25 March 2003
Iraq Liberation "Closer to Beginning Than End," Rumsfeld Says
(Defense Department report, March 25: military operations in Iraq) (600) U.S. and coalition forces in Iraq are "still ... much closer to the beginning than to the end" of military operations there, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said March 25 at a Pentagon briefing. Rumsfeld, briefing with Air Force General Richard Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, also said that so far Iraqi military resistance hasn't slowed coalition progress. The two officials repeated this theme several times during the briefing, emphasizing that the plan of operations developed by combatant commander General Tommy Franks is on schedule. They said military planners had anticipated attacks by the Fedayeen Saddam -- non-uniformed paramilitary forces, whom Rumsfeld described as essentially terrorists. Myers said nearly 1,000 sorties were flown on March 24, over half of them directed against Iraqi Republican Guard forces arrayed around Baghdad, while others provided close air support for coalition ground forces in the south and for special operating forces in the west. The port of Umm Qasr is now secure, he said, and being prepared to handle humanitarian aid shipments. Close to 4,000 Iraqi soldiers have been taken prisoner, he said. Rumsfeld noted that though Iraqis have engaged in acts of "battlefield treachery" by wearing civilian clothes, using Red Cross-marked vehicles, and waving white flags to lure coalition troops into ambushes, those tactics have had "little tactical military success so far." Myers said, "[S]ome of the biggest losses we've taken are due to Iraqis committing serious violations of the Law of Armed Conflict in the Geneva Conventions by dressing as civilians [and] by luring us into surrender situations, then opening fire on our troops." Both officials were cautious in commenting on reports of a civilian uprising against Iraqi forces inside Basra, Iraq's second-largest city. Rumsfeld said he had not seen the media reports but said coalition forces had initially bypassed Basra on their way north, leaving the city to be dealt with by British forces. "We have intelligence information saying that the Fedayeen Saddam people ... have been moving south in some areas, including Basra," Rumsfeld said. "These are Saddam Hussein's people in there shooting people if they try to leave the city. Anyone who's engaged in an uprising has got a whale of a lot of courage, and I sure hope they're successful," he said. Myers added, "[C]learly ... the people in Basra ... would be happy to be done with this regime. But they're not going to do so as long as they think there's a shred of evidence that there's going to be some threat against them. ... Now we'll look at working those Fedayeen Saddam and Republican Guard that may have come down in civilian uniforms to keep a gun in the back of civilians." Asked about possible Iraqi used of chemical or biological weapons of mass destruction (WMD), Myers answered, "There are plans that General Franks has put together to address that situation. And the one thing we're not going to do is tell you what they are ... because we haven't seen the use of WMD, so far as we know, at this point. But when we do, we have plans to deal with that." Responding to a question about possible Iranian activities that could affect coalition operations in Iraq, Rumsfeld said, "[W]e do see Iran-sponsored forces -- Iraqis, but sponsored and armed and housed previously by Iran -- in (Iraq) in small numbers...." He called their presence "unhelpful." (Distributed by the Office of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)
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