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Chances of capturing Saddam dim: U.S.

By Atul Aneja

MANAMA Dec. 6. The United States Defence Secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, who is visiting Iraq, today hinted that the chances of capturing the former Iraqi President, Saddam Hussein, and his top functionaries were remote. In an interaction with the press in the northern Iraqi oil city of Kirkuk, Mr. Rumsfeld said, "The chances of us stumbling on one of the top guys are zero.'' His remarks counter recent reports suggesting that the U.S. occupation forces could be close to capturing Mr. Hussein's right-hand-man, Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri.

Mr. Rumsfeld later arrived in Baghdad, a day after Iraqi resistance forces triggered an explosion, which killed an American solider, and four Iraqis travelling in a passing bus. With the Iraqi fighters gaining ground, there have been reports that the U.S. authorities were considering deployment of militias attached to loyal religious and ethnic groups, such as the Kurdish Peshmergas. But Paul Bremer, the U.S. administrator in Iraq, in a television appearance on Friday, denied such a move. "Quite simply, the presence of militias does not fit into the campaign of building an independent Iraq with an army and police," he said.

Faced with the growing Iraqi resistance and reluctance of foreign countries to send troops, the U.S. is working on an "exit strategy" that involves choosing an assembly of Iraqis which will, in turn, form an Iraqi `transitional' government before elections under a new constitution can be held. But U.S. plans received a setback when the influential Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani, who has a mass following among Shias, rejected the move. Instead of selecting a transitional government, he has advocated that holding elections should take precedence, so that an elected body can draft a new constitution.

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