Smoke rises from central Baghdad April 6, 2003. Bomb blasts and artillery fire thundered across the city on Sunday as U.S. forces tightened their grip on the capital's fringes and brought up more troops. (Faleh Kheiber/Reuters)
Posted on 04/06/2003 12:41:07 PM PDT by george wythe
U.S. forces tightened a cordon around Baghdad on Sunday, as bombs and artillery battered the city, hospitals were engulfed with casualties and relief organizations warned of a growing humanitarian crisis.
President Saddam Hussein’s information minister insisted forces loyal to the Iraqi leader were pushing back the invaders. But the reality was that U.S. troops appeared to be methodically preparing the ground for a final assault to kill or capture Saddam, his sons and all his top associates and were meeting little organized or sustained resistance.
U.S. officers said they had cut most approaches to the sprawling capital of five million people. "We're just about there," Colonel Will Grimsley of the U.S. 3rd Infantry Division told Reuters correspondent Luke Baker when asked if U.S. forces had completely encircled the city.
As if to emphasize the point, the first U.S. military aircraft, a C-130, landed at Baghdad's international airport about one hour after nightfall, the first plane to land since U.S. forces seized the facility early on Friday.
U.S. military maps seen by Reuters showed only one main road, Highway 2, remained to be secured on the outskirts of the capital. It leads north to the oil city of Kirkuk.
"Look at it from this point of view -- 1st Brigade holds the airport and the west of Baghdad, the 2nd Brigade is securing the south, the 3rd Brigade is holding the northwest and the Marines are in the northeast," Grimsley said.
(Excerpt) Read more at story.news.yahoo.com ...
Smoke rises from central Baghdad April 6, 2003. Bomb blasts and artillery fire thundered across the city on Sunday as U.S. forces tightened their grip on the capital's fringes and brought up more troops. (Faleh Kheiber/Reuters)
Well, Reuters still has to mention the "impending humanitarian crisis" as if living under Hussein is not a permanent humanitarian crisis.
If I had to decide who is more objective, NPR or al-Jazeera, I would have a hard time. Nevertheless, I'm glad to read your report that NPR took a break from their anti-American slant.
Dead men don't surrender.
Do you think Hussein will execute a few of his inner circle advisors for giving Hussein inaccurate reports?
Hussein is a lunatic, so I would not put it past him a massive executions of "enemies of the Iraqi people."
Last weekend, I was the Scoutmaster for a Boy Scout camping trip and my only news source was NPR over a radio. By Sunday afternoon, I was prepared to see Iraqi troops crossing our County line.
British Tanks Take Basra [French AFP and Al-Jazeera admit it]
BASRA, Iraq (AFP)
"We control the vast majority of the city," British military spokesman Colonel Chris Vernon said here. "But there are some places we don't control, for example the old city."Vernon told reporters that British tanks had moved into the city centre, the south and the north.
At least 300 Fedayeen militia fighters were estimated to have died in clashes over two days as the British surged forward, a senior officer claimed.
As the troops and tanks made their way towards the centre, locals poured out into the streets to greet their advance, many of them waving and cheering, others standing silently on pavements as the tanks passed.
Many houses had raised the white flag of surrender.
By late afternoon, the British forces had surrounded the local Baath Party headquarters in the heart of the city, a reporter for the Arabic language Al-Jazeera television station in the city reported
Worse even...with all those Sadam look alikes around the poor guy probably reported to a stand in for Sadam...the stand in - in the spirit of things - had the bearer of bad news executed anyway.
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