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wrbones
03-24-03, 11:52 PM
http://news.ft.com/servlet/ContentServer?pagename=FT.com/StoryFT/FullStory&c=StoryFT&cid=1048313098236&p=1012571727088



US begins battery of forces guarding Baghdad
By Mark Nicholson at US Central Command in Qatar
Published: March 24 2003 19:41 | Last Updated: March 24 2003 19:41


A devastating arsenal of US aerial weapons has begun a sustained battery of the "backbone" of Saddam Hussein's forces guarding Baghdad in a confrontation with Iraq's elite troops that will decide the war's outcome.


With the most advanced US armour now just 50 miles from the Iraqi capital, military sources said the US strategic aim was to destroy or force the surrender of three entrenched Republican Guard units protecting southern approaches to the city.

"Before we move forward, these people have got to capitulate or be destroyed," said one military source. "This is the start of the push towards Baghdad."

B-52 bombers using guided JDAM 2,000lb bombs, along with Tomahawk cruise missiles, AH-64 Longbow Apache attack helicopters, Harrier GR7 close-support attack jets and A-10 Warthog anti-tank aircraft began the intensive assault overnight on Sunday.

One Apache made a forced landing and its two-man crew were described as "missing" during a an attack in which General Tommy Franks, commander of US Central Command, said between 30 and 40 such attack helicopters attacked Republican Guard positions north of Karbala.

Military sources said the strikes, backed by surface-to-surface missile raids from US positions, were precision attacks against air defence targets using radar-activated air-to-ground missiles and JDAM attacks on command and control positions.

"They have been hit, they will continue to be hit at points and places and times that make sense to us," Gen Franks said. The effect so far had been "very positive for us".

But the US warned that the Iraqi forces were deeply set in their positions and well defended by a "missile engagement zone" of anti-aircraft and missile defences. Sources said the battery "could go on for days" before any advance on Baghdad. "It will go 24/7 until it finishes," said one.

US forces have pushed north 300 miles from the Kuwait border to Karbala, around two hours' drive from the Iraqi capital, where military officials said arriving forces had already met a "fair amount" of resistance.

Officials said, however, that "masses" of heavy armoured reinforcement were rolling north in support, with more A1 Abrams tanks being shipped towards the front line both on transporters and under their own steam.

The US had already established some advanced logistical bases south of Karbala to speed the re-supply of advanced units.

The aerial bombardment is targeting three Republican Guard divisions, each of which is believed to have 10,000-12,000 troops and hundreds of T-72 tanks.

Ranged in a protective crescent known by US forces as the "red zone" around 30 miles from Baghdad, the Republican Guard units are the Medina division, protecting road access from the west, the Baghdad division covering approaches from the south and the al-Amara division dug into the plains on the city's east.

"These are the forces that we would not expect to give up - it's the backbone of their forces," said a military source.

Reports from "embedded" journalists with the most advanced US units near Karbala quoted senior US officers as saying that the three Republican Guard divisions were believed to be close to full strength and with their command and control systems still intact.

Military sources suggested that US attacks may focus intensively on one of the three Republican Guard units, expected to be the Medina division, while dropping leaflets among the others, urging them to leave their weapons or face attack, to try to persuade an early capitulation.

Gen Franks said US forces continued to make "rapid and in some cases dramatic" progress through Iraq, dismissing continued reports of resistance led by irregular Iraqi forces as "sporadic".

xref www.ft.com/tactics

wrbones
03-24-03, 11:55 PM
(CNN) -- With soldiers from the U.S. Army's V Corps poised to take on an elite Iraqi Republican Guard division less than 60 miles from Baghdad, coalition planes and helicopters pounded Iraqi...