U.S. pledges it will go after followers of militant cleric

By Barry Schweid
The Associated Press

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WASHINGTON — As U.S. casualties in Iraq reached 46 in the past six days, the Bush administration pledged yesterday to take the fight to Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr and other Iraqi resisters.

"We're worried, but I am not panicked about it," said Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage of the upsurge in resistance to U.S. occupation.

"They've chosen to fight," Armitage told the semiofficial Egyptian newspaper Al-Ahram. "We'll fight. And they will see that we understand strength as well."

Armitage dismissed the al-Sadr offensive as inevitable.

"Sooner or later, this was going to happen," he said. "Sooner or later, we were going to have to disarm the militias. There is no question."

In the fight, Armitage said, Iraqi civilians are being killed "and our soldiers are as devastated as anybody."

"We do not want to use force indiscriminately," he said. "We bleed when this happens."

Secretary of State Colin Powell, meanwhile, took an upbeat message into TV interviews.

"Cities are increasingly coming back under coalition control," he told ABC-TV. "The enemy has suffered a number of casualties. So have we." But, Powell said, "we have got to defeat these Sunni remnants in the Sunni triangle, and we've got to deal with the forces of al-Sadr in the South."
 
Powell said the military was going about its mission systematically, and he was confident "our military will bring this under control."

Powell described this week's offensive as stronger than anything he had seen previously. "I must say it was more than I had expected," he said.

"Nevertheless," Powell said, "I think our commanders have got a handle on it, and they are going to be able to deal with it."

"It's been a tough week, let's be clear about that. But I still believe that most Iraqis are with us," he told Fox News.

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