Iraqi insurgent manhunt in second day
BAGHDAD, Iraq, March 17 (UPI) -- The joint U.S.-Iraqi offensive on a suspected insurgent hotbed in Samarra entered its second day Friday with reports of early morning explosions.
"Operation Swarmer" began Thursday, with about 900 U.S. and Iraqi troops flooding into the area, 75 miles north of Baghdad, in more than 50 helicopters and 200 ground vehicles, CNN reported.
Maj. Tom Bryant, a spokesman for the U.S. Army's 101st Airborne Division said Iraqi troops slightly outnumber the U.S. forces taking part, and that Iraqi intelligence was the driving force of the operation.
Officials said 31 people had been detained and six munitions caches were uncovered, along with bomb-making equipment and medical supplies.
Samarra was the scene of the bombing Feb. 22 of the revered al-Askari Shiite shrine that triggered a surge in sectarian violence.
Elsewhere, the BBC reported gunmen in Baghdad opened fire on Shiite Muslims on a pilgrimage to the holy city of Karbala, killing three and wounding two. Three more people were wounded in a second attack.
U.S. public support for Iraq war falls
PRINCETON, N.J., March 17 (UPI) -- Support for the Iraq war has fallen in the past three years as a CNN/USA Today/Gallup poll shows 60 percent of U.S. respondents now say the war wasn't worth it.
In March 2003, just after the invasion of Iraq began, 29 percent of those asked said it was not worth it to go to war.
Telephone interviews with 1,001 adults nationwide conducted March 10-12 found 22 percent of respondents felt the United States would "certainly" win the war. In March 2003, 69 percent expressed that amount of confidence.
In 2003, by 73 percent to 24 percent, poll respondents said the war was morally justified, but today the public is divided, with 47 percent saying it is morally justified and 50 percent saying it is not.
When no weapons of mass destruction were found in Iraq, a Gallup poll showed most people rejected the charge that the Bush administration deliberately misled the public about the matter by 67 percent to 31 percent. In Friday's results, a slight majority, 51 percent to 46 percent, believes the Bush administration deliberately misled the public.
The poll has a margin of error of 3 percentage points.
21 U.S. airports fail bomb detection test
WASHINGTON, March 17 (UPI) -- Undercover checks by U.S. federal investigators showed all 21 airports tested failed to detect bomb-making materials passing through security.
The tests were requested by Rep. John Mica, R-Fla., who said the results were "very disappointing," ABC News reported Friday.
The airports were not identified, as the information is classified.
Investigators sent through components of an "improvised explosive device," the report by the Government Accountability Office, the watchdog arm of Congress, said.
In its defense, the Transportation Security Administration, the agency that handles airport security, issued a statement, stating, "While random items commonly found under a kitchen sink could conceivably be concocted into an IED, there are so many things that could go wrong with this hypothetical scenario that we find it highly implausible."
U.S. anthrax vaccine program running late
WASHINGTON, March 17 (UPI) -- The U.S. program to develop a stockpile of anthrax vaccine is running a year behind schedule because of failures in human testing, The Washington Post reports.
Officers at VaxGen Inc. of Brisbane, Calif., told the newspaper they have no hope of meeting a deadline to deliver 25 million doses of the vaccine into a national stockpile by November.
The company has requested an extension of the contract, and says it has identified the problem with the vaccine and is working to correct it.
With the VaxGen product delayed, the government has purchased enough doses of an older, controversial anthrax vaccine to treat some 2 million people.
The government's goal is have 75 million doses on hand -- enough to treat 25 million people after an attack -- as part of U.S. President George Bush's Project Bioshield.
The stockpile was to be in place by next year but at the current rate it will be completed no sooner than 2008 or 2009, long after the anthrax attacks of late 2001 prompted the government to react.
Irish government not home for St. Pat's
DUBLIN, Ireland, March 17 (UPI) -- Almost all of the republic of Ireland's government was away from Dublin Friday, celebrating high Irish St. Patrick's Day on five continents.
Prime Minister Bertie Ahern was in Washington with four Cabinet colleagues to mark the day with President George Bush, and 24 other ministers were scattered among 21 other countries, The Times of London reported.
Officials in Ireland made public appeals to avoid excessive drinking and for public order. More than 700 people were arrested across the country for public order offenses on St. Patrick's Day last year, more than double the 2004 number.
Earlier this week, The Irish Times said the afternoon of March 17 when the parade has finished is "the most depressing and dangerous" day of the year in Ireland.
Organizers of the Dublin St. Patrick's Day parade estimated the crowd would hit 700,000.
