- MOSUL (AFP) -- At least 45
people died in violence in Iraq, including a US soldier, as Washington
defended its decision to lead an invasion exactly two years ago amid protests
around the world.
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- With talks on a new governing coalition still dragging
on seven weeks since landmark January elections, Iraq was plunged into
a diplomatic crisis with neighbouring Jordan as the two countries recalled
their respective envoys following accusations of a Jordanian's involvement
in a deadly suicide bombing.
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- Insurgents struck around Iraq hitting the fledgling security
forces hard at a time when the US government is channelling all its resources
into training and equipping them to pave the way for the exit of US-led
troops.
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- In the main northern city of Mosul, a suicide bomber
with a fake badge slipped Sunday into a building housing the provincial
anti-corruption department and blew himself up inside the office of its
chief, General Walid Kachmoula, killing him and two of his guards.
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- Attackers struck again hours later opening fire on the
procession bearing Kachmoula's coffin as it made its way to the cemetery,
killing two people and wounding 14, hospital sources said.
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- Separately, two unidentified bodies shot in the chest
and head were found in the city, which has become a new front for the insurgency
since November.
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- In another flashpoint town, gunmen attacked a police
station in Baquba killing at least four police and wounding two as a truck
bomb rammed into the entrance of an Iraqi army barrack wounding 17 people,
a police official said.
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- Four insurgents were killed in an ensuing firefight.
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- In the capital, 24 Iraqi insurgents were killed and six
coalition soldiers wounded in a firefight, the US military said.
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- In the northern oil centre of Kirkuk, a US soldier was
killed and three others wounded when a roadside bomb hit their patrol,
the US military said.
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- Despite the continuing high casualty toll from insurgent
violence two years after Washington hailed Iraq's liberation, US Defence
Secretary Donald Rumsfeld insisted that major progress had nonetheless
been achieved.
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- "It's a wonderful thing to see 25 million Iraqis
liberated, to see their economy improve as it has been, to see their political
process move toward democracy," Rumsfeld told Fox News.
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- Some 11,000 American troops have been wounded and more
than 1,500 US soldiers have died in Iraq since the March 2003 invasion.
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- Meanwhile, two years after the US-led invasion of Iraq
shattered pretence of global agreement on terrorism and security, UN Secretary
General Kofi Annan on Sunday asked nations to re-think the rules of going
to war.
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- Annan unveiled a sweeping set of UN reform proposals,
including a long-elusive definition of terrorism, and asked the Security
Council to fix guidelines on when it could authorise the use of military
force.
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- The secretary general's report was largely driven by
the March 2003 invasion, led by the United States without the backing of
the council or the support of most of the international community.
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- In addition to calling the war illegal, Annan repeatedly
argued that the divisions between nations had brought the international
system of security, embodied by the United Nations since World War II,
to a crossroads.
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- Annan asked the Security Council to "adopt a resolution
on the use of force that sets out principles for use" and to commit
to abiding by them.
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- He said the council should reaffirm its "central
role" in peace and security, including the use of preventive force
in cases of genocide, ethnic cleansing and other crimes against humanity.
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- While some of the language seemed to be a direct attack
on the unpopular US decision to invade Iraq, Annan also asked for a long-elusive
and strict definition of terrorism that has been broadly favoured by the
United States.
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- "No cause or grievance, no matter how legitimate,
justifies the targeting and deliberate killing of civilians and non-combatants,"
he wrote in his report, which was to be formally presented to UN member
nations on Monday.
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- The UN secretary general called on nations to define
terrorism as any action to kill or harm civilians and non-combatants whose
purpose is to "intimidate a population or to compel a government or
an international organisation to do or to abstain from doing any act."
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- Relations between Iraq and its pro-Western neighbour
Jordan were meanwhile in crisis as both governments withdrew their envoys
following a wave of protests over the alleged involvement of a Jordanian
in a deadly suicide bombing.
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- The first move was made by Jordan, whose Foreign Minister
Hani Mulki announced the kingdom was recalling its top diplomat from Baghdad,
in a move that threatened to overshadow an Arab summit in Algiers later
this week.
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- Iraq's interim government swiftly retaliated, announcing
it was recalling its ambassador from Amman.
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- "Relations between the two countries are in crisis
mode," said an Iraqi official.
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