Iraqi opposition fighters drafted by US

THE US military has begun flying Iraqi opposition fighters to join in the war, a top general said, as the Pentagon warned the military may have to run the country for more than six months after the conflict.

"These are Iraqi citizens who want to fight for a free Iraq, who will become basically the core of the new Iraqi army once Iraq is free," said General Peter Pace, vice-chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

"To speak specifically about where they are or what they're about to do would be inappropriate, but they are the beginning of the free Iraqi army."

The fighters were flown from northern Iraq to southern Iraq.

The US-backed umbrella opposition group, the Iraqi National Congress (INC) said it has sent 700 fighters to southern Iraq to join in "removing the final remnants of Saddam's Baathist regime".

"Soldiers of the Iraqi National Congress arrived in southern Iraq yesterday to join in the military campaign to remove Saddam Hussein's regime and liberate the Iraqi people," the statement said.

The INC groups various movements including Islamists, communists and nationalists opposed to Saddam's regime.

Gen Pace called on Iraqi military leaders to themselves give up and spare themselves and the country continued war, saying the Iraqi army defending Baghdad was struggling to assemble 1,000 soldiers for each battle.

"They can surrender and become part of the future free Iraq, or they can fight and die," Gen Pace said.

Even in a debilitated condition, he said that the Iraqi military still poses a threat.

"They are extremely weakened, but that does not mean they're finished. They will not be finished until either they are completely destroyed, which we are capable of doing, or that they surrender," Gen Pace said.

After the war, the US military may have to run Iraq for more than six months before it hands over to an Iraqi authority, Deputy Defence Secretary Paul Wolfowitz said.

He said the US wants to hand over the country to the Iraqi people. Mr Wolfowitz said it took six months to form a government in northern Iraq after the 1991 Gulf War.

"This is a more complicated situation; it probably will take more time than that," he said.

However, Ahmad Chalabi, who heads the London-based INC, said that US forces should remain in Iraq for at least two years after the collapse of Saddam's regime.

"The American military should stay in Iraq until the first elections are held and a democratic government is established," Mr Chalabi said.

Mr Chalabi said the opposition expects "to have a constitution ratified within two years." He was reported to have flown to the southern Iraqi city of Nassiriya.

Mr Wolfowitz said the UN would have an "important role" in post-war Iraq but gave no specific details.

"The reconstruction of Iraq, I think, is going to be one of the most important projects for the international community in many years. And the UN can be a mechanism for bringing that assistance to the Iraqi people," Mr Wolfowitz said.

"But our goal has got to be to transfer authority and the operation of the government as quickly as possible not to some other external authority, but to the Iraqi people themselves," he added.