Looking to Baghdad: Troops close on capital

Associated Press ^ | March 28, 2003 | Associated Press Staff

[MeekOneGOP]

Looking to Baghdad: Troops close on capital

Iraqis say allies will pay high price if they storm the city

03/28/2003

Associated Press

The biggest bombs dropped on Baghdad so far – two 4,700-pound "bunker busters" – struck a communications tower Friday in an intense U.S. bombardment. In the south, British officers said Iraqi fighters defending the besieged city of Basra fired on hundreds of civilians trying to flee.

The British, who have encircled Basra, said their troops were prepared to rescue and aid any civilians wounded by the mortar and machine-gun fire from paramilitaries loyal to Saddam Hussein.

"Here perhaps are the first pieces of evidence of Iraqi people trying to break free... and clearly the militia don't want that," said Col. Chris Vernon, a British spokesman.

British officers said soldiers from the 1st Black Watch battalion, in Warrior armored fighting vehicles, were trying to wedge themselves between the militia fire and the targeted civilians.

Fighting raged elsewhere in the south – including a battle at a cement plant in which a U.S. Marine was killed – but a showdown in central Iraq over Baghdad was clearly drawing closer. With a new front opened by paratroopers in the north, U.S. forces are poised to move on the capital from multiple directions.

Wary of engaging the better-armed allies in open desert warfare, Saddam's government has been goading them to send ground troops into the city.

"The enemy must come inside Baghdad, and that will be its grave," said Defense Minister Sultan Hashim Ahmed. "We feel that this war must be prolonged so the enemy pays a high price."

U.S. Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, briefing congressional committees in Washington, suggested American troops might lay siege to Baghdad rather than invade, in hopes its citizens would rebel against the government. Rumsfeld drew comparisons with Basra, where British troops have delayed an assault in hopes Iraqi defenders give up or are toppled by anti-Saddam civilians.

British Prime Minister Tony Blair, back in London after talks with President Bush on strategy and postwar plans, said unseating Saddam will be "tough and difficult."

"When you've had a whole series of security services repressing the local people, it was never going to be a situation these people were simply going to give up power and go away," Blair said in BBC radio interview Friday.

The Army's senior ground commander in Iraq, Lt. Gen. William S. Wallace of V Corps, told reporters of The New York Times and Washington Post on Thursday that unexpected tactics by Iraqi fighters and stretched supply lines were slowing down the campaign. "The enemy we're fighting is different from the one we'd war-gamed against," the papers quoted Wallace as saying during a visit to the 101st Airborne Division headquarters in central Iraq.

Meanwhile, four U.S. Marines are missing after fierce combat around the Iraqi city of Nasiriyah, U.S. Central Command said Friday.

American forces are "aggressively seeking to determine the status of these (missing) individuals," a Central Command statement said. The statement did not say when the Marines disappeared. No names were made public.

Marines and Iraqi forces traded tank and artillery fire throughout the day Friday in Nasiriyah. Several buildings, including the power plant, were ablaze.

Nasiriyah, a city of about 500,000 on the Euphrates River, has been the scene of some of the fiercest fighting of the war. Helicopters flying over the area were drawing almost continuous small arms fire and rocket-propelled grenades.

The four missing Marines are in addition to eight Marines the Pentagon said Thursday haven't been seen since a battle Sunday near the southern Iraq town of Nasiriyah.

Near the south-central city of Ad Diwaniyah, one Marine was killed and another injured in fighting with Iraqi irregulars at a cement plant in what one Marine officer, Lt. Col. B.P. McCoy, described as "blue-collar warfare." Two other Marines were killed when a vehicle ran them over while they slept.

In Baghdad, smoke drifted across the city – from fires started by authorities to conceal targets as well as from sites struck overnight in one of the heaviest allied air assaults of the war.

U.S. officials said bombs and Tomahawk missiles struck several communications and command-and-control facilities in the city, including the tower hit by two "bunker-busters" dropped from a B-2 bomber. One of Baghdad's main telephone exchanges – a seven-story building – was hit and gutted, but phones were working Friday in many parts of the city.

Iraqi Information Minister Mohammed Saeed al-Sahhaf told reporters that 75 civilians had been killed and 290 wounded in U.S. and British bombardments Thursday.

Sahhaf also rejected allied contentions that Iraq planned to use chemical weapons – speculation that arose after advancing forces found chemical weapons protective suits and gas masks left behind by retreating soldiers. Sahhaf said having such equipment is standard for any army.

Iraqi state TV broadcast a sermon by Abdel-Ghafour Al-Quisi;h a Kalashnikov rifle was seen resting against the pulpit.

"May God install terror in the hearts of our enemies," he said.

Nine days into the war, Pentagon officials said close to 90,000 U.S. troops were in Iraq, with 100,000 to 120,000 more on the way. Some will be deployed in northern Iraq, joining 1,000 airborne troops who parachuted in Wednesday night to secure an airfield.

A paramount U.S. objective in the north is to seize the valuable oil fields near the city of Kirkuk, about 80 miles from the airdrop site.

"Kirkuk is key," said Maj. Mike Hastings of the Army's 173rd Airborne Brigade. "The Iraqis want it, the Kurds want it, the Turks want it."

At the United Nations, the Security Council reached agreement Thursday on a plan to restart a humanitarian aid program for Iraq that uses Baghdad's oil revenues to get in medical supplies and food.

The resolution aims to hasten delivery of aid by giving Secretary-General Kofi Annan control for 45 days over the oil-for-food program. The program had provided food to 60 percent of Iraq's 22 million people but was halted last week before war erupted.

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Online at: http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dallas/bn1/stories/032803dnintiraqrdp.a22aafa4.html

[MeekOneGOP]

AP
An unidentified Marine with the security element of the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force mans a gun position at an undisclosed location in Iraq.

[ambrose]

MeeknMing,

So are they closing in or are they bogged down?

[rageaholic]

Iraqi state TV broadcast a sermon by Abdel-Ghafour Al-Quisi;h a Kalashnikov rifle was seen resting against the pulpit.

Islam is Peace TM

[smiley]

Looks as though our forces are separating the head of the snake from its body....good move!

[MeekOneGOP]

LOL! It's a 'Quagmire' of course. Just like in Afghanistan. And remember the 'bitter Afghan winter?' . . .

[spokeshave]

and the cold so intense it snapped tool steel

[wretchard]

Iraqis say allies will pay high price if they storm the city

The allies will pay as much for Baghdad as the British are paying for Basra -- and does anyone doubt that Basra will fall to them? The best predictor of how Baghdad will be reduced is to examine how it is done to Basra. That is a real application of allied doctrine, not a press demonstration.

Historically, the US has only stormed cities when they controlled vital logistical routes. Hence, McArthur stormed Manila -- for it's port -- not because he was after the 5,000 Japanese marines there. By contrast, he left Yamashita's 250,000 man army in the central Cordilleras to rot and be reduced at leisure. The US stormed tiny Iwo Jima for its position as an airfield. In contrast, they left mighty Truk undisturbed for the entire duration of the war, having bypassed it. No logistical value to Truk.

Baghdad has no port. It has no oil installations. Kirkuk and Basra, in the cold military scheme of things, are more important than Baghdad.

[madison46]

a PAST Victor David Hanson piece just destoryed that type of crap. Yeah, I remember the death of empires, the cruel winters, the mountains etc..and after a couple of weeks, the 'quagmire'...the media is AWFUL. VDH has another good one today

[lilylangtree]

"Kirkuk is key," said Maj. Mike Hastings of the Army's 173rd Airborne Brigade. "The Iraqis want it, the Kurds want it, the Turks want it." Major point!

[Route66]

Yes - Perhaps we'll just establish control of all of the rest of Iraq while they are waiting for the great battle of Baghdad to begin. Then when the last of them are confined there, we will declare the regime dead, begin to set up the new provisional government and recruit the persecuted residents of Baghdad to assist in the systematic routing out of the snakes in their midst.

[jerseygirl]

Debka :) reports that Saddam's "red line" is the Tigris...once we pass that, it's the signal to launch WMD's. Thoughts?

[jerseygirl]

This was the info. from today's DEBKA report: (excerpt)

" Last Updated on March 28, 2003, 10:42 PM (GMT+02:00)

Israel elevates first-aid Magen David alert for possible chemical attack...


DEBKAfile reports from US intelligence sources that Iraq has moved chemical and biological weapons to within missile-striking distance of Israel in western Iraq despite US-UK presence in region. Some of the WMD was taken out of hiding-places in Syria...

DEBKAfile military sources: US forces approaching Baghdad face WMD threat once across Tigris River – Saddam’s signal to loose chemical, biological and possibly nuclear weapons"

[MeekOneGOP]

Thanks. Some folks here might like to see that, if you have a link to it . . .

[RonF]

"Kirkuk is key," said Maj. Mike Hastings of the Army's 173rd Airborne Brigade. "The Iraqis want it, the Kurds want it, the Turks want it."

The Turks want it? What right do they have to it, or to keep the Kurds from having it?

[MeekOneGOP]

Thanks for the info. :O)

We control the H2 and H3 areas (I think those are the designations) in western Iraq is what I heard just a few days ago. I'm sure it was important to help ensure just such an attack wouldn't occur (on Israel). I'm sure others here can confirm this . . .

[MeekOneGOP]

The allies will pay as much for Baghdad as the British are paying for Basra -- and does anyone doubt that Basra will fall to them?

Not me. bumpity bumpity bumpity ! . . .

[nhbob1]

The Iraqi's clever plan to halt the US forces is now clear. They will send their light infantry in to charge our tanks until so many Iraqis have been killed that their corpses create walls too high for our armour to cross, thus denying us access to Baghdad.

[TADSLOS]

I'm surprised all of these alarmed sources have time to do anything else from all the hand wringing exercises they go through each day.

[madison46]

Thanks. Some folks here might like to see that, if you have a link to it

Victor's had enough of media pundits

Victor David Hanson History or Hysteria

[MeekOneGOP]

Thanks for that link ! . . .