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BAGHDAD (AFP) Apr 12, 2003 A secret tunnel leads underground from the main administration block to a prison where exposed electrical wires run from wall sockets to a bench in the interrogation room. The walls of cells which housed up to eight prisoners are scribbled with prayers and calendars indicating time spent inside, written in Arabic, Hebrew and even Chinese. Solitary confinement is standing room only and shared with toilet plumbing. The small bathrooms, remaining blankets, prison garb and plastic buckets are filthy. Plaster and paint is peeling off in large sheets and all around are posters, paintings and...

Iraqi exiles control southern town -U.S. source NASSIRIYA, Iraq, April 12 (Reuters) - Around 300 fighters, originally Iraqi exiles recruited and trained by the United States, are in control of the southern Iraqi town of Shatra, a U.S. military source said on Saturday. A Reuters photographer saw a convoy of trucks carrying Free Iraqi Forces (FIF) pass through the town of Nassiriya, 375 km (235 miles) southeast of Baghdad, armed with AK-47 rifles and wearing camouflage fatigues bearing FIF initials on their arms. The trucks, bound for Shatra some 50 km (35 miles) north of Nassiriya, were escorted by U.S....

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The opposition Iraqi National Congress said on Tuesday leaders from across southern Iraq flocked to the town of Nassiriya to greet its leader Ahmad Chalabi, but a CIA report said he and other returning exiles would find little support among Iraqis. The classified CIA report appeared to be part of the long and bitter struggle within the Bush administration over whether Chalabi and his colleagues can be effective leaders. Francis Brooke, a close adviser to the opposition leader, said local Iraqi leaders had brought requests for Chalabi to mediate with the U.S. military authorities on matters such...

Liberating Iraq From the April 14, 2003 issue: An emotional homecoming for the Free Iraqi Forces. by Stephen F. Hayes 04/14/2003, Volume 008, Issue 30 Umm Qasr, Iraq THE WHEELS of the four Humvees in our convoy had not stopped turning when Ali al-Ethari jumped out of the back of the second vehicle and sprinted toward the front of the Port Authority building here in Umm Qasr, Iraq. The 15 others in the convoy--11 American soldiers, two Iraqi Americans, and two reporters--knew where he was headed. Tributes to Saddam Hussein appear everywhere in this southern port town. A smiling, avuncular...

Key Iraqi Opposition Leader Back in Iraq .c The Associated Press CAIRO, Egypt (AP) - An opposition leader who aspires to lead post-Saddam Hussein Iraq has announced his presence in southern Iraq with a call on fellow Iraqis to help remove ``the final remnants'' of Saddam's regime. Ahmad Chalabi made the call in Nasiriyah on Sunday, his Iraqi National Congress said in a statement issued in London and received by The Associated Press in Cairo. The group said 700 of its members were also in the southern Iraqi town as the ``1st Battalion Free Iraqi Forces.'' Iraqi National Congress spokesman...

Iraqi opposition leader is in Nassiriya WASHINGTON, April 7 (Reuters) - Iraqi opposition leader Ahmad Chalabi has arrived in the southern Iraqi town of Nassiriya at the head of 700 fighters, joining the U.S. military campaign against the government, an opposition official said on Monday. The presence of Chalabi, the best known leader of the Iraqi National Congress (INC), indicates that Pentagon plans for the future of Iraq have gained ground over the rival plans of the State Department, which does not rate Chalabi highly. The INC official, who asked not to be named, said she spoke to one of...

Iraqi Exile's Homecoming Celebrated By BURT HERMAN .c The Associated Press QAL'AT SUKKAR, Iraq (AP) - Blaring warnings from Humvee-mounted loudspeakers, the U.S. Marines sent residents of this rural town scurrying Monday when the troops arrived to demolish symbols of President Saddam Hussein's regime. But any potential tension melted quickly into jubilation when the people of Qal'at Sukkar learned one of their own had come home. Khuder Al-Emeri, 43, left his Seattle restaurant behind three months ago to join the Free Iraqi Forces, a group of exiles trained by the U.S. military to serve as interpreters and guides in Iraq....

WASHINGTON (AP) - The United States is beginning to build a new Iraqi army even before Saddam Hussein's forces are defeated, deploying some of the nation's exiles and internal dissidents around the country. Several hundred soldiers of the Iraqi National Congress exile group were flown to an area near the city of Nasiriyah, the group said Sunday. "These are Iraqi citizens who want to fight for a free Iraq, who will become basically the core of the new Iraqi army once Iraq is free," said Marine Gen. Peter Pace, vice chairman of the joint chiefs of staff. More will be...

US begins the process of 'regime change' Ed Vulliamy in New York and Kamal AhmedSunday April 6, 2003The Observer The US is ready to install the first leg of an interim government for the new Iraq as early as Tuesday, even while fighting still rages in Baghdad, officials said yesterday. America's readiness to establish the first stages of a civil administration to run post-war Iraq comes at lightning speed and constitutes a rebuff to European ambitions to stall on the process until some kind of role for the United Nations is agreed. It was reported yesterday that the National Security...

<p>U.S.-led forces were airlifting soldiers of an Iraqi exile group into southern Iraq to serve as humanitarian liaison officers and help root out Saddam Hussein's paramilitary among the population, the group said Sunday.</p> <p>The first of more than 1,000 expected, some 700 soldiers of the Iraqi National Congress were near the city of Nasiriyah, the group said. The city was brought under control of the U.S.-led invasion force only a few days ago after a two-week battle by U.S. Marines, defense officials have said.</p>

NEW YORK: In the first major step towards establishing a physical Iraqi presence among coalition forces in their final surge towards Baghdad, the US military has begun airlifting Iraqi opposition fighters into southern Iraq. The airlift, which began Friday night, will put about 1,000 Iraqi opposition forces into a base in southern Iraq controlled by coalition forces, ABC television reported on Sunday. The force is under the control of the Iraqi National Congress and its leader Ahmed Chalabi, who will accompany his troops into Iraq. The opposition forces will also attempt to help set up liaison between US-led forces and...

Opposition mobilises free Iraqi force AMONG their ranks were an Iraqi American who had abandoned his grocery store in Missouri and a former nightclub bouncer from London. Hundreds of Iraqi exiles, assembled under the banner of the Free Iraqi Force, opened a new front in the battle to oust Saddam Hussein yesterday after flying to the south of the country on a perilous mission to incite rebellion in its cities. Guided by Colonel Ted Seel, a grizzled American Vietnam veteran and expert in psychological warfare, the force will use tribal contacts and guerrilla attacks to trigger uprisings in southern cities...

Umm Qasr, IraqTHE WHEELS of the four Humvees in our convoy had not stopped turning when Ali al-Ethari jumped out of the back of the second vehicle and sprinted toward the front of the Port Authority building here in Umm Qasr, Iraq. The 15 others in the convoy--11 American soldiers, two Iraqi Americans, and two reporters--knew where he was headed. Tributes to Saddam Hussein appear everywhere in this southern port town. A smiling, avuncular Saddam hovers over a corner market on a plastic plug-in sign, like the ones that advertise cheap beer in bars throughout America. A few feet later,...