LONDON, June 15: Iraq is ‘statistically’ no safer today than it was after Saddam Hussein was overthrown, US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said on Tuesday. Asked on BBC television whether Iraq was safer since the US-led invasion ended with the ouster of Saddam in April 2003, Mr Rumsfeld replied: “Well, statistically no. But clearly it has been getting better as we’ve gone along.”

“In other words, at the end of the war the (Iraqi) army fled, was captured... and the country was defeated,” Mr Rumsfeld told veteran interviewer David Frost on BBC2’s Newsnight.

“The insurgency then built over a period of time, and it has had its ups and downs,” the US defence secretary said.

Mr Rumsfeld added: “A lot of bad things that could have happened have not happened.”

Mr Rumsfeld accused Syria and Iran of letting guerillas pass through their ‘relatively porous’ borders.

Asked which country was most unhelpful, he added: “With respect to the insurgency, I would say Syria.” —AFP