IRAQ - Feb. 20 - US Rule In Post-Saddam Iraq 'Would Bring Terrorist Attacks'.

In an interview at his heavily barricaded headquarters in central Tehran, Ayat. Mohammad Baqir Al Hakim, a leader of the exiled Shia community who has been in exile since 1980, warns of terrorist attacks against US "infidels" if Washington establishes a military protectorate in post-Saddam Iraq. Speaking Arabic, he says any attempt to impose US rule in the post-Saddam period will be "very dangerous". He says: "This will create a kind of popular sensitivity among the Iraqi people, who will refuse foreign domination. Iraqi Muslims will consider an occupying force as infidels on Arab territory. This will result in violence and resistance". But as war comes nearer, he appears to soften earlier warnings against military action, saying Saddam caused the "real problems for the Iraqi people", and this needed to be "solved". Hakim's remarks coincide with preparations for a meeting of opposition groups in Kurdish-controlled northern Iraq. His warning reflects growing anxiety among these factions over US plans for a post-Saddam era. Ahmad Chalabi, head of the Iraqi National Congress (INC), a largely secular body of Iraqi exiles, this week described any proposed US military administration as "unworkable and unwise" because it was "predicated on keeping Saddam's existing structures of government, administration and security in place". Hakim repeated the standard refrain that a post-Saddam administration must be representative of "Iraqi sects and groups", but he made it clear that he expected Islamic law to be "the main source of legislation". He did not exclude the possibility of running for elected office as leader. (Ayat. Hakim's Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq - Sciri - is the most visible of the Shia resistance groups, but it does not go unchallenged. Shias comprise 60% of the country's 23m people and their representatives will expect a decisive say. The other main opposition groups include - apart from Sciri and the INC - the Iraqi National Accord, another Shia group, and the two Kurdish factions: the Kurdistan Democratic Party and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistans. Kurds account for about 20% of the population). Hakim said Sciri had traditionally opposed war against Baghdad but if there was no other way, force would have to be used provided it was sanctioned by the UN.