Baghdad rocket shakes U.N. chief in Green Zone

BAGHDAD - A rocket exploded 50 yards from the U.N. secretary-general during a news conference yesterday in Baghdad's Green Zone, causing him to cringe and duck. Minutes earlier, Iraq's prime minister had said the visit showed the city was "on the road to stability."

The U.S. military, meanwhile, reported a breakthrough in the campaign against rogue Shiite extremists, saying it had captured two brothers responsible for a sophisticated sneak attack that killed five U.S. soldiers in January.

The Katyusha rocket that hit near Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon was fired from a mainly Shiite area on the east bank of the Tigris River. The well-guarded Green Zone on the opposite bank is home to the U.S. Embassy and Iraq's government.

Ban's unannounced stop in the Iraqi capital was the first visit by a U.N. secretary-general since Kofi Annan, his predecessor, came to Baghdad in November 2005.

The U.N. presence in Iraq has been much smaller than planned since extremists bombed the organization's Baghdad headquarters Aug. 19, 2003, and killed 22 people, including the top U.N. envoy, Sergio Vieira de Mello.

That was one of the first major attacks as Sunni Arab insurgents began rallying against U.S. forces and other foreign troops. Foreign U.N. staff withdrew from Iraq in October 2003 after a second assault on the world body's offices and other attacks on humanitarian workers. A small staff has been allowed to return since August 2004.

Iraq's Shiite-dominated government has been pushing for a greater U.N. role and was banking on decreased violence in the capital to show that it was returning to normal, six weeks into a joint security crackdown with U.S. forces.

"We consider it a positive message to the world in which you confirm that Baghdad has returned to playing host to important world figures because it has made huge strides toward stability," Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki told Ban moments before the rocket attack.

Ban's presence was broadcast after he arrived; the trip was kept so secret that even his press spokeswoman did not know he was in Iraq. His public schedule had called for Ban to leave New York yesterday for a trip to Egypt, Israel, and an African Union summit in Saudi Arabia.

The U.S. military announced that three Americans died in combat Wednesday - an Army soldier slain in Baghdad and another soldier and a Marine killed in Anbar province. At least 44 Iraqis were killed or found dead yesterday, including 25 bodies dumped in the capital, all showing signs of torture, police said.

In the campaign against Shiite extremists, the U.S. military said it had captured two brothers who were "directly connected" to the Jan. 20 sneak attack that killed five U.S. soldiers guarding the provincial headquarters in Karbala, 50 miles south of Baghdad.

Qais al-Khazaali, his brother Laith al-Khazaali, and several other members of their network were captured over the last three days, the military said.

Gunmen speaking English, wearing U.S. military uniforms, and carrying U.S. weapons killed one U.S. soldier during that attack, then carried off four captured soldiers and later shot them to death about 25 miles from Karbala.

The U.S. military's initial statement on the day of the raid said five soldiers were killed while "repelling" the attack on the compound in Karbala.

But after a Jan. 26 report by the Associated Press, the military reversed itself and confirmed that four of the guards had been abducted before being slain in a neighboring province.

In the assault, nine to 12 gunmen posed as a U.S. security team, the military said. They traveled in black GMC Suburbans, the SUVs used by U.S. government convoys.

The arrest announcement came a day after the AP reported that two senior commanders from the Mahdi Army militia had identified one of the brothers, Qais al-Khazaali, as the leader of up to 3,000 fighters who defected from the group. They said the defectors were now financed directly by Iran and no longer loyal to the militia's leader, the cleric Muqtada al-Sadr.

Tensions between Shiite factions boiled into public view yesterday when followers of radical cleric Muqtada al-Sadr stormed

the office of a rival Shiite political party in southern Iraq, wounding nine people and prompting a daytime curfew, police officials said.

The assault seems to have been prompted by a dispute between Sadr followers and a member of the Fadhila political party within the Electricity Ministry that serves the area. The governor's house also was attacked.

The fight occurred a day after three alleged Sadr followers in the southern city of Kut stopped the mayor's car and shot him dead with the help of six police.

Rival factions are struggling to control the government in the area, run by affiliates of the largest Shiite bloc in parliament, which is being challenged by Sadr supporters.

- Los Angeles TimesEndText

See video of Ban Ki-moon's rocky news conference via go.philly.com/UNblast

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