The Hindu : Pro-U.S. Mayor shot dead

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Jul 17, 2003

International

International

Pro-U.S. Mayor shot dead

BAGHDAD JULY 16. The pro-American Mayor of the "Sunni Triangle" city of Hadithah was shot and killed on Wednesday in escalating violence in Iraq that also took the life of a U.S. soldier travelling in a supply convoy and an eight-year-old Iraqi child in a separate attack on the U.S. forces guarding a Baghdad bank.

The U.S. military confirmed a report by Al-Jazeera that Mohammed Nayil al-Jurayfi's car was shot at by unidentified attackers as he drove with one of his sons through the city, 240 km northwest of Baghdad. The son was also killed, Al-Jazeera and the military said.

Al-Jazeera said residents of the city had accused the Mayor of collaborating with coalition forces. The Qatar-based broadcaster said Mr. al-Jurayfi's car caught fire after the attack.

The attack was certain to have a chilling effect on other Iraqi officials sympathetic to the Americans. One of the members of the newly inaugurated Iraqi Governing Council, handpicked by the U.S. administrator of Iraq, hails from Hadithah. Samir Shakir Mahmoud, the Council member, is a Sunni but was a leading member of the opposition to Saddam Hussein.

Wednesday's attacks were launched on the eve of a banned holiday that marked the 1968 Ba'athist coup that led 11 years later to Mr. Hussein grabbing power. The July 17th celebration was one of six holiday's important to the Ba'athists that was outlawed by the Governing Council in its first official action.

In violence directed at U.S. forces, the American soldier was killed in a rocket-propelled grenade attack on a supply convoy west of Baghdad near the Abu Ghraib prison, a U.S. military spokesman said. The child died when an attacker threw a grenade into a military vehicle guarding a bank in west Baghdad. The U.S. driver was wounded along with four adult Iraqi bystanders, according to a U.S. officer.

"They're killing more Iraqis than they are Americans," the official said.

The U.S. soldiers have come under increasing attacks by suspected loyalists of Mr. Hussein in recent weeks — reaching an average of 12 attacks a day.

A total 33 U.S. soldiers have been killed in hostile action since the U.S. President, George W. Bush, declared an end to major hostilities on May 1.

The Pentagon said that as of Monday 144 U.S. personnel had been killed in combat since the start of the Iraq war. "We need more protection. We've seen enough. We've stayed in Iraq long enough,'' said a U.S. soldier.

After the attack, troops began house-to-house searches in nearby villages. One resident said the bombing was the work of men from the tense cities of Fallujah and Ramadi, farther down the road.

In the extreme south of Baghdad, an explosion badly damaged a U.S. Humvee and three U.S. casualties were seen taken away by an Iraqi witness. The coalition had no information on that incident.

Also on Wednesday, a U.S. Marine died in the southern city of Hilla when he fell from the roof of a building he was guarding, the military said.

The new Governing Council — Iraq's first postwar national body — was meeting again later on Wednesday to discuss security and education matters, said Nouri al-Badran, spokesman for the Iraqi National Accord, which holds several seats on the council.

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