US sees shift in resistance strategy

US occupation administrator Paul Bremer has claimed that the Iraqi fighters are shifting their target of attack from occupation  troops to Iraqis working with them.

Bremer says attacks against Iraqis are becoming regular

“The security situation has changed,” Bremer said on Tuesday  at a press conference in Baghdad. 

“In the past, attacks against the coalition were predominant. Now attacks against Iraqis are regular.” He claimed that the attackers started targeting “innocent Iraqis” after they “failed to intimidate the coalition.”

“But they will not succeed,”  he added.

Foreign fighters

Bremer was referring to a series of attacks including two car bombs last weekend at police stations in Baquba and Khan Bani Saad, as also the killing of two Iraqi police officers on Saturday and Sunday in Mosul and in Latifiya near Baghdad.

General John Abizaid, chief of US Central Command, who was present at the press conference, agreed that the number of daily attacks on occupation forces were down by about half over the last two weeks. He gave no figures, but US officials said their troops were being attacked on an average 30-35 times a day.

“In the past two weeks, these attacks have gone down, but unfortunately we find that attacks against Iraqis have increased,” Abizaid said.

He added the attacks had increased not only in numbers but in severity.The US general also said he would not exclude cooperation between former members of Saddam’s regime and foreign resistance fighters such as al-Qaida in these operations. 

Source: News Agencies