World

Bomb On Iraq Oil Route Defused

January 31, 2004 / 6:18 AM EST / CBS/AP

A car bomb on a major oil route in the north was defused, and Iraqi police killed an attacker after gunmen opened fire Friday at a checkpoint south of Kirkuk.

The car was discovered late Thursday on the al-Hawija bridge on a highway used by coalition forces and oil tankers transporting crude from the northern oil fields in Kirkuk to Iraq's biggest refinery in Beiji, Kirkuk police chief Gen. Turhan Youssef said.

Al-Hawija bridge is just south of Kirkuk, which is 150 miles north of Baghdad.

Youssef said Iraqi police found the car and informed coalition forces, who defused the bomb. Later, four people were arrested for suspected involvement, he said.

On Friday, six gunmen opened fire on a checkpoint of the Iraqi Civil Defense Forces in Salman Beg, 55 miles south of Kirkuk. One attacker was killed and another injured in retaliatory fire, said Gen. Anwar Amin, the ICDC chief in Kirkuk.

In other developments:

President Bush continues to defend his decision to invade Iraq — despite the failure to find weapons of mass destruction there. In a speech in New Hampshire Thursday, the president said he's "absolutely convinced" it was "the right thing to do" and he said he looks forward to debating the issue on the campaign trail.

Parting company with many of his fellow Republicans, Sen. John McCain said Thursday he wants an independent commission to take a sweeping look at recent intelligence failures. The White House has dismissed the proposal, saying the CIA is committed to reviewing the intelligence behind claims that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction. The Bush administration also argues that the weapons search is not yet complete.

The Washington Post is reporting that House and Senate committees probing U.S. prewar intelligence had evidence that CIA analysts never really considered the possibility that Saddam has given up illegal weapons.

Former BBC director-general Greg Dyke said Friday that a judicial inquiry that harshly criticized the broadcaster's reporting standards could have damaging implications for the entire media industry. Dyke, who resigned Thursday, said he and other BBC officials were shocked by the extent of the criticisms made by Lord Hutton, who said the network was wrong when it quoted an anonymous source as saying the government had "sexed up" intelligence to justify war in Iraq.

U.S. Lawmakers who have agitated unsuccessfully for a larger Army say they're only partly satisfied with the Pentagon's surprise announcement that 30,000 soldiers temporarily will be added to the force. Most said they had questions about the Defense Department plan, including why officials don't pay for it out of their normal budget.

Despite public debate about safety back home, three Japanese C130 military planes touched down in Kuwait on Friday, carrying 40 air force personnel and supplies for a U.S.-led humanitarian aid operation in Iraq.

A U.N. team may leave in the next few days to assess the possibility of elections in Iraq, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said Friday.

"I think we are making progress," Annan told reporters in Belgium. "The coalition has indicated to me, has promised us, it will do its utmost to protect the team that will work in Iraq, therefore, in the next few days, the team should be able to travel to start work."

Annan said Tuesday that he would be sending the team, a return to Iraq for the U.N., which pulled out after its headquarters was attacked by a suicide bomber in August killing 22 people, including Annan's special representative Sergio Vieira de Mello.

Many recent attacks appear to have been targeting Iraqis seen as collaborating with the U.S.-led occupation. Eleven Iraqis, mostly members of the civil defense corps, were wounded Thursday in a roadside bombing in Baqouba, northeast of Baghdad.

Shopkeepers in Ramadi, a pro-Saddam city west of Baghdad, also reported receiving leaflets on Thursday warning Iraqis to stop working for or with Americans within 10 days or face death.

The undated statement was signed by a previously unknown group, "Anbar Mujahedeen Brigade, the Military Unit." Anbar is the province that includes Ramadi.

The commander of coalition forces in Iraq, Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, on Thursday warned that al Qaeda is trying to "gain a foothold" in Iraq, citing the recent arrest of a key operative.

Sanchez said al Qaeda's signature techniques — car bombs and suicide attacks — had been on display for sometime and Hasan Ghul's arrest added another piece in the jigsaw.

Ghul's arrest by U.S.-allied Kurdish forces while trying to enter Iraq from Iran was reported by officials in Washington Saturday. They described him as a senior recruiter for al Qaeda who reported directly to Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, one of the architects of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks who was captured in March.

"The capture of Ghul is pretty strong proof that al Qaeda is trying to gain a foothold here to continue (its) murderous campaigns," Sanchez said.

The warning adds to the complexity of the anti-U.S. insurgency being waged by in Iraq, mostly in the central provinces. U.S. military officials have described the guerrillas as remnants of Saddam Hussein's former regime and members of his Baath party.

Also Thursday, Secretary of State Colin Powell said Ghul's arrest backed his claims last year to the U.N. Security Council urging action against Iraq.

"It's one individual; I don't know that it is definitive in and of itself," Powell said. "But I think his apprehension substantiates the kind of statements that we made … that here was this potential connection between al Qaeda and Saddam Hussein."

But many observers have said that al Qaeda only entered Iraq at the time of or after the U.S. invasion.