Soldiers killed as US looks to United Nations for aid

BAGHDAD - Two United States soldiers were last night killed in an ambush in northern Iraq.

Another soldier was wounded in the attack by guerrillas firing guns and rocket-propelled grenades at Tall Afur near Mosul. Earlier, assailants with guns and rocket-propelled grenades killed a US soldier guarding a bank in Baghdad.

Washington is considering asking the United Nations to help restore order and contain the guerrilla insurgency.

Four soldiers have been killed in Iraq in the past two days, pushing the deaths from hostile fire to 151.

Four soldiers were wounded in Baghdad when a bomb exploded near their patrol.

In another expression of Iraqi anger, more than 10,000 Shiite Muslim protesters marched through the capital to demand an end to alleged US harassment of Shiite leader Moqtada al-Sadr.



Facing daily attacks, Washington may turn to the UN to try to persuade countries to send soldiers or share costs, running at around US$4 billion ($6.9 billion) a month, diplomats said.

The State Department said Washington was open to giving the UN a bigger role in Iraq, especially if other Governments offered more to peacekeeping and reconstruction.

"We're open to this prospect," said spokesman Richard Boucher. "We're indeed talking about it with other people, but at this point I can't draw to a conclusion."

In his first major report on postwar Iraq, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan said Iraqis did not want democracy imposed by outsiders and rated lawlessness as their main concern.

Annan also envisioned an ambitious UN role in Iraq in the transition to help form a new Iraqi government.

He made clear that role would exclude responsibility for law and order.

- REUTERS

Herald Feature: Iraq