[PSC] New rule could force Foreign Service officers to serve in Iraq

[Saul Roark]

In a series of meetings Friday, Rice and Gates failed to turn around Moscow's opposition to the system and other strategic arms issues and got little more than a pledge to meet again.Meanwhile, two U.S. soldiers were killed and five others were wounded in a mortar attack launched "in the vicinity of Baghdad" on Wednesday, the U.S. military said Saturday. The deaths put the total number of U.S. military personnel killed in the Iraq war at 3,827.But he stressed: "It will take some time before we are able to make public our estimation."As part of that plan, experts from all nations covered by the system would be based at missile defense facilities to try to improve coordination and transparency.Turkey has threatened such action after congressional moves to declare that the killing of Armenians by Ottoman Turks in World War I was "genocide."Putin set the tone early on when he hosted the pair and their Russian counterparts at his country home outside Moscow and delivered a stern rebuff to U.S. plans to push ahead with establishing missile defense facilities in Poland and the Czech Republic.MOSCOW, Russia (AP) -- President Bush's top two Cabinet officials, expecting a polite photo op, were ambushed by a Russian leader who fears Eastern Europe may be turned into a U.S. staging point for a new Cold War.Turkey -- now a NATO member and a key U.S. ally in the war on terror -- accepts Armenians were killed but calls it a massacre during a chaotic time, not an organized campaign of genocide."We see two serious problems with these proposals," Lavrov told reporters at the news conference with Rice, Gates and Serdyukov. He said the two sides still disagree about the threat to Europe and complained that the negotiations with the Poles and Czechs were continuing.The U.S. military already had been considering alternatives to Turkey because of the growing dependence on that country after the cutback of U.S. forces in central Asia in recent years.The first explosion reportedly struck a house but no injuries were reported, while the 
second and third explosions "caused more damage to several houses and the casualties," the military said.Russian President Vladimir Putin says any treaty must be "universal in nature."The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity to describe diplomatic discussions, maintained that differences were narrowed but progress was incremental and might not produce ultimate understandings."Events have triggered more detailed planning for the curtailment or closure" of access to Turkey, one official said. The key issue is to find ways to ship supplies and other critical equipment into Iraq.The wounded troops were transported to a military medical facility for "emergency treatment and further evaluation," the military said, adding the incident is under investigation.U.S. forces have searched the affected area and are trying to track down the suspects, the military said.

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