WASHINGTON (AP) — Foreign fighters who seek to install a
Taliban-style government in Iraq are coordinating with Saddam
Hussein loyalists to launch deadly attacks on U.S. troops,
President Bush asserted yesterday as he mourned rising
casualties.

Bush has previously accused the two groups of seeking to
intimidate Americans in Iraq. But as explosions in Baghdad
disrupted his Veterans Day tribute from afar, he accused them of
conspiring with each other in the wave of attacks.

“Over time, Baath Party and Fedayeen fighters and other
Saddam loyalists have organized to attack our forces, to terrorize
international aid workers and to murder innocent Iraqis,”
Bush told a supportive audience at the conservative Heritage
Foundation.

“Foreign jihadists have arrived across Iraq’s
borders in small groups with the goal of installing a Taliban-like
regime,” he said. Also in the mix, Bush maintained, are
militants with al-Qaida and the affiliated Ansar al-Islam —
two groups “always eager to join in the killing and to seek
revenge after their defeat in Afghanistan.”

“Saddam loyalists and foreign terrorists may have
different long-term goals, but they share a near-term strategy: to
terrorize Iraqis and to intimidate America and our allies,”
Bush said. “Recent reporting suggests that despite their
differences, these killers are working together to spread chaos and
terror and fear.”

While Bush was speaking, a series of strong explosions were
heard in central Baghdad. Earlier yesterday, an explosion on a road
frequently used by British troops killed six civilians in southern
Iraq. And another occurred as U.S. soldiers were escorting Iraqi
prisoners from jail to a court, injuring two Iraqi policeman and
two prisoners.

Bush cast the mounting deaths and injuries in unusually personal
terms. Generally, the president has said that he grieves for all
soldiers lost in all wars. But on Veterans Day, Bush expressed
grief, especially, for those lost in Iraq.

“We have laid to rest young men and women who died in
distant lands,” Bush said after visiting Arlington National
Cemetery and laying a wreath there. “For their families, this
is a terrible sorrow, and we pray for their comfort. For the
nation, there is a feeling of loss, and we remember and we remember
and we honor every loss.”

But he offered a broad defense for the war in Iraq and for
continuing clashes more than six months after he declared major
combat over.

“What our country brings to Iraq is a chance for freedom
and democracy,” Bush said. “Our men and women are
fighting terrorist enemies thousands of miles away in the heart and
center of their power so that we do not face those enemies in the
heart of America.”