WASHINGTON, June 12: American troops are being targeted by organized resistance in Iraq, with Saddam Hussein loyalists engaging in “pure political sabotage” and spreading rumours that the toppled president is poised for a comeback, a top US official said on Thursday.

Paul Bremer, the US civil administrator in Iraq, said law and order in general had improved in Baghdad and other cities, basic services such as water and power had been restored in many parts of the country, and lines for gasoline had almost disappeared. Bremer also said he believed there was an adequate number of US troops in Iraq, roughly 140,000.

Mr Bremer, speaking from Baghdad by teleconference, briefed the House of Representatives Armed Services Committee and later Pentagon reporters.

He said US troops were facing “organized resistance, particularly in the area west of Baghdad and the area north of Baghdad.” He said the resistance was being staged by five to 10 men at a time, without an apparent central command. He blamed members of the Fedayeen Saddam paramilitary group, Baath Party loyalists and officers of the Republican Guard.

“We are clearly on the lookout to see if this evolves into a more organized ... broadly and intentionally directed resistance,” Bremer told reporters.

He said much of the postwar looting and arson that had been attributed to random lawlessness instead was sabotage by Saddam’s followers.

For instance, Bremer said he visited a liquefied petroleum gas plant in Basra on Wednesday that was reported to have been looted. But he said he found the work of “professional saboteurs” who had gone into the control room.

“There was no looting. It was an act of pure political sabotage, almost certainly by elements of Baathists who want to show that (the) coalition is unable to run this country,” he said.—Reuters