"To the extent it's not proven that he is not alive, there are people who might fear he could come back,” Rumsfeld

BAGHDAD, June 10 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – As the U.S. Central Command said Tuesday, June 10, that an explosion at an Iraqi ammunition supply depot killed three Iraqis and wounded two others, a senior American official said that ousted President Saddam Hussein is the one to blame for the country’s unrest. 

The U.S. forces sustained no casualties in Monday morning's blast in the southern city of Diwaniyah, a CentCom said in a statement posted on its Web site.

A U.S. army munitions disposal team cordoned off the area for fear of follow-on explosions, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported.

The statement said that the U.S. forces are to help clear the depot once the area is safe to do so.

It added the cause of the blast was not immediately clear and an investigation was underway.

A blast shook Diwaniyah last month, leaving one American soldier dead and another injured. The CentCom said at the time it did not believe the blast was caused by "hostile action."

In a separate incident, a series of explosions ripped through another ammunitions depot belonging to the U.S. occupation forces in the central holy city of Karbala, CentCom said.

No casualties were reported but U.S. forces established a four-kilometer (more-than-two-mile) buffer zone around the dump to protect residents.

CentCom said the blasts were not believed to be the result of “hostile action”, but said an investigation had also been launched.

Saddam Source of Unrest

In the meanwhile, U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said Tuesday that Saddam Hussein might be behind Iraq’s continuing unrest even if he is dead.

En route to Europe, Rumsfeld suggested the missing Saddam was still inspiring remnants of his regime to resist the U.S.-led occupation.

"To the extent it's not proven that he is not alive, there are people who might fear he could come back. If they fear he could come back they might be somewhat slower in an interrogation to say what they know," he said.

The U.S. administration fended off criticism that his administration exaggerated the threat from Saddam to justify invading Iraq.

"It might give heart to the Baathists who may want to hope they can take back that country, which they are not going to succeed in doing. So I think to some extent that is a fair comment."

Rumfeld’s comments came as Iraqi areas have still descended into chaos and anarchy in what many inhabitants said an expected outcome of the U.S. military inaction to push the situation back to normal since the beginning of occupation on Aril 9.

Jeering Iraqis also question the reason of invading their country as the U.S. forces have not found any weapons of mass destruction, the main justification for launching the massive invasion two months before. 

The U.S. occupation forces came under a spate of attacks that left 29 of its soldiers dead and dozens injured, as anti-American sentiments are on the rise among ordinary people in the country.

Although the U.S. forces have declared themselves the "absolute authority within Iraq," their failure to maintain security, restore public services or ease the tough living conditions in post-Saddam Iraq, credibility of the U.S. forces is now eroding. 

On Monday, in a reminder of the ongoing danger from a recent series of hit-and-run attacks, Iraqis pretending to need urgent medical aid shot and killed a U.S. soldier at a checkpoint near the Syrian border, one day after the U.S. forces shot dead a gunshop owner mistaken for an armed assailant.

The series of attacks have triggered searches of the kind which have fueled resentment and bitterness over the US occupation, witnesses said. Many residents said soldiers were frisking women and flouting Islamic moral codes.

Where Are WMDs?

U.S.-led forces have yet to locate conclusive evidence backing the US leader's central case for war: that Saddam possessed chemical and biological weapons, pursued nuclear arms, and may one day arm terrorists with them.

"Iraq had a weapons program. Intelligence throughout the decade showed he had a weapons program. I am absolutely convinced, with time, we'll find out that they did have a weapons program," Bush said in Washington.

"History and time will prove that the United States made the absolute right decision in freeing the people of Iraq from the clutches of Saddam Hussein."

Democratic candidates have stepped up their attacks on the administration for allegedly overstating or manipulating the intelligence.

"Even if we should find weapons of mass destruction, that won't disguise the fact that they misled the American people," Senator Bob Graham said Sunday, accusing the administration of soft-pedaling "the level of uncertainty" in intelligence reports.

A Defense Intelligence Agency report said in September there was "no reliable information" that Iraq was producing and stockpiling chemical weapons.

The report's finding was disclosed only last week, further fueling charges that the administration used intelligence selectively to support its case.

The questions are shadowing Rumsfeld as he embarks on a four-day trip to Europe that will include meetings with NATO defense ministers in Brussels later this week.

The US-led invasion of Iraq unleashed bitter disputes within the alliance as Germany and France openly sided against Washington with strong opinions that the Iraq invasion was not justified.

British Prime Minister Tony Blair, who was a staunch support for the invasion, is facing accusations that 10 Downing Street “doctored” intelligence on Iraq’s banned weapons program to better justify the case for the aggression on the oil-rich Arab country.

But recent opinion polls show a slim majority of Americans say the invasion was justified whether or not banned weapons are found.

Amid the political maneuverings, the acting head of the oil ministry, Thamir Ghadhban, said he hoped by the end of the month Iraq would be exporting some two-thirds of a total oil output that would reach 1.5 million barrels per day.

Ghadhban's comments, which came just before a meeting of the OPEC oil cartel convened to discuss the return of Iraqi oil to the market, caused the price of oil to slip as traders prepared for Iraq’s reserves -- the world's second-largest -- to hit markets once more.