Free Republic

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...