BAGHDAD - Leaders close to top Iraqi insurgent Abu Musab al-Zarqawi ordered a recent car bombing campaign that has killed hundreds in Iraq, a senior US military official said Wednesday.
The official said there was a meeting in Syria last month of the insurgent leadership with Zarqawi-linked commanders in attendance where "instructions were issued to use more car bombs in every day operations."
Intelligence reports suggested this was one of up to five meetings top insurgents have recently held abroad, but it was not known if Zarqawi himself attended the Syria meeting, the official added.
The number of car bombs in the Baghdad area, which stood at 25 for the whole of last year, has rocketed recently, with 21 incidents this month alone, the US military said.
Over the past two and a half months, there were 126 car bombings in Baghdad, most of them the work of suicide bombers, it added.
Nationwide, more than 400 people have been killed in 70 car bomb attacks so far in May, according to the Iraqi government.
"If you measure it by casualties... and the size of the explosions, they are the worst spike... since November," the senior military official said.
Iraqi and US officials have accused neighbouring Syria of supporting the insurgency and not doing enough to prevent fighters from crossing the border into Iraq, claims dismissed by Damascus.
US officials believe the upsurge in violence was aimed at undermining the credibility of the new Iraqi government formed at the start of the month, and rob it of public support.
The US official acknowledged there has been some erosion in public confidence in the wake of the January 30 general elections.
According to Baghdad university surveys, 85 percent of the public believed just after the elections that an Iraqi government would be stronger three months down the line, the official said.
The latest figure showed however that only 45 percent now believe this to be the case, he added, adding that this was a matter of concern.
The US military has suggested that a recent sweep by marines in western Iraq, close to the Syrian border, in which 125 insurgents were killed, has disrupted rebel communication and supply lines across the border.
Iraqi border patrol police, assisted by US special forces, were now attempting to ensure that these supply lines remained closed, the official said.
05/18/2005 11:12 GMT