Free Republic

<p>Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said yesterday that uncertainty over Saddam Hussein's fate is giving the former Iraqi leader's hard-core supporters incentive to mount deadly guerrilla attacks on American troops trying to rebuild Iraq.</p> <p>"There are people who may fear that he could come back," Mr. Rumsfeld told reporters traveling with the secretary as he visited European war allies.</p>

SHATRA, Iraq (Reuters) - U.S. Marines have launched a dawn raid on the town of Shatra, north of Nassiriya, aiming to kill senior Iraqi officials they believe are directing guerrilla attacks, Reuters correspondent Sean Maguire has reported. Among those targeted was Ali Hassan al-Majeed, or "Chemical Ali", the cousin whom President Saddam Hussein has put in charge of the southern front. Majeed earned his nickname for overseeing the use of poison gas against Kurdish villagers in 1988. The Marines were storming the town, about 35 km (20 miles) north of the city of Nassiriya, with warplanes dropping precision-guided bombs, helicopter...