Mounting Death Toll Forces U.S. to Speed Iraq Handover [View All]

Strengthening resistance has convinced the coalition that a transfer of security is needed, reports Peter Beaumont in Baghdad

Iraqi guerrillas claimed their 400th US military victim yesterday morning in a roadside blast in a Baghdad suburb, even as the US unveiled its plans for transfer of sovereignty and security to an Iraqi transitional government.

By the early evening, at least 12 soldiers died after two Black Hawk helicopters crashed after apparently colliding in mid-air over the northern city of Mosul. Witnesses said they collided after one was already ablaze from an explosion.

The bombs were coming like punctuation marks to the coalition's best intentions. Even as the Iraqi Governing Council met within the city's heavily fortified convention centre to announce the accelerated transfer of sovereignty to a transitional government, another blast reverberated across the city.

These explosions hang like question marks over the latest US political and military initiatives in Iraq, designed to bring the escalating insurgency to an end, but whose very trajectory - so many fear - could simply bring more violence.

The question they pose to ordinary Iraqis is whether the plan is the answer to their prayers, or simply an excuse for America to cut and run, despite President George W. Bush's denials that it is his 'exit strategy'.

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http://observer.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,6903,1086203,00.html