Insurgents in Iraq killed two US marines and fired rockets at a major hotel on Friday but released three foreign hostages, while deposed dictator Saddam Hussein's court appearance continued to reverberate throughout Iraq and around the world.
Saddam's historic court appearance on Thursday prompted outpourings of both delight and anger as Iraq's polarised population digested the first act in a riveting legal drama, including a newly released transcript.
From the mosques of Baghdad, Shiite Muslim clerics demanded death for the fallen dictator while military veterans hailed him as a "hero".
About 3,000 Shiites in the capital also rallied to call for the execution of Saddam, whose appearance to hear accusations of crimes against humanity transfixed the nation and the world.
But hundreds gathered in the Sunni Muslim stronghold of Samarra, north of Baghdad, to slam the "ridiculous" trial.
The court appearance was the world's first glimpse of the former president, gaunt and tired but still defiant, since his capture in December and who has been charged with crimes against humanity.
Defence lawyers for Saddam said the court appearance was a farce in an illegal court and challenged the legitimacy of Iraq's judicial system, which they said was preventing them from going to Baghdad.
Jordanian lawyers Mohammed Rashdan and Ziad Khassawneh told AFP that the televised court appearance in Baghdad by the former dictator was shameful.
"The court proceedings were a farce and theatrics," said Rashdan, who heads the 20-member Amman-based team which was appointed by Saddam's wife and three daughters to represent him.
"What happened yesterday was shameful and much worse that the Nuremburg trials," he said of the courts which tried leading Nazi party officials after the defeat of Germany in World War II.
Near Fallujah, a flashpoint Sunni town west of Baghdad where support for Saddam remains high, one US marine was killed in action on Friday and a second died from wounds received the previous day, the US military said.
The deaths raised to at least 636 the number of US soldiers killed in action in Iraq since last year's US-led invasion.
The marines have lost six men in the past four days on various operations around al-Anbar province, where US officials suspect alleged Al-Qaeda operative Abu Mussab al-Zarqawi and his supporters are operating from.
US-led military forces have carried out several air raids on possible dens of the Jordanian Islamist in Fallujah.
On Wednesday night they conducted their first major strike since the transfer of sovereignty to an Iraqi government on Monday.
US forces said they killed up to 15 people in the precision attack, while a local hospital put the casualty toll at seven dead and 17 wounded.
Meanwhile, several rockets were fired at a Baghdad hotel complex housing foreign journalists and businessmen, scoring a direct hit on the Sheraton Hotel and wounding up to four Iraqis, a US soldier and witnesses said.
A minivan containing nine improvised rocket-launchers exploded midway through the attack, destroying the van, US soldiers said.
A videotape and statement sent to the Arabic television channel Al-Jazeera later claimed responsibility in the name of the "Karbala Brigades".
"The vehicle pulled up in range of the Sheraton Hotel and fired a series of rockets toward it," said a US army captain, who gave his name as "Mayo".
"At some point during the attack, evidently the ordnance on the vehicle exploded," he said.
The headquarters of the Iraqi Islamic Party in Baghdad was also hit by mortar fire, wounding a security guard, in what Industry and Mineral Resources Minister Hajem al-Hassani said was probably an attempt to assassinate him.
"I probably was the target. I left 10 minutes before it happened," Hassani told AFP.
In another insurgency-related development, masked gunmen said they had released two Turkish hostages on Friday after relatives pleaded for their freedom and the cowering pair promised never to work for the "filthy" Americans again.
A Pakistani threatened with beheading by his captors was also set free, according to his family.
The releases capped a good week for the newly sovereign Iraq, following the freeing on Tuesday of three other Turks held by an extremist group suspected of having links to Al-Qaeda, hours before their threatened decapitation.
But a dire warning from the gunmen that they would not be so merciful next time struck a worrying note for the scores of foreign companies working on US-funded reconstruction projects in Iraq.
At the United Nations headquarters in New York, an announcement was still awaited on who will take up the post of secretary general Kofi Annan's envoy to Iraq, with at least three people said to be in the running.
Former Indian foreign secretary Salman Haider has emerged as a top candidate to replace Sergio Vieira de Mello, who was one of 22 people killed in the suicide bombing of the UN's Baghdad offices on August 19, 2003.
Iraqi Deputy Foreign Minister Hamid al-Bayati meanwhile said in reaction to an apparent offer from King Abdullah II that Baghdad would probably say no to a Jordanian offer of peace-keeping troops because of a policy of generally not accepting troops from neighbouring countries.
Reuters
Saddam's historic court appearance on Thursday prompted outpourings of both delight and anger as Iraq's polarised population digested the first act in a riveting legal drama, including a newly released transcript.
From the mosques of Baghdad, Shiite Muslim clerics demanded death for the fallen dictator while military veterans hailed him as a "hero".
About 3,000 Shiites in the capital also rallied to call for the execution of Saddam, whose appearance to hear accusations of crimes against humanity transfixed the nation and the world.
But hundreds gathered in the Sunni Muslim stronghold of Samarra, north of Baghdad, to slam the "ridiculous" trial.
The court appearance was the world's first glimpse of the former president, gaunt and tired but still defiant, since his capture in December and who has been charged with crimes against humanity.
Defence lawyers for Saddam said the court appearance was a farce in an illegal court and challenged the legitimacy of Iraq's judicial system, which they said was preventing them from going to Baghdad.
Jordanian lawyers Mohammed Rashdan and Ziad Khassawneh told AFP that the televised court appearance in Baghdad by the former dictator was shameful.
"The court proceedings were a farce and theatrics," said Rashdan, who heads the 20-member Amman-based team which was appointed by Saddam's wife and three daughters to represent him.
"What happened yesterday was shameful and much worse that the Nuremburg trials," he said of the courts which tried leading Nazi party officials after the defeat of Germany in World War II.
Near Fallujah, a flashpoint Sunni town west of Baghdad where support for Saddam remains high, one US marine was killed in action on Friday and a second died from wounds received the previous day, the US military said.
The deaths raised to at least 636 the number of US soldiers killed in action in Iraq since last year's US-led invasion.
The marines have lost six men in the past four days on various operations around al-Anbar province, where US officials suspect alleged Al-Qaeda operative Abu Mussab al-Zarqawi and his supporters are operating from.
US-led military forces have carried out several air raids on possible dens of the Jordanian Islamist in Fallujah.
On Wednesday night they conducted their first major strike since the transfer of sovereignty to an Iraqi government on Monday.
US forces said they killed up to 15 people in the precision attack, while a local hospital put the casualty toll at seven dead and 17 wounded.
Meanwhile, several rockets were fired at a Baghdad hotel complex housing foreign journalists and businessmen, scoring a direct hit on the Sheraton Hotel and wounding up to four Iraqis, a US soldier and witnesses said.
A minivan containing nine improvised rocket-launchers exploded midway through the attack, destroying the van, US soldiers said.
A videotape and statement sent to the Arabic television channel Al-Jazeera later claimed responsibility in the name of the "Karbala Brigades".
"The vehicle pulled up in range of the Sheraton Hotel and fired a series of rockets toward it," said a US army captain, who gave his name as "Mayo".
"At some point during the attack, evidently the ordnance on the vehicle exploded," he said.
The headquarters of the Iraqi Islamic Party in Baghdad was also hit by mortar fire, wounding a security guard, in what Industry and Mineral Resources Minister Hajem al-Hassani said was probably an attempt to assassinate him.
"I probably was the target. I left 10 minutes before it happened," Hassani told AFP.
In another insurgency-related development, masked gunmen said they had released two Turkish hostages on Friday after relatives pleaded for their freedom and the cowering pair promised never to work for the "filthy" Americans again.
A Pakistani threatened with beheading by his captors was also set free, according to his family.
The releases capped a good week for the newly sovereign Iraq, following the freeing on Tuesday of three other Turks held by an extremist group suspected of having links to Al-Qaeda, hours before their threatened decapitation.
But a dire warning from the gunmen that they would not be so merciful next time struck a worrying note for the scores of foreign companies working on US-funded reconstruction projects in Iraq.
At the United Nations headquarters in New York, an announcement was still awaited on who will take up the post of secretary general Kofi Annan's envoy to Iraq, with at least three people said to be in the running.
Former Indian foreign secretary Salman Haider has emerged as a top candidate to replace Sergio Vieira de Mello, who was one of 22 people killed in the suicide bombing of the UN's Baghdad offices on August 19, 2003.
Iraqi Deputy Foreign Minister Hamid al-Bayati meanwhile said in reaction to an apparent offer from King Abdullah II that Baghdad would probably say no to a Jordanian offer of peace-keeping troops because of a policy of generally not accepting troops from neighbouring countries.
Reuters
