Under vocal attack in Iraq

The streets outside the house were practically deserted. Most inhabitants of Amriyah, 50km east of Baghdad, were indoors, praying or napping out of the relentless Friday afternoon sun. Pro-Saddam Hussein slogans on the neighbourhood's yellowing concrete walls underscored its bleakness.

Inside, up a flight of stairs, was a small family apartment where three Iraqi resistance fighters had agreed to be interviewed. They emerged from a back room, armed with AK-47s and grenades, their faces hidden by red-and-white kaffiyehs. Seating themselves on floor mats, they talked about the war against America. Their group, calling itself the Army of Mohammed, has claimed responsibility for the deaths of at least 15 US soldiers since the fall of Saddam.

"We did kill US soldiers and we destroyed some of their vehicles and equipment," said the leader of the three, calling himself Mohammed al-Rawi. "We will do it again."

Such threats worry Bush officials more than they want to admit. "We've made good progress," the President said last week, marking the 100th day since he declared an end to major combat. "Iraq is more secure."

Nevertheless, 56 Americans were killed in action during those 100 days, and there is no sign that the attacks are letting up. On the contrary, the resistance seems to be getting more organised.

US officials in Baghdad have estimated the total strength of the resistance is in the thousands, and recently acknowledged that its efforts may be co-ordinated at the regional level, if not nationally. Coalition officials cannot travel without heavy escorts, reconstruction efforts have been hobbled and ambushes have forced even the Red Cross to cut back its operations.

The Army of Mohammed is one of several clandestine groups that sprang up after the regime's collapse. At first it was known only from leaflets found scattered outside Baghdad's Abu Hanifa mosque, where Saddam was last seen in public on April 9.

Recently the name has begun appearing on walls in Saddam's hometown, Tikrit. The group's aims, its acts and its membership are topics of fierce debate among American intelligence analysts. Some have even contended that no such armed group really exists.

Newsweek asked a well-connected intermediary for help in contacting some fighters. He arranged a meeting with al-Rawi, 40, and two comrades, Ali Saadi, 32, and Kadim Baghdadi, 34. The three were carrying illegal weapons, which would get them arrested or shot on sight by US forces. They also seemed well organised, arranging the rendezvous at a location they chose, and arriving and departing precisely on time.

They say they have 5000 armed fighters, and a central command structure extending west to Ar Ramadi, north to Tikrit and east to Baghdad. There is no way to confirm such details, and the three guerrillas refused to provide specific information on attacks they had carried out, claiming a need to protect "operational security".

Baghdadi said the organisation initially was a gathering of tribal fighters, many of whom had served previously in the Iraqi armed forces and had been using firearms since childhood. "Most of our youth are trained to carry weapons."

The fighters were angry with US forces for the deaths of 13 Iraqis after an anti-occupation protest turned violent in Fallujah.

"Through the key figures of the tribes, we contacted each other," said Baghdadi.

"We met in small cells at first, far from the cities, in farms, and we started talking. We took the decision that we must liberate the country."

By all accounts, the fighters are taking Mao Zedong's classic advice for guerrillas to move among the people like fish through water. They live in the civilian population, depending on its support and using it for protection.

The group's ideology seems to be a blend of ardent nationalism, Sunni Islamic zealotry and anti-Jewish bigotry. Before the invasion, Saddam used much the same recipe to rally popular support.

Some of the resistance group's members might dream of recreating the old Baathist regime, but the three who met Newsweek claimed no such wish. "We want to make a new government, without Saddam but in the same style," said one. "We don't want to bring Saddam back."

Still, they could be Saddam loyalists trying to broaden their appeal to other Iraqis who have no love for the fallen dictator.

A much bigger consideration is the group's hatred of America. Al-Rawi read a prepared statement: "The Americans have occupied our land under a false pretext, and without any international authorisation. They kill our women and children and old men. They want to bring the Jews to our holy land in order to control Iraq, to achieve the Jewish dream."

The document ended with a pledge of vengeance against the Americans. "We promise we will burn their tanks. They will die."

The fighters say they're doing all they can to bring that day faster. They and others associated with the group describe a rapidly evolving support network. Last week three other members of al-Rawi's cell travelled to the southern town of Al Kut to stock up on arms and ammunition. They made the 240km run in an icecream truck, said a former officer in the Iraqi Intelligence Service, the Mukhabarat, who described the trip to Newsweek. (He was an intermediary for the arms dealers.)

Like most towns in the Shiite-dominated south, Al Kut has been relatively quiet in recent weeks. Most inhabitants seem at least co-operative if not pro-American. But a weapons bazaar is flourishing.

The Mukhabarat officer said he and his travelling companions were ushered into house after house. At each stop they were offered tea and then were shown a variety of weapons for sale at bargain prices. The sellers were asking as little as $70 for a rocket-propelled-grenade launcher. Hand grenades were going for $1.50 apiece.

The travellers paid for their purchases with crisp, newly minted bundles of Iraqi currency. They bought at least seven plastic boxes of RPG rounds, several tin boxes of ammunition, several used and damaged RPGs for spare parts and a few pistols. They hid everything under the icecream in the truck and headed home, the officer said. The driver followed a circuitous route home to Fallujah, steering clear of Baghdad and its omnipresent US checkpoints.

The fighters told the officer that their gun-running trucks often travelled with escort cars in front and behind to watch out for Americans and create a distraction if anyone tried to search the truck.

The group's ambushes require a steady supply of ammunition, al-Rawi and his comrades said. A week before the interview, they launched a 60mm mortar attack on a convoy just 10 minutes down the road from the safe house. They fired the rounds from a thickly overgrown field dotted with houses. The attack set a Humvee on fire, according to the men.

Four big craters mark the roadside where the ambush took place. That was one of several ambushes the three fighters said their cell has carried out in recent weeks, in the Fallujah area and around Baghdad's airport. Several attacks have used explosives detonated by remote control, they said, and all have taken place in the early morning or just after nightfall.

The fighters described a simple but apparently effective communications system for co-ordinating the group's actions. "There is a central command, and we communicate on a daily basis," said al-Rawi.

At the top of the organisation is a man the fighters call "a high-ranking officer who knows the art of fighting." Couriers deliver his handwritten instructions on paper. The orders often mention specific targets or preferred means of attack.

Al-Rawi said the group also had special units that carried out surveillance of US targets. Weapons practice is an almost daily affair, according to the fighters, who all said they were veterans of Saddam's military. All three are members of the same clan in the Dulaimi tribe, which was mistakenly attacked by US forces early in the war.

The fighters claim their group has no need for recruiters; they said their neighbours were "begging for weapons" to fight the Americans.

US troops recently withdrew completely from the city of Fallujah after attacks became too frequent and costly. Now the fighters want to repeat that success elsewhere. They have learned to hit coalition targets with explosives and get away before the Americans can start shooting in all directions. Every counter-attack deepens the people's resentment against the foreigners.

The fighters seemed able to move openly in Amriyah, without fear that anyone might report them to the Americans. The house was near a former weapons factory; on Friday afternoon a US military patrol came within 10 minutes' drive from the place. The neighbourhood was drab but relatively affluent by Iraqi standards. "The Americans," al-Rawi said, "will go to their funerals here."

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Herald Feature: Iraq