Posted on 06/29/2004 11:21:02 AM PDT by NormsRevenge
BAGHDAD, Iraq - Bomb-building Islamic radicals have joined forces with guerrilla foot soldiers from Saddam Hussein (news - web sites)'s ousted regime in a bloody insurgency that now has a new target: Iraq (news - web sites)'s fragile day-old government.
Officials have been warning that insurgents were planning a bloody offensive and a spate of car bombs to disrupt the day that the interim government is installed.
U.S. occupation chief L. Paul Bremer and his entourage, who abruptly handed the reins to Iraq's new government on Monday, two days early, sidestepped the expected mayhem. But the Iraqis — and the 140,000 U.S. troops that will remain in charge of the country's security — may still bear its brunt.
"The political arm of our operation here has gone out of business. Certainly the military operation has not gone out of business," said Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt, the coalition deputy operations chief.
"Frankly, we could see more violence in the days and weeks ahead as the terrorists and the former regime loyalists might want to test this new government," he said in an interview with AP Radio.
Now, Prime Minister Iyad Allawi must lead a shattered country for seven months while preparing for January's general election.
Hours after the handover of sovereignty, blasts rang out in central Baghdad, as they do nearly every day in the Iraqi capital.
An increasingly brutal insurgency has set off more than two dozen car bombs this month alone. And as Allawi's government takes power, the insurgency may be undergoing a worrying metamorphosis.
There is evidence that ex-Baathist guerrillas, known for their gun and grenade attacks, are working more closely with Islamic militants who have been using car and suicide bombings.
Those guerrillas are expected to launch attacks aimed at disrupting those elections and discredit Allawi's government, which was selected in large measure by the United States.
Until recently, the U.S. military logic placed the Islamic extremists at odds with guerrillas thought to be linked to Saddam's former Baath Party. These included remnants of the Republican Guard and Saddam's Fedayeen militia, which fought doggedly against U.S. troops during the 2003 invasion.
But the new alliance, described as a "marriage of convenience," may have been evident in a one-day offensive on Thursday that sowed chaos in a number of cities across Iraq as guerrillas and car bombers launched simultaneous attacks that killed over 100 people.
Gunmen attacked police stations with guerrilla tactics but were dressed in black jihadist outfits and headbands carrying radical Islamic slogans, Kimmitt said.
"By their actions, they look like (ex-Baathists) but by their appearance, they look like jihadists," Kimmitt said. "You don't know if they're truly jihadists or they're just wrapping themselves in the uniform."
The strife-ridden city of Baqouba, where rebels have fought U.S. and Iraqi troops in running street battles for a week, is the crucible of this partnership. The phenomenon has also popped up in Mosul and Fallujah, two other cities with long histories of insurgency.
To face the insurgency, Allawi commands some 200,000 Iraqi police and other security forces, many of them ill-trained. The U.S.-led multinational force, totalling about 150,000 troops, remains responsible for security.
"To be successful, he will need to use American power without appearing like an American puppet," said Jon Alterman of the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington. "Iraqis will need to see him stand up to the U.S. government to defend Iraqi interests, while drawing on U.S. technical, financial, military, and intelligence resources."
U.S. forces have made headway against a radical Shiite Muslim uprising in the south and in east Baghdad, with forces loyal to firebrand cleric Muqtada al-Sadr now calling for calm.
For the Sunni-led insurgency long centered in the region north and west of Baghdad, one of Allawi's best cards to play may be his president, Ghazi al-Yawer, a Sunni member of the enormous Shammar tribe.
Al-Yawer, who dresses in traditional Arab robes and headdress, may be able to connect Allawi's government to the marginalized Iraqi Sunnis. To his credit, al-Yawer in April negotiated an end to fighting in the Sunni city of Fallujah between Iraqi guerrillas and U.S. Marines.
Al-Yawer's criticism of the United States during the fighting won him support in Iraq — perhaps even from some insurgents.
Claims of responsibility for the past week's multiple attacks in Baqouba came from both sides of the partnership: the terror network of Jordanian Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, and a band of Baathists, a U.S. military official said on condition of anonymity.
In another possible sign of cooperation, four bloody car bombings in the northern city of Mosul on Thursday appeared to be timed to coordinate with paramilitary attacks in Baqouba, Ramadi and Fallujah.
But in Fallujah on Monday, a group claiming to represent fighters still holed up in the city threatened to punish anyone working with U.S. forces, and denied they had any connection to al-Zarqawi.
U.S. officials hope that Iraqis will believe that they are now in control of their country and that that will take the steam out of the insurgency.
"I'm sure many of their plans have been foiled. It's a victory over the terrorists as well," Iraq's new government spokesman Hamid al-Kifaei said of Monday's surprise handover. "They will be on the defensive and we will be on the offensive."
But U.S. Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz offered a more sobering assessment, saying the Pentagon (news - web sites) had underestimated its enemy in Iraq and failed to predict that the remnants of Saddam's government could mount so virulent an insurgency.
Iraq (news - web sites)'s interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi points at a journalist during a news conference in Baghdad June 29, 2004. Allawi said Iraq's government will take legal custody of Saddam Hussein (news - web sites) and other top Baathist officials on Wednesday but the U.S. military will retain physical custody. (Ceerwan Aziz/Reuters)
French President Jacques Chirac speaks a news conference at the NATO (news - web sites) summit in Istanbul, June 29, 2004. France has blocked a U.S. bid to deploy NATO's new strike force to safeguard Afghanistan (news - web sites)'s elections, stoking tension between the two allies that fell out over the Iraq (news - web sites) war, diplomats said on Tuesday. REUTERS/Jeff J Mitchell
Killing the terrorists over there is certainly preferable to killing them in America. Heck, the Supreme Court wants them to have court-appointed attorneys, and probably be free on bail.
Allawi looks OK so far. Respectable, tough, intelligent & Western. He's got courage to take a job as dangerous as this.
I'd like to see a lot more terrorists face down...
Just stake out the Baghdad Gap store and tail anybody who buys the black jeans and tees.
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