Edited for length
Armed with high-tech weapons, night-vision goggles and pictures of their targets, small teams of Delta Force commandos will soon descend on the outskirts of Baghdad to begin the most anticipated mission of the war: capturing or, if possible, killing Saddam Hussein. Teams of the Army's elite 360-man force have been assigned to hunt down Saddam, his sons Qusai and Uday, and at least a dozen of Iraq top military and political leaders, according to senior Pentagon officials with direct knowledge of the mission. The commandos, now based in Kuwait, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and northern Iraq, are prepared to storm Saddam's presidential palaces, attack his convoys and suffer casualties to bring Saddam's 24-year rule to an end, the officials say. The Delta Force — a commando group so secretive that the U.S. government regularly denies its existence — and the CIA have been training clandestinely for this mission for several years, U.S. intelligence officials add.
"Come out, come out, where ever you are." |