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Posted on 04/09/2003 5:26:43 AM PDT by JohnHuang2
B A G H D A D, Iraq, April 9 — Chaos has broken out in parts of Baghdad as jubilant crowds take to the streets to cheer U.S. troops and loot buildings across the city, signalling that Saddam Hussein's regime has lost control of the Iraqi capital.
Reporting from Baghdad, ABCNEWS' Richard Engel said there were signs in some parts of the city that the Iraqi government was losing control as mobs took to the streets shouting anti-Saddam slogans, ransacking government offices and tearing photographs of the Iraqi leader. "You really get a sense that the government's control of the city is slipping through its fingers," said Engel. "I can't believe some of the images of people spitting on Saddam Hussein's pictures — just yesterday, doing something like that could have got you into prison, even killed."
But U.S. military officials have warned that the situation is still precarious and there continues to be fighting in other parts of Baghdad, said ABCNEWS' senior Pentagon correspondent John McWethy.
U.S. Marines pushing to the north of the city from the southeast were still encountering pockets of Iraqi resistance, McWethy said.
In the Shiite-dominated northeastern Baghdad neighborhood of Saddam City, ABCNEWS' Mike Cerre, embedded with a Marines unit, said residents of the impoverished neighborhood came up to the U.S. tanks as they rumbled through the marketplace at midday, local time, chanting, "Bush, Bush, Bush."
But U.S. Marines were still cautious, he said, and were in protective positions. "For the Marines, it's still not over yet," said Cerre.
Outside Baghdad, there are still many towns and cities under Saddam's control.
The focus of the battle is now likely to move to Tikrit, Saddam's birthplace and his historic powerbase to the north of Baghdad.
At U.S. Central Command forward headquarters in Doha, Qatar, Brig. Gen. Vincent Brooks said coalition forces have been targeting Saddam's command and control facilities in Tikrit.
British Say Saddam Is Still Alive
The scenes of jubilation come as British intelligence sources said it appeared a bombing raid in Baghdad had failed in its prime task — killing Saddam. The British newspaper The Guardian quoted a "well-placed source" as saying that Saddam "was probably not in the building when it was bombed," Tuesday in the al Mansour neighborhood, although he was believed to have been in the building earlier.
Sources said today's Marine offensive will come from the Rashid military airport in southeastern Baghdad, which U.S. forces captured after heavy fighting Tuesday. The 3rd Infantry Division will approach from the opposite direction, and the two forces will link up, the sources said.
Along with the Rashid airport, Marines also captured the nearby Rashid prison, where they found remnants of uniforms believed to belong to members of the U.S. Army's 507th Maintenance Co. who were taken as POWs during the first week of the war.
The uniforms are being interpreted as a sign that the POWs came through the prison and might now be somewhere in Baghdad.
And in the south, U.S. officials said they expect coalition troops to approach two Iraqi regular army divisions near the town of al Amarah, which were reportedly bypassed in the sprint to get to Baghdad.
The situation in Basra, the largest city in the south, has stabilized after days of looting. British officials said troops took control after entering it on Monday, and were distributing humanitarian aid.
U.S. Plane Shot Down
Despite the show of military might, U.S. forces took a hit Tuesday when an Iraqi missile brought down an A-10 "Warthog" aircraft. The pilot ejected safely on the outskirts of Baghdad and is in good condition, defense officials said.
The Pentagon also revealed Tuesday that two coalition airmen are missing after their F-15 went down in Iraq on Sunday.
U.S. military sources told Reuters news service Iraqis were trying to slow the U.S. advance through Baghdad with unconventional measures, stringing decapitation wires across streets and hiding makeshift bombs in trucks and cars.
Pretty Chicken, REPORTING? Sorry, ABC, but calling New York for the information and then parroting it back into the camera is NOT "reporting".
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