IRAQ: Ambassador Moafak Abboud felt angry and helpless, sitting in his embassy in Paris yesterday, when he learned that another 150 Iraqis had been killed in a series of attacks.
"These criminals keep slaughtering people for nothing; they always try to kill as many people as possible," he said, shaking his head.
The continuing bloodshed in Iraq was the result of a division of labour between "the military and security institutions of the previous regime" and Arab fighters who enter Iraq via Syria, he added.
The insurgents, Mr Abboud said, "receive orders, money and weapons from former Mokhabarat (intelligence service) bosses residing in Syria. They send the Arab volunteers from Saudi Arabia and other countries.
"The suicide bombers are all foreigners who've been indoctrinated to go to Iraq and kill Shia and Kurds and go to heaven. Some of the Arabs are trained in Syria."
Allegations of Syrian support for the insurgency have raised the possibility of the war spreading to Damascus.
"One day, our patience will be exhausted," the ambassador warned. "It wouldn't surprise anyone if the Americans took action (against Syria) because they are threatening US soldiers, they're killing thousands of innocent Iraqis and they're creating chaos and destruction. It would be very normal for the Americans to intervene."
Mr Abboud said supporters of Saddam's fallen regime "use the methods they always used - the Mokhabarat, violence and terror. Many Sunnis are afraid to confront them. Sunnis keep sending messages to the government asking us to liberate them. That is what happened in Tal Afar."
US forces, supported by Kurdish militiamen incorporated into the Iraqi army, took Tal Afar, near the Syrian border, last weekend. Al-Qaeda in Iraq said it carried out yesterday's attacks to avenge the assault on Tal Afar.
In the chaos of Iraq, it is often not clear who is killing whom or why. A United Nations report published last week related two incidents this summer in which a total of 47 men arrested by militiamen who appeared to work for the interior minister were later found murdered. "
Some terrorist groups wear the uniforms of the police and security forces," Mr Abboud said. "They go and arrest people and pretend they are on an official mission. We blame the terrorists for this. If such reports are true, this is very very serious, and the government cannot tolerate actions outside the law."
Saddam Hussein's trial is scheduled to begin on October 19th. It will be "a relief" for Iraqis, Mr Abboud said. "What happened in Iraq was worse than Cambodia. Hundreds of thousands of people disappeared without trace. Every single Iraqi was affected by his regime."
The ambassador's first cousin, whom he grew up with, Maj Hussein Hammoud, was executed at the beginning of the 1980-1988 Iran-Iraq war because the regime suspected Shia officers of sympathising with Iran.
There is disappointment that Saddam is to be tried only for the killing of 143 people in Dujail, where he survived an assassination attempt in 1982. "It's for procedural reasons," the ambassador explained. "It would take 100 years to try him for all his crimes."