Anti-U.S. groups in Iraq grow

BAGHDAD, Iraq -- As American casualties mount in Iraq, so do questions about who is behind the guerrilla campaign. The list of suspects, which already includes Saddam Hussein loyalists, freelance Arab fighters and Iraqis angered by the U.S. occupation, is growing each day.

On Friday, a previously unknown group, the "Muslim Youths" movement, added its name, warning in a videotaped message broadcast on Arabic television that it would target any country that agrees to send peacekeeping troops to Iraq.

More than 30 U.S. servicemen have been killed in hostile action since May 1, the day President Bush declared an end to major fighting, and the military says its forces are coming under fire on average 12 times a day.

Gen. John Abizaid, the new head of U.S. Central Command, termed the insurgency a "guerrilla-style" war this week, the first time a senior military official has acknowledged the nature of the insurrection.

L. Paul Bremer, the top American official in Iraq, has insisted the attacks are not centrally coordinated, and has described the perpetrators as mostly "dead-enders" -- Saddam Hussein loyalists from his feared Fedayeen paramilitary force and intelligence units left out in the cold since the U.S. ousted their benefactor in April.

Others are not so sure.

The U.S. takeover has turned Iraq's political reality on its head -- many Sunni Muslims are angry over the increased powers of the nation's Shiite majority, which holds the deciding votes on a new Governing Council and is set to assume a prominent national role for the first time. Even those happy to see Saddam go are not so happy with what they see taking his place.

Several shadowy groups besides the "Muslim Youths" have popped up in recent weeks to claim responsibility for attacks.

One, calling itself the "Islamic Armed Group of al-Qaida, Fallujah branch," went on Arab television channels Sunday to claim that it, not Saddam, was behind recent bloodshed. It was the first time a group purporting to be linked to Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida network has claimed responsibility for attacks in Iraq.

Another group, this one called "Wakefulness and Holy War," said it had carried out attacks in Fallujah, where tension has been high since U.S. soldiers shot and killed 20 Iraqi protesters in April. "Saddam and America are two faces of the same coin," the group said.

Then on Tuesday, an organization called "Liberating Iraq's Army," went on Al-Arabiya television to promise retribution for any country that sends peacekeeping troops. In a letter to U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, the group said peacekeepers would be attacked even if they were sent under a U.N. mandate. The same group claimed responsibility for the assassination Wednesday of the U.S.-appointed mayor of Hadithah.

Abizaid said there is evidence that non-Iraqi Islamic militant groups with at least a philosophical connection to al-Qaida may be involved in some of the violence.

Other terror groups operating inside Iraq include Ansar al-Islam, an al-Qaida-linked organization whose camp in northern Iraq suffered devastating attacks from U.S. forces early in the war. Ansar al-Islam appears to be regrouping, possibly buoyed by members coming from Iran or elsewhere after fleeing during the fighting, Abizaid said.

But he said the "primary threat," is still from midlevel Baath party operatives loyal to Saddam.

Thousands of Arab fighters poured into the country ahead of the war, amid calls by radical groups to fight the Americans. Others may have slipped in recently.

Dia'a Rashwan, an expert on radical Islam at Egypt's Al-Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies, said he doubted al-Qaida was behind the daily mortar and shooting attacks, but might be in the planning stages of a larger-scale assault on U.S. forces in Iraq.

"They don't do small strikes," he said.