IRAQI RESISTANCE

Sidney Morning Herald: Braced for an onslaught in Iraq

The United States-led administration in Iraq has received intelligence reports that hundreds of Islamic militants who fled Iraq during the war have returned and are planning terrorist attacks.

The top civilian administrator in Iraq, Paul Bremer, said fighters from Ansar al-Islam, a militant organisation that the US had sought to eliminate during the war, had escaped to Iran and then slipped back across the border. Hundreds of them were now in Iraq, preparing to attack the occupation forces or administration.

"The intelligence suggests that Ansar al-Islam is planning large-scale terrorist attacks here," he said. "So as long as we have, as I think we do, substantial numbers of Ansar terrorists around here, I think we have to be pretty alert to the fact that we may see more of this."