Posted on 04/02/2003 1:18:51 PM PST by Scoop
U.S. forces ‘threatening’ Baghdad
April 2 — Having demolished two top Republican Guard divisions and badly damaged a third, U.S. troops were within 30 miles of Baghdad and were “threatening the core of the regime” of Saddam Hussein, Pentagon officials said Wednesday. The advances brought the troops well within the “red zone” around the capital, where Iraqi forces were said to be prepared to use banned chemical weapons, and soldiers were donning protective suits as they continued to advance.
AT A PENTAGON briefing, Maj. Gen. Stanley McChrystal said that a weeklong allied bombing campaign followed by overwhelming ground attacks had damaged the Medina and Baghdad divisions of the Republican Guard to the point where they are “no longer credible forces.”
As a result, he said, the 1st U.S. Marine Division and the Army’s 3rd Infantry Division were encountering only “sporadic” resistance as they continued their two-pronged advance on Baghdad from the southeast and southwest, respectively.
McChrystal, vice director of joint operations for the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said that the U.S. troops were within 30 miles of the capital, but Pentagon sources told NBC News that they were even closer — within 20 miles — after seizing key bridges over the Tigris and Euphrates rivers.
Farther to the south, the Army’s 101st Airborne Division took control of most of the holy city of Najaf, where they were greeted by cheering Iraqi throngs after more than a week of tough fighting. U.S. officials said some Iraqi holdouts were continuing to fire at U.S. troops from a sacred mosque.
Despite impressive gains and the relatively light resistance so far, McChrystal said war planners are assuming that “tough fighting lies ahead.”
McChrystal and Pentagon spokeswoman Victoria Clarke also warned that the advance puts troops inside the so-called “red zone,” within range of the guns and missiles defending the capital. Pentagon officials have said previously that Iraqi troops are believed willing to use chemical weapons once allied forces enter the zone, said to extend about 50 miles around the capital, in a last-ditch defense of the city.
“We believe the likelihood (of using chemical weapons) is greater,” McChrystal said, adding, “It’s a war crime and it would be a great mistake for those who order it and those who carry it out.”
Battlefield commanders were preparing troops for the possible use of the banned weapons.
Lead units with the Army’s 3rd Infantry Division approaching the capital from the southwest donned chemical suits Wednesday after capturing a bridge over the Euphrates River 40 miles southeast of Baghdad, The Associated Press reported. The bridge, taken with little or no resistance from Iraqi forces, had been rigged with explosives, but engineers defused them...
...At an earlier briefing at U.S. Central Command, Brig. Gen. Vincent Brooks said Marines advancing on the city from the southwest had “destroyed” the Baghdad division of the Republican Guard near the city of Kut.
Reports from “embedded” reporters indicated that the Marines also had taken a key bridge over the over the Tigris River, encountering only light resistance. The Marines then resumed their advance, passing an abandoned military complex with high-rise barracks while bombs thudded in the distance near Baghdad...
...Iraqi Information Minister Mohammed Saeed al-Sahhaf described the reports of advances near Baghdad as “illusions.”
The commander of British forces in Iraq, Air Marshal Brian Burridge, said the latest assaults by his U.S. allies marked the start of a momentous phase in the war.
“This is certainly a decisive engagement in which we are now just beginning with the Republican Guard,” he said. “The point I would make, though, is that decisive phases often take time. I wouldn’t want to give you the impression that within a day or two this is going to be finished.”
...Farther south, the highway leading out of the town of Nasiriyah was choked with coalition military convoys headed north. Vehicles churned up billowing clouds of dust as they drove through a barren landscape of cracked land dotted with green clumps of grass. Blown bunkers and collapsed buildings flanked the road.
“The noose is starting to tighten around Baghdad,” Sgt. Jeff Lanter, crew chief of a Marine CH-46E Sea Knight assault helicopter, said as peered down at the mass movement...
...Despite the coalition advances and daily pounding of Baghdad, the Iraqi government has responded defiantly. Iraqi satellite television Wednesday broadcast a statement attributed to Saddam declaring that “victory is at hand.”
Separate decrees, also attributed to Saddam, offered cash rewards to anyone who helps uncover spies assisting the U.S.-led coalition and warned Iraqi Kurds in the north against aiding the invaders.
Speculation about the fate of the 65-year-old Iraqi leader has increased since U.S. bombs targeted him on the first night of the war on March 20. State television has shown Saddam addressing the nation twice since the attack, and also shown him in meetings with his top officials and his two sons. But nothing in the taped appearances has enabled intelligence analysts to determine when the footage was taped.
(Excerpt) Read more at msnbc.com ...
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