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Bounty offered for embassy bomb suspect
BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- The U.S. State Department is offering up to $5 million for information leading to the capture of the suspected mastermind of the August bombing of the Jordanian Embassy in Iraq. Abu Musab al Zarqawi, a Jordanian who has ties to al Qaeda, is suspected of orchestrating the August 7 attack on the Baghdad facility, which killed at least 16 people, including five Iraqi guards, and wounded dozens more. When the reward offer first appeared Wednesday on the State Department's "Rewards for Justice" Web site, it was listed as $25 million. The State Department said Thursday that was a mistake. The up to $5 million reward is equivalent to the amount offered for information leading to the capture of former Iraqi ruler Saddam Hussein, al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden and some of bin Laden's top lieutenants. Zarqawi "has had a long-standing connection to senior [al Qaeda] leadership and appears to be highly regarded among" the terror network, according to the Web site. He is being tried in absentia for last year's killing of U.S. diplomat Laurence Foley in Amman, Jordan. (Full story) U.N. scales backDays after a series of deadly bombings in Baghdad, including an attack at the International Committee of the Red Cross headquarters, the United Nations is temporarily pulling out all its international staff from the Iraqi capital. But other U.N. staffers are remaining at work in other parts of the country. Marie Okabe, a U.N. spokeswoman in New York, said the U.N. move "does not represent a policy decision to disengage from Iraq." "I would also like to stress that this is a temporary relocation and it's part of an ongoing process, ... a constant review of the situation on the ground given the volatile conditions there," she said. On Monday, four suicide bombings were launched in Baghdad, killing more than 30 people. One of the attacks was on the Red Cross offices. Two Iraqi Red Cross employees were killed in the explosion. Ten other people in the area also were killed. About 20 international U.N. staffers are in Baghdad. Roughly 40 international U.N. staff members are in the rest of the country. Local employees number in the thousands. A car bombing August 19 at U.N. headquarters in Baghdad killed 22 people, including Sergio Vieira de Mello, the top U.N. representative. Doctors Without Borders said Thursday it will scale down its seven-person expatriate team in Baghdad. The Red Cross said that it is reducing its international staff in Iraq as a result of Monday's bombing outside its Baghdad office. (Full story) In Columbus, Ohio, President Bush said the U.S.-led coalition is "aggressively striking the terrorists in Iraq," such as those who attack aid workers. "We will defeat them there so we do not have to face them in our own country," Bush said at a fund-raising event Thursday. Ex-Iraqi general suspected behind attacksA former Iraqi general in Saddam's inner circle is believed to be financing and coordinating attacks against U.S. troops in Iraqi, Pentagon sources said Wednesday Former Iraqi Gen. Izzat Ibrahim al-Duri is suspected of carrying out the attacks, possibly with help from regime loyalists and foreign fighters, sources said.
However, FBI Director Robert Mueller, whose agency is assisting in the investigation of attacks, said it would be premature to lay responsibility for a wave of recent bombings "at the feet of any one entity." "There are organizations and entities that we are looking at as possibly being responsible," Mueller added. Al-Duri is the highest-ranking member of the former regime still at large, except for Saddam himself. Al-Duri is sixth on the list of 55 most-wanted Iraqis and the king of clubs in the famous deck of cards handed out to coalition forces in the hunt for former Iraqi officials. Pentagon officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the recent capture of several suspected members of Ansar al-Islam in northern Iraq provided the intelligence pointing toward al-Duri. Ansar al-Islam is a terrorist group based in Iraq with ties to al Qaeda. Other developments• Congress is on the verge of approving an $87 billion package for military and reconstruction costs in Iraq and Afghanistan that largely follows the White House's request, The Associated Press reported. House-Senate negotiators worked out final details late Wednesday, meeting Bush's demand that none of the Iraqi reconstruction money be provided as loans. The House could vote on the bill as soon as Thursday, and the Senate is likely to follow shortly afterward, according to the AP. It then would go to Bush for his signature. (Full story) • U.S. troops from the 4th Infantry Division raided four sites Thursday in and around Tikrit. They detained 13 people suspected of being connected to the Fedayeen Saddam militia group and former Baathist party members, according to a 4th Infantry Division representative. Four of the 13 detainees were targeted in the raid and the others were detained for questioning. Weapons and documents were also confiscated. • Two U.S. soldiers were wounded Thursday in a bombing near a U.S. base in the northern city of Mosul, according to coalition officials. The soldiers from the 101st Airborne Division were evacuated to a military field hospital after a homemade bomb exploded. No arrests have been made. • In Fallujah, west of Baghdad, assailants Thursday ambushed a train believed to be carrying supplies for the U.S. military, sources said. No casualties were reported. Coalition officials said rocket-propelled grenades hit the train as it traveled toward the Iraqi capital. • Iraqi police said they foiled an attack on a precinct Thursday when they detained a man armed with a grenade and a revolver outside a Baghdad station. They said the man, identified as a resident of Fallujah, was about to launch the grenade at the station. • The Senate Intelligence Committee has given the CIA until noon Friday to produce documents on the intelligence community's prewar assessments of Iraq's weapons program. (Full story) CNN's Jane Arraf, Ted Barrett, Dana Bash, Liz Neisloss, Barbara Starr and Ben Wedeman contributed to this report. Copyright 2003 CNN. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Associated Press contributed to this report.
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