Free Republic

CAMP DOHA, Kuwait, March 25 — Allied forces have shifted the focus of their land campaign in Iraq to concentrate on defeating the fedayeen and other militia serving Saddam Hussein in the south before beginning the battle for Baghdad, senior officers said tonight. The American strategy had been to bypass Iraq's southern cities and drive toward the capital to take on the Republican Guard and ultimately topple Mr. Hussein's government. But the resistance from the militia groups to the rear of the advancing allies has been so stiff that commanders have concluded that this Iraqi threat has to be addressed...

<p>GPS experts have long known that the system that guides the U.S. "smart bombs" being dropped on Iraq is vulnerable to jamming from equipment that can be made from surplus satellite TV parts or from plans found on the Web.</p>

Spokesman says its a "technical problem with their transmitter".

U.S. Drops 2,000 'Smart' Bombs on Iraq By SALLY BUZBEE .c The Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) - U.S. aircraft have dropped more than 2,000 precision-guided bombs on Iraq since the war's start, a feat possible in part because the ``smart'' bombs now are produced for a relatively cheap $20,000 each. The targets have ranged from military buildings and palaces inside Baghdad - including a bunker believed to hold Iraqi President Saddam Hussein - to the key Republican Guard troops now defending the approaches to the capital city. Sandstorms like those raging in Iraq on Tuesday do not prevent satellite-guided bombs...

More Than 2,000 Bombs Dropped in Iraq By SALLY BUZBEE .c The Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) - U.S. aircraft have dropped more than 2,000 precision-guided bombs on Iraq since the war's start, a feat possible in part because the ``smart'' bombs now are produced for a relatively cheap $20,000 each. The targets have ranged from military buildings and palaces inside Baghdad - including a bunker believed to hold Iraqi President Saddam Hussein - to the key Republican Guard troops now defending the approaches to the capital city. The bombing campaign, the most intensive use of precision bombs in history, appears...

ABOARD THE TRUMAN -- Before dawn broke today, the Harry S. Truman's air wing launched its largest strike effort of the war, targeting mobile and fixed sites as well as suspected caches of chemical and biological weapons stored by the Iraqis. Doused by pounding rain, three waves of F-14 Tomcats, F/A-18 Hornets and surveillance and refueling aircraft blasted off the Norfolk-based carrier. The daylight missions started at 5 a.m. -- 10 p.m. Sunday Norfolk time. A total of 39 aircraft were expected to use Turkish airspace for the first time to cross Iraq's northern border. ``It's going to be a...

ABOARD THE USS THEODORE ROOSEVELT, EASTERN MEDITERRANEAN SEA Fighter aircraft from this carrier destroyed a Republican Guard complex, including barracks, in Al-Falluja, just west of Baghdad, early Sunday. Later in the day, three ships accompanying it and the USS Harry Truman fired the first Tomahawk cruise missiles into Iraq from the eastern Mediterranean. The cruisers Anzio and Cape St. George and the destroyer Winston Churchill fired roughly 30 missiles into undisclosed targets. Sunday's strike mission on Al-Falluja was the carrier's second combat operation. "The anticipation is we are going to be flying a little bit more than we had in...

By JANINE ZACHARIA, ABOARD THE USS THEODORE ROOSEVELT, EASTERN MEDITERRANEAN SEA Dozens of planes took off from the aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt early Saturday in their first combat mission over Iraq, joining a robust US-led air offensive that began Friday. F-14 Tomcats and F/A-18 Hornets, loaded with satellite-guided bombs, or Joint Direct Attack Munitions (JDAMS), barraged two targets assigned by US commanders at Prince Sultan Air Base in Saudi Arabia - a leadership structure in central-west Iraq and a communications facility in the south-central part of the country. US Air Force and British jets joined in the raids. The...

Wed Mar 19, 3:14 PM ET Aviation Ordnancemen Carlos Marzullo, 22, from West Milford N.J., left, Jonathan Boyd, 29, from Round Rock, Texas, center, and Gregory Williams, 31, from Detroit, Mich., right, load a 1,000 Lb. air to ground JDAM (Joint Direct Attack Munition) bomb onto a cradle in the ordnance magazine, on the USS Theodore Roosevelt Wednesday March 19, 2003. The Roosevelt and its battle group are currently on deployment in the eastern Mediterranean Sea. (AP Photo/Richard Vogel)

DEBKAfile Special Military AnalysisMarch 15, 2003, 12:23 PM (GMT+02:00) Multi-role B-1 "revisits" Iraq after five years The two giant American B-1 multi-role long-range bombers that struck two military radar sites in West Iraq Friday, March 14, laid down markers for fully activating the western warfront of the Iraq campaign. The heavy bombers, not used in Iraq since 1998 Operation Desert Fox, hit a mobile anti-aircraft radar system near the H3 military air base and another near the Jordanian border. DEBKAfile’s military sources say the bombing raid aimed to clear the routes of advance for the US Marines and British...

WASHINGTON - In a departure from the patrols by fighter jets over Iraq (news - web sites) in recent months, a U.S. B-1B bomber struck two anti-aircraft radar sites in western Iraq on Friday, military officials said. The strikes at 1420 GMT targeted a radar system near Iraq's H3 airfield and another airfield near Ruwayshid, only a few miles (kilometers) from the border with Jordan, military officials said. The strikes came after Iraqi forces moved one of the systems into the no-fly zone patrolled by U.S. and British planes over southern Iraq, the officials said. The B-1B Lancer, a heavy...

MIDI - ADDAMS FAMILY Watch out, Saddam…watch out, Saddam You will be toast…no need to boast…but you are toast Watch out, Saddam…watch out, Saddam Off with your head…you will be dead…off with your head There won't be indecision…they drop with great precision It's more than you envision…JDAMS are on the way You really got our ire…there'll be a rain of fire Your plight is really dire…JDAMS are on the way Watch out, Saddam…watch out, Saddam You will be toast…no need to boast…but you are toast With French and Germans baiting…you lead the U.S. hating No virgins are awaiting…JDAMS are...

WASHINGTON (AP) - In a departure from the patrols by fighter jets over Iraq in recent months, a U.S. B-1B bomber struck two anti-aircraft radar sites in western Iraq Friday, military officials said. The strikes at 9:20 a.m. EST targeted a radar system near Iraq's H3 airfield and another airfield near Ruwayshid, only a few miles from the border with Jordan, military officials said. The strikes came after Iraqi forces moved one of the systems into the no-fly zone patrolled by U.S. and British planes over southern Iraq, the officials said. The B-1B Lancer, a heavy bomber originally designed to...

B1's drop JDAMS in southern no fly zone. Obviously things are heating up.

While U.S. soldiers in the line of fire are clearly the heroes of the renewed campaign to wipe out the Al Qaeda terrorists in eastern Afghanistan this week, a fair amount of awestruck praise has been reserved for an inanimate warrior that made its debut alongside the men--the thermobaric bomb. Targeted at tunnels and caves, the bomb first releases solid-fuel particles and then ignites them. Pressure from the resulting ball of fire kills any terrorists or others who might be in the tunnels and caves. The U.S. has been rushing to develop and deploy the 2,000-lb bomb in recent...