Iraq

April's death toll near invasion's

The coalition appears to be moving closer to a major military confrontation in Fallujah and Najaf.

BAGHDAD - Ten U.S. troops were killed in combat across Iraq and two died in accidents, the military announced Sunday.

That brought this month's death toll to at least 99 troops, approaching the number, 115, who were killed between the March 2003 start of the invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein last year and May 1, when President Bush declared that major combat operations were over.

Until now, the single-month record for U.S. troops killed was 82, in November. Around 700 U.S. servicemen have died in Iraq.

Over the weekend, at least 40 Iraqis were killed, bringing the Iraqi death toll in April to more than 1,050.

With no sign of a breakthrough in talks with rebels in Fallujah and Najaf, the leader of the U.S. occupation appeared to move closer Sunday to a military showdown, saying that the rebels' failure to submit to U.S. demands would necessitate decisive action against those who "want to shoot their way to power."

"They must be dealt with, and they will be dealt with," said L. Paul Bremer, breaking a week of silence on the confrontation with Sunni Muslim insurgents in Fallujah and with Muqtada al-Sadr, an anti-U.S. Shiite cleric, in Najaf.

Bremer spoke of the need to bring an early end to the standoffs, to return Iraq to the political path the United States has mapped out, starting with the formal return of sovereignty on June 30. But he said Iraqi security forces will not be ready to protect the country when power is handed over.

Meanwhile, Spain's new prime minister ordered the withdrawal "in the shortest time possible" of 1,300 Spanish troops from the country.

In the bloodiest encounter of the weekend, five Marines were killed near the Syrian border in a daylong firefight near Husaybah with a force of 120 to 150 insurgents armed with machine guns and rocket-propelled grenades.

The same morning, a soldier from the 1st Cavalry Division, which formally took control of Baghdad last week, was killed and two were injured when their M1-A1 Abrams tank rolled over in a northern section of the city. Rollovers involving the 63-ton tank are rare, and the division has ordered a safety investigation.

A half-hour later, another 1st Cavalry Division soldier was killed when his convoy hit a roadside bomb in eastern Baghdad. In the evening, three soldiers from the 1st Armored Division were shot to death in an ambush near the southern town of Diwaniyah.

In addition, a Marine was killed "by enemy action" Saturday in western Anbar province.

In northern Iraq, a 1st Infantry Division soldier was electrocuted while working on a generator at a military base near Samarra.

The deaths occurred the same day the military abruptly closed sections of major highways to all traffic except military and contractor vehicles, severely slowing movement to and from the capital.

The military announced that the highway to Jordan was closed at Baghdad's western entrance. The main route north was closed for a 42-mile stretch outside the capital, and a 90-mile section of the main southern highway connecting Baghdad with Basra and Kuwait was shut down.

Persistent attacks on convoys have led to shortages of food and other essential supplies on American military installations and inside the headquarters of the U.S.-led occupation authority.

The violence threatens to hamstring U.S. reconstruction efforts. More than 1,500 foreign engineers and building contractors have fled Iraq for fear of being abducted or killed, Iraqi Housing Minister Bayan Baqer said Sunday. Some 40 percent of the military's food, water and fuel supplies are delivered by private contractors.

In unusually blunt comments, Bremer said the fighting across the country this month exposed the depth of the problems inside the security forces.

"Events of the past two weeks show that Iraq still faces security threats and needs outside help to deal with them. Early this month, the foes of democracy overran Iraqi police stations and seized public buildings in several parts of the country," he said. "Iraqi forces were unable to stop them."

"It is clear that Iraqi forces will not be able, on their own, to deal with these threats by June 30 when an Iraqi government assumes sovereignty," Bremer said in a statement issued by the U.S. coalition.

The New York Times, quoting unnamed Bremer aides, reported that Bremer has worked intensively behind the scenes to allay impatience within the U.S. military command over the standoffs and to give Iraqi negotiators as much time as possible to find a peaceful solution. But the aides say Bremer, too, believes that meeting the June 30 handover date may require a decisive show of force, at least in Fallujah, and that it is time for Iraqis who do not want their country to slide into chaos to speak up more forcefully against insurgents.

A day and a half of calm in Fallujah was broken Sunday when Marines battled gunmen around a mosque. U.S. officials and Fallujah representatives reported progress in negotiations on Friday and Saturday to ease violence in the 16-day Marine siege, when gunfire in the city all but halted. Talks were to resume today.

On Sunday, however, insurgents in a building opened fire on a U.S. tank, which returned fire and destroyed the building, located next to a mosque, Knapp said. Gunmen also fired from the mosque minaret, he said.

In Spain, on the day after he was sworn in, Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero said he did not believe that the United Nations would assume responsibility for Iraq after the U.S.-led occupation ends June 30 - his criterion for allowing the troops to stay.

"More than anything, this decision reflects my desire to keep the promise I made to the Spanish people more than a year ago," said Zapatero, whose Socialist party scored an upset victory in March 14 general elections.

The pullout will deprive the United States of troops in a swath of south-central Iraq where forces are attempting to quell a two-week insurrection by Sadr loyalists.

- Information from the Washington Post, Associated Press and New York Times was used in this report.

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