The Hindu : Spotlight on Ba'ath cadre

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Mar 30, 2003

International

International

Spotlight on Ba'ath cadre

By Atul Aneja

AS SAYLIYAH (Qatar) March 29. Awaiting the arrival of reinforcements before launching a full scale ground attack on Baghdad, the U.S. and British forces have intensified their assault on the Iraqi paramilitary forces and are taking steps to deny Iraq any support from neighbouring Syria and Iran. The U.S. Central Command officials here denied any `pause' in the Anglo-American military operations in Iraq, but acknowledged that developments in the battlefield might be forcing a modification in their military tactics. In an indication that the Anglo-American forces had begun to pay special military attention to the Iraqi Ba'ath party cadres and the Fidayeen paramilitary machinery, Central Command officials confirmed that coalition aircraft had attacked the Ba'ath party headquarters in Basra overnight.

Without elaborating on the number of casualties, Victor Renuart, of the U.S. Air Force, who briefed the media here, said that nearly 200 senior Ba'ath party activists belonging to its `planning' cell were inside the building at the time of the raid. British and U.S. officials have accused "death squads" of the Fidayeen units, masterminded by the Ba'ath party for curbing a mass uprising against the regime of the Iraqi President, Saddam Hussein, in Basra. They have also held the units responsible for the guerilla attacks on advancing U.S. troops and supply columns that have headed in the direction of Baghdad.

In yet another indication that the U.S. forces were being hampered by unconventional warfare, Major General Renuart confirmed that five U.S. troops were killed at a checkpoint near Najaf on account of an Iraqi suicide attack in the last 24 hours. U.S. forces, he said, had also warded off an Iraqi assault mounted by its elite Medina division against the coalition forces around the city of Najaf.

Around 50 Republican guard soldiers were killed in the battle, in which 30 U.S. Apache "tank-busting" helicopters participated.

Anticiapting that the bigger battles for Baghdad may have been postponed, the U.S. and British forces have recorded partial success in consolidating their hold over captured territory in Southern Iraq. The large Basra refinery has been fully `secured', but the British hold over the entire Faw peninsula still appears incomplete. Gen. Renuart acknowledged that it was possible that the Iraqi missile attack on a Kuwaiti shopping centre in the early hours on Saturday might have been launched from the Faw peninsula.

Anticipating fierce combat in the coming days, the coalition leadership has begun to look seriously at ways to deny the Iraqi regime, support from neighbouring Syria and Iran.

Coalition aircraft operating in the Iraqi western desert zone have reportedly hit an oil pipeline that can carry Iraqi oil from the Kirkuk and Mosul fields to Syria's Mediterranean oil terminal of Banias.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

International

Stories in this Section

Spotlight on Ba'ath cadre

'Disappointed' Blix to step down

Iraq war will spur terrorism: India, Russia

Pak. denounces Sinha's remarks

Japan reschedules Pak. debt

Govt. underestimated Iraqi resistance, feels U.S. public

Syrian actions hostile: Rumsfeld

'U.S. supply ban will have no impact'

I-Flex CEO's bail plea to be heard on Wednesday