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Politics : Stockman Scott's Political Debate Porch -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: lurqer who wrote (32892)	12/17/2003 8:27:03 AM
From: lurqer	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 89467

Iraqi snapshot. Perhaps the key quote is "There is going to be a show of force from now on." Bomb kills 17 in Iraq A fuel truck bomb has killed 17 people in a huge fireball in Baghdad as violence gripped Iraq in the wake of Saddam Hussein's capture. U.S. President George W. Bush said the ousted Iraqi president, held by U.S. forces at an undisclosed location, deserved to die. The U.S. military said it had stepped up an offensive to isolate and eliminate former members of Saddam's regime and other cells fighting the U.S.-led coalition. The bomb in Baghdad's Bayya'a district exploded in a huge ball of fire shortly after dawn on Wednesday that tore through a packed minibus and several civilian cars, police said. It was not immediately clear whether the bomb had been in the truck itself, or whether it had gone off at the roadside causing the truck carrying fuel to explode. One police officer said the truck appeared to be aiming for a nearby police station but collided with the minibus, triggering the blast. At least 17 people, mostly passengers, were killed and around 16 were badly burnt in the inferno. "I was at an intersection and I saw a truck explode in front of me. After that I fainted," 16-year-old Mutaab Aybee told Reuters from a Baghdad hospital. Roadside bombs are a favourite weapon of guerrillas who use them to attack U.S. military patrols. Civilians are often caught up in such attacks. The latest bomb and continued pro-Saddam protests in a number of cities in the "Sunni triangle" are further blows to any hopes that the ousted president's capture on Saturday would ease guerrilla attacks. Protesters burned the offices of two anti-Saddam political parties in Mosul on Wednesday. "What can we do. It's our future. Our future is death," said 18-year Musalam Abdurida, another victim of Wednesday's bomb lying in a bloody hospital ward. DEATH PENALTY FOR SADDAM? U.S. forces said they arrested eight people in the town of Samarra, 100 km (62 miles) north of Baghdad, and rounded up three suspected insurgents in Baquba, 65 km north of the capital, including an officer in the Fedayeen militia who was organising attacks in the area. The Samarra arrests were a continuation of Operation Ivy Blizzard, in which U.S. forces said they captured 73 suspected insurgents including the leader of a guerrilla cell, in a house raid on Tuesday. "This is our first crack on the city and we will continue and we are going to control Samarra, but at some point we will hand it over to the Iraqi police," Colonel Nate Sassaman, chief of the 1st battalion, 8th infantry Regiment told reporters. "There is going to be a show of force from now on." In Washington, Bush said in an ABC News interview on Tuesday that Saddam deserved the "ultimate penalty" for his iron-fisted rule of Iraq and that Iraqis should conduct the trial. "Let's just see what penalty he gets, but I think he ought to receive the ultimate penalty (death)...for what he has done to his people," Bush said. Home Secretary David Blunkett said he thought Iraqis should decide Saddam's fate. "I don't believe in the death penalty... but I respect the views of others," he told BBC Radio. "I believe it would be right for the Iraqi people to make the decision." Iranian President Mohammad Khatami, whose country fought a vicious eight-year war with Saddam's Iraq, said he hoped Saddam's trial would mete out the punishment he deserved. "If there is to be an execution, the most just would be that of Saddam, yet I don't wish that a human being is killed..." he said. "I hope he will be fairly tried and be sentenced to what he deserves." U.S. officials have said any trial is still some way off. U.S. Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) had taken over the interrogation of Saddam, whose whereabouts are being kept secret. He would not say whether the ousted Iraqi leader was cooperating. Washington got a boost for its efforts to stabilise the country and its economy when Germany and France joined the United States in saying on Tuesday they were prepared to offer Baghdad substantial debt relief. The size of the reduction in Iraq's $120 billion (69 billion pounds) debt will be agreed later. The offer followed visits by U.S. special envoy James Baker to the two main European opponents of the war that toppled Saddam. Baker is in Italy on Wednesday to meet Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi and is expected to travel to Russia. reuters.co.uk lurqer