- BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Paramilitary
forces, dressed in black and carrying AK-47 assault rifles and grenades,
headed toward the outskirts of the Iraqi capital on Saturday or joined
soldiers in full combat gear digging in around the city.
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- But I and other correspondents traveling around Baghdad
saw no sign of U.S. troops or armor inside the city.
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- With U.S. military spokesmen saying American forces had
entered Baghdad, forces loyal to Iraqi President Saddam Hussein moved into
position across the city or headed south toward the battle front.
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- Trailers and buses full of Saddam's Fedayeen, the black-clad
paramilitary forces under the command of Saddam's eldest son Uday, drove
south on one thoroughfare.
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- "Move out of the way," they shouted as they
sped away from a military compound, touting AK-47s and rocket-propelled
grenade launchers and clutching Chinese-made hand grenades.
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- Armored personnel carriers were also driving south.
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- Driving freely around the southern outskirts, the south
east, the south west and near the presidential palaces and the main security
buildings of the Iraqi capital, I saw Iraqi forces preparing for battle
and boarded-up shops.
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- The sound of heavy artillery fire could be heard from
the fringes of the city, but there was no sign of U.S. forces.
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- Soldiers in full combat gear and members of Saddam's
Fedayeen crouched on the corners of highways leading to the south and east.
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- Iraqi forces appeared to be repositioning themselves
constantly.
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- CONFLICTING VERSION OF EVENTS
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- A U.S. spokesman said early on Saturday that American
forces had pushed into the heart of the battered Iraqi capital for a first
time in the 17-day-old war. The push, the spokesman added, was "more
than a patrol that goes in and comes back out."
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- But Iraqi Information Minister Mohammed Saeed al-Sahaf
said U.S. forces had not entered the city and had been expelled from the
city's international airport to the west.
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- "The film they broadcast to you is a lie,"
he said of television footage showing U.S. troops and armor on a highway
with signs indicating the City Center and Baghdad airport.
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- "They're trying to deceive everyone. They're in
the outskirts of Abu Ghreib," he told the Arabic satellite network
al-Jazeera, adding that they were 20-25 miles from Baghdad. "This
is a ploy," he added.
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- The Fox News Channel in the United States showed a line
of tanks and Bradley fighting vehicles which it said were from the U.S.
3rd Infantry Division and were rolling into Baghdad.
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- The column, moving in broad daylight and firing intermittently,
passed several burning and destroyed vehicles.
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- The Fox News Channel footage showed few buildings on
either side of the road, a large sand-colored mosque with twin minarets
and a line of larger-than-life statues but no footage of any built-up area.
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- An Iraqi in civilian clothes and with his hands up emerged
from a grove beside the highway and lay down on the asphalt.
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- Fox had a correspondent with the column riding atop a
Bradley. The vehicles passed under several highway bridges. One road sign
pointed to Bayaa and City Center. Another shown later in the sequence pointed
to Baghdad Airport.
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- The Arabic satellite network al-Jazeera later carried
footage of jubilant Iraqis on a highway next to the burned-out wreckage
of what looked like U.S. armored fighting vehicles. Roads signs there also
pointed to the airport and City Center.
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- U.S. military spokesmen said rocket-propelled grenades
had damaged one U.S. tank. A second had to be abandoned in Baghdad because
of mechanical failure, they added.
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- FEWER CARS ON ROADS
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- The southern outskirts of Baghdad looked like a war front,
with scores of Iraqi soldiers and paramilitary forces heading out to confront
an approaching U.S. enemy.
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- Overnight raids left more government complexes in ruin.
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- Shops in normally busy districts, such as New Baghdad,
were almost all shut, and far fewer cars were on the roads. Long queues
formed at those petrol stations still open.
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- What cars there were sped faster than usual. Drivers,
who rarely give Baghdad traffic lights much respect, ignored them completely.
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- Heavy artillery and rocket launchers were positioned
in the Dawra area, home to the main oil refinery feeding Baghdad and an
area where a U.S. spokesman said American tanks drove early on Saturday
on a reconnaissance mission.
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- Palm trees and farms provided cover. Iraqi artillery
occasionally fired to the south and southeast.
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- Inside the city, checkpoints were installed on the road
to the airport and the paramilitary directed traffic. Heavy military gear
could be seen moving on roads around the center.
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- Republican Guards were seen around one presidential compound
in the city. Soldiers spilled out of pick-up trucks and took up positions
near main highways. U.S. fighter jets flew overhead.
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- A convoy of police cars with sirens wailing drove around
the center of Baghdad. The officers inside fired AK-47s in the air and
raised pictures of Saddam and Iraqi flags to celebrate what Iraqi officials
said was the recapture of the airport.
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