wrbones
04-09-03, 07:16 AM
U.S. Troops Push From East, West Toward Linkup in Central Baghdad
Wednesday, April 09, 2003
BAGHDAD, Iraq — U.S. Army and Marine units, pushing from the east and west, sought to link up Wednesday in the center of Baghdad while hunting down small bands of Iraqi fighters still resisting after the collapse of most regular Iraqi army forces.
At police stations, universities, government ministries, the headquarters of the Iraq Olympic Committee, looters made off with computers, furniture, even military jeeps.
"Thank you, thank you, Mr. Bush," some of the looters shouted. One elderly man beat a portrait of Saddam with his shoe.
• Maps: Iraq | Baghdad
Even as the populace seemed suddenly to feel free of Saddam's control, U.S. officers said their forces faced continued resistance from small groups of holdout pro-Saddam fighters. The U.S Central Command reacted cautiously to the euphoria and chaos in Baghdad.
"All of us have come to expect the absolute worse behavior from this dying regime, so it's important to remember that tough fighting may lie ahead," said a command spokesman, Lt. Mark Kitchens. "However, we are heartened by what we are seeing, and feel a sense of warmth that the citizens of Baghdad are taking to the streets to celebrate their freedom."
Regarding looting, which has occurred in several Iraqi cities, Kitchens said, "It is certainly something we discourage, and when and where we can make a difference we will certainly try to do so."
Elsewhere in the capital, however, U.S. forces steadily expanded their reach, securing a military airport, capturing a prison, setting fire to a Republican Guard barracks.
The Marines pushed forward Wednesday, securing routes inside the city and pursuing roving bands of three or four Iraqis armed with rocket-propelled grenades and automatic weapons.
In one sector of southeastern Baghdad taken by the Marines, numerous civilians were out and about in the streets, some giving thumbs-ups to U.S. troops.
There were signs that the Iraqi government's efforts to sustain its public relations campaign were collapsing. State television went off the air Tuesday, and on Wednesday, the BBC said its reporters' "minders" -- government agents who monitor foreign journalists -- did not turn up for work.
While intent on completing the takeover of Baghdad, U.S. commanders also were turning their attention to Tikrit, Saddam's hometown in the desert about 90 miles to the north. Defended by well-trained troops, and home to many of Saddam's most devoted followers, the city of 260,000 is considered one of the few remaining stronghold of the Iraqi regime.
Coalition rescue teams were searching Wednesday for the crew of a F-15E fighter jet that went down on a mission near Tikrit. The U.S. Central Command said the cause of the incident was unknown; but if shot down, it would be only the second coalition plane felled by Iraqi fire.
The Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, one of two main Iraqi Kurdish groups opposing Saddam, claimed Tuesday that Saddam already was hiding in Tikrit. U.S. officials said they didn't know if he had escaped Monday's bombing of a site in Baghdad's al-Mansour neighborhood where he and at least one of his sons reportedly were meeting.
A British intelligence source told London's The Guardian newspaper that though Saddam was in the targeted building at some point, he was "probably" not there when the bombs were dropped.
The source added that the view that Saddam had not been killed in Monday's attack was a "preliminary assessment," presumably from intelligence in Baghdad.
There was no direct evidence either way, though.
Residents of al-Mansour estimated that 14 people, including at least seven children, were killed and scores wounded in homes and shops adjacent to the targeted site.
The toll of journalists killed in the war reached 10, with three killed in U.S. military strikes in Baghdad on Tuesday
Two cameramen, one from Ukraine and one from Spain, were killed when a U.S. tank fired into the Palestine Hotel, where hundreds of journalists are based. U.S. officers initially said hostile fire had been coming from the building; journalists said they witnessed none.
Also, a Jordanian reporter was killed in a U.S. airstrike on the Baghdad office of the Arab television network al-Jazeera, which contended the attack was deliberate.
On Wednesday, the U.S. branch of Amnesty International joined in the criticism.
"Unless the U.S. can demonstrate that the Palestine Hotel had been used for military purposes, it was a civilian object protected under international humanitarian law that should not have been attacked," Amnesty said.
In the southern city of Basra, which was taken over by British forces this week, Iraqi civilians guided journalists to a jail where they claim Saddam's secret police tortured inmates. The jail was charred and half-demolished after two days of bombing by British forces.
Despite the presence of British troops, looters in Basra have been plundering government buildings, universities and even hospitals. A Red Cross representative said the looting could delay relief efforts in the city of 1.3 million.
Group Capt. Al Lockwood, a British spokesman, said the task of restoring order was challenging.
"It's a large town -- we are quite thin on the ground," he told BBC radio Wednesday. "We need to instill the confidence of the community in the remnants of the police force that have not been tainted by Saddam Hussein's regime."
About 18 miles south of Baghdad, at Al-Tuwaitha, U.S. Marines were guarding a vast nuclear facility that had belonged to the Iraqi Atomic Energy Commission. The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review reported Wednesday that Marines had located an underground complex at Al-Tuwaitha that included warehouses and bombproof offices. The newspaper also reported that high levels of radiation were detected in several buildings at Al-Tuwaitha.
The site had been examined numerous times by U.N. weapons inspectors, but they reported no evidence of weapons of mass destruction.
In northern Iraq, U.S. special operations troops and Kurdish fighters seized a strategic hilltop Wednesday near the government-held city of Mosul, a senior Kurdish leader said.
The area called Maqloub was a hub for air defenses against coalition air strikes as well as a munitions center, said Hoshyar Zebari, a member of the ruling Kurdistan Democratic Party.
The Pentagon said Tuesday that the U.S. military's death toll from the war rose to 96, while eight Americans were missing and seven held as prisoners. Thirty British personnel have been killed, while the Iraqi forces' death toll is unknown, but believed to number in the thousands.
Fox News' Rita Cosby, Ben Johnson, Carl Cameron, Bret Baier, Ian McCaleb, Major Garrett and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Wednesday, April 09, 2003
BAGHDAD, Iraq — U.S. Army and Marine units, pushing from the east and west, sought to link up Wednesday in the center of Baghdad while hunting down small bands of Iraqi fighters still resisting after the collapse of most regular Iraqi army forces.
At police stations, universities, government ministries, the headquarters of the Iraq Olympic Committee, looters made off with computers, furniture, even military jeeps.
"Thank you, thank you, Mr. Bush," some of the looters shouted. One elderly man beat a portrait of Saddam with his shoe.
• Maps: Iraq | Baghdad
Even as the populace seemed suddenly to feel free of Saddam's control, U.S. officers said their forces faced continued resistance from small groups of holdout pro-Saddam fighters. The U.S Central Command reacted cautiously to the euphoria and chaos in Baghdad.
"All of us have come to expect the absolute worse behavior from this dying regime, so it's important to remember that tough fighting may lie ahead," said a command spokesman, Lt. Mark Kitchens. "However, we are heartened by what we are seeing, and feel a sense of warmth that the citizens of Baghdad are taking to the streets to celebrate their freedom."
Regarding looting, which has occurred in several Iraqi cities, Kitchens said, "It is certainly something we discourage, and when and where we can make a difference we will certainly try to do so."
Elsewhere in the capital, however, U.S. forces steadily expanded their reach, securing a military airport, capturing a prison, setting fire to a Republican Guard barracks.
The Marines pushed forward Wednesday, securing routes inside the city and pursuing roving bands of three or four Iraqis armed with rocket-propelled grenades and automatic weapons.
In one sector of southeastern Baghdad taken by the Marines, numerous civilians were out and about in the streets, some giving thumbs-ups to U.S. troops.
There were signs that the Iraqi government's efforts to sustain its public relations campaign were collapsing. State television went off the air Tuesday, and on Wednesday, the BBC said its reporters' "minders" -- government agents who monitor foreign journalists -- did not turn up for work.
While intent on completing the takeover of Baghdad, U.S. commanders also were turning their attention to Tikrit, Saddam's hometown in the desert about 90 miles to the north. Defended by well-trained troops, and home to many of Saddam's most devoted followers, the city of 260,000 is considered one of the few remaining stronghold of the Iraqi regime.
Coalition rescue teams were searching Wednesday for the crew of a F-15E fighter jet that went down on a mission near Tikrit. The U.S. Central Command said the cause of the incident was unknown; but if shot down, it would be only the second coalition plane felled by Iraqi fire.
The Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, one of two main Iraqi Kurdish groups opposing Saddam, claimed Tuesday that Saddam already was hiding in Tikrit. U.S. officials said they didn't know if he had escaped Monday's bombing of a site in Baghdad's al-Mansour neighborhood where he and at least one of his sons reportedly were meeting.
A British intelligence source told London's The Guardian newspaper that though Saddam was in the targeted building at some point, he was "probably" not there when the bombs were dropped.
The source added that the view that Saddam had not been killed in Monday's attack was a "preliminary assessment," presumably from intelligence in Baghdad.
There was no direct evidence either way, though.
Residents of al-Mansour estimated that 14 people, including at least seven children, were killed and scores wounded in homes and shops adjacent to the targeted site.
The toll of journalists killed in the war reached 10, with three killed in U.S. military strikes in Baghdad on Tuesday
Two cameramen, one from Ukraine and one from Spain, were killed when a U.S. tank fired into the Palestine Hotel, where hundreds of journalists are based. U.S. officers initially said hostile fire had been coming from the building; journalists said they witnessed none.
Also, a Jordanian reporter was killed in a U.S. airstrike on the Baghdad office of the Arab television network al-Jazeera, which contended the attack was deliberate.
On Wednesday, the U.S. branch of Amnesty International joined in the criticism.
"Unless the U.S. can demonstrate that the Palestine Hotel had been used for military purposes, it was a civilian object protected under international humanitarian law that should not have been attacked," Amnesty said.
In the southern city of Basra, which was taken over by British forces this week, Iraqi civilians guided journalists to a jail where they claim Saddam's secret police tortured inmates. The jail was charred and half-demolished after two days of bombing by British forces.
Despite the presence of British troops, looters in Basra have been plundering government buildings, universities and even hospitals. A Red Cross representative said the looting could delay relief efforts in the city of 1.3 million.
Group Capt. Al Lockwood, a British spokesman, said the task of restoring order was challenging.
"It's a large town -- we are quite thin on the ground," he told BBC radio Wednesday. "We need to instill the confidence of the community in the remnants of the police force that have not been tainted by Saddam Hussein's regime."
About 18 miles south of Baghdad, at Al-Tuwaitha, U.S. Marines were guarding a vast nuclear facility that had belonged to the Iraqi Atomic Energy Commission. The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review reported Wednesday that Marines had located an underground complex at Al-Tuwaitha that included warehouses and bombproof offices. The newspaper also reported that high levels of radiation were detected in several buildings at Al-Tuwaitha.
The site had been examined numerous times by U.N. weapons inspectors, but they reported no evidence of weapons of mass destruction.
In northern Iraq, U.S. special operations troops and Kurdish fighters seized a strategic hilltop Wednesday near the government-held city of Mosul, a senior Kurdish leader said.
The area called Maqloub was a hub for air defenses against coalition air strikes as well as a munitions center, said Hoshyar Zebari, a member of the ruling Kurdistan Democratic Party.
The Pentagon said Tuesday that the U.S. military's death toll from the war rose to 96, while eight Americans were missing and seven held as prisoners. Thirty British personnel have been killed, while the Iraqi forces' death toll is unknown, but believed to number in the thousands.
Fox News' Rita Cosby, Ben Johnson, Carl Cameron, Bret Baier, Ian McCaleb, Major Garrett and The Associated Press contributed to this report.