U.N. leader calls Bush's invasion decision 'illegal'

A British official said the government disagrees with Kofi Annan's view.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan said in a BBC interview that the Bush Administration's decision to go to war in Iraq was "illegal" because it didn't have U.N. Security Council approval.
In Iraq, gunmen kidnapped two Americans and a Briton today from a house in an upscale Baghdad neighborhood where many foreign companies are based, the Interior Ministry and witnesses said.
The U.N. Charter allows nations to take military action with Security Council approval as an explicit enforcement action, such as during the Korean War and the 1991 Gulf War.
Dropped bid for OK
But in 2003, in the buildup to the Iraq war, the United States dropped an attempt to get a Security Council resolution approving the invasion when it became apparent it would not pass.
"I hope we do not see another Iraq-type operation for a long time -- without U.N. approval and much broader support from the international community," he said in an interview with the BBC World Service on Wednesday.
At the time, Annan had underlined the lack of legitimacy for a war without U.N. approval, saying: "If the United States and others were to go outside the Security Council and take unilateral action they would not be in conformity with the Charter."
On Wednesday, after being asked three times whether the lack of council approval for the war meant it was illegal, he said: "From our point of view and the U.N. Charter point of view it was illegal."
British disagree
Today, British Trade and Industry Secretary Patricia Hewitt said her government disagreed with Annan. Britain was a leading supporter of the U.S.-led invasion and argued that three earlier U.N. resolutions provided the legal basis for toppling the government of Saddam Hussein.
"There have always been different views on that matter and ... of course I respect his views on this matter and I regret that we disagree with them," Hewitt told BBC radio.
"The important thing now is that we and the U.N. and the international community continue working with the Iraqi people so that they can achieve what they all want, which is a safe, secure, democratic Iraq."
Kidnapped men
The three men kidnapped in Iraq were employed by Gulf Services Company, a Middle East-based construction firm, and were seized from a two-story house surrounded by a wall in the al-Mansour neighborhood, said Col. Adnan Abdel-Rahman, a ministry official.
At least four other foreigners -- two Frenchmen and two Italian women -- have been taken hostage in recent days. On Wednesday, villagers north of Baghdad had found three decapitated bodies, said to be Iraqis, with their hands bound.
A U.S. Embassy spokesman speaking on condition of anonymity could not immediately confirm the report that the Americans and Briton were kidnapped but said officials were investigating. A British diplomat in Baghdad was also unable to confirm any details.
Neighbors said they heard two vehicles drive up to the house around dawn and later noticed that the normally closed sliding iron gate was open, so they called the police. They said they didn't know who was living there.
A police official who asked not to be named said a car was missing from the house where the hostages were believed to have been kidnapped. He said that the three were apparently in the garden when the attack took place and that there was no sign of any fighting.
Several foreign contracting companies and security firms are based in the wealthy al-Mansour neighborhood.
More than 100 abducted
Insurgents waging a 17-month insurgency in Iraq have kidnapped more than 100 foreigners in a bid to destabilize the interim authorities and drive coalition forces from the country. Many have been executed.
At least four Westerners are currently being held hostage in Iraq.
Two Italian women, Simona Pari and Simona Torretta, both 29, were abducted Sept. 7 by armed men from their offices in central Baghdad. They were working on school and water projects for an aid group. There is no word on their fate.
Two French reporters, Christian Chesnot and Georges Malbrunot, were kidnapped last month by a militant group that demanded France rescind a ban on the wearing of headscarves in public schools. Paris refused and the law has already gone into effect.
Headless bodies found
Today's kidnapping of the three men came a day after villagers found the three decapitated bodies in the town of Dijiel, 25 miles north of Baghdad.
The bodies were found Wednesday in nylon bags, the heads in bags alongside them, said Col. Adnan Abdul-Rahman of the Interior Ministry. They were all men with tattoos, including one with the letter 'H' on his arm, but no documents were found on them, he said.
On Wednesday, militants released a Turkish man identified as Aytulla Gezmen, an Arabic language translator who was taken hostage in late July, according to a videotape obtained by Associated Press Television News. The Turkish Foreign Ministry confirmed he had been freed.
A group calling itself The Shura Council of the Mujahedeen said in a separate video Tuesday that it was freeing Gezmen after he converted to Islam and repented working for the Americans.
Driver held
A Jordanian transport company said Wednesday it had ceased to operate in Iraq in the hope of winning the release of one of its drivers, Turki Simer Khalifeh al-Breizat, kidnapped by a separate militant group. The kidnappers gave the company 48 hours Tuesday to pull out.
The developments follow a surge in violence that has killed more than 200 people in the past four days in a brazen and coordinated campaign focused increasingly on the capital -- the center of authority for Prime Minister Ayad Allawi and his American allies.
Copyright 2004 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.