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| Iraq |
| Rumsfeld Sees No Quick End to Attacks in Iraq |
| 2003-06-10 |
| EFL - At least they're being realistic and in for the long haul BAGHDAD - Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said Tuesday he expected remnants of Saddam Hussein's forces to go on attacking U.S.-led troops in Iraq for months but they would ultimately be rooted out. Since Baghdad fell to the Americans on April 9, 39 U.S. soldiers have been killed by assailants. In the latest fatal incident, an American soldier was shot dead at a checkpoint near the Syrian border late Sunday. "Do I think that's going to disappear in the next month or two or three? No. Will it disappear when some two or three divisions of coalition forces arrive in the country? No," Rumsfeld told a news conference in Lisbon. "It will take time to root out the remnants of the Saddam Hussein regime and we intend to do it." Rumsfeld clearly hasn't learned diplospeak - that's why he's the right guy in the right place, time The U.S. military said Tuesday that U.S. troops had staged raids Monday to crack down on guerrilla fighters north of Baghdad, detaining 384 people and suffering four wounded. With Iraq's political future still in question, a scion of Arabia's Hashemite dynasty, Sharif Ali bin Hussein, returned to Iraq Tuesday, 45 years after a revolution toppled the British-backed monarchy and killed his cousin, King Faisal II. A multinational force that will seek to keep the peace in the devastated country is beginning to take shape. An advance unit of 35 Italian troops flew into the southern city of Basra Tuesday, the advance guard of a 1,700-strong Italian peacekeeping contingent due by the end of June. It will come under British control. An advance party of Dutch troops was due in Basra Thursday. The Netherlands is to send 1,100 marines to the British-controlled zone in southern Iraq. More than 10 countries have also pledged troops for a 7,500-strong Polish-led force to be deployed in south-central Iraq. There are currently 146,000 U.S. troops and about 14,000 international troops in Iraq, according to Rumsfeld. A Qatari plane with relief supplies also arrived there on what was billed as the first commercial flight to postwar Iraq. The United States has said its failure to find Saddam Hussein may be emboldening the fallen leader's Baath party supporters to attack U.S. forces in Iraq. "It might give heart to the Baathists who may want to hope that they can take back that country, which they are not going to succeed in doing," Rumsfeld said late Monday. "We'll just keep looking for him. We'll find him," he told reporters on the flight to Portugal at the start of a four-day European tour. Rumsfeld said the string of attacks on U.S. forces was due to Saddam sympathizers in the north of the country. "There is no one who thinks that it's a well-organized nationally directed campaign," he said. At Tuesday's news conference, Rumsfeld said Iraqis were being recruited in large numbers to help foil the attackers. "We are bringing on board continuously hundreds and most recently thousands of Iraqis who are participating in joint patrols," he said. "So the idea that there won't be any help until coalition countries arrive in the fall is exactly false, because the security situation in the country is improving as we proceed." Fallujah still standing? why? |
| Posted by:Frank G |
| #2 I don't have a whole lot of tolerance with the crap. Just take the local clan leaders and mullahs in Fallujah to the side and tell them - either clean it up or we'll move a couple of Kurd units down to assist. You know the Kurds. The people who were butchered for a generation by your people. I'm sure there are some blood feuds and paybacks they have on the book they want to clear. |
| Posted by: Anonymous 2003-06-10 20:41:44 |
| #1 Further allied activity: UMM QASR • Provided emergency medical treatment to 12-year-old child and her mother, who were burned by a propane stove in Khor Zubayr, and also coordinated transportation of the child to the Spanish Hospital ship. From Central Command |
| Posted by: Chuck 2003-06-10 11:19:04 |