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Guerrillas Kill 3 British Troops in Iraq 
1 hour, 46 minutes ago  

By STEVEN R. HURST, Associated Press Writer 

BAGHDAD, Iraq - A guerrilla attack killed three British soldiers and 
seriously wounded one on Saturday in the southern port city of 
Basra. To the north, American forces reported killing two Iraqi 
Turkomen who opened fire when U.S. soldiers arrived to stop ethnic 
fighting in the city of Tuz Kharmato. 



In Baghdad, some U.N. staff returned to work in tents set up at the 
battered Canal Hotel compound. Investigators and soldiers 
searched piles of debris there for human remains and clues in the 
deadly suicide truck bombing Tuesday that killed at least 23 
people, including the top U.N. envoy Sergio Vieira de Mello. 


In Rio De Janeiro, Brazil, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan (news 
- web sites) joined dignitaries at a memorial service for Vieira de 
Mello, whose body arrived Saturday morning in a Brazilian (news - 
web sites) air force plane that also carried his wife and two 
children. 


Military bands played Brazil's national anthem as the casket ? 
draped in the bright green, yellow and blue Brazilian flag ? was 
carried by soldiers wearing white uniforms in an airport arrival 
ceremony that was short and solemn at the request of relatives. 


Annan, who was to deliver the eulogy at the memorial service, 
praised Vieira de Mello in remarks to reporters, and said the U.N. 
will carry on his life's work of helping rebuild troubled countries 
around the world. 


The American administrator for Iraq (news - web sites) said acts of 
terrorism and sabotage only hurt the Iraqi people and would not 
slow the U.S.-led effort to rebuild the country, shattered by 
decades of war and 13 years of U.N. sanctions. 


L. Paul Bremer also addressed reports that he and the Governing 
Council he established as an interim government were increasingly 
at odds. He said the Iraqis had expressed concern over the 
coalition's inability to fully restore electricity service. 


"They share our frustration with not being able to restore essential 
services to prewar levels," Bremer said, noting the coalition had set 
an end-of-September goal for getting the lights back on 
permanently. 


Bremer also said he had encouraged the 25-member governing 
council to reach out to the Iraqi people to join in the reconstruction 
and security of Iraq. "We have never hidden the fact that we have 
security problems in Iraq," he told a news conference. 


He refused to speculate on who was responsible for Tuesday's 
suicide bombing. His top security adviser, Bernard Kerik, has said 
there are suspicions the bombing was an inside job. Kerik, the 
former New York City police commissioner, said the placement 
and timing of the bomb suggested insider knowledge. 


"It is too early to know, the investigation goes on," Bremer said, 
adding there were three possibilities: members of Saddam Hussein 
(news - web sites)'s ousted regime, foreign terrorists or a 
combination of the two. 


The British military said a two-vehicle convoy was attacked by a 
group of gunmen in a pickup truck as the soldiers were traveling 
through the center of Basra on a routine patrol at 8:30 a.m. 


As of Saturday, 273 U.S. soldiers have died since the beginning of 
military operations in Iraq, according to the military. The British 
government has reported 48 deaths. Denmark's military has 
reported one death. 


On or since May 1, when President Bush (news - web sites) 
declared that major combat operations in Iraq had ended, 135 U.S. 
soldiers have died here, according to the latest military figures. 
Counting only combat deaths, 65 Americans and 11 Britons have 
been killed. 


In Tuz Kharmato, 110 miles north of Baghdad, U.S. soldiers killed 
the two Turkomen tribesmen and wounded two others after the 
Americans were fired on when they arrived Friday, said Maj. 
Josslyn Aberle, 4th Infantry Division spokeswoman. She said it 
was the first outbreak of ethnic conflict in the region since May. 


There were unconfirmed reports that deadly clashes between the 
Turkomen and Kurds erupted after minority Kurds allegedly 
destroyed a newly reopened Turkomen Islamic shrine. The reports 
claimed five Turkomen and three Kurds were killed. 


Violence continued Saturday, according to CNN-Turk television and 
private NTV television. Hundreds of Turkomen, carrying blue 
Turkomen flags, marched on the governor's office in Kirkuk, to the 
north of Tuz Kharmato. Turkey's Anatolia news agency reported 
two Turkomen were shot and killed and 11 wounded by Patriotic 
Union of Kurdistan forces. 

   



U.S. soldiers also discovered a MiG 23 fighter jet, partially buried 
and covered with camouflage netting, and an anti-aircraft gun north 
of Balad, 55 miles north of Baghdad. Aberle said they also 
discovered a weapons cache including six mortars, three cases of 
mortar rounds and 25 crates of anti-aircraft ammunition. 

Aberle said U.S. troops wounded two young Iraqis Friday night 
after curfew in Dhuluaiyah, 43 miles north of Baghdad after they 
came upon a group of 17 young men loitering at a gas station. 

When troops arrived, the men began to run, she said. After soldiers 
fired two warning shots, 15 of the group stopped, but the two who 
continued to run were shot in the legs. All were detained and being 
questioned. 

Meanwhile, international and Iraqi U.N. staff complained the U.S.-
led coalition had done little to provide security in the area before 
the bombing. 

"It was the coalition's fault, because it was their job to watch the 
parking area where the bombing happened, ... but it seems they 
were incapable of that," said security officer Mohammed Abdul 
Aziz. 

The coalition claims responsibility in the country in general but 
says it has no obligation to guard specific sites such as the U.N. 
headquarters and diplomatic missions. However, U.S. troops are 
guarding locations such as Iraqi banks and the oil ministry. 

Iraqi employees and guards at the U.N. headquarters were being 
questioned by American authorities on the suspicion that the 
suicide truck bombing could have been an inside job. Many of the 
security guards at the hotel had been in place before the war and 
were linked to Saddam's security service. 

Eighty-six seriously wounded U.N. workers were being airlifted out 
of Iraq for medical care. 

Two U.N. employees were still unaccounted for and an unknown 
number of people ? visitors to the building ? were still buried in 
the rubble. The U.N.'s official death toll stood at 20. However, 
independent checks by The Associated Press at area hospitals 
showed at least 23 died in the blast. 

___ 

EDITOR'S NOTE: Associated Press writer Hrvoje Hranjski in Tikrit 
contributed to this report.