Iraqi general says Saddam not directing revolt
A former Iraqi general who claims to be part of the insurgency against American troops says the guerrilla war in the Sunni Triangle city of Samara is being waged by small groups fighting on their own without direction from Saddam Hussein.
He and two other Samara men, who said they are in separate guerrilla units, insisted in interviews with The Associated Press that their fight isn’t aimed at returning Saddam to power. They said it is about ending the US led occupation and restoring Iraqi rule.
“I am fighting for my country – not Saddam Hussein – to get rid of the infidels. Very few people are fighting for him. They gave up on him at the end of the war,” said one of the men, an unemployed electrical engineer.
All three insisted their guerrilla groups are fighting without instructions from Saddam or any other contact with Iraq’s former leader. They also said there is no shortage of potential fighters among Iraqi men, most of whom have at least rudimentary military training from compulsory army service during Saddam’s rule.
The men, who described themselves as loyalists of the ousted Baath ruling party, were interviewed separately. They agreed to discuss the fighting around Samara only if they were not identified, to avoid making them targets of US troops.
Their claims to be active in guerrilla attacks could not be independently confirmed. They provided some details of planned attacks, including saying a bomb had been planted on a nearby rail line three days before an explosion derailed a train.
The former general, whose 30 years of military service under Saddam is well known in Samara, a city of 250,000 people, said he is mostly involved in planning attacks and giving advice on weapons.
The other men – the engineer and a wholesaler – said they participate in attacks.
The general described the guerrillas as long on enthusiasm and commitment but short on training and organisation, and he said they do not co-ordinate their activities. Nevertheless, they can cause trouble for US troops, he argued, because the Americans go about in small units that are easier to attack.
“Our tactic is mostly made up of ’attack and run,”’ said the 50-year-old general, wearing the traditional long Arab robe and sitting cross-legged on the floor of his home.
