The Coalition Underestimated Iraq's Hardest Fighting Unit | Iraq 2003

when the Coalition launched its invasion of Iraq in March of 2003 its military leaders believed their main opposition would come from Sadam Hussein's regular army especially the much talked about Republican guard divisions the leader of United States Central Command General Tommy Franks was convinced that he would be fighting a repeat of the Gulf War of 1991 Operation Desert Storm which consisted of armored battles in the open desert against the Iraqi Army and Republican guard however when the Invasion came Coalition forces found that the Iraqi regular Army and the Republican guard units were so weak as to barely warrant attention instead the real threat came from the fedin Sadam a paramilitary force fiercely devoted to the Iraqi dictator which waged Guerilla Warfare against the Coalition this video discusses the feden who they were how they caught the Coalition by surprise and the impact they had on the war and the Insurgency which followed break break break contact the fedin Sadam were founded in 1995 by Saddam Hussein's eldest son UD in response to the uprisings in Iraq which occurred after the disastrous 1991 Gulf War following saddam's humiliating defeat in Operation Desert Storm Iraq's Shia population in the southern part of the country revolted at the urging of the United States the regime already had local militias called the alouds who were tasked with putting down the uprisings but they were mostly ineffective the regular army had to be called in to brutally suppress the Rebellion which ended with the deaths of tens of thousands of civilians however the poor performance of the alids militias LED Saddam to focus his attention on how to better protect his regime his solution was to build a parallel military structure for the development of militia and paramilitary forces to enforce internal security measures the Iraqi dictator had lost faith in his military leadership and now tasked his sons with creating these paramilitaries UD Hussein officially founded the fedin Saddam in 1995 with the mission of protecting saddam's rule at all costs it was initially composed of 10 to 15,000 recruits most of these men were from the Sunni triangle in central Iraq which was saddam's main base of power and these recruits were rigorously vetted to root out anyone disloyal to the regime much like Nazi Germany's s or the black shirts of fascist Italy the fedin were a volunteer Force which reported directly to the presidential Palace and operated outside the jurisdiction of the Iraqi regular army as part of the bath emergency plan drawn up after the 1991 uprisings the fed's main duty was to contain any revolts long enough for Republican guard units to arrive and crush the opposition fedin members were given Bic Small Arms training and trained at local bath party headquarters as part of the emergency plan it was assumed that militia loyal to the regime would be cut off from Supply until the Republican guard or Army units arrived the fedin and other militia stockpiled weapons such as AK-47s RPGs and other Munitions in small towns around Iraq in preparation for a long Siege this clandestine buildup of weapons around the country went undetected by Coalition intelligence agencies while the vast majority of feden Fighters received little to no training a select few were chosen to receive special operations training according to a 2001 interview with Brigadier General Jamal Al kariri some men were drawn from the over 30,000 feden Fighters and sent to a special camp in the Baghdad suburb of Salman Pac here the men were subjected to training which alternated between difficult to outrageous according to Al kariri one exercise involved Landing a helicopter on the roof of a moving train which resulted in the death of two recruits in another part of Salon Pac a group of 1200 foreign Islamic militants were trained as Al Kara or the strikers their role involved carrying out one-way attacks on enemy forces Jamal later said in exercises they always used live ammunition trainees who fail are used as Targets in live ammunition exercises so they die again Western intelligence servic failed to appreciate or investigate these reports prior to the 2003 invasion in the early days of the fedin ud Hussein used the militia for smuggling Contraband and suppressing his personal enemies UD was a cruel and brutal man who also presided over Iraq's Olympic sports teams where his best motivational technique involves torturing athletes he deemed to be underperforming as a notorious Playboy HUD made the fedin his personal bodyguard and henchmen which quickly landed him in trouble with his father in 1996 the fedin was placed under the command of saddam's other son Kus after it was discovered that UD was funneling weapons away from the Republican guard to his militia nonetheless UD mostly retained control over the feden and continued to abuse his authority for personal and often shocking reasons under ud's stewardship the fedin became one of the most feared organizations loyal to saddam's regime they were also hated by much of the Iraqi public for their appalling displays of brutality roing gangs of fedin stalked the streets of Iraqi cities and were known to beat or murder anyone suspected of disloyalty to the B party in one example from October 2000 eight men were executed by the militia for allegedly defacing murals of Saddam like many paramilitaries the fedin were not given an official salary due to their status as a volunteer Force instead most of its m members made a living by stealing or extorting money from the general population this was tolerated by the government who made it a point that fedin militia were not to harm or steal from B party officials when the Coalition went to war in March 2003 the British and American militaries either did not care about the fedin or believed they were not a threat overall theater Commander General Tommy Franks was especially dismissive arguing that the feden would be a mere speed bump on the way to bag dad us strategy in the invasion was to bypass large cities and head straight for the Iraqi Capital it was believed that just like in 1991 the main opposition would be the Republican guard divisions and the threat of lightly armed militias was mostly discounted however the troops on the ground were immediately confronted by a much more dangerous enemy than they had been promised the fedin quickly became the most formidable adversary for the Coalition whereas Iraqi Army units or even the Republican guard tended to collapse when contacted by Coalition forces the feden became notorious for fighting to The Bitter End although the fedin were officially outfitted with black uniforms and ridiculous helmets chosen by udai simply because he loved the Star Wars films almost every military member fought in plain clothes which made them nearly impossible to distinguish from civilians rear areas were vulnerable to ambushes especially since most coalition resupply convoys were unescorted the situation in the cities was even worse for the Coalition before The Invasion American and British officers had been warned not to fire at Iraqi men holding weapons who didn't present an immediate threat having been told they were potential allies in the fight against Saddam in some towns in southern Iraq this proved to be true however the population in the southern half of the country had been brutalized by the fedin for years and most retreated to their homes for fear of provoking the militia Colonel Dan Allen the commander of the US third Brigade combat team was battling the fedin in the city of samawa when he interrogated an Iraqi Captain the captain informed him that the Saddam loyalists had essentially taken over the town from the regular army and had executed soldiers who failed to demonstrate sufficient determination the feden had also moved most of their men and Equipment into mosques and schools and were using civilian as human Shields he told Alan that if the Americans really wanted to win they needed to blast every single school and mosque in the city the battle for samwa would rage until the 4th of April and would only end after the US 82nd Airborne Division stormed the city in intense Urban combat while General Franks continued to downplay the impact of the feden his subordinates took active measures to defeat them the most effective counter was isolating the largest concentrations of feden Fighters and cutting them off from Escape at SWA Colonel Allen carried out a series of limited attacks on the city to keep the feden contained and away from the vulnerable supply routes in bzra British commander General Robin brims took a different approach he established a loose Cordon around the city to allow civilians to flee the fighting through humanitarian corridors this also meant many enemy Fighters escaped disguised as civilians but most fed raids out of Basra were defeated with heavy casualties eventually brim's strategy squeezed the life out of the feden until they could no longer offer effective resistance which allowed the British army to occupy the city on the 6th of April despite many of these successes the feden problem continued to persist overall ground Commander Lieutenant General Dave mckernan immediately recognized the danger they posed and was concerned that the area behind the front was not properly pacified on the 28th of March mckannan called a Hal to the march on Baghdad so that his forces could focus on destroying the fedin harassing his supply lines mck and strategy paid off as American units spent the next 3 days consolidating their gains and destroying pockets of Iraqi militia Additionally the more the southern half was pacified the more the civilian population came out to help the Coalition the Shia population provided valuable intelligence which helped coalition forces rout out isolated islands of resistance which eased pressure on the supply lines by the first week of April the fedin had essentially been defeated in southern Iraq despite this success General Frank steamed in frustration from his headquarters in Qatar Frank's and US Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld did not understand why the fedin needed to be dealt with when the Iraqi Republican guard divisions were still at Large Franks himself would not tolerate any discussion regarding the enemy militia as dangerous in one notorious incident us fifth core Commander General Scott Wallace gave a press interview where he shared concerns over the fedin grip on Iraq's largest cities when he heard of the interview Franks was so Furious that he called mckinon and threatened to relieve Wallace of command immediately to him any acknowledgement of effective enemy resistance was tantamount to coward even though he was repeatedly reminded of the fed's danger Franks never took his subordinates concerns seriously on the 9th of April Baghdad officially fell to the Americans with only sporadic resistance from the feden 4 days later zam's birthplace of tikrit was taken and the Iraqi regime collapsed most of the militia had already seen the writing on the wall and melted back into the civilian population with their weapons the end of the the bath party marked the end of the Saddam fedin as an organized paramilitary Force but its members were not done fighting yet the chaos which gripped the country during the occupation drove many militia Fighters into Sunni jihadist groups which soon came to lead the Insurgency against the Coalition by June of 2003 a large Insurgency was underway in the Sunni triangle later that year on the 30th of November a US Convoy traveling through the town of Samara in the triangle was ambushed by over 100 Guerilla Fighters many of whom were wearing black feden uniforms the role of the fedin in the Iraqi Insurgency continues to be a source of controversy although many of the fedin were committed Sun jihadists most were secular bath party members while some went over and fought for the insurgence many others simply resumed life as civilians yet The Establishment and maintenance of the feden played a major role in in the Flames of insurrection the Sadam fedin were the brainchild of a dictator's psychotic son and carried out some of the most brutal acts of a regime defined by its harshness when the Coalition Powers invaded Iraq in 2003 the fedin were the forces that put up the fiercest fight against the Invaders today their legacy is being one of the early Insurgent groups to resist the Coalition but their impact on the Insurgency as a whole is still debated what cannot be debated is the fedin reputation for committing acts of Cruelty and barbarity in the name of the Iraqi dictatorship

Channel: The Intel Report

Views: 274,289

Keywords: operation iraqi freedom, us army, invasion of iraq, documentary, iraq 2003, saddam hussein, fedayeen saddam, tommy franks

Id: j_OgjuPVdvQ

Length: 13min 46sec (826 seconds)

Published: Sat May 18 2024