'Saddam tape' taunts coalition

2003-07-08 15:20

Baghdad - Saddam Hussein taunted coalition forces on a tape said to be by him on Tuesday, by urging Iraqis to revolt as attacks continued against United States soldiers and their local allies eager to rebuild the country.

A tape attributed to the elusive Saddam, the second in less than a week, was broadcast on Tuesday by a Lebanese television station.

Last week, the Americans placed a $25m (about R188m) bounty on the former strongman's head.

The voice on the tape, which could not immediately be verified, told "Arabs, Kurds, Turkmens, Shi'ites, Sunnis, Muslims and Christians" that "your principal mission is to throw out the invaders by uniting your ranks".

Saddam's latest rallying cry for his loyalists bent on wrecking the US reconstruction efforts came as the CIA said last Friday's message from Saddam was authentic.

Saddam disappeared after invading coalition troops entered Baghdad on April 9.

The US reconstruction efforts - already stumbling from bombings of Iraq's fuel pipelines and sabotage of its power supply, plus the killing of 29 soldiers by guerrilla fighters - faced a new threat onn Tuesday as a pattern emerged of Saddam loyalists targeting pro-US Iraqis.

Iraq's new police force

Unidentified assailants lobbed grenades late on Sunday at a police station in northern Baghdad, injuring two Iraqi policemen, said a US military intelligence officer. He said no US soldiers were wounded in the attack.

At least two attackers threw three or more grenades and shot at the police station in the city's Ash-Shab district, where US military police are training members of Iraq's new police force.

"Two Iraqi police were wounded by shrapnel, one in the hand and one in the pelvis," said the US officer.

The attack follows a weekend bomb attack in Ramadi, about 100km west of Baghdad, in which seven Iraqi police recruits were killed and dozens of others wounded.

Residents in the town said there had been threats warning Iraqis not to co-operate with the US-led coalition before the bombing.

A senior coalition official said last week the US-led authority believed a new phenomenon had emerged of "Iraqi-on-Iraqi" attacks after a number of incidents, including a power worker being gunned down at home.

A military supply centre near Balad, 75km north of Baghdad, also came under several rounds of mortar fire late on Monday, but there were no casualties, said sergeant Patrick Compton.

Twelve Iraqis were detained in connection with the attack, which came four days after 16 soldiers were wounded in another mortar strike on the same base.

With the wave of attacks on US troops and those working with them showing no sign of a let-up, the coalition announced on Tuesday it would offer rewards starting at &2 500 (about R18 800) for information leading to the arrest of the perpetrators.

The announcement said those with information could also directly approach any Iraqi police officer or coalition soldier with information and that tip-offs would be kept confidential.

In another move to boost security, the coalition said it was calling back all members of the interior ministry, but former intelligence officers were not invited to return.

"All Iraqis who worked for the ministry of interior should report back to work by July 22," said the coalition's security advisor Bernard Kerik, a former New York police chief.

Soldier hit in leg

The US boss in Iraq, Paul Bremer, disbanded the ministry in late May, along with Saddam's elaborate web of dreaded state security services.

A military officer in the southern city of Basra said a British soldier was also wounded on a joint patrol with Iraqi police officers at the weekend.

A bullet struck the soldier in the leg as he and Iraqi police patrolled the northern edge of the city on Friday, said Lieutenant-Commander Clive Woodman.

"This is the first incident where someone was injured on patrols in this area since the end of hostilities (in Iraq) was declared" on May 1, he said, adding that the soldier was recovering.

Southern Iraq, dominated by Shi'ite Muslims, has been relatively calm in contrast to the central region.

Six British soldiers were killed last month near the southern town of Amara, in what the military said it believed to be an isolated incident that did not signal growing local resistance.

- AFX