Posted on 11/19/2004 3:20:43 PM PST by conservativecorner
BAGHDAD — Insurgents captured in Fallujah have told Iraqi military interrogators that most of those fighting in Fallujah were former security officers for the regime of Saddam Hussein.
The insurgents said Saddam organized special operations units, starting in 2001, to counter any foreign invasion in Iraq. Most of those units, the insurgents said, are still active in the Sunni Triangle.
Officials said the Sunni insurgency was being directed from Syria. They said Saddam loyalists were receiving funding and orders from senior aides of the former Saddam regime based in Damascus, including ex-Vice President Izzet Ibrahim Al Douri.
Iraqi Interior Minister Faleh Hassan Al Naqib said his government and the U.S.-led coalition faced a revolt throughout the Sunni Triangle, Middle East Newsline reported. Al Naqib said the revolt was being directed by a unified command and control network led by Saddam loyalists. He said the insurgents sought to prevent or disrupt national elections scheduled for Jan. 27.
"The battle for Fallujah has become the test for Saddam loyalists," an Iraqi official said. "Fallujah was the center of the terrorism and the symbol of the terrorists."
The uprising in the Sunni Triangle has included insurgents who had been based in Fallujah. Officials said Sunni insurgents, including Abu Mussib Al Zarqawi, and up to 2,000 fighters left Fallujah over the last two months to launch a revolt in other cities.
At a news conference in Baghdad, on Nov. 16, Al Naqib said the great majority of insurgency casualties in Fallujah were Iraqi nationals. He said only 24 foreigners were found dead among the more than 1,250 reported killed in 10 days of fighting in Fallujah.
Al Naqib identified Mohammed Yunus Ahmad as the key liasion and coordinator between Saddam loyalists in Syria and Iraqi insurgents. Ahmad had been a minister and a senior official in Iraq's ruling Baath Party.
Al Naqib also said Saddam formed an Islamic insurgency group Jaysh Mohammed, composed of former special operations officers. The minister said the leader of the group, identified as Moayad Yassin Ahmed, was arrested on Nov. 15. Ahmed, also known as Abu Ahmed, was identified as a former officer in the Iraqi Air Defense Command.
Ahmed was said to have met former Iraqi minister Al Ahmed in Syria to coordinate the Sunni insurgency in Iraq. Al Naqib said Saddam established Jaysh Mohammed as the military wing of the Baath Party in April 2003 after the fall of the regime.
Officials said the Iraqi resistance appears to have changed tactics and no longer seeks a head-on clash with the U.S. military for the control of major cities. Instead, Saddam loyalists and foreign volunteers have launched attacks on police stations and other facilities meant to intimidate security forces and seize weapons and material.
"This ultimately is not going to be won in the kinetic sense — in battle," U.S. Army Chief of Staff Gen. Peter Schoomaker, told the House Armed Services Committee on Wednesday. "It's going to be won in having Iraqis taking ownership and investing their own personal sweat and blood." Iraq's interim government has been bracing for an insurgency throughout the Sunni Triangle.
Iraqi officials said the U.S.-led invasion of Fallujah has sparked a revolt in cities throughout the Sunni Triangle. They cited insurgency campaigns in Baghdad, Baiji, Baqubah, Hadith, Mosul, Ramadi, Samara and Tikrit.
Thats very interesting.
Time to change the techniques used to interrogate Saddam Hussein.
It would have been very helpful if some of the billions of dollars we have spent on salaries, benefits and now pensions for CIA martini drinkers would have been used to put one or two agents in Iraq before the war.
The price our young men and women are paying right now in Iraq is directly the result of whimpy behavior by our "spymasters." That is a disgrace. People ought to go to jail.
Maybe we have finally found the "Weapons of Mass Destruction?" Who else but these shiftless men would be more p*ssed, more blood-thirsty and more "disenfranchised" than the men displaced by the fall of Saddam Hussein and his fat payroll, courtesy of the United Nations? Just a thought...
Only 24 foreign nationals killed in Fallujah?
Obviously, I'd have hoped for more...but OTOH, there's 24 less a-holes we'll have to deal with in the future.
Unless I had heard wrong, it was my impression that Fallujah was a hot-bed for the foreign national Islamocrazies.
Well, if Saddam is behind it, and we have Saddam, shouldn't Saddam be able to end it? Seems like Saddam needs to be given a choice: order an end to the insurgency or suffer the consequences. I propose we threaten to put him back in the Spider Hole ... with Helen Thomas and Madeline Albright ... armed only with marital aids.
Also, if this has been planned all along then OUR ACTIONS are NOT recruiting MORE AL QAEDA. This is just the MSM's attempt to undermine our progress in IRAQ.
There should be NO DOUBT in any thinking person's mind any longer that the 'missing' WMD are in FACT in Syria......Time to rethink our strategy and attack that cesspool sooner rather than later.
Well I'll be.
It's time to change the techniques used in dealing with Assad Jr. of Syria.
I absolutely agree.
This guy is obviously not getting it.
The stuff about loyalists in Syria running things I've heard about before. That's something that needs to be taken care of.
Quote: ime to change the techniques used to interrogate Saddam Hussein.
---
NO, he's long out of the loop.
Time to start massing carriers in the Med, and troops on the Syrian border with JStars 24hour surveilence of that border.
Time to have Colon make one last visit to Assad.
Don't accept everything at face value.
These people don't carry ID, and you can't ask the DEAD any questions.
Fox news had their Iraqi translater review some of the tape of of insurgents fireing mortars. He said 90 percent were Saudis and Iranians. He could tell by the accent.
So it looks like Syria is next. I don't think an invasion is needed. A few hundred well placed 2000 lb. bombs should do it. Need to secure the last open flank before taking on Iran anyway.
"most of those fighting in Fallujah were former security officers for the regime of Saddam Hussein. "
"The battle for Fallujah has become the test for Saddam loyalists," an Iraqi official said. "Fallujah was the center of the terrorism and the symbol of the terrorists."
And it's one of these that the liberals are feeling so sorry for, that the Marine shot. He probably saved many lives by shooting the terrorist.
Several terrorists who were captured, kept at Gitmo, then released, went back to their terrorist ways and continued to attack and kill innocents, including Americans.
The terrorist that the marine shot will never hurt anyone again.
He should get a medal, not criticism.
I agree, my statement was more of a wish that Saddam not be treated as well as he has been.
Naqib must have missed the memo about Saddam being a secularist who doesn't work with Islamist radicals.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.