Annan on Mideast view: "Iraq and its aftermath...'a real disaster.'"

[ProSense]

Annan: Iraq 'disaster' in Mideast view

24 minutes ago

UNITED NATIONS - U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said Wednesday that most leaders in the Middle East believe the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq and its aftermath to be "a real disaster." Annan said the United States was now in the difficult position where "it cannot stay and it cannot leave."

He said the leaders he spoke to on his recent trip to the Middle East fell into two camps: Some believed the United States cannot walk away from Iraq, while others, such as Iran, said it should leave and they would help stabilize the country.

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http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060913/ap_on_re_mi_ea/un_iraq_1

Iraq asks Iran for help on militants

By ALI AKBAR DAREINI, Associated Press Writer
2 hours, 33 minutes ago

TEHRAN, Iran - Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki made his first official visit to Iran, a close ally, asking the Islamic regime on Tuesday to crack down on al-Qaida militants infiltrating his country and seeking new deals to help Iraq's troubled oil industry.

The visit reflected the complex relationship between Iran, a mostly Shiite Muslim country, and Iraq's government, now dominated in the post- Saddam Hussein era by Shiite allies of Tehran. Since Saddam's fall in 2003, Iraq has sought better relations with Iran and to heal scars left by the 1980-88 war that killed more than 1 million people on both sides.

The two enjoy increasingly strong ties that include new oil cooperation. Iraq has already turned to Iran for help with a chronic shortage of petroleum goods, reaching a deal last month to import Iranian gasoline, kerosene and cooking fuel. Iraqi officials said al-Maliki's visit and other recent exchanges could improve the cooperation.

But at the same time, the United States — the Iraqi government's other top ally and a bitter enemy of Iran — has repeatedly accused Tehran of interfering in Iraqi politics and allowing insurgents to cross the porous 1,000-mile border. Iran denies the claims.

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http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060913/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iran_iraq_4

65 bodies found in latest Iraq bloodshed

By SAMEER N. YACOUB, Associated Press Writer
18 minutes ago

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Police found the bodies of 65 men who had been tortured, shot and dumped, most around Baghdad, while car bombs, mortar attacks and shootings killed at least 30 people around Iraq and injured dozens more.

Two U.S. soldiers were killed, one by an attack in restive Anbar province Monday, and the other Tuesday by a roadside bomb south of Baghdad, the U.S. military command said.

Police said 60 of the bodies were found overnight around Baghdad, with the majority dumped in predominantly Sunni Arab neighborhoods, police said. Another five were found floating down the Tigris river in Suwayrah, 25 miles south of the capital.

The bodies were bound, bore signs of torture and had been shot, said police 1st Lt. Thayer. Such killings are usually the work of death squads — both Sunni Arab and Shiite — who kidnap people and often torture them with power drills or beat them badly before shooting them.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060913/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq_060910164757