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3 U.S. Soldiers Killed in Iraq Attacks
By TAREK AL-ISSAWI, Associated Press Writer BAGHDAD, Iraq - Three American soldiers were killed and 13 injured in a mortar attack and a bombing in the volatile region of central Iraq (news - web sites), the U.S. military reported Sunday. The deaths followed an assassination attempt against a member of Iraq's Governing Council.
Two soldiers from the 205th Military Intelligence Brigade were killed when
mortars hit a U.S. base near the Abu Ghraib prison on the western outskirts of
Baghdad about 10 p.m. Saturday. Thirteen other soldiers were injured in the
attack. No prisoners were injured.
Shortly before the Abu Ghraib shelling, a soldier from the 3rd Armored
Cavalry Regiment was killed when his Humvee was hit by a roadside bomb near
Ramadi, about 60 miles west of the capital, the military said.
The deaths brought to 165 the number of American soldiers killed in Iraq
since May 1 when President Bush (news
- web
sites) declared major fighting was over. During the heavy fighting before
then 138 soldiers died. The latest deaths brought to 302 the number of U.S.
soldiers killed in Iraq.
The latest American deaths followed an assassination attempt Saturday against
Aquila al-Hashimi, one of three women on the 25-member Governing Council and
strong candidate to become Iraq's representative at the United Nations (news
- web
sites). Al-Hashimi, a Shiite Muslim and career diplomat, was seriously
wounded by six gunmen in a pickup truck who chased her in her car on Saturday.
The assailants escaped.
Al-Hashimi underwent a second operation and was in stable condition at a
military hospital on the grounds of one of Saddam Hussein (news
- web
sites)'s former palaces where the Coalition Provisional Authority has its
headquarters, an official with the U.S.-led civilian administration said on
Sunday.
She had been preparing to leave for a key U.N. General Assembly meeting in
New York on Tuesday. Major U.S. allies are pressing for Washington to give the
United Nations a greater role in bringing stability to this fractured country.
The Governing Council president, Ahmad Chalabi, blamed Saddam loyalists for
the shooting.
On Sunday, Douglas Brand, a British adviser to the Iraqi police, said the
coalition officials were helping Iraqi police with the investigation and
appealed to the public to come forward with any information.
"This was a cowardly attack," Brand told reporters. "She has undergone two
operations. She remains in critical but stable condition at the hospital."
U.S.-led forces have been struggling to put down a guerrilla-style insurgency
that has targeted Americans and their Iraqi allies. The police chief of the
central town of Khaldiyah, who was working with U.S. forces, was assassinated by
gunmen last week, and other attacks have killed police recruits trained by the
Americans.
Last month, Ayatollah Mohammed Baqir al-Hakim, a top Shiite cleric who leads
a movement with a seat on the Governing Council, was killed in a car bombing
that left at least 85 people dead. Al-Hakim's brother, Abdel-Aziz, is a council
member.
Despite the ongoing violence, Iraq's interim government announced Sunday it
will open all sectors of its economy except oil to foreign investors in an
attempt to quickly rebuild markets battered by war, sanctions and mismanagement.
Iraqi Finance Minister Kamil Mubdir al-Gailani made the announcement in Dubai,
where the International Monetary Fund (news
- web
sites) and World Bank (news
- web
sites) are holding their annual meetings.
The reforms will allow foreign banks to enter Iraq, with some restrictions,
in new policies that mark a sharp departure from the tight economic controls
that were in place for years under Saddam's one-party rule that lasted for three
decades until he was toppled in April.
Al-Gailani announced a 15 percent maximum tax rate for individuals and
corporations starting Jan. 1 and a 5 percent reconstruction surcharge on all
imports except for humanitarian goods.
Under the reforms, foreigners will not be allowed to own property, but they
will be permitted to lease it for up to 40 years, he added.
"The reforms will significantly advance efforts to build a free and open
market economy in Iraq, promote Iraq's future economic growth, accelerate Iraq's
re-entry into the international economy and reintegration with other countries,
and the development of domestic Iraqi institutions," al-Gailani said in a
statement.
U.S. Treasury Secretary John Snow applauded the blueprint for a new Iraq
economy as "policies that make sense ... that offer real promise" but cautioned
that security in a nation still facing daily violence would be a prerequisite
for any substantial economic recovery.
"It's awfully important that we see Iraq move forward well and become a place
of peace and security," Snow said in Dubai, where the International Monetary
Fund and World Bank hold their annual meetings this week.
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