Insurgents offer $50 a soldier

2004-12-12 08:36

Canberra - Iraqi insurgents are offering contract killers a bounty of as little as US$50 for each coalition soldier killed, the commander of Australian forces said in a newspaper interview published on Sunday.

Air Commodore Greg Evens, who took command of the 350 Australian troops in Iraq three weeks ago, said Iraqi insurgents were hiring assassins from neighbouring Middle Eastern countries with the promise of cash payments for every soldier killed.

"This is a difficult adversary," he told Sydney's The Sunday Telegraph newspaper. "The insurgency is not a coherent force."

He added, "We are seeing zealots brought in from outside Iraq and paid US$50 for contract killings. These forces are a general threat to the coalition."

He said the Australian troops under his command in Iraq were preparing for an all-out assault by insurgents in the run-up to the first post-Saddam Hussein elections, expected to be held on January 30.

- SAPA