The New Nation - Internet Edition

US soldier among 33 killed in separate incidents in Iraq

AFP, Baghdad

At least 33 people were killed in chopper crash and different incidence in Iraq.

A Russian made Mi-17 helicopter belonging to the Iraqi military has crashed in northern Iraq, killing eight people on board including a US service person, a US military spokesman said on Tuesday.

"Recovery operations have been completed and there are no survivors," Lieutenant Michael Street told AFP.

Street said there was one coalition force member among the eight people on board.

He identified the Iraqi aircraft as an Mi-17 helicopter. The helicopter went missing on Monday. Its wreckage was found on Tuesday near a village west of the northern oil refinery town of Baiji, a defence ministry official told AFP. The helicopter had lifted off from the Al-Sinya base near Baiji and was heading to the main northern city of Mosul at the time of the crash, an officer from Salaheddin provincial police said. He said the cause of the crash remained unclear but added "there was a sandstorm yesterday." The last reported contact with the helicopter was at 2:40 pm (1140 GMT) on Monday, Street said.

Meanwhile, At least 23 people were killed in bomb attacks and shootings across Iraq as US troops announced the discovery of a mass grave with the bodies of 14 men who had been bound and shot in the head.

The deadliest attacks were in Baghdad, where at least 19 people were killed in two car bombings, while an Iraqi police chief was killed in an ambush in the southern port city of Basra.

Government figures issued on Saturday showed that the total number of Iraqis killed in February was up by 33 percent over the previous month, reversing six months of falling death tolls.

In the bloodiest attack on Monday, at least 15 people were killed and 45 wounded when a car bomb exploded near a labour ministry building in a commercial area of Baghdad's Bab al-Muazam neighbourhood, a security official said.

The injured included ministry employees and students from the nearby Baghdad University, the official said.

The attack came just hours after a car bomb hit an Iraqi army checkpoint at Maisaloon Square in eastern Baghdad, killing four people and damaging three nearby houses, security and medical officials said.

At least 12 people were injured. In the restive southern port city of Basra, gunmen ambushed a top provincial police chief's convoy and shot him and his three bodyguards dead, police said.

New Israeli Gaza incursion overshadows Rice peace push

AFP, Gaza City

Israeli troops shot dead a Palestinian baby girl and a senior militant during a brief incursion into Gaza on Tuesday, overshadowing a new peace push by US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.

Palestinian medics said the Israelis shot dead a 20-day-old baby girl during exchanges of fire with gunmen, and that 10 people had been wounded, including at least three gunmen.

A top leader in the radical Islamic Jihad movement, Youssuf Smeiri, was killed following the two-hour incursion into the Hamas-ruled territory, the army and Palestinian sources said.

Rice had earlier met moderate Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas, who broke off all contacts with Israel on Sunday after a previous incursion killed more than 120 people, including 23 children.

He responded to her call for renewed talks with a demand for a comprehensive ceasefire.

But as the top US diplomat met in Jerusalem with Prime Minister Ehud Olmert over dinner, Israeli forces backed by helicopters clashed with Hamas gunmen after several armoured vehicles entered Gaza east of the city of Khan Yunis. The Israeli forces withdrew several hours later after arresting three people, including the son of Smeiri, also known as Abu Muaz.

The Israeli forces had laid siege to Smeiri's house in the village of Al-Karara, several hundred metres (yards) from the border, Palestinian security sources said.

Baby Amira Abu Asr was killed in the same village, sources at the Nasser hospital in the town of Khan Yunis told AFP, and two civilians were wounded.

An Israeli army spokesman said he was "not familiar" with the killing of the baby.

Late on Tuesday, Israeli aircraft fired rockets towards a cell of Islamic Jihad militants, causing no casualties, shortly after they had fired rockets against southern Israel, the group said.

Rice had earlier called for Israel to be "very cognizant of the effects of its operations on innocent people," urging both Israel and the Palestinians to renew peace talks that were dealt a major blow by the deadly Israeli onslaught of the past week. "We look forward to the resumption of negotiations as soon as possible," Rice said after meeting Abbas.

She said President George W. Bush's goal of resolving the decades-old conflict and inking a historic peace deal by the end of his term in January 2009 was still possible.

Colombia gets US backing in worsening regional crisis

AFP, Bogota

Colombia and Ecuador sought diplomatic help Tuesday to resolve a militarized dispute between them that has already drawn in Venezuela and a pledge of support from the United States for Bogota, its main ally in South America.

As Venezuela and Ecuador reportedly reinforced troops on their borders with Colombia, US President George W. Bush said he stood fully behind his Colombian counterpart, Alvaro Uribe, and slammed Caracas for raising tensions.

"We firmly oppose any acts of aggression that could destabilize the region," Bush said in Washington, singling out "the provocative maneuvers by the regime in Venezuela."

Ecuadoran President Rafael Correa, on a visit to Brazil to drum up regional support, said Bush's words in favor of Colombia were an unsurprising plug for an "unconditional puppet."

Both Ecuador and Colombia called for an urgent meeting of foreign ministers of the Americas by March 11 to deal with their crisis.

The initiative was demanded during an emergency session of the Organization of American States Tuesday that examined the worsening situation and the trigger behind it: a cross-border raid by Colombia into Ecuador on the weekend to kill a rebel leader.

Bush 'optimistic' on Mideast breakthrough before 2009

AFP, Washington

US President George W. Bush said Tuesday that he was still "optimistic" about winning a Middle East peace deal before he leaves office in January, but urged Israelis and Palestinians to do more. "Ten months is a long time. May seem short to you, but there's plenty of time to get a deal done," Bush told reporters as he discussed the sputtering peace process with Jordan's King Abdullah II at the White House. "This is a process that, you know, always has two steps forward and one step back. We've just got to make sure that it's only one step back," Bush declared as talks foundered amid a wave of deadly violence in Gaza and rocket attacks on Israel. "I'm optimistic -- still as optimistic as I was after Annapolis," he added, referring to the US-sponsored Middle East peace conference in Annapolis, Maryland, in November 2007, that thawed negotiations after a seven-year chill.

India PM seeking broad support on nuclear deal

Reuters, New Delhi

India's prime minister Manmohan Singh said on Wednesday his government was seeking the "broadest possible consensus" on a contentious nuclear deal with the United States, a pact opposed by his leftist allies. Indian communists, who provide vital support to Singh's ruling alliance, say they will pull down the government if it tries to push through the deal, which will give India access to U.S. nuclear fuel and technology. Washington has warned the deal might fall through if not concluded by July. Meanwhile, the United States said on Wednesday time was tight to seal a controversial nuclear deal with India, but it was still possible to wrap it up if it reached the U.S. Congress by July, ahead of the U.S. presidential poll. The deal is caught up in India's domestic politics, with the communists who shore up the government threatening to withdraw support if the pact is pushed through.