By ,
Published January 13, 2015
Another purported Saddam Hussein audiotape was broadcast Friday, with the speaker urging Iraqis to fight back against American and British troops and to feel free in looting state property to do so.
The speaker on the tape, which was played by the Arab satellite news channel Al Jazeera (search), said the recording had been made Sunday.
As with earlier tapes, listeners familiar with the former dictator's pronouncements said it sounded like his voice, cadence, and manner of speech.
"The feeling of defeat and bitterness might lead some people to commit treason ... instead of being a gun pointed at the enemy," said the voice, which went on for some time in a rambling discourse.
"I ask people to keep the properties of the country and the party until the situation changes or to donate their value to the glorious resistance," the voice added.
Looters of government property should not worry about retribution, the voice said, and instead should join the guerrilla war and become "a loaded rifle in the face of the invading foreigner."
The speaker said he had faith that "God will support us, and that one day the occupation army will falter and that victory is possible at any moment."
• Map: Postwar Iraq
The audiotape, the fourth to be broadcast in just over two weeks, appeared to be an attempt to rally more Iraqis to the guerrilla war being fought against American troops by assuring people they had nothing to fear upon Saddam's promised return to power.
"We have decided to consider all the properties of the party and the government a gift to whoever has it, to use as they see fit, to keep or to sell without any restrictions, free from any legal constraints, now or in the future," the voice said.
"We feel bitterness about what has happened, but we are insistent on taking the responsibility to save our people and brothers, even those who have betrayed the nation and cooperated with the criminal invaders," the speaker said.
"We feel that not handling this case with caution would make those concerned feel guilty and fear the future and commit the crime of treason.
"God forbid they should do that, that they should aid the foreigner as a result of this destructive feeling, instead of being a loaded rifle in the face of the invading foreigner and being a part of the pious struggle and not fearing the future," the speaker said.
On Thursday, four days after the tape allegedly was recorded, Saddam's daughters Raghad (search) and Rana (search), whose husbands were killed by the regime in 1996, were granted refuge in Jordan with their nine children.
Jordanian Information Minister Nabil al-Sharif told The Associated Press that King Abdullah II (search) decided to offer them refuge because "they are Arab women who have run out of all options."
The whereabouts of Saddam's wife, Sajida Khairallah Telfah (search), and his youngest daughter, Hala, were unknown.
The previous message purportedly from Saddam was broadcast Tuesday by al-Arabiya, another Arab satellite broadcaster. That tape acknowledged the deaths of Saddam's sons Uday (search) and Qusay (search), who were gunned down in a firefight with American forces in Mosul.
The CIA said that tape, like earlier ones, likely was authentic, but was impossible to certify because of the recording's poor quality. Most of the 'Saddam' audios seem to have been pre-recorded, then played back through a telephone line to journalists on the other end.
In the Tuesday tape, Saddam said he was glad of his sons' deaths because they had become martyrs.
But in the Friday tape the voice had clearly moved beyond mourning for the once-feared and brutal sons and issued a call to battle.
"Our faith is great that God will support us, and that one day the occupation army will falter and that victory is possible at any moment. We must not let things slip away and our situation become desperate," the voice said.
"The balance has shifted, after the military confrontations [with insurgents] and this has not changed. They [Americans] will not be able to stop this."
Also Friday, a natural gas pipeline near Baiji, 75 miles north of Baghdad, was burning for a second day. Maj. Michael Panciera of the 4th Infantry Division there said the Americans believed the explosion and fire that began at 8:30 p.m. Thursday was accidental.
Five mortar shells also exploded Thursday night outside a Polish military logistics base in the Iraqi city of Hillah, 60 miles south of Baghdad, but no one was injured, according to the Defense Ministry in Warsaw.
Dozens of Polish, Bulgarian, Romanian and Hungarian troops are stationed at the base.
Defense Ministry spokesman Col. Eugeniusz Mleczak said there was no information about who fired the shells, which caused no damage.
Secretary of State Colin Powell (search) announced Thursday that the tipster who led the military to Uday and Qusay's hideout in Mosul would get $30 million — $15 million for each.
For his protection, the informant has not been identified, although people in Mosul have speculated it was the owner of the house being used by the brothers as a hideout. Military officials in Iraq said the tipster was in protective custody.
In the hunt for the former leader, the Army has created images of what Saddam could look like after three months on the run, although it refused to release the pictures to the public.
One American soldier was killed and three wounded Thursday when their M113 armored personnel carrier (search) hit a land mine on the road leading to Baghdad International Airport, Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, commander of ground forces in the country, told a news conference.
Just before midnight Wednesday, a soldier was killed and two others injured when troops from the 4th Infantry Division came under small-arms fire at their base 25 miles east of Baqouba in northern Iraq.
The deaths brought to 51 the number of U.S. soldiers killed in action since President Bush declared an end to major combat on May 1. So far, 166 American forces have been killed in the Iraq war, 19 more than in the 1991 Gulf War.
No U.S. soldier had been reported killed in combat in Iraq for more than 48 hours.
The coalition also has nabbed someone referred to as "the bomb maker" in Iraq who is believed to be helping insurgents make bombs to be used against U.S. forces. He was No. 4 on the local list of Iraqis wanted by the U.S. military.
Military officers insisted it was "just a matter of time" before they nabbed Saddam himself.
"He's going to start making mistakes, and we're going to catch him," said 4th Infantry Division (search ) spokeswoman Maj. Josslyn Aberle in Tikrit, Saddam's hometown.
"We estimate he's not staying more than four hours at the same place," she said. "But the man's been a master of hiding all his life."
Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld (search ) said American forces had been receiving many tips, but acknowledged that pursuers wouldn't "know if you're closer until you catch him."
"I don't know how close we are to getting Saddam Hussein — closer than we were yesterday, I guess," President Bush said in his Rose Garden press conference Wednesday. "All I can say is we're on the hunt."
Fox News' Greg Palkot and Teri Schultz and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
https://www.foxnews.com/story/another-saddam-tape-airs