Posted on 03/26/2003 1:53:43 PM PST by HAL9000
NEAR NAJAF, Iraq (AFP) - A major battle between elite Iraqi and US troops loomed with a massive column of Iraqi forces reportedly heading south to meet American soldiers advancing on Baghdad.The movement was reported after US army troops said they killed about 1,000 Iraqis in three days of fighting around the town of Najaf, 150 kilometers (90 miles) south of the capital.
CNN quoted US army officers as saying that a column of up to 1,000 Iraqi military vehicles was rumbling south from the town of Karbala, 70 kilometers (45 miles) north of Najaf.
Major John Altman, intelligence officer of the Third Infantry Division's First Brigade, earlier told AFP the Iraqis were trying to reinforce Najaf with thousands of crack Republican Guard troops from Karbala.
The Iraqis were said to be on the move in the middle of a lingering sand storm that has cut visibility drastically and hampered the ability of US forces to play their ace -- the tank-busting Apache helicopters.
US military officials driving to oust Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein told CNN the Iraqis appeared bent on retaking a key bridge over the Euphrates River. They said airstrikes were called in to slow the advance.
The Third Infantry Division and the 101st Airborne Division had been poised for a crucial battle in Karbala with the Republican Guard's armored Medina division guarding the western approaches to Baghdad.
But an Iraqi military spokesman said on state television the Republican Guard had gone into action Wednesday for the first time in the war, inflicting heavy losses on coalition troops in the mid-Euphrates region including Najaf.
US army commanders earlier said their troops had killed 1,000 Iraqis around Najaf, including 200 at a suspected chemical weapons plant in the town, 250 in two clashes on the east bank of the Euphrates and 100 on a bridge.
"Iraqi President Saddam Hussein has sent about 1,000 reinforcements from his Baath Party, the Fedayeen, and his Al-Quds militia to Najaf, As Sanawa and Nasariyah," said Major General Buford Blount, commander of the Third Infantry Division.
US commanders said their troops had encircled Najaf since Tuesday night, running Abrams tanks and Bradley fighting vehicles against Iraqi militia armed with Kalashnikov rifles and rocket-propelled grenades.
A Pentagon official said a US tank was disabled by grenade fire in the fighting and two other vehicles of the US Army's 7th Cavalry Regiment were damaged.
The sheer courage of the Iraqi reinforcements impressed the US troops, who did not expect them to put up such a fight, Maj Gen Blount told AFP. "They are fighting very tenaciously and constantly attacking US forces."
But the encirclement of Najaf and heavy sandstorms in the region had between them had put back the advance north by around 48 hours, Blount said. "It has cost us a couple of days on our timeline," he said.
As US and British air strikes continued on Baghad, with at least 14 Iraqis killed by missiles that slammed into a residential area, US marines slogged on towards the capital.
Reports from the field suggested that at least two columns of marines were converging on the city of Kut, about 150 kilometers (90 miles) southeast of Baghdad to take on another Republican Guard division.
One formation of marines ran into Iraqi fire, prompting a call for a helicopter gunship attack that left 20 to 25 Iraqis dead, correspondents travelling with them said.
The incident occurred at Ash-Shatra, about 40 kilometers (25 miles) north of Nasiriyah, the Euphrates River crossing that was the scene of some of the fiercest fighting since the weekend.
Iraqi Information Minister Mohammed Said al-Sahhaf said Wednesday that more than 500 civilians were wounded and 200 homes destroyed in US and British bombardment of Nasiriyah.
In the south, British forces were poised to enter Iraq's second largest city of Basra on Wednesday after Iraqi troops reportedly mortared civilians to quell an anti-government uprising.
Aid agencies were also trying to rush water to the besieged population of some 1.2 million people amid fears of a humanitarian crisis in the mainly Shiite city.
Since he has no contact with Nasiriyah, how the hell would he know? Answer: He got them out that part of his anatomy where the sun don't shine.
It's not clear that some those explosions we saw in Baghdad weren't MOABs. If they weren't, I'm not sure I want to see a MOAB going off any closer than 20 or 30 miles.
Not true. AFP is a pretty good news source.
Lest anyone think God is on their side, the sand storm will soon end, and the end result is that the Iraqis will have been drawn out from under cover -- and exposed to Apache helicopter attack.
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