Garner In Baghdad; US Plans 4 Military Bases

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Dubai, April 21: : Iraq’s postwar administrator retired American general Jay Garner arrived in Baghdad on Monday amidst reports that US is planning to establish four long-term military bases in that country as part of redeployment of forces which can transform its capability to wield power in West Asia.

Garner’s arrival coincides with reports that two more top aides of Saddam Hussein, including his son-in-law, have been captured while a key Iraqi Opposition leader Ahmad Chalabi claimed that Saddam is alive and in Iraq while his son Qusay has been seen in Baghdad.

Soon after landing at the Baghdad airport on his first visit to the Iraqi capital, the 64-year-old ex-general said his priority is to restore basic services like water and electricity in the city where residents have become increasingly restless because of disruption of the services after the invasion.

He refused to fix a deadline for restoration of these services. “I wouldn’t put 90 days as a mark on the wall. We will be here as long as it takes. We will leave fairly rapidly.”

With situation returning to normal in Baghdad after days of looting, the US marines have withdrawn and left the US army in control of the capital where a curfew between 11pm-6am has been imposed.

According to British daily Telegraph, the US is planning to set up four long-term military bases in Iraq and has identified the Baghdad airport, Tallil in the South, the H-1 Airstrip in the West and Bashur airfield in Kurdistan as potential bases.

“There will be some kind of a long-term defence relationship with a new Iraq, similar to Afghanistan,” a senior Bush administration official was quoted as saying. “The scope of that has yet to be defined — whether it will be ‘full-up’ operational bases, smaller forward operating bases or just plain access.”