IRAQ: Elections for an Iraqi government could be held as early as the middle of next year, the head of the US civil administration in Iraq, Mr Paul Bremer, said yesterday, writes Michael Jansen.
During a tour of renovated offices in the foreign ministry, he said: "It is certainly not unrealistic to think that we could have elections by mid-year 2004 ... And when a sovereign government is installed, the coalition authority will cede authority to the government and my job here will be over."
Mr Charles Heath, the British spokesman, said, however, that this time-frame was "just a guestimate ... We don't know how long it will take to write the \ constitution". During the regular Thursday briefing he said that the task of the US and Britain was to facilitate the Iraqis in preparations for the take-over.
Lieut Gen Ricardo Sanchez, the head of US forces, said 10 of his troops had been killed over the past week, raising the total since major combat ended on May 1st to 53. He said the military's main task was security. The US military has been conducting 2,300 patrols daily throughout the country and recruiting Iraqis for the police force, the facilities protection force and border guards.
He admitted that the occupying forces, which come from a dozen countries, were fighting "a low-intensity conflict that is multi-faceted".
Troops from other countries joining US and British forces on the ground will be expected to face the same dangers and difficulties as they do.
Yesterday, units from the Netherlands arrived in the southern city of Samawa to operate under British command.
The hostile forces ranged against the US and its allies consist of supporters of the former Baathist regime, fedayeen (irregulars), radicals, foreign volunteers and criminals. While he admitted his troops were facing a continuation of the war, Gen Sanchez categorised those taking part in operations as "terrorists", and said they would be treated as such rather than as prisoners of war.
Yesterday a landmine on the road to Baghdad International Airport killed a US soldier and injured three. In another attack in central Baghdad, a man fired a rocket-propelled grenade at a US tank - and missed - before sprinting off, locals and US soldiers said. Soldiers later found a grenade launcher on the street outside a nearby house and arrested a man inside.
Additional reporting by Reuters