Powell says worsening insurgency makes election difficult in Iraq

US Secretary of State Colin Powell said Sunday that the escalating insurgency in Iraq could make the organizing of election in the country difficult, while at least 16 people were killed in rebel attacks in Iraq.

The insurgency in Iraq "is getting worse," Powell said in an interview with the ABC television.

"And the reason it is getting worse is that they (the insurgents) are determined to disrupt the election. They do not want the Iraqi people to vote for their own leaders in a free, democratic elections," Powell said.

Powell reiterated that the US goal was "to have full, free and fair elections across the whole country" and this should be an "achievable" goal.

Iraq's interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi, who addressed the US Congress on Thursday, has vowed to hold the elections on time. The country will hold parliamentary elections in January 2005.

Also on Sunday, four Iraqis were killed and 10 wounded in clashes between US marines and insurgents in the rebel stronghold of Ramadi, west of Baghdad, medical sources said.

In Latifiya, another insurgent base south of Baghdad, 10 more people were killed in an attack on a convoy of petrol tankers.

A group of attackers assaulted the trucks with heavy gunfire, setting fire to all five and sparking a fierce firefight with national guardsmen escorting the convoy, Iraqi security sources said.

In further unrest, one Iraqi was killed when a mortar round exploded in a busy shopping district of Baghdad and a farmer was killed in an exchange of fire north of the capital.

AIR STRIKES ON FALLUJA CONTINUE

US warplanes bombed the rebel stronghold of Falluja for a third time in 24 hours in an effort to hit militants loyal to guerrilla chief Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the US military said.

The attack was aimed at about 10 suspected militants who met in the city center to plan operations.

Eight people were killed and 17 wounded, hospital sources said. The latest strike on the city raised the death toll to 15.

Tawhid and Jihad, Zarqawi's militant group, has claimed many of the car bombings and attacks in Iraq over the past year, including kidnappings in which several hostages have been beheaded.

Falluja, about 50 km west of Baghdad, is home to some of Iraq's most hardened Sunni Muslim militants. US forces tried to seize the city earlier this year, but withdrew after weeks of furious fighting.

The US military said airstrikes on Fallujah in the past four weeks have killed over 100 suspected fighters, causing heavy damage to Zarqawi's terror network.

BRITISH HOSTAGE STILL ALIVE

Zarqawi's militants seized two Americans and a Briton from their home in Baghdad 10 days ago, demanding the release of women prisoners from Iraqi jails in return for their lives.

The two Americans, Eugene Armstrong and Jack Hensley, were beheaded by Tawhid and Jihad after the interim Iraqi government rejected the request.

Briton Kenneth Bigley is also threatened with death, although no deadline has been set.

Last Saturday, two prominent members of the British Muslims Council arrived in Iraq to help secure the release of Bigley. They met Iraqi President Ghazi al-Yawar and is expected to see leading Sunni Muslim clerics as well.

A London-based Islamist activist who has good contacts with Islamist groups in Iraq said Sunday that Bigley was still alive.

Bigley, a 62-year-old engineer, was abducted by gunmen in Baghdad's Mansour district, together with Armstrong and Hensley.

He appeared in a videotape last Wednesday, asking British Prime Minister Tony Blair to help rescue him. But the British government said it will never negotiate with the kidnappers.

Source: Xinhua