Occupation forces release Sadoun Hammadi; Two Americans killed, options for authority transfer
One American soldier was killed and two others wounded in a mortar explosion when their patrol was running near Baqouba city, to the north east of Baghdad.
An American military spokesman said that the Iraqi occupation forces and Police mopped up the area after the explosion and arrested two men suspected to be involved in the attack, noting that one of them was carrying a mobile telephone but it is not known if it was used for blowing up the bomb or not.
This explosion came less than one hour after the killing of one American military police member of the first armored contingent, and wounding another in a similar attack in the downtown of Baghdad.
In Falouja, witnesses said that the occupation forces killed a ( 70 year old ) Iraqi farmer after he refused to surrender following cordoning his house situated in Falouja to the south of the city.
In a separate incident the Iraqi police said that two children were wounded at least in an explosion in a primary school in Baghdad.
In another development, the American occupation forces released former chairman of the Iraqi national council, Sadoun Hammadi ( 74 years old), after 9 months in imprisonment. Hammadi returned back home on Saturday and seemed in a good health condition.
The American forces detained Hammadi on May 29th 2003 and remained in Abu Gharib jail in Baghdad and then transferred to a detention center to the south of Um Qaser and settled ultimately in a prison at Baghdad airport.
The American forces detained the chairman of al-Falouja city council, Raed Breisha after he resigned from his post following an attack against the city police that resulted in killing scores of security men. Breisha's deputy said that the man was detained because he did not consult the occupation forces before his resignation.
At the political level, the Iraqi Interim Governing council started discussions of other alternatives to assume authority from the occupation forces by the end of June this year with fewer possibilities to hold early elections.
Member of the council Mahmoud Othman said in press statements that the council wants an agreement on means of forming a leadership to assume the sovereignty, noting that two options exist in this regard. Either to expand the size of the governing council by increasing the members or convening a national conference including all Iraqi forces.
Othman stressed he supports the option of convening a national conference including all Iraqi forces under the auspices of the UN, the US, the European Union and the Arab League. He said that this will be the right step towards national reconciliation.