The Hindu : `Significant combat ahead'

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Apr 07, 2003

International

International

`Significant combat ahead'

By Sridhar Krishnaswami

Washington April 6. The Vice-Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Peter Pace, has said that the United States still has significant military force and combat power in Baghdad even if he would not say that "every inch" of the Iraqi capital has been secured.

The top military official told CNN from here that coalition forces could have "significant combat ahead".

He also rejected the notion that a Russian diplomatic convoy moving out of Baghdad and towards Syria has come under attack by coalition forces. He said the Russians had informed the U.S. about the movement of the convoy and this information was relayed to the relevant authorities. The convoy passed safely out of Western Baghdad into the countryside and safely through coalition forces after which it was attacked by "somebody" and this was being investigated.

Gen. Pace called on the Iraqis to do the ``honourable thing'' and stop fighting for the past.

He disputed the Iraqi Information Minister's statement that the Saddam Hussein International Airport — now renamed Baghdad International Airport — still remained in the hands of Iraqi authorities. "I will offer him a guided tour," the general quipped.

On the whereabouts of Saddam Hussein, he said that he did not know whether the Iraqi leader was dead or alive and went on to say, "If he's alive, he's one of the world's worst generals. If he's dead, he's dead".

Asked about the hard evidence on weapons of mass destruction — or the so-called smoking gun — he argued that right now the focus was very much on the battle at hand.

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