Iraq Notebook
Bush claim on training of Iraqis disputed

SAMIR MIZBAN / AP People wait for passports outside a government office in Baghdad, Iraq, last week. Many Iraqis want to reserve the option of leaving the country in case the security deteriorates even further.

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The Pentagon documents show that of the nearly 90,000 people now in the police force, only 8,169 have had the full eight-week academy training. Another 46,176 are listed as "untrained," and it will be July 2006 before the administration reaches its goal of a 135,000-strong, fully trained police force.

Six Army battalions have had "initial training," while 57 National Guard battalions, 896 soldiers in each, are still being recruited or "awaiting equipment." Just eight Guard battalions have reached "initial (operating) capability," according to the documents.

Democrats on the House Appropriations Committee estimated that 22,700 Iraqi personnel have received enough training to make them "minimally effective at their tasks."

"Let me tell you exactly what the story is. They're saying they're trying to train them, yet they have not trained," Sen. Joseph Biden, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said yesterday on CNN.

The White House defended its figures, and a senior administration official defined "fully trained" as having gone through "initial basic operations training."

U.S. fires on slum; Iraqi patrol bombed

BAGHDAD, Iraq — U.S. planes launched attacks on the Baghdad slum of Sadr City today, killing at least two people and wounding 46, including women and children, hospital officials and witnesses said.

Maj. Phil Smith of the Army's 1st Cavalry Division, which controls the area, had no immediate information.

Also today, a car bomb exploded in the northeastern city of Mosul as an Iraqi National Guard patrol was passing, killing at least four guardsmen and wounding three, police said.

Key al-Zarqawi aide killed in U.S. airstrikes
 
BAGHDAD, Iraq — A key member of a terrorist network led by Jordanian-born militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi was among 19 people killed in U.S. airstrikes Saturday in the insurgent-held city of Fallujah, witnesses and hospital officials said yesterday.

Abu Ahmed al-Tabouki, a Saudi who U.S. forces think was al-Zarqawi's right-hand man in Fallujah, was killed at 10:30 p.m. Saturday. Witnesses said his body was found near a bombed-out house linked by U.S. authorities to al-Zarqawi's organization.

The U.S. military did not disclose the identities of insurgents targeted in the strikes, but one senior military official said the bombing campaign was "making inroads into killing the leadership and the emerging leadership" of al-Zarqawi's organization. It said it has killed or captured more than 100 militants loyal to al-Zarqawi in Fallujah in the past four weeks.

U.S.-trained Iraqi held for alleged ties to rebels

BAGHDAD, Iraq — U.S. troops have arrested a senior commander of the U.S.-trained Iraqi National Guard for alleged ties to insurgents, the military said yesterday.

Lt. Gen. Talib al-Lahibi, who previously served as an infantry officer in Saddam Hussein's army, was detained Thursday in the province of Diyala, northeast of Baghdad, said Lt. Col. Steven Boylan, a spokesman for coalition forces in Iraq.

Boylan declined to provide details on the general's suspected ties to militants trying to topple the interim Iraqi authorities and oust coalition forces from the country.

U.S. says it won't try to sway Iraqi election

CRAWFORD, Texas — The White House says it considered secretly backing pro-U.S. candidates in the upcoming Iraqi election but decided against it even though the Bush administration suspects other nations are working to influence the voting.

"There have been and will continue to be concerns about efforts by outsiders to influence the outcome of the Iraqi elections, including money flowing from Iran," White House spokesman Allen Abney said yesterday.

"This raises concerns about whether there will be a level playing field for the Iraqi election. The situation has posed difficult dilemmas about what action, if any, the U.S. should take," he said.

"And in the final analysis, we have adopted a policy that we will not try to influence the outcome of the upcoming Iraqi election by covertly helping individual candidates for office."

Marine's death not related to combat

BAGHDAD, Iraq — A Marine reported killed in combat Friday in Anbar province west of Baghdad actually died in a vehicle accident unrelated to combat, the Marine Corps said yesterday.

Marine 2nd Lt. Ryan Leduc, 28, of Pana, Ill., was killed near Rutbah.

As of yesterday, 1,047 members of the U.S. military have died since the invasion of the Iraq in March 2003, according to the Defense Department. Of those, 794 died as a result of hostile action.

Allawi assured of support if Kerry wins, Biden says

WASHINGTON — Sen. Joseph Biden, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, yesterday angrily disputed assertions by the Bush administration that Kerry's criticism of Bush policy in Iraq meant he would abandon the effort.

Talking about a conversation he had last week with interim Iraqi Prime Minister Ayad Allawi," Biden said on "Fox News Sunday:

"I personally was authorized by Kerry in front of all my colleagues to say the first thing in a private meeting. I said, 'Mr. President, you know me.' And he said, 'Yes, I do.' I said, 'I guarantee you that John Kerry as president — you will continue to have the full support of the United States of America in order to be able to establish a representative republic.' He said, 'Thank you, and I know it.' "

Powell acknowledges insurgency worsening

WASHINGTON — Secretary of State Colin Powell said yesterday that the insurgency in Iraq is getting worse and that the U.S. occupation there has increased anti-American sentiment in Muslim countries, but said successful elections in Afghanistan and Iraq would turn the situation around.

"We have seen an increase in anti-Americanism in the Muslim world. We'll not deny this," Powell said on ABC's "This Week." "But I think that that will be overcome in due process, because what the Muslim world will see ... is that in Afghanistan, 10 million people who have registered to vote will vote on the ninth of October and bring in place a freely elected president.

"And I think we're going to do the same thing in Iraq if we stay the course," Powell said.

Powell acknowledged that, "Yes, it's getting worse and the reason it's getting worse is that they are determined to disrupt the elections."