U.S. May Face Elite Iraqi Troops (CBS News is Praying For Blood - MUST-READ!!!)

CBS News ^ | March 22, 2003 | Various

[Timesink]

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U.S. May Face Elite Iraqi Troops
March 22, 2003


U.S. and British forces besieged the southern city of Basra on Saturday and pounded Baghdad with impunity in the first daylight air raids of the war. But tough fighting loomed for coalition troops as they pressed deeper into Iraq.

An soldier from the U.S. Army A Company 3rd Battalion 7th Infantry Regiment watches the blur of a convoy of 3rd Infantry Division forces.  (AP)



"The Americans have no conscience. What have our children done to deserve this?"
Amal Hassan Kamel,
wounded Iraqi civilian

Saddam Hussein talks with elite Republican Guard officers in Baghdad. (AP)

A U.S. soldier stands in front of a poster of Saddam Hussein in southern Iraq.  (AP)

CBS News National Security Correspondent David Martin reports the United States Army could soon clash with Iraq's elite Republican Guard at Karbala, while the Marines could encounter them at Al Kut.

Saddam's regime continued taking a hard line ? denying military setbacks and verbally attacking its enemies in a show of public resolve. Information minister Mohammed Saeed al-Sahhaf lashed out at the allies.

"They are a gang of war criminals ? international bastards," he said. "They lie day and night. They are not human."

In other major developments:

• Two British Navy helicopters collided over the Persian Gulf, and seven on board were killed, including a U.S. Navy officer. A day earlier, eight British and four U.S. Marines died when their helicopter crashed south of Umm Qasr. A source at Central Command says six journalists have also been killed in action.
  
  
• Delta Force units searching possible chemical weapons sites in the country's west have found one suspect shell in checking three of 650 target areas.
  
  
• It emerged that Ali Hasan Al-Majid, a cousin of Saddam known as "Chemical Ali" for his alleged involvement in chemical weapons attacks against civilians, was the target of an allied attack. It is not known if he was wounded or killed.
  
  
• The Pentagon abandoned a plan to send heavy armored troops through Turkey into northern Iraq.
  
  
• Iran has accused U.S. and British warplanes of violating its airspace, and says a missile landed in Iran, 30 miles from Basra. A spokesman said the Pentagon is "looking into" those reports.
  
  
• In his weekly radio address, President Bush said: "The future of peace and the hopes of the Iraqi people now depend on our fighting forces in the Middle East."
  
  
• The latest CBS News/New York Times poll shows Americans are feeling optimistic about the progress of the war in Iraq, but they believe President Bush hasn't been clear about all the possible consequences of military action.
  
  
• As many as 200,000 anti-war demonstrators, spanning 30 blocks, marched down Broadway in New York City, one of dozens of protests against the intensified war on Iraq.
  
  Military officials say U.S. forces are now 150 miles into Iraq and have crossed the Euphrates River.
  
  At a Pentagon briefing, spokeswoman Victoria Clarke said it's only a matter of time before the Iraqi regime is destroyed.
  
  She said coalition forces are making "considerable progress," but warned that the situation in Iraq is fluid and challenges are ahead.
  
  While coalition forces have gained the area around Basra, they have not advanced into the its heart. Controlling Iraq's second-largest city, with 1.3 million people, is strategically important but analysts said there was no military value to actually capturing the city.
  
  Elsewhere, Marine engineers sped across the Western desert carrying boats and bridges to span rivers en route to the capital. The Army's 3rd Infantry Division defeated the Iraqi 11th Division to capture the city of Al-Nasiriya as well as two bridges that cross the Euphrates, opening the road to Baghdad.
  
  CBS News Correspondent Jim Axelrod reports the 3rd Infantry's 1st Brigade took several prisoners, then came under fire. They fought back, and ended up with more captives.
  
  More units were waiting in Kuwait. Hundreds of tanks, armored personnel carriers, Humvees and trucks were lined up in parallel columns waiting in single-file to cross the Iraqi-Kuwait border.
  
  A Central Command spokesman said some coalition forces have moved the same distance as the longest maneuver of the 1991 Gulf war in one quarter of the time.
  
  The spokesman, Brig. Gen. Vincent Brooks, said coalition forces had seized three southern oil facilities, at al Faw, Mina' al Bakr and Khawr al Amaya. They found weapons, ammunition and explosives there.
  
  The effort to demoralize Iraqi leadership appeared to be paying off. An entire division of the Iraqi army ? the 51st Infantry Division, with 8,000 men and as many as 200 tanks ? surrendered. CBS News Correspondent Scott Pelley reports an Iraqi colonel in U.S. custody is providing significant information about Iraq's defenses.
  
  In his first appearance of the war, the invasion commander said the invasion was succeeding in throwing Saddam Hussein's government into disarray.
  
  "There is a certain confusion that is going on within the regime. I believe the command and control is not exactly as advertised on Iraqi television," Gen. Tommy Franks said.
  
  In Baghdad, intermittent explosions were heard throughout the day in the first daylight air strikes of the war. At least 20 columns of dark smoke rose from points around Baghdad. Al-Jazeera television reported that the plumes were coming from fires that Iraqis had set to oil containers around the city to obscure targets.
  
  Iraqi officials said more than 200 people have been injured in the bombing so far. One death has been confirmed.
  
  At Al Yarmouk Hospital, one of the critically injured was Amal Hassan Kamel. She was in the hospital with her 8-year old son Wa'ad Hashim, who was injured in both legs by shrapnel.
  
  "The Americans have no conscience," Kamel said. "What have our children done to deserve this?"
  
  Meanwhile, the situation in northern Iraq grew more complicated. It was unclear whether Turkey had moved troops into the area.
  
  A Turkish military official said they had, but the Turkish general staff denied the reports.
  
  CBS News Correspondent Allen Pizzey reports fighting has erupted between Kurdish fighters and Ansar Al Islam ? the group the Bush administration alleges in linked to al Qaeda. Kurdish officials said American advisers were traveling with their forces. About six U.S. cruise missiles or bombs hit an Ansar installation.
  
  One of the journalists who was killed, an Australian, died in a car bomb blamed on Ansar. Women and children were also killed in the blast.
  
  The five other journalists died in southern Iraq. Two Americans and one Frenchman were killed headed to al-Nasariya in southern Iraq. Two Britons were killed after crossing the Iraq-Kuwait border.
  
  The Pentagon identified two Marines killed in combat Friday as 2nd Lt. Therrel S. Childers, 30, of Harrison County, Miss.; and Lance Cpl. Jose Gutierrez, 22, of Los Angeles.
  

[Timesink]

Besides the text of the article itself, and the fact that it currently the top story at CBSNews.com, note well:

• This was sent out as a breaking news alert by CBS News, even though it is obviously not breaking news:

  From: "CBSNews---Breaking_News"
  Date: Sat Mar 22, 2003 3:18:59 PM America/New_York
  Subject: CBSNews.com Alert! Toughest Fighting Ahead?

  U.S. forces may soon face heaviest opposition yet on the southern approach to Baghdad guarded by Iraqi Republican Guards, troops most likely to fight hard and use chemical weapons, reports CBS News' David Martin.

• Note selective, America-hate pull quote

[Timesink]

bump for bump lists

[Excuse_My_Bellicosity]

Iraq's best ain't jack. We shouldn't get complacent, but I know we'll nail them. The Iraqi military wants to mess with the best and, to their detriment, they'll get their wish. They'll wind up wishing they'd stayed home.

[BamaFan69]

Peace through Spuerior FirePower !

I Curse all their Mustache's !

[fellowpatriot]

The latest CBS News/New York Times poll shows Americans are feeling optimistic about the progress of the war in Iraq, but they believe President Bush hasn't been clear about all the possible consequences of military action.

This is what drives me nuts about the media. Anyone with a functioning brain doesn't need the President to explain the 'consequences of war' to them.

[Waco]

E-Lights, won't last as long as the Alamo, I'd reckon.

[BobP]

Firepower like no other!!!
Any battle out in the open will be over quickly....

[Bobby777]

call in the airstrikes ... Daisy Cutters if they refuse to surrender peacefully ... terrible to say but I'd rather save American and British soldiers ... guess they could drop a Daisy Cutter a mile or two away as a warning ...

there's no rush ... do it right ...

[Enemy Of The State]

"U.S. May Face Elite Iraqi Troops"

Oh NO! We better send in the local girl scout troops to take care of them!

[Cicero]

The chief difference between the division that surrendered yesterday and the Republican Guard is that the first consisted of Shiite conscripts who didn't want to fight in the first place and hate Saddam, whereas the Republican Guard troops are bullies who are complicit in Saddam's tyranny. But they won't fight effectively. Instead of surrendering, they are more likely to run, as they did in the first Gulf War.

[PhilDragoo]

Iraqi Republican Guards, troops most likely to fight hard and use chemical weapons

CBS' Dan Rather got it straight from the Camel's Anus that Iraq has no chemical weapons.

Just to be safe, march Dan Rather on point as we approach Baghdad.

Per his reporting he should have nothing to fear.

[Salvation]

C -- communist
B -- baghdad
S -- sources

[dead]

Anyone with a functioning brain doesn't need the President to explain the 'consequences of war' to them.

I'm not so sure. I think I've heard rumors that war might not be exactly like a video game.

I think I may have had that pointed out to me every fifteen seconds or so for ten friggin' years.

Still, unless the President tells us otherwise, me and all my friends are pretty sure it's exactly like a video game.

[EGPWS]

This is what drives me nuts about the media.

I hear ya' but why do you listen to their dribble and take it to heart? I haven't experienced "network News" for years. I have surfed through it frequently and for a moment got disgusted with it and went back to FOX.

[samuel_adams_us]

Oh boy, elite republican national guard units, bring out the girl scouts, after they are done selling cookies!

[Semper Paratus]

The RG is getting frapped from the air as we speak.

[battlegearboat]

Most excellent tagline EOTS.

Don't forget the Borax.