Iraq

Blasts from bombs, guns herald war's anniversary

	Interactive: Iraq: A year of war
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	One year, day by day Although U.S. forces rolled through Baghdad less than a month after the war began, much still remains to be done. As troops continue to be killed daily, the new Iraqi government stumbles to get on it’s feet and govern itself.
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BAGHDAD, Iraq - More violence struck Iraq ahead of the first anniversary of the start of the U.S.-led war in Iraq: A deadly car bomb exploded Thursday in a southern city, three Iraqi journalists were killed in a driveby shooting and three U.S. soldiers perished in mortar attacks.

The suicide car bombing occurred near a hotel in Basra as a British military patrol passed by, killing two men and a boy in addition to the bomber. At least 15 people were wounded. A man who got out of the car before the blast was stabbed to death by passers-by.

The Iraqi journalists were killed as they drove to work at a coalition-funded television station in Baqouba, 35 miles northeast of Baghdad. Nine other employees of Diyala TV were wounded in the attack on their minibus, said Sanaa al-Daghistani, the station's information director.

The U.S. military, meanwhile, lowered the death toll in a suicide bombing at a Baghdad hotel on Wednesday to seven.

Officials had earlier said 28 people were killed in the Baghdad bombing. It then revised that downward to 17 dead without providing an explanation. Hours later, the military said that just seven had been killed and 35 wounded.

There was no clear explanation for the change.

Late Thursday, insurgents targeted the Ministry of Oil and the Bourj al-Hayat Hotel in Baghdad with several rockets and explosive devices. There were no injuries.

It was unclear whether insurgents were timing attacks to overshadow the anniversary Saturday of the start of the war that toppled Saddam Hussein, though assailants have often conducted attacks on holidays and other significant dates.

Insurgents also fired mortar rounds at two U.S. military bases on Wednesday, killing three American soldiers and wounding nine others, the U.S. military said Thursday.

The deaths brought to 567 the number of U.S. troops killed in Iraq since the start of hostilities last year, according to Defense Department figures.

CORRUPTION DETAILED: Saddam Hussein's government smuggled oil, added surcharges and collected kickbacks to rake in $10.1-billion in violation of the United Nations' oil-for-food program, congressional investigators said Thursday.

The estimate, much larger than previous calculations, comes as the United Nations considers expanding its probe into the humanitarian program, which allowed Iraq to sell oil for food and medicine. Other oil sales were prohibited under a U.N. embargo imposed after Iraq invaded Kuwait in 1990.

The GAO had previously estimated that Hussein's government had received $6.6-billion in illegal revenues from the program from 1997 through 2002.

The effort to identify and recover Iraqi money hidden worldwide has met with mixed success, GAO investigators told lawmakers on the House Financial Services oversight and investigations subcommittee.

TRANSITION PLANNED: Secretary-General Kofi Annan said Thursday night that he was sending a U.N. team to Iraq "as soon as practicable" to assist in the transfer of power scheduled for June 30. Annan said the team would be headed by Lakhdar Brahimi, his special envoy to Iraq.

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