US Democratic Senator Edward Kennedy is taken to hospital with stroke-like symptoms.

BAGHDAD — Iran angrily blamed the United States on Friday after at least three of its diplomats were wounded in a Baghdad shooting, saying the Americans are encouraging attacks on Iranians in Iraq.

The United States defended the actions of Iraqi security forces, but said Americans were not involved in the incident and that the U.S. "condemns any attack on guests or visitors of any country."

The shooting _ which may have been by Iraqi soldiers during an argument at a checkpoint _ comes amid unprecedented strains between Iran and the Iraqi leadership, which has long been close to Tehran.

With the U.S. and an emboldened Tehran jostling for power and influence in Iraq and elsewhere in the Mideast, Iranian officials have complained in recent weeks that Iraq's Shiite-dominated leadership is bowing too much to Washington. The tensions have been fueled in part by Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's crackdowns in the past two months against Shiite militiamen. The U.S. accuses Iran of backing the militiamen, a claim Tehran denies.

The shooting occurred Thursday as the Iranians' convoy approached a bridge leading to a Shiite shrine in the northern Baghdad neighborhood of Kazimiyah.

An Interior Ministry official said Iraqi soldiers at a checkpoint on the bridge exchanged fire with the convoy's guards during an argument that broke out when most of the Iranians failed to produce identification cards. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to the press.

A different account came from an Iraqi military spokesman in Baghdad, Qassim Atta, who said "unknown gunmen" were behind the attack.

Iranian Embassy spokesman Manoucher Taslimi said he did not know who the gunmen were.

There were varying reports on how many were wounded.

Taslimi said two Iranian diplomats, another Iranian and an Iraqi administrative employee were wounded and were now in stable condition. The Iraqi ministry official said five people were wounded.

Lt. David Russell, a U.S. military spokesman in Baghdad, said the Iraqi army had found four wounded Iranians in a vehicle with an Iraqi driver.

Reports indicate Iraqi security forces "handled the situation appropriately and with a high degree of professionalism," Russell said in an e-mailed statement.

In Tehran, Foreign Ministry spokesman Mohammad Ali Hosseini criticized the United States, saying its harsh rhetoric against Iran fuels attacks on Iranians. U.S. statements "encourage inhuman behavior by occupiers and terrorist groups active in Iraq," he said.

"Responsibility for providing security to diplomats as well as diplomatic and international bodies in Iraq rests with the occupiers. The suspicious behavior of U.S. forces in security issues has brought increasing insecurity in Iraq," he said in a statement. Hosseini said Iran will pursue the case with the Iraqi government.

The U.S. military said in a statement that the Americans were "in no way involved in this attack" and that it "condemns any attack on guests or visitors of any country."

The United States accuses Iran of financing and arming so-called "Special Groups," Shiite militant cells involved in attacks on American troops.

The U.S.-Iranian dispute over the militants has pulled in al-Maliki's government, whose Shiite members have strong ties to Iran. In March, al-Maliki launched a crackdown on Shiite militants in Basra; the operation flared into several weeks of fighting across southern Iraq and in the Shiite stronghold of Sadr City in Baghdad.

When an Iraqi delegation visited Iran to seek its support in the crackdown, they were scolded by Iranian officials, according to several Iraqi officials in the delegation. The Iranians accused the Iraqis of being tools of Washington and allowing U.S. troops to set up a permanent presence on Iran's doorstep.

Al-Maliki has followed the crackdowns against Shiite militiamen in Basra and Sadr City with a sweep launched Thursday in the northern city of Mosul aimed at rooting out Sunni al-Qaida in Iraq militants.

On Friday, al-Maliki offered amnesty and cash to fighters in Mosul who surrender their weapons. He said he would give 10 days for armed groups to hand over medium and heavy weapons for monetary compensation, as well as amnesty for those "duped" into taking up arms against the government _ so long as they did not "have blood on their hands."

Al-Maliki had made a similar offer to Shiite militias in Basra, but few surrendered weapons.

Mosul, 225 miles northwest of Baghdad, has been the most prominent urban stronghold of the terror network in recent months after its grip was broken in cities of the western province on Anbar.

Like the Shiite militiamen in Basra, al-Qaida's Sunni militants are believed to have infiltrated many levels of life in Mosul, Iraq's third largest city with some 2 million people. Al-Maliki warned on Thursday that many city employees were paying protection money to al-Qaida in Iraq.

The director of the provincial governor's office, police Capt. Ahmed Abdullah, was arrested Thursday, said Duraid Kashmola, the governor of Ninevah province, where Mosul is the capital. He would not say whether the arrest was part of the sweep or whether Abdullah was suspected of al-Qaida ties.

In Mosul on Friday, police and army checkpoints were deployed at major roads as U.S.-backed Iraqi forces conducted house-to-house searches and raids for suspects. There have been no clashes since the operation officially began on Thursday, or in the days of raids proceeding it.

Iraqi troops were also chasing suspected al-Qaida fighters who fled the northern city to areas on the outskirts ahead of the sweep. In past major crackdowns, many al-Qaida in Iraq members have managed to scatter after public warnings that an assault was imminent.

Brig. Gen. Khalid Abdul-Sattar, the provincial police spokesman, said more than 800 people have been arrested in and around Mosul over the past five days. He said it was unknown how many al-Qaida figures remain.

___

Associated Press writer Ali Akbar Dareini in Tehran, Iran, contributed to this report.

May 17, 2008 17:10:18 GMT

There they go again. The old John McCain would just admit he changed his position and move on. But the new John McCain campaign is incapable of that. Instead, they are reverting to an attack on the messenger.

The question and answer I released yesterday was a full question and a full answer. Nothing was left out of the question or the answer. Nothing is taken out of context. But in order to avoid further controversy and distraction, I have dug out what I believe to be all of the discussion on Hamas during our interview. The full interview is in a DVD being shipped to me. But a British journalist transcribed what she said was all of the discussion of Hamas. Here it is:

Rubin: Do you think the American diplomats should be operating the way they have in the past, working with Palestinian government if Hamas is now in charge?

McCain: They are the government, sooner or later we are going to have to deal with them, one way or another, and I understand why this administration and previous administrations have such antipathy towards Hamas - it is because of their dedication to violence and the things that they not only espouse to but practise, so...but it's a new reality in the middle east, I think the lesson is people want security and a decent life and decent future, that they want democracy. Fatah never gave them that.

Rubin: Should the US be dealing with the new reality through normal diplomatic contact to get the job done for the United States?

McCain: I think the US should take a step back and see what they do when they form the government, see what their policies are and see the ways in which we can engage with them and if there aren't any then there may be a hiatus but I think part of the relationship will be dictated by how Hamas acts, not how the US acts."

Then I go on to ask him about his statement that the only thing worse than using force against Iran is an Iranian nuclear weapon. That's another story altogether.

As you can see, there is no conditionality in any of his answers. Nowhere does he say what Senator Clinton and Senator Obama say: that is, Hamas has to renounce terrorism, recognize Israel and accept the previous agreements of the Palestinian authority before we could deal with them. Instead, Senator McCain is talking about engagement with Hamas and how it could come about.

I remember at the time being struck by how unusual his response was for an American politician. European politicians say that sort of thing all the time. And that's why I dug out the question and answer after McCain declared that Hamas is rooting for Barack Obama and that he would be their nightmare.

The reality is that in Davos Senator McCain was expressing the views of the realist camp in the Republican Party. Former Secretary of State Colin Powell, a close friend of the Senator, has said directly that we should engage with Hamas in an interview with National Public Radio last year. In Davos, we saw the charming maverick that the Washington Press Corps are so fond of. But last week we saw the other McCain, the one who would attack Senator Obama in a crude and unacceptable way. When called on it, instead of admitting that he changed his mind, the McCain campaign is determined to continue the politics of personal destruction.

There is a war going on in Iraq. This fall's election will be a virtual referendum on the war. That is a real issue. Instead of debating that, President Bush and Senator McCain are determined to attack the character of their political opponents. As a Democrat, I am tired of having our patriotism attacked. Yesterday, the Democratic Party leaders were unified in denouncing these kinds of attacks. Senator Hillary Clinton, Senator Joe Biden and the Majority Leader Harry Reid all spoke in unison to defend Senator Obama.

So I say to the McCain campaign, just admit the truth, either he made a mistake or he changed his mind, then let us return to debating the issues as Americans.

Related:
McCain Said He'd Talk To "Rogue Regime" Hamas [VIDEO]

May 17, 2008 17:08:33 GMT

US President George W Bush meets Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas at talks with Arab leaders in Egypt.

From Reuters:

Sen. Edward Kennedy, a leading Democrat and patriarch of a prominent American political dynasty, was hospitalized in Cape Cod, Massachusetts, with symptoms of a stroke, CNN reported on Saturday.

Kennedy, 76, was taken to the hospital early in the morning, CNN said, citing an unidentified prominent state party member

The source said Kennedy was to be transferred to Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston.

The long-serving Massachusetts senator is a leading liberal voice in the United States who has actively campaigned for Barack Obama in his bid for the Democratic presidential nomination.

Kennedy had preventive surgery in Boston in October to unclog a partially blocked carotid artery in his neck.

The blockage was discovered during a routine check of Kennedy's back and spine, doctors said. A blocked carotid artery can lead to a stroke and death, they said

Check back for updates.

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