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GOP questions Afghanistan pullout plan

KABUL, Afghanistan, July 4 (UPI) -- U.S. Republicans and an Afghan envoy to the United States sharply questioned President Obama's plan to start withdrawing troops from Afghanistan next July.

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"If you tell the enemy that you're leaving on a date certain, unequivocally, then that enemy will wait until you leave," Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., said Sunday on ABC's "This Week."

"I'm all for dates for withdrawal, but that's after the strategy succeeds, not before," said McCain, speaking from Afghanistan, where he's staying through the Fourth of July weekend.

"The president should state unequivocally that we will leave when we have succeeded."

Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., who was also in Afghanistan, said the July 2011 date has caused confusion and "emboldened" Taliban and al-Qaida militants.

"If people think we're going to leave, we have no chance of winning," Graham said on CBS's "Face the Nation."

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"If you send a signal to your enemy you're going to leave at a certain date, they'll wait you out."

Still, he said he was hopeful some parts of Afghanistan could be turned over to Afghan forces in the coming year.

Graham said he had spoken to Vice President Joe Biden, and Biden told him withdrawal of any U.S. troops would be "conditions-based."

Said Tayeb Jawad, the Afghan ambassador to the United States, also criticized the date for beginning the pullout.

"If you overemphasize a deadline that is not realistic, you're making the enemy a lot more bold, you're prolonging the war," Jawad said on CNN's "State of the Union."

"That deadline should be realistic, that deadline should be based on the reality on the ground. And we should give a clear message to the enemy, to the terrorists who are threat to everyone, that the United States, NATO and Afghans are there to finish this job."


Runaway horse and buggy injure 23

BELLEVUE, Iowa, July 4 (UPI) -- Two horses pulling a buggy stampeded down the crowded Fourth of July parade route in Bellevue, Iowa, Sunday, injuring nearly two dozen people, an official said.

Bellevue Mayor Virgil Murray said it was his understanding 23 people were hurt, The Des Moines Register reported.

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"Five were or are critical, five were serious," Murray said.

The incident happened near the end of the parade when the horses got spooked and galloped down Highway 52, staying close to the curb where parade-watchers were sitting. By the time Holly Specht of Peosta saw the horses they were free of the buggy.

"There were two horses coming at us at full speed, right at the curb," she told the newspaper. "People were grabbing kids. You looked up and it was just like a flash. Everybody was kind of in shock and panic."

The Dubuque Telegraph Herald reported the buggy came unhitched when it hit a large street sign about eight blocks into the episode, tossing off two people on board, and the horses ran another two blocks before they hit a trailer.


JFK airport terminal target of bomb scare

NEW YORK, July 4 (UPI) -- A bomb threat prompted the precautionary evacuation of the John F. Kennedy International Airport terminal in New York Sunday evening, authorities said.

John Kelly, a spokesman with the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, told CNN the terminal was emptied about 5:40 p.m. after an anonymous caller warned of a bomb not long after a Port Authority officer spotted an unattended bag. The terminal was reopened about 2 1/2 hours later when it was determined there was no bomb, CNN said.

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The bag was checked by authorities, who determined there were no explosives in it, CNN reported.


Suicide bombings kill 4, injure 25 in Iraq

RAMADI, Iraq, July 4 (UPI) -- Two terrorist blasts killed at least four people and injured 25 others in Iraq Sunday as U.S. Vice President Joe Biden urged the formation of a new government.

A female bomber blew herself up outside an Iraqi provincial governor's office, killing at least four people and injuring 23 others, officials said.

Gov. Qassim Mohammed Abid of Anbar province and his two deputies were unharmed in the Ramadi attack, 68 miles west of Baghdad, the Interior Ministry said.

Less than 2 hours later, a suicide bomber wounded two police officers when he detonated an explosive belt near the Ninevah provincial government's headquarters in Mosul, a reputed al-Qaida haven 250 miles northwest of Baghdad, officials said.

The attacks came as Biden was in Baghdad trying to persuade Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and Maliki's chief challenger, former interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi, to end a four-month political impasse and form a new government.

Within hours of Biden's meetings, mortar explosions were heard near the fortified Green Zone while Biden was there, The New York Times reported.

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The zone includes the U.S. Embassy compound, the Iraqi parliament and the prime minister's office.

Biden and his wife Jill were safe, but it was unclear late Sunday if anyone else had been injured

In Ramadi, the female suicide bomber slipped through four checkpoints at the governor's compound with an explosive vest strapped to her chest, The Washington Post reported.

At the front desk she told employees she was there to collect compensation for her son, who she said was killed by insurgents, police spokesman Maj. Firas al-Dulaimy told the newspaper.

In a hallway next to the governor's office, she detonated her vest, Dulaimy said. Women and children were among the casualties, he said.

In Mosul, the suicide bomber detonated his explosive belt as police shot him, police said.

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