Iraq Notebook
Iraqi leader opposes offensive on Fallujah

MARCO DI LAURO / GETTY IMAGES U.S. Marines practice urban combat at their base near Fallujah yesterday. On Sunday, Iraqi Prime Minister Allawi said time is running out on efforts to resolve the situation in the city.

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BAGHDAD, Iraq — Interim Iraqi President Ghazi Yawar was quoted yesterday as criticizing Prime Minister Ayad Allawi and the United States for their plans to attack the Sunni Muslim city of Fallujah.

As the American military prepares for the anticipated assault on the city 35 miles west of Baghdad, Allawi, a Shiite Muslim, has told those in Fallujah that time is running out to turn over any foreign forces in the city and permit government forces to assume responsibility for law and order.

In an interview published yesterday in the Kuwaiti daily Al-Qabas, Yawar, a Sunni, said he disagreed "with those who believe a military attack is necessary."

"The way the coalition is managing the crisis is wrong," he said. "It is as if someone shot his horse in the head to kill a fly that landed on it. The fly flies away and the horse dies."

	Iraqi Interim President Ghazi Yawar

Fallujah has been under insurgent control since April, when the Bush administration ordered Marines to call off their attack against the city following a public outcry in Iraq over reports of hundreds of civilian casualties.

Registration drive opens for January vote

BAGHDAD, Iraq — Election officials have launched an aggressive voter-registration program yesterday to prepare for January balloting, handing out forms to Iraqis at markets across this war-torn nation.

Officials began distributing about 14 million forms to people who turned in their food-ration cards for subsidized baskets of rice, flour, tea and other staples.

On an Islamist Web site, Jordanian-born militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi warned that any Iraqis involved in the vote "will feel our sword slaughter their head." However, officials reported the registration process began without incident and that there were no reports of violence.

Nearly 6,000 electoral employees will fan out in the coming weeks to more than 600 markets and food-ration agents nationwide, answering questions and encouraging Iraqis to verify their names, addresses and other personal information on the forms.

If Iraqis do not return the forms, officials will assume their personal information is accurate. The deadline for submitting corrections is Dec. 15.

Car bomb explodes in Baghdad

BAGHDAD, Iraq — A car bomb exploded today in a commercial area in northern Baghdad, the Interior Ministry said.

Spokesman Col. Adnan Abdul-Rahman of the Interior Ministry said the blast occurred in the northern Azamiyah district. Abdul-Rahman did not have specifics on casualties but said the explosion destroyed five cars.

Reuters reported that a ministry official, who asked not to be named, said about 20 people had been killed or wounded.

Prisoner's beating before death recalled

SAN DIEGO — The CIA interrogated and roughed up Iraqi prisoners in a "romper room" where a handcuffed and hooded terror suspect was kicked, slapped and punched shortly before he died last year at the Abu Ghraib prison, a Navy SEAL testified yesterday.

Blood was visible on the hood worn by the prisoner, Manadel al-Jamadi, as he was led into the interrogation room at Baghdad's international airport in November 2003, the Navy commando said at a military pretrial hearing for another SEAL accused of abusing Iraqi prisoners.

Testifying under a grant of immunity, the witness, identified only by his rank as a hospital corpsman, said he kicked al-Jamadi several times, slapped him in the back of the head and punched him. Five or six other CIA personnel in the room laid their hands on the prisoner, he said, but he did not provide details.

Later, Al-Jamadi was found dead in a shower room less than an hour after two CIA personnel brought him into Abu Ghraib as a so-called "ghost detainee," according to Army Maj. Gen. George Fay's report. Such detainees were not listed in the normal roster of military prisoners.

Iraqi cameraman shot dead near home

RAMADI, Iraq — An Iraqi cameraman was killed, apparently by a sniper, in the Sunni Triangle city of Ramadi yesterday.

Dhia Najim, about 47, who supplied video to both Reuters and The Associated Press, was near his house when he was hit by a single bullet in the back of the neck.

Video footage taken from an upper floor of a building shows Najim, at first half-hidden by a wall, move into the open.

As soon as he emerges, a powerful gunshot cracks out and he falls to the ground, his arms outstretched.

Earlier in the day, Najim had filmed fierce street clashes between U.S. troops and insurgents, but there was no sound of fighting on the tape that records his death.

Najim's colleagues and family said they believed he had been shot by a U.S. sniper. There was no immediate response from the U.S. military.

Copyright © 2004 The Seattle Times Company

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