Ex-Iraqi soldier slams Saddam

The government of Iraq continues to possess weapons of mass destruction.

This was the claim of a former Iraqi soldier now hiding in the Philippines as he called on President Saddam Hussein to step down and save the people of Iraq from the horrors of war.

In a clandestine interview in Quezon City yesterday, Akmad Ahmad, 44, said he believes the government of Iraq maintains a considerable number of chemical and biological weapons.

Ahmad said these weapons were used by Saddam against "his own people" and against Iran during the Iran-Iraq war in the 1980s.

"The United Nations (UN) report about Saddam Hussein’s government (possessing) chemical and biological weapons is true," he told reporters.

During the Iran-Iraq war, Ahmad said, "biological and chemical bombs were dropped from Iraqi warplanes against Iranian positions (along) the Iran-Iraq border, killing and destroying everything, even our own troops."

Ahmad said he witnessed and experienced the horror of the weapons unleashed by Saddam on Iran, as he had been sent to the frontline against Iranian troops.

The same types of bombs were used by the Republican Guards in the region where most of Iraq’s Kurdish minority resided, Ahmad said. These bombs, he added, killed 8,000 people in three hours.

Describing the horror of the chemical and biological attack on the Kurds, he said, "I saw blood coming out of their ears and noses. Everything was destroyed."

"It was Saddam’s first cousin, (Gen.) Al Majid Ali, who spearheaded the chemical and biological weapons attack on the Kurdish region several years back," he said. Ali, he added, is the Iraqi vice president.

Saddam’s atrocities against his own people have already resulted in the deaths of approximately 500,000 innocent civilians by the Republican Guards and many of these civilians were executed, Ahmad said.

He said he was forced to abandon his commission in the Iraqi army when Saddam’s Republican Guards began executing members of his immediate family and close relatives in the Kurdish province.

The former Iraqi soldier refused to show his face and only agreed to be interviewed with his back to the camera. He said he continues to fear for his life even if he was already out of Iraq.

"My life can only (cost) P10,000 to Saddam’s agents. If I show my face now, perhaps tomorrow or in the future you will find out that I am already dead," Ahmad said.

He added that he is not discounting the possibility that Iraqi agents and spies are now in the Philippines, monitoring the movements of anti-Saddam forces here.

Reports earlier obtained by The STAR showed that Saddam has reportedly deployed thousands of his top spies all over the world and some of these spies are in Manila.

"A good number of Iraqi refugees who fled (Iraq) to escape Saddam’s wrath are now hiding in the country," Ahmad said. "We have chosen the Philippines to live (in) temporarily because we are quite assured of our security in this democratic country."

He added that once Saddam is unseated, he and his comrades here will immediately return to Iraq to "rebuild my country."

"I am for the United States to unseat Saddam but not kill the Iraqi people," Ahmad said. "We have had enough of war for the last 30 years. Saddam must leave Iraq for the sake of the Iraqi people."

According to the same report, the Iraqi consulate in Manila is now reportedly full of Iraqi agents, who have been financing pro-Iraqi and anti-US demonstrations in Manila and in other Southeast Asian nations.

Ahmad said 95 percent of the Iraqi people are against Saddam, but are cowed by the fear that speaking out against their government would result in their sure and swift death.

"Iraq is now a big prison camp," he said. "People speaking against the government are executed — including my father, my cousin and my little brother."

Ahmad also predicted that once an all out war is launched by the US against Iraq, Saddam will be abandoned by the Iraqi army. "Once war breaks out, most of the Iraqi army will abandon (Saddam)," he said.

Ahmad added that Saddam is secured by 150,000 loyal Republican Guards.