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thedrifter
03-21-03, 05:32 AM
Allied troops control Iraq's only coast
U.S. thinks Iraqi leadership shaken
Friday, March 21, 2003 Posted: 5:59 AM EST (1059 GMT)


INSIDE SOUTHERN IRAQ (CNN) -- British troops used a combined air and ground assault Friday to take control of Iraq's Persian Gulf coast, the Faw Peninsula, according to the commander of the Royal Marines landing force, and U.S. Marines held the Iraqi port of Umm Qasr.

Col. Steve Cox, the commander of the 40 British Commandos, said the pre-dawn Faw assault put coalition forces in control of Iraq's main oil pipeline terminals.

"All our targets were successfully captured," Cox said. "The main thing now is sorting the mess out in the daylight, make sure all the sites are protected and assess the local situation."

And an American flag flew over the Iraqi port of Umm Qasr on Friday after U.S. Marines took control, according to Reuters correspondent Adrian Croft.

So far, the coalition's battle for Iraq has not gone according to the original plan, thanks to the sudden strike on Saddam Hussein's bunker early Thursday morning.

U.S. intelligence and President Bush's administration officials are debating whether Saddam survived the first strike of the war and to what degree his senior leadership has been shaken.

The Washington Post reported in its Friday edition that U.S. intelligence officials believe Saddam and at least one of his two sons, Uday and Qusay, were in the compound at the time of the strike. The Post reported that analysts are unsure whether Saddam was killed or injured.

Iraqi government spokesman Mohammed Sahaf said Friday that Saddam is "safe" even though the U.S., according to Sahaf, targeted the Iraqi leader's home and family.

Regardless of the Iraqi leader's fate, the apparent disarray within the Iraqi leadership was enough to delay the original war plan, which called for an immediate and extensive bombing campaign to create "shock and awe" among Iraqi soldiers. (Full story)

Instead of the massive air strikes, a convoy of U.S. tanks rolled unopposed through the desert toward the Iraqi capital in the second day of the campaign to dislodge Saddam and hi regime.

Dozens of Iraqi troops crossed the southern border into Kuwait to surrender, waving white flags, to British marines.

With U.S. and British forces on the move, and after a day in which Baghdad was bombarded with more than 60 cruise missiles, U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said, "Things are going very well."

"The pressure is continuing on the Iraqi regime, and [the regime] will not be there in the period ahead," he said.

In the Friday afternoon news conference, Sahaf lashed out at the United States.

"This is a complete disgrace. They are a superpower of villains," he said.

Coalition forces took their first casualties of the campaign when a U.S. Marine CH-46 helicopter crashed in northern Kuwait early Friday morning, killing all 12 people on board -- 8 British military personnel and four American crew members, Pentagon officials said.

There were no indications that hostile fire brought down the helicopter, according to the Pentagon. The accident took place about nine miles south of the Iraqi border.(Full story)

Elsewhere, coalition forces bombed the Iraqi-controlled northern city of Mosul shortly before 4:30 a.m. Friday (8:30 p.m. Thursday EST). Antiaircraft fire was launched, but it was not clear whether any planes were hit.

Friday morning, the 3rd Squadron of the U.S. 7th Cavalry Regiment, lead element of the 3rd Infantry Division, was heading toward Baghdad unopposed after brushing aside initial resistance as it rolled across the border from Kuwait the night before, according to CNN Correspondent Walter Rodgers, who was accompanying the troops.

A group of Kiowa scout helicopters, flying no more than 50 feet above the ground, led a convoy of Bradley fighting vehicles and M1A1 Abrams tanks. In the initial skirmish with Iraqi troops, U.S. forces destroyed six or seven trucks and several tanks. (Full story)

The first coalition forces began crossing from Kuwait into Iraq about 8 p.m. (noon EST) Thursday.

Among the first were U.S. Marines of the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force, accompanied by a thunderous aerial and artillery barrage on Iraqi positions that felt "like an earthquake," according to a New York Times reporter on the scene.

The Marines encountered and destroyed two Iraqi armored personnel carriers. (Full story)

Iraqi television said early Friday that targets hit by coalition forces included a military site in Basra and another target in Akashat, a town about 300 miles west of Baghdad near the Syrian border. Iraqi television reported that four Iraqi soldiers were killed.

Television in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, showed coalition bombing Friday morning in Basra.

Other developments
• Iraqi troops have set fire to 15 oil wells in southern Iraq, in what appears to be a deliberate act, the Kuwaiti National Guard has said. (Full story)

• U.S. military planners are devising strategies in case the Iraqi military causes the Tigris River to flood, the Pentagon said Friday. If the Iraqi military were to release water into the Tigris from upstream reservoirs, extensive flooding could occur between Baghdad and Kut, displacing thousands of Iraqis. (Full story)

• Australian special forces are now operating inside Iraq gathering details on Iraqi troop movements and military targets, Australia's defense department said. (Full story)

• On Thursday night in Baghdad, an intense U.S. and coalition bombing attack rocked the Iraqi capital with a succession of explosions and fires that destroyed at least two buildings -- including the government facility containing the offices of Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz. U.S. officials said about 20 cruise missiles were launched in the most recent attacks from U.S. Navy ships and submarines in the Red Sea and Persian Gulf and -- for the first time -- from two British submarines.

• Rumsfeld urged Iraqi leaders to surrender, warning that the U.S. assault would be "of a force and scope and scale that is beyond what has been seen before." (Full story)

• Iraq responded to Thursday's attack by firing at least four missiles into northern Kuwait, two of which U.S. Patriot missiles intercepted, U.S. military officials said. U.S. forces sounded numerous alerts in the hours after the strikes, sending troops at several bases scrambling for chemical protection gear and running for bunkers. Air raid sirens also sounded in Kuwait City. (Full story)

• The United States asked governments around the world to expel Iraqi ambassadors and to temporarily suspend embassy services at Iraqi embassies, CNN has learned. The move seeks to delegitimize Saddam's regime and lay the diplomatic groundwork for a new Iraqi government, a senior administration official told CNN. (Full story)

CNN correspondents Rym Brahimi, Ryan Chilcote, David Ensor, Dr. Sanjay Gupta, John King, Art Harris, Nic Robertson, Walter Rodgers, Barbara Starr and Lisa Rose Weaver ,and producer Elise Labott, contributed to this report.

EDITOR'S NOTE: CNN's policy is to not report information that puts operational security at risk.

Sempers,

Roger


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