BAGHDAD, 6 March 2003 — Thousands of security troops and dozens of would-be kamikazes marched through the Iraqi capital yesterday in a defiant show of strength as Washington threatens to unleash war to oust the regime.
Interior Minister Mahmud Diab Al-Ahmad and senior officers took the salute as olive-green uniformed ranks, rifles shouldered, marched quickly past on Palestine Street, a main thoroughfare in northeast Baghdad.
The kamikazes, the second contingent in the parade, wore white neck scarves as symbols of their funeral shrouds and hid their faces.
With the United States deploying nearly 300,000 troops in the region, hundreds of people gathered to listen to an official comment on the parade and cheer every mention of the name of President Saddam Hussein.
“We have given our president our commitment to die as martyrs and to turn the soil of Iraq into a cemetery for the invaders,” Ahmad told reporters.
“We will fight the attackers even with our hands, our teeth, our daggers and our sticks if need be,” he said.
Ahmad read out a message to Saddam in the name of the internal security forces “swearing to God and on our honor to defend Iraq until martyrdom and to be swords in the hand of the leaders to cut the throats of the enemy”.
On Feb. 25, Saddam gathered top police and security officials, asking their forces to form a strong “internal front” to back up army soldiers defending the nation in case of war.
Baghdad has stepped up efforts to avert war ahead of tomorrow’s public report to the UN Security Council by chief disarmament inspectors after three months’ work.
But even if it goes on to destroy all the 100-odd Al-Samoud missiles and 380 engines as demanded by the United Nations, chances of stopping the US war machine still look limited.
In London, the Guardian newspaper reported that UN weapons chief Hans Blix’s report was likely to be critical of Iraq’s cooperation. It quoted a senior UN official as saying the report would note Iraq has routinely exploited looming deadlines to deliver last-minute results.
The chief inspector’s comments on the “grudging and calculating” nature of Iraq’s cooperation reportedly follow conversations with other officials reflecting widespread disillusionment within the UN since the return of weapons inspectors to Iraq three months ago.
