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View Full Version : Saddam audiotape surfaces



Sgt Sostand
07-17-03, 06:58 AM
BAGHDAD, Iraq, July 17 — An audiotape attributed to Saddam Hussein surfaced on Thursday, the anniversary of his party’s rise to power, as U.S. troops remained on edge over the possibility of new attacks. Al-Arabiya TV obtained the tape, which includes a denial that Iraq was amassing weapons of mass destruction.

THE VOICE on the tape praised the Iraqis resisting coalition forces and criticized Arab countries that supported the invasion.
The speaker also encouraged Iraqis to resist a new Governing Council — indicating that the tape was made recently.
Al-Arabiya said it received an anonymous phone call telling a reporter where to find the tape as well as a message. There was no immediate way to verify the voice recording. Last month, U.S. experts said another tape of Saddam’s voice was probably his — and recorded after the United States captured Baghdad on April 9.
Saddam and his two sons, Udai and Qusai, have not been seen since the capital fell April, though in recent weeks several audiotapes have surfaced in which a voice said to be Saddam’s calls for continued resistance.

COUP ANNIVERSARY
The eve of Thursday’s anniversary saw a marked escalation in attacks that killed an American soldier and the U.S.-allied mayor of an Iraqi city — a chilling warning to Iraqis who cooperate with Americans.
The anniversary marks a 1968 coup that led to Saddam taking power 11 years later. Iraq’s new Governing Council, in its first act Sunday, swept aside the July 17 celebration and five other dates that the Baath party used to mark as official holidays.
U.S. soldiers have come under increasingly ferocious and frequent attack by suspected Saddam loyalists in recent weeks - reaching an average of 12 attacks a day. More than 30 U.S. soldiers have been killed in hostile action since President Bush declared an end to major hostilities on May 1.

The Pentagon said that as of Monday, 144 U.S. personnel had been killed in combat since the start of the Iraq war. At least two U.S. soldiers have been killed in Iraqi attacks since then, bringing the total just short of the 147 killed in combat during the 1991 Gulf War