The United States will launch a military strike on Iraq "within a few months," a former Iraqi general living in exile said in remarks published Monday.
"The countdown for the attack has started and it could come within a few months," Najib al-Salhi told Al-Hayat newspaper.
Salhi, a former commander of the Republican Guard, Saddam Hussein's elite corps, defected in the year 1995 and is one of 70 former Iraqi officers scheduled to meet in the British capital of London on July 12-14 to discuss overthrowing the regime in Baghdad.
Leaks to the American press of possible attack scenarios were a "clear message from Washington to the Iraqis of its determination to overthrow the regime" of the Iraqi leader, Salhi conveyed. "Military strikes should aim to root out the head of the regime and not the infrastructure or civilian targets."
Moreover, he called upon Iraqi opposition groups to "unify their activities ... and cooperate to help set up a democratic regime" in Iraq after Saddam's ouster. (Albawaba.com)
© 2002 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
