WAR IN IRAQ | Recent action

Iraqi authorities filed genocide charges against Saddam Hussein on Tuesday, accusing the ousted ruler and six others in a 1980s crackdown that killed an estimated 100,000 Kurds in northern Iraq. In alleging Saddam sought to exterminate the Kurds, the prosecutors are for the first time accusing him of the sort of far-reaching crimes that the Bush administration has used to justify the war in Iraq. The former Iraqi president returns to court today in his current six-month-old trial, facing a possible death sentence if convicted in the killings of more than 140 Shiites. Defense lawyer Khamis al-Obeidi said Saddam plans to make a statement to the court.
An Iraqi vice president called Tuesday for the embattled Shiite prime minister to step aside so a new government can be formed, becoming the most senior Shiite official publicly to endorse demands for a leadership change to halt the slide toward civil war. Vice President Adil Abdul-Mahdi told the British Broadcasting Corp. that he met with Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari on Monday and urged him to give up the nomination for a second term because he had lost the confidence of the Sunnis and Kurds. But Abdul-Mahdi said al-Jaafari refused, insisting he wanted to take his case to parliament, which must approve the new prime minister and his Cabinet by a majority vote.
A car bomb exploded Tuesday in a mostly Shiite area of eastern Baghdad, killing at least 10 people. The bomb went off in the poor, mostly Shiite area of Habibiyah and damaged several cars and nearby sandwich stands, police said. Chaos ensued as militants from radical cleric Muqtada al-Sadr's Mahdi Army militia fired weapons in the air to clear the crowds. At least a dozen other Iraqis were killed Tuesday in war-related violence in Baghdad and central Iraq, police said. They included a mother and two of her sons, 9 and 12, who died when a bomb exploded in front of their home in the capital. A third son, age 13, was wounded, along with two brothers from a different family living in the same home, police said. Elsewhere in Baghdad, a receptionist at the United Arab Emirates Embassy and his friend -- both Iraqis -- were slain as they left the building, police said. Insurgents have often targeted diplomats and employees of Arab and Muslim embassies to undermine support for the U.S.-backed government. Gunmen also killed a judge, an ice cream vendor and his companion and a policeman in separate slayings in the capital, police said. In Samarra, 60 miles north of Baghdad, a car bomb exploded near a convoy carrying the son of a city council member, killing a security guard and a driver, police said. The council member's son escaped injury.
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice brushed aside suggestions Tuesday that the United States wants an indefinite troop presence and permanent military bases in Iraq. "The presence in Iraq is for a very clear purpose, and that's to enable Iraqis to be able to govern themselves and to create security forces that can help them do that," Rice told the House Appropriations Committee's foreign operations panel. "I don't think that anybody believes that we really want to be there longer than we have to," the chief U.S. diplomat added. However, Rice did not say when all U.S. forces would return home and did not directly answer Rep. Steven Rothman, D-N.J., when he asked, "Will the bases be permanent or not?"
Top intelligence officers from several Arab countries and Turkey have been meeting secretly to coordinate their governments' strategies in case civil war erupts in Iraq and in an attempt to block Iran's interference in the war-torn nation, Arab diplomats said Tuesday. The meetings came after several Arab leaders voiced concerns about possible Shiite domination of Iraq and their alliance with Iran. The four diplomats said intelligence chiefs from Bahrain, Egypt, Jordan, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and non-Arab Turkey held a series of meetings over the last few weeks to assess the situation in Iraq and work out plans to avoid any regional backlash that may result from sectarian conflict in Iraq. The diplomats in several Middle Eastern capitals, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue, said Iran and Syria have been excluded from the talks.
Source: Associated Press