‘Saddam’ tape warns of more US deaths
In the northern city of Mosul, US soldiers retrieved wreckage and bodies after two Black Hawk helicopters collided and crashed under fire on Saturday night, killing 17 soldiers in the bloodiest single incident for US forces since they invaded Iraq.
Facing a mounting death toll in Iraq, Washington has moved to speed the transfer of sovereignty to Iraqis in the hope of pacifying resentment toward the occupation, and the US Army has adopted new tougher tactics to strike back at guerrillas.
The US military fired a satellite-guided missile yesterday for the first time since major combat was declared over on May 1, targeting an island in a river in northern Iraq where US officers said guerrillas had set up a training camp. The purported Saddam tape, broadcast by Dubai-based Al Arabiya television, urged Iraqis to drive out occupying troops.
“Fighting them ... is a legitimate, patriotic and humanitarian duty and the occupiers have no choice but to leave our country ... as cursed losers,” it said.
It was the first time in two months that a tape purportedly recorded by Saddam has been broadcast. The ousted Iraqi leader is still on the run with a $25 million price on his head.
Commenting on the audiotape purportedly made by Saddam Hussein, Mr Bush said such threats would not cause the US to leave Iraq. “I suspect it’s the same old stuff. It’s propaganda,” Mr Bush said. “We’re not leaving until the job is done.
“I’m sure he’d like to see us leave, if, in fact, it’s his voice.”
From Baghdad, America’s chief post-war administrator in Iraq said the United States will help write an interim Iraqi constitution that embodies American values and will lead to the creation of a new government.
“We will write into that constitution exactly the kinds of guarantees that were not in Saddam’s constitution,” Paul Bremer told ABC television.
“We’ll have a bill of rights. We’ll recognise equality for all citizens. We’ll recognise an independent judiciary. We’ll talk about a federal government.
“All of these things will be in the interim constitution which will also provide in a limited time, probably two years, for a permanent constitution to be written that also embodies those American values,” he said.
Mr Bush praised a White House-endorsed agreement, announced by the Iraqi Governing Council on Saturday, to form a provisional government by June. “It’s a tough week, but we made progress for a sovereign and free Iraq,” he said.
“On the one hand the politics is moving on, while on the other we’re going to stay tough and deal with the terrorists.“The sacrifice that our folks are making in Iraq will serve our nation’s interest in the short term and the long term.
“It’s best we defeat the terrorists in Iraq so we don’t have to defeat them here,” he said.
The US Army said it was still investigating what caused the Black Hawks to collide. Soldiers in Mosul and witnesses said one of the helicopters was hit by a rocket-propelled grenade and then collided with another Black Hawk flying nearby.
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