Iraq Now World's Most Hostile Environment-Analyst Sun Sep 26, 2004 09:27 AM ET By Andrew Hammond DUBAI (Reuters) - The Iraqi insurgency has reached a critical new level with radical Sunni and Shi'ite groups spreading beyond their traditional bases in the world's "most hostile environment," a security analyst said on Sunday. Paul Beat, director of International Asset Protection at London-based Control Risks Group, said the violence of recent weeks, with militants seizing foreign hostages from the heart of Baghdad and staging a spate of suicide bombings, marked a new stage in the conflict. "Terrorists are operating in larger and larger groups and becoming more and more daring," Beat, a former counter-terrorist specialist in the British army, told Reuters on the sidelines of the forum in the United Arab Emirates on Iraq reconstruction. "They're launching bigger, multiple attacks. Now they use one vehicle at the entrance (to compounds) to knock out guards and then drive a second bomb through to get inside," he said. In another example, a grisly videotape of the beheading of a U.S. hostage this month showed white curtains billowing from the breeze as light flooded in from an open window -- suggesting little attempt by militants to conceal their activities, Beat noted. "The Sunni extremists have moved out of their traditional strongholds of Falluja and Ramadi and are operating all over west and central Iraq with increasing boldness," Beat told potential Iraq investors at the seminar. "The Mehdi militia are operating all over south Iraq and there's increasing evidence of them operating in the center and north of Iraq," he said, describing Iraq as currently the world's "most hostile" environment. The Mehdi Army of rebel Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr relinquished control of the southern city of Najaf last month after a stand-off with U.S. troops, but Sadr has refused to disarm the Shi'ite militia. Falluja, in the Sunni Muslim heartland of Iraq, has long been a center of anti-U.S. activity since U.S.-led forces invaded last year to end the rule of Saddam Hussein. Beat said working in Iraq was still possible for companies but that people heading there now needed armed protection. "There are large areas of Baghdad which are no-go for the coalition, and a lot of parts of Basra which are now no-go too," he said, adding that a steady flow of international firms setting up in Iraq had all but dried up. Beat concluded his gloomy assessment saying it would only be possible to gauge the country's long-term security prospects after the U.S. elections in November and Iraqi elections, scheduled for January. Iraq Now World's Most Hostile Environment-Analyst Sun Sep 26, 2004 09:27 AM ET By Andrew Hammond DUBAI (Reuters) - The Iraqi insurgency has reached a critical new level with radical Sunni and Shi'ite groups spreading beyond their traditional bases in the world's "most hostile environment," a security analyst said on Sunday. Paul Beat, director of International Asset Protection at London-based Control Risks Group, said the violence of recent weeks, with militants seizing foreign hostages from the heart of Baghdad and staging a spate of suicide bombings, marked a new stage in the conflict. "Terrorists are operating in larger and larger groups and becoming more and more daring," Beat, a former counter-terrorist specialist in the British army, told Reuters on the sidelines of the forum in the United Arab Emirates on Iraq reconstruction. "They're launching bigger, multiple attacks. Now they use one vehicle at the entrance (to compounds) to knock out guards and then drive a second bomb through to get inside," he said. In another example, a grisly videotape of the beheading of a U.S. hostage this month showed white curtains billowing from the breeze as light flooded in from an open window -- suggesting little attempt by militants to conceal their activities, Beat noted. "The Sunni extremists have moved out of their traditional strongholds of Falluja and Ramadi and are operating all over west and central Iraq with increasing boldness," Beat told potential Iraq investors at the seminar. "The Mehdi militia are operating all over south Iraq and there's increasing evidence of them operating in the center and north of Iraq," he said, describing Iraq as currently the world's "most hostile" environment. The Mehdi Army of rebel Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr relinquished control of the southern city of Najaf last month after a stand-off with U.S. troops, but Sadr has refused to disarm the Shi'ite militia. Falluja, in the Sunni Muslim heartland of Iraq, has long been a center of anti-U.S. activity since U.S.-led forces invaded last year to end the rule of Saddam Hussein. Beat said working in Iraq was still possible for companies but that people heading there now needed armed protection. "There are large areas of Baghdad which are no-go for the coalition, and a lot of parts of Basra which are now no-go too," he said, adding that a steady flow of international firms setting up in Iraq had all but dried up. Beat concluded his gloomy assessment saying it would only be possible to gauge the country's long-term security prospects after the U.S. elections in November and Iraqi elections, scheduled for January. http://www.reuters.com/printerFriendlyPopup.jhtml?type=reutersEdge&storyID=6333795
