BAGHDAD, Iraq April 7 —
U.S. forces in tanks and armored vehicles stormed into the center
of Baghdad on Monday, seizing one of Saddam Hussein's palaces in a
bold daylight raid aimed at demonstrating the Americans can come and
go as they please.
In the afternoon, some 10 hours after the battle began, Iraqi
snipers fired on U.S. soldiers from rooms in the state-owned
Al-Rashid Hotel after a platoon conducted a patrol in the
neighborhood near the palace. U.S. tanks returned fire with their
main guns and .50 caliber machine guns.
More than 70 tanks and 60 Bradley fighting vehicles took part in
the lightning thrust by the Army's 3rd Infantry Division, with
tank-killing A-10 Warthog planes and pilotless drones providing air
cover against mostly disorganized resistance.
At the city's southern edge, though, Marines and Army troops
faced bloody fighting.
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.
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.
There was no estimate of Iraqi casualties from the 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. On Sunday, a giant C-130 transport landed at the
airport in the first known arrival of a U.S. plane since the
airfield fell into U.S. hands last week.
During their armored thrust into the city, allied forces also
came near the state-owned Al-Rashid Hotel and very close to the
Information Ministry, said Lt. Mark Kitchens.
The Al-Rashid was used by foreign reporters during the 1991 Gulf
War. At that time, the U.S. government alleged that the building
housed a military communications center. This time, many foreign
journalists are staying at the Palestine Hotel.
During a dust-blown news conference on the roof of the Palestine
Hotel, Iraqi Information Minister Mohammed Saeed al-Sahhaf said the
American invaders had tried to penetrate the city but were
slaughtered. He declared: "Be assured Baghdad is safe, secure and
great."
"There is no presence of the American columns in the city of
Baghdad, none at all," he said. A sandstorm and black smoke from oil
trench fires that were set by the Iraqis to cloak the city cast a
haze over Baghdad.
Kitchens noted that when al-Sahaf was giving his news conference,
a U.S. shell was fired and landed nearby.
In the afternoon, Baghdad continued to be rocked by explosions
from areas on the west bank of the Tigris River.
Across from the New Presidential Palace, Iraqi forces took up
positions in buildings that make up the University of Baghdad. They
fired heavy machine guns across the 400 yard-wide river. U.S. troops
called in mortar fire and close air support to shell and bomb the
Iraqi fighters.
A platoon from Attack company conducted a patrol in the
neighborhood near the palace. The men in the Bradley fighting
vehicles did not encounter any hostile fire as they drove near the
Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.
The patrol stopped at a government complex across from the
gigantic tomb, where there were bunkers and foxholes built around
the entrance. Outside the fighting positions were dozens of pairs of
military boots and some uniforms, apparently abandoned by fleeing
Iraqi troops. Inside the bunkers were dozens of rocket-propelled
grenades and two launchers.
Roads leading to the old palace compound and the Al-Rashid Hotel
were blocked. Militiamen and Iraqi army troops set up barricades
about 500 yards away from the hotel. A bridge over the Tigris that
runs close to the palace was closed, together with a stretch of road
linking the Information Ministry to the palace, which is a vast
complex with several huge entrances.
An official at the al-Kindi Hospital in the working-class
district of al-Nahda said at least 75 wounded civilians had been
brought there since the morning. Most suffered from gunshot wounds,
burns and shrapnel.
State radio and Iraqi television remained on the air. State radio
exhorted Iraqis in emotional appeals to fight the U.S. forces. "Rise
up against oppression and tyranny. Draw the swords of righteousness
in the face of falsehood," it said.
In some areas of Baghdad, cafes were filled with men drinking
black sweet tea and smoking water pipes. Teenagers played street
soccer and some residents played backgammon outside their homes.
The number of people and the volume of traffic on the streets,
however, were perhaps the lowest since the war began March 20.
Few shops were open, and only a few people were out on the
streets. At the main bus terminal close to the Al-Rashid Hotel,
about 500 people including soldiers stood around, waiting for
buses.
The Information Ministry looked deserted except for several men
carrying rocket-propelled grenade rifles and half a dozen army
troops behind sandbagged fighting positions outside. They flashed
the V for victory sign.
Not far from the Al-Rashid Hotel, Iraqi army trucks and at least
two artillery cannons looked abandoned.
Armed militiamen milled around the area on bicycles, and army
troops and militiamen darted around in muddy, four-by-four
vehicles.
The U.S. military portrayed the strike as a raid through the
city, not a seizure of territory or targets. Army Col. David Perkins
told his troops that the mission was a demonstration that U.S.
forces could move about the city at will.
"I hope this makes it clear to the Iraqi people that this (the
regime) is over and that they can now enjoy their new freedom,"
Perkins said.
Tanks barreled into the capital on the western side of the Tigris
River at 6 a.m. As they approached Baghdad along Highway 8, they met
moderate resistance mostly assault fire and rocket-propelled
grenades from infantry.
The Army columns moved northeast to the newest and main
presidential palace on the river, which divides the capital. The
palace, which is near Saddam's destroyed Baath Party headquarters,
apparently was mainly residential rather than used for
administrative purposes.
Iraqi men some nearly naked fled along its banks.
Witnesses said that some of the Iraqi soldiers at a camp on the
southern tip of the presidential compound swam to the west bank of
the Tigris to flee advancing U.S. soldiers.
Before the Americans seized the complex, Iraqis shot at them from
a clock tower overlooking the compound. Tanks quickly destroyed
it.
The main palace building sand-colored brick ornamented with blue
tile was flooded in the basement and first floor. The rest of the
building appeared to be destroyed, hit by cruise missiles or
laser-guided bombs during previous raids. Palace curtains were
strewn over the ground.
"This used to be a nice place. They should make it like a Six
Flags, or something," said Spc. Robert Blake of State College,
Pa.
During the Army's advance into the city, about 200 anti-tank
mines that had been scattered on the road had to be pushed
aside.
"I think it's a good testament to the American soldier," Perkins
said. "In the last 17 days over 500 miles and heavy, heavy fighting
on many days to finally be here is a great accomplishment."
Associated Press writers Ellen Knickmeyer and Kimberly Hefling
contributed to this report from the Baghdad area.
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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