The dead soldier was from the 1st Armored Division, spokesman Cpl. Todd
Pruden said. It brought to 152 the number of U.S. troops killed in action
since the March 20 start of war — five more than during the 1991 Gulf War
(news
- web
sites).
Two American soldiers and an Iraqi employee of a U.N.-affiliated relief
agency were killed Sunday. The soldiers died in an ambush by attackers
using rocket-propelled grenades and small arms near Tal Afar, a town west
of the northern city of Mosul.
Meanwhile, the new chief of American and allied forces in Iraq (news
- web
sites), Gen. John Abizaid, visited the country for the first time
since taking over the command from Gen. Tommy Franks.
Abizaid announced plans Monday to create a nearly 7,000-strong force of
Iraqis to work with U.S. soldiers. It would consist of eight battalions of
armed Iraqi militiamen, each with about 850 men.
They will be trained by conventional U.S. forces — a job usually
handled by American special operations forces — and are expected to be
ready to begin operating within 45 days, he said.
The area of Sunday's convoy attack near Tal Afar, 240 miles northwest
of Baghdad, had been relatively peaceful in recent weeks, and the ambush
was a worrying development for American forces trying to bring stability
to Iraq.
Most recent violence has occurred in an area north and west of Baghdad
called the Sunni triangle, where some support for Saddam remains. Tal Afar
lies outside that region.
Paul Bremer, the top U.S. administrator in Iraq, speaking to NBC's
"Meet the Press," said there was no evidence of central control in the
assaults, calling them "highly professional but very small, sort of
squad-level attacks, five or six people at a time attacking us."
Still, he said, running Saddam to ground would ease the situation.
"The sooner we can either kill him or capture him, the better, because
the fact that his fate is unknown certainly gives his supporters the
chance to go around and try to rally support for him," said Bremer.
In other violence Sunday, a two-car convoy carrying members of the
International Organization for Migration was ambushed near the southern
city of Hilla when a pickup truck drove alongside one car and opened fire.
The car collided with a bus. Personnel in a World Health Organization
(news
- web
sites) convoy traveling behind the IOM vehicles treated three injured
and took the Iraqi driver to a hospital, where he died, said Omer Mekki,
the WHO deputy director in Iraq.
Both convoys were clearly marked as U.N. vehicles.
"We're a bit shaken. Everybody is a bit shocked," said Mekki. "But when
we were recruited and we came to Iraq, we knew there were risks. An
incident like this is not unexpected.
Ahmed Fawzi, spokesman for the special representative of U.N.
Secretary-General Kofi Annan (news
- web
sites), denounced the attack.
"The United Nations (news
- web
sites) is in Iraq to help the Iraqi people. We are not taking sides,"
he said in Baghdad.
The U.N. World Food Program was targeted in a July 6 grenade attack in
Mosul, and four days later, the agency issued a release citing concern
over the security situation in Iraq.
U.N. special representative Sergio Vieira de Mello left Iraq on Sunday.
He is to report to the U.N. Security council on Tuesday, when a delegation
from Iraq's U.S.-picked Governing Council was expected to visit the world
body.
The council, the first civilian group organized to eventually take
control of the country, had said the group planned to declare itself the
sovereign representative of Iraq at the United Nations.
To the south, in the holy city of Najaf, thousands of followers of
Shiite Muslim cleric Muqtada al-Sadr marched six miles from the Imam Ali
shrine to U.S. headquarters in the region, shouting slogans against the
Governing Council and the Americans.
"Long live al-Sadr. America and the Council are infidels," chanted the
crowds.
U.S. troops prevented the demonstrators from entering the headquarters
and soldiers barricaded the building with Humvees. The crowd, some
throwing rocks, dispersed after clerics read out an appeal by al-Sadr to
go home.
Earlier, al-Sadr said in a statement read inside the shrine that he
wanted coalition forces to leave Najaf. In his Friday sermon, the cleric
said he was recruiting a private army but fell short of calling for armed
struggle against the U.S. occupation.
On Monday, the coalition director for human rights said the
investigation of a newly uncovered mass grave outside Mosul in northern
Iraq had been delayed until more forensic teams arrive in the next few
weeks.
The 101st Airborne first discovered the site near the village of Al
Hatra last week and several remains were taken away by forensic experts.
The site was covered up until assessment teams could excavate it properly,
said Sandy Hodgkinson.
"We don't have all the facts yet," she said. But initial discussions
revealed that the grave held the remains of women and children all with
bullet holes in their heads, many shot from above.
"That generally means they were either kneeling or already in the pit
when they were shot," she said.
Residents said there were 4,000-5,000 bodies in that region, Hodgkinson
said.
