November 7, 2003	Friday	Ramazan 11, 1424

Please Visit our Sponsor (Ads open in separate window)

NAJAF, Nov 6: The US-installed governor of Najaf resigned on Thursday, a day after launching a strike to protest the US-led administration’s failure to provide security in the city, where a judge was shot dead on Monday.

Casualties suffered by the occupation forces in Iraq continued to climb with the death of two American soldiers and the first Polish fatality on Thursday.

“I resign because some circles believe that others could be better at the job and because a large part of the population of Najaf does not understand the interim situation we are passing through,” said the governor, Haidar Mehdi Matar Al Mayyali.

“The people want a lot — and now — and our capabilities are limited,” he said during a meeting with local leaders at a hotel in Najaf, 180 kilometres south of Baghdad.

Haidar Mayyali called the strike after meeting Robert Ford, representative of Paul Bremer, the US overseer in Iraq, and an official from the multinational force patrolling the region.

All public offices and courts in Najaf answered the call, and on Thursday they were all closed except for police stations, hospitals and schools.

The strike followed the slaying of Muhan Jabr al Shuwaili, the province’s top judge, who was kidnapped and shot dead in Najaf on Monday.

Mr Mayyali was appointed governor in June after the arrest of his predecessor, who has since been sentenced to 14 years in jail for illegal arrest, destruction of a government document and misuse of office.

A US spokesman said he was not aware of the resignation, but stressed that officials had held talks with the governor and police about the security situation.

“Certainly there are people there who are concerned about security, and our message to them will be just to work with us” to uncover “those people who undermine security,” he said.

FIRST POLISH FATALITY: A spokesman for the occupation administration said on Thursday two more American soldiers were killed in Iraq while an attack on a convoy claimed the first Polish fatality as strikes on foreign troops showed no sign of abating.—AFP