Battle at Karbala, Key City South of Capital

American forces attacked a Republican Guard division tonight at Karbala, on the Euphrates River approach to Baghdad, in what officials said was the beginning of a drive to push through the outer defenses of the Iraqi capital, 50 miles to the north.

Officials also said that several thousand marines positioned south of Baghdad were veering east and pushing toward the Tigris River to confront a Republican Guard division reported to be massing southeast of the capital.

``This is the big battle,'' a senior American military officer told reporters at the forward headquarters of the United States Central Command, in Qatar.

As American ground and air forces continued to prepare the field for a climactic battle with Iraqi troops protecting Baghdad, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld warned Iraq that ``the only thing the coalition will discuss with this regime is their unconditional surrender.''

Mr. Rumsfeld said President Saddam Hussein's government had been planting rumors that American officials were talking to Iraqi leaders, with the goal of convincing Iraqi citizens that ``the coalition does not intend to finish the job.''

Addressing the Iraqi public, Mr. Rumsfeld rejected the rumors and accused the Hussein government of lying.

``There are no negotiations taking place,'' Mr. Rumsfeld said at a Pentagon news briefing. ``There is no outcome to this war that will leave Saddam Hussein and his regime in power.''

In Baghdad, a top Iraqi official read what was presented as a statement from Mr. Hussein exhorting Iraqis to rise up against American and British forces.

About the same time that the statement was read on Iraqi television, American and British warplanes pounded Republican Guard positions south of Baghdad. Fighting also raged outside the holy city of Najaf, 100 miles south of the capital.

American forces said they had captured an Iraqi general and two Iraqi intelligence officers at unspecified places across the battlefield. The general was providing ``very valuable information,'' Brig. Gen. Vincent Brooks of the United States Army said. He refused to reveal where the Iraqi general had been captured, but said it was in the last 48 hours.

After days of intense American and British airstrikes, officials said the Republican Guard protecting Baghdad had called in reinforcements.

On Iraqi television, the information minister, Muhammad Said al-Sahhaf, read out the statement that he said was from Saddam Hussein. ``Hit them, fight them!'' he said. ``Fight them everywhere, as you fight them today. Don't give them a chance to take a breath until they withdraw and retreat from Islamic land. And they will be cursed today and forever.''

Mr. Sahhaf's appearance in place of Mr. Hussein led to a new round of speculation about the Iraqi leader's whereabouts and condition. Mr. Rumsfeld, speaking in Washington, said, ``The fact that Saddam did not read his speech in person is interesting.''

Fighting continued on the outskirts of Najaf, where an American officer said his forces had made ``quite a bit of headway.''

``It's a matter of days before it will be secure,'' said the officer, Col. Greg Gass, commander of the 101st Airborne Division's Aviation Brigade. Colonel Gass added that Iraqi equipment had been abandoned, including air defense systems, military trucks and vehicles.

To the southeast, coalition aircraft bombed Iraqi forces around Kut, where the Marines were believed to be advancing.

The fighting came after a bloody 24 hours of civilian deaths. On Monday, the Army said, American soldiers at a checkpoint killed at least seven women and children who were in a vehicle that had ignored orders to halt.

The shooting appeared to reflect an edginess among American troops; it occurred not far from the spot where a suicide car bomb attack killed four American troops at a checkpoint over the weekend.

Today, American marines shot dead an unarmed Iraqi driver at a checkpoint near Shatra, north of Nasiriyah, after he drove through coils of barbed wire blocking a highway.

In Kuwait, American troops fired at a Kuwaiti soldier's car as he tried to take a shortcut through an American base. ``We've increased vigilance because of the tactics of Iraqi death squads,'' General Brooks said.

He said the United States regretted the shooting of noncombatants, but he also said that civilian deaths were ``unavoidable.'' The United States maintained ``the right to self-defense,'' he said.

``While we regret the loss of any civilian lives, at this point they remain unavoidable, as they have been throughout history,'' General Brooks said.

In Baghdad, the Iraqi vice president, Taha Yassin Ramadan, called the explanation ``a flimsy excuse'' and said the fatal shootings were an example of American aggression.

``Those are women and children. Even if they don't stop in time, you don't shoot them like that,'' he said. ``It was intentional. It reflects the nature of the aggression.''

As a counterpoint to the reports of civilian deaths, British and American officials announced that cooperation with Iraqi civilians had improved. Local people were ``increasingly willing'' to provide information, General Brooks said.

The general said that about 100 Iraqi tribesmen had fought alongside American troops in Central Iraq and said that more were expected to join the battle against the Hussein regime.

It was unclear whether the United States was now seeking to fight alongside large numbers of local forces, the way it did in Afghanistan, where C.I.A. operatives helped coordinate local militias.

General Brooks said the ``tribesmen'' had taken part in an attack with troops from the First Marine Expeditionary Force near the towns of Diwaniya and Shatra, about halfway between Baghdad and the Kuwaiti border.

``We think we're going to see a whole lot more of those in the coming days as they continue to show up,'' General Brooks said of the tribal forces. ``As the regime is pushed back, peeled back or destroyed, people will start seeking freedom for themselves.''

British officers sent a similar message of increased cooperation. The security situation in some areas of southern Iraq had improved to the point where British soldiers had removed their helmets and were now wearing berets, said Group Capt. Al Lockwood, a spokesman for British forces at the American Central Command forward headquarters in Qatar.

``It shows that we have confidence in them, and they can have confidence in us,'' he said of the decision to wear berets.

Captain Lockwood said British forces were ``firmly in place and patrolling actively in Zubayr,'' a medium-sized city near Basra. ``Normality is coming back,'' he said. ``Shops are opening, bakeries are opening, schools are opening.''

Nearby, in the seaport of Umm Qasr, electricity was due to be restored in a ceremony late today.

Yet despite talk of the improving security situation in the south, there were signs that resistance was far from quashed.

An Iraqi missile was fired at Kuwait early today before being intercepted by a Kuwaiti Patriot antimissile battery. On the Faw Peninsula, in Iraq, two Iraqi Seersucker antiship missiles landed near British commandos and a prisoner of war camp.

The chief goal of British forced remained gaining control over Basra, which they have encircled.

British officers say they were ``nibbling at the edges'' of the city, Iraq's second largest, and were hoping that civilians will provide them with more information about the locations of units loyal to Mr. Hussein.

For the past few nights, British troops have driven tanks into the center of the city, destroying symbols of the government's power, like statues of Saddam Hussein, before withdrawing.

In an unexplained incident after nightfall today, a dozen flares were fired over Basra, lighting up the city with an intense glow.

American officials have yet to reveal the result of an investigation into explosions in two Baghdad marketplaces last week that killed more than 70 people.

The British foreign secretary, Jack Straw, said today that it was ``increasingly probable'' that they were ``the result of Iraqi, not coalition action.'' After 13 days of war, Iraqi officials have said that at least 480 civilians have been killed, but have given no figure for deaths in the Iraqi military.

When posting a link to the NewYork Times, try to remember
to change the "www" to "archive" and that way we don't all end up on that silly registration page.

http://archive.nytimes.com/2003/04/01/international/worldspecial/01CND-IRAQ.html

Too early to tell yet, but the flood of news, tends of indicate that the Iraqis are facing partial, and maybe cumulative collapse. The fedayeen are taking a beating, American armor is north of the lake with checkpoints on the road to Joran. The Marines are openly reported as advancing on Al Kut. A nonstop air bridge of C-17s is landing forces at Bashur in Kurdistan. The Brits have taken the last bridge to Basra. And in the west, the 3rd ID and 101st are punching icepick holes in the IRG line.

Now the allies are stringing the shots together, in combinations reminiscent of Sugar Ray Leonard in his prime. What is truly surprising is the lack of Iraqi response. They had better get what is left of the IRG behind the Euphrates pronto, or they will get chopped up bad. But maybe it's too late. If the 3rd ID has slipped past Al Hillah, they'll be hit from the side on the east of the river too.

Keep an eye on this. If it turns into a rout, the Iraqi army will scatter to the four winds, like a box of safety matches dumped out the window.

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.