The Hindu : U.S. forces near Baghdad

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Mar 24, 2003

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U.S. forces near Baghdad

U.S. Marines enter the southern Iraqi city of Nassariya, where allied troops faced resistance in their north-bound advance towards Baghdad, on Sunday.

SOUTHERN IRAQ March 23. U.S. forces surged ahead within 160 km of Baghdad today, but their battlefield success was tempered by pockets of resistance and pictures shown on Arab television of bodies in U.S. uniforms lying in a makeshift Iraqi morgue and of prisoners being interviewed who were said to be Americans.

A fierce fighting between the Iraqi forces and U.S. Marines was continuing at the strategic town of Nassariya in which six Marines were reported to have been killed.

In another unsettling incident for the U.S.-led coalition, British officials confirmed that a Royal Air Force Tornado aircraft was shot down accidentally today by U.S. Patriot missile near the Kuwaiti-Iraq border while returning from a mission. The aircraft's crew was missing; details about those on board were not disclosed.

In Baghdad, hundreds of police and security agents searched for the downed fighter's crew, shooting into the reeds and shallow water alongside the Tigris.

In perhaps the most dramatic advance on the ground, the 3rd Infantry Division's 2nd Brigade covered roughly 370 km in 40 hours to take positions about 160 km from Baghdad less than a day's march.

The brigade raced day and night in more than 70 tanks and 60 Bradley fighting vehicles. At one point the soldiers ran into an hours-long firefight, killing 100 Iraqi militiamen who confronted the Americans with machinegun-mounted vehicles.

While the U.S. officials boasted of the speed of the thrust towards Baghdad, they were forced to confront a horrifying prospect at a camp in Kuwait that one of their own soldiers had launched a fatal attack on comrades.

The attack occurred early today at a 101st Airborne Division command centre, where an assailant threw grenades into three tents. Fifteen were wounded, three of them seriously, said George Heath, spokesman for Fort Campbell, Kentucky, the 101st Airborne's home base. The suspect, found hiding in a bunker, is an engineer from an engineering platoon. The motive ``most likely was resentment,'' said Max Blumenfeld, an Army spokesman. He did not elaborate.

What looked to be a benign ride into Nassariya to quietly secure its major bridges turned into a firefight today as Iraqi tanks, soldiers and secret police darted through the streets, turning their mortars, artillery cannons, rockets and rifles at advancing Marines.

The Americans managed to gain control of the bridges, but not without ``significant casualties,'' the Reuters news agency quoted an officer as saying. The tanks of Task Force Tarawa's light armour reconnaissance unit crept forward a hundred yards at a time against pockets of Iraqi infantry and secret police, nicknamed the ``black pajamas'' for their attire. The battle continued throughout the afternoon. The marine artillery unit, attempting to provide cover fire for the tanks, spent frustrated hours unable to shoot into the city for fear of hitting fellow marines.

The battle began shortly after dawn when the infantry unit, codenamed Timber Wolf, approached the southern edge of the city. Several miles south, Glenn Starnes, commanding officer of the artillery battalion, listened on a radio. Minutes before 7 a.m., he shouted, ``Timber Wolf is taking fire.''

But the cannons were caught off guard, scrambling into position in lines of six in the sand. Iraqi mortar fire sounded in the distance, and the colonel winced and cursed. Twenty-three minutes later, the first battery reported itself ready to fire, or, in the language of battle, ``fully in the fight.''

Radar detected the location of the mortar fire, and the cannons shot back, but with no Marines yet present in the city to observe, it was impossible to tell what was hit. Mortar, while difficult to fire accurately, can be a difficult weapon to counterattack, especially in a city, where the shooter can drag it back into a home and shut the door in seconds. After being pinned down most of the morning, the infantry unit and the artillery forward observer advanced shortly before noon, meeting machine-gun fire.

Nassariya straddles the Euphrates River, and its bridges are crucial to troops behind Task Force Tarawa heading further north, toward Baghdad. Army units passing quickly through the city on Saturday encountered little resistance, leaving the marines little clue of what was in store.

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