Posted on 03/23/2003 9:29:37 AM PST by kattracks
Iraqis fight but US-led forces say Baghdad in sights
By Sean Maguire
NEAR NASSIRIYA, Iraq, March 23 (Reuters) - Iraqi troops and paramilitary fighters loyal to President Saddam Hussein held up a U.S. advance toward Baghdad on Sunday, inflicting casualties and taking American prisoners on the fourth day of war.
Pockets of resistance in southern Iraq continued to pin down U.S. and British manpower as Western planes returned regularly to bomb the capital in their efforts to overthrow Saddam.
A guerrilla counterattack by a militia group known as Saddam's Fedayeen stopped a major thrust north toward Baghdad by U.S. Marines, who took significant casualties in heavy fighting as they tried to cross bridges over the Euphrates river at Nassiriya, Reuters correspondent Sean Maguire said.
"They've been fighting all day. They're using guerrilla tactics," a U.S. officer told Maguire outside Nassariya.
Iraqi television showed film of what seemed to be four dead Americans and interviews with five U.S. prisoners taken near Nassiriya. Other accounts spoke of at least 10 American dead.
A U.S. general said no more than 10 soldiers were missing.
The Americans and their British allies have overwhelming firepower, as shown by the weekend blitz on Baghdad, but Iraqi guerrilla tactics seemed to be designed to slow their advance.
Yet in briefings, U.S. and British spokesmen oozed confidence, saying the campaign was going faster than planned.
One British defence source even told Reuters the battle for Baghdad could begin in as little as 36 hours: "That will be a tough fight... Baghdad is the only one to watch."
Iraq said it was looking forward to the invaders' arrival.
"We wish that they would come to Baghdad so we can teach this evil administration, and those who work with it, a lesson," said Vice President Taha Yassin Ramadan.
BATTLE AT NAJAF
Elsewhere, the westward arm of what may be a developing U.S. pincer movement on Baghdad halted outside the holy city of Najaf after heavy fighting overnight. U.S. officers said a division of Saddam's elite Republican Guard was barring the road to Baghdad.
Reuters correspondent Luke Baker saw burnt out civilian vehicles and incinerated bodies littering the plain after the U.S. Third Infantry Division overwhelmed militia fighters in a battle south of Najaf, just 160 km (100 miles) south of Baghdad.
U.S. military sources said about 70 Iraqis were killed.
U.S. armoured infantry and tanks took control of the plain in the early hours of Sunday after a battle of more than seven hours against Iraqis with machineguns mounted on pick-up trucks.
"It wasn't even a fair fight. I don't know why they don't just surrender," said U.S. Army Colonel Mark Hildenbrand.
In southern Iraq, where U.S. and British forces have swarmed in from Kuwait and from ships in the Gulf since Thursday, pockets of resistance continued to pose problems for the invaders.
U.S. planes and tanks dislodged some Iraqi fighters from the southern port of Umm Qasr, where at least 120 Republican Guards were thought to be dug in. But as night fell they, were still using machinegun, artillery and mortar fire to flush out another group of fighters, Reuters correspondent Adrian Croft said.
The battle was shown live on global television networks.
The main southern city of Basra remained unsafe for foreign troops, U.S. officers told Reuters correspondent Matthew Green.
"There are hundreds of Baath party militia active around Basra," one said, referring to Saddam's ruling party. "They have AK-47s and RPGs (rocket-propelled grenades) and there's a constant threat of ambush. It redraws the laws of war."
U.S. MISSING
Washington said some U.S. soldiers and an aircraft were believed missing, after Baghdad said it had downed five planes and two helicopters and would show prisoners on television.
Al-Jazeera, the Arab satellite channel, later aired Iraqi footage of dead and captive Americans. "I was just under orders," said one soldier, who gave his name only as Miller.
"I don't want to kill anybody."
Baghdad suffered a fourth day of bombardment, with some of the biggest blasts to date, as planes pounded a single target in the west. "The earth shook under our feet and buildings shook. A huge, huge cloud of white smoke billowed hundreds of metres (feet) into the sky," Reuters correspondent Nadim Ladki said.
Iraq set oil-filled trenches ablaze around the capital in an apparent bid to create a smokescreen, but it is likely to be little defence against satellite-guided weapons. Several homes have been razed in bombing of the smoke-choked city.
"This is real terrorism. Innocent people are sitting in their homes and bombs fall on their heads. I ask America, isn't this terrorism?" said one Baghdad resident.
Iraq said 77 civilians were killed in Basra, mostly victims of cluster bombs, and air raids killed four in Tikrit, Saddam's home town. There were also air raids on Mosul in the north.
Britain said a U.S. missile brought down one of its Tornado planes, whose crew was missing, in the first repeat of the "friendly fire" accidents that plagued the 1991 Gulf War.
Iraqi Information Minister Mohammed Saeed al-Sahaf said millions of defenders were still fighting.
"We have seven million army and volunteers who are spread in appropriate positions everywhere to 'shock and awe' the enemy," he said, mocking the U.S. name for the bombing campaign.
GUERRILLA CAMPAIGN
At Nassiriya, U.S. troops managed to take control of bridgeheads and crossed the Euphrates river from the western desert to the fertile and more populous Mesopotamian plain. But the Fedayeen counterattacked, thwarting the Marines' advance.
The United States said some 1,600 British and U.S. aircraft had flown nearly 6,000 sorties since the war began.
Iraqi television showed Saddam, whom U.S. forces tried to kill in an air attack that began the war on Thursday, meeting military leaders he earlier thanked for staunch resistance.
Officials have reported three deaths from raids in the capital, with about 250 wounded. Red Cross workers saw about 200 people described as war-wounded in Baghdad hospitals.
Some 280,000 U.S. and British troops have been assembled for the war, of which an unknown number are inside the country. The casualty toll for their forces remained unclear on Sunday.
At a rear base in Kuwait, one U.S. soldier was killed and 12 wounded when grenades were thrown into a command tent. The military said one of its own men was held as a suspect.
Tens of thousands took to the streets in Asia on Sunday voicing strong opposition to the war.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.