- BAGHDAD (Reuters) - U.S.
and British warplanes pounded Baghdad around the clock on Saturday, upping
the ferocity of their aerial bombardment as U.S. Marines battled Iraqi
forces on the outskirts of the southern city of Basra.
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- U.S. infantry said they had captured a vital bridge over
the Euphrates river, needed for their drive on Baghdad, but elsewhere the
invading troops met some stiffer-than-expected resistance as they pushed
deeper into Iraq.
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- By contrast to the opposition on the ground, U.S. and
British forces had complete dominance of the skies, hitting Baghdad repeatedly
with devastating bombardments that set off giant fireballs, thunderous
explosions and glowing clouds.
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- U.S. Army General Tommy Franks, who is commander of the
invasion, said his forces were using munitions on a "scale never before
seen" and confidently predicted that victory was certain.
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- "This will be a campaign unlike any other in history.
A campaign characterized by shock, by surprise, by flexibility... and by
the application of overwhelming force," he said in his first briefing
since the attack on Iraq began on Thursday.
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- Iraq denounced the attackers as criminals and appealed
to the United Nations to halt the invasion "unconditionally."
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- After a day of fierce fighting, U.S. Marines said they
had defeated Iraqi forces on the outskirts of the oil city of Basra, some
340 miles southeast of Baghdad, taking hundreds of prisoners in the process.
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- "It's definitely a big victory," U.S. Marine
Captain Andrew Bergen told Reuters.
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- Further north, in the city of Nassiriya, U.S. troops
forging a path to Baghdad secured a key bridge over the Euphrates, dislodging
Iraqi forces who had slowed their advance on Friday.
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- However, after two days of skirmishes, Marines still
struggled to gain full control of Umm Qasr, Iraq's only deep-water port,
which lies close to the Kuwaiti border.
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- "It's probably not going as quick as we would have
liked," said Colonel Thomas Waldhauser, commander of the 15th Marine
Expeditionary Unit.
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- In his weekly radio address to the nation, President
Bush cautioned against over-confidence: "A campaign on harsh terrain
in a vast country could be longer and more difficult than some have predicted,"
he said.
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- "GANG OF CRIMINALS"
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- In a defiant response to the repeated bombing raids,
Iraq's information minister said the attacks were the work of an "international
gang of criminal bastards" and had wounded more than 200 civilians
in Baghdad.
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- Health Minister Umeed Midhat Mubarak said later that
at least three people had been "martyred" in the raids on Baghdad.
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- As sun set, Iraqi forces lit oil-filled trenches around
Baghdad in an apparent bid to create a smokescreen to hinder the air strikes.
Military experts said this would not halt the U.S. bombers and as darkness
fell, new air raids swept the city.
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- The intensifying hostilities drew fresh anti-war protests,
with thousands of people taking to the streets in countries around the
world, including in Bahrain and Oman -- two Gulf states that host U.S.
forces.
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- In London, police said "upwards of 60,000"
people marched through the city center, chanting "Bring Our Boys Home!."
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- U.S. and British officials said they were doing everything
they could to limit civilian casualties and stressed that the bombing raids
were aimed at Iraqi President Saddam Hussein's control network, not the
Iraqi people.
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- "The lights stayed on in Baghdad, but the instruments
of tyranny are collapsing," British Defense Secretary Geoff Hoon told
a news conference in London.
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- BATTLE FOR BASRA
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- As thousands of U.S. tanks and armored vehicles plowed
through southern Iraq aiming for Baghdad, military sources said the invading
force was anxious not to get involved in street-to-street fighting in cities
along the route.
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- A British spokesman said U.S.-led forces were hoping
to negotiate Basra's surrender, while General Franks said his forces had
no plans for confrontation in the city.
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- He added that to date, U.S. and British troops had taken
between 1,000-2,000 prisoners of war. Reuters correspondents with U.S.
units said rank and file Iraqi troops appeared ill-equipped as they surrendered,
with some walking barefoot.
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- British Defense Chief of Staff Michael Boyce said Iraq's
51st Division had surrendered en masse in Basra. An Iraqi military spokesman
denied this. The renewed raids on Baghdad meant daylight brought no respite
to frightened residents. Two missiles slammed into Saddam's main palace
compound at dawn, sending up a cloud of pulverized concrete from what appeared
to have been a bunker.
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- The Iraqi leader has deployed his best troops, including
elite Republican Guard units, in Baghdad, where he may try to draw the
invaders into street fighting that would neutralize some of their overwhelming
technological advantages.
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- A Kurdish faction running part of northern Iraq said
U.S. forces had fired missiles and launched an air raid on Saturday on
the mountain stronghold of Ansar al-Islam, a group Washington accuses of
ties to Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network.
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- Mustafa Sayyid Qadir, a Kurdish commander in the town
of Halabja, said there may have been at least 100 casualties in the raids,
but these estimates could not be confirmed.
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- Later on Saturday a carbomb exploded close to the border
with Iran, killing an Australian journalist and one other person. Kurdish
officials blamed Ansar for the attack.
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- A journalist with Britain's Sky TV said four U.S. soldiers
he was traveling with were killed in central Iraq after their vehicles
were hit with grenades, but there was no immediate confirmation of the
deaths.
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- Two British naval helicopters collided over the Gulf,
killing six British crewmen and an American officer. On Thursday, eight
British marines and four U.S. Marines died when their helicopter crashed
in Kuwait.
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- The United States and Britain say they went to war to
deprive Iraq of chemical, biological and nuclear weapons that could one
day become a threat. Iraq denies having such weapons.
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