Powell pays surprise trip to Iraq

BAGHDAD - US Secretary of State Colin Powell has flown into Baghdad on an unannounced visit and told the Iraqi president Washington is committed to helping build democracy despite a steady stream of violence.

Powell, the most senior US official to visit since sovereignty was handed to an interim government last month, arrived a day after a major conference to chart Iraq's political future was delayed and as a hostage execution deadline loomed.

"We are facing challenges in the weeks ahead but we are determined to overcome," Powell said after meeting Iraqi President Ghazi al-Yawar and top US military commanders.

"I ... reaffirmed our determination and commitment to keep working with the interim government as we go about the process of establishing democracy," Powell said of his talks with Yawar.

After a brief lull in violence following the handover of power on June 28, Iraq has faced an increasingly indiscriminate spate of kidnappings and been rocked by a series of suicide attacks, the most recent killing 70 people north of Baghdad.

"The bad guys, the enemy, the army of the darkness, is getting more helpless and hopeless. That's why they are stepping up (these actions)," Yawar told reporters.

Kidnappers holding three Indians, three Kenyans and an Egyptian said in a videotape they would kill one of the hostages by 4 pm on Friday if their demands were not met, and showed a gunmen aiming a rifle at an Indian to make their point.

The Kuwaiti company which employs the seven truckers said on Friday it understood the deadline had been delayed and said it would send an official to negotiate.

Fighting between insurgents and the 160,000 mainly US troops in the US-led multinational force has also continued, particularly around the Sunni Muslim hotspots of Falluja, west of the capital, and Samarra, to the north.

At least 13 Iraqis were killed and 13 wounded in Falluja in fighting between gunmen and US forces that erupted late on Thursday, a doctor at Falluja hospital said. US forces responded with aircraft and artillery strikes.

WORKING TOWARDS ELECTIONS

Powell's visit came a day after Yawar approved postponing by two weeks to August 15 the conference gathering 1,000 Iraqis from across society to unite the diverse nation, quell violence and pave the way for January elections.

Some Iraqi politicians said they were worried elections could now be delayed, but Yawar dismissed such fears.

"We're working around the clock to make sure that (elections) will be held on time," the Iraqi president said.

While battling to keep the political process moving, Iraq's government has also been challenged by a spate of kidnappings targeting scores of foreigners from about two dozen countries.

Most of those seized are truck drivers working for foreign firms delivering supplies to US forces or Iraqi companies. At least eight hostages have been killed - four by beheading.

On Thursday, guerrillas said they had seized a Somali driver and four Jordanians and demanded their employers quit Iraq. On Wednesday, two Pakistani hostages were killed.

The group holding seven Indian, Kenyan and Egyptian truck drivers, who all work for the Kuwait and Gulf Link Transport company, has demanded the firm stop doing business in Iraq.

The father of the Indian hostage, Antaryami, who appeared in Thursday's video with an M-16 assault rifle pointed at his head, said he was distraught.

"I am finished. What can I say? I would rather die myself than have my son die," Ram Murthi told Reuters.

BROADENING FORCES

The hostage crisis has added obstacles to US and Iraqi efforts to broaden multinational forces in the country.

In Saudi Arabia this week, Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi called on Muslim nations to join a proposed force of Islamic troops to help combat the insurgency.

An Islamist militant group calling itself the Islamic Tawhid Group threatened to attack any Muslim country that sent troops.

No Arab nations are now in the US-led coalition. Saudi Arabia, where Powell also visited on his Middle East tour, suggested sending a force of Muslim and other nations. Saudi troops or those from other neighbours would not be included.

One Gulf official said the Saudi proposal was mainly aimed at protecting staff and operations of the United Nations which were pulled out of Iraq after a bombing destroyed the UN Baghdad headquarters that killed 22 in August last year.

A deployment by Muslim nations would be a public relations coup for the United States, which has seen the US-led coalition in Iraq reduced by the withdrawal of the Philippines, Spain, the Dominican Republic, Nicaragua and Honduras.

Powell also held talks with US General George Casey, commander of the multinational force, and US ambassador John Negroponte. The previous most highest-ranking official to visit Iraq after the handover was Powell's deputy, Richard Armitage.

- REUTERS

Herald Feature: Iraq