- SOUTHERN IRAQ (Reuters)
- U.S. forces rolled across the desert of southern Iraq on Friday with
no visible opposition and headed north past oilfields where towering flames
and smoke were visible.
-
- "There are two or three fires rising high into the
sky. One has towering flames and billowing smoke," said Reuters correspondent
Sean Maguire, traveling with the 1st Marine Regiment with a long column
of military vehicles ahead of them.
-
- The fires were in the region of the large southern Rumailah
oilfield, though it was unclear if these were usual oilfield fires or the
result of the conflict.
-
- "There is an orange glow in the sky," Maguire
said, speaking before dawn.
-
- The second city of Basra is close to Iraq's big southern
oilfields. Military planners are keen to secure the oil fields to prevent
Iraqi forces torching wells, as they did in Kuwait in the 1991 Gulf War.
-
- Maguire said there were no signs of resistance along
the way. "There was no gunfire. They had a clear path," he added.
-
- Northeast of the column, toward Safwan Hill -- near the
Kuwaiti border just south Basra -- he saw flashes of explosions from what
looked like airstrikes.
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