'Medal of Freedom' awards for Tenet, Franks, Bremer
Pakistan Times Foreign Desk Report

WASHINGTON (US): President George Bush Tuesday announced national awards for George Tenet, General (R) Tommy Franks and Paul Bremer.

The Medal of Freedom award ceremony was held at the White House. "They symbolize nobility of public service," President Bush said, adding "the honoraries played a pivotal role in significant events."

Highest civil award

The Presidential Medal of Freedom is our nation's highest civil award given to men and women of exceptional merit, integrity and achievement.

"Today this honor goes to three men who have played pivotal roles in great events, and whose efforts have made our country more secure and advanced the cause of human liberty," President Bush said.

The U.S. President presented the medals, while his military aid read the citations.

Paul Bremer was the former Administrator of Iraq; General (R) Tommy Franks has been Commander of CENTCOM, while George Tenet served as Director of Intelligence.

Situation in Iraq

And in Iraq, a suicide car bomber killed seven people at a Green Zone checkpoint early Tuesday, the second attack in two days near the same gate into the district that houses Iraq's interim government and the U.S. Embassy, officials said.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Ayad Allawi said the trial of some of Iraq's former Baath Party leaders will begin next week. He didn't say that Saddam Hussein would be among them.

Elsewhere in Baghdad, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff announced the U.S. military will have a record-high 150,000 troops in Iraq through the Jan. 30 elections and "a little bit after."

Tuesday's blast at the Green Zone checkpoint killed seven people and wounded at least 13 people, said Dr. Hassan AbdelSatar from Baghdad's Yarmouk Hospital.

Police Lt. Rafid Abid said the attack was carried out by a suicide car bomber.

A mushroom-shaped cloud of black smoke rose from the site of the attack, which was near where a bomber struck Monday, killing 13 and injuring 15 people. The location is near the Harthiyah gate on the western edge of the zone, which has been repeatedly targeted by bombings and mortar and missile attacks since it became the headquarters of the occupation authorities in May 2003. No U.S. troops were injured in either blast.

The U.S. Embassy and several other missions are located inside the zone, which occupies an area of four square miles on the west bank of the Tigris River. The area, comprising Saddam's palace and other administrative buildings, is a virtual fortress encircled by miles of 12-foot-high barricades, its gates guarded by U.S. Bradley fighting vehicles. The complex is off-limits to the public.

Several of Baghdad's main arteries dead-end straight into it, cut off by a triple layered sprawl of concertina wire, impassable concrete blast walls and sandbagged guard towers.

In other violence, the U.S. military said two U.S. Marines from the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force based in western Iraq died in combat in Baghdad province Monday, bringing the number of Marines killed to 10 in three days.●