Drive to Baghdad Slowed by Sandstorms

American-led forces battling sandstorms as well as Iraqi resistance advanced to within about 50 miles of Baghdad on Monday and U.S. officials said warplanes targeted Republican Guard units guarding the capital.

An Army helicopter went down, its crew unaccounted for, and Britain suffered its first combat death of the 5-day-old war to end Saddam Hussein's regime.

``Be patient, brothers, because God's victory will be ours soon,'' Saddam exhorted his country in a television appearance Monday.

Despite Saddam's defiant pose, a military barracks in the northern part of the country was bombed, and Baghdad fell under renewed air attack, as well. Iraqis set up mortar positions south of the city and piled sandbags around government buildings and other strategic locations, in evident anticipation of a battle to come.

But in the world's first war to be covered live on television, the news and images of American and British setbacks competed with pictures of battlefield successes.

Iraqi television showed pictures of one American helicopter in a grassy field, men in Arab headdresses brandishing automatic rifles as they did a victory dance around the aircraft. ``We have a two-man crew missing,'' confirmed Gen. Tommy Franks, the U.S. war commander. But he denied Iraqi reports that the craft had been shot down by farmers, and that two choppers had been lost.

Franks told reporters that 3,000 Iraqi prisoners had been taken. But he and other U.S. officials were more concerned with the fate of a handful of American POWs whose convoy was ambushed in the Iraqi desert over the weekend.

A U.S. military transport arrived in Germany, bearing some of the wounded from a weekend attack on the 101st Airborne Division. An American GI is in custody in the incident.

And in London, the Ministry of Defense announced the first British combat death, a soldier who fell in fighting near Az Zubayr in southern Iraq, near the city of Basra.

Two other British troops were missing after their convoy was hit by continuing resistance in southern Iraq.

It was a fresh reminder that even in areas where American and British forces thought they had control, resistance continued to pop up.

``This is not a video game where everything is clear and neat and tidy,'' said British spokesman Lt. Col. Ronnie McCourt. ``Some enemy who feel that they want to carry on fighting will inevitably do so.''

Basra, Iraq's second largest city, provided evidence of that, as Iraqis battled British forces on the outskirts of town. Commanders held off storming the city, hoping its Iraqi defenders would give up, but they have held firm.

In Washington, President Bush invited congressional leaders to the White House. His administration prepared a formal request for as much as $80 billion to fight the war, provide humanitarian aid to Iraq and protect the United States from further terrorist attacks.

Bush also talked with Russian President Vladimir Putin by phone. Spokesman Ari Fleischer said the president was ``very concerned that there are reports of ongoing cooperation to Iraqi military forces being provided by a Russian company that produces GPS jamming equipment.''

The Army's 3rd Infantry division was responsible for the deepest known penetration in force of the Iraqi interior, a two-day dash that brought it toward Karbala, about 50 miles south of Baghdad.

Some Iraqis waved or gave a thumbs-up as the convoy passed, while others stood stoically.

The advance of long columns of thousands of vehicles was aided by heavy air protection that wiped out a column of Iraqi armor at one point and sent some of Saddam's outer defenses withdrawing toward the capital. The convoy passed bombed anti-aircraft guns, empty foxholes and berms dug for tanks that had been abandoned.

But the advance was stalled for a time, at least, by the weather, an afternoon sandstorm that blew out of the desert.

The bombing in the north was carried out against a military barracks close to the line that separates Iraqi-held territory from the Kurdish-held region.

``People are evacuating, but not because of the bombing. They are afraid Saddam will respond with chemical weapons,'' said Ahmad Qafoor, a school teacher.

But military commanders said American forces were still evaluating a plant captured by U.S. troops, and pursuing leads from captured Iraqis and documents in their search for weapons of mass destruction.

Saddam wore a military uniform in Monday's televised appearance, looking more composed than he did last week during his first words to the country since the war began.

In Washington, a senior U.S. official speaking on condition of anonymity said U.S. intelligence had determined Saddam's speech was recorded. However, it is unclear when it was taped. American officials repeatedly have said they believe Saddam may have been killed or injured in a missile strike against a leadership compound the United States launched last Wednesday night.

Saddam's rhetoric was as fierce as always. ``These are your days, you Iraqis are in line with what God has ordered you to do, to cut their throats and even their fingers,'' he said, urging his country to repel American and British forces.

At the United Nations, Secretary General Kofi Annan warned of a humanitarian crisis in Basra and said ``urgent measures'' were needed to restore electricity and water supplies.

Expect surprises from Baghdad that the weather will allow them to organize.

Most probable, an attack along our exposed flank with the hope of isolating advanced elements.

"Iraqis set up mortar positions south of the city and piled sandbags around government buildings and other strategic locations, in evident anticipation of a battle to come. "

It now looks like the Iraqis believe V Corps is coming through the Karbalah gap, which is southwest of the city. If Franks can ford the upper Euphrates, which here is still deep and less broad, he can also take Baghdad from the North and West.

The decision by the Baath to defend government buildings as strongpoints seems to indicate a degree of alienation from the populace. These are tactically stupid positions if their intent is to force fighting in residential areas.

Eau contraire...sorry to be so French...

I expect US to use the sandstorm, along with our night vision, to kick the s**t out of them somewhere unexpected.

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