- BAGHDAD, Iraq -- The United
Nations agreed Tuesday to send a team to Iraq to help break the impasse
over electing a new government, as the deaths of six more American soldiers
in roadside bombings underscored concerns about security in the volatile
nation.
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- A bomb that exploded south of Baghdad killed three U.S.
soldiers and wounded three others Tuesday night, hours after another bombing
west of the capital killed three U.S. paratroopers and wounded one, the
military said. In addition, two employees of Cable News Network died in
a shooting south of Baghdad.
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- Elsewhere, U.S. troops killed three suspected members
of a guerrilla cell during raids Tuesday in the central Iraqi town of Beiji,
the Army said. And a suspected car bomb was discovered near coalition and
Iraqi Governing Council offices.
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- The United States has cited the ongoing violence in arguing
against demands by Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Husseini al-Sistani for the direct
election of a provisional legislature, which in turn will select a government
to take power by July 1.
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- Instead, Washington wants the lawmakers chosen in 18
regional caucuses. The Americans and the U.S.-appointed Iraqi Governing
Council asked U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan to send a team to determine
whether an early election would be feasible.
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- In Paris, Annan said he believes the United Nations can
play "a constructive role" in helping to break the impasse, and
would send such a team to Iraq "once I am satisfied that the (coalition)
will provide adequate security arrangements.
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- Annan said the mission will solicit the views of Iraqis
to find alternative ways to choose a provisional government. Shiite Muslim
leaders have said al-Sistani wants to hear alternatives to the caucus plan
if the U.N. team says it's not feasible to hold elections by the end of
June.
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- The U.N. chief also said sending in "blue helmet"
peacekeepers was not on the agenda, although he favored a multinational
force for Iraq sometime in the future.
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- "I believe what we can anticipate would be a multinational
force authorized by the Security Council, which could help and work with
Iraqis to stabilize Iraq and make it safer," Annan said. "This
would be a multinational force, with the support of the Security Council,
and not 'blue helmets' per se."
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- In Baghdad, coalition spokesman Dan Senor welcomed Annan's
decision and said the United States and its partners would protect the
U.N. team.
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- "We believe we have got sufficient capability to
maintain a reasonable security level here in the country and we look forward
to the U.N. coming down to make that (assessment) as well," said Brig.
Gen. Mark Kimmit, deputy chief of operations.
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- The decision to seek U.N. help marked a major policy
reversal by the Bush administration, which had sought to minimize the U.N.
role since U.S.-led forces invaded the country on March 20. The latest
U.S. blueprint for Iraq, announced Nov. 15, made no mention of the United
Nations.
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- Annan withdrew international staff from Iraq last year
after two attacks on the U.N. headquarters here, including the devastating
August vehicle bombing that killed 22 people, including the top envoy,
Sergio Vieria de Mello.
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- U.N. officials had said Annan insisted on a clear, significant
role in Iraq before he would consider returning international staff.
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- In New York, U.N. spokeswoman Marie Okabe said a U.N.
security team arrived in Baghdad on Tuesday to begin assessing safety ahead
of the elections team. She declined to say how long the security team was
expected to be in Iraq or how big the team was.
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- A separate two-member U.N. security team went to Baghdad
on Friday for talks with the coalition about the possible full return of
U.N. employees.
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- Iraqi leaders have urged the United Nations to return
to provide legitimacy to the new government and avoid the stigma of association
with the U.S.-led occupation. U.S. officials believe al-Sistani, who has
refused to meet with American administrator L. Paul Bremer, would agree
to deal with the United Nations.
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- The Bush administration has sought international help
as rising American casualties and the failure to find weapons of mass destruction
threaten to make the Iraq policy an issue in the presidential campaign.
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- The latest U.S. deaths occurred in a roadside bombing
about 8 p.m. Tuesday near Iskandariyah, some 25 miles south of Baghdad,
a military statement said.
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- Earlier in Khaldiyah, west of Baghdad, a roadside bomb
exploded near an 82nd Airborne Division convoy. Three paratroopers were
killed and one was critically wounded, Kimmit told a news briefing in Baghdad.
He said a rescue force that rushed to the scene came under small arms fire,
but suffered no casualties.
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- Iraqi hospital staff said two Iraqi civilians also were
killed in the ambush - including one shot in the stomach as he stood in
his office nearby, hospital staff said.
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- Another Iraqi, Nameer Mohammed, who said he was standing
about 500 yards from the site, claimed American soldiers fired randomly
after the blasts. This could not be independently confirmed.
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- Tuesday's killings brought to 519 the number of Americans
who have died since the Iraq war began. Most occurred after President Bush
declared an end to active combat May 1.
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- The last serious attack in Khaldiyah took place Saturday
when a car bomb killed three U.S. soldiers and wounded six. Two American
soldiers were killed in Fallujah the same day.
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- In Baghdad's southern outskirts, a driver and a translator-producer
working for CNN were shot and killed Tuesday by unidentified assailants,
the network said. They were returning from an assignment in a two-car convoy,
CNN said.
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- It identified the men as translator-producer Duraid Isa
Mohammed and driver Yasser Khatab. CNN said cameraman Scott McWhinnie,
in the second car, was grazed in the head by a bullet. Correspondent Michael
Holmes and several other people in that car were unhurt.
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- - Associated Press writers Nadia Abou El-Magd in Khalidyah
and Paul Garwood in Tikrit contributed to this report.
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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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