http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,927378,00.html
http://www.guardian.co.uk/Print/0,3858,4638367,00.html

9pm update
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Saddam urges Muslims to join jihad

・ Commandos find 'torture evidence'
・ US backs checkpoint killings soldiers
・ 26th British soldier killed

Staff and agencies

The Guardian

A statement purported to be from the Iraqi president, Saddam Hussein, was read out on Iraqi television tonight, calling for Muslims to join in a holy war against the coalition invasion and that jihad was a "duty".

Iraqi state television had said earlier that President Saddam would make the address personally but speculation he may have been killed or injured was heightened when it was delivered by his information minister, Mohammed Saeed al-Sahaf.

The Foreign Office and the White House responded by saying it "raised questions" why President Saddam had not delivered the address himself. The White House said it was still not known if he was alive or dead.

In the address, President Saddam sought to appeal to the religious loyalties of his countrymen by denouncing the Anglo-American invaders as "Satans" and said that the enemy should be fought "everywhere".

The statement said: "The aggression that the aggressors are carrying out against the stronghold of faith is an aggression on the religion, the wealth, the honour and the soul and an aggression on the land of Islam. Therefore, jihad [holy war] is a duty in confronting them."

President Saddam added that "those who are martyred will be rewarded in heaven. Seize the opportunity, my brothers".

His message also sought to link the military assault on Iraq with the occupation of Palestinian territories by Israel, declaring: "Long live our country and Palestine and our Arab nation."

The statement was issued as US forces were reportedly within 50 miles of Baghdad and as B52 bombers were pounding Republican Guard positions north of Kerbala. More air strikes were expected on the Iraqi capital tonight.

President Saddam has delivered two televised addresses since the attack began on March 20. It was unclear why he did not appear in person, particularly as rumours persist about his health. "Strike at them, fight them," President Saddam's statement said. "They are aggressors, evil, accursed by God. You shall be victorious and they shall be vanquished."

Later, the US defence secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, denied that the US was negotiating an end to war with Iraq. He said President Saddam's regime was trying to convince Iraqi citizens that "the coalition does not intend to finish the job" but that the only thing they would discuss was "unconditional surrender".

Earlier, Saudi Arabia's foreign minister called for an end to the war, urging President Saddam to step down to spare Iraq more bloodshed.

US backs checkpoint killings soldiers

A spokesman for US central command today backed soldiers who shot seven women and children at a checkpoint and blamed the Iraqi regime for the killings.

Navy Captain Frank Thorp said initial reports indicated the soldiers from the US 3rd Infantry Division had acted properly in firing on a car that failed to stop at a checkpoint in the southern Iraqi desert near Najaf last night.

According to the US military, the soldiers motioned for the car to stop and fired warning shot when their commands were ignored. When those shots were ignored the soldiers fired shots into the car engine but it continued to drive towards the checkpoint.

The soldiers then fired into the passenger compartment of the vehicle.

Today, the 13th day of the conflict, US marines shot dead another unarmed driver and badly wounded his passenger at a roadblock in the southern town of Shatra, south of Baghdad. He was shot at after his pickup truck was driven at speed towards a checkpoint. "I thought it was a suicide bomb," one of the soldiers who fired on the vehicle told Reuters.

Troops have been nervous, and have been ordered to be more cautious, after the suicide car bomb attack on Saturday which killed four US soldiers at a checkpoint near Najaf, which is close to the scene of last night's killings.

Capt Throp said the blood from the incident was "on the regime of Saddam Hussein" because of guerrilla tactics and the strategy of challenging coalition troops at checkpoints.

However a different picture was provided by the Washington Post which quoted the US captain at the intersection as saying his forward platoon had failed to give the van ample notice that it would be shelled. "You just [expletive] killed a family because you didn't fire a warning shot soon enough!" it quoted Captain Ronny Johnson telling his platoon leader.

Meanwhile, Reuters reporters taken by Iraqi officials to the hospital town of Hilla, approximately 50 miles south of Baghdad, saw 11 bodies that were apparently Iraqi civilians.

Residents said they were killed when US bombs hit the residential area last night. Iraq's information minister said nine of the dead were children.
Full story: Seven women and children shot dead at checkpoint

Commandos find 'torture evidence'

It emerged tonight that British troops have uncovered what appeared to be evidence of torture by the regime when Royal Marines raided a police station in Abu Al Khasib, near the southern city of Basra, which is surrounded by British forces.

They found dozens of ID cards thought to belong to dead Iraqi men in the chief of police's desk, according to a report from Tom Newton Dunn of the Daily Mirror.

They were told by local people that President Saddam's feared internal security service, the mukhabarat, had operated from the station. Spatters of what appeared to be blood stained the walls of the cells, and in one a meathook hung from the ceiling and a thick line of hose pipe had been left on the floor.

One room was believed to be where electric shock torture was carried out - there was a long live cable lead and two rubber tyres for the torturer to stand on to insulate his own feet.

Meanwhile, Iraqi civilians fleeing Basra said that they faced pressure from members of the ruling Ba'ath party not to rise up against President Saddam.

But resistance has continued in the city, confounding British and US hopes that the Shia people of southern Iraq would repeat their failed 1991 revolt against President Saddam's largely Sunni leadership.

Another British soldier has been killed in southern Iraq, bringing the total British death toll to 26, it was announced today. Excluding the latest casualty, 25 British soldiers had died in the 13-day-old war so far, five in action and 20 in accidents or "friendly fire".

Meanwhile there were reports that a shortage of mosquito nets is putting British troops at risk of contracting malaria. In one British unit only 6,000 of the nets have been delivered for more than 9,000 British soldiers, officers revealed.

Blunkett: War has raised terror threat

Britain is in danger of simultaneous terrorist attacks on it and the US because of the two countries alliance in the war with Iraq, the home secretary David Blunkett warned tonight.

Speaking in Washington, where he had held joint talks with the US director of homeland security, Tom Ridge, Mr Blunkett announced a new joint working group between the home office and Mr Ridge's department to combat international terrorism.
Blunkett warns of twin terror threat

More bombing of Iraqi cities

Further fierce bombing of Baghdad was expected tonight as the focus of the war shifted to the Iraqi capital. US commander General Tommy Franks has been given the "green light" to move on Baghdad when he feels the time is right, United States officials said.

There was expected to be further "softening up" of Republican Guard positions south of the city from the air. Heavy air raids pummelled Baghdad's southern and western outskirts early today following a night of bombing last night.

One of President Saddam's sprawling compounds on the banks of the river Tigris was hit and another explosion came from the headquarters of the Iraqi Olympic committee, which is headed by President Saddam's eldest son, Uday. Human rights activists have accused him of jailing and torturing athletes there.

Iraq said the raids on Baghdad had killed 24 people and wounded more than 125 since yesterday.

US warplanes also attacked targets close to the oil city of Kirkuk in northern Iraq today. Local Kurds said the planes could be targeting an Iraqi arms depot but this could not be confirmed. Just before 1700BST there was also large explosion, ostensibly from a coalition bombing, on a site near Kifri, a town east of Baghdad.

The push to Baghdad

Reuters correspondents with US military units said US troops yesterday fought Iraqi soldiers firing from buildings and foxholes around a bridge over the Euphrates river at Hindiya. This is the closest to the capital that ground fighting has been reported.

US troops have also advanced to the outskirts of Hilla, about 50 miles south of Baghdad. Iraq reported fierce fighting in and around the city of Nassiriya, 235 miles south-east of the capital, and said that invading troops had suffered heavy casualties.

The prime minister, Tony Blair, today told his war cabinet that the conflict in Iraq had entered its second phase of "a steady advance" towards Baghdad.

The foreign secretary Jack Straw, stressed that more military and civilian loss of life was inevitable in the coming campaign but spoke also of post-conflict Iraq. Mr Straw said he favoured a United Nations conference to bring together Iraqi Kurds, Shia and Sunnis to form a new state after the war.
Straw warns against snap judgments
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