``Let them now come forward in a spirit of reconciliation and hope, lay down their arms, and join you, their fellow citizens, in the task of building the new Iraq.''įor many Iraqis, the sight of Mr. ``With the arrest of Saddam Hussein, there is a new opportunity for the members of the former regime, whether military or civilian, to end their bitter opposition,'' he said in the news conference, which was internationally televised. Now it is time to look to the future, to your future of hope, to a future of reconciliation.'' ``For decades, he threatened and attacked your neighbors. ``For decades, Saddam Hussein divided you citizens against each other,'' he said. Bremer, who has promised the Iraqis on behalf of President Bush that political sovereignty would be handed to them by next July, called on the country to look ahead rather than be swept into a whirlwind of vengeance and recriminations. ``Ladies and gentlemen, we got him,'' he declared. Hussein's government fell in April, made the first announcement of the capture. Paul Bremer III, the head of the occupation authority that has run Iraq since Mr. Hussein's arrest was made at a tightly guarded press conference in Baghdad, in a building that once was part of the Iraqi leader's vast collection of marble palaces and lavish offices along the Tigris River in the capital. ``With the cooperation of all the Iraqi people and our coalition,'' he said, ``I believe that we are now much closer to a safe and secure environment here in all the country.'' Huseein would end the attacks, but said that Iraqis might be more willing to help in the hunt for insurgents now that the specter of a their old leader's return had been eliminated. He expressed doubt that the capture of Mr.
Ricardo Sanchez, the commander of coalition forces in Iraq, said those answers might come during the interrogation of Mr. Increasingly, the violence has maimed and killed ordinary Iraqis, as was the case today, when an explosion outside a police station in Khalidiya, northwest of Baghdad, killed at least 17 people, including a child. Hussein himself played a role in financing, planning or coordinating the guerrilla attacks and bombings that have killed more than 190 soldiers since President Bush declared the official end of hostilities in Iraq in May. Hussein himself, continued to evade coalition forces even as he broadcast audio messages intended to rally his loyalists while taunting the people who cooperated with the American-led occupation, calling them traitors and urging Iraqis to murder foreign soldiers and their own government officials.Īmerican commanders have said they did not know whether Mr. Hussein's former advisers and associates.īut their biggest target, Mr. Since April, when coalition forces pushed into Baghdad and declared the start of the occupation, American-led troops have tried to wipe away all vestiges of the old government in part by capturing or killing many of Mr. The opening to the underground crawl space was covered by a rug and a smooth layer of dirt, with a styrofoam insert that could be lifted up and down easily, he added. The compound was close to the Tigris River, the general said, and several boats were found on the riverside.
The former Iraqi leader might have been using a small hut, with a bedroom and a rudimentary kitchen, near the hole on the rural compound. Hussein had been in the hole, which had an air pipe and a small fan embedded in a wall, but General Odierno said the former leader may have had as many as 30 similar hiding places around the country. Military officials said they did not know how long Mr. General Odierno said his troops had to move swiftly and discreetly to the remote farm, which is located near the village of Ad Dwar about eight miles southeast of Tikrit, because the fugitive Iraqi leader was believed to change hiding places as frequently as every three to four hours. Hussein had been detained over the last week and a half and that their interrogations had produced credible intelligence that spurred the soldiers to act. General Odierno did not identify the tipster, who had been arrested about one week ago, but said that as many as 10 people with family and tribal connections to Mr. Hussein's whereabouts from a person with close ties to Mr. The raid was organized in the space of a few hours, after officers with the Fourth Infantry Division received information about Mr.
0 kommentar(er)
