U.S. troops are preparing for a confrontation with one of the
divisions of the Republican Guard near the Shiite Muslim holy city
of Karbala, some 60 miles from Baghdad, U.S. officials told ABCNEWS'
John McWethy. The battle, sources said, could be imminent.
A line of Republican Guard divisions stretches from Karbala to
the city of Al Kut, forming a wall between coalition forces and
Baghdad, Pentagon officials said. The Army's 3rd Infantry Division
which is 50 miles from Baghdad is preparing for a confrontation as
well.
According to ABCNEWS' Ted Koppel, who is embedded with the unit,
intelligence reports indicate that perhaps as many as 1,000 Iraqi
troops may be coming down the Euphrates River on boats and the 3rd
Infantry Division is expecting an attack. Thirty-two Apache Longbow
helicopters are said to be nearby and ready to provide air support.
Sources also said the 101st Airborne Division and its Apache
helicopters were moving to a secret location deep within Iraq so it
could participate in the ultimate battle for Baghdad. If another
large U.S. force is needed, the 4th Infantry Division would be
summoned. Officials said those troops are on the way to Kuwait but
would not be fully ready for battle for at least a month.
Skies Clear; Fighting to Increase
As Marines and Army units moved forward, they continued to face
scattered attacks, U.S. officials said, as part of Saddam's strategy
to stop coalition momentum toward the capital. The blinding
sandstorms that had hindered progress cleared up and paved the way
for the resumption of air-support missions.
About 100 miles south of the capital, the 5th Marine
Expeditionary Force used mortars to attack Iraqi holdouts who had
been firing at Marine units moving north, reported ABCNEWS' Bob
Woodruff, who is embedded with the force. With air power back up,
the Marines have been able to move much more quickly, he said.
And near Al Kut, southeast of Baghdad, the 1st Marine Division
came under Iraqi artillery, mortar and small-arms fire, and was
forced to turn back and use a different route, said ABCNEWS' Mike
Cerre, who is with the unit.
Update 7 p.m. ET: Coalition forces parachuted
into northeastern Iraq and continue toward Baghdad from the
south. (ABCNEWS.com)
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Continued Attacks in the South
In an area east of the town of Najaf, the 5th Armored Corps was
attacked by "vehicle-mounted irregulars," Central Command spokesman
Brig. Gen. Vincent Brooks said today. He said coalition forces
defeated the attack with no casualties.
Intense fighting also continued in and around the town of
Nasiriyah, where about 30 Marines were injured by friendly fire,
ABCNEWS' John Berman reported. The Marines had spread out throughout
the city and set up defensive strongholds. They had adopted a new
approach toward handling surrenders since several troops were
wounded in the town Sunday during a phony surrender.
"The policy right now is to question almost everyone who comes
close to the Marines," Berman said. "Most civilians are let go but
several hundred prisoners have been taken."
The Baath Party intelligence headquarters that the Marines
overtook in the city Wednesday has yielded information that could be
useful to U.S. troops: a terrain model, a detailed map of the city
and boxes of American ammunition. The Marines, Berman reported,
think the boxes of ammunition might have been taken from an Army
convoy that Iraqis seized Sunday.
Efforts to establish a U.S. air base in southern Iraq have met
with stubborn resistance from Iraqi fighters. An Air Force convoy to
the facility was stalled by heavy gunfire, mines and booby traps,
and planes coming in to the base were taking a lot of surface-to-air
fire.
In southern Iraq, British forces continued to face "stiff
opposition" from Iraqi paramilitaries and regular forces in and
around Basra, British Air Marshal Bryan Burridge told reporters at
Central Command in Doha, Qatar.
One soldier said their goal was to oust the regime in Basra and
hope the rest of the city would fall afterwards.
"The aim of this operation was to try and take out the leadership
and so if the brain of the operation is gone, the other parts of it
may crumble," said Maj. Johnny Bawron of the 7th Armored Brigade.
British commanders said they had struck a convoy of Iraqi units
traveling south from Basra, destroying 19 tanks. The units were
believed to be heading southeast from Basra toward the Al Faw
Peninsula.
The paramilitaries, who are loyal to Saddam, were rounding up the
regular troops and forcing them to fight, sometimes by holding guns
to the heads of their family members, Burridge said.
In the Persian Gulf, allied minesweepers worked to expand a newly
cleared channel to the port of Umm Qasr for shipments of aid. The
British ship Sir Galahad was waiting offshore with 200 tons
of food, medicine and water for Iraqi civilians in Basra and
elsewhere.
Two humanitarian convoys reached the southern cities of Safwan
and Umm Qasr with food and water, U.S. officials said today.
New Explosions Rock Baghdad
As the fighting continued south of Baghdad, explosions rocked the
Iraqi capital late tonight. Large billows of smoke and fire rose
above the city. There were reports that buildings close to the Old
Palace compound near central Baghdad were hit by airstrikes.
Iraqi Information Minister Mohammed Saeed al-Sahaf was talking to
Abu Dhabi television from the roof of a building in Baghdad when he
heard the explosions. He moved away and said, "Can you hear this?
This is not frightening anybody." Al-Sahaf said a smoking building
that was being shown on Abu Dhabi TV had been struck by coalition
forces for a fourth time.
Iraq's defense minister, Sultan Hashim Ahmed, told a news
conference that Iraqi troops were prepared and that a battle for
Baghdad would be decided in house-to-house combat within the city.
"We set up our [main] defenses in Baghdad. It will be no surprise
that in five to 10 days they will be able to encircle all our
positions in Baghdad. They have the capability to do so," Ahmed
said. "The enemy must come inside Baghdad, and that will be its
grave. We feel that this war must be prolonged so the enemy pays a
high price."
The tension between Iraq and the United States also extended to
the United Nations today. U.S. Ambassador John Negroponte walked out
during a speech by the Iraqi U.N. Ambassador Mohammed Al-Douri, who
accused the United States of trying to exterminate Iraqis.
"I did sit through quite a long part of what he had to say, but
I'd heard enough," Negroponte said.
Iraqi Retreat in the North
Iraqi forces began withdrawing from positions on the edge of the
Kurdish enclave in northern Iraq after Kurdish fighters pushed
beyond their territory into Iraq, and American paratroopers landed
in the region.
ABCNEWS' Charles Glass said Iraqis had abandoned their positions
near the town of Chamchamal in northwestern Iraq. On Wednesday,
Glass said, between 200 and 300 Iraqis were in hilltop positions
around Chamchamal; by this evening, there were none. The apparently
retreating Iraqi forces, Glass said, had not been engaged by Kurdish
fighters, and there were no coalition forces in the immediate area.
The road west from Chamchamal leads to the oil hub of Kirkuk,
where Iraqi forces are known to have established a strong defense.
The retreating Iraqis may have been ordered to help prepare to
defend Kirkuk, Glass said.
Glass said it was not clear if the Iraqis abandoning their
positions were regular members of the Iraqi military. The Iraqi
fighters some 200 to 300 men had been in the hilltops only one
night before. In their hasty retreat, they left behind light
weaponry, including rocket-propelled grenade launchers and rifles.
The development came just hours after 1,000 paratroopers from the
173rd U.S. Airborne Brigade dropped into Kurdish-controlled northern
Iraq late Wednesday and early today, at an airstrip outside the town
of Bashur, 30 miles south of the Turkish border. They set up
airfield operations to support follow-up forces.
Bush, Blair Split on Post-Saddam
Plans
Meanwhile, President Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair
met at Camp David in Maryland today to discuss plans for a
post-Saddam Iraq a divisive issue between the two allies.
The White House has drawn up a plan for American officials to run
Iraq, with U.N. involvement, while Blair wants the United Nations to
have a leading if not controlling role in rebuilding Iraq.
"No doubt, the United Nations has got to be closely involved in
this process," Blair said at a news conference. He conceded that
details of a new Iraqi government had not been resolved.
Both coalition leaders reiterated their confidence in the war
effort, while refusing to predict how long the fighting would
continue. They said victory would remain the focus of the war, not a
timetable.
"This isn't a matter of timetable, it's a matter of victory,"
Bush said. "And the Iraqi people have got to know that. They've got
to know that they will be liberated and Saddam Hussein will be
removed, no matter how long it takes."
ABCNEWS' Richard Engel in Baghdad, Tim Scheld in Qatar, and
John McWethy, Lisa Sylvester, John Cochran, Brian Hartman, Terry
Moran and Martha Raddatz in Washington contributed to this report.
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