- SOUTHERN IRAQ (Reuters) -
Charred Iraqi corpses smolder in burned-out trucks. Black smoke hangs over
bombed cities where U.S. troops battle Iraqi soldiers. Youths greet British
tanks with smiles, then sneer when they have passed.
-
- Reuters correspondents in southern Iraq -- some with
U.S.-led forces, some operating independently -- watched the war to topple
Saddam Hussein unfold on Sunday as U.S. convoys advanced on Baghdad and
battles raged for control of key cities. In the desert near the Shi'ite
holy city of Najaf, just 100 miles south of Baghdad, correspondent Luke
Baker traveled through a plain littered with Iraqi bodies and gutted vehicles
after U.S. forces fought a seven-hour battle against militiamen desperately
trying to halt their advance.
-
- Some vehicles were still smoldering, and charred ribs
were the only recognizable part of three melted bodies in a destroyed car
lying in the roadside dust.
-
- "It wasn't even a fair fight. I don't know why they
don't just surrender," said Colonel Mark Hildenbrand, commander of
the 937th Engineer Group. "When you're playing soccer at home, 3-2
is a fair score, but here it's more like 119-0."
-
- U.S. troops showed reporters a hideout said to have been
used by an Iraqi militiaman. The soldier who had used the hideout had only
a filthy blanket to protect him from the cold desert nights, and just a
plastic bag of raw meat for food.
-
- When he fled, he left behind a picture of his two children.
-
- Southeast of Najaf, Reuters correspondent Sean Maguire
saw explosions and huge plumes of smoke over Nassiriya, a strategic city
on the Euphrates river where U.S. forces have been fighting to secure bridges
to allow them to advance toward Baghdad.
-
- "It looks like artillery, or possibly air strikes,"
said Maguire, traveling with the U.S. 1st Marine Division.
-
- BLACK SMOKE, WHITE FLAGS
-
- In the southeastern city of Umm Qasr, Iraq's only deep-water
port, U.S. and British forces used planes and tanks in a battle to dislodge
at least 120 Iraqi Republican Guards.
-
- Reuters correspondent Adrian Croft said British Harrier
jets had dropped 500-pound bombs on the city, sending columns of black
smoke curling into the air. When the bombing ended, some Iraqis could be
seen waving white flags and surrendering.
-
- As night fell U.S. soldiers were still using machinegun,
artillery and mortar fire in an attempt to flush out another group of Iraqi
fighters from a hideout.
-
- Civilians streamed out of Umm Qasr and the city of Basra.
Reuters correspondent Rosalind Russell, south of Basra, watched dozens
of trucks and battered cars pass, crammed full with household belongings.
-
- Machinegun and artillery fire echoed behind them.
-
- "There is fighting in the center, on the streets.
It is terrible," said Hussein, a 24-year-old engineer who works for
the state-run southern oil company in Basra.
-
- "We don't want Americans here. This is Iraq."
-
- One group of Iraqi boys on the side of the road smiled
and waved as a convoy of British tanks and trucks rolled by.
-
- But once it had passed, leaving a trail of dust and grit
in its wake, their smiles turned to scowls.
-
- "We don't want them here," said 17-year-old
Fouad, looking angrily up at the plumes of gray smoke rising from Basra.
-
- He pulled a piece of paper from the waistband of his
trousers. Unfolding it, he held up a picture of Saddam, showing the Iraqi
leader sitting on a throne with a benign smile.
-
- "Saddam is our leader," he said defiantly.
"Saddam is good."
-
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