- BAGHDAD -- A confidential
report prepared by the US-led administration in Iraq says that the attacks
by insurgents in the country have escalated sharply, prompting fears of
what it terms Iraq's "Balkanisation". The findings emerged after
a rocket-propelled grenade attack on the top US general in Iraq, John Abizaid,
on Thursday.
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- "January has the highest rate of violence since
September 2003," the report said. "The violence continues despite
the expansion of the Iraqi security services and increased arrests by coalition
forces in December and January."
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- The report, which is based on military data and circulated
to foreign organisations by the US aid agency USAid, diverges with public
statements by US officials who claim that security in the country is improving.
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- "The security risks are not as bad as they appear
on TV," Tom Foley, the coalition official overseeing Iraq's private-sector
development, said at the US Commerce Department headquarters in Washington
on Wednesday. "Western civilians are not the targets themselves. These
are acceptable risks."
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- According to the report, "January national review
of Iraq", strikes against international and non-governmental organisations
increased from 19 to 26 in January. It said that high-intensity attacks
involving mortars and explosives grew by 103 per cent from 316 in December
to 642 in January; non-life threatening attacks, including drive-by shootings
and rock-throwing, soared by 186 per cent from 182 in December. It also
recorded an average of eight attacks a day in Baghdad alone, up from four
a day in September, and a total of 11 attacks on coalition aircraft.
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- The report emerged as Iraq faced one of its worst weeks
of violence in the 10-month occupation of Iraq. According US military officials,
General Abizaid escaped unharmed but cancelled a walkabout, after attackers
hiding in a mosque fired on his convoy as it entered a military base in
the town of Falluja, west of Baghdad. It was not clear if the insurgents
knew they were targeting Gen Abizaid and officials said a six-minute gun-battle
ensued.
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- In other attacks, eight mortars were fired at a US base
in Iraq, US officials said, and the Arabic satellite channel al-Jazeera
reported that Japanese forces faced their first attack, when a mortar was
fired at their base near the southern town of al-Samawah without causing
casualties. (The BBC also reported that a truck bomb exploded after penetrating
the perimeter fence of Baghdad's international airport, where thousands
of American troops are based.)
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- The attacks followed the killing of two US soldiers in
a roadside bomb attack in Baghdad and a pair of car-bombings on Tuesday
and Wednesday which killed 100 Iraqis, most of whom had been volunteering
for the Iraqi security forces.
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- The report makes clear how dependent Iraq's stability
is on investment in the country's economy. "A fear of some is the
'Balkanisation' of Iraq if security, economic and infrastructure situations
do not improve," it says.
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- It attributed much of the civilian violence to rising
ethnic tensions between Kurds, Shias and Sunnis, noting that several bodies
were found in the south "with hands bound and bullet wounds to the
head".
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- But attacks on military targets, which had seen two months
of decline, rose even faster than those on civilians, it said, particularly
in the "Sunni triangle", north and west of Baghdad. It described
the "profuse availability" of roadside bombs, the favoured weapon
of the insurgents, as "alarming", saying attacks had surged almost
200 per cent.
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- The report shed little insight into who was behind the
attacks, but said "multiple reports confirm the presence of al-Qaeda
in the country".
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- Copyright The Financial Times Ltd 2004.
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