It took the jurors less than two days of deliberations to find Green guilty on all 17 criminal counts, which included rape, premeditated murder and obstruction of justice.

Three other soldiers were given life sentences in the March 2006 atrocity that was devised over whiskey and a game of cards at a traffic check point in Mahmudiyah, south of Baghdad.

Green, who was named as the ringleader, was tried in civil court after being discharged from the army due to a “personality disorder” before his role in the crime came to light.

While Green confessed to the slayings when army investigators were called to the scene the next day, the involvement of US soldiers did not come to light until stress counselors talked to the squad several months later.

Green’s mother, father and brother — who were not present during the trial at his request — are scheduled to testify on his behalf during the sentencing phase.

His attorney said the verdict was not a surprise because “we never denied his involvement in this case.

“The goal in this case has always been to save our client’s life,” Darren Wolff told reporters. “We’re going to go to the most important phase, which is the sentencing phase, and we’re going to accomplish that goal.”

Lead prosecutor Marisa Ford declined to speak to the media after the verdict was read.

She told jurors during closing arguments that the grueling conditions and tragic losses suffered by Green’s unit in no way excused his actions.

“The evidence in this case suggests the defendant was acting purposefully and intentionally with full knowledge of what he was doing,” Ford said.

She said Green and other soldiers changed their clothes and disguised their appearance to throw suspicion on insurgents.

They also burned the body of the 14-year-old girl, Abeer al-Janabi, and their own clothes to destroy any evidence that might link them to the crime, she said.

“This was a planned, premeditated crime which was carried out in cold blood,” Ford told the jurors.

But Green’s other defense attorney told the jury that the stresses of war had left the soldier a broken man in a strange world.

“Madness. Madness. That’s the only possible word,” Scott Wendelsdorf said in closing arguments Wednesday.

Wendelsdorf blamed the crime on the lack of leadership at Traffic Checkpoint 2, where Green served with the other soldiers involved in the crimes at the Janabi home.

“They didn’t come there as criminals,” he said. “They were made criminals at TCP 2.”

He noted that Green had been diagnosed as having Combat Operational Stress Disorder three months before the attack, and contended that former private first class James Barker and former specialist Paul Cortez took advantage of Green’s mental condition to carry out the crimes.

Jurors last week heard the stories of Cortez and Barker, both of whom admitted to going to the Janabi family home with Green.

The pair told jurors they raped Abeer, while Green took her six-year-old sister and her mother and father to another room, where he shot them to death.

Cortez testified that Green proceeded to rape Abeer and then placed a pillow over the girl’s face and shot her three times with an AK-47.

Private Jesse Spielman also received a life sentence for raping Janabi and participating in the murders while private Bryan Howard was sentenced to 27 months in jail for acting as a lookout.

Spielman, Barker and Cortez will be eligible for parole in ten years under military rules.

Ex US-soldier found guilty of rape, murder

In the third day since troops blasted through a massive earthen wall built by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) and unleashed the exodus, the military said 81,420 people had been registered for onward transit to refugee camps.

The massive civilian presence in a 17 square km (6.5 sq mile) area had been the last crucial defence for the Tigers, who have refused repeated calls from the United Nations, Western governments and neighbouring India to release them.

Sri Lanka’s government has meanwhile rejected LTTE and international calls for a truce, saying it cannot allow a group designated as a terrorist organisation by more than 30 countries to use the time to rearm, as it has done in the past.

By Wednesday morning, troops had captured about a third of the remaining Tiger-held area, which had been an army-declared no-fire zone until soldiers marched in and turned it into the conflict’s final conventional battlefield after people fled.

“Confrontations are taking place. Whenever we come across LTTE cadres, we are fighting them. The rescue operation is continuing,” military spokesman Brigadier Udaya Nanayakkara said.

Defence spokesman Keheliya Rambukwella later told a media briefing troops had taken control of about a third of the area, after seizing the centre of the north-south strip of coast and dividing the remaining rebel fighters into two pockets. Nanayakkara said 153,000 civilians have fled LTTE areas so far this year.

UN CONFIRMS EXODUS

The United Nations confirmed this week’s outflow.

“It is 60,000 plus and counting, and we have heard various reports of up to 110,000 coming out,” said U.N. spokesman in Colombo, Gordon Weiss. He cautioned the reports were preliminary and not confirmed.

So far, only 7,500 had reached refugee centres away from the front in Jaffna and Vavuniya towns, while the rest were in transit, he said.

Aid agencies have warned refugee camp conditions could quickly turn bad with the populations doubling, but Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa has ordered extra food and reliefs supplies to be sent.

On Tuesday, the International Committee of the Red Cross had said the war zone situation was “catastrophic”, with several hundred killed since Monday and at least 50,000 more remaining at risk with limited food, water and medical care.

The United Nations and others have accused the LTTE of forcing people to stay in the war zone or making them fight, and the government of shelling civilian areas. Both deny the accusations.

Senior U.S. diplomat Michael Owen urged Sri Lanka to allow the international community to monitor what was happening and assure help for trapped civilians.

“The 26-year-old conflict is at a decisive point and we see the potential for major developments witin the next 48 hours,” he told reporters in Washington on Tuesday.

The military operation to rescue the civilians began on Monday and gathered speed on Tuesday after the LTTE ignored a noon deadline to surrender, despite being massively outgunned by a military built up to wipe them out and end the war.

A senior LTTE official hours later said the group would never surrender nor give up its drive to create a separate state for Sri Lanka’s minority Tamils, which has percolated since the early 1970s but erupted into full-blown civil war in 1983.

After the conventional end of the war, Sri Lanka will face the challenges of healing divisions between the Tamil minority and Sinhalese majority, and boosting a $40 billion economy suffering on many fronts including a weakening rupee .LKR.

Sri Lanka is seeking a $1.9 billion International Monetary Fund loan to ease a balance of payments crisis and boost flagging foreign exchange reserves.

But the government’s war successes have driven the Colombo Stock Exchange .CSE to two-month highs. (For more Sri Lanka coverage, click on [ID:nSP493680]; for a graphic see: here. jpg) (Additional reporting by Arshad Mohammed in WASHINGTON; Editing by Jerry Norton)

Sri Lankan war in endgame, 81,000 escape rebel zone

The government has denied the allegations, in turn accusing the rebel group of targeting civilians.

The army has said at least 25,000 civilians have fled the Tamil Tiger-held area.

The rebels have so far rejected government calls to surrender, or face a final assault.

The rebel spokesman, who gave his name as Thileepan, spoke to the BBC by telephone with the sound of explosions in the background.

He said a hospital, an orphanage and many houses had been hit and huge numbers of civilians had been killed in a military onslaught of the area.

He said people had been reduced to hiding under logs and trees and using makeshift bunkers dug into the sand.

‘Human avalanche’

The Sri Lankan military has denied shelling civilians inside the rebel-held area.

Army spokesman Brigadier Udaya Nanayakkara told the BBC that only small-arms had been used.

He said the Tigers were targeting civilians because they knew that if non-combatants left, the rebels would be “sitting ducks”.

The army says three rebel suicide bombings had targeted fleeing civilians, killing 17.

One Tamil man who had just left the conflict zone said the rebels tried to shoot anyone planning to escape.

Local newspapers are covered with pictures of large numbers of people leaving rebel territory, says the BBC’s Charles Haviland in Colombo.

One calls the process a “human avalanche”.

People escaped after troops broke through a fortification which had been blocking their advance into the Tigers’ last stronghold, the army said on Monday.

Aerial video showed thousands of people filing out of the combat zone. Tens of thousands remain in the area, which has seen heavy fighting for months.

The pro-rebel TamilNet website said several hundred civilians were feared killed and injured after troops advanced into the zone.

Each side accuses the other of killing civilians in the long running civil conflict.

Foreign reporters are not allowed into the combat zone, making it impossible to independently verify the claims.

The Tigers are restricted to a 20 sq km (12.4 sq miles) coastal patch that the government has designated a “safe zone” for civilians.

Gordon Weis, the UN spokesman in Sri Lanka, said it was not known how many civilians remained there but that the UN had been working off a figure of some 150,000 to 200,000 people in recent months.

Our correspondent says life for the Tamil civilians in the zone is a nightmare.

There has been shelling for months, while the UN says the Tigers are preventing people from escaping, despite rebel denials.

The government is not giving the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) access to the landward side of the zone.

So it can only evacuate people by sea, with two or three ships per week each carrying 400 or 500 of the sickest, oldest and most badly wounded people.

Sri Lanka army accused of carnage

The remaining 4,000 or so British troops in the sector will leave by summer, a ministry spokesman told CNN.

The spokesman declined to be named in line with MoD policy.

“You won’t now see hundreds of troops coming out of Iraq every day, (but) this is the start of the end for British forces — a period that will take until the end of July,” the spokesman said.

The British headquarters staff of about 40 people is pulling out of Basra Tuesday, lowering the flag of their command, Multi-National Division Southeast in Basra, as military control of the region passes to the United States.

British troops begin Iraq withdrawal

In interviews, several Taliban fighters based in the border region said preparations for the anticipated influx of American troops were already being made. A number of new, younger commanders have been preparing to step up a campaign of roadside bombings and suicide attacks to greet the Americans, the fighters said.

The refortified alliance was forged after the reclusive Afghan Taliban leader, Mullah Muhammad Omar, sent emissaries to persuade Pakistani Taliban leaders to join forces and turn their attention to Afghanistan, Pakistani officials and Taliban members said.

The overture by Mullah Omar is an indication that with the prospect of an American buildup, the Taliban feel the need to strengthen their own forces in Afghanistan and to redirect their Pakistani allies toward blunting the new American push.

The Pakistani Taliban, an offspring of the Afghan Taliban, are led by veterans of the fighting in Afghanistan who come from the border regions. They have always supported the fight against foreign forces in Afghanistan by supplying fighters, training and logistical aid.

But in recent years the Pakistani Taliban have concentrated on battling the Pakistani government, extending a domain that has not only threatened Pakistan but has also provided an essential rear base for the Taliban insurgency in Afghanistan.

At the same time, American officials told The New York Times this week that Pakistan’s military intelligence agency continued to offer money, supplies and guidance to the Taliban insurgency in Afghanistan as a proxy to help shape a friendly government there once American forces leave.

The new Taliban alliance has raised concern in Afghanistan, where NATO generals warn that the conflict will worsen this year. It has also generated anxiety in Pakistan, where officials fear that a united Taliban will be more dangerous, even if focused on Afghanistan, and draw more attacks inside Pakistan from United States drone aircraft.

“This may bring some respite for us from militants’ attacks, but what it may entail in terms of national security could be far more serious,” said one senior Pakistani official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he is not permitted to talk to news organizations. “This would mean more attacks inside our tribal areas, something we have been arguing against with the Americans.”

The Pakistani Taliban is dominated by three powerful commanders — Baitullah Mehsud, Hafiz Gul Bahadur and Maulavi Nazir — based in North and South Waziristan, the hub of insurgent activity in Pakistan’s tribal border regions, who have often clashed among themselves.

Mullah Omar dispatched a six-member team to Waziristan in late December and early January, several Taliban fighters said in interviews in Dera Ismail Khan, a town in North-West Frontier Province that is not far from South Waziristan. The Afghan Taliban delegation urged the Pakistani Taliban leaders to settle their internal differences, scale down their activities in Pakistan and help counter the planned increase of American forces in Afghanistan, the fighters said.

The three Pakistani Taliban leaders agreed. In February, they formed a united council, or shura, called the Council of United Mujahedeen. In a printed statement the leaders vowed to put aside their disputes and focus on fighting American-led forces in Afghanistan.

A spokesman for the Afghan Taliban, Zabiullah Mujahid, denied that the meetings ever took place or that any emissaries were sent by Mullah Omar. The Afghan Taliban routinely disavow any presence in Pakistan or connection to the Pakistani Taliban to emphasize that their movement is indigenous to Afghanistan. “We don’t like to be involved with them, as we have rejected all affiliation with Pakistani Taliban fighters,” Mr. Mujahid said. “We have sympathy for them as Muslims, but beside that, there is nothing else between us.”

Several Pakistani officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not permitted to talk to news organizations, confirmed the meetings. But they said that the overture might have been inspired by Sirajuddin Haqqani, an Afghan Taliban leader who swears allegiance to Mullah Omar but is largely independent in his operations.

Mr. Haqqani, and his father Jalaluddin Haqqani, the most powerful figures in Waziristan, are closely linked to Al Qaeda and to Pakistani intelligence, American officials say. From their base in North Waziristan, they have directed groups of fighters into eastern Afghanistan and increasingly in complex attacks on the Afghan capital, Kabul.

The Taliban fighters said the Afghan Taliban delegation was led by Mullah Abdullah Zakir, a commander from Helmand Province in southern Afghanistan, whose real name is reported to be Abdullah Ghulam Rasoul.

A front-line commander during the Taliban government, Mullah Zakir was captured in 2001 in northern Afghanistan and was detained at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, until his release in 2007, Afghan Taliban members contacted by telephone said.

The Pakistani fighters described Mullah Zakir as an impressive speaker and a trainer, and one said he was particularly energetic in working to unite the different Taliban groups. Beyond bolstering Taliban forces in Afghanistan, both the Afghan and Pakistani Taliban leaders had other reasons to unite, Pakistani officials said.

One motivation may have been to shift the focus of hostilities to Afghanistan in hopes of improving their own security in Waziristan, where more than 30 drone strikes in recent months have been directed at both Mr. Mehsud and Mr. Nazir. Two senior commanders of the Haqqani network have been killed.

The Pakistani Taliban leaders also rely on Mr. Haqqani and their affiliation with the Afghan mujahedeen for legitimacy, as well as the money and influence it brings.

In their written statement, decorated with crossed swords, the three Pakistani Taliban leaders reaffirmed their allegiance to Mullah Omar, as well as the leader of Al Qaeda, Osama bin Laden.

The mujahedeen should unite as the “enemies” have united behind the leadership of President Obama, it said. “The mujahedeen should put aside their own differences for the sake of God, God’s happiness, for the strength of religion, and to bring dishonor on the infidels.” The Taliban fighters interviewed said that the top commanders removed a number of older commanders and appointed younger commanders who were good fighters to prepare for operations in Afghanistan in the coming weeks.

In confident spirits, the Taliban fighters predicted that 2009 was going to be a “very bloody” year.

Pakistani and Afghan Taliban Unify in Face of U.S. Influx

This is the toughest statement issued by the UN’s top human rights official on the conduct of the war in Sri Lanka. Navi Pillay said she is extremely alarmed at the increasing number of civilians reported killed and injured in the conflict in northern Sri Lanka.

Her spokesman, Rupert Colville, said High Commissioner Pillay is very upset at the apparent ruthless disregard shown by positions.

“Other areas holding civilians have also been shelled. A range of credible sources have indicated that more than 2,800 civilians have been killed and 7,500 injured since the 20th of January, many of them inside the no-fire zones. The casualties are believed to include hundreds of children killed and more than 1,000 injured,” he said.

The Tamil Tigers have been fighting for an independent state for more than one-quarter of a century. About 70,000 people are estimated to have been killed and tens of thousands made homeless in this long-running civil war.

A few months ago, the Sri Lankan military began an all-out offensive to defeat the rebels once and for all. By all accounts, they appear to be winning. But, victory is coming with a very heavy price in civilian casualties.

Colville said the United Nations estimates up to 180,000 civilians remain trapped in an every-shrinking area of territory in the Vanni region.

“The current level of civilian casualties, which could be more than 10,000 in all, if you add the killed and injured, is truly shocking. And, there are legitimate fears that the loss of life may reach catastrophic levels, if the fighting continues in this way,” Colville said. “The LTTE, the Tamil Tigers, are reported to be continuing to hold civilians as human shields, and to have shot at civilians trying to leave the area they control. They are also believed to have been forcibly recruiting civilians, including children, as soldiers,” he said.

UN aid agencies reported that there is limited food in the Vanni region. They said severe malnutrition is on the rise and key medical supplies are virtually gone.

High Commissioner Pillay called the brutal and inhuman treatment of civilians by the Tamil Tigers utterly reprehensible and said it should be examined to see if it constitutes war crimes.

The rebels have not commented. But, the Sri Lankan government said it is very disappointed in. what it called, the unprofessional statement by the High Commissioner.

UN Rights Chief Accuses Sri Lanka And Tamil Tigers of Possible War Crimes

Hamas security forces also reported Saturday’s strikes. There were no immediate reports of casualties.

The Israeli air force struck two “smuggling tunnels” on the southern Gaza border and one “weaponry storage site” in Gaza City, a military spokesman told CNN.

“In all strikes, a hit was identified,” the spokesman said, adding that the strikes were in response to six rockets targeting Israeli since Saturday morning.

According to the Israeli military, more than 100 rockets, mortar shells and missiles have been fired at Israel by Palestinian militants in Gaza since Hamas leaders announced a cease-fire on January 18.

Israel also announced a cease-fire and pulled its troops out of Gaza in January, ending a three-week military campaign that the Israeli military said was aimed at halting the rocket fire.

Egypt has been trying to broker a broader cease-fire agreement between Hamas and Israel. Israel is demanding that Hamas release kidnapped Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit before it fully reopens the border crossings with Gaza.

Hamas has rejected discussing Shalit’s release as part of any cease-fire negotiation.

Israel launches airstrikes into Gaza – CNN.com

The crash, on a busy two-lane highway between Tsvangirai’s hometown of Buhera and the capital city of Harare, comes just weeks after the start of a power-sharing agreement between Tsvangirai and his political rival, President Robert Mugabe.

Analysts say the crash is bound to raise suspicion of foul play, with one former U.S. diplomat calling for an outside investigation, saying it is not the first time that a political foe of Mugabe has been killed or injured in a car crash.

Members of Tsvangirai’s political party, the Movement for Democratic Change, said Friday that it was too early to tell whether the crash is anything other than an accident.

Tsvangirai’s aide and driver also were injured in the head-on collision with a large truck, according to his spokesman, James Maridadi.

Movement for Democratic Change spokesman Nelson Chamisa said he spoke to Tsvangirai at the hospital, and the party leader was in “relatively stable” condition. Video An MDC spokesman describes ‘critical’ accident »

Sources at The Avenues Clinic in Harare said that Tsvangirai was in stable condition with minor head injuries and that the prime minister was alert and talking. One source said the attending doctor had told him of his wife’s death.

Another said that doctors were planning to keep Tsvangirai overnight for observation and that specialists were checking his condition.

Tsvangirai, Zimbabwe’s main opposition leader, took office last month under a power-sharing deal with Mugabe after a contentious election.

Tsvangirai’s MDC reached the power-sharing agreement with Mugabe in September after months of angry dispute that included violence. More than 200 deaths, mainly those of opposition supporters, were reported leading up to and in the aftermath of the election.

“I’m skeptical about any motor vehicle accident in Zimbabwe involving an opposition figure,” said Tom McDonald, the U.S. ambassador to Zimbabwe from 1997 to 2001. “President Mugabe has a history of strange car accidents when someone lo and behold dies — it’s sort of his M.O. of how they get rid of people they don’t like.”

McDonald cited the 2001 death of Defense Minister Moven Mahachi, Employment Minister Border Gezi’s death in 1999 and the death last year of Elliot Manyika, a government minister and former regional governor.

All three died in car crashes.

“This is several,” McDonald said. “So, when I hear that Tsvangirai was in an accident, it gives me pause.”

McDonald, now an attorney with the Washington law firm Baker Hostetler, urged a full investigation by outside authorities.

One analyst who studies the region said the collision could “exacerbate” the fragile unity government.

“There will undoubtedly be suspicions about the cause of the crash and whether there was foul play involved,” said Jennifer Cooke, director of the Africa Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington.

“At a time when there needs to be confidence-building measures, this incident potentially raises suspicions and undermines the potential for greater cohesion of the government. [There is] huge potential for the agreement to be manipulated by Mugabe.”

McDonald, however, was quick to say that traffic accidents are common in Zimbabwe. The highway on which Tsvangirai was traveling is a two-lane road where tractor-trailers are common, vehicles in the country are often in bad shape and drivers often are inexperienced, he said.

“It’s certainly plausible that this was just one of those tragic things,” he said.

The collision occurred on the Harare-Masvingo Road as Tsvangirai and his wife headed to his hometown of Buhera, south of the capital, Harare, his spokesman said.

The couple, who were married in 1978, have six children, according to the British Broadcasting Corporation.

Last month, Susan Tsvangirai told a BBC affiliate that the past decade had been an “endurance test” for her husband and his MDC colleagues.

“People went through hell, but they stuck to their ideals to seek change through democratic means,” she said. “This was a struggle that we endured with MDC cadres, activists, supporters and peace-loving Zimbabweans.

“To them I say thank you so much for the support they gave the MDC to reach this momentous period.”

A former miner and union organizer, Morgan Tsvangirai first ran for president in 2002 against Mugabe, who has been the country’s leader since it gained independence from Great Britain in 1980.

Since then, Tsvangirai has been charged with treason twice and accused of plotting to assassinate Mugabe. Tsvangirai was arrested and allegedly beaten in 2007. The criminal charges against him were dropped.

Car-truck crash kills Zimbabwe prime minister’s wife, injures him

Mary Jean Lacaba was allowed by her captors to speak on the phone with this reporter on the afternoon of Feb. 25. Her voice was low and trembling, and she spoke in short sentences, in a mix of Filipino and English.

Lacaba relayed the same message over and over again, directed at the government or anyone else working on their release: She and her colleagues need help. They still have no idea what the Abu Sayyaf wants in exchange for their freedom.

“Please tell them, if possible, if they can, to quicken the process. It has become very hard and truly painful. Physically and emotionally, it’s really very, very hard,” she said.

With Andreas Notter of Switzerland and Eugenio Vagni of Italy, Lacaba was abducted by gunmen in Jolo, Sulu, on Jan. 15, just after they finished inspecting water facilities in the Jolo jail.

It was only much later that the Abu Sayyaf bandit group, through Albader Parad, claimed responsibility for the abduction.

No contact

In Geneva where it is based, the ICRC said it had had no direct contact with Notter, Vagni and Lacaba for a week.

Alain Aeschlimann, the head of the ICRC’s Asia-Pacific operations, said the three aid workers were being moved through the jungle and were reportedly suffering ill health.

Aeschlimann quoted a reliable source as saying that the three aid workers had received medical supplies sent to them.

He said the ICRC was appealing to the abductors’ sense of humanity and asking for the swift and unconditional release of Lacaba, Notter and Vagni.

On the phone with this reporter, Lacaba said she did not want to stay a day longer where she and her colleagues were being held.

“It’s really very difficult now. Help us so our suffering will end,” she said, adding that she and Vagni had again been afflicted with diarrhea.

Notter spoke of the same physical and emotional distress in an interview with radio station dzEC/NET-25 on the afternoon of Feb. 17.

No ransom demand

The Abu Sayyaf has yet to make an official ransom demand for the release of the three aid workers.

This was confirmed by Sulu Vice Gov. Lady Anne Sahidullah, who said she had kept her lines open with the Abu Sayyaf after she produced a proof-of-life picture of the captives late in January.

“I did not believe that they do not want ransom until I heard it myself from them. Of course, no one will believe this because we all know what happened in their previous kidnapping cases. This is the first time I heard them say there will be no ransom,” Sahidullah said.

According to the vice governor, the information that the Abu Sayyaf did not want ransom in exchange for the captives’ release came, not from Parad, but from another commander older and more experienced than he.

That commander is known as Dr. Abu, who was a combatant of the separatist Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) before he joined the ranks of the Abu Sayyaf.

Military pullout first

Pader had been telling not only the three aid workers but also members of the media that there would no negotiation for the captives’ release without a military pullout.

Sahidullah told this reporter that the Sulu provincial crisis committee—which is headed by Sulu Gov. Abdusakur Tan—was doing its best to negotiate for the peaceful release of the three, or even just one.

She said she had tried to bargain for Lacaba’s release and had come close to convincing the Abu Sayyaf to free the captive as a sign of “goodwill,” but that certain factors intervened in her attempt.

“Even if I knew that they were amenable to releasing Mary Jean to me, it didn’t push through. There were many considerations—an ongoing military operation, the possibility that I might be sabotaged on the way…” she said.

A source from the MNLF told this reporter that a Sulu official had tried to pay P5 million for the freedom of the three captives.

But Sahidullah denied this, saying: “All I know is that [the captors] don’t want to discuss ransom.”

Former MNLF Chair Nur Misuari and his loyal faction in the group was tapped by the Sulu provincial crisis committee to help in the negotiation.

But the Abu Sayyaf through Parad maintained its position: “No negotiation with anyone or any group” without a military pullout.

Sulu captives cry for help

Washington worried Iran would turn spent fuel from the plant’s reactor into plutonium, which could then be used to build a nuclear warhead, and U.S. officials pressured Moscow for years to stop helping Iran build the electricity-generating facility.

American opposition to the plant eased when Iran agreed in 2005 to return spent fuel to Russia to ensure it can’t be reprocessed into plutonium. Russia is providing enriched uranium fuel for the plant in the southern port city of Bushehr.

But the U.S. and its allies say there are deep questions about whether Iran intends to use other parts of its nuclear program to develop atomic weapons. Tehran denies that.

The United States said Wednesday that the fuel deal with Russia shows Tehran does not need the most controversial part of its nuclear program — facilities to produce its own enriched uranium.

The arrangement with Russia is “an appropriate mechanism for Iran to see the benefits of the peaceful use of nuclear energy,” State Department spokesman Robert A. Wood said in Washington. “It also demonstrates that Iran does not need to develop any kind of indigenous uranium enrichment capacity.”

The U.N. Security Council, the U.S. and other countries have demanded that Iran suspend enrichment because the process not only can produce fuel for a reactor, but can be used to develop highly enriched uranium needed to make nuclear bombs.

Iran denies it is seeking to build atomic weapons, and says it has a right to produce its own fuel for several nuclear power plants it plans to build. It says relying on imported fuel for its entire reactor program would leave it vulnerable to cutoffs as political pressure.

Iranian officials on Wednesday claimed further progress in expanding the uranium enrichment program, saying the number of centrifuges operating at its enrichment plant has increased to 6,000, up from 5,000 in November.

Iranians in Test Run of First Nuclear Power Plant