Baghdad Pounded, Iraq TV Says Clashes Near Najaf
8 minutes ago
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story2&cid=578&ncid=578&e=2&u=/nm/20030322/ts_nm/iraq_fighting_dc By Nadim Ladki
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iraqi and U.S.-led forces clashed in the desert near the holy city of Najaf, just 100 miles south of Baghdad on Sunday, Iraqi television said.
The report said the leader of President Saddam Hussein (news - web sites)'s Baath party in Najaf was killed in the clashes, the closest ground fighting to the capital since U.S. and British forces launched a war against the Iraqi regime on Thursday.
In the capital, fresh waves of explosions late on Saturday and into Sunday pounded intelligence, military and presidential buildings, sending fireballs billowing into the sky and briefly knocking out power lines in parts of the city.
About a dozen big explosions then shook downtown Baghdad and its outskirts at around 2:15 a.m. local time on Sunday.
"They're definitely raising the intensity now," said Reuters correspondent Khaled Yacoub Oweis in the capital. Just after midnight local time, anti-aircraft fire and explosions were seen over Mosul, 240 miles north of Baghdad, which had been hit by air raids a day earlier as the U.S. and Britain stepped up their war to overthrow Saddam.
"There was the sound of aircraft overhead and I could see dim flashes from what seemed to be explosions on the ground," Reuters correspondent Sebastian Alison said from a vantage point at Kalak, in Kurdish-controlled territory overlooking the city.
In the south, al-Jazeera television, quoting Iraqi medics, said 50 people were killed when U.S. F-16 warplanes bombed near Basra.
Raw video footage, beamed across the Arab world by the Qatar-based satellite channel, showed a child with half its head blown off. It was unclear if it was a boy or a girl.
"It's a huge mass of civilians," one angry woman told al-Jazeera, standing among the wounded. "It was a massacre."
The report could not be independently confirmed.
BATTLE ON BASRA OUTSKIRTS
A U.S. officer said earlier that Marines defeated Iraqi forces in a battle on the outskirts of Basra on Saturday, taking many prisoners, but it was not clear who controlled the city.
Asked whether U.S.-led forces had bombed Basra, a military spokesman in Qatar said: "That's considered an ongoing operation and, until it is over, we're not going to go out there one way or another on that."
As Baghdad was pounded by more cruise missiles, Iraqi TV said U.S.-led forces had fled after clashes near Najaf, home to the shrine of Imam Ali, a figure revered by Shi'ite Muslims.
Spokesmen for U.S. and British forces in both Kuwait and Qatar had no comment on the report. The U.S. military said earlier it secured a bridge across the Euphrates river at Nassiriya, 235 miles southeast of Baghdad. Najaf lies on the western banks of the Euphrates, but much closer to the capital.
In Baghdad, the Iraqi government said three people were killed and 207 civilians wounded in bombing raids late on Friday and into Saturday.
Iraqi forces set oil-filled trenches ablaze around the capital in an apparent bid to create a smokescreen to hinder air strikes by U.S. and British forces.
Around dusk on Saturday, volleys of missiles slammed into Saddam's main palace on the banks of the River Tigris, government and military targets and other symbols of his rule.
"CHILDREN TREMBLED WITH FEAR"
Dazed parents said their children trembled with fear at the onslaught on the sprawling city dotted with palm trees. Air raid sirens wailed and ambulances sped through the city.
Shrapnel and glass littered the riverside Abu Nuwas Street, across the Tigris from Saddam's presidential compound.
In the compound, which houses the headquarters of Qusay, the younger son charged by Saddam with defending Baghdad, a building still smoldered. A small villa belonging to Vice President Taha Yassin Ramadan was destroyed.
Two other buildings, the Palace of Peace and the Palace of Flowers, were struck in Saturday's raids and fire engines were seen at the gates of the Jumhouriya (Republic) Presidential Palace, next to broken water pipes and other debris.
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