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Suicide cause of scientist's death

LONDON - Prime Minister Tony Blair said Saturday the suicide of the British weapons expert Dr. David Kelly was "an absolutely terrible tragedy," and he appealed for politicians and the press to end speculation about the causes of it while a judicial inquiry proceeded.

Kelly's body was found on Friday morning on a footpath 5 miles from his Oxfordshire home.

The Thames Valley Police said Saturday Kelly had bled to death after cutting his left wrist. They reported recovering a knife and a package of painkilling pills at the scene. Police would not discuss whether there was a note or other explanation.

Kelly, 59, was a former U.N. weapons inspector in Iraq and a senior adviser to the Ministry of Defense on weapons of mass destruction. He had been singled out by the government as the likely source for a BBC report that a government dossier exaggerated the threat of Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass destruction.

BAGHDAD, Iraq - A U.S. serviceman was killed before dawn on Saturday while guarding a bank on the outskirts of the city.

Four other GIs were wounded when their vehicle was struck by a homemade bomb.

The soldier who was killed was assigned to the Army's 1st Armored Division. He was attacked at 1:30 a.m. with small-arms fire and a rocket-propelled grenade while guarding al-Rasheed Bank, said Spc. Brian Sharkey.

U.S. air war commanders carried out a comprehensive plan to disrupt Iraq's military command and control system before the Iraq war, according to an internal briefing on the conflict by the senior allied air war commander.

Called "Southern Focus," the plan called for attacks on the network of fiber-optic cable that Saddam Hussein's government used to transmit military communications, as well as airstrikes on key command centers, radars and other key military assets.

The strikes, which were conducted during the last half of 2002 and the first few months of 2003, were justified publicly at the time as a reaction to Iraqi violations of the no-flight zone that the United States and Britain established in southern Iraq. But Lt. Gen. T. Michael Moseley, the chief allied war commander, said the attacks also laid the foundations for the military campaign against the Baghdad government.

One reason why it was possible for the allies to begin the ground campaign to topple Hussein without preceding it with an extensive array of airstrikes was that 606 bombs had been dropped on 391 carefully selected targets under the "Southern Focus" plan, Moseley said.

Coalition provisional authority officials have opened recruiting centers for a new Iraqi army in Baghdad, Mosul and Basra.

Vinnell Corp. of Reston, Va., will train recruits for two months. Former Iraqi soldiers over the rank of lieutenant colonel are barred from joining the new army, which will begin with 1,060 men, including 60 officers. U.S. officials in Baghdad hope to field the first battalion in two months.