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Search for Saddam gears up
27/06/2003 09:11 - (SA)
Donna Abu-Nasr and Borzou Daragahi
Baghdad - The hunt for Saddam Hussein is taking on new urgency because of the rise in attacks on United States forces - two soldiers were killed and two reported missing on Thursday alone.
There also is the concern that his possible return will spur revolt against US forces and frighten Iraqis from co-operating with American reconstruction efforts.
The US Army is being inundated with tips about Saddam's alleged whereabouts, and an elite special operations force is carrying out hundreds of raids and setting up checkpoints throughout central Iraq.
It's an open question whether Saddam is alive, but getting an answer is important, said Lieutenant-General John Abizaid, nominated to replace General Tommy Franks as head of US Central Command, to a US senate panel on Wednesday.
"It's important because the fear factor is high.
"It's important because he was a brutal dictator who killed hundreds of thousands of his own people, and it's important for the Iraqi people to come to closure with this nightmare that he imposed on them."
Task Force 20
The Americans have assembled a secret team of special forces, called Task Force 20, to hunt down Saddam and his sons, Odai and Qusai, and other members of his inner circle.
US army Major Josslyn Aberle, a spokesperson for the Fourth Infantry division, and Lieutenant-Colonel Bill MacDonald of the Fourth Infantry division declined to disclose details about Task Force 20's methods and operations, citing security concerns. But they agreed to speak generally about the hunt for Saddam.
The force used standard equipment such as Bradley fighting vehicles, Humvees and helicopters, said Aberle.
Special detachments from regular army units provided checkpoints, cordoned off areas and supplied additional ground forces for raids, she said.
"They meld in with the rest of the troops," Aberle said. "We keep very quiet about Task Force 20 for a reason: they're effective."
How effective remains to be seen. The challenge facing the US forces is to capture Saddam by overcoming his stealthy manoeuvres and continuing hold on a segment of the population in the Sunni stronghold of central Iraq, said MacDonald and Aberle.
"Saddam was a master of misleading and deception and moving from place to place before the war," said Aberle, whose division has provided security and manpower for Task Force 20 operations as well as a place to rest up.
She said it was obvious Saddam and other top regime figures continued to be on the move, but added that this could be their undoing.
"If they bounce around long enough, there are people who will come forward," Aberle added.
'He's our dearest leader'
The key to getting him, Aberle and MacDonald said, were the tips coming from Sunni Muslims close enough to Saddam's inner circle with valuable information, but disloyal enough to the former regime to turn him in.
In former-regime bastions of Tikrit, Mosul and Ramadi, such individuals might be a tiny sliver of the population, and there were many others who openly professed their loyalty to the former leader.
"If Saddam were here we wouldn't tell anyone," said Saleh Jassem, a 31-year-old former soldier. "He's our dearest leader. He was the bravest of the Arab leaders. He maintained our human rights."
"Not for all the oil in Iraq would I give up Saddam," he added.
A crowd of like-minded Tikrit residents and shopkeepers in the city's bazaar voiced their approval. One showed off a portrait of Saddam.
Many Iraqis, however, are urging Americans to intensify the search for Saddam.
Finding Saddam would be a blow to those attacking Americans and saboteurs blowing up gas and oil pipelines, said Mehdi Hafedh, vice-president of the pro-democracy group, Iraqi Independent Democrats.
"It would undermine their plans to destabilise the situation," he said.
Attacks against US-led forces in Iraq are intensifying, with at least 19 American soldiers dying in hostile fire since major combat was declared finished in May.
On Thursday, a series of back-to-back ambushes killed two US. soldiers and two Iraqi civilians traveling in a convoy. Two other soldiers were reported missing with their vehicles.
Although Saddam no longer controls the country, his loyalists remain active.
Top aide says Saddam's alive
Fuelling irrational fears of a Saddam comeback are improbable rumours of sightings: that he bought a watermelon or ordered a lamb slaughtered or was seen driving a cab.
In most of the rumours, Saddam assures residents he is well and will return to liberate them from the US-led occupation.
Aberle said the army was inundated with tips regarding the location of Saddam and regime loyalists. Raids on suspected hideouts were conducted every night.
It was a tip that led Task Force 20 - aided by soldiers of the Fourth Infantry division - to the capture earlier this month of Abid Hamid Mahmud al-Tikriti, Saddam's top aide, Aberle said. Al-Tikriti has told his interrogators that Saddam and his sons are still alive, said US officials.
- SAPA
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