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Insurgency in Iraq 'intensifying' (need to legalize Hashish)
US Secretary of State Colin Powell has said the conflict between US forces and insurgents in Iraq is getting worse. He told US TV networks that militants wanted to disrupt elections in January - but the US would increase efforts to defeat them. However, he added that Washington remained determined to hold elections across the whole country. This comes after Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld suggested that violence could prevent voting in some areas. On Thursday Mr Rumsfeld told a Senate committee that a partial election - leaving out the most troublesome regions - would be "better than not having an election". Mr Powell on Sunday recognised that the US was "fighting an intense insurgency". "Yes it's getting worse and the reason it's getting worse is that they are determined to disrupt the election," he told ABC's This Week programme. Mr Powell said polling stations may be shot at, but added that Washington's aim remained "to give everybody the opportunity to vote... to make the election fully credible". Meanwhile, the commander of US troops in the Middle East, Gen John Abizaid echoed Mr Rumsfeld in an interview with NBC's Meet the Press programme, saying Iraqis may not be able to go to the polls in some places. But he predicted voting would take place in the "vast majority of the country". Posted by: Fawad 2004-09-27 |
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