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U.S. Troops Killed in Iraq Mortar Attack
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By TAREK AL-ISSAWI, Associated Press Writer

BAGHDAD, Iraq - A mortar attack on a Baghdad-area prison killed two U.S. military police and injured 13, the military said Sunday. The attack came just hours after an assassination attempt on a member of Iraq's Governing Council.

The mortar attack occurred at about 10 p.m. Saturday at the Abu Ghraib prison west of Baghdad, the military said. It said no inmates were injured, but gave no further details.

The deaths brought to 302 the number of U.S. soldiers who have died in Iraq.

On Saturday, Aquila al-Hashimi, a Governing Council member and strong candidate to become Iraq's representative at the United Nations, was seriously wounded by six gunmen in a pickup truck who chased her in her car on Saturday.

She underwent a second operation and was in stable condition at a military hospital on the grounds of one of Saddam Hussein's former palaces where the Coalition Provisional Authority has its headquarters, an official with the U.S.-led civilian administration said on Sunday.

Al-Hashimi 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 blamed Saddam loyalists for the shooting.

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.

Saturday's attack came at 9 a.m., when gunmen fired a rocket-propelled grenade on al-Hashimi's car soon after she left her house in western Baghdad, members of her security detail said. The grenade missed, and the attackers opened fire with assault rifles.

Firas Shams al-Din, 30, a security guard at a school near where the shooting occurred, said a pickup truck carrying six bearded men armed with Kalashnikovs, and two cars chased al-Hashimi's vehicle.

When Shams al-Din opened fire on the pickup, the three vehicles of attackers turned around and fled. Al-Hashimi's car crashed through a house's gate at the end of the street and into a parked car. Shams al-Din said he found her conscious, moaning in pain and bleeding.

Ahmad Chalabi, the president of the Governing Council for September, said al-Hashimi's attackers "were remnants of the Baathist regime and Saddam's assassins," referring to Saddam's former ruling Baath party.

"The members of the Governing Council and ministers will not be intimidated by the terrorists," Chalabi said in a statement. He said al-Hashimi had received threats recently.

Baghdad police commander Brig. Gen. Ahmed Ibrahim told The Associated Press that no one had been arrested in the attack and he refused to say who might be behind it.

The 25-member Governing Council was established by the U.S.-led coalition in mid-July to put an Iraqi face on the process of rebuilding the country.

The White House denounced the assassination attempt. Spokeswoman Suzy DeFrancis called it a "tragic situation" that is a part of a "continuing pattern" in which insurgent forces attack signs of success in the process of Iraq's transition to democracy.

U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan's office issued a statement saying, "Violence such as the murderous attack on Dr. al-Hashimi only retards that process and that goal."

Al-Hashimi has emerged as a leading foreign policy figure on the council, participating in a delegation that addressed the United Nations in July. At Tuesday's General Assembly session, the council delegation will try to assume Iraq's U.N. seat — and if it succeeds, many U.N. diplomats expected al-Hashimi to be named Iraq's representative.

Chalabi said in his statement that the council delegation would attend the U.N. session, but did not say whether al-Hashimi would be replaced.

The continuing instability has raised questions about America's stewardship of Iraq since President Bush declared an end to major combat operations on May 1. Since then, 82 American soldiers and 11 Britons have been killed in hostile encounters.

The deaths brought to 302 the number of U.S. soldiers who have died in Iraq.

Six months ago if anyone would have said that we could conquer a country with 302 Casualties (about half combat related), they would have been branded a lunatic. Now President Bush is branded as a liar by Kennedy, of all people because, 302 troops have died.

Time for a reality check.

The deaths brought to 302 the number of U.S. soldiers who have died in Iraq.

Six months ago if anyone would have said that we could conquer a country with 302 Casualties (about half combat related), they would have been branded a lunatic. Now President Bush is branded as a liar by Kennedy, of all people because, 302 troops have died.

Time for a reality check.