Naseer Al-Nahr, Asharq Al-Awsat

BAGHDAD, 7 December 2003 — US Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld yesterday said there was no chance American forces would just stumble on key Iraqi fugitives including Saddam. “The chances of us stumbling on one of the top guys are zero,” he said on his second trip to Iraq in four months.

Rumsfeld made an unannounced visit to the northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk to gauge the pace of progress toward stabilizing the country and defeating the insurgency. The trip was kept secret in advance to minimize the risk of attack on his entourage, which flew into the town on an Air Force C-17 cargo plane from Tblisi in the former Soviet republic of Georgia.

Rumsfeld spoke of trying to track down fugitives including Saddam, who remains elusive despite a $25 million bounty on his head. US forces have arrested or killed most targets on their so-called deck of cards, a list of the 55 most-wanted members of the former regime.

Maj. Gen. Raymond Odierno, commander of the 4th Infantry Division, briefed Rumsfeld on operations in his division’s territory — north of Baghdad up to Kirkuk. Odierno said he did not need more American troops. He said troops in his division killed about 100 insurgents this week.

Rumsfeld responded: “There have been a lot of people who have said ‘oh my goodness, you ought to have more troops, you ought to do this, and something else ought to be done’. But I am convinced that the direction that we set from the outset is the right one and that is being executed exceedingly well, and that the security circumstances in the country will be passed over time to Iraqi security forces of various types, and that they will be able to do it.”

Meanwhile, a funeral for two Iraqis killed in a firefight with US troops turned violent yesterday in the northern town of Samarra, with mourners killing a security officer and chanting pro-Saddam slogans over his body. Further north, gunmen killed a policeman.

As is customary in Iraq, mourners began firing weapons in the air, and members of the US-led Iraqi Civil Defense Corps ordered them to stop, witnesses said. The mourners fired at them, shooting one of the paramilitary civil guards in the head and setting their vehicle ablaze.