G-khan
03-25-2003, 11:32 PM
Tuesday, March 25, 2003
Six large explosions were heard on the outskirts of Baghdad, with one hitting the city's center, as dawn broke on Wednesday, Reuters has reported.
Smoke was seen rising from an area where the ministry of information and television station are located in the Iraqi capital, Reuters said. The explosions came after a five-hour lull in bombing raids by coalition forces.
Between 150 and 500 Iraqi troops were killed Tuesday after coalition forces came under attack near An Najaf, in central Iraq, a senior Defense official said.
No U.S. casualties were immediately reported.
Elements of the 7th Cavalry Regiment were east of An Najaf when they suddenly came under fire from rocket-propelled grenades, the official said. The Iraqis were on foot; it wasn’t clear whether they were from regular army units, paramilitary forces or the Republican Guard.
Some of the 7th Cavalry's equipment was damaged in the attack, according to the Defense official. Early estimates of the number of Iraqis killed in the fight varied widely, from 150 to 500. It was not immediately clear what weaponry the Americans used.
The 7th Cavalry is part of the Army force driving toward Baghdad. Some elements of the force are farther north, near Karbala, with only the Medina armored division of the Republican Guard between them and Baghdad.
Meanwhile, Defense officials told Fox News Tuesday night that waterways to Umm Qasr — the Iraqi Persian Gulf port seized by coalition forces in recent days — should be clear of mines "today" so humanitarian aid could begin arriving.
But the port's piers were still mined and the British, who were leading the effort to clean up the port, estimated it will take at least another day to make the offloading points safe for cargo ships. If they are successful, the first humanitarian aid shipments should start arriving in Umm Qasr by Thursday. Umm Qasr will likely stay the center of humanitarian aid operations for the foreseeable future.
President Bush promised on Sunday that "massive amounts of humanitarian aid should begin moving with the next 36 hours." No aid has materialized yet.
United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan and others have warned of a possible humanitarian crisis in the Baghdad. The International Red Cross said during the day that it had started repairs at a war-damaged water-pumping station serving the city.
Sensitive to international criticism that relief was slow in reaching Iraqis, the administration dispatched National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice to the United Nations to discuss the issue. White House Press Secretary Ari Fleischer blamed Saddam for slowing the flow of goods by placing mines near Umm Qasr, and said, "There's a massive stockpile that stands by and ready."
Despite adverse weather in some parts of Iraq, allied warplanes bombed targets in the northern part of the country and briefly knocked government television off the air in the capital. And coalition troops in control of a vast Iraqi air base sealed 36 bunkers, earmarked as possible sites of Saddam's elusive weapons of mass destruction.
The U.S. Central Command announced the capture of an Iraqi military hospital used as a military staging area. Officials said Marines confiscated more than 200 weapons and stockpiles of ammunition and more than 3,000 chemical suits with masks, as well as Iraqi military uniforms. The Marines also found a T-55 tank on the compound.
Elements of the U.S. 3rd Infantry Division were about 50 miles from Baghdad Tuesday and hit Republican Guard units defending the Iraqi capital with an all-night artillery barrage.
Thousands of other troops hastened — as much as the sandstorms would allow — to join them for the coming battle against Saddam's seat of power.
But some helicopters were grounded by the weather, and combat aircraft taking off from the USS Harry Truman returned a few hours later without dropping bombs on their targets.
Combat missions from two aircraft carriers were called back because of bad weather, and at least a dozen planes returned without reaching Iraq. Two Army divisions were virtually stalled in a sandstorm.
Marines took back roads toward Baghdad to avoid civilians, but traveled only about 20 miles in five hours.
Distant explosions could be heard in Baghdad, and efforts were underway to dig deeper defensive trenches around the city.
Earlier Tuesday, in what appeared to be a critical moment for coalition forces, thousands of Shiites in Basra began a popular uprising against Saddam Hussein's forces, according to a British pool journalist embedded with coalition troops.
Iraqi Fedayeen were reportedly firing at the Shiite protesters, who had the support of British troops in the area. Coalition forces, in turn, were reportedly firing missiles at the pro-Saddam forces.
Senior Defense officials told Fox News that intelligence reports indicated Iraqi forces — either special Republican Guard forces or Fedayeen Saddam terrorists — in and around Basra were dressing up as U.S. soldiers, then accepting the surrender of other Iraqi forces and executing them.
But there were few reliable details of the chaotic situation inside the southern city of Basra, Iraq's second-largest with 1.3 million residents.
"We've had reports we can't substantiate as of yet of an uprising in Basra. We are closely monitoring the situation," said U.S. Marine Maj. David C. Andersen.
Basra was to be the center of humanitarian aid shipping and receiving, but that is becoming more and more unlikely since Tuesday’s fighting that left the status of the city uncertain. Additionally, the approaching waterways were full of small boats — hundreds perhaps — that could pose threats to incoming coalition craft, according to one Defense official.
Two British soldiers were killed in the friendly fire incident when a pair of British Challenger tanks shot at each other while engaging enemy forces outside Basra.
Americans said that thus far, they had taken more than 3,500 Iraqi prisoners. There was no accurate death toll among Iraqi troops or civilians, though officials reported that about 500 Iraqi fighters had been killed in the last two days by the 3rd Infantry Division.
The International Committee of the Red Cross said it has counted 14 dead and 110 injured since Sunday in airstrikes on Baghdad. It had no figures for other parts of the country. The Iraqi government reported 194 civilian deaths.
American losses ran to 20 dead and 14 captured or missing. The remains of the first two to die were flown overnight to Dover Air Force Base in Delaware. The tally of British troops killed in the war was 20, including the two killed in the "friendly fire" incident.
But the invasion of Baghdad was still on track, officials said.
President Bush, speaking to military personnel at the Pentagon, said: "We cannot know the duration of this war, yet we know its outcome. We will prevail."
Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said Iraqi resistance "has not affected coalition progress."
"The Iraqi regime is losing control of more of the country," Rumsfeld said at the Pentagon. "Their fate is certain. All that's unclear is whether it will take days or weeks."
Not surprisingly, Saddam saw it differently. State television carried what it described as a message from him to tribal and clan leaders, saying, "Consider this to be the command of faith and jihad and fight them."
About 1,400 air sorties were expected to focus on Republican Guard units blocking the path to Baghdad on Tuesday. Rumsfeld added that coalition troops destroyed six GPS jammers — used to throw U.S. aircraft and bombs off course electronically — over the past two nights.
Defense officials said coalition strikes by B-1Bs and F-117s bombed six Global Positioning System jammers Iraq was using in an attempt to disrupt the guidance system of satellite-guided munitions. The jammers had been ineffective against coalition bombs.
U.S. officials said Russian companies helped supply Iraq with these jammers.
There was still growing worry at the Pentagon that Iraqi Republican Guard units would start using chemical weapons as coalition land forces approach Baghdad, though none have yet been used in the 6-day-old war — or unearthed by coalition troops.
U.S. officials cited intelligence reports that Iraqi units may have been ordered to unleash chemical weapons, but they cautioned that reports of specific geographic tripwires, or "red lines" drawn up by Iraqi leadership, are premature.
The Iraqi Republican Guard controls the bulk of Iraq's chemical weaponry, most of which can be fired from artillery guns or short-range rocket launchers.
British Prime Minister Tony Blair, who will confer with Bush this week at the presidential retreat at Camp David, Md., was at pains to prepare the British public for difficult days.
"There will be resistance all the way to the end of this campaign," he said.
Speaking in Toronto, the American ambassador Paul Cellucci said Canada's refusal to send troops to the war effort has upset and disappointed the United States and caused a "bump in relations."
In Saudi Arabia, Foreign Minister Saud al-Faisal said his country has contacted the United States and Iraq with a peace proposal, and was awaiting a response.
He did not disclose the proposed terms. The Bush administration said it was not aware of any Saudi peace proposal, and there was no response from the Iraqi government.
Meanwhile, Fox News has learned that two German businessman were indicted by the German government for conspiring to deliver missile components to Iraq.
The two are accused of having met with Iraqi generals in Baghdad last December and having received a list of orders for about 20 electronic components, according to U.S. law enforcement officials.
U.S. officials said the suspects had smuggled six specific missile components out of Germany and used them as sales models with the Iraqi generals.
Six large explosions were heard on the outskirts of Baghdad, with one hitting the city's center, as dawn broke on Wednesday, Reuters has reported.
Smoke was seen rising from an area where the ministry of information and television station are located in the Iraqi capital, Reuters said. The explosions came after a five-hour lull in bombing raids by coalition forces.
Between 150 and 500 Iraqi troops were killed Tuesday after coalition forces came under attack near An Najaf, in central Iraq, a senior Defense official said.
No U.S. casualties were immediately reported.
Elements of the 7th Cavalry Regiment were east of An Najaf when they suddenly came under fire from rocket-propelled grenades, the official said. The Iraqis were on foot; it wasn’t clear whether they were from regular army units, paramilitary forces or the Republican Guard.
Some of the 7th Cavalry's equipment was damaged in the attack, according to the Defense official. Early estimates of the number of Iraqis killed in the fight varied widely, from 150 to 500. It was not immediately clear what weaponry the Americans used.
The 7th Cavalry is part of the Army force driving toward Baghdad. Some elements of the force are farther north, near Karbala, with only the Medina armored division of the Republican Guard between them and Baghdad.
Meanwhile, Defense officials told Fox News Tuesday night that waterways to Umm Qasr — the Iraqi Persian Gulf port seized by coalition forces in recent days — should be clear of mines "today" so humanitarian aid could begin arriving.
But the port's piers were still mined and the British, who were leading the effort to clean up the port, estimated it will take at least another day to make the offloading points safe for cargo ships. If they are successful, the first humanitarian aid shipments should start arriving in Umm Qasr by Thursday. Umm Qasr will likely stay the center of humanitarian aid operations for the foreseeable future.
President Bush promised on Sunday that "massive amounts of humanitarian aid should begin moving with the next 36 hours." No aid has materialized yet.
United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan and others have warned of a possible humanitarian crisis in the Baghdad. The International Red Cross said during the day that it had started repairs at a war-damaged water-pumping station serving the city.
Sensitive to international criticism that relief was slow in reaching Iraqis, the administration dispatched National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice to the United Nations to discuss the issue. White House Press Secretary Ari Fleischer blamed Saddam for slowing the flow of goods by placing mines near Umm Qasr, and said, "There's a massive stockpile that stands by and ready."
Despite adverse weather in some parts of Iraq, allied warplanes bombed targets in the northern part of the country and briefly knocked government television off the air in the capital. And coalition troops in control of a vast Iraqi air base sealed 36 bunkers, earmarked as possible sites of Saddam's elusive weapons of mass destruction.
The U.S. Central Command announced the capture of an Iraqi military hospital used as a military staging area. Officials said Marines confiscated more than 200 weapons and stockpiles of ammunition and more than 3,000 chemical suits with masks, as well as Iraqi military uniforms. The Marines also found a T-55 tank on the compound.
Elements of the U.S. 3rd Infantry Division were about 50 miles from Baghdad Tuesday and hit Republican Guard units defending the Iraqi capital with an all-night artillery barrage.
Thousands of other troops hastened — as much as the sandstorms would allow — to join them for the coming battle against Saddam's seat of power.
But some helicopters were grounded by the weather, and combat aircraft taking off from the USS Harry Truman returned a few hours later without dropping bombs on their targets.
Combat missions from two aircraft carriers were called back because of bad weather, and at least a dozen planes returned without reaching Iraq. Two Army divisions were virtually stalled in a sandstorm.
Marines took back roads toward Baghdad to avoid civilians, but traveled only about 20 miles in five hours.
Distant explosions could be heard in Baghdad, and efforts were underway to dig deeper defensive trenches around the city.
Earlier Tuesday, in what appeared to be a critical moment for coalition forces, thousands of Shiites in Basra began a popular uprising against Saddam Hussein's forces, according to a British pool journalist embedded with coalition troops.
Iraqi Fedayeen were reportedly firing at the Shiite protesters, who had the support of British troops in the area. Coalition forces, in turn, were reportedly firing missiles at the pro-Saddam forces.
Senior Defense officials told Fox News that intelligence reports indicated Iraqi forces — either special Republican Guard forces or Fedayeen Saddam terrorists — in and around Basra were dressing up as U.S. soldiers, then accepting the surrender of other Iraqi forces and executing them.
But there were few reliable details of the chaotic situation inside the southern city of Basra, Iraq's second-largest with 1.3 million residents.
"We've had reports we can't substantiate as of yet of an uprising in Basra. We are closely monitoring the situation," said U.S. Marine Maj. David C. Andersen.
Basra was to be the center of humanitarian aid shipping and receiving, but that is becoming more and more unlikely since Tuesday’s fighting that left the status of the city uncertain. Additionally, the approaching waterways were full of small boats — hundreds perhaps — that could pose threats to incoming coalition craft, according to one Defense official.
Two British soldiers were killed in the friendly fire incident when a pair of British Challenger tanks shot at each other while engaging enemy forces outside Basra.
Americans said that thus far, they had taken more than 3,500 Iraqi prisoners. There was no accurate death toll among Iraqi troops or civilians, though officials reported that about 500 Iraqi fighters had been killed in the last two days by the 3rd Infantry Division.
The International Committee of the Red Cross said it has counted 14 dead and 110 injured since Sunday in airstrikes on Baghdad. It had no figures for other parts of the country. The Iraqi government reported 194 civilian deaths.
American losses ran to 20 dead and 14 captured or missing. The remains of the first two to die were flown overnight to Dover Air Force Base in Delaware. The tally of British troops killed in the war was 20, including the two killed in the "friendly fire" incident.
But the invasion of Baghdad was still on track, officials said.
President Bush, speaking to military personnel at the Pentagon, said: "We cannot know the duration of this war, yet we know its outcome. We will prevail."
Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said Iraqi resistance "has not affected coalition progress."
"The Iraqi regime is losing control of more of the country," Rumsfeld said at the Pentagon. "Their fate is certain. All that's unclear is whether it will take days or weeks."
Not surprisingly, Saddam saw it differently. State television carried what it described as a message from him to tribal and clan leaders, saying, "Consider this to be the command of faith and jihad and fight them."
About 1,400 air sorties were expected to focus on Republican Guard units blocking the path to Baghdad on Tuesday. Rumsfeld added that coalition troops destroyed six GPS jammers — used to throw U.S. aircraft and bombs off course electronically — over the past two nights.
Defense officials said coalition strikes by B-1Bs and F-117s bombed six Global Positioning System jammers Iraq was using in an attempt to disrupt the guidance system of satellite-guided munitions. The jammers had been ineffective against coalition bombs.
U.S. officials said Russian companies helped supply Iraq with these jammers.
There was still growing worry at the Pentagon that Iraqi Republican Guard units would start using chemical weapons as coalition land forces approach Baghdad, though none have yet been used in the 6-day-old war — or unearthed by coalition troops.
U.S. officials cited intelligence reports that Iraqi units may have been ordered to unleash chemical weapons, but they cautioned that reports of specific geographic tripwires, or "red lines" drawn up by Iraqi leadership, are premature.
The Iraqi Republican Guard controls the bulk of Iraq's chemical weaponry, most of which can be fired from artillery guns or short-range rocket launchers.
British Prime Minister Tony Blair, who will confer with Bush this week at the presidential retreat at Camp David, Md., was at pains to prepare the British public for difficult days.
"There will be resistance all the way to the end of this campaign," he said.
Speaking in Toronto, the American ambassador Paul Cellucci said Canada's refusal to send troops to the war effort has upset and disappointed the United States and caused a "bump in relations."
In Saudi Arabia, Foreign Minister Saud al-Faisal said his country has contacted the United States and Iraq with a peace proposal, and was awaiting a response.
He did not disclose the proposed terms. The Bush administration said it was not aware of any Saudi peace proposal, and there was no response from the Iraqi government.
Meanwhile, Fox News has learned that two German businessman were indicted by the German government for conspiring to deliver missile components to Iraq.
The two are accused of having met with Iraqi generals in Baghdad last December and having received a list of orders for about 20 electronic components, according to U.S. law enforcement officials.
U.S. officials said the suspects had smuggled six specific missile components out of Germany and used them as sales models with the Iraqi generals.