Fedayeen flee the craters, the grenades and the stink

Financial Times ^ | Published: April 5 2003 5:00 | By Andrzej Rybak in Nasiriya

[miltonim]

The Fedayeen in Nasiriya must have panicked and rushed out of their quarters. The white walls are covered with bullet holes. There are missile craters in the courtyard. They have left machinegun ammunition and hand and mortar grenades. The Fedayeen militia, Saddam Hussein's paramilitary group, have not even taken the books in which they registered their members by name.

In the inner court of the building there are all-terrain vehicles, built in Russia, that are burnt out. But the US troops who are the first to enter the site also recognise two trucks from the US military that had carried US soldiers ambushed on the third day of the war. Several US soldiers were taken prisoner of war, one of them Private Jessica Lynch, who was later rescued from Nasiriya's Saddam Hospital.

In one of the rooms, the soldiers find a US military jacket bearing the name "Rose". "It looks as if the Iraqis held our folks here," says Sergeant Robert Rivera of the 15th Marine Expeditionary Unit.

From a corner of the courtyard a heavy metal door with three locks leads to a windowless room. At eye level there is only a small meshed hole.

This is where the Fedayeen probably held their prisoners. The room stinks of faeces and urine. Thin mattresses lie on the concrete floor, along with some soiled blankets.

There are suspicious holes in the wall. Is it possible prisoners were tortured in here? From the lamp on the ceiling some cables dangle.

Methem Achmed Jabar, a Nasiriya resident, says: "The Fedayeen tortured the regime's critics in this complex."

He recounts one of his own experiences: "Last year, I saw myself how they beheaded six men in the middle of this courtyard with swords." The militia men let the people watch to intimidate them.

In these rooms, the Fedayeen have left black uniform shirts and shoes. Gas masks lie around; the wrapping appears new. The German company Dräger from Lübeck made them and there are directions for use in Arabic. One of the marines is getting angry: "German companies have equipped Iraqi militia."

[miltonim]

Graphic showing details of Saddam's Fedayeen paramilitary group(AFP)

[Diogenesis]

========= Nasiriyah =========

In Nasiriyah, Iraq, freed Iraqis.

---

In Nasiriyah, Iraq, Marine engineers blow up the artillery abandoned
by the Iraqi military.

[mewzilla]

...have not even taken the books in which they registered their members by name.

Hope we're making a list...

[COBOL2Java]

Hope we're making a list...

And checking it twice...

[dts32041]

And checking it twice.

[Dark Wing]

More Fedayeen Data for you to chew on.

[whadizit]

Wow! Reports of their cruelty are unending!

[Burkeman1]

The Fedayeen are a poor man's Waffen SS. They are allied to Sadaam not out of ideology but out of tribal or regional loyalty. The Waffen SS were far more dangerous. They were fanatical ideolouges with the highest of combat training. I doubt the Fedayeen have a tenth of the training or military prowness of the Nazi Waffen SS. The Fedayeen are more like the concentration camp SS- simply brutal butchers and cowards in combat.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

OFFICIAL BUMP(TOPIC)LIST

[4.1O dana super trac pak]

mil,

link is bad

[miltonim]

Sorry. Did not mean it as a link, but rather as a description of where the picture came from. http://us.news2.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/p/afp/20030329/capt.sge.pwn32.290303220805.photo00.default-321x390.jpg

[MEG33]

It gives me hope that justice may be brought to these animals someday.

[ABG(anybody but Gore)]

...have not even taken the books in which they registered their members by name.

Oops!

[au eagle]

To quote Dennis Miller: We're kicking ass and taking hyphenated names!

[kms61]

Nitpick...there was a good bit of crossover between the Waffen SS and concentration camp personnel. In fact the Totenkopf Division of the Waffen SS drew its personnel largely from the ranks of cocentration camp guards.

It's a mistake to try to draw a distinction between the Waffen SS and other parts of the SS. It was a criminal organization in its entirety, and there was no honor in belonging to any branch of it.

Not directed at you in particular, I've just seen the premise put forward before and I don't want to go down that road in this thread.

[Prince Charles]

In these rooms, the Fedayeen have left black uniform shirts and shoes. Gas masks lie around; the wrapping appears new. The German company Dräger from Lübeck made them and there are directions for use in Arabic. One of the marines is getting angry: "German companies have equipped Iraqi militia."

Message to Blix: Dein kopf vierecking ist!

[Burkeman1]

Oh- I think you are right. The Waffen SS would have had no problem in doing the job of the SS guards at concentration camps. The Waffen SS committed atrocities very similiar to what we see now in Iraq- using civilians as cover. But the waffen SS was far better trained in combat than this Fedeeyan of Sadamm. I don't think, in combat, the two compare.