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US threatens to use biggest bomb as hunt switches north
The United States stepped up the military and psychological pressure on the Baathist stronghold of Tikrit yesterday as the hunt for Saddam Hussein and leading members of his regime began to focus on areas to the north and west of Baghdad.In what looked to be a calculated propaganda move, the Pentagon issued a thinly disguised threat to deploy â for the first time in the war â the biggest non-nuclear bomb in its arsenal, the 21,000lb massive ordnance air burst. The warning came as Allied forces continued the aerial bomb- ardment of Tikrit and the Republican Guards protecting the town. Somehow I just knew this war wasn't going to end before we used the MOAB. American commanders believe that some of the regime's members may have fled north to Tikrit or west to Syria. US intelligence â using human sources and surveillance devices â was said to be reporting that the leadership had virtually disappeared. Even the hitherto relentlessly visible Information Minister, Mohammed Saeed al-Sahaf, has vanished. Personally I enjoyed Baghdad Bob's rants. I could listen to him on Fox and read KCNA at the same time -- a double dose! Military sources at Central Command have suggested that the uniformity of the withdrawal, which extended even to the minders for foreign journalists in the Iraqi capital, implied that some form of central command and control was still operating. CIA analysts in Qatar and Langley, Virginia, are said to believe the likeliest explanation was an order issued in President Saddam's name. "Run for your lives! That's an order!" The sources suggested that this was a more probable explanation than the death of the Iraqi dictator when the US dropped four 2,000lb bombs on a restaurant in Baghdad's Mansur district on Monday. Although President Saddam was reported to have entered the building shortly before the bombing, British intelligence sources have said that he escaped by minutes. The mystery over President Saddam's whereabouts deepened when the Iraqi National Congress leader, Ahmed Chalabi, told CNN of unconfirmed reports indicating that the Iraqi President had taken refuge in the city of Baqubah, north-east of Baghdad. He said that his son Qusay had survived and "is occupying some houses in the Diyala area". But US commanders have made clear throughout this week their close interest in Tikrit, President Saddam's birthplace and a town on the Tigris 90 miles north of Baghdad. On Wednesday Brigadier General Vince Brooks showed reporters video shots of the bombing of command and control facilities in the area. US special forces have also set up checkpoints on the main roads between Baghdad and Tikrit to prevent movement between the two cities. Big Gen Brooks went on to say that Iraqi troops had been deployed to reinforce defences around the town, including the Adnan Mechanised Division of the General Richard Myers, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said ten or more Iraqi army divisions â as many as 80,000 troops â were between Baghdad and Kurdish- controlled northern Iraq. How many of them want to be the last guy to die for Saddam? How many of them will be there next week? By contrast, Major-General Gene Renuart, director of operations at US Central Command, acknowledged that there were no "substantial" ground forces in the area. The US Fourth Infantry Division, which is disembarking in Kuwait, is known to be preparing to deploy there and forward units could arrive in the area as early as next week. Meanwhile, US operations increased around al-Quaim, a town on the Euphrates close to the Syrian border and a likely crossing point for Can't imagine the Iraqi regular army guys wanting to die in such a Gawd-forsaken place. Posted by: Steve White 2003-04-11 |
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