America abandons 'iron fist'

THE United States military yesterday abandoned its "iron-fisted" hunt for members of Saddam Hussein’s Baathist regime, as Baghdad suffered its worst day of violence since the end of the war.

Lieutenant-General Richardo Sanchez, the commander of the allied forces in Iraq, said he is switching from raids to a policy of intelligence gathering - amid fears that manhunts are creating more enemies than are being captured.

The decision came as a bomb outside the Jordanian embassy in Baghdad left at least 11 dead and 50 wounded in what appeared to be a new wave of terrorist attacks.

The embassy bomb, hidden inside a lorry, detonated in the early hours of yesterday morning while traffic was heavy, inflicting severe wounds on many passers-by. Two children were counted among the dead.

The explosion - the first attack on non-Iraqi Arabs since the major conflict ended - was followed by insurgents storming the embassy and chanting anti-Jordanian protests, while tearing up photographs of the King of Jordan.

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