In the early period of the Iraq war in 2003, Russian government provided Saddam Hussein with information on U.S. military movements, the Pentagon said in a report released Friday.

Citing a document seized from the toppled Saddam regime, the report claimed that the military intelligence was passed on to Saddam through the Russian embassy in Baghdad at that time.

Much of the Russian intelligence, however, turned out to be counterproductive, it said.

By telling Saddam that a major U.S. offensive on Baghdad will not begin until the U.S. army's 4th Infantry Division arrived around April 15, the report said the Russians reinforced a wrong impression that U.S. forces were trying to create.

In fact, the attack on Baghdad began well before the 4th Infantry arrived, and Saddam's army was actually taken by a surprise, it said.

The Pentagon report said the Russian intelligence also wrongly told Saddam that the main U.S. invasion force coming from Kuwait was a diversion.

The report was written by the Pentagon's Joint Forces Command in assessing the events in the opening months of the war.

Source: Xinhua