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BAGHDAD, June 24: The US-led administration in Iraq admitted on Tuesday that it was suffering incidents of political sabotage, amid pipeline explosions and an unexplained loss of power in the capital for more than a day.
“We are experiencing acts of political sabotage by small pockets that seek to project an image to the Iraqi people that life is worse for them now than it was before,” said a senior official from the Coalition Provisional Authority.
“Whether or not it is connected to the power outage today, I don’t know. But it is a broader issue that we’re contending with,” he said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Efforts to get the country back up and running after the crippling effect of 13 years of international sanctions and an intense bombing campaign, have been hit by suspected sabotage blasts on three fuel pipelines in the last two weeks.
Although the US authorities have yet to account for the explosions — one of which on the main oil export pipeline from Kirkuk in the north to Turkey has delayed oil flows — Iraqi officials have said they were deliberate attacks.
“Remnants of the former regime want to send a message that things are bad and they are seeking to sabotage the progress we are making,” the official said.
“We are aware that small pockets are causing trouble and we are addressing it,” he said, without elaborating.
US LAWMAKERS: US senators on Tuesday warned Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld of growing public concern over the rising number of US casualties in Iraq and Afghanistan and how long US troops will be committed there.
“Certainly all America has a deep concern about the situation in both Iraq and Afghanistan,” said Senator John Warner, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee.
Warner and 10 other Republican and Democratic senators met over breakfast with Rumsfeld, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Richard Myers and the chiefs of the military services.
Nearly daily attacks on US forces in Iraq have heightened concerns that a long and difficult occupation will undercut the US military’s ability to meet its global security commitments.
“We expressed to the secretary and the chiefs of services our heartfelt concern for the loss of Americans, still suffering casualties in the Iraqi theater and in the Afghanistan area,” Warner said.
Senator Carl Levin, the ranking Democrat on the armed services committee, said the Pentagon was expected to complete an assessment by the end of the month on how many troops will be needed in Iraq in the short term.
“I’ve said a number of times, I don’t think the administration has been forthcoming in terms of how many forces, for how long,” he said.
Senator Pat Roberts, chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said it was unclear whether the addition of two divisions of international troops — which have been promised for August — will be enough to allow the redeployment of any US forces.
Moreover, he warned there has been “a larger degree of foreign intervention, of what I would call Islamic jihadists.”
“I think there has been (an) open invitation to the terrorist groups and the associated terrorist groups to come into Iraq. That is a new problem we must deal with,” he said.
“So it’s a little unpredictable to say how long we’re going to be there over the near term, in terms of the number of troops and the personnel,” he said.
Roberts noted that US troops have been in the Balkans for a decade now, when they were supposed to have been there for only a year. —AFP
