Posted on 04/07/2003 8:29:43 PM PDT by Timesink
April 08, 2003
Just 20 yards from the American Bradley armoured vehicles, one makes a fatal mistake. He appears to roll over.
Crack. Crack, crack. The body jumps, then falls still. The US platoon continues its work, and the battle for Baghdad moves on along a river that has swollen with blood throughout history and is doing so again.
The Americans had arrived, and this first glimpse of US military might in the heart of the Iraqi capital early yesterday morning sent out a stark message. As one Marine general put it: “We are in Baghdad and we are in Baghdad to stay.”
By last night President Bush’s men still occupied the few streets around the Republican Palace in the heart of Baghdad that they seized just after dawn. Saddam Hussein’s Government remained in control of the rest of the city, and in between lay a feral, deserted, and shifting riverside zone patrolled by snipers and militia.
From the upper storeys of the Palestine Hotel, with the aid of zoom lenses, the Baghdad press corps enjoyed a full bird’s-eye view of the dramatic events as they unfurled across the river.
The action began before dawn, and even in the darkness imposed by night, burning oil fires and the tiniest sliver of moon, it was evident from the intense gunfire that the battle had begun.
The city shook from the recoil of tanks, mortars and heavy artillery. The air rang with the staccato bursts of machinegun fire too deep and too rapid to be hand-held weapons.
At 8am we spotted two US Bradleys between the Jumuriya and July 14 bridges, heading north along the west bank of the Tigris embankment. In the skies above A10 Warthog aircraft circled and swooped, firing at Iraqi oil tanks and weapons dumps in the sandy reedland.
Dozens of Iraqis fled along the river, some in combat fatigues, a handful still holding weapons, but one in just his underpants and vest.
As the remaining Iraqis returned sporadic fire, troops leapt from the Bradleys and scattered along the road to guard the main force of Abrams tanks and more Bradleys arriving to seize the palace. Some set up a machinegun post and raked the Iraqi dugouts with heavy fire and grenade launchers.
As the firefight continued, bursts of machinegun fire indicated heavy clashes beyond the trees. There was a sudden strike on a weapons dump, and the random crackle of ammunition exploding in a ball of orange.
Minutes later the wind changed direction, and the acrid fumes from a burning oil tank drifted in our direction, obscuring our view.
Muhammad Said al-Sahhaf, the Iraqi Information Minister, stepped into the breach. He announced a press conference to give the official Iraqi version of events.
A scramble for the lifts ensued. Everybody wanted to see how the public face of Saddam’s regime would explain the events that we had just witnessed.
“Be assured, Baghdad is safe, secure and great,” the uniformed Mr Sahhaf calmly announced. “There is no presence of American columns in the city of Baghdad, none at all.”
Despite audible evidence of the battle raging across the river, Mr Sahhaf was unperturbed. “They have no control even over themselves. Don’t believe them. Those invaders will be slaughtered,” he said. “God will barbecue their bellies in Hell.”
Mr al-Sahhaf was right in one respect. The Americans might have reached central Baghdad, but the machinery of President Saddam Hussein’s Government was still in place.
Iraqi television remained on air, broadcasting songs of defiance and appeals to Iraqis to fight. A statement attributed to Saddam offered 15 million dinars — £5,400 — to anyone who destroyed a US or British tank, armoured personnel carrier or artillery piece.
The Ministry of Information was also functioning. Three buses arrived at the hotel entrance offering official tours of Baghdad. We were whisked through parts of the city centre on the edge of the fighting but still under Iraqi control. The streets were deserted, the shops shut, the city’s fruit and vegetable market empty.
Everywhere handfuls of militiamen with rocket-propelled grenades and Kalashnikovs lurked on street corners and behind sandbank emplacements. The trip was hastily terminated when a field artillery piece boomed out from near the Foreign Ministry.
Later in the day we twice returned to the west bank of the Tigris in a car — our official minder in tow — and saw the debris of battle. A shattered police car lay in the middle of one street.
A wrong turn revealed a tank-sized multi-barrelled rocket-launcher in the middle of another street, whirling around as its radar system identified and scanned likely American targets. In al-Kindi hospital staff were overwhelmed with casualties: 75 from fighting alone, according to Dr Safaa al-Hashemi. Civilians and soldiers arrived covered in blood.
Angry fighters holding AK47s discouraged Westerners from approaching the wounded. Some were soldiers, others civilians. They accused the Americans of indiscriminately opening fire on cars, trucks and anything that got in their way.
In the surrounding streets, word of the palace raid had spread like plague. And yet still — in public — many Iraqis asserted their confidence that it would prove a temporary victory for the Americans.
“They have done it, we know what they have done to the palace. But they cannot control Baghdad,” asserted one bystander at a cola stall in a deserted shopping district. “Don’t see us as civilians. When they come, we will fight them. We will be suiciders.”
As the exhausted city prepared for nightfall, the pounding continued. Two houses in the Mansour district were ripped apart by what appeared to be misguided American bombs. They tore a crater 40ft deep and twice as wide, killing at least 14 people, according to rescue workers.
Across the road Achel, a grocery store owner, stared bitterly at the consequences of war. “There was nothing I could do. I saw a hand and I reached to pull out the body, but it was only a hand. It wasn’t an accident. The Americans are criminals. They knew they were bombing civilians.
“This is the democracy of George Bush.”
That's what's so funny. As General McInnerny said, "Too bad [Awwwww], we changed our rules [about gettig close to civilians]in our bombing."
Two houses in the Mansour district were ripped apart by what appeared to be misguided American bombs. They tore a crater 40ft deep and twice as wide, killing at least 14 people, according to rescue workers.he he he
I think we all know that this was not a "misguided" bomb after all.
Hello Saddam!
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