U.S. Embassy rips Senate plan on Iraq by Delia Cruceru

U.S and Iraqi forces had an intense weekend as they killed more than 60 insurgents and militia forces, believed to be al-Qaeda fighters, most of the battles happening in the northern regions of Iraq. The U.S. Embassy joined some Iraqi politicians in criticizing a nonbinding U.S. Senate resolution seen in Iraq as a recipe for splitting the country along sectarian and ethnic lines. The U.S. command reported that American aircraft killed more than 20 al-Qaida fighters from Iraq, who opened fire on an American air patrol northwest of Baghdad. The insurgents were spotted by the aircraft carrying AK-47 assault rifles. "Coalition forces have dealt significant blows to Al-Qaida Iraq in recent months, including the recent killing of the Tunisian head of the foreign fighter network in Iraq and the blows struck in the past 24 hours," said military spokesman Col. Steven Boylan. The Iraqi Defense Ministry announced that Iraqi forces killed 44 "terrorists" over the past 24 hours in operations centered in Salahuddin and Diyala provinces and around the city of Kirkuk. The U.S. Senate resolution, adopted last week, proposes reshaping Iraq according to three sectarian or ethnic territories, calling for a limited central government with the bulk of power going to the country's Shiite, Sunni or Kurdish regions. The U.S. Embassy declared in an unusual statement that the resolution would seriously hamper Iraq's future stability. "Our goal in Iraq remains the same: a united, democratic, federal Iraq that can govern, defend, and sustain itself," the unsigned statement said.

related story: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070930/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq;_ylt=Anc5LYlMADiN6g5w80Fyiy.s0NUE

by Delia Cruceru for PocketNews (http://pocketnews.tv)

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