Insurgency

Whether or not Iraq is a 21st-century America's equivalent of Vietnam, soldiers in the Mideast today face the same battle those in Indochina waged a generation ago - for the hearts and minds of the people of a foreign land which has been invaded and occupied or liberated and protected, depending on your point of view. Though President Bush emphasized military might and aggression against the terrorists in his talk to an attentive - and silent - gathering of the 82nd Airborne Division in North Carolina last week, the key to victory going forward might lie in a different forum - talking, not fighting.

BAGHDAD -- The U.S. military renewed its accusations yesterday that Iran is providing arms, training and other unspecified "support" to Shiite and Sunni factions in this country's insurgency. The accusations were leveled by top-ranking coalition spokesman Maj. Gen. William B. Caldwell IV at his weekly news briefing, and were based on recent raids that he said uncovered weapons bearing Iranian markings and dates that suggested they were delivered after the fall of Saddam Hussein. The charges could fuel U.S.-Iranian tensions already inflamed by the Islamic Republic's announcement this week that it has begun manufacturing "industrial" quantities of atomic fuel in violation of a United Nations resolution.

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Masked gunmen in the turbulent Iraqi city of Mosul ambushed a car carrying Turkish police officers yesterday, shooting three to death and decapitating a fourth who tried to run away, witnesses said. In a daytime attack reminiscent of the killing in March of four U.S. security contractors in Fallujah, militants looted the policemen's weapons and set the car ablaze before escaping. After the attack, residents stood around the burning white Chevrolet Caprice as the bodies lay face down in the street.

Washington -- Sudan has secretly worked with the CIA to spy on the insurgency in Iraq - an example of how the United States has continued to cooperate with the Sudanese regime even while condemning its role in the killing of tens of thousands of civilians in Darfur. President Bush has condemned the killings in Darfur as genocide and has imposed sanctions on Sudan's government. But some critics say the administration has soft-pedaled the sanctions to preserve its extensive intelligence collaboration with Sudan.

KABUL, Afghanistan -- The Afghan government may form armed tribes in the troubled south in an emergency attempt to protect villages from the Taliban and other insurgents. But experts say such a move could have dire consequences for the country, which has struggled to disarm militias and other fighters since the fall of the Taliban almost five years ago. Critics say the plan has jeopardized disarmament nationwide and could fuel tribal rivalries in the south. They also say the plan indicates the failure of the country's attempts to train new police and soldiers.

WASHINGTON - Secretary of State Colin L. Powell acknowledged yesterday that the Iraqi insurgency is "getting worse," and the top U.S. military commander in the Middle East predicted that fighting will continue through the Iraqi national elections set for late January. The bleak appraisals by Powell and Gen. John P. Abizaid, head of U.S. Central Command, reflect a recent change of emphasis in the Bush administration's evaluation of Iraq and raised new doubts about whether conditions would allow credible elections early next year.

WASHINGTON - The unexpectedly fierce hostilities that flared in Iraq soon after the fall of Saddam Hussein helped pave the way for the abuses at Abu Ghraib prison, with U.S. forces ill-equipped and undermanned to handle a growing insurgency and a burgeoning detainee population. That was one of the central themes to emerge from the report issued yesterday by an investigative team of three Army generals on the mistreatment of detainees at the infamous prison outside Baghdad. U.S. forces thought they would be operating in "a relatively non-hostile environment," the report says.

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia - Keen to show strength in the face of a deepening Islamist insurgency, Saudi authorities televised images yesterday of the blood-spattered corpses of a man regarded as the kingdom's most powerful militant and three key aides. The four men were gunned down by security agents Friday night, just hours after pictures of American engineer Paul M. Johnson Jr.'s decapitated body appeared on Islamist Web sites. Saudi officials - stung by a spate of shootouts, bombings and killings of Westerners - cast the death of Abdulaziz al-Moqrin, head of al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula and the man who had threatened to kill Johnson, as a major success.

BAGHDAD, Iraq - In a bid to rid the country of foreign insurgents, the Iraqi government is using strict new residency rules to detain and expel non-Iraqi Arabs. Any Arab without the proper permit can be detained, interrogated and asked to leave the country, Interior Ministry officials said. The program has swept up largely Syrians, Sudanese, Saudis and Egyptians, and about 250 people have been asked to leave. Far more are being detained - as many as 200 a day in the Baghdad area - although most are released within a few days.

Last November, Army Sgt. Gary Yoakam's left hand was blown off by an Iraqi insurgent's rocket-propelled grenade. He turned to see one friend dying, another with his legs blown off and a third man bleeding heavily. It was six months after President Bush had declared the end of major combat. It was just at the time of the most grotesque of the sexual abuse of prisoners at Abu Ghraib prison. On the surface, there was no connection between the intensifying warfare and the weird torments inflicted on detainees in the chaotic prison.