Intelligence Report Blames Saddam's Security Service for Attacks
NewsMax.com Wires
Thursday, April 29, 2004
WASHINGTON – Former members of Saddam Hussein's security service are believed
to be conducting a loosely coordinated campaign of bombings and attacks in Iraq
that they prepared for since before the U.S. invasion last year, a defense
official said Thursday, citing an intelligence report.
The report blames officers from an outfit known as M-14, or the Directorate of
Special Operations and Antiterrorism, for some of the violence in post-war
Iraq, the official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity. The
organization was part of the Iraqi Mukhabarat, or intelligence service, before
the war.
When the fall of Saddam's regime was imminent, the officers dispersed to cities
around Iraq. They are working largely without coordination with one another,
but are believed to be guiding some of the anti-U.S. forces in the restive city
of Fallujah west of Baghdad, the official said.
The official cited two pieces of evidence: interviews with captured members of
the organization, and commonalities between the designs of explosive devices
found throughout Iraq.
"I can't say this is the only group out there," the official said. "These guys
are the most sophisticated."
The official said the report contains no estimates of the number of M-14
operatives still at large.
The report blames an April 14, 2003, attack that killed three U.S. soldiers on
the group, the official said. It said the group probably is working with other
anti-U.S. groups and individuals to conduct some of their attacks.
Other groups include fighters working for Abu Musab Zarqawi, a Sunni extremist
connected to Osama bin Laden.
The intelligence finding was reported in Thursday's New York Times
.
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