Baghdad bridges puzzle solved
Francis Harris
Telegraph.co.uk
___________
Washington (US):
A classified American army report based on interviews with senior Iraqis has cleared up a mystery which has baffled western military experts since the invasion of March 2003.
As American units raced towards the capital, military observers had confidently expected Saddam to destroy all the major bridges into Baghdad to give Iraqi forces more time to prepare their defence of the capital.
But he did not.
According to papers leaked to The New York Times, Saddam told his commanders that the Americans would not seek to capture Baghdad and instructed that the bridges be left intact so that his forces could head south to crush any revolt by anti-regime elements once the war was over.
A captured commander of Saddam's elite Republican Guard later told the Americans: "We thought the coalition would go to Basra... and then the war would end."Saddam prepared for a re-run of the 1991 Gulf war when the end of hostilities was followed by a major Shia uprising.Once it became clear that the Americans were heading for Baghdad, Saddam belatedly gave the order for bridges over the Euphrates to be blown but the explosive charges failed to bring the structures down and the Americans swept across.
Mar 14, 2006
Francis Harris
Telegraph.co.uk
___________
Washington (US):
A classified American army report based on interviews with senior Iraqis has cleared up a mystery which has baffled western military experts since the invasion of March 2003.
As American units raced towards the capital, military observers had confidently expected Saddam to destroy all the major bridges into Baghdad to give Iraqi forces more time to prepare their defence of the capital.
But he did not.
According to papers leaked to The New York Times, Saddam told his commanders that the Americans would not seek to capture Baghdad and instructed that the bridges be left intact so that his forces could head south to crush any revolt by anti-regime elements once the war was over.
A captured commander of Saddam's elite Republican Guard later told the Americans: "We thought the coalition would go to Basra... and then the war would end."Saddam prepared for a re-run of the 1991 Gulf war when the end of hostilities was followed by a major Shia uprising.Once it became clear that the Americans were heading for Baghdad, Saddam belatedly gave the order for bridges over the Euphrates to be blown but the explosive charges failed to bring the structures down and the Americans swept across.
Mar 14, 2006
