Iraq still powerless

2003-07-09 13:15

Baghdad - Three months to the day after the fall of Saddam Hussein's regime, large parts of Baghdad were still without power and water on Wednesday and attacks on US troops continued apparently without let up.

Gunmen fired rocket-propelled grenades overnight at US positions in the town of Fallujah, west of the capital, which has been a flashpoint since US forces killed at least 16 people in protests there in late April.

There were no reports of any casualties in the latest attack on US patrols and positions in which at least 29 US troops have been killed since major combat was declared over on May 1.

The US-led coalition, which is working to rebuild infrastructure, schools and hospitals alongside conducting security operations, has downplayed the spate of attacks, insisting its reconstruction efforts will not be derailed.

The top civil administrator in Iraq, Paul Bremer, said on Tuesday that the attacks were the last desperate acts of a dying regime and did not represent the threat of a coordinated guerrilla force, as many have feared.

"We are not seeing a sense of a central high command or control. They are basically being carried out by small remnants of the old regime, who are basically trying to turn the tide of history, but they will not succeed."

Bremer has previously acknowledged that the failure to account for Saddam, especially with his supposed reappearance in recent taped messages, was casting a deep shadow over US efforts to get Iraq moving forward.

But with the announcement of a $25m reward for the toppled leader's arrest, the coalition insists it is serious about hunting down Saddam and his two fugitive sons.

"I think the noose is going to tighten around his neck as we get people to cooperate with us on the reward programme," Bremer said.

He also focused on the nascent political process which is to be crowned later this month by the formation of a transitional governing council from Iraq's mosaic of Kurds, Christians and Sunni and Shiite Muslims.

"The governing council is going to have a lot of responsibility and a rich agenda to work from," Bremer said.

Iraqis have expressed frustration at the pace of reform, with no plans to hold legislative elections for at least one year, with the US-led authorities citing a list of reasons they say prove direct voting to be premature.

A further cause of Iraqi anger is the lack of reliable power and water supplies. The coalition is still unable to provide more than a few hours of electricity a day, blaming decades of underinvestment and a spate of sabotage attacks.

One of the first steps towards holding elections and ending the coalition's stewardship of Iraq will be to draw up a new constitution. No decision has yet been reached on the formation of a commission to draft the text, Bremer said.

The US-led authority's plans for the constitutional committee received criticism notably from top Shiite cleric in Iraq, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, whose community is the largest group in Iraq.

Sistani, perceived as a moderate and welcoming to the Americans, last week blasted the idea of drafting a new constitution ahead of general elections.

- AFX