The Hindu : Rumsfeld warns of more attacks

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Jul 14, 2003

International

International

Rumsfeld warns of more attacks

Adnan Pachachi (left), head of the Independent Iraqis for Democracy (IID), sits next to Shia Muslim Sheikh Abdel-Aziz al-Hakim, leader of the Supreme Assembly of the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, Jalal Talabani, head of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), Ibrahim Jafari, spokesman for Shia Dawa party, and Younadem Kana, a Christian who heads the Assyrian Democratic Movement, at the 25-member Governing Council meeting in central Baghdad on Sunday.

WASHINGTON JULY 13. The U.S. Defence Secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, warned on Sunday that attacks on the U.S. troops in Iraq may worsen this summer but he insisted that occupation forces there were making progress.

"I'm afraid we're going to have to expect this to go on and there's even speculation that during the month of July, which is an anniversary for a lot of Ba'athists events, we could see an increase in the number of attacks," Mr. Rumsfeld said on the NBC television programme "Meet the Press."

Though major fighting has ended, Mr. Rumsfeld cautioned "We're still in a war." He also said American forces — now totalling about 150,000 — would likely remain in Iraq for the "foreseeable future."

"There's still a lot of people from the Ba'athist and Fidayeen Saddam regime types who are there, who are disadvantaged by the fact that their regime has been thrown out and would like to get back, but they're not going to succeed," he said.

As for whether the resistance is organised throughout the country, Mr. Rumsfeld said there was still a lot of debate in the intelligence community about that. However, "it's very clear that it's coordinated in regions and areas, cities in the north particularly," he said.

Since the U.S. President, George W. Bush, declared on May 1 that major combat was over, 31 soldiers had been killed in Iraq and scores wounded in hit-and-run attacks.

Still, the Defence Secretary insisted that progress was being made on the ground with Iraqis signing up for the army and police forces, and schools and hospitals opening back up. But, he said, the ``more progress we make, I'm afraid, the more vicious the attacks will become'' on American and coalition forces.

In a separate appearance on ABC television's ``This Week,'' Mr. Rumsfeld disputed claims from some congressional Democrats that the administration had understated the cost of the war and occupation of Iraq.

``We have said we don't know what it will cost; we have said it's not knowable how long it will last,'' he said.

Mr. Rumsfeld said estimates he provided Congress last week that the occupation was costing $3.9 billions to $4 billions a month were based on current costs and cannot be projected into the future. He also rejected suggestions that the Iraqi occupation had evolved into a guerilla conflict.

``We've been there less than 10 weeks, is that bogged down? How long were we in Germany? How long were we in Japan?'' he said.

``The President has said we are going to use as many forces as are necessary for as long as it takes.''

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

International