ISKANDARIYA - A civilian was killed and three wounded when a roadside bomb targeting a police patrol went off in Iskandariya, south of Baghdad, police said.

TIKRIT - Five bodyguards were wounded when a car bomb exploded near the convoy of the governor of Salahaddin province in Tikrit, 170 km (110 miles) north of Baghdad, police said.

TIKRIT - Five people were killed and 18 wounded when a bomb targeting a police patrol exploded in Tikrit, police said.

KIRKUK - Two policemen were killed and four wounded when two car bombs exploded in separate attacks on a police patrol in the northern oil city of Kirkuk, 250 km (150 miles) north of Baghdad, police said.

BAGHDAD - Four policemen and six civilians were wounded when a roadside bomb hit a police patrol in central Baghdad, police said.

FALLUJA - A U.S. Marine was killed on Sunday by "enemy action" in Anbar Province, the U.S. military said.

TAJI - One person was killed and six wounded when a roadside bomb went off in Taji, some 20 km north of Baghdad, police said.

BAGHDAD - The bodies of four people were found in Sadr City, in eastern Baghdad, police said. They had been shot and there were signs of torture. - alertnet.org

By Ibon Villelabeitia and Mussab Al-Khairalla - BAGHDAD, March 14 (Reuters) - It didn't take long for the wave of sectarian hatred that washed over Iraq last month to hit the Baghdad home of the Samarrai family -- just a few hours, in fact, before black-clad militiamen came calling.

Screaming for revenge for the bombing at dawn that day of a Shi'ite shrine in Samarra, about 40 gunmen burst into the villa of the Sunni Muslim family who, as their name suggests, have roots in the mainly Sunni city of Samarra, north of Baghdad.

Brandishing Kalashnikov rifles, the men dragged Ziad al- Samarrai, 39, from the house, kicked and punched him in front of his mother, threw him into the boot of a car and sped away. Then things got worse. The band returned half an hour later, neighbours said, to the religiously mixed district of eastern Baghdad where the Samarrai family has lived for 20 years. They pursued Ziad's 60-year-old mother to the home of a Shi'ite neighbour where she had sought refuge and shot her dead. Ziad's ordeal lasted about seven hours, into the night. He was blindfolded and beaten with cables, he said, showing his wounds. His captors dropped burning plastic on his legs. Dumping him back on a city street that same night, the gunmen threatened to kill him and "everybody you know" if they did not get out of Baghdad. He now thinks of little but fleeing.

"I see the image of my dead mother in my sleep," Ziad told Reuters as he drank coffee last week, nursing his wounds and lying low at the home of friends elsewhere in the capital. "We were targeted because we are Sunnis from Samarra."

His account is typical of many and was corroborated in interviews with other family members known to Reuters reporters and with neighbours in the modestly prosperous Palestine Street district, where Sunnis and Shi'ites live side-by-side, close to the Sadr City slum where Shi'ite militiamen are a major force.

MISSING

Fear that Iraq is descending into all-out civil war, three years after U.S.-led forces overthrew Saddam Hussein's minority Sunni-dominated government, has prompted others to flee homes where they felt exposed or to join neighbourhood patrols. Officials, clearly anxious to play down the bloodshed, put the death toll in days of sectarian violence after the Feb. 22 bombing of the Golden Mosque in Samarra at some 500. Many suspect the toll may be higher, given the numbers of people who have simply disappeared. Tales are legion over the past months of armed men, some in police and other uniforms, seizing people from their homes, never to be seen again.

Like many families in Baghdad, home to 7 million people, it had happened to the Samarrais even before Feb. 22.

Four months ago, gunmen who identified themselves as Interior Ministry commandos seized Ziad's 20-year-old cousin and one of his uncles, family members told Reuters. The two men were taken after commandos raided one of the family's businesses and the two have been missing since then.

"We looked for them at the Interior Ministry and at local police stations," said Ziad al-Samarrai's aunt, who did not wish to be named. "We have been going to the morgue every week to see if we can find them there, but we haven't heard anything about them ever since the day they were taken," she said.

Sunni leaders accuse the Shi'ite-run Interior Ministry of running death squads in a dirty war that may be meant to target Sunni insurgents but also traumatises whole communities. Shi'ites too complain of night-time sectarian killings.

The discovery of bodies, many bearing signs of torture, is a daily occurrence in Baghdad. Last week, 18 men from the Sunni suburb of Abu Ghraib were found garrotted in a minibus. Dozens more such bodies were found this week, after multiple car bombs in a Shi'ite militia stronghold killed more than 50 people.

The government admits some uniformed forces may be out of control but says it is trying to stamp out abuses. In a report this month, the U.S. State Department said killings by the government or its agents increased in 2005 and that militias dominated many police units.

SCREAMING

After the gunmen sped away with her son Ziad, Buthaina al- Samarrai called her sister: "She was crying on the phone and wanted me to go to her," the sister said. "The house had been ransacked ... She was screaming and beating herself." The sister, who did not want to be named, left to try to organise help in finding Ziad al-Samarrai. Then she heard shots. Neighbours said later that gunmen had returned and found Buthaina al-Samarrai in one of the neighbours' homes. They took her to a separate room and shot her dead despite neighbours' pleas.

"I went and saw her covered with a bed sheet. I removed the cover and saw her face disfigured by the bullets. I was terrified and ran into the street screaming," her sister said.

Ziad said his captors tortured him into confessing he was a "Wahhabi terrorist," referring to the austere school of Sunni Islam practised in Saudi Arabia and by al Qaeda militants. "They asked me if I listened to Osama bin Laden or to Sistani," he said, referring to Iraq's top Shi'ite cleric. "I told them that I listened to music, watched Western movies and drank alcohol."

Samarrai, who had some of his teeth knocked out, said he just wants out now: "I want to leave Iraq as soon as I can. I want to seek asylum in any non-Arab country I can find." - alertnet.org

Tue Mar 14, LONDON (AFP) - Top British officials warned Prime Minister Tony Blair that the US plan for postwar Iraq was a mess and outlined major blunders made once the coalition took control, leaked memos revealed.

John Sawers, Blair's envoy in Baghdad immediately after the March 2003 invasion, sent a series of confidential messages to London in May and June of that year, The Guardian newspaper reported, citing the memos themselves which were obtained by the co-author of a new book on the war.

Michael Gordon co-wrote "Cobra II: the Inside Story of the Invasion and Occupation of Iraq" with General Bernard Trainor. Extracts of the book have also been published in The Guardian. In the memos, Sawers reportedly described the US postwar administration in Iraq, led by the retired general Jay Garner, as "an unbelievable mess".

He said: "Garner and his top team of 60-year-old retired generals" were "well meaning but out of their depth".

On May 11, 2003, just four days after arriving in Baghdad, the British diplomat sent a damning memo to Blair's key advisors titled: "Iraq: What's Going Wrong". He wrote: "No leadership, no strategy, no coordination, no structure and inaccessible to ordinary Iraqis."

Sawers, who is now political director at the Foreign Office, said urgent action was needed by the United States, noting: "The clock is ticking." Major General Albert Whitely, the most senior British officer with the US land forces, reinforced the grim message in a separate note weeks later that suggested the US-led coalition was in danger of failure. "We may have been seduced into something we might be inclined to regret. Is strategic failure a possibility? The answer has to be 'yes'," he said. Sawers and Whitely said a decision by Washington to cut troops after the invasion was one of the biggest blunders of the occupation.

In addition, Sawers criticised the US Third Infantry Division, which he described as "a big part of the problem" in Baghdad, accusing its soldiers of staying in their armoured cars when on patrol.

He recalled an incident when British troops saw them fire three tank rounds into a building in response to relatively harmless rifle fire.

The arrival of Paul Bremer to replace Garner as head of the Coalition Provisional Authority was welcomed by Sawers, but by late June he still concluded that the situation in Iraq was worsening. At the same time, Sawers and Whitely continued to believe Bremer would turn things around. Whitely was less flattering about Garner whom he accused of showing little interest in the postwar period known as Phase IV. The British general assessed that this period did not work well because too much focus had been put on the invasion.

"There was a blind faith that Phase IV would work. There was a failure to anticipate the extent of the backlash or mood of Iraqi society," he wrote. Iraq is still a scene of daily violence and bloodshed now, almost three years after the US-led invasion to topple - yahoo.com

Tue Mar 14, WASHINGTON (AFP) - US President George W. Bush, stepping up a war of words with Iran, accused Tehran of contributing to ever-deadlier roadside bombs used against US-led forces and civilians in Iraq.

"Tehran has been responsible for at least some of the increasing lethality of anti-coalition attacks by providing Shia militia with the capability to build improvised explosive devices in Iraq," the US president said on Monday.

Bush said that support for terrorism and international suspicions that the Islamic republic seeks nuclear weapons were "increasingly isolating" Tehran and promised "America will continue to rally the world to confront these threats."

Asked about the linkage to Shiite forces, two US officials who declined to be named pointed to previously reported ties between the government of Iran and radical Iraqi Shiite cleric Moqtada Sadr. Bush's charge came as he launched a public relations campaign to revive support for the war he launched three years ago, with polls showing the US public sour on his handling of the conflict and seeking a quick US withdrawal.

Some 2,300 US troops have been killed, thousands more wounded or maimed, and the conflict has cost hundreds of billions of dollars. Even some of the most prominent conservative backers of the March 2003 invasion have questioned whether the United States can achieve victory amid deepening fears that sectarian violence in Iraq will flare up into civil war.

"I wish I could tell you that the violence is waning and that the road ahead will be smooth. It will not," he said. "We will see more images of chaos and carnage in the days and months to come."

At the same time, as he has in the past, Bush rejected calls to set a timetable for bringing home the roughly 130,000 US troops in Iraq and pleaded for patience from the skeptical US public. "We will not lose our nerve," said the president. "The battle lines in Iraq are clearly drawn for the world to see, and there is no middle ground. The enemy will emerge from Iraq one of two ways: Emboldened or defeated."

Bush also declared that the United States has a strategy for dealing with improvised explosive devices (IEDs) like roadside bombs, a weapon of choice for the insurgents targeting US and Iraqi forces.

US military intelligence sources have said that increasingly powerful IEDs, with greater armor-piercing power and sophisticated triggers, have been traced to Iran's Revolutionary Guard, or to Hezbollah, the Iranian-backed militia in Lebanon.

Bush said that there was evidence that some components in the most powerful IEDs came from Iran, and that coalition forces had "seized IEDs and components that were clearly produced in Iran."

Last week, US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld directly accused the Islamic government in Tehran for the first time of sending Iranian Revolutionary Guard into Iraq to make trouble.

Bush on Monday renewed sanctions barring US firms and citizens from oil dealings with Iran, citing an "unusual and extraordinary threat" from Tehran. Meanwhile, Iran's hardline President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad insisted Tuesday there was no going back on the country's nuclear ambitions, ahead of a key UN Security Council meeting on Tehran's refusal to halt uranium enrichment.

On Monday, at least 14 Iraqis were killed in attacks around the country, including a journalist and a young girl, as police discovered 21 executed bodies, security sources said. That came a day after six car bombs ripped through four market places in Baghdad's Shiite district of Sadr City, killing at least 46 people and wounding over 200 in Iraq's worst blood-letting so far this year.

Bush acknowledged the violence but pointed to Iraqi elections and efforts to form a government as critical victories and saying that US troops can only go home when fledgling Iraqi security forces can replace them. Although he has rejected "artificial timetables" for a US withdrawal, Bush said Monday he wanted "the Iraqis (to) control more territory than the coalition by the end of 2006." - .yahoo news.com/