A retired US army general has said the conduct of the Iraq war fuelled Islamic fundamentalism across the globe and created more enemies for the US.
Major General John Batiste, who commanded an infantry division in Iraq between 2004 and 2005, said the conflict had made the US 'arguably less safe now than it was on 11 September 2001'.
His views back up the assessment of US intelligence agencies which concluded that the war had made the growing militant movement more dangerous.
General Batiste was among the retired generals who called for the resignation of US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld earlier this year.
In comments ahead of a senate hearing, General Batiste said the Pentagon chief had refused to acknowledge the potential for insurgency and forbidden military planners to develop a blueprint for securing Iraq after the war.
He said Mr Rumsfeld had threatened to fire 'the next person who talked about the need for a post-war plan'.
Senior al-Qaeda figure killed in Iraq: report
British troops in Iraq's second largest city, Basra, say they have killed a man whom Washington has described as a senior al-Qaeda figure.
Omar Faruq, the top al-Qaeda operative in southeast Asia, escaped from a high-security US prison at Bagram airbase in Afghanistan in 2005.
A British military spokesman said he was shot dead while resisting arrest during a pre-dawn raid by about 200 British troops in Basra.
