Bremer: Iraq attacks on troops 'more sophisticated'
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L. Paul Bremer appears Sunday on CNN's 'Late Edition.'
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Bremer: Iraqis and Americans have mingled blood in the war on terror. (November 2)
Early reports on the downing of a U.S. Chinook helicopter.
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SPECIAL REPORT
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BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- Guerrilla attacks on American troops have become more sophisticated in the past two months, while more Iraqis are cooperating with the U.S.-led coalition occupying the country, the U.S. administrator in Iraq L. Paul Bremer said Sunday.
Bremer, appearing on CNN's "Late Edition," said most of Iraq is "peaceful and very active economically."
He described the situation in the so-called Sunni triangle of central Iraq -- where a helicopter crash killed 16 U.S. troops Sunday and two American civilian contractors died in a bomb attack -- as a "mixed bag."
"It's getting better in the sense that we are finding more and more Iraqis, both in those cities and in the area north of there ... being willing to help work with us, either as members of the Iraqi security forces or coming in and giving us information," Bremer said. "It's getting worse in the sense that -- as you've seen today -- the enemies of freedom there are using more sophisticated techniques to attack our forces."
Bremer also said U.S. troops are seeing a more advanced use of improvised explosive devices as "stand-off" weapons, allowing them to strike American forces at a distance. And Sunday's shooting down of a U.S. helicopter, "if that's what it was," is a new development, he said.
The attacks are being coordinated at a local or regional level, but U.S. officials have "no evidence" that ousted Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein is behind them, Bremer said.
"The enemies of freedom in this country will stop at nothing," Bremer said. "Now this week, which began with the killing of lots of Iraqis, has ended with killing Americans, and we have mingled our blood together in this war on terrorism."
On October 27, four suicide car bombings rocked Baghdad, killing 30 people, including two American soldiers, and wounding more than 200 others, according to U.S.-led coalition and Iraqi hospital officials. (Full story)
Bremer said the United States is speeding up its training of Iraqi police and military forces to assume more responsibility for keeping order. He said about 220,000 Iraqis will be serving in reconstituted security services by September 2004, including about 40,000 troops from a new Iraqi army.
