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| Sunday, 27 April 2003 |
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U.S. quizzes captive Iraqis, plans end hostilities BAGHDAD, Saturday (Reuters) The United States said on Friday that captive Iraqi leaders were providing useful information in its drive to prove that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction and terrorist links. With fighting dying down, aides said President George W. Bush will declare an end to hostilities next week and hail the success of combat operations when he greets U.S. Marines and sailors returning from the conflict on Thursday aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier. U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said former Deputy Prime Minister Tareq Aziz, who surrendered to the U.S. military in Iraq on Thursday, and at least 11 other of the 55 "most wanted" were in U.S. hands and predicted more would follow. "You can be certain that the people who we have reason to believe have information are being interrogated by interagency teams. And they are in fact providing information that's useful," Rumsfeld told reporters. Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein and his sons Uday and Qusay are missing and no weapons of mass destruction - one of the reasons the United States and Britain gave for launching the war on March 20 - have been found. U.S. teams are scouring Iraq for such weapons or material that could have been used to make them, even as U.S. Marines pack up and head home after the three-week war. "What we do know is that there are people who in large measure have information that we need," Rumsfeld said. "We need that information so that we can track down the weapons of mass destruction in that country. We need that information so that we can track down the terrorist links between Saddam Hussein's regime and various terrorist networks and we need it ... to eliminate the influence of the Baath Party in that country," the secretary added. Bush suggested on Thursday that Iraq might have destroyed its weapons of mass destruction on the eve of the war. White House spokesman Ari Fleischer, elaborating on Bush's remarks, offered an explanation. "Perhaps it was the fear of them actually being discovered, caught red handed." IRAQ REMAINS CHAOTIC The security situation in Iraq was far from clear. Shi'ite Muslim clerics are running the holy Iraqi city of Najaf without consulting U.S.-led forces camped outside, a spokesman for the leader of one Shi'ite group said on Friday. But U.S. troops on the outskirts of the southern Shi'ite city said they were in consultations with a retired Iraqi army colonel who had been appointed mayor and was presiding over a council of elders, including Shi'ite clerics. The apparently contradictory statements highlighted the disputes about who is in charge in many Iraqi cities - including Baghdad. Cooperation has started to replace the violence and looting in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul that followed the end of Saddam's rule, but residents fear trouble is brewing as rival groups vie for power. In addition, Iraq's battered hospitals are struggling to recover and it could take months to restore services after the ensuing pillaging. Most hospitals are functioning at 25 percent capacity and some doctors cannot afford to drive to work. Fanning out around the country, U.S. forces netted a former top Iraqi spy hours after capturing Aziz, a leadership figure best known abroad. A U.S. official said on Friday that Farouk Hijazi was detained near Iraq's border with Syria. He was director of external operations for Iraq's intelligence agency in the mid-1990s, when it allegedly attempted to assassinate former President George Bush, father of the current U.S. leader, during a visit to Kuwait. Rumsfeld said of Hijazi: "He is significant. We think he could be interesting but I would rather not give any details." Rumblings were heard in Iraq's capital about the presence of U.S. troops in Iraq. At Baghdad's Abi Hanifah Nouman mosque, Sunni Sheikh Moayyad Ibrahim al-Aadhami told worshipers after Friday prayers: "Let's say no to America, no to the occupation. We won't replace one tyrant with another." FORMING NEW IRAQ GOVERNMENT Most Iraqis welcomed the U.S.-led overthrow of Saddam's iron rule, but anger has arisen at what many see as foreign occupation, with shortages of food, water and power, and rampant looting in the days after U.S. forces entered Baghdad. At a home for abandoned children, thieves may have abducted orphans as well as furniture, books and appliances, said a spokesman for UNICEF, the U.N. Children's Fund, in Baghdad. The U.N. refugee agency UNHCR said it was planning to help up to half a million expatriate Iraqis who might want to return home - but only when stability had been established. The U.S. administrator in Iraq said on Thursday the formation of a new Iraqi government would start next week. As part of the process of replacing Saddam's government, several Iraqi political groups will meet U.S. officials in Baghdad on Monday, after an initial meeting near the southern city of Nassiriya last week. |
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