Date:14/04/2003 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2003/04/14/stories/2003041403501400.htm

International

U.S. forces struck a deal with Iraqi General?

By Atul Aneja

MANAMA APRIL 13. As efforts to unveil the mystery surrounding the sudden collapse of Iraqi resistance in Baghdad and three other cities gather momentum, it is becoming increasingly clear that a top Iraqi General may have played a leading role in bringing this about. After offering stiff resistance to the U.S. Marines on the bridge over the Diyala river on Baghdad's eastern gates on last Wednesday, the Iraqi Special Republican guards' forces, all of a sudden, at 11 am local time, abandoned their posts en masse.

That allowed the U.S. Marines to enter eastern Baghdad, unimpeded, amid scenes of jubilation in Saddam city, a poor Shia stronghold.

The Iraqi decision not to destroy the bridges over the Diyala and the Tigris rivers facilitated the U.S. advance into the city. Iraqi forces, despite having credible quantity of arms and ammunition also declined to resist at Al Almhara which has fallen to the U.S. troops. A single Marine battalion reportedly took over this strategic city on the Iran-Iraq border, as the forces of the Iraqi fourth corps withdrew and `melted away.'

Iraqi capitulation was also evident in northern Iraqi oil cities of Mosul and Kirkuk, where the U.S. forces did not achieve victory through fighting, but by engineering Iraqi mass surrenders.

The situation in Kirkuk, however, became complicated when the Kurdish forces "jumped the gun" and took over the city ahead of the planned arrival of U.S. troops. Like the rest of the Iraqi urban heartland, the U.S. forces are also expected to walk in and take control of Tikrit, known to be a stronghold of the Saddam Hussein.

Safe exit

It now appears that collapse of the Iraqi resistance in Baghdad can be attributed to a deal between Maher Safian Al-Tikriti, a top Iraqi General of the Special Republican Guard, and a combination of the U.S. Special forces and intelligence operatives. In return for dropping their resistance in Baghdad, the U.S. forces reportedly allowed Gen. Al-Tikriti and his troops, a safe exit out of the city.

Two questions however, remain unanswered so far. First, was Gen. Al Tikriti's deal with the U.S. confined to Baghdad alone, or was part of larger package of capitulation, which also covered the cities of Mosul, Kirkuk and Al-Almhara? In case it was a package deal, which also involved a network of other Iraqi military commanders whose forces were also similarly allowed to disperse, the U.S. forces will not encounter much resistance in Tikrit? Second, the fog is yet to lift on whether Mr. Hussein and his sons sanctioned the deal between the key elements of the Republican Guard and the U.S., fully or partially.

In precipitating the Iraqi collapse in Baghdad and other key Iraqi cities, the U.S. military commander, Tommy Franks has followed on the footsteps of Dwight D. Eisehower.

As military commander in Paris, Gen. Eisenhower, in 1944-45, successfully persuaded the local German command to lay down its arms through a show of strength and successful psychological operations.

As a result the U.S. military commander, later President, avoided the high casualty risk of storming Paris to evict the Germans. Gen. Franks has achieved a similar objective in Baghdad.