-Caveat Lector- http://abcnews.go.com/sections/world/Primetime/iraq_main030321.h tml
March 21, 2003 Ali Hassan al Majid earned the nickname Chemical Ali for using chemical weapons to suppress the Kurds in northern Iraq. (Jockel Finck/AP Photo) ‘Chemical Ali’ Dead Three Key Iraqi Leaders Believed Killed; Explosions Shake Baghdad B A G H D A D, Iraq, March 21 — Three top Iraqi leaders — including Saddam Hussein's cousin, the infamous "Chemical Ali" — are believed to have been killed in what would be a major blow to the regime's defense against the U.S.-led onslaught, CIA officials told ABCNEWS. ABCNEWS' Brian Ross reported that the three critical Iraqi officials — Taha Yasin Ramadan, Izzat Ibrahim al Douri, and Ali Hassan Majid, known as Chemical Ali — are believed to have died in Wednesday night's "decapitation attack," the opening salvo of the war. A spokesman said the CIA had no information to confirm the report that the three men had been killed but government officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, told ABCNEWS they had reason to believe the three men were dead. The officials said they reached this conclusion from analysis of radio traffic and after watching who went where, and who didn't arrive where they were expected. "Chemical Ali," Saddam's cousin and governor of southern Iraq, earned his chilling nickname by using chemical weapons to suppress a Kurdish rebellion in northern Iraq in the late 1980s, killing thousands. Both Ramadan and Ibrahim were longtime advisers to Saddam. Along with Saddam himself, the two men were the only surviving plotters who carried out the coup that brought the Baath Party to power in 1968. The three men did not appear in a videotape of Saddam meeting with advisers released today. Also absent was Saddam's eldest son Odai. There are suspicions he also may have been killed, but this could not be confirmed. In Baghdad, sirens sounded another warning following hours of U.S.-led bombings that pummeled the city, and bombs and missiles continued to rain over targets across the country. "This is much, much, more than anything we've had earlier," ABCNEWS' Richard Engel reported from Baghdad as attack aircraft were heard over the Iraqi capital for the first time in this war. "It's hard to even see the western side of the city through all the smoke." Elsewhere, as many as 1,500 Turkish troops crossed over into northern Iraq. The United States has told Turkey that it would not welcome incursions into the Kurdish-dominated territory, but Ankara fears a weakened Baghdad would encourage the Kurds to create their own state. Turkey also says the troops are also needed to control refugees. Air War Under Way While the string of devastating bombings appeared to have paused over Baghdad, sirens soon blared again, and there were reports of new explosions near the northern Iraqi cities of Mosul and Kirkuk and in Saddam's hometown of Tikrit. Defense officials said the air campaign would continue for 24 hours, until approximately 1 a.m. ET Saturday, as a "continually rolling operation" involving 1,500 total sorties by missiles and strike aircraft. Meanwhile, in another major development, U.S. military sources said the commander of Iraq's 51st Division and his top deputy surrendered to U.S. Marines today. The 51st was the division charged with defending Basra, a strategic city south of Baghdad. It was the first time that the commander of an Iraqi division has surrendered to allied forces. Blasts Slam Western Baghdad Engel said he "was sure" nearly all of the large government buildings on the western side of Baghdad had been destroyed by repeated hits and the ensuing fires. The Iraqi information minister, appearing on al Jazeera television, said the Zahir Government Palace had been bombed and destroyed. At one point the bombs were so powerful that Engel said he could feel a strong blast of hot wind against his face, even though he was about a mile away from the site of impact. He also expressed concern for his fellow journalists, many of whom are staying at the Al Rashid hotel, which is located on the western side of the city. "I really hope my colleagues are OK," he said. In Washington, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld sought to reassure those who feared today's bombings may have caused massive collateral damage. "The weapons being used today have a greater precision than any used in prior conflict," he said. The CIA believes that three top Iraqi leaders — including Saddam Hussein's cousin, the infamous "Chemical Ali" — were killed. The commander of an Iraqi division surrenders to allied forces for the very first time. The air war for Iraq begins as 1,500 bombs and missiles fall on Baghdad and the key cities of Kirkuk, Mosul and Tikrit. Two U.S. Marines die in combat and another dozen U.S. and British Marines die in a helicopter crash. A Turkish commando force of around 1,500 troops crosses into northern Iraq but U.S. officials oppose a large incursion. Iraq's U.N. envoy angrily condemns U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan for helping the United States take over Iraqi oil fields. Array of Aircraft, Missiles Behind Assault ABCNEWS' Martha Raddatz reported that more than 500 cruise missiles have been fired on Iraq from aircraft and ships today and 100 more will be launched by the end of the assault. U.S. planes were flying over Turkey to their targets, heralding the start of a new agreement with that country. The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Air Force Gen. Richard Myers, said that "several hundred military targets will be hit over the coming hours." Military sources said B-53 bombers, B-2 stealth bombers, F-117 stealth fighter bombers and missiles would carry out the estimated 1,000 strikes by night's end. Myers said the bombings were aimed to destroy, among other targets, the enemy's ability to communicate with its Republican Guard, its special intelligence services and with its people. Today was the third round of attacks on the capital. Both earlier attacks have involved the use of cruise missiles. U.S. intelligence sources told ABCNEWS that the operational name given to today's strikes was expected to be "Exemplary Destruction." Saddam May Be Injured Meanwhile, ABCNEWS has learned Saddam may have been hurt in the first airstrikes on Baghdad. Earlier today, U.S. intelligence sources told ABCNEWS that witnesses at the site of a Baghdad suburban residential complex told U.S. intelligence officials that Saddam was observed being taken from the bombed complex on a stretcher, with an oxygen mask over his face, on Thursday before dawn local time. At news briefing in Baghdad today, Iraqi Information Minister Mohammed Saeed al-Sahaf said the first U.S. airstrikes had hit one of Saddam's homes, but he said the Iraqi leader had survived and was safe. But U.S. intelligence sources said there had been a significant lack of communication from the Iraqi leader to his government and military structure since the bombing. Allies Take Control of Southern Oil Fields Reports of Saddam's possible injury came amid major gains by U.S. and British troops rolling toward the Iraqi capital and the southern city of Basra. U.S.-led coalition forces in southern Iraq today encountered hundreds of surrendering Iraqis and some resistance from the Iraqi military before seizing control of the southern Iraqi oil fields. In earlier ground assaults, U.S. and British forces seized the strategic Al Faw peninsula in southern Iraq. It is Iraq's only access to the sea and it was the first significant seizure of Iraqi territory in the war. "We're basically on our plan and moving toward Baghdad, but there are still many unknowns out there," Myers, the Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman, said today. Myers said U.S. and British forces should secure all oil fields in southern Iraq by later today. U.S. Flag Raised and Lowered ABCNEWS' Ted Koppel, embedded with the 3rd Infantry Division in Iraq, reported that his unit was pushing to take an airfield outside Nasariya in southern Iraq. He said the troops hoped to use the airfield as a base for aircraft such as Apache attack helicopters as they advance toward Baghdad. "By daytime I will almost be within sight of it; I can see the lights, so we are very close to Nasiriya," Koppel said from the field. Other U.S. Marines encountered armed resistance as they seized the strategic southern Iraqi port town of Umm Qasr. The American flag and the flag of the U.S. Marines were briefly raised over the strategic southern port, according to the BBC's Adam Mynott, who is embedded with a Marine unit. But a Reuters correspondent traveling with the U.S. Marines said a brief while later Marines returned and removed the Stars and Stripes. The Bush administration has maintained that U.S. forces were in Iraq to "liberate," not occupy Iraq. First Casualties The dramatic gains, however, came with the first reports of U.S. combat deaths. The first, a Marine from the 1st Marine Division, died early this morning after leading his infantry platoon in a firefight to secure an oil-pumping station in southern Iraq. The second soldier was in the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force and was killed by hostile fire in southern Iraq. President Bush was informed of the U.S. deaths today and expressed his regrets. The combat deaths were reported just hours after four U.S. Marines and eight British Royal Marines were killed in a helicopter crash in the Kuwaiti desert. The British military said it was not taking fire when it went down. The official Iraqi news agency, the INA, further quoted a military spokesman as saying a U.S. or British fighter jet had been downed by anti-aircraft fire and crashed in Kuwait today. The Pentagon denied the report. In Kuwait City, officials report that Patriot missiles have so far blocked seven incoming missiles, including two the Iraqis fired today. Seizures at Sea, in North U.S. and British forces have taken control of Umm Qasr in the south, as allied troops in the north are pushing down toward the Kirkuk oil fields. (Maps.com/ABCNEWS.com) In the strategic Shatt al Arab — the waterway that connects the Tigris and Euphrates rivers to the Persian Gulf near the borders of Iraq, Kuwait and Iran — U.S. forces intercepted at least one Iraqi barge loaded with 50 "contact" mines in an ongoing operation, ABCNEWS has learned. According to U.S. military sources, the barges were between Basra and the Persian Gulf, headed for the Gulf. U.S. forces have secured some of the barges, but it was unclear if it involved a fight. The gains in southern Iraq were accompanied by significant progress in the military onslaught in western and northern Iraq, according to U.S. officials. In western Iraq, U.S.-led forces seized two desert airfields overnight, called H-3 and H-2, according to ABCNEWS' McWethy. And allied forces in northern Iraq have been pushing towards the oil fields around the strategic northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk after taking control of a northern Iraqi airfield, said McWethy. There were also several reports of oil wells on fire in southern Iraq. ABCNEWS' Bob Woodruff, embedded with the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force, said he had seen at least two oil wells ablaze, one of which was a very large fire. Clearing Air Paths Adm. John Kelly, commander of a U.S. carrier task force in the Persian Gulf, told reporters airstrikes from Gulf carriers had been launched to degrade Iraqi defenses and support advancing coalition troops continue around the clock. "Folks, [Iraqi forces] on the ground realize their time is up and we're coming," Kelly said. "We gonna win, we're gonna win it fast, and their efforts [to ward it off] have increased." ABCNEWS' Richard Engel in Baghdad, Ted Koppel, Bob Woodruff and Mike Cerre traveling with the U.S. military, George Stephanopoulos in Qatar, Mike von Fremd in Kuwait City, and John McWethy and Martha Raddatz in Washington contributed to this report. -- Outgoing mail is certified virus free Scanned by Norton AntiVirus <A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/">www.ctrl.org</A> DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion & informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic screeds are unwelcomed. Substance—not soap-boxing—please! These are sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory'—with its many half-truths, mis- directions and outright frauds—is used politically by different groups with major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought. That being said, CTRLgives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no credence to Holocaust denial and nazi's need not apply. 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