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Powell: Iraq's insurgency makes election difficult
(Xinhua)
Updated: 2004-09-27 13:45
US Secretary of State Colin Powell said Sunday that the escalating insurgency
in Iraq could make the organizing of election in the country difficult, while at
least 16 people were killed in rebel attacks in Iraq.
The insurgency in Iraq "is getting worse," Powell said in an interview with
the ABC television.
"And the reason it is getting worse is that they (the insurgents) are
determined to disrupt the election. They do not want the Iraqi people to vote
for their own leaders in a free, democratic elections," Powell said.
Powell reiterated that the US goal was "to have full, free and fair elections
across the whole country" and this should be an "achievable" goal.
Iraq's interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi, who addressed the US Congress on
Thursday, has vowed to hold the elections on time. The country will hold
parliamentary elections in January 2005.
Also on Sunday, four Iraqis were killed and 10 wounded in clashes between US
marines and insurgents in the rebel stronghold of Ramadi, west of Baghdad,
medical sources said.
In Latifiya, another insurgent base south of Baghdad, 10 more people were
killed in an attack on a convoy of petrol tankers.
A group of attackers assaulted the trucks with heavy gunfire, setting fire to
all five and sparking a fierce firefight with national guardsmen escorting the
convoy, Iraqi security sources said.
In further unrest, one Iraqi was killed when a mortar round exploded in a
busy shopping district of Baghdad and a farmer was killed in an exchange of fire
north of the capital.
Air strikes on Falluja continue
US warplanes bombed the rebel stronghold of Falluja for a third time in 24
hours in an effort to hit militants loyal to guerrilla chief Abu Musab
al-Zarqawi, the US military said.
The attack was aimed at about 10 suspected militants who met in the city
center to plan operations.
Eight people were killed and 17 wounded, hospital sources said. The latest
strike on the city raised the death toll to 15.
Tawhid and Jihad, Zarqawi's militant group, has claimed many of the car
bombings and attacks in Iraq over the past year, including kidnappings in which
several hostages have been beheaded.
Falluja, about 50 km west of Baghdad, is home to some of Iraq's most hardened
Sunni Muslim militants. US forces tried to seize the city earlier this year, but
withdrew after weeks of furious fighting.
The US military said airstrikes on Fallujah in the past four weeks have
killed over 100 suspected fighters, causing heavy damage to Zarqawi's terror
network.
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