Rumsfeld 'surprised' by Saddam loyalists' resistance

US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has admitted he was surprised by the effectiveness of Saddam Hussein’s loyalists to sustain the Iraq conflict long after the end of major combat operations.

He called the continuing fighting serious but described it as low intensity.

Fear instilled in the Iraqi people by the ousted leader’s former paramilitary force was contributing to the situation, he told an audience of more than 500 at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, California.

“I suppose, on reflection, the thing that probably surprised me the most is the ability that the so-called Fedayeen Saddam people had to terrorise and frighten the rest of the Iraqi people and cause them to not come over to the other side,” Rumsfeld said in answer to a question from the audience.

His comments came after two US soldiers were killed in an ambush in Iraq yesterday, bringing to 94 the number of American soldiers killed by hostile fire since President George Bush declared an end to major combat on May 1.

Rumsfeld said coalition forces made 1,700 patrols daily in Iraq and only a tenth of 1% involved any kind of armed conflict. “It is a very low-intensity situation, percentage-wise, nonetheless people are getting killed,” Rumsfeld said.

His comments followed a 20-minute talk on the legacy of Reagan. Among those attending the event were former first lady Nancy Reagan and former California governor Pete Wilson.

In his speech, Rumsfeld did not mention a recent White House move to set up, under national security adviser Condoleezza Rice, a new National Security Council oversight group for Iraq. Earlier in the week, he reacted angrily to suggestions he was being sidelined, saying oversight of Iraq would gradually drift from the Pentagon to the State Department.

Afterward, Rumsfeld dismissed the issue.

“The National Security Council is doing what its charter suggests it should do, and that is to say, co-ordinate among the various agencies and departments. And I think it’s been blown considerably out of proportion,” he said in an interview with Fox News.