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| Iraq |
| Fight against insurgency continues after elections |
| 2005-12-16 |
| A day after Iraq held elections largely free of violence, both the U.S. military and Iraqi rebels warned on Friday that the insurgency was far from over. As a reminder of the threat they pose, insurgents fired mortar rounds in Baghdad after Muslim prayers on Friday, police said. There were no reports of casualties. "The insurgency is not over," Brigadier General Don Alston, chief of communications for U.S. forces in Iraq, told Reuters. "Zarqawi is still out there and levels of violence will increase," he said, referring to al Qaeda's leader in Iraq, Jordanian Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. His group has carried out many of the deadliest attacks over the past two years. "Whether the levels of violence go back up to where they were before, we'll have to see," Alston said. On Thursday, up to 11 million Iraqis voted in parliamentary elections, streaming to polls even in former insurgent strongholds like Falluja, and in the rebellious city of Ramadi. Militants mounted only isolated attacks, in stark contrast to the last elections in January, when more than 40 people were killed in a series of suicide bombings. The high turnout, including Sunni Arabs who have been the bedrock of the insurgency, has generated some optimism that Iraq may have turned a corner, with the ballot box, not roadside bombs or Kalashnikovs, the new weapon of choice. But U.S. commanders, while buoyed by the successful and peaceful vote, played down such talk, and militants said fighting would not end while U.S. troops remained in Iraq. "I don't think we've reached a sudden big-bang point in terms of bringing down violence," said a U.S. diplomat in Baghdad. "We still have a long way to go in terms of ... building the Iraqi security forces to the point where they alone can manage the job here." raq's insurgency is the work of a range of groups, from nationalist rebels opposed to U.S. occupation, to former Baathists loyal to Saddam Hussein, and Islamist militants bent on creating a Sunni caliphate in Iraq. The election appeared to draw some members of those groups, particularly nationalist rebels who form the bulk of the insurgency, into the political process. But others, like Zarqawi, are not about to quit their violent campaigns. "This period of elections is a period of truce, but that does not mean we will stop our military activities," said a man calling himself Abu Qutada, a member of the Islamic Army in Iraq militant group, which includes former Baathists. "We want the Americans to know that when armed operations start after the elections, we will take control at any time." Others indicated that fighting would remain on hold until a new Iraqi government is formed. If that government does not reflect Sunni Arab aspirations, they said, then violence would resume, with U.S. and Iraqi forces both being targeted. "The results of the election will determine what we do," said Abu Mohammed, an insurgent leader in Salaheddin province. "If (the government) stays the same, military operations will be increased against U.S. forces, the police and the Iraqi army," he said, referring to the Shi'ite-led government. "If Allawi wins, operations will be focussed on the Americans only, as the occupiers," he said. Former Prime Minister Iyad Allawi heads an alliance that has a following among secular Sunnis and Shi'ites and is thought to have made gains in the election. U.S. General George Casey, the overall commander in Iraq, acknowledged on Thursday that even though the election was a success, it had not necessarily taken all U.S. troops any closer to going home, as many in the United States are hoping. "There is still lots of tough work to do and we should expect the insurgency not just to go away because there were elections," he told Pentagon reporters from Iraq. Some U.S. troops are due to go home in the coming weeks -- numbers were bolstered from 138,000 to 155,000 ahead of the election and will go back down again now it is over -- but no time has been set for other withdrawals. The U.S. administration has made clear any pull-out will depend on the ability of Iraqi forces to take on the insurgency themselves. On election day, Iraqi troops showed their ability to maintain order, but there is more to do. "Yesterday was a challenge, a challenge that was met and the latest in a series of challenges taken on by the Iraqi security forces," said Brigadier General Alston. "There's no question that that contributes to the body of evidence we are studying," in terms of Iraqi readiness, he said. "But decisions on U.S. troop levels are going to have to be based on conditions on the ground," he said, while accepting that the election had shown some improvement in those conditions. "There were some who chose not to fight and to vote instead. That's a clear indication of progress." Some Sunni Arabs may now follow a "twin-track" strategy, like the "ballot box in one hand, gun in the other" approach of Northern Irish nationalists from the 1970s, using violence and the threat of it to back the demands of their political wing. Those supporting the political process say that could backfire: "They need to understand that spiking up the violence will actually impede the possibilities of political deal-making," one Western diplomat said. "It will entrench other positions." |
| Posted by:Dan Darling |
| #1 Seems to me that both us and the insurgents would like to see Allawi win... go figure! |
| Posted by: Damn_Proud_American 2005-12-16 11:29 |