Battle for new Baath leader likely
Posted: Mon Jan 01, 2007 11:34 am
Battle for new leader likely
Michael Howard
Monday January 1, 2007
The Guardian
The execution of Saddam Hussein could force the Ba'ath party to choose a new leader, sparking an internal battle that could weaken its activities just as it was beginning to re-emerge as a serious force in the Sunni insurgency, a senior Iraqi intelligence official predicted yesterday.
"With Saddam gone and the two leading figures fighting over control of Ba'ath party funds, they may tear themselves apart," the official said in Baghdad.
Other Iraqi and western analysts warned that the death of its leader would push the organisation further into the hands of Syria - where key figures in the Iraqi Ba'athist leadership are thought to be hiding - increasing the leverage the Damascus government is able to wield over Iraq's internal affairs.
In what appeared to be the opening shots of a leadership contest, a statement signed by a previously unknown group calling itself the Baghdad Citizens Gathering and handed out at the party's offices in Amman and Damascus yesterday, pledged loyalty to Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri, a long-time Saddam confidant who escaped capture after the US-led invasion and is believed to be in Syria.
But the Iraqi intelligence official said it was likely al-Douri would face a challenge from younger Ba'athist figures such as Mohammed Younis al-Ahmed, a former Ba'ath party member accused of funding and leading insurgency operations.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,,1980915,00.html
Michael Howard
Monday January 1, 2007
The Guardian
The execution of Saddam Hussein could force the Ba'ath party to choose a new leader, sparking an internal battle that could weaken its activities just as it was beginning to re-emerge as a serious force in the Sunni insurgency, a senior Iraqi intelligence official predicted yesterday.
"With Saddam gone and the two leading figures fighting over control of Ba'ath party funds, they may tear themselves apart," the official said in Baghdad.
Other Iraqi and western analysts warned that the death of its leader would push the organisation further into the hands of Syria - where key figures in the Iraqi Ba'athist leadership are thought to be hiding - increasing the leverage the Damascus government is able to wield over Iraq's internal affairs.
In what appeared to be the opening shots of a leadership contest, a statement signed by a previously unknown group calling itself the Baghdad Citizens Gathering and handed out at the party's offices in Amman and Damascus yesterday, pledged loyalty to Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri, a long-time Saddam confidant who escaped capture after the US-led invasion and is believed to be in Syria.
But the Iraqi intelligence official said it was likely al-Douri would face a challenge from younger Ba'athist figures such as Mohammed Younis al-Ahmed, a former Ba'ath party member accused of funding and leading insurgency operations.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,,1980915,00.html