-Caveat Lector- FINANCIAL TIMES Baghdad's defences belie death toll fears By Paul Eedle in Baghdad Published: April 1 2003 17:28 | Last Updated: April 1 2003 17:28
The defences of Baghdad do not look much: sandbagged emplacements outside government offices, trenches in parks and palm groves, ditches of blazing oil belching out smoke intended to interfere with the US and British laser-guided bombs. Six-lane motorways ideal for fast-moving armour snake right into the city. But if Iraqis fight as hard in Baghdad as they have fought in much smaller towns in the south such as Umm Qasr and Nasiriya, the Americans and British risk causing large civilian casualties and taking heavy losses themselves if and when they attack the capital. The city of 5m is spread across an area of some 15 miles square, either side of the snaking Tigris river. It takes half an hour to drive from a suburb on the outskirts to the centre. Street after street of single and two-storey dun-coloured houses with walled gardens provide ideal cover for irregular forces to harass attacking armour. Yet every time a young man in a leather jacket slips out of a doorway to fire a rocket-propelled grenade at the soft spot of a passing Abrams tank, the invaders would risk killing civilians if they shoot back. The irregulars are already in place. At street corners, outside empty shops, in slit trenches and sandbagged positions by the side of the road, knots of men in a mixture of different uniforms and civilian clothes and armed with Kalashnikov assault rifles wait for the attack. Local people say the ruling Ba'ath party, which has branches in every neighbourhood, has promised arms and ammunition to anyone willing to fight. Regular forces are also prominent, most obviously on guard outside government compounds. No armour or artillery is on view, but could easily be out of sight behind the walls of the state complexes, or could be pulled into the city from positions in the countryside before the allied forces arrive. Baghdad is now so heavily militarised that invading forces will find it difficult to distinguish the civilian from the military, although there are many obvious government sites separate from the main residential areas. On the west bank of the Tigris, opposite the old centre, an area two miles long and two miles wide is almost entirely walled off as government compounds. Those include a presidential compound where missiles have already battered a palace with a turquoise dome; a ziggaurat-shaped office block and several nondescript buildings overlooking the river; the windowless rectangle of the Council of Ministers building; a ministry's modernistic tower block with a floodlit statue of Mr Hussein firing a hunting rifle. Any or all of these complexes may have bunkers and tunnels underneath. In the middle of the area, the Rasheed Hotel (motto: "More Than A Hotel") has its own helicopter landing pad with lights and a control tower. However, residents say Mr Hussein commanded the 1991 Gulf War from a nondescript villa in one of the inner suburbs. This time it also has to be imagined that the Iraqi military and security forces, with months to prepare, have long since dispersed their command centres and arsenals throughout Baghdad. It is possible that the attacking forces will avoid a full-frontal assault and concentrate on hit-and-run raids against senior figures, as the British are reported to be doing in the southern city of Basra. However, it will be almost impossible to fight any kind of action in Baghdad without putting civilians in the line of fire, and without exposing the invading troops to guerrilla attack. <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. Let us please be civil and as always, Caveat Lector. ======================================================================== Archives Available at: http://peach.ease.lsoft.com/archives/ctrl.html <A HREF="http://peach.ease.lsoft.com/archives/ctrl.html";>Archives of [EMAIL PROTECTED]</A> http://archive.jab.org/[EMAIL PROTECTED]/ <A HREF="http://archive.jab.org/[EMAIL PROTECTED]/">ctrl</A> ======================================================================== To subscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email: SUBSCRIBE CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED] To UNsubscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email: SIGNOFF CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED] Om
