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Other news from Iraq

Last update: March 9, 2008 - 8:58 PM

Rear Adm. Gregory Smith, a spokesman for U.S. forces in Iraq, provided new details of allegations that Iran is meddling in Iraq, accusing it of training Iraqi operatives to direct militants in their homeland.

"Groups and elements," including Iranians and militants attached to Lebanon's Hezbollah militia, were training Iraqis in Iran to act as recruiters and trainers in Iraq, Smith said.

He said the U.S. gleaned the information from Iraqi detainees who had undergone such training late last year. He did not disclose further information but vowed that more would be said in the coming weeks.

Dozens of U.S. troops in Iraq fell ill at bases using "unmonitored and potentially unsafe" water supplied by the military and contractor KBR Inc., the Pentagon's internal watchdog says.

A report obtained by the Associated Press said soldiers experienced skin abscesses and infections, cellulitis, diarrhea and other illnesses after using discolored, smelly water at five sites. The Defense Department's report, which could be released as early as today, found water quality problems from March 2004 to February 2006 at three sites run by KBR, and January 2004 to December 2006 at two military-operated sites.

It was impossible to link the water definitively to all the illnesses, the report said. The KBR sites were Camp Ar Ramadi, Camp Q-West and Camp Victory. The military sites were Logistics Support Area Anaconda and Camp Ali.

NEWS SERVICES