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HUNDREDS of Iraqi men have greeted US marines in their push toward the Iraqi capital yelling "kill Saddam", as they sliced their thumbs across their throats in a universally recognised gesture. The marines, from the 1st Marine Division, on the last 80 km of their drive toward Baghdad, told the tale of an authoritarian regime collapsing and of the mainly hearty welcome they were receiving along the road. From community to community, men yelled "I love you, I love" and handed out blue boxes of Iraqi cigarettes called Sumers. Women and girls in veils flashed shy smiles, but amid the...

Taking a break from the action...

US forces seize highways northwest from Baghdad NEAR BAGHDAD, April 6 (Reuters) - U.S. forces have taken control of highways leading northwest and west out of Baghdad as they try to encircle the Iraqi capital, a military source said on Sunday. "You can see we've now seized control of the northwest shoulder of the city," the source told Reuters. The 3rd brigade of the 3rd Infantry Division, comprising more than 50 tanks and around 70 Bradley fighting vehicles as well as combat engineering forces, took strategic points in the north west about four to five km (two to three miles)...

<p>ZUBAYDIYAH, IRAQ - Not all the contacts between Americans and Iraqis on the front lines along the Tigris River yesterday took place at the point of a gun.</p> <p>Along the eastern bank of the river, tanks and infantry moved from the city of Kut toward Baghdad to the northwest, sweeping towns and villages looking for elements of Iraq's Republican Guard. They met pockets of resistance and drew mortar fire from inside some of the towns. Plumes of black smoke could be seen as the tanks returned fire.</p>

North of the Euphrates River, Iraq - The Iraqi soldiers drank sweet tea, smoked cigarettes and, if they were lucky, slept on old mattresses. They wore black combat boots and ate dates, shaved and combed their hair. They left behind tomatoes and cucumbers and pita bread. And more worrisome items: gas masks, loads of ammunition and civilian clothing. The Iraqi soldiers had fired on a Marine infantry unit convoy last week and in turn, many, if not all, of them were obliterated, according to Marine officers in this area. The soldiers had apparently been stationed near a main road, waiting...

<p>MARINE COMBAT HEADQUARTERS, Iraq - A battle Friday for a crucial crossroads 12 miles southeast of Baghdad involved the heaviest combat Marines had undertaken so far in Iraq, commanders said, as members of the Republican Guard put up what one commander called "a coordinated defense."</p>

<p>April 4, 2003 -- THE Army's 299th Engineers could smell the honeysuckle as they dodged bullets and ferried the infantry across the Euphrates to take on the entrenched Republican Guard. The Iraqis were holed up in bunkers and pink adobe cottages on the east side of the river, intent on keeping the U.S. from seizing control of a nearby bridge - just 12 miles from Baghdad.</p>

Central Iraq -- The rescue of Army Pfc. Jessica Lynch this past week by Army Rangers and Navy SEALs had all the makings of a Hollywood script -- daring, drama and heroism. Lynch is a member of the 507th Maintenance Company, the unit of mechanics and technicians who were ambushed by the so-called Fedayeen Saddam -- more accurately described as Iraqi terrorists -- which don civilian clothes and feign surrender in an attempt to delay the coalition advance on Baghdad. The joy of her rescue was not only felt by her family and neighbors in Palestine, W.V., but also here...

NEAR BAGHDAD, Iraq - U.S. troops found thousands of boxes of suspicious white powder, nerve agent antidote and Arabic documents on how to engage in chemical warfare south of Baghdad. But a senior U.S. official familiar with initial testing said the materials were believed to be explosives. AP Photo Latest news: · Kerry Doesn't Shy From Anti-Bush Comment AP - 4 minutes ago · Iraq TV Shows Saddam Touring Baghdad NeighborhoodReuters - 5 minutes ago · Iraqis Flee As Troops Zero In on Baghdad AP - 10 minutes ago Special Coverage   Col. John Peabody, engineer brigade commander of the...

US: 2,500 REPUBLICAN GUARDS SURRENDER Around 2,500 of Saddam Hussein's elite Republican Guard soldiers have surrendered, US officials say. The officials say US Marines are now advancing on Baghdad from Kut. They said the Iraqi soldiers who surrendered were from the Baghdad division the Republican Guard.

SOUTH OF BAGHDAD, Iraq - In a startlingly quick move on the Iraqi capital, American forces were within four miles of the Baghdad city gates Thursday. Thousands of U.S. military vehicles of the 7th Infantry were crossing the Euphrates River from the south and west of Baghdad on Thursday after fighting through a failed Iraqi attempt to hold the bridge at Musayyib, 35 miles due south of the capital. The bridge had been wired with explosives, which were disarmed by U.S. engineers. Scores of blown up Iraqi vehicles and dozens of dead bodies lined the roads where the Iraqis had...

U.S. convoy streams over captured Tigris bridge By Matthew Green WEST OF KUT, Iraq, April 3 (Reuters) - U.S. military trucks rumbled across a large, concrete bridge over the Tigris river west of the city of Kut on Thursday after Iraqi troops fled their posts nearby with barely a fight. The convoy's orders: "Get to Baghdad as quickly as possible," officers told this Reuters correspondent as troops tightened their grip around Kut, about 170 km (105 miles) southeast of the Iraqi capital Baghdad. Officers said U.S. Marines had launched a two-pronged attack on Kut on Thursday morning. "They are pretty...

I'm posting this late, but last night, about 10-11 p.m. (est) Shepard Smith on Fox said "Baghdad is now surrounded," and he proceeded to draw FOUR arrows, the 4th ID, the I Marine Ex. Force, the Kurds, then a fourth UNNAMED arrow coming straight down from the north past Tikrit. He said nothing more about this. Did this slip out? Was he referencing the II Marine Exped. Force? I would have thought, if these guys are "out there," in fact they would have finally moved in by now and we would have some public reports about them. There was also...

U.S. troops push within 10 km of Baghdad By Luke Baker NEAR BAGHDAD, April 3 (Reuters) - U.S. troops thrust to within 10 km (six miles) of the southern edge of Baghdad on Thursday, and were preparing to fight for control of the city's airport, U.S. officials said. Iraq was reported to be moving elements of four elite Republican Guard divisions southwards to defend the city, setting up what could be a final showdown for the Iraqi capital. U.S. military sources said that advance armoured units of the 3rd Infantry Division had met less resistance than they had counted on...

U.S. says special forces enter palace near Baghdad AS SAYLIYA CAMP, Qatar, April 3 (Reuters) - U.S. special forces entered Iraqi installations near Baghdad overnight, including a palace, a U.S. military spokesman said on Thursday. "We are getting the sense that the command and control capabilities continue to be significantly deteriorated," Captain Frank Thorp told CNN television at Central Command in Qatar. "Just last night special forces in the vicinity of Baghdad were able to go into several important sites, one specifically a palace in the vicinity of Baghdad, where special forces were able to go, go in, take a...

Bombs shake Baghdad from direction of airport BAGHDAD, April 3 (Reuters) - A swift series of explosions shook the earth in Baghdad on Thursday, coming from the direction of the city's airport, a Reuters correspondent said. At a rate of more than one a minute, and as warplanes flew overhead, at least 10 explosions resounded in the early afternoon, but the city centre itself remained unhit. U.S. officials said their forces were outside Saddam International Airport, some 20 km (12 miles) southwest of the centre, and ready to fight when they chose to. "It looks like they are using big...

<p>EAST OF THE EUPHRATES RIVER, Iraq--Near the crest of the bridge across the Euphrates River that Task Force 3-69 Armor of the 1st Brigade of the 3rd Infantry Division seized Wednesday afternoon was a body, which lay twisted from its fall.</p> <p>He had been an old man, judging from his blood-matted gray hair, and he was poor and not a regular soldier, judging from his clothes. He was lying on his back, not far from one of several burning skeletons of the small trucks that Saddam Hussein's willing and unwilling irregulars employed. The tanks and Bradleys and Humvees and bulldozers and rocket launchers, and all the rest of the massive stuff that makes up the American Army on the march, rumbled passed him, pushing on.</p>

<p>U.S. Army and Marine Corps ground forces smashed two of President Saddam Hussein's prized Republican Guard divisions and then moved relentlessly yesterday to attack other units to clear a direct invasion path to Baghdad.</p> <p>American divisions moved within 15 miles of the capital and began chasing down two other Republican Guard divisions in a two-sided buzz saw of tank fire from the ground, and bombs and missiles from allied jets and AH-64 Apache helicopters. One U.S. military official said Baghdad's outer ring could be cleared of Republican Guard troops in the next two days.</p>

U.S. troops move to 10 km from S. Baghdad NEAR BAGHDAD, April 3 (Reuters) - U.S. troops pushed to within 10 km (six miles) of the southern edge of Baghdad on Thursday, and were preparing to fight for control of the city's airport, U.S. officials said. U.S. military sources in the area told Reuters correspondent Luke Baker that advance armoured units of the U.S. 3rd Infantry Division had met little resistance as they continued their northward thrust towards the city's outskirts. Elements of four elite Iraqi Republican Guard Divisions were reported to be moving south to defend the city, but...

<p>April 3, 2003 -- The U.S. Air Force unleashed a deadly new weapon during yesterday's onslaught against armored Republican Guard units - precision-guided cluster bombs that seek out and destroy dozens of combat vehicles in a single attack.</p> <p>B-52s carried six of the precision-guided bombs to the battlefield, where they were used to cut down a Republican Guard tank column as it advanced on approaching U.S. troops.</p>