- Coalition claims that Iraq may still be able to hold
elections in January are seriously undermined by secret intelligence material
passed to the Sunday Herald which reveals the full extent of the resistance
in the country.
-
- Far from a limited number of pro-Saddam resistance groups
fighting coalition forces, well-funded cells and militias representing
a spectrum of Islamic groups are now spread across Iraq.
-
- They include Sunni resistance groups, Baíathist
groups loyal to the ousted Saddam regime, Shiíite resistance groups,
and other terrorists groups that have moved into Iraq from Iran, Syria,
Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, Afghanistan, Chechnya, Pakistan and Egypt since
the occupation began in the spring of last year.
-
- The intelligence revision of the scale of the insurgency,
which puts the number of militant cells at over 50 and growing, indicates
that the current level of coalition forces will struggle to cope with an
increased level of insurgent activity as the election approaches next year.
-
- The documents show that terrorist and militia activity
is spreading across Iraq and is not just limited to Baghdad and Fallujah.
-
- The increasing number of anti-coalition militias are
believed to receive funds from wealthy Saudi donors and to be in receipt
of funds from money placed in Syrian banks before the fall of Saddam. As
much as $1 billion belonging to Saddam may have found its way to Syria
before the coalition invasion.
-
- The militia problem is compounded by criminals now rampant
inside the almost lawless parts of Iraq.
-
- The picture painted by the rise in the number of resistance
groups, allied to a rise in the number of attacks on coalition forces,
points to serious question marks now over Ayad Allawi's interim government.
Allawi still claims that elections will be held across all parts of Iraq
and will also be fair and democratic. The United Nations have recently
voiced concern over the interim Iraqi government's plans to limit the election
and yet still claim it is legitimate.
-
- The timing of the rise in militia violence and the dangerous
picture of an Iraq far from under control, is also bad news for the re-election
prospects of President George Bush.
-
- In the run-in to the US presidential election, one of
Bush's key messages is that a democratic Iraq will make the world a safer
place. That claim is key to the White House's justification for the invasion.
-
- The more the claim looks suspect, the likelihood is that
swing voters ñ crucial to the outcome of the election race - could
turn to Bush's challenger, Senator John Kerry.
-
- The fears of a pro-Saddam resistance network and increased
instability outlined in the intelligence reports seen by the Sunday Herald
were born out by 24 hours of exceptional violence across Iraq.
-
- Earlier yesterday a suicide car bomber killed at least
16 Iraqi policemen and injured 40 other people at a police station near
a US Marine base near Ramadi, in western Iraq and in Baghdad a roadside
bomb exploded near an American military convoy, injuring five soldiers.
-
- Another suicide bomber blew up his vehicle near a checkpoint
manned by Iraqi National Guards in the village of Ishaqi, close to the
town of Samarra, north of Baghdad, killing four guards, and a policeman
was killed by a roadside bomb in Samarra.
-
- There was no let up in violence elsewhere across the
Sunni Arab heartland of central Iraq that the interim government and Washington
blame on Saddam Hussein supporters and foreign Islamic militants. One Iraqi
militant group the Army of Ansar al-Sunna said it had beheaded the Iraqi
man it accused of collaborating with US forces and posted pictures of the
killing on the Internet.
-
- Guerrillas also killed two Turkish truckers and wounded
two in an attack on a convoy near the northern city of Mosul, police said.
-
- In central Baghdad guerrillas fired two mortar rounds,
killing two civilians and wounding one, and six U.S. soldiers were wounded
when their armoured vehicle was hit by a bomb on a highway leading to the
airport.
-
- Saboteurs also bombed two oil pipelines transporting
crude from northern and eastern Iraq to Baghdad's Dora refinery.
-
- Meanwhile, the U.S. military said it had captured a lieutenant
of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, and five other suspects in an overnight raid on
what it said was a hideout of the Jordanian militant's network in the south
of Falluja.
-
- U.S. forces also launched air strikes on the rebel-held
militant stronghold city, about 30 miles west of Baghdad, killing two people
and wounding three.
-
- © newsquest (sunday herald) limited. all rights
reserved
http://www.sundayherald.com/45619
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