• 12 killed in attack on Ramadi government

    A suicide car bomb exploded Thursday outside the gate the main government compound in the capital of Iraq's Anbar province, killing at least 12 people, including four police, a security official said.

    The province, where al-Qaida-backed Sunni insurgents once held sway, has seen a rise in attacks against security forces and government officials in recent months. The incident also comes amid fears that next month's elections will stoke political violence.

    The attacker blew up his explosive-packed car outside the gate of a compound housing the governor's office, police headquarters and courts, the security official said.

    The blast also wounded at least 20 people, he added, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to release the information.

    Anbar is primarily made up of Sunnis, who enjoyed a privileged status under Saddam Hussein's Sunni-led regime. It was the site of some of the war's most intense fighting between U.S. forces and insurgents in the key cities of Ramadi and Fallujah.

    The government compound in Ramadi was once the scene of daily attacks during the height of the insurgency in 2005 and 2006, with the governor hunkered down in his office protected by a platoon of U.S. Marines while insurgent mortar shells rained down.

    In 2006, many former insurgents began to rebel against al-Qaida, and joined forces with the U.S. military, who paid fighters to participate in the pro-government Sons of Iraq program.

    The decision by the Sons of Iraq to join forces with U.S. forces to combat al-Qaida is seen as one of the key reasons for the drop in violence in Iraq.

    Insurgent attacks continue, however, and may even be on the rise. On Dec. 30 twin bombings in Ramadi killed 23 people and badly wounded the governor.

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  • Dubai police: Mossad involved in Hamas slaying

    Dubai's police chief says the investigation into the killing of a Hamas commander now points almost certainly to Israel's Mossad spy agency.

    The Web site of UAE daily The National on Thursday quoted Lt. Gen. Dahi Khalfan Tamim saying a probe into the slaying "reveal(s) that Mossad is involved in the murder" of Mahmoud al-Mabhouh.

    He says it "is 99 percent, if not 100 percent that Mossad is standing behind the murder."

    The National is owned by the government of Abu Dhabi, capital of the UAE.

    Tamim could not immediately be reached for comment.

    Names on the passports of seven suspects implicated matched those of people living in Israel, raising possible links.

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  • Top cleric urges Iraqis to turn out for March vote

    Iraq's top Shiite cleric urged voters Wednesday to turn out for parliamentary elections set for March 7 but distanced himself from any particular coalition.

    Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani warned that failure to participate in the election would allow others to achieve "illegitimate goals." He did not say who he was referring to or what their goals may be.

    The Iranian-born al-Sistani has quietly guided Iraq's young democracy since the 2003 overthrow of Saddam Hussein's regime. The country's ruling Shiite establishment reveres him, partly out of respect for his spiritual leadership but also for fear that ignoring his wishes could spark a backlash from the country's majority Shiites who wait on his every word.

    Al-Sistani has made a point in the run-up to earlier post-Saddam elections to call on voters to turn out. However, his latest call comes at a time when seething Sunni leaders are threatening to boycott over the ban of more than 400 mostly Sunni candidates for alleged ties to Saddam's outlawed Baath Party.

    "His eminence (al-Sistani) believes it's necessary for all citizens to participate — men and women who are concerned with the future of the nation and with building it on the basis of justice and equality in rights and duties among all its sons," al-Sistani's statement said.

    "Not to vote, for whatever reason, will give others a chance to realize their illegitimate goals," it added.

    His comments were in response to followers who sent in questions on the merit of participating in the vote, given what they see as the poor performance of lawmakers and officials who took office after the last parliamentary election in December 2005.

    Al-Sistani, who is in his late 70s, lives in the holy Shiite city of Najaf south of Baghdad. He does not grant interviews and rarely ventures out of his modest home on a narrow alley in the city's old quarter. His edicts, or fatwas, are few and far between. But they have helped shepherd the nation through the turbulent years of a full fledged Sunni insurgency that erupted soon after Saddam's ouster and Sunni-Shiite killings in 2006 and 2007.

    His implicit support for religious Shiite parties, however, has been used to question the cleric's neutrality.

    In the latest statement, al-Sistani said he did not support any particular coalition contesting the election, but stressed that voters should only give their votes to "the best and the most concerned with Iraq's interests at present and in the future."

    Al-Sistani in the past has shown sympathy toward religious Shiite groups, particularly the Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council, a party established in Iran in the 1980s with the support of that country's ruling clerical establishment.

    The Supreme Council has closely cooperated with the United States, but is known to be the closest Iraqi party to Tehran.

    It is leading a mostly Shiite coalition in the March 7 vote that includes supporters of anti-American cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, who is believed to have been living in Iran for the past two years. Shiite Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and his Dawa Party are in a rival coalition.

    The two are fighting an intense battle for votes in Baghdad and in the Shiite south of Iraq, home to the holiest Shiites shrines and much of the country's oil wealth.

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  • Senior US official in Syria as relations improve

    A senior U.S. official is meeting the Syrian president as part of President Barack Obama's attempts to improve ties with Damascus after years of tense relations.

    William Burns, the U.S. undersecretary of state for political affairs, was received Wednesday by President Bashar Assad. Burns is the highest ranking U.S. official to visit Syria since January 2005.

    The visit comes a day after Obama said he would nominate a career diplomat to become the United States' first ambassador to Damascus since 2005.

    The tense relations between Syria and the U.S. started to improve after Obama took office last year. Obama made changing the United States' image in the Middle East a priority of his first year.

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  • Hillary Clinton warns of Mideast nuclear arms race

    U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton told Saudi college students Tuesday that if Iran gets a nuclear weapon it could trigger a nuclear arms race in the Middle East.

    "Then you have all kinds of opportunity for problems that can be quite dangerous," she said.

    Clinton spoke at an all-woman college in Jeddah called Dar al-Hekma, which translates in English to "House of Wisdom." Her appearance at the college was highly unusual in a conservative Muslim nation.

    Clinton ticked off a list of Iranian actions that she said violated its obligation not to pursue nuclear weapons, including construction of the Qom enrichment facility that came to light last fall.

    "You have to ask yourself, 'Why are they doing this?'" Clinton said.

    Noting that Iran insists it is not pursuing the bomb, she said, "The evidence doesn't support that."

    "Everyone who I speak with in the Gulf, including the leaders here and leaders elsewhere in the region, are expressing deep concern about Iran's intentions," she said.

    Clinton also called Iran "the largest supporter of terrorism in the world today."

    She said the goal is to have not only a non-nuclear Iran but also an entire Middle East free of nuclear weapons.

    "If Iran gets a nuclear weapon, that hope disappears," she said, "because then other countries which feel threatened by Iran will say to themselves, 'If Iran has a nuclear weapon, I better get one, too, in order to protect my people.'

    "Then you have a nuclear arms race in the region," she said.

    A graduate of the college, Dalai M. Khayat, said in an interview after Clinton departed she was pleased that Clinton had come, but saw some of her responses to audience members as "not that fulfilling."

    Khayat said she was a bit disappointed that Clinton had not responded fully to a student who had asked why Israel should not be forced to give up its nuclear weapons, given U.S. opposition to a nuclear Iran. Israel has not formally declared itself a nuclear power but is widely believed to have a relatively small arsenal of weapons.

    Clinton had said the U.S. wants to see the entire Middle East free of nuclear weapons, but she did not mention Israel.

    Khayat said Clinton's appearance was "a huge step forward" for Saudi Arabia," given its closed nature and social conservatism.

    Clinton is an unlikely role model for Saudi women. Saudi law bars women from voting, except for chamber of commerce elections in two cities in recent years, and no woman can sit in the kingdom's Cabinet. Women also cannot drive or travel without permission from a male guardian.

    Clinton was winding up a three-day Persian Gulf visit that began Sunday in Qatar and continued in the Saudi capital of Riyadh on Monday. She was returning to Washington later Tuesday.

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  • Police: Bomb in northern Iraq kills 2

    A car bomb exploded Tuesday outside a police crime lab in northern Iraq, killing at least two people, Iraqi authorities said.

    The bomb targeting the lab was the latest in a string of attacks against security forces in Mosul, an area where insurgents retain a foothold despite a sharp drop in violence across the rest of the country.

    The car bomb was parked outside a side entrance to the lab in Mosul, 225 miles (360 kilometers) northwest of Baghdad, said Lt. Col. Salim Ibrahim, an area commander.

    It wounded seven people, including five police officers, he said.

    The explosion knocked over concrete blast walls and caused minor damage to the building, Ibrahim said.

    In recent weeks in and around Mosul, security checkpoints have been attacked in drive-by shootings and the motorcade of the provincial governor was attacked.

    Tuesday's attack follows a suicide bombing last month that destroyed the Baghdad's main crime lab and left at least 22 dead.

    Gunmen also opened fire on two Christian college students waiting at a bus stop in Mosul, killing one and wounding the other, a police official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to release the information.

    Christians have been routinely been the targets of sectarian violence since the U.S.-led 2003 invasion.

    The attacks come at sensitive time for Iraqi security forces, who are under fire to shore up security after lapses that allowed for attacks against a number of government sites.

    The U.S. military has warned of a possible escalation in violence ahead of Iraq's March 7 parliamentary elections.

    Political tensions between the Shiite-led government and minority Sunnis have been on the rise after a vetting committee barred hundreds of candidates from running because of ties to Saddam Hussein outlawed Baath Party.

    An explosion late Monday targeted the Baghdad political office of al-Ahrar, a party that includes followers of anti-American Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, police said.

    Punched-out round holes in the office walls indicate that at least two rockets were fired at the building, observers said. Officials blamed a roadside bomb for the explosion, which killed one person and wounded three, including Majid Hussein Taha — a director of the Ministry of Agriculture and a candidate running on the party's ticket.

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  • Dubai says Hamas man killed by European hit squad

    Dubai's police chief said Monday an 11-member hit squad with European passports was responsible for killing a Hamas commander in his hotel room last month, but he did not directly implicate Israel as the Islamic militant group has. The Gulf emirate released photos, names, nationalities and passport numbers of all 11 suspects.

    The details given by Lt. Gen. Dhahi Khalfan Tamim are the most comprehensive accusations by Dubai authorities since the body of Mahmoud al-Mabhouh was found Jan. 20 in his luxury hotel room near Dubai's international airport.

    Tamim said it was possible that "leaders of certain countries gave orders to their intelligence agents to kill" al-Mabhouh, one of the founders of Hamas' military wing. But he did not name any countries.

    Hamas has accused Israel and vowed revenge.

    Tamim sketched out a highly organized operation in the hours before the killing, clearly done with advance knowledge of the victim's movements, and said the killers spent less than a day in the country. He said forensic tests indicate al-Mabhouh died of suffocation, but lab analyses are still under way to pinpoint possible other factors in his death.

    He showed a news conference surveillance video of the alleged assassination team arriving on separate flights to Dubai the day before al-Mabhouh was found dead. The members of the alleged hit-squad checked into separate hotels.

    They paid for all expenses in cash and used different mobile phone cards to avoid traces, he added.

    At least two suspected members of the team watched al-Mabhouh check in to his hotel and later booked a room across from the Hamas commander, Tamim said.

    He added that there was "serious penetration into al-Mabhouh's security prior to his arrival" in Dubai, but that it appeared al-Mabhouh was traveling alone.

    "Hamas did not tell us who he was. He was walking around alone," said Tamim. "If he was such an important leader, why didn't he have people escorting him?"

    Tamim said there was at least one unsuccessful attempt to break into al-Mabhouh's hotel room. It was unclear whether he opened the door to his killers or if the room was forcibly entered.

    The killing took place about five hours after al-Mabhouh arrived at the hotel and all the 11 suspects were out of the United Arab Emirates within 19 hours of their arrivals, he added.

    Tamim claimed the suspects left behind some evidence, but he declined to elaborate. He urged the countries linked to the alleged killers to cooperate with the investigation.

    Tamim told reporters the alleged assassination team comprised six British passport holders, three Irish and one each from France and Germany. The group has accused Israel's Mossad secret service of carrying out the killing and has pledged to strike back.

    Israeli officials have accused al-Mabhouh of helping smuggle rockets into Gaza.

    Top Hamas figures have denied reports that al-Mabhouh was en route to Iran, which is a major Hamas backer. But the group has not given clear reasons for his presence in Dubai.

    Earlier this month, Hamas said it launched a floating explosives into the Mediterranean Sea to drift toward Israeli beaches to avenge al-Mabhouh's death.

    Israeli authorities discovered at least two explosive-rigged barrels and launched an intensive search for new bombs, closing miles of beaches and deploying robotic bomb squads.

    A Hamas statement last month acknowledged al-Mabhouh was involved in the kidnapping and killing of two Israeli soldiers in 1989 and said he was still playing a "continuous role in supporting his brothers in the resistance inside the occupied homeland" at the time of his death.

    More than 2,000 mourners attended al-Mabhouh's funeral and burial at the Palestinian refugee camp of Yarmouk, near Damascus, Syria.

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