US Comes Under Attack Twenty Times in 24 Hours 02.10.2003 [14:29]
Tue Sep 30, 2:19 PM ET
Blair defends Iraq war, US troops come under renewed attack
BOURNEMOUTH, England (AFP) - British Prime Minister Tony Blair defended his decision to join the US-led war in Iraq and said their task now was to "finish the peace", as the country slides into increasingly fierce attacks on American occupation forces.
Another US soldier died and one went missing after their vehicle overturned into a canal near a main Baghdad prison amid a mortar attack Monday, and the military made sweeping arrests north of the capital, detaining more than 50 Iraqis.
Facing growing discontent with his government for the failure to find weapons of mass destruction in Iraq and the suicide in July of a weapons expert, Blair gave an impassioned speech at a Labour party conference in southern England.
"I know many people are disappointed, hurt, angry. I know many profoundly believe the action we took was wrong ... (but) we who started the war must finish the peace," he said.
"Whatever the disagreement, Iraq is a better country without Saddam."
On the ground, a military policeman died and an 82nd Airborne Division trooper was missing when their vehicle overturned into a canal after the convoy it was travelling in came under mortar fire, the military said in a statement.
In Baquba, 50 kilometres (35 miles) northeast of Baghdad, two farmers were lightly injured when an explosion jolted the town Tuesday, witnesses said.
It was not clear what caused the blast, which came just five days after a mortar attack on a market place in Baquba killed eight Iraqis and wounded 18.
An Iraqi policeman said US troops arrested 16 Iraqis in a raid on a refugee camp near Baquba, but the army had no immediate comment on the raid on the former military base, which has become home to Iraqi families since the war.
A military spokesman said US forces had come under attack 20 times in the past 24 hours and that they had detained 73 Iraqis during that time.
The incidents follow a protracted battle Monday when US troops had to resort to tanks, helicopters and fighter jets after a convoy came under rocket-propelled grenade and bomb attack near the central city of Khaldiyah.
Witnesses in Khaldiyah said US soldiers took heavy casualties, and AFP correspondents saw two Black Hawk helicopters land there, one of which left with four wounded. Helicopters and a US warplane roared overhead.
The attacks were the latest in the Sunni Muslim region west of Baghdad where anti-US sentiment runs high and attacks on American forces have been frequent since Saddam Hussein was removed from power in April.
At least 85 US soldiers have been killed in action since an end to major combat operations was declared on May 1, while 119 members of the US military have died in non-combat related incidents since the start of the war in March.
Amid the continued unrest, the interim Iraqi government urged UN agencies and other aid groups to return in full force to his country, saying that their absence would lead to more suffering.
UN staff began to withdraw from Baghdad in large numbers last week following two bomb attacks on the organisation's headquarters, one of which killed its special envoy and 21 others.
The Iraqi minister for migration and exiled persons, Mohammed Khudir, said it was "absolutely essential" that a very clear signal should be sent to the international community to find a solution to the humanitarian crisis in Iraq.
"The staff of the United Nations and particularly the staff of the UNHCR, if they do not return to the country, this will have very deleterious consequences on a humanitarian level," Khudir told a meeting of the executive committee of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in Geneva.
On the diplomatic front, the US State Department said Washington expects to submit a new draft UN Security Council resolution on Iraq in the next few days and hopes the body will approve it in time for a donors conference next month.
Spokesman Richard Boucher said different US agencies were still working on the text of the resolution, seeking to meet some of the concerns about Iraq's return to self-rule raised by other nations.
"I can't give you a specific timetable, whether it's this week or next week," Boucher said. "But we are looking to do that in the next few days."
From Beijing, President Hu Jintao told French President Jacques Chirac via telephone that China will support a new resolution that was "acceptable to all parties concerned," state media said.
France, a veto-wielding permanent member of the Security Council, said it was waiting to see the US draft resolution before passing judgment.
Paris wants a "resolution that will be useful for Iraq, that allows us to move forward in dealing with this crisis," a French foreign ministry spokesman said.
"We will make up our minds on the basis of these criteria: the restoration of Iraqi sovereignty and the effectiveness" of the resolution, he said.
France vehemently opposed the invasion of Iraq, leading the anti-war charge in the United Nations and forcing Washington and London to go it alone in their bid to oust Saddam.
In Brussels on Monday, the European Union called for a handover to Iraqi sovereignty within a "realistic schedule," but divisions between Britain and France remained in plain view.
The Iraqi National Congress (INC), part of the Governing Council, said that drafting a new constitution for Iraq could take up to a year.
"I don't think six months will be sufficient. It will probably take a year," said a spokesman, knocking down the six-month target suggested by US Secretary of State Colin Powell.
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/afp/20030930/wl_afp/iraq_worldwrap&cid=1512&ncid=1480 Agence France-Presse Via Yahoo! News
