Iraq Notebook
49 slain recruits were "negligent," official says

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In releasing the new information a senior Iraqi Defense Ministry official seemed to be trying to defuse any tension between the United States and interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi over Allawi's statement Tuesday that the ambush "was the outcome of major neglect by some parts of the multinational (forces)."

"The dead national guardsmen are the negligent ones," said the senior official, who asked that his name not be used. He said the guardsmen had taken a shortcut through a dangerous road they should have avoided, and he claimed they left a day earlier than scheduled.

"They refused to wait another day for us to provide them security to escort them back to Baghdad," he said.

The U.S. command in Iraq has limited its response to a terse statement and refused to directly address Allawi's unusually harsh criticism.

"This was a cold-blooded and systematic massacre by terrorists," the statement read. "They and no one else must be held fully accountable."

Two face court-martial on Abu Ghraib abuse

SAN DIEGO — Two Navy SEALs will face court-martial proceedings for allegedly assaulting a detainee who died at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq, the Navy said yesterday.

The two commandos from a Coronado-based Sea, Air, Land unit known as SEAL Team-7 also are accused of posing in photographs taken while the detainee was subjected to degrading treatment, according to court documents.

Neither of the two SEALs is charged with killing the prisoner. The Navy identified the two only as an aviation boatswain's mate and a hospital corpsman first class.

The boatswain's mate allegedly kicked, punched and kneed prisoners in Iraq. He also twisted prisoners' testicles and struck a prisoner in the buttocks with a wooden board, according to the charge sheets. The boatswain's mate also allegedly punched Manadel al-Jamadi, a suspect in an attack on a Red Cross facility, in the stomach and back, and encouraged another sailor to join in.
 
The following day — Nov. 4, 2003 — al-Jamadi was found dead in a shower at the Abu Ghraib prison near Baghdad. A military pathologist ruled that al-Jamadi died of blunt force trauma to the head.

The hospital corpsman is accused of punching, kicking and breaking fingers of prisoners. The corpsman also is accused of pointing a loaded firearm at al-Jamadi's head.

The alleged abuses occurred between October 2003 and April, according to the charge sheets.

Five other SEALs were implicated. Charges were dismissed Tuesday against a chief petty officer, said civilian defense attorney Jeremiah Sullivan.

Defense attorneys for two of the accused say the charges of prisoner abuse were initiated by an ex-SEAL who made the allegations while appealing a decision to kick him out of the SEALs for theft.

Senior Iraqi official dies in gun attack

BAGHDAD, Iraq — A senior Iraqi Foreign Ministry official who once served as ambassador to the United Arab Emirates was slain yesterday in what may have been a botched kidnapping attempt, an Iraqi official said.

Qusai Mahdi Saleh was driving to his home in northern Baghdad when four men stopped his car and tried to force him from the vehicle, Deputy Foreign Minister Labeed Abbawi said.

The Islamic Army in Iraq claimed responsibility for the killing in a statement to Al-Jazeera, the television station reported. The group is one of several insurgent organizations operating in central Iraq.

On Tuesday gunmen killed a senior Iraqi opposition politician, a party official said. Mohammad al-Ayash, the Iraqi National Congress party's chief for Sunni western Iraq, was fatally shot as he left his Baghdad home, party spokesman Entifadh Qanbar said yesterday.

TV anchorwoman slain by gunmen

BAGHDAD, Iraq — Gunmen killed an Iraqi television anchorwoman yesterday as she was traveling by taxi to her home in southeastern Baghdad, a station official said.

Leqaa Abdul Razzaq, an anchorwoman for Al-Sharqiyah television, was shot to death about 6 p.m. en route to the Dora district, said Salah al-Askary, a news director at the station. Abdul Razzaq had worked for U.S.-funded Iraqiya television until about a month ago.

Abdul Razzag's husband was murdered about two months ago, al-Askary said.

Under Saddam Hussein's regime, Abdul Razzaq, who was about 30, worked for Shabab, or Youth TV, which was owned by Saddam's son Odai.