Posted on 03/26/2003 3:29:24 AM PST by Pern
A large contingent of Iraq's elite Republican Guard, including 1,000 vehicles, headed Wednesday toward U.S. Marines in central Iraq - an area that already has seen the heaviest fighting of the war.
Intelligence officers with the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force said the Iraqi forces were headed south from Baghdad on a route that avoids advancing U.S. Army forces and leads them directly to the Marines who have been fighting in recent days around An Nasiriyah.
The intelligence officers said about 3,000 Republican Guard troops were spotted in one town along Highway 7 and 2,000 more at another.
In the far south, British forces fought on the fringes of the beleaguered city of Basra, while the first substantial relief convoy reached Iraq on Wednesday after weathering a blinding sandstorm.
To the west of where the Republican Guard was advancing, the U.S. Army's 3rd Infantry Division drew to within 50 miles of Baghdad, and other American forces were expected to join soon in squeezing the capital from several directions. Allied bombardments over the past two days have pounded Republican Guard divisions assigned to defend the city.
A military source said the U.S. Central Command in Qatar now had evidence that the Iraqi regime had wired many of the bridges around Baghdad for destruction.
In Baghdad, there were reports of a bomb landing in a crowded market in the center of the city. The Arabic satellite television channel Al Jazeera showed scenes of people carrying away casualties.
En route to Baghdad, units from the 7th Cavalry Regiment fought a fierce running battle Tuesday and Wednesday with Iraqi forces near the central city of Najaf. According to preliminary reports from American military officials, U.S troops killed up to 500 Iraqi fighters, suffering the loss of two tanks but no casualties.
Hoping to cripple the Iraqi government's communications, the allies attacked the state-run television headquarters in Baghdad before dawn Wednesday with missiles and air strikes. The station's international satellite signal was knocked off the air for a few hours before it was restored; regular broadcasts started on schedule after daybreak.
Far to the south, British forces on the edge of Basra waged artillery battles with more than 1,000 Iraqi militiamen, who reportedly also faced an insurrection by civilians opposed to Saddam Hussein.
British officers said Wednesday that the uprising became so threatening that the militiamen fired mortars to try to suppress it. British forces then silenced the Iraqi mortar positions with an artillery barrage, said Lt. Col. Ronnie McCourt, a spokesman for British forces.
McCourt said British troops also were firing at some of the militiamen who were trying to flee Basra.
"The bunch of desperadoes who've lived above the law ... they're obviously resorting to desperate measures and trying to intimidate the population," McCourt said. "We are making certain that we neutralize them as quickly as possible."
The British - while awaiting an opportune moment to enter the heart of Basra - have been telling residents over loudspeakers that aid is waiting outside the city. Relief officials say many of the 1.3 million residents are drinking contaminated water and face the threat of diarrhea and cholera.
British forces staged a raid on a suburb of Basra, capturing a Baath party leader and killing 20 of his bodyguards, officials said.
The Iraqis denied there was any uprising in Basra. "The situation is stable," Information Minister Mohammed al-Sahhaf told the Arab satellite television station Al-Jazeera.
Assigned to bring aid to another battle-scarred southern city, a seven-truck relief convoy - loaded with food and water - left Kuwait and reached the port of Umm Qasr on Wednesday.
"We planned for 30 trucks but we only got seven loaded because of the severe sandstorm," said E.J. Russell of the Humanitarian Operations Center, a joint U.S.-Kuwaiti agency. The storm cut visibility to about 100 yards.
A handful of Iraqi children watched the convoy cross into Iraqi territory. One boy, about 10, pointed to his mouth and shouted, "Eat, eat!"
Plans to bring supplies to Iraqi civilians have been stalled for days because of fighting across southern Iraq. On Tuesday, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said the United States is legally responsible for providing relief aid.
U.S. officials have blamed Saddam's regime for slowing the flow of aid by placing mines in Umm Qasr's harbor, which serves much of the south. U.S. Navy helicopters flew two dolphins into Umm Qasr to help locate mines.
At an Army field hospital in Kuwait, a second officer died from wounds suffered when an Army sergeant allegedly tossed three grenades into a command tent of the 101st Airborne Division. Air Force Maj. Gregory Stone, 40, based in Boise, Idaho, was pronounced dead Tuesday.
Sgt. Asan Akbar was flown to a military jail in Germany after a judge found probable cause to try him for the crime. Akbar, an American Muslim who told family members he was wary of going to war in Iraq, has not been charged.
Capt. Christopher Scott Seifert, 27, of Easton, Pa., was killed and 14 other soldiers were injured in the attack.
Anti-war protests continued Wednesday in many countries, including two whose governments support the U.S.-led invasion.
In Sydney, Australia, police made 45 arrests after thousands of protesters, many of them high school students, pelted officers with bottles, chairs and tables grabbed from street-side cafes. It was the most violent protest yet against Australia's decision to send 2,000 troops to the allied coalition.
In Seoul, South Korea, police detained about 30 student protesters who tried to barge into the U.S. Embassy.
Allah, paging Allah...we need 360,000 virgins.. STAT!!!!
"Road Of Death II" is about to be filmed.
Oh, I'm sure mission orders have been/are being cut to deal with this new threat. In fact, Military Intelligence (an oxymoron, for sure!) probably knew about this before the first tank in column began moving.
Slow day at DU, or are you normally this inarticulate?
I'm sure the pilots are ready to rock!!!!
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