Spain's new Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero said on Sunday he had given orders for Spain’s 1,300 troops in Iraq to be brought home as soon as possible. The announcement, made in a televised speech, came a day after Zapatero was sworn in after the Socialists’ upset victory in March 14 general elections.He said he had given Defence Minister Jose Bono ‘‘the order to do what is necessary for the Spanish troops in Iraq to come home in the shortest time and in the greatest safety possible.’’‘‘According to the information we have.it is not likely that a UN resolution will be adopted that will meet the conditions we have set for our presence in Iraq,’’ Zapatero said.In Baghdad, five US Marines and 25 to 30 guerrillas were killed in fighting on Saturday near the Syrian border, the 1st Marine Division said on Sunday. In a statement, it said Marines had battled a force of 120 to 150 guerrillas near Qusayba from around 8 am until after dark. ‘‘A day-long series of firefights began when a Marine patrol reported they were under fire by enemy forces wielding machineguns and rocket-propelled grenades,’’ it said.Around 2,500 US forces stayed outside Najaf, but made no move against rebel cleric Moqtada Al-Sadr who is holed up there defying US demands that he disarm his Mehdi Army militia and submit to arrest on a murder charge. A spokesman for the cleric said talks were at a dead end. Meanwhile, in Miami, Democratic White House challenger John Kerry on Sunday accused the Bush administration of being ‘‘stunningly ineffective’’ on Iraq and said the only solution may well be a new US president.On NBC’s Meet the Press, Kerry called for a new mission authorised by the UN to help rebuild Iraq, blamed President George W. Bush for failing to lay out a clear strategy and charged he had misled top aides in his administration as well as the American public.In Washington, top administration officials said on Sunday the US will not negotiate for the release of an American soldier being held by insurgents in Iraq but is working to win the freedom of hostages there. US National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice said the US was taking unspecified measures to ensure security amid intensifying violence in Iraq.
