Iraqi children play with US soldiers during a party for children of the Mother Teresa Orphanage in Baghdad. (Reuters)

Baghdad, Dec. 20 (Reuters): Spain’s Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar surprised Spanish troops in Iraq with a visit today as US troops mistakenly killed three Iraqi policemen.

In his first trip to the region since the US-led war on Iraq, Aznar flew to a Spanish base in Diwaniya, 180 km south of Baghdad, from Madrid and via Kuwait. Aznar was expected to lunch with troops before heading back to Spain, a move to boost morale over the Christmas season, a government official said. Despite strong opposition to the US-led war among the Spanish public, Spain currently has 1,300 soldiers in Iraq who are still reeling from a huge blow in November when Iraqis killed seven Spanish intelligence officers.

Aznar has been one the strongest supporters of US President George W. Bush’s campaign to oust former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, captured by US forces a week ago.

Spanish forces form part of an international division under Polish command in Shia areas of south-central Iraq. In the wake of the killings, Spanish defence minister Federico Trillo reaffirmed Spain’s commitment to stay in Iraq until peace was restored to the country.

Bush has been pressing for other countries to dispatch troops to help stabilise post-war Iraq, where guerrillas have killed 200 US soldiers since he declared major combat over on May 1.

Underscoring the nervousness of American soldiers, US troops opened fire on a police patrol south of the oil-rich city of Kirkuk overnight, killing three policemen and wounding two, said police Lieutenant Salam Zanganeh at Kirkuk Hospital.

He said the troops apparently mistook the policemen for bandits in an area where antiquities smugglers are active. There was no immediate comment from the US military.

Such incidents have spread anti-American anger. Iraqis often complain that US forces are too aggressive on patrols and searches and are quick to pull the trigger. Suicide bombers have staged several attacks on Iraqi police to punish them for working with American soldiers, who hope to hand over security to the Iraqis. Some 116 Iraqi policemen and security forces have been killed since May 1.

Gunmen opened fire on two former members of Iraq’s toppled Baath Party today, killing one of them and wounding the other in the holy Shia city of Najaf, hospital sources said.

A police official said earlier that both former Baath officials were killed in the two separate attacks. Dhamya Abbas, a teacher, survived the attack but her eight-year-old son was killed as they walked to her school, hospital officials said.

“I was going to school and then I saw two people on a motorcycle shoot me with Kalashnikovs. One bullet hit my stomach and the other one in my leg,” she said. “I left the Baath Party five years ago.” Residents said she was a senior Baath Party official in Najaf when Saddam Hussein crushed the 1991 Shia uprising after the Gulf War over Kuwait.

Former party official Ali Kassem, who residents said was an informer for Saddam’s feared intelligence services, was killed in a separate attack. Score settling has been on the rise in Iraq in recent weeks.

Osama tape

Osama bin Laden attacked the US war on Iraq as part of a new crusade against Islam in an audiotape purported to be by the al Qaida leader aired on Arabic TV station Al Arabiya today.

“Know that this war is a new crusade against the Islamic world and is a critical war for the whole Islamic nation,” said the voice on the tape.