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Saddam alive not behind attacks Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascity/news/breaking_news/6345871.htmhttp://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascity/news/breaking_news/6345871.htm
Posted on Sun, Jul. 20, 2003
Saddam Said Alive but Not Behind Attacks
Associated Press
WASHINGTON - The top U.S. official in Iraq says he believes Saddam Hussein is still alive and remains in the war-battered nation, but is not orchestrating daily attacks on American troops. Also Sunday, two more U.S. soldiers were killed in an ambush in northern Iraq.
U.S. administrator L. Paul Bremer also told NBC's "Meet the Press" that Americans should prepare for a lengthy stay in Iraq. "It's clear that given the size of the task, we are going to be there for a while," he said. "I don't know how many years."
Two soldiers from the 101st Airborne Division were killed and one was injured in an ambush Sunday in northern Iraq, according to the U.S. military. That followed the death Saturday of an American soldier who was shot while guarding a bank in west Baghdad.
The deaths brought to 151 the number of U.S. soldiers killed in action since the March 20 start of the war, four more than the total killed in the 1991 Gulf War.
Bremer said there's no evidence of any central control in the attacks. "What we're seeing is highly professional but very small, sort of squad-level attacks, five or six people at a time attacking us," he said.
But getting the deposed Iraqi dictator would help the situation.
"The sooner we can either kill him or capture him, the better, because the fact that his fate is unknown certainly gives his supporters the chance to go around and try to rally support for him," said Bremer.
In time, Bremer said of Saddam, "we'll get him."
Also Sunday, a U.S. soldier was killed and two others injured when their vehicle crashed and flipped over near Baghdad International Airport, according to a statement from U.S. Central Command in Tampa, Fla.
An angry confrontation developed to the south of Baghdad, meanwhile. In the holy city of Najaf, 10,000 Shiite Muslim demonstrators were blocked by U.S. troops from entering the American headquarters. Some clerics urged demonstrators to turn back. Soldiers used Humvees to barricade the building. There were no reports of shooting or other violence.
The demonstration began after followers of Shiite Muslim cleric Muqtada al-Sadr set out from the Imam Ali shrine on a six-mile march to the U.S. headquarters, shouting slogans against the new Governing Council and the Americans.
"Long live al-Sadr. America and the Council are infidels," chanted the crowds. "Muqtada, go ahead. We are your soldiers of liberation."
Earlier, al-Sadr said in a statement read inside the shrine that he wanted coalition forces to leave the town and allow Iraqis to handle security for themselves. In his Friday sermon, the cleric said he was recruiting for a private army but fell short of calling for armed struggle against the U.S. occupation.
On Saturday, al-Sadr's followers staged a similar demonstration in the capital, marching on the U.S. military and political headquarters in a former Saddam palace. They claimed the U.S. military briefly surrounded al-Sadr's house in Najaf after his incendiary Friday sermon against the American presence.
Al-Sadr, thought to be 30 years old, is not considered a high-ranking Shiite cleric, and most of his support is by virtue of his being the son of Imam Mohammed Sadiq al-Sadr, a top Shiite religious leader who was assassinated by Saddam's agents in 1999.
Also Sunday, a two-car convoy carrying members of the International Organization of Migration was ambushed on a road near the southern city of Hilla when a pickup truck pulled up alongside one of the vehicles and opened fire. One person, an Iraqi driver, died, and three other people were wounded.
Omer Mekki, the deputy director of the World Health Organization in Iraq, said a WHO convoy traveling just a few minutes behind the IOM vehicles treated the injured and brought the driver to a hospital, where he died. Both convoys were clearly marked as United Nations vehicles.
"We're a bit shaken. Everybody is a bit shocked," said Mekki. "But when we were recruited and we came to Iraq, we knew there were risks. An incident like this is not unexpected."
Ahmed Fawzi, a spokesman for the special representative of U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, denounced the attack. "The United Nations is in Iraq to help the Iraqi people. We are not taking sides. We are neutral," he said in Baghdad.
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