Posted on 03/23/2003 7:22:51 AM PST by JohnHuang2
Iraqis fight but US-led forces say Baghdad in sights
By Sean Maguire and Hassan Hafidh
NEAR NASSIRIYA/BAGHDAD, Iraq, March 23 (Reuters) - Iraqi troops pinned down U.S. and British forces in several places on Sunday, but the invaders said they would not be deflected from driving on to Baghdad.
Washington said some U.S. soldiers and an aircraft were believed missing, after Baghdad said it had downed five planes and two helicopters and would show prisoners on television.
President Saddam Hussein's capital suffered a fourth day of bombardment, with some of the biggest blasts to date, as planes pounded a single target in the west.
"The earth shook under our feet and buildings shook. A huge, huge cloud of white smoke billowed hundreds of metres (feet) into the sky," Reuters reporter Nadim Ladki said.
Correspondents with U.S. and British units reported persistent clashes -- near Umm Qasr, on Iraq's narrow south coast, Basra, the second city nearby, the Shi'ite holy city of Najaf and Nassiriya where the Euphrates river has been crossed.
"The impression I get from talking to several officers is that they are surprised at the level of resistance and that more Iraqis haven't surrendered," said reporter Luke Baker.
He was 20 km (12 miles) south of Najaf with the U.S. 3rd Infantry Division -- within 180 km (110 miles) of the capital.
But a British defence source said the invading force would not allow pockets of resistance to hold up the drive to Baghdad.
HUMAN TOLL
Iraq said the human toll was already significant, with 77 civilians killed in Basra, mostly victims of cluster bombs, and air raids killing four in Tikrit, Saddam's home town.
But in briefings, U.S. and British spokesmen oozed confidence, saying the campaign was going faster than planned.
One British defence source even predicted the battle of Baghdad could begin in as little as 36 hours.
"We're looking towards Monday night, Tuesday for the ground offensive on Baghdad," the source told Reuters in London, saying elite Republican Guards were dug in around the capital.
"That will be a tough fight...Baghdad is the only one to watch. That is what this is all about."
Iraq said it was looking forward to the invaders' arrival.
"We wish that they would come to Baghdad so we can teach this evil administration, and those who work with it, a lesson," said Vice President Taha Yassin Ramadan, who called Iraq's defence excellent and its situation comfortable.
Britain said a U.S. missile brought down one its Tornado planes, whose crew was missing, in the first repeat of the "friendly fire" accidents that plagued the 1991 Gulf War.
Reporter Sean Maguire said day-long fighting blocked the U.S. advance near Nassiriya, a river crossing between Najaf and Kuwait from where the invasion was launched on Thursday night.
"I can hear explosions from the city, a huge plume of smoke has risen up," he said, from his position some 30 km (20 miles) to the southeast.
Iraqi Information Minister Mohammed Saeed al-Sahaf said millions of defenders were still fighting.
"We have seven million army and volunteers who are spread in appropriate positions everywhere to 'shock and awe' the enemy," he said, mocking the U.S. name for the bombing campaign.
Near Nassiriya, U.S. troops managed to take control of bridgeheads and crossed the Euphrates river from the western desert to the fertile and more populous Mesopotamian plain.
A day after U.S. officials said they had won control of the strategic port at Umm Qasr, tanks and British jets strafed targets where 120 Republican Guards were reported dug in.
"It made sense," said a U.S. commander on the spot. "Rather than send men in there, we're just going to destroy it."
The battle was shown live on television networks.
Technological advances allow unprecedented real-time cover of this war although both sides place some restrictions on journalists.
U.S. military sources said around 70 Iraqis were killed in a battle south of Najaf overnight. There were air raids in Mosul in the north of Iraq.
Iraq's resistance looks set to delay, but not ultimately to prevent, the push to Baghdad. Advance columns have covered two thirds of the 500 km (300 miles) to the city in two days.
U.S. forces expect resistance to stiffen closer to the city, where Saddam has vowed to stop the invaders and has concentrated his best and most loyal forces.
Iraq set oil-filled trenches ablaze around the capital in an apparent bid to create a smokescreen, but it is likely to be little defence against satellite-guided weapons.
Several homes have been razed in bombing of the smoke shrouded city.
"This is real terrorism. Innocent people are sitting in their homes and bombs fall on their heads. I ask America, isn't this terrorism?" said one resident.
The United States said some 1,600 British and U.S. aircraft had flown nearly 6,000 sorties since the war began four days ago, hitting military and leadership targets and sites with suspected weapons of mass destruction.
Iraqi television showed Saddam, whom U.S. forces tried to kill in an air attack that began the war on Thursday, meeting military leaders he earlier thanked for staunch resistance.
DEATHS
Officials have reported three deaths from raids in the capital, with about 250 wounded. Red Cross workers saw about 200 people described as war-wounded in Baghdad hospitals.
U.S. and British tank units advanced on Basra, where Iraqi forces fought back to keep them out of the city, Reuters correspondents said, quoting soldiers in the area.
The battle appeared bloody. An Iraqi minister said 77 civilians had been killed there and 366 wounded.
Qatar-based al-Jazeera television showed grisly footage of dead and wounded. One scene beamed across the Arab world showed a child with the back of its head blown off.
Some 280,000 U.S. and British troops have been assembled for the war, of which an unknown number are inside the country.
They have confirmed only two deaths in battle -- both U.S. marines -- but 19 deaths in two helicopter crashes.
At a rear base in Kuwait, another U.S. soldier was killed and 12 wounded when grenades were thrown into a command tent. The military said one of its own men was held as a suspect.
Tens of thousands took to the streets in Asia on Sunday voicing strong opposition to the war.
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