Baghdad suicide gas tanker blast kills 50
BAGHDAD, Aug. 1 (UPI) -- A suicide bomber detonated a gas tanker truck at a Baghdad gas station Wednesday, killing at least 50 people in a colossal explosion, officials said.
An Iraqi Interior Ministry source told the Alaalam Satellite TV network scores were injured and the death toll was likely to rise.
Earlier, a suicide car bomber killed 28 people and injured at least 50 others in a predominantly Shiite shopping district in Baghdad, officials said.
The Interior Ministry said the explosion left a 3-foot crater and badly damaged nine civilian vehicles, the Alalam reported.
It happened in the Karrada district on the east side of the Tigris River, which has been relatively peaceful until the last 10 days, with Wednesday's attack being the sixth bombing, CNN said. On Monday of last week, four car bombings there killed 16 people and last Thursday, another killed 25 others, the BBC reported.
Two mortar shells also fell near Baghdad's Al-Raheed hotel, home to many foreign journalists, Kuwait's KUNA news agency reported. No casualties were reported.
Meanwhile, the U.S. military said in a statement coalition forces had detained 35 suspected terrorists during operations targeting al-Qaida in central and northern Iraq within the past two days.
Iraq visits popular with U.S. senators
WASHINGTON, Aug. 1 (UPI) -- Making visits to troops in Iraq is popular among U.S. senators, as at least 76 of them have done so in the last year, The Hill reported Wednesday.
The Washington newspaper's survey found 18 senators have never made the trip, with one of them, Sen. Jim Webb, D-Va., calling the junkets political "dog and pony shows."
The leader of the traveling pack is Sen. Jack Reed, D-R.I., who has visited Iraq 10 times, including three trips in the past year. Sen. James Inhofe, R-Okla., an ardent supporter of the war effort, has made eight trips to Iraq.
Eight other senators have made at least six trips since the war began in March 2003.
Two Republican senators who have called for the Bush administration to change its tactics have never been -- Sens. George Voinovich of Ohio and Pete Domenici of New Mexico, The Hill said.
James Thurber, professor of political science and director of the Center for Congressional and Presidential Studies at American University, told the newspaper the visits make sense politically.
"The more trips you go give you more authority," Thurber said.
Obama wants U.S. troops in Pakistan
WASHINGTON, Aug. 1 (UPI) -- U.S. Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., said U.S. troops should be fighting terror more in Afghanistan and even Pakistan.
In the text of a speech to the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington seen by ABC News before its scheduled Wednesday delivery, Obama, who is seeking the Democratic Party's nomination for president, wants U.S. troops out of Iraq and redeployed to Afghanistan.
But he also said the fight against terror could also move across the border into Pakistan, whether or not Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf consented.
"If we have actionable intelligence about high-value terrorist targets and President Musharraf won't act, we will," Obama's speech text said.
Obama said he would also make the "hundreds of millions of dollars in U.S. military aid to Pakistan conditional and I would make our conditions clear: Pakistan must make substantial progress in closing down the training camps, evicting foreign fighters and preventing the Taliban from using Pakistan as a staging area for attacks in Afghanistan."
Saudis pledge support to Iraq
JEDDAH, Saudi Arabia, Aug. 1 (UPI) -- Saudi Arabia's foreign minister pledged support Wednesday in Jeddah for helping Iraq achieve stability but said Iraq is weak on border security.
At a news conference after meeting with U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Prince Saud al-Faysal said his country was interested in regional stability and that Jeddah would open an embassy in Baghdad.
However, he said Iraq needs to be more attentive to the movement of terrorists and their supplies, the American Forces Press Service reported.
"The traffic of terrorists, I can assure you, is more on this side coming to us from Iraq than going from us to Iraq," he said.
For her part, Rice applauded Riyadh's decision to open an embassy.
"We believe it is an important step, because normal relations between Iraq and its neighbors is extremely important in affirming its identify in this part of the world," she said.
While Iraq has a majority of Shiite Muslims, Saudi Arabia is predominantly a Sunni Muslim nation, and the two factions in Iraq are locked in daily sectarian battles.
S. Korea denies Afghan hostage mission
KABUL, Afghanistan, Aug. 1 (UPI) -- South Korea denied reports Wednesday that Afghanistan had launched a military operation to rescue 21 South Korean hostages held by the Taliban.
South Korean Foreign Ministry spokesman Lee Youn-soo told the Yonhap news agency the report was false, as Kabul would have advised Seoul in advance.
"We have not sanctioned such a rescue operation," Lee said. "We have not been informed of such an action either."
Earlier, officials in Seoul said they were preparing to engage in talks with Taliban militants who kidnapped 23 Christian missionaries on July 19. Two of the male volunteers have since been killed and dumped on roadsides.
The government of Afghan President Hamid Karzai has ignored the militants' demand to release an equal number of Taliban prisoners in exchange for the hostages' lives and several deadlines have passed.
