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• Dow Falls Amid Fears of Prolonged War • Families of POWs Cope With News • Reflections on Iraq at the Oscars

U.S. helicopters have begun attacking Saddam Hussein's Republican Guard forces arrayed around Baghdad, a Pentagon official said Monday.

Asked about ground forces, Maj. Gen. Stanley McChrystal said, "We have not gotten into direct firefights with Republican Guard forces." The Army's Third Infantry division moved to within 50 miles of the Iraqi capital.

He said that thus far in the war, 2,000 precision-guided weapons have been used against the Iraqis.

"All of the pieces are falling into place," McChrystal told a Pentagon briefing.

McChrystal expressed regret about a U.S. bomb that hit a passenger bus carrying Syrian civilians fleeing the war. Five were killed and 10 wounded in the incident, according to Syria's official news agency.

The general said the bomb was aimed at a bridge 100 miles from the Syrian border. "A bus came into the pilot's view too late to recall the bomb aimed at the bridge," he said.

"Unintended casualties like this are regrettable," said McChrystal, vice chief of operations for the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

photo credit and caption:

Members of the Desert Rats, Royal Fusiliers, drive their Warrior tank into a monument of Saddam Hussein in Basra, southern Iraq, Monday, March 24, 2003. (AP Photo/Mark Richards, Pool)

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