U.S. AVOIDS MAJOR IRAQI CW FACILITY
WASHINGTON [MENL] -- The regime of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein continues to control at least one major chemical weapons facility.
Western intelligence sources said the facility is located at Al Qaim in western Iraq, near the Jordanian and Syrian borders. They said Al Qaim is believed to be the largest production facility of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. The facility was reconstructed after the 1991 Gulf war.
The U.S.-led coalition has not sought to capture Al Qaim. The sources said Al Qaim remains protected by a large Iraqi Republican Guard and regular army force. The sources said regime officials heading for Syria probably have passed through Al Qaim.
"The thinking is that this would be a costly battle and with the fall of Baghdad, there might be another way to get these [Iraqi] troops to surrender," an intelligence source said.
Sounds like a job for a MOAB. One look at a demonstration of that and they would beg to be taken prisoner. Or we could just use it and eliminate the risk... it would suck the air out of any nooks and crannies and pretty much get rid of even the roaches in that town. Since it's close to Syria I don't relish the idea of trying to play nice with all those wanna-be foreign jihadists that are probably there.
Yeah, just tell them Saddam is dead and Baghdad fell. Like the Iraqis up on Mosul, they probably don't know it yet.