Heavily edited to just the Fedayeen story
Specially trained paramilitary guerrillas and Saddam Hussein's security forces are leading the stiffest resistance to the U.S.-led invasion, trying to keep Iraqi soldiers from surrendering and organizing battlefield tricks that have inflicted casualties, U.S. and British officials said Sunday.
| Most of those "tricks" are of the "use once" variety. The net effect will be to make it more difficult for Iraqis to surrender. That might be what they have in mind, but there will come a time when surrender will be necessary... |
Members of the Fedayeen Saddam are suspected of having organized battlefield ruses using civilian clothes and cars and fake surrenders of Iraqi soldiers that drew in U.S. forces to be attacked in places like An Nasiriyah and Umm Qasr, the officials said. The Fedayeen are elite inner-circle soldiers totaling about 15,000 that report directly to one of Saddam's sons. U.S. intelligence believes they were dispatched from their strongholds in the Baghdad area to outlying areas over the last few weeks to embolden regular Iraqi troops, the officials said, like others speaking on condition of anonymity.
| More like, to kill the guys that don't want to get killed by the allied forces... |
Intelligence indicates ``they are there to enforce loyalty and to make troops more effective and keep them from defecting,'' one senior U.S. official said. Officials said the Fedayeen and Saddam's personal security force, known as the Special Security Organization, have been behind the stiffest resistance coalition troops have encountered as they raced from Kuwait through the south toward Baghdad. ``The majority of the resistance we have faced so far comes from Saddam's Special Security Organization and the Saddam Fedayeen,'' said Peter Wall, chief of staff to the British military contingent in the the U.S.-led coalition. ``These are men who know that they will have no role in the building of a new Iraq and they have no future.''
| We expected the regular army to be a bunch of sad sacks, and they are. These guys are the party members, defending their power... |
The role of the Fedayeen came as U.S. military leaders cautioned Sunday that the toughest days of the war are still ahead even as coalition forces raced to within 100 miles of Baghdad. The Fedayeen are specially trained in guerilla warfare and paramilitary tactics and in years past have been used by Saddam's regime to oppress internal foes. The force has been commanded by Odai Hussein, Saddam's eldest son.
| I guess he's their inspiration... |
The battlefriend ruses that led to U.S. casualties on Sunday, such as the use of civilian disguise and fake surrenders, are signature tactics of the Fedayeen, a senior U.S. military official said Sunday. ``They're specialists in this form of warfare, and we've seen them dress in civilian clothing or drive civilian vehicles,'' the official said. He said military planners were already making adjustments to ensure U.S. forces can detect and repel such tactics.
| Toldja — the tactics are mostly of the "use once" variety. But they've probably got a few more still to use... |
Earlier this month, U.S. officials claimed Fedayeen were acquiring military uniforms ``identical down to the last detail'' to those worn by American and British forces and planned to use them to shift blame for atrocities. "Saddam intends to issue these uniforms to Fedayeen Saddam troops who would wear them when conducting reprisals against the Iraqi people so that they could pass the atrocities off as the work of the United States and the United Kingdom,'' Jim Wilkinson, director of strategic communication at Central Command.
If the Fedayeen are caught in civvies, or while organizing a fake surrender, then we have certain rights, don't we. |