US: US Defence Secretary Mr Donald Rumsfeld yesterday warned that "various types of attacks" against US-led forces in Iraq would continue, but refused to categorise the assailants as guerrillas or to predict how long they would continue. From Conor O'Clery in New York
The forces opposing American and British troops were looters, former Iraqi prisoners, remnants of the Saddam Hussein regime, "busloads of people" who came in to Iraq including Syrians, and people "influenced by Iran", he told a Pentagon briefing.
"We're either going to capture or kill them," he said. "The problem will be dealt with over time as the Iraqis resume more and more responsibility for their own country." The US would put pressure on all five groups, he said, but no one raid would deal with the problem. The US is conducting sweeps of areas in Iraq where attacks have been most frequent.
Though speaking with his usual abundant self-confidence, Mr Rumsfeld was put on the defensive by repeated questions about the growing perception among Americans that a guerrilla war has started and that the United States is in a quagmire.
A total of 20 US personnel have died in armed hostilities since President Bush declared major combat over on May 1st, according to the Pentagon tally on Friday. Two missing Americans have been found dead since.
CNN reporter Jamie McIntyre asked if attacks in Iraq amounted to a dictionary definition of guerrilla war as "paramilitary operations conducted in enemy-held or hostile territories by irregular indigenous forces".
Mr Rumsfeld replied: "It doesn't fit what's going on" and said the attackers "are functioning more like terrorists".
He denied that Iraq was a "quagmire" with no way out as many commentators have claimed. "It isn't Vietnam, it's a different time, a different era, a different place," he said. What was taking place was aimed at getting on a path "to something approximating civil society".
On the failure to find Saddam Hussein or his two sons, Mr Rumsfeld admitted "the absence of closure is unhelpful".
The Defence Secretary gave few new details about the incident last week when US forces attacked a convoy at the Syrian border. Of 20 people "captured" some 17 had been released and five Syrian border guards injured by American forces had been returned to Syria, he said.
Asked whether US intelligence had believed Saddam Hussein was on the convoy, he said: "I don't know we have got perfect visibility into that question."