IRAQ Gunmen kill one, injure 14 on bus carrying women

The highest ranking soldier in the prison scandal was sentenced to eight years.
BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) -- Gunmen opened fire today on a bus carrying female employees of Iraqi Airways to the Baghdad airport, killing one woman and wounding 14 others, an airline official said.
The attack on the airline workers occurred on the main road linking the airport with central Baghdad, an airline official said on condition of anonymity. The U.S. State Department has described travel between central Baghdad and the airport as "particularly dangerous."
The new violence came as Britain agreed to a U.S. request to move nearly 900 British troops from the south to more volatile central Iraq to free up American forces for a stepped-up campaign against Sunni insurgents.
Despite opposition
The British government agreed to the move despite fierce opposition within the governing Labour Party -- where many saw it as a political gift to President Bush ahead of November elections -- and fears it could mean more casualties for the British.
U.S. commanders have spoken of a new offensive ahead of Iraq's crucial elections in January aimed at suppressing insurgents who control a number of central Sunni Muslim cities, particularly the stronghold of Fallujah, where peace negotiations with city leaders have broken down.
Fallujah leaders today called on Iraqi Prime Minister Ayad Allawi's government to force a halt to the frequent U.S. airstrikes in the city. A day earlier, a senior Sunni cleric, Sheik Harith al-Dari, urged Iraqis to boycott January's elections if the Americans launch an all-out attack on the city.
"We demand the suspension of airstrikes and call on the government to call on families to return to their homes as a gesture of goodwill and a prelude to the solution of all outstanding problems," the Fallujah leaders said in a prepared statement after an emergency meeting at city hall.
Prison scandal
Also today, the highest ranking soldier charged in the Abu Ghraib scandal was sentenced to eight years in prison for abusing inmates at the prison. Staff Sgt. Ivan "Chip" Frederick, 38, of Buckingham, Va., was also given a reduction in rank, forfeiture of pay and a dishonorable discharge.
The sentencing came a day after he pleaded guilty Wednesday to eight counts of abusing and humiliating Iraqi detainees. He had faced a maximum possible sentence of 11 years in prison.
It was the longest prison sentence yet in connection with the scandal that broke worldwide in April with the publication of photos and video that showed U.S. soldiers abusing naked Iraqis in the prison on the western outskirts of Baghdad.
Frederick is one of seven members of the Cresaptown, Md.-based 372nd Military Police Company charged in the scandal. One, Spc. Jeremy C. Sivits of Hyndman, Pa., is serving a one-year sentence after pleading guilty in May to three counts.
Relieved of duties
Meanwhile, the company commander of a U.S. Army Reserve unit whose soldiers refused to deliver fuel along a dangerous route in Iraq has been relieved of her duties, the U.S. military said today.
The decision to relieve the commander of the 343rd Quartermaster Company came at her request and is effective immediately, according to a statement from the 13th Corps Support Command. It was authorized by Brig. Gen. James E. Chambers.
"The outgoing commander is not suspected of misconduct and this move has nothing to do with the guilt or innocence of anyone involved," the statement said.
The commander, whose name is being withheld by the military to protect her privacy, will be reassigned to another position commensurate with her rank and experience, the U.S. military said.
Eighteen soldiers from the 343rd Quartermaster Company, based in Rock Hill, S.C., are under investigation for refusing to drive a fuel convoy from Tallil air base near Nasiriyah to Taji north of Baghdad.
The mission was later carried out by other soldiers from the unit, which has at least 120 soldiers, the military said.
In other violence in Iraq, hospital officials said today that a pair of suicide car bombings in Samarra killed 10 Iraqi civilians and injured 14 others. Earlier reports put the death toll at one.
Residents said the twin blasts Wednesday afternoon ruined five shops and that sporadic gunfire broke out afterward, damaging several vehicles in Samarra, a city 60 miles north of Baghdad, that U.S. and Iraqi forces retook earlier this month from insurgents.