Michael
"We are going to try to isolate Baghdad," Watt, of the Marine Mechanized Infantry, said on the road from Kut to the capital. "We're going to surround Baghdad and start taking chunks out of where the enemy are."
Iraqi men smiling and waving to the incoming American troops. The Iraqi military has been encouraging the civilians to take up arms and fight American soldiers. The Iraqi civilians are not responding to the crumbling Iraqi government's call to arms.
Huge U.S. Marine Column Closes in on Baghdad
2 hours, 15 minutes ago
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SOUTHEAST OF BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Waved on by Iraqi children in places, a huge armored column of U.S. Marines closed in on Baghdad on Friday, the eastern flank of a pincer thrust that has already taken the main airport to the west.
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But further down the road to the capital, a reporter with the U.S. television network ABC who was near the head of the column reported stiff resistance from Iraqi irregular forces and fighters in civilian dress.
"We have reached our objective just south of Baghdad, but we have paid the price. We have taken some casualties," ABC reporter Mike Cerre, who was near the head of the 1st Marine Division column, told viewers.
"We have been under fire for the last five hours, but we are now in front of the outskirts of the industrial area of Baghdad," he added.
Marines traveling north toward the capital with tanks and armored personnel carriers, were keen to get on with the job.
Fresh from a battle for the town of Kut, 105 miles south east of the Iraqi capital, they said they planned to isolate the capital and start picking off its defenders.
"We've got them on their heels, we're going to continue to exploit our successes," Marine Captain Matt Watt told Reuters as the U.S. Central Command spoke of members of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein (news - web sites)'s vaunted Republican Guard surrendering.
"We are going to try to isolate Baghdad," Watt, of the Marine Mechanized Infantry, said on the road from Kut to the capital. "We're going to surround Baghdad and start taking chunks out of where the enemy are."
Military experts said this was critical if U.S. forces were to prepare the ground properly before entering the city itself.
"They have to secure a perimeter now, both to prevent the enemy from getting out and also to avoid any attempts by outside units to strike from the rear and return to Baghdad," French defense analyst Francois Gere told Reuters.
SMILES AND WAVES
As the column moved north, civilians smiled, waved or flashed thumbs-up signs from their mud-walled homes near the banks of the Tigris River.
Civilian traffic was sparse, most of it moving away from Baghdad. What civilian vehicles there were -- brightly painted trucks or white-and-orange taxis -- displayed white flags.
The Marines, wary of attack, watched from behind their guns. Tanks, their turrets swiveled to the side of the road, scanned the column's flanks.
Watt said one U.S. Marine had been killed and about four wounded in Thursday's attack on Kut, a town where military planners had expected stiff opposition from the Republican Guard.
A U.S. military spokesman at Central Command war headquarters in Qatar said members of the Baghdad division of the Guard, which had been defending Kut, had surrendered.
"Just last night there was a (military field) report of about 2,500 soldiers of the Baghdad division surrendering, stripping off their uniforms," Captain Frank Thorp told Reuters.
Watt said Marines destroyed enemy forces in the town, including several T-62 tanks and pickup trucks mounted with machineguns, the vehicle of choice of paramilitary forces loyal to the Iraqi leader.
"We are going to have to at least occupy the suburbs of Baghdad to form a ring round it," U.S. Marine Sergeant Brian Mayhew predicted.
"I'm hoping for a siege," he said, betraying a feeling of apprehension. "I don't want to go into Baghdad. I don't want to risk it."
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