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November 26, 2004

Rumsfeld warns US troops of more losses

Topics: Middle East News and Perspectives

Reported in the Australian News.  Correspondents in Baghdad

November 27, 2004 US DEFENCE Secretary Donald Rumsfeld yesterday warned marines, celebrating Thanksgiving after some of their bloodiest weeks in Iraq, to brace for even more losses as they pursue insurgents in the lead-up to Iraqi elections scheduled for January 30. The US assault on the Sunni Muslim city of Fallujah has already made November the second deadliest month of the war for Americans, Pentagon figures showed.

Last night, two more marines were killed in Fallujah when insurgents threw grenades at them after they entered a house to search it, their commanding general said.

Lieutenant General John Sattler said marines had also killed three insurgents in the incident.

Marines have been searching houses in Fallujah for weapons and insurgents after a major offensive in the city earlier this month.

Even though the US military said yesterday it had uncovered a "stunning" amount of arms in Fallujah, US officers later played down remarks by an Iraqi minister that they had found a chemical weapons workshop there - the US officers said the chemicals seemed destined for making ordinary explosives.

With time running out to quell rebellion among Saddam Hussein's Sunni minority before the vote, a close aide of al-Qa'ida ally Abu Musab al-Zarqawi was captured in Mosul.

And US, Iraqi and British forces seized 81 suspected insurgents south of Baghdad, including at country villas used by Saddam's old elite.

"No doubt attacks will continue in the weeks and months ahead and perhaps intensify as the Iraqi election approaches," Mr Rumsfeld said in Washington.

As 138,000 US troops celebrated Thanksgiving Day with turkey dinners at bases across Iraq, Pentagon figures showed 109 service personnel died in the first 3 1/2 weeks of the month. Only this past April cost more lives. More than 50 US troops were killed attacking Fallujah. In all, 1230 have died since the invasion of Iraq 20 months ago.

Meanwhile, Iraq's biggest Sunni party threatened to boycott the January 30 vote, dealing a blow to hopes for a broad national turnout that would legitimise the new assembly. The Iraqi Islamic Party complained the violence in Sunni areas made voting impractical.

The threat came as the Iraqi interim Government said it had agreed to meet outside the country with Saddam Hussein supporters to try to convince them to abandon the insurgency.

In a bid to draw Sunni support for the January elections, Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari said an Iraqi delegation would meet in Amman, Jordan, with "a number of political opposition movements", including some former Saddam Hussein supporters on the "most wanted list", to convince them to abandon the insurgency and take part in the election.  Read More...

Posted by Hyscience at November 26, 2004 12:51 PM

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