Well … this story seems to be bad news all around. Visit a media site, get a take. Here's a roundup:

• Scotsman.com: Arab World Outraged by Abuse of Iraqi Prisoners

• WaPo: U.S. Works to Calm Furor Over Photos

• Gulf Daily News (Bahrain): 'Savage acts' blasted by Arab League

• NY Times: Bush Voices 'Disgust' at Abuse of Iraqi Prisoners

• Japan Today: Photos of U.S. abuse of Iraqi prisoners sets off storm

• Arab News: World Denounces Abuse of Iraqi Prisoners…

AP

Arrests have been made in connection with yesterday's deadly car-bombing south of Baghdad.

The explosion killed eight U-S troops and wounded four others.

Brigadier General Mark Kimmitt today indicates it was a suicide attack. But he says two Iraqis were arrested near the site, and that they tested positive for explosives residue.

Kimmitt says 300 pounds of explosives were used in the car bomb, along with mortar rounds to create more shrapnel

Brigadier General Mark Kimmitt says two Marines died, six were wounded in the attack near the Marines' camp in Fallujah.

It hit a day after a car-bomb killed eight U.S. troops and wounded four others south of Baghdad.

Reuters:

U.S. Marines have handed control in Falluja to a former general in Saddam Hussein's Republican Guard, but new violence shows that a month of fighting in the besieged Sunni Muslim city is not over.

In a reversal of Washington's previous policy of excluding senior members of Saddam's Baathist regime from power, Jasim Mohamed Saleh said his new force would help police bring order and relieve a month-long siege that has cost hundreds of lives.

This bombshell is buried on page A-16 of today's Washington Post:

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Previously, Wilson had scathingly accused the Bush Administration of having “twisted” the underlying intelligence. Wilson previously indicated that he disputed the claim that Iraq had tried to get uranium from Niger, Africa. See, for example, the story from the July 17, 2003 edition of TIME magazine:

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Wilson now essentially confirms that Iraq DID seek uranium from Niger, Africa - just like the President said in the State of the Union Address.

Will Joe Wilson apologize to the President and to the general public for his prior false, inflammatory remarks? Will the mainstream media run this story with the same breathless excitement as Joe Wilson's previous claims? I suppose we all know the answers to these questions.

This is a duplicate of the original post on the nikita demosthenes website.

UPDATE:

The underlying story in the Washington Post, quoted above, is not a model of clarity. And it doesn't even mention the firestorm that erupted over Bush's “16 words” in his January 2003 State of the Union Address. (Perhaps the Post's placement of today's story on its interior page A-16 was meant as a pithy inside joke).

The bottom line, however, is that Joe Wilson appears to now take for granted that Iraq (indeed, our beloved “Baghdad Bob” from Iraq) WAS trying to get uranium from Niger, Africa. Certainly, Wilson does not appear to now be disputing this basic proposition.

Yet, in mid to late 2003, Wilson and the mainstream press spent many weeks worth of news cycles breathlessly talking about Bush's “16 words” in the State of the Union Address. These “16 words” were to the effect that Iraq had sought uranium in Niger, Africa. Now WILSON HIMSELF is the source CONFIRMING that Baghdad Bob did exactly that.

I think that Wilson has tried to underplay this in his book, and certainly the Washington Post has tried to underplay this in both the language and the placement of the story. But the above facts are the basic facts that one must work with - and the basic flip-flop that Wilson has undergone.

The US is reportedly planning to hire and arm Iraqi ex-soldiers and place them under the command of one of Saddam's former generals.

This strikes me as a really bad idea.

In addition to endorsing the formation of private armies, it will reinforce the notion that the US is unwilling to take casualties and the fear that the coalition will abandon the people of Iraq to a more-pliable (from the US perspective) Saddam-lite.

(A bit) more here.

Two Navy FA-18 Super Hornets dropped bombs Thursday on positions in Fallujah, continuing a series of targeted strikes in the city that has become a haven for anti-American insurgents.

Witnesses told the Reuters news service that U.S. war planes hit three sites in the city but Defense officials had no further information. The Golan district, a scene of heavy fighting over the past few days, was one of the three areas hit, witnesses said.

The take on the poll depends on the media outlet in which you read it. The bottom line is that most of the Iraqi's polled believe the removal of Saddam was worth the hardships they've faced, most want the occupation to end now, and they're split over whether the war has “done more harm than good.” Read it to get the stats.

Some sources (note the differences in titles):

• Reuters: Iraqis Split Over Whether Iraq Is Better Off

• USATODAY: Iraqis out of patience

• CNN: Iraqis conflicted about war, its impact

• … and it's not yet on FOX News

Reuters is also reporting that commanders in the Sunni triangle “have been appealing for more firepower,” and that the Pentagon has sent roughly two dozen additional M1A1 Abrams main battle tanks to the Marines, and “a similar number” for the 1AD near Tikrit.

Reuters has the report: The car bomb exploded just south of Baghdad around 10:30 Baghdad time. The soldiers were all of the 1AD.

From the AFP, via the ABC (Australian Broadcasting Corporation) :

CBS has broadcast images of US troops mistreating Iraqi prisoners, saying an army investigation has found “system wide” problems in the handling of captured Iraqis.

Deputy chief of military operations in Iraq, General Mark Kimmitt, says six US soldiers are being court martialled on charges stemming from the investigation into abuse of prisoners at Abu Gharaib.
[…]
“We're appalled. … These are our fellow soldiers, these are the people we work with every day, they represent us, they wear the same uniform as us, and they let their fellow soldiers down,” Gen Kimmitt said.

“We expect our soldiers to be treated well by the adversary, by the enemy… and if we can't hold ourselves up as an example of how to treat people with dignity and respect, we can't ask that other nations do that to our soldiers.”

Army Reserve Staff Sergeant Chip Frederick has been charged with maltreatment, assault and indecent acts for posing for a photograph while sitting on top of a detainee, striking detainees and ordering detainees to strike each other, among other things, CBS reports.

Frederick, a prison guard from Virginia in civilian life, and his lawyer Gary Myers blames the problems at the prison on the atmosphere created by commanders.

“We had no support, no training whatsoever,” Mr Myers told CBS.

Indeed, the army investigation found a lack of leadership at the prison and concluded soldiers at the prison, most of whom are reservists, are not trained on rules for handling prisoners of war under the Geneva Convention.

If true - and there's no reason to suspect it isn't - this indicates a system-wide problem. One not confined to just military prisons.

CENTCOM:

Anti-Coalition forces attacked Marines in defensive positions in Fallujah shortly after 10 p.m. yesterday (April 27), again violating the current cease-fire. After receiving rocket-propelled grenades and direct fire in their defensive positions, Marines called in close air support.

Two vehicles were observed transporting weapons and anti-Coalition forces. When Coalition aircraft engaged the vehicles, large secondary explosions erupted. Insurgents fled the immediate area and occupied a nearby building. Coalition aircraft fired on the structure in continued support of Marines on the ground. When the rounds impacted the structure, large secondary explosions were also produced. Such explosions often indicate the presence of large amounts of ordnance at the target site.

At this time, there are no reports of any Coalition casualties and no available information on the number of insurgents killed or wounded

.

Why has there been mainstream media silence on the on-going discoveries of Saddam Hussein's UN-prohibited WMD programs? Per Insight Magazine:

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Via Instapundit.

This is a duplicate of the original post at the nikita demosthenes website.

UN NEWS CENTRE: Annan appeals to parties in Iraq to refrain from violence

United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan today appealed to all the parties in Iraq to refrain from violence, respect international humanitarian law and give the political transition a chance, saying it was time now for those who prefer “restraint and dialogue” to make their voices heard.

“There is nothing cowardly or fainthearted about this approach,” the Secretary-General told a press conference at UN Headquarters in New York.

“Those who venture into violent situations in the course of peace run just as high a risk as the soldiers do,” he said, echoing the warning by his Special Adviser Lakhdar Brahimi that violent military action by an occupying power against the inhabitants of an occupied country will only make matters worse.

“It takes courage and dogged determination to work for peace in a violent world,” he said.

FOX

U.S. forces launched a fresh attack on insurgent positions in Fallujah on Wednesday, targeting a train station used by enemy forces.

Marines called in two attack helicopters, which blasted three buildings with a mixture of machine gun fire and missiles. Billowing black smoke rose from the site and the firefight was captured by television cameras.

The helicopters attacked after a U.S. sharpshooter team that was trying to position itself in the area came under heavy fire by insurgents, military officials said.

Witnesses on the ground said insurgents were hiding behind women and children during the firefight.

The strike — the second targeted U.S. assault in less than 24 hours in Fallujah — did not represent a full-out offensive on the troubled city, military officials said. But if anti-American violence continues, the situation could change.

“We’re more than prepared to start a complete military offensive in Fallujah” if negotiations on a fragile cease-fire with insurgents falls apart, Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt told Fox News shortly before the incident at the train station.

From The Guardian :

…One of the clerics was a friend of mine who I first met in April last year when he was still thrilled about the liberation. Now he has different ideas and has become one of Moqtada's lieutenants. He was carrying a mobile phone in one hand and a satphone in the other, coordinating militia “activities”. He asked me to walk with him to the shrine of Imam Ali and told me all about the new victories they have achieved. All the time he kept his left hand hidden under his cloak. When we got to a militia staff room he produced a big sniper rifle and gave it to a guy there. “Take it to the guys on the roof - they'll need it,” he said.

He is a pleasant young man in his early 30s with a charming smile and an impressive beard. He speaks some English but his main talent, apart from smuggling weapons into the shrine, is computer graphics. He showed me his latest achievement: a picture of St George killing the dragon, except that St George was Moqtada and the dragon was Bush.

The “revolutionaries” are men mainly from the Baghdad slums and the poor south. They wear plastic sandals and carry pictures of Moqtada on their chests. They are armed with grenades strapped to their waists and a whole package of conspiracy theories.

There is a disturbing similarity between what these people are doing and saying and what the Ba'athists used to do and say. Since Moqtada's troops took over they have been acting thuggishly, in harmony with our great despotic traditions. I think there is something in the air that makes us yearn for a dictator to mess us around.

So the great holy fighters are manning checkpoints, detaining people and even have their own secret police. A cleric can order any of his thugs to take you to the religious court, where only Allah and Moqtada can release you.

When clashes erupted on the outskirts of the city, the new mojahedin, carrying RPG rockets without launchers and weapons looted from the Iraqi police, driving looted Iraqi police pick-up trucks and chanting “Moqtada”, all rushed to the fighting. Ten minutes later, with the same war cries, they were running back. According to a senior fighter, what I was seeing was a “tactical withdrawal”.

After Moqtada's Friday prayers, I went looking for my phone (phones are not allowed in the mosque for security reasons). I was waiting outside an office when I saw through a window four of the cleric's bodyguards dressing up another who was as chubby as the “leader” with a black turban and a black robe just like Moqtada's. Then they opened the door and ran outside with one guy shouting, “Long live Moqtada.” While the crowd surrounded them, the real Moqtada slipped out of the mosque.

It's reassuring to see the traditions of my country still thriving: one man is given the holy right to lead the nation, while young kids with RPGs terrorise everyone.

Hat Tip : Normblog

FOX

Iraqi police moved into the streets of the besieged city of Fallujah (Wednesday following hours of pounding by U.S. warplanes and artillery on Sunni insurgents in a show of force that comes amid U.S. demands for insurgents to surrender or face death.

The strikes late Tuesday smashed homes and sent huge plumes of smoke and orange flames into the night sky over Fallujah, where a fragile cease-fire with insurgent was extended.

U.S. and Iraqi forces are expected to begin joint patrols on Thursday, a step aimed at calming tensions in the city. Some U.S. officers have expressed concerns that the patrols could be targeted by militants who refused to surrender their weapons.

“We received orders to spread in the streets because U.S. soldiers are going to enter the city soon” said Iraqi security officer Lt. Mohammed Khalaf. Wednesday's Iraqi police patrols in Fallujah were separate from the planned joint patrols.

From the New York Times :

American commanders were also closely monitoring reports from inside Najaf said that growing anger of residents there against Mr. Sadr and his militiamen, who have sown a pattern of lawlessness since launching an uprising in the city earlier this month, had taken a startling new turn with a shadowy group of assassins killing at least five Sadr militiamen in attacks on Sunday and Monday.

Those reports, from residents of the city who reached relatives in Baghdad by telephone, said the killings had been carried out by a group calling itself the Thulfiqar Army, after a two-bladed sword that Shiite tradition says was used by Imam Ali, the martyred son-in-law of the Prophet Mohammed, the patron saint of Shiism. Accounts of the killings said the new group had distributed leaflets in Najaf threatening to assassinate members of Mr. Sadr's militia, known as the Mahdi Army, unless they left Najaf immediately.

One Najaf resident said some of Mr. Sadr's militiamen were shedding the black clothing that had been their signature during the weeks that they have occupied Najaf and large parts of other cities in central and southern Iraq with majority Shiite populations.

The same resident said that he knew of two killings of Mahdi Army members on Sunday, near a roundabout in Najaf named for the 1920 tribal revolt against British colonial authority in Iraq, and that three more Sadr militiamen had been killed later on Sunday or Monday.

…reports of violence against Mr. Sadr's followers in Najaf suggested that the American occupation authority might finally be seeing the beginnings of Iraqis taking action of their own to curb the firebrand cleric - as the American administrator, L. Paul Bremer III, recently urged in a television address…

Remember that there's only a single media source for this as yet, and only one person for much of it. Treat it with the same degree of scepticism you would any story from the NYT, or BBC, but not as much as the AFP.

Hat Tip to reader Dody Gunawinata.

About the AC-130, which is being used for the airstrikes in Fallujah.

The AC-130 gunship's primary missions are close air support, air interdiction and force protection. Missions in close air support are troops in contact, convoy escort and urban operations. Air interdiction missions are conducted against preplanned targets or targets of opportunity. Force protection missions include air base defense and facilities defense.

The AC-130H's call sign is “Spectre.” The AC-130U's call sign is “Spooky. ” The U-model is the third generation of C-130 gunships. All gunships evolutionized from the first operational gunship, the AC-47.

Fox TV has some amazing footage of fighting in Fallujah going on right now.

U.S. military gunship and coalition tanks waged a heavy attack Tuesday on suspected insurgent positions in Fallujah, attacking weapon storage sites used by anti-American forces.

The fierce attack captured on television cameras using night-vision technology produced a series of around 25 explosions. An AC-130 gunship (search) targeted two separate positions on the ground, sending showers of sparks and flames into the air.

A series of explosions lit up the night sky in Fallujah on Tuesday as black smoke rose above the city that has become a central location for anti-U.S. activity in Iraq.

Between 15 and 20 explosions were heard but U.S. officials are not clear what the target is or if there were casualties.

AP has details

AP: Soldier Sisters Won't Go Back to Iraq

Two sisters of a soldier killed in a Baghdad ambush have decided not to return to their National Guard units in Iraq, Guard spokesman Lt. Col. Tim Donovan said Tuesday.

Rachel and Charity Witmer had to decide whether to ask for reassignment to noncombat jobs after their sister, Michelle, died earlier this month.

The National Guard had received recommendations from the sisters' unit commanders in Iraq.

“Both commanders asked Rachel and Charity not to return, not because these soldiers are not valid members of their units, but because they are,” Donovan said, reading a statement from Maj. Gen. Al Wilkening.

Defense Department policy allows soldiers from the family of one who dies while serving in a hostile area to request an exemption from serving in a hostile area.

Spc. Michelle Witmer, 20, who was killed April 9, served with the 32nd Military Police Company, the same unit as her 24-year-old sister, Spc. Rachel Witmer.

FNC and CNN are both airing pool reporter's coverage of nightime shelling in the Fallujah area. Night vision cameras show substantial smoke from explosions.

Update: FNC reporting an AC-130 attacking a section of Fallujah that was known to have a number of munitions dumps. Explosions are said to be the ground munitions exploding.

The U.S. networks pool reporter notes that singing and chanting could be heard from mosques inside of Fallujah before, during, and after the attacks.
Pentagon now confirms the coalition is targeting sites within Fallujah.
AP now reporting that tanks are also attacking.

AFPS: Coalition Officials Defend Attack on Iraqi Minaret

“We very reluctantly go after holy sites, but when those holy sites are used to store and fire weapons, we must take action if our Marines are pinned down,” Army Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt, deputy operations director for Combined Joint Task Force 7, told reporters at a news conference.

The Marines confirmed that insurgents were using the minaret as a staging platform following an attack earlier in the day. After cordoning off the area, they entered the mosque and found “a significant number of ammunition shell casings,” Kimmitt said. Following the search, the Marines returned to their positions without damaging the minaret.

Kimmitt said the Marines called in the strike only after taking fire from the minaret the second time that day and realizing that their return fire was not enough to take out the enemy. This, he said, left the Marines with a choice: “Am I going to let my fellow Marines die, or am I going to recognize that that minaret has lost its protected status under international law and is being used as a firing platform and needs to go away?”

The Marines “made the right choice,” Kimmitt said, by calling in precision strikes that toppled the minaret but inflicted “a minimal amount of collateral damage … to any other part of that mosque.”

“On the few occasions when we must attack a holy site when it has lost its protected status under the Geneva Conventions, we have used the minimal amount of force necessary to protect our Marines,” he said.

Food for thought:

Just as the Marines took every precaution before calling in the attack on the minaret, Kimmitt said, he expects to see them working to rebuild it after stability is restored in Fallujah.

AP: Red Cross Visits Saddam in U.S. Custody

A team from the international Red Cross visited imprisoned Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein on Tuesday to check his conditions in U.S. custody, an American general said.

Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt would not say where the visit took place. Saddam has been held in an undisclosed location since his capture by U.S. forces in December, undergoing CIA and FBI interrogation.

The last visit by the International Committee of the Red Cross to Saddam came in February, Kimmitt said.

(No, I'm not going to link the Joe Cartoon thingy again.)

Kuwait News Agency:

A US helicopter crashed at 1.00 pm Tuesday, ‏said sources in the city of Kout, 180 km south of Baghdad.‏ ‏ Sources affirmed that the helicopter crashed into a high voltage pole, which was probably the main reason for the accident.‏

‏ US Army sources said, the helicopter was totally destroyed in the crash and ‏
‏that its crew was killed. It did not indicate the type of the helicopter or ‏
‏whether it was one for exploration.‏

‏ Residents in Kout said the helicopter may have been shot at by members of ‏
‏the Mehdi Army before it hit the electric pole.

AP:

A workshop believed to be producing chemical munitions exploded in flames Monday moments after U.S. troops broke in to search it, killing two soldiers and wounding five. Jubilant Iraqis swarmed over the Americans' charred Humvees, waving looted machine guns, a bandolier and a helmet.

Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt did not say what sort of chemical agents were suspected of being supplied to insurgents from the Baghdad warehouse. After the blast, there was no sign of precautions against chemicals. “Chemical munitions could mean any number of things,” including smoke grenades, he said.

From the AFP via the ABC (Australian Broadcasting Corporation) :

A number of insurgents have been killed in fierce fighting with US-led coalition forces near the central Iraqi city of Najaf, a military spokeswoman says.

The spokeswoman says an AC-130 aircraft has killed 43 anti-coalition forces and destroyed an anti-aircraft system.

An AFP correspondent reports that fighting broke out between US troops and Iraqi militia loyal to wanted Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr at an entrance to the southern city of Kufa, about 10 kilometres from Najaf.

Heavy gunfire and the sound of mortar explosions have been heard, the correspondent says.

A member of Sadr's Mehdi Army told the correspondent the militia had clashed with a US Army unit at the northern entrance of Kufa, about 160 kilometres south of Baghdad, and on the outskirts of Najaf.

At around 1:00am (local time) on Tuesday, the clashes subsided and the firing became intermittent.

“The clashes … are a provocation, but the red line has still not yet been crossed,” Qais al-Khazaali, a Mehdi Army spokesman, told Al-Jazeera television.

“To enter Najaf means to pour scorn on the Muslim holy places whether they are Sunni or Shiite. But we are ready, we are organised and we are coordinated.”

The AC-130 is a cargo aircraft converted into a flying artillery base, capable of either putting a 4” artillery round through a window, saturating areas the size of a football field with 20mm or 25mm rounds, or plinking individual vehicles with a 2-pound 40mm shell.

From Reuters via the ABC (Australian Broadcasting Corporation) :

A statement apparently from top Al Qaeda operative Abu Musab al-Zarqawi has claimed responsibility for a suicide boat attack on Iraq's Basra oil terminal and branded Prime Minister John Howard as “wicked”.

From the AAP via The Australian :

“The feeling is entirely mutual,” [Australian Foreign Minister] Downer said.

WASHINGTON POST: New Iraqi Flag Meets With Public Disapproval

It was supposed to be the perfect symbol for a new and unified Iraq: an Islamic crescent on a field of pure white, with two blue stripes representing the Tigris and Euphrates rivers and a third yellow stripe to symbolize the country's Kurdish minority.

But the new national flag, presented Monday after an artistic competition sponsored by the Iraqi Governing Council, appears to have met with widespread public disapproval here — in part because of its design and in part because of the increasing unpopularity of the U.S.-appointed council.

(Flag in extended entry)

Here it is:

What do you think?

Per the Sydney Morning Herald:

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This is a duplicate of the original post on the nikita demosthenes website.

Via lucianne.com.

At least eight Iraqi insurgents and one U.S. Marine were killed Monday in the Iraqi city of Fallujah in a firefight that erupted despite a supposed truce with insurgents occupying the city.
U.S. General Mark Kimmitt said the fatalities occurred when Marines were attacked by insurgents firing small arms and grenades from windows in the minaret of a mosque. He said the minaret was destroyed in the fighting.

REUTERS: Iraq group threatens to kill Italians

Al Arabiya TV has broadcast a tape it says shows three Italians held captive in Iraq and say their captors will kill them in five days if the Italian people do not protest their country's military presence in Iraq.

“A group calling itself the Green Brigade said it would release them if demonstrations are organised in Italy to protest against the government's policy in Iraq,” the Arabic TV channel reported on Monday, quoting a message it said it received from the kidnappers.

“The group gave Italians five days to hold the protests or it will kill the hostages.”

JERUSALEM POST/AP: Iraqis: US using cluster bombs in Fallujah

A spokesman for an Iraqi delegation from the violence-gripped city of Fallujah on Monday accused US troops of using internationally banned cluster bombs against the city and said they had asked the United Nations to mediate the conflict.

Mohammed Tareq, a spokesman for the governing council of Fallujah and a member of the four-person delegation, said US military snipers were also responsible for the deaths of many children, women and elderly people.

“In Fallujah, the American troops killed at least 800 people and wounded 1,800,” Tareq told reporters. “We want to inform the world about the massacres and the human rights violations by the Americans in our city.”

Welcome! Our goal is to give you one power-packed briefing of insights, news and trends from the global War on Terror that leaves you stimulated, informed, and occasionally amused every Monday & Thursday. Today's “Winds of War” is brought to you by Dan Darling. of Regnum Crucis.

TOP TOPICS

• Hezbollah operations chief Imad Mughniyeh, who is already responsible for the deaths of over 200 American troops in Lebanon in the 1980s, is inside Iraq and has reportedly trained Sadr's Mahdi Army.

• Pakistan has granted an amnesty to the Waziri tribal leaders accused of sheltering al-Qaeda fighters (the latter of whom will apparently be let off in return for a pledge of good behavior) in an extremely disappointing turn of events. As part of the deal, 50 tribesmen, most of whom were captured during the recent military operation in Waziristan and in all likelihood killed Pakistani troops, will be released. Thankfully, we have no less a figure that MMA supremo Qazi Hussein Ahmed to tell that there are no al-Qaeda inside Pakistan.

• On a much happier note, over 300 members of the Algerian GSPC have agreed to surrender to the government under a new amnesty deal in a devastating blow to al-Qaeda's main arm in North and West Africa.

Other Topics Today Include: Iraq Briefing; Iran Reports; Taliban attack NGO; Sydney terror plot; Cole bomber nabbed; al-Haramain Brigades takes credit for Riyadh bombing; JI tied to counterfeit trade; Mullah Krekar's got a memoir; Saudis want jihad in Iraq but not at home; possible Hamas link to Kosovo shooting spree; JI and MILF operatives busted in Philippines; and robot surgeon sued for maltinkering.

REad The Rest…

AP: Bulgarian President's Convoy Attacked in Iraq

Bulgarian President Georgi Parvanov's convoy came under attack by gunmen late Sunday during a surprise visit to his country's forces in the southern Iraqi city of Kerbala, the Defense Ministry said.

The ministry said the president was not hurt in the attack on his convoy, which was fired on as it traveled between the camps of Bulgarian and Polish troops in the flashpoint city, where Shi'ite militants have stepped up attacks against U.S.-led forces in recent weeks.

“The president's car was shot up. No one was hurt,” Defense Ministry Spokeswoman Rumiana Strugarova said.

“The attack took about five minutes, and we suppose the attackers were Shi'ite militants. The president returned to Bulgaria in the early hours of the morning.”

Updating a previous post, from the AFP via the ABC (Australian Broadcasting Corporation) :

“A huge explosion occurred and four Humvees were set ablaze after US soldiers entered a chemical lab,” witness Salah al-Abed said.

Shortly after the explosion in two chemical laboratories in the northern neighbourhood of Waziriyah, US troops were seen removing two bodies in body bags.

Two civilians, including two children, were also wounded in a nearby house, according to the AFP photographer.

Heavy black smoke could be seen rising from the area as a US helicopter hovered overhead.

An Iraqi policeman, who refused to give his name, said he saw “three US soldiers wounded or killed in each vehicle”.

A nearby house partly collapsed, the AFP photographer said.

Some witnesses said at least one of the labs manufactured perfume.

Several witnesses said US soldiers entered one of the labs next to the damaged house and tried to force the door open, causing a spark which triggered the explosion.

“The US soldiers went into a first lab. When they came out, they were carrying chemical pr