BAGHDAD, 22 September 2003 — Three US soldiers were reported killed yesterday and 13 wounded in separate mortar and bomb attacks following an attempt to assassinate one of three women on Iraq’s Governing Council, further highlighting the security turmoil under US occupation.
As Britain sought to galvanize European support on how to rebuild Iraq, a senior Iraqi council delegation left for New York to attend a key UN General Assembly meeting which starts tomorrow.
Iraq’s interim finance minister, meanwhile, announced a sweeping package of economic reforms to liberalize his country and said that he hoped to win pledges of around $70 billion in aid at a donor conference next month.
The killing of the three soldiers was a new sign that the security situation in the war-ravaged country remains dire.
One of them died in Ramadi, 110 kilometers west of Baghdad, when a military vehicle was hit with an “improvised explosive device,” an army statement said.
Earlier, a US military spokesman said a mortar attack on Abu Gharib prison, some 20 kilometers west of Baghdad, had killed two soldiers and wounded 13 others.
Eighty-two US soldiers have now died in attacks in Iraq since May 1, when US President George W. Bush said major combat operations after the removal of President Saddam Hussein were over.
The US military headquarters in the northern city of Mosul also came under fire yesterday when it was targeted by mortars, according to witnesses, who were unable to specify if there were any casualties.
The latest incidents came after Iraqi Governing Council member Akila Al-Hashimi was shot several times on Saturday near her western Baghdad home.
The condition of the former member of Saddam’s ousted Baath Party is still critical but has been improving after she was stabilized by another operation overnight, officials said.
At least one suspect was arrested for the attack — the first on the US-installed administration since Saddam’s regime fell in April.
The shooting followed a surge in anti-US attacks since the release of a new message, purportedly by Saddam, issuing a call to arms against the occupiers.
Iran’s Foreign Ministry yesterday condemned the attack, calling it a “painful and regrettable incident” but one that “proves yet again that the US is incapable of assuring security in Iraq.”
Council members on a visit to the United States however said that foreign extremists could have been behind the assassination attempt.
Songkul Capuk, another female council member, said she was certain Hashimi was the target of foreign killers but insisted the attack would not halt the work of the US-named interim authority.
— Additional input from agencies
