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Iraqis respond to Saddam's call
19/09/2003 08:29 - (SA)
Khaldiyah, Iraq - Violence surged around Iraq on Thursday with a spate of anti-US attacks north of Baghdad, a day after a message attributed to ousted president Saddam Hussein called for continued armed resistance against the occupiers.
And former UN arms inspector Hans Blix dealt another blow to the US case for war, saying on Thursday the US-led invasion was not justified and that Washington and London "over-interpreted" intelligence data.
Mounting anti-American violence hit on Thursday in a series of attacks on an American convoy in Khaldiyah, west of Baghdad, witnesses said.
Heavy casualties
Witnesses said US forces sustained heavy casualties when a vehicle carrying soldiers was attacked before catching fire. Several burned Americans were seen taken away from the vehicle.
The US military in Baghdad said it had no immediate report of the incident.
"A bomb exploded underneath a troop transport. It caught fire. The remainder of the convoy tried to continue and was hit by rocket-propelled grenades (RPGs) 500m away," said town resident Mahmud Ali.
As some of the vehicles drove on they were attacked with RPGs, witnesses said.
US troops were also targeted in the northern city of Mosul, 400km northwest of Baghdad, in a series of grenade and rocket attacks, witnesses said.
They gave no figures for casualties in the attacks that started shortly before midnight.
The US military confirmed rockets hit the Civil Military Operations Centre (CMOC) office in Mosul late on Wednesday, damaging some vehicles and leaving two people slightly wounded. It did not confirm the other attacks.
Closely-timed attacks
Residents of Mosul said it was the first time they had seen so many closely timed attacks - which targeted a convoy, soldiers eating in a restaurant and a hotel used by US troops - on US forces since the Americans ousted Saddam in April.
They said the assaults were a response to Saddam's message.
Two Iraqi policemen were also found dead, their throats slit, on a Mosul pavement in front of the local US-supported television station around midnight, according to a station employee.
In a further sign of their nervousness under almost daily attacks, US troops killed an Iraqi teenager and wounded four others during wedding celebrations in the flashpoint town of Fallujah late on Wednesday, witnesses said.
The troops apparently thought they were being targeted and shot in the direction of the people taking part in the wedding, which included some passers-by.
Last Saturday the US military apologised after nine security guards from Fallujah were killed the previous day when US troops opened fire as the guards were apparently engaged in a high-speed car chase.
And a fire erupted on Thursday at an oil pipeline 200km north of Baghdad, Lieutenant General Ricardo Sanchez, the commander of US ground forces said, but it was not known whether it resulted from sabotage.
Blix, who said on Wednesday Saddam had not had weapons of mass destruction for 10 years before the war, further fuelled the controversy on Thursday in an interview with the BBC.
"No, I don't think so," Blix said when asked if the US-led invasion that led to the fall of Saddam's regime was justified.
Asked if the United States and Britain had talked up the case for war, Blix replied: "They over-interpreted."
The latest "Saddam tape" - previous ones have been deemed authentic by US intelligence - was broadcast by the Dubai-based Al-Arabiya satellite channel on Wednesday.
"O mujahedeen, you must tighten the noose and increase your strikes against the enemies by demonstrating, writing on walls and demanding your rights ... and above all through armed struggle," the speaker said, also telling the coalition to leave Iraq.
No evidence
In Washington, Bush - who had justified the US-led invasion by saying Baghdad had unconventional weapons and ties to Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda network - said the United States "had no evidence that Saddam Hussein was involved with September the 11th," but said there was "no question" of Saddam's links to al-Qaeda.
Meanwhile, US officials said they were making changes to Washington's draft UN Security Council resolution seeking international assistance for Iraq to make it more palatable to countries that objected to the original document.
But Bush said on Thursday there will "probably not" be a new UN resolution on Iraq by the time he heads to New York early next week for the world body's assembly.
Japan said on Thursday it was ready to bear "a due share" in contributions to reconstruct Iraq, without specifying how much of the bill it would foot.
General Richard Myers, chair of the US joint chiefs of staff, said in Hungary on Thursday the US plans to train more Iraqi police to improve security, but did not specify where.
And in a meeting on Thursday, German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder and French President Jacques Chirac reaffirmed their joint stance over Iraq ahead of a weekend summit with British Prime Minister Tony Blair.
In London, meanwhile, an inquiry into the intelligence used to justify Britain's participation in the Iraq war continued with Ministry of Defence personnel director Richard Hatfield testifying that David Kelly should have been suspended for talking to reporters about the way intelligence was used to take Britain into war.
Weapons expert Kelly was found dead with a slit wrist on July 18, a week after the Ministry of Defence confirmed he was the source of a BBC report alleging the September 2002 intelligence dossier on Iraq's WMD had been exaggerated.
- SAPA
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