Iris scans for Iraqi civilians

2004-12-09 16:20

Near Fallujah - Fingerprint and iris scans will be used to track civilians returning to Fallujah, which was only last month wrested away from rebels, the US marines' top commander in Iraq said on Thursday.

But while the Sunni-Muslim enclave has been mostly cleared of rebels, intimidation remains a problem in tackling the insurgency amid continued attacks on Iraqi security forces throughout Iraq, Lieutenant-General John Sattler said.

The scans are one of several measures coalition forces are putting in place amid fears that insurgents hiding among the tens of thousands of refugees expected to return to the battered city in coming weeks will renew their violent campaign against US and Iraqi troops.

"When people start to return, military aged men will be entered into a biometric (system). Their fingerprint and iris scans will be taken and they will be given an ID card," Sattler said.

"We're doing this to establish a database."

Suspected rebels captured in the aftermath of last month's massive US-led assault on Fallujah have all been similarly scanned.

But this will be the first time the system is used on civilians in Iraq, said spokesperson Francis Piccoli, who acknowledged there has been some opposition to the measure.

Most of Fallujah's 250 000 residents fled the city before the November 8 assault, and no date has been set yet by the Iraqi government for their return.

Sattler said Lieutenant-General Abdul Khadar, Iraq's military commander in Fallujah, told him residents might be able to return next week.

But heavy fighting has damaged an unknown number of Fallujah's about 21 000 buildings and security remains a concern amid sporadic gun battles with remaining rebels.

Sattler did say 97% of the city has been swept for the third time, and that marines two days ago killed seven suspected insurgents with an air strike.

"A lot of the people who executed these deeds are now gone, some of them are permanently out of the gene pool," he said.

"Their desire to stay and fight to the death has dried up for the time being."

Sattler said 450 bodies of suspected rebels were currently being processed, and that many appeared to have been paid to fight.

"We are finding large numbers of brand new, crisp 100 dollar bills in multiple pockets, sometimes 2 000 or 3 000 dollars in their pockets," Sattler said.

The condition of the corpses - many have only recently been recovered after spending days or weeks buried under rubble - made it impossible to identify the dead as foreign fighters, he said.

Of the 2 000 people detained during Fallujah operations, only 600 were still being investigated, Sattler said.

- AFP