BAGHDAD, 18 July 2003 — The broadcast yesterday of a message attributed to Saddam Hussein marked the 35th anniversary of his Baath Party grabbing power, as US forces admitted they were facing guerrilla-style attacks in Iraq.
The third message allegedly from Saddam since he was forced from power praised fighters waging a war of attrition against occupying troops and accused Iraq’s new governing council of being a puppet installed by the coalition.
“What can those appointed by the occupier offer the people and country except what the occupier wants?” the voice asked in a reference to a US-appointed interim governing council. The tape, aired on Dubai-based Al-Arabiya satellite television, came as the top US general in the region admitted his forces were facing a guerrilla campaign blamed on loyalists of Saddam, whose whereabouts remain a mystery.
“We’re seeing a cellular organization of six to eight people armed with RPGs (rocket-propelled grenades), machine guns, etc., attacking us at some times and places of their choosing,” Gen. John Abizaid said.
“I think describing it as guerrilla tactics being employed against us is ... proper ... in strictly military terms.”
The death of a US soldier in a roadside ambush Wednesday, also a Baath anniversary marking Saddam’s 1979 seizure of power, was the 147th since troops invaded Iraq on March 20, equaling the number of US dead in the 1991 Gulf War.
The White House lavished praise on embattled British Prime Minister Tony Blair yesterday before he and President George W. Bush held talks overshadowed by questions over their justification for invading Iraq. The meeting was meant to reinforce the special relationship between the allies, strained by the turmoil that has followed the war in Iraq and by disputes over intelligence.
“We have no closer ally than Great Britain,” said White House spokesman Scott McClellan. “The prime minister is a strong leader who is a great friend of the American people and we have stood together to advance peace, security and freedom.”
Blair is under intense attack at home for the failure to find Saddam Hussein’s suspected weapons of mass destruction, cited by both countries as the main reason for going to war.
Before his White House visit, Blair went to Capitol Hill to address a joint session of Congress. The last British Prime Minister to do so was Margaret Thatcher in 1985.
Blair’s spokesman told reporters en route to Washington that the prime minister would tell Congress he believed Britain and America were right in toppling Saddam, but he was not expected to make any direct reference to the intelligence row over whether or not Iraq was seeking uranium from Africa.
He would also stress the need to follow through on Iraq, on Afghanistan and on the Middle East peace process and reiterate the US-British belief that terrorism and weapons of mass destruction are the primary menace facing the world, the spokesman said.
The close US-British relationship has been tested by a rift over a disputed allegation that Saddam tried to buy nuclear material from Africa.
— With input from Agencies
