POSTWAR UPDATE \ News from Iraq

The latest developments in postwar Iraq:
Coalition forces defused a car bomb on a key bridge to oil fields in the north, and Iraqi police killed an attacker after gunmen opened fire today at a checkpoint south of Kirkuk. Kirkuk police chief Gen. Turhan Youssef said the car bomb 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. 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.
In Brussels, Belgium, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said a U.N. team may leave for Iraq in a few days to assess the possibility of early elections as demanded by Shiite Muslim clergy. U.S. officials fear a vote could lead to greater violence. Instead they want members of a new legislature to be named in regional caucuses. The legislature would in turn choose a new government to take power by July 1, formally ending the U.S.-led occupation. Annan said Tuesday he would be sending the team, a return to Iraq for the United Nations, which pulled out after its headquarters was attacked by a suicide bomber in August, killing 22 people, including his special representative, Sergio Vieira de Mello. Annan had said previously that the U.S.-led coalition must guarantee security for the team before it is sent. "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." The United Nations pulled out of Iraq after its headquarters was attacked by a suicide bomber in August, killing 22 people, including Annan's special representative Sergio Vieira de Mello. The U.N. team is to examine whether it is possible to organize early elections as demanded by Shiite Muslim clergy, or whether a provisional government should be set up through other mechanisms.
Source: Associated Press