BAGHDAD, March 25 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) - Iraqi President Saddam Hussein Tuesday, March 25, called on Iraq's tribes to fight the British and U.S. occupation troops invading the country without waiting for further orders.

"The day has come for you to assume your responsibilities -- fight them with your clans and tribes," Saddam said in an address to clan chiefs read by an announcer on Iraqi television, reported Agence France-Presse (AFP).

"If you confront them and inflict losses, even modest ones, you will see how they take flight in terror because they are foreign and unjust.

"If there are any among you who are still hesitant about fighting and are awaiting orders, we give all of you that order now on behalf of our religion, nation and Jihad," said Saddam.

He gave rudimentary military instructions to the clan chiefs.

"When the enemy moves, attack the head and tail," he advised. "If you attack the head and tail, they will be unable to move and become an easy target for the fire of your weapons."

"If the enemy takes shelter, nag him and attack him day and night," added the Iraqi president.

Iraqi tribal leaders, who potentially have hundreds of thousands of armed men under their command, are a strategically important ally for Saddam to secure.

They wielded huge power before the fall of the monarchy in 1958 but were then sidelined by the new leadership as well as Saddam, who traditionally stifled any potential counter-power.

According to exiled Iraqi leaders, Saddam sought their backing again in order to stabilise a precarious internal situation in the wake of his defeat in the 1991 Gulf war.

Their recent ties with the Iraqi president's regime and their interest in preserving their ancestral social structures would suggest these tribes will throw their weight behind Saddam in the battle against the invading forces.

The Iraqi president, in addition, urged his loyal Fedayeen paramilitary, headed by his elder son Uday, to target the U.S.-led occupation forces throughout the country.

"Track down the enemy and hit them everywhere you find them," he said in a statement read on his behalf on state television by Information Minister Mohammed Said al-Sahhaf.

"These are the days of the great victory awaiting all the honest people of the world," the message said.

"The Fedayeen have been dreaming of battling the enemy, and destroying them, and now here it comes into their land.

"Your blows, and those of the army, will knock them senseless, destabilise them, and send them to their death," it added.

British occupation forces operating in the south of the country in particular say Fedayeen have been putting up a strong resistance.