IRAQ: US defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld delivered a terse warning to Iraq's new leaders yesterday, urging them to avoid political purges that could lead to charges of corruption in the new government.
Mr Rumsfeld expressed particular concern about any clear-out of Iraq's defence and interior ministries, which are at the heart of efforts to put Iraq's security forces in charge of battling the country's Sunni Muslim-led insurgency.
"It's important that the new government be attentive to the competence of the people in the ministries and that they avoid unnecessary turbulence," Mr Rumsfeld told reporters on his aircraft before arriving on his ninth visit to Iraq since the US-led invasion.
US embassy officials confirmed an American contractor was kidnapped by militants while working at a project site near Baghdad.
More than 150 foreigners have been abducted in a year-long wave of kidnappings in Iraq.
Violence persisted elsewhere in the country. In Qaim, near the border with Syria, witnesses said US warplanes dropped bombs a day after two car bombers attacked a US military base.
Local hospital officials said 11 people were killed and 17 wounded, but the figures could not be separately verified.
Suicide car bombings around the northern Iraqi city of Mosul killed 10 Iraqi civilians, the US military said.
Meanwhile, Poland, one of Washington's chief allies in the war, announced yesterday that its 1,700-strong force, based in south-central Iraq, would pull out at the end of this year. - (Reuters)