British FM on surprise trip to Iraq; Rumsfeld says no Saddam-Qaeda links

BAGHDAD (AFP) - Britain's Foreign Secretary Jack Straw paid a surprise visit to Iraq amid new controversy over why the United States and Britain went to war against Saddam Hussein's regime.
Prime Minister Iyad Allawi, back from a tour of Western countries, was to address the Iraqi parliament after the Pentagon warned of more operations to crush the insurgency.
US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld meanwhile said he had seen no "strong, hard evidence" linking former Iraqi dictator Saddam with Al-Qaeda, backing away from a key justification for the US-led war on Iraq.
Rumsfeld also warned that there needed to be more action against rebel towns in Iraq to pave the way for planned elections in January, after a massive weekend offensive on Samarra that the US military said killed scores of insurgents and led to the arrest of many more.
Britain's Straw held talks with top British and Iraqi officials in the northern city of Kirkuk before travelling to Kurdistan, where he met Jalal Talabani, leader of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan -- one of the two main political parties in the Kurdish north.
The British embassy said it was unable to reveal further elements about the trip, but that it was not linked to the drama surrounding Ken Bigley, a British engineer held hostage and threatened with beheading by Islamic militants.
Allawi was due to brief the interim parliament on his trip abroad which included stops in Britain and the United States -- the key allies in the war on Iraq -- and discuss reconstruction and preparations for the elections.
Allawi has made security his top priority and has vowed to crush the 17-month insurgency.
In his absence, US and Iraqi forces carried the largest post-war joint operation to reclaim the northern city of Samarra, which had been in the grip of rebels since June.
The offensive, launched Friday, resulted in the death of 127 insurgents and 20 civilians, according to US military figures, although some local officials believe the civilian toll was much higher.
The military also said it arrested 126 insurgents since Friday, as troops continued to comb the city for wanted militants.
"What has to be done in that country is what happened in Samarra over the last 48 hours," Rumsfeld said in Washington on Monday.
Several Iraqi officials have hinted in recent days that the rebel cities of Fallujah and Ramadi may be next on the list.
Fallujah has seen almost nightly raids by US warplanes on suspected hideouts of operatives of Abu Mussab al-Zarqawi, the most wanted man in Iraq and alleged Al-Qaeda representative.
His Tawhid wal Jihad (Unity and Holy War) group has been blamed for a slew of car bombings, kidnappings and beheadings of foreigners.
Many analysts believe militant and Islamist foreign fighters began flocking to Iraq only after the US-led invasion in March 2003.
Iraq's former administrator Paul Bremer said the United States never had enough troops to control the country and that this may have contributed to the current state of lawlessness.
There are about 133,000 US troops deployed currently in Iraq in addition to 23,500 from other countries.
Rumsfeld also said he knew of no concrete intelligence tying Saddam -- who was captured in December and now faces trial on charges of crimes against humanity -- to Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden.
"To my knowledge, I have not seen any strong, hard evidence that links the two," he said.
On the ground, one US soldier was killed and two others injured when their convoy hit a roadside bomb near Baghdad overnight. Based on the latest Pentagon figures, the death brings to 1,056 the number of US troops killed in Iraq since the invasion.
South of Baghdad, four Iraqis were killed Monday in a drive-by shooting in the area of Latifiyah, the site of almost daily attacks on US military convoys, Iraqi security forces, truckers suspected of transporting goods for US forces and foreigners traveling the main north-south roads.
In the capital, two Iraqis were wounded when mortars struck the interior ministry building, while a similar attack targeted the oil ministry without causing casualties and damage.
The capital was scene of double car bombings on Monday that killed 21 and wounded 101 people with one targeting an army recruitment centre near the fortified Green Zone housing the government and the US embassy.
Three car bombs also hit the northern city of Mosul with one going off near a school killing three, including a child.
Elsewhere, the family of a Jordanian kidnapped in Iraq said it received calls from his captors demanding a 500,000-dollar ransom or for his employer to take his place, warning they would otherwise kill the hostage.
An unidentified militant group said it kidnapped Hisham Talab al-Ezza and threatened to kill him within 72 hours unless Starlite ceased operations in Iraq, in a videotape broadcast by Al-Arabiya television Saturday.
Starlite chief Mohammed Sameh al-Ajluni said his company was too small to pay the ransom but that it had already complied with the demands to end operations in Iraq.
Another hostage ordeal ended positively Monday when two Indonesian women were set free at the United Arab Emirates embassy in Baghdad.
They were kidnapped by the Islamic Army in Iraq four days ago along with their two Lebanese employers and six Iraqis who remain in captivity.
But another kidnapping ended with a video showing the execution of two hostages including an Iraqi with Italian residency.
On the political front, Poland's defence ministry said it would soon fix the date for the pullout of its 2,500 troops after President Aleksander Kwasniewski said it would take place by the end of 2005.
Italy's Italian Defence Minister Antonio Martino also said the withdrawal of foreign troops could strengthen democracy.
Both countries are two of Washington's staunchest allies in Iraq, but face strong domestic opposition for their role.