[A-List] Iraq: the quagmire deepens

["Michael Keaney" <michael.keaney@xxxxxx>]

Four US soldiers found shot dead
ROBERT H REID, Baghdad
The Herald, June 22 2004

Insurgents gunned down four US service members west of Baghdad, as Iraq
resumed oil exports, six days after pipelines carrying crude oil to the
Basra terminal on the Gulf were blasted.

Iraqi officials have announced stepped up measures to protect the oil
industry - the foundation of the nation's economy.

A videotape delivered yesterday to Associated Press Television News showed
four Americans in uniform lying dead in what appeared to be a walled
compound in Ramadi, an insurgent stronghold 60 miles west of Baghdad.

The bodies had no flak vests - mandatory for US troops operating in
contested areas - and at least one was missing a boot. One fieldpack was
left open next to a body as if the attackers had looted the dead before
fleeing.

Brigadier General Mark Kimmitt, coalition deputy operations chief, confirmed
the killings but gave few details. He said a US quick reaction force found
the bodies after the troops failed to report to their headquarters as
required.

American officials had been concerned about the deteriorating security
situation in Ramadi, located along a belt of Sunni militancy running
westward from Baghdad along the Euphrates river.

Most of the kidnappings of foreigners over the past two months are believed
to have occurred along that belt.

In Seoul, the South Korean government said it would go ahead with plans to
send another 3000 troops to Iraq despite a threat by an Islamic extremist
group to kill a South Korean man seen begging for his life on a videotape
broadcast on Sunday night by the Arab satellite television station al
Jazeera.

"Korean soldiers, please get out of here," the man, Kim Sun-il, screamed in
English. "I don't want to die. I don't want to die. I know that your life is
important, but my life is important."

Kim, 33, who works for a trading company in Baghdad, was believed to have
been kidnapped about 10 days ago. The kidnappers claimed to be from the
Monotheism and Jihad group led by Jordanian-born terrorist Abu Musab
al-Zarqawi, who is believed to have ties to al Qaeda.

Kim's tearful mother, Shin Young-ja, told YTN television news station. "The
government should do whatever it can to save my son's life. Time is running
out."

Her son, a devout Christian who is the youngest of eight brothers and
sisters, studied Arabic as well as English in South Korea. He planned to
return to South Korea in July to attend his father's 70th birthday.

Once the deployment is complete, South Korea will be the largest coalition
partner after the US and Britain. South Korea already has 600 military
medics and engineers in the southern city of Nasiriyah.

South Korean medics in Nassiriya suspended free medical services to Iraqi
patients in protest at the kidnapping. Hundreds of protesters attended a
candlelight vigil in Seoul to demand the government reverse its decision to
send soldiers to Iraq.

Kim was seized in Falluja where, on Saturday, a US airstrike destroyed a
house, which the United States said was a hideout for the al-Zarqawi group.
Kimmitt said the attack killed "key personnel in the Zarqawi network"
although he would not confirm that any foreign fighters were among the dead.

Iraqi officials in Falluja, long one of the centres of anti-American
militancy, maintain that the attack killed only Iraqi civilians. The Iraqi
health ministry said at least 16 people died.

The recent kidnappings and attacks appear aimed at undermining the interim
Iraqi government set to take power on June 30, when the US-led occupation
formally ends. US and Iraqi officials have vowed to go ahead with the
transfer despite the violence.

Dan Senor, coalition spokesman, said that by the end of the week, all
government ministries would be under full Iraqi control.

Iyad Allawi, interim prime minister, has promised to crush the terrorist
threat and said his administration was considering martial law in some areas
to restore law and order.

"They are trying to destroy our country and we are not going to allow this,"
Allawi said.

Elsewhere, a roadside bomb exploded about 30 miles south of Mosul, killing
four Iraqi contractors and wounding four others.

Resumption of Iraqi oil exports followed intense efforts to repair the
damaged pipeline. The country's other major export line, which runs from the
northern oilfields in Kirkuk to the Turkish port of Ceyhan, has been out of
service since May 27 due to sabotage.

Coalition officials said that tankers were being loaded as of yesterday
morning at Basra port. Analysts said halting exports costs Iraq about £35m
in lost oil revenue daily - money on which it depends for reconstruction
efforts after the June 30 handover. -AP