Next challenge in Iraq: Sabotage

The ambush failed - but no one was caught. Neither was anyone wounded when up to six Iraqi men fired two rocket-propelled grenades at an American patrol Wednesday.

Such near misses - and many direct hits - are increasingly frequent. Combined with acts of sabotage, brazen pillaging, and the burning of some government facilities, they are undermining US efforts to rebuild.

Many Iraqis are aghast. But those willing to help occupation forces face intimidation and sometimes lethal attack. To restore order, some suggest that the US apply a firm hand - just like Saddam Hussein used to do.

"Catch them and hang them," an Iraqi recently advised a senior official of the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA). "You've got to understand: Lampposts in Iraq were not meant to illuminate the streets."

While there may be little chance of exacting such tough measures in the new Iraq - the soon-to-be rebuilt justice system rules out the death penalty - continuing instability across Iraq is focusing US attention on how to regain control.

The best way to deal with "political sabotage" that targets key infrastructure, some observers say, is to show the majority of Iraqis that progress and prosperity are inevitable, as well the creation of a government run by Iraqis.

The top US official in Iraq, L. Paul Bremer, accused remnants of Hussein's regime of sabotaging the power grids and promised Wednesday to do everything possible to fix the damage.

"They are trying to hinder the coalition's efforts to make life better for the average Iraqi person ... but we are not going to let them succeed," he said.

In the aftermath of the war, oil pipelines have been targeted and bombed. Electricity infrastructure, such as substations and pylons, have also been sabotaged - and a top Iraqi electricity official murdered. Such actions, along with orders to destroy all government buildings, facilities, and records, were laid out in a set of instructions to Iraqi intelligence agencies before the war, to render Iraq ungovernable if the Hussein regime should disappear.

"It's so obvious," says a CPA official. "Take out the electricity, just as it is getting so hot. Hit key installations, and then kill or intimidate those Iraqis who are trying to work with the CPA."

Andrew Bearpark, a veteran chief of rebuilding efforts in Bosnia and Kosovo was drafted last month to play the same role in Iraq. He says that "there are not enough tanks in the world to have a tank at every electricity pylon." Still, he adds, there is nothing he has not seen before, and "progress has been faster here than any other theater" where he has worked.

"We have to look holistically," Mr. Bearpark told a press briefing. "My stress is to look at all the system ... and to keep on the upward curve."

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