IRBIL, June 11 (KUNA) -- The Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) headed by Iraqi President Jalal Talibani said on Saturday that two of its members were shot dead by unknown gunmen in Kirkuk north of Iraq.

A PUK source told KUNA unknown gunmen shot two of its members Nawaf Mohammed Ali and Ghaleb Jassem.

Meanwhile, the Iraqi police said Iraqi forces and Multi National Forces in Iraq were able to arrest seven members of the "Al-Mujahideen Shura Council" believed to have fled Baaqouba following the killing of Abu Musa'ab Al-Zarqawi.

The Iraqi police in Mosul said five civilians were shot dead by unknown gunmen in Mosul northern Iraq and a headless body was found in the same town.

An Iraqi police source told KUNA unknown gunmen riding in two civilian vehicles opened fire at six butchers, killing five of them and severely wounding the sixth.

Iran Focus

Tehran, Iran, Jun. 11 – The price of bread will go up by 20 percent in Iran, according to a state-run daily.

At a meeting, the Deputy Minister of Commence for Domestic Affairs and several other government officials approved a plan to raise bread prices by more than 20 percent, Hossein Nazari, a ministry official, said.

Nazari’s comments were reported in the daily Hambastegi on Saturday.

Iran Focus

Several key agents of Iran’s Ministry of Intelligence and Security (MOIS a.k.a. VEVAK) operating in countries bordering Iran have gone on the run from their terror masters in Tehran, a well-placed source inside the government told Iran Focus.

Refusing to identify specifically the agents that had gone on the run, the source who requested anonymity told Iran Focus that the agents were “high up” on the ministry’s organisational chart.

The contact blackout began last month and the ministry has still not managed to track the agents’ locations, the source said.

Tehran has however since ruled out the possibility that the agents had been arrested by foreign security forces.

Soon after hard-liner Mahmoud Ahmadinejad took office as President, a purge of a number of senior officials in the MOIS with ties to former President Mohammad Khatami’s political camp was carried out. Some of the former officials are currently facing trials in special courts set up to deal with security agents.

Control of the ministry, which is currently headed by radical Shiite cleric Hojjatoleslam Gholam-Hossein Mohseni Ezhei, has since come into the hands of a clique of hard-liners once allied to former Deputy Intelligence Minister Saeed Emami.

Until his highly controversial “suicide” in prison, Emami had a turbulent history in the dreaded ministry. In 1997, a series of gruesome murders of dissident journalists and writers, commonly known as the “chain murders”, were carried out throughout Iran. In the aftermath, journalist Akbar Ganji shed light on the murders, revealing that it had been an “inside-job” sanctioned on Emami’s orders. The MOIS blamed the killings on “rogue agents”.

Washington Post

By Dan Balz

Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, June 11, 2006; Page A05

LAS VEGAS, June 10 -- Senate Minority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) said here Saturday that he will seek greater transparency from the Bush administration about possible threats posed by Iran's pursuit of nuclear weapons. He said he wants to prevent possible misuse of intelligence as the administration deals with the crisis.

Speaking before a partisan audience of Internet bloggers and Democratic activists, Reid said he plans to introduce legislation next week that would require a new national intelligence estimate for Iran, along with an unclassified summary that could form the basis for a public debate about possible action if Tehran continues to seek nuclear weapons.

He also said he will require Director of National Intelligence John D. Negroponte to demonstrate that he has in place a process to review public statements by President Bush, Vice President Cheney and other officials with regard to Iran. Many Democrats allege that Bush and Cheney manipulated intelligence in making the public case for war with Iraq.

"We face many threats -- threats that have grown worse -- because this administration took its eye off the ball," he said in remarks prepared for delivery. "We must address these threats, but we must not be manipulated into acting for ideological or political gain."

He urged the Senate intelligence committee to complete its investigation into the use of prewar intelligence, a probe that led to a brief but bitter shutdown of the Senate by Reid and other Democrats last November. "What we need to know -- and still don't know today -- is whether the White House intentionally cherry-picked and politicized intelligence to sell the war," he said.

DIYARBAKIR-- Two Kurdish rebels, one of them a senior field commander of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), were killed in a clash with Turkish troops in souteastern Turkey, military sources said on Saturday.

They said the clash came amidst a spring offensive by the Turkish army against PKK guerrillas fighting for a separate homeland in southeast Turkey.

One of those killed was a senior PKK guerrilla in charge of Silvan district in the Diyarbakir province, the sources said.

The last two years have seen an upsurge in PKK violence which had subsided after the 1999 capture of the group's leader, Abdullah Ocalan, who is now held in an island prison south of Istanbul.

Ankara blames the PKK for the deaths of more than 30,000 people since the group launched its armed campaign in 1984.

Source: Reuters