Briefly

Washington

Transportation official resigns

John Magaw was forced out Thursday as head of the Transportation Security Administration, created in response to the Sept. 11 attacks.

No official reason was given for his departure, but an administration official with knowledge of the situation said Transportation Secretary Norman Y. Mineta asked him to leave.

Magaw submitted a letter of resignation to the White House citing poor health as the reason for his decision. In April, Magaw underwent angioplasty to clear a clogged artery.

Magaw, a former Secret Service agent who protected President Bush’s father, is considered close to the president and family.

Some lawmakers and airport officials felt Magaw didn’t respond to their concerns and wasn’t willing to work with them, prompting Mineta to make the move, the official said.

Washington

House Republicans depart from Bush’s plans for INS

Top House Republicans endorsed much of President Bush’s government reorganization plan Thursday, but they rejected his proposal to move the troubled federal immigration service intact to a new domestic security agency.

Under legislation drafted by House Majority Leader Dick Armey, R-Tex., the responsibilities of the Immigration and Naturalization Service, now part of the Justice Department, would be divided. Border security functions would move to a new Department of Homeland Security, while immigration processing would remain at Justice.

Armey’s proposal for the INS rejects the advice of Atty. Gen. John Ashcroft and instead follows the recommendation of the House Judiciary Committee. The Bush administration had sought to move the entire INS to the new Cabinet department, arguing that border enforcement and immigration services were closely intertwined.

Afghanistan

U.S troops bomb raiders; warlord’s brother killed

A U.S. jet dropped a bomb as a show of force Thursday after Afghan troops swooped into an area of eastern Afghanistan in a raid that left a warlord’s brother dead, U.S. and Afghan officials said.

Haji Zaher, a military commander in the Nangarhar province and son of the country’s recently assassinated vice president, said “renegade Taliban members” planned to “sabotage” two villages in southern Nangarhar but Afghan troops intervened.

A U.S. military spokeswoman, Capt. Christa D’Andrea, said U.S. Special Forces south of Jalalabad observed the firefight between two Afghan groups but did not get involved.

As “a show of force,” however, an A-10 bomber dropped a 500-pound bomb in an uninhabited area near the fighting.

One Afghan died and six were wounded in the clash but none of the casualties came as a result of the U.S. bomb, D’Andrea said.

Zaher blamed Maulvi Noor Mohammed, a local warlord, for starting the clash, and said “in this battle, his brother was killed.”