Allawi includes Fallujah strike in war on terror

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AMMAN, Jordan -- The assault on Fallujah that began yesterday must be seen as a critical part of the worldwide war on terror, Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi says.

"This is a war that we are waging on behalf of the civilized nations around the world," he said in an interview conducted for The Washington Times. "The rule of law must prevail, and there's no other way forward."

Although he admitted that some of the fighters resisting U.S. and Iraqi forces in the country are loyalists from the regime of deposed dictator Saddam Hussein, Mr. Allawi argued that the conflict was being fueled by "evil forces" from outside Iraq.

He announced that 167 foreign fighters had been arrested in Fallujah, Samarra and Mosul, and an additional 109 had been killed.

"They are in custody of Iraq authorities and will be brought to justice very shortly," he said during a recent visit to Amman, Jordan.

He warned that failure to deal with the foreign infiltrators in Fallujah would lead to the spread of terror worldwide.

"These foreign infiltrators were aiming first to destabilize Iraq, and then they would aim to destabilize the region, then the world -- including the United States and Latin America -- so we are going after them," he said.

But Mr. Allawi said Iraq's interim government would not rely solely on military means to quell the uprising.

"We have laid down some serious plans for the turbulent areas in Iraq, which is really a combination of reaching out to the various people involved on the fringes of the so-called insurgency and also to be ready to respond," he said.

"We think these plans will work; we are sure they will work."