Iraqis were living in fear, according to Defense Department spokeswoman Victoria Clarke.

"What I can't imagine is what it must be like to be the Iraqi people now and living in that kind of environment and living under that kind of fear and torture," she told a news conference.

"I think it is perfectly understandable why so many of these people are afraid to rise up against the regime at this time," she said, adding: "When they are as certain as we are about the end of this regime, I am confident they will do so."

Clarke repeated an accusation made by President George W. Bush in his weekly radio address that an Iraqi woman had been hanged for waving at US and British troops.

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