http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=3772647Polish Major Killed in Iraq, Bush Democracy Call
Thu November 6, 2003 04:53 PM ET
By Andrew Gray
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Guerrillas shot and killed a Polish army officer south of Baghdad on Thursday, the first soldier to die from a multi-national division set up to relieve the pressure on U.S. forces trying to stabilize Iraq. <snip>
Attackers firing guns and rocket-propelled grenades killed one U.S. soldier and wounded two others in an ambush south of Baghdad on Wednesday evening, U.S. Central Command said. That attack brought to 139 the number of U.S. soldiers killed in action since Washington declared on May 1 that major combat was over in the war that ousted Saddam.
Another U.S. soldier was killed on Thursday morning when his truck struck a land mine near the border with Syria, the Army said. It was not clear whether the mine was placed there by guerrillas or was part of security measures at the border. <snip>
Shibley Telhami, a Middle East expert at the University of Maryland in the United States, said Bush's biggest problem was that three years into his term of office Arabs simply did not trust him.
<snip>The United Nations announced on Thursday it had withdrawn the last of its 20 foreign staff from Baghdad, but about 40 international employees still remained in northern Iraq. <snip>