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Iraq: Desert Dispatch -- U.S. Surprised By Iraqi Use Of 'Kornet' Antitank Missiles By Ron Synovitz RFE/RL correspondent Ron Synovitz is embedded with a unit of the U.S. Army's 3rd Infantry Division currently outside Najaf, a city in central Iraq now encircled by U.S. troops following 36 hours of heavy fighting. He reports that U.S. troops are encountering an unanticipated, and formidable, weapon in the Iraqi arsenal -- Russian-built Kornet antitank missiles. Najaf, Central Iraq; 27 March 2003 (RFE/RL) -- U.S. military intelligence is warning American troops that Iraqi soldiers have begun to use a wire-guided missile system against American...

WITH THE THIRD INFANTRY DIVISION, in Central Iraq, March 26 — United States Army troops encircled the city of Najaf today after seizing three bridges across the Euphrates River. The clashes were the fiercest for the Third Infantry Division since the war began. According to American estimates, about 1,000 Iraqis have been killed in fighting near Najaf in the last three days. "What I've done is surround the city and cut it off," the division's commander, Maj. Gen. Buford C. Blount III, said in an interview today. The effort to encircle Najaf began at midnight Monday and lasted more than...

WITH THE THIRD INFANTRY DIVISION, in Central Iraq, March 26 — The Army's 3rd Infantry Division encircled the city of Najaf early today after seizing three bridges across the Euphrates River in the division's fiercest clashes since the war began. The fight around Najaf — which lasted more than 36 hours — has considerably slowed the division's march northwards, as have the swirling winds and sand. The storm continued relentlessly today, reducing visibility to a few hundred feet and casting an eerie burnt orange glow as the sun set. Najaf, a city of more than 100,000 about 90 miles from...