After 3-Day Fight, U.S., Iraqi Forces Retake Samarra

— -- Two Blasts Rip Through Baghdad, Killing 21
Two car bombs ripped through crowded Baghdad streets on Monday, killing at least 21 people and wounding 96, as insurgents step up their campaign to undermine the country's U.S.-backed interim government and drive the United States and its allies out of Iraq. (AP)

After 3-Day Fight, U.S. and Iraqi Forces Retake Samarra
American and Iraqi forces in Samarra finished retaking the last insurgent-controlled neighborhood early Sunday, completing a relentless three-day push through this ancient city in a first step toward wresting control of important central Iraqi areas held by Sunni guerrillas. (NY Times)

Rice: Iraqi Nuclear Plans Unclear
National security adviser Condoleezza Rice said yesterday it is still unclear whether Iraq attempted to procure tens of thousands of aluminum tubes for a nuclear weapons program or a conventional rocket program, despite conclusions by the Senate intelligence committee and U.N. investigators that the tubes could not be used in any nuclear program. (Washington Post)

How the White House Embraced Disputed Arms Intelligence
Speaking to a group of Wyoming Republicans in September, Vice President Dick Cheney said the United States now had "irrefutable evidence" — thousands of tubes made of high-strength aluminum. Those tubes became a critical exhibit in the administration's brief against Iraq. (NY Times)

Bigley May Be In Hands of New Group
The British hostage Kenneth Bigley may have been handed over to another group of captors who are prepared to release him for money, his brother said today. (Guardian)

10 Insurgent Groups Unite
A statement issued by 10 armed groups in Iraq announced that the groups were united under what they called "the Mujaheddin's Unified Command." The groups issued a warning for the withdrawal of American forces from Iraqi cities within one week, threatening to wage wide range attacks, close the country's northern and western borders and destroy pipelines, bridges and railroads. (Elaph)

Partial Vote Would Lack Full Credibility, Iraqis Contend
A sampling of people across the nation rejects some officials' notion of excluding violent areas. (LA Times)

Post-Invasion Chaos Blamed for Drug Surge
U.N. and U.S. officials are increasingly worried by signs of a nascent drug trade developing in Iraq, where smugglers are taking advantage of the continuing chaos and unguarded borders. (LA Times)

U.S. Struggles For Hold On Iraq Highway
Highway 8 between Baghdad and Najaf has become a gantlet of criminal and insurgent violence. (Boston Globe)

Iraqi Kurds' Fight for 'Independence'
At present, four Iraqi Kurds are members of the interim Iraqi Governing Council (IGC). Recently Iraqi Kurds have accelerated their efforts to fulfil their political objectives in Iraq. (Al-Jazeera)

Iran to Attend Iraq Poll Meeting
Iran says it will take part in a US-sponsored conference on election plans for Iraq due to be held in Cairo. But Tehran would have to study the details of how to take part and at what level, Iran's Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi said. (BBC)

Polish Troops To Quit Iraq By End 2005: Kwasniewski
Polish President Aleksander Kwasniewski said after talks in Paris that Warsaw wants to withdraw all its 2,500 troops from Iraq during the course of next year. (AFP)

Anger, Confusion Mount In Paris Over Failed Mission To Free Journalists In Iraq
French Justice Minister Dominique Perben stepped Sunday into the acrimonious controversy over an unofficial bid to free two French hostages held in Iraq, accusing the freelance negotiator of lacking responsibility. (AFP)

Beirut Warned To Stop Lebanese From Working with U.S. in Iraq
A militant group holding two Lebanese hostages demanded that Beirut stop its nationals from working for the U.S.-led military in Iraq, warning unspecified consequences. (Lebanon Daily Star)

Hunt On for Compound Attackers
Police are still hunting for the assailants who opened fire at targets close to an upscale housing compound east of Riyadh on Friday, said Brig. Mansour Al-Turki, the Interior Ministry spokesman. (Arab News)

Al Qaeda Operatives Are an Ignorant Lot, Say Former Members
About 95 percent of Al-Qaeda operatives in the Kingdom are ignorant and most of them do not observe basic Islamic teachings, according to new confessions by Abdul Rahman Al-Rashoud and Khaled Al-Farraj, former members of the terror network. (Arab News)

U.S. Spy Plane Crashes Near Base in Pakistan
A pilotless U.S. spy plane crashed near its military base in southern Pakistan on Sunday but there were no casualties or damage, police said. (Reuters)

Pakistan Appoints New Spy Agency Chief
President Gen. Pervez Musharraf on Sunday appointed a new chief for Pakistan's powerful spy agency after his predecessor was appointed chairman of the joint chiefs of military staff.Lt. Gen. Ashfaq Pervez Kiyani was appointed director general of the Inter-Services Intelligence agency to replace Gen. Ahsanul Haq, the army's public relations department said.Haq was promoted on Saturday to the rank of four-star general and appointed chairman of the joint chiefs of military staff to replace Gen. Muhammad Aziz Khan, who is retiring on Oct. 7. (AP)

From a Virtual Shadow, Messages of Terror
He calls himself Abu Maysara al Iraqi, or father of Maysara the Iraqi, and he's a master at being everywhere and nowhere in the virtual world, constantly switching his online accounts and taking advantage of new technologies to issue his communiqués to the world. (Washington Post)

Iraq: It's Time for U.S. to Think of an Elegant Exit
With polls showing that only two percent of Iraqis consider Americans "liberators" while solid majorities favor an immediate withdrawal of all American forces, a degree of skepticism as to the genuine eagerness of George W. Bush and Iyad Allawi to see free and fair elections held in January is understandable. (Arab News)

A Shiite-Sunni Islamist 'High Command' May Be Forming
There are ominous signs that, far from dying down, the conflicts in the Middle East are set to widen in the coming months, sucking in new actors and posing new threats to the United States and its allies. (Daily Star)

The Real Truth About Camp Delta
America's prison camp at Guantánamo Bay holds detainees in extreme conditions. But David Rose, in this extract from his remarkable new book, says the intelligence gathered has failed to stop any terror attacks. (Guardian)

Amjad Farooqi: The Untold Story
The Pakistani security agencies claimed to have killed on September 26, 2004, Amjad Hussain Farooqi alias Mansur Hasnain alias Imtiaz Siddiqui alias Hyder, alias Doctor who, according to them, was the mastermind behind the two abortive attempts to kill Gen.Pervez Musharraf in Rawalpindi in December last year. (South Asia Analysis Group)

Is Bin Laden Still A Danger?
Some say his ideas, image are now more potent. (Houston Chronicle)

Social Bonds Pull Muslim Youth to Jihad, Expert Says
After examining 172 case studies, a CIA veteran turned forensic psychiatrist argues that religion isn't the main factor in radicalization. (LA Times)

Moves Toward Reform Wane In Saudi Arabia
Just a year ago, democratic changes in this absolute monarchy seemed to be gathering steam. But what observers saw as a promising opening has been stymied as an influx of oil money and victories against militants linked to Al Qaeda have reduced the urgency surrounding reform. A number of signs point to retrenchment. (CS Monitor)

Bush and Reality
The president may think that freedom is winning, but television viewers in the U.S. could see images over the weekend of distraught Iraqis pulling the bodies of small children from smoking rubble - a tragic but perfect metaphor for a policy in ruins. (NY Times)

Iraq and Averages
The United States could conceivably lose in Iraq, just as Derek Jeter could some day hit under .200 for a whole season. But the odds are against it, and it is certainly far too early to make that judgment. (Washington Post)

Man With a Plan
The reality is that France, Germany, and Russia are not going to spend their blood and treasure to support the American effort in Iraq simply in response to the charm initiative of a new president — especially one who's previously characterized the endeavor as an outright mistake. (National Review)

American Troops Must Stay in Iraq. But They Must Change their Helmets.
The genuine internationalisation of the foreign military presence would provide the Iraqi government with the military help that it needs but in a form that provided legitimacy and which would be seen as far more acceptable to Iraqis. (The Independent)

Thomas L. Friedman: Take the Politics Out of Iraq Already
If only the Bush team had gone after the remnants of Saddam Hussein's army in the Sunni Triangle with the brutal efficiency it has gone after Kerry in the Iowa-Ohio-Michigan triangle. (New York Times)

The Samarra Crush
Free-Iraqi forces and the U.S. 1st Infantry Division surely will continue knocking down doors in Iraq. (National Review)

Occupation is Oppression
The sooner the coalition troops withdraw from Iraqi urban areas the sooner calm can be restored. (Jordan Times)

The Insider Daily Terrorism Report (DTR) is a summary of major news articles and broadcasts relating to international terrorism and developments in Iraq. The DTR is edited daily from foreign and U.S. sources by Chris Isham, Hoda Osman, and Brinda Adhikari of the ABCNEWS Investigative Unit. The views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ABCNEWS.