L. Paul Bremer, the US administrator of Iraq, appears to have softened his opposition to the creation of an Iraqi-led paramilitary force to pursue resistance fighters. Bremer no longer has ‘‘any objection in principle’’ to the force, but wants to ensure several conditions are met in the vetting, training and supervising the participants, a senior US official here said. The US-appointed administrator wants the members to be carefully screened by the Interior Ministry and by the occupation authority, and receive police training — not military instruction — the official said. In addition, Bremer wants command-and-control issues with US forces be resolved and the size of the force be limited to not more than a few thousand members, the official added. Outlining the other conditions, the official said that political party security organs and other militias cannot not join the force en masse but as individuals. ‘‘We’re not going to have a process whereby militias are institutionalised here,’’ the senior official said. If that happens, ‘‘we will not have a unified Iraq at the end of the day’’. Setting up this force ‘‘will have to done very carefully,’’ the official added. Leaders of Iraq’s US-appointed Governing Council say Iraq’s municipal police departments are too weak, while US soldiers lack adequate local knowledge to combat the coordinated efforts of supporters of the former president, Saddam Hussein, Islamic militants and foreign guerrillas. The security force that the Governing Council wants to create would be the most powerful in Iraq, fuelling concern among some US officials that it could be used for undemocratic purposes, such as stifling political dissent. Council leaders said they want the force to be drawn primarily from two groups: former members of the military and police, and members of the security and intelligence wings of five political organisations: the Iraqi National Accord, the Iraqi National Congress, the Shiite Muslim Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq and two large Kurdish parties, the Kurdistan Democratic Party and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan. ‘‘We need a security force that is run by Iraqis, that is more heavily armed than the police and is able to act quickly,’’ said a senior official of the Iraqi National Congress, whose leader, Ahmed Chalabi, has participated in discussions about the new enforcement unit. (LAT-WP) .as more US troops targeted Agencies Baghdad/MOSUL, Nov 5 Four coalition soldiers, were injured in three explosions in Baghdad today. US Defence Department spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Jim Cassella said the explosions at about 7:45 pm local time in Baghdad were close to the headquarters of the Provisional Coalition Authority in the Iraqi capital, but not in the compound. Guerrillas also mounted two grenade attacks on US convoys in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul on Wednesday, killing three Iraqis and wounding at least nine people including two US soldiers. In a raid in the volatile town of Falluja, west of Baghdad, US troops captured two former generals in Saddam Hussein’s Army. ‘‘The two generals were suspected of being key financiers and organisers of anti-coalition fighters operating in and around the city of Falluja,’’ an US Army statement said. In the first of two attacks in Mosul, a hand grenade was thrown at two US vehicles in the centre of town on Wednesday afternoon. Later in the afternoon a rocket-propelled grenade was fired at a US convoy in southern Mosul. One US soldier was injured. The rising death toll has intensified political pressure on US President George W. Bush. Washington had hoped to bring a large contingent of Turkish troops for policing. Although Turkey’s Parliament agreed, Iraq’s US-appointed Governing Council protested. Kurdish leader Jalal Talabani, current holder of the Council’s rotating chairmanship, said on Wednesday the issue was now closed and that no Turkish troops would be sent to Iraq.
