America's failure to re-establish order in Iraq has allowed the formation of dozens of groups that oppose occupation
The United States has let anarchy develop in Iraq by failing to replace quickly Saddam Hussein's overthrown government, observers claimed yesterday.
They believed any one of dozens of disparate groups that have become active since the US declared the war over on May 1 could have been behind Tuesday's car bombing of the United Nations' headquarters in Baghdad. But they say foreign occupiers, not the UN specifically, were the target of the attack.
Within days of taking over as chief administrator on May 30, Paul Bremer had dismantled the army, police and other security forces and banned 30,000 senior members of Mr Hussein's ruling Ba'ath party from holding government positions. Overnight, law and order collapsed and borders with neighbouring countries became porous, the experts said.
US-based Iraq researcher Ahmed Hashim said that with American-led forces unable to adequately fill the vacant security and policing roles, groups opposing the occupation were free to flourish. Their activities were being boosted by dissidents crossing unchecked from Saudi Arabia, Syria, Turkey, Jordan and Iran.
'They range from Southeast Asian to Arab Afghans to Chechens to the more extremist groups who want to fight the US presence in Iraq,' said Dr Hashim, a professor at the Centre for Naval Warfare Studies in Newport, Rhode Island. 'The situation is so chaotic that the attacks against foreigners could be the work of a number of groups.'