Bush, Blair send TV messages to Iraqis

LONDON, April 10-- US President George W. Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair on Thursday sent a broadcast message to Iraqis through a new TV service launched into the war-torn country, telling the local people that their country would "soon be free."

"The regime of (Iraqi President) Saddam Hussein is being removed from power," Bush said in his message.The messages from Bush and Blair, recorded during their Tuesdaysummit at Hillsborough Castle, near Belfast, Northern Ireland, were being aired via a station called "Towards Freedom," set up bycoalition forces. The programs will be broadcast for one hour a day from America's specially-quipped "Commando Solo" C-130 Hercules aircraft flying over Iraq.

"Your nation will soon be free," Bush said in his message. "We will respect your great religious traditions, whose principles of equality and compassion are essential to Iraq's future."In his broadcast address, Blair said Saddam's regime "is collapsing."

"We did not want this war but in refusing to give up his weapons of mass destruction Saddam gave us no choice but to act. Now that the war has begun, it will be seen through to the end," Blair said.

In a desperate attempt to win the hearts and minds of Iraqis, the two leaders promised that the US-led coalition troops would leave Iraq as soon as a new government is in place to replace an interim authority which is due to take over from the military.

"Iraq will not be run by Britain or by the United States, or bythe United Nations. It will be run by you," Blair said.They also promised that the US-British forces would help maintain law and order, deliver aid and respect Iraq's religious diversity.The broadcast will initially be available to the population in central Iraq, including the capital city of Baghdad, before being extended to the rest of the country using frequencies of Iraqi TV

Iraqi leadership vanishes : US intelligence

WASHINGTON, April 10 - Nearly the entire Iraqi leadership has vanished, according to a report on Wednesday by secret CIA and US military teams in Iraq and surveillance devices set up to monitor Iraqi President Saddam Hussein's inner circle. US military commanders said they suspected that some leaders had headed to Hussein's hometown of Tikrit for a final bloody showdown and that others had fled to Syria.

The Washington Post reported Thursday dogged fighting by Iraqi forces at Qaim, near the Syrian border, has led some US and British officials to suspect that Iraqi troops there may be protecting important Iraqi leaders or family members, although it was not clear who.

As Baghdad slipped from Hussein's control Wednesday, covert CIAand US special operations teams dedicated to killing or capturing the Iraqi president and senior leaders discovered that the Baath Party leaders, Republican Guard leaders, troops and high-level government officials they had targeted were not at their usual posts.

Even Iraqi Information Minister Mohammed Saeed al-Sahaf, who had been briefing journalists with outlandish versions of daily events, did not show public on Wednesday, the report said.

"All of a sudden, all communications ceased and the regime didn't come to work," described a senior Bush administration official."Even the minders for (foreign) journalists did not go to work," he added.

The most likely explanation for the sudden drop-off in detectable communications and activities among such a large numberof key figures is that an order to disappear was given in Saddam'sname, and that he is still alive, the report quoted US intelligence officials as saying.

Another less probable possibility, intelligence sources said, is that the Iraqi leader died in one of two US air attacks that targeted Saddam on March 20 and April 7 separately, and that word of his death finally leaked out. They said if Hussein is alive, he and his loyalists may have sought refuge in Tikrit, a town about 90 miles (145 kilometers) north of Baghdad on the low bluffs overlooking the Tigris River.

Schroeder warns against more US wars in other regions after Iraq war

BERLIN, April 10 - German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder on Thursday warned the United States not to launch military strikes in other regions after the Iraq war. "I warn against repetition" of the US-led war on Iraq, said Schroeder in an interview with German TV RTL. Schroeder said he saw no reason for him to back off from the anti-war attitude the German government has taken toward the Iraqiissue. He called for a quickest transition of power in Iraq to a democratically elected government, while describing the debate in the United States on partition of the reconstruction contracts in Iraq as "macabre". He said efforts must now be made to prevent a humanitarian catastrophe in Iraq.

However, Schroeder did not rule out the possibility of Germany's participation in a UN-led peace-keeping mission in Iraq, saying that his country would never shun offering help.He stressed that the summit of German, Russian and French leaders on Friday in St. Petersburg was not aimed against anyone and that the European defense initiative pursued by Germany would not exclude Britain.The German leader said that the relations between Berlin and Washington should normalize, "but we do not press ourselves.

Iraqi prominent Shiite leader assassinated in Najaf

CAIRO, April 10 -- Iraq's prominent Shiite leader Abdul Maguid Al-Khoel was assassinated Thursday in the central city of Najaf, the Abu Dhabi TV reported.

Al-Khoel, who recently returned to Najaf, was stabbed to death at the Imam Ali Mosque in Najaf, one of the holiest shrines for Shiite Muslims.The London-based Khoel foundation has confirmed the death of Al-Khoel, son of former Grand Ayatollah who was spiritual leader of Iraqi Shiites during the 1991 Gulf War. The circumstances of Al-Khoel's killing and the identity of assailants remained unknown. No one has yet claimed responsibility for the assassination.

There was no civilian rule in Najaf after US troops captured thecity last week after fierce fighting with Iraqi troops. This was the first known political assassination in Iraq following the collapse of the government of Saddam Hussein on Wednesday.The death of Al-Khoel is expected to raise tensions among Iraq'smajority Shiite population and aggravate the already volatile situation in the absence of law and order.

Iran summons Swiss ambassador to protest US missile accident

Iran on Thursday lodged an officialprotest to the United States against the killing of an Iranian boy by a coalition missile that landed inside its border Tuesday. Switzerland's ambassador Tim Guldimann, who handles US interestsin Iran, was summoned to the foreign ministry to be given the official protest. Washington and Tehran have no diplomatic relations since 1980.

Iran said it considered that the "United States is responsible for this incident and its consequences," state television reported. On Tuesday, a 13-year-old boy was killed when a rocket struck near the border town of Abadan. Iranian officials said that two rockets have hit the country during the first days of the US-led war against neighboring Iraq. The first missile hit a depot at a refinery in Abadan, injuring twopeople.

At least one US Marine killed when man blows himself up in Baghdad

BAGHDAD, April 10-- At least one US marine was killedand three others were seriously wounded in downtown Baghdad Thursday night when a man strapped with explosives approached a Marine checkpoint and blew himself up. The incident occurred at about 7:30 p.m. (1530 GMT) near the Palestine Hotel, where most foreign journalists are based.US Marine Capt. Joe Plenzler said initial reports showed that it was an apparent suicide attack and he gave no further details on the circumstance of the incident.

It was the first such attack against American forces since theyseized central Baghdad on Wednesday, and the third case of its kind since the US-led war on Iraq broke out on March 20. One week ago, two Iraqi women blew themselves up in an attack on US forces, killing three American soldiers in western Iraq.On March 29, a bomber posing as a taxi driver pulled up to a roadblock north of Najaf, waved to American troops for help, then blew up his vehicle as they approached, killing four US troops.

In another development, one US marine was killed and 20 others were wounded Thursday in an exchange of fire at a mosque and a presidential palace complex in Baghdad. Five Iraqi civilians were also killed in the firefight, witnesses said.

Arab nations postpone request for General Assembly meeting on Iraq

UNITED NATIONS, April 10 - The General Committee of the UN General Assembly has postponed considering a request by thegroup of Arab members to hold a special session on Iraq, a spokesman for the General Assembly said Thursday.

The postponement was made at the request of Yemen, chairman of the League of Arab States, spokesman Richard Sydenham told a pressconference. "This morning, the chairman of the General Committee announced that the postponement had been requested of the Arab group ... forthe inclusion of a new agenda item under the situation in Iraq," Syndenham said. "There would therefore not be a meeting tomorrow morning as hadbeen previously announced," Syndenham said.

Earlier this week, the Yemeni mission wrote to Jan Kavan, chairman of the General Assembly, calling for an inclusion of the Iraq issue on its agenda. The letter also urged the General Assembly to pass a resolutioncalling for a cease-fire in Iraq and respect of Iraq's sovereigntyand territorial integrity.eneral Committee. Diplomats here believed that lack of support for such a resolution might be the reason for the Arab group to put its request on hold.