The U.N. Security Council unanimously extended the mandate for the 160,000- strong U.S.-led coalition in Iraq for 12 more months on Tuesday, as Secretary-General Kofi Annan proposed an international conference at a venue outside the war-torn country to forge reconciliation among Iraq’s political parties.
Promoting what may be the most controversial issue to face the Bush administration, Annan said that Iran and Syria should be included in efforts to stabilize Iraq.
“The two countries have a role to play, and they should become part of the solution,” he told reporters, reflecting strong international momentum behind a broader approach to Iraq’s strife.
The Iraq Study Group, the independent, bipartisan U.S. panel that is wrapping up an eight- month search for alternatives, has been discussing whether to reach out to Tehran and Damascus.
But on the eve of talks between President Bush and Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, U.S. officials once again appeared to reject that option.
In a surprise move, the panel heard last-minute testimony from Annan and Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., a strong advocate of sending more troops to Iraq. The 10-member panel asked McCain to talk to them in a hastily organized teleconference.
Iraq update
Developments
American soldiers fought with suspected insurgents in Ramadi, 70 miles west of Baghdad, killing six Iraqis, including an infant, the U.S. military said.
Videotape footage obtained by AP Television News appears to show the wreckage of a U.S. single-seat F-16CG jet in the farm field where it crashed Monday, 20 miles northwest of Baghdad, with the remains of an American serviceman with a tangled parachute nearby. U.S. forces investigating the crash said insurgents had reached the site before American forces, and the pilot is missing.
A roadside bomb killed three civilians in Shmesiyya village, about 30 miles northwest of Baqubah, the capital of Diyala province, Diyala police said.
Three gunmen in a car killed a vegetable vendor in al-Amal al-Shaabi Street in west Baghdad, police said.
Two car bombs exploded near the morgue at al-Yarmouk hospital in Baghdad, killing three civilians and one policeman and wounding 19 civilians, police said.
The morgue in Kut reported it received two bodies that police had found in the Tigris River in Suwayra, about 25 miles south of Baghdad. They were blindfolded with hands and legs tied and had been shot in the head and mutilated.
Two civilians were killed in a drive-by shooting in Dala Abbas village, about 15 miles northeast of Baqubah, Diyala police said.
The Interior Ministry said police found 36 corpses in Baghdad during the day. Many of the bodies had been blindfolded, handcuffed and tortured.
Diyala police said they found 11 bullet-riddled bodies around Baqubah.
Iraqi police found a body just south of Baghdad on the Kut-Baghdad highway. The body belonged to one of eight people kidnapped nearby Monday night.
Casualties
No new American military deaths were reported Tuesday.
As of Tuesday, at least 2,881 members of the U.S. military have died since the beginning of the Iraq war in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count.
