TIKRIT/BAGHDAD, 8 August 2003 — Killing an American may now be worth $5,000 to an Iraqi in Saddam Hussein’s heartlands — a quadrupling of the bounty that the US commander in the region said is a sign of desperation among guerrilla diehards.
“The word is the price has quadrupled for doing attacks on US forces,” Maj. Gen. Ray Odierno told a news conference yesterday at his headquarters in Saddam’s hometown, Tikrit.
Rates some weeks ago were about $250 for an attack and $1,000 for a “successful” one, he said: “We believe now that’s gone to about $1,000 and $5,000, something in that area”.
US officers accuse middle-ranking members of Saddam’s Baath party and Fedayeen militia movement of funding and arming young men to resist the American occupation of Iraq.
Odierno, commander of the 4th Infantry Division, said an aggressive US policy toward these organizers was bearing fruit and fewer Iraqis were willing to take the risk of facing up to the Americans — with a resulting rise in the price. “I see these somewhat as desperate acts,” he said.
He did not believe they were being coordinated by Saddam, who has a $25 million US bounty on his head and who Odierno said was probably moving his hideout several times a day. “He’s on the run. He’s moving every three to four hours,” Odierno said.
“He is clearly moving three to four times in a single day,” Odierno said, citing intelligence reports. “My guess is he’s in disguise some way, in unassuming clothes.”
Across his task force’s area of operations, taking in much of north central Iraq including the traditionally pro-Saddam “Sunni triangle” north of Baghdad, hundreds of people have been detained and many killed in raids over the past few weeks.
In the past day, 49 suspects were held, including a possibly senior Fedayeen organizer in Tikrit itself and two associates of Saddam’s late son Uday in Kirkuk, officers said. Two, possibly four, Iraqi guerrilla suspects were killed.
The man arrested in Tikrit overnight was seized in a raid that saw nearly 400 soldiers backed by Abrams battle tanks and helicopters seal off a city block and force more than three dozen men from their beds into the street, handcuffed.
Odierno said he was aware of the need to balance aggression against enemies with care not to alienate other local people.
“It’s a fine balance,” he said. “If there’s a threat to our soldiers we’ll go in heavily armed and a little bit heavier.”
“We understand the importance of maintaining the cultural ways of life here,” he said. “But if I err, I will always err on protecting my soldiers. “It’s important that we are offensive in nature so we preemptively deter attacks on our forces.”
Asked whether he had concerns that his forces faced not just Saddam’s loyalists but other anti-American groups, Odierno said: “We have had some intelligence reports that there could be some people that might be associated with Al-Qaeda trying to move into the region... We continue to watch that very closely.”
Council to Name Ministers Soon
Meanwhile, Iraq’s Governing Council said yesterday it had opened discussions on naming interim ministers as one member announced that the transitional body had agreed on a federal system for a future Iraq.
The council “is studying lists of candidates for ministerial posts, and it will hold a vote before announcing the names of the ministers for the transitional period,” a statement from the council said.
The ministers are to be chosen on the basis of “experience, competence, integrity, sincerity and commitment to work.”
The US-sponsored council was unveiled on July 23 and has since Tuesday been looking to re-establish ministries, an essential step in restoring some Iraqi authority since the collapse of the Baghdad regime on April 9.
Council President Ibrahim Jafari said yesterday that the body had “retained the principle of a federal regime for the new Iraq.
