IRAQ, AFGHANISTAN: U.S. casualties identified

The Defense Department on Wednesday announced the deaths of several soldiers and an airman. At least 4,063 American military personnel have died in Iraq and at least 496 in Afghanistan, according to the independent website icasualties.org.

Pfc. Adam L. Marion, 26, of Mount Airy, N.C., died Monday when his Baghdad base was attacked with indirect fire. He was assigned to the 171st Engineer Company, North Carolina Army National Guard, Saint Pauls, N.C.

Sgt. Marcus C. Mathes, 26, of Zephyrhills, Fla., died Monday when his Baghdad base was attacked with indirect fire. He was assigned to the 94th Brigade Support Battalion, 4th Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain Division (Light Infantry), located at Fort Polk, La.

Sgt. Mark A. Stone, 22, of Buchanan Dam, Texas died Monday when his Baghdad base was attacked with indirect fire. He was assigned to the 94th Brigade Support Battalion, 4th Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain Division (Light Infantry), located at Fort Polk, La.

Pfc. William T. Dix, 32, of Culver City, Calif., died Sunday at Camp Buehring, Kuwait, of non-combat injuries. He was assigned to the 14th Engineer Battalion, 555th Engineer Brigade, I Corps, Fort Lewis, Wash.

Sgt. 1st Class David L. McDowell, 30, of Ramona, Calif., died Tuesday in Bastion, Afghanistan, of gunshot wounds. He was assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 75th Ranger Regiment, Fort Lewis, Wash.

Senior Airman Jonathan A. V. Yelner, 24, of Lafayette, Calif., died Tuesday near Bagram, Afghanistan, of roadside bomb wounds. He was assigned to the 28th Aircraft Maintenance Squadron, Ellsworth Air Force Base, S.D.

IRAQ: Girls go to war, on the sports field

Najaf is best known for its holy Shiite shrines and lately for the fear and intrigue that have taken hold among its religious leaders as different factions compete for power and influence over Iraq's Shiite south. But this week, it has become the center of a different kind of competition: among girls and young women vying for athletic awards from the minister of education.

The eight-day competition began April 26 and has brought teams from 11 southern and central provinces to compete in volleyball and soccer. Suaad Saqab Kamil, who oversees women's sports in the Ministry of Education, said it's the first time the competition has been held since the start of the war five years ago.

Kamil admitted the teams are not up to the standards one might hope, but she hopes with training and support, that will change. The best surprise, she said, has been the encouragement of fans, who participants feared might create problems given this city's religiously conservative nature. As we wrote recently, women's sports face huge obstacles in Iraq,  due to insecurity, inadequate financial support and the growing influence of hard-line Shiite Muslims.

IRAN: Messages of war and bombings escalate

If the medium is the message, as the Canadian scholar Marshall McLuhan put it, the Iranians couldn't possibly mistake the recent communications by the United States. 

On Tuesday, President Bush told reporters that the Israeli bombing of an alleged North Korean-designed nuclear facility in Syria was not just directed against Pyongyang and Damascus, but was also a not-so-subtle telegram to Tehran.

Answering a question about the sudden resurfacing of the Sept. 16 attack on the Syrian facility, Bush strongly suggested that the United States and Israel had Iran in mind when Syria was bombed:

IRAQ: Recovering a ransacked heritage

 

For a few precious hours, Iraq's shuttered National Museum threw open its doors to journalists this week to celebrate the return of more than 700 looted antiquities, seized over the years by Syrian customs officials.

Clay cones inscribed with cuneiform script, one of the earliest forms of writing, ancient statues, golden necklaces and daggers were on display for the cameras. Museum officials showed off the serial numbers identifying items as part of their collection.

For now, the museum remains closed to the public. Once the journalists had gone Sunday, museum staff began boxing up the items, which will be kept under lock and key until security improves in Baghdad.

IRAQ: Army casualty identified

Army Spc. David P. McCormick, 26, of Fresno, Texas, died Monday in Baghdad of wounds suffered when his base came under rocket attack, the Defense Department announced Tuesday. The soldier was assigned to the 1st Squadron, 75th Cavalry Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault), Ft. Campbell, Ky.

At least 4,058 American troops have died since the war began in March 2003.

LEBANON: Trouble stirs along Israel border

Not all quiet lately on Lebanon's southern front with Israel.

Peacekeepers in southern Lebanon have come under political fire by Israeli authorities for reportedly covering up for Hezbollah's re-arming activities.

This comes at at particularly tense time. All sorts of people are warning of yet another round of war erupting between the Jewish state and the Lebanese Shiite militant group.

The Israeli daily Haaretz today quoted government and military officials accusing the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) of concealing information about Hezbollah.

Why would they do that? To avoid any friction with the Iranian-backed group, the paper reports:

IRAN: A Muslim actor as Jesus Christ

He is an Iranian Muslim who looks so much like a Hollywood or Renaissance image of Jesus Christ that the faithful sometimes make the sign of the cross when they see him.

Ahmad Soleimani-Nia has been playing Jesus for seven years, keeping his hair long and lightly dyed, his beard knotty and vibrant.

He is the star of "Jesus, the Spirit of God," a new film from Iran that depicts the man Christians believe to be the messiah and son of God as a tormented Judean prophet heralding the coming of Muhammad, the founder of the Muslim faith. Nia's Jesus is at once serene, devout, driven and passionate.

In real life, if there is a real life after a spiritual and artistic odyssey that is still not over, Nia lives in Tehran. He was once a soldier in the Iranian army and then a welder for — the irony is interesting in this Jesus story — his nation's Atomic Energy Agency, which the Bush administration accuses of pursuing nuclear weapons.

That may unsettle some American neo-cons, but perhaps not as much as the film itself, which suggests that Jesus wasn't crucified and never rose from the dead.

Check out the rest of the story in today's Los Angeles Times. 

— Jeffrey Fleishman in Tehran

Photo: Ahmad Soleimani-Nia as Jesus. Credit: minbar.tatar.ru/rus/Messiah.htm

SYRIA: More questions about alleged nuclear site

Professor William Beeman at the University of Minnesota passed along a note today from "a colleague with a U.S. security clearance" about the mysterious Syrian site targeted in a Sept. 6 Israeli airstrike.

The note raises more questions about the evidence shown last week by U.S. intelligence officials to lawmakers in the House and Senate. 

The author of the note pinpoints irregularities about the photographs. Beeman's source alleges that the CIA "enhanced" some of the images. For example he cites this image:

The lower part of the building, the annex, and the windows pointing south appear much sharper than the rest of the photo, suggesting that they were digitally improved.

The author points to more questions about the photographs of the Syrian site.

ISRAEL: Death of the innocent

The tragic images on display today were all too familiar for residents of the Gaza Strip: the crumbled remains of a family home, the wailing relatives outside the hospital and the tiny white-shrouded corpses.

Equally familiar were the war of words and dueling accusations that ritually follow tragedies like today's explosion that killed a mother and four of her young children.

Palestinian officials placed the blame on "Israeli aggression." Israeli officials blamed the willingness of Palestinian militants to attack from areas crowded with civilians and laid ultimate blame on Hamas and other Gazan militant factions.

IRAQ: Summer in the city

When a roadside bomb shattered the rear windows of Mohammed Adhami's Chevy Lumina minivan, he faced a dilemma few outside Baghdad could imagine: Should he spend hundreds of dollars to replace the windows, or should he use his money to fix the car's air conditioner before the unbearable summer heat arrives?

Adhami opted for the A/C, and on a recent spring day, with the temperature already hitting 95 degrees Fahrenheit (35 Celsius), he was one of scores of customers at White Palace in downtown Baghdad, an air-conditioning shop for vehicles that becomes one of the busiest spots in the capital as the temperature begins to rise. Transparent nylon could replace the windows, he reasoned, but there's no substitute for good air conditioning.

Welcome to summer in Baghdad, where daytime temperatures can top 120 degrees F (49 C), and where having a car without A/C is not only unthinkable but dangerous. Between the heat, the dust and the dry air, staying cool in the summer is a daily struggle — one that can mean the difference between life and death. It's so bad that many Iraqis, like Abu Ahmed, who don't get enough electricity at home to run an air conditioner, use their cars as safe havens from the horrible heat.