"Iraqi President Opposes Assault on Fallujah:

Yawar Also Accuses Iran of 'Organizing Attacks' in His Country"

Tom Regan, Christian Science Monitor

Iraqi President Ghazi al-Yawar has declared his opposition to a joint
attack by coalition and Iraqi forces on the insurgent-dominated city of
Fallujah. Mr. Yawar's comments, made on Monday in an interview with a
Kuwait newspaper, put him directly at odds with Iraq's interim prime
minister, Iyad Allawi, who has threatened the city with an all-out
assault if local leaders did not force insurgents to surrender.'I totally differ with those who believe there is a need for a military
solution to the (Fallujah) issue. The management of the (US-led)
coalition of the crisis is wrong,' Yawar said, describing it as like the
man 'who shot his horse' to scare a fly, resulting in the fly escaping
and the horse's death. The coalition should continue to have 'dialogue
until the arrival of Iraqi troops... This will encourage neutral
citizens to stop sympathizing with the rebels, most of whom are Saddam
Hussein loyalists and forces which came from outside Iraq,' Yawar said.

Yawar said he did not expect his remarks to have any effect on current
plans to attack Fallujah. Yawar, however, praised the role being played
by the US, according to the Kuwaiti News Agency, saying "saying it did
what nobody else could do for Iraq when it deposed the Saddam Hussein
regime."

The Guardian reported that Yawar also took aim at Iran for interfering
in Iraqi affairs.

'Iran is playing a negative role in Iraq. It is behind the assassination
of more than 18 Iraqi intelligence officers. It is also playing a
negative role in southern Iraq,' Yawar told Kuwait's Al Qabas newspaper.

In Fallujah itself, the Detroit Free Press reports Tuesday that
insurgents dressed as Iraqi policemen manned checkpoints Monday in the
city in preparation for the assault "everyone is certain will come
soon." Insurgents and foreign fighters say the battle will not be an
easy one for the coalition forces.

'They might enter the city, but that would be just one battle, not the
end of the war,' Suhail al-Abdali [a Fallujah fighter] said. 'They will
pay the price with the blood of American sons who came to occupy Iraq.
They won't take Fallujah unless they fight street to street, house to
house.'

The Boston Globe reports Tuesday that the insurgents are "digging
tunnels, laying minefields, and handing out cash to needy residents to
win their support" before the battle.

The Christian Science Monitor reported on Monday that US marines are
aware of the tough task they face.
"You have to learn fast in this environment," says Lt. Colonel Ramos,
from Dallas, Texas. "The enemy is willing to sacrifice lives. They are
willing to martyr themselves for what they believe is an important
cause.... The rules of war don't apply for them."

Newsweek reported on Sunday that the coming attack on Fallujah is being
complicated by the strength of the insurgents.
The insurgents have effectively created a reign of terror throughout the
country, killing thousands, driving Iraqi elites and technocrats into
exile and scaring foreigners out. 'Things are getting really bad,' a
senior Iraqi official in [Mr.] Allawi's government told Newsweek last
week. 'The initiative is in [the insurgents'] hands right now. This
approach of being lenient and accommodating has really backfired. They
see this as weakness.'

In the same story, other senior Iraqi officials tell Newsweek that
insurgents have inflitrated the new Iraqi Army "from top to bottom,"
including the "decision-making level." Salon.com reports that this is a
particularly troubling turn of affairs for the US military as it
prepares to assault Fallujah.

Marines were counting on the newly trained Iraqi forces to assist in the
assault ... 'American military trainers have been frantically trying to
assemble sufficient Iraqi troops' to fight alongside them and that they
are 'praying that the soldiers perform better than last April, when two
battalions of poorly trained Iraqi Army soldiers refused to fight.'

Finally, Newsweek reported that US Secretary of State Colin Powell has
privately told friends that the US is losing the war in Iraq. Mr.
Powell's office had no comment on the Newsweek story.