BAGHDAD, Iraq April 8 —
The U.S. bombing of an upscale neighborhood where Saddam Hussein
and top aides were believed to be meeting blasted a 60-foot-deep
crater, ripped orange trees from their roots and left a heap of
concrete, mangled iron rods and shredded furniture and clothes.
At least three buildings were destroyed in Monday's 2 p.m. attack
on the western Baghdad district of al-Mansour, which broke windows
and doors as far as 300 yards from the site.
Rescue workers looking in the rubble for victims said two bodies
had been recovered and the death toll could be as high as 14. They
didn't release any names.
A single B-1B dropped four "bunker-busting" bombs on the district
after U.S. military intelligence was tipped that Saddam, his sons
Odai and Qusai and other Iraqi leaders might be meeting there, U.S.
officials said.
"A leadership target was hit very hard," said Marine Maj. Brad
Bartelt, a spokesman for U.S. Central Command in Qatar.
He said he could not comment on casualties or say how long it
would take to determine the damage. Battle assessment typically
involves ground reconnaissance or satellite imagery, though Bartelt
would not say what method was being used.
Those close to Saddam have said the Iraqi leader is so obsessed
with security that very few people would know about his movements.
He maintains dozens of residences and uses doubles to keep people
guessing.
An exiled dissident told The Associated Press that only two
people are kept posted about Saddam's whereabouts his son Qusai, who
commands the Republican Guard and heads the president's security,
and his private secretary, Abed Hameed Hmoud, a member of Saddam's
Tikriti clan. Even oldest son Odai is thought to be out of the loop
because he is considered to have a reckless nature.
About three miles from the al-Mansour district, white smoke from
U.S. artillery fire rose early Tuesday from Saddam's Old Palace
grounds on the banks of the Tigris River.
Heavy machine gun fire and the buzz of aircraft broke the silence
of an uncharacteristically quiet night, and silent, yellow flares
illuminated a sky even blacker from Baghdad's wartime power
outage.
Under cover of darkness, U.S. Marines spent the night patrolling
a field in the southeast corner of the capital, probing foxholes,
trenches and what appeared to be bunkers dug under roads. Snipers,
machine gunners and infantrymen made sure the area was free of
Iraqis.
Marines stopped suspicious vehicles. Snipers saw two men carrying
an AK-47s. They shot two of them and the rest fled into the
night.
Their vigil came less than 24 hours after U.S. troops stormed the
Iraqi capital and seized Saddam's New Presidential Palace.
More than 70 tanks and 60 Bradley fighting vehicles took part in
the lightning thrust Monday by the Army's 3rd Infantry Division,
with tank-killing A-10 Warthog planes and pilotless drones providing
air cover against mostly disorganized resistance.
Iraqi snipers fired on an American platoon from rooms in the
state-owned Al-Rashid Hotel on Monday afternoon while the soldiers
patrolled a neighborhood near the palace, soldiers said. U.S. tanks
returned fire.
At the city's southern edge, two Marines were killed and two
wounded when their armored troop carrier was hit by an artillery
shell at a bridge spanning a canal. The Marines advanced into the
capital by foot after the Iraqis blew apart the bridge.
Also, a group of U.S. armored personnel carriers in southern
Baghdad was hit by rockets, according to field reports. Six American
soldiers were reported missing and a large number were wounded.
In the heart of Baghdad, American soldiers who reached the
gold-and-blue-domed New Presidential Palace used the toilets, rifled
through documents in the bombed-out compound, and helped themselves
to ashtrays, pillows, gold-painted Arab glassware and other
souvenirs. The Americans also blew up a statue of Saddam on
horseback in the center of the city.
"I do believe this city is freakin' ours," boasted Capt. Chris
Carter of Watkinsville Ga.
The troops secured the main roads in the area, leaving soldiers
at every intersection. They made forays to the Al-Rashid and to the
bombed-out Information Ministry, but unlike at the palace, they did
not stay.
U.S. troops set up a prisoner of war collection point in the
palace compound. As Iraqis were captured in street fighting outside,
they were brought to the palace for processing before being sent
behind U.S. lines. At one point, a group of nine Iraqis surrendered
after hearing on loudspeakers that if they did so they would
live.
An official at U.S. Central Command in Qatar said coalition
forces planned to increase their broadcasting ability in and around
Baghdad in the coming days. He spoke on condition of anonymity, and
did not elaborate.
There was no estimate of Iraqi casualties from Monday's raid, but
10 miles outside the capital, about 100 Iraqi soldiers were reported
killed at the Baghdad airport in seven hours of fighting that ended
early Monday.
photo credit
and caption:
U.S. Army soldiers from A
Company, 3rd Battalion, 7th Infantry Regiment, search one of
Saddam Hussein's palaces damaged after a bombing, in Baghdad
Monday, April 7, 2003. Coalition soldiers took over key
buildings Monday, as gunfire and explosions thundered in many
parts of the battered Iraqi capital. (AP Photo/John
Moore)
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