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APRIL 2003
KIFL, Iraq -- All is quiet now except for the rumble of engines in U.S. military
vehicles.
The Euphrates River silently flows underneath the bridge where those vehicles
idle.
Occasionally, a dog barks or a rooster crows.
Don't let the peaceful scene deceive.
Soldiers in the 3rd Infantry Division stop by charred cars, trucks or vans, one by
one, to pull dead Iraqis from inside. They silently lay their bloodied bodies in
bags, zip them shut and then ease the body bags onto the back of a cargo
truck.
The soldiers have very little to say.
Pvt. Jarrod Wise, a 24-year-old in the 92nd Chemical Company, held his M-16
rifle, constantly scanning a muddy stucco house for signs of snipers. Wise only
saw chickens and roosters pecking the dirt as he provided security for those
loading the bodies.
"This is something we've got to do. I think we're doing it as professionally as
possible," Wise said. "I put my faith in the Lord and He will get me through it.
He's calmed my nerves a whole lot."
Within a few hours, the soldiers had collected the remains of 23 Iraqi fighters.
Four others were charred beyond recognition and left behind.
Another four were left inside their Mercedes-Benz because soldiers feared a
booby trap, said Sgt. Raymond Nixon, a mortuary specialist with the 3rd
Forward Support Battalion. Nixon saw a wire wrapped around one man's ankle
and tied to an AK-47 rifle.
The Iraqi soldiers were killed during a battle with the 3rd Infantry Division's 1st
Brigade. The battle was fought for control of the bridge, and it will be part of
the division's path toward Baghdad.
Most of the dead were not from the town of Kifl, said Col. Will Grimsley, 1st
Brigade commander. Instead, they were sent south by Saddam Hussein's Baath
Party to fight the Americans.
During the battle, the brigade's tanks and Bradley fighting vehicles would block
intersections and roadways. The Iraqis attacked by loading three to five men in
cars, vans -- even a dump truck -- and driving full steam ahead toward the
tanks and Bradleys, Grimsley said. The Iraqis fired their weapons as they drove.
"We'd shoot a machine gun at them and they wouldn't stop," Grimsley said.
"We finally just had to shoot them before they ran into something."
A few Iraqis launched sniper attacks from canoes in the river, Grimsley said.
"This is ungodly," he said.
Grimsley stood in the middle of the town's main road, where empty shell
casings littered the streets. He pointed out a girls' school where Iraqis had built
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APRIL 2003
fighting positions on the roof by using grain bags that had been intended as
food aid.
After three and a half days of fighting, the 1st Brigade took control of the
bridge and prepared to move out from there.
"We hope this is over," Grimsley said. "We've had enough of this right here."
Infantry and armor soldiers rested under the shade of palm trees and leaned
against the dusty stucco walls of buildings in town. Few local people walked the
streets. When they did, soldiers searched them for weapons.
The U.S. military cleans up the bodies to prevent diseases from being spread
after they decompose, Nixon said. The body bags were laid in rows of five on a
shaded roadside so that the deceased's heads faced Mecca, the holy city for
Muslims. Later, the Red Cross will recover the bodies and try to identify the
dead, he said.
Nixon was recovering bodies because it is his job. Commanders assigned most
of the others to the job.
By Nicole Roche
University Daily Kansan ( U. Kansas )
(U-WIRE) LAWRENCE, Kan. -- As constant war updates flood newspapers and
television, viewers are inundated with images of bombings and bloodied
bodies.
Josh Robison, Wichita, Kan., senior at the University of Kansas, said he had
stopped paying attention to every piece of breaking news -- even news he
helped report.
Robison works as a production assistant for Channel 6, and is continuously
surrounded by war updates. Over time he has become desensitized, he said.
"I would say most people like to pretend they care about the war," Robison
said. "But it's so far removed from my day-to-day life."
Robison said he didn't know much about the background of the war with Iraq,
which may be one reason he had become so complacent.
War coverage can be confusing for students who know little about the history
between the United States and Iraq.
What follows is the early history of Saddam Hussein's rise to power and the
United States' struggle to bring him back down. The information is a summary
of a timeline featured on pbs.org.
Hussein was born in 1937.
In the 1950s, Hussein joined the Ba'ath Party, an underground Arab nationalist
party that planned to assassinate Iraqi leader General Abdel Karim Kassem.
Hussein was wounded in a 1959 assassination attempt but managed to flee to
Cairo, Egypt.
In 1963, Kassem was assassinated by the Ba'ath Party. Hussein returned to
Baghdad as a Ba'ath interrogator and torturer but was jailed when his party
was overthrown.
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In 1968, the Ba'ath Party again seized power in Iraq under Hussein's cousin
Ahmad Hassan Al Bakr. Hussein became Bakr's right-hand man, but Hussein
had his eyes on the presidency.
Hussein staged a palace coup in 1979, and Bakr resigned for health reasons.
Hussein assumed the presidency.
In 1980, Saddam sent 200,000 troops to attack Iran.
Ronald Reagan became president in 1981 and endorsed a policy stating that
neither country would emerge from the war with additional power.
Fearing Iraq might lose the war, the United States helped Iraq gain information
about the Iranian fronts in 1982.
In 1986, Reagan agreed to sell arms to Iran in exchange for the release of U.S.
hostages held by terrorists in Lebanon. Hussein found out about the deal,
known as the Iran-Contra scandal, and vowed never to trust the United States
again.
Iraq attacked the town of Halabja, Iraq, in 1988, killing 5,000 Kurds. The United
States condemned Iraq's use of chemical warfare. A cease-fire was declared in
1988.
In 1990, Iraq was billions of dollars in debt and officials were angry with its Arab
neighbors about the low price of oil, its primary source of cash. In July, Iraq
amassed 100,000 troops at the Kuwaiti border. President George Bush warned
Hussein that he would not allow Iraq to be a bully. Hussein refused to remove
his troops by Jan. 15, the U.N. deadline, and Bush declared war.
The air war lasted six weeks, ending on Feb. 28, 1991.
After the cease-fire, Bush encouraged Iraqis to rise against their leader. Shia
Muslims in the south took up arms against Hussein. U.S. troops were ordered
not to intervene, and tens of thousands of Shia Muslims were killed. In the
north, Kurdish forces also tried to rebel, but were decimated.
In April 1991, the United Nations passed Resolution 687. It allowed Saddam to
stay in power but ordered him to destroy his weapons and allow inspections of
all weapons facilities. Iraqi deception over weapons of mass destruction began
shortly thereafter.
In 1993, President Bill Clinton ordered a bombing on Iraqi intelligence
headquarters in response to a recent assassination attempt on former
President Bush while he was visiting Kuwait.
In 1995, Hussein Kamel, Hussein's son-in-law, told U.N. officials where the
weapons of mass destruction had been hidden. Inspectors discovered Russian-
built fermenters used to produce anthrax and substances used to grow
biological toxins. Kamel accepted Hussein's invitation for a safe return nine
months later, but after crossing the Iraq border, Kamel and his brother were
captured and killed.
In 1998, Saddam ends cooperation with inspectors and accuses the United
Nations of espionage. President Clinton ordered Operation Desert Fox, a four-
day bombardment of key Iraqi military installations.
The World Trade Center and Pentagon are attacked by al Qaeda. President
George W. Bush announced on Sept. 11, 2001, that the U.S. would "make no
distinction between the terrorists who committed these acts and those who
harbor them."
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Bush's State of the Union speech addressed the "axis of evil" that included Iraq,
Iran and North Korea. Bush said the United States would act pre-emptively to
deal with such nations.
In November 2002, the U.N. Security Council passed Resolution 1441, which
threatened "serious consequences" if Iraq did not offer unrestricted access to
U.N. weapons inspectors. After four years, the United Nations resumed
weapons inspections in Iraq.
Hussein repeatedly refused to meet U.N. deadlines for destruction of long-
range missiles. Bush declared war on March 17 after Hussein and his sons
refused to leave Iraq within a 48-hour deadline.
SOZ BLAKH, Iraq (AP) -- A buildup of Kurdish forces has begun near the
southern edge of their autonomous region near the Baghdad-held oil city of
Khaneqin, 135 kilometers (85 miles) north of the capital.
The number of Kurdish forces along the front line has increased from fewer
than 400 several weeks ago to around 1,500 and 1,800, and it is to grow to
about 3,000 in the next couple days, said Mola Bakhtiyar, a Kurdish political
and military leader, as well as a Khaneqin native.
The ethnically mixed city lies 20 kilometers (12 miles) down a country road
from the agricultural village of Soz Blakh. At certain points along the shifting
demarcation line between Kurdish and Baghdad-controlled territory, Kurdish
forces have reached to within five kilometers (three miles) of the city, Bakhtiyar
said.
With little fanfare, both Kurds and Americans have been edging ever closer,
building up Kurdish ground forces and sending teams of American spotters to
coordinate coalition air strikes.
On Friday afternoon, an orange truck full of Kurdish guerrillas known as
peshmerga, or ``those who face death,'' drove along the road to the front that
separates Kurdish and Baghdad-controlled forces. Two vehicles carrying U.S.
Special Forces troops headed the same way.
The Kurds, oppressed by President Saddam Hussein's regime, established an
autonomous region in 1991 under the protection of U.S. and British air patrols.
Under a policy of Arabization, the Baghdad government has for years forcibly
displaced Kurds, Turkomans and Assyrians living in oil-rich areas in order to give
such regions an Arab character. The Kurds say they long to return to their lost
homes and villages.
``We're ready to take Khaneqin with our blood,'' said Qarib Abdullah, who lost
his brother in a failed 1991 Kurdish uprising against Saddam. ``We are waiting
for American forces to strike and then we will immediately liberate Khaneqin.''
Bakhtiyar has not visited Khaneqin since he left 28 years ago to avoid arrest as
a member of the Kurdish opposition underground. He said many peshmerga
warriors would soon be coming here.
OPERATION IRAQI FREEDOM
APRIL 2003
``If I had 10,000 Kalashnikovs I'd have 10,000 more fighters,'' he said.
KURDISH troops and civilians are "looting the battlefield" while allied warplanes
hammer northern Iraqi strongholds.
Nearly anything of value - from shoelaces to wooden poles to metal sinks - has
been carried away after the Iraqi retreat from hilltop positions.
Walking gingerly through unexploded shells and possible minefields, one
Kurdish boy walked home today with a green-andwhite Iraqi Airlines umbrella.
Another carried a torn stretcher.
On the road to Kalak, thousands of Kurds swarmed through abandoned Iraqi
bunkers and barracks in a looting free-for-all. Boys raced to grab helmets and
gas masks.
Men used pickaxes to pull a cistern from its foundation. In a cinderblock hut, a
man tried on discarded Iraqi military boots until he found a pair that fitted.
Ishmail Hasan loaded his motorcycle and sidecar with plastic chairs, cooking
pots, car batteries and a plastic foam cooler. "I'm keeping some and selling the
rest," he said. "Thank you, Saddam."
Hamid Aziz Mohammed joyfully loaded sheets of corrugated metal onto his
truck. "I stared up at these soldiers for more than a decade," he said "Now they
are gone and I'm taking what I want.
God is great."
With fewer than 2,000 US troops in the Western-protected Kurdish zone, the
Kurds are spearheading the coalition push through the north.
In the past week, Iraqi forces near the Kurdish zone have faced relentless air
attacks and pulled back toward the two main northern districts in Baghdad's
hands: the commercial hub of Mosul and the important oil centre around
Kirkuk.
The latest retreat left Kurdish and US forces less than 18 miles from Mosul.
Last night, however, about 100 Iraqi soldiers tried to retake a bridge on the
road to Mosul seized by the Kurds two nights earlier. US special forces called in
air support while about 150 Kurds engaged in small arms fire from around the
bridge 12 miles northeast of Mosul.
US forces said 50 Iraqis were killed with no casualties among the Kurds or
Americans. The other Iraqi soldiers fled.
Though coalition forces are pleased with their advance, they remain wary.
Several prisoners have warned that Iraqi troops are being withdrawn from the
north to help defend Baghdad.
They knew the remnants of an Iraqi army division were out there. But in a
three-day pursuit that brought them within four miles of Baghdad, all the
Marines found were wrecked trucks, abandoned uniforms and frightened
civilians.
The men of the 1st Battalion, 5th Regiment, 1st Marine Division moved so
quickly - the lights of Baghdad could be seen from where they stopped
Saturday - that none of them slept for three days.
They were very short on water; on Saturday, the temperature hit 104 degrees.
Their mission is to hunt down the Al Nida division of the Republican Guard and
keep it from getting into Baghdad to reinforce Iraqi troops waiting there for the
U.S.-led coalition.
The Marines have come under sporadic mortar fire, but rarely see Iraqi troops.
As darkness fell Friday, the unit gathered into a defensive formation. Connected
by radio, sentries manning guns atop their Humvees check in with each other
periodically in hushed voices: "Gun 1, this is gun 2. What do you see?"
One gunner in a Humvee thinks he's seen about 20 Iraqis jump into a trench,
and opens fire. Several other gunners start pounding the same area. After
several minutes, shouts of "Cease fire, cease fire!" come across the radio.
They've been shooting at shadows.
On the road Saturday, the Marines come across an Iraqi armored personnel
carrier that had been hit by a Hellfire missile from a U.S. attack helicopter. The
hull was ripped open like a tuna can and inside were the melted barrels of
several AK-47 assault rifles. But there were no bodies.
The quick move has left food supplies low and the Marines were forced to tap
their emergency supplies Saturday. One Marine, Lance Cpl. Michael Gary, took
two bottles of water from a truck in the convoy. A sniper, Gary had been out all
day hunting the Iraqis that had been hitting the unit with mortar fire.
"Hey, I'm desperate, I'd steal from my mother," Gary said.
Shortly afterward, Gary was approached by an Iraqi man and his young
daughter who looked far worse off. He made eye contact with the girl, and
handed over one bottle.
Late Saturday, an elderly Iraqi approached the Marines, pointed at a lieutenant
and said, "Good, good."
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Asked if he was afraid of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, he gestured toward
Baghdad and said: "Saddam - he's still there."
NEAR BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) -- U.S. Army soldiers killed six Iraqi fighters wearing
the same type of head bands and clothes as Islamic suicide attackers in a fight
to the death on the southern outskirts of Baghdad Sunday.
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At least three U.S. soldiers from the 3rd Battalion, 7th Infantry Regiment were
slightly injured in the fight, which began as the Iraqi civilians returned to their
homes following fierce fighting overnight in the area, about eight kilometers
(five miles) from the Baghdad city limits.
As the unit went on a routine patrol, U.S. Army intelligence officer interviewed a
civilian man who warned of suicide bombers dressed in black on the road
toward Baghdad.
As the column of 10 Bradley fighting vehicles rolled north, six men dressed in
dark, civilian clothes with red and white checkered scarves on their heads
scrambled into the brush.
Within minutes, they fired two rocket propelled grenades from a tree line near
the road, striking the lead vehicle just above the driver's hatch and sending a
cloud of hot white gas and shrapnel into the turret and passenger
compartment.
``There was a big boom and a white flash that didn't go away, I thought it was
a fire,'' Spc. Kenneth Clark said.
The soldiers bailed out of the damaged vehicle into a hail of small arms fire,
scrambling for cover by a mud wall. Three of the infantrymen were hit by
shrapnel, mostly scratches, except for the driver who had a wound near his
eye. None of the injuries were life threatening.
The company commander, Capt. Chris Carter, gave the men a quick pep talk
next to the damaged Bradley. The infantrymen were traveling without the
normal protection of tanks taking the lead, leaving the less well armored
Bradleys vulnerable to rocket propelled grenade ambushes. Some soldiers
complained tanks should have accompanied the patrol.
``This is our job, not the tanks' job,'' Carter said.
The RPG-7, a Soviet-era weapon similar to a bazooka, launches a rocket with an
armor-piercing grenade on the tip. Two men usually work as a team with an
RPG -- one man to shoot it, another to identify targets and to defend the
shooter.
``I'm tired of being an RPG magnet,'' said Staff. Sgt. Thomas Slago, whose
Bradley had been hit by an RPG in an earlier battle.
The Bradleys rolled forward again near where they had seen the Iraqi fighters
run away and soon RPGs were flying at the Bradleys again.
U.S. troops returned fire with the armored vehicle's 25mm cannon and 7.62
coaxial machine gun. Two Iraqis carrying RPG launchers were killed in the hail
of explosive cannon shells.
The Iraqis used a complex of canals, irrigation ditches and levees for cover. On
one levee, they had built a bunker.
The back ramp of one of the platoon's Bradleys opened and six men ran out in
full combat gear. They dropped behind a berm and took up firing positions,
peppering the levee in front of them with bullets from their assault rifles.
Throwing grenades in every culvert, the soldiers worked their way up to the
levee, tossing grenades over the side where they had last seen the Iraqi
fighters.
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Sgt. Paul Ingram, the squad leader, said he saw one dead Iraqi fighter in the
reed-lined marsh on the other side of the berm, dressed in a black traditional
Arab gown.
Carter then spotted two men using a culvert to sneak up on the Bradleys, using
the dark green water to camouflage their movements. Standing in Bradley
turret, he threw grenades into the water, which kicked up plumes of green
water flew up, but did not stop the Iraqis from moving.
Carter grabbed the 12-gauge shotgun he keeps in the turret and blasted into
the water where he saw the fighters duck. One stood up with a Kalashnikov
rifle.
Carter shot him in the head.
``Kif, kif, kif,'' Carter shouted at the other, using the Arabic word for ``Stop.''
The second fighter, now about five meters (15 feet) from the Bradley stood up
with an RPG launcher ready to fire. Carter shot him in the chest.
The two men in the ditch carried six RPG rounds in a white flour bag, one
launcher and one assault rifle. The bearded men, in their early 20s, had red
head bands with ``Allah Akbar'' written in black marker across the front, the
traditional insignia of a suicide fighter, or self-described martyr, who have
appeared on Iraqi television in recent weeks pledging to fight the U.S. troops
advancing on Baghdad.
Until now, the troops of A Company had only seen soldiers and Republican
Guard fighters.
The combat had never been so close.
``They are hard fighters, but not smart fighters,'' Carter said.
Iraq has fired five missiles at US-led troops on the outskirts of Baghdad, a
military spokesman has said. Reading a statement issued by the General
Command of the Iraqi Armed Forces, Maj-Gen Hazim Al- Rawi also detailed
losses inflicted by Iraqi troops south of Baghdad: 50 deaths and the destruction
of six tanks, he said. He also spoke about activities of the Al-Quds Army and
Saddam's Fedayeen, whom he said had also destroyed further enemy vehicles
in the south. The following is the text of a recorded statement "rounding up the
military activities of our valiant sectors for the past 24 hours", dated 6 April,
read by Al-Rawi, broadcast by Iraqi satellite TV on 6 April; subheadings inserted
editorially:
And We shall try you until We test those among you who strive their utmost and
persevere in patience. [Koranic verse] No force on earth can defeat people
supported by God. No force on earth can defeat the sons of the nation of the
Koran, who are racing to win one of the two good endings: Either victory of
OPERATION IRAQI FREEDOM
APRIL 2003
martyrdom. With the help of God and the resolve of men, weariness and
disappointment have begun to appear among the remnants of the aggressors
and their commanders. This is one of the heralds of victory, God willing.
The activities of the people's armed forces for last night and today have been
as follows:
Baghdad
1. Enemy units tried to approach the southern boundaries of Baghdad
Governorate. A reference to this was made in our Communique No 17, issued
yesterday, 5 April. Following the violent response to that enemy attempt,
combat groups from the Republican Guard began to keep the violent impetus
and decisive response to that attempt by artillery fire and missiles on the night
of 5-6 April. The following enemy losses could be seen:
A. Six tanks were destroyed and 10 others were disabled.
B. Over 50 villains were killed and scores wounded. The enemy was witnessed
evacuating them clumsily and in panic by paramedical aircraft from the site.
C. A large number of spare parts, a large number of stretchers for carrying the
wounded and field bandages were found left behind by the enemy after fleeing
following yesterday's battle on the boundaries of the Saddam International
Airport. Our heroic men will remain swords cutting the necks of the aggressors.
Saddam's Fedayeen activities
2. The men of sacrifice from the heroic Saddam's Fedayeen formations carried
out the following activities last night and today:
A. They destroyed two Apache helicopters near Al-Tamim village.
B. They destroyed three tanks and one personnel carrier near Al- Salam village.
C. They destroyed one APC and one bulldozer on the airport road.
D. They destroyed two tanks near Khan Zari.
E. The destroyed two armoured personnel carriers in the Abu Bunaysir area.
3. Subsequent to the military spokesman's communique last night, the
fedayeen youths have carried out the following activities:
A. At 2200 [1800 gmt] on 4 April, four enemy tanks were destroyed and all their
occupants of the enemy scoundrels were killed at the outskirts of Baghdad.
B. At 0830 on 5 April, three armoured personnel carriers were destroyed at the
approaches of Baghdad.
C. At 1800 on 2 April, a combat patrol of Saddam's Fedayeen advanced behind
enemy lines in Abu al-Khasib, stormed enemy headquarters, blew up an arms
depot and set it ablaze.
D. At 2200 on 2 April, a combat patrol advanced towards the food warehouses
in Al-Quzayzah area. Two armoured personnel carriers were destroyed and their
occupants were killed.
E. At 1000 on 3 April, three detachments of Saddam's Fedayeen were
dispatched to the Fifth Mile area. They destroyed six tanks, an armoured
personnel carrier and a Land Rover.
F. At 1030 on 4 April, a combat detachment advanced towards Al- Zubayr
Bridge and destroyed a tank near the bridge. May God bless you O unique
righteous men while you are defending the homeland and its chaste soil.
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4. A criminal enemy US force tried to approach the Al-Qurnah area. The heroes
of our valiant Armed Forces confronted it, set ablaze two tanks with their
scoundrels, and forced them to retreat.
Al-Quds Army activities
5. The heroes of Al-Quds Army carried out the following activities:
A. At 0600 on 3 April, the criminal US enemy tried to attack the positions of Al-
Miqdad Brigade, the Babylon Division-Al-Quds Army. The Al-Quds Army
brigade's men confronted it. A fierce battle took place and the enemy was
forced to stop and retreat, sustaining heavy human and material losses. The
visible losses were as follows: The destruction of two tanks and three armoured
personnel carriers.
B. The US enemy used three helicopters in an attempt to land troops in the
area of Hay al-Turath yesterday. The landing attempt was against the sector
manned by the 1st Regiment of the Al-Quds Army's Babil Brigade. The men of
the regiment confronted the troops and forced them to flee.
C. The enemy tried to attack the sector manned by the Al-Fida-Al- Karkh
Division of the Al-Quds Army. A fierce battle erupted with the enemy's villains.
One of the mujahid groups managed to destroy a hostile tank with those inside.
North
6. The US-Zionist enemy tried to use several agents, backed by its failed herds,
to attack our valiant units in the area of Debagha in the northern sector. The
heroes of the 1st Mechanized Infantry Division confronted them and forced
them to flee disappointed, accursed and disgraced under the fire of the heroic
mujahidin.
Missile strikes
7. The heroic men of the missile force this morning, 6 April, launched fatal
missile strikes against the criminal enemy's concentrations, which had dared to
approach the outskirts of Baghdad, firing five Ababil missiles at them.
Meanwhile, the men of the missile force fired an Al-Ra'd missile at the failed
enemy's concentrations in the Central Euphrates Sectors.
Blessed be your arms, O heroic men of the missile force.
Tally
The enemy's losses are as follows: [Destroying] 27 tanks and 13 armoured
personnel carriers, disabling 10 tanks, destroying a Land Rover vehicle and
engineering equipment, shooting down two Apaches, killing 50 enemy villains,
wounding scores, and seizing a large number of military spare parts and
hardware.
God is greater, God is greater, God is greater. Praise be to God, the protector of
the patient, mujahidin believers.
[Signed] The General Command of the Armed Forces.
Arabs throughout the Middle East reacted with dismay and disbelief Monday to
television images of U.S. tanks rolling through the heart of Baghdad, and some
rushed to sign up for a holy war against the U.S.-led forces.
Others were just saddened by the ease with which U.S. troops entered the Iraqi
capital.
Few Arabs believed Iraqi President Saddam Hussein's regime could hold out
indefinitely against an allied onslaught, but many had expected Baghdad to put
up a bloody fight.
Over a breakfast of croissant and coffee at a cafe, Saudi accounting instructor
Haitham al-Bawardi said he was having a hard time believing the reports.
"How can we know this is for real and not just coalition propaganda?" the 30-
year-old said. "We had hoped Saddam would inflict as many casualties on the
OPERATION IRAQI FREEDOM
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invaders as possible to teach them a lesson and make them think twice before
striking another Arab country."
In Cairo, Egypt, the news made some more determined to join the fight in a
jihad, or holy war, alongside the Iraqis. The Lawyers' Syndicate, known for
organizing people to join the war in Iraq, began filling up with volunteers
shortly after the news was broadcast.
"As Arabs, we cannot see this and not move," said a man in his early 30s who
would not give his name for fear of government retribution. "We are selling
ourselves for a higher cost, for God, not for Saddam."
Another volunteer, Abdelfattah, 41, a worker in a regional city council, said the
reports were "all lies."
"It is a psychological war," said Abdelfattah. "If it is true, then it is only a
military strategy, to lure the American forces into a trap."
Abdelfattah insisted that "Saddam himself will fight until the very end. ... He
will remain standing until he dies while fighting for Iraq."
Amjad Mohammed, a 23-year-old Syrian hairdresser, said he felt "very sad."
"The Americans can never stay in Baghdad," Mohammed said. "Baghdad is
noble Arab land."
Ali Oqla Orsan, head of the Arab Writers' Union, described the U.S. incursion as
a "propaganda parade," and said he hoped the allied troops would face "total
defeat."
"They are practicing terrorism against a sovereign country," said Orsan, a
Syrian. "If the allied forces occupy Iraq, it would signal the beginning of a
liberation war against the colonialists."
In Muscat, Oman, scores of men watched the news from Baghdad with angry
and resentful faces. One shouted, "Where is your army, Saddam?" Another, not
believing the television images, grumbled, "These Americans are relying on
false propaganda!"
In Lebanon, most citizens stayed close to their TV sets or radios to follow the
news. Many refused to believe the reports, opting instead for Iraqi Information
Minister Mohammed Saeed al-Sahhaf's version of events, in which he denied
that Americans had entered the capital.
"Sahhaf said they were not yet in Baghdad, didn't you hear him?" said Hisham
Moniyyeh, 27, who runs a currency exchange shop in the southern port city of
Sidon. "The Americans have been lying a lot since the beginning of this
campaign so I don't believe them."
Merhej Shamma, a 39-year-old Lebanese architect, was shocked at how easy it
has been for the Americans to enter Baghdad. "I thought some of the fiercest
fighting was supposed to take place in Baghdad. Where are the Republican
Guards?" he asked.
"I hope they are preparing for a counter attack that would turn the tables once
again," he said.
A Saudi university student echoed those sentiments.
"The Iraqi people will resist and turn Baghdad into another Vietnam for the
Americans, a trap from which they will not emerge alive," said Saleh al-Nuaim,
20.
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Armed with Their Teeth ; TIME reporters witness hope and fear, joy
and tears, and above all the death rattle of a regime
Source: Time
Publication date: 2003-04-14
Arrival time: 2003-04-07
Whoosh!
The Iraqi artillery shell hissed overhead and slammed into a field about 150
yards away with a crack, shaking the ground and spewing shrapnel into the air.
Kurdish peshmerga fighters shouted and ran for cover. Journalists threw
themselves face-down into a wheat field in this Kurdish haven in northern Iraq.
And a group of poker-faced U.S. Green Berets studied the cloud of smoke and
dust rising from the crater, casually discussing whether the 105mm Iraqi shell
could actually kill them.
"That was a pretty good one," Jack said in an appreciative tone. "That one was
close."
"It's best when you can hear it," responded Scott. "If you don't hear it, you're in
trouble."
The second shell from the Russian-made D-30 field gun whistled overhead and
landed a few yards closer. A few seconds later, the third shell hit so close one
could hear the debris wheeze, whirling in the sky like lawn mower blades, ready
to deliver indiscriminate death. The bitter smell of cordite filled the air.
"They got the range on that last one. If they'd aimed 100 meters to the left,
that would have been it. It'll be interesting up here when they get us
bracketed," Jack said.
"OK, why don't you guys hop in the truck," he told the journalists, pointing to
the back of a Land Rover. "It's getting hairy here. That's more story than you
wanted."
For the second day, these 10 Special Forces troops eluded death yesterday on
the hills of northern Iraq. Armed with M-16 rifles painted light green to avoid
glare and using heavy U.S. air strikes in lieu of artillery, the U.S. soldiers
commanded a small force of 99 Kurdish peshmerga guerrillas against an
estimated 2,000 Iraqi troops on a ridge two miles to the west.
As the U.S. aerial bombardment methodically pushes the Iraqi front line back
toward the oil-rich cities of Kirkuk and Mosul, small groups of Special Forces
leading Kurdish guerrillas remain the only real northern front holding the
government soldiers back.
Not a problem, Jack said. "All you need is a radio, a gun and a good attitude,"
he said, as an Iraqi mortar landed several hundred yards away.
Fleeing fierce U.S. air strikes Thursday, Iraqi soldiers had retreated about 10
miles west from the front-line positions on the Zab al-Khabir River they had
held for 12 years, leaving behind their ammunition, their fuel, their cars and
their dead.
But from their new encampment on the ridge overlooking the Khazer River,
they were now firing at U.S. soldiers and peshmerga entrenched in the
positions they had just left.
"We repelled several counterattacks with the aid of close air support," said Jack,
who, like the other soldiers, asked that his real name not be used. "Then there
was artillery all night, but nothing too close."
OPERATION IRAQI FREEDOM
APRIL 2003
The Iraqis fired at the commandos with D-30 field guns, 120mm mortars,
82mm mortars, 14.5mm machine guns and Russian-made Zenit anti-aircraft
guns, Jack said. They also fired from D-20 field guns.
"Those look like a Volkswagen when they fly over you," Jack explained.
But the U.S. soldiers never seemed to lose their cool.
"We do what we do, and so far, we've been pretty good at it," one of the
soldiers said. "Not everybody gets paid to have so much fun."
Jack climbed out of his Land Rover, then climbed back in.
"We left 10 peshmerga on the ridge. I gotta get them back," he said, and drove
off.
The U.S. soldiers work closely with the peshmerga, Jack said, and rely strongly
on their knowledge of the region's hilly terrain. Some of the Americans wear
traditional Kurdish scarves over their uniforms.
The peshmerga "know this land like the back of their hands," Jack said. "They
are from here. They know by sight on a ridge two miles away if a guy is a
Kurdish peshmerga or an Iraqi."
IRAQI soldiers are using a new tactic to launch surprise attacks on coalition
forces - pretending to be dead.
Two Desert Rats were almost killed when a Fedayeen fighter who had
apparently been killed sprang up to fire a rocket-propelled grenade at them.
Irish Guards Captain Niall Brennan, 29, and Colour Sergeant Glyn Crawley, 38,
were only saved when one of their comrades spotted the Iraqi moving and shot
him.
Their unit was speeding through Basra in Warrior fighting vehicles when they
came under attack.
The 'dead man' jumped to his feet and aimed his RPG launcher straight at the
guards sitting in the Warrior's turret.
Captain Brennan was unsighted and had no idea he was the Iraqi's target - until
a burst of gunfire cut down the enemy soldier.
Lance Sergeant Alan 'Cliff ' Hanger - riding in another Warrior - had spotted the
man and felled him with his SA80 assault rifle.
Captain Brennan said last night: 'There's no shadow of a doubt that Cliff saved
my life today.
'A split second later and the Iraqi would have taken me out.
'I had no idea I was about to be fired upon until the shots rang out and I just
caught sight of the Iraqi falling dead in front of me.
'When I caught up with Cliff later I gave him a huge hug and told him I owe him
several crates of beer.
' I can only thank God he spotted the attack and acted so quickly.' Captain
Brennan, from Fulham, South-West London, is second in command with Number
One Company of the Irish Guards.
OPERATION IRAQI FREEDOM
APRIL 2003
He managed to call his girlfriend, market researcher Alice Ferrero, 25, to let her
know he was safe after returning from battle last night.
Sergeant Hanger, 27, was still fighting on the frontline last night - but was
expecting a hero's welcome on his return.
Sergeant Crawley, whose wife Claudia, 37, and children Dean, 19, and Glyn Jnr,
17, are back home in Liverpool, said: 'I also owe him my life. If that grenade
had been fired, it would probably have killed me as well.
'He had the captain in his sights and was aiming at the turret. They seemed to
have learned that their weapons are useless against our armour. It was a very
close call.' Elsewhere in the Battle for Basra, enemy fighters were spotted
playing dead before attacking members of the Royal Scots Dragoon Guards.
Their commanding officer, Lieutenant Colonel Hugh Blackman, 41, said: 'There
is no doubting the tenacity of the Fedayeen fighters and they are not playing
by the rules.
'A new tactic is to lie at a defensive bunker and pretend to be dead, but we are
becoming wise to that and if we are in any doubt we open fire.
'They were popping out of holes from nowhere with RPGs and hand grenades.
'One guy came at us and threw a grenade at us, which against a Challenger 2 is
a thankless task, it really is suicide stuff. As he tried to run away he was killed.'
Lt Col Blackman, who led his men into battle with a 'Lion Rampant' flying from
his tank's turret, added that there had been firm intelligence that the Iraqis had
been hiding their tanks and artillery in schools and beside mosques.
'They have been using children as human shields by picking them up when
they think they are about to be fired at,' he said.
BASRA, Iraq (AP) - Iraqis went on a looting rampage Monday, hauling furniture
and carpets out of the state bank and a western hotel as British troops took
control of Iraq's second largest city after weeks of patient siege.
The 3rd Battalion Parachute Regiment took up foot patrol in the city center
after a massive convoy of British infantry started rolling into Basra from the
southern outskirts early Monday.
The troops appeared to be in the midst of a major move to secure the old
section of the city, the last substantial pocket of resistance. The convoy of
British light-armored infantry consisted of 50 to 75 vehicles and 700 troops.
Basra residents were seen streaming out of the Central Bank of Iraq with their
arms full of looted items - chairs, tables, carpets and other items out of the
building and loading them onto donkey- and horse-drawn carts, or stuffing the
goods into cars.
At the nearby Sheraton Hotel, people loaded up carts, junked vehicles and any
other transport they could find with chairs, sofas - even the grand piano that
had been in the hotel lobby. Residents were seen pushing the piano by hand
down the street.
A jubilant crowd of about 100 people surrounded two British tanks sitting side
by side near a Saddam Hussein mural and started cheering the soldiers inside
and giving the thumbs-up sign. One soldier was handed a small bunch of yellow
flowers.
Some buildings were on fire, black smoke poured into the sky.
Ali Hassan al-Majid, one of the most brutal members of President Saddam
Hussein's inner circle, was killed by an airstrike on his house in Basra, a British
officer said Monday. He had been dubbed "Chemical Ali" by opponents for
ordering a 1988 poison gas attack that killed thousands of Kurds.
Maj. Andrew Jackson of the 3rd Battalion Parachute Regiment told The
Associated Press that his superiors had confirmed the death of the man who
was Saddam's first cousin, entrusted with defending southern Iraq against
invading coalition forces.
Al-Majid apparently was killed on Saturday when two coalition aircraft used
laser-guided munitions to attack his house in Basra. Jackson said the body was
found along with that of his bodyguard and the head of Iraqi intelligence
services in Basra.
British officials said they had managed to set up base at a former college inside
Basra's city limits, but did not yet control the city of 1.3 million. The Defense
Ministry said three soldiers were killed Sunday, bringing the total number of
Britons killed since the start of war to 30.
OPERATION IRAQI FREEDOM
APRIL 2003
Group Capt. Al Lockwood, spokesman for British forces in the Persian Gulf, said
the advance was designed to "reassure the people of Basra that we're there
and we're coming to liberate the city."
"Their days are limited," Brigadier Graham Binns, commander of the 7th
Armored Bridage, or the Desert Rats, told the Press Association. "Our
intelligence tells us that morale is low among the defenders of the city, that the
population can't wait to see us and the opposition, such as it is, is
uncoordinated."
British and Iraqi forces have been locked in a battle for control of the southern
Iraq city since the war began. Until Sunday, coalition forces had largely limited
their efforts to raids and sorties from the outskirts of town.
According to British press pool reports, commanders said the bulk of Iraqi
forces may have fled Basra a full 48 hours before the latest incursion.
"We can safely say that the conventional military force has departed, although
not completely from the region. We've still got a little bit more of that to deal
with further north," said Maj. Gen. Peter Wall, the chief of staff of British forces
at Central Command.
The Desert Rats killed an unknown number of paramilitary fighters and took
others prisoner as the unit pushed in from the west. They were joined by troops
from the 3rd Armored coming up from the south.
Lockwood said troops intended only to set up checkpoints inside Basra. But
they pressed on deep into the city with a column of more than 40 armored
personnel carriers and tanks after finding "the level of resistance was low."
Lockwood told reporters the decision to move into Basra was based partly on
Arab press reports that Basra leaders wanted to surrender the city. He also said
reports of looting - a sign of weakening Baath Party control - prompted the
British to act.
Lockwood said it appeared local Baath leadership had collapsed.
Royal Scots Dragoon Guards spokesman Capt. Roger MacMillan said troops had
also blown up a headquarters of the Fedayeen paramilitary group. The fighters
have become infamous for organizing such battlefield ruses as posing as
civilians and faking surrenders.
Another British officer, who requested anonymity, said Fedayeen fighters were
breaking into homes to hide and to use them as cover.
The commander of Britain's forces in the gulf, Air Marshal Brian Burridge, said
troops had taken their time before entering Basra in order to "shape the battle
space" in the coalition's favor and ensure minimum civilian casualties.
He said it was necessary to attack "without risking inordinately the lives of the
population - knowing where the irregulars are, knowing where the militia are
and being in a position to deal with them with as much precision as possible,"
he told British Broadcasting Corp. radio.
BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - U.S. tank commanders were warning their troops Monday
that Iraqis in civilian vehicles could ram their tanks in potential suicide attacks
and ordered them to destroy any suspicious vehicles heading toward them.
The warning came after some tank drivers reported seeing secondary
explosions when tanks fired at cars attempting to ram them. The secondary
explosions were believed to b bombs planted in the cars.
Just outside Baghdad, Marines in the 3rd Battalion, 7th Marines were warned of
possible attacks by suicide bombers in ambulances. They were told that if an
ambulance came speeding toward them and refused to stop, to shoot it.
Marines also were warned about booby traps that may have been set by
Saddam's Fedayeen.
Since two suicide attacks and an open threat by the Iraqi regime that such
tactics would be "routine military policy," American troops have been wary of
approaching civilians.
On Monday, U.S. Marines, who came under heavy fire just outside Baghdad,
began firing two warning shots when approached by cars and pedestrians,
then, if they failed to respond, opening fire to kill them.
In one case, an old man with a cane who appeared disoriented was shot and
killed after he failed to respond to warning shots.
Two vehicles, a taxi and a van, also failed to heed warning shots and were
attacked with automatic weapons until all movement inside stopped. No
casualty figures were available for the shootings south of Baghdad.
The U.S. Army fears Republican Guard soldiers and paramilitary militants may
have discarded their uniforms and will try to carry out suicide attacks disguised
as civilians.
On Sunday, U.S. soldiers killed six Iraqi fighters wearing the head bands and
clothes of Islamic suicide attackers on the southern outskirts of Baghdad.
On Thursday, two Iraqi women blew themselves up in an attack on U.S. forces,
killing three American soldiers in western Iraq.
In the first suicide attack against American forces, a bomber posing as a taxi
driver pulled up to a roadblock north of Najaf, waved to American troops for
help, then blew up his vehicle up as they approached, killing four. Iraqi
President Saddam Hussein rewarded the attacker with a posthumous military
promotion, two medals and a financial reward for his family.
OPERATION IRAQI FREEDOM
APRIL 2003
British Troops Move into Basra
Source: The Boston Globe
Publication date: 2003-04-07
BASRA, Iraq--The Ba'ath Party was giving up its last stronghold in southern Iraq,
jubilant residents reported yesterday, as coalition forces seized territory within
the city for the first time.
After a two-week bombing and shelling campaign from the city's outskirts,
British troops moved into central Basra. The attacks have targeted the Ba'ath
party leadership, but reportedly killed dozens of civilians.
British officials said that they had not yet taken the city, but that they had
decided that it was safe enough to secure an area where some troops would
stay the night and plan their next move.
"Saddam is past!" said a 23-year-old student as he waved his hands at a soldier
from the Royal Scotch Dragoons Guards.
Less than a mile from the center of Basra, men celebrated. Some had just
finished looting buildings and warehouses.
"Two hours ago, the authorities dropped everything and went back to their
homes," said a teacher who identified himself as Mohammed. "The fire station,
the police station are empty. They've taken off their uniforms because they do
not wish to shoot people."
Most regular Iraqi army troops pulled out before dawn, Basra residents said,
leaving behind some units of Ba'ath Party militia and Saddam Fedayeen.
After two overnight raids determined that Ba'ath militias and other armed
groups were offering little resistance, troops from the Seventh Armored Brigade
approached from the west and elements of the Three Commando approached
from the southeast, in tanks and armored vehicles.
"It would be wrong to say that Basra's now safe or secure," said Simon Scott, a
British military spokesman at US Central Command in Doha. "Things are
looking good."
The troops did not encounter large groups of paramilitary fighters, military
officials said, but the raid was not without a price: Three British soldiers were
reported killed in action.
Other towns in the south, such as Umm Qasr, Al Zubayr, and Safwan, have
been declared secure for weeks. Skirmishes with Ba'ath are continuing,
however.
Based on the coalition's slow progress into Basra, it is expected that the
transformation will be gradual. While the coalition might take control of the
city, fighters loyal to the regime are likely to continue fighting, sniping, and
launching artillery attacks.
"There are still Ba'athists and Saddam Fedayeen out there," said a British
soldier manning a tank.
Yesterday morning, British soldiers destroyed an Iraqi army building at the edge
of central Basra. And after a firefight, they captured a university complex where
fedayeen members had set up a position, witnesses said. Flames roared
yesterday next to the Iraqi barracks, which had apparently been hit by mortars.
OPERATION IRAQI FREEDOM
APRIL 2003
The road into the city is riddled with charred Iraqi tanks, scattered munitions,
and half-destroyed trucks. As British tanks rumbled toward the city center,
people flowed in the opposite direction, with looted booty in tow.
One man at a traffic circle near the university made a plea for coalition forces
to restore order to the city, which he said had been in chaos for two weeks.
Yesterday, with Ba'ath party rulers apparently gone and no fixed British troop
presence, Basra residents were taking advantage of near-anarchy to steal
everything they could.
"Please ask the coalition forces to guard the public buildings like the schools
and hospitals, because those places belong to the Iraqi people and should be
preserved," one man said.
Six men drove toward downtown crammed in the cab of a two-seat, six-wheel
Renault rig they said they had stolen from a government warehouse.
"Better that we take it than leave it to burn," the driver said, jumping from the
truck at a railroad crossing cratered from mortar fire. He smiled and gave the
ubiquitous thumbs up. "We'll use it to bring water."
A man named Karim was pushing an air compressor and an air-conditioning
unit still in its box. The label indicated the air conditioner had been ordered
from Saudi Arabia by the Ministry of Oil, Basra South Division.
"We never got our fair share of oil revenue," Karim said. "Now we can take our
share."
Then he drew a serious note.
"Watch out for the Saddam Fedayeen," he warned. "They are dressed as
civilians, and some of them are hiding in houses in my neighborhood."
Karim also said Egyptian and Syrian fighters had joined Ba'ath Party and
Fedayeen forces to defend the city.
RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) - Since the war began in Iraq, one American soldier has
been electrocuted, at least two others have drowned and nine more have died
in automobile wrecks.
All appear to be victims of accidents, which so far are responsible for about half
the fatalities among U.S. troops sent to the Middle East for the war.
"Just because you sign on the dotted line and serve with Uncle Sam doesn't
mean you're immune from accidents," said Patrick Garrett, an analyst with the
public policy group Global Security.org in Alexandria, Va.
Of the 108 coalition troops reported dead in Iraq as of midday Monday, 53 had
been killed in action, according to military reports. Of the remaining 55,
helicopter accidents had killed 28 and 14 others died in land accidents,
according to a casualty database maintained by The Associated Press.
Non-hostile deaths - defined as deaths that are not the direct result of fighting
the enemy or friendly fire - have been a part of warfare for centuries. The
Defense Department considers those killed by friendly fire combat casualties.
Duke University's Alex Roland believes the U.S. military is suffering too many
non-hostile deaths in Iraq, particularly given the high levels of training and
technology involved.
OPERATION IRAQI FREEDOM
APRIL 2003
There will be accidental deaths "simply because of the pace of operations," said
Roland, a Marine who served in Vietnam. But "something's wrong here. We're
taking more than we should."
Another retired Marine sees the numbers differently.
"This coalition has been very successful in terms of reducing the loss of life
across the board," said Phil Anderson with the Center for Strategic &
International Studies in Washington.
A military spokeswoman said efforts to train servicemen and officers to reduce
risks are paying off.
"You train how to fight and accidents are going to happen," said Diane Perry
with the Defense Department. "We try our best to minimize them and learn
from these tragic errors."
While wrecks, accidental shootings and suicides remain problems, other causes
of non-hostile war deaths have been addressed. For example, modern medicine
has helped cut back on diseases that ran rampant among Civil War troops.
In World War II, Korea and Vietnam, the large majority of servicemen killed died
from enemy fire. Ninety-one percent of U.S. casualties in Korea came in
combat.
But in the 1991 Persian Gulf War, 235 of the 380 deaths, or 62 percent, were
considered non-hostile, according to Defense Department statistics. Some
experts attribute the large percentage of non-combat deaths to fighting a quick
ground war on uncertain terrain.
The Army and the Marines have suffered all but a few of the U.S. military's
fatalities in the latest war.
The Army said it has reduced accident rates since the late 1980s by teaching a
five-part "risk-management strategy."
Maj. Pete Janhunen kept a laminated card listing the five steps in his wallet
when he led a platoon a decade ago. Reviewing it helped take "some of the
instinct and emotions out of a decision," Janhunen said.
The challenge, military officials say, is keeping soldiers focused on driving and
handling weapons safely even as their lives are under threat from the enemy.
"Things happen so quickly," Perry said.
WASHINGTON (AP) - American troops pressed the point again Monday with
raids into Iraq's capital: They can move in and out of Baghdad at will.
For the third time in as many days, an Army column roared into the heart of the
Iraqi capital, this time storming Saddam Hussein's newest palace and briefly
surrounding the Information Ministry and the Al-Rashid, probably the city's best
known hotel. And this time, Marines joined in the incursion, coming at the city
in a strike to the east of the Army force.
The show of massive force is part of a plan to eliminate resistance from
Saddam's forces piece by piece, in hopes of avoiding an all-out battle for
Baghdad, home to some 5 million Iraqis.
At the Pentagon, senior defense officials said the assault was meant to
demonstrate that invading troops can go where they want, when they want.
They said it was not an effort to occupy the city, or even a piece of it. Rather, it
is a message to Iraqi forces that their resistance is futile, one official said. To
the population, it can serve to counterbalance regime propaganda, in which
officials continued to insist Monday morning that they were repelling invading
forces.
One difference in the latest thrust into the capital, following forays Saturday
and Sunday, is that Americans might stay a bit longer, one official said, adding
it might be a matter of hours, not days. Officials stressed that the commander
OPERATION IRAQI FREEDOM
APRIL 2003
on the ground had the ability and mobility to decide what he will do next -
move around the area, or move along.
"I think ... the military commanders will slowly but surely take on various parts
of the city, go in and clean it out and make it safe for the Iraqi civilians that
want to live there," Marine Gen. Peter Pace, vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of
Staff, had said hours before Monday's assault.
On Sunday, troops began flying into the captured international airport outside
Baghdad, destroyed a Republican Guard headquarters and began to deploy a
force of Iraqi exiles and dissidents who are to make up the core of a new
national army.
U.S. soldiers and Marines surrounded Baghdad to try to prevent regime leaders
from getting out and Iraqi troops reinforcements from getting in, Pace said in a
round of television interviews Sunday. He acknowledged it wasn't "an
impenetrable cordon" around the city.
"It is certainly true that we have huge amounts of combat power around the
city right now, and that we have over a thousand planes in the air every day,"
he said. "So if it moves on the ground and it takes aggressive action, it's going
to get killed."
Asked what tactic commanders planned in the coming battle to unseat
Saddam, he said it was essentially more of the same but in a smaller space.
Air power will shape the battlefield and destroy Iraqi forces and equipment;
ground troops will force Iraqi fighters to move, then air strikes will attack again,
Pace said.
"They feed on each other," he said. "It is similar tactics, air and ground
coordination, but in a much more confined space."
He said the airlift of several hundred soldiers from the opposition Iraqi National
Congress brought people who could help fight the regime.
INC officials said the force also could help distribute humanitarian aid, serve as
a bridge between coalition troops and local populations and help root out
paramilitaries who have been fighting U.S.-led forces and terrorizing civilians.
U.S. Central Command reported that 2,000 to 3,000 Iraqi fighters were killed in
the first thrust - a sweep Saturday by the 3rd Infantry Division through the
city's southwestern industrial section.
So far, Pace said, coalition forces have destroyed two Republican Guard
divisions that were guarding approaches to the capital and half of the tanks,
artillery and armored personnel carriers of the country's other four divisions.
Divisions that numbered between 6,000 and 12,000 men each, now probably
can put together only about 1,000 people in any one location at any time, he
said.
"But that does not mean they're finished," he said. "There's still fight left in
them, potentially, and there's still a potential for a more difficult combat before
this is finished."
Contacts continue with Iraqi commanders to try to get them to surrender,
including "letters directly from" U.S. war commander Gen. Tommy Franks, Pace
said. "But as of yet, we have not had a senior official in these divisions and
corps surrender."
OPERATION IRAQI FREEDOM
APRIL 2003
Official have said American forces might stop short of storming Baghdad and
instead isolate it while the makings of a new national government are put in
place. They have described the plan as neither an all-out fight for the city, as
many have predicted, nor a conventional siege.
Over time, the thinking goes, Saddam and his inner circle would completely
lose their ability to communicate with their remaining military forces, and
would be unable to control anything except their own defenses.
Meanwhile leafleting and broadcasts to Iraqi troops and civilians would keep
sending the message that the invading force - not Saddam - is in control,
further weakening support for the regime.
Although the main coalition force remains outside the city, the regime is still
vulnerable to special operations troops inside the capital who are hunting for
leadership figures, pointing out bombing targets and possibly persuading Iraqi
soldiers not to fight.
U.S. forces storm into Baghdad, British advance in Basra; Blair and
Source: Associated Press
Publication date: 2003-04-07
BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) -- U.S. forces thundered deep into Baghdad on Monday,
the third straight day that American troops entered the city. In the south, British
troops thrust to the center of Basra, ``delivering liberation'' to Iraq's second
largest city, a British commander said.
The coalition advance on both fronts ``reinforces the reality that the regime is
not in control of all of the major cities,'' said Brig. Gen. Vincent Brooks, a
spokesman for U.S. Central Command in Qatar.
With machine gun fire providing cover, U.S. Marines grabbed planks, poles and
twisted rails as they surged into Baghdad on Monday across a shattered bridge
over a Tigris River tributary.
The assault -- which marked the first entry by U.S. Marines into the Iraqi capital
-- opened the way for thousands of Marines to move in from the southeast
while the U.S. Army's 3rd Infantry Division marched in from the southwest.
American forces also stormed a presidential palace and briefly placed tanks
outside the Information Ministry, a message to the remnants of President
Saddam Hussein's regime that coalition forces could enter the Iraqi capital at
will.
Iraqi officials remained defiant.
``Be assured Baghdad is safe, secure and great,'' Information Minister
Mohammed Saeed al-Sahhaf said at a dust-blown news conference on the roof
of the Palestine Hotel. ``There is no presence of American infidels in the city of
Baghdad, at all.''
Iraqi television and radio broadcast patriotic songs and slogans as well as
footage of Saddam meeting with his son Qusai and top officials. The footage
was not accompanied by sound.
Three adjoining houses in Baghdad's upscale al-Mansour area were destroyed
Monday afternoon in what neighbors said was an allied missile attack. Two
OPERATION IRAQI FREEDOM
APRIL 2003
bodies have been recovered, but the toll may be as high as 14, rescue workers
said.
Casualties were arriving by the dozens at al-Kindi hospital in Baghdad's
working-class district of al-Nahda. Most of the injured suffered from gun shot
wounds, burns and shrapnel. A hospital official said at least 75 wounded
civilians had been brought there during the day.
The International Committee of the Red Cross said Monday that overwhelmed
hospitals in Baghdad are running out of drugs and anesthetics and are short of
water and electricity.
``There is no doubt really that the resources and staff of these places are really
stretched to the limit,'' said Florian Westphal, an ICRC spokesman.
In several other Arab countries, people expressed dismay and disbelief over
television images of U.S. tanks in the heart of Baghdad, speaking to reporters
with The Associated Press. Some dismissed the news as American propaganda
while others volunteered to fight for Iraq.
U.S. attacks on the northwest side of Baghdad have prevented reinforcement of
Iraqi fighters in the city, Brooks said at a Central Command briefing Monday.
``The regime does still have some capability,'' he said. ``What we're not seeing
is an overarching structure of control.''
In the south, British ``Desert Rats'' went into Basra with more than three dozen
tanks and armored cars but found resistance weaker than expected. They
fought into the core, where they were met by hundreds of cheering citizens. At
least three British soldiers were killed.
Air Marshal Brian Burridge, commander of British forces in the Gulf, called the
advance ``historic.''
``After decades under the heel of Saddam's brutal regime, U.K. forces are in
the process of delivering liberation to the people of Basra,'' Burridge said.
British officials also said Monday they found the body of Ali Hassan al-Majid, the
Iraqi general known as ``Chemical Ali'' for ordering a poison gas attack that
killed thousands of Kurds in 1988. Officials said al-Majid apparently was killed
Saturday in a coalition airstrike on his villa in Basra.
Al-Sahhaf, Iraq's information minister, denied that al-Majid had been killed,
according to Al-Jazeera television, which did not show footage of the minister.
Two Polish reporters -- Marcin Firlej, 27, with the private TVN24 news channel,
and 31-year-old Jacek Kaczmarek, with Polish state radio -- were abducted by
armed Iraqis at a checkpoint near Hillah, 130 kilometers (80 miles) south of
Baghdad on Monday afternoon, their editors said.
U.S. infantry entered Baghdad early Monday with more than 70 tanks and 60
Bradley fighting vehicles. A few hours later, U.S. Marines entered from the east
after incurring heavy fire on the city's outskirts.
By Monday afternoon, Marine tanks and amphibious assault vehicles stood in
miles-long (kilometers-long) lines at two bridges, waiting to float into Baghdad
on heavy military rafts or cross on makeshift bridges.
On another road into Baghdad, Marines drove by a swarm of Iraqis going in the
other direction, each one pushing a shiny new red motorcycle. Others pushed
orange shopping carts filled with new black-and-yellow generators or drove
new minibuses loaded with looted goods.
OPERATION IRAQI FREEDOM
APRIL 2003
Two U.S. Marines were killed and two wounded when their armored troop carrier
was hit by an artillery shell. Six American soldiers were reported missing and
many were wounded after rockets hit U.S. armored personnel carriers.
U.S. war commander Gen. Tommy Franks visited coalition troops Monday in
three locations inside Iraq, said Capt. Frank Thorp, a Central Command
spokesman. He gave no details.
The question of how Iraq will be rebuilt once hostilities cease has divided
advisers to President George W. Bush, as well as the United States and Britain.
Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair were to meet in Belfast, Northern
Ireland, Monday to discuss reconstruction and the progress of the war. Blair is
said to want deeper U.N. involvement in postwar Iraq than does Bush, who
seeks a transitional governing authority consisting of Iraqi exiles and people
living in the country now.
Apr. 7--CAMP SAYLIYAH, Qatar--A major US force, including more than 100
armored vehicles, entered the heart of Baghdad today and seized key facilities.
OPERATION IRAQI FREEDOM
APRIL 2003
Supported by low-flying A-10 Warthogs and pilotless drones, the Second
Brigade of the Third Infantry Division rumbled into the city near dawn and
secured two presidential palaces, including Saddam Hussein's most modern
facility, according to Reuters.
"We're attacking right down in the center of the city. The other day was just an
incursion," Major Michael Birmingham of the US Third Infantry said, referring to
a 25-mile raid Saturday that reportedly killed 2,000 Iraqis. "This is for real."
A US spokesman confirmed today's attack but would provide no details.
The battle came a day after US forces secured positions around the capital. US
officials, still warning that difficult fighting lies ahead in Baghdad, confidently
described the capital as nearly encircled. As the first transport plane landed at
the US-controlled international airport outside Baghdad, thousands of Baghdad
residents fled to the north. In the south, coalition troops seized territory in
Basra, Iraq's second-largest city, and pushed into the center of the Shi'ite holy
city of Karbala.
The US forces encountered several setbacks, however. Kurdish officials said a
"friendly fire" strike by US warplanes killed 18 of their fighters in the north.
Knight Ridder reported last night that US soldiers evacuated a captured Iraqi
military compound southeast of Baghdad yesterday after tests confirmed
evidence of sarin nerve gas. In addition to the soldiers sent for
decontamination, a Knight Ridder reporter, a CNN cameraman, and two Iraqi
prisoners of war also were hosed down with water and bleach.
In today's dawn attack, Bradley fighting vehicles and tanks encountered
moderate resistance, including small-arms fire and rocket-propelled grenades.
As the column rumbled forward, Iraqi soldiers fled along the river, some
jumping in the water.
The operation "has been highly successful so far. What we are trying to gauge
is what his (Saddam Hussein's) response is," said Lieutenant Colonel Pete Bayer
of the Third Infantry Division.
He said there were no reports of any casualties so far among US forces. He
added that US forces were now probing the northwest districts of the Iraqi
capital.
The surprise incursion followed a day of firefights around the capital. Just 2
miles outside Baghdad, the Third Infantry Division was ambushed in a scene
witnessed by Globe reporter Brian MacQuarrie. Snipers also fired on a unit near
Baghdad that is accompanied by Globe reporter Scott Bernard Nelson. By the
day's end, US soldiers had seized Highway 1 and nearly completed the cordon
around Baghdad. One US engineer was killed and several soldiers were
wounded in the advance.
An Iraqi official, reading a statement purported to be from Saddam Hussein,
called on soldiers to join any available unit to defend against the Americans.
More details were revealed about the armored column incursion Saturday
through Baghdad, the first time coalition troops had had entered the city in
force. US Brigadier General Vincent E. Brooks said yesterday that about 2,000
Iraqi defenders were killed in that incursion.
In northern Iraq, in what allied Kurdish guerrillas called one of the deadliest
friendly fire episodes of the war, US warplanes struck a convoy carrying Kurdish
OPERATION IRAQI FREEDOM
APRIL 2003
fighters and American special forces toward the front. A senior Kurdish official
said at least 18 people were killed and more than 45 wounded, including
several Kurdish commanders and the brother and son of Massoud Barzani, head
of the Kurdistan Democratic Party, which runs the western half of the Kurdish
autonomous zone.
Nearly a dozen charred and mangled vehicles littered the road at the site,
between the village of Pier Daood and the strategic crossroads town of
Dibegah.
Hoshyar Zebari, the KDP's senior adviser on foreign affairs, said the "tragic"
bombing indicated how combat along the northern front had begun to intensify,
as Kurdish fighters backed by US troops and warplanes have begun engaging
retreating Iraqi forces.
"There is more tension as this front becomes more active in order to put more
pressure on the Iraqi side," Zebari said.
The bombing cast a shadow over the capture yesterday of the town of Ain Sifni,
about 20 miles north of Mosul, by US special forces and more than 1,000
Kurdish militiamen.
In the south, after two successful raids into Basra's outskirts last night, British
forces entered the city in their strongest push yet, said Squadron Leader Simon
Scott, a military spokesman. Tanks and armored vehicles rolled into the city
from the southeast and the west and by last night had secured territory for the
first time.
The move into Basra held nearly as much symbolic importance as the US foray
into Baghdad. Coalition leaders have long hoped that Basra would be the first
domino to fall, launching a Shi'ite uprising against the minority Sunni
government.
Yesterday, troops were passing out leaflets stamped with the British flag,
asking the population not to carry guns on the street and to comply with
coalition forces. The leaflets promised, "When our work is done, we will leave."
British troops also allowed residents to loot Ba'ath Party headquarters in what
Scott called "an indication of the influence of the regime weakening."
The British were searching for evidence on the fate of Ali Hassan Al Majeed, a
cousin of Saddam Hussein who is known as "Chemical Ali" for his role in using
chemical weapons against Kurds in northern Iraq. Coalition aircraft bombed his
home Saturday and his bodyguard's remains were positively identified, officials
said.
Troops from the 101st Airborne Division, dripping with sweat in 90-degree
weather, led a push into the center of Karbala, where heavy fighting Saturday
and yesterday morning against paramilitary groups had mostly subsided by
afternoon. US troops tore down a Hussein statue there with the help of local
residents, the Associated Press reported.
US forces stepped up leafletting and radio broadcasts in Baghdad, said Brooks,
the brigadier general. Civilians were told to stay away from the airport, where
the United States now has several thousand troops, and to comply with
instructions at checkpoints.
On Baghdad's southeastern outskirts, US Marines continued to battle the Nida
Division of the Iraqi Republican Guard after cutting through its lines the day
OPERATION IRAQI FREEDOM
APRIL 2003
before, according to Major Rumi Nielson-Greene, a Central Command
spokeswoman. Several other Guard divisions remained intact north of Baghdad,
but have not been seen moving south in large numbers, she said.
In Salman Pak, a town close to Baghdad's southeastern edge, Marine tanks
from the Third Battalion, Seventh Marines attacked a Republican Guard
headquarters and destroyed what Brooks said was a training camp for "terror
tactics."
US officials said yesterday that three US troops were killed and five wounded in
a "possible friendly fire incident" when an F-15E Strike Eagle accidentally fired
on them. They were still investigating the apparent friendly-fire attack at 4:15
this morning in northern Iraq, about 30 miles southeast of Mosul, near Kalak.
Apr. 7--NEAR MOSUL, Iraq--The deserted Iraqi base bore all the signs of an
overwhelming assault, crushing defeat, and sudden flight.
The Kurdish fighters and US special forces who entered the base yesterday
found pillows, blankets, and clothing scattered across the primitive barracks
and training grounds. Boxes of unused ammunition and chemical weapons gear
spilled out of storerooms.
Everywhere, documents blew in the wind, bearing the names of the Iraqi
soldiers who fought, were defeated, and retreated toward the outskirts of the
major northern city of Mosul, only 9 miles to the west.
Somewhere, among the burnt-out Iraqi vehicles and hastily abandoned
fortifications, Najis Mohamed Yunis Mohamed's fate was decided.
Mohamed, 26, was not supposed to be here, at the center of the devastation
US airstrikes have wrought on Saddam Hussein's army in northern Iraq. His
draft card, found at the base, says that Mohamed was conscripted in 1995 for
what should have been three years of service.
It is unclear why he stayed in the army for five extra years. Perhaps other jobs
are scarce in Tell Afar, his provincial hometown 40 miles west of Mosul. Perhaps
an Iraqi soldier's pay of $5 a month was the best salary available.
Iraqi deserters have said that soldiers are forced to extend their hitches during
wartime. And it has always been wartime in Hussein's Iraq.
Whatever the reason, Mohamed was still stationed at his post on the Iraqi front
lines 20 miles west of Mosul four days ago, when the US jets attacked. What
happened next is unclear.
The best thing Mohamed could have done was run. If he did, he may still be out
there.
Or maybe Mohamed was huddling yesterday along the new Iraqi lines close to
Mosul, where large explosions rumbled all day from airstrikes directed by US
Special Forces.
If he stayed and fought, Mohamed could have been one of the Iraqi soldiers
killed in a clash near the village of Kanilan. The Iraqis had a 106mm cannon
and a 14.5mm machine gun mounted on trucks. The Kurds and Americans had
OPERATION IRAQI FREEDOM
APRIL 2003
jets. The incinerated remnants of the trucks surrounded by charred munitions
bore grim witness to who won that battle.
Someone with a morbid sense of humor had affixed a bumper sticker
advertising a Florida shooting range on one of the trucks. Kurdish fighters said
that as many as 200 Iraqis died there, but the retreating troops took the bodies
with them.
The remains of Mohamed's base suggested that the Iraqi soldiers lived in
primitive conditions. To comfort them, they had plenty of images of Hussein,
which the Kurdish fighters, whose people suffered under the Ba'ath regime,
tore up and trampled with mirthless abandon.
The base also had a chemical warfare room, with boxes of gas masks and
rubber boots and vials marked in Arabic: "skin disinfectant," "eye disinfectant,"
and "reviving antidote."
Unmarked glass ampules of clear liquid at first drew little interest from Kurdish
fighters, who threw them against piles of unused mortar rounds and rocket-
propelled grenades and watched them shatter, their mysterious liquid causing
a slightly sweet vapor to waft up.
A US special forces commando was more circumspect. He asked a reporter to
hand him one of the ampules, which he promptly stuck in his shirt pocket.
The American requested that the name and exact location of the base remain
confidential, to avoid endangering those who had occupied it. "This place is not
secure," said the commando, who also asked that his name not be used. "The
Iraqis shell everything here every day."
Back at the chemical warfare room, the Kurdish fighters were reconsidering
their attitude toward possible chemical attacks.
"We think the Iraqis have vaccinated themselves against chemical weapons
and may use them if they are cornered," said Yusuf Homoandi. "We have no
defenses against this at all."
Zedan Nuri, another Kurdish fighter, was trying on a mask he had found. Then
he realized it was missing a filter. He decided to keep it anyway, "as a
souvenir."
BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) -- U.S. forces thundered into the heart of Baghdad on
Monday, storming a presidential palace and briefly placing tanks outside the
Information Ministry, a message to President Saddam Hussein's faltering
regime that coalition forces could enter the Iraqi capital at will.
U.S. tanks briefly surrounded Al-Rashid Hotel, where Iraqi snipers fired on U.S.
soldiers. U.S. tanks returned fire with their main guns and .50-caliber machine
guns.
Late Monday, the city continued to be rocked by explosions from areas on the
west bank of the Tigris. Most of the city was without power or water and city
streets were nearly deserted after nightfall.
OPERATION IRAQI FREEDOM
APRIL 2003
U.S. Army Col. David Perkins, a brigade commander, estimated between 600
and 1,000 Iraqi fighters had been killed in fighting Monday.
``We can basically go wherever we want, whenever we want, even if Saddam is
still alive. He has become irrelevant,'' Perkins said.
Tanks, Bradley fighting vehicles and hundreds of soldiers with Army's 3rd
Infantry Division made the lighting thrust in the city, with tank-killing A-10
planes and pilotless drones flying overhead.
At the city's southern edge, Iraqi fighters battled Marines and Army troops in
bloody fighting.
Two Marines were killed and two wounded when their armored troop carrier was
hit by an artillery shell at a bridge spanning a canal. The Marines advanced into
the capital by foot after the Iraqis blew apart the bridge.
Also, a group of U.S. armored personnel carriers in southern Baghdad was hit
by rockets, according to field reports. Six American soldiers were reported
missing and a large number were wounded.
There was no estimate of Iraqi casualties from the raids, but at Baghdad's
international airport, southwest of the city's center, more than 110 Iraqis in
military uniform were killed in fighting that extended overnight into Monday.
An official at the al-Kindi hospital said at least 75 wounded civilians had been
brought in since morning, most suffering from gunshot wounds, burns and
shrapnel.
Three adjoining houses at the upscale al-Mansour district were destroyed
Monday afternoon in what neighbors said was an allied missile attack. All that
was left of the houses was a heap of concrete, mangled iron rods, ruined
furniture and clothes.
The attack left a crater yards deep and the force of the blast broke windows
and doors as far as 274 meters (300 yards) away from the site. Three orange
trees that grew on the sidewalk outside the houses were uprooted.
U.S. troops with the 3rd Battalion, 7th Marines approaching the city from the
southeast passed a group of Iraqis, each one pushing a shiny new red
motorcycle. Others pushed shopping carts filled with brand-new electric
generators. Some drove new minibuses filled other looted goods and many
waved as the Marines passed.
Navy Lt. Mark Kitchens, a U.S. Central Command spokesman, said the Baghdad
raid Monday was a ``different kind of mission'' than Saturday's drive through
the city.
``It proceeded on a much slower pace and did a lot more activity than we did in
our previous entry,'' he said.
Asked if troops might stay in Baghdad, ``I think that would be a possibility.''
In the heart of Baghdad, U.S. soldiers who reached the gold-and-blue-domed
New Presidential Palace used the toilets, rifled through documents in the
bombed-out compound, and looted ashtrays, pillows, gold-painted Arab
glassware and other items. The Americans also blew up a statue of Saddam on
horseback in the center of the city.
``I do believe this city is freakin' ours,'' boasted Capt. Chris Carter.
OPERATION IRAQI FREEDOM
APRIL 2003
The troops secured the main roads in the area, leaving soldiers at every
intersection. They made forays to the Al-Rashid and to the bombed-out
Information Ministry, but unlike the palace, they did not stay to occupy them.
Information Minister Mohammed Saeed al-Sahhaf declared, ``I reassure you
Baghdad is safe.''
``They are beginning to commit suicide at the walls of Baghdad,'' al-Sahhaf
told reporters in a hastily called news conference outside the Palestine Hotel,
where many foreign journalists are staying. ``There is no presence of the
American columns in the city of Baghdad, none at all.''
Iraq radio broadcast a religious sermon exhorting Iraqis to fight and denouncing
the United States and Britain. Iraqi TV broadcast patriotic songs, footage of
Iraqis chanting slogans in support of Saddam and archival material of the Iraqi
leader firing a gun and greeting crowds.
As U.S. Army columns moved northeast to the newest and main presidential
palace on the river, some Iraqis -- some nearly naked -- were seen fleeing along
the river banks. Some jumped into the water. Witnesses said some Iraqi
soldiers at a camp swam to the west bank of the river to flee advancing U.S.
soldiers. An ammunition depot across the river was on fire.
U.S. troops set up a prisoner of war collection point in the palace compound. As
Iraqis were captured in street fighting outside, they were brought to the palace
for processing before being sent behind U.S. lines. At one point, a group of nine
Iraqis surrendered after hearing on loudspeakers that if they did so they would
live.
U.S. troops had to pass through a 400-yard (meter)-long minefield to approach
the area. About 200 anti-tank mines that had been scattered on the road were
pushed aside by U.S. armor fitted with devices to move them without
detonating them.
U.S. forces briefly surrounded the Information Ministry and Al-Rashid Hotel,
which was used by foreign reporters as a base during the 1991 Gulf War. At the
time, the U.S. government alleged that the building housed a military
communications center.
As U.S. troops penetrated the city, members of Saddam's Fedayeen
paramilitary at one point helped security men prevent journalists from leaving
the Palestine Hotel. Later, the security men left, and the Information Ministry
organized journalists' bus tours of areas where fighting took place.
The Monday raid followed a weekend of incursions by U.S. forces in tanks and
armored personnel carriers.
U.S. officials have said that up to 3,000 Iraqi fighters may have been killed in
that initial incursion Saturday.
Apr. 7--KUWAIT CITY--Seven hundred Iraqi opposition fighters and the man
considered the Pentagon's top choice to lead postwar Iraq have been flown by
OPERATION IRAQI FREEDOM
APRIL 2003
the Air Force into the southern Iraqi city of Nasiriyah in recent days, according
to the US military and the Iraqi National Congress.
An official with the INC, the most powerful group of exiled Iraqis, said the arrival
of the Iraqi opposition forces and opposition leader Ahmed Chalabi marks a
vital shift in military strategy.
"It was the mistake of the coalition forces not to integrate the Iraqi forces from
the beginning," said Feisal Chalabi, spokesman for the INC in Kuwait and a
relative of Ahmed Chalabi. "You cannot have Iraqi liberation without Iraqis, so
this is a great day for us."
The vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said the 700 to 1,000 men, flown
to southern Iraq from the Kurdish-controlled north, are the beginning of a post-
Saddam Hussein Iraqi military.
"These are Iraqi citizens who want to fight for a free Iraq, who will become
basically the core of the new Iraqi army once Iraq is free," General Peter Pace
said on ABC television, even as Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz told
Fox News it may be six months before the United States is ready to turn control
of Iraq over to an Iraqi authority.
While the arrival of an Iraqi opposition force provides potent symbolism for the
"liberation" of Iraq, it probably is not a development that will be cheered by all
with a stake in postwar Iraq. Competing elements of the exiled Iraqi community
are expected to see it as potentially threatening.
Also, even as the Pentagon has championed the Iraqi National Congress as the
best answer to Iraq's future, the State Department has been far more skeptical
about Chalabi's leadership.
Pace dismissed suggestions that the INC will gain an advantage through this
mobilization.
"I'm comfortable that once we free Iraq and give it to the people in Iraq, that
they will be able to decide for themselves who should be their leaders and who
should not," Pace said.
The troops will be known as the First Battalion Free Iraqi Forces and serve under
US command, according to an INC statement.
"The war of national liberation which Iraqis have waged for 30 years is now
nearing its end," Ahmed Chalabi said in the written statement. "We call on the
Iraqi people to join with us in removing the final remnants of Saddam's
Ba'athist regime."
The opposition forces that have descended on Nasiriyah include defectors from
Hussein's army all the way up to the rank of general, according to Feisal
Chalabi. They carry only light arms and do not have armor, but will coordinate
with more heavily armed units of coalition forces, he said, adding that they will
work closely with US special forces.
The INC said their men will be able to use their knowledge of language and
culture to carry out humanitarian operations, but will also be directly involved
with winning the war.
"These forces might be liberating Baghdad like Paris was liberated by the
French free forces," Feisal Chalabi said.
While most of the INC supporters who have descended on Nasiriyah are
soldiers, Chalabi said they also include civilians.
OPERATION IRAQI FREEDOM
APRIL 2003
Nasiriyah was secured by US forces a few days ago, but these Iraqi exiles say
locals appear eager to work with the newcomers.
Already, 3,000 people from the community have come forward to offer their
help, said Salem Chalabi, a nephew of Ahmed Chalabi who is affiliated with the
INC. And local tribal leaders have been welcoming, according to Feisal Chalabi.
Salem Chalabi said the Iraqi National Congress has at least 2,000 more troops
still waiting in northern Iraq.
The U.S. military is testing samples from a site in Iraq where soldiers found
metal drums containing possible chemical weapons, defense officials said
Monday.
Tests at laboratories in the United States have to be completed before the
presence of chemical weapons would be known, the officials said.
Soldiers from the Army's 101st Airborne Division found the suspicious material
in a compound near the Iraqi city of Hindiyah, about 60 miles south of
Baghdad. Video of the search taken by CNN showed soldiers in gas masks using
handheld chemical weapons detectors to investigate metal drums.
"This could be either some type of pesticide, because this was an agricultural
compound," Gen. Benjamin Freakly told CNN. "On the other hand, it could be a
chemical agent, not weaponized."
Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld acknowledged reports about the site
Monday but said first reports often are incorrect.
"We have to take our time and look at it," Rumsfeld said, adding that getting
samples back to the United States and completing testing can take days.
A Knight Ridder News Service journalist traveling with the unit said initial tests
of samples from the facility were inconsistent. Some tests did not indicate
chemical weapons, while others indicated the presence of G-class nerve agents
- which include sarin and tabun - and mustard agent, a blistering chemical first
used in World War I.
Sophisticated tests are needed to confirm the presence of chemical weapons
because nerve agents are chemically very similar to many pesticides.
The Knight Ridder reporter, Tom Lasseter, also reported that he and several
soldiers were decontaminated after some of the soldiers felt ill while searching
the compound. Officials at the Pentagon said they did not have any information
about anyone getting sick.
Freakly told CNN that the soldiers were suffering from heat exhaustion, not
chemical exposure, and all are doing fine. He said the soldiers were given
showers to cool them down, not decontaminate them.
OPERATION IRAQI FREEDOM
APRIL 2003
If the discovery was confirmed, it would be the first find of chemical weapons
during the war. Finding and eliminating Saddam Hussein's chemical and
biological weapons is a goal of the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, and finding such
weapons of mass destruction could mute international criticism of the war.
Earlier reports about possible chemical weapons finds have turned out to be
false alarms. Last week, for example, troops searching the Qaa Qaa military
complex south of Baghdad found a white powder that was found to be an
explosive.
Iraq acknowledged making 3,859 tons of sarin, tabun, mustard and other
chemical weapons, though United Nations inspectors suspected Iraq could have
made much more. Iraq used mustard and sarin against Iran during the 1980-88
Iran-Iraq war and is believed to have used the chemicals against Kurdish Iraqis.
Sarin and tabun are related nerve agents that can kill when absorbed through
the skin or inhaled as a gas. They kill by causing convulsions, paralysis and
asphyxiation.
Mustard agent begins dissolving tissues on contact and is particularly harmful
to eyes and lungs. It does not usually kill but causes painful injuries that can
linger for a lifetime.
WILL Saddam fight to the death? Will he flee? Or will he, like the Great Dictator
Hitler, end it by committing suicide in a bunker?
As the grand finale to the war on Iraq approaches, these questions will soon be
answered.
Meanwhile, international Saddam-watchers are divided in their attempts to
read the Iraqi leader's mind as he approaches the awful moment when he
realises that all is lost.
"Saddam knows that exile would simply be a postponement of his execution,"
said Dan Plesch, fellow of the London-based Royal United Services Institute.
"The Americans would just go in and kill him wherever he took shelter. It would
also be ignominious for someone who seeks to portray himself as an Arab
hero."
Gerrold Post, a psychiatry professor at George Washington University, who has
written profiles of Saddam for the CIA, also thinks that voluntary exile is
unlikely. "Saddam's last stand could be ugly, assuming he still has a stash of
chemical and biological weapons at his disposal. He can bob and weave, but he
becomes dangerous when he is backed into a corner."
However, Post considers the Iraqi leader to be "a quintessential survivor, not a
martyr". As a wily survivor of half a dozen assassination attempts, a CIA-
sponsored coup and popular uprisings by the Kurds in the north and Shi'ite
Muslims in the south, he might just believe he can still outfox the Americans.
"It's possible that he could view exile as a temporary retreat, from which he
could return to power," he says.
OPERATION IRAQI FREEDOM
APRIL 2003
Martin Rudner, an analyst with the Canadian Centre of Intelligence and Security
Studies at Carleton University in Ottawa, thinks Saddam would rather be taken
prisoner than die a "martyr" at the hands of an American-led enemy.
"That way he could continue in his role as the self-anointed champion of the
Arab people, battling against the infidels. He sees himself as a Saladin," Rudner
said, referring to the legendary Muslim warrior who evicted the Crusaders from
Jerusalem in 1187 and who, ironically, was a Kurd. "He sees himself as the
great steadfast mobiliser of all Arabdom against exogenous threats."
Plesch raises the possibility of Saddam being totally divorced from reality, like
Hitler in the Berlin bunker. Sitting in an underground command centre, Saddam
may be refusing to use the phone, for fear of being traced by the CIA, and
sending out hand-written messages to his commanders and video tapes
recorded in advance to be broadcast on Iraqi TV.
"There is a question in my mind as to what Saddam actually knows about what
is going on in the battlefield," Plesch said. "How much are the commanders in
the field telling him ?
"Early in the war, the Iraqi news announcements were pretty accurate, but they
are not now. It seems that a lot of military people are lying low without telling
Saddam as commander-in-chief how bad the situation really is."
However, Saddam's appearance on the streets of Baghdad on Friday -
assuming it really was him and not a double - appears to have put paid to the
Pentagon's attempts to spread the idea that he has already disappeared from
the scene, one way or another.
A number of countries have been named as potential exile destinations for
Saddam. One is Belarus, whose authoritarian president Alexander Lukashenko
is shunned by Western leaders because of his poor human rights record, and
who maintains good relations with the Iraqi regime. Lukashenko denies US
accusations that he sells arms and military equipment to Baghdad in violation
of a US embargo. But he has urged the US and Britain to make an "honourable
exit" from Iraq.
Libya, a possibility during the last Gulf War in 1991, is ruled out because
nowadays Colonel Gadaffi has not the slightest intention of provoking the wrath
of the Bush administration. At one point, secret negotiations were reported that
might send Saddam to Mauritania.
The most persistent report, put out by the Jerusalem-based website
Debka.com, is that senior Iraqi leaders and their families have taken refuge in a
luxury hotel on Syria's Mediterranean coast.
Baghdad is alleged to have "pre-paid and chartered" the upmarket Hotel Cote
d'Azur De Cham resort in the port city of Latakiya, near the family villa of
Syrian president Bashar al-Assad.
Top Iraqi officials have been hiding there since March 23, four days after the
US-led invasion began, under the protection of a Syrian commando unit and
with Syrian naval missiles securing the port, the web-site said, quoting
unnamed intelligence sources.
The Debka site has a patchy reputation for accuracy. But the report is one of a
number that point to Syria as the last remaining safe harbour for the leadership
of the besieged regime. Since the war broke out, President Assad has been
OPERATION IRAQI FREEDOM
APRIL 2003
outspoken in his support for Saddam, and the US has accused Syria of
supplying arms to the Baghdad regime.
Iraqi opposition sources said last week that "influential people related to
Saddam Hussein" had fled to Syria in a convoy of 60 official cars. The exodus
was spotted en route to the Syrian border from the northern city of Mosul.
Last week, Saddam's office denied the reports that Saddam's family had fled,
although his sons Uday and Qusay are understood to have stayed. "The small
family of our leader Saddam Hussein is part of the extended family that is the
Iraqi people. The fate of his family cannot be separated from that of the
extended family," a spokesman for the president's office said.
Organising a safe exodus for his family this time would pose practical problems
for Saddam in addition to the damage it would do to his self-promoted image as
the defender of the Arabs against invading infidels.
He and his intimate cronies all have large extended families. If they tried to
leave in one large VIP convoy, it would be instantly spotted from the air and
attacked. Even a retreat for a final battle at his ancestral home of Tikrit to the
north of Baghdad would now seem to be impossible, since coalition special
forces control that road.
If the retreat were on the basis of "every man for himself" and the order was
given to leave piecemeal, all sorts of personal nastiness could break out.
Saddam's inner circle is not just united by criminal complicity and family ties, it
is held together with fear.
If discipline were to break down, old scores would be settled. Saddam has
removed a large number of his relatives from the power circle, and some also
from this world.
Even if, against all the odds, Saddam decided to flee and succeeded in finding
a safe haven, he would never have a chance to enjoy his fortune. The
Americans are after that too. US agencies are about to make a fresh effort to
trace Saddam's assets using existing economic sanctions and new powers
granted to the administration under the USA Patriot Act passed by Congress in
the wake of the September 11 terror attacks.
According to Forbes magazine, Saddam is the third-richest man in the world
after the Sultan of Brunei and King Fahad of Saudi Arabia.
US intelligence sources say they believe that some of Saddam's personal
fortune from kickbacks on oil deals remains under the control of associates of
the Saddam family still living in the Geneva area.
At one time, Barzan al-Tikriti, Saddam's brother, may have had control of
substantial sums. Until a few years ago, he was Iraq's representative to UN
agencies in Geneva.
If they are successful, American officials say that they will use Iraq's resources,
including Saddam's fortune, to rebuild Iraq.
But there will be other claims to the money. At least two American law firms
have filed lawsuits against Saddam and his cronies alleging Iraqi involvement in
international terrorism in general and September 11 in particular. Even after
Saddam, the fighting will go on.
OPERATION IRAQI FREEDOM
APRIL 2003
U.S. Forces Meet Resistance in Baghdad
Source: Associated Press
Publication date: 2003-04-07
U.S. forces barreled into the heart of Baghdad with a dramatic show of force
Monday and met pockets of fierce resistance. British officials said troops found
a body in southern Iraq that they believed was the notorious Iraqi general
known as "Chemical Ali."
Missiles screamed over the Iraqi capital just after dawn and thunderous
explosions shook buildings as the 2nd Brigade of the Army's 3rd Infantry
Division moved north into the city and seized a presidential palace.
In southern Baghdad, Iraqi rockets struck a group of Army personnel carriers at
the brigade's field headquarters, according to a military report. Two soldiers
and two journalists - one Spanish and one German - were killed, and several
others were wounded.
To the south of Iraq, British troops gained control over much of Basra, the
country's second-largest city, and were pressing into the old city where the last
paramilitary fighters had retreated. Some Basra residents cheered the British,
while others went on a looting rampage, streaming out of the Central Bank of
Iraq and the bomb-damaged Sheraton Hotel with chairs, tables, carpets and
other goods. Some civilians lashed out at Saddam loyalists, killing several
militiamen and a policeman.
In a sign of growing confidence on the part of the coalition, the U.S. war
commander, Gen. Tommy Franks, visited troops inside Iraq, including soldiers in
the holy Shiite city of Najaf. Central Command Spokesman Capt. Frank Thorp
said Franks made three stops in Iraq on Monday, but gave no details.
U.S. troops in Baghdad stormed Saddam's New Presidential Palace and set up a
prisoner of war holding pen inside the elaborate compound on the west bank of
the Tigris, a winding river that divides the city. The ruling Baath Party
headquarters nearby was completely destroyed.
The troops secured the main roads in the area, leaving soldiers at every
intersection. They made forays to the state-owned Al-Rashid Hotel and to the
bombed-out Information Ministry, but unlike the palace, they did not stay to
occupy them.
Up the river at the Old Palace, the sound of explosions and heavy fire could be
heard. In the center of the city, U.S. forces used explosives to destroy two
statues of Saddam.
Iraqi snipers later fired on U.S. soldiers from rooms inside the Al-Rashid Hotel.
U.S. tanks returned fire with their main guns and .50 caliber machine guns,
according to military radio reports. Iraqi forces also took up positions in the
University of Baghdad, across the river from the New Presidential Palace, and
fired heavy machine guns. U.S. troops called in mortar fire and air support. The
Tigris at this point is about 1,200 feet wide.
The drive into Baghdad was meant to send a strong signal about the coalition's
ability to enter at will. The resistance encountered along the way was "worthy
of respect," Brig. Gen. Vincent Brooks said Monday, though the Iraqi fighters,
"may be dying for a regime that does not have a future."
OPERATION IRAQI FREEDOM
APRIL 2003
Iraq's command structure is so badly damaged, he said, there is only a small
amount of communication between Saddam's remaining forces.
"What we don't see is an overarching structure that can order action from north
to south and east to west, throughout the country. Only the coalition has that
capability right now," Brooks said at Central Command. "And as each day
passes, there's less and less that the regime can do to order action by their
forces."
Iraqi Information Minister Mohammed Saeed al-Sahhaf, standing on the roof of
Baghdad's Palestine Hotel, denied his city had been invaded. Sirens could be
heard as he spoke and clouds of dust blew past - remnants of a sandstorm and
smoke from oil fires set by the Iraqis to obscure targets.
"They are sick in their minds. They say they brought 65 tanks into center of
city. I say to you this talk is not true," al-Sahhaf said. "There is no presence of
American infidels in the city of Baghdad, at all."
Armed militiamen and Iraqi soldiers patrolled the street outside the Information
Ministry. Most Iraqis stayed indoors, but some shops were open and public
buses were running. Iraqi TV and state radio stayed on the air, broadcasting
patriotic songs, religious sermons and archival footage of Saddam.
On the southern outskirts of Baghdad, two Marines were killed and two others
were injured when their vehicle was struck by an artillery shell at a bridge over
a canal. The 3rd Battalion, 4th Marines fought for the highway bridge that leads
into the city Sunday, and were trying to cross it when they were hit Monday
morning, Lt. Col. B.P. McCoy said.
The Marines quickly worked to repair the bridge while others crossed on foot to
secure the opposite side of the canal, wary of booby traps that may have been
set by Saddam's Fedayeen militia.
Troops everywhere have been warned of possible suicide attacks, including by
bombers in ambulances. There were also reports from the field that Iraqis in
civilian vehicles, possibly carrying bombs, had attempted to ram coalition
tanks.
It's not clear how many Iraqis have been hurt or killed in Baghdad. The
International Committee of the Red Cross said Sunday that hospitals in the city
have stopped counting the number of people treated.
In the southern port city of Basra, British forces consider their biggest threat to
be militia fighters still roaming the city. But with the suspected death of Iraqi
Gen. Ali Hassan al-Majid, Iraqi fighters and Baath Party militants may be
rudderless.
British Defense Secretary Geoff Hoon said he had not yet confirmed that al-
Majid had been killed, though the evidence was strong. Al-Majid, a cousin of
Saddam, gained the nickname "Chemical Ali" for ordering a poison gas attack
that killed thousands of Kurds in 1988. His home was targeted in coalition
airstrikes over the weekend.
His death should show the people of southern Iraq "that the regime is finished,"
said Group Capt. Al Lockwood, spokesman for British forces.
Also to the south, U.S. forces took control of the center of the holy city of
Karbala, the Army Times newspaper reported Sunday.
OPERATION IRAQI FREEDOM
APRIL 2003
At Baghdad's airport, members of the 101st Airborne Division fought Iraqis in
military uniform in a prolonged overnight battle, and fended off sporadic raids
Monday. At least 150 Iraqi fighters were killed. The attacks followed the
coalition's first use of the airport's runways. A C-130 transport plane landed
there Sunday, foreshadowing a major resupply effort for U.S. troops, dependent
until now on a tenuous line stretching 350 miles to Kuwait.
Also Monday, President Bush arrived in Belfast for a meeting with British Prime
Minister Tony Blair. The coalition partners will discuss peace efforts in Northern
Ireland and the Middle East, but their summit is primarily meant to review war
progress and to iron out differences about how Iraq will be rebuilt and governed
when hostilities end.
Several opposition leaders have slipped into southern Iraq in recent days.
Ahmad Chalabi, who has lobbied to head a transitional government, arrived in
the southern town of Nasiriyah on Sunday with 700 supporters. A spokesman
for his Iraqi National Congress said the group went in unarmed and will take
orders from the U.S. military. The group's members may fight, work as
translators and provide other aid, U.S. Defense Department officials said.
The Iran-based Supreme Council of the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, the largest
opposition group, also plans to return. It claims to have 10,000 fighters, and
has rejected the idea of having the allies form a new government in Iraq.
In addition to the two journalists killed, armed Iraqis abducted two Polish
reporters at a checkpoint some 80 miles south of Baghdad on Monday, their
editors said.
.S. May Use Speed, Surprise to Take Iraqi Capital amid Confusion
Source: The Boston Globe
Publication date: 2003-04-06
Arrival time: 2003-04-07
The U.S. Army took the war to Saddam Hussein on Monday - to the heart of his
capital city, to the dusty remains of his opulent palace, to his hot tubs and
barbecue pit.
With little organized resistance, the Army's 3rd Infantry Division rolled through
Baghdad, taking over major roads and settling into the New Presidential Palace.
There, they found gold-painted faux French furniture, fabulous views of the
Tigris River and a television in every room.
Homey, it's not.
"This used to be a nice place, they should make it like a Six Flags, or
something," said Spc. Robert Blake, 20, of State College, Pa., and the 3rd
Battalion, 7th Infantry Regiment.
Saddam has many palaces, and the Americans visited two on Sunday, including
another about two miles away.
This one, constructed recently near his Baath Party headquarters, apparently
was built as a residence and for entertainment, though it is unclear how much
time the Iraqi president spent there. Troops found no personal effects, no "to-do
lists" on the refrigerators, no needlepoint pillows on the beds.
What they found, instead, was a building that had all the ambiance of a luxury,
five-star conference center. And they immediately put it to use as a mobile
command center, setting up a prisoner of war collection point in the palace
compound.
As Iraqis were captured in street fighting outside, they were brought to the
palace for processing before being sent behind U.S. lines.
OPERATION IRAQI FREEDOM
APRIL 2003
Gen. Richard Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said troops were
looking for intelligence - leads to other regime targets, documentation of
weapons of mass destruction.
He said there were no immediate reports that such material was found.
But he gave at least one other reason why the palace was captured: to send a
message that "we're in there ... that this regime is gone."
They left no doubt that they were "in there." Soldiers used Saddam's toilets (for
many the first indoor plumbing they'd seen in four months), rifled through
documents, helped themselves to ashtrays, pillows, gold-painted Arab
glassware and other souvenirs.
At sundown, some troops plugged one of Saddam's televisions into a portable
generator and watched a state-run broadcast. They scoffed at a segment on an
old man, wearing a turban and clutching an assault rifle.
"That looks awfully like the Taliban to me," said one soldier.
Occasionally, some Iraqis would approach the walls of the compound. The
Americans would fire warning shots, and the Iraqis would run away.
"I do believe this city is freakin' ours," boasted Capt. Chris Carter of
Watkinsville, Ga.
The main building, of sand-colored brick, is topped with a dome of blue-and-
gold ceramic tile, now covered with cement dust. There are two huge holes in
the roof and the front of the building from U.S. cruise missiles or laser-guided
bombs in the past; the blasts knocked off the facade, collapsed floors and
scorched walls.
Where fire had not destroyed the interior, plaster trimming and false ceiling
had collapsed. Shards of hundreds of glass chandeliers and mirrors lay on the
ground, crunching under the boots of American soldiers.
On the top floor, there once was an indoor pool, with windows looking out on
three sides of the building. What was left of an elaborate, mosaic ceiling littered
what was left of the bottom of the pool - the water drained into basement and
first floors, which were flooded.
Much of the building seemed like an empty hotel, never occupied.
The bedrooms, all large, each had bathroom with a Jacuzzi-like tub. There were
hotel-quality beds and tables; most of the shelves and drawers were empty. A
lone children's room had four beds.
In the industrial kitchen, everything had been put away and carefully cleaned.
There was no food in the refrigerators or pantries.
The building boasted a sophisticated audio-video system, with several music
channels and a closed-circuit television channel.
In one cabinet was an assortment of pirated movies, some with the titles in
English. Saddam, or his guests, had a choice of movies like "Hanoi Hilton," "The
Assassination of Trotsky," "Les Miserables" from the many Arab titles in the
collection.
There were several copies of the Quran, with dozens of commentaries on its
meaning, all in Arabic. There were also audio cassettes of the Quran and of
Egyptian pop music.
Outside, curtains from the building were strewn across the lawn, along with
decorative, wrought-iron gates that had covered bulletproof glass.
OPERATION IRAQI FREEDOM
APRIL 2003
Behind the building, by the Tigris, there was a grill and an elaborate water
garden with man-made pools and babbling brooks.
If not for the distant sound of tank and machine-gun fire, you could almost say
it was idyllic.
Under cover of rattling machine-gun fire, Marines grabbed planks, poles and
twisted rails Monday and surged across a shattered bridge over a Tigris River
tributary into Baghdad.
"Go! Go! Build that bridge!" an officer screamed, slapping troops as they ran
under thundering fire, grabbing more scrap to patch a 6-foot hole the Iraqis had
blown in the span.
With its repair job and dramatic on-foot push across the Tigris, the 3rd
Battalion, 4th Marines became the first Marines to penetrate the Iraqi capital.
They needed bridges able to support 70 tons to cross with their tanks and
amphibious armored vehicles. The broken bridge could hold only infantry - but
infantry would be enough to secure the other side for Army and Marine
engineers to work on the makeshift spans.
OPERATION IRAQI FREEDOM
APRIL 2003
The crossing Monday opened the way for thousands more Marines advancing
from the southeast, as the Army's 3rd Infantry Division marched in from the
southwest.
But the long-awaited entry was bittersweet: Just an hour earlier, the battalion,
trained at Camp Pendleton, Calif., suffered its heaviest loss of the skirmish-
heavy two-week drive toward the capital.
Two Marines died and two were wounded in an artillery assault on their
armored amphibious assault vehicle - an "amtrak" designed to float in 12-foot
waves but used mainly inland in Iraq.
The Marines had been guarding the American-held south bank of the reed-lined
Tigris tributary. As U.S. artillery whistled overhead and slammed into targets on
the far bank, an incoming shell tore into the top of the green, metal amtrak.
The impact peeled back the steel like paper and blew the Marines out. Fellow
Marines gathered the dead, treated the wounded, and collected bulletin boards,
photos and scrawled notes.
"Take care of it," a gunnery sergeant said, passing down a cardboard box
scrawled in markers. "That's something for the families."
The assault left the Marines grimfaced. Before, they had spoken of nothing but
taking Baghdad - seeing that as the first step to the trip home.
Entry into Baghdad "means we can get at 'em. They can't hide behind a river
anymore," battalion commander Lt. Col. B.P. McCoy said, adding that his unit
had been planning its infantry assault since Sunday night.
As it was, crossing into the capital found the battalion mourning newly dead
friends instead of feeling elated.
The battalion had to cross on foot, because Iraqis had blown up the Tigris
bridge and another one about 3 1/2 miles to the east - trying to block the
Marines where Iraqi rockets and Kalashnikovs had failed.
Two companies of the 3rd Battalion rattled across, led by those whose
colleagues had died in the amtrak.
They ran past a dead Iraqi sprawled on the bridge, a bullet hole in his head.
They stormed across the mound of debris patching the 6-foot gap. "You can
run. It'll hold," a Marine shouted at each passing comrade.
Smoke, flames and Iraqi automatic weapons fire greeted them on the other
side. Corpses of Iraqi men lay on the route, bodies slumped over steering
wheels or out the doors of bullet-riddled vehicles.
Marines moved quickly to secure hundreds of walled homes and graceful date
palm groves around the bridge - all the time alert for more of what have been
repeated suicide attacks against U.S. forces.
The battalion gave the few pedestrians and vehicles it encountered at least two
warning shots. If people and vehicles kept coming, Marines unleashed a volley
of American automatic weapons fire.
"After you give the final warning shot, shoot them dead," an officer instructed.
A Marine machine gunner lay sprawled behind his tripod, left foot jiggling as he
watched the road.
An old man approached, disoriented and alone, faltering forward with his cane
after three warning shots. Finally, U.S. weapons burst and he fell dead.
OPERATION IRAQI FREEDOM
APRIL 2003
Two vehicles ventured slowly, a red van and an orange-and-white taxi. They
didn't stop. Marines fired, bullets sending sprays of powdered glass and smoke
through the windshields, until the vehicles rolled to a slow halt. A man rolled
out of the driver's door of the taxi. He crawled. Marines kept shooting until he
stopped.
By afternoon, the vehicles still sat in the no-man's land of as-yet-unsecured
territory. The Marines would find out later whether the occupants had been
attackers or confused civilians.
Calm returned. Young men ventured out and were frisked before being allowed
to move on.
Old men came out of their courtyards, drawn to a riverside site where U.S.
bulldozers - ferried over the Tigris earlier Monday - leveled the banks of the 65-
yard-wide tributary.
The ground was being prepared for the Marines' tanks and amphibious assault
vehicles to float into Baghdad on heavy military rafts or to cross on bridges,
once they were ready.
Marines reassembled, crunching through broken glass and slogging back across
the patched bridge to regroup as a battalion.
They passed a mosaic at the foot of the bridge of a triumphant, young Saddam
Hussein on a white horse, Iraqi soldiers fording rivers and cheering crowds.
Mortars and machine-gun fire exploded around them.
"Yep," said Staff Sgt. Jack Coughlin of Boston, his face caked in dust. "We're in
Baghdad."
Late in the afternoon, the first Marine tanks rolled across a ribbon bridge with
an American flag tied to it.
Engineers of the 8th Engineer Support Battalion said they had been working on
the bridge since early morning, providing covering fire when their bulldozers
took incoming fire from the opposite bank.
"The best sight of the day was those infantry guys going across the bridge so I
didn't have to listen to incoming," said Staff Sgt. James Voy Detich, of Hot
Springs, Ark.
British forces took control of the heart of Basra on Monday, met by few pockets
of resistance and greeted by hundreds of people who shook their hands and
welcomed them to Iraq's second-largest city.
Royal Marine commandos seized a vacant, pink-hued marble palace belonging
to President Saddam Hussein. Elsewhere in the impoverished city, there was
OPERATION IRAQI FREEDOM
APRIL 2003
widespread looting in the city's narrowing streets, and even reports of some
retaliatory attacks by Iraqis against militiamen still loyal to Saddam.
"The last 48 hours have been historic for Basra. After decades under the heel of
Saddam's brutal regime, U.K. forces are in the process of delivering liberation
to the people of Basra," Air Marshal Brian Burridge told reporters in Qatar.
"There will be some difficult days ahead, but the Baathist regime is finished in
Basra."
For two weeks, the British had held off from storming the city of 1.3 million
people to avoid civilian casualties in what they feared would become bloody
urban fighting against Saddam's Fedayeen fighters and other loyalists.
Commanders also had hoped to use the time to gain the trust of local
residents, mainly Shiite Muslims, who had been crushed by Saddam's Sunni
government after an uprising at the end of the 1991 Gulf War.
But local resistance to allied forces weakened and, in an airstrike Saturday in
Basra, one of the most brutal members of Saddam's inner circle, Ali Hassan al-
Majid, was believed to have been killed in his home. He had been dubbed
"Chemical Ali" by opponents for ordering a 1988 poison gas attack that killed
thousands of Kurds.
"While it would have been more satisfying to see al-Majid answer for his crimes
in an international war crimes tribunal, the hundreds of thousands of victims of
his genocide campaign must be finding some solace in his death," said a
statement from Barham Salih, prime minister of the eastern half of the Kurdish
enclave in northern Iraq. "Al-Majid lived by the sword - killing tens of thousands
of innocent civilians - and he has died by the sword."
In Basra, troops broke down the doors to Saddam's ornate palace, finding
carved teak woodwork, marble floors, vaulted ceilings and stained-glass
windows. The palace, which apparently had been unoccupied for months, was
empty except for a flock of doves.
At the Central Bank of Iraq, Basra residents streamed out carrying chairs,
tables and carpets. A group of looters targeted schools and shops and one man
walked with a chandelier under his arm. And at the Sheraton Hotel, people
loaded chairs and sofas into horse-drawn carts. Some even wheeled the hotel's
grand piano down a street.
Military officials said they were more concerned that ammunition would be
looted and used in the sporadic fighting that continued as they tightened their
grip on the city.
Gunfire could be heard throughout the day and a half-dozen attack helicopters
buzzed overhead. Inside Basra's College of Religious Literature, which British
troops seized Sunday, more than 250 mortars, rocket-propelled grenades and
machine guns were found.
"We know local militia have been ordered not to wear their uniforms. There are
arms caches everywhere. They fire at us, lay down their arms, wave a white
flag, and move on," said Capt. Niall Brennan of the Irish Guards.
The success of the troops saw a brutal response from some civilians. Several
militiamen were seen being killed by throngs of civilians, Press Association said.
A British soldier was also told that civilians had killed a policeman, according to
British press pool reports.
OPERATION IRAQI FREEDOM
APRIL 2003
On Sunday, British officials made a massive push into the city.
The Royal Scots Dragoon Guards advanced in Challenger 2 tanks and the Black
Watch invaded in armored vehicles, while the Royal Regiment of Fusiliers
pushed in from the southwest, and Royal Marine commandos came in from the
south, according to Press Association.
The original objective was to take the outskirts but resistance was found to be
light, so the British forces advanced quickly.
The 7th Armored Brigade, or the Desert Rats, killed an unknown number of
paramilitary fighters and took others prisoner as the unit pushed in from the
west. Commanders said the bulk of Iraqi forces may have fled 48 hours before
the latest incursion, according to British pool reports.
The Defense Ministry said three British soldiers were killed Sunday.
On Monday, the 3rd Battalion Parachute Regiment took up foot patrol in the city
center after a massive convoy of British infantry started rolling into Basra from
the southern outskirts earlier in the day.
The paratroopers had been warned that resisters would use balconies,
alleyways and hidden alcoves of the old town to mount surprise attacks. But as
they walked into old Basra, they saw the area was clear.
"Saddam destroyed everything. He destroyed the water, he destroyed the
people. The people of Basra are very happy today," said one man, who refused
to give his name, giving a thumbs up to a passing soldier.
Hundreds of people poured out to welcome and shake hands with the soldiers.
Women in chadors hovered in the background, and soldiers talked and joked
with civilians and let some boys look through their gunsights.
The humanitarian situation remained bleak, with many residents desperate for
fresh water.
"All the citizens are very thirsty," said a man who would only identify himself as
Ali. He was holding his year-old daughter.
"I feel very afraid for her, and for my friend's baby," he said. "I've been without
water for three days."
Apr. 7--DOHA, Qatar--U.S. troops struck in the heart of Baghdad early Monday,
entering at least one of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein's main palaces, the Al
Rashid Hotel and possibly the Information Ministry.
It was the first significant strike in the center of the capital, which U.S. troops
say they have encircled. The Pentagon said the incursion was a "show of force"
to test the Iraqi military's response.
According to the Reuters news agency, 65 tanks and 45 Bradley Fighting
Vehicles were involved in the raids, which were unleashed after dawn local
time. Witnesses said Iraq's Republican Guard were defending the ministries
with rocket-propelled grenades.
Huge oil trenches were lit by Iraqi forces, cloaking the skies above Baghdad
with gray clouds. Small arms fire and some explosions echoed on the virtually
empty streets of the city of 5 million.
U.S. military officials said the raids were intended to find members of Hussein's
leadership and to secure buildings in the capital against sabotage or further
destruction.
"It is part of our ongoing mission to seek out members of the Iraqi regime, and
we are working to preserve the treasures of Baghdad, its palaces, hospitals and
things, for the Iraqi people," said Navy Ensign David Luckett, a spokesman for
U.S. Central Command in Qatar.
The main presidential palace is a sprawling compound on the Tigris River and is
considered the seat of Hussein's regime. It occupies a central location in
Baghdad. The Information Ministry is also a key lever for the regime.
The Al Rashid Hotel is an Iraqi landmark and an irritant to some U.S. officials
because the Iraqi owners have created an unflattering likeness of the first
President George Bush in tile on the floor so that visitors walk on his image.
OPERATION IRAQI FREEDOM
APRIL 2003
"Saddam Hussein says he owns Baghdad. We own Baghdad. We own his
palace. We own downtown," a 3rd Infantry Division officer told Fox News in a
live interview from the presidential palace.
The deepest penetration of the capital yet came a day after allied forces had
seized all major roads in and out of the city and began landing supplies at
Baghdad's airport.
On Sunday, Baghdad's streets crawled with gun-toting teenagers and Fedayeen
militia, the armed loyalists of Saddam Hussein's Baath Party, as U.S. officials
warned that "significant combat" could lie ahead.
A hulking C-130 transport plane arrived Sunday night carrying undisclosed
cargo and the promise of a faster, safer way to resupply troops arrayed around
Hussein's shrinking base of power.
British troops and tanks easily seized control over half of Basra, southern Iraq's
largest city. They killed hundreds of Iraqi fighters but avoided the block-by-
block street battles they had feared during a more than two-week siege of the
city. Allied commanders hoped the British surge into Basra would encourage
resistance to Hussein in Baghdad as well by demonstrating that his
government is fast losing control of major population centers.
A disturbing allied error also marked the intense day of battles.
American aircraft mistakenly attacked a convoy of U.S. Special Forces and
allied Kurdish troops. Kurdish officials said at least 18 people were killed and 45
wounded, which would make it the worst friendly fire incident of the war. At
least one member of the Special Forces was wounded, according to U.S. Central
Command.
The incident took place on a day when allied troops grabbed Shir Khan, the first
sizeable northern town to be taken from Hussein's retreating army.
Gen. Peter Pace, vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said incursions
Sunday through portions of the Iraqi capital involved "significant numbers of
coalition tanks and armored personnel carriers," and that they destroyed "all of
the enemy vehicles and personnel with whom they've come in contact."
A day earlier, U.S. officials said, the 3rd Infantry Division's first armored foray
into southwestern Baghdad killed 2,000 to 3,000 Iraqi fighters.
Pace said the strength of the Iraqi defenses around Baghdad, including the
diminished Republican Guard, remains unclear. "Some of the soldiers certainly
have just decided to go home," he said. "Some may have moved to other
places on the battlefield."
Pace called on the remaining Iraqi generals to surrender, urging them to "give
you and your troops a chance to be part of Iraq's future and not Iraq's past."
Iraqi leaders remained defiant. In a statement attributed to Hussein that was
read on Iraqi TV, he urged troops separated from their combat squads to join
other fighters in fending off the Americans--a possible indication of disarray
among Iraq's soldiers.
The escalation of firefights in the capital was taking its toll on residents. At the
al-Kindi hospital in a working-class neighborhood of the city, scores of people
with shrapnel wounds began arriving Saturday night.
The ground combat around Baghdad also damaged the already strained
relations between the U.S. and Russia. On the same day that President Bush's
OPERATION IRAQI FREEDOM
APRIL 2003
national security adviser, Condoleezza Rice, arrived in Moscow to smooth those
relations, a Russian diplomatic convoy got caught amid shelling and gunfire on
Baghdad's outskirts as it fled toward Syria. At least five people were injured.
U.S. military officials said initial field reports showed no allied forces operating
in that area, west of Baghdad. But a reporter for Russian TV who was in the
convoy said it appeared the caravan had driven into the middle of a fierce
firefight between U.S. and Iraqi troops.
About 20 miles southeast of the capital, in Salman Pak, U.S. Marines discovered
an old passenger jet and speculated that it was used for hijacking practice.
They also found a full obstacle course at the camp, which Hussein's regime has
said was used for anti-terrorism training for Iraqi special forces.
In a surprise move, the United States began airlifting hundreds of members of
an Iraqi exile group into the southern Iraq city of Nasiriyah--lead elements of
what the Pentagon said would form the basis of a new Iraqi army.
The exile group members arrived as Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz
said it probably will take the United States more than six months to cede power
in postwar Iraq, first to an Iraqi-led civilian authority and eventually to a
permanent representative government.
U.S. soldiers evacuated an Iraqi military compound after tests by a mobile
laboratory confirmed evidence of sarin nerve gas found at an agricultural
warehouse and a military compound, according to a Knight Ridder reporter
embedded with the soldiers.
Earlier, more than a dozen soldiers of the Army's 101st Airborne Division were
sent for chemical weapons decontamination after they exhibited symptoms of
possible exposure to nerve agents. A Knight Ridder reporter, a CNN cameraman
and two Iraqi prisoners of war also were hosed down with water and bleach.
The evacuation of dozens of soldiers Sunday night followed a day of tests for
the nerve agent that came back positive, then negative.
Additional tests Sunday night by an Army mobile nuclear, biological and
chemical detection laboratory confirmed the existence of sarin.
Pentagon and Central Command officials said they had no information on the
report of chemicals found.
In the holy Shiite city of Karbala, the 101st Airborne won a lopsided two-day
battle in the crowded neighborhoods against Iraqi paramilitary forces. An
estimated 400 Hussein loyalists were killed, military officials said, while one
U.S. soldier was killed and seven others wounded.
NBC News correspondent David Bloom, one of the network's most prominent
young stars and a near-constant television presence reporting from the Iraqi
desert, died from an apparent blood clot.
The 39-year-old co-anchor of the weekend "Today" show was about 25 miles
south of Baghdad and was packing gear early in the morning when he
collapsed.
U.S. military officials disclosed that they had attacked the country house of Iraq
Gen. Ali Hassan Majid, known as "Chemical Ali" for his alleged role in gassing
Iraqi Kurds in 1988. The attack in the southern town of Al Berghisiah was based
on information that he had entered the house, but only the body of Majid's
bodyguard was found.
OPERATION IRAQI FREEDOM
APRIL 2003
Allied commanders said they could not say whether Majid had been killed, and
Iraqi government officials denied it. "As to Chemical Ali himself, I think time will
tell," U.S. Army Brig. Gen. Vincent Brooks said at a news conference at Central
Command headquarters in Qatar.
Despite the continued fighting on Baghdad's outskirts, U.S. officials declared
the city cut off from the rest of Iraq.
"We do control the highways in and out of the city and do have the capability to
interdict, to stop, to attack any Iraqi military forces that might try to either
escape or to engage our forces," Pace said.
Brooks said attacks by the Army's 5th Corps on the city's west and the 1st
Marine Expeditionary Force from the east continue "to isolate Baghdad,
denying any reinforcements or any escape by regime military forces."
The Marine attack on the training camp southeast of Baghdad in Salman Pak
was prompted by "information that had been gained by coalition forces from
some foreign fighters we encountered from other countries, not Iraq," Brooks
said. "We believe that this camp had been used to train these foreign fighters
in terror tactics. It is now destroyed."
The Salman Pak raid, which also destroyed a small number of tanks and
armored personnel carriers, is just one of a number of examples where such
training centers have been found in Iraq, according to Brooks.
"It reinforces the likelihood of links between his regime and external terrorist
organizations, clear links with common interests," he said, alluding to the Bush
administration's efforts to link Iraq to Osama bin Laden's Al Qaeda network.
U.S. commanders have been reluctant to give precise numbers on Iraqi soldiers
killed in battles.
But Brooks said that based on "the amount of force that was encountered [and]
the types of systems that were involved in the action," the U.S. sweep through
southwestern Baghdad on Saturday killed "on the order of 2,000."
"Frankly," he added, "if we are going to be honorable about our warfare, we are
not out there trying to count up bodies."
Following a series of quick, violent raids inside Baghdad's perimeter, U.S. Army
and Marine forces staked out territory to hold in the city center Monday, going
so far as to set up a makeshift American camp in one of President Saddam
OPERATION IRAQI FREEDOM
APRIL 2003
Hussein's palaces. Far to the south, British forces laid final claim to Basra, Iraq's
second largest city.
Here's a summary of recent information from units in those positions, followed
by other battlefield developments. The reports are culled from official
assessments and from journalists of The Associated Press and member news
organizations traveling with American units in Iraq.
IN AND AROUND BAGHDAD
- At least 2,000 U.S. Marines and 500 or more Army soldiers entered Baghdad
to stay Monday despite encountering tough fighting in southeastern sections of
the city. Lt. Col. B.P. McCoy said two Marines were killed and two were injured
after an artillery shell hit their armored personnel carrier.
Army Col. David Perkins of the 2nd Brigade, 3rd Infantry Division estimated his
troops killed 600 to 1,000 Iraqis, often defending against suicide attacks.
Several miles to the south, two soldiers and two journalists were killed in a
rocket attack. Fifteen other soldiers were injured in the attack.
But back in Baghdad proper, Marines surged across a tributary of the Tigris
River, opening the way for thousands more to move in from the southeast.
By Monday afternoon, tanks and amphibious assault vehicles stood in miles-
long lines at two bridges, waiting to float into Baghdad on heavy military rafts
or cross on jerry-rigged bridges.
The International Committee of the Red Cross said the number of casualties in
the Iraqi capital is so high hospitals have stopped keeping count.
BASRA
- After weeks of surrounding Iraq's second largest city, British troops swept in
and were greeted by huge welcoming crowds.
"There are no areas of the city that we are now concerned about," Col. Chris
Vernon at field headquarters told a British pool reporter from The Sun. Asked
where the pro-Saddam Fedayeen fighters had gone in the previous 24 hours,
Vernon replied: "Most of them are dead or taken prisoner."
British soldiers of the 3rd Battalion Parachute Regiment patrolled Basra on foot
and secured the city center a day after armored columns cleared the way.
Coalition forces had held off storming the city of 1.3 million people to avoid
civilian casualties.
Air Marshal Brian Burridge told reporters in Qatar: "There will be some difficult
days ahead, but the Baathist regime is finished in Basra."
IN THE NORTH
- Coalition warplanes struck Iraqi positions again Monday in the fight to
advance on the two main northern cities still in Iraqi control: Mosul and oil-rich
Kirkuk.
Bombs also pounded military targets on southern routes toward Baghdad.
American soldiers and Kurdish fighters took the town of Dibagah, near the site
of a U.S. friendly fire incident that killed 17 Kurdish fighters and a translator a
day earlier.
But Iraqi soldiers still stood between the Kurdish forces and Mosul and Kirkuk.
At Khazer, due east of Mosul, Iraqis held a position west of a strategic bridge
they lost to the Kurds last week, and the Kurds pulled back east of the bridge to
clear the way for airstrikes.
OPERATION IRAQI FREEDOM
APRIL 2003
Meanwhile, Kurdish intelligence sources, speaking on condition of anonymity,
said Iraqi forces have drawn tanks and heavy armor into residential areas while
barring civilians from leaving. The information could not be independently
confirmed.
Wearing camouflaged body armor and a black beret, U.S. war commander Gen.
Tommy Franks made his first visit to front-line troops in Iraq on Monday.
Franks left his headquarters outside Doha, Qatar, in a military jet bound for
Kuwait. There, he boarded a Black Hawk helicopter flanked by machine gunners
for ride across the border into southern Iraq, at times skimming the Euphrates
River.
He took in several towns, including Basra and the Shiite holy city of Najaf where
a suicide bomber killed four U.S. soldiers last month, according to a senior
official at U.S. Central Command.
On the ground, the four-star general greeted troops with slaps and hugs. Franks
took photos with some, pinned Bronze Star medals on two sergeants from the
101st Airborne, and dug into battlefield rations, the plastic-wrapped MREs, or
meals-ready-to-eat.
"I think it would be almost impossible for anyone to see those kids and
recognize where they came from and what they've done over the last two
weeks and look at their mental state and morale and not feel pretty good about
it," Franks said.
U.S. Central Command described Franks' trip, his first to Iraq since the start of
the war, as a morale booster for the troops. But the one-day sweep also
underscores the growing sense of control and security felt by U.S.-led forces as
they march into Baghdad.
Franks had a pistol tucked under his belt and kept a chemical weapons suit by
his side throughout the trip. But at one point, the coalition commander drove in
a Humvee through the streets of Najaf, where scores waved and blew kisses to
his motorcade - despite his vehicle's blacked-out windows.
Among the fighters Franks met were those of the 1st Marine Expeditionary
Force, the Army's 101st Airborne Division and the British 1st Armored Division
outside Basra. While greeting the 101st outside Najaf, he presented Bronze
Stars to the unit's Sgt. James Ward and Sgt. Lucas Goddard. Their hometowns
and details about why they were receiving the award were not released.
Franks did not go to Baghdad. He stayed overnight at the Persian Gulf nation of
Bahrain, where he met the king, Sheik Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa.
Field commanders briefed Franks on the capture earlier in the day of one of
Saddam Hussein's palaces in Baghdad, the status of seized weapons, and the
humanitarian plight of Iraqi civilians.
OPERATION IRAQI FREEDOM
APRIL 2003
He was told that 110 schools in the Najaf area had been used as weapons
depots by Iraqi troops and that drinkable water, not food or medicine, was the
top humanitarian need of civilians.
Franks said the progress reports he heard gave him a better sense of how long
it would take to restore peace and stability in Iraq. But he didn't share any
forecasts.
"It was encouraging," Franks said.
People in Baghdad wait anxiously for the end When will the Americans
storm the capital? WAR IN IRAQ: An unthinkable notion
Source: International Herald Tribune
Publication date: 2003-04-07
After being subjected to two weeks of relentless bombing that has destroyed
many of the power centers of Saddam Hussein's government, the Iraqi capital
found itself on Sunday deep into the ground battle that promises to be the
decisive phase of America's war to topple the Iraqi leader. From the heart of the
capital, a new cacophony of battle signaled the shift from a war fought
primarily from the air to one where the outcome will depend increasingly on
American ground troops. The earthshaking devastation of bombs and missiles
was mostly stilled on Sunday, overtaken by the more distant sounds of artillery
and rocket fire, by the staccato of machine-gun and rifle burst, and by the
scream of American jets flying what appeared to be low-level ground support
missions. Most of the fighting appeared to be concentrated away to the
southwest of the city near what was Saddam International Airport until it was
captured by American troops Friday. Now stripped of the Iraqi leader's name by
the Americans, the airport has become a magnetic point on the personal
compass of almost everybody in this city of 5 million people, whether the hard
core of loyalists to Saddam or the increasingly venturesome Iraqis, numerous if
not yet demonstrably a majority, who have begun to shake off decades of fear
and to whisper hauntingly that they wait anxiously for the end. Up to now the
Saddam government has held to its official line, even after the capture of the
airport: the Americans, the information minister has repeated with a cherubic
air at daily news conferences, have fallen into the Iraqi trap by advancing to
the gates of the city. But for those listening for shifts, for the minor notes that
rise even as the major ones pound out the familiar theme, there have been
hints of a wavering certainty. On Sunday, the minister, Mohammed Said
Sahhaf, was no longer claiming, as he did Saturday, that the Americans had
been routed from the airport by an Iraqi counterattack, and divided into
isolated pockets where they were surrendering en masse. Instead, he said at a
news conference, the Republican Guards were "tightening the noose around
the U.S. enemy in the area surrounding the airport," having killed 50 American
soldiers and destroyed six American tanks. This appeared to be a subtle but
important shift, an acknowledgment that American forces really are close by
and ready to fight. As for the citizens of Baghdad, the question being posed by
many was this: When will American tanks and infantry attempt to storm the
city, not as they did for a few hours early Saturday, but in earnest, with intent
OPERATION IRAQI FREEDOM
APRIL 2003
to seize Baghdad's heart, to haul down the Iraqi flag that still flutters atop the
Republican Palace? To Saddam's diehard supporters, the very notion that the
Iraqi ruler's days might be numbered remains unthinkable, or at least
inadmissible. But Sunday, the information minister's talk of the "scoundrels"
and "villains" and "criminals" who have invaded Iraq was in a lesser key,
subordinated to more pressing, more practical concerns. Iraqis, he said, should
be on the lookout everywhere for the enemy, and "should not ignore" sightings
of American units, or fail to report them to the Iraqi military. From the official
Iraqi standpoint, Sahhaf has made himself the media star of the war, if anybody
other than Saddam would dare claim that distinction for himself. A sort of Iraqi
Donald Rumsfeld, with the rhetorical flourishes of Soviet-era Moscow, he likes
to muse on stage, developing his thrusts, amusing himself with a caustic wit at
the Americans' expense. But he was in a distinctly more sober mood Sunday. In
a statement read on state television, he said Iraqis should not be prey to
"rumors," especially of a kind that suggested that American forces were gaining
the upper hand. The allies, he said, "might attempt to release rumors, believing
that they can cause confusion and tell lies, asserting that there is a landing
here and there." At about the time this statement was being broadcast, Iraqis
who had filled up at a Baghdad gasoline station were reporting that drivers
arriving from points west and northwest of the city were telling of seeing
American paratroops descending from the sky alongside the access roads that
American commanders, in Qatar, were saying they were seizing in order to
tighten the encirclement of Baghdad. There was no way of knowing if these
sighting were merely the work of the imaginations of the drivers. Sahhaf had
other words of advice, and warning. Iraqi fighters, he said, should refrain from
firing their guns in Baghdad "for no reason," as many appear to have done
through the prolonged heavy bombing, conducted from an altitude that made
the endless rattle of anti-aircraft guns and automatic rifles seem more like a
reaffirmation of vulnerability more than a meaningful act of defense. But if this
sounded like an appeal for conserving ammunition, there was an intriguing,
slightly menacing, counterpoint. With the enemy in Baghdad, Sahhaf said, it
was the duty now for "anybody who wants to do so to use his weapon," and
anybody who failed to do so would be considered "cursed." Violators, he said,
will not be treated leniently.
Apr. 7--NEAR BAGHDAD, Iraq--Before dawn yesterday, advance parties for the
Second Battalion, 11th Marine Regiment's four gun batteries moved to scout
what they figured might be the unit's final location of the war. As the convoy
rolled through the eastern Baghdad suburbs, the Marines shared a sense of
relief that the end of their piece of the war seemed near.
Then, just as the sun came up, the Marines drove into an ambush.
OPERATION IRAQI FREEDOM
APRIL 2003
"I saw flashes coming from a building on the right," said Lance Corporal Kevin
Kurlas, 26, of Columbus, Ohio. "I saw First Sergeant [Terry Jones in the vehicle
ahead] getting off rounds, tearing into the wall. Then somebody yelled there
was shooting on the left."
The Marine unit had just moved north out of a congested part of the suburbs
into an agricultural area, with farms and fields and relatively few buildings. The
only ominous sign was the sight of dozens of blown-up Republican Guard tanks
and armored personnel carriers along the road within a few miles.
The Marines and a Boston Globe reporter traveling in the armored Humvee with
Jones, just ahead of Kurlas and roughly in the middle of the battalion convoy,
heard a single rifle shot, and scanned the surroundings for the source of the
gunfire.
Then, the reporter noticed muzzle flashes coming from the lower right corner of
a window in a squat building about 60 yards away. Several bullets skipped off
the road between our vehicle and the next Humvee forward. The reporter
pointed out the source of the gunfire for Jones, who was in the turret operating
the .50-caliber machine gun.
The 19-year veteran fired at the building with bullets that carry enough force to
go through the mud wall, anybody inside, and out the other side. Jones, 39,
fired nearly 100 rounds , and no more muzzle flashes came from inside.
Behind the convoy, other minidramas were unfolding. On the left side of the
road, two militia members fired AK-47s from behind trees, and on the right
more fired from inside the buildings.
The Iraqis had been smart about the ambush, waiting until the heavily armored
reconnaissance vehicles at the head of the convoy passed before shooting at
the more vulnerable Humvees and 7-ton trucks. Fortunately for the Marines,
the Iraqis' aim was less precise than their planning.
One bullet glanced off the Humvee I was riding in; no one was wounded in the
American convoy. The Marines, though, opened up with all the firepower they
had on the buildings and the trees.
Three vehicles away, Lance Corporal Kiki Coleman, 22, of Cleveland, Miss., said
he saw a bullet fly into one window of his Humvee and out the other side.
"It just barely missed taking [the driver's] face off," Coleman said. Sitting in the
back seat, Coleman leaned as far back as he could to make a smaller target,
and unloaded two magazines of bullets from his M-16 into the buildings on the
right.
Kurlas said he shot 400 rounds from his Squad Automatic Weapon, or SAW.
Elsewhere, Marines emptied clips of ammunition from their M-16 rifles, dropped
the clips, and reloaded.
Corporal Corey Brown, 21, of Milwaukee, riding four vehicles back in an open-
backed Humvee, lobbed a colored-smoke grenade into the building as soon as
the firing started. When the militiamen answered with AK-47 rounds and green,
Russian-made tracer rounds, the convoy recognized enemy fire.
Brown shot another colored-smoke grenade -- a different color this time -- to
mark the target and the Marines opened up on the buildings. Brown fired three
high-explosive grenades into the buildings on the right as the convoy passed
by.
OPERATION IRAQI FREEDOM
APRIL 2003
Afterward, other Marines congratulated him for calmly marking the target.
"I just did what I'm supposed to do," Brown said. "With grenades, you just have
to get close, in the general area."
Meanwhile, Marines on the left let loose on the men they saw ducking and firing
from behind trees.
"There's part of you that was scared of being killed, and part of you that loved
the adrenaline rush," Corporal Mysael Santolaja, 21, of Glendale, Calif., said of
the ambush.
He said he fired about a dozen rounds from his truck's M-240 machine gun
before it jammed. He dropped it, picked up his M-16, and fired another dozen
rounds before it, too, jammed. By the time he cleared the weapon, the fight
was over. The whole fight had lasted less than a minute.
"It sucks that somebody had to die, but better him than me," Santolaja said
afterward. "I'd do it again."
The question of whether Saddam Hussein was alive or dead hung over the
capital Tuesday after a U.S. warplane dropped four bunker-busting bombs and
blasted a crater 60 feet deep at a spot where he was believed to be meeting
with his sons.
At least three buildings were destroyed Monday afternoon in the attempt to kill
Saddam. The airstrike in the upscale al-Mansour section of western Baghdad
broke windows and doors up to 300 yards away, ripped orange trees out by the
roots and left a heap of concrete, mangled iron rods and shredded furniture and
clothes.
Iraqi rescue workers looking in the rubble for victims said two bodies had been
recovered and the death toll could be as high as 14. They did not release any
names.
"A leadership target was hit very hard," said Marine Maj. Brad Bartelt, a
spokesman for U.S. Central Command in Qatar.
He said he could not comment on casualties or say how long it would take to
determine the damage. Battle assessment typically involves ground
reconnaissance or satellite imagery, though Bartelt would not say what method
was being used.
The attack was carried out by a single B-1B bomber, which dropped four 2,000-
pound bunker-penetrating bombs on a residential complex after U.S.
intelligence was tipped that Saddam, sons Odai and Qusai and other top Iraqi
leaders might be meeting there, U.S. officials said.
Those close to Saddam have said the Iraqi leader is so obsessed with security
that very few people would know about his movements. He maintains dozens
of residences and uses doubles to keep people guessing.
An exiled dissident told The Associated Press that only two people are kept
posted about Saddam's whereabouts - Qusai, who commands the Republican
Guard and heads the president's security, and his private secretary, Abed
OPERATION IRAQI FREEDOM
APRIL 2003
Hameed Hmoud, a member of Saddam's Tikriti clan. Even Odai is thought to be
out of the loop because he is considered too reckless.
Group Capt. Al Lockwood, spokesman for British forces in the Persian Gulf, said
coalition forces were looking for solid evidence that Saddam was indeed killed.
The airstrike was ordered on the basis of "a very good intelligence report last
night that indeed Saddam Hussein and some of the leading members of his
regime were meeting in a particular building," he said.
The strike came on a day when U.S. forces also occupied two of Saddam's
palaces southwest of the target zone and knocked down a statue of the Iraqi
leader as they tried to wrest control of Baghdad from his regime.
Seif Hatef, 21, said some of his friends were among the victims of the attack on
the three buildings. "Such attacks will make Iraqis more determined to resist.
Iraq will remain and this war will never finish," he said.
Workers at a nearby mall swept the glass and other debris from the sidewalk.
"When this war will end? It depends on that scum Bush," said Amer Hamad
Abdullah al-Jabouri, who works at the complex.
Coalition strikes have aimed at top Iraqi leaders from the very start of the war.
On March 19, the opening night of the war, President Bush authorized a strike
on a suburban Baghdad compound where Saddam and his sons were thought
to be staying. But U.S. intelligence officials suspect he survived.
Earlier Monday, U.S. and British officials said they believed Saddam's top
commander in southern Iraq, his first cousin Ali Hassan al-Majid, had been
killed in a U.S. airstrike at a house in Basra. Al-Majid, considered one of the
most brutal and loyal members of Saddam's inner circle, was known as
"Chemical Ali" for his role a 1988 poison gas attack that killed tens of
thousands of Iraqi Kurds.
A video clip of the U.S. attack on the Basra house was shown at the Pentagon
on Monday.
"We believe that the reign of terror of Chemical Ali has come to an end. To
Iraqis who have suffered at his hand, particularly in the last few weeks in that
southern part of the country, he will never again terrorize you or your families,"
Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said.
Iraqi forces staged a major counterattack Tuesday morning, sending buses and
trucks full of fighters over the Tigris River in an attempt to overrun U.S. forces
holding a strategic intersection on the western side of Baghdad.
At least 50 Iraqi fighters were killed, said Capt. Philip Wolford of Marysville,
Ohio, commander of A Company, 4th Battalion, of the Army's 3rd Infantry
Division. Two U.S. soldiers were reported wounded, one seriously, by snipers on
rooftops.
U.S. troops strafed the Iraqis from A-10 Warthog attack planes and opened up
with artillery and mortar fire. About an hour after the firefight began, Wolford
OPERATION IRAQI FREEDOM
APRIL 2003
moved his tanks and Bradley fighting vehicles forward again and retook the
intersection.
Wolford's unit then began pursuing the remaining Iraqi defenders.
The counterattack began shortly after dawn, when more than 20 buses and
trucks dropped off dozens of Iraqi foot soldiers firing assault rifles and rocket-
propelled grenades at U.S. tanks blocking an intersection leading to a bridge
over the Tigris, Wolford said.
Two A-10s strafed the building tops and the street with 30mm rapid-fire cannon
that reverberated across the city. Wolford asked if the jets could also hit
bunkers built in a city park.
"If they can hit that bunker complex. we'll be set to go back in," Wolford told a
flight controller, who was directing the pilots.
"Two ships are coming in hot," Capt. Todd Smith, the controller, replied. "How
are they are working for you?"
"They're a beautiful thing," Wolford said, after two strafing runs.
The A-10s had to leave to refuel, but soon British Tornado fighter jets were
overhead with precision-guided bombs. Wolford called for those to hit the
buildings occupied by snipers.
Iraqi fighters also appeared to be probing U.S. defenses in other areas, with
short exchanges of fire in other areas. American troops showed no signs of
pulling back.
Around daybreak, troops with the Army's 101st Airborne Division launched an
attack on an eight-story former Republican Guard headquarters about half a
mile from the airport. Two Iraqis were reported killed in the gun battle. There
were no U.S. casualties.
The Army had come under fire from fighters in the building in previous days.
Explosions, the thud of shells landing, anti-aircraft and machine-gun fire and
the drone of aircraft filled the air in Baghdad at midmorning Tuesday.
For the first time since the war began, residents of the capital could see, rather
than just hear, allied aircraft. A lone fighter jet flew over Baghdad, swerving,
diving and, at times, causing a boom that rocked the city.
The Arab TV network Al-Jazeera reported that a U.S. plane attacked its office on
the banks of the Tigris River, killing a reporter.
Most residents were hunkered down in their homes, with very little traffic on
the streets.
State television went off the air around mid-morning.
Marines Cross Tigris River in Amphibious Assault Vehicles
Source: Knight Ridder Washington Bureau
Publication date: 20030408
Apr. 8OUTSIDE BAGHDAD After hundreds of miles of highway travel, U.S. Marines Monday finally used
their amphibious assault vehicles the way they were intended floating across a tributary of the Tigris River
to take up positions near Rashid Airport, east of downtown Baghdad.
Like a row of giant, olivegreen elephants, the amphibious Amtracs roared down the muddy banks of the
Diyala River, splashed into the water and lumbered out on the other side.
OPERATION IRAQI FREEDOM
APRIL 2003
"Usually we do it in the ocean," said Amtracker Lance Cpl. Casey Mattox, 22, a reservist from Foley, Ala.
More than 10,000 Marines crossed the Diyala, a 100footwide ribbon of water that joins the Tigris south of
Baghdad, becoming the second major U.S. force on Baghdad's outskirts. On the opposite side of the Iraqi
capital, the Army's 3rd Infantry Division controls the international airport and has made forays into Baghdad
neighborhoods.
Opposition was light to the Marines' advance, though two Marines were killed when an artillery shell struck a
vehicle as it rolled across a bridge. It was unclear who fired the shell.
The Marines' advance toward Baghdad was halted Monday when engineers discovered mines along the
road. The mines are expected to be cleared Tuesday and there was little doubt of the troops' destination.
"We're going to keep pushing northwest toward the center of the city," said Capt. Joseph Bevan, executive
officer for K Company.
Marines found hundreds of discarded Republican Guard uniforms along the roadway, apparently tossed there
by Iraqi deserters fleeing ahead of the advance. They also found weapons and ammunition, including a large
surfacetosurface missile.
In a military building that had been booby trapped by the Iraqis, members of the 1st Battalion, 4th Marines
found bunkers filled with antitank and antiaircraft weapons. They also seized 30 prisoners of war, including
some who carried Baath Party membership cards or wore military uniforms.
Many of the Marines crossed the Diyala over bridges, but others were tucked inside nearly submerged
Amtracs that had brought them hundreds of miles along contested Iraqi roads and through towns where they
met fierce resistance.
Marine infantrymen were uncertain of their vehicles' waterworthiness. The aluminum vehicles leak when
plunged in water.
"They were wondering if we would sink," said Lance Cpl. Zachary Schudrowitz, 20, a Marine reservist,
college student and parttime WalMart employee.
The vehicles, each of which is equipped with four bilge pumps that can remove 440 gallons of water per
minute, leaked copiously but none sank.
"The bilge pumps are the only thing that keep these thing from sinking," said Lance Cpl, Brent Rishel, an
Amtrac crew chief from Long Beach, Miss.
Marines of the 3rd Battalion, 1st Marines began the day about six miles from the heart of Baghdad. Artillery
destroyed several tanks and about a dozen gun emplacements across the river.
The artillery fire also damaged a bridge Marines had planned to use to enter the city. Engineers preparing a
portable bridge were attacked by light arms. When the firefight was over, a bulldozer got too close to the
water and slipped in.
The Marines made the crossing while not wearing padded chemical protective suits, which had become
stifling in the 90degree weather. Iraqi citizens, who had been sullen and suspicious, appeared friendly on
Monday, waving and cheering for Marines who headed toward the center of the city.
But some Marines were grumbling. The entire 1st Marine Division had been ordered to clean trash and
debris from the roadsides and fields where they had stayed.
Commanding Gen. James Mattis was said to be "furious" about the conditions of sites where Marines had
stopped, leaving behind MRE wrappers and human waste.
"I agree. It's disgusting. Instead of the highway of death, it looks like the highway of trash," said Gunnery Sgt.
Craig Morris, referring to an incident from the first Gulf War, in which allied aircraft killed hundreds of Iraqi
soldiers as they fled Kuwait on the highway to Iraq.
OPERATION IRAQI FREEDOM
APRIL 2003
Peterson reports for the Biloxi (Miss.) Sun Herald. Contributing were Andrea Gerlin of The Philadelphia
Inquirer with the 1st Battalion, 4th Marines, and Juan O. Tamayo of The Miami Herald from Marine Combat
Headquarters in Iraq.
The death toll of Iraqi soldiers is in the thousands, but precisely how many have
died is anyone's guess.
The Pentagon isn't doing estimates. The International Committee of the Red
Cross says hospitals in Baghdad - where "one emergency arrival follows the
other" - have gotten too busy to count the wounded.
Military analysts are divided: One says more than 10,000 uniformed Iraqi
soldiers will be dead at war's end. Another suggests the death total will be half
that. Others won't venture a guess.
"These are extremely rubber numbers," said Dana Dillon, a senior analyst and
retired Army major at the Heritage Foundation. "It's difficult to verify, especially
when you're dropping bombs on people and you don't go back and count
bodies."
Adding to the confusion are claims by Iraq's minister of information,
Mohammed Saeed al-Sahhaf, who says American and British soldiers are the
ones being killed. They're so demoralized, he said, that they're "beginning to
commit suicide at the walls of Baghdad."
U.S. and British military officials say 91 American and 30 British troops have
died in the war.
Most information about Iraqi troop casualties has dribbled out after individual
fights or suicide bombings.
"We can't keep count of how many we've killed," Col. David Perkins with the 3rd
Infantry Division inside Baghdad said Monday. He guessed his troops killed
between 600 and 1,000 Iraqi soldiers on their way into the capital on the west
side of the Tigris River.
"We have had a lot of suicide attackers today," Perkins said. "These guys are
going to die in droves."
That assault on Baghdad followed weekend incursions into the capital - a show
of force that the Pentagon says left 2,000 to 3,000 Iraqi fighters dead.
"It's a pure guesstimate," said Dan Goure, a military analyst at the Lexington
Institute. He said the Pentagon issued the number to convince Iraqi fighters
that the battle was lopsided and they should put down their weapons.
"It may never be known how many Iraqis were killed by coalition forces," Goure
said. "It would have to be over 10,000 uniformed Iraqis and more if you include
the irregulars."
Before the war began, government officials and independent military think
tanks estimated Iraq had 389,000 full-time, active-duty military, including
about 80,000 members of the Republican Guard. Iraq also was believed to have
650,000 reserve troops and 44,000 to 60,000 paramilitary and security forces.
OPERATION IRAQI FREEDOM
APRIL 2003
William Arkin, a private analyst and expert on the Iraqi military, said the
estimates, particularly about the Republican Guard, could be misleading.
"They were undermanned as we saw by the ease with which we went through
them," Arkin said.
Arkin would only say that the Iraqi military losses would be in the "many
thousands." But he predicted the total would be lower than in the first Gulf War
when 10,000 to 15,000 Iraqi military deaths occurred.
In the Gulf War, 300,000-plus Iraqi soldiers exiled in the desert were bombed by
U.S. and coalition forces for 39 days with 10 times as many weapons as have
been used so far in this war, he said.
"There is no way to do the math and get to the number (of Iraqi soldiers) killed
in 1991," he said.
Still, Arkin believes the Iraqi military death toll will be higher than expected,
and the number might have postwar implications for the Bush administration.
The coalition has worked to strike military targets and minimize civilian
casualties, Arkin said. But if Iraqis perceive that their troop losses are
disproportionate to the number of American and British soldiers killed, they
may think "the United States was bloodthirsty" in its efforts to change the
government in Iraq.
"This is very important politically because the whole point of this war is to
topple Saddam Hussein's regime with minimal cost," Arkin said. "Every one of
those military casualties is going to be equally a problem in the postwar period.
These are angry families."