Council warned US of attack, says Chalabi

Published August 21, 2003

BAGHDAD, Aug 20: A member of Iraq’s Governing Council said on Wednesday the Council had warned US authorities that Saddam Hussein loyalists and militants had met to plan a major attack on a “soft target” in Baghdad.

Ahmad Chalabi, one of 25 members of the US-appointed Council, told a news conference that on Aug 14 the Council had received intelligence that a meeting had been held at which Saddam supporters and militants discussed an attack either against the headquarters of an Iraqi political party or the United Nations.

“It specifically said that this attack would take place using a truck to be detonated either through a suicide mechanism or through electronic detonation,” Mr Chalabi said, adding that the information had been passed on to the Americans in Iraq.—Reuters