Iraqi insurgents hit back after Bush says US operation in 'new phase'

BAGHDAD, Feb 3 (AFP) - Iraqi insurgents hit back Thursday with raids that killed 24 people after US President George W. Bush said American forces would give Iraqi security forces greater responsibility in countering rebels.
Twelve soldiers were killed in an ambush in northern Iraq on Wednesday and other attacks were staged across the country on Thursday -- ending a brief lull in the rebel assault after the first free election in five decades.
Highlighting Sunday's election in his annual State of the Union speech, Bush said "the new political situation in Iraq opens a new phase of our work in that country."
He added: "We will increasingly focus our efforts on helping prepare more capable Iraqi security forces, forces with skilled officers, and an effective command structure.
"As those forces become more self-reliant and take on greater security responsibilities, America and its coalition partners will increasingly be in a supporting role."
The mother of a US marine who was killed in Iraq and an Iraqi rights activist tearfully hugged each other as the president honoured those "who died for our freedom" in a joint session of the US Congress.
Bush, who ordered the March 2003 invasion to oust Saddam Hussein, rebuffed mounting demands to set a timetable to withdraw the 150,000 US troops in Iraq.
But the new insurgent assaults over the past 24 hours highlighted the enormous task facing the new Iraqi security forces in coming months.
Rebels slayed 12 Iraqi soldiers, who guarding oil pipelines, near the oil-rich northern city of Kirkuk on Wednesday.
On Thursday morning, one Iraqi was killed and four were wounded as they drove to work on a US base at Baquba, an insurgent stronghold north of Baghdad.
In northern Iraq, a mortar attack on a US position fell short and killed two civilians and wounded six in Tall Afar, west of the flashpoint city of Mosul, the US military said.
North of Baghdad, three Iraqi soldiers were killed and three wounded in a bomb attack in Yathrib. A soldier and a woman were killed in a bomb blast targeting an army convoy at Shorgat and the body of a driver working for the US military was found in the Tuz region.
In a rare case of civilians fighting back, villagers of Al-Mudhiryah, south of Baghdad, killed five insurgents who attacked them for taking part in the elections, police said.
Two US marines were also killed Wednesday.
While the vote count advanced at a snail's pace -- with no result now expected until well into next week -- Iraqi politicians pursued their negotiations on the distribution of posts in the next government.
The UN envoy to Iraq, Ashraf Qazi, expressed hope that the Sunni parties which boycotted the election would take part in talks to draw up a constitution, following talks with Mohsen Abdel Hamid, leader of the Islamic Party.
Many Sunni groups ordered followers to boycott the election, which is expected to see the majority Shiite majority take the lead role in government.
Shiite leaders have proposed a deal which would see a Shiite prime minister leading the government and a Sunni president.
But the negotiations were complicated by the announcement from Kurdish leader Jalal Talabani that he would be the official Kurdish candidate to become prime minister or president in the new government.
Interim prime minister Iyad Allawi announced Wednesday that he had also started talks with Sunni leaders in a bid to persuade those who boycotted the election to join new negotiations on a constitution.
Sunni political groups have sought a timetable for US-led troops to pull out as a condition for joining the political process.
The main Sunni religious organisation, the Committee of Muslim Scholars, dashed reconciliation hopes on Wednesday when it said the election had been illegitimate.
"These elections lack legitimacy because a huge portion of the population boycotted and this tells us the the national assembly and the coming government will not have the legitimacy required for writing the constitution, or concluding security and trade agreements," the committee said.
Hundreds of people staged a demonstration in the northern city of Hawijah to protest the lack of ballot papers during the election.
The northern region is riven with ethnic divisions between the majority Kurds, and Arabs and Turkmen and the Arab demonstrators said the lack of ballot papers was a deliberate move to stop them voting.
Meanwhile, seven British soldiers will face court martial over the murder of an Iraqi civilian, British Attorney General Peter Goldsmith announced in London.
The men will be charged with murder and violent disorder.
Three British troops are already facing a court martial for allegedly abusing Iraqi civilians at a base in the southern city of Basra.

02/03/2005 14:38 GMT - AFP