Iraq lawmaker, 2 US troops killed as Bush to speak

By Peter Graff

BAGHDAD (Reuters) – Suicide bombers killed a prominentIraqi parliamentarian and two U.S. soldiers on Tuesday, butPresident Bush planned a keynote speech to tell Americans itwas vital to fight on to stabilize Iraq.

The White House billed the speech as a major effort by Bushto make his case on Iraq at a critical time, with Democrats andsome members of his Republican Party in the U.S. Congresspressuring him to show results or withdraw U.S. troops.

“The stakes are high,” said White House spokesman ScottMcClellan, adding that Bush would describe the Iraqi insurgencyas a “dangerous enemy that seeks to weaken our resolve.”

Bush was expected to mark a year since Washington formallyhanded over sovereignty to Iraqis by calling on Americans tostay the course in his speech to the nation surrounded bytroops at Fort Bragg, North Carolina.

Hours before Bush was to speak, two U.S. soldiers werekilled in separate suicide car bomb attacks on patrols.

Their deaths brought to 885 the number of U.S. troopskilled in Iraq in the year since sovereignty was granted, morethan the 856 who died in the 15 months of the U.S.-led invasionand formal occupation that preceded it.

U.S. MARINES PRESS OFFENSIVE

U.S. Marines pressed an offensive against Sunni Arabinsurgents by sending 1,000 U.S. troops and 100 Iraqis on amajor anti-guerrilla mission in the western Euphrates valley.Sunni Arabs, a minority in Iraq, held sway under SaddamHussein.

In Baghdad, a suicide car bomber struck a convoy and killedlawmaker Dhari Ali al-Fayadh along with his son and threebodyguards, making him the second member of Iraq’s parliamentassassinated since a new government took power in April.

He was the oldest member of parliament and had served asits speaker on the first day it gathered after elections inJanuary.

“An attack on a man of his age means an attack on all theIraqi people and national values,” Hussein al-Sadr, a Shi’itecleric and member of parliament, told the chamber.

The Iraqi wing of Osama bin Laden’s al Qaeda group claimedresponsibility on a Web site for the attack.

Worsening violence over the last two months has put newpressure on Bush after a period when Iraq’s January electionsand a lull in attacks were presented as signs of success.

A year ago on June 28, Bush scribbled “Let Freedom Reign”on a note handed to him by Condoleezza Rice during a NATOmeeting, when his then national security adviser informed him ahandover ceremony had formally ended the U.S. occupation ofIraq.

In following months, Washington’s 140,000 troops helpedappointed interim leaders hold the vote that produced Iraq’sfirst elected government in 50 years.

INSURGENCY MORE DEADLY

But the insurgency waged by Sunni Arabs — both Iraqis andsome foreigners — has become far more deadly since theShi’ite- and Kurdish-led government took power in April.Suicide bombings now kill or wound hundreds of Iraqis everyweek.

A Washington Post-ABC News poll found most Americans didnot believe administration statements that gains were beingmade, although a majority said U.S. troops should stay on.

Rice, now secretary of state, said Bush would not waver.

“This president has always lived by his convictions and hisvalues, not by what he sees in the polls. He is going to go tothe American people who elected him just six months ago andtell them again why it is important that we finish the job inIraq,” she told ABC’s “Good Morning America” show.

U.S. statements on Iraq have given mixed messages over thepast weeks. At the end of May, Vice President Dick Cheney saidthe insurgency was in its “last throes.” But Defense SecretaryDonald Rumsfeld said on Sunday it may last a decade or more.

British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said on Tuesdayviolence was “serious” in Iraq. “It is worse than weanticipated,” he told reporters.

Other attacks on Tuesday hit Iraqis. A suicide bomberdressed as a policeman blew himself up in a hospital inMusayyib, south of Baghdad, killing three and wounding 13.

A car bomb killed two bodyguards in a failed assassinationbid on the chief of traffic police in the ethnically dividednorthern oil city of Kirkuk and police opened fire on a crowdof demonstrators in the southern city of Samawa wounding seven.

The anniversary of the handover of sovereignty was littlenoted in Iraq, although President Jalal Talabani, a Kurd,received U.S. and British diplomats who offeredcongratulations.

Ordinary Iraqis said they had little to celebrate.

“What changed since the transfer of sovereignty? Terrorism,killings and bombings became widespread,” said civil servantLuai Hadi, 34. “There is no water, services and no power.” (Additional reporting by Omar Anwar and Lutfi Abu Aun inBaghdad, Aref Mohammed in Kirkuk, Hamid Fadhil in Samawa, Samial-Jumaili in Kerbala, and Adam Entous and Sue Plemming inWashington)