British troops faced heavy mortar fire outside Iraq's second largest city
amid fierce resistance from loyalist Iraqi troops and irregular militias,
while a brutal sandstorm with howling winds stalled U.S. infantry troops to
the north, near the holy city of Karbala.
Coalition planes and U.S. helicopters targeted Republican Guard forces just
south of Baghdad Monday in perhaps the largest assault to date on Saddam's
highly trained troops, U.S. officials said. They said hundreds of sorties
were planned.
The U.S. Army's 3rd Infantry Division was responsible for the deepest known
penetration in force of the Iraqi interior, a two-day dash that brought it
toward Karbala, about 50 miles (80 kilometers) south of Baghdad.
Some Iraqis waved or gave a thumbs-up as the convoy passed, while others
stood by stoically.
The advance of long columns of thousands of vehicles was aided by heavy air
protection that wiped out a column of Iraqi armor at one point and sent
some of Saddam Hussein's outer defenses withdrawing toward the capital. The
convoy passed bombed anti-aircraft guns, empty foxholes and berms dug for
tanks that had been abandoned.
But the advance was stalled for a time by the weather - a sandstorm that
blew out of the desert Monday afternoon.
Outside the Shiite holy city of Najaf, south of Karbala, U.S. soldiers
skirmished with Iraqi forces before dawn Monday. Iraqis shot rockets and
anti-aircraft guns at the Americans.
Mosques in Najaf and Karbala are the most sacred sites to Iraq's majority
Shiite Muslims after those in Saudi Arabia. Najaf is the site of the tomb
of Imam Ali, the son-in-law and cousin of Islam's Prophet Muhammad. Shiites
aspire to bury their dead in its cemetery, which stretches for miles and is
the largest in the Muslim world.
Outside the southern city of Basra, British forces including the Royal
Scots Dragoon Guards and the 7th Armored Brigade pulled away after coming
under heavy mortar fire, according to British pool reports.
British forces earlier had surrounded the city to prevent Iraqi forces from
fleeing and regrouping elsewhere. While other coalition units swept west of
the city, commanders had held off storming Basra, hoping its Iraqi
defenders would give up, but they have held firm.
The biggest danger has come from the paramilitary Fedayeen militia armed
with powerful rocket-propelled grenades and machine guns, press reports
said. Many militia members have disguised themselves by wearing civilian
clothes, mingling with civilians or flying white flags from their vehicles
in order to get close to coalition forces before firing.
"This is not a video game where everything is clear and neat and tidy. Some
enemy who feel that they want to carry on fighting will inevitably do so,"
said Lt. Col. Ronnie McCourt, a spokesman for British forces in the Gulf,
speaking at U.S. Central Command in Qatar Monday.
In London, British Prime Minister Tony Blair told Parliament that "Basra is
surrounded and cannot be used as an Iraqi base."
However, he added that there are still pockets of security forces fiercely
loyal to Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein. In addition to the Fedayeen, military
officials said the elite Republican Guard and Special Security Organization
forces were defending Basra.
"They are contained, but still able to inflict casualties on our forces, so
we are proceeding with caution," Blair told lawmakers.
Earlier Monday, the Ministry of Defense confirmed a British soldier was
killed near the southern Iraq port city of Az Zubayr, Britain's first
combat casualty in Iraq. A spokeswoman declined to provide details on soldier.
Earlier, British officials reported two British soldiers missing after
regular Iraqi units hit their convoy in southern Iraq.
The top U.S. general overseeing the U.S.-led war effort said coalition
troops are making "rapid and in some cases dramatic" progress, but they
also have met sporadic Iraqi resistance.
U.S. forces had "intentionally bypassed enemy formations," and the Fedayeen
militia had been harassing the U.S. rear in southern Iraq, Gen. Tommy
Franks said in Qatar.
Franks also confirmed that Australians and British troops were operating in
the north and west of Iraq.
Also, Iraq claimed to have shot down two U.S. helicopters and taken two
pilots prisoner a day after more than 20 Americans were killed or captured.
Iraqi television showed two men Monday said to have been the crew of a U.S.
army helicopter forced down during heavy fighting in central Iraq.
Outside An Nasiriyah - on the Euphrates River 230 miles (370 kilometers)
southeast of Baghdad - a long convoy -including tanks, TOW missiles and
armored personnel carriers - was backed up along the road leading to a
pontoon bridge.
The city, which is near the ancient town of Ur, birthplace of the patriarch
Abraham, was also the site of the worst casualties sustained by coalition
forces so far.
Two bloody battles Sunday left nine Marines dead and a dozen U.S. soldiers
missing and presumed captured.
On Monday, Cobra attack helicopter pilots returning from An Nasiriyah said
Iraqis in civilian clothes as well as in uniform had been firing at their
aircraft with small arms.
Also, U.S. Navy jets from the USS Harry S. Truman carrier in the
Mediterranean Sea dropped bombs and fired laser-guided missiles at sites in
northern Iraq where weapons of mass destruction were suspected of being
produced, navy officials said.
A top Kurdish official said coalition warplanes bombed the entire corridor
between Chamchamal and Kirkuk in northern Iraq.
Aircraft from Mediterranean-based carriers for the first time flew over
Turkey on their way to strike targets inside Iraq, said battle group
commander, Rear Adm. John Stufflebeem.
Also, U.S. Marine officials said Monday afternoon that U.S. forces had been
in northern Iraq for nearly 24 hours.
Outside Najaf, at the northern end of the advance, U.S. soldiers skirmished
with Iraqi forces before dawn Monday.
In an apparent indication of renewed Iraqi resistance in the south, the
U.S. military canceled trips for reporters to Iraq's Rumeila oil field and
the southern city of Umm Qasr, where there was sporadic fighting days after
the allies took effective control.
In Salahuddin, in northern Iraq's Kurdish autonomous region, U.S. Marine
Maj. Gen. Henry Osman said he had met with Turkish and Kurdish military
leaders.
He told reporters U.S. forces were trying to "provide a stabilizing
influence in northern Iraq," and that the United States supports a "secure,
stable, free Iraq, which includes preservation of its current borders."
http://afr.com/iraq/2003/03/25/FFX1F3CPODD.html
