An explosion rocked Baghdad on Saturday near the Ministry of the Interior. Eywwitnesses said the blast targeted a passing convoy of U.S. soldiers. At least one US soldier was killed and three othes wounded. American troops blocked off the site of the explosion.
Meanwhile, US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld on Saturday said the United States must win the "test of wills" in Iraq, warning that the alternative was civil war, a territorial breakup or the return of a "junior version" of Saddam Hussein.
Speaking at an international security conference in Asia, Rumsfeld said "We are engaged in a test of wills," Rumsfeld said.
"There is no way the coalition forces can be defeated on the battlefield. They simply cannot. The only way an outcome such as you have characterized could occur is if we have failed in the test of wills," he said.
"When one thinks of the alternatives, the alternatives are clear," he said.
"You could have anarchy, you could have civil war, you could ethnic cleansing, you could have the country broken up into pieces, you could have another Saddam Hussein, junior version, arrive on the scene and reimpose a vicious dictatorship, and start filling up mass graves again," he said.
"So there is no alternative but pursuing this effort," he said. (Albawaba.com)
© 2004 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
