US reshuffle Iraq reconstruction team

THE US official sent in to oversee Baghdad and a large swath of its surrounding territory is leaving her position immediately after less than a month, a spokesman for the postwar American administration said yesterday.

Meanwhile, the top civilian administrator, retired Lt Gen Jay Garner, is expected to leave his post shortly after the appointment of his superior, L Paul Bremer, a longtime State Department official.

Barbara Bodine, the coordinator for central Iraq, planned to depart Baghdad yesterday, according to US Army Maj John Cornelio, a spokesman for the US Office of Reconstruction and Humanitarian Assistance, the reconstruction effort’s civilian wing.