Wednesday April 2, 2003
The battle for Baghdad is about to begin in earnest, according to numerous
reports this morning. The invasion forces are said to be "poised" and
a massive ground offensive is "imminent".
US planners appear satisfied that continuous
pounding by bombs has left the Republican Guard forces who protect the Iraqi
capital sufficiently "degraded" (as the military put it) for the war
to move on to the next phase. The important Medina division of the Republican
Guard has been reduced to 50% of its fighting strength, the Pentagon says.
These moves also imply that the US has now
secured its long supply lines which until recently seemed dangerously exposed.
It is still uncertain what will happen next. One
scenario is that US forces will encircle the Baghdad - in effect besieging it.
Another is that they will attempt to "punch through" the Republican
Guard into the city itself.
A source at Centcom in Qatar is quoted as saying:
"The next four days will be critical", so the picture should be much
clearer by Saturday.
Amid the talk of capturing Baghdad, the Guardian
reports that Pentagon experts have spent several months observing Israeli
military operations in Palestinian cities, and have been studying videos of the
assault on Jenin last year.
The article quotes a retired Israeli
brigadier-general: "An urban environment is the great equaliser. You can't
utilise your superiority in training and equipment. It's very easy for your
adversary to hide and he usually knows the terrain much better than you."
Meanwhile, Iraq's government-in-waiting, which
the US is setting up under great secrecy in Kuwait, is beset by political
turmoil. Pentagon hardliners appear to be mounting a coup d'etat even before the
government has any territory to control.
Apart from the attempt by Paul Wolfowitz, the
deputy defence secretary, to install Ahmed Chalabi, the failed Iraqi banker, and
his cronies in advisory positions (since all the ministerial posts will be
filled by Americans), the Pentagon has also ousted eight senior officials
nominated by the US state department.
The Pentagon is seeking to replace the state
department people, who include several ambassadors, with a bunch of
neo-conservative hawks - most notably James Woolsey, a former CIA director.
One of the first concerns of this
government-in-waiting is what to do about Iraqi banknotes which - horror of
horrors - carry a picture of Saddam Hussein. Their solution, according to the
Washington Post, is to scrap the Iraqi dinar and replace it with the US dollar.
This will doubtless be viewed by all Iraqis as conclusive proof of America's
imperialist intentions.
Several major Iraqi opposition groups, such as
the Kurdistan Democratic party and the Iraqi National Accord, say they have been
excluded from discussions about the interim government. A KDP official yesterday
described the US plans as "not workable at all".
Although Britain has been consulted, it also
seems unhappy about US plans to establish neo-colonial rule, even if it's
supposed to be temporary. Prime minister Tony Blair yesterday called for a
UN-sponsored conference of all groups to start reshaping Iraq's future.
Most reports so far suggest that the Pentagon's
government will be very short-term - 90 days is the period mentioned - and that
it will not start to take over until Saddam Hussein has been removed. However,
if resistance in Baghdad is prolonged, it may assume control over the
"liberated" parts of Iraq earlier. It is possible, therefore, that by
the time Saddam falls, a new Pentagon regime will have become firmly entrenched
on Iraqi soil.
Overnight, Centcom gave a highly unusual 3.30am
briefing to announce that 19-year-old Private Jessica Lynch, who disappeared
during an ambush near Nassiriyah last week, had been rescued from an Iraqi
hospital.
Accounts of the extraordinary efforts that went
into the search-and-rescue mission will undoubtedly serve as a moral-booster for
US troops, and among the American public.
But this also contrasts with accounts of an
American assault on a village near Babylon yesterday which killed dozens of
civilians, according to the Iraqi authorities. Reuters correspondents on the
spot have confirmed that the dead include at least nine children.
Note: An item in yesterday's Daily Briefing,
which traced a metal fragment found in the bombed Iraqi market place to the
Raytheon company in the US, has brought a flurry of emails from readers. Some
say the markings on the fragment indicate that it was not from a cruise missile
but from a HARM missile, which is also made by Raytheon. We're looking into it
and hope to report back shortly.
Thursday April 3, 2003
Yesterday was the best day for US forces since the invasion began. They
appear to have broken through Iraqi lines at two key points outside Baghdad.
In the south-west, the 3rd Infantry Division
passed Karbala to come within 19 miles of the Iraqi capital. This was made
possible by sealing off the exit routes from Karbala to forestall Iraqi
resistance, rather than attempting a much longer operation to seize control
of the city itself.
Further east, US forces reportedly
"destroyed" the 12,000-strong Baghdad Division of the Republican
Guard near Kut, seized a strategic bridge across the Tigris river, and moved
up the Tigris valley to within 40 miles of the capital.
This morning, there are reports that two of
Iraq's northernmost Republican Guard elements, the Adnan and Nebuchadnezzar
divisions, are moving south towards Baghdad, apparently to assist other
Iraqi forces which are under attack.
Further reports suggest that US forces are
now within six miles of Baghdad, with Republican Guards advancing towards
them as the long-anticipated ground battle for the capital approaches.
Overnight, for the first time during the war,
Iraq shot down an American jet fighter - a naval F/A-18C Hornet operating
from the USS Kitty Hawk. It has previously shot down several helicopters and
unmanned drones.
An US helicopter went down in southern Iraq,
though contradictory accounts of what happened have been given. Centcom says
that the aircraft crashed, while the Pentagon says that it was shot down. At
least six people on board are reported to have died.
These losses aside, developments around
Baghdad mean that the US generally has a more positive story to tell than
during the first two weeks of the war. However, that could shortly change
again, depending on how it approaches the conquest of Baghdad.
The UK has also recovered its balance on the
propaganda front. Essentially, the British line involves distancing itself
from the more extreme elements of US policy. It is opposing US threats to
Syria and Iran, proposing more UN involvement in a post-war Iraq, and
differentiating British troops on the ground from the Americans by
portraying them as approachable people who are doing the best to make
friends with ordinary Iraqis.
The British army has begun publicising the
"community relations" training given to every soldier, a relic of
empire and the conflict in Northern Ireland. One interesting detail in this
is that British troops in Iraq are forbidden to wear sunglasses, because
that would prevent them from making normal eye contact with Iraqi citizens.
One British officer, interviewed on BBC radio
last night, painted a glowing picture of the army's community relations, and
said that he had never known a war in which some of his troops had not ended
up marrying local women.
Iraq, meanwhile, scored a disastrous
propaganda own goal yesterday by expelling one of al-Jazeera's two
correspondents in Baghdad, and telling the other, an Iraqi citizen, that he
could no longer report for the Qatar-based TV channel.
It appears that one of the reporters caused
offence by trying to interview ordinary Iraqis without having a government
"minder" present. Al-Jazeera reacted by saying that it would
withdraw all its correspondents from Baghdad, Basra and Mosul (although it
will continue to show film from those areas).
The Arabic channel had previously been
accused by the US of acting as a mouthpiece for the Baghdad regime, but the
Iraqi government's move is likely to enhance its reputation for independent
reporting.
The most important battle of the war, over
the future shape of Iraq, continues to rage behind the scenes in Washington
and in a cluster of beachside villas in Kuwait, where the
government-in-waiting is being assembled.
Moves to replace the Ba'athists with a
Pentagon regime dominated by American neo-conservatives (nicknamed
"Wolfie's people", as they are protegees of deputy defence
secretary Paul Wolfowitz) are being resisted by the state department,
virtually the whole of the Iraqi opposition movement and, to some extent,
Britain. Detailed articles on this theme appear this morning in the New York
Times and the Financial Times.
So far, beside Jay Garner, the former US
general who is notionally in charge of the future government, a number of
names have emerged. They include:
·
James Woolsey: the former CIA director is favoured by Mr Wolfowitz to head
the information ministry, although the White House says he is unsuitable for
that. He is likely to be offered an alternative post.
·
Robert Reilly: former head of Voice of America radio. Currently working on
post-Saddam broadcasts.
·
Timothy Carney: former US ambassador to Sudan, scheduled to run the industry
ministry. Mr Wolfowitz invited him to join, but has since turned against
him.
·
Barbara Bodine: former US ambassador to Yemen. She is due to become governor
of Baghdad, and has started work in Kuwait, but is opposed by the Pentagon.
While in Yemen, she alienated US hardliners by advocating a
"sensitive" approach following the attack on the USS Cole.
·
Robin Raphel: former US ambassador to Tunisia, scheduled to run the trade
ministry. He is held back in Washington following opposition from the
Pentagon.
·
Kenton Keith: former US ambassador to Qatar, scheduled to run the foreign
ministry. Also held back in Washington following opposition from the
Pentagon.
·
Buck Walters: retired US general, scheduled to take charge of southern Iraq.
·
George Ward: former US Marine and ambassador to Namibia, due to take charge
of coordinating humanitarian assistance.
·
Lewis Lucke: veteran of USAID, due to take charge of reconstruction.
·
Michael Mobbs: lawyer and close associate of Douglas Feith, the under
secretary for defence policy; due to take charge of civil administration.
Friday April 4, 2003
Saddam international airport, 10 miles to the west of central Baghdad, appears
to be mainly in American hands today, after a fierce battle in which 320 Iraqi
soldiers died, according to the US military.
However, an early morning report by a BBC
correspondent said the Iraqis remain in full control of the road leading from
the airport into the city and seem to be piling reinforcements into the area.
CNN said loudspeakers in Baghdad were urging citizens to go to the airport and
help to defend it.
Control of the airport would provide a huge boost
to the invasion forces, allowing them to fly in supplies and equipment almost to
the spot where they will be needed. Its civilian runway - 13,000 feet long - is
capable of taking the biggest military aircraft. A military runway at the side -
8,800 feet long - is suitable for use by fighter jets.
The state of the runways and the air traffic
control system is unclear, and following the overnight battle they may need
repairs before they can be used.
Large parts of the Iraqi capital were still
without electricity this morning, following a blackout at 8pm Baghdad time last
night.
The US says it did not "intentionally"
cause the power failure but there is speculation that a "blackout
bomb" may have been used. This special weapon, previously used in Kosovo,
causes electrical short-circuits but is controversial because it affects
civilians by cutting off vital hospital equipment as well as pumped water and
sewage systems.
It is thought that special forces may have used
the blackout to enter Baghdad, either to attack key points of the city or simply
to reconnoitre.
There is still great uncertainty in the media
about likely American and Iraqi tactics in the main battle for Baghdad. It is
possible that the US has not yet decided but will choose from a number of
options on the basis of the latest intelligence from inside the Iraqi capital.
It may even adopt different methods in different parts of the city and adjust
the tactics as it proceeds.
Because of the risk of heavy casualties during
the next phase of the war, it would be surprising if secret contacts were not
under way to explore the possibility of an Iraqi surrender.
Donald Rumsfeld, the US defence secretary, set
out his bottom line for Iraq's surrender at a press conference yesterday when he
rejected any deal that would allow Saddam Hussein to flee the country but
invited the Iraqi army to do business with him. "For the senior leadership,
there is no way out. Their fate has been sealed by their actions," he said.
But he added: "The same is not true for the
Iraqi armed forces. Iraqi officers and soldiers can still survive and help to
rebuild a free Iraq if they do the right thing. They must now decide whether
they want to share the fate of Saddam Hussein..."
So far, it has been widely assumed that the war
will end with the fall of Saddam, but there are indications that it may not be
as tidy as that. A thoughtful article in the Washington Post this morning (
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A23898-2003Apr3.html)
discusses the question of how and when the US might declare itself victorious.
The paper quotes James Steinberg, director of
foreign policy studies at the Brookings Institution, as saying: "There
isn't going to be a single moment when we can say, 'Okay, good. This is done.'
"
"Even if we got a formal surrender," he
continued, "there would still be a lot of challenges going forward. So it's
right to be modest about saying that you've 'won', just because certain phases
of the battle are over."
One example of the difficulties that may be in
store came yesterday from Nasiriya where a group of armed men attacked the main
hospital after the departure of US marines who had been guarding it. Many
patients fled, according to a BBC reporter on the spot.
Later, an Iraqi man was shot dead after
reportedly refusing to hand over his vehicle to armed men. Looting and
"civilian" violence is widespread in the town. Many citizens also seem
terrified of talking to journalists.
Large-scale urban crime is quite rare in Arab
societies and the events in Nasiriya may not be the result of normal criminal
activity; there are hints that the trouble is caused by people connected to the
Baathist regime.
Although the Iraqi military have largely been
driven out of the areas "secured" by British and American forces,
there is still the problem of the secret police and other Baathist agents who
spy on the populace and apparently continue to intimidate them.
British forces stepped up their "hearts and
minds" campaign yesterday with a soccer match in Khor al-Zubahir, near
Basra, between the Royal Marines and an Iraqi team whose captain wore an Arsenal
strip. The Iraqis won a resounding victory, by nine goals to three.
More controversially, a group of evangelical
Christians are planning their own battle for hearts and minds in Iraq. The
project, Samaritan's Purse, is funded by American churchgoers and will
supposedly provide humanitarian aid to Iraqis without religious strings
attached.
But it is led by the Reverend Franklin Graham,
who delivered the invocation at President Bush's inauguration. Mr Graham once
described Islam as a "wicked, violent" religion and said that
Christianity and Islam were as "different as lightness and darkness".
Update:
The US is investigating the possibility that a Hornet fighter jet apparently
shot down by the Iraqis (Daily Briefing, April 3) could have been hit by
"friendly fire" from a Patriot missile.
Saturday April 5, 2003
On the day the US celebrated the capture of Saddam International Airport by
renaming it Baghdad International Airport, Saddam Hussein popped up on
television to steal the show.
The allegedly dead Iraqi leader appeared twice,
first with a speech to rally the people of Baghdad to the defence of their
capital, and later in an astonishingly relaxed walkabout where he was greeted by
cheers and kisses from citizens.
The propaganda message behind this, for any
Iraqis who might be tempted to switch their allegiance, was that Saddam is still
in charge.
There is little doubt that the man who delivered
the TV speech in a distinctly rasping voice was indeed Saddam Hussein. Even if
it was pre-recorded, it referred to the downing of an American Apache helicopter
that occurred on March 23. This at least establishes beyond reasonable doubt
that Saddam survived the impromptu $40m assassination attempt that opened the
war.
The identity of the figure in the Baghdad
walkabout is less certain. Use of a hand-held camera, together with the constant
movement of the crowd, made it difficult to get a steady view of his face. The
12-minute film was certainly quite recent, since smoke from oil fires could be
seen at times in the background and there were shots of minor bomb damage.
Some Iraqis say the man's body language, and even
the shape of his paunch, were very distinctive - and if Iraqis are convinced by
the authenticity of the film it will have served its political purpose.
This morning, up to eight US Abrams tanks are
reported to have entered the southern outskirts of Baghdad on a reconnaissance
mission. This is said to be the furthest they have yet ventured into the city.
Looking ahead to possible events over the next
few days, an article in Slate magazine describes seven US battle options for
Baghdad, apparently based on a secret study by the Pentagon. In typical military
jargon, these options are named as "Isolation Siege", "Remote
Strike (Rubbising)", "Ground Assault, Frontal", "Nodal
Isolation", "Nodal Capture", "Segment and Capture" and
"Softpoint Capture and Expansion".
The article explains what each of them means,
although it does not indicate which of them the Pentagon prefers.
Also this morning, the US says it has captured
the headquarters of the Republican Guard's important Medina division in
Suwayrah, about 35 miles south east of Baghdad. First reports suggest that
American forces were unopposed because the Iraqis had abandoned their posts.
In other developments overnight, the US says two
marine pilots died when their Super Cobra attack helicopter crashed in central
Iraq; and an American soldier, Sergeant Hasan Akbar, has been charged with the
murder of two officers and 17 attempted murders in connection with the grenade
attack at a US army camp in Kuwait on March 25.
A reporter for ABC News says seven civilians,
including three children, died when US marines fired at two lorries that refused
to stop at a checkpoint south of Baghdad.
It was announced yesterday that President George
Bush and the British prime minister, Tony Blair, are to hold another of their
"war summits" on Monday and Tuesday - this time in northern Ireland.
During the last 24 hours there has been some
excited media coverage relating to Iraq's alleged weapons of mass destruction,
although there is no confirmation so far that any have been found by the
invading forces.
At a press conference yesterday, the Iraq
information minister, Mohammed Saeed al-Sahaf, speaking in Arabic, threatened
"non-traditional action" at Baghdad airport and said it would take
place overnight (though it appears not to have happened).
First reports translated the phrase as
"non-conventional" - implying an intention to use weapons of mass
destruction. The minister made clear this was not what he had in mind. Later
reports amended the translation to "unconventional". Yesterday, US
forces reportedly discovered quantities of "white powder" and
"clear liquid". The subliminal message here was that the powder might
be anthrax, although preliminary tests suggest it was some kind of explosive,
according to the US.
Another report mentioned the discovery of cyanide
in river water, but a simple internet search shows that cyanide compounds are
often found in industrial waste water. There is also cyanide in various foods,
such as almonds, and in cigarette smoke.
Five people, including three American special
forces troops, died yesterday when a car blew up at a checkpoint in central
Iraq. The assumption is that it was another suicide attack (the second since the
invasion began), but doubts were raised when Centcom said a pregnant woman - who
was among those killed - stepped out of the car "screaming in fear"
just before the explosion.
There are also doubts about the earlier
"suicide" bombing on March 29. Western intelligence sources now say
the driver of the taxi involved may have had no idea he was carrying a bomb.
Forensic evidence indicates the blast could have been triggered by remote
control, they say.
As with so many events in this war, it is
becoming increasingly difficult to know which version is true.
Sunday April 6, 2003
With 25 Abrams tanks and 12 Bradley armoured vehicles, US forces made a
three-hour tour through south-western Baghdad yesterday, reportedly killing up
to 1,000 Iraqis and destroying 100 vehicles.
The purpose of the incursion was partly
psychological and partly to test the strength of the city's internal defences.
The route taken, which for a time cut off the Yarmuk district from the rest of
the city, may indicate that the US favours the "segment and capture"
option for conquering Baghdad (Daily
briefing, April 4). The aim of this would be to pick off one district of the
city at a time, starting with those that are least defended and most likely to
welcome the Americans.
Inside Baghdad, defenders armed with machine guns
and rocket-propelled grenades have been reported taking up positions at road
junctions. The sinister black-clad Fedayeen militia, controlled by Saddam
Hussein's son, Uday, have been seen on the streets for the first time since the
war began.
Iraq television yesterday showed what it said was
more footage of President Saddam - laughing and chatting with Uday, his younger
son, Qusay, senior aides and commanders. It was unclear when the film was made.
The US says it now has 7,000 troops positioned at
Baghdad airport and the next priority there is for military engineers to clear
the debris, make repairs and prepare the runway for use. The US also says it has
begun 24-hour surveillance of Baghdad from the air.
As an indication of the huge logistics operation
that is taking place, AP reports that 2,500 or more supply vehicles travel north
from Kuwait every day. Troops in the field drink 1.5m litres of water and eat
330,000 plastic-wrapped meals daily. A total of 65m gallons of fuel is also
moving along the road, according to US central command.
Early this morning Iraqi television announced a
night-time travel ban for entering and leaving Baghdad. This may be a safety
measure because of shelling on the outskirts, but it followed reports yesterday
that thousands of civilians were fleeing the city.
In northern Iraq, Kurdish forces are said to be
continuing their advance towards Mosul and Kirkuk helped by US air cover.
The Kurds would like to capture both cities, but
at some point soon the Americans may have to halt their advance, for fear of
angering Turkey which does not want the Kurds to become too powerful.
There are suggestions this morning that the new
Pentagon-run government of Iraq may start operating this week - possibly as
early as Tuesday - in Umm Qasr, just across the border from Kuwait where it is
currently getting ready for work in a cluster of seaside villas.
There is a growing debate in the US media about
the secretive way the government is being assembled, about the sidelining of the
Iraqi opposition and the UN, and the efforts by extreme neo-conservative
elements in the Pentagon to seize control.
This issue is likely to be high on the agenda
when the British prime minister, Tony Blair, meets the US president, George
Bush, for a "war summit" in northern Ireland tomorrow.
Mr Blair reportedly wants extensive UN
involvement but the Bush administration is divided. Mr Bush's national security
adviser, Condoleezza Rice, says that a UN role is not under discussion, while
the US secretary of state, Colin Powell, says discussions have already begun.
The arguments are explored further by the Washington
Post this morning.
The same paper also carries an
article by two members of the US Senate foreign relations committee - Joseph
Biden (Democrat) and Chuck Hagel (Republican) - calling for a sensitive and
internationalist approach to "winning the peace" in Iraq.
Monday April 7, 2003
US forces stormed into central Baghdad early today, taking over Saddam Hussein's
newest presidential palace on the banks of Tigris river. Troops were also seen
close to the information ministry and the Rashid Hotel.
An officer from the US Third Infantry Division
told Fox News that troops had carried an American flag into the palace.
"Saddam Hussein says he owns Baghdad. We own Baghdad. We own his palaces,
we own downtown," the officer said.
However, military sources emphasised that they
were not yet attempting to capture the city, saying that the operation was
intended to be "a dramatic show of force" to demonstrate that US
troops could enter Baghdad anywhere, at any time.
Nevertheless, this morning's incursion, with more
than 70 tanks and 60 armoured vehicles, was by far the largest so far. It was
also the first time that US forces have entered the city centre.
A number of Iraqi tanks positioned in the city
are said to have been destroyed from the air. Iraqi resistance on the ground
seems to have been relatively weak, although that does not necessarily mean that
the number of Iraqi casualties was small.
Iraqi hospitals lost count of casualties during
the three-hour US incursion on Saturday, but the number of dead is thought to be
in the hundreds, and could possibly be more than 1,000.
In the south, British forces say that they have
gained control of most of Basra, Iraq's second city, although "isolated
pockets" of resistance are continuing.
The breakthrough followed the destruction of the
Ba'ath party headquarters in the city, and a similar attack on Saturday on the
headquarters of Saddam's cousin, Ali Hassan Majid, known as Chemical Ali, who
had been placed in charge of defending southern Iraq. This morning, British
officials said that Chemical Ali had been killed.
In the worst case of "friendly fire"
since the invasion began, a US warplane in northern Iraq yesterday attacked a
Kurdish convoy travelling with US special forces. At least 18 people were
killed, including Wajid Barzani, brother of the Kurdistan Democratic party's
leader, and Kamaran Mohammed, a BBC translator.
John Simpson, the BBC's world affairs editor,
survived with a piece of shrapnel in his flak jacket, and other members of the
BBC team suffered minor injuries.
Despite all the Iraqi setbacks, information
minister Mohammed Saeed al-Sahaf continues his bravura performances from behind
a forest of microphones at Baghdad's Palestine Hotel.
Wearing his customary black beret, and with
rimless spectacles perched on his nose, he gave some astonishingly detailed and
authoritative-sounding accounts of Iraqi military successes yesterday, including
the news that US forces at Baghdad airport have been butchered and driven out.
This morning, he was on exceptionally good form.
"Their infidels are committing suicide by the hundreds on the gates of
Baghdad," he said. "Be assured, Baghdad is safe, protected."
During the war, Mr al-Sahaf has emerged as the
only truly entertaining character in the Iraqi regime. It is to be hoped that he
survives, because he really ought to be given his own TV show somewhere.
He will be a hard act to follow, but James
Woolsey, the man favoured by the Pentagon to take over the Iraqi information
ministry, is already shaping up to the job, despite objections from the White
House.
Mr Woolsey, a former CIA director, spoke at a
university teach-in in Los Angeles last week, where he said that the US is now
engaged in world war four, and that it could continue for years. World war
three, in case anyone missed it, was the cold war with the Soviet Union, he
said.
"This fourth world war, I think, will last
considerably longer than either world wars one or two did for us," said Mr
Woolsey, adding: "Hopefully not the full four-plus decades of the cold
war."
"As we move toward a new Middle East, over
the years and, I think, over the decades to come ... we will make a lot of
people very nervous. Our response should be 'Good!' "
Addressing the Egyptian president, Hosni Mubarak,
and the leaders of Saudi Arabia, he said, "We want you nervous. We want you
to realise now, for the fourth time in 100 years, this country and its allies
are on the march and that we are on the side of those whom you - the Mubaraks,
the Saudi Royal family - most fear: we're on the side of your own people."
Paul Wolfowitz, the deputy US defence secretary
and a leading hawk, waded into arguments about the post-Saddam rule of Iraq
yesterday when he suggested that the new Pentagon-controlled regime would last
for more than six months. Officially, it is supposed to last for no more than 90
days.
Mr Wolfowitz also cast doubt on the likelihood of
significant UN involvement in the transition. This issue is almost certain to be
raised by the British prime minister, Tony Blair, when he meets President Bush
in northern Ireland later today.
Meanwhile, Ahmed Chalabi, the controversial head
of the opposition Iraqi National Congress, disappeared from the Kurdish area of
northern Iraq over the weekend. He is reported to have been flown by, the US, to
Nassiriya, in the south.
According to Mr Chalabi, hundreds of
"soldiers" from the Iraqi National Congress have now joined the
campaign to get rid of Saddam Hussein, and will fight alongside coalition forces
in southern and central Iraq.
"We are proud to contribute our forces to
Operation Iraqi Freedom. The war of national liberation, which Iraqis have waged
for 30 years, is nearing its end," he said.
This is rather less grand than it sounds. Mr
Chalabi's men are actually under US control and belong to the Free Iraqi Forces,
a group of up to 3,000 volunteers who are mainly Iraqi exiles or Americans of
Iraqi origin. They have been trained by the US for liaison with Iraqi civilians
and aid organisations rather than fighting, although they have also learned to
use small arms for self-defence.
Tuesday April 8, 2003
There is new speculation about the fate of Saddam Hussein today after the US
destroyed a house in Baghdad in an attempt to assassinate him.
A single B-1 warplane dropped four 2,000lb bombs
on the house, in the middle-class Mansour district of the city, yesterday
afternoon but the purpose of the mission was not revealed by the Pentagon until
12 hours later.
One of the bunker-busting bombs left a crater
30ft deep and 50ft wide in the road. Witnesses said two houses were flattened
and four other buildings badly damaged. Various reports put the number of Iraqi
dead at between eight and 16.
US officials say they believe Saddam Hussein and
his sons, Qusay and Uday, were in the building at the time. They say the attack
was the result of intelligence from three "credible" sources,
including a listening device planted in the building. A voice similar to that of
Saddam had allegedly been heard discussing routes out of the city.
During the 1991 Gulf war, the Iraqi leader spent
much of his time in ordinary houses, believing them to be less prone to attack
than his palaces and bunkers.
A group of American soldiers have spent their
first night in central Baghdad, as uninvited guests at one of the presidential
palaces. Pictures from inside the palace, showing a mixture of opulence and
destruction, figure strongly in the newspapers this morning. Predictably, one of
the marble-clad bathrooms was found to have gold taps.
Renewed fighting was reported from around the
palace early today, though it was unclear whether the building had come under
attack from Iraqi forces or whether the Americans were trying to extend their
area of control.
Elsewhere in Baghdad, troops and some civilians
have been removing the most visible symbols of Saddam's power. In Zawra Park,
according to CNN, a 40ft statue of the Iraqi leader mounted on horseback crashed
to the ground when American soldiers shot the legs off.
The information minister, Mohammed Saeed
al-Sahaf, who is now Iraq's most celebrated TV personality, gave another
cheerful press conference from the roof of the Palestine Hotel yesterday,
announcing that "Baghdad is safe" as smoke wafted across the sky
behind him and Iraqi troops on the opposite bank of the river ran for cover.
Meanwhile, the International Committee of the Red
Cross has warned that hospitals in Baghdad are being overwhelmed by new
patients, are running out of medicine and are short of water and electricity.
An ICRC spokesman said surgeons at al-Kindi
hospital in north-eastern Baghdad "have been working round the clock for
the past two days and most are exhausted. Conditions are terrible".
In Basra, British troops were seen on television
yesterday patrolling streets of the old city on foot - a sign that the security
situation is improving. But there is also extensive looting of official
buildings (including a further education college) for furniture, computers,
electrical items and even floorboards. A BBC correspondent reported seeing a
grand piano stolen from a hotel being wheeled along the street.
British forces say their priority in Basra at the
moment is to deal with "pockets" of military resistance rather than to
maintain civilian law and order.
US forces said yesterday that they may have found
stores of the nerve agent sarin and other biological and chemical weapons at a
camp near Hindiyah in central Iraq. Throughout the war the US has been seeking
proof of its claim that Iraq possesses weapons of mass destruction.
Several "finds" have been reported but
none has been confirmed. Tests on material in the latest discovery are expected
to take several days.
President George Bush and the British prime
minister, Tony Blair, are continuing their talks in northern Ireland today. A
key issue is differences of opinion between the two leaders on the rebuilding
and future government of Iraq.
Jay Garner, the former US general who is setting
up the "transitional" Pentagon-controlled government of Iraq from his
base in Kuwait, was due to give a press conference yesterday but it was
cancelled at the last minute. No reason was given, though continued
behind-the-scenes wrangling is the most likely explanation.
The Guardian reports today that Britain hopes to
appoint Major General Tim Cross, a logistics expert, as Mr Garner's deputy.
General Cross, who previously organised refugee camps in Macedonia and Kosovo,
has been coordinating humanitarian aid to the port of Umm Qasr in southern Iraq.
Al-Jazeera television channel said this morning
that its Baghdad office had been hit by American bombing. One cameraman was
injured and another member of the team is missing, the station said.
The Kabul office of the Qatar-based channel,
which has often incurred the wrath of the US, was hit by American
"smart" bombs during the war in Afghanistan. Before the invasion of
Iraq began, al-Jazeera said it would be supplying the geographical coordinates
of its Baghdad office to the US military, so there would be no excuse this time
for hitting it by mistake.
Al-Jazeera's new English-language website has
also been shut down several times in the past fortnight by cyber attacks that
some believe are officially organised.
More details have emerged of American propaganda
broadcasting to Iraq, some of which comes from aircraft operating out of a small
US base known as Camp Snoopy, at Doha airport in Qatar. Mika Makelainen, a
Finnish radio enthusiast, has published a full report on his website.
Wednesday April 9, 2003
Chaos and jubilation broke out in Baghdad this morning amid signs that Saddam
Hussein's regime has lost control of the city.
Television showed scenes of citizens attacking
images of the Iraqi leader, while others cheerfully made off with whatever they
could grab from shops and other buildings.
Overnight, US marines fanned out through Saddam
city, the Shia suburb, where they were greeted by smiling Iraqis.
Some feeble resistance was reported in the city
centre, but the people of Baghdad had clearly decided Saddam cannot threaten
them again.
Reuters reported that in one Baghdad street a
white-haired man used his shoe to beat a picture of the fallen president while a
younger man spat on the portrait.
"Come see, this is freedom ... this is the
criminal, this is the infidel," he said. "This is the destiny of every
traitor ... he killed millions of us. Oh people this is freedom."
Elsewhere, people emerged from buildings with
looted electronic equipment, furniture, clocks, and even bunches of flowers.
Some loaded them into cars and drove off.
Near the Palestine hotel about two dozen Arab
volunteers, who had come to help defend Baghdad from the US-led invasion,
pleaded desperately with taxi drivers to take them back to Syria.
In Qatar, however, a US military spokesman
cautioned that it was too early to say the war was over. "I think it's
premature to talk about the end of this operation yet," Captain Frank Thorp
said.
"There may be many more fierce fighting days
in front of us as coalition forces continue to move within Baghdad and within
the country."
He added that the half of the country north of
Baghdad had not yet been occupied by the US-led forces - including Saddam's home
town, Tikrit, 110 miles north of the capital.
The apparent collapse of the regime followed an
attempt to assassinate Saddam Hussein on Monday, when a building in the Mansour
district of Baghdad was hit by four 2,000lb bombs. The building is said to have
incorporated a restaurant with a secret bunker at the back.
However, several reports citing British
intelligences sources say the Iraqi leader probably survived.
Some 40 Iraqi officials are believed to have been
meeting Saddam and his two sons in the building, though they may have left a few
minutes before the attack.
Yesterday, American forces launched two separate
attacks on international media centres in Baghdad, killing three journalists.
Amnesty International and the US-based Committee
to Protect Journalists have both called for an investigation.
In one attack, an American tank fired a shell at
the 15th floor of the Palestine hotel, where most of the
"non-embedded" journalists in the Iraqi capital are staying.
Central command in Qatar initially said there had
been "significant enemy fire" from the hotel and "consistent with
the inherent right of self-defence, coalition forces returned fire".
Numerous journalists on the spot dismissed
centcom's claim as untrue and said there had been no firing from the hotel.
Centcom spokesman Vincent Brooks also implied the
hotel was a legitimate target by saying it was used for "other regime
purposes" - an apparent reference to press conferences given in the hotel
by the Iraqi information minister.
Earlier in the day, two bombs hit the offices of
al-Jazeera television during an American air raid. Abu Dhabi television nearby,
whose identity is spelt out in large letters on the roof, also came under fire.
Al-Jazeera and Abu Dhabi are the only
international TV stations with a permanent presence in Iraq. Al-Jazeera had
previously sent the georgaphical coordinates of its office to the Pentagon in
the hope of avoiding an American attack similar to the one that destroyed its
office in Kabul during the Afghan war - but apparently to no avail.
Centcom claimed that US forces had come under
fire from al-Jazeera's building.
Although media organisations do not claim special
protection during wars, these well-publicised attacks highlight a more general
concern about the invasion forces' attitude towards civilians, especially in
Baghdad.
Ahmed Chalabi, leader of the opposition Iraqi
National Congress, has allegedly received an enthusiastic welcome in southern
Iraq.
The controversial Mr Chalabi, who wants to be
prime minister, was flown to Nassiriya by the US military on Sunday, despite
objections from the CIA and state department that he is not a credible leader.
His spokesman, Francis Brooke, told Reuters
yesterday: "We have been receiving delegation upon delegation [of local
Iraqis]. We don't have time to meet them all. We are inundated."
But the US is reportedly annoyed by some
freelance military activity from Abu Hatem Mohammed Ali, a guerilla leader
associated with the INC.
Abu Hatem, along with several thousand armed men,
is said to have "captured" the headquarters of Amara governorate, 230
miles southeast of Baghdad, without American support.
According to Reuters, he then left the building
when the CIA threatened to have it bombed if he stayed.
Tony Blair - his eyes flashing like an American
evangelist - and President Bush - his eyes suggesting it was well past his
bedtime - concluded their two-day meeting in northern Ireland yesterday.
Mr Blair's main task was to persuade Mr Bush to
accept more UN involvement in postwar Iraq. (Britain, of course, always opposed
any UN involvement in the northern Ireland conflict.)
The outcome was a joint statement that the UN has
a "vital role" to play in the reconstruction of Iraq.
This was slightly reminiscent of the way British
governments tell nurses, firefighters, roadsweepers, etc, that they are playing
a vital role but, sorry, they can't have any more money just at the moment.
Thursday April 10, 2003
Someone produced a sledgehammer, and Iraqis took it in turns to hack at the base
of the giant statue of Saddam Hussein in Baghdad.
They were making reasonable progress, and might
well have toppled it after a few hours, but that would have been too late for
primetime TV. The Americans were getting impatient, and their armoured vehicle
lumbered up the podium steps with the elegance of a sexually aroused
hippopotamus.
Removing this visible sign of a quarter-century
of dictatorship from Baghdad yesterday was a highly symbolic act, but so was the
manner of its removal: a metaphor for the ongoing debate about who will really
be in charge of the new political order.
When it came to toppling Saddam's statue, the
Iraqis were soon elbowed out of the way.
US armoured vehicles are like Swiss army knives,
fitted with gadgets that are useful in all kinds of predicaments, so long as you
can find the right one in a hurry. This particular armoured vehicle had a device
that seemed tailor-made for removing colossal statues of deposed presidents.
A jib with a hook and chain on the end slowly
extended up to Saddam's chest. A soldier climbed up the jib, hooked the chain
around Saddam's neck, and produced a US flag, which he draped over the Iraqi
leader's head.
There was some applause from the Iraqi crowd, but
an Iraqi commentator on the BBC was aghast, and you could almost hear the shouts
from Centcom's PR department in Qatar: "Get that flag down, now!"
This was exactly the sort of triumphalism that
had caused so much trouble when troops hoisted the stars and stripes over Umm
Qasr in the early days of the war: completely off-message. It's supposed to be a
war of liberation, not of conquest.
The US flag duly came down and an Iraqi flag
appeared, miraculously, from the crowd. A soldier draped it, rather grudgingly,
around Saddam's neck, and then that, too, was removed.
Finally, the crowd was ushered back, the armoured
vehicle slowly reversed and the chain tightened. With more grace than he ever
displayed in power, Saddam Hussein made his final bow.
In Britain, we call this sort of thing criminal
damage, and you can get three months in jail for it, as 37-year-old Paul
Kelleher discovered recently when he beheaded a marble effigy of former prime
minister Margaret Thatcher. Poor Mr Kelleher: wrong time, wrong place, wrong
statue.
There are no statues of Ahmed Chalabi in Iraq
just yet, but it is probably only a matter of time. With attention focused on
Baghdad, the controversial would-be prime minister has been up to more mischief
in Nassiriya, where the Pentagon hawks helped him to set up a base last weekend.
Mr Chalabi plans to convene a meeting of Iraqi
opposition figures in Nassiriya on Saturday, viewed by the US state department
as an attempt to organise his own "coronation".
Yesterday, state department officials moved
quickly to undermine Mr Chalabi's efforts by saying that a joint meeting of
"liberated Iraqis" and opposition members from outside Iraq will be
held soon, although the date and location have yet to be set. "It will be
our meeting and our guest list, not Chalabi's," a Bush administration
official said.
Britain has also pre-empted Mr Chalabi (and
perhaps the Pentagon, too) by appointing an unnamed tribal sheikh to run Basra
province. Sketchy information about this was given by Colonel Chris Vernon,
spokesman for the British forces, at a press briefing on Tuesday.
One journalist at the briefing asked how the
sheikh was chosen: was he simply the first Iraqi to volunteer? Yes, said Colonel
Vernon, although the British had been aware of his name beforehand.
The sheikh had been given the job after a
two-hour interview with a divisional commander, and was "very pleased"
with the arrangements proposed by the British. An Arab journalist then suggested
that the sheikh, as a tribal leader, was likely to promote members of his own
tribe to key posts.
Colonel Vernon seemed surprised by this, and
agreed that Britain would have to keep an eye on the situation.
An article in the New York Times quotes a doctor
at Basra General Hospital as saying: "All the sheikhs in Basra were friends
with Saddam ... All the time, Saddam gave money to them, and they watched as he
would cut someone's ear who did not join the military, or cut off someone's
tongue who spoke out against the military."
The doctor added that he did not know which
sheikh the British had in mind, but said that it didn't really matter. "All
the sheikhs and tribal leaders are bad," he said.
Fighting broke out in Baghdad again this morning.
Some of it centred on a mosque, where Saddam was rumoured to be hiding. Loud
blasts were also reported from the city's outskirts, although their cause was
not known. In the north, B-52 bombers were reportedly pounding an Iraqi army
division near Kirkuk.
The US defence secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, again
threatened to escalate the Middle East conflict last night when he accused
Iraq's neighbour, Syria, of helping senior members of the Baghdad regime to
escape. The US was getting "scraps of evidence" to this effect, Mr
Rumsfeld added.
He said there was also evidence that Syrians
(referred to by the Pentagon as "jihadists") were moving into Iraq
with approval from the Syrian government.
Friday April 11, 2003
Following 24 hours of victory celebrations in Baghdad, there are fears today
that the war, far from ending, could simply be moving into a far more
intractable low-intensity phase in which bunker-busting bombs and other hi-tech
weapons are of little use.
Yesterday, a particularly bad sign was the
killing, in Iraq's holiest Shia mosque, of Abdul Majid al-Khoei, a US-backed
cleric who had been living in exile in London until last week. It is unclear
whether his death was the work of Saddam Hussein loyalists or a rival Shia group
but, either way, the implications are alarming.
Mr al-Khoei was the son of Ayatollah Sayed
al-Qasim al-Khoei, the leader of much of the Shia world until 1992 when he died,
under house arrest, in Najaf.
The importance of his murder may be difficult to
appreciate in countries in which religious leaders carry little political
weight, but the closest British parallel is probably with Thomas Becket, the
Archishop of Canterbury who, 833 years ago, was assassinated for supporting the
authority of the Pope over King Henry II.
There was also another suicide bombing last
night, when a man wearing an explosives-packed vest attacked a US checkpoint in
Saddam City, the Shia suburb of Baghdad. Conflicting reports of casualties
ranged from four US marines wounded to several dead.
Overnight, Iraqi gunmen, apparently from Shia
slums in eastern Baghdad, fought a fierce hour-long battle with Fedayeen
paramilitaries loyal to Saddam, according to US military sources and a Reuters
news agency report.
So far, there has been no serious effort to stop
the looting in Baghdad. US officials expect it to fizzle out naturally when
there is nothing left to loot, although reports that Iraqis have even been
stripping electrical wiring from buildings suggest that it may continue for some
time.
If the experience in Basra is anything to judge
by, this spontaneous crimewave could be followed by a more organised phase as
armed gangs move in. Before the war, US and British planners had hoped that
enough of Iraq's administration and security forces would be left intact to keep
the country running but, in key places, they have either been destroyed or gone
underground.
This should be less of a problem in the north,
where the Kurds have been governing themselves for years, and are well
organised. Elsewhere, the situation in smaller Iraqi towns which have not been
touched by the war is largely unknown, and may be salvageable.
However, in areas such as Baghdad, in which all
government has evaporated, there are now three basic choices:
1. Restoration of Ba'athists from the middle and
lower ranks, assuming that they can be found and are willing to serve. This
carries the risk of reinstating old patterns of misrule and corruption.
2. The development of local fiefdoms based around
tribal or religious figures who are capable of maintaining order, but may turn
out to be no less tyrannical than the previous regime.
3. Rebuilding the system from scratch, which
would take months of recruitment and training.
All these factors point to the need for a
prolonged US and British presence, which opponents will characterise as
"occupation", as the Syrian government did yesterday.
Attacks by mujahideen, and possibly underground
Ba'athists, will seek to push the US and British towards repressive measures in
order to justify the term "occupation" and encourage others to join
the struggle against it.
The model here is the Soviet invasion of
Afghanistan in the 80s, and the resistance to it. This, in the eyes of
Islamists, not only led to the creation of al-Qaida, but also brought about the
collapse of a superpower. The strategy is clear, although it's much too early to
judge whether it has any chance of succeeding in Iraq.
George Bush and Tony Blair both gave speeches
(dubbed into Arabic) on the new Towards Freedom TV station yesterday although,
with no electricity in most of Baghdad, it is doubtful whether many people could
have watched it.
Mr Blair promised to see the war through to the
end. Mr Bush said that the US would respect Iraq's "great religious
traditions, whose principles of equality and compassion are essential to Iraq's
future".
In northern Iraq early today, US and Kurdish
forces reportedly captured Mosul, Iraq's third city, without a fight. Kurdish
paramilitaries have promised to hand over the important oil city of Kirkuk to US
troops later today.
Kirkuk, the traditional capital of the Kurds, was
taken by a mixture of Kurdish guerrillas and US special forces yesterday, but
neighbouring Turkey, fearful of increased Kurdish power, has been insisting that
the Kurds must not be allowed to keep it.
There is growing debate on the internet about the
toppling of Saddam Hussein's statue in Baghdad, and the extent to which it was
stage-managed for the TV cameras.
Numerous Guardian readers have pointed out an aerial
photograph of the scene, showing how small the crowd was. However, it is not
known at what point the photograph was taken.
The picture is broadly consistent with remarks
about the size of the crowd made by a BBC reporter who was on the spot at the
time.
There are claims that the US flag draped over the
statue's head was one that had been flying over the Pentagon at the time of the
September 11 terrorist attacks, although this may just be a rumour.
The Iraqi flag produced after the stars and
stripes appears to have been carefully selected. It was not the current flag,
but the pre-1991 design. Shortly before the 1991 Gulf war, Saddam Hussein had
the words Allahu Akbar (God is greatest) inserted between the stars, and these
were missing from the flag used on Wednesday.
Discussion of this "defining moment"
looks set to continue, and any further information will be welcome.
Saturday April 12, 2003
On one of the bleakest days since the invasion began, US defence secretary
Donald Rumsfeld yesterday shrugged off turmoil and looting in Iraq as signs
of the people's freedom.
"It's untidy, and freedom's
untidy," he said, jabbing his hand in the air. "Free people are
free to make mistakes and commit crimes and do bad things. They're also free
to live their lives and do wonderful things."
Mr Rumsfeld insisted that words such as
anarchy and lawlessness were unrepresentative of the situation in Iraq and
"absolutely" ill-chosen.
"I picked up a newspaper today and I
couldn't believe it," he said. "I read eight headlines that talked
about chaos, violence, unrest. And it just was Henny Penny - 'The sky is
falling'. I've never seen anything like it! And here is a country that's
being liberated, here are people who are going from being repressed and held
under the thumb of a vicious dictator, and they're free. And all this
newspaper could do, with eight or 10 headlines, they showed a man bleeding,
a civilian, who they claimed we had shot - one thing after another. It's
just unbelievable ..."
In an extraordinary performance reminiscent
of the Iraqi information minister who assured the world that all was well
even as battles raged visibly around him, Mr Rumsfeld quipped:
"The images you are seeing on television
you are seeing over, and over, and over, and it's the same picture of some
person walking out of some building with a vase, and you see it 20 times,
and you think, 'My goodness, were there that many vases? Is it possible that
there were that many vases in the whole country?' "
In what appeared to be a concerted effort to
damp down media coverage of the chaos, the British government simultaneously
laid into the BBC and its defence correspondent, Andrew Gilligan, accusing
them of "trying to make the news" rather than reporting it.
A spokesman for prime minister Tony Blair
claimed that "in the main the anarchy and disorder is being directed
against symbols of the regime". Mr Gilligan hit back: "The reality
is half the shopping district [in Baghdad] is now being looted. Downing
Street may be saying it's only regime targets that are being attacked. I'm
afraid it isn't."
In the absence of any authority, residents of
Baghdad have been erecting barricades to keep out marauders and there is
some evidence of shooting, either between looters and citizens who are
trying to protect their own property, or between rival gangs of looters.
Hospitals and laboratories have been
ransacked, with thieves often seizing vital equipment - heart monitors,
incubators and microscopes - which is of no obvious use to them. A report
today says only one hospital in the city still has a functioning operating
theatre.
The International Committee of the Red Cross
has reminded the US and Britain of their legal obligation under the Geneva
Convention to protect civilians and essential services such as hospitals.
The US yesterday appealed for Baghdad's
police - as well as fire and ambulance services - to resume work. It is
doubtful that many will do so at present: the public is unlikely to welcome
a return of the old regime's crime prevention apparatus, and the police
themselves may be unwilling to put their lives at risk to help out the
Americans.
In a move that further undermines the United
Nations' role in Iraq, the US has secretly and unilaterally resumed weapons
inspections, according to a report in the Guardian today.
This will also annoy the British government,
which still officially supports the UN's Unmovic team.
The American inspection team, nicknamed
"USmovic", which was set up in Kuwait a week before the war began,
has already started work. It includes inspectors recruited from the previous
Unscom team and is led by Charles Duelfer, former deputy head of Unscom.
The US has a pressing need to find evidence
of chemical or biological weapons in Iraq, since this was the pretext for
the invasion in the first place. But the American-controlled inspection team
has no international recognition and will also have to struggle to establish
its credibility. The work of Unscom during the 1990s was partly discredited
by allegations of espionage which were later, to some extent, admitted.
Whatever "USmovic" finds, it is liable to be accused of planting
evidence, even if that is not actually the case.
In northern Iraq, where the key cities of
Mosul and Kirkuk were "liberated" by Kurdish forces with American
support, the "liberation" of any available property has also
begun.
Turkey is particularly worried about Kirkuk
and has troops on the border ready to invade if Kurdish forces do withdraw
from the city. Turkey's fear is that possession of Kirkuk and the
surrounding oilfields would make a Kurdish state in the region economically
viable. This could jeopardise the territorial integrity of Turkey, where
there is a substantial Kurdish population.
This morning there are reports of some
Kurdish forces leaving Kirkuk, but they are said to be holding back until
more US troops arrive to take over from them and maintain order.
This is only part of the picture, however. At
the same time, large numbers of armed Kurdish civilians have been reported
entering the city. They are said to be former residents of Kirkuk who were
displaced by Saddam Hussein's policy of Arabisation (ethnic
"cleansing"). In the slightly longer term, these returnees are
likely to strengthen Kurdish claims to possession of the city.
In southern Iraq, it was reported yesterday
that British forces shot dead five alleged bank robbers in Basra. The
robbers are said to have fired first.
There is also some embarrassment over Sheikh
Muzahim Tamimi, the tribal leader appointed by Britain to take charge of
Basra province. It has emerged that he is a former brigadier-general in
Saddam Hussein's army and was once a member of the Ba'ath party. Several
hundred protesters threw stones at his house earlier this week.
One theory circulating in London is that the
sheikh was appointed accidentally because British intelligence confused him
with his anti-Saddam brother (who turns out to have been shot dead by the
secret police in 1994).
Sunday, April 13, 2003
An Iraqi general who was in charge of liaison with United Nations weapons
inspectors before the war gave himself up to American forces in Baghdad
yesterday after discovering that he was on a list of the 55 "most
wanted" officials.
General Amer Hammoudi al-Saadi, who has a German wife, was accompanied by a
German television crew whom he had invited to film the surrender, apparently to
ensure his safety.
US secretary of state Colin Powell singled out General Saadi for criticism in
his speech to the UN security council last February.
"It was General Saadi who last [autumn] publicly pledged that Iraq was
prepared to cooperate unconditionally with inspectors," Mr Powell said.
"Quite the contrary, Saadi's job is not to cooperate; it is to deceive, not
to disarm, but to undermine the inspectors; not to support them, but to
frustrate them and to make sure they learn nothing."
In contrast, the chief weapons inspector, Hans Blix, described General Saadi
as "extremely knowledgeable and businesslike", adding that unlike the
Iraqi deputy prime minister, Tariq Aziz, he did not constantly inject politics
in discussions about the inspections. However, Mr Blix also said General Saadi's
claim that Iraq destroyed all its chemical and biological weapons in the summer
of 1991 "had no credibility".
General Saadi, a chemist who was trained in Britain and Germany, worked on
Iraq’s chemical weapons programme in the 1980s and 1990s.
Whether he will now lead the US to the elusive "smoking gun"
remains to be seen. Yesterday he told the German TV station, ZDF, that he had
been honest in his dealings with weapons inspectors and felt in "no way
guilty". He continued to insist that Iraq did not possess chemical or
biological weapons.
Amid scenes of vigilantes beating up suspected looters and threatening them
with guns, Iraqi demonstrators yesterday vented their wrath at the Sheraton
hotel in Baghdad where the US Marines now have their headquarters. "Where
is the law?" one of them complained. "This is democracy in
Baghdad?"
Eyewitnesses say American troops have been standing aside as looters go about
their plundering and in some cases have even waved booty-laden cars through
checkpoints.
Three Malaysian journalists were ambushed and kidnapped by unidentified
gunmen shortly after leaving the Sheraton hotel yesterday. An Iraqi interpreter
accompanying them was shot dead. They were among a group of 28 journalists sent
to Baghdad last week at the expense of the Malaysian government which had
complained of biased reporting by western news media in Iraq.
Efforts to reinstate Saddam Hussein’s police force have so far met with
limited success. About 80 officers have reported for duty and last night a token
police car with three officers inside was said to be patrolling the city.
This morning the US began its first air patrols over Baghdad in an effort to
improve security.
The state department last week awarded a multi-million dollar contract for
private police work in Iraq to DynCorp, a security firm which has donated more
than £100,000 to the Republican party.
A report in today’s Observer
says the company, which has branch offices in the British military town of
Aldershot, has already begun recruiting in Britain with offers of one-year
employment contracts at a salary of £51,000 plus "hazard bonuses".
The paper reveals that DynCorp was recently ordered by a British employment
tribunal to pay £110,000 to a UN police officer in Bosnia who was unfairly
sacked for blowing the whistle on colleagues involved in an illegal sex ring.
Expectations that the Baathists will make a bloody "last stand" in
Tikrit - Saddam Hussein’s birthplace - are unlikely to be fulfilled, judging
by reports this morning.
Tikrit has previously been subjected to heavy bombing and, according to the
US military, Iraqi reinforcements were seen digging in around the town. But live
pictures this morning from CNN correspondent Brent Sadler, who drove into the
northern outskirts unopposed, showed no sign of Iraqi fighters or armour. A
military base five miles from the centre was derelict, with destroyed artillery
and empty tanks along the roads around Tikrit, 175 km (110 miles) north of
Baghdad.
"I've not seen one single symbol of [Iraqi] authority in the last hour
of transmission," Mr Sadler said.
Later, however, the CNN crew left in a hurry after coming under small arms
fire - though it was unclear who was responsible for the shooting. One of the
drivers suffered a head wound and a vehicle was badly damaged.
In a further sign of the Kurds’ assertiveness, Kurdish peshmerga guerrillas
also came within two miles of Tikrit last night before pulling back. Again,
there was little sign of resistance apart from minor skirmishes.
This seems to demolish the theory that the Republican Guard and Special
Republican Guard have retreated to Tikrit, though it only adds to the mystery of
what has happened to them.
The US yesterday continued its verbal onslaught against Syria when Colin
Powell called on Iraq’s neighbour to detain any Iraqi officials seeking
refuge. President Bush had earlier said the Syrian authorities should "turn
them over to the proper folks".
Tension was exacerbated yesterday when the US military said a man who shot
dead a Marine outside a hospital in Baghdad was a Syrian national. In the early
stages of the war a number of Arab volunteers crossed into Iraq from Syria.
US forces in Iraq have now sealed off the roads leading to and from Syria.
The Syrian foreign minister, Farouq al-Sharaa, yesterday described the
American accusations as baseless and challenged Washington to provide evidence.
The French foreign minister, Dominique de Villepin, on a visit to Damascus,
called for an end to the war of words. "Now is the time for a display of
responsibility, not polemics," he said.
Syrian television reported that President Bashar al-Asad received a phone
call on Friday evening from the British prime minister, Tony Blair. It gave no
details beyond saying they "discussed developments in Iraq and their
repercussions".
The British foreign office confirmed last week that at present Syria has no
legal obligation to hand over any Iraqi fugitives, since none have yet been
formally indicted or charged with crimes.
Monday April 14, 2003
American tanks and troops entered the main square of Tikrit early this morning.
As Tikrit is Saddam Hussein's birthplace there were predictions that his
supporters would make a defiant last stand there - though resistance so far has
been less than expected.
Bombing of the town continued yesterday and the
US appears to have rejected an offer by a local tribal chief, Yussuf abd al-Aziz
al-Nassari, to negotiate a peaceful surrender. According to Agence France
Presse, Mr Nassari asked to be allowed 48 hours to persuade the remaining Iraqi
forces to lay down their arms.
Tikrit is the last major population centre to be
wrested from Baathist control. There are still numerous smaller towns and
villages to be dealt with, but the capture of Tikrit will essentially mark the
end of the "liberation" phase of the war. Iraqis are now free - or, as
US defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld put it last week, "free to make
mistakes and commit crimes and do bad things".
In Baghdad, armed vigilante groups are patrolling
some of the streets and all but a handful of shops remain shuttered. Electricity
supplies have still not been restored. Several hundred Iraqi officials have
reportedly volunteered for work, though this has made little impact so far.
Attention at the weekend focused on the
destruction of the city's museum. US forces had carefully avoided bombing it but
then stood by as looters plundered its treasures or, in many cases, simply
smashed them.
In the northern city of Kirkuk, tensions are
rising between Arabs and returning Kurdish refugees who were driven out under
Saddam Hussein's "Arabisation" policy. A BBC correspondent in Kirkuk
says returning Kurds have threatened with eviction the Arab families who now
live there. In the south, Basra is still without safe drinking water and doctors
have warned of a possible epidemic. Provision of humanitarian aid is being
hampered by the lack of security.
Confusion reigns in Najaf, where an armed mob
reportedly surrounded the home of Ayatollah Mirza Ali Sistani, a pro-western
Shia cleric, and gave him 48 hours to leave the country. A statement issued by
the ayatollah said the "lives of the great religious authorities in Najaf
are threatened", and added that the US-led forces "bear the
responsibility" to protect them. Last Thursday, another cleric who had just
returned from exile in Britain was hacked to death in the holiest mosque in
Najaf.
For the moment, all these intractable and
possibly chronic problems heavily outweigh successes such as the return of seven
missing Americans who were found alive and well on a road north of Baghdad
yesterday, and the capture near Mosul of Saddam's half-brother, Watban
al-Tikriti (number 51 on the "wanted" list).
A meeting of prominent Iraqis is due to take
place in Nassiriya tomorrow under US auspices. This appears to be the Americans'
response to an attempt by Ahmad Chalabi, the controversial leader of the Iraqi
National Congress, to establish a power base by convening his own meeting in the
town. The US objected to Mr Chalabi's meeting, describing it as his
"coronation". Mr Chalabi yesterday dismissed the Americans' meeting,
saying "no decisions will be taken" at it, and indicated that he will
not be attending.
The Guardian today has details of the banking
scandal in Jordan that led to Mr Chalabi being sentenced in his absence to
22 years' jail on 31 charges of embezzlement, theft, misuse of depositor funds
and currency speculation.
The US stepped up its verbal attacks on Syria
yesterday. President George Bush raised the issue of weapons of mass
destruction: "I think we believe there are chemical weapons in Syria,"
he said. Defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld repeated claims that Syria is giving
refuge to senior Iraqi officials. The US military has also drawn attention to
the presence of fighters in Iraq who are said to have Syrian nationality (it is
an established fact that Arab volunteers from various countries did enter Iraq
from Syria in the early stages of the war).
Syria has dismissed the claims about harbouring
members of Saddam's regime, though in any case it would have no legal obligation
to hand them over since none have yet been formally accused of crimes. Little is
known publicly about the current state of any chemical weapons programmes in
Syria, though some information - possibly outdated - can be found on the website
of the Federation
of American Scientists. Over the weekend, the Syrian deputy ambassador in
Washington, Imad Moustapha, accused the US of "a campaign of misinformation
and disinformation about Syria". On weapons of mass destruction, he told
NBC News: "We will not only accept the most rigid inspection regime, we
will welcome it heartily."
Syria was not originally included with Iraq, Iran
and North Korea in President Bush's "Axis of Evil". Many observers
believe this is not a build up to military action but an attempt to make the
Syrian government change its policies or face destabilisation. But the current
focus on Syria does fit the blueprint for reshaping Israel's "strategic
environment" that was proposed by the "Clean
Break" document. Richard Perle, a Pentagon adviser and one of the
leading proponents of war with Iraq, was the main author of the document, which
set out advice for the incoming Israeli government of Binyamin Netanyahu.
A key passage said: "Israel can shape its
strategic environment, in cooperation with Turkey and Jordan, by
weakening,containing, and even rolling back Syria. This effort can focus on
removing Saddam Hussein from power in Iraq - an important Israeli strategic
objective in its own right - as a means of foiling Syria's regional
ambitions." |