CHRISTOPHER TORCHIA
Associated Press
BAGHDAD, Iraq - Drive-by gunmen killed two Europeans working on a water project south of the Iraqi capital Tuesday, bringing to six the number of foreign humanitarian workers cut down in shooting attacks in Iraq over the past two days.
Four American missionaries also working on a water project in the northern city of Mosul were killed in a similar attack a day earlier.
The twin attacks seemed to signal a shift by insurgent gunmen to so-called "soft" targets in their effort to snarl work by the U.S.-led coalition to rebuild Iraq in preparation for the American hand-over of authority to the Iraqis on June 30.
Three Iraqi police officers and a translator working for the U.S. military also were gunned down Tuesday, victims of a long-running rebel campaign to kill those perceived as collaborating with the United States.
At a military ceremony in Tikrit, Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, said the attacks on humanitarian workers were an attempt to intimidate those trying to help the 36-nation U.S.-led coalition.
"Clearly there has been a shift in the insurgency and the way the extremists are conducting operations," Sanchez said in an apparent reference to rebel assaults on civilians. "It is very clear they are going after these targets that might create some splits within the coalition."
The role of Spain in the coalition remained in doubt Tuesday after Prime Minister-elect Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero promised to withdraw the country's 1,300 troops by June 30 if the United Nations does not take control of peacekeeping. The Spanish troops operate south of Baghdad.
Honduras, which also was scheduled to end its mission at that time, said Tuesday it plans to bring home its 370 troops and would extend "only if the United Nations asks."
Zapatero's Socialist party was propelled to an upset victory in elections Sunday by anger over terrorist attacks in Madrid last week that killed 201 people. Voters accused Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar of making Spain a target by supporting the U.S.-led war in Iraq.
On Tuesday, Sanchez said the coalition could manage without the Spaniards.
"It is something we will have to adjust to," Sanchez said. "But it is clearly manageable. It is not a significant military problem for the coalition to be able to cover that area."
The Tuesday killings involved a German and a Dutch national gunned down near the town of Mussayab, 45 miles south of Baghdad, officials said. Their Iraqi driver and a police officer also were killed in the attack. Two police officers were wounded.
Iraqi and U.S. officials earlier said the Europeans were Germans. But the Foreign Ministries of Germany and the Netherlands each confirmed one of their citizens had been killed. Names were not released.
Col. A'ayed Omran, police chief in Mussayab, said the two were water engineers working on a project at Al-Razzaza, a lake near the southern city of Karbala. He said they were carrying weapons because they had been attacked in the same area before.
The four U.S. missionaries slain in Mosul were working on a water-purification project. One of them died on the way to a U.S. military hospital in Baghdad early Tuesday, and a fifth was being treated.
In Mosul on Tuesday, assailants in a car fired on a police vehicle, killing two officers and wounding two others, police said. The gunmen fled. In another shooting in Mosul, gunmen killed an Iraqi woman working as a translator for the U.S. military, the U.S.-led coalition said. Two of her family members were wounded in the attack on their vehicle.
Mosul was a prime recruiting ground for the officer corps of Saddam's army, and U.S. military officials have described the city as a hotbed of guerrilla activity. The CIA and other U.S. intelligence agencies have a unit in the city that is searching for so-called "high value" targets.
The Virginia-based Southern Baptist International Mission Board identified the four dead missionaries as Larry T. Elliott, 60, and Jean Dover Elliott, 58, of Cary, N.C.; Karen Denise Watson, 38, of Bakersfield, Calif.; and David E. McDonnall, 28, of Rowlett, Texas.
McDonnall died Tuesday morning on a helicopter taking him to a military hospital in Baghdad after four U.S. military surgeons worked for six hours to save his life, the mission board said.
McDonnall's wife, Carrie Taylor McDonnall, 26, of Rowlett, Texas, was in critical condition, the board said.
Lt. Col. Joseph Piek, a spokesman for American forces in Mosul, said the five Americans were traveling in one car on the eastern side of Mosul when they were attacked. Iraqi police and the FBI were investigating.
Christian missionaries in predominantly Muslim Iraq are viewed with suspicion by many residents who believe the foreigners are trying to convert them to their faith.
"They knew going into Iraq, they couldn't really share their Christian faith unless somebody asked them," said Larry Kingsley, a church deacon. "They were there in a humanitarian situation. They were people who just had a great heart for helping people out."
In the northern city of Kirkuk, three mortar shells on Tuesday hit the airport compound, where U.S. troops are based. Smoke billowed and sirens blared. There were no reported injuries.
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Associated Press reporter Paul Garwood contributed to this report from Tikrit.
10:14 A.M. EST
PRESIDENT BUSH: Here's what we're going to do. We'll have a couple opening statements. I'll call upon an American press, the Prime Minister will call upon somebody from the Dutch press; American press, Dutch press; and that's it.
Thank you all for coming. Mr. Prime Minister, welcome. I'm glad you're back. Thank you for a -- your friendship. Thank you for your clear understanding about the need for us to achieve a more free and peaceful world. I appreciate our bilateral relations are strong. We had a wide-ranging discussion, talking about a variety of issues, whether it be foreign policy or the economy. It was a good, frank discussion. And I appreciate my friend being here again. Welcome.
PRIME MINISTER BALKENENDE: George, thanks again for the hospitality. We had, indeed, a very good discussion. We talked about issues around Iraq, the role of the United Nations, by example. We talked about the cooperation in the economic sphere, developments in Afghanistan. We also talked about values in society, an important issue. And especially, we talked about terrorism, the fight against terrorism. And it is important that the world society, international community stands shoulder-to-shoulder and shows its solidarity to fight against these terrible attacks. And we share that same view and we will work together, also, in the second half of this year, when The Netherlands is taking over the presidency of the European Union.
PRESIDENT BUSH: Yes.
We'll answer a couple questions here. We'll start with you, Terry Hunt.
Q Thank you, sir. Mr. President, do you think terrorists have reason to believe they can influence elections and policy, given the outcome of what happened in Spain?
PRESIDENT BUSH: I think terrorists will kill innocent life in order to try to get the world to cower. I think -- these are cold-blooded killers. I mean, they'll kill innocent people to try to shake our will. That's what they want to do. And they'll never shake the will of the United States. We understand the stakes. And we will work with our friends to bring justice to the terrorists.
They have not only killed in Spain, they've killed in the United States, they've killed in Turkey, they've killed in Saudi Arabia. They kill wherever they can. And it's essential that the free world remain strong and resolute and determined.
Q Mr. Prime Minister, Mr. President, according to opinion polls, most Dutch people want to withdraw the Dutch troops from Iraq. Many Dutch people think the war in Iraq has little to do with the war against terrorism, and may actually encourage terrorism. How would you respond to those Dutch people who want to withdraw?
PRESIDENT BUSH: I would ask them to think about the Iraqi citizens who don't want people to withdraw, because they want to be free. And I would remind the Dutch citizens that al Qaeda has an interest in Iraq for a reason, and that interest is, they realize this is a front in the war on terror, and they fear the spread of freedom and democracy in places like the greater Middle East. They can't stand the thought of free societies springing up in the Middle East, because they understand a free society is against their very wishes. And so it's essential that we remain side-by-side with the Iraqi people as they begin the process of self-government.
And we're making good progress. The basic law that was written by the Governing Council was a substantial piece of work that talked about freedoms, the very same freedoms that we honor in America or in The Netherlands. And it's essential that we help Iraq -- and Afghanistan -- develop into free societies, which, in itself, will start changing the regions in which they exist.
Adam, yes.
Q Thank you, Mr. President.
PRESIDENT BUSH: You look fine today, Adam. The tie. (Laughter.)
Q Thank you, Mr. President. Candidate Kerry has suggested he has support of world leaders. Do you think he should -- that should be a factor in the campaign? Was that an appropriate thing for him to say?
PRESIDENT BUSH: I think it's -- if you're going to make an accusation in the course of a presidential campaign, you ought to back it up with facts.
PRIME MINISTER BALKENENDE: I won't talk about that issue.
PRESIDENT BUSH: Okay, fine.
PRIME MINISTER BALKENENDE: It has to do with the campaign here in the United States.
Q Mr. President, have you convinced the Prime Minister of The Netherlands to leave the Dutch troops in Iraq?
PRESIDENT BUSH: The Prime Minister will make a -- the appropriate decision. It's his decision to make. We both agree that a free Iraq is essential to a peaceful world. We both understand the stakes. We both know that al Qaeda is interested in fighting us in Iraq. How do we know? We know because they've said so publicly. Al Qaeda understands the stakes. Al Qaeda wants us out of Iraq, because al Qaeda wants to use Iraq as an example of defeating freedom and democracy. And so the Prime Minister has got issues at home that he'll deal with. But there's no doubt that he understands the stakes and the historic opportunity with which we're faced.
PRIME MINISTER BALKENENDE: It's good to add that we did not talk about the situation after the half of July. That is the responsible of the Dutch government and Dutch parliament and we'll talk about it, as I made it clear already, earlier. But I think it's very good to look always to the situation of the Iraq people and the international struggle against terrorism. Therefore, it's so important that countries are working together and they can draw the same lines. That's very important, but it has nothing to, at this moment, to the decision-making as far as the situation after the 1st of July is concerned.
PRESIDENT BUSH: Thanks, good job.
END 10:20 A.M. EST
US Credibility Hurt, Survey Finds - Washington Post
Gap Grows Between US, World Public Opinion - Common Dreams
British support for Iraq war tumbles - Ireland On Line
16/03/2004 - 19:35:23
British public support for the war in Iraq has dropped to 43%, from 61% last May at the end of that war, according to a poll released tonight.
The Pew Global Attitudes Project survey found, however, that a slight majority of Britons, 51%, viewed British Prime Minister Tony Blair favourably.
He got higher ratings in the United States (75%) and lower ones in France, Germany and Russia (35, 33 and 36%, respectively).
But 41% of Britons thought Mr Blair had lied about weapons of mass destruction.
President George Bush got 39% approval among Britons, 15% among the French and 14% among Germans.
In the United States, support for the Iraq war dropped to 60%, from 74% in May.
Germans, French and Russians all continued to support their countries’ decisions to oppose the war, by 86, 88 and 88% respectively.
Most Britons, 56%, said they wanted Western Europe to be more independent of the United States, and 50% said they thought a European Union equal in power to the United States would be good.
The poll, conducted by the Washington-based group, found that a majority of people in Germany, France and Russia shared those views.
British support for a more powerful EU dropped to 41%, however, if Europe would have to finance its increased responsibility in international matters.
Most Americans surveyed, 55%, preferred a close US-European partnership, not a more independent Europe, and 50% felt that an EU as powerful as the United States would be bad.
Only the French, among the countries surveyed, felt that the world would be safer if another country were as powerful as the United States, with 54% expressing that view.
Just under half of Britons (43%) felt that would make the world more dangerous.
In Germany, France and Britain, views of the United States were less positive than they had been in May at the end of the Iraq war, but more positive than a year ago, when that war started.
In Germany and France, however, more people held negative than positive views of the United States.
A majority in each country held favourable views of the American people, as distinct from the US government.
Most Americans, 73%, viewed Britain favourably, while 12% held unfavourable views of the country.
Those figures compare with 50% of Americans who held favourable views of Germany, but just 33% who held favourable views of France and 39% with positive views of the EU.
Britons expressed confidence in the United Nations, with 64% giving it a favourable rating.
That compares with favourable ratings from 55% of Americans, 71% of Germans, 67% of the French and 60% of Russians.
And 82% of Britons thought the UN best suited to help form a stable Iraqi government, as did 82% in France and 84% in Germany.
Britons were divided on the claims by British and US officials that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction, with 48% saying the leaders were misinformed and 41% saying they lied.
Half of Britons felt the Iraq war had hurt the fight against terrorism.
Just 30% of people surveyed in Britain felt the coalition was doing a good job of rebuilding Iraq, but Britons, like other Western Europeans and Americans, felt strongly that Iraqis would be better off in the long run because of Saddam Hussein’s ouster.
The poll, taken before last week’s train bombings in Madrid that killed 200 people, showed that 63% of Britons favoured the US led fight against terrorism.
Just over half said those efforts had been sincere, but 41% thought they were motivated by a desire to control Middle East oil or to dominate the world.