Gunmen killed three British troops and two American soldiers in separate attacks in southern and central Iraq, coalition officials said Friday. Several British troops also were hurt in the Thursday mortar attack on their base at the airport in the southern city of Basra, the British military said. The two Americans died in separate attacks Thursday in the Baghdad area, the U.S. said, according to the AP.
In other Friday's violence, four people were killed and three wounded when clashes broke out in the Shiite village of Ajemi near Khalis, 50 miles north of Baghdad, the provincial police said.
On his part, the commander of U.S. forces south of Baghdad said Friday that if the U.S. troop buildup in Iraq is reversed before the summer of 2008, the military will risk giving up the security gains it has achieved at a cost of hundreds of American lives over the past six months.
Maj. Gen. Richard Lynch, commander of the 3rd Infantry Division, mentioned none of the proposals in Congress for starting to withdraw U.S. troops as soon as this fall. "It's going to take through (this) summer, into the fall, to defeat the extremists in my battle space, and it's going to take me into next spring and summer to generate this sustained security presence," he said
Meanwhile, on Thursday, Sunni legislators returned to parliament after a five-week boycott. The 44 members of the Iraqi Accordance Front attended Thursday's parliament session after striking a deal with the Shiites and Kurds to reinstate the Sunni speaker, Mahmoud al-Mashhadani, who was ousted by the Shiite-dominated assembly last month for erratic behavior.
Under a face-saving formula, al-Mashhadani is set to step down after presiding over a few sessions. One official said al-Mashhadani was to quit Wednesday or parliament will force him out.
