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Politics : PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Hope Praytochange who wrote (446616)	8/23/2003 3:48:10 PM
From: tejek	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 769667

Three British Soldiers Killed in Basra BAGHDAD, Iraq (Aug. 23) - The death toll among coalition forces rose Saturday when three British soldiers were killed in a guerrilla attack in southern Iraq. Also, U.S. troops killed two Iraqi Turkomen who opened fire when soldiers arrived to put down a bloody ethnic clash in the north. Despite continuing violence, sabotage and terror attacks - including this week's suicide bombing of U.N. headquarters - the American administrator for Iraq said the U.S.-led coalition would not slow efforts to rebuild the country, shattered by decades of war and 13 years of U.N. sanctions. ``We have never hidden the fact that we have security problems in Iraq,'' L. Paul Bremer told a news conference. Also in Baghdad, U.N. workers who had not left the country after Tuesday's attack resumed work in a cluster of tents set up at the battered Canal Hotel compound, former home of U.N. offices. Investigators and soldiers searched piles of debris there for human remains and clues in the truck bombing that killed at least 23 people, including top U.N. envoy Sergio Vieira de Mello, whose memorial was held Saturday in his native Brazil. One of the envoy's dying wishes was for the United Nations to remain in Iraq and continue work to establish democracy, U.N Secretary-General Kofi Annan told mourners. ``Let us respect that,'' Annan said. ``Let Sergio, who has given his life in that cause, find a fitting memorial in a free and sovereign Iraq.'' Back at work, U.N. staff embraced each other and computers and office equipment were moved into portable, air-conditioned offices, which were flown in from Italy and set up beside the tents. ``We are moving forward,'' Ramiro Lopes da Silva said on his first day on the job as acting head of the U.N.'s Iraq mission. The Portuguese diplomat's right hand, forehead and ear were bandaged from the blast. Bremer said it was too early to speculate on who carried out the bombing. The top U.S. civilian in occupied Iraq also addressed reports that he and the Governing Council he established as an interim government were increasingly at odds. Bremer said there was concern inside the council over the coalition's inability to fully restore electricity. ``They share our frustration with not being able to restore essential services to prewar levels,'' Bremer said, noting the coalition set an end-of-September goal for getting the lights back on permanently. Bremer also said he had encouraged the 25-member council to reach out to Iraqis to join in the reconstruction and security of their country. The British military said a two-vehicle convoy was attacked by a gunmen in a pickup truck as the soldiers traveled through the center of Basra on a routine patrol at 8:30 a.m. As of Saturday, the British government has reported 48 deaths since the war began. The American military says 273 U.S. soldiers have died since the beginning of military operations. Denmark's military has reported one death. On or since May 1, when President Bush declared that major combat operations in Iraq had ended, 135 U.S. soldiers have died in Iraq, according to the latest military figures. Counting only combat deaths, 65 Americans and 11 Britons have died since the Bush declaration. In Tuz Kharmato, 110 miles north of Baghdad, U.S. soldiers killed two Turkomen tribesmen and wounded two others after the Americans were fired on when they arrived Friday to quell ethnic fighting, said Maj. Josslyn Aberle, 4th Infantry Division spokeswoman. She said it was the first outbreak of ethnic conflict in the tense region since May. Capt. David L. Swenson of the 173 Airborne Brigade in Tuz Kharmato told The Associated Press that several hundred Turkomen protesters had taken to the streets. The fighting reportedly broke out after Kurds destroyed a newly reopened Turkomen Islamic shrine. Swenson said three Turks and five Kurds were killed and 13 people wounded in the melee. According to both CNN-Turk television and private NTV television, violence continued Saturday in nearby Kirkuk. Hundreds of Turkomen, carrying blue Turkomen flags, marched on the governor's office. Turkey's Anatolia news agency reported two Turkomen were shot and killed and 11 wounded by Patriotic Union of Kurdistan forces. The Kirkuk Mayor Abdul Rahman Mustafa, a Kurd, told an AP reporter that two people were killed and several were wounded. He did not identify the victims' by ethnicity. As the United Nations resumed work Saturday, staff members complained that the U.S.-led coalition had done little to provide security in the area before the bombing. ``It was the coalition's fault, because it was their job to watch the parking area where the bombing happened, ... but it seems they were incapable of that,'' said security officer Mohammed Abdul Aziz. The U.S.-led coalition claims responsibility for security in the country as a whole but says it has no obligation to guard specific sites such as the U.N. headquarters and diplomatic missions. U.S. troops are, however, guarding locations such as Iraqi banks and the oil ministry. But Maj. Mark Johnston said soldiers from the 82nd Airborne Division had temporarily taken control of security at the bombed hotel, which became U.N. headquarters in Baghdad after the 1991 Gulf War. ``It's still a dangerous site. We are still in the recovery stage,'' he said. Eighty-six seriously wounded U.N. workers were airlifted out of Iraq for medical care. Two U.N. employees were still unaccounted for and an unknown number of people - visitors to the building - remained buried in the rubble. The United Nations' official death toll stood at 20, but checks of area hospitals by The Associated Press showed at least 23 died in the blast. 08/23/03 14:06 EDT Copyright 2003 The Associated Press.