Text of Saddam Hussein's message to the Iraqi people Tuesday, which was read by his information minister, Mohammed Saeed al-Sahhaf and translated from Arabic by The Associated Press:
In the name of God the most compassionate.
They shall be vanquished and flee. God hath spoken.
God is great. God is great. God is great. There is no God but God.
Oh great mujahid people,
Oh sons of our glorious nation,
Oh men, bearers of arms and the honor of resistance. God's peace be upon you as you confront the invaders, the enemies of God and humanity, the transient blasphemers with chests brimming with faith and the love of God.
Yes, these are the days of unparalleled honor for 700 years. God has granted us with this great opportunity and affliction that God wants to test our faith and our allegiance, which we testified to before the Almighty, so that God shall give us this opportunity to turn the words into deeds to bestow upon us his mercy and raise the influence of his banner through us as it flutters on the mast of Allahu Akbar.
Yes, oh brothers, for centuries and centuries there has been no unanimity among the religious scholars of the nation, despite differences in their diligence, factions and sects as there is today that the aggression, which the aggressors are carrying out against the stronghold of faith is an aggression on the religion, the wealth, the honor and the soul and an aggression on the land of Islam.
Therefore, jihad is a duty in confronting them. He who dies in this quest God bestows on him light in eternal paradise and in his blessing. Seize the opportunity, my brothers, it carries one of the two virtues for the sake of God and the great principles.
God has granted victory of those who invoked his faith, promise and covenant against the enemies and the aggressors fled before the right, cursed along with their devils while the faces of the mujahedeen illuminated with faith and honor of the moment.
Seize the opportunity, the pride of Iraq and the nation. It is the opportunity to become eternal and a long life for the living and glory unparalleled.
Strike at them, fight them. They are aggressors, evil, accursed by God, the exalted. You shall be victorious and they shall be vanquished.
Fight them just the way your brothers and sons fought them in the vast Umm Qasr and Basra, the warm Ninawa, Nasiriyah and Shatra, on the outskirts of Hay and Anbar.
Fight them everywhere the way you are fighting them today and don't give them a chance to catch their breath until they declare it and withdraw from the lands of the Muslims, defeated and cursed in this life and the after life.
Long live our glorious nation. Long live free and proud Palestine, from the river to the sea. Long Live Iraq. Long live Iraq. On to jihad and long live the mujahids of our nation. God is great and the criminals shall be defeated.
Saddam Hussein
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