The Hindu : Debilitating strikes on the cards

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Mar 23, 2003

International

International

Debilitating strikes on the cards

By Sridhar Krishnaswami

Washington march 22. Amid conflicting reports on whether or not Turkey has sent troops and commandos into northern Iraq, the U.S. is keeping up with the escalation in the aerial bombardment of Iraq — Baghdad especially — with the intensity of the sorties left to the war commander in the field, Tommy Franks.

Gen. Franks will be deciding the calibration of intensity — he has been given the authority to decide when the air campaign could get into "full throttle''. And in the absence of a forward movement in terms of the Iraqi leadership caving in, the campaign of "shock and awe'' will be moving into this critical and final phase of debilitating strikes, it is said.

The Pentagon here is saying that hundreds, perhaps even thousands, of Iraqi soldiers are surrendering; and the top civilian brass in the military seem to be confident that the punishing strikes from the air and ground are making a difference on the leadership in Iraq.

"They're beginning to realise, I suspect, that the regime is history. And as the realisation sets in, their behaviour is likely to begin to tip and to change. Those close to Saddam Hussein will likely begin searching for a way to save themselves'' the Defence Secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, remarked.

Assurances

The Defence Secretary has said that while there is no direct talk going on between the Pentagon and members of the Iraqi leadership, contacts on the mechanics of surrender had intensified with the individual units. There have been reports that the U.S. is in communication in a variety of ways with some Iraqi military commanders, their associates and relatives. The Washington Post, for instance, is reporting, that the U.S. military and intelligence officials have received assurances from some Iraqi commanders that they will not use chemical weapons against advancing British and American troops.

The U.S. is especially watching a Republican Guard unit assigned to Baghdad which has supposedly been issued chemical artillery shells. One assessment here is that in the first 24-hour period of the "shock and awe'' campaign unleashed by the Pentagon, close to 1500 targets would have been hit by precision guided bombs, missiles and Tomahawk cruise missiles.

With five aircraft carriers, scores of ships and submarines in and around the Persian Gulf, land bases in neighbouring countries and from Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean, the U.S. on Friday started a withering campaign against Iraq.

Apart from Baghdad, the Iraqi cities assaulted from the air included Kirkuk, Mosul and Tikrit. What is being stressed here is that most, if not all, of the bombs dropped in the intensified air campaign were `smart' bombs or missiles, as opposed to `dumb' bombs that were guided only by gravity. By contrast in the 1991 Gulf War, only 10 per cent of the bombs dropped were in the `smart' category.

Meanwhile, the Bush administration is paying very close attention to the developing situation in Northern Iraq where there have been conflicting reports on the movement of Turkish forces into northern Iraq with a view to creating a buffer zone and in the process complicating the agenda of Washington.

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