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Chaos, death toll grow in Gaza Strip

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip - Israeli helicopters fired two missiles into a crowd of suspected gunmen in a Palestinian refugee camp Wednesday, killing four people in a stepped-up campaign to root out militants in the Gaza Strip.

Two unarmed teenage boys and one militant were among the dead, Palestinian officials said.

Amid the fighting, Islamic militants traded fire with Palestinian security forces in downtown Gaza City during a morning rush hour traffic stop, killing a passing motorist and wounding 17 people, Palestinian officials said.

On Wednesday morning, a patrol of 21 police officers pulled over an unregistered car carrying three Hamas militants that had run a red light, police officials said. When they tried to give the driver a ticket, he threw a grenade at them, slightly wounding most of the officers, police said.

The confrontation raised new concerns about growing chaos in Gaza.

Israel launched the offensive into Gaza Tuesday in response to a double suicide bombing at the Israeli seaport of Ashdod that killed 10 Israelis. Security officials have also said they want to strike hard at militants ahead of a possible Israeli withdrawal from Gaza.

Since the start of the operations, six Palestinians have been killed and 32 others have been wounded in a series of attacks.

In Wednesday's two missile strikes, several hours apart in the Rafah refugee camp, the army used the rare tactic of firing into a crowd of suspected gunmen during an ongoing operation. The vast majority of Israeli airstrikes are aimed at specific targets, such as cars carrying militants, based on intelligence reports.

TEHRAN, Iran - Iran's beleaguered president conceded defeat Wednesday in his long struggle to reform a system stacked in favor of hard-line Islamic clerics, saying he was abandoning efforts to salvage two key bills that sought to expand presidential powers and limit the authority of an unelected conservative body.

Mohammad Khatami, once hailed as the leader of a popular reform movement, warned Iranians not to expect too much from the presidency, accusing his rivals of relegating the office to a position of little influence.

Acknowledging the failure of the pillars of his presidency, Khatami conceded that two key reform proposals designed to check the powers of hard-liners were dead.

One of the bills sought to increase presidential powers in order to stop constitutional violations by conservative clerics. The other would have barred the hard-line oversight body, the Guardian Council, from disqualifying parliamentary and presidential election candidates.

"I withdraw the bills and declare that I have met with defeat," Khatami told reporters after a Cabinet meeting.

"Let the people know who is their president and what powers he has so that they keep their expectations accordingly," said Khatami, whose second four-year term ends in June 2005.

The Guardian Council rejected the parliament-approved bills about a year ago, saying they were unconstitutional and against Islam.

In his seven years as president, Khatami has been at loggerheads with Islamic hard-liners who have clung to power despite their unpopularity.

HAITI CABINET TAKES OFFICE: Haiti's new U.S.-backed Cabinet took office Wednesday without a single member of ousted President Jean-Bertrand Aristide's party or the former opposition, setting the stage for a showdown before the government even gets to work.

Several Haitian politicians complained that the new government unfairly excludes Aristide's Lavalas Family party, the country's largest, and the opposition Convergence coalition. They said Prime Minister Gerard Latortue had promised that Lavalas would be represented.

U.S. Ambassador James Foley said, "Latortue chose wisely" and that Haiti could expect significant U.S. and international aid.

IRAN TO ALLOW INSPECTIONS: Iran is fully cooperating with nuclear inspectors after barring scrutiny of its facilities for two weeks, the head of the United Nation's nuclear watchdog agency said Wednesday at the White House after meeting with President Bush. Mohamed ElBaradei said he hopes to have a more definitive assessment of Iran's nuclear activities by June.