Fresh fighting broke out in Iraq yesterday despite the unveiling of the first post-Saddam Hussein government and a draft UN resolution setting out a rough timetable for the departure of US troops.
Eight Iraqis were killed and 23 wounded when clashes erupted between US forces and radical Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr's militia in the holy cities of Najaf and nearby Kufa, south of Baghdad, as well as in the capital itself.
The fighting came after Iraq's new interim government was unveiled in Baghdad amid criticism that the US had tried to impose its will on the selection process.
PHOTO: AFP
UN envoy Lakhdar Brahimi, who was supposed to play the central role in choosing the government, responded to the criticism yesterday by stressing that Washington's views could not be ignored.
"I don't think he'd mind my saying this: Bremer is the dictator of Iraq. He has the money, he has the signature," Brahimi said in reference to the US overseer in Iraq, Ambassador Paul Bremer.
The diplomat also warned that the coalition and new government would quickly have to work out the status of foreign troops in the nation beyond any UN Security Council resolution legitimizing their presence.
The heaviest combat overnight was in Kufa where five people were killed and 11 injured, while in Najaf three mortar shells killed one person and injured 12 close to a US military base, hospital sources said.
Two militiamen were killed in the capital's teeming Shiite district of Sadr City, the cleric's office here said.
Also in Baghdad, four people were killed and 34 wounded in a car bombing and a second blast, while three Filipino soldiers were wounded in an ambush south of the capital.
US President George W. Bush warned on Tuesday that the violence would continue ahead of the June 30 formal transfer of sovereignty from the US-led coalition to the appointed government, which was sworn in the same day.
But he also said the naming of the new Cabinet "brings us one step closer to realizing the dream of millions of Iraqis, a fully sovereign nation with a representative government that protects their rights and serves their needs."
Britain, the chief US ally in Iraq, claimed the interim leadership under prime minister Iyad Allawi would be the "most representative" in Iraq's history.
The EU, through its Irish presidency, wished the government "every success" while Russia expressed hope that it would be able to ensure security and rebuild the country's shattered infrastructure.
There was no immediate reaction from France and Germany, who opposed the US-led invasion which toppled president Saddam Hussein in April last year.
But Iran, part of the so-called "axis of evil" in the words of the US president, said it hoped the government was a "step toward a return to sovereignty."
In the Arab world, only Kuwait, Bahrain and Jordan officially reacted to the government's nomination.
Kuwaiti Emir Sheikh Jaber al-Ahmed al-Sabah and Bahrain King Hamad welcomed Sheikh Ghazi al-Yawar's appointment as president and said they hoped to strengthen ties with Iraq's new leadership.
King Abdullah II of Jordan, in a congratulatory telegram to Yawar yesterday, said the government was "a step toward ending the occupation and the return of full sovereignty."
At the UN, changes were made to a Security Council resolution sponsored by Britain and the US to satisfy concerns that genuine sovereignty would be restored at the end of the month.
Under the new draft, the mandate of US-led troops who will remain in Iraq after this month would expire "upon completion of the political process" to create a constitutionally elected Iraqi government.
But with that expected to take until late next year or even early 2006, it was not immediately clear if the changes would satisfy opposition to the first text led by China, France and Germany.
NO-LIMITS PARTNERSHIP: ‘The bottom line’ is that if the US were to have a conflict with China or Russia it would likely open up a second front with the other, a US senator said Beijing and Moscow could cooperate in a conflict over Taiwan, the top US intelligence chief told the US Senate this week. “We see China and Russia, for the first time, exercising together in relation to Taiwan and recognizing that this is a place where China definitely wants Russia to be working with them, and we see no reason why they wouldn’t,” US Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines told a US Senate Committee on Armed Services hearing on Thursday. US Senator Mike Rounds asked Haines about such a potential scenario. He also asked US Defense Intelligence Agency Director Lieutenant General Jeffrey Kruse
NOVEL METHODS: The PLA has adopted new approaches and recently conducted three combat readiness drills at night which included aircraft and ships, an official said Taiwan is monitoring China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) exercises for changes in their size or pattern as the nation prepares for president-elect William Lai’s (賴清德) inauguration on May 20, National Security Bureau (NSB) Director-General Tsai Ming-yen (蔡明彥) said yesterday. Tsai made the comment at a meeting of the Legislative Yuan’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee, in response to Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Wang Ting-yu’s (王定宇) questions. China continues to employ a carrot-and-stick approach, in which it applies pressure with “gray zone” tactics, while attempting to entice Taiwanese with perks, Tsai said. These actions aim to help Beijing look like it has
China’s intrusive and territorial claims in the Indo-Pacific region are “illegal, coercive, aggressive and deceptive,” new US Indo-Pacific Commander Admiral Samuel Paparo said on Friday, adding that he would continue working with allies and partners to keep the area free and open. Paparo made the remarks at a change-of-command ceremony at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam in Hawaii, where he took over the command from Admiral John Aquilino. “Our world faces a complex problem set in the troubling actions of the People’s Republic of China [PRC] and its rapid buildup of forces. We must be ready to answer the PRC’s increasingly intrusive and
UNWAVERING: Paraguay remains steadfast in its support of Taiwan, but is facing growing pressure at home and abroad to switch recognition to Beijing, Pena said Paraguayan President Santiago Pena has pledged to continue enhancing cooperation with Taiwan, as he and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida expressed opposition to any unilateral change to the “status quo” in the Taiwan Strait using force, Japanese media reported on Saturday. Kishida yesterday completed a trip to France, Brazil and Paraguay, his first visit to South America since taking office in 2021. After the Japanese leader and Pena spoke for more than an hour on Friday, exchanging views on the situation in East Asia in the face of China’s increasing military pressure on Taiwan, they affirmed that “unilateral attempts to change the