Supporters of deposed dictator Saddam Hussein are now the main threat to security in Iraq, a senior British commander said today. Lieutenant General John McColl, former deputy commander of coalition forces in Iraq, said that former regime elements were trying to win popular support by representing themselves as "freedom fighters". Giving evidence to the Commons Defence Committee, he said that while militant Islamists like Abu Musab al-Zarqawi had carried out a series of "headline-grabbing" attacks, they only accounted for around 1% of the incidents.While there was little support in Iraq for Saddam's regime, the former Baathists had had some success in reinventing themselves as defenders of the people from foreign forces. "There is no doubt which poses the major threat. That is the former regime elements and those who coalesce around them," he said. "Over the last year, they have developed in terms of coherence and sophistication and they are trying to present themselves as freedom fighters. However I do think that the recent successful elections will be a dent for that."
Gen McColl said that the "jihadists" like al-Zarqawi — whose group murdered the British hostage Ken Bigley — would continue to carry out attacks while there was a Western presence in the country. He said that the majority of suicide bombers came from outside Iraq from countries elsewhere in the Middle East. The ease with which militants were able to enter Iraq by crossing the border from neighbouring Syria was "unhelpful", he added.