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US troops hurt in Iraq hit-and-run attacks
Gulf News, Baghdad
|Reuters | 29-05-2003
British Prime Minister Tony Blair was set
yesterday to become the first western leader to visit Iraq since the end
of the war, to thank British troops for their role in toppling Iraqi
leader Saddam Hussain.
"I want to see the British troops to thank them for their magnificent
performance during the Gulf conflict," Blair told reporters
travelling with him to Kuwait.
"It is most important to thank the troops on behalf of the country,
because this was, more than any other conflict in recent times, a very,
very tough conflict," said the prime minister, who is expected to be
in Iraq today.
Blair's announcement came on a third successive day of guerrilla-style
attacks targeting U.S. troops in the country in a further sign of
resistance by supporters of the ousted Iraqi leader and his Baath party.
Nine soldiers were injured in clashes in central and northern Iraq, U.S.
army captain David Connolly said, and rocket-propelled grenades were fired
at an Iraqi police station, but without causing any injuries.
Meanwhile, Al Jazeera satellite channel reported that four American
soldiers were killed in an attack on their helicopter in Al Anbar Province
in Iraq. It said that an Iraqi guerrilla group at Bu Assaf district downed
the helicopter.
The station said that the U.S. army removed the helicopter before
journalists could reach the spot. Tayssair Alloni, Al Jazeera
correspondent, spoke to Iraqis in the province who confirmed the attack
and showed him the spot.
However, the correspondent later said he was unable to confirm the
incident.
The Pentagon said it had no information on any missing or crashed U.S.
helicopter in Iraq.
Residents of the Iraqi town of Fallujah scoffed at the idea their dusty
streets are a hotbed of Saddam loyalists, and say bloody attacks on U.S.
troops are a symptom of growing fury at their heavy-handed occupation.
U.S. troops, meanwhile, detained a Palestinian diplomat in Baghdad
yesterday. Soldiers handcuffed charge d'affaires Najah Abdul Rahman and
four other men outside what ousted Iraqi Saddam's government recognised as
the Palestine embassy. The troops said the men had illegal weapons,
but it was not clear what had prompted them to disarm a Palestinian
diplomat in a city awash with arms seven weeks after Saddam's overthrow.
A senior U.S. defence official disclosed that Washington had asked nearly
50 countries to send police officers to help curb chaos and violence in
Iraq, although only seven had so far responded.
Moves towards Iraqi self-government took a step forward on a local level,
with the election of a popular Kurdish lawyer as the new mayor of the
northern oil-rich city of Kirkuk. Abdul Rahman Mustapha, 59, won the
support of 20 out of 30 councillors.
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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). |