Allies Operate in Full View of Hussein Villas

Saddam Hussein’s chalets command breathtaking views of this turquoise-green valley. Now, thanks to an allied agreement, the Iraqi leader can get bird’s-eye reports on allied maneuvers from Republican Guards inside the resort hideaways.

On Thursday, 2,500 American, British, French and Dutch marines and soldiers rolled into Hussein’s chalet country, taking up positions near four of his summer palaces.

The new headquarters for the mission occupies an air base below the hillside town of Sirsenk, a summer vacation spot for wealthy Iraq families.

Khalid Jayoobi, a captain in the Republican Guard, watched U.S. helicopters and allied military convoys move around the valley from a perch high above the airfield.

“We can see everything from here,” he said. “We are like an eagle over the Americans.”

Under an agreement negotiated between allied and Iraqi commanders, a limited number of Iraqi soldiers will be allowed to stay in the palaces to protect them from looting, according to U.S. Army Col. Bob Flocke, a spokesman for the allied effort.

Jayoobi is watching the allies from one of the four presidential palaces near Sirsenk.

The palace, a two-story stone building with a red-tile roof and 20-foot-high Corinthian columns, unabashedly mixes Greco-Roman and Texas ranch-style architecture.

The house appeared empty. Several windows were broken. In the front hall, a huge portrait of Hussein, his head as big as a beach ball, hung slightly askew.

Another compound was visible in the distance, atop a mountain next to Sirsenk. A helicopter ride to the top revealed there were, in fact, two estates.

One contained a long, two-story building with a green roof. It sat on a ridge about 5,000 feet high. From that palace, the whole valley down to Zakhu and the Turkish border opened up.

A little way down the mountain, the view remained as stunning. Another compound, this time hacienda-style, dotted the landscape with little chalets.

“When Saddam had parties up there, all of us could hear it,” said one Sirsenk resident.