According to official figures released by the Iraqi Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research, 289 university professors were killed in the last three years, from all sects and ethnic groups.

This indicated that the killings were carried out on the ground of scientific identity.

A report on brain drain by the investigation committee, which was set up by former minister of education Sami Al Mudhaffar, showed a high rise in the number of assassinated professors after the explosion of the Shiite Shrine in Samara.

The Shiite shrines, which were bombed in Samaraa last February, brought the number of assassinations to 450 people, including university professors and physicians, because militia men and parties resorted to kill highly educated people and academicians and holders of high scientific certificates.

The report also indicates that more than 900 Iraqi professors left Iraq to work in the neighbouring Jordanian universities, while 200 others are working currently in the universities of Yemen.

Fakhri Al Qaisi, assistant dean of the College of Dentistry, told Gulf News: "Professors in all medical departments are panic-stricken, while many others, have fled to neighbouring and other countries."

"It is noted that most dentistry section professors have received letters of threat. The assassinations are linked to Israeli Mossad," Al Qaisi said.

He claimed that that the Iraqi National Congress Party began abducting physicians and university professors after the US occupation, a time when assassinations increased dramatically and that the party was backed by the Mossad.

Members in the National Congress Party refuted these allegations, saying that this is a Baathist, Arab Sunni campaign to distort the role of Ahmad Chalabi in liberating Iraq from Saddam Hussain's regime.

But the questions now being asked by common Iraqis in the street and by politicians are whether Mossad really exists in Iraq and, if so, where its operations centres are and which Iraqi parties are supporting it?

Omar Al Hajj, a professor at the University of Technology said: "Death squads accused of killing Iraqi professionals and scientists are the same forces that invaded Iraq, looted its museums and stole its banks."

"They are also the same parties, which, abduct businessmen and foreigners for high ransoms."

"They just smiled," said Mason.

"I told him (Girouard) that I am not down with it. It's murder."

The soldiers -- Private First Class Corey Clagett, Specialist William Hunsaker, Girouard and Specialist Juston Graber -- are from the 101st Airborne Division and are based in Samarra, north of Baghdad.

They have said the three men who were killed were trying to escape during the shootings.

The defendants have been charged with premeditated murder, attempted murder, conspiracy, communicating a threat, and obstructing justice in the killings in or around May 9 north of Baghdad.

A premeditated murder conviction can bring the death penalty under U.S. military law.

The Article 32 hearing to determine if they will face court martials is being held at Contingency Operating Base Speicher in Saddam Hussein's hometown of Tikrit, 175 km (110 miles) north of the capital.

It comes at a sensitive time when the military is investigating other cases of alleged abuses -- including the killings of up to 24 unarmed civilians in the town of Haditha last year by U.S. Marines -- which have infuriated Iraqis.

Iraqi leaders have said previously that their goal is to be fully in control of the country's security by the end of 2006, but Talabani's statement is the most direct on the subject.

Talabani did not elaborate, and it was not clear if he meant whether the U.S. would retain an advisory type of role in security or take a fully hands-off approach.

U.S. forces are currently responsible for the security of 17 of Iraq's 18 provinces. Only Samawah province is totally under Iraqi forces at present.

A British soldier was killed in a mortar attack on an army base in the southern city of Basra, a British military spokesman said.

In Baghdad, a suicide bomber in a car targeted soldiers collecting their salaries from a bank, killing at least 10 people, including an elderly woman, police said. State television put the toll at 14.

The blast was in the same spot in Karrada district where a car bomb and mortars killed at least 27 people last week.

"We should carry guns to protect ourselves. If we expect Iraqi security forces to protect us we will burn, just like those innocent people," said kiosk owner Abu Fadhil, surveying charred bodies.

"The government is useless. Only days ago we suffered from a huge blast here. The interior minister has to admit they lost the war against the terrorists."

A boy, about 12-years old, stood in the street sobbing and tearing his shirt after seeing his dead mother.

"My mother, my mother, my mother," he screamed.

Two months after being sworn in, Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki has yet to prove he can end such carnage and sectarian bloodshed which has raised fears of civil war.

He has presented a 24-point reconciliation plan that is long on promises and short on details, and imposed a security crackdown in Baghdad that has proven ineffective.

The army casualties served as a reminder that U.S.-trained Iraqi forces have a long way to go before they can handle security on their own and allow Washington to bring home troops.

Gunmen kidnapped 45 Shi'ites from the Iraqi city of Najaf as they traveled home past the Sunni rebel stronghold of Ramadi on Monday, the governor of Najaf said on Tuesday.

They were abducted along highway 160, one of Iraq's most dangerous roads, said the governor, Asa'ad Sultan. Police could not immediately confirm the kidnappings.

Gunmen opened fire on a bus in Yusufiya, south of Baghdad, killing at least three people in a failed kidnapping, police said.

The United States plans to boost its troop levels in Baghdad and National Security Advisor Mowaffaq al-Rubaie said extra Iraqi brigades would also be brought to the capital.

A few hours after he spoke several mortar bombs landed at the fortified Green Zone government compound, police said.

The body of Adel al-Mansouri, a correspondent for al-Alam television station, was found dumped with bullet holes on a street, police and the station said.

Iraqi security forces were also targeted in the town of Muqdadiya, 90 km (50 miles) northeast of the capital.

A car bomb exploded as a police patrol passed in front of a hospital, killing at least seven people, police said.

In the northern oil city of Kirkuk, a roadside bomb killed two police and wounded a third as they conducted a patrol.

"This morning's news from Afghanistan and Iraq is very sad," Browne said.

Three British soldiers in the NATO force in Afghanistan's Helmand province were killed and another was seriously hurt when insurgents fired on their patrol with rocket-propelled grenades and heavy machine guns, Browne's ministry said.

Corporal Matthew Cornish from Britain's 1st Battalion Light Infantry was fatally wounded during a mortar attack on the multinational base in the southern Iraqi city of Basra, it added.

"Those responsible for the attacks on our soldiers in northern Helmand do not want to see security and prosperity brought to the local people," the minister said.

"We cannot allow them to succeed, and we remain committed to seeing through our part in this vital international effort," Browne said.

Nine British troops have now been killed in combat this year in southern Afghanistan, where the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) is embarking on what it calls its most challenging mission yet to defeat a resurgent Taliban.

The bulk of a new British deployment of around 4,000 troops to Afghanistan is based in Helmand. Britain announced earlier this month that it would boost its initial deployment due to the unexpectedly fierce resistance.

The attack came a day after the US-led coalition that overthrew the Taliban in 2001 transferred command of foreign forces in southern Afghanistan to a NATO contingent.

Only half a dozen British troops were killed in Afghanistan prior to the new deployment this year.

Nick Harvey, the spokesman on defense matters for the opposition Liberal Democrat party, said the deaths in Afghanistan "underline the need for a clear military strategy, with achievable objectives. ... The government must be clear about the challenges ahead."

Browne also said the death of the soldier in Basra would not "deflect our support to the elected government in Iraq."

Cornish's death in Basra brought to 115 the number of British troops killed in Iraq since 2003 when they helped US forces overthrow dictator Saddam Hussein. Some 7,200 British troops are deployed in southern Iraq.

The withdrawal of US, British and other foreign troops depends on the ability of foreign-trained Iraqi forces to assume the burden of stabilizing the country.

However, the country is caught in the throes of sectarian violence, with security forces themselves allegedly participating in insurgent bombings and other attacks.