Iraqi exiles control southern town -U.S. source

Reuters | 4/12/03

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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. Humvees military vehicles.

"Free Iraqi Forces are now in control of Shatra," an unnamed military source told Reuters correspondent Adrian Croft.

The FIF was recruited from among Iraqi exiles in the United States and Western Europe under the 1998 U.S. Iraqi Liberation Act and underwent a month-long training by the U.S. army at a military airbase in Taszar, Hungary.

It was unclear whether the Shatra group was drawn from a pool of some 700 fighters who arrived in Nassiriya with Ahmad Chalabi, leader of the Iraqi National Congress, under U.S. military escort last Sunday.

The U.S. military airlift was believed to have given Chalabi, a controversial figure at the centre of disputes within the U.S. administration, a head start over other exile groups seeking a role in the next Iraqi government.

The Pentagon insists it does not intend to annoint Chalabi as the new leader of Iraq. The United States is arranging a meeting of Iraqi exiles on Tuesday in Nassiriya to pave the way for an interim Iraqi authority.

04/12/03 07:03 ET

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An interesting harbinger?

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