Ominous

I just saw this quote on CNN.com and it gave me the shivers. Iraqi Information Minister says U.S. forces will face "something that is not conventional" tonight. I wonder what the heck he is talking about.

Any ideas other than the obvious WMD scenario?

A line of citizens being used as a wall to fire behind, marching to meet the coalition....

Here's another....

Women with bombs strapped to them, seeming to flee from the Republican Guard, and then detonating near the US soldiers, because if she doesn't, her family will be killed.

This is the kind of sick enemy we are up against here, and why this regime must go...

Suicide attacks

Detonation of explosives that have been left behind in the airport, buried under concrete etc. Doesn't it seem like we managed to take the airport fairly easily?

Perhaps the Iraqis have artillery trained on the airport, and it'll all fire this evening.

Doesn't have to be a WMD attack... just something unexpected. Not that it's unexpected anymore...

"Iraqi Information Minister Mohammed Saeed al-Sahaf said Friday that the U.S. forces at Baghdad's international airport are "an isolated island," and Iraqi troops have "nailed down" or turned back other coalition advances.

He said U.S. forces will face "something that is not conventional" Friday night.

Sahaf said Iraq will not use weapons of mass destruction against advancing U.S. or British troops, but he threatened widespread use of "martyrdom," and said the action would be "not by military."

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Sounds like my guesses might be accurate....

Of course, the amazing thing is that this is the same man who claimed the US forces weren't within 100 miles of Baghdad yesterday, yet today he admits they surround the city...

"We will commit a non-conventional act on them, not necessarily military,"

I was thinking something along the lines of suicide bombers also. Ominous indeed. Especially with Saddam appearing on TV making reference to the Apache. BUT, it's probably more propaganda and lies.

I just heard a rumour that civilians may be making their way towards the airfield...

If 5000 civilians try to take back control of the airport what would our troops do? There only have to be a few suicide bombers amongst them and it could be a massacre.

Anyway, conjecture probably isn't all that useful. We'll find out if it's an empty threat or not this evening...

Was he still wearing a sweater?

90 degrees outside at Baghdad...

I guess the Iraqi's are getting desperate.

I just heard on the radio that a bus load of civilians was driven towards a US checkpoint at the airport. Marines attempted to stop it, fired warning shots, and attempted to shoot out the tires, but it only accelerated at the checkpoint. A humvee mounted with a .50 machine gun opened fire, finally stopping it outside the perimeter. No news on number of causualties, although there are confirmed civilians dead.

Anyone else wonder why Dom continually defends Saddam's regime?

I can see him not wanting to go to war, but actually defending Saddam?

Thanks for the current update dragonrider, I've not had the T.V. on for the last few hours & didn't hear about that. From what I've been seeing & hearing on T.V. earlier today, the Iraqi information minister appeared to be inferring there would be suicide bombers because of his continued use of "martyrs".

Below is some information I came across earlier today.

Uday Hussein, faithfully obeying his father, immersed himself from April 2002 in creating a vast guerrilla-terrorist army 800,000 strong, according to DEBKA-Net-Weekly�s intelligence sources. Its largest component, around 650,000, comes from the ubiquitous Baath party, the Saddam regime�s eyes, ears and informers in every corner of Iraqi society, together with members of Saddam�s Fedayeen (Martyrs) Division of the Special Republican Guards.

Uday is rumored to have made secret trips to Iran, Lebanon, Bosnia and Macedonia to bring 300 al Qaeda instructors over to Iraq. He also made a study of the deadliest terrorist practices incepted by al Qaeda and Taliban in Afghanistan and by Palestinian terrorists in their confrontation with Israel.

The pickup-terror tactic he picked up from Afghanistan, where Al Qaeda and Taliban plied dozens and sometimes hundreds of fast vehicles armed with light and heavy weapons as an instrument of repression against Afghan tribes and warlords. Fear of the �white devils� suddenly darting out at them kept tribal chiefs intimidated and obedient. Uday found them ideal for bedeviling US troops and their long supply lines in the open Iraqi desert as they came up from Kuwait and Qatar. At the end of 2002, he sent agents to Singapore, Indonesia and Malaysia to buy 7,500 pickups with four-wheel drives, ostensibly for farms newly established to �make the desert bloom�.

Saddam�s son also concluded that the Palestinians had not prepared a large enough force of suicide bombers to stop the Israelis from seizing their cities. Only in Jenin, in the battle fought on April 7, 2002, did a group of Palestinian and Hizballah suicide fighters blow themselves up and inflict heavy Israeli casualties.

After making a thorough study of these techniques, Uday ordered the 100,000 troops of Saddam�s Fedayeen commandos to set up small suicide units of 3-5 men in every Iraqi city including Baghdad and Tikrit. These men were ordered to greet US forces entering their towns by blowing themselves up in sequence and also picking off allied troops at vulnerably points.


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Did they mean this Friday night or some other. It's Saturday morning in Iraq right now and we haven't seen anything yet.

April 02, 2003

THE SAS has arrested four busloads of suspected suicide bombers and would-be fighters in Iraq�s western desert. The men, who are being held as prisoners of war, came from various Arab countries but all carried Syrian passports. They are thought to be among thousands of Arab zealots making their way to the battle front.

Syria has issued about 2,000 passports to people volunteering to fight for President Saddam Hussein in recent weeks, raising serious concerns in Britain and America, which suspects Damascus of smuggling war supplies to Iraq. The coalition is to protest to the Syrians.

Syrian officials have made no secret of their sympathy for the resistance of �the Iraqi people� to coalition attacks, although they have not voiced public support for Saddam.

Damascus has rejected accusations by Donald Rumsfeld, the US Defence Secretary, that Syria has provided Iraq with night-vision goggles.

The big worry is that many of the volunteers receiving passports may be suicide bombers, including Palestinians hoping to avenge themselves for US support of Israel. Muhammad Said al-Sahhaf, the Iraqi Information Minister, said last week that up to 4,000 suicide bombers were ready.

British sources believe that up to 600 volunteers have crossed from Syria into Iraq or are about to do so. Sending fighters to join a combatant army is a clear breach of neutrality. �The Syrians are playing with fire,� one source said yesterday.

In Jerusalem, Shaul Mofaz, the Israeli Defence Minister, said that Israel viewed as �very grave� Syria�s role in helping the volunteers. He also issued a veiled warning to President Assad over comments in a Lebanese newspaper that Syria could be the next target in America�s War on Terror �as long as Israel exists�. Mr Mofaz said that Mr Assad had effectively ruled out a peace agreement with Israel.

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AUSTRALIAN special forces were now a target for Palestinian suicide bombers because they had destroyed Iraqi missile sites, from which missiles could have hit Israel, a leading analyst warned yesterday.

Not only were the special forces at increased risk, but Australia had unwittingly raised its profile as a terrorist target through publicity of SAS exploits, said professor of Middle Eastern Studies at the Australian National University, Amin Saikal.
The Australian role in taking out Iraqi scud missiles that could have launched attacks on Israel had been widely reported throughout the Arab world's media and condemned in newspaper commentaries.

"The role of Australian forces in protecting Israel has caused extreme anger throughout the Arab world," Professor Saikal said. "Australia, either wittingly or unwittingly, has become a very obvious target of discontent for Arabs and Muslims.

"If it is true that a number of Palestinian Fedayeen or suicide bombers have moved into Iraq, you can expect these volunteers to focus very much on the forces which they have suspected of engaging in activities designed to protect Israel. That doesn't mean they are going to succeed, but it means that now they have become aware of the fact that Australian special forces have been operating in the defence of Israel."

Reports yesterday suggested as many as 4000 so-called "volunteer" fighters, sympathetic to the cause of the Iraqi people, had entered Iraq through Syria and Iran, many prepared to sacrifice themselves in suicide bombings.

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