Brown rejects calls for probe into war as U.S. toll tops 3,500

AFP

U.S. troop losses in Iraq topped 3,500 after a bridge bombing near Baghdad on Monday, as Britain’s visiting future prime minister rejected domestic calls for a probe into the war’s failings.

Three U.S. soldiers were killed and six wounded when their checkpoint was struck by a suicide car bomb, the military said, bringing the overall death toll to at least 3,501 since the March 2003 invasion, according to an AFP count based on Pentagon figures.

But despite the passing of yet another grim milestone for coalition forces, Britain’s Gordon Brown, who takes over from Prime Minister Tony Blair on June 27, said it was not the time for an inquiry into the war as called for by the Conservative opposition.

“The wrong time to even consider an inquiry is when you have got to give all your effort to supporting the troops on the ground,” Brown told Sky News. “There are times to consider these things, but the right thing to do at the moment is to give the full support and the full force of government behind the troops on the ground.”

Speaking to reporters in Baghdad, however, he acknowledged things could have been done differently.

“I think it’s important to learn all the lessons, just as Tony Blair has said he acted in good faith but mistakes were made,” Brown said during his first visit to Iraq since he was chosen by the Labour party as Blair’s heir.

Monday’s attack brought to 28 the number of U.S. troops killed in Iraq so far this month, with more than 25,000 U.S. troops wounded in combat since the invasion.

An interpreter was also wounded in the bombing, which destroyed part of a highway overpass in Mahmudiyah, a town south of Baghdad in a violent agricultural region known as an insurgent stronghold dubbed the “Triangle of Death”.

The highway was partly blocked by debris from the collapsed bridge and the military said an engineering unit was dispatched with bulldozers and other heavy equipment to clear the road.

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