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Wednesday, April 2, 2003

The troops drove forward from the southeast and southwest against slackening Iraqi resistance. They aimed to outflank the five Iraqi Republican Guard divisions south of Baghdad and cut them off from the city, coalition military sources said. The classic military tactic is designed to force the surrounded Iraqi elite troops to surrender before they could fall back into the city.

One Republican Guard division has been demolished and two more severely weakened, U.S. Brig. Gen. Vince Brooks said at a Central Command briefing today in Doha, Qatar.

"The First Marine Expeditionary Force attacked the Baghdad division near the town of Al Kut," Brooks said. "The Baghdad division has been destroyed.

"Fifth Corps attacked against a combination of the Medina division and the Nebuchadnezzar division, both of the Republican Guard forces command. Their attacks are effective. And action continues in this case near Karbala along the Euphrates River."

Fox News quoted senior Defense officials as saying that the Baghdad division of Saddam Hussein's vaunted Republican Guard had been wiped out, and the Medina Division was "almost completely destroyed as well."

"The Medina and Baghdad divisions are no longer credible forces," Maj. Gen. Stanley McChrystal said at the Pentagon. "There's clearly command and control evident," but "effective command and control and effective maneuvers are not as evident."

"We just don't know who is in charge," of enemy forces, said Pentagon spokeswoman Victoria Clark.

Iraqi officials have disputed the coalition claims of battlefield success and have said the Iraqis are repelling the U.S. and British forces.

U.S. Marines advancing from Kut captured "the last big bridge we need" across the Tigris River early today, and pushed on toward Baghdad through the collapsing defenses of the RG Baghdad division, coalition sources said.

Iraqi Goons Exploit Mosque

Further south, Iraqi forces were firing on coalition forces from inside the Ali Mosque in An Najaf, U.S. Central Command said. The mosque is one of the most important religious shrines to Shia Muslims around the world, according to Central Command. U.S. forces did not return fire because of the site's religious importance, military officials said.

Iraq had claimed the coalition targeted religious sites, but this incident proves just the opposite.

Central Command was investigating a report that coalition aircraft bombed a maternity hospital in Baghdad. A witness told CNN said the bomb did not directly hit the hospital. The maternity ward was empty at the time, but there were injuries reported in other parts of the hospital.

Iraqi Troops Again Pretend to Be Civilians

Polish troops fighting with the allies are encountering many Iraqi combatants in civilian clothes, the commander of Poland's special forces said today in Warsaw.

U.S. soldiers in Iraq have reported coming under fire from civilians, and four U.S. soldiers were killed last week in a homicide-suicide attack.

Poland has sent 56 members of its elite GROM commando unit as a show of support for the United States.

Last Stand

Meanwhile, coalition forces said that the tanks of the 7th cavalry of the U.S. 3rd Division drove on to the north of Karbala as combat helicopters and A-10 "tankbuster" warplanes, operating from nearby captured Iraqi airfields, cleared the path for their advance through the shattered Republic Guard Medina division.

The new focus of the battle are the twin towns of Al Mahmudiyah and Al Musayab, respectively 10 and 20 miles south of Baghdad on the main highway south from the capital toward Karbala and An Najaf.

Taking these two towns, which requires seizing new crossings across the Euphrates River south of Fallujah, will cut the Republican Guard's line of retreat into the capital. Even if the two towns hold out, but come under coalition artillery fire, they could become an impassable bottleneck for the 60,000 Republic Guard troops if they try to retreat from their defensive lines to the south.

The struggle for these two towns is shaping up to be the last stand of the Republican Guard.

"The RG faces a terrible choice," a coalition staff officer told United Press International Wednesday. "They can stay where they are and get pounded by our air and artillery and die where they stand. Or they can try to fall back along the roads and get killed as they retreat."

Fears of Biochemical Attack

The prospect of victory was clouded for the U.S. troops by the constant threat the Iraqi defenders might in desperation resort to chemical and biological weapons.

"The mystery is why the Iraqis left the RG in defensive positions so far south of Baghdad," a British staff officer in Kuwait told UPI. "They must have known from Desert Storm what our air power could do. I can only assume that Saddam Hussein was worried about the loyalty of the RG if he pulled them back into the city. His priority has always been the survival of his own regime rather than the survival of his troops."

The key breakthrough into the Karbala gap came in two days of fighting Monday and Tuesday as the 3rd Division and the 101st Airborne worked together to break through the RG Medina division between Karbala and Hilla. Small teams of Airborne troops were helicoptered forward, behind enemy lines, to spot targets and call in airstrikes before the main assaults began.

A host of other battles along the way made the breakthrough possible. One crucial element was the capture of Iraqi airfields at Hilla and Karbala, and the ability of U.S. engineers and support troops to get them working and supplied again. These forward airfields meant that the ground troops were given non-stop support by airborne fire power, as the combat helicopters could refuel and reload just minutes from the battlefield.

Another important factor was the ability of the U.S. troops at An Nasiriyah and An Najaf to fight off the Iraqi guerilla attacks on the stretched supply lines, guaranteeing an endless flow of fuel and ammunition, food and water, to the troops far ahead. Those grinding battles for the Euphrates bridges, which encouraged the Iraqi commanders to keep their RG divisions forward rather than pulling them back into Baghdad, were the essential pre-condition for the battle of Baghdad.

On Tuesday, Gen. Richard Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said Republican Guard divisions had been degraded by about half after a week of strikes with artillery, aircraft and helicopters to "pretty low percentages of combat capability."

No Negotiations With Saddam

Top military officers defended the U.S. war plan, and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said the United States was not negotiating a cease-fire with Iraq, a rumor he said the Iraqi government is spreading to shore up support at home. Rumsfeld's comments were to be translated into Arabic and broadcast in Iraq.

"Since this broadcast is sent into Iraq, let me say this to all Iraqis who are listening: The regime is not telling the truth. There are no negotiations taking place with anyone in Saddam Hussein's regime. There will be no outcome to this war that leaves Saddam Hussein and his regime in power. Let there be no doubt. His time will end, and soon," he said.

Gen. Richard Myers rejected charges there were insufficient troops fighting the war and that Pentagon planners were adjusting forces to cover those holes.

The charges are "false, they're absolutely wrong, they bear no resemblance to the truth and it's just harmful to our troops that are out there fighting very bravely, very courageously," he said.

"I think obviously those who have made their living at Saddam's side don't want information about his health to be revealed," White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said. "They have a stake in keeping him as alive as can be. And again, we don't know if he is or is not."

Powell in Turkey

Secretary of State Colin Powell was in Ankara today for talks that have been characterized as fence-mending with Turkey, a long-standing U.S. ally. American and Turkish sources told United Press International a post-war role for Turkey in Iraq might be on the agenda.

CENTCOM in Qatar early today announced the rescue of a missing U.S. Army soldier. Pfc. Jessica D. Lynch, 19, who had been missing since the March 23 ambush of her convoy, was taken from Iraq to a coalition-controlled area, CENTCOM said.

Eleven bodies, some believed to be Americans, were found with Lynch when she was rescued in a U.S. commando raid on an Iraqi hospital

Copyright 2003 by United Press International.

All rights reserved.

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