[Peace-discuss] WHO MADE U.S. GOD?

[Dlind49 at aol.com]

U.S. Gives Poles Control of Part of Iraq
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

 
Filed at 6:52 a.m. ET

NAJAF, Iraq (AP) -- The United States on Wednesday symbolically transferred 
control over the south-central part of Iraq to a Polish-led force, while the 
governing council swore in the newly appointed ministers who will form the 
provisional government until elections take place.

The top U.S. commander in Iraq, Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, presided over the 
formal ceremony near the ancient city of Babylon, although the actual handover 
of the area to the international force was delayed until Sept. 21 after a car 
bomb killed a leading Shiite cleric there last week.

U.S. Marines have said they want to maintain control around Najaf after 
Friday's bombing, which killed up to 125 people, including Ayatollah Mohammed Baqir 
al-Hakim. The Polish military, which is leading a 9,500-strong international 
force in central Iraq, also cited delays in training the peacekeepers.

Sanchez said the transfer would send out a message that the U.S.-led force 
occupying Iraq was a broad-based 30-nation coalition.

``The international community is committed to the country of Iraq, to its 
people, to the world and not to allow Saddam's regime to return,'' Sanchez said.

Commitment to the U.S.-led coalition ranges from Singapore, which has sent 30 
police officers to train Iraqi police, to the United States, which has 
110,000 troops in the country.

The new Cabinet sworn in Wednesday mirrors exactly the Governing Council's 
ethnic and religious breakdown with 13 Shiites, five Sunni Arabs, five Kurds 
(also Sunnis), one ethnic Turk and an Assyrian Christian.

The council, formed on July 13, had been promising for weeks that it would 
name a government.

Tensions remain high in Najaf, where the brother of the slain cleric told 
mourners on Tuesday that he blamed the U.S. occupation forces for the lax 
security that led to the attack at Iraq's most sacred Shiite mosque.

Also Tuesday, another car bomb struck police headquarters in central Baghdad, 
killing an Iraqi policeman and wounding at least 13 others in the latest 
attack apparently targeting Iraqis working with the American-led occupation.

L. Paul Bremer, the U.S. civilian administrator for Iraq, told a Baghdad news 
conference he shared the country's ``anguish'' over recent bombings, adding 
that ``it's a fight we're now going to have to win here -- this fight against 
terrorism.''

The U.S. military reported the deaths of three more American soldiers on 
Tuesday -- two of them in the bombing of a convoy in southern Iraq.

At the funeral for Ayatollah Mohammed Baqir al-Hakim, his brother raged 
against the American troops and demanded they leave Iraq.

``The occupation force is primarily responsible for the pure blood that was 
spilled in holy Najaf, the blood of al-Hakim and the faithful group that was 
present near the mosque,'' said Abdel-Aziz al-Hakim, the ayatollah's brother and 
a member of the U.S.-picked Governing Council.

Men clad in white robes and dark uniforms brandishing Kalashnikov rifles 
stood guard along the roof of the gold-domed Imam Ali mosque, where the cleric was 
killed Friday in the bloodiest attack since the fall of Saddam Hussein. 
Accounts of the death toll ranged from more than 80 to more than 120.

Abdel-Aziz al-Hakim has said he would not resign from the Governing Council 
but spoke with great anger about the American military's inability to pacify 
the country.

``This force is primarily responsible for all this blood and the blood that 
is shed all over Iraq every day,'' he said.

A senior Iraqi police official told The Associated Press there were nine key 
suspects in the bombing in custody -- two Saudis, one Palestinian carrying a 
Jordanian passport and six Iraqis. All nine admitted ties to the al-Qaida 
terror network, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Besides the Imam Ali mosque, terrorist bombings in August also struck at the 
Jordanian Embassy and the U.N. headquarters in Baghdad.

Also Tuesday, a Black Hawk helicopter crashed south of Baghdad, killing one 
U.S. soldier and injuring a second in a ``non-hostile'' incident, U.S. military 
spokesman Spc. Anthony Reinoso said.

The number of American forces killed in the Iraq war is 286. Of those 148 
died since May 1 when President Bush declared an end to major fighting. Seventy 
soldiers have died in combat since the declaration.