US accelerates towards Baghdad, soldier rescued

Reuters | 4/02/03 | Hassan Hafidh

[kattracks]

US accelerates towards Baghdad, soldier rescued

By Hassan Hafidh

BAGHDAD, April 2 (Reuters) - U.S. forces accelerated their drive on Baghdad on Wednesday and swept past the Shi'ite Muslim holy city of Kerbala, which was seen by the U.S. military as a major hurdle on the road to the Iraqi capital.

With President Saddam Hussein urging a holy war against the invaders, U.S. bombers pounded the southern fringes of Baghdad, where the vaunted Republican Guard is believed to be dug in.

Word that U.S. special forces had rescued a female prisoner of war from a Nassiriya hospital boosted the morale of U.S.-led troops who continued to encounter deep suspicion among civilians and tougher-than-expected resistance from Iraqi defenders.

The U.S. 3rd Infantry launched its assault on Kerbala shortly after midnight, supported by warplanes, Apache attack helicopters and a furious artillery barrage which lit up the night sky with a succession of dazzling flashes.

Commanders had expected a day-long battle to seize the perimeter of the city, which lies just 110 km (70 miles) southwest of Baghdad. In the end it took three hours.

"The U.S. military had expected a much bigger fight, but they say they have now secured the city on all sides and are continuing with their advance," said Reuters reporter Luke Baker who is travelling with the 3rd Infantry Division.

Further south, U.S. Marines staged a decoy attack on targets in the city of Nassiriya to allow special forces to rescue Private First Class Jessica Lynch, 19, from a hospital where she had been held since her convoy was ambushed on March 23.

She was said to be doing well, but CNN reported that Lynch had suffered multiple gunshot wounds at some point during her ordeal in Iraq that made it hard to move her.

"FIGHT EVERYWHERE"

In Baghdad, in a statement attributed to Saddam read out on state television, the Iraqi leader urged his people to fight American and British troops wherever they were. "Hit them, fight them. ... Fight them everywhere," the statement said.

Saddam, 65, did not appear personally. Rumours have swirled since the war began that he may have been hurt in a U.S. air attack. He has been seen several times on television but it was not known when those appearances were recorded.

U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld told reporters in Washington the fact that Saddam "did not show up" in person was "interesting." He made clear that only an "unconditional surrender" by the Iraqis would end the U.S.-led onslaught.

After a rapid charge across southern Iraq at the start of the war, now in its 14th day, the U.S. vanguard had to halt its march on Baghdad last week to bring up badly-needed supplies and confront spirited resistance that sprang up behind their lines.

But the foot came off the brake early on Wednesday with the assault on Kerbala. Although there was little initial opposition, U.S. officers on the ground did not know if the centre of the city was still heavily defended.

U.S. military sources said they had no intention of getting bogged down in street-to-street fighting and instead planned to push on and secure a bridgehead over the nearby Euphrates river, which will be used to move armour up towards Baghdad.

Different U.S. units are pushing northwards on the other side of the river.

With the land offensive hitting top gear again, U.S. warplanes continued their relentless bombing of Baghdad, where Saddam is believed to have concentrated the bulk of his forces.

Reuters correspondent Samia Nakhoul reported the continuous rumbling of explosions on the southern edge of the capital, interspersed by the occasional load explosion near the centre.

Smoke poured out of a tall building to the west of the city, where many government buildings are located. A communications centre near a bridge across the River Tigris also appeared to have been hit. Flames rose from the area.

Smoke also rose to the east of the centre in an area where air force and other military buildings are situated. Tracer fire lit the sky and warplanes could be heard flying overhead.

DEAD CIVILIANS

Iraq says the round-the-clock air raids have killed nearly 650 civilians and grisly television images of dead and injured women and children have fuelled Arab anger over the U.S.-led invasion.

Reuters reporters taken on Monday by Iraqi officials to a hospital in the town of Hilla, 80 km (50 miles) south of Baghdad, saw 11 bodies, mostly children, apparently killed when U.S. bombs hit a residential area.

"What has he done wrong, what has he done wrong?" demanded the driver of a truck carrying the bodies, as he held the corpse of an infant.

U.S. soldiers, nervous about the threat of suicide bombers, have also killed eight civilians at checkpoints in Iraq over the past 48 hours. U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Richard Myers expressed regret for the deaths, but said Saddam's loyalists were partly to blame.

"The climate established by the Iraqi regime contributed to this incident," he told reporters in Washington.

At a televised news conference on Tuesday, Iraqi Vice President Taha Yassin Ramadan said 6,000 volunteers had arrived in Iraq to fight the invasion force. More than half were suicide fighters and "you'll hear about them soon," he said.

A suicide attack at the weekend killed four U.S. soldiers.

Washington opened the war on March 20, vowing to oust Saddam, his family and supporters, install a democratic Iraqi government and destroy the weapons of mass destruction the United States insists Saddam is hiding.

So far, no such weapons have been found.

"There will be no outcome to this war that leaves Saddam Hussein and his regime in power," Rumsfeld told a Pentagon briefing. "Let there be no doubt, his time will end, and soon."

The United States has downplayed the diplomatic fallout from the Iraq war, which has sparked massive peace demonstrations around the world, but Secretary of State Colin Powell left Washington on Tuesday morning for a hastily arranged trip to Europe and Turkey to try to shore up support for the war.

04/02/03 00:30 ET