“Elections are the only way to bring Iraq out of the tunnel”, said Brahimi

BAGHDAD, February 12 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) - A U.N. team investigating the feasibility of holding early general elections in Iraq met Thursday, February 12, with Shiite leader Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, as two U.S. soldiers were killed in western Baghdad hours earlier.

Ayatollah Sistani "is sticking to his position and we share his opinion totally because elections are the only way to bring Iraq out of the tunnel”, team leader Lakhdar Brahimi said after two hours of talks with the Shiite leader.

Lakhdar Brahimi and other members of the team traveled to Ayatollah Sistani's heavily-guarded house in the holy city of Najaf, witnesses told Agence France-Presse (AFP).

Brahimi’s statements marks a victory for Ayatollah Sistani, who has spearheaded criticism of U.S. plans to transfer power to an unelected authority in Iraq.

The U.S. wants regional meetings to select a new government, claiming that conditions are not right for elections before the 30 June deadline for handing power over to Iraqis.

The new government is to draft a constitution - with elections postponed until at least the end of 2005.

But Ayatollah Sistani wants an interim constitution to be approved by an elected parliament. He has refused to meet U.S. officials, including the top American administrator, Paul Bremer.

The main Shiite party has given the U.N. team a "scientific study" setting out the case for elections.

Shiites say they make up about 60% of the Iraqi population and correspondents say they want direct elections to reflect their numerical supremacy, according to the BBC News Online.

U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan has said he hopes to announce a decision on Iraqi election plans by the end of February.

Tens of thousands of Iraqis took to the streets of the southern city of Basra last month to support of Sistani's demand for direct elections.

And another top Shiite leader wrote to the U.S. President and British Prime Minister Tony Blair questioning their sincerity over the transfer of power to the Iraqis.

Sunni imams joined forces with Shiites in the speeches of Friday prayers in Baghdad and other Iraqi areas.

Fresh Casualties

In the meantime, two U.S. soldiers were killed and a total of nine other foreign occupied soldiers wounded following a spike in violence, U.S. military officials said.

A mortar round also exploded early Thursday near where Japanese troops are deployed in the southern Iraqi city of Samawa, but there were no casualties, a Japanese official said.

Two U.S. soldiers of the 1st Armored Division were killed and one was wounded by a roadside bomb in western Baghdad late on Wednesday, a U.S. military spokesman said.

The latest deaths bring to 256 the number of American soldiers killed in combat in Iraq since U.S. President George W. Bush declared major offensive over on May 1.

The mortar blast was the first attack in Samawa since Japanese troops deployed in Iraq last Sunday.

The round exploded at around 5:00 am (0200 GMT) in a street near the main road through Samawa, according to a Japanese military official whose contingent is deployed five kilometers (three miles) from the city.

In Madrid, the defense ministry said five Spanish soldiers and an Iraqi interpreter were slightly injured on Wednesday by a home-made bomb near their base in the southern province of Diwaniyah.

The troops, part of a 1,300-strong Spanish contingent serving in Iraq, were on a foot patrol and returning to their base when an explosive device was hurled from a nearby building.

The attacks came as the U.S. troops continue raids and detention campaigns in Iraqi areas, much to the provocation of local inhabitants. The 4th Infantry Division said in a press release it captured 15 individuals suspected of launching attacks against occupation forces.

 Iraqi Paramilitary Killed

Late Wednesday, the U.S. military and the Iraqi police said an Iraqi paramilitary was killed and three U.S. soldiers were wounded in two attacks in the northern oil region of Kirkuk.

Two bombings - on Tuesday and Wednesday - killed nearly 100 Iraqis applying to join the country's U.S.-formed new police force and army.

The recruiters are usually slammed by local inhabitants as traitors collaborating with forcing occupying the oil-rich country.

Anti-American sentiments are rising among ordinary Iraqis, as many call for an end to occupation and U.S. military aggressions against civilians as well.

Hundreds of people took to the streets of the southern city of Amara on January 11, a day after six Iraqis were killed when British troops and Iraqi police opened fire on a jobless rally.