OT - 2100

2100 wasted lives

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20051122/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq_051122190101

Iraq Bomber Kills 17; U.S. Toll at 2,100 By BASSEM MROUE, Associated
Press Writer
39 minutes ago



A suicide car bomber attacked a police patrol Tuesday in the northern
city of Kirkuk, killing at least 17 people, and three U.S. soldiers
died in two separate attacks, pushing the American death toll in Iraq
to 2,100, officials said.

In Saddam Hussein's hometown of Tikrit, insurgents fired a mortar at a
U.S. ceremony attended by top officials to hand over a presidential
palace to Iraqi authorities, sending the U.S. ambassador and top
commander scrambling for cover but causing no injuries.

The attackers in Kirkuk lured the patrol to a busy commercial street by
shooting a policemen, then struck with the suicide bomb as authorities
investigated the shooting, said police Capt. Farhad Talabani. The
bombing took place on a road leaving Kirkuk, 180 miles north of
Baghdad.

Police Brig. Gen. Sarhad Qader gave the casualty figure of 17 dead and
26 wounded but did not say how many were civilians.

Attacks on the security forces in Kirkuk are common. Insurgents last
week in Kirkuk opened fire on a police patrol, killing three officers,
while a roadside bomb a few miles away killed two more police officers.

The U.S. military said a U.S. soldier assigned to the 2nd Marine
Division wask killed after a bomb detonated near his vehicle Monday
near Habaniyah, 50 miles west of Baghdad. There are several U.S. Army
units assigned to the Marine division.

In addition, two soldiers from Task Force Freedom were killed Saturday
by small arms fire while on patrol in Mosul, 225 miles northwest of
Baghdad, another statement said.

As of Tuesday, at least 2,100 members of the U.S. military have died
since the beginning of the Iraq war in 2003, according to an Associated
Press count. At least 1,638 died as a result of hostile action,
according to the military's numbers. The figures include five military
civilians.

The attack on the ceremony in Tikrit, 80 miles north of Baghdad,
occurred as a U.S. colonel was giving a speech. A mortar whistled as it
fell into a field about 300 yards away from the palace, but it failed
to explode, according to an AP reporter at the scene.

U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad and the U.S. commander in Iraq, Gen.
George Casey, briefly went inside the palace, but emerged a few minutes
later to continue the ceremony.

"This was an ineffectual attempt to stop the progress that goes on
every day in Iraq," said Lt. Col. Barry Johnson, a spokesman for the
U.S. command.

Later, Hamad Hamoud Shagtti, the Salahuddin provincial governor,
received a symbolic key to the palace and a deputy governor raised the
Iraqi flag over the complex. They toured the building, which Saddam
ordered built for his mother in 1991 and is considered the largest and
most elaborate of the palaces constructed during his rule.

Johnson said the handover of the palace was an important step forward
in Iraq's development, something that insurgent attacks have done
little to slow down, despite daily violence.

The palace is part of a complex on more than 1,000 acres overlooking
the Tigris River. There are 136 buildings on the property, with a
combined 1.5 million square feet of administrative and living space,
including 18 palaces, the U.S. command said.

The turnover of the complex to the Finance Ministry and the provincial
government was "a landmark event highlighting the increased capability
of the Iraqi government to administer and govern itself," said a
statement by Col. Billy J. Buckner, a spokesman for the Multi-National
Corps-Iraq.

Since it was taken over by U.S. troops in 2003, the palace has served
as a division headquarters for U.S. forces based in the region.

"Although 28 other coalition operating bases have already been turned
over to Iraqi Security Forces control this year, the Tikrit Palace
complex is the most significant transition of real estate thus far,"
the U.S. statement said.

Iraq's anti-corruption commission said Tuesday that members of the
former government who are under investigation will not be allowed to
run in next month's parliamentary elections.

Judge Radhi al-Radhi issued a statement saying there are some
ministers, undersecretaries and directors who are accused of financial
and administrative corruption.

"Since there are financial corruption dossiers for these officials at
the Iraqi special courts, they are not qualified to take part as
candidates in the coming elections," the statement said.

A commission official, who asked not to be identified because he is not
authorized to speak to the press, said Minister of Public Works Nasreen
Berwari, who is the wife of Vice President Ghazi al-Yawer, and Hazin
al-Shaalan, a former defense minister, are among those banned.

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