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Key Developments Concerning Iraq .c The Associated Press Coalition planes targeted Republican Guard forces just south of Baghdad in perhaps the largest assault to date on Saddam Hussein's highly trained troops, U.S. officials said. Gen. Tommy Franks said Saddam's regime is weakened but still issuing orders to military units - which are not always complying. Franks said his forces have captured 3,000 prisoners. Coalition troops pressed toward Baghdad but many were halted by a sandstorm near the holy city of Karbala, 50 miles to the south. Troops farther south were facing deadly ambushes and discovering that many Iraqi fighters had...

U.S. steps up activity on "second front" in N.Iraq By Mike Collett-White CHAMCHAMAL, Iraq, March 24 (Reuters) - The U.S. military announced its presence in Kurdish-ruled northern Iraq on Monday and Iraqi lines in the area were bombed for the first time, in signs a second, smaller front may be opening in the war on Iraq. U.S. warplanes pounded hilltops just outside the Kurdish-controlled town of Chamchamal, east of the oil-producing city of Kirkuk, in the first such strikes in the area. Kurdish officials reported bombing near the city of Mosul and a Reuters television crew heard a powerful explosion...

Sabotage averted (paraphrasing) The FoxNews crawler just had a message that many of the Iraqi facilities we have taken over have been found to be wired for destruction... the focus on the message had to do with oil wells I think. It said Saddam was prepared to 'blow up his entire economy.' Analysis ... If true, we (and the Iraqi people) were extremely fortunate Bush launched that strike against Saddam on Wednesday night, just after the 48 hour deadline had expired. (BTW You just read this analysis here, but I doubt that you will read it in the main...

SADDAM Hussein’s grip on power was rapidly slipping last night as Allied ground forces surrounded Basra and moved to within 100 miles of Baghdad. Following a day of ferocious fighting on the outskirts of Basra and repeated air strikes on the capital, coalition commanders believed the Iraqi dictator was within days of defeat. Vast plumes of acrid smoke rose above Baghdad as the city’s defenders set light to oil-filled trenches in anticipation of the Allies’ final assault. British and US armour reported they had defeated Iraqi troops defending the western outskirts of Basra and were laying siege to Iraq’s second...

Iraq sets oil-filled trenches ablaze round Baghdad BAGHDAD, March 22 (Reuters) - Iraqi forces lit trenches filled with oil around the capital Baghdad on Saturday in an apparent bid to obscure visibility over the city, a target of air strikes by U.S. and British forces, Reuters correspondents said. The correspondents saw at least two dozen fires raging around Baghdad, sending thick black smoke into the sky. "We can smell smell burning oil in the city," one reporter said.

Fox just reported that there were an estimated 20-30 oil well fires but that they US military has successfully extinguished the majority of them.

<p>The predictions were chilling: As retreating Iraqi forces blew up an estimated 732 Kuwaiti oil wells at the end of the 1991 Gulf War, some high-profile scientists, led by the late Carl Sagan, warned that the infernos could produce a pall of black soot that would reach the stratosphere, circle the planet and remain aloft long enough to trigger a mini-nuclear winter.</p>

THE ground war against Iraq began yesterday after Saddam Hussein's forces began torching the country's oil fields.British and US Marines crossed into enemy territory and artillery pounded Iraqi positions with self-propelled howitzers and multiple rocket launchers.At 7.20pm UK time, reports said British and US troops had seized the Iraqi border town of Umm Qasr.It is the first town on the road to Basra, Iraq's second city, and the oilfields.The blitz began after Iraq set fire to at least three oilfields near Basra.US officials have insisted that troops will protect Iraq's oil wealth for the people if Saddam tries to...

10:18 ET Fox reports that Iraq lighting oilfields

Fox tv reports oil wells burning outside of Basra WASHINGTON, March 20 (Reuters) - Oil wells were burning outside of the Iraqi city of Basra, the Fox News television network reported on Thursday. The Iraqi Oil Minister denied the reports. The network gave no further details of the report that came just hours after President George W. Bush unleashed a war to topple Iraqi President Saddam Hussein with dawn air strikes on Baghdad. Iraqi Oil Minister Amir Muhammed Rasheed denied the reports the oil wells were on fire near the southern Iraqi city. Kuwait television also reported that several oil...

<p>Khalil al-Kharji still marvels at how easy it was for the Iraqi army to blow up Kuwait's oil wells. An engineer for the state-owned oil company, Mr. al-Kharji watched in disbelief in 1990 as soldiers dangled an explosive charge down the center of an oil well at the massive Burgan oil field, where it would do the maximum damage.</p>