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CANBERRA - Three Iraqi diplomats and their families have asked for humanitarian asylum in Australia, refusing orders to return to their conflict-racked country.
Chief defence attache Brigadier-General Sabah al-Kareen Zebon Fureje and two staff, Colonel Kamal J Askander and Ala' al-Amiri, refused to go home after the defence office within the Canberra Embassy was shut down in mid-December.
The claim may embarrass the Australian Government, which insists that Iraq is making progress towards democracy, despite the country's bloody post-war insurgency.
The bad news yesterday continued unabated in Iraq: seven people died and 12 were wounded in two bombings last night at Suwaira, south of Baghdad; all seven crew members and passengers aboard a United States Marine helicopter were killed, the fifth such aircraft to crash in Iraq in less than three weeks. And with the promised military surge under way in Baghdad, US-Iraqi forces last night raided the Health Ministry and arrested deputy health minister Hakim Zamili. He is a senior member of the political group loyal to anti-American Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr.
Last month US President George W. Bush ordered an extra 21,500 troops to Iraq in a bid to end sectarian violence in Baghdad and Anbar province.
A close US ally, Australia has about 1500 troops deployed in and around Iraq.
"The three Iraqi staff working in the office have completed their postings and their diplomatic accreditation has been ceased," an Australian Foreign Affairs Department spokesman said.
"We understand these officials and their dependants have applied through normal channels for visas to remain."
An Iraqi Embassy spokesman said the three had been stripped of their diplomatic status and were no longer in touch with Ambassador Ghanim T Al-Shibli. He was closeted in meetings with Foreign Ministry officials in Canberra yesterday, while Australian Federal Police detectives visited the embassy. "We have no connection with them at the present time. They became ordinary citizens," the embassy spokesman said.
Australia expelled Iraqi diplomats on the eve of the war against Saddam Hussein's former regime. The mission reopened in November 2004.
Former Iraqi Air Force pilot Askander, his wife, Ibtisam, and their four children feared for their safety following a string of kidnappings and ransom demands against former diplomats on their return to Baghdad, Senator Gary Humphries told the Australian.
Humphries said Askander's brother had been kidnapped by militants and his brother-in-law murdered because he sold alcohol.
The Foreign Affairs spokesman said their request for humanitarian asylum would be dealt with by Australian immigration officials on their individual merits under Australian law.
The granting of a protection visa in 2004 to a former member of Saddam's secret intelligence service outraged the small Iraqi community in Australia, many of whom are on temporary visas.
A Chinese diplomat, Chen Yonglin, successfully defected to Australia in June 2005, straining Canberra's relations with Beijing amid claims of dissident persecution.
Meanwhile, the downing of the US Sea Knight helicopter has fuelled fears that Iraqi insurgents may be using either improved missiles or better tactics.
"The helicopter was flying and passed over us, then we heard the firing of a missile," said Mohammed al-Janabi, a farmer who was speaking less than half a kilometre from the wreckage of the twin-rotor C-46 troop carrier. "The helicopter then turned into a ball of fire. It flew in a circle twice, then it went down."
The US forces in Iraq depend heavily on helicopters because patrols are frequently attacked by bombs in or beside the roads. A claim of responsibility was made by the Islamic State of Iraq, an umbrella group of insurgents including al Qaeda in Iraq, who have said they shot down two other helicopters recently.
US military losses in Iraq have been rising in recent weeks though the overall level of deaths has been remarkably steady, according to the Department of Defence. In 2004, 848 US soldiers were killed and 8002 wounded; in 2005, 846 killed and 5946 wounded; in 2006, 821 killed and 6372 wounded. Almost all US casualties have been suffered in fighting the Sunni insurgents. Bush's belligerent rhetoric in his State of the Union address, suggesting he was going to take on the Shiite militias as well, could lead to a sharp rise in US losses.
But al-Sadr, the nationalist Shiite cleric whom the Mehdi army follows, is determined to avoid a military confrontation with US forces implementing the new security plan to regain control of Baghdad. Sadrist officials say they would allow the US Army into their bastion of Sadr City, home to two million people, but this probably means the militiamen would just go underground.
- REUTERS, INDEPENDENT
