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Posted on 04/13/2002 8:11:00 AM PDT by Fitzcarraldo
Arbil - The Iraqi authorities have diverted the largest portion of their civilian land transport fleet to military purposes, eyewitnesses said.
They said Transport and Communications Minister Ahmad Murtadha recently supervised an exercise involving 500 heavy trucks at one of Baghdad's main car parks.
The witnesses said the exercise conducted to train drivers on how to assist the armed forces once the United States launches air and missile strikes against Iraq.
Washington has made the change of government in Baghdad part of its foreign policy priorities. Iraq has responded by large-scale mobilization.
Following a briefing in the park, the trucks were instructed to move to military camps and transfer troops to areas in the outskirts of Baghdad.
Last month, the United States presented the U.N. Security Council with satellite images showing that Iraq has converted 1,000 trucks received under its U.N.-supervised oil-for- food program into missile launchers and other military vehicles.
The photographs showed that dump trucks were stripped and diverted for possible usage in air defense and missile systems. But Iraq denied the accusation.
publisher: Iraq Press (London)
Posted: 2002-04-12
Tehran - Iraq and Iran are working together to account for all the soldiers who were captured or went missing during their 1980-1988 War, a senior Iranian official said.
Abdullah al-Najafi, head of Iran's POWs and MIAs department, said the countries were holding talks which he hoped would ultimately lead to the closure of the "this file."
Al-Najafi said Iraq and Iran have so far repatriated 100,000 POWs, 60,000 of them were Iraqis.
The POWs issue has been one of the most controversial since the countries agreed to a U.N.-brokered ceasefire in 1988. More than one million soldiers on both sides were either killed or injured during the eight-year war.
But solving the POWs issue is just one of the problems hindering rapprochement between the former foes. Other thorny issues include the presence of armed opposition groups on each other's territory and payment of war reparations.
The countries still need to sign a peace treaty, demarcate the international borders particularly in the disputed Shatt al-Arab Waterway.
"The Iraqi authorities have diverted the largest portion of their civilian land transport fleet to military TARGETS, eyewitnesses said."
LET'S ROLL!!!!!
As well they should. The end approaches...
MTR.
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Hey Mr. Saddam........while your at it, why don't you paint big bull's eyes on the tops of the trucks.
Risk American lives?
or
nuke 'em
Let's have a plebocite on July 4th.
the horror! Iraq actually trying to defend itself after being threatened with invasion. How dare they!
I feel the same way. "How dare they!" Don't most nations on the face of this earth know that losing a war to the US is the best way to get rich fast?
"Reach for the sky, partner!"
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