Allawi warning on coalition exit

IRAQ’S interim prime minister warned yesterday that talk of coalition troops withdrawing from his country on any set date was "futile and dangerous", as security forces struggled to cope with spiralling violence ahead of Sunday’s elections.

Insurgents also released a video of a United States hostage pleading for his life as kidnappers held a gun to his head; there were running battles with militants in Baghdad that left 11 Iraqi policemen dead; and a senior judge was assassinated in the capital.

Mr Allawi outlined plans for Iraqi forces gradually to take over security from US-led troops - if he stays in power. However, he refused to set a date for their exit.

"I promise you I will build a strong Iraqi force able to take full responsibility for Iraq’s security and its citizens," he said. "Others talk about the immediate withdrawal of the multinational forces or setting fixed dates for them to leave. I will not set final dates ... because setting final dates will be futile and dangerous."

There has been speculation that the new Iraqi government to be chosen after the elections might ask the Americans to begin negotiations for their departure from the country - as demanded by Sunni Arab insurgents as well as by members of the Sunni clergy.

Officials have warned of a surge in violence in the run-up to Sunday’s elections, which insurgents have vowed to derail.

As sporadic violence continued across the country, a video emerged showing the American contractor, Roy Hallums, 56, who was seized in Baghdad with five colleagues on 1 November, sitting cross-legged on the floor, anxiously rubbing his hands as he appealed to the camera. It was unclear when the tape was made.

"I have been arrested by a resistance group in Iraq," Mr Hallums, dressed in civilian clothes, his voice shaking, said on the tape. "I’m asking for help because my life is in danger, because it’s been proved that I work for American forces."

As he spoke, the barrel of an assault rifle was held inches from his head. Unlike other hostage tapes in Iraq, no banner or flag appeared in the picture and no demands were made.

It was the first tape to emerge of Mr Hallums since he and his colleagues were kidnapped. Four of his colleagues were later freed, while the whereabouts of a Filipino was unknown. All worked for a Saudi Arabian food firm contracted to the US army.

Meanwhile, yesterday, fighting erupted in Baghdad’s eastern Rashad neighbourhood as Iraqi police shot at insurgents who were handing out leaflets warning people not to vote. Insurgents also lay in wait for police who were checking out a report of a possible car bomb and seven officers died in the ambush, according to a police spokesman, Khazim Hussein.

Another bomb blew off the gate of a secondary school in the district and gunmen opened fire on Iraqi and US forces responding to the blast. A witness said two Iraqi policemen and an insurgent were killed.

Altogether, 11 policemen were killed in the various clashes, according to an official at Kindi Hospital.

The judge who died was identified as Qais Hashim Shameri, the secretary-general of the judges’ council in the justice ministry. Assailants sprayed his car with bullets in an attack that also killed his bodyguard and wounded his driver. The Ansar al-Sunnah Army, one of Iraq’s most active insurgent groups, claimed responsibility.

Attackers also shot dead a man who worked for a district council in western Baghdad as he was on his way to work.

There has been international condemnation of the insurgents’ tactics, but a leading human rights group yesterday also accused US-trained Iraqi security forces of abusing prisoners.

Human Rights Watch said international police advisers, mostly Americans, had turned a blind eye to Iraqi violations.

It claimed that prisoners had been beaten with cables and hosepipes, had suffered torture with electric shocks to their earlobes and genitals, and some had been starved and deprived of water.

Bakhtiar Amin, Iraq’s human rights minister, acknowledged abuses had occurred and said it would take time for Iraqi forces to change their behaviour after Saddam Hussein’s era.

Meanwhile, in the US yesterday, the Bush administration asked Congress for a further $80 billion to pay for military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, raising the running cost of the conflicts to $280 billion.