Iraq: A US soldier and an Iraqi interpreter were killed in an attack in Baghdad yesterday, adding to an almost daily toll of casualties that is putting pressure on Washington to scale back its role in Iraq.
They died as Iraq's week-old Governing Council again failed to resolve the basic issue of who will lead the US-appointed body. With many Iraqis also keen to be rid of the occupying forces and rule themselves now that Saddam Hussein is gone, the council seems to many to be making slow progress.
The US military said the soldier and the interpreter were killed when their vehicle hit an improvised mine on a Baghdad highway and they then came under fire. Three other soldiers were wounded.
A local journalist watched as one US military vehicle blew up in broad daylight.
A Reuters photographer later saw two burnt- out Humvee vehicles, 100 metres apart, apparently the aftermath of the fatal incident, north of the city centre.
Five US soldiers, as well as the interpreter and an Iraqi driver for the United Nations, have been killed since Friday, meaning 38 Americans have died at enemy hands since May 1st, when President Bush declared an end to major combat.
A US military spokeswoman said an armoured patrol in the restive town of Ramadi, west of Baghdad, was also hit by two improvised bombs and that two soldiers were wounded.
The US civil administrator in Iraq, Mr Paul Bremer, said in Washington on Sunday that the attacks were the work of "professional killers" loyal to Saddam and that US forces would arm Iraqis to help fight them.
However an Arab man told Abu Dhabi television Saddam was not responsible.
"They are all waged in the name of God, none of them have any relation to the former regime . . . All Iraqis have been harmed by the former regime," he said, standing in a group of about 10 masked men, some carrying rifles. "America and its allies say they have tanks, they have warplanes, they have technology. We have something stronger than all of this, we have God supporting us."
In recent weeks, many groups - some saying they are Saddam loyalists and one claiming links to al-Qaeda - have claimed attacks on troops.
The US Deputy Defence Secretary, Mr Paul Wolfowitz, seen as one of the architects of the war, cautioned neighbouring states and foreign Muslim fighters to stay out of Iraq and said the American presence would benefit the whole Middle East.
"Our success will have a positive influence not just on Iraq but on the whole region," he said in Mosul, northern Iraq. "Some people are afraid of that influence and they are targeting us."
Mr Bush's domestic critics are for signs of a rapid strategy that will let the troops come home and leave behind the stable democratic Iraq promised by the invaders.
US commanders have warned that it may be several months before they can lower their troop strength from 148,000.
With exceptions such as Britain, which is running the southern city of Basra, few US allies have been willing to answer Washington's calls for help in Iraq. Some, like France and India, who opposed the invasion, want to see a clear UN framework before getting involved.
Nor is there much sign that the Governing Council is close to taking on major responsibilities from the Americans. The 25 members, many of them returned exiles with limited contacts among the local population and drawn from disparate and often fractious religious and ethnic communities, are still discussing ways of rotating the presidency among themselves.