wrbones
03-27-03, 05:20 PM
http://www.cnn.com/2003/WORLD/meast/03/27/sprj.irq.war.main/index.html
(CNN) – As President Bush declared the war in Iraq would last "however long it takes to win," the Pentagon announced Thursday 120,000 additional troops were being deployed to the region.
Twenty thousand troops from the U.S. 4th Infantry Division will leave Fort Hood, Texas, for Iraq in the next few days, and another 100,000 ground troops have received deployment orders and will head to the Persian Gulf region next month, Pentagon officials said.
The new troops will also include more heavy mechanized divisions, the officials said.
Iraq's information minister said Thursday that Baghdad would be the "graveyard" of coalition forces and they would lose "even if they bring double American troops."
"Americans are now in disarray," Mohammed Saeed al-Sahaf told Arabic language TV network Al-Jazeera. "They try to engage the world as much as they can and we will continue until they leave our land."
Meanwhile, a barrage of explosions rattled Baghdad shortly after 11 p.m. (3 p.m. EST) Thursday, sending clouds of smoke hundreds of feet into the air and shrouding parts of the city in a thick haze.
It marked some of the strongest explosions in the Iraqi capital since the U.S.-led war began.
Smoke was seen near Iraq's International Communications Center, a communications site in the heart of Baghdad, and part of the building appeared to be on fire.
The explosions were so massive, Pentagon officials in Washington were prompted to say the biggest conventional bomb in the U.S. military's arsenal -- the 21,000-pound MOAB -- was not dropped.
Baghdad residents told Reuters news service the Al Salam presidential palace was among the targets struck. The palace was bombed last week. Residents also told Reuters some military positions on the eastern and southern perimeter of the city had been targeted.
In northern Iraq, U.S. troops, tanks and equipment of the 1st Infantry Division are being airlifted into the Kurdish-controlled northern area after about 1,000 paratroopers of the 173rd Airborne Brigade jumped in early Thursday and secured Harir airfield near Bashur.
The soldiers will be used to protect Kurdish-controlled areas and can attack Iraqi troops from the north, said Brig. Gen. Vincent Brooks at a briefing at U.S. Central Command headquarters in Qatar. (Full story)
Retired U.S. Army Gen. Wesley Clark, a CNN analyst and former NATO supreme allied commander, said control of the airfield would allow the coalition to move tanks and other armored vehicles quickly into the region. (Clark on war strategy)
Surrender and reinforcements
In central Iraq, six Iraqi men believed to be couriers for the Iraqi paramilitary group Saddam Fedayeen surrendered to members of the 101st Airborne Division after the men became disoriented in a sandstorm and were surrounded by U.S. troops.
The men -- who were not in uniform -- carried a large sum of U.S. money and instructions that may have been meant for Baath party leaders in a nearby town, according to Col. Mike Linnington, a 101st unit commander.
A newly released classified CIA intelligence report warned irregular Iraqi forces could pose the greatest threat to coalition forces, particularly with "hit and run" attacks on supply lines and rear units, U.S. officials said. (Full story)
After braving nearly constant fire for 72 hours and spending a tense night listening and hoping that friendly B-52 bombers overhead would stop an armored Iraqi column apparently heading their way, the 3rd Squadron, 7th U.S. Cavalry got a break Thursday -- reinforcements and a chance to go to the back of the line for a short respite.
The bombers and ground-based artillery smashed the Iraqi convoy overnight before it could reach the troops northeast of Najaf, about 60 miles south of Baghdad, soldiers in the field told CNN's Walter Rodgers, who is accompanying the 3-7th, the reconnaissance unit of the 3rd Infantry Division.
Iraqi officials, speaking in Baghdad, gave a different version of the fighting around Najaf.
Defense Minister Sultan Hashim Ahmed said U.S. forces tried to encircle Najaf but failed to do so when they "sustained heavy casualties."
Officials at U.S. Central Command headquarters in Qatar said Thursday they had no information to support the report that "a large number" of Iraqi vehicles had been headed "anywhere."
U.N. walkout
At Camp David, Maryland, Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair met Thursday for the first time since the start of the war. The two leaders discussed the military effort and plans for the post-war reconstruction of Iraq.
Bush and Blair said Iraqi President Saddam Hussein's forces would be defeated. Bush declared the war would last "however long it takes to win."
Blair said, "There is absolutely no point, in my view, of trying to set a time limit or speculate on it because it's not set by time. It's set by the nature of the job."
Bush and Blair also called on the United Nations immediately to resume the oil-for-food program in Iraq. (Full story)
From Baghdad, Iraq's health minister said Thursday that more than 350 Iraqi civilians have been killed in the war so far, and he accused coalition fighters of targeting them. "Women and children are being attacked, as soldiers are being attacked," he said.
"Most of these martyrs are children, women and old men who could not protect themselves as young men could," Umid Midhat Mubarak told reporters at the Ministry of Information. (Full story)
The U.S. delegation walked out of a U.N. Security Council meeting Thursday as Iraq's U.N. ambassador, Mohamed Aldouri, accused the United States and Britain of "criminal, barbaric" behavior and military aggression "that is killing women, children and the elderly and destroys the life and the future of the people of Iraq. ...
Speaking outside later, U.S. Ambassador John Negroponte said, "I'd heard enough... I didn't hear anything new and of course don't accept any of the kinds of allegations and preposterous positions that he put forward."
(CNN) – As President Bush declared the war in Iraq would last "however long it takes to win," the Pentagon announced Thursday 120,000 additional troops were being deployed to the region.
Twenty thousand troops from the U.S. 4th Infantry Division will leave Fort Hood, Texas, for Iraq in the next few days, and another 100,000 ground troops have received deployment orders and will head to the Persian Gulf region next month, Pentagon officials said.
The new troops will also include more heavy mechanized divisions, the officials said.
Iraq's information minister said Thursday that Baghdad would be the "graveyard" of coalition forces and they would lose "even if they bring double American troops."
"Americans are now in disarray," Mohammed Saeed al-Sahaf told Arabic language TV network Al-Jazeera. "They try to engage the world as much as they can and we will continue until they leave our land."
Meanwhile, a barrage of explosions rattled Baghdad shortly after 11 p.m. (3 p.m. EST) Thursday, sending clouds of smoke hundreds of feet into the air and shrouding parts of the city in a thick haze.
It marked some of the strongest explosions in the Iraqi capital since the U.S.-led war began.
Smoke was seen near Iraq's International Communications Center, a communications site in the heart of Baghdad, and part of the building appeared to be on fire.
The explosions were so massive, Pentagon officials in Washington were prompted to say the biggest conventional bomb in the U.S. military's arsenal -- the 21,000-pound MOAB -- was not dropped.
Baghdad residents told Reuters news service the Al Salam presidential palace was among the targets struck. The palace was bombed last week. Residents also told Reuters some military positions on the eastern and southern perimeter of the city had been targeted.
In northern Iraq, U.S. troops, tanks and equipment of the 1st Infantry Division are being airlifted into the Kurdish-controlled northern area after about 1,000 paratroopers of the 173rd Airborne Brigade jumped in early Thursday and secured Harir airfield near Bashur.
The soldiers will be used to protect Kurdish-controlled areas and can attack Iraqi troops from the north, said Brig. Gen. Vincent Brooks at a briefing at U.S. Central Command headquarters in Qatar. (Full story)
Retired U.S. Army Gen. Wesley Clark, a CNN analyst and former NATO supreme allied commander, said control of the airfield would allow the coalition to move tanks and other armored vehicles quickly into the region. (Clark on war strategy)
Surrender and reinforcements
In central Iraq, six Iraqi men believed to be couriers for the Iraqi paramilitary group Saddam Fedayeen surrendered to members of the 101st Airborne Division after the men became disoriented in a sandstorm and were surrounded by U.S. troops.
The men -- who were not in uniform -- carried a large sum of U.S. money and instructions that may have been meant for Baath party leaders in a nearby town, according to Col. Mike Linnington, a 101st unit commander.
A newly released classified CIA intelligence report warned irregular Iraqi forces could pose the greatest threat to coalition forces, particularly with "hit and run" attacks on supply lines and rear units, U.S. officials said. (Full story)
After braving nearly constant fire for 72 hours and spending a tense night listening and hoping that friendly B-52 bombers overhead would stop an armored Iraqi column apparently heading their way, the 3rd Squadron, 7th U.S. Cavalry got a break Thursday -- reinforcements and a chance to go to the back of the line for a short respite.
The bombers and ground-based artillery smashed the Iraqi convoy overnight before it could reach the troops northeast of Najaf, about 60 miles south of Baghdad, soldiers in the field told CNN's Walter Rodgers, who is accompanying the 3-7th, the reconnaissance unit of the 3rd Infantry Division.
Iraqi officials, speaking in Baghdad, gave a different version of the fighting around Najaf.
Defense Minister Sultan Hashim Ahmed said U.S. forces tried to encircle Najaf but failed to do so when they "sustained heavy casualties."
Officials at U.S. Central Command headquarters in Qatar said Thursday they had no information to support the report that "a large number" of Iraqi vehicles had been headed "anywhere."
U.N. walkout
At Camp David, Maryland, Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair met Thursday for the first time since the start of the war. The two leaders discussed the military effort and plans for the post-war reconstruction of Iraq.
Bush and Blair said Iraqi President Saddam Hussein's forces would be defeated. Bush declared the war would last "however long it takes to win."
Blair said, "There is absolutely no point, in my view, of trying to set a time limit or speculate on it because it's not set by time. It's set by the nature of the job."
Bush and Blair also called on the United Nations immediately to resume the oil-for-food program in Iraq. (Full story)
From Baghdad, Iraq's health minister said Thursday that more than 350 Iraqi civilians have been killed in the war so far, and he accused coalition fighters of targeting them. "Women and children are being attacked, as soldiers are being attacked," he said.
"Most of these martyrs are children, women and old men who could not protect themselves as young men could," Umid Midhat Mubarak told reporters at the Ministry of Information. (Full story)
The U.S. delegation walked out of a U.N. Security Council meeting Thursday as Iraq's U.N. ambassador, Mohamed Aldouri, accused the United States and Britain of "criminal, barbaric" behavior and military aggression "that is killing women, children and the elderly and destroys the life and the future of the people of Iraq. ...
Speaking outside later, U.S. Ambassador John Negroponte said, "I'd heard enough... I didn't hear anything new and of course don't accept any of the kinds of allegations and preposterous positions that he put forward."