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'There's no safe place in Iraq'
30/12/2007 18:24 - (SA)
Baghdad - Despite a drop in violence across Iraq, there is still no place in the country that is safe from attack by extremists, the US military has warned.
Military spokesperson Rear Admiral Gregory Smith said: "We have made no projections of peace at hand. We realise that security is very fragile and that at any moment any attack could occur at any place in Iraq.
"There is no place in Iraq today that is safe from terrorism. We still have car bombs, we still have suicide attacks. Taking the fight to al-Qaeda in Iraq is still very serious. Al-Qaeda in Iraq is still very much determined to use car bombs and other means of destruction against innocents."
Bombings 'target innocent civilians'
Smith disputed claims by al-Qaeda chief Osama Bin Laden in an audio tape released on Saturday that his terror network did not target innocent civilians.
"Their actions demonstrate otherwise. Continued bombings, car bombings, suicide... and other attacks of violence have all targeted innocent civilians."
He said al-Qaeda's real intention was to turn Iraq into a regional power base, but this ambition was being thwarted by Iraqi tribal leaders and local citizens who were forming "Awakening" councils across the country aimed at driving out the extremist group.
"These actions by the tribes and the voluntary citizens have become a central concern to al-Qaeda," Smith said, making reference to bin Laden's comments castigating as "traitors" Iraqis who had joined the Awakening councils.
Al-Qaeda ideology
The Al-Qaeda leader said those battling his group had "betrayed the nation and brought shame and scandal, that will be followed by damnation forever unless they repent," according to an excerpt translated from Arabic by SITE, a United States-based institute that monitored extremist web forums.
Smith said bin Laden was trying to "rationalise" al-Qaeda's setbacks and was ignoring "the most obvious fact that the tribes and citizens have rejected al-Qaeda ideology".
Despite bin Laden singling out Awakening groups in western Anbar province, where the first Awakening council was formed in September 2006, Smith said he did not believe the extremist network "has the strength to regain any capacity in Anbar".
The Iraqi interior ministry on Saturday trumpeted its achievements over the past year, saying that most of al-Qaeda's networks in the country had been destroyed.
"We have destroyed 75% of al-Qaeda hide-outs, and we broke up major criminal networks that supported al-Qaeda in Baghdad," said ministry spokesperson Abdul Karim Khalaf.
- AFP
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