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Bremer warns of more attacks

By Hasan Suroor

London Nov. 10. Paul Bremer, head of the U.S.-led Coalition Provisional Authority in Iraq, has warned of more attacks on coalition forces in the coming months and admitted that there is growing impatience among Iraqis with the continuing occupation of their country.

In an interview to The Times as American casualties continued to rise after two military helicopters were shot down by Iraqis last week, Mr. Bremer predicted "increased attacks and increased terrorism'' attributing it to poor intelligence, and infiltration of `terrorists' from Syria, Sudan, Yemen and Saudi Arabia.

"Unless our intelligence gets better, we're going to have a problem,'' he said and hinted at the possibility of raising a "special force'' comprising members of Iraqi militia groups to improve intelligence.

Mr. Bremer acknowledged that winning the hearts and minds of Iraqis was a problem, and that American forces could have shown greater sensitivity while dealing with the local people. "It's a problem with occupying forces that goes back thousands of years. A regular army's basic job is killing the enemy, and when the kinetic part of the war is over it's a different kind of a role with the citizenry. That's difficult for 22-year-old guy paid to go to war,'' he said.

Asked by The Times about the "growing Iraqi anger'' with coalition forces, Mr. Bremer admitted that it was "not comfortable being occupied'' just as it was "not comfortable being an occupying power''. It was `understandable' for Iraqis to "express their new-found freedom by being free of everybody, including the occupying forces,'' he said.

Mr. Bremer insisted that public services were returning to normal, and that most Iraqis wanted the coalition to stay until the situation had stabilised.

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