Iraqi opposition ready to fight; US: Iraq can protect its regime

The assistant founder of the opposition Iraqi national conference Ahmad Shalabi said on Friday that his group has almost 40,000 members who are ready to fight and they asked the American Administration to provide military training and the air cover to help in toppling the Iraqi President Saddam Hussein.

News reports quoted Shalabi as saying that the fighters in the line of the Iraqi opposition are ready to launch a battle similar to that launched by the anti- Taliban movement, if the American air force drops bombs from air against Iraq.

Shalabi added:" we want to revive the forces of the American society to challenge Saddam Hussein with an American help." Worthy mentioning that the US state and defense departments are still split towards supporting the Iraqi opposition, however, the desire to topple Saddam Hussein was offered by US President George Bush offered greater opportunity in his speech made on Tuesday. In that speech President Bush considered Iraq, Iran and North Korea as " the axis of evil."

Last year, US Vice Admiral Thomas R. Wilson, Director, Defense Intelligence Agency said Iraq's ground forces "are able to protect the regime effectively" and that "North Korea, Iran, and Iraq, could field ICBMs with WMD, presenting a new strategic threat that we've not faced before."