Chaos continues
The intensification of counter insurgency measures in Iraq seems to be fueling resentment of US forces, writes Salah Hemeid
Hundreds of American troops have searched buildings identified as militia headquarters in several towns north and west of Baghdad over the past few days looking for supporters of the deposed President Saddam Hussein. The raids were part of a larger operation, dubbed Desert Scorpion, and included surgical strikes on targets throughout Iraq aimed at preventing further attacks on US troops.
On Tuesday the operation spread to Baghdad where US troops reportedly arrested more than 400 people, including former Republican Guard officers and ex-Ba'ath Party officials. Yet anti-American actions continued in Iraq yesterday, with drive-by shootings targeting Iraqis who work in the newly set up local authorities.
On the same day US troops opened fire on Iraqi demonstrators outside the presidential compound in Baghdad now used as the headquarters of the American command.
Several hundred Iraqis gathered outside the gate and began throwing stones at those guarding the sprawling complex. US troops fired at the crowds and several people were killed or wounded.
In Fallujah, some 60 km west of Baghdad, shots were fired into the US- appointed mayor's office and the courthouse while in the nearby town of Khaldiyah the police station came under attack late on Tuesday.
"There is an element of society here that doesn't want change and they see the coalition forces as bringing change in the form of freedom and democracy," Colonel David Perkins, commander of the 3rd Infantry Division's 2nd Brigade, told reporters.
Anti-American activity appears to be centered in the Sunni heartland, where Saddam's support was strongest and attacks by his hard-core backers have persisted. Several US convoys have been ambushed in the so-called Sunni triangle which includes the three provinces of Mosul, Ramadi and Tikrit.
The mood in Iraq has grown uglier since President Bush announced major operations in the war over. Many ordinary Iraqis are enraged at the collapse of security and the administration's failure to act quickly and decisively to establish order and prevent lawlessness. In Baghdad few people dare go out at night. Even during the day there are carjackings and armed robberies. On the highways cars are frequently raked with automatic gunfire before being plundered.
Inside the US there is an increasing feeling that having won the war the administration may now be losing the peace. Nearly seven weeks after the end of the war the conflict has entered a twilight phase. In Baghdad and other major cities days and nights are regularly punctuated by bursts of gunfire, and the tension is surprisingly similar to that felt during the original invasion.
Critics in Washington are voicing concern that it will take thousands more ground troops to rescue the Iraqi peace and restore security to major cities.
Meanwhile, differences between the US and its major ally in the coalition that ousted Saddam are surfacing. A senior British official in Baghdad was reported in The Daily Telegraph as saying that the American-led reconstruction effort in Iraq is "in chaos" and suffering from "a complete absence of strategic direction". The official painted a grim picture of American incompetence as the Coalition Provisional Authority struggles to impose order on post-Saddam Iraq.
"This is the most chaotic organisation I have ever worked for," the unidentified official told the paper.
He revealed that Paul Bremer, the US administrator in Iraq, had "fewer than 600" staff under his control to run a country the size of France, with a civil infrastructure on the point of collapse.
"The operation is chronically under- resourced and suffers from an almost complete absence of strategic direction," he said.
Similar frustrations have been voiced privately in London, where British ministers are said to be fed up with being "taken for granted".
Also Tuesday, the London Times quoted a British commander as saying coalition forces still had to prove to Iraqis that Saddam's regime was dead.
"I think it is quite understandable that there are people out there who, until they have absolute and incontrovertible evidence that Saddam Hussein is dead, will worry about [his possible return]," Major General Freddy Viggers, British commander at the US military headquarters in Baghdad, said.
Bremer perhaps found some solace in criticism directed at the insurgents from leading Iraqi politicians.
Abdel-Aziz Al-Hakim, from the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, said his group did not sanction violence against the American troops which he labeled as counterproductive. Adnan Pachahi, leader of the Independent Democrats Group, described the attacks as untimely while Ahmed Chalabi of the Iraqi National Congress went as far as branding such insurgency as terrorist.
In a related development several Asian nations have insisted that the international community play a central role in the reconstruction and development of Iraq. At the end of a two-day meeting in Cambodia foreign ministers of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations said that the "sovereignty, territorial integrity, political independence and security of Iraq" must be respected.
