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US troops must stay until iraqis can defeat insurgency { January 26 2005 } Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=10&categ_id=2&article_id=12100http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=10&categ_id=2&article_id=12100
'U.S. troops to stay until Iraq can handle rebels alone'
Spate of slayings in baghdad leave at least 9 Iraqis dead
Compiled by Daily Star staff
Wednesday, January 26, 2005
Prime Minister Iyad Allawi warned Tuesday it would be reckless to set a timeline for a final U.S.-troop pullout and said they would leave only once Iraqi forces are ready to defeat the insurgency on their own.
A spate of slayings and fierce clashes between insurgents and Iraqi police left at least nine Iraqis dead in Baghdad on Tuesday, including a senior Iraqi judge, highlighting the grave security risks in the run-up to this weekend's elections.
Also Tuesday, a video emerged showing an American abducted last November by gunmen in Baghdad pleading for his life and appealing to Arab rulers, especially Libya's Moammar Gadhafi, to intercede to spare his life.
Amid the violence, Allawi rejected setting a timeline for U.S. troops to leave until Iraqi forces can defeat the insurgency alone.
"Others spoke about the immediate withdrawal or setting a timetable for the withdrawal of multinational forces," Allawi told reporters. "I will not deal with the security matter under political pretexts and exaggerations that do not serve Iraq and its people."
"I will not set final dates" for the withdrawal of international forces "because setting final dates will be futile and dangerous," Allawi said.
The White House said that U.S. President George W. Bush had discussed Iraq's general elections with Allawi.
In a telephone conversation, Bush and Allawi focused on the vote and "talked about how the elections will be a historic moment for the Iraqi people," said White House spokesman Scott McClellan.
Although Sunnis have called for a boycott of the vote, the community's main political party said Tuesday it wanted to take part in drafting Iraq's Constitution and would consider posts in the next government.
"We are willing to do so. It is not a political matter," said Iyad Samarrai, spokesman for the Islamic Party.
Final results are not expected until 10 days after the ballot.
In the video, hostage Roy Hallums spoke slowly, rubbing his hands as he sat with a rifle pointed at his head. He said he had been arrested by a "resistance group" because "I have worked with American forces." Hallums, 56, was seized on Nov. 1 along with Filipino Robert Tarongoy during an armed assault on their compound in Baghdad's Mansour district. The two were working for a Saudi firm that does catering for the Iraqi Army. Both are missing. The video showed nothing of the Filipino.
"I am please asking for help because my life is in danger because it's been proved I worked for American forces," Hallums said. "I'm not asking for any help from Bush because I know of his selfishness and unconcern for those who have been pushed into this hellhole." Hallums said he was asking for help from "Arab rulers, especially Gadhafi because he's known for helping those who are suffering."
Just five days before Sunday's general elections, assailants gunned down a senior Baghdad judge and his brother-in-law and then danced in the street, shouting "this is what will happen to the traitor Shiites."
Judge Qaiss Hashem al-Shamari, 32, the secretary of Iraq's council of judges, who was driving with his brother-in-law, died in a hail of bullets.
The Al-Qaeda-linked Army of Ansar al-Sunna later claimed the killing.
Two civil servants at the Commerce Ministry and an Iraqi interpreter working for the U.S. military were also murdered, said the Interior Ministry.
A civilian was killed when he tried to overtake a U.S. convoy in Baghdad, while three policemen, a civilian and two assailants died in clashes southeast of the capital, said officials and medics.
Elsewhere, loyalists of Al-Qaeda frontman Abu Musab al-Zarqawi claimed to have attacked at least 10 polling centers overnight. Police said the attacks caused severe damage to stations across Saddam Hussein's home province of Salahuddin.
"Trained snipers will be ready to kill the apostates who go to the electoral lairs," said a statement signed by Zarqawi's group handed out in the town of Al-Dur, on Monday. - Agencies
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