US downgrades terror alert

US downgrades terror alert

Combat operations have diminished

The US Government has lowered a national terror alert introduced in March on the eve of the war in Iraq.

It downgraded the high "orange" alert to "yellow" on Wednesday in recognition that the war was "winding down", officials said in Washington.

However, yellow remains a state of elevated alert against terrorist attack.

US states of alert

red (severe)

orange (high)

yellow (elevated)

blue (guarded)

green (low)

"Following a review of intelligence and an assessment of threats by the intelligence community, the [Department of Homeland Security]... has made the decision to lower the threat advisory level to an elevated risk of terrorist attack," said a statement on the DHS website.

It added that citizens should remain on the alert for possible attacks by "al-Qaeda and those sympathetic to their cause, as well as former Iraqi-regime state agents and affiliated organisations".

In Iraq itself, A BBC correspondent in the northern city of Mosul says it is extremely tense - and latest reports from there say at least three people have been killed and several others wounded by gunfire.

The US military commander General Tommy Franks has been visiting Baghdad where a new mayor appeared to emerge on Wednesday.

In other developments:

• A leading Iraqi Shia Muslim opposition leader, Abdel Aziz Hakim, returns from exile in Iran for the first time in 23 years to a rapturous receptuion in the Iraqi city of Kut. Mr Hakim is deputy leader of the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, which boycotted US-organised talks on Iraq's future this week

• US marines raid Baghdad home of an unnamed woman scientist that Washington says was involved in Iraqi programmes to develop weapons of mass destruction

• Ahmed Chalabi, the US-backed Iraqi opposition leader, heads for Baghdad for his first visit in decades

• Syria, accused by the US of having chemical weapons, calls for a UN Security Council resolution to make the Middle East a region free of weapons of mass destruction - a move likely to be resisted by Israel

• EU foreign ministers meet in Athens to try to work out a common position on the future of Iraq as the UK's Jack Straw urges anti-war countries like France and Germany to accept there is a new reality in the region.

Pre-emptive action

Fears of terror attacks in retaliation for the US-led war in Iraq originally prompted the "orange" alert on 17 March, a few days before the war began - but no attacks have so far materialised.

Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge said at the time there were fears of "multiple attacks against US and coalition targets worldwide".

The AP news agency notes that it is unclear whether the terror alert prevented any attacks taking place.

Brian Roehrkasse, a spokesman at the DHS, said this was still being checked: "We believe that during 'Operation Liberty Shield,' there were individuals in places, at times, where they should not have been. The investigations continue on those."

New mayor

An Iraqi who apparently helped US troops restore local policing has effectively declared himself mayor of Baghdad.

Mohammad Mohsen al-Zubaidi announced at a news conference in a Baghdad hotel that he had been appointed head of the city's new interim local government.

He said the aim of his administration would be to restore law and order and basic services and that he had the support of opposition groups both inside and outside Iraq.

A BBC correspondent in Baghdad says it appears he was appointed by American marines after playing a role in organising the return to work of Iraqi police and other public-service employees.