21 August 2003
General Abizaid Says Terrorism Becoming Major Security Threat in Iraq
Defense Department Report, August 21: Iraq Operational Update
Terrorism is becoming the principal threat facing coalition forces in Iraq and the Iraqi people, the commander of the U.S. Central Command said August 21.
"Clearly, it is emerging as the No. 1 security threat, and we are applying a lot of time, energy and resources to identify it, understand it, and deal with it," Army General John Abizaid said at a Pentagon briefing.
His remarks came in the aftermath of a suicide bombing August 19 of the U.N. field mission headquarters at the Canal Hotel in Baghdad that has killed at least 23 people and injured an estimated 100 people.
Abizaid said he believes the terrorist group Ansar al-Islam has increased its operations and migrated from the northern part of Iraq to an area near Baghdad "and we think that they're established there. It's not good for us when they get established in an urban area."
"And we know that there are other foreign fighters, and we've captured many of them, that have come across from Syria. The lines of the infiltration are difficult to stop because of the wide expanse of the border. But we're working very hard at getting a handle on what we need to do to stop infiltration there in conjunction with Iraqis," he said.
Abizaid said the terrorist cells operating in Iraq are established primarily in the Baghdad area but are "operating through some of the western areas, and the threat from the terrorists is increasing. And we will counter their actions appropriately."
Abizaid also said that, despite the security threats that have arisen in recent weeks, there is no need to expand the number of U.S. military personnel in Iraq, currently about 140,000. "It's not the lone American rifleman out there defending Iraq," he said. "We're working in conjunction with Iraqis to make the place a better place to live. That having been said, there's a hell of a lot more work that has to be done to secure Iraq in terms of building their capacity."
He said there are already more than 50,000 Iraqis under arms who are working in coordination with the coalition.
"We've got 35,000 people, for example, in the police forces," he said. "We've got a border force that's forming. We've got Iraqi Civil Defense Corps volunteers, over 2,300 of them, that have come forward to form battalions to work with our divisions."
Abizaid said it clearly is not an "American-only mission" in Iraq.
At the briefing, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said that the coalition "will not be dissuaded from its mission, not by sabotage, not by snipers and not by terrorists with car bombs."
"Thus far, 27 nations have sent forces to Iraq, and over 40 nations have pledged more than 3 billion [dollars] in assistance to help the Iraqi people," he said.
Rumsfeld also announced that coalition forces captured Iraqi General Ali Hasan al-Majid, known as "Chemical Ali" and "butcher of the Kurds" for killing thousands of Iraqi civilians with poisonous gas. He said that al-Majid, a cousin of Saddam Hussein and a former Iraqi Army sergeant, was the former Revolutionary Command Council Commander and was No. 5 on the coalition's most-wanted list of the defunct regime's leadership. He was captured August 17 along with several bodyguards.
(Distributed by the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)
This page printed from: http://usinfo.state.gov/xarchives/display.html?p=washfile-english&y=2003&m=August&x=20030821161612hrellekm8.337039e-02&t=usinfo/wf-latest.html
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