Rumsfeld urges Iraq leaders to keep on democratic track
The leaders of Iraq’s emerging new government must not allow “turbulence or incompetence or corruption” to slow or foil progress toward building democracy and defeating the insurgency, US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said.
Rumsfeld arrived at the Iraqi capital today for his second visit in three months. The visit reflected a desire to push the political and military momentum that he believes has been growing since the January 30 elections for a national assembly.
Rumsfeld was meeting later today with interim President Jalal Talabani, a former Kurdish rebel leader, and Ibrahim al-Jaafari, the Shiite Muslim who was designated interim prime minister last week.
Once al-Jaafari has chosen his cabinet ministers and they are approved by the National Assembly, he and Talabani are to lead Iraq’s transition to a constitutionally-elected government by December.
Some in the Bush administration are concerned that factional manoeuvring during the formation of the transitional government could undermine the counter-insurgency effort that is a key to eventually pulling US troops out of Iraq.
Rumsfeld would not discuss his thinking on how soon the 140,000 US troops based in Iraq could begin leaving.
Meanwhile, a US contractor was kidnapped in the Baghdad area, the latest in a string of abductions that have forced many foreigners to work here under armed guard.
And in Samarra, a troubled city 60 miles north of Baghdad, a pick-up truck blew up near a US patrol, killing three civilians and wounding more than 20 others, including four US soldiers, officials said.
Early yesterday, suicide bombers tried to crash two cars and a fire truck into Camp Gannon in the western desert, but ”the drivers of the vehicles were stopped short of the camp by forces manning the checkpoints”, a US military statement said.
The vehicles exploded, wounding three Marines and three civilians and causing slight damage to the concrete barriers and a nearby mosque.
Insurgents also fired at the camp, which is in the town of Qaim near the Syrian border, and a US attack helicopter destroyed a car carrying a gunman, officials said. It was unclear how many insurgents and suicide bombers were killed in the assault.
The attacks came nine days after dozens of heavily armed insurgents tried unsuccessfully to break into Abu Ghraib prison outside Baghdad.
That battle wounded more than 40 US soldiers and a dozen prisoners at a facility synonymous with the US military’s prison abuse scandal.
