CBS -- U.S. Apache Choppers Pound Iraqis

(CBS) Blasts are again rattling Baghdad, as U.S. forces engage Iraq’s Republican Guard with an aerial assault by Apache helicopters. The Pentagon acknowledges one helicopter has gone down; its two-man crew has apparently been seen on Iraqi television.

Monday's clash with the Republican Guard was the first meeting of U.S.-led forces and Iraq’s best-trained military force. A fierce battle is still going on south of Baghdad, as Apache helicopters take aim at Iraq’s Republican Guard defending the capital. U.S. officials tell CBS News Correspondent David Martin that the Republican Guard is authorized to deploy chemical weapons when U.S. forces get too close.

The aerial attack is aimed at smoothing the way for coalition forces on the ground which are 60 miles south of Baghdad. At a Pentagon briefing, Major Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal said the initial clash with Iraq’s top militia was “by all reports ... very successful.”

Iraqi television showed two men it claimed were the pilots of the downed U.S. helicopter. The two men shown on Iraqi TV wore cream-colored pilot overalls. They did not speak to the camera, and they appeared confused. As they were filmed, the two men turned their heads and looked in different directions. The Pentagon identified them as Ronald D. Young Jr., 26, and David S. Williams, 30, both based at Fort Hood, Texas.

It was the second time in as many days that Iraq televised images of alleged POWs, in what U.S. officials said was a violation of the Geneva Conventions.

Saddam Hussein made a defiant speech and his deputy, Tariq Aziz, appeared to answer reporter's questions, in possible signs that Iraq's leadership remained intact. But doubts remain whether the speech was filmed Monday or days earlier.

A day after several Marines were killed amid heavy fighting at an-Nasariyah and 12 soldiers went missing in the same area, troops in southern Iraq searched house-to-house to flush out resistance.

There was heavy bombing in Baghdad, but an NPR reporter there said air raid sirens gave little warning.

The Red Cross reports hearing of 200 civilian casualties in Baghdad. Friday. U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said "urgent measures" were needed to restore Basra's electricity and water supply.

Britain reported its first combat death. That brought the coalition's death toll to 28, not counting the casualties at or around an-Nasariyah.

Syria claims five died when a U.S. cruise missile hit a bus full of Syrian civilians who were fleeing Iraq. The Pentagon said the bus appeared after the pilot had dropped the bomb, and called the incident regrettable.

U.S. troops are searching for chemical weapons at a munitions depot near the Iraqi city of An Najaf, CBS News Correspondent Jim Axelrod reports.

U.S. Marines fought again around an-Nasariyah, where on Sunday U.S. forces fought what Lt. Gen. John Abizaid of U.S. Central Command called the "sharpest engagement of the war thus far." The total number of U.S. casualties was not confirmed.

Twelve U.S. soldiers went missing and were presumed captured by Iraqis in an ambush on an army supply convoy in the area. Five American POWs appeared on Iraqi television, in footage that also showed what appeared to be several dead American soldiers.

Pentagon spokesperson Victoria Clarke described "deadly deceptions" by the Iraqis at an-Nazariyah, including faking surrender by waving white flags or disguising themselves as liberated civilians. She called such moves "serious violations of the laws of war."

"The despicable behavior of the Iraqi regime has in no way stopped the progress of the coalition, she said. Command and control continues to slip away from the regime and coalition forces continue to close in on Baghdad."

But in a taped television appearance Saddam exhorted his country. "Be patient, brothers, because God's victory will be ours soon," he said.

A CIA source said the agency does not feel there is enough material in the tape to determine when it was made. The references Saddam made to battles could have been pre-taped, and some of the units he mentioned have not played a major role in the battles so far. There are jumps in the tape, suggesting it was tailored.

Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz held a news conference at a downtown Baghdad hotel. Aziz said the Iraqi leadership is in "good shape" and that Saddam is in "full control" of the army and the country.

Resistance continued. In the southern Iraqi navy port of Az Zubayr, which the coalition claimed Sunday, a U.S. Marine patrol reported being fired on Monday from a stand of trees; Marines responded with tanks and artillery fire.

Outside the Shiite holy city of Najaf, at the northern end of the advance, U.S. soldiers skirmished with Iraqi forces before dawn Monday. Iraqis shot rockets and anti-aircraft guns at the Americans.

British spokesman Lt. Col. Ronnie McCourt confirmed coalition forces had exchanged new fire with Iraqis on the outskirts of Basra.

But the coalition pushed continued to make progress. The U.S. Army's 3rd Infantry Division dashed north toward the Shiite holy city of Karbala, between 50 and 60 miles south of Baghdad, but was stalled by a sandstorm that blew out of the desert in the afternoon.

In London, Blair said the key port of Umm Qasr, south of Basra, was under allied control but "the waterway essential for humanitarian aid may be blocked by mines and will take some days to sweep."

American troops are now in northern Iraq, joining commandos already there, where aerial attacks are increasing.

Here's the New York Times version:

U.S. Helicopters Turned Back in Clash With Republican Guard

By PATRICK E. TYLER

UWAIT, March 24 - Having swept more than 300 miles over desert and mud in southern Iraq, an American army gathered itself south of Baghdad today, flinging artillery fire and airborne helicopter forces against the Medina Division of Iraq's Republican Guard, the outer ring of Saddam Hussein's final defense.

But withering antiaircraft fire described as a ``hornet's nest'' drove back an airborne force of more than 30 Apache helicopters, downing one in a farmer's field. Its crew was listed as missing.

Nearly all the gunships sustained damage, and military commanders said they were disappointed in their initial failure to destroy the entrenched Iraqi forces from the air.

In Nasiriya, in central Iraq, 5,000 marines battled to cement control over the city, the scene of intense fighting on Sunday that left several marines and soldiers dead, and others wounded, captured or missing. Control of the Euphrates River crossroads and its bridges is vital to supporting and provisioning the army that raced over the river toward Baghdad this weekend.

``This will plainly be a crucial moment,'' Prime Minister Tony Blair of Britain said of the battle that began Sunday night and carried into today.

Elsewhere, both Secretary General Kofi Annan of the United Nations and President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia expressed concern over a looming civilian crisis in Basra. There were intense efforts by the American-led invasion force to secure the port at Umm Qasr and clear mines so that an aid ship could bring relief supplies ashore.

In northern Iraq, an American bomber trying to take out a bridge reportedly hit a bus at the Syrian border, killing five civilians and wounding many more.

At a briefing in Qatar, the commander of the coalition forces, Gen. Tommy R. Franks of the United States Army, asserted that Sunday's casualties and setbacks were no surprise. Some analysts have expressed concern that the Army is strung out with inadequate protection for supply lines.

General Franks, speaking at the Central Command base in Qatar, said that coalition forces had intentionally bypassed enemy formations in a rapid dramatic drive toward Baghdad, though he said they had still managed to take 3,000 prisoners.

He spoke a day after American and British ground forces suffered their worst casualties so far - at least 20 American soldiers were missing or killed and 50 or more were wounded - battling determined forces on two fronts in what an American commander said were ``the sharpest engagements of the war.''

General Franks said fedayeen fighters - members of militia groups under the control of Saddam Hussein's son Uday - had been harassing American rear positions in southern Iraq.

``We know that the fedayeen has in fact put itself in a position to mill about, to create difficulties in rear areas,'' the general said, ``and I can assure you that contact with those forces is not unexpected.''

During his briefing, General Franks repeatedly emphasized that nothing he had seen so far had surprised him or was unexpected.

Asked if he and his commanders had underestimated the tenacity of Iraqi forces and their ability to communicate despite attacks on their command-and-control sites, he replied, ``There is nothing unexpected about it.''

General Franks also said he thought that Basra and Umm Qasr would be pacified ``within a very few days'' to allow the entry of humanitarian supplies. Late last week, American and British commanders said that both cities were under allied control.

The general also said that he was not surprised by the prevalence of lethal friendly fire nor that American forces had so far found no chemical or biological weapons.

Tonight, Iraqi television showed two men that it identified as pilots of a downed American helicopter. There was no immediate response from the Pentagon.

American officials reported that one soldier in the Third Infantry Division was killed by a sniper today as the division consolidated its positions on a broad plateau north of Najaf.

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