BAGHDAD - Armed groups and foreign terrorists
have established new camps in central Iraq as government
forces attack rebels in the north and south, officials
say. The reports follow an admission by US Central
Command chief General John Abizaid that more areas in
Iraq are under rebel control today than there were last
year.
The revelations could be damning for the
government of US-appointed interim Prime Minister Iyad
Allawi, who has promised to uproot armed opposition to
the nascent government.
New camps have been
reported in the Sunni triangle zone that includes
Fallujah and Ramadi. Iraqi and Western sources say the
camps have been established recently and fortified in
the past couple of months.
Reports are coming in
of new armed groups organizing themselves in parts of
the country earlier thought safe, as fighting escalates
in other parts of Iraq. Over the past few days fighting
has erupted again in many parts of the country,
including Fallujah and Mosul in the north and Sadr City
in Baghdad.
US forces have said they targeted
houses used by followers of Abu Musab Zarqawi, the
Jordanian-Palestinian said by the US to be the al-Qaeda
leader in Iraq.
US warplanes have also attacked
Tal Afar near Mosul in the north in an attempt to smash
arms smuggling. Local medical sources say at least 27
people were killed and 70 wounded. US military officials
said they believed 57 insurgents had died.
US
troops also entered the central city of Samarra on
Thursday for the first time in weeks in an attempt to
establish local government and force militiamen out.
"They are mostly Ba'athist groups, but there are some
foreign terrorists as well," says Ahmed Chalabi, leader
of the Iraqi National Congress, referring to the Ba'ath
Party that ruled Iraq under Saddam Hussein. "They have
sophisticated military organization, are well trained,
well armed, and have lots of money."
His
assertion is backed by other Iraqi politicians with
close connections among the people. "There are terrorist
camps. They have stored lots of arms and ammunition.
They have equipment for forging documents and
passports," says Ismail Zayer, editor-in-chief of the
independent daily Sabah al-Jedid. "They have positioned
themselves to have contacts with people in places like
Ramadi and Fallujah, as well as with people in the
south."
The groups are said to have established
some military camps in Mahmoudiye-Latifiye-Yousefiye
along the Baghdad-Najaf highway. Many foreign
journalists and aid workers have been kidnapped in this
area. Convoys of Iraqi officials have been attacked.
The number of armed militiamen is not known.
Most Iraqi sources speak of hundreds; some say it could
be close to a thousand. "Information about this is very
sketchy," says a senior Western diplomat in Baghdad. "It
is just recently that this new phenomenon has come to
the attention of people. But by and large from what
little we know, these are the people who managed to
escape from other areas of the country and found a new
haven. I don't believe this is a new infusion of foreign
fighters in the country."
Chalabi, Zayer and
others say they have passed on their information to the
government, which has promised to take action.
Government officials say they have been unable
so far to confirm the existence of newly established
terrorist camps. But Chalabi says the operations show
"that this issue is not a small problem because security
forces have had many casualties". Neither he nor
government officials offer casualty figures.
"The government is in a tight position," the
Western diplomat said. "On one hand it knows that it
needs to act on the situation even as it continues to
develop intelligence about what exactly it is dealing
with. On the other, it simply does not have the
resources or the political will to go carpet-bombing the
area, so to speak."
