Iraq Violence Claims More Lives

The Americans have pledged by July 15th to set up a political council of 25 to 30 Iraqis that will appoint heads of ministries and be consulted on major decisions taken by the U.S. led provisional authority.

"The voice of freedom is upon the land," he said. "This is good news."

However, an Iraqi cleric has issued a religious edict, or fatwa, denouncing American plans to install a hand-picked constitutional council to draft laws for the new Iraq. The cleric, Ali al-Sistani, is considered a moderate, reports The New York Times. His fatwa could signal growing frustration with U.S. rule.

U.S. troops have been increasingly targeted in recent weeks, raising fears that their mission will become mired by a guerrilla-style insurgency. At least 20 American and six British troops have been killed by hostile fire since President Bush declared the end of major combat in Iraq on May 1.

But Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld insists that U.S. troops aren't getting bogged down in a "quagmire" operation in Iraq. He dismisses comparisons of the Iraqi operation to the U.S. involvement in Vietnam.

On Tuesday, assailants traveling in a vehicle in the Mustansiryah neighborhood of central Baghdad fired a rocket propelled-grenade at a U.S. military vehicle, destroying it and likely causing casualties, Iraqi witnesses said. Two soldiers were seen evacuated on stretchers.

Also Tuesday, witnesses said another rocket-propelled grenade slammed into a U.S. truck on a road 12 miles south of Baghdad. The witnesses said that attack caused four casualties but there was no immediate confirmation from the military.

Iraqi civilians said the explosion late Monday in Fallujah was caused by a missile or bomb strike, but American soldiers at the scene disputed that account, saying it was likely caused when explosives hidden at the site went off.

In Fallujah, witnesses said the blast took place just before 11 p.m. Monday in a small cinderblock building in the courtyard of the al-Hassan mosque. The explosion blew out the walls and took down the roof of the structure.

Hours after the explosion, dozens of people gathered around the destroyed mosque shouting anti-American slogans amid the rubble.

"There is no God but Allah, America is the enemy of God," they chanted, as a crane lifted large pieces of concrete from the site. An eyewitness said that after the evening prayer, he heard aircraft hovering overhead and then heard the sound of the explosion.

Fallujah, 35 miles west of Baghdad, has been a hotbed of anti-American activity and scene of several confrontations between U.S. troops and insurgents. U.S. soldiers shot and killed 20 protesters in April, provoking widespread resentment.

In the continuing political fallout over prewar intelligence on Iraq's alleged arsenal of weapons of mass destruction, a British opposition leader said Prime Minister Tony Blair should answer lawmakers' questions about the handling of intelligence.

Charles Kennedy, leader of the Liberal Democrats, said Blair's refusal to testify before a parliamentary committee was increasing the pressure for an independent investigation. They government has been accused of exaggerating the threat of Iraqi weapons in making a case for military action.
According to a new survey, Americans are less certain that the teams hunting weapons of mass destruction will find any. The CNN-USA Today-Gallup poll of 1,003 adults, taken over the weekend, shows only 53 percent believe weapons will be found — down from 84 percent in March.

Sixty percent do not believe the Bush administration deliberately misled the public about the Iraqi threat, but 53 percent say it would matter a great deal if they were misled. The poll's margin of error is plus or minus three percentage points.