New leaders lay down laws

The new laws will combat insurgents, officials hope.
BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) -- The Iraqi government issued a long-anticipated package of security laws today to help crush insurgents, including a provision allowing interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi to impose martial law.
"The lives of the Iraqi people are in danger, they are in danger from evil forces, from gangs of terrorists," said Human Rights Minister Bakhityar Amin, who compared the new law to the U.S. Patriot Act.
As the plan was announced, masked gunmen battled Iraqi forces in central Baghdad, and at least four people were killed. Mortars landed near a residence used by Allawi, and Iraqi police also defused a massive car bomb elsewhere in the capital.
More powers
The new laws give Allawi the right to impose curfews, to conduct search operations and detain individuals with weapons, once he receives unanimous approval from the Presidential Council. They also give him the right to assign governors, including military leaders, in specific areas, and they empower him to freeze the assets of suspects and monitor their communications.
Allawi signed the law earlier in the day, officials said.
The Presidential Council is made up of a president, who is a Sunni Arab, and two vice presidents -- a Kurd and a Shiite. Shiites, Sunnis and Kurds are the three main groups in Iraq. Allawi is a Shiite.
Justice Minister Malik Dohan al-Hassan said that the premier would need to get warrants from an Iraqi court for each step and that martial law could be declared for only 60 days or for the duration of the specific violence, whichever was shorter.
"We realize this law might restrict some liberties, but there are a number of guarantees," al-Hassan said. "We have tried to guarantee justice and also to guarantee human rights."
Fighting insurgency
The law was needed to combat the insurgents who are "preventing government employees from attending their jobs, preventing foreign workers from entering the country to help rebuild Iraq and in general trying to derail general elections," he said.
That danger was underscored by the violence today. Insurgents waged a running gunbattle with Iraqi forces in the streets near Martyrs' Square, the Interior Ministry said. At least two people were hurt, witnesses said. U.S. soldiers joined the fighting against the insurgents, a witness said.
Health Ministry official Saad al-Amili said four people were killed and 20 injured in the battle.
U.S. armored personnel carriers moved to the scene of the fighting on the deserted Haifa street as two Apache helicopters hovered overhead. Interior Ministry officials said the helicopters fired on nearby buildings.
In another Baghdad neighborhood, four mortar rounds shook a neighborhood near the headquarters of Allawi's political party, wounding six people, an Interior Ministry official said. The attacks on a stretch of Zeitoun Street in central Baghdad also hit near a home used by Allawi, who was not there, the official said.
Targeted party
The assault marked the second time Allawi's party, the Iraqi National Accord, was targeted. In the days before U.S. officials handed over power to Allawi's interim government on June 28, insurgents overran the offices of the Iraq National Accord in Baqouba, an insurgent hotspot north of the capital, Baghdad. No one was hurt in that assault.
Iraqi police also defused a car loaded with 1,650 pounds of explosives today that was parked near the Al-Iman Mosque in the Karada neighborhood in downtown Baghdad, according to police Col. Adnan Hussein.
Later, another explosion shook the terminal at Baghdad International Airport. There was no immediate word on damage or casualties.
Checks in new laws
Officials emphasized the checks built into the new laws to allay fears that they could give Allawi dictatorial powers reminiscent of the deposed regime of Saddam Hussein. Amin said the human rights and justice ministries would form a joint body to monitor all areas of the country where the emergency laws were declared and would investigate any allegations of human rights violations.
A senior U.S. military official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the law will not detract from the efforts of coalition forces.
The U.S. military has been handing over security responsibilities to Iraqi police and national guard forces, which are largely ill-equipped and ill-trained to handle such duties alone.
Allawi and his government had delayed the announcement of the law on several occasions, suggesting some disagreement within the Cabinet over its provisions.
Also today, Jordanian militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi's group claimed responsibility for an attack on U.S. forces in western Baghdad earlier this week, according to a statement posted on an Islamic Web site.
The military wing of al-Zarqawi's Tawhid and Jihad group claimed 100 of its fighters attacked U.S. forces Monday in al-Saqlawiya, 43 miles west of the Iraqi capital.
The statement did not say how many American soldiers were killed.
U.S. casualties
The U.S. military announced said one U.S. soldier was killed and three others injured in a road accident early today. The statement said the accident occurred shortly after midnight on a road near Ramadi, 70 miles west of Baghdad. A tire on a military truck blew out and a second truck swerved onto the median, rolled over and burst into flames, the statement said.
The U.S. military also said Tuesday that three Marines assigned to the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force were killed while on duty in western Iraq. Two died in action Monday in Anbar province, while a third died of his wounds later Monday.
Four other U.S. Marines were killed Tuesday in the province during security and stability operations, the U.S. military said.
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