The chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff said Thursday that the deadly insurgency that flared this month is "a symptom of the success that we're having here in Iraq" and an effort to undermine the country's transition to self-government.
Asked at a news conference here whether the military had failed to counter insurgents' attacks in Iraq, Air Force Gen. Richard B. Myers said guerrillas want to undermine several political successes, including the creation of the Iraqi Governing Council, the signing of a bill of rights and efforts by the United Nations to devise an interim government that would assume power on June 30.
"I think it's that success which is driving the current situation, because there are those extremists that don't want that success," Myers said. "They see this as a test of wills, a test of resolve against those who believe in freedom and self-determination against those who prefer a regime like we saw previously in Afghanistan, or perhaps a regime like we saw previously in Iraq."
Flanked by Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, the U.S. ground commander in Iraq, Myers also said the Marines were ready to resume combat in the besieged city of Fallujah because insurgents have repeatedly violated a five-day-old cease-fire.
"We have to be prepared and prepare ourselves that there may be further military action in Fallujah," Myers said. "It's a situation where you have clearly some foreign fighters, former regime element members who -- again, while the cease-fire is ongoing -- are attacking our Marines. The Marines are obeying the cease-fire but they're being fired upon."
Meanwhile, on the second front of a two-pronged insurgency that has killed more than 80 U.S. troops since April 1, Shiite Muslim clerics tried to broker a deal to end a standoff between occupation forces and a radical cleric, Moqtada Sadr.
A delegation from predominantly Shiite Iran has joined the talks with Sadr in the southern city of Najaf, but U.S. officials said its presence was not welcome.
The U.S. administrator of Iraq, L. Paul Bremer, was not in contact with the Iranians and did not invite them, said a spokesman, Daniel Senor. Senor repeated U.S. demands that Sadr surrender to face trial on a murder charge and disband his black-clad militia, known as the Mahdi Army.
A State Department spokesman, Richard Boucher, said of the Iranian involvement in talks with Sadr: "We don't think that's appropriate."
Khalil Naimi, a diplomat at the Iranian Embassy in Baghdad, was shot dead in his car near the embassy. It was not clear whether his killing was related to the Iranian delegation's effort in Najaf.
The United States has 2,500 troops deployed around Najaf, where clashes erupted around 9:45 p.m. Thursday in an industrial neighborhood. Rockets, mortars and assault rifles were fired, and witnesses reported that fighter jets flew overhead but did not fire on any ground targets.
Also Thursday, the top U.N. elections official said the world body should help appoint a commission to oversee Iraqi elections by January but warned that persistent violence and daunting logistical challenges could throw off the tight electoral timetable.
The United Nations should be "heavily involved" in creating an independent electoral commission with five to seven members who are not affiliated with the Governing Council, according to the elections adviser, Carina Perelli, who released details of a U.N. proposal that will be formally presented Sunday.
In northern Iraq, a U.S. soldier was killed Wednesday by a roadside bomb near Samarra, the military announced.
Also in northern Iraq, at least eight Iraqi civilians were killed in separate attacks on Wednesday, the military said. A rocket attack on a crowded marketplace in Mosul killed four and wounded seven. Two others were killed, and eight civilians and two U.S. soldiers were injured, in an attack with mortars and a rocket-propelled grenade near the town of Tall Afar, west of Mosul. That night, a rocket attack on a house in downtown Mosul killed a 60-year-old man and a 10-year-old boy.
Kidnappers released three Japanese civilians who had been held since Friday, but the Japanese government was investigating a report that two more of its citizens had been seized.
On his first visit to Iraq since December, Myers met with top deputies, including Army Gen. John P. Abizaid, the commander of U.S. forces in the Middle East, and Maj. Gen. Martin E. Dempsey and Maj. Gen. Peter W. Chiarelli, who share responsibility for security in Baghdad. Their discussions focused largely on the training and development of the Iraqi security forces, recent attacks along major highways used for transporting supplies and plans for the next wave of military deployments to Iraq, Myers said.
Myers defended the Bush administration's decision this week to lengthen the deployments of 20,000 soldiers in Iraq who had been scheduled to return to their home bases this month.
"What it shows is our resolve to see this situation through," he said. He added that maintaining a heightened troop level could speed up the deployment of units to Iraq in the fall, including units that fought in the U.S.-led invasion last year.
In Washington, Secretary of State Colin L. Powell said the United States would soon seek a new U.N. resolution on Iraq, which the Bush administration hopes will produce commitments for additional troops and financial support both from allies in the current U.S.-led coalition and nations that opposed the U.S. intervention.
Powell, who will assume the lead role in formulating Iraq policy after the June 30 handover, said the United States would particularly welcome assistance with peacekeeping efforts and reconstruction funds. "More financial support is always welcome and more troop support on the ground, if they can, if they are able to do it, police forces or military forces on the ground to help with the peacekeeping efforts," Powell told the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. in one of four interviews with news media outlets in countries that belong to the U.S.-led coalition.
Powell also praised the new plan outlined Wednesday by the U.N. special envoy to Iraq, Lakhdar Brahimi, for creating an interim government, which Powell said would be discussed further with the United Nations in the coming days. "They're very sound recommendations," Powell told the CBC. "It shows us a way forward."
Brahimi proposed that the U.S.-appointed Governing Council be abolished on June 30. Under his plan, the United Nations would select a prime minister to head the interim government, as well as a president to serve as head of state.
The proposal Thursday that the United Nations help appoint an electoral panel also aimed at shifting power away from the Governing Council -- which has struggled for popular acceptance -- and toward independent experts and technocrats.
Perelli, the U.N. adviser, said that before elections can be held, the new electoral commission will have to determine who is eligible to vote and to run for office, compile voter rolls and enforce campaign guidelines for political parties and candidates. It will also have to hire and train more than 70,000 poll workers.
www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A15911-2004Apr15.htmlE-mail this article