- BAGHDAD -- A roadside bomb
hit a US convoy in southern Baghdad, killing one soldier and wounding six,
while suspected insurgents gunned down at least eight Iraqis in four separate
attacks on Thursday, officials said.
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- The US military also said an American soldier died on
Wednesday night of injuries sustained in a vehicle accident near Kirkuk.
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- In New York, Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari said
insurgents were likely to step up attempts to disrupt next month's referendum
on the country's new constitution, adding the next three months were critical
for the country's future. "Nowhere are the goals of freedom, democracy
and progress more at stake," Zubari told UN Security Council members
at an open meeting on Wednesday. "We know our clear way forward, but
we need your help. We need the help of every member nation and this organisation
to win this fight. We stick together, or we lose together."
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- Unidentified men in a speeding car used machine guns
to kill Col Fadil Mahmoud Mohammed, a local police commander, and his driver
on Thursday morning as they drove on a highway in a town near Baquba, a
city north of Baghdad, police said. Six people also were killed in the
capital, including a man and two of his sons whose home in the New Baghdad
area was raided by 25 gunmen dressed in police uniforms and black masks,
said police Col Ahmed Abod. A second son was kidnapped. Abod said the father,
Muhsin Akmosh Al-Timimi, had been working with foreign companies operating
in Iraq.
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- In another drive-by shooting on Thursday morning, two
policemen were killed and one wounded when their patrol was attacked in
northeast Baghdad, said police Col Ahmed al-Alawi. A civilian working for
a private company, Ali Salim, also was shot and killed while waiting outside
his home in western Baghdad for a taxi to take him to work, said Dr Muhanned
Jawad in Yarmuk hospital, where the victim was rushed after the drive-by
shooting.
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- Basra's Governor Mohammed al-Waili threatened to end
all cooperation with British forces unless Prime Minister Blair's government
apologised for the deadly clash with Iraqi police. There has been disagreement
about what exactly happened late on Monday, when British armour crashed
into a jail to free two British soldiers arrested by Iraqi police and militiamen.
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- In London, British Defence Secretary John Reid and Iraqi
Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari tried to minimise the effect of the fighting,
saying it would not undermine the relationship between the two nations
or their determination to lead Iraq to peace and democracy. But the fighting
raised new concerns about the power that radical Shia militias with close
ties to Iran have developed in the region, questions about the role of
Britain's 8,500-strong force in Iraq and doubts about the timetable for
handing over power to local security forces.
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- President George W Bush on Thursday rejected a growing
chorus of calls for a swift US withdrawal from Iraq as he warned of escalating
violence there ahead of an October constitutional referendum. "Some
Americans want us to withdraw our troops so that we can escape the violence,
he said in remarks after getting a briefing at the Pentagon. "I recognise
their good intentions, but their position is wrong.
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- Bush's comments came as he faced recent polls showing
a collapse in popular support for the war as well as his handling of Iraq,
and as anti-war protestors planned a major demonstration for Saturday in
Washington. "Withdrawing our troops would make the world more dangerous
and make America less safe. To leave Iraq now would be to repeat the costly
mistakes of the past that led to the attacks of September the 11th, 2001,"
he said. agencies
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- http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=story_23-9-2005_pg7_13
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- http://www.uruknet.info/?p=m16052&l=i&size=1&hd=0
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