March 29 They began as what analysts at the time dismissed as a "toy army," a pet project of Saddam's volatile eldest son, Uday. He recruited the Saddam Fedayeen ("Martyrs for Saddam") as a special bodyguard for his father. At first, according to experts on Iraq and defectors from Saddam's inner circle, they did little more than Uday's twisted bidding-picking up girls for him to rape, beating Olympic athletes for losing games, cutting out the tongues of critics of the regime. Meanwhile Uday's younger and more reliable brother Qusay took charge of his father's most important paramilitary organizations, especially the feared Special Security Office and the elite Special Republican Guard.
Story in part by Arian Camo-Flores and Rod Norlam (Newsweek web) March 29, 2003
POW in Iraq
Woman, 19, was member of Army unit
ambushed March 23 near An Nasiriyah
NBC, MSNBC AND NEWS SERVICES
April 2 Ending a week of agony for one soldier's family, U.S. forces in Iraq rescued a U.S. prisoner of war, U.S. Central Command said Wednesday morning. Military sources at the Pentagon told NBC News that the rescued soldier was Army Pfc. Jessica Lynch, 19, of Palestine, W.Va., one of eight soldiers who vanished after their convoy was attacked south of Baghdad last month.
President Saddam Hussein toured the streets of his bombed capital in footage shown on Iraqi television shortly after he read a statement calling on citizens to "strike the enemy with force".
As thousands of US-led ground forces moved towards the Iraqi capital, a smiling Saddam greeted mobs of chanting admirers walking amid bomb-damaged buildings with smoke seen from oil fires burning in the distance.
Some kissed him on his cheeks and hands and he held up a small child.
"How are you?" Saddam was heard asking excited and clearly surprised citizens.
"May God protect you, President," said one Iraqi.
Another man said: "We'll defend you with our blood and souls, Saddam."
It could not be immediately confirmed when the footage released was shot.
US Central Command dismisses the footage as "a pretty bad performance" that would have no impact on the US campaign.
"If this film was to receive an Academy Award, it would be for the worst performance by a crowd under duress," said Jim Wilkinson, spokesman for the US Central Command in Qatar.
"It's a pretty bad performance, and our campaign is much larger than any one single personality," he said in an interview with US television.
Clue
Saddam, who made similar public tours of parts of Baghdad during the 1991 Gulf War, is believed to have last been seen in public as long as two years ago.
His whereabouts have been the subject of intense speculation since US-led forces bombed Baghdad on March 20 targeting the Iraqi leader and his two sons.
But earlier on Friday in a taped address read on Iraqi television, Saddam provided the first real clue that he had in fact survived that attack when he mentioned the downing of an Apache helicopter by an Iraqi farmer on March 24.
"The enemy is overtaking our valiant defences around Baghdad just like it did around other cities and they (enemy) are avoiding clashes...," Saddam said in his address.
"They are deploying here and there, just like we expected, and these deployments are normally thin and we can confront them with the weapons available, and you recall the Iraqi peasant that downed an Apache with his rifle."
In a statement read by Saddam on Iraqi television he called on the people of Baghdad to "strike the enemy with force" and predicted victory over the invading US and British troops.
"Hit them with force, resist them, oh people of Baghdad whenever they advance upon your city and remain true to your principles, your faith and your honour," said Saddam, dressed in a green military uniform.
After the speech was aired, the White House said it would consider military action in Iraq a success even if US forces failed to find Saddam.
