Chicago Sun-Times April 08, 2003
Strike targets Saddam, his sons
By Scott Fornek
U.S. warplanes bombed a "leadership target" in Baghdad on Monday--but it was unclear whether the successful air strike marked the end of Saddam Hussein.
Four enormous bombs were dropped in a residential neighborhood in the Iraqi capital after U.S. military officials received "extremely reliable" intelligence reports that Saddam and his two sons were there, senior administration officials told NBC News.
The building was demolished, but officials were unsure whether Saddam or his sons escaped.
The strike came on a day when Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld declared that Saddam "no longer runs much of Iraq."
"Let me assure all Iraqis listening today that life without Saddam Hussein is not a distant dream," he said at an earlier briefing.
Backing up that boast, U.S. soldiers raided Saddam's presidential palace in Baghdad, lounging in its ornate chairs, swiping ashtrays and other souvenirs and making use of its toilets.
Outside the palace, U.S. troops briefly surrounded the Information Ministry and a landmark hotel and toppled two statues of Saddam, one of them 40 feet tall.
''I do believe this city is freakin' ours,'' boasted Capt. Chris Carter of Watkinsville, Ga.
And if Saddam's fate was uncertain, coalition leaders were more confident that an air strike 250 miles southeast of Baghdad did kill one of his most notorious generals.
"We believe that the reign of terror of 'Chemical Ali' has come to an end," Rumsfeld said.
Rumsfeld was far more cautious about reports that U.S. soldiers were investigating potential caches of chemical weapons, warning that so far, most such reports have been wrong.
And the raids on Baghdad did not come without costs. At least four U.S. troops and two foreign journalists were reported killed, and hundreds of Iraqis were believed killed or wounded. The Russians complained that U.S. troops fired on a Russian convoy of diplomats and journalists as it tried to leave Baghdad on Sunday, injuring at least four people.
Despite the flurry of reports of coalition activity in and around the capital, Iraqi officials continue their daily denial of U.S. advances.
''There is no presence of American infidels in the city of Baghdad, at all,'' said Iraqi Information Minister Mohammed Saeed al-Sahhaf.
Gen. Tommy Franks, head of U.S. Central Command, stayed out of Baghdad, but he visited Iraq for the first time since the war began, conferring with commanders in the field and shaking the hands and slapping the backs of soldiers and Marines.
"You [expletive] people are winning a war here," Franks told U.S. and British troops outside Basra in southern Iraq, according to a journalist's report cleared by Central Command. "Thanks for what you're doing."
Saddam hit?
The air strike came 19 days after a similar "decapitation strike" began Operation Iraqi Freedom.
And officials were just as unsure this time of its success. Intelligence reports put Saddam and his two sons, Udai and Qusai, at a meeting in the neighborhood.
Air Force jets hit the area with four 2,000-pound smart bombs--called "bunker busters," NBC News reported. U.S. officials were confident everyone at the meeting was killed, but they could not say for sure if Saddam and his sons were there.
"There is a big hole where that target used to be,'' one U.S. official said.
The strikes hit a restaurant and other buildings in the neighborhood where Saddam was seen taking a stroll in videotape released Friday, the Washington Times reported. At least 30 Iraqi intelligence officials were at the meeting.
'We're in there'
They plopped into the presidential palace's ornate chairs, lounging around and smoking cigarettes. They stuffed ashtrays, elegant Arab glassware and other keepsakes into pockets and backpacks.
They even used the toilets.
U.S. troops moved into the heart of Baghdad on Monday, and the message was clear as they made themselves comfortable in the New Presidential Palace and another palace nearby.
"We're in there," said Gen. Richard Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. "That's an important message, I think, for the regime and the people of Iraq to understand; that this regime is gone, when you go into a couple of presidential palaces."
The siege on the gold-and-blue domed presidential palace in Baghdad was the deepest penetration yet into the city of 5 million.
Inside the palace, the Army's 3rd Infantry set up a prisoner of war compound.
Soldiers pawed through documents and took ashtrays, pillows, gold-painted Arab glassware and other keepsakes. And they ogled Saddam's hot tubs, barbecue pits, gold-painted faux French furniture and television sets--one in every room.
''This used to be a nice place, they should make it like a Six Flags, or something,'' said Army Spc. Robert Blake, 20, of State College, Pa.
Hundreds of Iraqis slain
The siege of key Baghdad targets came after a bloody fight along the city's southern edge.
An estimated 600 to 1,000 Iraqi troops were killed during the operation, said Col. David Perkins.
''We had a lot of suicide attackers today,'' he said. ''These guys are going to die in droves.''
An Iraqi missile attack on the 3rd Infantry Division south of Baghdad killed two soldiers and two journalists, Central Command reported. Another 15 soldiers were injured in the attack on an infantry position south of the city.
The slain journalists were Julio A. Parrado of Spain's El Mundo newspaper and Christian Liebig of Germany's Focus weekly magazine, according to El Mundo.
On the other side of town, an artillery shell hit an armored personnel carrier, killing two Marines and wounding two others, said Lt. Col. B.P. McCoy.
The unofficial total of coalition fatalities was 86 U.S. troops and 28 British.
'Disinformation minister'
It has become somewhat of a daily ritual:
Iraqi's information minister discounting coalition gains.
"Be assured: Baghdad is safe, secure and great," al-Sahhaf said. ''They are sick in their minds. They say they brought 65 tanks into center of city. I say to you this talk is not true. There is no presence of American infidels in the city of Baghdad, at all.''
He was standing on a Baghdad rooftop, speaking over the blare of sirens, smoke billowing behind him, MSNBC reported. Nearby, a U.S. shell exploded.
CNN's Wolf Blitzer dubbed al-Sahhaf Iraq's "disinformation minister."
"He takes stretching the truth to a whole new level," Blitzer said.
But not all Arabs are discounting his message, questioning U.S. claims of victories.
''How can we know this is for real and not just coalition propaganda?'' said Haitham al-Bawardi, 30, an accounting instructor in Saudi Arabia. ''We had hoped Saddam would inflict as many casualties on the invaders as possible to teach them a lesson and make them think twice before striking another Arab country.''
'Chemical Ali' dead?
He had a nickname that conveyed his brutality, a place in Saddam's inner circle and a reputation for being elusive.
But the man opponents dubbed "Chemical Ali" could be a goner. Ali Hassan al-Majid, Saddam Hussein's cousin, was believed killed Saturday by an air strike on his home. Two coalition aircraft fired laser-guided munitions at al-Majid's home in Basra, 250 miles southeast of Baghdad, U.S. and British officials said.
"To Iraqis who have suffered at this hands, particularly in the last few weeks in that southern part of the country, he will never again terrorize you or your families," Rumsfeld said.
A body believed to be his was found along with that of his bodyguard and the head of Iraqi intelligence services in Basra.
Al-Majid earned his nickname for ordering a 1988 poison gas attack that killed an estimated 5,000 Kurds and seriously wounded another 10,000 during a rebellion.
Saddam sent him to Basra to defend southern Iraq and clamp down on any potential uprising as coalition forces came in to liberate Shiites already unhappy with Saddam's regime.
Smoking gun?
The drums found in an underground bunker at an agricultural facility outside Karbala tested positive for a nerve agent and a blistering agent. But military officials were not yet ready to declare it the the smoking gun proving Saddam stockpiled weapons of mass destruction.
"This could be either some type of pesticide, because this was an agricultural compound,'' Gen. Benjamin Freakly told CNN. ''On the other hand, it could be a chemical agent, not weaponized.''
That means the chemicals were in 25- and 55-gallon drums, not in missiles, bombs or any other "delivery" device, Freakly said. Field tests were positive, but further analysis at laboratories in the United States is scheduled.
But reports from other reporters traveling with different military units suggested other potential chemical weapons sites, as well. Missile warheads tipped with the nerve gas sarin were discovered at one site, ABC News reported. And National Public Radio reported a cache of 20 missiles equipped with sarin and mustard gases, although ABC News suggested that could be the same as they site they were reporting on.
Rumsfeld voiced caution, and some skepticism, about the news.
"We have to recognize that almost all first reports that we get turn out to be wrong," he said. "I think the prudent thing in a case like this would be to kind of let the thing play itself out, and we'll see what's what. We'll eventually know."
Russians angry
Tensions have been strained between the U.S. and Russia during Operation Iraqi Freedom--a military operation Russia opposes.
They probably won't improve much now that Russia's ambassador to Iraq is complaining that four Russian diplomats were injured when U.S. troops fired on one of his convoys. It was leaving Baghdad for Syria on Sunday.
''The firing from the Americans lasted for about 30 to 40 minutes,'' ambassador Vladimir Titorenko told the Saudi-owned Al-Arabiya satellite channel before heading for Syria. ''The economic counselor tried to signal to let them know we are foreigners but they fired at him and now he is suffering wounds to the head.''
In Qatar, Brig. Gen. Vincent Brooks could not confirm a U.S. role in the episode.
'Standing with heroes'
Wearing a black beret, desert camouflage and a 9mm Beretta tucked in the small of his back, Franks stepped foot in Iraq for the first time since Operation Iraqi Freedom began.
During his seven-hour visit, he visited three cities--Zubayr outside Basra, Numaniya and an Najaf--conferring with senior officers and trying to boost the spirits of coalition troops.
"General Franks is a forceful, physical man," according to a "pool" report filed by a New York Times reporter allowed to accompany the general. "He greeted officers and enlisted men alike with hugs, arm slaps and chest thumps."
Franks gave brief speeches to the troops, posed for photographs and pinned medals on a couple of Army sergeants at the local headquarters of the 101st Airborne in An Najaf.
"There's something that's real special about standing with heroes," Franks told the troops. "And I don't just mean these two young sergeants. What I meant was you. All of you, half a world away from your home."
Franks also said he learned some things that might cause him to adjust his battle plans, suggesting--but not saying outright-- that war could end sooner than he had originally planned.
"There's some insight there that permitted me to form some opinions about how long it might last," he said in an interview aboard his plane, after leaving Iraq.
"And I probably won't tell you what those opinions are. It was encouraging. It was encouraging."
Contributing: Ana Mendieta, AP, MSNBC, NBC News, CNN, GlobalSecurity.org
Copyright © 2003, Chicago Sun-Times
