CAIRO, 27 July 2003 — Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak said yesterday a US decision to dissolve the Iraqi Army and other state jobs was a mistake which had created unemployment and fuelled crime in Iraq. “The dissolution of the army ... was ... a mistake,” the leader of the Arab world’s most populous country said in remarks broadcast on state television.

The US civil administration in Iraq in May ordered the dissolution of the Iraqi armed forces and several security bodies, sacking 400,000 staff who had formed the backbone of Saddam Hussein’s rule. The administration also dissolved the defense and information ministries and military and security courts.

Mubarak said: “(The Iraqi) earns no money. How is he going to live? How is he going to eat? How is he going to dress his children?... Naturally, he’s going to work as a criminal, he’ll join any gang, he’ll become desperate.”

Mubarak said meeting the most basic needs of Iraqis and installing an elected government were crucial to ending violence in Iraq, where US-led forces overthrew Saddam’s rule in April. Egypt opposed the war. US forces have faced almost daily attacks since US President George W. Bush declared major combat operations over on May 1. Three US soldiers were killed in a grenade attack at a children’s hospital north of Baghdad yesterday.

“The violence is going to increase, if they do not find a quick solution to let people see how they can live,” Mubarak said in the remarks at a meeting with students in Egypt’s Mediterranean city of Alexandria. “Secondly, (Iraqis) have to see a legitimate, elected government,” he said.

Mubarak warned of increased armed attacks against coalition forces in Iraq if the United States did not stabilize the situation and hand power over to Iraqis swiftly. “If the Americans do not quickly redress the situation, there will be big problems, terrorist operations and gang wars will increase,” Mubarak said.

“A timeline must be drawn up for a government and elections, otherwise the (chaotic) situation will persist in Iraq ... violence will increase,” he said. Saying Iraqis had “nothing to lose” after years of repression by Saddam Hussein’s regime, Mubarak warned they were “capable of anything” when it came to acts of resistance against US forces.

A US-backed governing council, which held its inaugural meeting on July 13, is working out a new constitution leading to an elected, internationally recognized government. But final control of Iraq still lies with the US administration.

Many Iraqis complain that their new rulers have done too little to improve security and electricity and water supplies. US troops began recruiting Iraqis to form a new Iraqi army earlier in July. US civilian administrator Paul Bremer said in June the decision to dissolve the army had caused Iraqis “considerable pain” and was under review.

Meanwhile, only one of Iraq’s newspapers yesterday carried photographs of the bloodied bodies of Saddam Hussein’s sons released by the US military to convince the Iraqi people of their death. The independent daily Azzaman published pictures of the bodies of both Uday and Qusay with the caption: “Photos distributed by coalition forces before they were shaved and shown to the independent media.”

The United States announced the deaths of Uday and his younger brother Qusay on Tuesday after a blistering gunbattle in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul. The two sons were found after an informant, widely believed to be the owner of the house, contacted US officials to tell them the wanted pair were there.

Azzaman quoted Mosul residents as saying that the informer belonged to a family who had seen one member, an Iraqi Army officer, executed by Saddam Hussein’s regime in 1993 after a failed coup d’etat. The two brothers’ freedom of movement was greatly restricted after the arrest by coalition forces on June 18 of Saddam’s secretary Ali Abed Hammud, Azzaman said, quoting unidentified sources.

Uday and Qusay then left Baghdad, where they had not stayed more than four days at a time in one place, to take refuge along the Iraqi-Syrian border, it said. According to residents, the two men had been holed up in the villa in Mosul for three weeks.