Anti-American attacks are on the rise across Iraq

BAGHDAD, July 19 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – Several U.S. soldiers were reported killed in separate attacks in Iraq Saturday, July 19, as U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell admitted it would take "some time" to stem attacks against U.S. troops in Iraq.

This came as a U.N. report urged the U.S.-led troops to set out a specific timetable for ending the occupation o Iraq.

A U.S. soldier, whose unit is based in Baghdad, was killed in a pre-dawn rocket-propelled grenade and small arms attack in a wealthy Baghdad neighborhood, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported quoting an American military spokesman.

In another separate attack, Al-Jazeera correspondent reported that a U.S. military convoy came under attacked in the eastern Iraqi province of Diyala, leaving "a number" of American soldiers killed and injured as well as seven armored vehicles destroyed.

Witnesses told the correspondent that clashes between the U.S. troops and the attackers left 4 of the latter dead.

Al-Jazeera correspondent said that the U.S. army strongly denied the report, adding that the residents of the city confirmed the death of four Iraqis who were later laid to rest.

He also quoted eyewitnesses as saying that two U.S. soldiers were injured in another attack on U.S. military checkpoint in Mosul and that the four attackers were killed in the operation in which machine guns and hand grenades were used.

At least 36 U.S. soldiers have been killed in Iraqi resistance attacks since May 1 when United States President George Bush declared an end to major combat operations in Iraq.

The attack followed the killing of another U.S. soldier Friday in an explosion targeting his light armored vehicle near Fallujah, a trouble spot west of Baghdad, and comes as the latest challenge to flagging U.S. morale.

"Time"

Anan said "daily living conditions have not improved, at least for those living in urban areas, and may have got worse" since the occupation of Iraq

Meanwhile, Powell admitted it would take some time to stem the "guerrilla-type" attacks, echoing similarly bleak assessments from U.S. civil administrator Paul Bremer and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld.

Powell said Washington was "not shocked or surprised" by the hit-and-run attacks and ambushes.

"We think it will take a while before we finally defeat all the remnants of the Baath party and all of the Fedayeen (loyalist militiamen) and other criminal elements that might be within the country," he told the Middle East service of Radio Monte Carlo.

"It'll take some time to do because they're not standing in ranks waiting to be fought, they are hiding. But they will be defeated," he vowed.

Iraqis' frustration at the time taken to restore basic services and get rebuilding work underway is matched by the frustration of U.S. troops, many of whom have been away from home for months and feel they are getting bogged down in a guerrilla war with no end in sight.

Pullout

This comes as the United Nations said that the U.S.-led forces needed to provide a timeframe for introducing a sovereign government and leaving Iraq.

"There is a pressing need to set out a clear and specific sequence of events leading to the end of military occupation," U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan said in the report to be delivered to the U.N. Security Council next week.

"It is important that Iraqis are able to see a clear timetable leading to the full restoration of sovereignty," he stressed.

The lack of a homegrown and democratically elected Iraqi government and the imposition of a U.S.-chosen interim Governing Council rank at the top of a litany of Iraqi complaints surrounding the U.S.-led occupation.

They are marginally trumped by the lack of electricity and water and a security situation that leaves most of the population paralyzed by fear.

Annan warned that an externally imposed government would not work.

"The principal message" is that "democracy could not be imposed from outside" and that it must originate inside Iraq, Annan said in the 22-page report, which he will present to the Security Council Tuesday, July 22.

The report blasts the failure of the "coalition" to master the fractious security situation and restore basic services.

"Security, or the lack of it, affects every aspect of life in Iraq today in a fundamental way.

"Above all, my special representative's contacts expressed deep concern about the precarious -- some believed deteriorating -- security situation, particularly in Baghdad, " said the U.N. chief.

He underlined that "daily living conditions have not improved, at least for those living in urban areas, and may have got worse" since the occupation began more than three months ago.

No Victory

In a related development, Americans are becoming less confident of the success of  the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, according to a poll released Friday by Time Magazine and CNN.

Thirty-nine percent of poll respondents said the U.S. military campaign has been successful, down from 52 percent in a Time poll taken in late March, shortly after the start of the war.

The poll also confirmed a drop in President George W. Bush's approval rating to pre-war levels, echoing findings released last week by Newsweek and The Washington Post and ABC television.

The new poll calculated Bush's approval rating at 55 percent, down eight points since May.

A majority still believes he is doing a good job dealing with Iraq -- 55 percent -- but those numbers also dropped from 69 percent who held that opinion in May.

The poll surveyed 1,004 U.S. adults on July 16 and 17 and carried a margin of error of plus or minus 3.1 percent.