Bush attempts to rally Americans behind war

FORT BRAGG, N.C./BAGHDAD - A year after the United States handed sovereignty back to Iraq, President George W. Bush tried to rally Americans behind the war in the face of a ferocious insurgency which has killed hundreds of US soldiers and eroded his support.

In the latest attack a suicide bomber in Baghdad assassinated a prominent Iraqi parliamentarian and his son and three bodyguards.

"Amid all this violence, I know Americans ask the question: Is the sacrifice worth it? It is worth it, and it is vital to the future security of our country," Bush planned to say. The White House released excerpts of his nationally televised speech from Fort Bragg, North Carolina, where he was to appear surrounded by troops.

No significant shift in course was expected from Bush, despite a steady erosion in his approval ratings, which have fallen to the lowest levels of his presidency partly because of disillusionment over Iraq.

Bush planned to plead for patience, insisting that American troops would stay in Iraq until enough Iraqi military units are trained to combat the insurgency on their own.

Hours before Bush's speech, a bomber struck a convoy in Baghdad and killed elderly lawmaker Dhari Ali al-Fayadh along with his son and three bodyguards.

He was the second member of parliament assassinated since a new government took power in April. He had served as speaker on the first day parliament gathered after elections in January.

"An attack on a man of his age means an attack on all the Iraqi people and national values," Hussein al-Sadr, a Shi'ite cleric and member of parliament, told the chamber.

The Iraqi wing of Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda group claimed responsibility for the attack on a website.

SUICIDE BOMBS

Two American soldiers were also killed in separate suicide car bomb attacks on patrols, bringing to 885 the number of US troops killed in Iraq in the year since sovereignty was granted. A total of 1,735 Americans have died in Iraq since the invasion in March, 2003, with thousands more wounded.

"We have more work to do, and there will be tough moments that test America's resolve," Bush planned to say in his speech "We are fighting against men with blind hatred, and armed with lethal weapons, who are capable of any atrocity."

Bush will cite the Sept. 11 attacks, as a reason for staying the course, though no connection between Saddam Hussein and the 2001 attacks was ever established.

The White House now calls Iraq the central front in the war on terrorism, partly because the insurgency is led by Jordanian Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, who has sworn allegiance to bin Laden.

"The only way our enemies can succeed is if we forget the lessons of Sept. 11, if we abandon the Iraqi people to men like Zarqawi and if we yield the future of the Middle East to men like bin Laden," Bush will say.

In Iraq US Marines pressed an offensive against Sunni Arab insurgents by sending 1000 American troops and 100 Iraqis on a major anti-guerrilla mission in the western Euphrates valley.

Worsening violence over the last two months has put new pressure on Bush after a period when Iraq's January elections and a lull in attacks were presented as signs of success.

"LET FREEDOM REIGN"

A year ago on June 28, Bush scribbled "Let Freedom Reign" on a note handed to him by Condoleezza Rice during a NATO meeting, when his national security adviser informed him a handover ceremony had formally ended the US occupation.

In the following months, 140,000 US troops helped appointed interim leaders hold the vote that produced Iraq's first elected government in 50 years.

But the insurgency waged by both Iraqis and foreign Arabs has become far more deadly since the new government took power in April. Suicide bombings now kill or wound hundreds of Iraqis every week.

A Washington Post-ABC News poll found most Americans did not believe administration statements that gains were being made, although a majority said US troops should stay on.

US statements on Iraq have given mixed messages over the past weeks. Last month, Vice President Dick Cheney said the insurgency was in its "last throes." But Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has warned it may last a decade or more.

British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw acknowledged on Tuesday that the violence in Iraq was "worse than we anticipated."

In other attacks in Iraq a suicide bomber dressed as a policeman blew himself up in a hospital in Musayyib, south of Baghdad, killing three and wounding 13.

A car bomb killed two bodyguards in a failed assassination bid on the chief of traffic police in the northern oil city of Kirkuk and police opened fire on a crowd of demonstrators in the southern city of Samawa wounding seven.

The anniversary of the handover of sovereignty was little noted in Iraq, although President Jalal Talabani received US and British diplomats who offered congratulations.

Ordinary Iraqis said they had little to celebrate.

"What changed since the transfer of sovereignty? Terrorism, killings and bombings became widespread," said civil servant Luai Hadi, 34. "There is no water, services and no power."

- REUTERS