U.S. Army‘s 101st Airborne division soldiers prepare for a training course at dawn near Mosul, Iraq 400 kms north of Baghdad, Thursday, Sept. 25, 2003. PHOTO - TASR/AP

it was scaling back its international staff, dealing a fresh blow to U.S. claims the situation was under control in Iraq. U.N. offices in Baghdad have twice come under attack. But in New York, U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell was upbeat about a new Security Council resolution on rebuilding Iraq, saying major powers were moving closer.

In what was another black day for U.S.-led occupying forces and their Iraqi supporters, Akila al-Hashemi, one of three women on Washington‘s handpicked Iraqi Governing Council, died from wounds suffered in an gun attack five days ago.

Eight soldiers were wounded, three seriously, when their convoy came under attack in the northern city of Mosul, and a Somalian security guard was killed at the Baghdad hotel housing journalists from U.S. television network NBC. Guerrillas opposed to the U.S.-led occupation have targeted Westerners, Iraqis cooperating with Bremer‘s administration, U.S. and British soldiers. They have also tried to sabotage the sprawling infrastructure of a country which holds the second largest oil reserves in the world. Guerrilla attacks have killed 79 U.S. soldiers in Iraq since Washington declared major combat over on May 1. Many more have been wounded.

U.N. Fred Eckhard said 42 international staff remained in Baghdad and 44 in northern Iraq, down from about a hundred, numbers he expected to „shrink further over the next few days“. U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan has agonised over security since a suicide bombing of U.N. Baghdad headquarters last month killed 22 people, including mission head Sergio Vieira de Mello. U.N. sources said they could not rule out an eventual reduction of staff to as few as one or two international staff. The decision was a clear setback to Bush‘s efforts to expand the U.N. role in Iraqi reconstruction in order to persuade more nations to contribute cash and troops.

The White House responded quickly by saying the United Nations still had a vital role to play in Iraq.

Thursday‘s attacks occurred ahead of a report which laid open Bush to further criticism over his main justification for launching the invasion of Iraq in the face of objections from traditional allies, France and Germany, and of Russia. U.S. forces have been searching for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq for more than five months. None have so far been found.

France and Germany want a swifter handover of power to Iraqis as a condition for supporting Washington‘s efforts. The United States says it would be rash to hurry the process.

Reuters