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Business as usual in Iraq as more US Marines die

"I know I speak for my fellow countrymen when I say I look forward to the day former regime leaders face justice."

Iyad Allawi, interim Iraqi prime minister

A roadside bomb killed three US Marines and wounded two others yesterday in the first fatal attack on US forces since the US trans-ferred sovereignty to an interim Iraqi government, US officials said.

In one of his first acts since taking power, interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi said former president Saddam Hussein would be transferred to Iraqi legal custody and face charges before an Iraqi court this week -- but will remain in a US-run jail for the moment because his government did not have a suitable prison.

The attack on the Marines occurred at 10am in eastern Baghdad, the US command said in a statement.

Despite Monday's end of the formal occupation, about 160,000 soldiers -- mostly US forces -- remain in Iraq as a multinational force to help the new Iraqi government restore order.

Reporters yesterday asked Allawi whether his Cabinet had finalized plans for emergency rule, as had been proposed publicly by a number of officials since the interim administration was announced on June 1.

"We will tell you about those procedures later -- maybe tomorrow or the day after tomorrow," he said. "We will tell you about those procedures that were adopted by the Cabinet."

Allawi promised an open proceeding when Saddam faces war-crimes charges, including genocide. Eleven other "high-value detainees" are also expected to face justice, he told reporters during his first news conference since the US-led coalition handed over sovereignty.

"I know I speak for my fellow countrymen when I say I look forward to the day former regime leaders face justice," he said.

Meanwhile, Iraqi militants shot dead a US soldier they had held hostage for three months, saying the killing was because of US policy in the Middle East nation, alJazeera television reported yesterday.

The Arabic-language station reported that the slain soldier was Specialist Keith Maupin, but the US military said it could not confirm whether a man shown being shot in a murky videotape was indeed Maupin, who was taken hostage after an April 9 attack outside Baghdad. The report did not say when Maupin, 20, of Batavia, Ohio, was killed.

Early yesterday, gunmen attacked a police station in Mahmudiyah, 32km south of Baghdad, killing one officer and one civilian, policeman Satar al-Ghareri said.

Some eyewitnesses said the gunmen recited Koranic verses before peppering the police station with bullets and grenades.

In a separate attack, assailants opened fire yesterday on a US patrol in the Azimiya neighborhood, a Sunni Muslim stronghold in northern Baghdad. One Iraqi civilian was killed.

Also yesterday, a roadside bomb exploded as a senior Kurdish police official was heading to work, killing one of his guards and wounding him and two others, police said.

US President George W. Bush raised no objection to Allawi taking hardline measures to deal with militants such as Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.

"He may take tough security measures to deal with Zarqawi, but he may have to," Bush said. "Zarqawi is the guy who beheads people on TV. He's the person that orders suiciders to kill women and children."
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