War funding feud has Iraqis uneasy

BAGHDAD —  As President Bush and Congress struggle over how to handle the Iraq war, Iraqis expressed concern Friday about their future if the U.S. military leaves.

“After all our security has broken down and our infrastructure smashed, the Americans want to leave now?” said Dhia Saleem, who works at a Baghdad restaurant. “That’s not going to work. They would give terrorists and militias the green light to prevail.”

Mohammed Abdul-Ameer, a university lecturer in Najaf, said a U.S. withdrawal would cause a “catastrophe” because the Iraqi army and police are not ready to shoulder security.

“There would be no security and regional battles would follow, with outside countries interfering,” offered Isam Mohammed Ali, 33, a merchant in Basra.

The U.S. military is here for the long haul, Abdul-Ameer and others said, if only to protect American economic interests and keep chaos from spreading across the region.

They were among 20 Iraqis interviewed Friday in several cities after both houses of Congress passed measures that set timelines for a withdrawal of U.S. troops as a condition of funding for the war effort.

Some were confident that Bush would get his way.

“Bush is a fox who knows how to play the game and turn it to his own advantage,” said Razzaq Hobi Kareem, a 40-year-old laborer in Baghdad.

At a news conference with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe at Camp David, Md., Bush reiterated his vow to veto any bill with such conditions.

Also Friday, the U.S. military command in Iraq reported that three U.S. Marines had been killed in combat Thursday in Al Anbar province. The military identified one of those slain as Cpl. Willie P. Celestine Jr., 21, of Lafayette, La., with the 2nd Assault Amphibian Battalion, 2nd Marine Division, 2nd Marine Expeditionary Force, based at Camp Lejeune, N.C. The names of the other two Marines were withheld pending notification of kin.

The deaths brought to 3,337 the number of U.S. military fatalities in Iraq since the war began in March 2003, according to a tally by icasualties.org, which tracks American casualties.

The military also reported the death of a detainee at a U.S.-run prison, a fatality that could fan criticism by human rights groups over the conditions in which thousands of suspects are being held.

The prisoner, whose name and hometown were not disclosed, was pronounced dead Thursday morning at Camp Bucca, near Basra in southern Iraq. The incident is under investigation, but officials said the inmate died after an apparent assault by other prisoners.

More than 19,000 security detainees are being held in U.S. and Iraqi custody. In the last year, violence among detainees has led to six deaths, the U.S. military said.

In its 10th report on Iraqi prison conditions, the United Nations expressed concern Wednesday about the well-being of detainees at Camp Bucca, Camp Cropper in Baghdad and in other jails run by the military.

Said Arikat, the spokesman for the U.N. Assistance Mission in Iraq, said U.N. investigators had not been able to talk to detainees because U.S. military officials would allow only guided tours.

The U.N. was offered “tours of the prisons with [military escorts] while in fact we wanted to interview the detainees. We turned them down. We will not accept an accompanied visit,” Arikat said.

The report, citing Iraqi Interior Ministry figures, said those detained include 3,000 people arrested since the launch of a U.S.-Iraqi security plan in mid-February. U.N. officials are concerned that the influx of detainees has worsened the situation because the facilities were crowded before the crackdown began, U.N. human rights officer Ivana Vuco said.

U.S. Embassy officials here criticized the U.N. report as inaccurate in its discussion of prisoners’ access to legal counsel. The report says detainees wait 60 days to see lawyers, when in fact, U.S. officials said, they are able to see attorneys within 30 days of their arrest.

Sectarian violence continued across Iraq. Seven unidentified bodies were found Friday in Baghdad, all men who had been shot. In northern Iraq, three bodies were found in separate locations around Kirkuk. Also, a car bomb exploded in Hawija, west of Kirkuk, injuring one person.

In Hillah, 60 miles south of Baghdad, police detained two men suspected of setting up a false checkpoint north of the city, possibly as a ruse to kidnap motorists. Also, a joint U.S.- Iraqi force raided a house in Hillah and seized Iranian-made land mines and other weapons, officials said.

A car bomb exploded near a police convoy in the town of Iskandariya, 25 miles south of Baghdad. One officer was injured.

In Madrid, meanwhile, a judge indicted three U.S. troops Friday in connection with the death of a Spanish journalist in Baghdad.

The three 3rd Infantry soldiers, based at Ft. Stewart, Ga., were in a tank that opened fire on the hotel where Jose Couso was staying during the March 2003 invasion.

chris.kraul@latimes.com

Times staff writers Tina Susman and Edmund Sanders, and members of The Times’ Baghdad Bureau contributed to this report.