Open acts of defiance by opponents of Saddam Hussein’s regime have intensified in the past week, with saboteurs carrying out attacks against Iraq’s railway system and protesters openly calling for the overthrow of the Iraqi dictator.
The most blatant act of sabotage took place 20 miles south of the north Iraqi city of Mosul when members of the Iraqi opposition blew up a stretch of track on the Mosul-Baghdad railway, causing the derailment of a train….
Demonstrations were also reported to have taken place in Kirkuk, where an estimated crowd of 20,000 marched on the Ba’ath party’s main administrative headquarters demanding Saddam’s overthrow. Three posters of the Iraqi leader were torn down and a grenade was thrown at the government building. One senior Ba’ath official was reported killed in the attack.
There were also unconfirmed reports that another demonstration by Iraqi Shi’ites in the holy city of Kerbala last weekend was violently suppressed after the intervention of militiamen loyal to Saddam.
The escalation in attacks by Iraqi opposition groups has also been accompanied by widespread acts of anti-Saddam vandalism. Posters of the Iraqi president, which adorn every public building, are being openly defaced and vandalized throughout the country.
Until recently anyone caught carrying out such acts would have received the death sentence. [Daily Telegraph, 3/16/03]
The report also includes a graphic description how Saddam’s thugs killed a civil servant who was accused of preparing to leave the country; I’ll spare you. I’ll also spare you the graphic descriptions of other Iraqi tortures reported by Ann Clwyd, a British Labour MP. If you have the stomach, read them. As a friend wrote, “OK, now I’m convinced.”