Aussie SAS's role can now be revealed!

[MKSheppard]

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Chemicals taken out of the mix early
Special forces went deep into Iraq to topple weapons command posts.

By DAVID E. SANGER and THOM SHANKER
The New York Times

WASHINGTON – In the opening hours of the war against Iraq, U.S. and Australian forces flew deep into the country and seized or destroyed specific command posts to prevent officers there from ordering the use of chemical and biological weapons, according to officials of the coalition forces.

The outposts were selected for urgent, risky attacks because intelligence agencies had reported that the field commanders had operational control of those weapons, and might have been given authority by Saddam Hussein to use them even if he were killed or could no longer communicate his orders.

Officials stressed that no chemical or biological weapons were stored at the command centers that have been attacked thus far in the campaign. The Iraqis have denied having such weapons.

Officials who described the covert operations said they could not reveal how the targets were chosen, where the outposts were or how many of them there were, because those details remained sensitive while the invasion of Iraq was still under way.

The use of special operations forces in the attacks, though, is a sure sign that coalition commanders viewed the targets as unusually significant, not the ordinary kind of outpost that might be easily destroyed by bombing.

Sending highly trained, specialized troops secretly to do the job is a complex and dangerous mission, and the troops assigned to it are used only for extremely important jobs. This makes it possible to take prisoners and seize evidence that could point the way to other command posts or to the weapons themselves.

In one mission, Australian commandos were discovered by the Iraqis and fought a skirmish that injured or killed more than 10 Iraqis, the officials said.

"We don't know where Saddam is or whether he's able to communicate," said one senior official with detailed knowledge of the covert operation. "But we know we got to these command centers before anyone there had time to do anything."

Australia's commander in the region, Brig. Gen. Maurie McNarn, mentioned the operation by Australian Special Air Service commandos to reporters in Qatar on Friday.

He said his forces had moved "deep inside Iraq" for several days.

"Their primary role is strategic reconnaissance, although in some cases there are command and control nodes which are used for communications for controlling WMD," he said, using the abbreviation for weapons of mass destruction, "We will in some cases have taken direct action against those."

He said one of the squads had "wounded a number" of Iraqis, but other officials said they believed some of the Iraqi forces had been killed.

At the Pentagon on Saturday, one senior official said, "Those places are going down all over" Iraq.

Senior military officials said Saturday that bombs and missiles fired by coalition aircraft had hit such targets as missile launchers and artillery batteries thought to be capable of firing chemical weapons, along with the communications equipment at those locations.

Attacks on suspected storage sites for chemical or biological weapons risked spreading the poisons, officials said, and had not yet been ordered in this campaign, senior military officials said Saturday.

Specialized explosives, however, have been developed for that mission.

At the U.S. Central Command's forward headquarters in Qatar, senior military officials confirmed Saturday the overall outlines of the commando missions. They said the search for the weapons themselves was still under way.

"Coalition Special Operations forces entered Iraq at night, after destroying Iraqi military outposts," said Brig. Gen. Vincent Brooks. "The special operation forces then began looking for Saddam Hussein's and the regime's weapons of mass destruction and their ballistic missiles that threaten their neighbors."

An Arab official familiar with the war operations said Saturday that "getting these command centers was one of the bigger events of the war," because it was from them, rather than Baghdad, that the coalition expected instructions to emanate to start an unconventional counterattack.

Officials have been willing to talk about the operation in part to put the spotlight on non- American forces in the coalition.

Australia's special forces are considered among the world's most skilled, and U.S. officials have cited their role in such a critical mission in the early hours of the war to demonstrate that the battle is not being waged solely by American and British forces.

U.S. officials all but ruled out the possibility that Iraq, as it has often declared, actually possesses no weapons of this kind. They have said many times they were certain that the weapons exist and that they would find them once the coalition forces control Iraq.

Some of them expressed the lingering fear that the most potent weapons are being deliberately withheld until U.S. forces get close to Baghdad.

[EmperorChrostas the Cruel]

Whoo hoo! Go you saucey Aussies!

We, (the USA) will remember our FRIENDS.
We will also remember our ENEMIES!

Deeds, NOT words!
We know who our friends REALY are.

[Beowulf]

Dress thy links!

[Gandalf]

Go Australia!

[Spyder]

Whoo hoo! Go you saucey Aussies!

We, (the USA) will remember our FRIENDS.
We will also remember our ENEMIES!

Deeds, NOT words!
We know who our friends REALY are.

Yeah, it's just your missiles that don't.