Stay up to date with notifications from The Independent

Notifications can be managed in browser preferences.

Exiles backed by Pentagon in bid for power

Rupert Cornwell
Saturday 12 April 2003 19:00 EDT
Comments

Your support helps us to tell the story

From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.

At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.

The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.

Your support makes all the difference.

With the clear blessing of the Pentagon, a key Iraqi exile group has taken control of the southern town of Shatrah, in what looks to be the first move in the complex struggle among anti-Saddam factions for power in post-war Iraq.

Accompanied by US special forces, some 300 fighters of the so-called Free Iraqi Forces moved into the small town on Friday. The FIF – mostly US-trained – is to all intents and purposes the military wing of the Iraqi National Congress, led by Ahmed Chalabi, the most prominent, and controversial, exile leader.

Though the FIF is armed with little more than rifles and rocket launchers, it timed its show of strength deliberately. The entry into Shatrah came just before Tuesday's first meeting of exile groups and untainted "free" Iraqis from within the country.

The session, held under US auspices, is intended to start the process of creating a transitional administration. No United Nations representative has been invited.

Mr Chalabi himself professes to have "no desire" to take a prominent role in any interim government. But at his base near Nasiriyah, he was behaving very much like a leader-in-waiting last week, receiving local religious figures – Shia Muslims like himself – in the abandoned warehouse that is the INC's temporary headquarters, and attending to local problems like fuel and water supplies.

It was not immediately clear whether the FIF fighters in Shatrah were some of the 700 men who arrived in Nasiriyah with Mr Chalabi last weekend, ferried in on US military aircraft. This was seen as a bid by Mr Chalabi's backers in the Pentagon – led by the Defence Secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, and his deputy, Paul Wolfowitz – to give their man an early edge in the battle to fill the power vacuum in Iraq after Saddam Hussein's fall.

But Mr Chalabi must reckon with the strong opposition of the State Department and CIA, which claim he has no support in Iraq.

As it threw its weight behind Mr Chalabi, the Pentagon kept up the pressure on Syria, with heavy hints that Damascus might be next for the attentions of the US if it continued to help what remained of the Saddam regime.

Addressing Arab journalists here, Mr Wolfowitz said that Syria had been transporting mercenary fighters into Iraq to take on US troops, and was sheltering Baath party fugitives. Damascus responded to the charges with outraged innocence, but moved to close its borders with Iraq, in a sign that the pressure may be beginning to have an effect.

North Korea, another country near the top of any US hit list, also made a significant concession to Washington yesterday in the row over its nuclear programme, offering to consider "any form of dialogue" with the US.

The change in stance came shortly after the South Korean President said that the US blitzkrieg in Iraq had "petrified" rulers in the North.

Meeting yesterday in St Petersburg, the leaders of France, Germany and Russia – fierce opponents of the war in the UN Security Council - reaffirmed their belief that the world body must lead the effort to rebuild Iraq.

Join our commenting forum

Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies

Comments

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in