NEWS: Bring'em on says Bush: Two more U.S. Soldiers Killed in Iraq. 4 dead within 48 hours.
Sun July 20, 2003 06:57 AM ET
By Alastair Macdonald
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Two U.S. soldiers were killed near Mosul in northern Iraq early Sunday in a rare attack by anti-American guerrillas in an area so far from Baghdad.
It brought to four the number of American deaths within 48 hours. That can only add to pressure on the United States as it tries to persuade reluctant United Nations allies who opposed its invasion to share the burden of running Iraq.
A U.N. official said one of its convoys was also attacked, south of Baghdad, though there were no details available.
Two soldiers from the 101st Airborne Division were killed and a third wounded when ambushed by guerrillas firing guns and rocket-propelled grenades, a U.S. military spokesman said.
The incident near Tall Afur was in Sunni tribal lands but well beyond the "Sunni Triangle" around the north and west of the capital where the bulk of attacks have been concentrated.
The latest deaths brought to 37 the total number of U.S. troops killed by hostile action since President Bush declared an end to major combat operations on May 1.
As U.S. troops began recruiting Iraqis over the weekend to form a new army in place of Saddam Hussein's big but rapidly routed force, the U.S. regional commander said thousands of them could be armed to join the struggle against what Washington believes are small bands of pro-Saddam loyalists.
However, U.S. troop numbers would have to stay around 148,000 for at least the next three months, Gen. John Abizaid told The Washington Post -- news that may disappoint many of the troops already eager to go home. The force would be made lighter and more mobile to fight the guerrillas, he said.
Big powers like France and India have pressed for clear U.N. authority before committing any troops to help out. Controversy over the way the United States and Britain launched the war in the face of opposition from U.N. allies has not made the task of building a broader coalition any easier.
On a tour of Asia, British Prime Minister Tony Blair faced a crisis at home over the apparent suicide of a government scientist embroiled in a bitter dispute about accusations ministers exaggerated the threat from Saddam's alleged chemical, nuclear and biological weapons programs to justify the invasion.
Blair, who has bowed to pressure for a judicial inquiry, rejected suggestions he should recall Parliament. "(It) would generate more heat than light," he told Sky News television during a tour that has been overshadowed by the crisis.
PREPARATORY BOMBING
Blair has denied sending British troops to war to suit a timetable determined by U.S. military planners well in advance of U.N. decisions. A report that U.S. bombing of Iraq as far back as mid-2002 was specifically intended to weaken Saddam's defenses for an attack may prompt further questions in London.
The New York Times cited what it said was an internal briefing on the conflict by the U.S. air commander, Lt. Gen. Michael Moseley, saying a long-standing U.S. and British campaign to enforce no-fly zones in Iraq provided a cover for pre-invasion strikes on Iraqi command systems.
"It provided a set of opportunities and options," Moseley told the newspaper in an interview.
Criticism of the war's cost to ordinary Iraqis could also be fueled by the Times report that Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld approved every one of more than 50 air strikes for which commanders needed his specific clearance because they thought it likely that they would kill more than 30 civilians.
Resentment of the continued U.S. presence and the failure of U.S. forces to restore many basic services and security has been building among Iraqis.
More than 10,000 Shi'ite Muslims demonstrated angrily in the holy city of Najaf to protest at what they said was U.S. harassment of young, radical cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, who has condemned the governing council set up last week by the Americans as a first step to handing back power to Iraqis.
For the first time in recent history, Iraq's Shi'ite majority is fully represented among the leaders. To satisfy competing claims from Shi'ite and Sunni Arabs, Kurds and others, the council is likely to have a rotating presidency rather than a permanent head, one Iraqi official said.
U.S. forces occupying Iraq have suffered almost daily attacks since they ousted Saddam in April.
U.S. officials have blamed hard-liners loyal to Saddam, who is believed to be in hiding in Iraq and issuing taped messages urging supporters to attack the Americans.
(Additional reporting by Andrew Marshall, Huda Majeed Saleh and Cynthia Johnson in Baghdad and Miral Fahmy in Najaf) |
