Iraq defiant as deadline nears

“We are dedicated to martyrdom in defence of Iraq under your leadership,” the legislators said.

Speaker Saadoon Hammadi said it was “absolutely unthinkable” that Saddam would bow to US demands and flee: “He will be in front of everyone. He will fight and guide our country to victory.”

Bahrain today offered Saddam a haven.

Iraq’s Parliament is a rubber-stamp legislature. Saddam’s Revolutionary Command Council and the ruling Baath party have the final say in the country, and it’s widely believed that Baath militiamen would be entrusted with keeping law and order in Baghdad and other Iraqi cities in the event of war.

Dozens of Baath party members, in their hallmark olive-green uniforms and armed with Kalashnikovs, deployed in clusters of fours and fives across Baghdad. Some of them stood behind the hundreds of sandbagged fighting positions that have been erected around the capital over the past two weeks.

President George Bush gave Saddam and his sons until 1am Irish time Thursday to leave the country. About 300,000 US and British troops stand ready to invade.

The White House would not rule out a US attack before the deadline, leaving the door open in case Saddam launched a pre-emptive attack or was about to do so.

Iraq’s people, Hammadi said, “stand united ... against treacherous forces and are ready for all sacrifices in their legitimate defence of their honour, principles and sanctities.” They are “standing beside him (Saddam) in his holy struggle in defence of the independence of the country,” he added.

During the parliamentary session, MPs shouted, ”With our blood, our souls, we redeem you, Saddam!” and waved their fists in the air.

At a news conference, Information Minister Mohammed Saeed al-Sahhaf accused Washington of lying to American troops about the number of casualties they would suffer. He said the notion that invading Iraq “will be like a picnic” is ”a stupid idea.”

Al-Shabab television, owned by Saddam’s son Odai, showed patriotic songs and archive footage of the Iraqi leader greeting crowds and firing a rifle in the air.

Ordinary Iraqis were phoning the station, by far the most watched in Iraq, to express their support for Saddam. “We shall fight and be martyrs,” said one male caller. “No, we shall fight and be victorious,” the anchorman told him in a firm voice.

Outside on a hazy day, the streets of Baghdad were quieter than usual, with some shops shuttered and light traffic even during rush hour. Along the road from Baghdad to Jordan, gas stations were crowded but traffic was thin.

Some petrol stations along the sand-swept route had emptied their tanks trying to match the demand, with the cost of a litre of petrol soaring to 64p from its usual 1p. Even a pick-up truck fitted with a machine gun and driven by Iraqi soldiers was forced to wait in line to refuel.

A day earlier, Baghdad residents mobbed bakeries and filling stations in a desperate rush before the deadline expired.

“Death will come to you no matter where you are,” Lamia’a Kazem Mohammed, a 55-year-old housewife in a black chador, said as she headed home with two small shopping bags in Baghdad’s Al-Saydia area. “I am not going anywhere when the bombs fall. I am staying put at my house.”

Shelves in many shops in the commercial heart of Baghdad were nearly empty after store owners moved their merchandise to warehouses, fearing bombing or looting.

At the Al-Saydia food market, shoppers showed a preference for onions and potatoes. “They can keep for a long time, so people are buying them in big quantities,” said vegetable vendor Mohammed Adnan.

The demand has caused prices to rise.

The exodus of diplomats continued, with ambassadors from Greece and France taking the overland road to Jordan. Many of the hundreds of foreign journalists covering the stand-off have also left, with only several dozen now in the capital.