Saddam says 'tyranny will be defeated'

Saddam Hussein has said his country will defeat any invaders and accused US President George Bush of trying to turn Arabs into slaves.

The tough comments by the Iraqi leader were in a letter to mark the Islamic new year today.

“The tyrant thinks he is capable of enslaving the people and hiding the decisions, freedoms and legitimate choices (they were born with) when their mothers delivered them as free people,” Saddam said in the letter, which was read today on state-run television.

“Tyranny will be defeated. Arrogance will be of no help to it.”

Referring to the US, he said: “The tyrant of this era thinks that he is an alternative to God and is His shadow on Earth. The tyrant imagines himself, God forbid, as God ... and thus his devil has thrown him into the abyss of evil.”

Saddam said Iraq would win any war: “We believe, with the coming of the Islamic new year and with God’s help, we will be victorious against the tyrant.

“The believers will triumph over tyranny and its accomplices.”

But despite the strong words – and the holiday – Iraq continued to destroy banned missiles to comply with a United Nations order.

At least two Al Samoud 2 missiles were being crushed north of Baghdad today, Information Ministry official Odai al-Taie said.

A missile launcher was being destroyed as well, he said.

Hiro Ueki, a spokesman for the UN weapons inspectors, confirmed that the destruction of missiles was continuing.

Since Saturday, Iraq had destroyed 16 of about 100 Al Samoud 2 missiles.

It has also been slicing up casting chambers used to make another missile, unearthing bombs and sending scientists to talk with UN inspectors – all in a desperate effort to prove it is disarming before a crucial UN report at the end of the week.

France, Russia and China urged Iraq to meet every UN demand in the hope of staving off war, but the US – which might wage war even without UN approval - said the actions were too little, too late.

“Iraq is not co-operating,” White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said.

“Despite whatever limited head-fakes Iraq has engaged in, they continue to fundamentally not disarm.”

US officials said a vote on a new UN resolution authorising force would probably come next week, after chief weapons inspectors Hans Blix and Mohamed ElBaradei address the Security Council on Friday.

France, Russia and China – three of the five veto-holding members of the council – all pushed for more inspections instead of war.

“But Iraq must co-operate more, more actively,” French President Jacques Chirac said yesterday during a visit to Algeria. “Together and in peace, we must keep strong pressure on it to attain the objective we have set: the elimination of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.”

The US-led military mobilisation entered a critical stage yesterday, with B-52 bombers landing in Britain and soldiers from the 101st Airborne Division setting up camp in Kuwait.

But the Turkish government showed no signs that it would quickly ask parliament to reverse its refusal to allow in more than 60,000 US troops before an Iraq war.

Washington’s hopes for a Turkish-based northern front were dealt a blow when the parliament narrowly rejected a motion to grant the US request.

Defence officials and analysts say American troops could seize Baghdad without a northern front, but at higher risk and with more difficulty.

In a sense, the war has already started. US war planes enforcing no-fly zones in northern and southern Iraq have become much more aggressive in recent days and have expanded their usual range of targets.

They are now attacking surface-to-surface missile batteries that they say are in range of US and British troops in Kuwait, or positions US troops might still take up in Turkey. The stated purpose of the no-fly zones is to protect Shiite Muslims in the south and Kurds in the north.

An Iraqi military spokesman said a US air strike on Sunday night killed six civilians and wounded 15 in southern Basra province. There was no way to verify the claim. US war planes attacked four more military communications facilities and one air defence facility yesterday, US Central Command said.