- Fourteen people killed in ammunition depot destruction in Baghdad
Asian countries to fight SARS, WHO holds out vaccine hope Air India revises schedule for 22 flights Govt suspends 12 AI pilots ASTECO Abu Dhabi appoints new Administrator Petrol, diesel prices slashed Asian countries to fight SARS, WHO holds out vaccine hope Kuwait bans inbound passengers from SARS-affected areas
KUWAIT CITY,Kuwait opposed to threats to Syria: FM
KUWAIT CITY, April 26-- Kuwait said Saturday it willnot accept any outside threats to Syria, the official Kuwait NewsAgency reported. "Any threats to Syria are threats to Kuwait," Kuwaiti FirstDeputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmadal-Sabah said upon return from a brief visit to Egypt and Syria.Sheikh Sabah highlighted the bilateral ties between Kuwait andSyria, saying the relations "are not new but historic."Kuwait will not forget Syria's stance during the 1991 Gulf War,in which Damascus joined the international coalition forces toliberate Kuwait from the seven-month Iraqi occupation, according tothe foreign minister.He said he hoped "not to hear any threats to brothers in Syria,and it is not in the interest of Kuwait to threaten any Arabstate." During his visits to Egypt and Syria, Sheikh Sabah said heconveyed verbal messages from Kuwaiti Emir Sheikh Jaber al-Ahmadal-Jaber al-Sabah to Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and SyriaPresident Bashir al-Assad on bilateral ties and development inIraq. He held talks with the two Arab presidents on how to helpachieve stability in post-war Iraq, the minister added.
Tehran wants no friction with Washington over Iraq: official
TEHRAN, April 26 -- Tehran did not want any frictionwith Washington over issues concerning Iraq, a senior Iranianofficial said on Saturday. Secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council HassanRowhani made the remarks in a meeting with visiting Indian nationalsecurity adviser Brajesh Mishra, the official IRNA news agencyreported.
"Iran believes in Iraq's territorial integrity, democracy, goodneighborly relations and non-interference in Iraqi internalaffairs," Rowhani said. "The US unilateral approach on the international stage and itsignoring the key role of the United Nations posed a serious threatto global peace and security," Rowhani said.He called on the international community to work together tobolster peace and cooperation under the aegis of the UnitedNations.
He also said Iran did not accept the presence of foreign troopsin Iraq or installing a puppet regime in Baghdad."Iraq's future government should have a friendly and goodneighborly relationship with its neighbors," Rowhani said, adding "Iran favors the establishment of a broad-based government in Iraq."As for the ceasefire reached between the US troops and Iranianopposition group People's Mujahedeen, Rowhani said Iran could notaccept any collaboration with the terrorist group and the UnitedStates should honor UN Resolution 1373 on international campaignagainst terrorism. Tensions are high between US and Iran as Washington accuses Iraq's neighbor of fomenting unrest among Shiite Muslims in southIraqi in a bid to push for an Iranian-style Islamic republic. -keralamonitor.com
Another Iraqi official netted: US Central Command
DOHA, April 27) -- Former Iraqi National Monitoring Directorate chief Hossam Mohammad Amin was captured Sunday to become the 13th most wanted official taken to US custody, the US Central Command (Centcom) said in Qatar.
A statement released by Centcom said the former Iraqi liaison officer with the UN inspection team was "under coalition control,"without giving details. Amin, whose agency monitored Iraq's armaments, was well known for contacts with UN inspectors to iron out differences pending the outbreak of the US-led war on March 20.
He ranks 49 out of the most wanted 55 of the regime under Saddam Hussein and the six of clubs in a deck of cards issued by the US military in Iraq. On Thursday, former Iraqi deputy prime minister Tareq Aziz surrendered himself to the US forces to become the 12th of the most wanted 55 in detention. Aziz ranks 43 of the 55 and is the eight of spades in the US deck of playing cards.
Rumsfeld arrives in Abu Dhabi for Gulf tour
ABU DHABI, April 27 -- US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld arrived here Sunday for a tour in the Gulf region as the US-led war on Iraq draws to an end.Rumsfeld is expected to hold talks with top officials of the United Arab Emirates' armed forces to express thanks to Abu Dhabi's access to bases for US forces during the Iraq war, local media reported US officials as saying.
For security reasons, it remains unclear how many countries Rumsfeld will visit this time. But CNN reported that he is scheduled to visit Qatar later on Sunday, and is also expected to visit Iraq later in the week.
Earlier in the day, Rumsfeld was forced to postpone a visit to Afghanistan also scheduled for Sunday due to a six-hour technical delay caused by a broken brake on his aircraft in Shannon airport,Ireland, a report from the Afghan capital of Kabul said.The visit to Kabul now was put off till later this week, the report quoted Khaliq Ahmad, a spokesman in the office of PresidentHamid Karzai, as saying
US plans to triple personnel in hunt of Iraqi weapons
WASHINGTON, April 27 -- Concerned about the failure tofind weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, the Bush administration is moving to triple the size of the team searching for such weapons in hope to speed up the process, The New York Times reported Sunday.
Even as some US officials are losing hope of finding actual weapons, the administration publicly insist that evidence of unconventional weapons, as opposed to the weapons themselves, willaccumulate in the coming weeks and months, though perhaps slowly.
To step up the pace, about 1,000 military and scientific personnel will be added in the coming weeks to the team in a bid to interview Iraqis who may have knowledge of Iraqi weapons programs and look for evidence, the newspaper quoted a military official as saying.
Only 500 are doing the job now, with perhaps 150 actually searching and the rest providing backup and support.
"A fairly robust organization is going over there (in Iraq)," aUS military official said. "It will also look for evidence of war crimes, terrorism connections, missing POWs -- anything it can find that will help get to the weapons of mass destruction."
Administration officials and experts say that evidence of Iraq's illegal weapons programs will most likely consist of items like empty shells for chemical or biological weapons, labs that could be used to make arms and so-called precursor chemicals that could also be used for fertilizers, pesticides and the like.
The United States has been accusing Iraq of possessing weapons of mass destruction and used the allegation as the major pretext for waging the Iraq war.
As hopes to find such weapons begin to dwindle, the US government now floats the possibility that Baghdad might have destroyed the weapons prior to the war or moved them out of the country.
Fury as explosion at weapons dump kills 40
April 27 2003
As many as 40 Iraqi civilians were killed and many were injured in a series of blasts at an arms dump on Baghdad's outskirts yesterday, an Iraqi medic told Reuters near the scene.
US troops blamed unidentified attackers who fired flares into the munitions store. But local people turned their anger on the Americans, shooting and forcing them back, soldiers said.
Some soldiers were wounded, an Army sergeant-major told Reuters at Zaafaraniya, a mixed residential and industrial suburb on the southern edge of the capital.
Earlier, Reuters photographer Yannis Behrakis had seen furious local people throw stones at American troops.
A series of loud explosions, lasting about an hour, were heard in the city centre from about 8am (1400 AEST). US troops said they were caused by controlled detonations to destroy Iraqi munitions as part of a continuing program. More
The proof that Saddam worked with bin Laden
By Inigo Gilmore
27/04/200Iraqi intelligence documents discovered in Baghdad by The Telegraph have provided the first evidence of a direct link between Osama bin Laden's al-Qa'eda terrorist network and Saddam Hussein's regime.
Papers found yesterday in the bombed headquarters of the Mukhabarat, Iraq's intelligence service, reveal that an al-Qa'eda envoy was invited clandestinely to Baghdad in March 1998.
The documents show that the purpose of the meeting was to establish a relationship between Baghdad and al-Qa'eda based on their mutual hatred of America and Saudi Arabia. The meeting apparently went so well that it was extended by a week and ended with arrangements being discussed for bin Laden to visit Baghdad.
The papers will be seized on by Washington as the first proof of what the United States has long alleged - that, despite denials by both sides, Saddam's regime had a close relationship with al-Qa'eda.
The Telegraph found the file on bin Laden inside a folder lying in the rubble of one of the rooms of the destroyed intelligence HQ. There are three pages, stapled together; two are on paper headed with the insignia and lettering of the Mukhabarat.
They show correspondence between Mukhabarat agencies over preparations for the visit of al-Qa'eda's envoy, who travelled to Iraq from Sudan, where bin Laden had been based until 1996. They disclose what Baghdad hopes to achieve from the meeting, which took place less than five months before bin Laden was placed at the top of America's most wanted list following the bombing of two US embassies in east Africa.
Perhaps aware of the sensitivities of the subject matter, Iraqi agents at some point clumsily attempted to mask out all references to bin Laden, using white correcting fluid. The dried fluid was removed to reveal the clearly legible name three times in the documents.
One paper is marked "Top Secret and Urgent". It is signed "MDA", a codename believed to be the director of one of the intelligence sections within the Mukhabarat, and dated February 19, 1998. It refers to the planned trip from Sudan by bin Laden's unnamed envoy and refers to the arrangements for his visit.
A letter with this document says the envoy is a trusted confidant of bin Laden. It adds: "According to the above, we suggest permission to call the Khartoum station [Iraq's intelligence office in Sudan] to facilitate the travel arrangements for the above-mentioned person to Iraq. And that our body carry all the travel and hotel costs inside Iraq to gain the knowledge of the message from bin Laden and to convey to his envoy an oral message from us to bin Laden."
The letter refers to al-Qa'eda's leader as an opponent of the Saudi Arabian regime and says that the message to convey to him through the envoy "would relate to the future of our relationship with him, bin Laden, and to achieve a direct meeting with him."
According to handwritten notes at the bottom of the page, the letter was passed on through another director in the Mukhabarat and on to the deputy director general of the intelligence service.
It recommends that "the deputy director general bring the envoy to Iraq because we may find in this envoy a way to maintain contacts with bin Laden". The deputy director general has signed the document. All of the signatories use codenames.
The other documents then confirm that the envoy travelled from Khartoum to Baghdad in March 1998, staying at al-Mansour Melia, a first-class hotel. It mentions that his visit was extended by a week. In the notes in a margin, a name "Mohammed F. Mohammed Ahmed" is mentioned, but it is not clear whether this is the the envoy or an agent.
Intriguingly, the Iraqis talk about sending back an oral message to bin Laden, perhaps aware of the risk of a written message being intercepted. However, the documents do not mention if any meeting took place between bin Laden and Iraqi officials.
The file contradicts the claims of Baghdad, bin Laden and many critics of the coalition that there was no link between the Iraqi regime and al-Qa'eda. One Western intelligence official contacted last night described the file as "sensational", adding: "Baghdad clearly sought out the meeting. The regime would have wanted it to happen in the capital as it's only there they would feel safe from surveillance by Western intelligence."
Over the past three weeks, The Telegraph has discovered various other intelligence files in the wrecked Mukhabarat building, including documents revealing how Russia passed on to Iraq details of private conversations between Tony Blair and Silvio Berlusconi, the Italian prime minister, and how Germany held clandestine meetings with the regime.
A Downing Street spokesman said last night: "Since Saddam's fall a series of documents have come to light which will have to be fully assessed by the proper authorities over a period of time. We will certainly want to study these documents as part of that process to see if they shed new light on the relationship between Saddam's regime and al-Qa'eda.
Documents link Iraq, bin Laden
Star reporter finds terror chief's name in Iraqi dossier, covered with White-OutTORONTO STAR STAFF
Top-secret Iraqi intelligence documents, unearthed by the Toronto Star in the bombed-out headquarters of the dreaded Mukhabarat intelligence service in Baghdad, have established the first clear link between Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden's Al Qaeda organization.
The documents were found by correspondent Mitch Potter, the Star's Jerusalem bureau chief. Potter, who has been in and out of Iraq since the war began, was digging through the rubble of the Mukhabarat's Baghdad headquarters with his translator Amir when they uncovered the intelligence treasure trove.
Bin Laden's name appears three times in the handwritten Iraqi file, but each of the references was clumsily concealed with White-Out and then blackened with ink, "presumably by agents of the Mukhabarat," writes Potter, who was travelling with Amir and Inigo Gilmore of London's Sunday Telegraph.
In his dispatch, Potter details how his translator, sitting on the end of his hotel room bed today, carefully scraped away the White Out with a scalpel to reveal bin Laden's name hidden underneath.
And he writes of Amir's stunned reaction when the name became apparent: "It says Bin Laden! It says Bin Laden!" The full account will appear in tomorrow's Star.
The discovery of the document coincides with the Friday capture of Farouk Hijazi, an Iraqi spymaster the United States claims was the link between Iraq and Al Qaeda. Hijazi, according to U.S. allegations, met bin Laden prior to the Sept. 11 attacks during Hijazi's term as Iraq's ambassador to Turkey.
"The document in question is in every way possible entirely like the hundreds of others we've been poring over in our spare hours these many nights in the safety of our hotel room while intermittent gunfire pops away in the distance," Potter writes.
Spies from the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency, who scoured the building after it was bombed into rubble, apparently missed the document.The presence of bin Laden's name on the document has been verified by four Arabic interpreters. Full Report