Zarqawi influence 'diminishing'

2005-10-04 22:54

Amman - Iraqi interior minister Bayan Jabr said terrorist leaders - apart from al-Qaeda's Abu-Musab al-Zarqawi - are strengthening in Iraq and are determined to dispatch militants to neighbouring countries, according to comments published on Tuesday.

"Al-Zarqawi is certainly operating in Iraq, but his dominating power is over," Jabr told ad-Dustour, Jordan's second largest daily newspaper.

"More significant leaderships have emerged and they're asking him (al-Zarqawi) to keep the explosives and operational experts and to export (terrorists) from Iraq to operate in neighbouring countries," Jabr said, without providing details to support his claims.

Western diplomats, speaking to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because they are not permitted to be quoted, disagreed with the claims, saying there was no indication that al-Zarqawi's influence in Iraq has diminished.

The US-based Human Rights Watch said in a report released on Monday that militant groups like al-Qaeda in Iraq, Ansar al-Sunna and the Islamic Army in Iraq "are the biggest perpetrators of attacks against civilians".

The Jordanian-born al-Zarqawi is responsible for scores of deadly suicide bombings, beheadings and kidnappings, including of Arab diplomats.

The US has placed a $25m bounty for any information leading to his arrest.

The terrorist is also sought in Jordan, where he was implicated in several terror trials in the last few years.

Jabr alluded that the US-led coalition is only present in areas where the insurgency is operating.

"Nine governorates are completely calm, as if you're in Amman," he said.

"There are no coalition forces in Karbala or in Najaf, for instance, because they enjoy security and calm."

Civil war

"I urge those who call themselves 'resistance' to work with us to bring about stability so that the coalition forces can leave their areas and governorates," he added.

He also said that he did not believe that a civil war was looming in Iraq, or that the country could disintegrate and see a Shiite state would emerge in the south.

"Those who bet on a civil war are just delusional" because of the "tightly knit family ties" between the country's majority Shiites and the Sunni minority, he said.

"I'd also say that Iraq's demography would not allow the emergence of a Shiite state in the south," he said.

"For instance, Basra has 1.5 million Sunnis and it's impossible to isolate them in order to establish a Shiite state there."

- AP