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Wednesday, March 26, 2003
Saddam to unleash chemical weapons
BAGHDAD—-Iraqi leaders are believed to be waiting for US and British troops to reach Baghdad to launch a chemical weapons attack, a US official said, as coalition forces opened a new phase of the war.
There is an analysis based on a variety of sources that Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein “might reserve any chemical weapons until coalition forces got closer to center of Baghdad,” the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
CBS News cited unnamed US officials as saying that Iraqi leaders had drawn a red line on the map around Baghdad—and once US troops cross it, elite Republican Guard units are authorized to use chemical weapons.
“Obviously, the closer we get to Baghdad, the more he has to lose, and the riskier it is. But we are ready,” said a Pentagon official.
The report came as the United States opened a new phase of the war against Iraq, engaging a Republican Guard division near Baghdad for the first time with AH-64 Apache helicopter gunships.
US Secretary of State Colin Powell said the United States had reports that Saddam had authorized the use of chemical weapons against Shiite Muslims in southern Iraq in order to blame the attacks on US forces.
“We have to be careful here because the world knows he’s done it before and were he to do it again, it would be immediate ack-nowledgement of the fact that he has weapons of mass destruction of the kind he has swearing he does not have,” Powell said in an interview with Fox News channel.
Chemical Ali
Minutes before Powell’s comments, a senior State Department official said the reports led Washington to believe that Saddam had given such authority to one of his top generals, Ali Hassan al-Majid, also known as “Chemical Ali.”
“Chemical Ali, the general who carried out the Halabja massacre, is reported to have authority to use chemical weapons against the Shia and then try to blame it on us,” the State Department official said.
The poison gas attack on Halabja, 15 years ago this month, killed about 5,000 Kurds, mostly women and children, in the northern town.
Coalition troops yesterday stood poised for the battle on Baghdad, with overnight air strikes pounding the capital and ground forces said to be positioned less than 100 kilometers from the seat of Saddam’s regime.
For the sixth consecutive night, Baghdad came under heavy attack from the air, with raids also striking south of the capital, believed to hold barracks housing Saddam’s elite Republican Guard.
Dark clouds of smoke from burning fuel trenches rose up on city outskirts in the early morning, as intense bombing raids appeared to hit southern suburbs, where Washington says the Republican Guard is defending the city’s approaches.
US or British warplanes could be heard roaring over the capital, but could not be seen amid the smoke.
Resistance
But the US-led coalition continued to face resistance on multiple fronts.
Heavy fighting was reported through the night around the key southern city of Nasiriyah, with continued Iraqi resistance also in the southern port of Umm Qasra and around the oil terminal city of Basra.
After a string of military setbacks and the capture and death of coalition troops Sunday and Monday, there was some good news on the military front when a column of about 4,000 US Marines crossed the Euphrates River in Nasiriyah, despite a barrage of fire.
But a dense sandstorm in the southwest slowed a critical helicopter advance on Baghdad by the US 101st Airborne.
And with the US-led troops marching closer to Baghdad, fears of chemical warfare flared anew.
On the economic front, shares and the dollar again retreated on Asian markets, amid fading hopes of a quick war with little Iraqi resistance. Oil prices have hiked on similar fears.
The issue of the cost of the war also resurfaced in Washington, as President George W. Bush is to ask Congress for about $63 billion for the Iraq conflict and other extra security costs.
Sharp words
On the diplomatic front, Washington and Moscow exchanged sharp words over the alleged delivery of Russian arms and electronic equipment to Iraq.
The Arab League demanded an urgent UN Security Council meeting and the United States continued difficult talks with Turkey on the explosive issue of Turkish troops entering Iraqi-controlled Kurdistan.
Amid the bombardments of Baghdad, Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Tareq Aziz heaped scorn at a press conference on US and British claims of rapid progress.
Iraqi state television showed videotape of two men whose Apache attack helicopter it said had been shot down by a farmer in southern Iraq. The men were not heard speaking and did not appear to be injured.
The television said they were “prisoners of war” who would be treated in accordance with the Geneva conventions.
“Saddam Hussein is in total control of his country,” Aziz said. “He Hussein is in total control of his armed forces and his people and the (ruling) Baath party.... We are all with him.”
Civilian woes
Six days into the US-led war, Iraq’s civilians are still waiting for the food, water and other help Washington and London promised they would distribute behind their advancing soldiers.
But with unexpectedly tough combat holding up the humanitarian aid convoys, hope is rapidly turning to anger against the soldiers, seen increasingly as invaders.
The UN Children’s Fund warned that at least 100,000 children in Basra were at risk of disease after water supplies were cut following air strikes.
In Cairo, Arab foreign ministers called for the “immediate withdrawal” of US and British forces from Iraq and condemned the invasion as an “aggression,” although Kuwait refused to join the others. AFP
(March 26, 2003 issue)
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