Southern Fighting Still Fierce

CBSNEWS ^ | Wednesday, March 26, 2003

[JohnHuang2]

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Southern Fighting Still Fierce
March 26, 2003


Intense fighting continued Wednesday in southern and central Iraq, while Baghdad came under aerial attack again, causing reported civilian deaths.

Addressing servicemen and women at the headquarters of U.S. Central Command at MacDill Air Force Base in Florida, President Bush hailed the service of American troops in the war against Iraq so far, as U.S. and British troops battled what the president called "the most desperate elements of a dying regime."

As he has so far in the six days of war, the president promised victory.

"We do not know the duration of this war but we are prepared for the battle ahead," Mr. Bush said. "I can assure you, as I assure the oppressed Iraqi people, that there will be a day of reckoning for the Iraqi regime and that day is drawing near."

U.S. officials say American troops with the 7th Cavalry killed around 300 Iraqi fighters Tuesday and Wednesday in fighting around the central Iraq city of Najaf. British troops waited for a chance to take the key southern city of Basra. Marines seized a cache of Iraqi weapons in an-Nasariyah.

Meanwhile, some intelligence sources said a large contingent of Iraq's elite Republican Guard, including 1,000 vehicles, was headed toward U.S. troops in central Iraq. But U.S. Central Command denied any significant offensive movement was underway.

CBS News National Security Correspondent David Martin reports the movements seem to involve an irregular force rather than combat formations. Guards who have donned civilian dress and are traveling in buses and SUVs to reinforce units in the south.

In other major developments:

• U.S. forces say they have sealed off 36 bunkers earmarked as potential sites of weapons of mass destruction at an Iraqi air base outside an-Nasariyah. No weapons of mass destruction have yet been found by advancing coalition forces.
  
  
• A second officer has died from wounds suffered when an Army sergeant allegedly tossed three grenades into a command tent of the 101st Airborne Division. The Pentagon says the U.S. casualty total since the beginning of the war now stands at 23 soldiers killed in the line of duty; at least seven soldiers held prisoner; and six missing in action. A total of 20 British soldiers have died in the line of duty.
  
  
• The port of Umm Qasr is now open for humanitarian shipments.
  
  
• The New York Times quoted an unconfirmed report that the Iraqis may have executed some missing U.S. troops, perhaps publicly. Twelve Army mechanics went missing, and only five were seen alive on Iraqi television.
  
  
• Iraq claimed a U.S. cruise missile strike on a busy market area in Baghdad killed 14 people. It was the first known instance of Iraq reporting a high number of civilian deaths from bombing in Baghdad. Television footage showed a large crater in the heavily populated neighborhood, and body parts.
  
  U.S. Central Command said it had no information on the Iraqi claim, but asserted again that it was using precision weapons aimed only at regime targets.
  
  In daily briefings, coalition forces stress their bombings precision, stating that they are targeting the regime "directly" and showing footage of pinpoint hits on military targets. Wednesday, for the first time, reporters asked if they would also be shown film of misses. Brooks said he didn't know.
  
  "We have a very, very deliberate process for targets. It takes into account all science. It takes into account all possibilities," Brig. Gen. Vincent Brooks said at a press conference at Central Command headquarters in Doha, Qatar. "We only target things that have military significance."
  
  Hoping to cripple the Iraqi government's communications, the allies attacked the state-run television headquarters in Baghdad, as well as other government targets, before dawn Wednesday with missiles and air strikes. The station went off the air for hours, then returned.
  
  Amnesty International warned that the bombing of the television station could be a breach of the Geneva Conventions. Brooks said the television had been used to issue instructions to Iraqi forces.
  
  The U.S. advance was slowed Tuesday by the swirling sandstorms. Despite the weather, 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 positions of Iraq's Republican Guard, the elite divisions assigned to defend Baghdad.
  
  Intelligence officers with the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force said the Republican Guard forces moving Wednesday 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-Nasariyah.
  
  But Brooks said, "We've not seen any significant movements of the type" the report described. He said Central Command was aware only of "local positionings."
  
  There are reports that the Republican Guard has orders to use chemical weapons if the invasion force gets too close to Baghdad. In an interview with CBS News 48 Hours Correspondent Lesley Stahl, Secretary of State Colin Powell said U.S. forces were prepared for that possibility.
  
  "Our troops went into this battle knowing that they might be exposed to chemical weapons, and —God forbid —biological weapons," Powell said.
  
  No chemical or biological weapons have been found by troops so far. It is not clear whether any exist, or if Iraq will use them. However, Marines on Tuesday raised a hospital that Iraqi paramilitaries were using as a headquarters in an-Nasariyah. Central Command claims they found 3,000 chemical protection suits and injections of antidotes to chemical weapons.
  
  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. Iraqi militiamen allegedly fired mortars at their own people to try to suppress it.
  
  At prime minister's question time, Blair said there were "confused" reports about what appeared to be a "limited uprising" in Basra. The Iraqis denied there was any uprising in Basra.
  
  Relief officials say many of Basra's 1.3 million residents are drinking contaminated water after a shutoff of water service on Friday.

[JohnHuang2]

Wednesday, March 26, 2003

Quote of the Day by Mister Magoo

[San Jacinto]

Meanwhile, some intelligence sources said a large contingent of Iraq's elite Republican Guard, including 1,000 vehicles, was headed toward U.S. troops in central Iraq. But U.S. Central Command denied any significant offensive movement was underway. .....

CBS News National Security Correspondent David Martin reports the movements seem to involve an irregular force rather than combat formations. Guards who have donned civilian dress and are traveling in buses and SUVs to reinforce units in the south. .....

Intelligence officers with the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force said the Republican Guard forces moving Wednesday 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-Nasariyah.

This movement out of Baghdad, if the reports are true, may be a contingent of guerilla fighters sent down to attack our convoys and hold the civilian populations in check.

I have not seen any reports of aerial attacks on these vehicles. The sandstorm may be hampering any sort of close air support.