Powell Warns Iraq Insurgency Getting Worse 

Agence France Presse 27sep04

BAGHDAD — More than 10 people were killed in fresh violence in Iraq, as US Secretary of State Colin Powell warned that the insurgency was "getting worse" and organizing the elections due in January could prove difficult.

And as efforts continued by British Muslim leaders to secure the release of kidnapped Briton Kenneth Bigley, his brother said he had received information that the engineer was alive.

Five Iraqis were killed in a US air strike on the radical Shiite slum of Sadr City in eastern Baghdad, four Iraqi civilians died in a roadside bomb attack north of the capital, and two Iraqi forces were killed in a car bomb in northern Iraq.

A Sadr City hospital official said five people were killed in the latest US air raid on the neighbourhood, a stronghold of militants loyal to firebrand cleric Moqtada Sadr.

"During early morning hours today, precision strikes on several positively identified targets destroyed four insurgent forces and several enemy positions," said a US statement.

Since the end of a US-led assault on Sadr's Mehdi Army militia in the holy city of Najaf in August, Iraqi forces and the US military have cracked down on the movement, arresting many of Sadr's deputies, raiding its offices and seizing arms.

Four Iraqi farmers were killed and one injured by the explosion of a roadside bomb near the restive town of Baquba, north of Baghdad, police and witnesses said Monday.

Insurgents in the northern city of Mosul, detonated a car bomb against an Iraqi national guard patrol, killing two guardsmen and wounding three, medical and security sources said Monday.

The fledgling national force has been the target of relentless attacks in recent months but as it is coming under increasing pressure to secure the country in time for January elections, it also suffered a serious blow to its credibility on Sunday.

The US military announced it had detained a senior national guard commander for eastern Iraq on suspicion of links with insurgents.

The coalition has been struggling to recruit, fund and train a credible force capable of relieving US-led troops.

British Prime Minister Tony Blair acknowledged for the first time in an interview Sunday that disbanding ousted president Saddam Hussein's army completely may have been a mistake.

The US secretary of state for his part acknowledged that the poll timetable could be difficult because of what he described as a worsening insurgency.

"And the reason it's getting worse is that they are determined to disrupt the election. They do not want the Iraqi people to vote for their own leaders in a free, democratic elections," said Powell.

His remarks contrasted with the rosy picture of growing stability in Iraq painted by interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi during his visit to Washington last week to address the US Congress and to meet President George W. Bush.

The brother of British hostage Bigley said he had received information the engineer was alive but accused Blair of sitting idly by after two of the 62-year-old`s US colleagues were beheaded last week by their Islamist captors.

"Mr Blair's silence for the past 10 days is a kiss of death to my brother," Paul Bigley told the premier's Labour Party. "Mr Blair, you're doing it the wrong way."

The comments followed a statement a short time earlier by the director of London's Islamic Observatory, who also said the hostage was still alive.

Bigley has been held for more than 10 days by the Tawhid wal Jihad group of Abu Mussab al-Zarqawi, the most wanted man in Iraq.

British Muslim leaders on a mission here to seek Bigley's release launched an appeal, comparing the Briton's plight to that of civilians in Fallujah, where US air strikes on Saturday and Friday left 15 dead.

Despite stable oil exports over the past few days, relentless violence and the threat of a bloody run-up to the elections contributed to near-record high oil prices in Asian trade Monday.

New York's reference contract, light sweet crude for November delivery was recorded at 49.29 US dollars a barrel at 0600 GMT, up from the record closing price and just 11 cents away from the highest ever intra-day level.

An Iraqi oil expert speaking in Dubai, said Sunday that the embattled Iraqi government was drawing up plans to involve the private sector and foreign oil majors in its state-run oil industry in order to generate more funds.

Yet the string of sabotage attacks against the energy infrastructure and kidnappings targeting foreign nationals has meant that many companies are still shying away from launching activities in the war-torn country or even signing term contracts of Iraqi crude.

In the United States, an attorney for Lynndie England, a female US soldier who became the face of abuse at Abu Ghraib prison outside Baghdad by posing for a photograph while holding a naked Iraqi inmate on a leash, said she was to face a court-martial.

On the diplomatic front, French Foreign Minister Michel Barnier said that any international conference on the Iraq conflict as proposed by Powell should discuss the question of whether the US-led forces should be withdrawn.

It should also include representatives of the armed opposition, French Foreign Minister Michel Barnier said on Monday, describing the situation in Iraq as a "black hole".