US-led war in Iraq has begun to regain momentum recently, seven months after US President George W. Bush announced the end of major fighting on May 1.  

Soon after the loss of 17 US soldiers in a crash of two helicopters Saturday in Mosul, 400 km north of Baghdad, the US military command ordered sustained attacks on suspected guerrilla positions all over Iraq.

More sophisticated weapons were used in recent operations by coalition forces against suspected guerrilla targets, indicating that the war is regaining momentum.

US troops used armored and artillery fire against suspected targets in Baghdad and the air activity has also been actively stepped up over the Iraqi capital.

In Tikrit, the hometown of ousted Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, the Americans used satellite-guided missiles, fighter planes and helicopters to attack suspected guerilla bases, destroying 15 safe houses and killing six what they called Saddam loyalists.

During the 24 hours starting Sunday, the US forces netted nearly100 anti-coalition personnel including a former republican guard general, across the country.

US troops also carried out similar actions in Ba'quba, a city 60km north of Baghdad, and in Kirkuk, 300 km north of the capital city.

Last March, the United States led a war and swept away from power the 24-year one-man rule of Saddam, whose whereabouts remains unknown despite a US$25 million prize by the United States on his head.

On Sunday, the Dubai-based al-Arabiya satellite channel broadcast a purported audiotape of Saddam, in which the speaker called on the Iraqi people to step up fighting to drive the American and other foreign troops out of Iraq.

Meanwhile, in Washington, US President Bush, who is due in London Tuesday on a three-day visit where Iraq is expected to figure high on the agenda of his talks with British officials, declared on Sunday that his troops in Iraq are "changing their tactics to match those of their enemies."

The more aggressive stance to root out insurgents came after guerrilla fighters in Iraq, who unleashed hit-and-run attacks on US-led coalition forces six months ago, apparently began to use more sophisticated arms and better coordinated tactics to the extent of shooting US helicopters.

In the past three weeks alone, five US helicopters crashed, and they were feared downed by hostile ground fire. As a result, more than 40 US soldiers killed in total.

What further aggravated the situation for the United States and its coalition forces is the use by the guerilla of mortar and rocket fire inside Baghdad.

Since the beginning of this month, the 5-million Iraqi capital has been rocked by mortars or rocket fire, some of which fell on the headquarters of the US-led coalition on the west side of the Tigris River.

The roaring of the bombs reverberating in the air, scares thousands upon thousands of the Baghdadis, particularly children and old folks living around the headquarters.

"This is war, real war," screamed Um Uzzam, 60, whose house is in al-Harrithiya district which is close to the old republican palace now turned into office of the US administrator in Iraq Paul Bremer, a prime target of guerillas.

The intermittent barrage of mortar fire by unknown armed men on the palace this week, resulted in no casualties according to US military, but the psychological effect of such attacks is unnerving.

Abood Razzaq, 33, a school teacher and a father of two kids, whose house on the left side of the river opposite the palace, said that he dug a bunker in his small garden and fortified it as a precautionary measure against such attacks.

"I didn't do it during the war, but now I am doing that," he added wearily. These attacks are damaging to the moral of the people, Razzaq said.

"No," replied his colleague in the school Abu Insaf. "It is a moral booster," he added.

Mazin Ibrahim, a businessman whose fashionable villa in Mansur district on the west side of Bagdad said, "We have been too optimistic in expecting peace and security on this land too soon after the end of the war."

"It seems that the war, seven months after its end, is restarting again," he added.

After a pause, he said, "I am going to pack and leave to a neighboring Arab country for safety."

Observers said the security situation in Baghdad is worsening almost daily, and the new US war tactics will add fuel to the fire instead of extinguishing it.

(Xinhua News Agency November 18, 2003)