Iraq: Missile Warfare To Be Unleashed - Other News

DEBKAfile

29 October 2003

Saddam supporters are preparing to escalate violence against coalition targets by missile warfare on heels of initial round of bomb attacks. Cited on Iraqi opposition websites is little-known Ramadan-1 as well as anti-tank and ground-to-air missiles.

Coalition spokesman: Baghdad’s deputy mayor Fares al-Assam was shot dead near his home Sunday. Tuesday, six civilians, including schoolchildren, killed in suicide car bombing near police station in Falluja west of Baghdad. British spokesman corrects release: British troop injured in Basra - not killed.

Bush declared at Rose Garden news conference Tuesday: We are at war. Iraq is frontline of war on terror. He assumed latest wave of attacks in Baghdad was work of both Baathists and foreign terrorists. US strategy is to have strike forces ready to rout them out. He spoke before hosting Muslim leaders at White House Aid al-Fitr dinner.

Bush confirmed appointment of security adviser Rice as White House inter-agency coordinator on Iraq.

Coalition spokesman: Baghdad’s deputy mayor Fares al-Assam was shot dead near his home Sunday. Tuesday, six civilians, including schoolchildren, killed in suicide car bombing near police station in Falluja west of Baghdad. British spokesman corrects release: British troop injured in Basra - not killed.

Saddam signed “presidential decree” creating six districts under “Interim Command for Armed Activities against US and Zionist Forces,” with mixed Iraqi-foreign guerrilla-terror squads attached to each district. One squad carried out al Rashid Hotel and Red Cross suicide blasts.