- BAGHDAD (AFP) -- The countdown
to sovereignty in Iraq began in earnest with a UN team due to arrive in
Baghdad imminently to advise on who should lead the violence-wracked country
from July.
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- In deadly correlation, calculated attacks aimed at derailing
Iraq's transition to democracy also gathered pace with the death of two
more US soldiers and the wounding of an Iraqi working for Time magazine.
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- In addition, four Iraqis, including a two-year-old child,
were killed in a US military operation on a village in central Iraq, witnesses
said.
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- Insurgents were hunting "symbolic targets"
such as Iraqi interpreters, police and civil defence forces seen as collaborating
with the US-led coalition, a senior military official said.
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- "We would expect, as the country gets closer and
closer to independence and sovereignty, these kind of attacks on soft targets
will continue," said US Brigadier General Mark Kimmitt.
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- Much work remains to be done before the US-led transfer
of power to an interim Iraqi government, admitted American overseer in
Iraq Paul Bremer on Wednesday, as he laid out a series of goals to be achieved
before his departure on June 30, including the creation this week of a
new defence ministry.
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- At the top of the list of priorities is agreeing on what
body will take over sovereignty in three months, and also the creation
of a system to hold direct parliamentary elections as soon as possible
-- tasks that the United Nations has been asked to help address.
-
- A technical team from the world body is due to arrive
in Baghdad this week to work with the US-picked Governing Council and the
coalition from Saturday. A second delegation headed by UN envoy Lakhdar
Brahimi is scheduled to arrive a few days later, said council member Muwaffaq
al-Rubaie.
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- "We have started the dialogue led by the Governing
Council and the Coalition Provisional Authority with the help of the United
Nations," he told a group of reporters on Wednesday.
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- While warmly received by Iraqi interim leaders, Brahimi
and his group may receive a frosty welcome from Iraq's most influential
cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, who has deeply criticised a temporary
constitution that maps out the country's future until a fully democratic
government is created.
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- The basic law, signed earlier this month by the council,
provides a bill of rights and a democratically elected parliament.
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- But it prompted criticism from many Iraqis, including
Sistani, who say it is an illegitimate document drawn up by an unelected
body under pressure from the United States, and it will unfairly bind a
future elected parliament.
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- On Monday, Sistani threatened to boycott the UN team
if the United Nations endorses Iraq's fundamental law in a Security Council
resolution.
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- Rubaie, however, downplayed the significance of his stance
and insisted it would not disrupt the planned timeframe for the transfer
of sovereignty.
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- Despite the confidence of Rubaie and other Iraqi and
coalition leaders, insurgents appears intent on wrecking the US-approved
plan for Iraq's future.
-
- One US soldier was killed and two were wounded when their
convoy was hit by a roadside bomb in the central Iraqi town of Baquba early
Thursday. A day earlier another American soldier died and one was injured
when their convoy came under attack north of the Iraqi town of Taji.
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- The US troops responded and killed three attackers, Kimmitt
said.
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- Added to an official Pentagon tally, the latest deaths
raise to 283 the number of US soldiers killed in action since US President
George W. Bush declared major hostilities in Iraq over on May 1.
-
- And in a worrying new trend of targeting so-called US
colaborators, an Iraqi citizen working for Time was shot and critically
wounded on Wednesday in, as yet, unexplained circumstances.
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- Separately, witnesses said four Iraqis were killed, including
a two-year-old child, and four children wounded during a US operation in
the central Iraqi village of Gazwan overnight.
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- US military officials said they were looking into the
report.
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of Agence France Presse.
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