Iraqi Police

WASHINGTON - Democrats and Republicans joined Wednesday to criticize harshly a State Department program for continued training of Iraq's police force, calling the nearly $900 million set aside in the 2012 budget a waste of money. Lawmakers at a House Foreign Affairs subcommittee hearing cited an October report from the special inspector general for Iraq reconstruction that said the training program lacked focus, could become a "bottomless pit" for U.S. dollars and may not even be wanted by the Iraqis.

BAGHDAD - A suicide bomber killed 20 police officers in southern Iraq on Thursday as the country braced for attacks from al-Qaeda in Iraq in the aftermath of the death of Osama bin Laden. The car bomber blew up his vehicle at a police headquarters in the mainly Shiite Muslim city of Hillah before 7 a.m. as the police switched from overnight to day shift. It was the second major attack in Iraq since bin Laden was killed early Monday. The attacker in Hillah set off his explosives as police officers gathered outside in the midst of their shift change, according to local government officials on state television.

Short on equipment, training and the respect of their countrymen, targeted by insurgents and everyday criminals, Iraqi policemen have a job that's tougher than ever. So the 320 patrolmen and 22 officers at the command of Brig. Gen. Safaa Ali in the Bayaa station's patrol division travel in groups as they roam the nine square miles under their jurisdiction at the city's southwest edge. "Even a police officer these days may need another police officer," said Ali, 45. "We are ready, and we are expecting anything.

The bright spot in U.S. Army Maj. Howard Zimmerman's recent inspection of Iraqi police checkpoints turned up in a dark room. In a small, windowless building serving as an armory, the police had placed AK-47 assault rifles against the walls and draped bulletproof vests over rails. The well-maintained equipment was orderly and ready to grab. "This is a very good standard," Zimmerman told the checkpoint's commander. The praise was modest. But as the Army begins an extensive, yearlong campaign to train and equip 135,000 Iraqi police officers to operate almost independently of the American-led occupation coalition, the obstacles are so big that even small advances merit notice.

No signs advertise the police academy that sits in a barren expanse of the eastern Jordanian desert. Local journalists don't write about it. The guards who work there aren't permitted to talk about it. Academy officials say the anonymity protects the hundreds of Iraqi police recruits who leave the 450-acre sanctuary to face "the toughest law-enforcement job in the world. " Each fresh-faced recruit has a target on his back once he returns to Iraq, where more than 350 officers have been killed in the past year for cooperating with occupation authorities.

As nearly 300 police officers gathered in their station's parking lot for a shift change yesterday morning, a white tanker truck came barreling down a nearby street, crashed into a brick wall and exploded. With timing that suggested inside knowledge of police routines, the blast killed nine Iraqis, including two policemen, and injured at least 62, the Health Ministry said. It was the fifth vehicle bombing in the last week, including one suicide attack that narrowly missed the justice minister - but killed five bodyguards - and another that killed 11 people outside the protected area that houses the interim Iraqi government.

A pickup packed with 500 pounds of explosives detonated in front of a police station south of Baghdad yesterday, killing at least 50 Iraqis and injuring more than 100. The apparent suicide bombing devastated this tiny town. The blast shaved off the front of the police station, left a large crater in the heart of the city, and littered streets with severed limbs and razor-sharp metal debris. Sobbing relatives buried mangled bodies instead of gathering for a Shiite Muslim celebration that had been planned for the same day. Hospital workers, who were still receiving bodies seven hours after the blast, put the death toll at 50. U.S. military officials confirmed 35 dead and 75 wounded but said the numbers could be much higher because some critically wounded victims later died and more bodies were thought to be under rubble.

Three U.S. soldiers were killed and seven wounded during an overnight shoot-out with a Shiite Muslim cleric's bodyguards in the holy city of Karbala, the military said yesterday. The midnight shoot-out, about 50 miles southwest of Baghdad, also left at least two Iraqi police officers dead. Reports said at least eight other Iraqis died. The incident marked one of the deadliest days for U.S. troops in Iraq in more than a month and highlighted the growing tension between coalition forces and Iraq's Shiite Muslim majority, whose cooperation is key to Iraqi reconstruction.

Iraqi police and intelligence agents stormed through Baghdad's roughest neighborhoods this month, arresting more than 500 men in operations they hoped would be a spectacular debut for an all-Iraqi crime-fighting force. Days after the raids were trumpeted on the news, most of the suspected kidnappers and carjackers were back on the streets for lack of evidence. The 150 or so who remained in custody were blindfolded for interrogations that included blows to the head and threats against their families.

The U.S.-led coalition is interrogating two men in connection with the beheading of West Chester businessman Nicholas Berg. Based on tips from Iraqis, four men were arrested in a Baghdad raid earlier this week and two were quickly released, said Brig. Gen Mark Kimmitt, spokesman for U.S. military operations in Iraq. He did not elaborate, saying only that the men were believed to have "knowledge, perhaps some culpability," in the death of Berg, 26, who was in Iraq seeking work repairing communications towers.

WASHINGTON - Democrats and Republicans joined Wednesday to criticize harshly a State Department program for continued training of Iraq's police force, calling the nearly $900 million set aside in the 2012 budget a waste of money. Lawmakers at a House Foreign Affairs subcommittee hearing cited an October report from the special inspector general for Iraq reconstruction that said the training program lacked focus, could become a "bottomless pit" for U.S. dollars and may not even be wanted by the Iraqis.

BAGHDAD - Attacks aimed at Iraqi police, including two in which assailants slammed explosives-packed cars into police stations, killed 25 people Wednesday and maimed dozens in the worst violence in the capital since August. Less than three months before American troops are to leave Iraq, the blasts were a brutal example of the challenges Iraqi security forces will face as they assume sole responsibility for containing terror groups such as al-Qaeda. The explosions were aimed at the police, generally considered the weakest section of the country's security forces.

BAGHDAD - Bombs killed at least 15 people Thursday in Iraq, including eight police officers and a soldier, in the latest strike against Iraqi security forces as U.S. troops prepare to leave. Gunmen attacked a police station Thursday in Karmah, 50 miles west of Baghdad. After exchanging gunfire with the policemen, the gunmen withdrew and a car bomb exploded near the police station, killing five police officers, officials said. About 30 minutes later, a parked car bomb exploded near a police checkpoint in a village outside Fallujah, 40 miles west of Baghdad.

BAGHDAD - Frequent bombings, assassinations and a resurgence in violence by Shiite militias have made Iraq more dangerous now than it was just a year ago, a U.S. government watchdog concludes in a report released Saturday. The findings come during what U.S. Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction Stuart W. Bowen Jr. called "a summer of uncertainty" in Baghdad over whether American forces will stay past a year-end withdrawal deadline and continue military aid for the unstable nation.

BAGHDAD - A suicide bomber killed 20 police officers in southern Iraq on Thursday as the country braced for attacks from al-Qaeda in Iraq in the aftermath of the death of Osama bin Laden. The car bomber blew up his vehicle at a police headquarters in the mainly Shiite Muslim city of Hillah before 7 a.m. as the police switched from overnight to day shift. It was the second major attack in Iraq since bin Laden was killed early Monday. The attacker in Hillah set off his explosives as police officers gathered outside in the midst of their shift change, according to local government officials on state television.

For former Army Sgt. Carl Oliver, seeing images of the last American combat brigade leaving Iraq was bittersweet. He's still recovering physically and emotionally from a 2004 insurgent attack in Baghdad that killed two close New Jersey comrades and seriously wounded him. The sight of troops crossing into Kuwait "brought tears to my eyes," the Trenton man said. "I just wish it had been us coming home, that nobody had to die. " Oliver, 55, and other veterans said Thursday that they were proud of their part in the slow progress - over more than seven years - that led to this week's milestone in Iraq.

N. Korean ruler promotes kin BEIJING - North Korean leader Kim Jong Il's brother-in-law was elevated Monday to the second-most-powerful position in the leadership, a reshuffling of personnel intended to consolidate the ruling family's grip over the country. The promotion of Jang Song Taek, 64, long believed to be one of the most powerful men behind the scenes in North Korea, was announced after an unexpected meeting of the Supreme People's Assembly, presided over by the ailing Kim, 68. The reshuffling appears intended to pave the way for Kim's inexperienced and little-known youngest son, Kim Jong Un, to become the titular leader after his father's death.

They've policed the meanest streets of Philadelphia, where the murder rate ranks among the highest of the nation's big cities. They've been dispatched to shootings and stabbings, chased suspects on foot and pursued them in squad cars. And now, the three Philadelphia officers have been called to duty on the streets and in the prisons of a more violent city - Baghdad - where they'll teach their skills to Iraqis, Philly-style. Joined by law-enforcement officers from such places as Yeadon, Allentown and York, the Army Reservists are training at Fort Dix in Burlington County for a crucial job that Pentagon officials hope will allow them to draw down U.S. troops this summer to pre-surge levels.

With U.S. envoy due, Bhutto no longer confined to house LAHORE, Pakistan - Police said they lifted the house arrest of opposition leader Benazir Bhutto today, hours before the arrival of a senior U.S. envoy who was expected to urge the country's military leader to end emergency rule. The move came after Bhutto - while still confined to a house in Lahore - urged fellow opposition leaders to join her in an alliance that could govern until elections. Despite Bhutto's call, President Gen. Pervez Musharraf has given no sign he will hand over power.

LAST WEEK, TWO separate but interconnected pieces of news came out that make it clear that President Bush has no intention of bringing troops home from Iraq while he's president. In fact, it's worse: he wants to make sure the next president can't either. Sure, while he was there on a surprise visit, he hinted that a few troops could come home, if Gen. David Petraeus recommends it. At the same time, another interview with the president revealed his true intentions. In a new book by Robert Draper, the president told the author that when it comes to Iraq, "I'm playing for October-November.