Posted on 04/01/2003 9:24:49 PM PST by JohnHuang2
ITH THE FIRST MARINE DIVISION, in central Iraq, Wednesday, April 2 — Heavy armor and troops from the First Marine Division crossed the Tigris river overnight and continued to move north along the east bank of the river toward Baghdad.
Troops and equipment were continuing to pour across after sunrise this morning.
Overnight there was a heavy firefight employing tanks and artillery as well as AC-130 gunships. Marine officials said 85 prisoners were taken in the fight.
The move by thousands of troops and tanks was one prong of the approach toward Baghdad.
Lead elements of the First Marine Division approached the Tigris River, which bisects the Iraqi capital, late Tuesday. Much of the convoy crossed a large irrigation channel that runs south of the city behind a vanguard of warplanes and attack helicopters that cleared the way.
Iraqi villagers in the area on Tuesday said some soldiers had fled all the way to the capital and others had simply gone home to their farms.
American forces did encounter a force of Iraqi soldiers guarding the approach to the Saddam Canal but destroyed them with an airstrike, officers said. Through Tuesday, B-52 bombers sailed across the sky, their contrails marking their progress.
The move by the marines appeared to set the stage for a two-pronged assault on Baghdad, with the Army's Third Infantry Division preparing to drive on the capital from the southwest. Divisions of the Republican Guard, which are protecting the approaches to the city, are believed to be massing in the path of each American force.
As night fell Tuesday, the Marine column shut out its lights but kept moving forward in almost total blackness. Helicopters were invisible but could be heard hovering overhead. The horizon lit up time and again with the orange clouds of exploding bombs.
The eastward turn by the marines Tuesday followed a 40-mile northward trek on Monday, taking them out of the desert and into Iraq's more densely populated agricultural heartland.
As they swept into the tiny hamlets that line Highway 1, the marines encountered what they have almost everywhere outside of Iraq's large cities: Iraqi people who seem grateful for the American presence, yet wary of it, too, and still worried that the Iraqi president, Saddam Hussein, may yet come back to hurt them.
In one house off the roadside, American marines searching towns found the identification card of a member of the Republican Guard. But out of the house appeared Hamoud Radi Sultan, a local farmer, and suddenly the level of danger seemed to diminish.
Mr. Sultan, a father of four, had fled his house when the fighting started and was returning to it to feed his chickens the next morning. Mr. Sultan said that yes, indeed, his brother had been in the Republican Guards, but that he had long since deserted.
"He took his wife and child and fled long ago," Mr. Sultan said. "All the soldiers are fleeing."
Like many Iraqis asked the same question, Mr. Sultan shrugged off the presence of the American marines in his country, neither denouncing them nor enthusing over them. His concerns were more immediate, like whether the marines could protect his house from looters.
"We have nothing against the Americans," Mr. Sultan said. "But the most important thing for them is to avoid killing civilians."
Such statements hardly amount to an endorsement of the invasion, but the Americans here are hoping that their good works will eventually help persuade the Iraqis of America's good intentions.
In the village of Jisar, a few miles from Monday's fighting, American medics ventured in to offer health care and packets of food. Tuesday. Sure enough, children and adults gathered round the Americans to receive free medical care.
"You hear stuff about how the Iraqi people do not want us here," said Maj. Don Broton, a civic affairs officer with the marines. "You go to that village. They are all over us."
But after the Americans pulled out, the mood of the village seemed to shift. The official Iraqi radio urged the Iraqis not to eat the food because the Americans had poisoned it. Some ate anyway, but it appeared that many villagers had discarded their rations.
Major Broton said he looked forward to the war's end, when he and the marines and the people of the United States could begin to help Iraq rebuild. "Once they see the marines put down their weapons and start digging wells and building schools, the Iraqi people will see what we came here for," he said.
Many villagers said they were only too aware of the atrocities Saddam Hussein's government had perpetrated on them. But with Mr. Hussein still in power, there was a widespread sense in Jisar that the Americans, as in 1991, would again let him slip away. One Iraqi, a Mr. Hamza, a student of English, said he did not think Mr. Hussein should be punished.
"Mr. Hussein said he was sorry for these things," Mr. Hamza said. "I believe in forgiveness. It's a good thing. He said he was sorry."
kAcknor Sez:
I don'no, he sounds more like a Democrat to me....
"tIqIpqu' 'ej nom tIqIp" (Hit them hard and hit them fast.)
Along with everything else Blix missed in Iraq, he obviously didn't find the branch campus of the University of DemocRAT that is operating there.
In two days, we have gone from the end of the beginning to the beginning of the end.
It is almost over.
Iraqis Celebrate Their Liberation: Resource Thread for Pictures & Links
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