'Two equal states,' Al-Maliki declares

Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki said the end of U.S. combat operations Tuesday leaves his country independent and an equal to the United States, and he assured his people their own security forces will protect them.

But the extent of U.S. influence in Iraq was still apparent. Vice President Joe Biden, presiding over the transition of the U.S. role in Iraq, held a round of meetings with political leaders in Baghdad and pushed them to break a half-year impasse that has held up formation of a new government after inconclusive elections in March.

Al-Maliki spoke ahead of President Obama's address Tuesday night.

"Through implementing the troop withdrawal agreement, our relations with the United States of America have entered into a new phase between two equal, sovereign states," he said.

"Iraq today is sovereign and independent," he added, calling Aug. 31 an "immortal day."

Six more U.S. troops were killed in action Tuesday in Afghanistan, bringing to 23 the number of Americans killed there since Friday. The U.S. death toll for August reached 56 -- three-quarters of them in the second half of the month as the Taliban fought back against U.S. pressure in southern and eastern strongholds as well as striking elsewhere.

NATO said that four of the latest deaths were caused by a roadside bomb in eastern Afghanistan and that the two other Americans died in gunfights with insurgents in the south.

Also Tuesday, a gunman opened fire on a busload of Afghan Supreme Court clerks on the outskirts of Kabul, killing three and wounding 12.

A sudden intervention by the Afghan government to shore up a deeply troubled bank sent shock waves through Kabul, prompting fears about the integrity of the country's financial system.

The two top executives of Kabul Bank abruptly left their jobs earlier this week at the demand of officials of the Central Bank of Afghanistan, following the discovery that Kabul Bank's losses may exceed $300 million, an amount that far exceeds the bank's assets. The Central Bank installed its own chief financial officer, Moussa Ghazi, as the chief executive of the bank.

Afghan and U.S. officials expressed alarm not only at Kabul Bank's financial condition but also at the prospect of a collapse of confidence in Afghanistan's fragile financial system.

The faltering bank had provided millions in support of President Hamid Karzai's reelection campaign, and one of the dismissed executives, Khalil Ferouzi, was chairman of Karzai's releection effort.

Blood tests have confirmed that a series of cases of mass sickness at girls' schools across Afghanistan over the past two years were caused by a powerful poison gas, said Dr. Kargar Norughli, a spokesman for the Ministry of Public Health.

Norughli, answering questions about two new episodes, said his ministry and the World Health Organization had been testing the blood of victims in 10 mass sickenings and had confirmed the presence of toxic levels of organophosphates. The compounds are widely used in insecticides and herbicides, and they can also be ingredients in chemical weapons, including sarin and VX gas.

Norughli did not explain why the confirmations had not been announced earlier. He emphasized that how the gas was delivered -- and even whether the poisonings were deliberate -- remained a mystery. There have been no fatalities. Many local officials had dismissed the illnesses as episodes of hysteria

NEWS SERVICES