Saddam's nephew escapes

BAGHDAD, Iraq — A nephew of Saddam Hussein serving a life sentence for financing insurgents and possessing bombs escaped from prison Saturday in northern Iraq with the help of a police officer, authorities said.

Ayman Sabawi, son of Saddam's half-brother Sabawi Ibrahim Hassan al-Tikriti, escaped from a prison 45 miles west of the northern city of Mosul in the afternoon with the help of a policeman, said a local police commander, Brig. Abdul Karim al-Jubouri.

U.S. and Iraqi forces arrested Sabawi in May 2005.

He "played a particularly active role in sustaining the terrorism by providing financial support, weapons and explosives to terrorist groups," Iraq's government said.

Anbar leaders seek U.S. help

BAGHDAD — A delegation of leaders from the western province of Anbar, heartland of the Sunni insurgency, met with the U.S. ambassador to ask for help in rebuilding the local economy, arming local police and securing the main highway from the Jordanian border to Baghdad, which runs through their province.

They also asked U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad for a halt to U.S. bombing in the military's hunt for insurgents.

The delegation of provincial leaders asked Khalilzad for an Army brigade to patrol the highway and help recruit police officers, said Haqi Ferhan, who identified himself as a lawyer representing tribal leaders opposed to the insurgents.

The Iraq Study Group report released Wednesday in Washington, D.C., cited Anbar as one of four provinces that remain highly insecure. U.S. forces are attempting to shift responsibility for local security to Iraqi troops.

In a series of raids across Anbar on Friday and Saturday, U.S. troops followed the lead of Iraqi army divisions, exchanging fire with insurgents, detaining 19 suspects and recovering caches of weapons, according to military statements.

U.S. must change, Iranian official says

MANAMA, Bahrain — Iranian foreign minister Manouchehr Mottaki delivered a blunt challenge to the United States at an international conference on Saturday, saying Iran is willing to help U.S. troops withdraw from neighboring Iraq but only if the U.S. makes some tough policy changes.

"If the United States changes its attitude, the Islamic Republic of Iran is ready to help with the withdrawal from Iraq," Mottaki told the International Institute of Strategic Studies conference here. "Fifty percent of the problem of insecurity in Iraq is the presence of foreign troops."

Mottaki echoed calls made last week by Iran's top national-security official, Ali Larijani, for Gulf Arab countries to eject American bases in their countries and establish a regional security pact with Iran. Mottaki went further and offered deeper cooperation with the six gulf Arab states on energy, tourism, business and counter-narcotics.

Iran's proposal for a gulf security alliance shows no sign of gaining traction among the region's Arab leaders.

Saudi king says area waiting "to explode"

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia — Saudi Arabia's king warned Saturday that all of the Middle East is threatened by escalating conflicts around the region, from spiraling sectarian violence in Iraq to rising tensions in Lebanon to fighting among Palestinians.

"Our Arab region is surrounded by dangers," King Abdullah said at a summit for leaders of the Arab nations around the Persian Gulf. "It is like a keg of gunpowder waiting for a spark to explode."

The two-day meeting of the six Gulf Cooperation Council nations is focusing on how to head off wider strife exploding from those conflicts or the nuclear standoff between Iran and the West.

Kuwaitis are nervous that Iraq's Sunni-Shiite bloodshed could spill over to their country, where Shiites make up 30 percent of the population. Similar concerns are shared by Saudi Arabia, which is up to 15 percent Shiite, and Bahrain, a Sunni-ruled island kingdom in the Persian Gulf with a Shiite majority.

Iraqi leader blames woes on outsiders

DETROIT — Speaking to Arab Americans in Dearborn, Mich., one of Iraq's top leaders said Saturday that al-Qaida and remnants of the former regime of Saddam Hussein are behind the terrorist violence in Iraq.

Abdul Aziz al-Hakim, a Shiite leader who heads the influential Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, said that the daily violence there doesn't come from sectarian division but from outsiders trying to stoke the destruction of the country.

"It's not the Shiites doing this," Hakim said through a translator. "It's not the Sunnis doing this. It's the terrorists, the outsiders."

Hakim's visit to Michigan came after he met with President Bush on Monday.

Hakim stressed religious and ethnic unity in his talk, noting that Shiites, Sunnis, Arabs, Kurds, Turkomen and Christians have long lived together in Iraq.

Also

Late Saturday night, a burst of automatic gunfire could be heard across Baghdad, a rare sign of unity instead of strife. Soccer fans were celebrating Iraq's 2-1 victory over Uzbekistan in the semifinals of the Asian Games in Qatar.