- NEAR NASSIRIYA, Iraq
(Reuters)
- A fierce sandstorm in Iraq brought some convoys of U.S. troops advancing
on Baghdad to a standstill on Tuesday as it slashed visibility, and
officers
told soldiers the storm could last around 60 hours.
-
- But a U.S. general, speaking at the Qatar headquarters
of the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, said all-weather weapons enabled U.S.
forces to maintain pressure on Iraqi units defending the capital and the
roads leading to it.
-
- Visibility was down to about five (yards) west of the
southern town of Nassiriya, where a U.S. Marine convoy of some 40 trucks
laden with ammunition, food and fuel ground to a halt.
-
- "It's stopped us from going anywhere," said
one U.S. Marine corporal in the convoy,
-
- One international weather service predicted on Tuesday
the storm will last until early Wednesday local time in Iraq but then begin
letting up, with winds slowing to between 20 mph to 40 mph by midday, down
from 60 mph in the southern half of Iraq on Tuesday.
-
- "The wind will be strong enough Wednesday to still
blow sand," said Jim Andrews, a forecaster at AccuWeather in
Pennsylvania.
Conditions will be much improved, he said, heading into Thursday and
Friday.
-
- Swirling sand was so thick it was impossible for drivers
to see vehicles a few meters in front of them, increasing the risk of
collisions.
After night fell, the sandstorm abated, only to be replaced by lashing
rain and sheet lighting.
-
- "You can't see anything, we've already had a couple
of little accidents with people ramming into each other," the corporal
added from the cab of his truck.
-
- Drivers complained of hacking coughs and the abrasive
dust stinging their eyes, turning their lips and faces gray with the gritty
powder and forcing them to don goggles and bandanas to protect
themselves.
-
- Wind ripped tarpaulins covering crates of 5.56 mm
ammunition
for American rifles off the back of at least one truck, riming every
surface
in a thick, ashen layer.
-
- "Weather has had an impact on the battlefield with
high winds, with some rain, with some thunderstorms, and that's occurred
really throughout the country," Maj. Gen. Victor Renuart told a news
briefing at the U.S. headquarters in Qatar.
-
- FRESH U.S. RAIDS
-
- In Baghdad itself, the strengthening wind also blew up
dust, clouding the sky, cooling temperatures and, combined with oil fires
that are still blazing, reducing visibility. But the storm did not halt
raids by U.S. planes in and around the city.
-
- "Our precision all-weather weapons systems and
aggressive
integrated operations plan by our air and land components have allowed
coalition forces to maintain and increase pressure on the regime on all
fronts, even in the bad weather," Renuart said.
-
- But officers on the ground acknowledged everything slows
down when a desert storm cuts visibility and drives grit into soldiers'
eyes and equipment.
-
- Planes fly above the swirling dust, but helicopters find
it much more difficult to move around and landing is harder. The
helicopters
accompanying the convoy west of Nassiriya were grounded, probably because
of the dust.
-
- "It is going to slow us down considerably,"
said Major Hugh Cate III of the U.S. Army's 101st Airborne Division, which
specializes in launching air assaults behind enemy lines.
-
- "It is hard to fly in 90-knot winds and reduced
visibility. It's not impossible, but it is difficult," he said.
-
- Reuters correspondent Sean Maguire, with units of the
U.S. 1st Marine Division about 15 miles north of Nassiriya, said the storm
appeared to have stopped fighting up ahead.
-
- "We're suffering from huge sandstorm bringing combat
operations to halt," Maguire said.
-
- "I can't imagine there's much fighting going
on...It's
physically difficult to walk into the wind," he said. "It's
appalling
out here. I can't hear any helicopters. It's impossible to see where you're
going."
-
- Despite the weather, jets from the USS Abraham Lincoln
and two other aircraft carriers in the Gulf continued to fly strike
missions
and provide air support over Iraq throughout the day.
-
- Capt. Larry Burt, a Hornet pilot from Coronado,
California,
who flew a close air support mission on Tuesday, said visibility was very
bad down low but above 10,000 feet it was relatively clear.
-
- His plane was armed with satellite-guided bombs rather
than laser-guided, the weapon of choice for this sort of mission. A forward
air controller, either in the air or on the ground, would normally point
out a target with a laser but with visibility so low, that was not an
option
on Tuesday.
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