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April 6, 2004, Scotsman WAVE OF VIOLENCE THREATENS HANDOVER OF POWER TO IRAQIS Gethin Chamberlain, Defence Correspondent THE deadline for the handover of power in Iraq may have to be shifted if conditions continue to deteriorate, Britain's armed forces minister acknowledged last night. Adam Ingram's admission came as hundreds of United States and Iraqi troops, backed by tanks and warplanes, sealed off the city of Fallujah in a crackdown on insurgents, and US helicopter gunships attacked supporters of the radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr in Baghdad. Facing an upsurge in violence even among the previously supportive Shiite population, Downing Street and the White House had both earlier tried to play down calls for the 30 June date of the handover to be put back. But Mr Ingram said that while he was confident the target could be achieved, it was not set in stone. "If the date has to shift, then the date has to shift because we have to get it right for the people of Iraq because that is what they want for their future," he said. In a measure of the growing alarm in Washington, two members of the US Senate's foreign relations committee said the Bush administration should consider extending the handover deadline or risk seeing Iraq fall into even deeper trouble. "We're going to end up with a civil war in Iraq if, in fact, we decide we can turn this over - including the bulk of the security - to the Iraqis," said Democrat Senator Joseph Biden. Senator Richard Lugar, a Republican, the chairman of the foreign relations committee, criticised the White House for its lack of a plan for what happens after Paul Bremer, the US governor of Iraq, leaves the country on 1 July: "The fact is that we don't know what we're going to do," he said. Coalition troops and Iraqi gunmen clashed repeatedly in cities across Iraq yesterday. In Basra, British troops traded fire with supporters of the radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, who had seized the governor's office, killing one Iraqi. In the city of Amarah, between Basra and Baghdad, militiamen marched in the streets, clashing with British troops near the governor's office. Two Iraqis were reported to have been killed in the exchange of fire. Militiamen in Baghdad traded fire with a US patrol in the mainly Shiite al -Shoala district. A US Apache helicopter was hit by small-arms fire and responded with a barrage of machine-gun rounds. The fighting followed clashes on Sunday, when gunmen in Sadr City, Baghdad's largest Shiite area, opened fire on US troops, killing eight. At least 30 Iraqis were killed and more than 110 wounded in the fighting. As the clashes continued, Paul Bremer, the top US administrator in Iraq, declared Sadr an outlaw who threatened Iraq's security. "Effectively he is attempting to establish his authority in the place of the legitimate authority. We will not tolerate this," he said. US officials later revealed that a warrant had been issued last year for the arrest of Sadr for the murder of Abdel-Majid al-Khoei, a rival Shiite cleric who was stabbed to death by a mob at a Shiite shrine in the holy city of Najaf a year ago. Sadr is said to have taken refuge in a mosque in the city of Kufa, south of Baghdad, surrounded by armed followers. Officials would not say when they would move to arrest him. Meanwhile, the city of Fallujah, the scene of some of the worst violence in the Sunni Triangle, remained sealed off last night in a major operation code -named Vigilant Resolve. Entrances to the city were closed off with earth barricades as 1,200 Marines and two battalions of Iraqi security forces prepared to enter the city in search of insurgents. US commanders have been vowing a massive response after guerrillas killed four security contractors in the city and mutilated the bodies. Military patrols entered the city's outer suburbs on reconnaissance missions and broadcast warnings on loud-speakers to residents to stay indoors until today. Leaflets in Arabic distributed to mosques instructed people that if US forces entered their homes, they should gather in one room and hold their hands up if they wanted to talk. Explosions and gunfire could be heard coming from the centre of the city. "The city is surrounded," said Lieutenant James Vanzant, of the1st Marine Expeditionary Force. "It's an extended operation. We want to make a very precise approach to this." But despite the increasingly unstable situation, George Bush and Tony Blair were both keen to stress that they wanted to stick to the original plan. "My intention is to make sure the deadline remains the same," the US president said yesterday. "The message to the Iraqi citizens is, they don't have to fear that America will turn and run. And that's an important message for them to hear. "If they think that we're not sincere about staying the course, many people will not continue to take the risk toward freedom and democracy." Mr Blair's spokesman dismissed the violence that has swept across Iraq as the work of a small minority of the Shiite community: "There is no change in our determination to meet the deadline of 30 June," he said.
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................................................................................................................. Copyright ©2004 Gethin Chamberlain. All rights reserved. |
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