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Posted on 04/02/2003 8:08:31 AM PST by jwalburg
SOUTH OF BAGHDAD, Iraq (Reuters) - U.S. forces smashed through elite Iraqi divisions to within 19 miles of Baghdad on Wednesday, using fearsome air power to back the swiftest advance of the war to oust President Saddam Hussein.
U.S. Marines seized a vital bridge over the Tigris River and then raced along its northern bank toward the Iraqi capital, while the 3rd Infantry Division thrust northward after encircling the Shi'ite Muslim shrine city of Kerbala.
A military source told a Reuters correspondent with the Third Infantry that vanguard units were just 19 miles from the southern edges of the capital. Some had crossed to the eastern bank of the Euphrates that lies on their route to Baghdad.
Forces pushing along the Tigris valley from the southeast were as near as 25 miles away, the source said.
"The dagger is clearly pointed at the heart of the Baghdad regime and will continue to be pointed at the heart of that regime," U.S. Brigadier General Vincent Brooks said.
However, Iraq (news - web sites) dismissed as "illusions" reports that U.S. forces had crossed the Tigris or made gains anywhere else.
Brooks said the thrusts had taken some U.S. troops across a "red line" around Baghdad which the military believed could trigger a poison gas attack by Iraqi forces.
"If it's used, we'll be prepared for it being used," he said. "It causes us to maintain protective postures of our forces as they approach this area, but it doesn't make us stop."
The United States launched the war on March 20 to oust Saddam and rid Iraq of the weapons of mass destruction whose existence Baghdad denies. Invasion forces have yet to find any.
REPUBLICAN GUARD DIVISION "DESTROYED"
Brooks said U.S. troops had destroyed the Baghdad Division of the Republican Guard near the town of Kut, 105 miles southeast of Baghdad, and had fought two other Guard divisions.
Two huge American bombs exploded close to Kut, sending giant mushroom clouds into the air, Reuters correspondent Sean Maguire, traveling with the Marines, reported.
For the first time, B-52 bombers used six precision-guided 1,000-pound bombs spraying armor-destroying bomblets to stop an Iraqi tank column on Tuesday, the military said.
Bombs also hit central Baghdad, killing several motorists and hitting a Red Crescent hospital, Reuters correspondent Samia Nakhoul reported. She said at least five cars had been crushed, with their drivers burned to death inside.
Hospital sources said at least 25 people, including medical staff and patients, had been wounded in the daylight raids, which also pulverized buildings in a trade fair, next to a government security office which was not visibly damaged.
Iraqi Information Minister Mohammed Saeed al-Sahaf said air strikes had killed 24 civilians and wounded 186 in the past 24 hours, with 10 dead and 90 wounded in Baghdad alone.
"No matter how many Iraqi civilians they kill, this will make us even stronger and even more determined to repel the invasion and to defeat them," Sahaf said.
Interactive: Downtown Baghdad
On world markets, the rapid U.S. offensive pleased investors hoping for a speedy end to the war. Stocks and the dollar rose, oil tumbled and traditional safe haven assets fell sharply.
Two powerful U.S. columns are now closing on the capital from the south and southeast after an aerial bombardment that battered elite units guarding the city for more than a week.
SADDAM MEETING REPORTED
Iraqi television said Saddam met officials, including his two sons Uday and Qusay, but showed no footage of the meeting and there was no independent confirmation that it had occurred.
Two messages read on television for Saddam on Tuesday urged Iraqis to wage holy war on the invaders.
Long obsessed with his own security, the Iraqi leader hardly ever appears in public or on live television, contributing to persistent uncertainty about his whereabouts and health.
Soon after the television reported Saddam's meeting with officials, planes bombed one of his palaces in central Baghdad.
"It was a very powerful explosion," Reuters correspondent Nadim Ladki said as white smoke billowed from the area.
B-52s pummeled Iraqi frontlines near the city of Mosul and bombed targets near the oil hub of Kirkuk, Reuters correspondent Jon Hemming reported from Kurdish-held territory further north.
Helicopters and fighter planes strafed Fedayeen militia active in Najaf, another Shi'ite shrine city in central Iraq.
Reuters correspondent Kieran Murray, with the 101st Airborne, saw columns of smoke rise above Najaf after British Tornado aircraft bombed the ruling Baath Party headquarters.
Sahaf said Iraqi forces had fought off a U.S. attack on Najaf and accused the Americans of bombing shrines there.
A U.S. spokesman accused Iraqi forces in Najaf of firing from the gold-domed shrine of Ali, one of the holiest sites for Shi'ite Muslims. The Americans did not return fire, he said.
The advances on the Euphrates and Tigris, which flows through Baghdad, came after U.S. troops halted their push for the capital for several days to bolster vulnerable supply lines.
The commander of British forces in Iraq, Air Marshall Brian Burridge, said the decisive phase of the war had begun but might not end soon. "Decisive phases often take time," he said.
"We need to proceed with great delicacy in Baghdad as we did in Basra because we don't want to cause any more damage to the place than is necessary and we certainly don't want to add to civilian casualties."
He cited the tactics of British forces who have surrounded the southern city of Basra, staging a series of quick strikes into the center to kill or capture forces loyal to Saddam. They have held back from a frontal assault.
HEARTS AND MINDS
The British troops have been eager to win the trust of civilians, while repelling sporadic paramilitary forays.
Three British tanks fired on a building on the edge of Basra on Wednesday after three mortar rounds landed near a British checkpoint, Reuters correspondent Michael Georgy reported.
In the southern city of Nassiriya, where U.S. forces have faced tenacious resistance, Marines staged a decoy attack to cover the rescue of a U.S. woman soldier, Jessica Lynch, 19.
Special forces plucked her from a hospital where she had been held since her convoy was ambushed on March 23.
Lynch had two broken legs and a broken arm. The bodies of two U.S. soldiers were also recovered from the hospital.
Iraq says more than 650 civilians have been killed and more than 4,000 wounded during the war. Grisly television images of Iraqi casualties have fueled Arab anger over the invasion.
The United States has paid little heed to the diplomatic fallout from the Iraq conflict, but Secretary of State Colin Powell (news - web sites) has begun a hastily arranged trip to heal bruised relations with allies in Turkey and the European Union (news - web sites).
We need more such illusions.
We also we a few more operational pauses as well. These things ROCK!
A major war with bombing is going on and they are having a "trade fair?" I seriously doubt it.
Good point. Trade fair! If only they could have traded Saddam for survival earlier!
I'll trade you two illusions for one quagmire.
No way. You're gonna need to add some "Unexpected resistance" and "fierce fighting" if you want me to give up my quagmire! LOL
How about a "supply shortage" with "low rations" and "water running out" to sweeten the deal? I don't give such an offer to just anyone.
WHAT? We missed the Baby Milk Factory AGAIN?
And what happened to the one month pause in the campaign because there were not enough forces, blah, blah, blah.
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LOL! Now I understand why Kofi is acting as if they were still in charge.
The time is very nearly at hand....
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