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Garner reaches Baghdad
USA plans 4 military bases in Iraq

Retired US General Jay Garner stands under a map of Iraq as he listens to a briefing on the power situation in the Iraqi capital at Baghdad's southern power station on Monday. — Reuters photo

Dubai, April 21
Iraq’s post-war administrator, retired American General Jay Garner, arrived in Baghdad today amidst reports that the USA was planning to establish four long-term military bases in that country as part of the redeployment of forces, which could transform its capability to wield power in West Asia.

Garner’s arrival coincided with key Iraqi opposition leader Ahmad Chalabi’s claim that ousted Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussain was alive and in Iraq while his son Qusay had been seen in Baghdad.

Soon after landing at Baghdad’s airport on his first visit to the Iraqi capital, 64-year-old Garner said his priority was to restore basic services like water and electricity in Baghdad, where residents had become increasingly restless because of disruption of services after the invasion.

He refused to fix a deadline for the restoration of these services. “I will not put 90 days as a mark on the wall. We will be here as long as it takes. We will leave fairly rapidly,” he said.

With the situation returning to normal in Baghdad after days of looting, marines withdrew and left the US army in control of the capital, where a curfew between 11 pm and 6 am had been imposed.

According to the Daily Telegraph, the USA was planning to set up four long-term military bases in Iraq and had identified the Baghdad International Airport, Tallil in southern Iraq, the H-1 airstrip in the west and the Bashur airfield in Kurdistan as potential bases. PTI