http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2003/...in541815.shtml



(CBS) A bomber posing as a taxi driver summoned American troops for help at a checkpoint north of Najaf, then blew up his vehicle Saturday, killing himself and four soldiers and opening a new chapter of carnage in the war for Iraq.

Iraq's vice president said such attacks would be "routine military policy" in Iraq — and, he suggested chillingly, in America. On Saturday, Iraqi state television aired footage of President Saddam Hussein meeting with top aides while an announcer said the Iraqi leader praised the suicide attack. The program did not carry any audio of Saddam speaking, and there was no way to verify when the scene was recorded.

"We will use any means to kill our enemy in our land and we will follow the enemy into its land," Taha Yassin Ramadan said at a Baghdad news conference. "This is just the beginning. You'll hear more pleasant news later."

Ramadan said Iraq, like many other nations, cannot match American weaponry. "They have bombs that can kill 500 people, but I am sure that the day will come when a single martyrdom operation will kill 5,000 enemies."

Thousands of Arab volunteers have been pouring into Iraq since the start of the war, he said, adding that Iraq will provide them with what they need to fight the allied forces. "The Iraqi people have a legal right to deal with the enemy with any means," he added.

The suicide bombing was the first against U.S. and British forces since the invasion began, though there have been warnings of suicide attacks in Iraq.

Maj. Gen. Stanley McChrystal, a Pentagon spokesman, said the military would work to shore up protections of military checkpoints and other sites. The attack "looks and feels like terrorism," McChrystal said. "To protect our soldiers clearly requires great care."

In other major developments:


U.S. Air Force attack jets began flying Saturday from a captured base in Iraq, the first combat missions flown from Iraqi soil. A pair of A-10 Thunderbolt jets became the first U.S. fighters to touch down here at midday. This base, which Air Force officials have opened to the media on condition they not disclose its location, is ideally suited as a refueling point on the way to support ground combat troops to the north.


U.S. warplanes attacked Baghdad's defenders with bombs and strafing fire Saturday in a thunderous prelude to a ground assault. Three-quarters of the allied airstrikes are now going after Republican Guard forces ringing Baghdad, Air Force Brig. Gen. Daniel Darnell told The Associated Press.


Explosions hit the southern fringes of Baghdad on Saturday night and early Sunday, where the Republican Guard is believed to be dug in. An orange ball lit up the sky, followed by columns of white smoke.


Maj. Gen. Gene Renuart, Jr., the U.S. Central Command's director of operations, said the United States has restricted the launch of Tomahawk cruise missiles over Saudi Arabia after complaints about errant strikes.


The Pentagon says 37 Americans have been killed in the war so far; 23 Britons have also been reported killed. Figures on Iraqi dead are unknown but widely believed to be over a thousand.


The Washington Post reports in its Saturday editions that U.S. covert teams have been operating in urban areas in Iraq trying to kill members of Saddam Hussein's inner circle, including Baath Party officials and Special Republican Guard commanders.


Anti-Saddam Kurdish militiamen moved on two fronts in northern Iraq on Saturday, joining U.S. special forces in an attack on Islamic militants and advancing unopposed closer to the government-held city of Kirkuk and its prized oil fields.


British forces tightened the cordon around Basra on Saturday after U.S. warplanes used laser-guided missiles to destroy a building where some 200 Iraqi paramilitary fighters were believed to be meeting. Coalition officials said all 200 were killed.


Striking before dawn Saturday, British tanks and infantry staged a lightning raid into besieged Basra, destroying five Iraqi tanks and blowing up two statues of Saddam Hussein before withdrawing without casualties.


British officials said a British soldier was killed and five wounded in a "friendly fire" incident north of Basra. The incident may have involved U.S. warplanes.


U.S. military officials said coalition forces have secured an oil refinery near Basra, one of three in Iraq. It is considered a crucial component in plans to keep Iraq's oil industry functioning.


French President Jacques Chirac and British Prime Minister Tony Blair agreed the United Nations must play a large role in running Iraq after the war, Chirac's office said.


Pope John Paul II warned of a "religious catastrophe" stirring hatred between Christians and Muslims; Russian President Vladimir Putin also cast the war in catastrophic terms and said he would push for a negotiated solution.


Saddam Hussein has fired his commander of air defenses, his cousin, with U.S.-led forces claimed control of 95 percent of Iraq's sky, the British government said Saturday.


London also said new, unspecified intelligence indicated that U.S. and British bombing may not have been to blame for explosions in two marketplaces in Baghdad this week, but stopped short of saying Iraqi missiles were responsible for the explosions, which reportedly killed scores of civilians.


Iraqi Information Minister Mohammed Saeed al-Sahhaf said Saturday that President Bush should be charged with war crimes in connection with civilian deaths.

In other news, Gen. Renuart confirmed reports that U.S. forces had found the bodies of some troops in shallow graves near an-Nasiriyah, where a fierce battle has raged for days. CBS News Correspondent Barry Bagnato, at the Pentagon, reports that four bodies were found.

The U.S. Central Command said Saturday it was trying to determine if nine Marines who died the previous weekend near an-Nasiriyah were killed by Iraqi or American fire.

A spokesman, Navy Lt. Cmdr. Charles Owens, said every reasonable possibility was being investigated.

The Washington Post on Friday quoted a military source as saying an A-10 Thunderbolt II warplane may have mistaken the Marines for Iraqi fighters and attacked them.

Army Lt. Gen. John Abizaid said last week that the Marines were ambushed March 23 after Iraqi solders faked a surrender then fired a rocket-propelled grenade.

Almost 100,000 U.S. and coalition forces are now in Iraq, the Pentagon's McChrystal said, with additional American troops headed to the Persian Gulf. He said no new deployment orders had been signed in the last two weeks, indicating this was not a rush to send more troops to the front.

U.S. officials said the Information Ministry was targeted before dawn Saturday by Tomahawk cruise missiles. The building remained intact, but Information Ministry officials said the 10th floor - which housed an Internet server - was gutted.

Some U.S. combat units were slowing their advance while supply and communications support is beefed up, but coalition officials said there was no broad order to delay the push toward Baghdad to shore up supply lines, despite reports of such an order.

President Bush used his weekly radio address Saturday to urge Americans to continue supporting the war, even though he expects more U.S. casualties in unexpectedly fierce fighting. But he again insisted, "The Iraqi regime will be disarmed and removed from power."

Ground combat persisted in southern and central Iraq, notably around the cities of Karbala and Nasiriyah. One U.S. Marine was killed on a night patrol near Diwaniyah, field reports said. No further details were available.


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