Report: Saddam Plotting Iraq Attacks

October 31, 2003

BAGHDAD, Iraq  — U.S. commanders believe Saddam Hussein is actively plotting some of the attacks against the coalition in Iraq, the New York Times reported Friday.

The newspaper attributed this information to three senior American officials. U.S. officials have variously blamed the violence on Saddam loyalists and Islamic extremists.

In northern Iraq, American troops sealed off Saddam's birthplace and began issuing identity guards to the villagers to allow them free movement

Meanwhile, violence erupted in a suburb west of Baghdad as rioters toting Saddam's photo threw stones and fired guns at U.S. troops.

In Fallujah, also west of the Iraqi capital, a powerful explosion went off. Thick plumes of smoke poured from the mayor's office after the blast.

There were conflicting claims about what triggered the riot in the western Baghdad suburb of Abu Ghraib. Iraqis said it broke out when U.S. troops tried to clear market stalls from a main road. But U.S. officers at the scene said it began with a grenade attack against American soldiers that left two of them wounded.

Youths began hurling rocks at troops and Iraqi police and setting tires ablaze. Protesters carried Saddam's picture and shouted "Allahu Akbar," meaning "God is great."

After a three-hour interlude, gunfire erupted again as U.S. tanks moved into the area. Ten explosions were heard, and fleeing civilians said the U.S. troops had "come under attack." Within a half hour the gunshots subsided.

Later, mortars fell on an Iraqi police station near the market. The Americans said they arrested two Iraqis carrying a mortar firing tube.

In Fallujah, a center of Sunni Muslim resistance 40 miles west of the capital, a strong explosion rocked the center of the city at midday. Heavy black smoke billowed from the mayor's office.

Following the explosion, residents shouted at the authorities that their neighborhood had become a target because the U.S.-appointed mayor and other officials worked there, according to police.

Civil defense officer Ahmed Khalil said police shot dead a resident during the ensuing argument, but that could not be confirmed.

Later, residents angered by the police action broke into the smoldering building and looted the mayor's office. They eventually dispersed when U.S. Humvees arrived with helicopters patrolling overhead.

American soldiers moved before dawn Friday to seal off Uja, the village about 100 miles north of Baghdad where Saddam was born, surrounding it with razor wire and setting up checkpoints at the exits. They ordered all adults to register for identity cards.

"This is an effort to protect the majority of the population, the people who want to get on with their lives," said Lt. Col. Steve Russell, a battalion commander in the 4th Infantry Division. He said he did not know whether Saddam was directing parts of the insurgency, but the village is the family home of many former Baathist regime members.

Upsurge of Attacks

An upsurge of attacks this week, coinciding with the start of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, has killed scores of people, most of them Iraqis who died in a series of vehicle bombings in Baghdad on Monday. The upsurge prompted the international Red Cross and the United Nations to remove foreign staff temporarily.

On Friday, the European Union's head office in Brussels, Belgium, said it would not pull its humanitarian aid workers out of Iraq despite the recent attacks. EU spokesman Diego Ojeda said the current team of about 10 aid workers from the EU's humanitarian aid office, ECHO, would continue its work "as planned" in Baghdad.

Elsewhere, insurgents mounted a series of harassing attacks on U.S. and Iraqi government targets in the northern city of Mosul, U.S. officers said Friday. There were no injuries in the overnight shelling of a U.S. base near Mosul, the explosion of a roadside bomb near a U.S. foot patrol on the city's outskirts, or in an attack by unidentified gunmen who sprayed Mosul's city hall with automatic fire, they said.

Those skirmishes came after a bomb exploded late Thursday near a military police convoy in northern Baghdad, wounding two Americans.

In Baghdad's neighborhood of Salhiya, Iraqi police and U.S. troops on Friday blocked a major street after residents informed authorities about a car parked under a pedestrian bridge, fearing it was booby- trapped. Bomb experts checked a white Mitsubishi parked a few hundred yards from the U.S. occupation authorities' headquarters zone.

The latest violence occurred after the U.S. House of Representatives approved a massive appropriation requested by the U.S. administration for nearly $65 billion for military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, and $18.6 billion for reconstruction in Iraq. The Senate was expected to follow suit quickly.

Meanwhile, the U.S.-installed Iraqi Governing Council said it was moving forward with setting up a war crimes tribunal to prosecute those accused of atrocities during Saddam's regime.

The decision to form the court was taken several weeks ago, council member Mouwafak al-Rabii said "but now we are taking practical steps to implement this decision and to create those war-crimes tribunal." He did not elaborate.

Human rights groups estimate several hundred thousand people were killed during Saddam's three decades in power. Multiple mass graves have been found throughout the country since the U.S.-led coalition deposed the dictator in April.

The U.S. administration has repeatedly stated that it wants past abuses to be prosecuted under an Iraqi-led legal system instead of an international tribunal akin to those for Rwanda and former Yugoslavia.

The United States currently has in custody dozens of high-ranking officials from their list of most-wanted Iraqi figures.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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