Iraqi, Iranian ships involved in skirmish off coast

BAGHDAD, Iraq — Iraqi officials accused Iranian forces of "kidnapping" a coast-guard patrol after a clash on their tidal frontier and demanded the men's release Tuesday.

Iran initially denied it had seized the nine men but later said a fight between an Iranian cargo ship suspected of smuggling oil and an Iraqi patrol was "under investigation."

The Iraqi patrol saw the suspected smugglers taking diesel fuel from an Iraqi pipeline in the Shatt Al Arab waterway, said Mohammed Musabah Waily, the governor of Basra in southern Iraq.

Waily said the Iraqi coast guardsmen boarded the Iranian-skippered ship in Iraqi waters and then Iranian boats were called out and gunfire ensued. The Iraqi vessel was seized, Waily said.

Waily said he heard one of the nine Iraqis captured was killed in the gunfire but said he could not confirm it.

A spokeswoman for Iraqi Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari said Tuesday that the country has asked for the release of eight sailors and an officer taken prisoner by Iran. The spokeswoman said none of the nine had been killed.

U.S. soldier

may face charges

ROME — Italian prosecutors investigating the killing of an Italian secret-service agent at a checkpoint in Iraq plan to charge a U.S. soldier with murder and attempted murder, Italian media reported.

U.S. gunfire killed Nicola Calipari near the checkpoint March 4, as the agent was heading to Baghdad airport in a car with an Italian journalist who had just been released after being held hostage by militants.

The ANSA and Apcom news agencies reported that prosecutors planned to charge the soldier, who was not identified, with murdering Calipari. The agencies also said the soldier would be charged with attempting to murder the agent driving the car as well as the journalist, Giuliana Sgrena, who both were wounded. State TV news Tg1, and private SKY TG 24 television news also carried the report.

The prosecutor in charge of the case, Franco Ionta, could not be reached for comment. A Pentagon spokesman declined to comment.

An Italian government report in May blamed U.S. military authorities for failing to signal there was a military checkpoint ahead. It also contended that stress, inexperience and fatigue played a role in the shooting. The Americans insisted the car was going fast enough to alarm the soldiers. The Italians said the vehicle was traveling slowly.

Defendant says

technique approved

FORT CARSON, Colo. — An Army officer charged with murder in the suffocation death of an Iraqi general was using an interrogation technique approved by his commander and was under intense pressure to extract information, his lawyer said Tuesday.

Defense attorney Frank Spinner also said Maj. Gen. Abed Hamed Mowhoush did not suffocate, as an autopsy report determined, but died from an irregular heart rhythm caused by heart disease and the stress of interrogation.

Chief Warrant Officer Lewis Welshofer Jr. is accused of killing Mowhoush in 2003 in Iraq. Prosecution documents say Mowhoush had been placed headfirst in a sleeping bag and bound, and that he died with one officer sitting on him.

In his opening statement, Spinner said Welshofer's company commander had approved the use of the sleeping bag on Mowhoush, who helped finance the Iraqi insurgency, and had information that could have saved U.S. soldiers' lives.

The prosecutor, Capt. Elana Matt, said Mowhoush's death came after days of interrogation and repeated beatings. She did not accuse Welshofer of participating in the beatings. Instead, she said Welshofer failed in his obligation as a soldier to take the "moral high ground," and asked jurors to hold him accountable.

The legal wrangling came in the second day of Welshofer's court-martial, which is expected to last all week.

Bush-Blair transcript

sought by Al-Jazeera

CAIRO, Egypt — Al-Jazeera has hired a British law firm to request a partial transcript of a conversation in which President Bush allegedly told British Prime Minister Tony Blair that the Arab broadcaster's headquarters should be bombed.

Yosri Fouda, acting Al-Jazeera bureau chief in London, said the network had hired Finers Stephens Innocent in an "attempt to put pressure on the British government" to hand over part of the record of the conversation between Bush and Blair.

Fouda said the Doha, Qatar-based Al-Jazeera was only asking Blair for a transcript of "the 10 lines" of the conversation that purportedly involved the network, which is popular throughout the Middle East. He acknowledged that Britain's desire to keep the rest of the conversation secret was understandable.

Blair's spokesman said the prime minister's office would reply to the request within 20 working days. The spokesman said details of private conversations between Blair and Bush or "any other world leaders" would not be disclosed.

Also

Said al-Hamash, the second-ranking member of the five-judge tribunal trying former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein and seven co-defendants, is expected to replace chief judge Rizgar Mohammed Amin, said Raid Juhi, the top investigating judge who prepared the case against Saddam.

Compiled from the Los Angeles Times, The Associated Press and Reuters