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Powell says iraqi security situation worsening Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
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Powell says Iraqi security situation worsening
By Reuters, September 26, 17:10
Secretary of State Colin Powell on Sunday said anti-American sentiment in the Muslim world had increased and the insurgency in Iraq was worsening, but the United States was taking action to improve security ahead of elections.
Afghanistan and Iraq, where US-led military forces toppled the former leadership, both plan to hold elections in the next several months.
“We have seen an increase in anti-Americanism in the Muslim world ... I’m not denying this,” Powell said on ABC’s “This Week” program.
“But I think that that will be overcome in due course because what the Muslim world will see as well as the rest of the world is that in Afghanistan 10 million people who have registered to vote will vote on the ninth of October and bring in place a freely elected president, and I think we’re going to do the same thing in Iraq if we stay the course, if we defeat this insurgency,” Powell said.
Iraq plans to hold elections in January, but US officials warn that insurgents will aim violence at preventing voting, including shooting at polling places.
“We are fighting an intense insurgency,” Powell said. “Yes it’s getting worse and the reason it’s getting worse is that they are determined to disrupt the election.”
“And because it’s getting worse we will have to increase our efforts to defeat it, not walk away and pray and hope for something else to happen,” Powell said.
His comments were less optimistic than those of President George W. Bush, who as recently as last Thursday insisted Iraq was moving slowly toward better days. Democratic presidential candidate Sen. John Kerry says Bush is refusing to accept the reality of the situation.
U.S. forces have launched a military offensive on areas considered strongholds of insurgents and foreign fighters. Over the weekend, the U.S. military conducted several air strikes on Falluja aimed at militants loyal to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the most wanted man in Iraq.
“There is a military offensive under way now, you can see the aggressive action we’ve been taking in Falluja lately, there is a political and military offensive under way to take back Samarra,” Powell said on CNN’s “Late Edition.”
“What we’re going to do over the next several months is to go into these areas and bring them back under government control,” Powell said. “Now it remains to be seen how successful we will be, but right now we are moving to have elections at the end of January of 2005.”
Last week, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld suggested partial elections might be acceptable. Powell said it was premature to suggest there would not be full elections.
On “Fox News Sunday,” Powell said the administration was ”getting the U.N. to stand up its electoral support activity. We’re going to provide security to U.N. personnel, so that the numbers could be increased in the country.” He gave no further details.
Gen. John Abizaid, head of U.S. Central Command that covers Iraq and Afghanistan, said he was confident elections would be possible in the “vast majority” of Iraq.
He said U.S. troop strength would mainly be current force levels with additional Iraqi troops.
Abizaid, speaking from Doha, Qatar, told NBC’s “Meet the Press” that the number of foreign fighters in Iraq was probably less than 1,000.
“We’re under no illusions about the entire country being stable and we’re also under no illusion that the entire country is dangerous,” Abizaid said.
“It is a very complex environment,” with stable areas in the north and south and dangerous ones in Falluja and elsewhere in the majority Sunni Muslim area, he said.
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