Iraqi town population challenge US attack story

The American occupation command announced that 13 armed men were killed in the small town of Buhrus in the Iraqi eastern province of Ba'qouba by Iraqi police and National Guards after the latter went to search for weapons and foreign fighters who were reported to be there. But Uday al-Katib, correspondent of al-Jazeera TV, reported a different story from the town.

He said he went to Buhrus immediately after the reported fighting and found resistance fighters everywhere. He added that the population told him that only two Iraqi men, a policeman and a civilian, were killed by American fire and these two had nothing to do with the resistance. He continued that he went to the cemetery of the town to verify the case, where he was assured of the authenticity of the population story.

He interviewed masked fighters and some citizens who asserted that there were no foreigners at all in the town, and that clashes took place after the American occupation forces violated an agreement with the representatives of the town that forbids any American solders from entering their town. The fighters repulsed the attempt so the US forces resorted to aerial, tank and artillery bombardment, thus killing two Iraqis and injuring 5 others.

One Iraqi masked fighter told al-Jazeera that Resistance fighters would not fight Iraqi policemen or members of the National Guard. Members of the population and resistance vowed to continue fighting the US occupation forces in order to defend their town and Iraq.

Alawi's Marketing tour and Egyptian editors boycott

Al-Quds al-Arabi daily of London, in a leader [editorial] article, commented on the on-going tour in some Arab countries by Provisional prime minister Iyad Allawi:

"Allawi continued his Arab tour… in an effort to market the new Iraqi regime, normalize relations with Arab countries, and convince neighboring countries, especially Syria, to exert real efforts to close the borders in the face of Arab infiltrators who would like to join resistance forces.

"Arab governments are forced to receive Allawi. They realize that he enjoys the support of America, being its own man and appointee. This is why these governments did not want to close their doors against him for fear of US anger.

"All Arab governments know very well that Dr. Allawi runs what the vast majority of their own citizens, as well as many Iraqis, consider as an illegal government. They also know that Allawi cannot stay in office a single day without the presence of 160,000 US solders. However they do not take into account the opinion of their people. All that matters for them is to gain America's satisfaction, which can only be realized through two gates, the Israeli and now the Iraqi.

"It's quite ironic that in this tour, Allawi is under American physical protection. He is accompanied by six American bodyguards, just like Afghan President Karazai. Obviously , there is nothing surprising in this. The conditions of they're assumption of office and their choice for these posts are identical. Both came to office after an American war that overthrew the government in office and both were living abroad and only moved in on board US tanks

"However, it seems difficult to asses the results of the tour… In Egypt, for instance, Egypt did not reject Allawi's request to offer security help to his government, but it did not respond positively to it and kept its position vague. Editors of Egyptian governmental and non-governmental newspapers turned down Allawi's request to meet with him. Such position couldn't be taken without tacit official willingness.

"We wish that Arab leaders would remind Allawi of another more dangerous infiltration than that of Mujahideen, namely the Israeli infiltration into northern Iraq."

More Kuwaitis accused of preparing to fight US occupiers in Iraq

The Kuwaiti Minister of Interior said Kuwaiti authorities are now interrogating 11 Kuwaitis suspected in an attempt to recruit young fighters to go to Iraq to fight American forces. He was quoted by the Kuwaiti News agency as saying that Kuwaiti authorities are looking for other persons who fled away. Earlier, Kuwaiti authorities announced that they arrested 15 Kuwaiti citizens with plans and weapons preparing to go to Iraq to fight US occupation forces.