American officials said on Thursday that a close confidant of Saddam Hussein was behind a series of attacks on coalition forces and Iraqis cooperating with the US-led administration, as the United Nations announced it was temporarily pulling its staff out of Baghdad because of concerns for their safety.
The UN announcement of the temporary withdrawal of remaining international workers follows several suicide bombings on Monday, including one at the headquarters of the Red Cross. The Red Cross and Médecins sans Frontières are also pulling out staff.
The UN secretary general, Kofi Annan, said he had ordered the organisation’s staff to leave while a reassessment of operations was carried out in response to the attacks in the last 72 hours which appeared to signal ”a new phase” in postwar violence.
”It is not our intention now to pull out totally,” he told the Associated Press, but added: ”Of course, it depends on what further developments are coming.”
Annan said: ”I think this sort of reflection is better done in a calmer place, and then we determine what our next moves should be.”
Pentagon officials said that two captured members of Ansar al-Islam, a militant Islamist group with links to al-Qaeda, identified Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri as a catalyst for some of the most recent high-profile attacks.
Douri was a devoted member of Saddam’s inner circle, and one of the most hated men in the former regime. He is number six on America’s most wanted list.
Like Saddam, he disappeared shortly before the end of the war, but has frequently been sighted in the northern cities of Mosul — a Ba’athist stronghold — and Kirkuk. Both cities have seen an upsurge in attacks over the last four weeks.
Yesterday, American troops raided another northern town, Tikrit, and detained several suspects believed to be setting up a new terrorist cell, the US military said.
Yesterday saw no let up in anti-coalition operations as the average number of daily attacks on American troops surged to 33 a day, up from 26 a day last week and 15 a day in early September.
Insurgents also attacked a freight train carrying military supplies near the restive town of Fallujah, west of Baghdad. No casualties were reported, but the train was said to have been looted of its cargo, including computers, tents and bottled water.
In a separate incident, a bomb exploded near a convoy near Mosul, injuring an American soldier.
US and British officials in Iraq believe that Ansar al-Islam poses one of the greatest threats in the country, and are looking at its possible involvement in the recent suicide bombings.
Founded shortly before September 11 2001, Ansar controlled a string of villages in the Iraqi Kurdish mountains. It imposed Taliban-style laws and conducted a mini guerrilla war against the secular Kurdish authorities in the self-rule area.
The group, which received some support from Iran, was comprised mostly of Kurdish militants who had trained in Afghanistan. It also harboured a number of Arab fighters who were part of the al-Qaeda network.
A joint operation against Ansar by American and peshmerga forces at the beginning of the war dispersed the militant group. Many members fled across the border to Iran.
In recent months, however, there have been reports of Ansar militants crossing back into Iraq and establishing cells in Mosul, Kirkuk and Falluja.
In the run-up to the military campaign to oust Saddam, officials in the Bush administration sought long and hard for evidence of a link between al-Qaeda and the former dictator, but with little success.
Sceptical of this week’s statements, some observers believe that dyed-in-the-wool Ba’athists such as Douri would actually be uneasy bed fellows for extreme Islamist groups such as Ansar.
In the most recent statement purporting to come from Bin Laden, he apparently urged Muslims to attack ”Ba’athist infidels” in Iraq.
Douri was entrusted by Saddam with maintaining links with Iraq’s religious organisations, especially in the north.
He is a leading figure in the shadowy Kaznazani Sufi order, which has been known to practise self-mutilation.
Shortly before the invasion of Iraq, Douri was put in charge of the northern front, his main task being to stop US forces advancing from there on Baghdad.
The Iraqi governing council yesterday called on Iraq’s neighbours to crack down on infiltrators crossing into the country, and to provide information about former regime figures who may be in hiding on their territories.
Life and times of a trusted lieutenant
Born in 1942 to poor family in Dour, a village near Saddam’s hometown of Tikrit
Daughter married briefly to Saddam’s son, Uday
After 1963 Ba’ath party coup, took charge of small militia unit responsible for killing hundreds of leftists
On party’s 1968 return to power, made interior minister — put in charge of crackdown on regime opponents
Was sent to negotiate deal with Kuwait before Iraq’s 1990 invasion. Talks collapsed
After brutal crushing of Kurdish and Shia uprisings, became deputy commander-in-chief in 1991
Reportedly ill before war – current condition unknown – Guardian Unlimited Â