Northern Iraq falls, US seeks opposition meeting

3.00pm

BAGHDAD - Amid fears of anarchy and violence in the post-Saddam Hussein power vacuum, Washington scrambled to make good on a promise to host a broad-based conference of Iraqi opposition leaders early next week that will lay the foundation for a transitional government.

"We expect this to be the first in a series of regional meetings that will provide a forum for Iraqis to discuss their vision of the future and their ideas regarding the Iraqi interim authority," said State Department spokesman Richard Boucher of the gathering in Nassiriya in southern Iraq.

"We hope these meetings will culminate in a nationwide conference that can be held in Baghdad in order to form the Iraqi interim authority," Boucher said in Washington.

The United States is seeking to bring together a wide variety of Iraqis to decide who will initially govern a country splintered among the majority Shi'ite Muslims, the minority Sunni Muslims who have long ruled and the separatist Kurds in the north.

Asked if it was not a huge challenge to win consensus, a US official replied: "It is, and we recognise that, and that is why we see this as the first of what are expected to be several meetings."

Asked when an interim authority might emerge, he said: "We are hopeful that it will be a matter of weeks."

As Russian President Vladimir Putin, French President Jacques Chirac and German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder met in St. Petersburg to reiterate their call for the United Nations to take the lead in post-war Iraq, the State Department invited the UN special envoy on Iraq to Washington.

UN special envoy Rafeeuddin Ahmed was invited to meet on Monday with officials from the State Department, White House National Security Council and Defence Department for talks on the post-conflict period, said UN spokesman Fred Eckhard.

No UN officials were invited to the Nassiriya meeting.

The fall on Friday of Mosul, Iraq's third largest city, left Saddam's hometown of Tikrit, 110 miles north of Baghdad, as the last major US military target.

'Chatter' hints Saddam may be dead

US bombers continued to pound positions around the town but Saddam's whereabouts were not known. US officials, who said they were now "leaning slightly" to the view that Saddam is dead, said they had picked communications "chatter" from Iraqis on the periphery of Saddam's government suggesting he had died. But they cautioned they had no conclusive proof.

In Baghdad, Mosul and the southern city of Basra, law and order crumbled as pent-up passions and naked greed spilled onto the streets after 24 years of iron rule by Saddam.

In Washington, Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld denied Iraq was falling into chaos, saying television images of isolated acts of looting and violence were being played "over and over again" for sensational effect.

In Baghdad, gunmen apparently from the Shi'ite community in the east-side slums battled paramilitaries loyal to Saddam overnight, US military sources said.

Throughout the day, armed men and youths roamed the streets, robbing buildings and hijacking cars.

"Is this your liberation?" screamed one shopkeeper at the crew of a US Abrams tank as youths helped themselves to everything in his small hardware store.

Reuters journalists in Mosul saw no military clashes after an entire Iraqi army corps surrendered and its forces abandoned the city. There were just crowds in a frenzy of arson and plunder, stripping buildings and torching a market.

Looting also raged in Basra, where British troops on Friday killed five men trying to rob a bank. Humanitarian agencies said it was not even safe to visit during daylight hours.

The anarchy in Iraq's main cities underscored the immense task US troops face in restoring order after their crushing military victory over Saddam's Baath Party government.

"The United States have neither the will nor the capacity to rein in the disorder in Iraq," said Bruno Tertrais, senior fellow at the Paris-based Foundation for Strategic Research.

Analysts have also said US forces are reluctant to perform policing missions, but a US officer disagreed.

"Now we are a little bit out of our comfort zone, but we're not unprepared or untrained," Lt. Col. Jim Chartier, commanding officer of the US Marines' 1st Tank Battalion, told Reuters.

Kirkuk under US control

"If I need to provide security for a grocery store ... I'll do it. On the other hand, there's still people out there who want to kill us, so we can't let our guard down," he said.

US commander Gen. Tommy Franks said Saddam and his inner circle were "either dead or running like hell."

Brig. Gen. Vincent Brooks said at a briefing in Qatar US troops had been issued a list of 55 people to be captured or killed amid signs Iraqi leaders may be trying to flee abroad.

Troops of the US 173rd Airborne Brigade moved to take control of the strategic northern prize of Kirkuk one day after it was captured by Kurdish guerrillas and US special forces.

US soldiers also began spreading through the nearby oil fields, which provide 40 per cent of Iraq's oil revenue.

The Kurds' withdrawal from their traditional capital was designed to calm fears in Ankara that they could use the city's wealth to finance an independent state and stimulate separatist demands by Turkey's large Kurdish minority.

The International Committee of the Red Cross said Baghdad's medical system had all but collapsed due to combat damage, looting and fear of anarchy. Few medical or hospital support staff were reporting for work and many patients had fled.

Rumsfeld said US forces were moving medicine and medical personal in to meet civilian needs and were acting to stop looting wherever possible. "They're already going to hospitals that are being looted and stopping it," he said.

Putin, speaking in St. Petersburg, welcomed Saddam's demise but condemned the means by which he was removed from power:

"If we weigh up what is good and what is bad in the results of this war -- it is positive that we have got rid of a tyrannical regime. But by what means? -- Losses, destruction and the deaths of people. This is a negative consequence."

- REUTERS

Herald Feature: Iraq war