SPECIAL REPORT
Exiled Shiite leader prepared to topple Saddam Hussein
Special to World Tribune.com
MIDDLE EAST NEWSLINE
Friday, February 26, 1999
ROME [MENL] -- Iraqi Shiite leader Baker El Hakim, living in exile in
Tehran said Wednesday that he was ready to cooperate with the United
States government to topple the regime of Iraqi President Saddam
Hussein.
"We are working to topple the regime of Saddam Hussein. We are speaking
about a long-term project and the overthrow of his regime has already
begun," El Hakim told the Italian publication, "La Republica".
Hakim said he would join forces with the U.S. to bring down Saddam
Hussein's regime that "oppresses his people and murders them with
non-conventional weapons."
But Hakim said that the interests of the Iraqi people would have to be
foremost and not American interests.
Referring to recent Shiite demonstrations in Iraq after the killing of
leading Shiite Cleric, Ayatollah Mohammad Sadeq Sadr and his two sons in
the Holy City of Najaf last Friday night, Hakim said the demonstrations
were spontaneous and not part of the plan to topple the Iraqi regime
He appealed to the U.S. to increase the no-fly zones over the entire
Iraq and to forbid the Iraqi to possess heavy arms.
Iraqi anti-aircraft mobile missile batteries continuously barrage
allied aircraft in the northern and southern no-fly zones.
Uday al-Tai, the head of the official Iraqi news agency said Wednesday
that the U.S.-led air strikes near Baghdad, near Al Iskandariyah,
earlier Wednesday are viewed by Iraq as an intensification of the
conflict. In response, he said Iraq will continue to confront allied
aircraft in the northern and southern no-fly zones.
"We declare today that this act is considered a new intensification and
an open aggression," Tai said.
Eyewitnesses in Baghdad reported that several civilianns were killed
and several wounded after the air raid sirens sounded Wednesday. Iraq
opened fire on the aircraft, eyewitnesses said.
U.S. F-15s flew over the northern no-fly zone on Tuesday. They dropped
six precision-guided bombs.
Wednesday's air strikes "were in response to an Iraqi aircraft
violation of the no-fly zone and anti-aircraft artillery fire directed
at coalition aircraft," the U.S. Central Command said in a statement.
Friday, February 26, 1999
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