raq wants the United Nations Security Council to extend the mandate of the United States-led multinational force in Iraq only through the end of 2008, then replace it with a long-term bilateral security agreement.
As of Saturday, Sept. 29, 2007, at least 3,802 members of the U.S. military have died since the beginning of the Iraq war in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count. The figure includes seven military civilians. At least 3,099 died as a result of hostile action, according to the military's numbers.
The US military said on Saturday it regrets civilian deaths, as it announced a new surge of strikes against Al-Qaeda in Iraq in which six militants were killed and a child was hit in the crossfire.
Shiite and Sunni figures in Iraq dismissed Saturday a US Senate plan to split Iraq along ethnic and religious lines, while the Kurds welcomed it as the "only viable solution" to the present chaos.
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad brushed aside Saturday a US Senate plan to split Iraq along ethnic and religious lines, instead pledging support for Baghdad's "sovereignty" in talks with a top Iraqi official.
Iraq wants the U.N. Security Council to extend the mandate of the 160,000-stong U.S.-led multinational force in Iraq only through the end of 2008, then replace it with a long-term bilateral security agreement, Foreign Ministry officials said Saturday.
Iraq's sectarian violence claimed 18 more lives on Saturday, including six people killed when a suicide truck bomber detonated his explosive payload near a Humvee filled with Iraqi soldiers, officials said.
Two US soldiers were killed on Saturday in separate incidents in Iraq, pushing the overall toll of American losses since the March 2003 invasion above 3,800, the military announced.
Iran on Saturday condemned a US Senate plan to split Iraq along ethnic and religious lines, saying it amounted to "blatant interference" in its western neighbour's affairs.
Three Iraqi soldiers and three civilians, killed in a suicide truck bombing near Mosul, were among 18 victims of sectarian violence across Iraq Saturday, even as the country's leaders denounced a U.S. Senate proposal to split the country into ethnic or religious-based regions.