Iraq says 20,000 Saddam Hussein-era army officers will rejoin the military after being dismissed from their posts after the 2003 U.S.-led invasion for serving under the former dictator

BAGHDAD Iraq says 20,000 Saddam Hussein-era army officers will rejoin the military after being dismissed from their posts after the 2003 U.S.-led invasion for serving under the former dictator.Defense Ministry spokesman Mohammed al-Askari said Friday the reinstatement will begin immediately.The move comes just over a week before national elections the U.S. hopes will help bring together Iraq’s rival religious factions.

Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and other Shiite politicians have been criticized for unfairly targeting former members of Saddam’s ruling Baath Party.Rival Sunni lawmaker Maysoun Damlouji says the reinstatement is a blatant ploy by al-Maliki to win more votes on March 7. (AP)

BAGHDAD A bomb targeting a church in northern Iraq killed two men

Shiite Muslim men

BAGHDAD  A bomb targeting a church in northern Iraq killed two men and damaged the historic building Wednesday, a day before Christmas Eve services that will be heavily guarded for fear of more attacks on the country’s Christian minority.The bomb in the city of Mosul was hidden under sacks of baking flour in a handcart left 15 yards (meters) from the Mar Toma Church, or the Church of St. Thomas, a police officer said.

The officer said the two men killed were Muslims and that five other people were injured. A hospital official confirmed the casualties.Both officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to release the information to news media.

“Instead of performing Christmas Mass in this church, we will be busy removing rubble and debris,” Hazim Ragheed, a priest at the church, said in a telephone interview with The Associated Press.The blast damaged the wooden doors, windows, some furniture and one of the walls of the church, which is more than 1,200 years old, Ragheed said. Services will be moved out of the church, but Ragheed did not say where they would be held.

“We demand that the government put an end to these repeated attacks,” Ragheed said.The blast occurred in an area where streets have been closed to cars and trucks to protect Mosul’s dwindling Christian population.

Iraqi defense officials warned earlier in the week that intelligence reports pointed to attacks during Christmas, leading the government to step up security near churches and Christian neighborhoods.Most of the increased security will be in Baghdad, Mosul and Kirkuk, said Defense Ministry spokesman Maj. Gen. Mohammed al-Askari.

Christians have frequently been targeted since turmoil swept the country after the 2003 U.S.-led invasion, although the attacks have ebbed with an overall drop in violence. Still, tens of thousands of Christians have fled; many who stayed were isolated in neighborhoods protected by barricades and checkpoints.A coordinated bombing campaign in 2004 targeted churches in the Iraqi capital and anti-Christian violence also flared in September 2007 after Pope Benedict XVI made comments perceived to be against Islam.

Churches, priests and businesses have been attacked by militants who denounce Christians as pro-American “crusaders.” Paulos Rahho, the Chaldean Catholic archbishop of Mosul, was found dead in March 2008 after being abducted by gunmen after a Mass.

Also Wednesday, Iraqi forces increased security around the Shiite religious observance of Ashoura, which coincides with Christmas.Insurgents have routinely targeted pilgrims on their way to the southern holy city of Karbala during Ashoura, which marks the seventh-century death of the Prophet Muhammad’s grandson Hussein.More than 25,000 Iraqi police and soldiers have been assigned to protect pilgrims, said Karbala police Capt. Alaa Abbas Jaafar, a media spokesman.

Elsewhere, gunmen stormed a checkpoint Wednesday in Abu Ghraib, west of Baghdad, killing four Iraqi police officers, two police officials said.

A bomb planted on a minibus killed two people and injured five in a Shiite neighborhood in north Baghdad, police and hospital officials said. Another bomb in Fallujah targeted an Anbar University professor but missed and killed the man’s brother, police said.

Hackers steal South Korean-US military secrets

hacker

SEOUL, South Korea’s military said Friday it was investigating a hacking attack that netted secret defense plans with the United States and may have been carried out by North Korea.The suspected hacking occurred late last month when a South Korean officer failed to remove a USB device when he switched a military computer from a restricted-access intranet to the Internet, Defense Ministry spokesman Won Tae-jae said.

The USB device contained a summary of plans for military operations by South Korean and U.S. troops in case of war on the Korean peninsula. Won said the stolen documents were not a full text of the operational plans, but about an 11-page document used to brief military officials.

Won said authorities have not ruled out the possibility that Pyongyang may have been involved in the hacking attack by using a Chinese IP address – the Web equivalent of a street address or phone number.

The Chosun Ilbo newspaper reported, citing the January edition of its sister magazine Monthly Chosun, that hackers used a Chinese IP address and that North Korea is suspected of involvement. The Monthly Chosun cited South Korea’s National Intelligence Service and Defense Security Command.

Yonhap news agency also reported the hackers used a Chinese IP address. It said the North’s involvement was not immediately confirmed, also citing military officials it did not identify.

Officials at the NIS – South Korea’s main spy agency – were not immediately available for comment.The U.S. stations 28,500 troops in South Korea to deter any potential North Korean aggression. The two Koreas have remained technically at war since the 1950-53 Korean War ended with an armistice, not a peace treaty.

“As a matter of policy, we do not comment on operational planning or intelligence matters, nor would we confirm details pertaining to any security investigation,” said David Oten, a spokesman for the U.S. military in Seoul.

The latest case came months after hackers launched high-profile cyberattacks that caused Web outages on prominent government-run sites in the U.S. and South Korea. Affected sites include those of the White House and the South’s presidential Blue House.

The IP address that triggered the Web attacks in July was traced back to North Korea’s Ministry of Post and Telecommunications, the chief of South Korean’s main spy agency reportedly told lawmakers, noting the ministry leased the IP address from China. The spy agency declined to confirm those reports at the time.

South Korean media reported at the time that North Korea runs an Internet warfare unit that tries to hack into U.S. and South Korean military networks to gather confidential information and disrupt service, and the regime has between 500 and 1,000 hacking specialists.

North Korea, one of the world’s most secretive countries, is believed to have a keen interest in information technology, while tightly controlling access for ordinary citizens.

A U.S. service member was killed by a bomb planted in eastern Afghanistan

killed by a bomb

A U.S. service member was killed by a bomb planted in eastern Afghanistan, NATO said Sunday.The American died Saturday while on foot patrol, Sgt. Angela Eggman said. She did not provide further details.

Meanwhile, a NATO airstrike early Sunday killed six militants who were planting bombs along a road in eastern Laghman province, U.S. military spokesman Col. Wayne Shanks said.

In southern Afghanistan, about 1,000 U.S. Marines and 150 Afghan troops continued an operation to disrupt Taliban supply and communications lines in the strategic Now Zad Valley of Helmand province.

Marine spokesman Maj. William Pelletier said Sunday that clearing operations yielded a few weapons caches and troops engaged insurgents around Changowlak, just north of Now Zad, in an area known as a Taliban stronghold.

Shanks said the Now Zad push was one of many operations being carried out in Afghanistan, rather than a major offensive. “We have 22 similar operations ongoing throughout the country,” he said.

No Afghan or U.S. casualties have occurred since the operation began Friday. The Afghan Defense Ministry reported over the weekend that at least seven Taliban fighters had been killed and troops had confiscated explosives and weapons.