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wrbones
03-27-03, 12:06 AM
Army Troops Parachute Into Northern Iraq







Thursday, March 27, 2003

In the first significant arrival of troops by air, about 1,000 U.S. Army paratroopers dropped into Kurdish-held territory in northern Iraq Wednesday, opening Operation Iraqi Freedom's northern front.





Troops from the 173rd Brigade parachuted from low-flying jets onto an airfield less than 30 miles from the Turkish border. The move was part of a new U.S. action plan to take the northern part of the country, since Turkey wouldn't allow American troops to enter from there.

• Map: The War in Iraq

One week into the war, the possibility of a major battle loomed within 100 miles of Baghdad as a convoy made up of elite Republican Guard forces moved in the direction of American troops aiming for Saddam's seat of power, according to some reports.

But U.S. Central Command officials told Fox News that they didn’t see a massive column of Iraqi Republican Guard troops moving south from Baghdad; instead they saw Republican Guard units "repositioning" and apparently readying for battle. The officials said it's routine defensive posture for units to reposition before a big battle.

In the south, coalition warplanes bombed a smaller enemy convoy fleeing the besieged city of Basra.

The unchallenged bombing of Iraqi forces leaving Basra raised hopes that ground troops could soon enter the city, feared at risk for a humanitarian crisis.

The Times of London reported in its Thursday issue that the U.S. has called up 30,000 more reinforcements to be sent to the Gulf.

Warplanes flew over Baghdad late Wednesday night, and allied forces fired several missiles into the southern outskirts of the city.

Eight new explosions were heard by a Reuters news service witness in the skies over the outskirts of Baghdad.

Meanwhile, at least 25 Marines from Camp Lejeune were injured during house-to-house fighting that began Wednesday night in Nasiriyah, according to a television reporter traveling with the troops.

Keith Garvin, reporting live for WTVD Wednesday evening (about 2 a.m. in Baghdad), said the Marines were wounded over the past few hours in combat that had picked up "quite a bit in the last 10 minutes or so."

Intelligence reports indicated 2,000 Iraqi troops were advancing on the camp, and a two-hour fight with missiles and artillery ensued, ultimately augmented by aerial bombing, he said.

Garvin said some of the Iraqi fighters were using women as shields and had given guns to children.

"Unfortunately some of the children have been firing at our Marines and our Marines have been forced to defend themselves," he said.

The wounded appeared to be in addition to 15 Lejeune Marines who have been reported injured during the Iraqi conflict. Eleven Lejeune Marines have died, nine in combat in the Nasiriyah area and two in accidents.

In a sandstorm that grounded other aircraft, a few helicopters managed Wednesday to evacuate wounded Marines and Iraqi prisoners and civilians, including a toddler, to a little desert airstrip.

Some had lost limbs, some had been shot, all picked up on the road to Baghdad during fire fights with Saddam Hussein's military.

But as they were loading the casualties, Iraqis kept shooting. The only reason they went ahead with the mission, the pilots said, was because children were involved.

U.S. Central Command also confirmed Wednesday that Iraqi fighters were using American military uniforms to commit acts against the Iraqi people and to "possibly attack U.S. forces."

Fox News’ Greg Kelly, embedded with the 3rd Infantry Division, reported that members of the 3rd Infantry found some of their own uniforms with American name tags on them in a bunker that had been abandoned by some of the Fedayeen.

Security tightened after the discovery.

Another embedded reporter with another brigade in the 3rd Infantry said an Iraqi soldier wearing one of the division’s uniforms was driving an oil truck toward the American troops when he was stopped. The reporter said he was rigged with explosives to blow up the oil truck in the midst of the troops.

Central Command said they were investigating the incidents.

The developments unfolded as the first humanitarian delivery of supplies rolled into southern Iraq, greeted at the border by hungry children.

With coalition forces massing to the south, west and now the north of Baghdad, the Iraqi regime kept much of the news from its own people. Instead, it emphasized a claim that two American cruise missiles had landed in a residential Baghdad neighborhood, killing 14 civilians in Baghdad and wounding 30, some badly, in a "direct attack on our people."

Central Command said it was investigating but there could be other explanations for the casualties: The Iraqi surface-to-air missiles launched against the American bombs could have missed their target and fallen back onto their own people.

According to Central Command, "All reports indicate so far [that] it wasn't us."

"We'll continue to look and see if we missed anything, but another explanation could be the AAA fire or surface-to-air missile that missed its target fell back into the marketplace area," said Maj. Gen. Stanley McChrystal. Gen. Myers echoed those remarks Wednesday night on Capitol Hill.

American military officials issued a statement saying that civilian damage was "possible" after an aerial attack aimed at nine Iraqi surface-to-surface missiles. "The missiles and launchers were placed within a civilian residential area," it said.

Associated Press Television News video showed bodies wrapped in plastic sheeting in the back of a pickup truck and streets that had flooded after water pipes ruptured.

Flames rose above burning buildings, mixing with smoke from fires Iraqis have lit to try to obscure targets for American combat pilots.

"This war is far from over," President Bush said in a quick trip to the Florida headquarters of U.S. Central Command, which is overseeing the war. Still, he said victory was only a matter of time, adding, "There will be a day of reckoning for the Iraqi regime, and that day is drawing near."

Bush later flew to the Camp David presidential retreat for a meeting Thursday with British Prime Minister Tony Blair, his partner in the Iraq invasion.

For the second straight day, swirling sandstorms hampered American units. The bombing campaign was crimped, as well, but Baghdad television was knocked off the air for several hours, and explosions were heard, as well, near the oil-rich city of Kirkuk in the north.

Lt. Col. Thomas Collins, spokesman for the U.S. Army Southern European Task Force, confirmed that paratroopers were on the ground, many of them elite Rangers.

"I can only tell you yes, they've gone in. They're on the ground," he said.

Other officials said tanks, other vehicles and supplies would be airlifted in behind them.

American commanders had hoped to move a large force into northern Iraq from Turkey. But the Turkish parliament refused to allow that, and the parachute drop was the beginning of an alternative plan.

Harriers and Tornado jets flying out of Kuwait attacked the Iraqi convoy leaving Basra, a city of more than 1 million people, according to a British military source. The source, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the column included as many as 120 tanks and other armored vehicles.

more:

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,82282,00.html