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Three soldiers killed { October 2 2003 } Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
http://reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=3545556http://reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=3545556
U.S. Seeks Agreement on Iraq; Three Soldiers Killed
Thu October 2, 2003 05:51 AM ET
By Andrew Marshall
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Guerrillas killed three American soldiers in a wave of attacks in Iraq, the U.S. Army said on Thursday, adding urgency to efforts by Washington to garner international help in stabilizing the volatile nation.
A military spokesman said a soldier from the 4th Infantry Division was killed Wednesday evening in a rocket-propelled grenade attack on a convoy driving through the hostile town of Samarra, in the heart of the restive "Sunni triangle" region.
A female soldier from the same division was killed earlier Wednesday and three soldiers were wounded when guerrillas detonated a remote-control bomb as a convoy drove past in deposed dictator Saddam Hussein's home town of Tikrit.
In Baghdad, an attacker with a small-caliber handgun ambushed soldiers after dark Wednesday in the upscale Mansur neighborhood, killing one and wounding another, the Army said.
The attacks brought to at least 84 the number of U.S. soldiers killed in action since Washington declared major combat over on May 1, according to Pentagon figures.
The United States is seeking a new resolution giving the United Nations a broader mandate in Iraq, and hopes this will persuade reluctant allies to provide more troops and cash to share the burden of policing and rebuilding Iraq.
DIPLOMATIC WRANGLES
But U.S. diplomatic efforts have been beset by problems.
President Bush and his closest European ally, British Prime Minister Tony Blair, face mounting political pressure over the failure to find any chemical, biological or nuclear weapons in Iraq.
David Kay, the CIA official directing the weapons search in Iraq, was scheduled to brief the House and Senate intelligence committees Thursday in closed meetings. Officials have indicated Kay will say no conclusive evidence has been found that Saddam had an arsenal of weapons of mass destruction.
The New York Times said the Bush administration was seeking $600 million to continue the hunt for weapons in Iraq -- on top of at least $300 million already spent on the search.
The U.S. administration also faces accusations that it blew the cover of a CIA agent to discredit her husband, a critic of prewar intelligence on Iraq. Blair faces questions over the apparent suicide of a weapons expert caught up in a row between the government and the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC).
Efforts in New York to agree a wider role for the United Nations are in stark contrast to events on the ground in Baghdad, where many international U.N. staff have been pulled out following two suicide bomb attacks on their headquarters.
The United Nations pulled more staff out of Iraq on Wednesday and said it was not willing to send them back until their safety could be assured. This brought the U.N. foreign presence down to about 30 from more than 600 before a deadly bombing on August 19 which killed 22 people.
ROADMAP FOR SELF-RULE
In Washington, officials said Secretary of State Colin Powell had briefed members of the U.N. Security Council by phone on changes made to a draft resolution on Iraq's future.
The new draft, obtained by Reuters Wednesday, gives the United Nations a list of duties, similar to earlier versions. But it falls short of demands by France, Russia, Germany and others that the world body play a pivotal, independent role in overseeing the country's transition.
Diplomats expect considerable suggestions for changes before the measure is adopted by the 15-member Security Council. At least, they say, the draft should set a date for when a plan leading to Iraqi sovereignty could be submitted.
A key prerequisite for self-government is the writing of a new constitution, which would pave the way for elections. Powell said last week he wanted to see a constitution written in six months, though officials in the U.S.-led administration in Iraq stressed that this was not an official deadline.
Iraq's Governing Council is due to decide how to draw up a constitution. The body, comprised of Iraqis handpicked by the U.S.-led administration, has yet to win the trust of many Iraqis and one of its 25 members was assassinated last month. Washington hopes a new U.N. resolution can be adopted before a crucial donors conference in Madrid on October 23-24.
U.N. sources said some $35 billion would be needed to rebuild Iraq over the next four years in contributions from governments and Iraq's own resources. The figure is based on an assessment by the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund and the United Nations in anticipation of the Madrid meeting.
But aid officials say pledges at the conference may fall well short of what is needed, given the diplomatic arguments over Iraq and the treacherous security situation there.
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