- NEAR BAGHDAD (Reuters)
- A column of U.S. tanks and armored vehicles have launched an attack on
central Baghdad, a U.S. officer told Reuters on Monday.
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- "We're attacking right down in the center of the
city right now," said Major Michael Birmingham, chief public affairs
officer for the U.S. 3rd Infantry.
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- "The other day was just an incursion. This is for
real," he added, referring to a foray U.S. armored forces made into
southwest Baghdad on Saturday.
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- Reuters witnesses in the city said they heard shelling
in a presidential palace on the west side of the river Tigris. Iraqi forces
lit a oil trench in the area in an apparent attempt to confuse the attackers.
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- "We can see shells crashing into the palace. White
smoke is rising from the compound. There are many soldiers in the area.
We can hear artillery, mortars and probably tanks," said Reuters correspondent
Samia Nakhoul from a vantage point in the city center.
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- At least 25 tanks and a similar number of fighting vehicles
from the 2nd Brigade of the 3rd Infantry Division thrust into the south
of the city via Highway 8 early on Monday, U.S. military sources told Reuters
correspondent Luke Baker.
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- The column was in the central al-Karkh neighborhood,
near the city's main racetrack and near one of President Saddam Hussein's
city palaces, the sources added.
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- The U.S. advance was receiving close air support.
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