AFP / Agencies, The judge behind the creation of a judicial commission investigating former officials in Saddam Hussein's regime has been shot dead, as guerillas stepped up their campaign against pro-US public figures.
The execution-style killing came as the US Senate gave final congressional approval to the largest emergency spending bill in US history – $US87.5 billion ($125 billion) for operations in Iraq and Afghanistan – and President George Bush vowed to “never run” from the mounting chaos and casualties.
Mr Bush blamed the guerilla attacks in Iraq on terrorists trying to intimidate the US. “The enemy in Iraq believes America will run, that's why they're willing to kill innocent civilians, relief workers, coalition troops,” he said. “America will never run.”
But in two separate speeches he made no specific reference to the helicopter downing on Sunday that killed 16 soldiers, the single deadliest attack against US troops in Iraq.
Muhan Jabr al-Shuwaili, the senior judge in Najaf, was kidnapped with the city's prosecutor-general, Aref Aziz, from the judge's house in the city early on Monday. Mr Aziz, who was later released unharmed, said they were taken to a desert area about eight kilometres north of Najaf. “One of the assailants said 'Saddam has ordered your prosecution'. Then they fired two shots into his head,” Mr Aziz said. “As for me, they told me 'this does not concern you'. They released me.”
Judge Shuwaili had been instrumental in setting up the Baath Investigative Commission, made up of four lawyers, to investigate complaints mainly involving members of the former ruling Baath party before they are raised with an investigative judge. The commission has received 400 complaints so far and issued 12 arrest warrants.
A member of Iraq's interim governing council announced last month that a special tribunal would be set up for judges to try Saddam-era crimes against humanity, war crimes and charges of genocide and torture.
Sheikh Khaled al-Numani, the president of Najaf municipal council and a vocal supporter of prosecuting former regime loyalists, said he had escaped an assassination attempt on Sunday when attackers opened fire on his house.
In Baghdad, a member of a neighbourhood council sponsored by the Americans was killed in a drive-by shooting on Sunday, the US-led coalition said.
And in Falluja, the city's pro-American mayor was on the run after a bomb destroyed his office.
The $US87.5 billion bill approved by the US Senate on Monday
also provides a large increase in funding for reconstruction in Afghanistan, for peacekeeping in Liberia, disaster relief for the Sudan and rewards for information leading to the capture of Osama bin Laden.
