Two American soldiers, one Iraqi killed in an explosion

The American occupation forces in Iraq announced the killing of two of its soldiers with one Iraqi in a bomb explosion implanted on a road to the west of the Iraqi capital Baghdad, yesterday. An American military spokesman said that one American soldier was also wounded in the explosion which took place near al-Khaledeyah town.

One Iraqi soldier was wounded yesterday as a result of a bomb explosion when an American military vehicle was running in Baqouba city to the northern east of Baghdad. The American forces carried out research operations in the region and announced through loudspeakers awards for those who would give information about the people responsible for the attacks against the American forces.

Meantime, gunmen fired 33 mortar shells and five missiles at Abu Gharib prison, to the west of Baghdad, on Wednesday evening. This prison is considered the largest center of detentions used by the American in Iraq.

One American military spokesman said that the occupation forces responded to the sources of the fire and killed one armed man and detained 55 persons for investigation.

In New York, diplomats at the UN said the secretary general Kofi Annan decided to oppose the making of elections in Iraq before transferring authorities to the Iraqis on June 30. He will also postpone an alternative for the nearby political future for the country.

The UN chief Kofi Annan was due to have met yesterday his special envoy to Iraq, al-Akdar al-Ibraheimi, who will brief him on the results of his talks in Iraq and will give him alternatives for founding a provisional Iraqi government that will assume authority when it is handed over by the occupation forces.

Meanwhile, Shiite clergy in Iraq criticized the opposition of the American administrator of Iraq Paul Bremer to the idea that Islam should be "the main source for legislation."

Muqtada al-Sader criticized Bremer's announcement and threatened the Americans to declare a revolution against them. A statement issued by their office said that Bremer's statements are but a flagrant intervention in the national affairs, noting that "putting Iraq under occupation is not enough as a justification to interfere in the will of the Iraqis."

For his part, Sheikh Abdul Mahdi al-Karbalai, the secretary of the Shiite Clergy, Ayatullah Ali al-Seisatni, in Kerbalaa said that "Islam is the base for legislation and this is our natural right because we are the Muslim majority for a minority of other religions." On the other hand, a high ranking Kurdish official yesterday renewed demand to annex the oil- rich Karkouk in the north to the three governorates in Kurdistan. Fouad Masoum of the Kurdistani national federation led by Jalal al-Talibani said in a press conference that Karkouk is in a city in the heart of the conflict but the problem can be solved by a census.

He added that such a census can not be held "before the return back of the displaced Kurds and departure of persons who stayed there," in remarks to the Arabs living in the city.