Blair makes WMD admission

THREE US marines and an Iraqi child were killed and a car bomb cost several more lives as British Prime Minister Tony Blair admitted mass destruction weapons may never be found in Iraq.

However, a Lebanese-born US marine feared to have been beheaded by his Islamist kidnappers was freed, according to the foreign ministry in Beirut.

A car bomb blew up in Khalis, killing 13 people attending a wake for victims of a previous attack.

Two days ago gunmen fired at a building owned by a city council official, killing two people. Yesterday’s bomb targeted the wake for those killed in that attack.

In Baghdad, an Iraqi motorist was shot dead by US troops as he overtook a military convoy, according to police and witnesses.

He was shot three times at close range, a witness said. The victim lay in a pool of blood as his father vowed to join the insurgency.

He roared: “God curse the Americans!” The victim was due to get married tomorrow.

US soldiers also shot dead an Iraqi child and wounded another when the car their father was driving failed to stop at a checkpoint in the capital late on Monday.

The military said two marines “were killed in action and one marine died of wounds received in action Monday in the Al-Anbar province”.

In London, Mr Blair, referring to the weapons used to justify the US-led invasion, said during an exchange with senior MPs: “I have to accept that we haven’t found them, that we may not find them.

“We don’t know what has happened to them,” he added.