- KHALDIYAH, Iraq (AP) -- Twin
roadside bombings west of Baghdad killed three American soldiers Tuesday,
and the U.N. chief said he was ready to send a team to Iraq to assess prospects
for early elections - if the U.S.-led coalition can guarantee security.
-
- Two Iraqi civilians also were killed in the ambush -
including one who was shot in the stomach as he stood in his office nearby,
hospital staff said.
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- In addition to the three American dead, one U.S. soldier
was injured, the U.S. military said.
-
- Iraqi witnesses said a roadside bomb exploded next to
a Humvee in the convoy in the tense region west of the capital. As reinforcements
arrived, another bomb went off, hitting a second military vehicle, they
said.
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- Khaldiyah and Fallujah are part of the "Sunni Triangle,"
the area in central Iraq where most of the anti-U.S. attacks by die-hard
Saddam Hussein loyalists have occurred.
-
- "I saw more than three soldiers in the Humvee on
fire," said Emad Abd Salah, 30, who suffered injuries to his hands.
He said he saw the soldier riding atop the Humvee fall to the ground.
-
- "The vehicle was lifted from the ground from the
explosion," he said at the Ramadi Hospital. U.S. troops fired randomly
after the explosion, he said.
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- Abdul Hamid Marzouq, a nurse at the Ramadi Hospital where
the casualties were brought, said two Iraqis were killed - Hadi Abd Shehab,
the director of agriculture of Khaldiyah, and Hamd Nayef, a taxi driver.
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- Nayef, who was driving by at the time of the explosion,
was injured in the head and face, Marzouq said, adding that three people
were injured.
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- Marzouq said Shehab died of a gunshot wound to the stomach.
Witnesses said he was shot while standing in his office close the blast
scene, and died on way to the hospital. It was not clear who shot him.
-
- Nameer Mohammed, who said he was standing about 500 yards
away when the attack occurred, claimed American soldiers fired randomly
after the blasts. This could not be independently confirmed.
-
- Mohammed described seeing a U.S. military vehicle on
fire after the first blast.
-
- As more American forces came to the scene, another bomb
went off, setting fire to a second vehicle, he said.
-
- Mohammed said he carried several injured people to the
hospital.
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- The last serious attack in Khaldiyah took place Saturday
when a car bomb killed three U.S. soldiers at a checkpoint and injured
six in addition to several Iraqi civilians. Two other American soldiers
were killed in Fallujah the same day.
-
- In Paris, Secretary-General Kofi Annan said the United
Nations would send a team to Iraq to determine whether elections should
be held once the U.S.-led coalition authority can guarantee the mission's
safety.
-
- Annan said he believes the world body can play "a
constructive role" in helping to break an impasse over selecting an
interim Iraqi government.
-
- The election issue is at the heart of the dispute between
the coalition administration and Iraq's majority Shiites who are opposed
to a U.S. plan for transfer of power that calls for setting up a provisional
government through a caucus system. Full elections are not envisaged until
2005.
-
- An influential Shiite cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Husseini
al-Sistani, says only direct, early elections will satisfy the aspirations
of the Shiites, who suffered for decades under Saddam's Sunni-dominated
regime.
-
- "The mission will ascertain the views of a broad
spectrum of Iraqi society in the search for alternatives that might be
developed to move forward to the formation of a provisional government,"
Annan said.
-
- Late Monday, gunmen fired at a hotel housing Polish troops
in the holy city of Karbala, but were repulsed by Iraqi police, said police
spokesman Rahman Mashawi. He said the gunbattle left one policeman dead.
Police arrested two of the gunmen and there were no Polish casualties.
-
- Poland heads a multinational force in south-central Iraq
to which it has contributed 2,400 troops based in Karbala, 75 miles south
of Baghdad. So far, two Polish soldiers have been killed in Iraq.
-
- On Monday night, a rocket landed in an empty parking
lot inside the "green zone," the sprawling headquarters of the
U.S.-led coalition in Baghdad, a central command spokesman said on condition
of anonymity. There were no injuries or casualties.
-
- The attack occurred a day after guerrillas killed seven
policemen in two separate hit-and-run attacks on checkpoints in Ramadi
west of Baghdad, which is part of the Sunni Triangle, the stronghold of
Saddam loyalists.
-
- The insurgents have been blamed for most of the violence
since President Bush declared an end to major hostilities on May 1. But
frequent suicide bombings have also raised suspicion about involvement
of foreign fighters including al-Qaida operatives.
-
- On Monday, Iraq's interim Interior Minister Nouri Badran
blamed Osama bin Laden's terror network for many of the suicide car bombings
in the country in recent weeks.
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- "There is a presence of al-Qaida in this country.
We've announced that directly and indirectly," Badran told a news
conference. "A lot of the suicide attacks have the fingerprints of
the crimes committed by al-Qaida."
-
- Badran provided no evidence to back his claim. There
was no immediate comment from U.S. military commanders who have been wary
of drawing a clear connection between al-Qaida and the insurgency even
though a handful of non-Iraqi Arab and foreign fighters have been detained
or killed.
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- A U.S. official in Washington said Saturday that Kurdish
forces had captured a senior al-Qaida figure, Hassan Ghul, as he tried
to enter northern Iraq. Ghul was turned over to the United States for interrogation,
the official said on condition of anonymity.
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- Copyright © 2004 The Associated Press. All rights
reserved. The information contained in the AP News report may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the prior written authority
of The Associated Press.
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