Iraq violence escalates
2003-07-07 15:27
Baghdad - Two US soldiers and two Iraqis were killed on Monday as violence against the US-led coalition escalated, while Ankara said the US arrest of Turkish troops had sparked a "crisis" between the NATO allies.
The latest shootings - which raised to three the number of US soldiers who died within 24 hours - overshadowed the "historic" inaugural meeting of a Baghdad city council.
In London, a parliamentary probe criticised British Prime Minister Tony Blair for the way he presented the case for war against Iraq, but cleared the government of misleading Britain over the threat posed by Saddam Hussein.
The latest shootings followed a rocket attack on a US patrol in Ramadi, west of Baghdad, that left four US soldiers wounded, a US military spokesperson said.
Two Iraqis were killed, one in the shootout in Baghdad and one in Ramadi when US troops returned fire, Corporal Todd Pruden said, while a military statement said a soldier shot in the capital on Sunday had died of his wounds.
Residents in Ramadi, west of Baghdad, said one of the Iraqis killed was a man sitting in his car with his son, who was also shot and wounded. Residents said neither the man nor his son were involved in the attack on US troops.
The US military has repeatedly insisted the wave of killings would not affect its efforts to introduce democracy in Iraq or get its oil-dependent economy up and running in order to fund the huge bill for reconstruction.
Baghdad's city council held its inaugural meeting with top US civil administrator Paul Bremer hailing the event as perhaps the most important stride taken since Saddam's regime fell on April 9.
"Today is a very important day in Baghdad. Indeed it is perhaps the most important day since April 9," Bremer said as the meeting started.
"Today marks the resumption of the democratic system in Baghdad which has not been here for 30 years."
"At a time when malicious people in Baghdad are making a threat to the peace-loving citizens of this wonderful city, you have shown courage and honour, perseverance and self confidence," he said.
With the formation of the 37-member Baghdad council, all major cities in Iraq now have a representative council body, a coalition official said.
The formation of an Iraqi national government, however, is still at least one year off, according to coalition officials, with Iraqis making no secret of their frustration at the slow progress towards direct elections.
Representatives of major Iraqi political groups gathered in the Kurdish-held north on Monday to discuss plans by the US-led administration for an interim governing body.
The meeting will "focus on many important issues, headed by the formation of a transitory governing council and constitutional commission", Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) official Roj Nouri Shawis said in Salahaddin.
Meanwhile, relations between NATO allies Washington and Ankara took a turn for the worse as the head of Turkey's army said the US arrest of Turkish troops in northern Iraq had led to their most serious "crisis of confidence".
Chief of Staff Hilmi Ozkok's remarks came amid warnings in the Turkish media that the row over the arrest of Turkish troops was threatening to undermine Turkish-US ties, already strained over Ankara's refusal to back the Iraq war.
Eleven soldiers from Turkey's special forces were arrested on July 4 in Sulaymaniyah, in Kurdish-held northern Iraq, triggering a fresh wave of anger in Turkey towards Washington.
They were taken first to Kirkuk and then on to Baghdad before being released on Sunday after "vigorous representations" by top Turkish government officials to the US administration.
Turkish media reports have suggested the Turkish troops were arrested upon intelligence that they were planning to assassinate the Kurdish governor of Kirkuk.
In London, the House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee investigated two dossiers published by the government in the run-up to war, one of which included the controversial claim that Saddam's weapons of mass destruction were deployable within 45 minutes.
The report by the parliamentary committee said that in a government file published last September, the 45-minutes claim was given undue prominence and said the language used in the dossier was "more assertive than that traditionally used in intelligence documents".
But the inquiry, on which deputies from Blair's ruling Labour party have a majority, cleared any minister of misleading parliament.
The deputies also cleared Blair's key aide and powerful director of communications Alastair Campbell of exerting "improper influence" in the drafting the September file.
On the economic front, a senior official from Iraq's State Oil Marketing Organisation told AFP on Monday that Iraq is to put eight million barrels of crude up for tender to foreign oil companies by the end of July.