UN to Discuss Iraq as Attacks on U.S. Troops Continue
More bad news dogged British Prime Minister Tony Blair with a poll showing declining public confidence in his performance amid a scandal over intelligence on Iraq's arsenal.
Meanwhile, Americans prepared to celebrate the homecoming of an unlikely hero. Army Private First Class Jessica Lynch -- whose release from Iraqi captivity made her a celebrity -- was to be released from a military hospital and return to her home in Palestine, West Virginia.
The Security Council session takes place as the United States and Britain, which went to war opposed by much of world community, find themselves meeting difficult challenges and facing the possibility of seeking UN help.
Among those scheduled to appear are members of the interim governing council selected by the occupation authorities, who were to assert their right to speak for Iraq in the international arena.
UN sources said a decision on that issue would not come at Tuesday's session. The three council representatives were to speak as individuals and not in their official capacity. UN Secretary General Kofi Annan was to open the session with a report that one UN diplomat described as a "polite but firm warning to the US-British occupiers."
Annan will urge the occupying coalition to respect international human rights and to shoulder full responsibility for maintaining order and security in Iraq, firmly dismissing the idea of a UN-led international police force for that purpose.
In Baghdad, a U.S. soldier and an Iraqi interpreter were killed Monday in an attack.
U.S. troops stationed at Ibn Firnas airport, north of Baghdad, also came under a five-hour mortar attack overnight from a group of unidentified assailants, witnesses said Monday.
British military officials announced that Captain James Linton, 43, died early Friday of natural causes following a routine training session at the Al-Zubeir British base, southwest of Basra.
His death takes to 44 the number of British military personnel killed since the March 20 assault on Iraq by US and British forces.
In Doha, Al-Jazeera television aired a new video calling for attacks on coalition forces.
In the video, the hitherto unknown "Organization of Jihad Brigades in Iraq" called for a guerrilla war against US troops and for the assassination of Iraqis who collaborate with them.
"We will kill the spies and traitors with the Americans," said a statement read by six armed hooded men sitting on the floor with a small portrait of ousted president Saddam Hussein on a wall behind them.
The statement urged Iraqis not to deal with the "traitors," a reference to US-appointed Iraqi officials such as members of the newly-unveiled council.
The council, for its part, decided meanwhile to form a working group to reform the country's judicial system.
"The working group will comprise Iraqi jurists and will be entrusted with the task of examining Iraqi laws with a view to abrogating or amending those that are not compatible with" the situation in post-Saddam Hussein Iraq, said the statement by the 25-member body.
Council members decided last week to set up a war crimes tribunal to try members of Saddam Hussein's ousted Baath party regime.
In London, a poll showed that 54 percent of British voters are unhappy with Blair's performance in the wake of a scandal over whether Saddam was pursuing chemical, biological and nuclear weapons.
The ICM survey found just 37 percent of respondents happy with Blair, giving the prime minister an overall approval rating of minus 17 points -- the difference between those who are happy and those who are not.
In the immediate aftermath of the Iraq war in April, Blair rode high on the so-called "Baghdad Bounce" with an approval rating of plus seven.
The British leader is facing calls to resign following the apparent suicide last week of weapons expert David Kelly.
The BBC claims Kelly was the source of its report in May that said Blair's office had "sexed-up" a dossier on Iraq's weapons programs.
The ICM survey was taken Friday, the day police said they had found a body matching Kelly's description, through Sunday, after police had formally identified the body.
The poll, published in The Guardian newspaper, showed only 39 percent of voters found Blair trustworthy and support for his Labour party at 36 percent -- down two points from last month and five since May.
Meanwhile, Lynch was awarded the Bronze Star, Purple Heart and Prisoner of War medals during a ceremony at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, the hospital said in a statement.
She was later to be released and flown by military helicopter to Parkersburg, West Virginia, the first stop on a trip back to her nearby hometown of Palestine.
Lynch, 19, a mechanic with the 507th Maintenance Company, was rescued April 1 from an Iraqi-held hospital in the southern town of Nasiriyah where she had been held for more than a week.
According to initial news reports, Lynch fiercely fought Iraqi soldiers after sustaining multiple gunshot wounds when her convoy of supply trucks was ambushed March 23 after taking a wrong turn, killing 11 of the 33 soldiers. Those reports later proved to be wrong.
An official report released earlier this month revealed Lynch was injured when the speeding Humvee she was traveling in crashed into the back of a five-tonne Army truck.
Lynch reportedly has no memory of the incident.