Five US Marines were killed by a roadside bomb in Ramadi, western Iraq, on Saturday, the US military said in a statement yesterday.
Their armoured vehicle was hit in the insurgent city, 70 miles west of Baghdad.
The five soldiers, assigned to the 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 2nd Marine Division, II Marine Expeditionary Force (Forward), were not identified pending notification of their relatives.
The latest US casualties made nonsense of claims made yesterday by US President George W Bush and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice that Saturday’s referendum on a new puppet ‘constitution’ would reduce the level of insurgency in Iraq.
Bush said: ‘By casting their ballots, the Iraqi people deal a severe blow to the terrorists and send a clear message to the world: Iraqis will decide the future of their country through peaceful elections, not violent insurgency.’
Rice predicted the outcome before votes had been counted.
Arriving in London yesterday for talks with UK Prime Minister Blair at Chequers, she told reporters: ‘Most people assume on the ground that it probably has passed.’
Meanwhile, New York based rights group Human Rights Watch has warned that the secret tribunal established to try Iraqi President Saddam Hussein and other Ba’athist leaders runs the risk of violating international standards for fair trials.
Saddam and seven others go on trial on Wednesday for alleged crimes that took place in the town of al-Dujail in 1982.
Iraqi security forces allegedly killed more than 140 individuals from al-Dujail, in retaliation for an assassination attempt on Saddam as his motorcade passed through the town north of Baghdad.
But Human Rights Watch says in a briefing paper that problems with the tribunal and its statute include the absence of any requirement to prove guilt beyond reasonable doubt, as well as inadequate protections for the accused.
Also threatening the integrity of the process are disputes among Iraqi political factions over control of the court, and requirements that prohibit commutation of death sentences by any Iraqi official and compel execution of the defendant within 30 days of a final judgment, the group said.