Posted on 03/22/2003 5:57:21 PM PST by Pokey78
· Iraqi troops pull back to capital for final showdown · Thousands surrender in battle for key city · US holds secret talks with enemy generals
American special forces were reported to be in Baghdad last night as thousands of elite troops still loyal to Saddam Hussein prepared for a final bloody showdown in the Iraqi capital.
The prospect of coalition forces fighting street by street for control of Baghdad came after thousands of Iraqi troops withdrew to the city following a day of sweeping advances by US and British soldiers pushing north from Kuwait.
As huge explosions ripped through Baghdad last night, American Brigadier General Vincent Brooks said the US military had entered the capital and Pentagon sources told The Observer intelligence paramilitary forces were also inside the city.
The sources said the role of the special forces role was to 'help locate military emerging targets and monitor defence preparations'. But the sources refused to comment on whether the infiltrators were planning assassinations or direct engagement with Iraqi forces.
The infiltration dovetails with US concerns that Saddam is preparing what it calls the 'Stalingrad Factor' to defend the capital, seeking to establish an iron ring of defences, possibly involving the deployment of chemical and biological weapons.
The source said that the paramilitary forces were from the CIA, and 'may be' involved in talks between the US, represented by Iraqi dissidents and Kurdish leaders, and Saddam's Republican Guard.
State Department sources said contacts had 'intensified' over the past 24 hours 'with regard to mass surrenders and surrenders higher up the chain of command'.
As well as the Special Republican Guard, armed personnel from Saddam's Special Security Organisation and the Fedayin-Saddam intelligence group were expected to be involved in fighting.
The news that coalition forces had entered Baghdad came after thousands of Iraqi soldiers surrendered yesterday to advancing British and US troops. Six American soldiers died in the fighting, while seven British soldiers were killed after their helicopters crashed.
Coalition forces are expecting the surrender of tens of thousands more Iraqi troops over the next few days as Saddam's regime rapidly crumbles under the weight of allied bombardment. With prisoner-of-war camps being built to house up to 200,000 Iraqi soldiers, senior Ministry of Defence officials said the 'lead scenario' now being worked on was that Saddam's special forces would retreat to one of his major palace complexes in Baghdad for a last-ditch battle.
In a defiant response to the repeated bombing raids, Iraq's Information Minister said the attacks were the work of an 'international gang of criminal bastards' and had killed three and wounded more than 200 civilians in Baghdad.
Following renewed air strikes last night throughout Iraq, an 8,000-strong division of Saddam's military gave up their weapons near Basra, Iraq's second city, amid increasingly bullish predictions by British sources that Saddam was either dead or so badly wounded he was no longer in control of his army.
'We are on our time line,' General Tommy Franks, the leader of American forces, said last night. Coalition forces were attacking the enemy 'on our terms' using a flexible mix of special forces, ground and air power.
Franks added: 'This will be a campaign unlike any other in history. It will be characterised by shock, by surprise, by flexibility, by the employment of precise munitions on a scale never before seen and by the application of overwhelming force.'
Earlier, Iraqi civilians lined the streets and cheered American and British forces moving up from the South. Journalists with British troops near Basra reported that thousands of Iraqi troops had abandoned their positions, leaving vehicles and weaponry behind. Although coalition forces were encountering fierce pockets of resistance around the city, military officials indicated that the bulk of Saddam's most loyal troops were withdrawing in an attempt to prevent Baghdad from falling.
The bulk of the prisoners came from the Iraqi 51st Infantry Division, which surrendered en masse to allied forces yesterday. The division was estimated to have 8,000 troops and 200 tanks.
According to US officials, allied forces took thousands of other prisoners in the first two days of ground operations, with many of the Iraqi troops giving up without a fight.
An official at US Central Command in Doha, Qatar, said an estimated 20 per cent of the Republican Guard, Iraq's best-armed and best-trained troops who are considered most loyal to Saddam, either have defected or plan to defect in the coming days.
Many of the surrendering conscripts were being returned to their barracks and warned not to fight for the duration of the war. Detainees deemed to be a potential threat to coalition forces were being taken to central holding locations in Iraq or neighbouring Kuwait.
Despite the numbers giving up, US and British forces encountered stiff reistance taking the airport at Basra and a bridge while Saddam's security forces resisted with artillery and heavy machine guns.
Groups of Iraqi soldiers came out to surrender on the highway while others held out against the US and British convoy grinding past blazing oil pipelines and concrete barracks.
Geoff Hoon, the British Defence Secretary, said Saddam's regime was crumbling under the pressure of a huge air assault.
'As last night's dramatic television coverage showed, the lights stayed on in Baghdad, but the instruments of tyranny are collapsing.'
The roadside was dotted with Iraqi tanks blackened by direct hits on their dug-in dirt bunkers. White flags flew over some deserted, dilapidated barracks. In an attempt to put a quick end to the war, the US has been negotiating intensively with senior Iraqi military commanders using third-country intelligence connections, Iraqi defectors and even straightforward telephone appeals from American officers, according to US and Iraqi opposition officials.
The aim is to persuade the Iraqi military to stage a coup against Saddam or surrender en masse. 'We're trying to get the message across that it's time to give up,' said a senior State Department official. 'We do that with whatever means and using every possible channel available to us.'
Across the southern portion of the country, Iraqi army regulars were surrendering to anyone they could find in a military uniform; some even tried to surrender to reporters. US intelligence officials said there was now a high volume of back-channel communications with officials inside Iraq. American military officers are trying, often by telephone, to coax their Iraqi counterparts into surrendering, said another US official familiar with the intelligence.
The dramatic developments came as details emerged of raids involving US Navy Seal in the battle for Iraq's vast oil empire. The Seals launched the operation from quiet, high-speed jet boats that whisked them from a secret base in Kuwait to the terminals, about 25 miles from the Iraqi shore.
The commandos used shotguns and crowbars to break through metal doors, surprising guards who appeared to be preparing for bed. They faced no resistance and took more than 40 Iraqi prisoners from the two sites.
Interesting this is being leaked out.
Shock and Spook?
Think what it's like for the average Iraqi puke.
What's that crawling up your leg?
Got ants in yo' pants, bro?
State Department sources said contacts had 'intensified' over the past 24 hours 'with regard to mass surrenders and surrenders higher up the chain of command'.
It looks like Gen. Nizar al-Khazraji has been very busy since he was kidnapped. ;-)
A retreat underway, perhaps?
I have a funny feeling that this is what Sadaam has been doing all along, his defenses have been limited since '91, difficult to rebuild them & buy new SCUDS etc. So perhaps he has pooled all his resources and hidden them in residential areas, mosques etc. and is staging his own Alamo with the last ditch effort being chem weapons, so if he can't win he'll take the popultion of Bagdhad with him. If he did that, it would likly be seen by the world as a catastrophic event brought about by the actions of the U.S. Not a good thing, we would win the battle but lose the war so to speak. I'm really hoping that we bagged him in the initial attack.
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