Posted on 04/01/2003 4:45:25 PM PST by Milly
The final battle for Baghdad in sight LORNA MARTIN and WILLIAM TINNING THE big push for Baghdad was imminent last night as Tommy Franks, US commander general, said he had been given the "green light" to move on the capital when he feels the time is right.
US forces appeared to be approaching Baghdad from three positions, with a ferocious barrage on Republic Guard positions around the key city of Karbala, pounding them with Tomahawk cruise missiles, artillery and B-52 bombers.
"This is the big battle," US Central Command said.
As the noose tightened on Baghdad, coalition leaders speculated about the fate of Saddam Hussein after he failed to appear in what had been billed as a live address.
In a televised message attributed to the Iraqi leader but delivered by Mohammed Saeed al-Sahaf, his information leader, he urged the nation to fight a jihad, or holy war, against US and British troops. He said their "invasion was an aggression against religion, people, the honour, the soul ... and on the land of Islam".
Donald Rumsfeld, the US defence secretary, said nobody knew whether he was dead or alive. "You would know (if he's alive) is if you would see him in a live broadcast," said Ari Fleischer, White House spokesman.
Peter Hain, the Welsh secretary, said Saddam's failure to deliver the message in person raised questions over whether he was injured or had fled Baghdad. "It's very mysterious ... Is he injured? Where is he?"
A British soldier has become the seventh to die in combat after being killed in an accident involving an armoured vehicle. A Royal Marine died on Monday in southern Iraq while attempting to dismantle munitions. Neither has been named.
On the political front, furious Scottish Labour MPs will today demand George Galloway's expulsion from the party after he attacked Tony Blair and urged British soldiers to disobey orders in the "illegal war".
- April 2nd
It's started!
would be able to live on forever, ageless, immortal,
so neither would I myself go on fighting in the foremost
nor would I urge you into the fighting where men win glory.
But now, seeing that the spirits of death stand close about us in their thousands,
no man can turn aside nor escape them,
let us go on and win glory for ourselves or yield it to others.”
Homer - Iliad, 12.322-328
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