by Ann Williams
In October 2002, the United States Congress authorized the invasion of Iraq, citing Hussein’s refusal to abide by UN resolutions on weapons of mass destruction, human rights, terrorism and treatment of prisoners of war. The following month, the UN offered Iraq a final chance, under resolution 1441, to comply with its disarmament obligations and reveal its weapons of mass destruction. The resolution warned that there would be grave consequences if this were not done.
In response, Iraq claimed that it had abided by the resolution and had disarmed as required. Hans Blix, the head of the UN weapons inspectors team, asked the UN for more time to check whether this was actually the case. Meanwhile, the USA and UK were demanding a further resolution authorizing the use of force in Iraq if, as they believed, there were still weapons of mass destruction there. They never received this final resolution, and the invasion began without it.
‘OPERATION IRAQI FREEDOM’
The USA and UK defended themselves by claiming that the use of force was implicit in resolution 1441. However, the UN Security Council pointed out that it was not up to individual members of the council to determine how resolutions were enforced. Several years after the event, the legality of the Coalition invasion under the terms of resolution 1441 is still being disputed, especially as after the invasion, no weapons of mass destruction were ever found.
The invasion of Iraq was conducted under the code name of ‘Operation Iraqi Freedom’, and ir deployed 100,000 soldiers and marines from the USA. The UK sent more than 26,000 troops, and there were also forces from other nations, such as Australia. A large force from Iraqi Kurdish militia was also present, numbering more than 50,000. The Coalition forces had hoped to set up a base in Turkey, but in the event, the Turkish government refused to allow this.
On the other side of the conflict, the combined Iraqi armed forces numbered over 300,000, but they were poorly equipped and managed. For many years before the invasion, there had been sanctions against Iraq, and the entire infrastructure and organization of the country was extremely poor. The Iraqi troops had also been fighting low-level battles against US and UK air patrols for several years, in the aftermath of the 1991 Gulf War. These hostilities were stepped up in the months prior to the invasion, to allow Coalition forces to enter Iraq without detection.
HUSSEIN CAPTURED
The formal attack on March 20, 2003, was marked by a series of explosions in Baghdad in the early hours of the morning. Meanwhile, Coalition troops were swarming into Iraq from Kuwait and elsewhere. Their aim was to destroy the Iraqi military and to secure the Iraqi oilfields rather than to decimate cities and harm civilians. Within about three weeks, they achieved their aim; the Iraqi military, and with it the Iraqi government, had completely collapsed. US forces then moved into Baghdad, launching an attack on the Palaces of Saddam Hussein and taking control of the city. On April 9, 2003, the city was formally declared occupied by the USA.
When Saddam Hussein was eventually captured on December 13, 2003, it became clear that his brutal regime was over for good. In a matter of weeks, with relatively little loss of civilian life, the Coalition forces had managed to overrun the country, take over the government and win the war. At the time, this seemed like a triumph, and the USA and UK were jubilant at their victory.
However, once the war was over, the picture began to cloud. As it transpired, it was not so easy to quell the many conflicts that ensued once the regime had fallen. With the collapse of the government, Iraqi tribes began to fight among themselves to establish their dominance in the new order. Thus, the Coalition troops now found themselves involved in constant fighting between different factions in various cities, all taking place in a run-down country ravaged by sanctions and war. The Coalition invasion may have been a success, in military terms, however, the aftermath of the war proved to be a long and tortuous ordeal.
GUERRILLA WARFARE
Iraq was a country in disarray, with rogue elements from the military still fighting and looting; in addition, the hospitals, water supply and basic amenities had broken down, or were at breaking point. Not only this, the country’s great museums, housing ancient treasures of immense cultural significance, in a region once held to be the cradle of civilization, had been ransacked, while other important historical buildings had been permanently damaged.
There was a threat to the Coalition soldiers as well as to the local population. Dangerous weapons and ammunition were stashed all over the countryside, hidden by insurgents. In a guerrilla war that included improvised explosions, suicide bombing, sabotage of oil wells, water and electricity, and grenade attacks, the opposing ethnic and political factions of Iraqi society continued to do battle with each other.
To date, the problems in Iraq continue to beset its inhabitants, both local people and foreign troops. Many critics point out that, although the invasion itself was carefully planned, the USA did not give a great deal of thought as to how post-war unrest in Iraq could be controlled, and they have not deployed enough troops or resources to rebuild the country in a viable way. Thus, with Iraq still in crisis, and its people still suffering the ravages of war, not to mention the increasing threat of terrorism around the world that many feel has been the result of the invasion, it seems that the winning of Gulf War Three has, in many ways, been a hollow victory for the West.
Chechnya ‘Black Widows’
We didn’t come here to go home again, we came here to die. We are all suicide fighters.
Chechen rebels report to the BBC
The Black Widows come from Russia and are a group of female suicide bombers, usually of Chechen origin. They got the title ‘Black Widows’ due to the fact that the majority of the women lost male members of their families in the Chechen wars against Russia. They are dressed from head-to-toe in black and wear the so-called ‘martyr’s belt’ that is filled with explosives. The first Black Widow was Khava Barayeva, who blew herself up at a military base in Chechyna in June 2000.
The woman who is thought to be the main recruiter for the Black Widows is a mysterious, dark-eyed, middle-aged woman with a hooked nose and dark hair, popularly known as ‘Black Fatima’. She has reportedly been spotted lurking in areas where terrorist bombings have taken place during the ongoing tensions between Russia and the breakaway republic of Chechyna.
A resident in Grozny, Russia, Medna Bayrakova, told reporters that she remembers clearly the day that a middle-aged woman showed up at her front door. She asked if she could speak to her 26-year-old daughter, Zareta and, not aware that anything was wrong, Bayrakova let the visitor into her house. Her daughter and the stranger spent half an hour in the bedroom, and then her daughter left, saying she was walking the woman to the bus stop. One hour later Bayrakova’s daughter had still not returned, and several men in camouflage uniform knocked at the door of the family’s apartment. They told the woman that they had taken her daughter away as she had agreed to marry one of their members. Bayrakova protested violently, saying that her daughter was a sick girl, suffering from tuberculosis. They told her that they would give her medication and make sure she was well looked after, then they turned and left.
The next time Bayrakova and her husand saw their daughter was 24 days later, when Chechen rebels seized the Dubrovka Theatre in Moscow. Zareta’s unmistakable dark eyes were visible above a black veil, as a television company showed a number of the rebels during one of their broadcasts. Her hands were clasped firmly below a belt of powerful explosives. Zareta Bayrakova was just another one of a string of women who had agreed to join the band of Black Widows.
Chechen terrorists have become a major threat to the security of the Russian people, as they have targeted rock concerts, subways and commuter trains full of students. In total the Black Widow suicide attacks have killed as many as 100 people and wounded several hundred more. It is believed that the women turn themselves into live bombs because they want to avenge loved ones killed in Chechnya’s ten-year war with Russia.
DUBROVKA THEATRE SIEGE
The Black Widows made their first entrance into the world of terrorists on October 23, 2002, when Chechen rebels stormed a Moscow theatre during a performance of the musical Nord-Ost. The siege at the Dubrovka Theatre started at around 9.00 a.m., when a blast was heard near the building and witnesses said they heard some gunfire. The rebel group consisted of 40–50 gunmen, but they were also accompanied by several Chechen women, who were strapped with explosives.
It is estimated that as many as 900 people were taken hostage during the siege, including 90 members of the theatre staff. The talks between the rebels and the Russian authorities lasted for three days, in which time a total of 200 hostages were released. After the release of the first few hostages, the rebels demanded that Russian military forces be pulled out of Chechnya within one week. They said if the federal forces attempted a counterattack on the theatre, they would simply blow up the building. The rebels used the hostages they had freed to communicate with the negotiators, and said that they would release the children if they were allowed to speak to the media. At about midnight, the crews of the NTV television network were allowed to broadcast some comments from the rebels. Later that night, two Chechen representatives in Russia’s parliament succeeded in getting inside the theatre, and attempted to negotiate with the captors. However, these negotiations were unsuccessful, and antiwar protests started to break out all over Moscow, as relatives of the hostages appealed for the rebels’ demands to be met.
On the third day of the negotiations, at about
5.00 a.m., the Russian Special Forces stormed the theatre, believing that the rebels had already started to kill several of the hostages. After getting inside the building, the Special Forces released a narcotic gas to try to subdue the terrorists, and they managed to kill all of the terrorists in the ensuing shoot-out. However, it was not only the rebels that were killed: 129 of the hostages died, all but two of them due to the gas used by the the federal forces. By 7.00 a.m. the hostages were taken from the building and loaded onto buses to be taken to various hospitals in the locality.
The 18 women who were involved in the siege were regarded as real heroines, and they even received sympathy from the Russian survivors. Whatever the truth about these women, whether they were there of their own free will, or whether they were forced, they were certainly willing to lose their lives in revenge for the killing of their families.
The year after the theatre siege, former hostages started to file lawsuits and over 60 plaintiffs claimed millions of dollars in compensation from the Moscow government. On the first anniversary, a monument was unveiled in memory of the victims who lost their lives.
ASSASSINATION ATTEMPT
In May 2003, a Black Widow suicide bomber killed 14 people and wounded 150 as the pro-Moscow Chechen administrator, Akhmad Kadyrov, was addressing thousands of Muslim pilgrims at a crowded festival in Ilaskhan-Yurt. The attack was timed to coincide with the birthday of the Prophet Muhammad, and the intended target was Kadyrov himself and all the religious figures who support Putin’s peace plan.
Witnesses said that the woman who carried out the attack had first asked to speak to Kadyrov, saying that three of her sons had disappeared. But the security guards simply turned her away, and she blew herself up only a few metres away from Kadyrov. The woman was later identified as Shakhida Baimuratova – whose first name translates as ‘martyrdom’ – a 46-year-old rebel fighter, whose husband had been killed in 1999. Dressed in black, with her hair tucked into a hijab, or Muslim headscarf, Baimuratova arrived at the festival with roughly 400 g (14 oz) of explosives strapped to her waist. A second woman, who had failed to detonate her explosives, also died in the blast.
Although Kadyrov was not injured in the attack, five of his bodyguards were killed, and he stated that he was concerned that there would be further attacks by the new breed of suicide bombers. He described the attack as a frightening new form of rebel action in a decade-old conflict. Just two days earlier another woman was part of an attack in the region’s usually peaceful north, when she drove a truck packed with explosives into a government complex. Russia was now taking the threat of the Black Widows seriously as attacks were happening on an almost daily basis.
BUS BLAST
A woman, believed to be a 25-year-old Chechen, threw herself under a bus carrying members of Russia’s military on Thursday, June 5, 2003. The attacker was wearing a white coat, the normal uniform for medical personnel. The blast killed 17 people and injured at least 15 critically.
The attack took place at 7.36 a.m. on the outskirts of Mozdok air base, a major military installation in Russia’s North Ossetia province. The woman waited until the bus slowed down for a railway pass, and then approached the vehicle and blew herself up. So far the suicide bomber has not been identified.
ROCK CONCERT BOMBERS
On July 6, 2003, two women strapped with explosives blew themselves up at a crowded outdoor rock festival, killing at least 16 people. The first blast went off at one of the entrances to the festival at the Tushino airfield in Moscow. Another went off ten minutes later, as spectators were filing there way out of one of the exit gates.
The annual festival called Krylya ‘Wings’ is popular with young people, and there were about 20,000 people in attendance. Although a number of people were evacuated following the explosions, the concert continued in the hope of preventing mass panic.
Guards at the festival entrances were suspicious of the two women and stopped them from entering the grounds. Had they been able to gain access, it is feared that the casualty figures would have been far higher. As the two women approached the gate, the guards said their agitation was clearly visible. As soon as they were told they were not allowed to go into the concert, the first woman triggered her explosive-packed belt. Police immediately tried to direct the panicking crowed through another exit, which is where the second bomb was detonated, and this is where most of the casualties occurred.
Helicopters flew over the area looking for anything suspicious, while ambulances and police streamed into the airfield. Another bomb was discovered near one of the festival entrances, but the police managed to defuse it before any harm was done.
Although no one claimed responsibility for the attack, it was suggested that it was connected with the announcement made by the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, the day before, stating that presidential elections would be held in Chechnya in October.
ATTACK ON A COMMUTER TRAIN
In December 2003, a suicide bomber was responsible for killing at least 46 people and injured over 100 others when he blew himself up on a commuter train in southern Russia during the morning rush hour, when the train was packed with people. The male bomber was assisted by three women, two of whom managed to jump from the moving train and fled the scene. The third woman, who didn’t manage to escape, was seriously wounded.
The explosion occurred just as the train had left Yessentuki station and, as a result of the blast, the train was derailed. The majority of those injured were students on their way to school in Mineralniye Vodi. Investigators believed that it was explosives attached to the belt of the woman terrorist that caused the main explosion. The male suicide bomber also detonated grenades that he had strapped to his legs, and a bag containing further explosives was found on board the train.
The timing of the attack was significant, as it came only two days before major parliamentary elections in Russia. Officials believed that the attack was an effort to try and destabilize the situation and possibly even disrupt the elections. President Putin was determined that the terrorists would not achieve their aims, and the elections took place unhindered.
Although initially no group claimed responsibility, on December 23, members of the Chechen Black Widow Brigade said they had carried out the terror attack on the commuter train. They defended their actions and said they would not stop until hostilities against their region were stopped.
GOVERMENT TARGET
On December 9, 2003, just a few hundred metres from the Kremlin
, a bomb exploded outside the National Hotel in the heart of Moscow. The terror attack was thought to be the work of a female suicide bomber and one other accomplice. It is thought that the bomb exploded too early, as their main target was the State Duma building and not the hotel. Just before the bomb exploded one of the bombers had reportedly asked directions to the Duma building. At the scene, police found a briefcase, which they believed had contained explosives that had been detonated by a robotic device. They also found additional explosives on a headless female body, which they believed to be one of the primary suicide bombers, which had also been detonated by a robot.
Russian police started a search to find a third woman, who they believed to be an accomplice, and possibly the one who had activated the explosives. The attack came just two days after Putin’s supporters won the legislative elections, in what many felt were unfair and biased elections. At the time of the explosion several Council of Europe members were near the hotel, but they escaped injury. However, six people died and at least 13 others were injured in the blast.