PHILADELPHIA — A 51-year-old Marine veteran is returning to the military to serve along with his son in Iraq and fulfill a dream of serving overseas, he said yesterday.

Jim Flaherty put in 24 years in the Marines, retiring in January 2001. He got an e-mail last month from a military contact in Iraq inviting him to sign up for a 12-month tour working on the rebuilding of Fallujah.

Flaherty, married for the second time with 18-month-old twins, had doubts about whether to go but figured this was a last chance to satisfy a dream to serve overseas.

"I'm thinking, 'What am I? Nuts, when I've got two little kids?' " he said.

Flaherty, whose stint in Iraq is expected to start next month or in March, has a son, James, a sergeant in the Marines who has been on active duty for about eight months. He may also be joined there by his daughter, Shannon, also a Marine, who expects to be deployed in April.

Flaherty, director of facilities for Arcadia University in Glenside, Pa., played down the danger of his mission, pointing out that he will be working on construction projects rather than being in combat.

Iraqi officials link arrest to al-Qaida

BAGHDAD, Iraq — The arrest of three more people linked to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi has put officials very near to closing in on the al-Qaida-linked terror mastermind himself, Iraqi officials proclaimed yesterday.

It is unclear if the latest in a string of captures — made more than two weeks ago but announced just days before a crucial Iraqi election — have done that much to chip away at al-Zarqawi's network.

Both U.S. officials in Washington, D.C., and independent terrorism experts say new operatives are emerging to join al-Zarqawi's group and the insurgency even as fresh arrests are made.

"This will have an impact, but let's not fool ourselves," said Michael Radu, a terrorism analyst at the Foreign Policy Research Institute in Philadelphia. "These are not signs that al-Zarqawi is going to go out of business."

In particular, the Jordanian militant's well-organized network — believed responsible for many of the suicide car-bombings, kidnappings and beheadings of foreigners in Iraq — seems to have the ability to replenish its ranks with people outside Iraq, said Bruce Hoffman, a terrorism analyst with the RAND Corp. in Washington, D.C.

"That it why it is so important to get al-Zarqawi himself," Hoffman said.

One of al-Zarqawi's top lieutenants, Abu Omar al-Kurdi, who was captured in a Jan. 15 raid in Baghdad, is cooperating with his interrogators and has provided detailed information about al-Zarqawi's movements, hiding places and communication methods, an official said.

Those whose capture was announced yesterday were: Salah Suleiman al-Loheibi, head of the group's Baghdad operations, who met with al-Zarqawi more than 40 times over three months; Anad Mohammed Qais, a military adviser; and Ali Hamad Yassin, a senior operative.

U.S. envoy confident Sunnis will vote

BAGHDAD, Iraq — The U.S. ambassador in Baghdad, John Negroponte, insisted yesterday that the Sunni turnout in tomorrow's national-assembly election will be higher than predicted.

Polls have indicated that the Sunnis, whose leaders are boycotting the election and who have been threatened with violence if they vote, will be reluctant to vote. Seventy-six percent of Sunni Arabs plan to boycott, according to a poll released yesterday by Zogby International for Abu Dhabi Television.

"Sunnis don't only live in some of these beleaguered provinces, they live here in Baghdad, they live in other parts of the country," Negroponte said on CBS's "The Early Show." "I think you're going to see participation across the board."

Car-bomb attack kills 4 Iraqi policemen

BAGHDAD, Iraq — Insurgents set off a suicide car bomb yesterday that killed four Iraqi policemen in Baghdad's Doura neighborhood, a flashpoint in recent days with several street battles between insurgents and Iraqi National Guard troops and assassinations of government officials.

Police opened fire on the speeding car just as it burst into flames. Hours later, another car bomb exploded on the neighborhood's main road, damaging a school where voters are to cast votes. No one was hurt.

Bush says troops will leave, if asked

NEW YORK — President Bush, in an interview published in The New York Times yesterday, said he would withdraw the 150,000 U.S. forces from Iraq if the new government formed after tomorrow's vote asks for a pullout. But Bush said he expected the country's new leaders would want multinational forces to stay.

"I've, you know, heard the voices of the people that presumably will be in a position of responsibility after these elections — although you never know," Bush said. "But it seems like most of the leadership there understands that there will be a need for coalition troops at least until Iraqis are able to fight."

The United States has said it intends to keep its forces in Iraq after the election, but with an emphasis on training Iraqi security forces.

Live grenades halt airport operations

ATLANTA — Two live hand grenades were found in the luggage of a soldier returning from Iraq on Thursday, halting operations at the international terminal of Atlanta's airport for about a half-hour, a spokeswoman said.

The soldier was aware of the grenades and tried to alert the Transportation Security Agency, "but it was too late. The bags were already being screened," spokeswoman Felicia Browder said.

She said there was no evacuation, but people were kept back a safe distance until a bomb unit removed the grenades.

The soldier, who was not identified, was released to the military, she said.