Click The Logo To Donate
Posted on 04/11/2003 1:19:30 PM PDT by KriegerGeist
Scuds hidden at site in Al Qa'im?
By Douglas Jehl
The New York Times
WASHINGTON -- Out of sight of television cameras, some of the heaviest and most prolonged fighting in Iraq has been raging for nearly three weeks near the town of Al Qa'im on the Syrian border.
There, British commandos and U.S. special forces have been attacking units of Iraq's Special Republican Guards and Special Security Services, according to senior military and defense officials.
The Iraqi forces in the area, along the Euphrates River, have been defending a large compound that includes phosphate fertilizer and water treatment plants. American officials say the sheer tenacity of the Iraqi fight has led them to suspect that the Iraqis might be defending Scud missiles or other weapons.
The Al Qa'im area, about 170 miles northwest of Baghdad along the most direct route from Baghdad to Syria, was a launching point for Iraqi ballistic missile attacks in the 1991 war. It was also home to a facility used by Iraq in the 1980s for uranium processing, and it has been identified since by American officials as a possible site for any effort to revive Iraq's nuclear weapons program.
The reported doggedness of the Iraqi resistance has also prompted some speculation in the Bush administration that the Iraqi forces might be defending members of the Iraqi leadership who may have tried to flee to Syria. But defense officials said it was more likely that they were trying to shield weapons or weapons programs.
"They're protecting something; that's for sure," one senior military official said. For now, the official said, the main objective of the United States is "to keep their head down so they can't fire anything off."
Despite many days of attacks by the Army's special forces, including what one general called "unconventional warfare direct-action missions," along with repeated airstrikes, the Iraqi forces have not given up.
Pentagon officials said they had made contact with one Iraqi commander in the Al Qa'im area in an effort to negotiate a surrender, but that that attempt had broken down.
With ground access limited, the American command has made the compound the target of heavy air attacks, but it has refrained from destroying the buildings altogether, apparently out of concern about causing wider harm if the area is being used to house chemical or biological weapons or material for nuclear weapons.
The mystery of the tenacity of armed Iraqi resistance in the remote border town is among many uncertainties that senior American officials are weighing as they survey the battlefield in Iraq. Now about one-third of the country lies outside American control, according to senior Pentagon officials.
Perhaps chief among those worries, officials said Thursday, are the location and intentions of Iraqi militias and security forces, which were battling the United States in Baghdad and other cities but have now mostly melted away.
"Have they run away for good, or are they operating more like the al-Qaida model, to go away for a while and then come back?" a senior defense official said.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailynews.com ...
"Have they run away for good, or are they operating more like the al-Qaida model, to go away for a while and then come back?" a senior defense official said."
I sure hope not!
I'm sorry. I did a search and checked every-which-a-way word by word almost.
All I can say is that I tried.
Now we know where the MOAB is going. Adios amigos.
Oh really now...
Inspectors also visited the State Phosphate Company in Al-Qa'im, 400 kilometers west of Baghdad, which produces agricultural fertilizers and houses stored uranium, according to the Iraqi Foreign Ministry. UNMOVIC reported, "Al-Qa'im was previously associated with Iraq's production of uranium from ores found in the area. The team is tasked with verifying the status of destroyed equipment at this site and an inspection to determine that no uranium extraction activities have been resumed."
Global Security Report on Al Qa'im
It is also interesting to note that the term Al-Qa’im means "The One Who Will Rise" aka Al-Mahdi, meaning "The Guided One"
Might want to be careful about that...they have held an American POW in that town before...just found in a search...
Top Secret, Personal and Urgent
Follow up: 1st Regt HQ, 13 February 1991.
To all companies and platoons. Subject: Enemy pilots.
The leader, our President, had ordered in a letter by the Council of the Defense Ministry, classified Top Secret, Personal and Urgent, Number 927 and dated 3 Feb 91 which was forwarded to us by a letter from the command of Kathima Forces classified Top Secret, Personal and Urgent Number 175 dated 9 Feb 91.
Concerning the two killed pilots whose bodies have not been brought to the Western area transportation command. Those two bodies should be brought to the area designated for bodies. Concerning the wounded prisoner in Al-Qa'im hospital. He must be transferred to Baghdad. Please implement these two orders as fast as you can.
Signed,
Brigadier General Abdulhaddi Aziz Abdullah,
Commander of the Follow Ups 1st Regt,
Dated Feb 91[6]
Could not find a definitive answer to that in a search...I know that some say the Gulf War Syndrome was caused by bombs hitting WMDs and therefore dispersing the chemicals. The MOAB, on the other hand has so much power, it may incinerate the WMDs with very little if any dispersal.
Are they sure those are Iraqi forces? I have received information from the front (second hand) that the intense fighting elsewhere hasn't been brought by Iraqis, but by Palestinians and other Arabs.
I hope so. Kill them there or kill them here.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.