Iraq

Corps is taken off oil contract

WASHINGTON - The Defense Department is removing the Army Corps of Engineers from overseeing oil imports into Iraq, acting just weeks after Pentagon auditors said Halliburton - Vice President Dick Cheney's former firm - may have overcharged taxpayers under the corps' supervision.

The Defense Energy Support Center, which buys fuel for the military throughout the world, will supervise the replacement of Halliburton and the award of a new contract for the imports, the center said Tuesday.

"We're taking over the mission," said the center's spokeswoman, Lynette Ebberts. She would not comment on whether the audit prompted the change, which was ordered Dec. 23.

Corps spokesman Robert Faletti said, "I don't believe the report had anything to do with the transfer."

BAGHDAD - A roadside bomb that was apparently intended for a passing U.S. military convoy missed its target Tuesday, exploding in a densely populated Baghdad neighborhood and killing an Iraqi civilian.

The attack in the Karrada neighborhood shattered windows on the busy street and destroyed a concrete road median, but did not wound any U.S. troops.

In Baghdad, U.S. Army Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt said U.S. forces had detained a total of 101 suspected opponents of the U.S.-led coalition in the past 24 hours.

Kimmitt said the number of engagements between coalition forces and insurgents have stayed "relatively the same" since the capture Dec. 13 of ousted President Saddam Hussein.

FORT CARSON, Colo. - The Army dropped a charge of dereliction of duty against a Special Forces soldier who was accused of cowardice, but the soldier's military career is still in limbo.

Staff Sgt. Georg-Andreas Pogany, 32, has returned to his unit and was awaiting word on whether he still faced a court-martial, his lawyer said Monday.

Pogany, an Army interrogator assigned to the 10th Special Forces Group, was charged with cowardice Oct. 14 after suffering what he described as a panic attack from seeing the body of an Iraqi man who had been cut in half by American gunfire in Iraq.

WASHINGTON - Hundreds will get a free ride to military hospitals around the country so they can visit soldiers wounded in Iraq and Afghanistan.

"Operation Hero Miles" is giving 680 free plane tickets to families of wounded troops. Since November, the program has also been providing free plane tickets home for soldiers on leave from Iraq and Afghanistan, using donated frequent flier miles.

"Any physician or doctor would tell you by having your family close by when you're going through the healing process - and some of these injuries are pretty severe - that it works better and it helps the healing," Rep. C.A. "Dutch" Ruppersberger, D-Md., said as he announced the program's expansion.

© 2006 • All Rights Reserved • St. Petersburg Times 490 First Avenue South • St. Petersburg, FL 33701 • 727-893-8111 Contact the Times | Privacy Policy Standard of Accuracy | Terms, Conditions & Copyright