- SOUTH OF BAGHDAD (Reuters)
- Iraq moved reinforcements to defend Baghdad on Thursday as U.S. troops
stood poised at the capital's doorstep after a northward blitz smashed
two divisions of the elite Republican Guard.
-
- As the U.S.-led war to topple Iraqi President Saddam
Hussein moved into its third week, U.S. military sources said Iraq was
deploying more Republican Guards south of the capital in a bid to defend
the city's airport and block the U.S. advance.
-
- The city and its outskirts were heavily bombed overnight.
-
- U.S. forces surged past Kerbala and Kut towns on Wednesday
and captured key bridges over the Euphrates and Tigris rivers as they prepared
the way for an assault on Saddam's stronghold.
-
- The Iraqi leader vowed his troops would repel the invading
army -- now just 20 miles from Baghdad.
-
- "They will not let them reach Baghdad," Saddam
said in a letter to his niece, read on state television on Wednesday.
-
- "They will cripple them until they return to their
countries defeated, leaving our country for its people."
-
- U.S. officials said Iraq had shot down a Black Hawk helicopter
near the city of Kerbala, while U.S. Central Command reported a U.S. F/A-18
Hornet fighter-bomber was also down.
-
- Overnight, U.S. spy planes spotted Iraqi Republican Guard
units moving south from the capital to counter the U.S. attack, U.S. military
sources told Reuters.
-
- U.S. forces sent rockets streaking toward the Iraqi positions,
and American officials said it was unclear how many Iraqi soldiers were
on the move.
-
- Major General Stanley McChrystal, vice director for operations
for the U.S. military's Joint Staff, said the dramatic U.S. advance on
Wednesday had effectively destroyed two of the six Republican Guard divisions
guarding Baghdad.
-
- Iraq denied this, saying morale was high.
-
- Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld warned Iraqi moves
to bolster city defenses meant tough fights lay ahead.
-
- "Our forces have been pressuring them on the ground
and from the air," he told reporters.
-
- "My guess is, however, that the Republican Guard
that pretty much ringed Baghdad...will probably represent some difficult
days ahead and dangerous days...in terms of fighting.
-
- The U.S. advance sent stocks higher in Asia on Thursday
while oil and gold prices weakened as investors bet the war in Iraq could
end quickly. Fund managers expect the war to last another six weeks, according
to a Reuters poll.
-
- But many analysts sounded a note of caution and said
markets remained susceptible to any surprises in a war which many analysts
said appeared to be entering its most dangerous phase.
-
-
- BLACK HAWK DOWN
-
- A U.S. Black Hawk helicopter has been shot down near
Kerbala by small-arms fire, killing seven and wounding four on board, a
U.S. official said on Wednesday.
-
- But the armed forces' Central Command said initial reports
put the number of people on board at six.
-
- The U.S. military also confirmed on Thursday that an
F/A-18 Hornet single-seat aircraft went down in Iraq overnight, and said
the incident was being investigated.
-
- U.S. planes pounded targets around Baghdad on Thursday,
waging a relentless campaign of air strikes on the city of five million
people.
-
- "It was one of the worst nights of bombing so far
in Baghdad and the outskirts. There was the sound of warplanes all night,"
said Reuters correspondent Nadim Ladki.
-
- The aerial bombardment of Baghdad eased after daybreak.
-
- U.S. war headquarters in Qatar said planes dropped almost
40 "smart bombs" overnight on just one military storage facility
in the Karkh district of Baghdad.
-
- The defenders of Baghdad have been preparing for urban
warfare. Pick-up trucks equipped with machineguns and anti-aircraft guns
are dotted across the city, while militia and ruling Baath Party members
have taken up defensive positions.
-
- U.S. forces would like to avoid street fighting in Baghdad,
which might take a heavy toll in military and civilian casualties. But
planners believe this prospect is increasingly likely as Saddam prepares
to stage his last stand in the city.
-
- The United States lists 53 dead and 11 missing since
the war began. Britain says it has suffered 27 dead. Official figures usually
lag behind battlefield casualties.
-
- Iraq has not provided figures for military deaths, but
estimates at least 677 civilians have been killed and 5,062 injured since
war began on March 20.
-
- McChrystal said the United States had fired 700 cruise
missiles, which cost over $1 million each, and more than 10,000 precision-guided
bombs since the war began.
-
- In the north, U.S. planes bombed Iraqi troops, forcing
them to retreat in several areas in such a hurry that they abandoned valuable
supplies of ammunition and injectors containing the nerve gas antidote
atropine, a Reuters witness said.
-
-
- "DAGGER AT THE HEART"
-
- "The dagger is clearly pointed at the heart of the
Baghdad regime," U.S. Brigadier General Vincent Brooks said of the
advance on the capital.
-
- He said some U.S. troops had gone across a notional "red
line" -- into the area where the military believes Iraqi forces might
be most likely to launch a poison-gas attack.
-
- "If it's used, we'll be prepared," Brooks said.
-
- President Bush launched the war two weeks ago to oust
Saddam and destroy his alleged weapons of mass destruction. Iraq denied
having such weapons and so far none have been found.
-
- Arabic-language al-Jazeera satellite television said
it was halting the work of its journalists in Iraq after officials barred
two of its correspondents from reporting from Baghdad.
-
- The Iraqi government gave no reason for its action against
the Qatar-based station, which has been criticized by the United States
and Britain for helping to inflame Arab opposition to the war by broadcasting
distressing images of civilian casualties.
-
- In Ankara, Secretary of State Colin Powell said he had
agreed with Turkey on measures to ship supplies through Turkish territory
to U.S. forces fighting in northern Iraq.
-
- U.S. soldier Jessica Lynch, held as a prisoner of war
by Iraq for over a week until U.S. special forces freed her, arrived in
Germany for treatment for broken bones at an American military hospital.
- ntact Us
|
