Iraq will need foreign troops to fight insurgents even after a US-led occupation formally ends on June 30 in line with a UN resolution adopted unanimously overnight, Iraq's interim prime minister said.
"The sovereignty is going to be total," Iyad Allawi told Fox News in an interview that was be aired yesterday.
"We ask in fact and we want the ... multinational forces to help us to face the security threats until such a time that we are able to build our own security and move ahead," he said.
Underlining the challenge, guerrillas launched a mortar attack on Iraqi security forces in Fallujah, killing 12 people, and blew up at least one northern fuel pipeline.
Three Italian security guards rescued by US-led special forces in Iraq returned to Italy on Wednesday after nearly two months in captivity. A fourth hostage was shot dead earlier after Italy rejected demands that its troops leave Iraq.
The US and Britain, whose invasion ousted Iraqi president Saddam Hussein 14 months ago, hailed passage of the UN resolution that endorses a "sovereign interim government" in Iraq and mandates a US-led multinational force to keep the peace.
Compromises offered by Washington and London, at French and German insistence, over how much control Iraqis will have over US-led forces helped overcome council divisions, but few expect the resolution to calm daily violence in Iraq soon.
Iraqi Kurds, unhappy with the omission of any reference to an interim constitution that guarantees their autonomy, said they might quit Allawi's newly formed government in protest.
"If the leadership calls on us to withdraw from the government, we will do so," Public Works Minister Nasreen Berwari said.
Iraq's hugely influential Shiite cleric Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, reiterated this week he would oppose any UN resolution that mentioned the interim constitution.
The UN measure provoked little reaction among ordinary Iraqis consumed by security fears and economic hardship.
"Is the resolution going to give us electricity or water? I doubt it," said Eman Abdullah, a 30-year-old policewoman.
In the Fallujah attack, rebels fired mortars at forces who had taken over security in the flashpoint town at the behest of US forces after a bloody counter-insurgency campaign there.
Iraqi officers said 12 of their men had been killed and 10 wounded in the attack on a camp of the Fallujah Brigade.
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