| Deadly
war |
| US military
deaths in Iraq hit 2,500 |
agencies
The
number of U.S. military deaths in Iraq has reached
2,500, the Pentagon said on Thursday, and the
military warned it expected the new leader of
al Qaeda in Iraq to continue the bloody tactics
of his slain predecessor.
Tens of thousands of Iraqis have also been killed
since the U.S.-led invasion more than three years
ago to overthrow Saddam Hussein, igniting an
insurgency by his once-dominant Sunni Arab minority
that is showing little sign of easing.
The U.S. military said it believed the real identity
of al Qaeda's new leader in Iraq was Egyptian-born
Abu Ayyub al-Masri who would adopt the same methods
as Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.
Zarqawi, blamed for a campaign of beheadings
and suicide bombings that has killed hundreds
of civilians, was killed in a U.S. air strike
north of Baghdad on June 7.
"
Our initial assessment is that (Masri) will probably
continue on the same tactics and techniques that
Zarqawi did," said Major General William
Caldwell, a U.S. military spokesman.
U.S.-led and Iraqi forces have killed more
than 104 "anti- Iraqi elements" in hundreds
of raids since the death of the Jordanian-born
militant, a U.S. statement said.
On a day when at least 24 Iraqis lost their
lives in five separate incidents, an Iraqi
official
said the security forces had seized documents
giving key information about the militant group's
network and its leaders in the country.
"
We believe this is the beginning of the end of
al Qaeda in Iraq," national security adviser
Mowaffaq al-Rubaie said.
Rubaie said earlier this year the insurgency
against the U.S.-backed, Shi'ite-led government
had been defeated.
In Thursday's bloodiest attack, gunmen stopped
a minibus taking 10 laborers to work in Baquba,
forced them to get off and killed them, police
in the town north of Baghdad said.
Reuters Television footage showed the dead
men lying on stretchers in blood-soaked clothes. "Is
this Islam? Is this Islam?" the father of
one victim wailed.
Further west, attackers opened fire on a Sunni
Arab mosque near Tikrit, Saddam's home city,
killing four worshippers.
In the northern town of Tal Afar, which President
Bush has held up as an example of progress
in Iraq, three roadside bombs killed five Iraqi
soldiers.
" PRESIDENT'S
PAIN"
Al Jazeera television said an Iraqi group,
the Imam Ali Battalion, had kidnapped a Turkish
technician
and his translator north of Baghdad and given
Turkey a week to withdraw its envoy from
Baghdad.
In Washington, the Pentagon said 18,490 U.S.
troops had been wounded in the war, which
began in March 2003. On an average day, about
two
U.S. military personnel are killed.
"
Any president who goes through a time of war
feels very deeply the responsibility for sending
men and women into harm's way, he feels very
deeply the pain that the families feel," White
House spokesman Tony Snow said.
"
One of the things the president has said is that
these people will not die in vain."
About 50,000 Iraqi troops, backed by 7,000
U.S.-led troops, launched a crackdown in
Baghdad this
week aimed at putting pressure on insurgents
in a city that sees daily carnage.
Analysts say al Qaeda militants, though
behind some of the bloodiest attacks, only
make
up about 5 percent of insurgents, which
are dominated
by Saddam loyalists.
"
The government is on the attack now ... to destroy
al Qaeda and to finish this terrorist organization
in Iraq," Rubaie said.
A copy of one of the seized documents,
whose authenticity could not be independently
verified,
did not mention al Qaeda or give specific
information about any planned attacks.
Instead, it suggested ways insurgents
could counter U.S. raids and propaganda,
for
example by infiltrating
Iraq's armed forces, recruiting new members
and manufacturing more weapons.
It also said the best way to get out
of "the
crisis" was to foster conflict between the
United States and another country, like Shi'ite
Iran, and by stirring U.S.-Shi'ite tension in
Iraq.
Al Qaeda has vowed to fight on and its
new leader in Iraq, which it has named
as Abu
Hamza al-Muhajir,
vowed in a Web statement on Tuesday to
avenge Zarqawi's death.
The name rang few bells and the U.S.
military said the new leader was probably
Masri,
who it says trained in Afghanistan and
formed
al Qaeda's
first cell in Baghdad.
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| British
supermodel |
| No charges
for Kate Moss over cocaine allegation |
agencies
British
supermodel Kate Moss will not face charges over
allegations she took illegal drugs at a London
recording studio last year, the Crown Prosecution
Service (CPS) said on Thursday.
The 32-year-old was questioned by police but
not arrested after the Daily Mirror tabloid published
photographs from film taken last September of
her apparently snorting large quantities of cocaine.
The CPS said it had concluded there was insufficient
evidence for a realistic prospect of convicting
the model.
"
The film footage provides an absolutely clear
indication that Ms Moss was using controlled
drugs and providing them to others," said
Rene Barclay, the CPS's London director of serious
casework.
"
However, in the absence of any forensic evidence,
or direct eye witness evidence about the substance
in question, its precise nature could not be
established."
Moss and the direct eyewitnesses had declined
to provide any explanation when interviewed,
Barclay added.
Moss flew abroad after the photos appeared
and spent time in the United States, where
she attended
a drug rehabilitation clinic, and in France,
before returning to Britain.
The scandal prompted British fashion house
Burberry and Swedish-based Hennes and Mauritz
to cut ties
with Moss, one of the most famous faces in
fashion. France's Chanel also said it would
not renew
a contract with her when it expired.
Her career recovered swiftly, with a new contract
for camera maker Nikon and front page appearances
for French fashion bible Vogue and U.S. celebrity
magazine Vanity Fair.
She has never confessed to taking illegal drugs,
although she issued a statement last year apologizing
to friends and family for behavior which "reflected
badly" on them.
Moss is a favorite subject for British newspapers,
which have closely followed her on-off relationship
with troubled British rocker Pete Doherty.
Doherty pleaded guilty earlier this year to
possessing
heroin and cocaine.
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