Contract killers are being offered as little as $50 to target coalition soldiers in Iraq, the commander of Australian forces said in a newspaper interview published Sunday. Air Commodore Greg Evens, who took command of Australia's 350 soldiers in Iraq last month, said Iraqi insurgents were hiring assassins from neighboring Middle Eastern countries with the promise of cash payments for every soldier they killed. ``This is a difficult adversary,'' he told Sydney's The Sunday Telegraph newspaper. ``The insurgency is not a coherent force.'' | Downright incoherent at times, they are. |
He added, ``We are seeing zealots brought in from outside Iraq and paid $50 for contract killings. These forces are a general threat to the coalition.'' He said his soldiers were preparing for an all-out assault by insurgents before national elections scheduled for Jan. 30. |