Posted on 04/04/2003 11:34:41 AM PST by yonif
BAGHDAD, Iraq, April 4 (UPI) -- Iraq threatened coalition soldiers occupying Saddam International Airport near Baghdad Friday with "non-conventional action" in the coming hours.
Information Minister Mohammed Saeed al-Sahhaf said Iraqis were preparing "non-conventional action...," Friday night and Saturday morning and said "I believe it will be something very beautiful for those mercenaries."
Al-Sahhaf later said he was referring to suicide-type attacks.
"Most probably, none of them will emerge alive unless they surrender quickly. They are completely surrounded," he told reporters in Baghdad.
When asked what he meant with "non-conventional action," he said: "We will not use non-conventional weapons but it will be a non-conventional operation and martyrdom (suicide) operations."
"If they don't surrender what remains from their soldiers, I believe that there is a big chance they won't survive," he said.
He explained that the coalition forces "came from specific open locations with the hope that the reaction of our forces will be conventional and then they would catch them with their aerial supremacy. We deprived those mercenaries from these illusions."
He said the Iraqi combatants from the army, Republican Guards, tribes, Baath Party and Saddam Fedayeen engaged in fierce fighting and inflicted heavy human and material losses on the Americans. He counted the destruction of 15 tanks, 8 armored personnel carriers and several other military vehicles.
He said the forces in Massir in Hindiya area were forced to flee to south of Qaddissiya, while the battle in al-Youssifiya was still going on. He said the coalition force in Abu Ghareeb north of Baghdad was completely isolated from the other force that landed in Saddam
International Airport.
"They dropped five columns (at the airport) and they were hoping that they would be joined by all the other forces," al-Sahhaf said, adding that the Iraqi forces succeeded "until today in making those columns separate islands" and we have enough determination to keep them in this island" at the airport.
When asked by journalists when they could go to check the airport, he said: "Soon, we will take you -- just to clean it from the mercenaries."
He said Iraqi combatants, who were also joined by a number of Arab martyrdom (suicide) attackers and volunteers, engaged in three battles with the coalition forces who attempted several times to enter the suburbs of the southern city of Basra. He said three tanks and one APC were destroyed with their crew members and British intelligence officers in a Land Rover were killed.
He added that a Black Hawk helicopter was also shot downed Thursday in Karbala.
Asked about the car bomb explosion, which killed three coalition soldiers in western Iraq, al-Sahhaf: "I felt sad because I hoped 30."
He accused the coalition forces of disrupting power supply in Baghdad and its outskirts by dropping fiberglass on the electric network in the capital and al-Qaddisiya.
Referring to U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld as "Great Ayatollah Donald Rumsfeld," he said that Shiite religious leaders responded to his false claims that they issued Fatwas (religious edicts) calling on Iraqis to collaborate with the coalition forces.
Al-Sahhaf denounced U.S. State Secretary Colin Powell who was in Europe "talking about how they would partition Iraq's gains after war" and "I tell them: wait and don't hurry because your disappointment will be great and you will only harvest shame and defeat."
"Post-war is Iraq itself with the leadership of Saddam Hussein. We will chase them as war criminals ... and after the collapse of the invasion, the U.S. won't be a superpower anymore. Its collapse will be quick," he said.
When asked when he did last see Saddam, he did not answer.
Shortly afterwards, the Iraqi President appeared on Iraqi TV to urge Baghdad residents not to let the coalition forces "disturb their steadfastness" and to promise them victory.
(Dalal Saoud in Beirut, Lebanon, contributed to this report.)
Whoa - if nothing else, he seems to have a ready supply of some really good drugs.
That fella on the speach today was reading his notes *without glasses*.
Saddam needed coke-bottle glasses to read.
This is the part that makes the least sense. I can't even guess what this is supposed to mean.
This is the part that makes the least sense. I can't even guess what this is supposed to mean.
We have bombs that release clouds of long carbon "threads", which short out electrical equipment when they fall down and drape over adjacent power lines, transformer contacts, etc.
Given the 'high moral ground' < /sarcasm> that the Iraqi leadership has demonstated in the past; I read this threat to mean that they will nerve gas Baghdad. I believe that they will intentionally kill as many civilians as possible, and then exclaim "Look, see what you made me do" in an effort to use the USA as a scapegoat. When in truth, IMHO their opinion is that if Saddam can't rule Baghdad, no one will.
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.