Britain on Wednesday denied it is at odds with the United States over the powers of a new Iraqi government as deadly violence dogged the countdown to the coalition’s June 30 deadline for the handover.
At least 18 Iraqis and two Russians were killed in separate incidents, at least 13 of them in clashes in the central holy city of Najaf as US troops pressed a more than month-old offensive against Shiite Muslim radicals.
In London, Prime Minister Tony Blair insisted he is in full agreement with Washington that coalition troops will remain under US command even after the formal end of the occupation.
”We are both absolutely agreed that there should be full sovereignty transferred to the Iraq people, and the multinational force should remain under American command,” Blair told British MPs.
He made a distinction between strategic decision-making and operational command, saying that while the first will be given over to the sovereign post-June 30 administration, the latter will remain with coalition commanders.
”There is absolutely no doubt at all that the new Iraqi government has to have full sovereignty … that the ultimate strategic and political decision-making passes to the Iraqi government,” he said.
”After June 30, of course, once strategic decisions have been made, the running of any operation is under the multinational force and the commanders of that force.”
On Tuesday, Blair had sparked talk of a rift with Washington by suggesting that the new Iraqi government would have a veto over major operations, like the month-long offensive launched by US marines against Sunni Muslim insurgents in their bastion of Fallujah earlier this year after the killing of four US contractors.
His comments appeared to be contradicted by US Secretary of State Colin Powell who insisted later on Tuesday that US commanders would have the ultimate say, even if there was disagreement with the Iraqi leadership.
”If it comes down to United States armed forces … in some way accomplishing their mission in a way that might not be in total consonance with what the Iraqi interim government might want to do at a particular moment in time, US forces remain under US command,” said Powell.
But the controversy sparked by the apparent rift between the two key allies refused to go away, with another leading member of Iraq’s coalition-installed interim leadership saying it is vital that the post-June 30 administration should have a sovereign power of veto over coalition military operations.
”It is written that the new government will be consulted” about the presence of the US-led occupation force, but ”we want the government’s opinion to be necessary and binding”, said Sunni elder statesman Adnan Pachachi.
”In other words the multinational force must come to Iraq with the permission of the Iraqi government and its movements in the country must be authorised by our executive,” he told the Rome daily La Repubblica.
The issue has more than symbolic significance for the Americans as they press their offensive against the outlawed militia of Shiite radical leader Moqtada al-Sadr.
Thirteen Iraqis were killed and 33 wounded in fighting early on Wednesday between al-Sadr’s Mehdi Army militia and US soldiers in the huge Shiite cemetery in Najaf, medics and militia commanders said.
The coalition’s deputy director of operations, Brigadier General Mark Kimmitt, said a ”very large number” of militiamen had been killed in overnight clashes in Najaf and Shiite districts of Baghdad.
Asked to put a figure on the death toll, Kimmitt said only that it was ”fewer than 100”.
US troops also detained a key lieutenant of al-Sadr and three aides in dawn raids around the holy city, a spokesperson for the radical cleric said.
The operations came as the radicals traded accusations with US commanders over who was to blame for a mortar round that damaged the city’s Imam Ali mausoleum, which is revered by Shiites around the world.
Al-Sadr aides insisted they had proof that the mortar round was American, although a coalition spokesperson said he was unaware of any fighting in the area involving US troops.
The deaths of the two Russians in an attack on their vehicle in south Baghdad came barely a month after a colleague was gunned down and prompted their employer, energy giant Interenergoservice, to order its remaining 200 staff out of Iraq.
Two Iraqis were also killed in the ambush at a bridge 300m from the Dora power plant, which was being rebuilt by the firm.
”The decision has been taken to evacuate all our staff,” the company’s acting director, Alexander Rybinsky, said in Moscow.
Russia, which has no troops in Iraq and opposed the US-led invasion, has repeatedly urged its citizens to leave the country.
But Interenergoservice’s announcement that it was leaving sparked warnings from interim Electricity M nister Aiham al-Samarrai of a major crisis for Iraq’s ailing power network. — Sapa-AFP
Blair jumps the gun on Iraqi veto