Some of the Fedayeen appeared to be surprised by the U.S. attack, Chilcote said.

CNN: Fedayeen fights hard in Hillah

Informal Pentagon estimates indicate that there may be as many as 30, 000 Fedayeen troops.

CNN: Pentagon official: Iraqi militias unexpected challenge

India's home-affairs minister, L.K. Advani (a powerful hawk), described the attackers as fedayeen but pointed no immediate finger at Pakistan.

ECONOMIST: Were Pakistanis involved?

He had plans in place before the start of Operation Iraqi Freedom to employ the Fedayeen paramilitary forces and to conduct an insurgency.

CENTERFORSECURITYPOLICY: Center for Security Policy | The Measure of a Superpower: A Two Major Regional Contingency Military for the 21st Century | Page: 3

Coalition officials now estimate the paramilitary Fedayeen Saddam and other Iraqi secret services, spread all around the country rather than hunkering down near Baghdad, number tens of thousands more than they'd initially suspected.

CNN: War Strategy: Planners must ask 'What if?'

On the afternoon of March 26th, just six days into the war, he stood on the outskirts of Najaf with Rick Atkinson, the journalist and military historian, and observed combat involving irregular Iraqi fedayeen forces.

NEWYORKER: The General��s Dilemma

Many of Saddam's fedayeen fighters and officials of his Baath Party, as well as Republican Guard members who have taken off their uniforms, are thought still to be armed and at large on the city's streets.

ECONOMIST: Saddam's regime topples

General Jim Mattis in Hillah, he said that the two groups who fought most aggressively during the major combat operations were the Fedayeen Saddam -- homegrown thugs with a cult-like attachment to Saddam -- and foreign fighters, principally from other Arab countries.

CENTERFORSECURITYPOLICY: What are we fighting for?