Baghdad, July 19: US Secretary of State Colin Powell acknowledged Saturday that it would take "some time" to stem the "guerrilla-type" attacks targeting US troops in Iraq. Powell said Washington was "not shocked or suprised" by the hit-and-run attacks and ambushes which have left 35 US soldiers dead since the end of major combat operations was declared in early May.
"We think it will take a while before we finally defeat all the remnants of the Baath Party and all of the fedayeen and other criminal elements that might be within the country," he told the Middle East service of Radio Monte Carlo.
"It'll take some time to do because they're not standing in ranks waiting to be fought, they are hiding. But they will be defeated," he vowed.
The Secretary of State said Washington was keeping an "open mind" about the new UN resolution demanded by many critics of the US-led occupation as a condition for taking part in an international stabilization force.
He reiterated Washington's view that "sufficient UN authority" already existed under Resolution 1483 adopted by the Security Council in May.
"Some nations, however, have asked for a broader mandate from the United Nations in order for them to contribute peacekeeping forces, and I am in conversation with those nations and I am in conversation with (UN) Secretary General Kofi Annan to examine wheteher or not another UN resolution might be useful. Bureau Report