16 killed in Iraq clashes as Powell says situation getting worse

BAGHDAD, Sept 27 (AFP) - At least 16 people were killed in rebel attacks in Iraq Sunday as US Secretary of State Colin Powell warned that organizing promised elections for January could prove difficult because the insurgency was "getting worse."
The arrest of a top national guard commander with links to the insurgency dealt a further blow to a fledgling security apparatus under pressure to secure Iraq in time for the elections, as Britain admitted dismantling Sadam Hussein`s old army was a mistake.
And as efforts continued by British Muslim leaders to secure the release of kidnapped Briton Kenneth Bigley, his brother said he had received information that the engineer was alive.
Four Iraqis were killed and 10 wounded in clashes between US marines and insurgents in the rebel bastion of Ramadi, west of Baghdad, according to medical sources, although the US military said it had no immediate reports of any clashes in the area.
Ten more people were killed in an attack on a convoy of petrol tankers in Latifiya, another insurgent base immediately south of Baghdad.
Iraqi security sources said a group of attackers sprayed the trucks with gunfire, setting fire to all five and sparking a fierce firefight with national guardsmen escorting the convoy.
In further unrest, one Iraqi was killed when a mortar round ploughed into a busy shopping district of Baghdad and a farmer was killed in an exchange of fire north of Baghdad.
US Secretary of State Colin Powell acknowledged that the poll timetable could be difficult because of what he described as a worsening insurgency.
"And the reason it`s getting worse is that they are determined to disrupt the election. They do not want the Iraqi people to vote for their own leaders in a free, democratic elections.
"There will be polling stations that are shot at. There will be insurgents who will still be out there who will try to keep people from voting," Powell told CNN.
His remarks contrasted with the rosy picture of growing stability in Iraq painted by interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi during his visit to Washington last week to address the US Congress and to meet President George W. Bush.
The fledgling Iraqi security forces -- long a target of suspicion from US-led troops -- suffered a fresh blow to their credibility as the US military announced it had detained a senior national guard commander for eastern Iraq on suspicion of links with insurgents.
The officer, a former general under deposed leader Saddam Hussein, was one of the most-senior Iraqi security personnel detained for alleged involvement in anti-coalition attacks.
The coalition has been struggling to recruit, fund and train a credible force capable of relieving US-led troops. British Prime Minister Tony Blair acknowledged for the first time in an interview Sunday that disbanding Saddam`s army completely might have been a mistake.
As British Muslim leaders stepped up efforts to secure the release of captured Briton Kenneth Bigley, his brother said he had received information he was still alive.
"I have received information this evening that Ken is alive," Paul Bigley told members of Blair`s Labour party at their annual conference in Brighton.
"Help me keep him alive," he said, speaking by telephone from the Netherlands to a group of Labour members opposed to the Iraq war.
"Mr. Blair`s silence for the past 10 days is a kiss of death to my brother," he said. "Mr Blair, you`re doing it the wrong way."
The comments followed a statement a short time earlier by the director of London`s Islamic Observatory, who also said the hostage was still alive.
Unity and Holy War is the name of the group holding Bigley, headed by alleged Al-Qaeda leader in Iraq Abu Mussab al-Zarqawi.
British Muslim leaders seeking Bigley`s release meanwhile launched an appeal comparing the Briton`s plight to that of civilians in Fallujah, where US air strikes on Saturday left 15 dead, including women and children.
In the United States, an attorney for an American woman who became the face of abuse at Abu Ghraib prison by posing for a photograph while holding a naked Iraqi inmate on a leash, said she will face a court-martial.
"They are moving ahead with a court-martial," attorney Rhidian Orr told AFP Sunday.
The legal team representing Private First Class Lynndie England had received preliminary notification of the decision by military authorities, Orr said.
A formal announcement was set to be made at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, on Monday, Orr said, adding that the trial has been scheduled to begin on January 15, also at Fort Bragg.
England, 21, an Army reservist who served with a military police company in Iraq, was propelled to into the limelight in late April following publication of photographs showing Iraqi inmates at Abu Ghraib crouching in front of their US guards in sexually humiliating poses, being chained to cell doors and cowering in front of snarling guard dogs.