The Hindu : Saddam captured

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Dec 15, 2003

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Saddam captured

By Atul Aneja

Photo: PTI

TV image of captured former Iraqi leader, Saddam Hussein, displayed at a news conference in Baghdad on Sunday.

AMMAN Dec.14. Eight months after the fall of Baghdad, American occupation forces have captured the former Iraqi President, Saddam Hussein, from a cellar in a farmhouse close to his hometown of Tikrit, the United States military command has announced.

Mr. Hussein, who had grown a beard, was captured on Saturday at 8:30 p.m. in the town of Adwar, 16 km from Tikrit, without a shot being fired, the U.S. administrator in Iraq, Paul Bremer, announced at a press conference in Baghdad. The U.S. Special Forces, accompanied by the 4th Infantry Division and special forces carried out the raid codenamed "Operation Red Dawn," Lt. Gen. Richardo Sanchez, the top American commander in Baghdad who also addressed the press conference said.

Kurdish forces belonging to the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, a group loyal to the U.S. occupation reportedly participated in the operation and provided intelligence inputs.

Mr. Hussein had reportedly concealed himself in a small brick structure which had been camouflaged and had a provision for ventilation at the time of his arrest.

U.S. officials said that Mr. Hussein, with the help of the Tikriti tribe to which he belongs, had eluded American troops by moving every few hours, from place to place.

Video images showed the teeth of Mr. Hussein, who had visibly lost weight, being examined by his captors, apparently to confirm his identity by taking a DNA sample. According to an agency report quoting an "official," Iraq's former Deputy Prime Minister, Tariq Aziz, who in under U.S. detention for seven months, helped to confirm Mr. Hussein's identity.

The U.S. authorities, faced with a raging Iraqi resistance, and with the personal popularity of the U.S. President, George W. Bush, in an election year dipping over Iraq, did not conceal their jubilation. "Ladies and gentlemen, we got him," Mr. Bremer said. "The tyrant is a prisoner," he added. General Sanchez on his part observed that, "This success brings closure to the Iraqi people. We now have final resolution."

Analysts, however, point out that the capture of Mr. Hussein may not necessarily undermine the Iraqi resistance. The Iraqi guerrilla activity has spread beyond the so-called "Sunni triangle," where large numbers of the former Iraqi President's loyalists supposedly reside. The inroads by the Iraqi guerrillas, in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul, for instance, have markedly increased recently.

Besides, the disproportionate use of force by the U.S. occupation troops and random intrusions into homes within the last one month as part of "Operation Iron Hammer," has also been reportedly alienating many Iraqi civilians and driving them into the guerrilla ranks.

The response of the Iraqi Shias, who form the majority of the country's population, towards the Iraqi resistance after Mr. Hussein's arrest is still not known and is likely to prove crucial in determining its course.

Mustafa Alani, an analyst at the Royal United Services Institute in London, was quoted as saying that "There will be a reduction in operations sponsored by former regime loyalists, but this is not the full story because they are not the only group involved."

Apprehending the prolongation of the resistance, Mr. Bremer, at the press conference emphatically urged the resistance fighters to lay down their arms and reconcile themselves to the new situation.

Aware that the gunfire that resounded in many Iraqi cities, including Kirkuk and Baghdad, after Mr. Hussein's arrest today might not all be celebratory, the U.S. forces equipped with heavy weaponry poured into the Iraqi capital today, mainly to secure all the bridges leading into the city. Anxious shop owners closed their doors, fearing that all the shooting could make the outdoors unsafe.

U.S. troops after the invasion of Iraq had mounted a feverish effort to capture Mr. Hussein and had placed a bounty of $25 million for information on him. Earlier, Mr. Hussein's sons Qusay and Udai were killed on July 22 in a gun battle in Mosul.

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