Bush rules out immediate Iraq pullout

BAGHDAD – Nine Iraqi Shi’ites were gunned down on their way to work in renewed violence yesterday after US President George W.Bush said an immediate pullout of US troops would be a “huge mistake”.

The shooting against a bus near Baquba, northeast of Baghdad, followed a spate of attacks against Shi’ite civilians and a new wave of kidnappings of foreigners in the run-up to the December 15 general election. Bush was to unveil his “strategy for victory in Iraq” later yesterday at a time when his approval ratings have sunk to their lowest ever as a growing number of Americans want him to chart a course for a quick withdrawal of the 158 000 US troops.”We’ve heard some people say, pull them out right now.That’s a huge mistake.It’d be a terrible mistake.It sends a bad message to our troops, and it sends a bad message to our enemy, and it sends a bad message to the Iraqis,” Bush said on Tuesday.As the debate over troop withdrawals raged in the United States, several members of the US-led coalition have announced their own plans to reduce their military commitments to Iraq.Japan plans to pull its troops out in mid-2006, but will formally extend its mission until next December to allow it to decide the exact withdrawal time, news reports said.Four Western peace activists who went missing in Iraq at the weekend were shown in a video broadcast by the Arabic television station Al Jazeera on Tuesday.The television said the abduction of the men – one American, two Canadians and a Briton – was claimed by a previously unknown group calling itself “The Brigades of the Swords of Righteousness.”The video showed four men sitting on the floor.However there was no sign of any weapons being pointed at them or any other threat.Al Jazeera said the group described the four as “spies for the occupation forces.”Christian Peacemaker Teams, an umbrella group for pacifist church activism, named the men as American Tom Fox, 54, Briton Norman Kember, 74, and two Canadians, James Loney, 41 and Harmeet Singh Sooden, 32.”We are angry because what has happened to our teammates is the result of the actions of the US and the UK government due to the illegal attack on Iraq and the continuing occupation and oppression of its people,” it said in a statement.The Christian group has been in Iraq since October 2002, involved in documenting human rights abuses by coalition forces.In another hostage crisis, German Chancellor Angela Merkel pleaded for the release of the first German national kidnapped in Iraq since the 2003 US-led invasion.German media identified the woman as 43-year-old Susanne Osthoff, who was abducted with her driver on Friday.A trained archaeologist who had been doing aid work in Iraq for several years, Osthoff has an 11-year-old daughter by a man of Arab origin, is a convert to Islam and is fluent in Arabic, according to family members.Six Iranians were also kidnapped on Monday north of Baghdad.Two women were later released.The kidnappings and shootings came amid renewed sectarian violence in the run-up to Iraq’s December 15 parliamentary elections.- Nampa-AFPBush was to unveil his “strategy for victory in Iraq” later yesterday at a time when his approval ratings have sunk to their lowest ever as a growing number of Americans want him to chart a course for a quick withdrawal of the 158 000 US troops.”We’ve heard some people say, pull them out right now.That’s a huge mistake.It’d be a terrible mistake.It sends a bad message to our troops, and it sends a bad message to our enemy, and it sends a bad message to the Iraqis,” Bush said on Tuesday.As the debate over troop withdrawals raged in the United States, several members of the US-led coalition have announced their own plans to reduce their military commitments to Iraq.Japan plans to pull its troops out in mid-2006, but will formally extend its mission until next December to allow it to decide the exact withdrawal time, news reports said.Four Western peace activists who went missing in Iraq at the weekend were shown in a video broadcast by the Arabic television station Al Jazeera on Tuesday.The television said the abduction of the men – one American, two Canadians and a Briton – was claimed by a previously unknown group calling itself “The Brigades of the Swords of Righteousness.”The video showed four men sitting on the floor.However there was no sign of any weapons being pointed at them or any other threat.Al Jazeera said the group described the four as “spies for the occupation forces.”Christian Peacemaker Teams, an umbrella group for pacifist church activism, named the men as American Tom Fox, 54, Briton Norman Kember, 74, and two Canadians, James Loney, 41 and Harmeet Singh Sooden, 32.”We are angry because what has happened to our teammates is the result of the actions of the US and the UK government due to the illegal attack on Iraq and the continuing occupation and oppression of its people,” it said in a statement.The Christian group has been in Iraq since October 2002, involved in documenting human rights abuses by coalition forces.In another hostage crisis, German Chancellor Angela Merkel pleaded for the release of the first German national kidnapped in Iraq since the 2003 US-led invasion.German media identified the woman as 43-year-old Susanne Osthoff, who was abducted with her driver on Friday.A trained archaeologist who had been doing aid work in Iraq for several years, Osthoff has an 11-year-old daughter by a man of Arab origin, is a convert to Islam and is fluent in Arabic, according to family members.Six Iranians were also kidnapped on Monday north of Baghdad.Two women were later released.The kidnappings and shootings came amid renewed sectarian violence in the run-up to Iraq’s December 15 parliamentary elections.- Nampa-AFP