A senior Iraqi official is threatening that Iraq will carry out suicide attacks against Americans in this country and the region if the US carries through with its threats to strike Iraq.
"Martyrs, perpetrators of suicide attacks, are our new weapons, and they will not only take action in Iraq," Taha Yassin Ramadan, a vice president who is considered among the nation's top two officials after President Saddam Hussein, is quoted as saying in the new issue of the German magazine Der Spiegel. "The whole region will be set ablaze. This part of the world will become a sea of resistance and danger for Americans."
Saddam also repeated warnings that American soldiers would be killed before being able to enter Baghdad, the capital.
"The enemy will not enter Baghdad's suburbs because he will die," he told top military commanders on Friday night, according to the state press. "Even if they send a million soldiers, our boys will kill them."
The Iraqis' comments came amid heightened talk of war both here and in Washington, with US President Bush George W. Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair warning that time was running out for Iraq to give up the illegal weapons they say it has.
For the last two weeks, Saddam has appeared regularly on state television in a display of the nation's preparations for war. On Friday night, he discussed with military officials the way he expected American soldiers to carry out any invasion: by landing in the desert and moving to take the capital.
Echoing recent comments from other top officials, he repeated that any bombing campaign could be devastating, though he said it would not defeat Iraq.
"When the enemy lands, he ensures air protection," he said. "And when you attack to destroy him, he will destroy you with his air forces."
"The force which counters an enemy landing must be close to it," he advised the commanders. "For that, we have to spread troops across the desert at the risk of exposing them to enemy fire, and our training must be carried out in line with this theory. Otherwise it will not be realistic."
NO-LIMITS PARTNERSHIP: ‘The bottom line’ is that if the US were to have a conflict with China or Russia it would likely open up a second front with the other, a US senator said Beijing and Moscow could cooperate in a conflict over Taiwan, the top US intelligence chief told the US Senate this week. “We see China and Russia, for the first time, exercising together in relation to Taiwan and recognizing that this is a place where China definitely wants Russia to be working with them, and we see no reason why they wouldn’t,” US Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines told a US Senate Committee on Armed Services hearing on Thursday. US Senator Mike Rounds asked Haines about such a potential scenario. He also asked US Defense Intelligence Agency Director Lieutenant General Jeffrey Kruse
INSPIRING: Taiwan has been a model in the Asia-Pacific region with its democratic transition, free and fair elections and open society, the vice president-elect said Taiwan can play a leadership role in the Asia-Pacific region, vice president-elect Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) told a forum in Taipei yesterday, highlighting the nation’s resilience in the face of geopolitical challenges. “Not only can Taiwan help, but Taiwan can lead ... not only can Taiwan play a leadership role, but Taiwan’s leadership is important to the world,” Hsiao told the annual forum hosted by the Center for Asia-Pacific Resilience and Innovation think tank. Hsiao thanked Taiwan’s international friends for their long-term support, citing the example of US President Joe Biden last month signing into law a bill to provide aid to Taiwan,
China’s intrusive and territorial claims in the Indo-Pacific region are “illegal, coercive, aggressive and deceptive,” new US Indo-Pacific Commander Admiral Samuel Paparo said on Friday, adding that he would continue working with allies and partners to keep the area free and open. Paparo made the remarks at a change-of-command ceremony at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam in Hawaii, where he took over the command from Admiral John Aquilino. “Our world faces a complex problem set in the troubling actions of the People’s Republic of China [PRC] and its rapid buildup of forces. We must be ready to answer the PRC’s increasingly intrusive and
STATE OF THE NATION: The legislature should invite the president to deliver an address every year, the TPP said, adding that Lai should also have to answer legislators’ questions The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) yesterday proposed inviting president-elect William Lai (賴清德) to make a historic first state of the nation address at the legislature following his inauguration on May 20. Lai is expected to face many domestic and international challenges, and should clarify his intended policies with the public’s representatives, KMT caucus secretary-general Hung Meng-kai (洪孟楷) said when making the proposal at a meeting of the legislature’s Procedure Committee. The committee voted to add the item to the agenda for Friday, along with another similar proposal put forward by the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP). The invitation is in line with Article 15-2