Iraqi President Saddam Hussein decorated his top aides Monday for their courage during and after the Persian Gulf war, the official Iraqi news agency said.
The eight honored officials were given "Swords of the Mother of All Battles" and the Order of the Two Rivers."Inevitably, after the current crisis faced by our people, there will come the Great Rescue, which will surprise all with its greatness and the manner with which it will occur," the news agency quoted Saddam as saying at the ceremony. It shed no light on what he might mean by the statement.
The officials were honored for "extreme courage, sincerity, self-denial and sacrifice of their vanguard roles for the sake of the people and the nation," and "their distinguished role in leading the strugglers of the sons of the people and armed forces in the stand of honor and dignity during the Great Confrontation, the Mother of all Battles."
Iraq invaded Kuwait last Aug. 2. On Jan. 15 the United States and its allies began air attacks on Iraq and started a ground war in late February that lasted just 100 hours before Iraq surrendered.