US warplanes kill 20 Iraqi rebels
Foreign Desk Report

BAGHDAD—US soldiers and warplanes killed 20 insurgents and destroyed five “safe houses” Saturday during an operation against militants who shelter foreign fighters for al-Qaida in Iraq near the Syrian border, the military said.
Meanwhile, defense lawyers in Saddam Hussein’s trial rejected protection offered by the Iraqi Interior Ministry after the kidnap-slaying of a colleague. The attorneys suggested they wanted US protection, being deeply suspicious that the Iraqi police force has Shiite Muslim elements behind killings of Sunni Arabs.
The US military also reported a non-combat death of an Army soldier in central Baghdad on Thursday, raising to at least 1,993 the number of American military deaths since the Iraq war started in March 2003.
The murder of lawyer Saadoun al-Janabi terrorized the 12 remaining attorneys who appeared at the first session of Saddam’s trial Wednesday representing the ousted dictator and seven former officials from his Sunni-dominated Baathist regime.
In Saturday’s fighting, 20 insurgents suspected of harboring foreign extremists were killed and one was captured by US-led forces during raids on houses in Husaybah, a town near the Syrian border, the military said in a statement.
Coalition forces raided two neighborhoods in Husaybah and discovered two large weapons caches containing small arms, ammunition, rocket-propelled grenades, mortar rounds, explosives and bomb-making materials that included radios and detonators, the statement said.
The soldiers destroyed a car bomb found near one of the buildings, and Air Force planes then used precision-guided munitions to destroy the “safe houses,” the military said.
In Washington, US intelligence officials said Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, leader of al-Qaida in Iraq, has expanded his terrorism campaign from Iraq to two dozen groups scattered across almost 40 countries, creating a network that rivals Osama bin Laden’s. The US officials said the threat to American interests from al-Zarqawi compared with that from bin Laden, to whom al-Zarqawi pledged his loyalty a year ago.
In other violence Saturday, two roadside bombs and a drive-by shooting killed three Iraqi policemen and wounded four in Baghdad, authorities said. Gunmen also killed a former Iraqi soldier in front of his home in Karbala, 50 miles south of Baghdad, police said.
Iraqis were still waiting to learn the outcome of the Oct. 15 constitutional referendum. Initial returns indicated the charter passed, but an unusually high “yes” vote in some areas fueled charges of fraud from Sunni Arab leaders who opposed the constitution.
A team of international and Iraqi experts pored over some of the results Saturday looking for any irregularities. The audit in Ninevah and three other provinces would delay announcement of the final results until at least Monday or Tuesday, the Electoral Commission said.