Free Republic

Did Americal military prowess and hi-tech weaponry give America an easy victory over Saddam Hussein's army? "Nyet", says Russian ambassador to Iraq. The Ambassador, Vladimir Titirenko, told Moscow's NTV, "I am confident that the Iraqi generals entered into secret deal with the Americans to refrain from resistance in exchange for sparing their lives." Titorenko also told NTV that it was "most probable" that Saddam and his top aides were killed during America's aerial bombardment of his many bunkers. Le Monde also reported that Maher Sufyan, Commander of the Republican Guard, reached an agreement with American forces in which he ordered...

IN THE WESTERN IRAQI DESERT (AFP) - The commander of 16,000 Iraqi army troops who controlled the vast area along the Syrian border formally surrendered to US forces, marking another dramatic step toward the end of the Iraq war. The surrender came as the US-led coalition focuses growing attention on Syria, which Washington and London allege is hiding chemical weapons and had been cooperating extensively with the now-toppled regime of Saddam Hussein. "I am ready to help. Thank you for liberating Iraq and making it stable," said a clearly emotional General Mohammed Jarawi, after inking the formal agreement under a...

The Secret WarIt’s been the best-covered war in history. But the key to success was what we didn’t see: Special Forces, psyop, the air war—and the utterly inept Iraqi Army By Evan Thomas and Martha Brant NEWSWEEK April 21 issue — Know thine enemy is a cardinal rule of war. Ignorance was costly for American soldiers fighting guerrillas in Vietnam. Before plunging into Iraq, U.S. psychological-warfare operators studied certain cultural stereotypes. ONE WAS THAT young Arab toughs cannot tolerate insults to their manhood. So, as American armored columns pushed down the road to Baghdad, 400-watt loudspeakers mounted on Humvees...

<p>April 13, 2003 -- WASHINGTON - Saddam Hussein's military commanders forced their troops to hold their positions and face slaughter by American forces while they vanished into the darkness in a final act of evil cowardice, The Post has learned.</p>

April 13, 2003 Doubt and Death on Drive to BaghdadBy STEVEN LEE MYERS AGHDAD, Iraq, April 10 — The sandstorm lasted two days, sapping morale and twice turning the setting sun the color of blood. Lt. Col. Steven E. Landis called the slanting and choking sands "the wrath of Allah." Supplies of water and ammunition ran low in these first days of the war as Iraqi fighters launched unexpectedly fierce attacks on troops and supply lines that now stretched nearly 300 miles to the rear. The Army's Third Infantry Division swept across the harsh, open deserts of southern Iraq in...

COALITION commanders were optimistic yesterday the battle for Saddam Hussein’s birthplace, Tikrit, could be won quickly. Unmanned Predator surveillance aircraft have flown over the last big Iraqi city not under coalition control and revealed few defences and no sign of the Adnan Republican Guard Division or regular army troops. Those left may not have much fight in them, said Brigadier-General Vincent Brooks, a coalition forces spokesman at Central Command in Qatar. “We know there is still military equipment in Tikrit area off to the west and in the east,” he said. “It may be there is not much fight left...

Iraqi officer reveals army chaos The Republican Guard did not offer as much resistance as anticipated A colonel in Iraq's Republican Guard says he received few orders from the country's leaders during the war. Speaking from his home in a prosperous area of Baghdad, he told the BBC's Andrew Gilligan that the coalition bombardment of Iraq badly affected troop morale, with soldiers wanting to desert every day. In one of the first insights into how the elite Republican Guard has acted during the war, he said Iraq's military leaders only agreed to fight the war in the first place because,...

Pentagon: No Major Iraqi Forces Remain By MATT KELLEY .c The Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) - Fierce fighting and air strikes have completely destroyed the ability of Iraq's regular army and Republican Guard to mount conventional fighting, and no major military forces remain in the country, the Pentagon said Friday. Though parts of forces and pockets of resistance remain, military officials were detecting no indications of any command and control ability on the part of Saddam Hussein's forces, nor any communication between remnants of forces, a Defense Department official said. ``There is no question the regime has lost control and...

'Iraqi troops to surrender' 10 April 2003 CNN has reported that the Iraqi 5th Corps, comprising thousands of soldiers, and the Governor General of the Mosul region in northern Iraq, will surrender tonight following negotiations.

Where Did All the Soldiers Go?Apr 09, 2003 - 2300 GMT Summary Baghdad supposedly was packed with members of the Special Republican Guard and Fedayeen, as well as remnants of Republican Guard units from the south and regular army reinforcements from the north. They largely turned up missing when U.S. troops arrived. The question is: Did U.S. troops meet the rear guard, or the last remnants of a shattered regime in Baghdad? Analysis An Al Jazeera reporter told CNN on April 9 "we never saw" members of the Special Republican Guard, Republican Guard or Fedayeen in Baghdad. He said...

CLICK HERE TO VIEW MS MEDIA FILE FORMAT

BLACK HILL, outskirts of Baghdad, April 8 — It took an anti-tank missile to blow a hole through the steel-reinforced wall surrounding the Special Republican Guard's headquarters at the foot of this hill overlooking the capital. An Iraqi soldier on a roof — or perhaps two or more, in the chaos it was not clear — opened fired as Company B of the 101st Airborne Division's 3rd Battalion, 187th Infantry Regiment poured through the breach this morning. Spec. Sylvester A. Prince, 19, was among those who rushed the sprawling complex under a volley of covering fire aimed at the roof....

But things are changing and, as the days pass, minds are changing too. A captured Iraqi colonel being held in one of the hangars listened in astonishment as his information minister praised Republican Guard soldiers for recapturing the airport. He looked at his captors and, as he realised that what he had heard was palpably untrue, his eye filled with tears. Turning to a translator, he asked: "How long have they been lying like this?"

AMARAH, Iraq -- The Marines of Charlie Company did not sleep well Monday night. The next day's mission was their most serious yet -- a probable tank battle with an Iraqi armored division in this city on the Tigris River. That night and the next morning, many Marines talked openly about the possibility of dying. At dawn Tuesday, the company rolled out, a vanguard of a task force planning to attack the Iraqi tanks. But not much goes according to plan these days, and that's not always such a bad thing. When the convoy approached this alleged enemy stronghold, the...

The news media has repeated the phrase, "The elite Republican Guard" so many times that it is starting to seriously annoy me, for two reasons. First, I don't like the use of the word "Republican" being used to refer to anything connected with a dictatorship. To be fair, the media can't control that. It is the name of this group of thugs, whether we like it or not. But they can certainly refrain from using the word "elite" to describe a bunch of cowards who are not even real soldiers. When Coalition forces reached the headquarters of what has been...

``The preponderance of the Republican Guard divisions outside of Baghdad are now dead,'' he said. ``I find it interesting when folks say we're softening them up. We're not softening them up, we're killing them.'' ``It's either we kill them or they give up. There's no way out for these guys,'' Moseley added.

Despite being outnumbered, the U.S. group vanquished the Iraqi Republican Guard force within minutes, thanks to superior armed vehicles and devastatingly powerful ammunition. "My commander called me, gave me the warning order to be prepared to conduct an attack on 22 stationary T-72s [Soviet-built tanks used by the Iraqis] that the [U.S.] Air Force had identified," Lyle said. "I selected a force, tank heavy, almost all the tanks in my troop, with some Bradleys [armored fighting vehicles] to go with it."

U.S. Searches Shattered Iraqi Guard HQ By RAVI NESSMAN and ALEXANDRA ZAVIS Associated Press Writers April 6, 2003, 12:00 PM EDT <EXCERPT> SALMAN PAK, Iraq -- Marines pulled intelligence from a shattered Republican Guard headquarters Sunday after a night of fiery bombardments, and they searched a suspected terrorist training camp, finding the shell of a passenger jet believed to be used for hijacking practice. </EXCERPT>

Iraqi regime defiant day after U.S. troops penetrate Baghdad 04/06/2003 Associated Press BAGHDAD, Iraq – The burnt-out husks of Iraqi tanks littered one of the main roads in Baghdad on Sunday, one day after American troops muscled through the city, but regime leaders remained defiant and appealed for calm. The streets were crawling with black-clad Fedayeen militia, the armed loyalists of the ruling Baath Party, and teenagers with guns. As the scream of rockets pierced Baghdad's skies, Iraqi troops clambered up what they claimed was an allied tank destroyed in a Sunday morning battle. They made "V" for victory signs...

US: 3,000 IRAQIS KILLED Between 2,000 and 3,000 Iraqis were killed when US troops moved through Baghdad on Saturday, US Central Command has said. Around 30 tanks and armoured vehicles swept through the city from the southern outskirts. They encountered fierce resistance in some areas and suffered a number of casualties. The operation was designed to show Saddam Hussein's regime that the city could be breached at any time, said one officer. US troops now hope to have Baghdad completely surrounded by the end of the day. A military spokesman said the US Army was moving in from the south-west,...