Rumsfeld Calls on Syria to Stop Flow of Military Aid to Iraq U.S. Forces Consolidate Positions Amid Wide Fighting
By Thomas W. Lippman Washington Post Staff Writer Friday, March 28, 2003; 5:00 PM
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As U.S. warplanes pounded Iraqi defenders with bombs and missiles, several Army and Marine units engaged in close combat with Iraqi paramilitary forces and regular army units. Brooks said they "conducted active security operations to eliminate identified terrorist death squads," a reference to Iraqi cadres who U.S. and British officials say are threatening Iraqi civilians to compel the men in their families to fight.
Rumsfeld said these "death squads" take orders directly from Hussein's family, and he denounced them in some of the strongest language he has used since the war began.
"Their ranks are populated with criminals released from Iraqi prisons," he said. "They dress in civilian clothes and operate from private homes confiscated from innocent people and try to blend in with the civilian population. They conduct sadistic executions on sidewalks and public squares, cutting the tongues out of those accused of disloyalty and beheading people with swords. They put on American and British uniforms to try to fool regular Iraqi soldiers into surrendering to them, and then execute them as an example for others who might contemplate defection or capitulation."
full: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A41941-2003Mar28.html
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