US troops suffer heavy losses in Baghdad fighting

Aljazeera ^ | April 6, 2003 | Dakshin Murthy

[Scoop]

Fighting raged in Iraq’s capital Baghdad on Sunday with United States-led forces meeting fierce resistance in their efforts to capture the city.

Iraqi Information Minister Mohammed Saeed al-Sahaf said troops killed 50 US soldiers and destroyed or damaged 16 US tanks close to Baghdad airport. Troops from the Republican Guard are still tightening the noose around US troops in the area surrounding the airport, he said.

Journalists in the area reported seeing a destroyed US Abrams tank on a main highway south out of Baghdad. Iraqi officers said five US soldiers had been killed in a battle at the scene. Dozens of Iraqi civilians crowded around the journalists taken to the scene, shouting "Down, down Bush" and "Long live Saddam Hussein".

Iraqis with Kalashnikov rifles danced triumphantly over the hulk of the charred tank in the Sayadia area, a southern entrance to the capital. The journalists were taken to see the destroyed tank on the side of the highway from Baghdad to Karbala, as an Iraqi tank prepared to tow it away and stop it from obstructing traffic.

"We destroyed it with an anti-tank rocket along with the column of trucks and vehicles that was following it," Ahmed Khoder, a member of the special Republican Guard, told reporters. Khoder said the fighting took place Saturday between 6:00 and 8:00 am (0200 and 0400 GMT).

"One hour later President Saddam Hussein came to congratulate us and asked us to fight until the end," he said. Khoder, wearing civilian attire but armed with a Kalashnikov assault rifle and with ammunition strapped across his chest, said there were four men and one woman inside the tank. "They're all dead," Khoder said.

The Iraqi Information Minister said Baghdad was still firmly under Iraqi control, but US officials countered it claiming they could move into the capital at will.

A barrage of rockets was heard on Sunday around Baghdad, shortly after heavy artillery echoed from the city's outskirts. The explosions, accompanied by the roar of warplanes over the city centre, echoed from the west and southwest, where the US-led forces reinforced the international airport.

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said Baghdad hospitals were struggling to cope with the wounded and the situation in the city was becoming desperate.

"The situation is extremely problematic now in terms of clean water supply and sewage evacuation. Everybody now is operating on back-up generators as there is hardly any power any more," an ICRC spokeswoman said in Geneva.

With temperatures exceeding 35 Celsius (95 Fahrenheit), thousands of families set out on foot and in overloaded cars to find safety in remote provinces away from the capital.

According to agencies, US troops are fighting to take control of highways leading northwest and west out of Baghdad as they tried to encircle the Iraqi capital. Colonel John Peabody, commander of the Engineer Brigade of the 3rd Infantry Division said there were now about 7,000 troops at the airport -- roughly a fourfold increase on initial levels.

Earlier, a stream of US tanks and armoured vehicles moved across the Euphrates river to bolster positions around Baghdad.

US Central Command meanwhile claimed that 2,000 Iraqi troops had been killed in the offensive against Baghdad. It said his figure could include soldiers of the elite Republican Guard forces.

[Gumption]

moral relativism = not funny

[isthisnickcool]

Is lying a part of the Islamic/Muslim religion?

It certainly seems to be part of being an Arab I've been told by people that have lived in the middle east. As far as Islam? It's a weird religion/cult.

[Michael121]

First of all we DO NOT leave vehicles IF they are destroyed. And as was said the other day in the CENCOM briefing, not one Abrahms was destoyed, 4 were damaged. None of the armor was pierced. So I wonder, the same people who say we are not at the airport are the same who can make the difference between the twisted hulk of a T-72 and an Abrahms tank. NOT.

They also said they shot down that Apache with a rifle, small arms did not take it out, it was a mechanical failure. They also showed pictures of a "second" Apache they said they would show us also. It was the same Chopper after we took it out. We DO NOT leave them for the enemy.

These people are worse than Hitler, his propaganda was based on rules that his people would be arrested if they listened to any radio other than Berlin, but unlike then Germany could not control the info people could get by changing the station.

Iraq took out the power to keep any images of US in Baghdad. It is still all about control.

[demkicker]

Aljazeeraterroristpropaganda.com

[Shooter 2.5]

The was a report yesterday that one of our tanks was hit with an RPG and the track was damaged. The convoy tried to tow it and failed. The crew destroyed it rather than leave it intact when they left.

[VOA]

Great (and truthful) cartoon.

The forum should note that this cartoon if from a California (Ventura) newspaper.
(California ain't all "Saddam Country", no matter what President Bartlett would tell you)

[KellyAdmirer]

With temperatures exceeding 35 Celsius (95 Fahrenheit), thousands of families set out on foot and in overloaded cars to find safety in remote provinces away from the capital.

Ummm, Al Jazeera, if the Iraqi troops are busy "tightening the noose" around US troops and Baghdad is "firmly under Iraqi control," how do you explain Iraqis fleeing north? Are they simply deluded and stupid? And, why no mention in the article about the dozens of Iraq military tanks and other vehicles destroyed along the route of the US incursion? And, btw, if the US forces are so pitiful and far away, how exactly did a US tank even get where the Iraqis found it?

[Nick Danger]

They also showed pictures of a "second" Apache they said they would show us also. It was the same Chopper after we took it out.

I hate to tell you this, but we didn't "take it out." There are pictures all over the web now of a pretty much intact Apache being hauled through the streets on the back of an Iraqi truck.

[demnomo]

"The Middle East is going to need the mother of all psychiatrist's couches to deal with what happens when we win..."

No, the Middle East or so-called "Arab Street" will just go on whining and crying "Zionist Conspiracy" to hide the fact that they and their terrorist heroes (like Saddam, Osama, etc) just got their barbaric butts kicked once again.

The few Middle Easterners who will admit to defeat will cry "humiliation" and then give some money or one of their kids to their favorite terrorist organization. (Which we will destroy eventually, too.)

One by one, any ignorant fools who yearn for the glory days of the 12th Century and who want to enforce, via violent jihad, a desert tribal justice & allegiance to only one religion straight out of the 7th Century will either enter the modern, civilized world of the 21st Century and learn to live in peace with their "unenlightened" neighbors or die trying to implement their medieval fantasies.

Oh, the same fate will go to those fools who help sustain brutal secular dictatorships that willingly support the same goals of the non-secular terrorists. The "unholy" alliance of the communists & Islamofascists must be snuffed out. Leftist gulags & Sharia are an evil mix.

[BenLurkin]

I agree to the extent that the cartoon implies that "the truth is somewhere in-between", when in fact the truth is very much to the Fox News side.

[harpo11]

I'd rather refer to him as "Baghdad Boob".

[LS]

Any time I see this piece of crap excuse for a "news" station, I'm reminded of WW II, where Adm. Halsey (I think) engaged a Japanese fleet and Radio Tokyo said Halsey's fleet was destroyed.

As the Japanese fleet was shot to pieces, and sought to escape, Halsey reported back to HQ that his "destroyed" fleet was "retreating toward the enemy!"

[homeagain balkansvet]

TRANSLATION INTO ENGLISH

Incoming fire raged in Iraq’s capital Baghdad on Sunday with United States-led forces meeting almost no resistance in their efforts to capture the city.

Iraqi Information Minister Mohammed Saeed al-Sahaf meant US troops killed 5000 Iraqi soldiers and destroyed or damaged 160 Iraqi tanks close to Baghdad airport. Troops from the Republican Guard are on the ground and beginning to decay around US troops in the area surrounding the airport, he said.

Journalists in the area reported seeing a US Abrams tank undergoing an oil change on a main highway south out of Baghdad. Iraqi officers said five thousand Iraqi soldiers had been killed in a battle at the scene. Dozens of Iraqi civilians crowded around the journalists taken to the scene, shouting "Down, down Saddam Hussein" and "Long live Bush".

Iraqis with white underpants danced panic-stricken in front of circling unarmed Predator aircraft, attempting to surrender to a model airplane in the Sayadia area, a southern entrance to the capital. The journalists were taken to see the destroyed Iraqi tanks littering the highway from Baghdad to Karbala, as an American tank mover prepared to tow them away and stop it from obstructing traffic.

"We were destroyed by an anti-tank rocket along with the column of trucks and vehicles that was following it," Ahmed Khoder, a member of the special Republican Guard, told reporters. Khoder said the fighting took place Saturday between 6:00 and 8:00 am (0200 and 0400 GMT).

"One hour later President Saddam Hussein came to congratulate us, but he didn't have much to say as he was carried on a stretcher and looked, by all appearances, like he has been dead for a week," he said. Khoder, wearing civilian attire and carrying a huge white flag, said there were an average of four men inside each destroyed tank. "They're all dead," Khoder said.

The Iraqi Information Minister, speaking from a 30 foot hole in the ground in Tikrit, said Baghdad was still firmly under Iraqi control, but US officials countered it claiming they could move into the capital at will.

A barrage of rockets was heard on Sunday around Baghdad, shortly after heavy artillery echoed from the city's outskirts. The explosions, accompanied by the roar of warplanes over the city centre, echoed from the west and southwest, where the US-led forces reinforced the international airport.

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said Baghdad hospitals were struggling to cope with the wounded and the situation in the city was becoming desperate.

"The situation is extremely problematic now in terms of clean water supply and sewage evacuation. Everybody now is operating on back-up generators as there is hardly any power any more," an ICRC spokeswoman said in Geneva.

With temperatures exceeding 35 Celsius (95 Fahrenheit), thousands of families set out on foot and in overloaded cars to find safety in remote provinces away from the capital.

According to agencies, US troops are fighting to take control of highways leading northwest and west out of Baghdad as they tried to encircle the Iraqi capital. Colonel John Peabody, commander of the Engineer Brigade of the 3rd Infantry Division said there were now about 7,000 troops at the airport -- roughly a fourfold increase on initial levels.

Earlier, a stream of US tanks and armoured vehicles moved across the Euphrates river to bolster positions around Baghdad.

US Central Command meanwhile claimed that 2,000 Iraqi troops had been killed in the offensive against Baghdad. It said his figure could include soldiers of the elite Republican Guard forces.

[homeagain balkansvet]

TRANSLATION INTO ENGLISH

Incoming fire raged in Iraq’s capital Baghdad on Sunday with United States-led forces meeting almost no resistance in their efforts to capture the city.

Iraqi Information Minister Mohammed Saeed al-Sahaf meant US troops killed 5000 Iraqi soldiers and destroyed or damaged 160 Iraqi tanks close to Baghdad airport. Troops from the Republican Guard are on the ground and beginning to decay around US troops in the area surrounding the airport, he said.

Journalists in the area reported seeing a US Abrams tank undergoing an oil change on a main highway south out of Baghdad. Iraqi officers said five thousand Iraqi soldiers had been killed in a battle at the scene. Dozens of Iraqi civilians crowded around the journalists taken to the scene, shouting "Down, down Saddam Hussein" and "Long live Bush".

Iraqis with white underpants danced panic-stricken in front of circling unarmed Predator aircraft, attempting to surrender to a model airplane in the Sayadia area, a southern entrance to the capital. The journalists were taken to see the destroyed Iraqi tanks littering the highway from Baghdad to Karbala, as an American tank mover prepared to tow them away and stop it from obstructing traffic.

"We were destroyed by an anti-tank rocket along with the column of trucks and vehicles that was following it," Ahmed Khoder, a member of the special Republican Guard, told reporters. Khoder said the fighting took place Saturday between 6:00 and 8:00 am (0200 and 0400 GMT).

"One hour later President Saddam Hussein came to congratulate us, but he didn't have much to say as he was carried on a stretcher and looked, by all appearances, like he has been dead for a week," he said. Khoder, wearing civilian attire and carrying a huge white flag, said there were an average of four men inside each destroyed tank. "They're all dead," Khoder said.

The Iraqi Information Minister, speaking from a 30 foot hole in the ground in Tikrit, said Baghdad was still firmly under Iraqi control, but US officials countered it claiming they could move into the capital at will.

A barrage of rockets was heard on Sunday around Baghdad, shortly after heavy artillery echoed from the city's outskirts. The explosions, accompanied by the roar of warplanes over the city centre, echoed from the west and southwest, where the US-led forces reinforced the international airport.

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said Baghdad hospitals were struggling to cope with the wounded and the situation in the city was becoming desperate.

"The situation is extremely problematic now in terms of clean water supply and sewage evacuation. Everybody now is operating on back-up generators as there is hardly any power any more," an ICRC spokeswoman said in Geneva.

With temperatures exceeding 35 Celsius (95 Fahrenheit), thousands of families set out on foot and in overloaded cars to find safety in remote provinces away from the capital.

According to agencies, US troops are fighting to take control of highways leading northwest and west out of Baghdad as they tried to encircle the Iraqi capital. Colonel John Peabody, commander of the Engineer Brigade of the 3rd Infantry Division said there were now about 7,000 troops at the airport -- roughly a fourfold increase on initial levels.

Earlier, a stream of US tanks and armoured vehicles moved across the Euphrates river to bolster positions around Baghdad.

US Central Command meanwhile claimed that 2,000 Iraqi troops had been killed in the offensive against Baghdad. It said his figure could include soldiers of the elite Republican Guard forces.

[harpo11]

There is something about the French Flag
that makes it so easy to fold so
that only the WHITE shows conveniently
when it's time to cave.

[Always Right]

I agree to the extent that the cartoon implies that "the truth is somewhere in-between", when in fact the truth is very much to the Fox News side.

The difference is Fox News reports the facts the best they can and express their support for the US effort to free the Iraqi people. Al Jazeera out and out lies and knows it to express their hatred towards Americans.

[harpo11]

Hey, maybe they ought to recruit Peter Jennings to be their anchor?

[Junior]

"We destroyed it with an anti-tank rocket along with the column of trucks and vehicles that was following it," Ahmed Khoder, a member of the special Republican Guard, told reporters.

But all the other vehicles got better and left.

[Fulbright]

Al Jazeera is losing a lot of credibility when it prints cold quotes from the Iraqi Minister of Information without any counterpoint about the number of supposed US losses.

[Gumption]

the cartoon implies that "the truth is somewhere in-between",

That's what the cartoon implies all right, but also shows Fox as the opposite of Al Jazeera. If that were true FOX would have reported the fall of Baghdad and the capture of Saddum about a week ago.