Iraqi Calls On World to Block U.S. Victory

Iraqi President Saddam Hussein urged the world Tuesday to prevent the United States from winning its war in Afghanistan, while his son’s newspaper expressed fear that Washington and London will attack Iraq in November.

“The world now needs to abort the aggressive U.S. schemes, including its aggression on the Afghan people, which must stop. It must not allow the U.S. to be victorious,” Hussein said.

He made the statement in an open letter to the West, his third since the Sept. 11 attacks on New York’s World Trade Center and the Pentagon near Washington.

The world would not be saved “from the deep abyss it is being pushed into by the U.S.” if the United States achieved victory in Afghanistan, Hussein wrote.

The United States and Britain began military strikes on Afghanistan 3 1/2 weeks ago after the ruling Taliban refused to surrender Osama bin Laden, the chief suspect in the U.S. attacks.

Meanwhile, Iraq’s most influential newspaper, published by Hussein’s elder son, Uday, warned Tuesday that Washington and London might switch their “war against terrorism” from Afghanistan to Iraq when the Muslim holy month of Ramadan begins in mid-November.

“Perhaps they may suspend their operation in Afghanistan because of winter and they may commit new aggression against Iraq starting with the beginning of Ramadan,” Babel said in a rare front-page editorial.

U.S. and British officials have said operations might not be restricted to Afghanistan in the future but have avoided saying that Iraq or any other specific countries could become targets.

Hussein noted reports that the United States could be the source of anthrax bacteria plaguing America and urged Washington to get rid of all its weapons of mass destruction. Other countries, including Israel, should follow suit, he said.

“We have heard in the news, recently, that American officials think that the source of anthrax is probably the U.S. itself. Hence . . . they should be busy in eliminating the weapons of mass destruction in the U.S. first,” Hussein said.

The United States, which led a multinational force that drove Iraqi troops from Kuwait in 1991, says Baghdad has been developing weapons of mass destruction since U.N. weapons inspectors left the country in 1998.

Iraq has denied any link to the spread of anthrax in the United States.

Western officials say Iraq and the former Soviet Union produced weapons-grade anthrax in the past, but U.S. officials have said they know of no clear link between Iraq and the release of the killer bacteria in the United States.