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Possible Saddam on TV: 'Hit them hard'
BAGHDAD (CNN) -- Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, or a man who looked like him, on Friday urged Iraqis to fight U.S. and British troops "with what you have available" and promised they would be victorious. Appearing on state television in military uniform, the speaker said some coalition troops had bypassed Iraqi forces around Baghdad, but he said their number is small and he urged ordinary Iraqis to "hit them hard." Experts have said that Saddam has been known to use body doubles. "With God's help, you will be victorious, and they will be defeated, overcome and cursed," he said. The brief on-air appearance raised new questions among U.S. officials about Saddam's well-being. The address mentioned the downing of a U.S. helicopter, which happened after the March 19 "decapitation" attempt in which the United States bombed a location where intelligence had indicated Saddam was meeting with his regime members. The statement aired after an Iraqi official earlier used the airwaves to warn that U.S. forces will face something "unconventional" Friday night. Iraqi Information Minister Mohammed Saeed al-Sahaf pledged that Iraq would not use weapons of mass destruction against advancing coalition troops. "Tonight we will carry out something that is not traditional against them," Sahaf told reporters during his daily press briefing. "We will do something to them that will be a great example to those mercenaries. I'm not revealing a secret, because working in the dark is useful with these mercenaries." Sahaf later added that he didn't "think there is any chance" U.S.-led coalition forces "will survive." When asked directly by reporters if Iraq would use weapons of mass destruction, Sahaf replied, "No, not at all, but we will conduct a type of martyrdom operations." Airport to become 'graveyard'He said that if the Americans and British did not surrender, the airport would become a "graveyard" for the "American villains." Sahaf said reports that U.S.-led coalition forces had secured the airport were not true, and compared those reports to the movie "Wag the Dog," in which Hollywood filmmakers faked battle scenes in a studio that were then shown as television news reports. "Most of you saw the American movie, 'Wag the Dog.' ... [M]ost of what they did yesterday and today at dawn has some scenes that resemble that movie." Sahaf lashed out at the coalition forces talking about a postwar Iraq. He said that U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell is talking about "how to share and divide Iraq as loot after the war." Sahaf said postwar Iraq would continue to stay under the leadership of Saddam Hussein, and the coalition forces would be gone. "We will chase them and go after them as war criminals," he said, adding that the "United States will no longer be a superpower and its demise will be very quick." Sahaf warned that the war would bring nothing "except humiliation and defeat" to the coalition forces. "Iraq will stay. Its civilization is 10,000 years old and it will not change by villains like those British and American villains," he said.
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