DEBKAfile - US-Iraq War Diary *

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Post-war Iraq and Palestinian Road Map Bracketed at Belfast Summit

April 6, 2003, 3:44 PM (GMT+02:00)

No plums for UN, Europeans, Arab leaders or even Tony Blair

Even amid crucial battles in Iraq, US President George W. Bush has made the gesture of leaving his capital again this week for a second attempt to shore up his foremost war ally, British prime minister Tony Blair, in the fight for his political life at home. Although, according to the latest opinion polls, around 70 percent of Britons support their army’s participation in the Iraq war, Blair’s personal prestige is on the wane. Some diplomatic circles dubbed the Bush-Blair conference in Belfast this Tuesday, April 8, “the rescue Blair summit”, after last month’s Camp David encounter failed to turn the tide in his favor. Blair believes he can win support by persuading Bush to allot the United Nations and Europe a major role in Iraq’s post-war administration and the disposition of its oil resources. He thinks Europe will be impressed if he can win the US president round to their perceptions of Middle East peacemaking. He is unlikely to get very far with Bush on either.
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Is Saddam in Syria?

April 5, 2003, 1:58 PM (GMT+02:00)

DEBKAfile’s Exclusive Middle East sources have tracked down the top Iraqi leadership’s bolt-hole. It is a large 1,600-room luxury resort with 600 meters of private sandy beach in the Mediterranean coastal town of Latakiya called Cote d’Azur De Cham Resort, prepaid and chartered in toto by Baghdad. The group may include Saddam Hussein or his sons, but this is not confirmed. The hotel is located close to the Assad family villa. Top Iraqi officials are reported hiding there since March 23, four days after the US-led coalition invaded Iraq. They are guarded by a Syrian commando unit armed with anti-air missiles while Syrian naval missile boats secure the port.
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US Forces Cross Euphrates Near Baghdad

April 2, 2003, 10:46 AM (GMT+02:00)

The US dawn assault against Ash-Shatra north of Nasiryah Monday, to seek out senior Iraqi regime and Baath officials directing the terrorist and guerrilla warfare against coalition forces, diverted attention from a far more critical American initiative. While Ash-Shatra is mostly under air assault, the American 101st Airborne Division’s “screaming eagles”, fighting since Thursday to drive a wedge between two Special Republican Guards divisions - Al Medina south of Karbala and Hamourabi south west of the Bahr a Milh Lake - has succeeded in breaking through Iraqi defense lines. While engaged in street fighting in Hindiya, the first units are crossing the Euphrates from west to east, 60 miles south of Baghdad.
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Saddam Eyes Endgame, Gathers in His Elite Forces

March 31, 2003, 3:47 PM (GMT+02:00)

The Iraq war is resolving itself into a battle of wits whose lines are deliberately blurred by the bravado, ambiguous maneuvers and half-truths propagated by both sides. The protagonists are US General Tommy Franks and Saddam Hussein. The score on Day 12 of the war is even. DEBKAfile’s intelligence sources and military analysts stress that both are perfectly aware that the war will end in an American battlefield victory. With an eye on the endgame, the two are maneuvering over its cost. Franks’ goal is a victory with the lowest number of American casualties, whereas Saddam, who has no inhibitions about the human cost to his army and people, seeks to extract from the conflict enough leverage to dictate the conditions for his and his sons’ survival.
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Uday’s 800,000-Strong Guerrilla-Suicide Army

March 31, 2003, 3:19 PM (GMT+02:00)

Uday Hussein, faithfully obeying his father, immersed himself from April 2002 in creating a vast guerrilla-terrorist army 800,000 strong, according to DEBKA-Net-Weekly’s intelligence sources. Its largest component, around 650,000, comes from the ubiquitous Baath party, the Saddam regime’s eyes, ears and informers in every corner of Iraqi society, together with members of Saddam’s Fedayeen (Martyrs) Division of the Special Republican Guards.
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