Guerrillas shot and killed two French civilians west of the Iraqi capital Baghdad, the US military said yesterday, and Egypt warned of anarchy in the country if power was handed over power to prematurely.
Another Frenchman was wounded in Monday's drive-by shooting near the town of Falluja, the latest in a wave of attacks on Western troops and other foreigners in the country.
In Iraq's second city of Basra, at least two people were killed yesterday when Iraqi police opened fire on stone-throwing soldiers of the disbanded Iraqi army as they protested to demand payment of salaries.
Four people with gunshot wounds were taken to hospital after the incident, witnesses in the southern city said. Two died of their injuries, doctors said.
And in the central town of Baquba, residents shouted anti-US slogans as they buried two men they said were shot without provocation by US soldiers as they returned home from a coffee house on Monday evening.
Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, leader of the most populous Arab country, said attempts were being made to sow discord between Iraq's Sunni Muslims and Shia Muslims and between Arabs and Kurds.
"Handing over power quickly creates fears. The country must stabilise as quickly as possible, (Iraqi) officials must agree and there must be an elected government," he said in comments on Egyptian state television.
"Then, gradually, they [US-led forces\] can leave. If they left now there would be anarchy," he added.
The United States has said it will hand over power to a transitional government in June, but an elected government is not scheduled to take over until 2005. US-led troops are to stay beyond the handover under bilateral agreements with the new government.
In Amman, Jordan's King Abdullah warned that Iraq could become a breeding ground for "terrorist groups" and called for "building a united, independent and free Iraq", the official Petra news agency said.
Iraq's 25 million people are about 60 percent Shia, but the government was dominated by Sunnis under Saddam Hussein. The country is also home to a significant Kurdish minority and all factions are jockeying for power in the post-Saddam era.
The US-appointed interim Governing Council reflects the country's make-up - its 25 members include 13 Shia, five Kurds, five Sunnis, one Christian and one Turkmen.
Some tensions have flared between Shias and Sunnis after a car-bomb attack in the Shia holy city of Najaf in August.
And there has been violence in the northern oil-rich city of Kirkuk, where Arabs and Turkish-speaking Turkmen oppose a plan by Kurds to tighten their grip on the city.
The future of Iraq's Kurdish region is being closely watched by neighbouring Turkey, Iran and Syria, all with their own restive Kurdish minorities.
In an interview with CNN Turk television, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad said building any Kurdish or other ethnic entity in Iraq would cross a "red line" for all Iraq's neighbours. He was speaking before a historic visit to Turkey yesterday, the first by a Syrian president to the neighbouring nation.
In Basra, hundreds of former soldiers protested in front of three banks after being told their salaries had not been received. They said the last time they were paid was in September, a $150 one-off payment for three months' wages. - (Reuters)