President eager to get Saddam trial started

BAGHDAD, Iraq — Anbar province's governor, kidnapped earlier this month, was found dead in a farmhouse in a desolate area of western Iraq after a shootout between U.S. forces and foreign fighters, U.S. and Iraqi officials said yesterday.

Raja Nawaf Farhan al-Mahalawi's body was discovered Sunday near Rawah, about 175 miles west of the capital, after a pitched battle that started when foreign fighters launched a rocket-propelled grenade and fired at a passing U.S. patrol.

Soldiers from the 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment said foreign fighters in the farmhouse fired first, said Lt. Col. Steve Boylan, a spokesman for the U.S. military in Baghdad. U.S. soldiers returned fire, including an anti-tank round, he said.

When the soldiers entered the house after the shooting stopped, they found al-Mahalawi, dead and blindfolded with his hands bound to a gasoline tank. The U.S. military flew the body back to his hometown of Al Qaim, and family members identified the governor.

An autopsy revealed that he died of blunt head trauma and he suffered no wounds from the gunfire, Boylan said. Laith Kuba, chief spokesman for the Iraqi government, said the injuries likely were caused by debris, while Boylan said the manner of death was uncertain.

Four foreign fighters in the house were killed and three others were injured, Kuba said.

Al-Mahalawi was kidnapped May 10 during a Marine offensive dubbed Operation Matador.

Iraqi president eager

to begin Saddam trial

BAGHDAD, Iraq — Iraqi President Jalal Talabani said yesterday that authorities expected to put Saddam Hussein on trial in the next two months.

"The court of Iraq will decide the future of Saddam Hussein," Talabani said in an interview with CNN, adding that there was a strong public desire for him to be executed if convicted.

Talabani said proceedings would start "within two months, I think."

"Saddam Hussein is a war criminal," Talabani said, noting that he had committed "crimes against Iraqi people" in Kurdistan as well as Shiite areas of southern Iraq and in Baghdad.

Saddam's attorney, Khalil al-Dulaimi, expressed surprise at Talabani's comments. "I was not informed officially that they are speeding up the trial, but anyway I will check tomorrow and then I will have a comment," he told The Associated Press.

Prime minister wants

U.S. troops to stay

Iraqi Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari announced that he would ask U.S. commanders to keep their troops in Iraq beyond their U.N. mandate, which expires late this month.

The U.N. Security Council did extend the mandate yesterday, saying it hopes Iraqi forces will soon be able to play a greater role and ultimately assume responsibility for their country's national security.

"They are no longer an occupation force," al-Jaafari said. "... They are here based on the will of the Iraqi people and the mandate of the Iraq government."

Also

Gay soldier: Army Sgt. Robert Stout, 23, who was wounded in Iraq and wanted to remain in the military as an openly gay soldier, was officially discharged yesterday, a gay-advocacy group said.

Zarqawi tape: A U.S. intelligence official confirmed the authenticity of an audio recording in which Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, self-proclaimed leader of al-Qaida in Iraq, denies reports that he was seriously wounded.

Compiled from The Associated Press and Reuters

Information in this article, originally published June 1, 2005, was corrected June 06, 2005. A previous version of this story incorrectly said U.S. troops had fired a tank round into a house in which the governor of Iraq's Anbar province was found dead after a battle. The soldiers fired an anti-tank round, according to a U.S. military spokesman.