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Wave of attacks claim US casualties in Iraq
Jordan Times, 5/27/03
BAGHDAD (R) — One US soldier was killed and four were wounded in Iraqi ambushes on Monday and, in another incident, US forces seized a brother-in-law of Saddam Hussein, the US military said.
It was a rare US fatality in action since President George W. Bush declared the end of major combat on May 1 — three weeks after a US-led invasion toppled Saddam.
Gunmen fired machineguns and rocket-propelled grenades at a convoy of the 3rd Armoured Cavalry Regiment near Haditha, 180km northwest of Baghdad, a US statement said.
Hours later, an explosion ripped through a US military convoy on the outskirts of Baghdad, wounding three soldiers and destroying their Humvee military car.
“They deserved it and they deserve more. They are occupiers, not liberators,” said Ali Abbas, a resident of the Amiriyah area in western Baghdad.
The US military reported two other attacks on Monday.
On Sunday, a US soldier was killed and another injured in an explosion at a facility containing Iraqi ammunition south of Baghdad.
In other action on Sunday, US forces detained a brother- in-law of Saddam, identified as Mulhana Hamood Abdul Jabar.
He was detained in Tikrit, Saddam's home town and former powerbase, and had $300,000, eight million dinars ($6,000), three AK-47 assault rifles and a rocket-propelled grenade. US efforts to pacify Iraq after the ousting of Saddam have moved slowly and a top cleric, told to disarm his private army, kept Americans guessing on Monday on whether he would comply.
In a Reuters interview, Ayatollah Mohammad Baqer Al Hakim said his militia, which is meant to hand over weapons by June 14, was unarmed but that Iraqis had a right to defend themselves because the Americans were failing to keep the peace.
US forces are struggling to restore order six weeks after ousting Saddam and have said all Iraqis must hand in their arms by next month's deadline or be punished.
“It is a wrong decision,” Hakim said.
US troops seized a truck laden with suspected gold bars worth up to $100 million at a checkpoint in northern Iraq on Sunday, the second such find in four days, they said on Monday. They also retrieved $250 million from Iraqi central bank vaults that were submerged in water.
As well as trying to disarm the lawless country, US and international organisations have been trying to restore basic services to the civilian population.
In Geneva, the World Health Organisation (WHO) said it hoped to resume distributing medical supplies inside Iraq by the end of this week as part of its bid to jump-start the health system.
The US and Britain launched their war on Iraq mainly to rid the country of alleged weapons of mass destruction but, so far, no chemical, biological or nuclear weapons have been found. UN arms inspectors, who left Iraq before the war began, have been keen to return to resume the search for such weapons but widespread looting has raised other concerns as well.
In Vienna, the UN nuclear watchdog agency said on Monday its inspectors could return to Iraq this week to investigate reports of looting at the country's main nuclear site.
The International Atomic Energy Agency said it would check whether uranium had been spilled or taken from storage buildings near the Tuwaitha nuclear research centre, where it has been sealed under IAEA safeguards since after the 1991 Gulf War.
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| Earth, a planet hungry for peace |
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| The Israeli apartheid (security) wall around Palestinian population centers (Ran Cohen, pmc, 5/24/03). |
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| The Israeli apartheid (security) wall around Palestinian population centers in the West Bank (Ran Cohen, pmc, 5/24/03). |