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04/27/2005:

"Iraq rebels 'as strong now as a year ago'"

There was a three-fold increase in terrorist attacks worldwide last year and Iraqi insurgents have the same capacity to strike that they did 12 months ago, according to the US government and military.
The number of terrorist attacks the US considers "significant" rose to 655 in 2004 from 175 in 2003, according to US state department figures released by a senior Democrat in congress.

That total - based on a briefing from government officials - takes in the Belsan school siege, violence linked to fighting over Kashmir and a surge in terrorist incidents in Iraq.

The tally for Iraq, one of the drivers of the increase, leapt from 22 attacks in 2003 to 198 in 2004, a figure confirming the bloodiness of the insurgency for much of that year.

The period after the January 30 election was one of relative calm, but the number and frequency of attacks has risen in recent weeks with the long impasse over forming a new government.

General Richard Myers, the most senior US soldier, said last night that Iraqi insurgents were now launching attacks at the same rate of 50-60 a day rate as they were in 2004.

"I think their capacity stays about the same. And where they are right now is where they were almost a year ago," he said, adding that it was vital the political process went forward.
Full:guardian.co.uk