Saddam information helps round up insurgents

THE United States has used information gained during interrogations of Saddam Hussein to help round up insurgents and identify false leads, a senior military official said yesterday.

American military officials believe about 14 cells of Saddam loyalists are operating in Iraq’s capital, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity. There are about 250 to 300 “hard core” insurgents in those cells, the official said.

Documents found with the ousted Iraqi president and information gleaned during interrogations have helped US troops disrupt those cells and track their finances, the official said. He would not say what information Saddam might have given his American interrogators.

US troops captured Saddam on December 13. Officials have said previously that the documents were helpful, but yesterday’s statement was the first indication that Saddam’s interrogations are bearing fruit. On the military front, commanders of the 1st Armoured Division said they plan to cut the number of bases in Baghdad from 26 to eight by the time the 1st Cavalry Division takes over responsibility for the city in mid-April.

The pullback is part of a strategy to allow Iraq’s fledgling police and civil defence forces to take over responsibility for security in Baghdad, said Brig Gen Martin Dempsey, the 1st Armoured Division’s commander.

“There’s a point of diminishing consent for what we’re doing,” said Dempsey’s second-in-command, Brig Gen Mark Hertling. “Iraqis like the security, they appreciate the partnership, but I don’t think many of them want us there all the time. They want their security forces taking over.”

About 8,000 Iraqi police work in Baghdad, along with about 6,000 members of the Iraqi Civil Defence Corps. US Army officials calculate that Baghdad needs about 19,000 police.

Foreign fighters continue to come into Iraq, most of them from Syria, military officials said. Two Yemenis and an Egyptian died in a shootout with American troops in Baghdad last week, for example.

US officials in Baghdad said al-Qaida and an affiliate, the radical Kurdish group Ansar al-Islam, are active in Iraq. But they don’t say what evidence they have to prove that.