IN IRAQ Other developments

The latest developments in Iraq:
A group of Britain's top military, political and counterterrorism academics sharply criticized U.S. management of the war in Iraq, warning that broader strategic objectives, such as the war on terrorism and brokering Middle East peace, are now in jeopardy.
The academics warned that a growing "security vacuum" threatens long-term stability, not only in Iraq but also across the region.
Iraqis increasingly will turn to militias for protection because Iraqi police and U.S.-led coalition forces have failed to provide security, the analysts said, raising the specter that Iraq could suffer a fate similar to that of Lebanon in the 1970s and 1980s.
The academics, from London's respected International Institute for Strategic Studies, have influenced policy in the past. A September 2002 report by the institute provided crucial independent corroboration for assertions by the U.S. and British governments that Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein posed an imminent threat and had to be disarmed.
Unveiling the group's latest annual state-of-the-world survey, Dr. John Chipman, the institute's director, warned that U.S. prestige, power and influence around the world have been put at risk because of the deteriorating situation in Iraq.
In a little-noticed development amid Iraq's prison abuse scandal, the U.S. military is holding dozens of Iraqis as bargaining chips to put pressure on their wanted relatives to surrender, according to human rights groups. These detainees are not accused of any crimes, and experts say their detention violates the Geneva Conventions and other international laws. The practice also risks associating the United States with the tactics of countries it has long criticized for arbitrary arrests.
"It's clearly an abuse of the powers of arrest, to arrest one person and say that you're going to hold him until he gives information about somebody else, especially a close relative," said John Quigley, an international law professor at Ohio State University. "Arrests are supposed to be based on suspicion that the person has committed some offense."
U.S. officials deny that there is a systematic practice of detaining relatives to pressure Iraqi fugitives into surrendering. "The coalition does not take hostages," said a senior military official, who asked not to be named.
A road accident south of Tikrit killed a U.S. soldier and injured two, the military said today.
The accident took place Tuesday night six miles south of Tikrit, about 80 miles north of Baghdad.
The injured were being treated at a nearby medical facility and in stable condition, according to the military. No further details were released.
U.S. troops opened fire on a car in downtown Kirkuk, killing a man and injuring his wife, an Iraqi police official said today. The Tuesday night shooting broke out five minutes after the nighttime curfew went into effect at 11 p.m., said Police Gen. Sherko Shakir. The couple's baby was also in the Fiat, but was not hurt, he said.
There was no comment from U.S. officials.
Source: Combined dispatches