CAIRO, March 20 (IslamOnline.net) - The opening stage of the U.S.-led military operations in Iraq in the small hours of Thursday, March 20, is part of a large-scale plan aimed initially at testing the reaction of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein and the Iraqi opposition, Iraqi sources close to the operation said.

In exclusive statements to IslamOnline.net, the sources said the first air raids served as a message from the United States to the Iraqi opposition inside Iraq that its war threats were serious and reflected a dire desire to unseat the Iraqi regime.

The sources said the U.S. had recently gathered information from a number of Iraqi spies that if war broke out, the Iraqi people would warmly welcome the U.S. troops and help topple Saddam.

“Upon such information, the U.S. drew up its initial plans to hit a specific number of strategic places for 48 hours. And if the Iraqi public did not respond to the attack, then the U.S. would begin its all-inclusive operations,” said the sources, speaking on condition of anonymity.

On the Iraqi war plan to deter the U.S. attack and secure the internal front, the sources said the Iraqi government adopted a plan aimed at extending the war as long as possible.

“The (Iraqi) government divided the country into a number of large sectors, which, in turn, were divided into smaller ones. Each sector is divided into a number of districts and each district into a number of areas to be under the control of trust-worth locals,” they said.

The sources added that groups of locals in each area are shouldered with the responsibility of preventing strangers from entering these areas and locals from going out in a bid to avoid a repetition of the mistakes committed by the Iraqi government in 1991.

On the Iraq-U.S. showdown, the sources said the Iraqi government wants to pull the U.S. legs into street fighting in cities, where they (the U.S. troops) would find clans, Iraqi youth waiting for them.

Meanwhile, other sources close to the Iraqi government told IslamOnline.net that the Iraqi people will remain steadfast in the face of the U.S. attack.

However, sources of the Shiite opposition confirmed to IslamOnline.net on Tuesday, March 18, that the Iraqi people were really placed between the “hammer of Saddam and the anvil of the U.S.”

“Therefore, the Iraqi people will not resist the Americans until they would make sure that Saddam was toppled,” they argued.

The sources further asserted that the Iraqi people from all walks of life, Shiites, Sunnis or Kurds, would fight the U.S. colonialism backed logistically from the south, Iran, and the north, Syria.