Rumsfeld says insurgents attacks declining but may pick up again

Описание: (2 Feb 2006)
1. Wide view US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld walking into briefing
2. Cutaway
3. SOUNDBITE: (English) Donald Rumsfeld, US Secretary of Defence
"If you think about it, they have failed. They failed to stop the January elections, they failed to stop the drafting of the constitution, they failed to stop the referendum on the constitution, they failed to stop the most recent election, they failed to stop the seating of the parliament, they failed to stop the seating of a new government and they are on the run. They clearly have a lot of pressure on them and that doesn't mean they can't go kill people, it doesn't mean they can't hire people to blow themselves up. But they have failed in almost everything they have tried to do, thus far. And I think we'll go forward and see what happens."
4. Cutaway briefing
5. SOUNDBITE: (English) Donald Rumsfeld, US Secretary of Defence:
"(Q Give the ground assessment of where you think it may be?) Too early. There is no question that the number of attacks in Iraq are down. They are down back to a level that occurred following the prior election and the prior referendum. What one would want to see is to have that lower level sustained over a period of time. I think why predict, we'll just wait and see. I know that our people out there are working with the people and the political process and that the Iraqi people felt they had the right to vote. That has to be a good thing and we will just see if it has a favourable affect on attacks."
6. Cutaway reporters
STORYLINE:
US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said on Wednesday that it was too early to know whether a recent decline in militant attacks on US and Iraqi government forces in Iraq would continue or be reversed.
Speaking in Arlington, Virginia, Rumsfeld said of the militants: "They're on the run. They clearly have a lot of pressure on them."
But he added: "It doesn't mean they can't go kill people, it doesn't mean they can't hire people to go out and blow themselves up."
Rumsfeld said the number of militant attacks had declined to a level before the October 2005 constitutional referendum, but he didn't predict that it would stay at that lower level.
He said it wasn't a surprise that attacks had declined, but said the number may well go up as well.

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