[casi] News, 02-09/04/03 (1)

[Peter Brooke <pbrooke@DELETETHISukonline.co.uk>]

News, 02-09/04/03 (1)

RAPE OF IRAQ (1)

*  Innocent van victims set up by Saddam: Imam
*  3 CIA assets killed in Baghdad
*  Five killed in suicide bomb
*  Al-Jazeera Shows Iraqi Women Suicide Bombers' Videotape
*  US troops bring war to streets of Baghdad; 1,000 Iraqis reported killed
*  Key Marine Commander Is Removed
*  The Baghdad intifada
*  17 civilians killed in airstikes on Basra
*  U.S.: Heavy Iraqi Casualties in Baghdad
*  Riddle of the sands
*  US forces secure Karbala, kill 400
*  US has no confirmed reports on fate of "Chemical Ali"


RAPE OF IRAQ (1)

http://www.nypost.com/news/worldnews/72564.htm

*  INNOCENT VAN VICTIMS SET UP BY SADDAM: IMAM
by Kate Sheehy
New York Post, 2nd April

U.S. military officials yesterday insisted that the blood of the seven Iraqi
women and children killed in a checkpoint shooting is on Saddam Hussein's
hands - as a local religious leader said the victims had been forced into
the death van.

Sahid Mohammed Bakir Almohari - a prominent Muslim cleric from the town near
where the shooting and an earlier homicide bombing occurred - said on Fox
News Channel that villagers told him Iraqi militants mercilessly
orchestrated both incidents to try to whip up anti-American support.

"These people, children and women, those were put in the bus by Saddam
Hussein's forces, their husbands or fathers were taken hostages and the
driver was ordered to speed up to the checkpoint and not stop so that they
would be shot at," said Almohari, one of many Shiites opposed to Saddam.

As for Saturday's homicide bombing, in which an Iraqi posing as a cabdriver
lured four soldiers to his vehicle at another nearby checkpoint and then
blew them all up, the cleric said the "bomber" became involved only to save
his family.

The thugs had threatened to kill his relatives, including his infant son, if
he didn't comply, the cleric told Fox.

Almohari said one man who refused to carry out an attack at another
checkpoint was personally killed by Ali Hassan, a k a "Chemical Ali," the
mastermind of Iraq's brutal gassing of the Kurds in the '80s.

The cleric's comments came as U.S. military brass dismissed criticism of the
soldiers who sprayed the civilians' van with bullets Monday.

Brig. Gen. Vincent Brooks insisted, "The blood is on the hands of the
regime."


http://www.upi.com/view.cfm?StoryID=20030403-101300-9688r

*  3 CIA ASSETS KILLED IN BAGHDAD
by Richard Sale
United Press International, 4th April

Three Iraqis who aided the CIA in the March 20 attempt by the United States
to kill Iraqi President Saddam Hussein were executed this week by Iraqi
counterintelligence, former and serving U.S. officials told United Press
International.

A super-secret U.S. intelligence operation, working in Baghdad for weeks
before the war, provided the crucial targeting data for the attack on Saddam
and his sons, launched in an effort to pre-empt a full-scale war, these
sources said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

The war had been scheduled to start Friday, March 21, U.S. officials told
UPI. But -- after getting intelligence that a brief target opportunity
presented itself to decapitate the Iraqi leadership -- President George W.
Bush instead announced at 10:15 p.m. Wednesday, March 19 -- 6:15 a.m. March
20 Baghdad time -- that hostilities had begun.

Delta and Special Forces units in the country had help from three Iraqi
agents recruited by the CIA some time after June 2000, when the first CIA
paramilitary teams secretly entered Baghdad to do reconnaissance and
recruitment.

Sources told UPI that Iraqi counterintelligence killed the three, shooting
two and cutting out the tongue of a third, who bled to death. They said U.S.
intelligence had learned this from their forces on the ground in Iraq.

The March 20 operation involved more than 300 Special Forces, who moved into
the country to join Delta troops and CIA paramilitaries, these sources said.

One former long-time CIA operative said it was the Delta men, already in
country, who made the breakthrough for the U.S. attack by infiltrating a key
Baghdad telecommunications center and tapping a fiber optic telephone line.

It was this that enabled the U.S. clandestine team to locate Saddam and top
leaders at Dora Farm, an Iraqi command and control complex and a legitimate
war target, U.S. officials said.

Iraqi assets, recruited by the agency, played a key part in the operation by
providing "priceless" information, relating to the phone system and details
of Dora Farm, according to one former senior CIA official.

After CIA Director George Tenet conveyed the information to the White House,
the administration quickly launched strikes by F-117A warplanes and
ship-launched cruise missiles. The attack was thought to have wounded Saddam
and is also believed to have killed his son Qusay, 37, who was being groomed
as Saddam's successor, according to half a dozen former and serving U.S.
officials. The strike hit at 5:36 a.m. Baghdad time March 20, after Bush's
ultimatum to Saddam to leave Iraq or face war had expired.

A senior administration official told UPI that Saddam had suffered two burst
eardrums in the attack, and "was bleeding from the nose and mouth." This
source added that Saddam was so disoriented by concussion damage that he was
in "a vegetative state" for hours after the strike.

Another administration official said that Saddam was "definitely alive"
after the strike and appeared on Friday, March 21, wearing glasses because
of concussive damage to the capillaries of his retinas.

Aerial photos showed that the three-building compound had suffered severe
damage from 2,000-pound bunker buster bombs and some 40 cruise missiles,
U.S. officials said.

Details of the timing and recruitment of the Iraqi CIA assets remain vague
because "we want to protect our tradecraft," one U.S. intelligence official
said.

"The agency has been working for months to hook up with Iraqi dissidents in
country," an administration official said.

CIA paramilitary teams, working with Delta Forces, still are inside Iraq,
attempting to kill 30 top Iraqi leaders, including Saddam's other son, Uday,
who commands the Iraqi Fedayeen, several U.S. sources said. One
administration official confirmed that U.S. intelligence has the names,
addresses and cell phone numbers of the 30 targets.

At least a half a dozen U.S. officials interviewed by UPI said that they
believe that Saddam is wounded but still alive. "The strategy is to goad him
to appear so that we can kill him," one former senior agency covert
operative said.

Saddam appears aware of this. On Tuesday, he did not appear for a scheduled
TV address. Instead, a senior Iraqi official read a statement in his name.

But self-composed and defiant Saddam Hussein apparently made his first
public appearance Friday since U.S. forces bombed his bunker March 20. Iraqi
TV showed pictures of him walking the streets of a Baghdad neighborhood
where a throng of jubilant and enthusiastic residents greeted him.

The appearance was the culmination of several efforts Friday by the Iraqi
president to rally his people against coalition troops poised just outside
the Iraqi capital. The date of his actual visit was not definitive, but some
nearby buildings showed possible bomb damage. U.S. analysts noted the
apparent lack of smoke that has hovered over most parts of Baghdad for days.

The television pictures showed a smiling Saddam in military uniform and
black beret surrounded by people in what was said to be the al-Mansour area
and a target of coalition bombardment.

"With soul, with blood, we redeem you Saddam," shouted dozens of bystanders.
Women ululated while some of the men pushed through to kiss their leader's
hand or cheeks. "May God protect you," shouted one man as more joined the
crowd.

Saddam, his military men and armed bodyguards in a cluster around him, was
then seen checking military reinforcements in the city and chatting with
residents. Afterwards he stood to overlook the crowd and raised his fist to
salute them.

The television then showed pictures from a driving car allegedly with Saddam
aboard of many streets in Baghdad. Smoke clouds were seen in these pictures.

It was one of the very rare public appearances of Saddam. Mideast
commentators called it an act of courage and a strong message to Iraqis and
coalition alike that he was still alive, in control of the country and ready
for confrontation.


http://news.scotsman.com/international.cfm?id=396752003

*  FIVE KILLED IN SUICIDE BOMB
by  Stuart Reid
The Scotsman, 4th April

[.....]

Meanwhile, about 2500 Republican Guards have surrendered to US forces as the
Allies continue to strengthen their stranglehold around Baghdad.

US commanders said today members of the Baghdad division of Saddam Hussein's
most feared fighting force handed themselves over to US troops advancing on
the Iraqi capital.

It was not immediately clear exactly where the surrenders had taken place.
The move came as American troops fought off an Iraqi counter attack to keep
control of Baghdad airport.

Captain Frank Thorp today told Reuters at Central Command war headquarters
in Qatar: "Just last night there was a [military field] report of about 2500
soldiers of the Baghdad division surrendering, stripping off their
uniforms."

He also said that Marines advancing on Baghdad from the city of Kut, about
105 miles south-east of the capital, were close to the city. Other US forces
have advanced on the airport in the south-west of Baghdad.

"The Marines from the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force are in the vicinity of
Baghdad now," Cpt Thorp said.

The surrenders came as US forces who last night secured the airport were
attacked today by Iraqi forces just hours after gaining control. Military
sources said the attack had been repelled and that five Iraqi tanks had been
destroyed.

After fierce fighting last night - in which more than 300 Iraqi soldiers
were killed - coalition forces said today they now occupied the majority of
the sprawling site.

They said they had secured the entrance nearest the city and closed it off
as troops converged on Saddam Hussein's seat of power.

Once the airport is secured, troops, munitions and humanitarian aid can be
brought to Baghdad much more quickly and easily than by road. Major John
Altman, an intelligence officer with the 3rd Infantry, told reporters at the
airport that the troops probably controlled "80 per cent" of the airport.
The strategically important runway was reported to be in good condition.

General Richard Myers, the top US military officer, warned that there were
"still a lot of tough fights ahead".

American strategists prize the airport's main runway because it is long
enough at 13,000 feet to land the military's largest transport planes as
well as civilian jumbo jets. It also has a second 8000-ft runway, once used
by Iraqi fighter jets, that could help speed the flying in of supplies.

Its crowning appeal is proximity to the Iraqi capital. The airport is about
ten miles from the heart of Baghdad and is adjacent to the Radwaniyah
presidential site, which served as Saddam's main residence.

The Iraqi dictator is now thought by commentators most likely to have been
reduced to a furtive existence living in underground bunkers, as the only
place safe from the coalition bombing raids.

The Allied forces launched their attack on the airport as a power cut
plunged Baghdad into darkness at about 8pm local time yesterday.

Tanks of the US 3rd Infantry Division last night rumbled through the
entrance of Saddam International Airport, past a building-high portrait of
the saluting Iraqi leader.

Initial reports suggested there had been little resistance.

However, it later appeared that coalition forces had been hit by a
determined fightback involving Iraqi tanks and hundreds of troops.

US reports speak of at least 320 Iraqi soldiers killed in the fighting in
which about 1000 American troops were deployed. Dozens of Iraqis were said
to have died in the village of Furat near to the airport in what witnesses
claimed was a US rocket strike.

Iraqi officials put the death toll in and around the village at 83.

Today, residents were fleeing suburbs near the airport into the city centre,
running from what one called a "night of hell" as US forces moved in. "Some
people I stopped said that all day since dawn people had been streaming out
of the airport area," said Reuters correspondent Samia Nakhoul in the city
centre, where residents were staying indoors.

As the net appeared to be closing around Baghdad, reports said that all
Iraqi checkpoints at entrances to the city had been closed.

The US Army's 3rd Infantry Division, backed by the 82nd Airborne Division,
moved in from the south-west from Kerbala, as US marines moved in from the
south-east from Kut.

On the approach to Baghdad itself, hundreds of burnt-out Iraqi army vehicles
and dead fighters littered the roadside.

Thousands of US military vehicles moved across the Euphrates River after
taking a bridge at Musayyib, 35 miles from Baghdad, which had been rigged
with explosives. Marines also moved across the Tigris and up Highway 6
towards Baghdad. In the town of Kut, on the Tigris, the Marines fought
building to building with Iraqi forces.

Air Marshal Brian Burridge, commander of British forces in the Gulf, said
the advance on Baghdad was the most impressive military manoeuvre he had
seen. "They will be writing about it in staff colleges for decades," he
said.

A military source at Central Command in Qatar said: "We are on the regime's
doorstep and we will be in Baghdad within a matter of hours from when we
decide to go."

Brigadier General Vince Brooks played down suggestions of an immediate
invasion.

He said: "We are having success now but we believe there is fighting ahead
and we can't predict exactly how that will unfold."

[.....]


http://www.arabnews.com/Article.asp?ID=24781

*  AL-JAZEERA SHOWS IRAQI WOMEN SUICIDE BOMBERS' VIDEOTAPE
Arab News (Saudi Arabia), 6th April

DUBAI, 6 April 2003, Reuters: Al-Jazeera television broadcast videotape on
Friday which it said was made by two Iraqi women who set off a suicide car
bomb outside Baghdad, killing five people including three soldiers.

Iraq's satellite channel later broadcast the same footage, saying the two
women had conducted a "martyr operation" that had destroyed nine enemy
armored vehicles.

The two separate videotapes showed the women vowing to strike at US-led
invaders. "I swear to God to sacrifice myself in jihad (holy war) against
infidel Americans, British and Israelis to defend my country's beloved
soil," said one of the women, holding a rifle and placing the other hand on
the Qur'an.

Standing in front of an Iraqi flag, the other woman recited verses from the
Qur'an and said: "I swear to God ... that I will defend Iraq and take
revenge from the people's enemies, the Americans, imperialists, Zionists,
reactionaries and Arab defeatists."

"You will be proud of your sisters, history will be proud of them," she
said, without referring to the mission they planned to carry out. Iraqi
satellite television later showed the same tapes, and named the women as
Nosha Majli Al-Shambari and Widad Gameel Al-Dileimy.

"The martyr operation led to the destruction of nine armored vehicles...
This sacrifice will increase the pride of heroes ... so enemies will learn
lessons they'll never forget," the Iraqi announcer said.

Qatar-based Jazeera quoted Iraqi media as saying the two women had carried
out the suicide bombing overnight at a checkpoint northwest of Baghdad by
US-led special forces, in which the U.S. military said three soldiers, a
pregnant woman and the driver were killed. If confirmed, it would be the
second suicide attack since US-led forces invaded Iraq on March 20 in a war
to oust President Saddam Hussein.


http://www.haveeru.com.mv/english/news_show.phtml?id=1268&search=&find=

*  US TROOPS BRING WAR TO STREETS OF BAGHDAD; 1,000 IRAQIS REPORTED KILLED

BAGHDAD, April 5 (AFP) - US forces brought the war onto the streets of
Baghdad on Saturday, battling with Iraqi troops in their first ground thrust
inside Saddam Hussein's capital, leaving hundreds of Iraqis reported dead.

With US troops in the Iraqi capital, commanders said they could now enter
the city as and when they liked, but warned that the battle for Baghdad was
far from over.

A battalion of US tanks that rumbled into Baghdad at dawn left the
smouldering remains of dozens of Iraqi military vehicles in its wake, an AFP
correspondent reported.

"It was hell," said Kamal, an electrician from the Yarmuk district in
southwest Baghdad about 10 kilometres (six miles) from the city centre.

"The firepower was incredible. There was no let-up in the firing for three
hours. Machine gun fire, light artillery and RPGs (Rocket-Propelled
Grenades)," he said. "We were on a battlefield."

The battalion punched its way into the heart of Baghdad from the capital's
Saddam International Airport after US commanders claimed control of the
facility and renamed it Baghdad International Airport.

Iraqi Information Minister Mohammad Said al-Sahhaf insisted that coalition
troops had been chased out of the airport: "We have defeated them, in fact
we have crushed them. We have pushed them outside the whole area of the
airport.

"The Republican Guard is in full control of Saddam International Airport."

A US military spokesman, speaking to AFP from the airport, scorned claims
that it was still under Iraqi control, saying the only Iraqi troops he had
seen in the facility were "dead or captured".

A US spokesman in Qatar said that coalition forces had secured the airport.

US-led forces launched a night of heavy raids on the city, with fireballs
lighting the night sky and warplanes roaring overhead.

AFP reporters said they saw no US forces in the city at mid-day, several
hours after the first push inside city.

A US commander said around 1,000 Iraqi troops had been killed in the drive
into the battered capital, and an AFP reporter saw dozens of Iraqi military
vehicles burning in the streets.

Infantry commander Colonel David Perkins said Iraqi bodies were "all over
the streets," as US troops in and around Baghdad were engaged in the
fiercest fighting since the war to topple Saddam was launched on March 20.

"This wasn't a patrol -- go in and come out," spokesman and Navy Captain
Frank Thorp said at US Central Command in Qatar.

He later told CNN: "We have coalition armoured combat formations right in
the heart of Baghdad," adding: "This is a desperate regime. They're on their
last legs."

Perkins said the US forces destroyed about 100 pieces of Iraqi equipment,
including air defence systems, tanks, rocket-propelled grenade launchers,
recoilless rifles and guided anti tank missiles.

Iraqi army trucks, armoured personnel carriers as well as jeeps mounted with
anti-aircraft guns were abandoned, some burning and others smoking, an AFP
correspondent reported.

Soldiers and armed paramilitary elements were deployed in the area,
diverting traffic on roads blocked by overturned burning trucks.

In London, a British government spoeksman said that units of Iraq's elite
Republican Guard had suffered heavy losses.

"Tanks have gone into Baghdad to make it clear to the people that whatever
the (Iraqi) regime may say, the coalition forces are advancing and there is
a determination to see the job through," the spokesman said.

"Elements of the Republican Guard have suffered a comprehensive defeat with
very heavy losses and a number of desertions," he said.

Destroyed Iraqi military vehicles were left burning after the clashes, an
AFP correspondent reported.

Colonel Will Grimsley, a US infantry commander, said of the dawn tank raid
into Baghdad: "It's called 'let me poke you in the eye because we can and
you can't do anything about it'."

Grimsley said the division had come under rifle and rocket-propelled grenade
fire as they entered Baghdad.

"We have had troops that are approaching the heart of the city. They are
conducting patrols and operations in Baghdad and have encountered sporadic
resistance," said Ensign David Luckett, a spokesman for the US Central
Command.

A US tank commander was shot and killed and two other soldiers were wounded
during the operation, a senior officer said.

To the southeast of the city, US Marines moving towards the capital clashed
with a division of the Republican Guard, a US military spokesman said in
Qatar.

And further to the southwest, the US 101st Airborne Division launched an air
assault to secure the central town of Karbala, a major Shiite Muslim town
less than 100 kilometres from Baghdad, military officials said.

Major Mike Slocum said the division's helicopters encountered little
resistance and that infantry troops would secure the outside of the city
before moving in.

[.....]



http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A31340-2003Apr4.html

*  KEY MARINE COMMANDER IS REMOVED
by Thomas E. Ricks
Washington Post, 4th April

The Marine Corps relieved one of its top commanders in Iraq yesterday, an
extremely unusual action, especially for a unit engaged in combat.

Col. Joe W. Dowdy has been the officer in charge of the 1st Marine Regiment,
one of the three major Marine Corps ground units fighting toward Baghdad.
His regiment is reported to have been used to pin down Republican Guard
units in the city of Kut while the other two major units, the 5th and 7th
Marines, crossed the Tigris River on Thursday and raced toward Baghdad.
Those units encountered heavy ground fighting yesterday on the outskirts of
the capital and had at least three M1 tanks disabled by Iraqi fire.

The U.S. military was unusually guarded about discussing the reason for the
battlefield removal. The Central Command, the U.S. military headquarters for
the war, announced the action but offered no explanation for it. Pentagon
spokesmen referred questions to the Marine Corps, which had no comment.

"We can confirm that he has been relieved," said Marine Maj. Brad Bartelt, a
Central Command spokesman. "I have no other information at this time."

At Kut, 100 miles southeast of Baghdad, the 1st Marine Regiment's mission
included feinting a move toward Iraqi positions in such a way as to draw
artillery fire, according to a Marine officer. That maneuver was intended to
expose the locations of the Iraqi gun batteries, which could then be hit by
airstrikes. The Iraqi units didn't take the bait and never opened fire, the
officer said.

Dowdy's immediate superior, Maj. Gen. James N. Mattis, the commander of the
1st Marine Division, has the reputation of being an extremely aggressive
commander, which is regarded as a plus in the Corps.

Allan Millett, a military historian at Ohio State University and a retired
colonel in the Marine Corps Reserve, said that "relieving a regimental
commander for cause is unusual, in combat or not." The move is especially
significant because the three Marine regiments in Iraq have been operating
in a decentralized manner -- that is, not in one formation, but as three
geographically separate "regimental combat teams."

At the outset of the war on March 20, the three units -- the 1st, 5th and
7th Marines, totaling about 20,000 troops -- drove from Kuwait to seize the
Rumaila oil field, which is one of Iraq's most important economic assets,
located about 20 miles west of the city of Basra. Then they pushed 75 miles
north to Nasiriyah, where they skirmished with Iraqi irregular fighters and
crossed the Euphrates River beginning around March 24. They moved into
central Iraq and then paused as they grew low on some supplies and a huge
sandstorm howled across the country. Earlier this week, the Marine units
drove on two axes toward Kut, where Dowdy's 1st Marine Regiment was ordered
to pin down the Baghdad Division of the Republican Guard.

Dowdy took command last summer of the 1st Marine Regiment, which is based at
Camp Pendleton, Calif. Including units attached to the regiment for combat,
he had command of more than 6,000 troops, according to GlobalSecurity.org.

Before this assignment, he was the assistant chief of staff and chief
planner for the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force, which is the umbrella unit
for the Marines fighting in Iraq. Born in Little Rock, he graduated from the
University of Mississippi and joined the Marines in 1979. His service
biography indicates that the current war in Iraq is the first time he has
seen combat. During the 1991 Persian Gulf War, in which much of the combat
Marine force served, he was the commander of the Marine Corps security unit
in Keflavik, Iceland.

"Good man," retired Marine Gen. Richard Neal said of Dowdy, who he said was
a student of his years ago at the Amphibious Warfare School at Quantico.

Dowdy's removal puzzled veterans of the Corps, which -- with just about
16,000 officers -- is small enough that many senior Marines come to know
each other.

"Jim Mattis was one of my battalion commanders during the first Gulf War,"
said retired Marine Gen. Carlton Fulford. "I have great confidence in his
judgment. I know of Joe Dowdy by reputation, but not personally. He has a
fine reputation."

The key to the situation, some officers suggested, is likely Mattis's views
on how forcefully a unit should act in combat. "Jim Mattis is a very
aggressive commander -- we wouldn't want it any other way," said retired
Marine Lt. Gen. Jack Klimp.

In any case, said Fulford, removing a commander in combat is an
extraordinary move that isn't taken lightly. He recalled that during the
1991 Gulf War, when he commanded the 7th Marines, and when Mattis commanded
one of his battalions, he decided to remove another of his battalion
commanders.

"It was one of the most difficult decisions I ever made as a commander," he
recalled. But, he added: "In the final analysis, I believed the commander
was not prepared to lead his men into combat, and that was the most
important issue."


http://atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/ED05Ak08.html

*  THE BAGHDAD INTIFADA
by Pepe Escobar
Asia Times, 5th April

AMMAN - It's only a 20-minute ride along a modern expressway from Saddam
International Airport to the center of Baghdad. For the Americans of the 2nd
battalion of the 3rd Infantry Division, this may seem as seductive as the
lights of Daisy Buchanan's mansion as viewed by a hungry and wealthy Jay
Gatsby. But no F Scott Fitzgerald romance here: the endgame scenario in the
battle for Baghdad, if not the battle of Baghdad itself, could well be
decided by black-turbaned, soft-spoken eminent Shi'ite imams rather than by
military might.

Baghdad, the Mecca of the caliphate for 700 years, is at the heart of Arab
Sunni Iraq. More than half a million Kurds live in the city. And, crucially,
more than 2 million Shi'ites as well, most of them in Saddam City, a huge
slum straight from northern Africa. What will happen in Shi'ite Saddam City
after two key pronouncements by Iraqi Shi'ite leaders may determine if and
for how long Baghdad will resist.

Ayatollah Mohamed Bakr al-Hakim, the leader of the Supreme Council for the
Islamic Revolution in Iraq, the key Iraqi Shi'ite opposition group based in
Tehran, the Iranian capital, said on Thursday that "the Iraqi regime is on
the edge of crumbling". But Iraqi exiles in Amman confirm that a Shi'ite
intifada - against Saddam Hussein, not against the Americans - needs to
start in a city that would carry others into battle. This city may well be
holy Najaf.

When the 101st Airborne soldiers entered Najaf, an American brigade
commander immediately tried to arrange a meeting with 73-year-old Grand
Ayatollah Sayyed Ali al Sistani. Sistani initially didn't want to talk. But
then he promised to answer in two days. On Thursday, he issued a fatwa in
Najaf urging Shi'ites all over Iraq "not to interfere" with the
Anglo-American forces: this means that people should stay at home and not
pick up arms - against anybody. At least not yet.

The fatwa is of enormous importance because Grand Ayatollah Sistani is the
top Shi'ite religious authority inside Iraq. He has been under house arrest
in Najaf, imposed by Saddam's secret police, since the early 1990s. He was
de facto liberated only last Wednesday, when his house guards disappeared
after the Americans entered the city. His fatwa, not accidentally, was
simultaneous with some sensitive words of regret pronounced in Tehran by
Iran's President Mohammad Khatami, "We feel sorry for the killed young
American and British soldiers who came from another part of the world to war
because of the wrong policies and motives of those who seek power." For the
US Central Command in Qatar, all these developments couldn't amount to a
better public relations coup.

The fabulous golden mosque of Najaf - the holiest Shi'ite site in the world
- houses the tomb of Ali, the Holy Prophet Mohammed's cousin and son-in-law
and also first imam of the Shi'ite faith. Crucially for Christians, the
mosque also houses the tombs of Adam and Noah. Saddam's secular Ba'ath Party
always kept ultra-sensitive Najaf on a leash: it has assassinated at least
four ayatollahs and sent six to jail. Saddam routinely forced ayatollahs to
issue fatwas supporting his policies. Last year, in a visit to Najaf, this
correspondent interviewed the imam of the Ali mosque, Dr Haider Muhamad
Hasan Alkelydar. He was unwavering in his following of the party line - and
he was obviously not speaking his mind.

In September last year, Grand Ayatollah Sistani issued a fatwa against the
Americans. Many said that it was again the mischievous work of the Ba'ath
Party. But until a week ago this was supposed to be the guiding light on the
matter for all Iraqi Shi'ites. Not any more. Thursday's fatwa was issued by
a religious authority on his own free will: the previous one was issued by
an authority under coercion. According to another religious eminence, Abdul
Majid al-Khoei, son of the late Grand Ayatollah Abul-Qasim al-Khoei (who was
Grand Ayatollah Sistani's master), it's the new fatwa that stands.

In the manner of a revered Buddhist monk, Grand Ayatollah Sistani, along
with his fatwa, also issued an extraordinary pearl of wisdom. This is how it
reads: "At the extremity of hardship comes relief and, at the tightening of
the chains of tribulation, comes ease."

The questions are, how will this "extreme of hardship" play over Baghdad,
and what "chains of tribulation" will still be endured by the civilian
population? There are many indications that there will not be a Gaza or a
Grozny scenario for the moment. Rather a Basra situation on a larger scale:
a surrounded city, with its regime defendants pounded by air power, special
forces' incursions and psychological operations. At the same time, the
Americans must try to prevent a huge humanitarian crisis. It's unlikely that
they would fall into the trap of a Baghdad urban guerrilla scenario. What a
marine said in the outskirts of Najaf - "Every local is a suspect. A
potential enemy combatant" - would apply to the 5 million-plus residents of
Baghdad.

That's what Saddam wants. Among the wildest rumors circulating in Jordan and
the rest of the Arab world, there seems to emerge a relative consensus:
Saddam is in a nuclear-proof bunker (although all possible bunker sites are
and will be under relentless American bombing). He only communicates by
scribbling in a notebook: no satphones, no walkie talkies. And the only
person who knows where he really is is his son Qusay - whose central mission
is to defend Baghdad.

No matter the certitudes on both sides, crucial questions remain. How come
Saddam International Airport was taken practically without a fight (only 320
Iraqis dead)? What if the Republican Guards left the expressway to Baghdad
expressly open for an American advance? What happened to the 10,000-strong
Medina division of the Republican Guard? How did the Baghdad division melt
away? Was the Medina - which was guarding the bottleneck between Najaf and a
lake and Baghdad and facing the marines in al-Kut over the Tigris -
decimated by a barrage of seven-ton Daisy Cutters? Or did they camouflage
themselves among farmland and the many villages between the Tigris and the
Euphrates? Were they simply bypassed? Or did they retreat towards or into
Baghdad to provoke "a thousand Vietnams"?

In theory, Republican Guard divisions cannot take refuge in Baghdad. Saddam
is far too paranoid that they might stage a coup. Saddam's trusted iron
ring, as Asia Times Online has reported (The 'Palestinization' of Iraq,
March 27, 2003), is composed of Special Republican Guards, the black-clad,
black-masked Fedayeen and a web of security services. The mere sight of
Republican Guards would send a very powerful signal to Baghdadis -
especially Shi'ites - that the fat lady may be about to sing.

It is no secret that practically everybody in every neighborhood of Baghdad
is armed, at least with Kalashnikovs and hand grenades. Saddam is firmly
thinking of his icon Joseph Stalin. He is reminding himself that when the
Soviet Union was attacked by the Germans in 1941, the Red Army fought like
true heroes. The Germans - the invaders at the time - were also thinking
regime change. The Red Army fought for every inch of land - like the Special
Republican Guards, the Fedayeen and the Ba'ath Party and security services
might. Saddam's defenders in theory would behave as masters of ambush and an
army of snipers. And the civilian population would be held hostage.

There is no doubt that Saddam is now prepared for what would be his own
final version of the Mother of all Battles. He is already winning the
propaganda battle in the wider Arab world. Saddam has repeatedly said that
the fight against the Americans - the new Mongols - would be at the gates of
Baghdad, as happened against the Mongols. The Mongols won in 1258. The
Americans will win in 2003. A Baghdad Shi'ite intifada may ensure that
Saddam will not go out in a blaze of glory. One thing is already certain: he
won't go out via the departures terminal of Saddam International Airport.


http://english.aljazeera.net/topics/article.asp?cu_no=1&item_no=1893&version
=1&template_id=277&parent_id=258

*  17 CIVILIANS KILLED IN AIRSTIKES ON BASRA
aljazeera.net, 6th April

American and British air strikes on the besieged southern city of Basra
killed 17 Iraqi civilians, including nine children.
  
Al Jazeera Television's correspondent in the city reported the funeral of 15
people, who were part of the same family, was held in the city on Saturday
afternoon.
 
The correspondent said they were killed when missiles hit eight houses in
Basra, a city of 1.5 million people and surrounded for nearly two weeks by
British troops.
 
[.....]


http://www.lasvegassun.com/sunbin/stories/w-me/2003/apr/06/040603337.html

*  U.S.: HEAVY IRAQI CASUALTIES IN BAGHDAD
by David Crary
Las Vegas Sun (from AP), 6th April

Between 2,000 and 3,000 Iraqi fighters were killed in a show-of-force foray
into Baghdad by American armored vehicles, the U.S. Central Command said
Sunday.

Though Saturday's 25-mile incursion through an industrial section of
southern Baghdad was brief, it inflicted a heavy toll, according to command
spokesman Jim Wilkinson. More than three-dozen tanks and armored vehicles
were involved; U.S. casualties were described as light.

The blitz took two task forces of the 3rd Infantry Division from the
southern outskirts of the city past Baghdad University and near the banks of
the Tigris River, then back to the western outskirts of the city to the
airport, which is under U.S. control.

While some Iraqi civilians welcomed the troops, others put up a fight,
including a mixture of Republican Guard and irregular forces, Wilkinson
said.

U.S. military officials have indicated there will be more of such forays,
aimed at sending a message to Baghdad's defenders that the city could be
breached at any time. Meanwhile, U.S. pressure in and around Baghdad
intensified in other ways Sunday.

A Marine battalion overran a Republican Guard headquarters and seized one of
Saddam Hussein's palaces south of the city. Overhead, U.S. warplanes were
flying around the clock, coordinating precision strikes in support of
upcoming ground attacks.

U.S. commanders, whose forces have virtually encircled Baghdad, cautioned
that tough urban combat may lie ahead before the city falls, but their mood
was confident.

"I would think the Iraqi people feel a sense of somewhat relief that this
repressive regime and its ability to brutalize them is about over," said
Maj. Brad Bartelt, a Central Command spokesman.

[.....]

Capitalizing on their dominance of the skies, U.S. commanders began
deploying planes over Baghdad 24 hours a day, ready to direct strike
aircraft to ground targets. The strike planes, including Air Force F-15
Strike Eagles and Navy F-14 Tomcats, use precision bombs that are considered
effective against fixed targets while minimizing risk to nearby civilian
structures. Flight Lt. Jocky Wilson, a British airman, participated in some
of the latest strikes against Republican Guard units near Baghdad.

"Judging by what I've seen, it will all be over very soon," Wilson said.
"Victory will definitely come in days, if not before."

Along the Tigris River, 20 miles southeast of Baghdad, Marines of the 3rd
Battalion, 7th Marines overran the headquarters of the Republican Guard's
Second Corps, seized one of Saddam's numerous palaces and destroyed what
U.S. intelligence reports depicted as a terrorist training camp.

The fiery nighttime attack was mounted in the town of Salman Pak, which
military officials said contained a suspected weapons of mass destruction
site dating back to 1991.

The attack began with an artillery barrage, followed by air strikes from
planes and helicopters. Marines wearing night vision goggles then arrived in
tanks, firing at Iraqi armored vehicles and military installations.

"There were so many secondary explosions, I think we hit an ammo dump," said
Lt. Col. Michael Belcher.

Before the battle, Marines had estimated there were between 500 and 2,000
Iraqi soldiers in Salman Pak. At least 13 were killed, the Americans said;
others fled from trenches and sandbagged positions on rooftops.

It was unclear what the Marines found at the training camp, which contains
an airstrip the Bush administration says was used in terrorist training
provided to Islamic militants.

Overall, the Pentagon says 79 Americans have been killed in action in Iraq,
with eight missing in action and seven held as POWs, while 27 British
soldiers have been killed. Central Command says there are 6,500 Iraqi POWs,
but no figures have surfaced from either side for Iraqi military casualties.

Red Cross workers reported that several hundred war wounded and dozens of
dead had been brought to four Baghdad hospitals since Friday. "The hospitals
are finding it increasingly difficult to cope with the continuous influx of
wounded," Muin Kassis of the International Committee of the Red Cross said
in Amman, Jordan.


http://www.news.scotsman.com/topics.cfm?id=404192003&tid=518

*  RIDDLE OF THE SANDS
by Ian Mather and Brian Brady
The Scotsman, 6th April

[.....]

The next few days will reveal whether Baghdad will just fold or whether it
will become a Mesopotamian version of Stalingrad. The Iraq dictator is an
admirer of Stalin and has modelled his rule on Stalin's brutal dictatorship,
including his cult of personality.

With the coalition forces numbering only 40,000 at the end of stretched
supply lines Saddam's most dedicated troops could try to inflict the kind of
carnage that stopped the Germans at the River Volga in 1943. Despite a 2:1
advantage in artillery and a 4:1 superiority in tanks, Hitler's panzers lost
their mobility inside Stalingrad, and the Germans were defeated in four
months of street fighting.

Another parallel is with Berlin in 1945, where the Russians had a 10:1
superiority in troops and total control of the air. The Russians still lost
78,000 troops and won only by reducing the city to rubble.

In the Chechen capital, Grozny, the Russian army could find no other way of
taking the city except by reducing it to rubble with a terrible loss to
civilian life.

Yet comparisons with Stalingrad, Berlin and Grozny are probably overdrawn.
Iraq is not the Soviet Union. It cannot crush its enemy militarily. It does
not have the numbers or the mentality to swamp an enemy with suicidal human
waves as the Chinese did in North Korea. By Saturday evening, coalition
forces were already reporting that they could move around Baghdad at will;
as each hour passed it looked less and less like a Stalingrad repeat.

Exactly why the Iraqis did not fight or where they went will remain one of
the most intriguing questions of this war. American and British commanders
are still surprised at the relatively few number of prisoners, currently
around 9,000, compared with the tens of thousands of Iraqis who surrendered
during the first Gulf War in 1991.

The number of destroyed or captured enemy vehicles and artillery is also
nowhere near as high as it should be given the capture of such an enormous
amount of territory that was supposed to be defended by an army numbering
400,000.

Where are the 60,000 Republican Guards that were supposed to be ringing
Baghdad ? Where are the 600 tanks ?

Many bodies and ruined vehicles have been seen by reporters travelling with
the advancing troops but the scale of Iraqi casualties cannot be reconciled
with the elite fighting force the Americans thought they were engaging.

It is now clear that the Iraqi military machine has not so much lost the
set-piece battles as refused to fight. Iraq has never produced
highly-motivated troops in recent times. In the Iran Iraq war of the 1980s,
the far less well-equipped but highly-motivated Iranian revolutionary forces
fought the Iraqis to a standstill.

The last Gulf War, which followed the invasion of Kuwait, was hardly a war
at all, and the allies took more casualties from accidents than from Iraqi
military actions.

In a country where military conscription is so deeply unpopular that men
have to be rounded up by force and will pay large bribes to recruiting team
to be overlooked it is not surprising that many took the first opportunity
to run away.

A common Iraqi tactic when attacked has been to change rapidly into the
civilian clothes that all Iraqi soldiers seem to carry with them and run
away, presumably to hide or rejoin their families.

The surprising fact is that the lack of fighting spirit has applied also to
the Republican Guards. With their evocative names, such as the
Nebuchadnezzar Division, and composed of professional soldiers with better
pay and conditions than the conscripts, the 60,000 Republican Guards were
supposed to be Iraq's most elite units. At one point there were supposed to
be six Republican Guard divisions encircling Baghdad as well as 16 ordinary
army divisions.

Yet not even the Republican Guards have been up to fighting the Americans.
They, like the ordinary army, seem to have been subject to meltdown. They
crumbled quickly under devastating US and British fire power. After last
week's onslaughts the Pentagon said that the divisions defending Baghdad
were not longer "credible forces".

Near Kut some 2,500 Republican Guards tore off their boots and helmets
before surrendering to the Americans. One American marine company commander
said after a rare exchange of fire: "We were a little bit surprised to get
some fire but we fire back. It only lasted five minutes. These guys are
cowards. This is boring."

Another factor has been that many Iraqi units were completely cut off from
their command and control centres from Day One of the war by allied
precision bombing, which left them floundering without orders.

The cruise missile attacks of the early days may have missed Saddam but
their impact on an army such as Iraq's was clearly devastating.

Iraqi has a "top down" Sovietstyle system, which calls for subordinates to
do nothing but obey orders precisely and never more. Middle rank officers
are not allowed to use their own initiative on the battle field as is
encouraged in the British army.

It now appears that the early attacks on command and control centres were
successful in cutting off the head of the snake, as Pentagon briefers like
to describe it, with the result that the Iraqi has not been fighting a
co-ordinated campaign since the first day.

US Brigadier General Vincent Brooks told a news briefing at US command
headquarters that with administrative cohesiveness steadily eroding, neither
US forces, nor the Iraqi army, nor the Iraqi people, could be sure who was
guiding the nation any more.

"We can't tell who's in charge. I don't know that the Iraqi people can tell
who's in charge and we have indications the Iraqi forces don't know who's in
charge," he said.

Adding to the Iraqi confusion is the fact that unofficial contact between
the two sides is proliferating as it becomes clear to the Iraqis that the
end is near. Brooks said that US forces were making contact with "a variety
of leaders who are against the regime" and who have provided the coalition
with valuable information.

"There are far more than I would ever hope to begin to number at this point
and more are emerging every day," he added.

Last week Major General Stanley McChrystal, vice director of operations of
the Joint Staff, said he did not expect US forces to seize Baghdad in a
"coup de main".

That now looks like deliberate misinformation. Yesterday a US military
spokesman said that the push into Baghdad was "more than a patrol that goes
in and comes back out", adding that a "significant number" of troops were
moving into the city.

One final throw of the dice may remain open to Saddam: to unleash chemical
or biological weapons. But military commanders are becoming sceptical as to
whether Saddam has the means. Both these forms of weapons of mass
destruction are difficult to use.

"Clearly, as we threaten the core of the regime which Baghdad and Tikrit
represent, we believe that the likelihood of them using those weapons goes
up. And so, the posture of our force is prepared for that," McChrystal said.

He added: "It'll be a grave mistake for either who orders it or the people
who execute it. But it won't change the outcome on the ground. We'll still
be able to manoeuvre. We'll still be able to execute the operations as
planned."

However, a second suicide bombing in which three special forces were killed
in a car bombing at a desert checkpoint 100 miles north-west of Baghdad on
Thursday night was a grim reminder of the potency of the "H" weapon, human
sacrifice against conventional forces as used by the Palestinians against
the Israelis.

The Iraqis, who have a secular society, are not natural martyrs. But Saddam
may still have a grip on some of his more fanatical supporters, and there
are reports of Arabs from abroad arriving in Iraq on "martyrdom visas".

A war that was supposed to be between two conventional armies may enter a
terrorism phase, in which case President Bush's "crusade" against terrorism
would become a self fulfilling prophecy.

But for now there is no disguising the elation in the ranks of the allies -
and the silence of these commentators and critics who were so gloomy only a
week ago.

"This is not the outskirts, this is not the suburbs,'' declared one of those
expeditionaries on the armoured convoy powering through the silent streets,
leaving burning tanks and bodies of Iraqi fighters in its wake. "This fight
has been taken into the heart of Baghdad, and we aren't going anywhere."


http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2003/04/07/1049567590956.html

*  US FORCES SECURE KARBALA, KILL 400
by Karl Malakunas
The Age (Australia), 7th April

US forces killed about 400 Iraqi paramilitary soldiers during two days of
intense fighting that secured the central Iraqi city of Karbala, 101st
Airborne Division spokesman Major Hugh Cate told AFP today.

Cate said the division's 2nd Brigade had gained control of the strategically
important holy Shi'ite city today after crushing resistance from about 500
soldiers loyal to Iraqi President Saddam Hussein.

"The 2nd Brigade combat team attacked to defeat paramilitary forces and
secure the town," Cate said. "They have done that successfully after two
days of hard fighting."

Cate said fewer than 100 Iraqis had been taken prisoner while almost all the
rest were killed in the battle, which involved intense house-to-house
operations to find the soldiers.

A gunshot killed one US soldier yesterday, while at least eight others were
injured, according to Cate.

He said many Iraqi soldiers hid inside the local headquarters of Saddam's
ruling Baath party, which was destroyed, while others fought from
residential areas.

US soldiers on the ground also uncovered "huge amounts" of weapons and
ammunition, including small arms and mines, in schools and other sensitive
areas, Cate said.

However Cate said the soldiers had not sought refuge in mosques and other
religiously significant areas, a tactic they had reportedly used in a
similar battle in nearby Najaf.

Karbala, 80km southwest of Baghdad, and Najaf, a further 80km south, are two
of the most important cities for Iraq's majority Shi'ite population.

The Shi'ites have been persecuted under Saddam, who is a member of the
minority Sunni faith, and the US military is counting on them to rise up
against the Iraqi leader.

Cate reported a warm reception from many of the locals in Karbala.

"There were victory signs, people waving and giving the thumbs up," Cate
said, adding that the US military would help non-government organisations
(NGOs) begin humanitarian supplies into the city soon.

He said humanitarian supplies to Najaf, which had been secured by 101st
troops before Karabala, would begin early this week with NGOs delivering
200,000 bottles of water into the city.

However there are still pockets of resistance in Najaf, with five soldiers
injured in a night time ambush in the city yesterday, another 101st
spokesman, Sergeant Mark Swart said.

The 101st has the task of securing Najaf, Karbala and other cities that the
3rd Infantry Division went through or bypassed in their lightning push on
Baghdad.

The other major operation for the 101st involves a battalion of infantrymen
working to clear tunnels and buildings at the Saddam International Airport,
Swart said.

The 3rd Brigade's 3rd battalion reached Baghdad on Friday, shortly after the
3rd Infantry Division, and were carrying out their mission without any major
incidents, Swart added.

"I haven't heard of any killed or wounded from them so I guess it's going
pretty well," he said.

[......]


http://hoovnews.hoovers.com/fp.asp?layout=displaynews&doc_id=NR20030407670.4
_641a0005cd437e52

*  US HAS NO CONFIRMED REPORTS ON FATE OF "CHEMICAL ALI"
Hoover's (Financial Times), from Agence France Presse, 7th April

A senior US commander said here he had no confirmed reports of the fate of
"Chemical Ali," a cousin of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein blamed for a gas
attack on Kurds in 1988.

He was speaking at US Central Command's forward planning base after British
Defence Secretary Geoff Hoon said there were "strong indications" that Ali
Hassan al-Majid, had been killed Monday in a US-British coalition attack in
Basra.

"I don't have any confirmed reports on the condition of the man referred to
as Chemical Ali," Brigadier General Vincent Brooks said.

In London, Hoon told a press conference: "We have some strong indications
that he was killed in the raid conducted Friday night but I can't yet
absolutely confirm the fact that he is dead.

"But that would be certainly my best judgement in the situation."

US military officials said here Sunday that a bodyguard of Majid had been
confirmed dead in a coalition air strike on Saturday in the southern city of
Basra.




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