Iraq calls for UN to stay, as US death toll spikes

BAGHDAD - The killings of two Americans took the monthly US death toll in Iraq on Monday to more than 100 for the first time in nearly two years, just a week before elections that could cost US President George W Bush's Republicans control of Congress.

Pressure has mounted ahead of the November 7 congressional poll to extract US troops from the bloody turmoil afflicting Iraq since Bush ordered the invasion 3-1/2 years ago. But the Iraqi government, despite open friction with Washington this past week, said it wanted the UN mandate extended by a year.

Speaking shortly after a bomb killed 28 people in a Baghdad Shi'ite slum on a day that saw at least 70 Iraqis killed across the country, Foreign Minister Hoshiyar Zebari told Reuters: "The presence of the Multi-National Force is indispensable for the security and stability of Iraq and of the region at the moment."

Iraq has become central to the congressional election campaign. Bush is rallying his Republic supporters, defending his policy and accusing opposition Democrats of lacking a plan.

"The Democratic goal is to get out of Iraq. The Republican goal is to win in Iraq," he told a rally in the state of Georgia. "This election is far from over."

A Marine killed on Sunday in western Anbar province, where troops are fighting Sunni insurgents, and an unidentified member of the military police shot dead by a sniper in east Baghdad took the US military death toll to 101 in October.

It was 71 last month, and last passed 100 in January 2005. In all, 2814 Americans have died in the Iraq conflict.

Commanders say October's increase is partly due to attacks in the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

The Pentagon also has said insurgents have been motivated by the upcoming US elections, a case Vice President Dick Cheney pressed on Monday.

"Whether it's al Qaeda or the other elements that are active in Iraq, they are betting on the proposition they can break the will of the American people," Cheney told Fox News. "... They're very sensitive to the fact that we've got an election scheduled."

Following strains between Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's Shi'ite-led coalition government and US officials over timetables for steps to bring peace, Bush sent National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley for talks with Iraqi officials.

On Monday, he met Maliki, as well as US ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad and Iraqi security adviser Mowaffak al-Rubaie. Bush and Maliki spoke on Saturday and agreed to boost cooperation.

The United States has 150,000 troops in Iraq, the highest total so far this year.

Pentagon spokesmen say the increase is due to units moving in and out of the war zone, when soldiers cross-train for a period. The number of US troops has been inching higher for weeks due to unit transitions.

Pentagon press secretary Eric Ruff said he did not know if Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld or ground commanders planned to increase the number of troops in Iraq, or make force adjustments after next week's election.

Maliki complained last week that his forces were short of weapons and training but could be on top in just six months, faster than US expectations, if Americans co-operated.

The White House said Hadley's visit had long been planned and called media reporting of the sensitivities in relations between Baghdad and Washington "overblown". Privately, however, top Iraqi officials are expressing profound irritation.

Despite mounting suspicion among the dominant Shi'ite Islamists about Washington's rapprochement with the minority Sunnis dominant under Saddam Hussein, Maliki has set no deadline for US troops to leave. When he took office six months ago, he spoke of reviewing the terms on which they were in Iraq.

Saudi Arabia's ambassador to Washington warned the United States against leaving Iraq abruptly.

"Since America came into Iraq uninvited, it should not leave Iraq uninvited," Prince Turki al-Faisal said after a Washington speech. He added that dividing Iraq based on ethnicity would result in "ethnic cleansing on a massive scale".

In the bloodiest attack on Monday, a bomb killed 28 people and wounded 60 in a square in the Shi'ite Sadr City slum in eastern Baghdad where laborers were gathering in the hope of being hired for casual work, Interior Ministry sources said. Five car bombs in different parts of Baghdad killed 13 people.

Sadr City is a stronghold of cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, who heads the Mehdi Army militia blamed by Sunnis for sectarian killings. The blast tore through food stalls. Scattered clothes and twisted metal lay amid debris and pools of blood.

"They were poor laborers bringing a daily living to their family. Let's have Maliki hear that," one witness said.

While US officials press Maliki to disband Shi'ite militias like the Mehdi Army, he portrays them as followers of the government and says the main threat is Sunni insurgency.

Saddam was in court again on Monday, facing a charge of genocide against the Kurds in the 1980s. On Sunday, he is due to hear the verdict and a possible death sentence in a separate trial, for crimes against humanity involving Shi'ites.

- REUTERS