PDA

View Full Version : Uprisings, Basra, Bagdad: Chem weapons



wrbones
04-07-03, 10:42 AM
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,83384,00.html


Aerial Assault Continues on Baghdad







Monday, April 07, 2003

Coalition forces continued their aerial assault on Baghdad Monday afternoon, hours after U.S. troops barreled through the heart of the Iraqi capital just after dawn in a dramatic show of force designed to prove the coalition can enter the city with impunity.





Two foreign news services reported that Iraqis were rising up against Saddam Hussein's military in Baghdad.

And U.S. Marines crossed the Tigris River east of the city despite heavy damage to bridges from booby traps and heavy fighting.

• Maps: Iraq | Baghdad

Meanwhile, U.S. biological and chemical weapons experts believe they may have found an Iraqi storage site for weapons of mass destruction, a U.S. officer told Reuters.

"Our detectors have indicated something," Major Ros Coffman, a public affairs officer with the U.S. 3rd Infantry, said of the site just south of Hindiyah.

"We're talking about finding a site of possible WMD storage. This is an initial report, but it could be a smoking gun," he said.

And U.S. forces near Baghdad found around 20 medium-range missiles equipped with chemical weapons, National Public Radio reported.

The rockets, BM-21 missiles, were equipped with sarin and mustard gas and were "ready to fire," NPR said, attributing the report to a top official with the 1st Marine Division.

U.S. intelligence data showed the chemicals were "not just trace elements," the source told NPR.

Kuwait News Agency said sources in Baghdad were reporting citizen uprisings against Fedayeen Saddam.

"Major bloody confrontations are currently taking place between the residents of Baghdad and the regime's militia, killing dozens of Saddam's loyalists and forcing many of their leaders to leave their positions and change into civilian clothes," sources inside the city told KUNA.

Iranian media also reported that 35 Iraqi soldiers had been killed in three areas of Baghdad where civilians have been rising up against the military.

To the south, British troops thrust to the center of Basra, Iraq's second-largest city, to scrub out the last remaining clusters of Saddam's loyalists.

British officials said they found the body of "Chemical Ali," a notorious general who is a cousin of Saddam and his most trusted adviser.

Battles Rage in Baghdad

Missiles screamed over Baghdad early Monday and thunderous explosions shook buildings as the entire 2nd Brigade of the Army's 3rd Infantry Division moved north into the city. More than 70 tanks and 60 Bradley fighting vehicles pushed north on Highway 8, meeting only moderate resistance.

In the afternoon, Iraqi snipers fired on U.S. soldiers from rooms in the state-owned Al-Rashid Hotel during a coalition patrol. U.S. tanks returned fire with their main guns and .50 caliber machine guns.

Outside the deserted-looking Information Ministry, several Iraqi men carried rocket-propelled grenade rifles, and half a dozen army troops, flashing the 'V' for victory sign, took positions behind sandbags.

Nearby, Iraqi army trucks and at least two artillery cannons appeared abandoned.

Troops stormed Saddam's newest presidential palace and set up a prisoner of war holding pen inside the elaborate compound on the west bank of the Tigris, which divides the city. The ruling Baath Party headquarters was completely destroyed.

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.

The main palace building 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.

A coalition platoon conducted a patrol but stopped at a government complex across from the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, 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.

Up the river at the Old Palace, the sound of explosions and heavy fire could be heard, and U.S. forces in other parts of the city used explosives to destroy two statues of Saddam.

Coalition's 'Show of Force'

Fox News' Greg Kelly, embedded with the 2nd Brigade, said U.S. troops had encountered relatively light resistance moving into Baghdad, but that fighting intensified as tanks approached the downtown area.

Kelly, reporting from inside the U.S.-occupied presidential palace, also said that the complex may be set up as a base of operations for coalition forces inside Baghdad.

Pentagon officials told Fox News that the raid was a "show of force" operation designed to demonstrate the coalition's ability to move in and out of the Iraqi capital freely, as well as its resolve to eventually control the entire city.

"Today is not the beginning of the end, it's just another day on the battlefield," a U.S. Central Command spokesman told Fox News.

Col. David Perkins said the operation "makes it clear to the Iraqi people that this [regime] is over and that they can now enjoy their new freedom."

Iraqi Information Minister Mohammed Saeed al-Sahhaf, standing on a Baghdad rooftop, denied his city had been stormed as clouds of dust blew past and sirens could be heard.

"They are sick in their minds," he said. "They say they brought 65 tanks into center of city. I say to you this talk is not true. There is no presence of American infidels in the city of Baghdad, at all."

Allied forces also came near the state-owned Al-Rashid Hotel, used by foreign reporters during the 1991 Gulf War.

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.

"I do believe this city is freakin' ours," boasted Capt. Chris Carter of Watkinsville Ga.

Most Iraqis stayed indoors, but some shops were open and public buses were running. Iraqi TV and state radio stayed on the air, broadcasting patriotic songs, religious sermons and archival footage of Saddam.

Some 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. At the main bus terminal close to the Al-Rashid Hotel, about 500 people including soldiers stood around, waiting for buses.

In southern Baghdad, Iraqi rockets reportedly struck a group of Army personnel carriers. Six soldiers were missing and a large number were wounded.

Earlier, four or five Marines were killed when their vehicle was struck by an artillery shell at a bridge over a canal at the city's southern outskirts. The 3rd Battalion, 4th Marines fought for the bridge that leads into the city Sunday, and were trying to cross it when they were hit Monday morning.

The Marines repaired the bridge while others pushed ahead on foot toward Baghdad, wary of booby traps. There have also been warnings of possible suicide attacks by bombers in ambulances.

"Once we get in amongst them, they are dead meat," Colonel B. P. McCoy told Reuters.

Battle for Basra; 'Chemical Ali' Likely Killed

Smoke was rising over the southern city of Basra, where British and Iraqi forces have been locked in a battle for control. British troops moved into Basra's old city, where remaining paramilitary fighters are believed to have retreated.

Iraqis went on a looting rampage, hauling furniture and carpets out of the state bank and a western hotel.

Residents streamed out of the Central Bank of Iraq with their arms full of chairs, tables, carpets and other item and loaded them onto donkey- and horse-drawn carts, and in cars.

"Chemical Ali" -- Iraqi Gen. Ali Hassan al-Majid -- apparently was killed Saturday when two coalition aircraft used laser-guided munitions to attack his villa in Basra. Al-Majid, a cousin of Saddam, earned his nickname when he ordered a gas attack that killed thousands of Kurds in 1988.

His death should show the people of southern Iraq "that the regime is finished," said British spokesman Group Capt. Al Lockwood.

But U.S. Central Command wouldn't confirm his death.

Meanwhile, two Marines, one German reporter and one Spanish reporter were killed when an Iraqi missile struck a U.S. communications center of the 2nd Brigade -- part of the 3rd Infantry -- in southern Baghdad, Fox News confirmed. At least six others were wounded.

Fox News' Ben Johnson, Carl Cameron, Bret Baier and Major Garrett and The Associated Press contributed to this report.