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WAR UPDATE

March 19, 2008

A day of "creative, nonviolent action and civil disobedience" is planned by more than 30 groups in the nation's capital today to mark the U.S. occupation in Iraq entering its sixth year.

In remarks yesterday, Sen. John McCain, traveling in the Middle East to promote his foreign policy expertise, misidentified which broad category of Iraqi extremists are allegedly receiving support from Iran. He said several times that Iran, a predominantly Shia country, was supplying the mostly Sunni militant group, al-Qaida. In fact, officials have said they believe Iran is helping Iraqi Shia extremists.

At least eight Iraqis were killedand dozens injured in bomb blasts in Baghdad and north of the capital. In yesterday's worst attack, a car bomb exploded outside an electronics store in the northern city of Mosul, killing three people and injuring 40.

Lynndie England, public face of the Abu Ghraib scandal, told a German news magazine she was sorry for appearing in photos of detainees in the notorious Iraqi prison, and believes the scenes served as a powerful rallying point for insurgents. In an interview with the magazine Stern, England was both remorseful and unrepentant. "I guess after the picture came out the insurgency picked up ... I felt bad about it ... If the media hadn't exposed the pictures to that extent, then thousands of lives would have been saved," she was quoted saying. Asked how she could blame the media for the controversy, she said it wasn't her who leaked the photos.