Bush gets tough but promises Iraq democracy

The US may soon begin transferring power back to the Iraqi people, but American peacekeeping troops will remain in Iraq for some time, President George Bush affirmed today.

“In terms of security, we will do whatever it takes,” Bush said in the Oval Office. “We will stay there until the job is done and then we will leave. And the job is for Iraq to be free and peaceful.”

Bush suggested – but did not directly say – that his forces would remain in Iraq until deposed leader Saddam Hussein is found.

“We will find Saddam Hussein,” the president said. “We are strong and determined and we will be successful.”

With the US death toll in Iraq approaching 400 and some polls showing increasing criticism of Bush’s handling of post-war Iraq, the administration’s aim is to accelerate steps toward an Iraqi takeover and an end to the occupation.

Bush said it is appropriate to give Iraqis control more quickly.

He also defended the strategy of fighting back against the increasingly deadly insurgency in Iraq.

“The enemy is changing tactics on the ground so we’re changing our response and that’s what you’re beginning to see.

US forces are taking a tougher line with Iraqi rebels in an operation dubbed Iron Hammer.

A US Apache helicopter gunship killed seven Iraqis believed to be followers of Saddam Hussein who were preparing to launch a rocket attack on an American military base.

And satellite-guided bombs were on a rebel target near the Syrian border.

US soldiers later found hundreds of rockets and missiles in the area, said a military spokesman.

The Thursday night attack, revealed today, targeted an encampment with bunkers about 20 miles north of Saddam’s home town of Tikrit, said Major Josslyn Aberle, spokeswoman of the 4th Infantry Division.

US soldiers later went to the area and discovered more than 600 missiles and rockets in two bunkers and on a flatbed truck, she said.

The Iraqis were setting up a rocket to be fired toward the US forward operating base, Aberle said.

Air Force F-16 fighter jets dropped two satellite-guided bombs night on a three-story building in Husayba, near the Syrian border, used by insurgents to store ammunition and launch attacks.

US officials have long accused Syria and Iran of allowing fighters to cross the border for attacks on the coalition.

Meanwhile, Iraq’s growing lawlessness claimed more victims.

Two US soldiers were killed when their convoy was attacked with a roadside bomb near Samara and an American civilian contractor was killed when his convoy was attacked near Balad, 45 miles north of Baghdad. Both incidents happened on Thursday

In the British controlled south, gunmen today fired on jeeps carrying Portuguese journalists, wounding one reporter and kidnapping another.

It was the first abduction of a journalist since the occupation began in May.

A leading Shiite cleric, meanwhile, warned the Americans that attempting a military solution to Iraq’s crisis “will only make things worse.”

Grand Ayatollah Mohammed Taqi al-Modaresi also criticised the coalition for failing to restore democracy seven months after the collapse of Saddam Hussein.

He also warned that “the military solution will make the crisis worse.”

He called for more democracy in Iraq and criticised the Americans and their allies for failing to live up to their promises to build a democratic Iraq over the wreckage of Saddam’s dictatorial regime.

“Seven months have passed and there hasn’t been one serious election,” said al-Modaresi, leader of the Islamic Action Front.

Ayatollahs and other senior Muslim clerics wield considerable influence among Iraq’s Shiite community, which forms about 60% of the country’s population of 25 million.

Shiite support is crucial to the success of Bush administration plans to speed the handover of political power to the Iraqis.