US to probe IAEA warning

The IAEA, relying on satellite imagery, said entire buildings in Iraq that once housed high-precision equipment that could help a government or terror group make nuclear bombs had been dismantled since the March 2003 war on Iraq. Equipment and materials helpful in making bombs also had been removed from open storage areas in Iraq and disappeared without a trace, IAEA Director-General Mohamed ElBaradei said in a report to the UN Security Council.

In Baghdad, Iraqi Science and Technology Minister Rashad Omar said the interim government favoured transparency. ‘‘We are happy for the IAEA or any other organisation to come and inspect,’’ he said.

Meanwhile, former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein underwent a hernia operation two weeks ago at a Baghdad hospital, an Iraqi minister and a US official said.

US, Iraqi forces raid Ramadi mosques

Baghdad: IRAQI forces backed by US soldiers and marines raided mosques in the insurgent stronghold of Ramadi today and detained a prominent cleric following fierce clashes that hospital officials said killed at least four people.

The seven targeted mosques are suspected of supporting insurgents, the US command said. The attacks were followed by protests by large crowds. Sheikh Abdul-Aleim Saadi, the provincial leader of the influential association of Muslim scholars, was detained at Mohammed Aref mosque, his followers said.

Straw withdraws 45 minute claim, still defends war

LONDON: Foreign Secretary Jack Straw defended the British government’s decision to wage war in Iraq on Tuesday, even after formally withdrawing two key lines of flawed pre-war intelligence.

‘‘I do not accept, even with hindsight, that we were wrong to act as we did in the circumstances which we faced at the time,’’ Straw told Parliament. He said the Secret Services had withdrawn two pre-war intelligence claims on Iraq, including one that its banned weapons could be fired in 45 minutes.