Iraq Notebook
Mourners kill officer, burn truck

	HADI MIZBAN / AP Iraqis stand on top of a burned police vehicle in Samarra, Iraq, yesterday after a civil-defense officer was killed and his vehicle burned. The officer had reportedly asked mourners to put away their weapons.
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SAMARRA, Iraq — Iraqis mourning two men killed in a firefight with U.S. troops clashed yesterday with civil-defense forces, killing one officer and setting his pickup ablaze.

"Long live Saddam!" they chanted as the vehicle smoldered.

The mourners in Samarra were burying two men killed last week in running battles with U.S. forces.

After the Americans returned their bodies yesterday, about 1,000 people marched to the cemetery to bury them. As is customary in Iraq, they fired weapons in the air.

A group of Iraqi officers from the U.S.-led civil-defense corps told them to put away their guns, witnesses said, and the mourners opened fire, shooting one of the officers in the head and chasing away the others.

Minutes later, dozens of people jumped up and down on the charred pickup, chanting "Long live Saddam! Death to the traitors!" The officer's body lay nearby.

Donations to World Bank shrink to $685 million

WASHINGTON — Six weeks after organizers of an international donors conference in Madrid said that more than $3 billion in grants had been pledged to help Iraq with immediate needs, a new World Bank tally verifies grants of only $685 million for 2004.

The vast gap seems to have occurred largely for two reasons: Some countries, such as Japan, changed the nature of their commitment after the conference from immediate aid to slower, long-term help; and some that had left their intentions unclear were incorrectly assumed to be giving immediate aid.

Many experts also say that donation pledges often do not materialize in the end, or come in the harder-to-tally form of credits for the purchase of commodities.

Iraqi police officer killed on way to work in Mosul

MOSUL, Iraq — Three gunmen shot and killed an Iraqi policeman on his way to work yesterday, police in this northern city said.

The victim was a 24-year-old recent graduate of a police academy that has received support and guidance from coalition forces.

Guerrillas have often targeted Iraqi police and other authorities, accusing them of collaborating with the occupation.

U.S. forces arrest 30 Iraqis possibly planning attacks

BAGHDAD, Iraq — U.S. forces yesterday reported arresting 30 Iraqis near Mosul and farther south, near Tikrit.

Near Mosul, Master Sgt. Kelly Tyler said, the U.S. military captured 10 people who allegedly were planning attacks against coalition forces, and six involved in selling black-market weapons.

Near Tikrit, Maj. Josslyn Aberle said, U.S. troops raided two houses and a mosque and arrested 14 people suspected of links to insurgents. She said the troops seized materials that could have been used for roadside bombs.

Council wants to stay on longer, member claims

BAGHDAD, Iraq — Most members of Iraq's Governing Council reportedly want the U.S.-appointed body to stay beyond July 1, the date set for a provisional Iraqi government to take office.

Mahmoud Othman, a Kurdish Sunni Muslim member, said a majority on the council want to stay on because "there is no guarantee that future bodies will be able to efficiently carry out their duties."

The coalition agreement on handing sovereignty back to Iraqis says the 25-seat interim body must cease to exist.

"Nothing can be entirely ruled out," a coalition official said of the prospect of a prolonged life for the Governing Council.

The council was set up in July to serve as Iraq's interim administration, with its makeup — 13 Shiite Muslims, five Sunni Arabs, five Kurds, one Christian and one ethnic Turk — reflecting the country's ethnic and religious diversity.

The occupation authority had supported the council in public but privately criticized it as slow to make decisions.

Final bidding specifications delayed until next week

WASHINGTON — The Defense Department postponed the scheduled release Friday of details for bidding on $18.6 billion in Iraq reconstruction contracts "while high-level policy decisions are made."

Final bid specifications are expected "some time" next week, a spokesman said.

The U.S. government has pledged maximum transparency in the competition for at least 25 new contracts for the $18.6 billion recently approved by Congress for the next phase of Iraqi reconstruction.

Contracts are to be awarded by Feb. 3, a relatively quick turnaround in the government contracting world.

The contracts — including telecommunications, power supply, school, airport and oil-industry projects — will go to companies from the United States, Iraq and countries that participated in the U.S.-led war that ousted Saddam Hussein, U.S. officials have said.

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