Free Republic

Just Breaking! No Link Yet!

OPERATION IRAQI FREEDOM (ACCNS) -- U. S. Air Force F-117 stealth fighters struck five strategic targets in Baghdad March 21 using a new precision-guided munition, the EGBU-27, as Coalition forces turned the Operation Iraqi Freedom air campaign into high gear. Using the low-observable, stealth technology of the F-117 to penetrate deep into Iraq and the improved bombs, the strike missions were able to precisely hit communication nodes and command bunkers in Baghdad Friday night, said Major Clint "Q" Hinote, an F-117 pilot assigned to the Coalition Air Operations Center at a desert air base in Southwest Asia. "The F-117 has...

Coalition Warplanes Hit Baghdad Defenses By DAVID ESPO .c The Associated Press U.S.-led warplanes and helicopters attacked Republican Guard units defending Baghdad on Monday while ground troops advanced to within 50 miles of the Iraqi capital. White House aides said a down payment on war-related costs would come to $75 billion. Five days into Operation Iraqi Freedom, fierce resistance prevented American and British forces from securing the southern cities of Basra and An Nasiriyah and thwarted efforts to extinguish burning oil wells. Iraq claimed custody, as well, of two American pilots after a helicopter went down, in addition to a...

As the US Army's tank columns approach Baghdad it is starting to engage the first units of the Republican Guard, who are positioned to defend the southern approaches to the Iraqi capital. This battle is the first serious contact between major US and Iraqi army units and it will decide the outcome of the war. Up to now, the advance to Baghdad has gone relatively smoothly - despite the skirmishes with by-passed Iraqi units. Huge US tank columns of the V Corps have crossed more more than 200 miles of desert from Kuwait largely un-opposed. A major effort is now...

Reports: Iraq Could Use Chemical Weapons on U.S. Mon March 24, 2003 07:13 PM ET WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. officials say the Iraqi leadership has drawn "a red line" around the map of Baghdad and once American troops cross it Iraqi Republican Guards have been authorized to use chemical weapons, CBS reported on Monday. The report, by National Security correspondent David Martin in Washington, did not name the U.S. officials or give any further details. The NBC network also reported that chemical weapons would be used against U.S. troops in Baghdad. The reports were not confirmed. Reuters was checking the...

Gloom-mongers are already complaining that the campaign in Iraq is "bogging down", apparently because of the appearance of Iraqi irregulars in the rear areas and the resumption of fighting in towns described as having fallen. It is far too early to talk of the campaign bogging down or even faltering. Doom-mongers should remember that the allied attack started only four days ago. They have been spoilt by memories of the briefness of the Gulf war of 1991 and the rapidity of the recent Northern Alliance victory in Afghanistan. Wars do not usually obey Hollywood timetables. Progress can be slow and...

Dark days await armies gathering for the mother of all showdowns around Baghdad By Donald Macintyre in Qatar 25 March 2003 The United States and Britain began a ferocious air and missile attack on the Republican Guard divisions protecting Baghdad yesterday in their first concerted effort to force a way through the treacherous "red zone" surrounding the Iraqi capital. The US confirmed that one Apache helicopter gunship was downed in the first wave of air assaults, launched as a precursor to what military planners see as the decisive phase of the campaign. And the US 3rd Infantry Division was slowed...

ALLIED forces may be fighting on the streets of Baghdad today. A British defence source said the ground attack on Iraq's capital was imminent. "We're looking towards Monday night, Tuesday for the ground offensive on Baghdad," the source said. Last night Iraqi 4WDs mounted with machineguns roamed the streets of Baghdad and mortar positions were set up in the south of the city. Elite Republican Guard forces have dug in around the capital and sandbags have fortified fighting positions. "(Baghdad) will be a tough fight," the British defence source said. "It will be interesting to see how they play it....

(CBS) Blasts are again rattling Baghdad, as U.S. forces engage Iraq’s Republican Guard with an aerial assault by Apache helicopters. The Pentagon acknowledges one helicopter has gone down; its two-man crew has apparently been seen on Iraqi television. Monday's clash with the Republican Guard was the first meeting of U.S.-led forces and Iraq’s best-trained military force. A fierce battle is still going on south of Baghdad, as Apache helicopters take aim at Iraq’s Republican Guard defending the capital. U.S. officials tell CBS News Correspondent David Martin that the Republican Guard is authorized to deploy chemical weapons when U.S. forces get...

Following a grim weekend of events in which Arab television broadcast footage of American POWs executed and being interrogated by the Iraqis, U.S. military officials expressed satisfaction over the progress coalition forces are making toward their objective of taking down the Saddam Hussein regime and getting their hands on weapons of mass destruction. "Progress toward our objectives has been rapid and in some cases dramatic," said Gen. Tommy Franks, head of U.S. Central Command. As fresh explosions were reported in Baghdad, coalition troops continued their push toward the capital. The Army's 3rd Infantry Division has progressed to within 50 miles...

The U.S.-led coalition is said to be planning a massive air attack on Republican Guard strongholds around Baghdad today, as ground forces moved to within 50 miles of the Iraqi capital before a sandstorm stalled the advance. Pentagon officials made no comment on the planned air assault, but CNN reported 1,000 air sorties will be launched by day’s end, 80 percent of them seeking out and attacking Republican Guard forces. The Iraqi forces thumbed their nose at the coalition, airing a videotape of Saddam Hussein declaring “victory will be ours soon.” But Gen. Tommy Franks, head of U.S. Central...

Drive to Baghdad Slowed by Sandstorms By DAVID ESPO .c The Associated Press American-led forces battling sandstorms as well as Iraqi resistance advanced to within about 50 miles of Baghdad on Monday and U.S. officials said warplanes targeted Republican Guard units guarding the capital. An Army helicopter went down, its crew unaccounted for, and Britain suffered its first combat death of the 5-day-old war to end Saddam Hussein's regime. ``Be patient, brothers, because God's victory will be ours soon,'' Saddam exhorted his country in a television appearance Monday. Despite Saddam's defiant pose, a military barracks in the northern part of...

U.S. upbeat, Saddam defiant after five days of war By Nadim Ladki BAGHDAD, March 24 (Reuters) - The U.S. general commanding the invasion of Iraq said on Monday his forces were closing in on Saddam Hussein's power base in and around Baghdad as the Iraqi president told his people the invaders had miscalculated. British Prime Minister Tony Blair said U.S. advance units were just 60 miles (90 km) south of the Iraqi capital and predicted that a critical battle was fast approaching after five days of war. But Saddam's deputy prime minister, Tareq Aziz, told a news conference the Iraqi...

<p>CNN) -- Coalition forces, led by the U.S. Army's V Corps, have advanced to near Karbala, Iraq, a town about 60 miles south of Baghdad, and could soon encounter the Iraqi Republican Guard's elite Medina Division, British Prime Minister Tony Blair told Parliament on Monday.</p>

By Paul Reynolds BBC News Online world affairs correspondent While media attention is on trouble spots further south, the main military engagement of this war so far is beginning to get under way south of Baghdad in fighting which will help determine if there is to be a siege of the capital. The UK Prime Minister, Tony Blair, said in the House of Commons that there would be "a crucial moment" when coalition forces encountered the Medina division of the Republican Guard who are defending the route to Baghdad. The Republican Guard (which has two other divisions south of...

The first frontal engagements between united States troops marching on Baghdad and Saddam Husseins Elite Special Republican Guards began near Al Amarah, a small town on the Tigris River, and at al Kut, some 100 miles upriver to the Northwest.Al Amarah is geographically the southern gateway to Baghdad.The United States led column driving towards Baghdad along the easternmost route up the Tigris River led by 1st and 2nd Marine Divisons.Sunday, they bypassed Basra, leaving behind the 7th British Division to assert control over Iraq's second largest city and dashed north towards Al Amarah. Waiting for them were three Iraq divisions,...

Let's keep our eyes on the prize and stay focused--this is war, and "the end is not in doubt" (Donald Rumsfeld)

U.S. Forces Within 100 Miles of Baghdad By DAVID CRARY and JERRY SCHWARTZ .c The Associated Press As U.S. forces surged to within 100 miles of Baghdad on Sunday, Arab satellite television showed what it said were American dead in an Iraqi morgue - and others it said were U.S. troops taken prisoner. ``There are some American soldiers missing,'' Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said. ``It's illegal to do things to POWs that are humiliating to those prisoners.'' There was plenty of bad news Sunday for an allied campaign that otherwise has had enormous success. British officials said a Patriot...

United States forces surged across deserts and rivers Sunday to within 100 miles of Baghdad, several other units engaged in inteNsive gunbattles.In perhaps the most dramatic advance on the ground, the 3rd Infantry Divisions 2nd Brigade covered 230 miles in 40 hours to take positions about 100 miles from Baghdad-less than a days march.The brigade raced day and night across the rugged desert in more than 70 tanks and 60 Bradley fighting vehicles.At one point the soldiers ran into an hours long firefight killing 100 Iraqi militiamen who confronted the Americans with machine gun mounted vehicles.No American injuries were reported...