The Hindu : Allied forces face stiff resistance in Iraq

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Mar 25, 2003

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Allied forces face stiff resistance in Iraq

Iraqis celebrating the downing of an Apache military helicopter in Hindiya district, 120 km south-west of Baghdad, on Monday.

NEAR KARBALA (Iraq) March 24. Coalition troops pressed toward Baghdad with new wariness today, as militiamen loyal to the Iraqi leader, Saddam Hussein, proved that they were not a beaten force and sandstorms snarled the advance. By night, a dozen explosions hit an area southeast of the capital. Mr. Hussein, in an appearance that seemed calculated to show he remained at the helm, sought to rally his people with a televised speech.

Iraq claimed to have shot down two U.S. helicopters and taken two pilots prisoner, a day after more than 20 Americans were killed or captured. And a British soldier was killed today in southern Iraq, British defence officials said.

Facing a pattern of deadly ambushes and ruses, and with many of Mr. Hussein's supporters discarding their uniforms in favour of civilian clothes, coalition forces responded with tough new tactics in the south. U.S. officials also confirmed that forces, including British and Australian troops, were operating in the north and west of Iraq. Some were special forces travelling in small teams.

Mr. Hussein, appearing on Iraqi TV in full military unform and appearing calm, said: "Strike them, and strike evil so that evil will be defeated... Victory will be ours soon. You Iraqis are in line with what God has ordered you to do, to cut their throats."

Iraqi television later showed images of what appeared to be a downed U.S. Apache attack helicopter sitting largely undamaged in a grassy field. The Information Minister, Mohammed Saeed al-Sahhaf, claimed that peasants had shot down two Apaches and that two pilots were in custody.

U.S. Gen. Tommy Franks, commander in charge of the allied forces, later confirmed that one helicopter and its two pilots were missing in action.

A brutal sandstorm with howling winds stalled U.S. troops about 80 km south of Baghdad, near Karbala, a city holy to Iraq's majority Shias. As the U.S. Army's 7th Infantry Regiment pressed north, Iraqi militiamen shot mortars at a supply convoy. There were no casualties.

But coalition officials rejected suggestions that continued Iraqi resistance or casualties had knocked war plans off balance.

``I think that within three days of real military operations beginning, the idea that somehow people are losing confidence or heart is nonsense,'' the British Defence Secretary, Geoff Hoon, said. ``This is a difficult, demanding, complex, sophisticated military operation. It is not going to be over in a matter of days.''

In another sign that the situation remained intense, the coalition cancelled press tours of the strategic southern port of Umm Qasr and the Rumeila oil fields, which Iraqi forces set ablaze early in the ground war. Fighting in that area was fierce enough to drive civilian firefighters away.

Nine U.S. Marines died and a dozen American soldiers were missing and presumed captured after surprise engagements near An Nasiriyah, a crossing point over the Euphrates. The Marines were still bogged down early on Monday at An Nasiriyah after taking significant casualties. Two Marines were killed in accidents.

A British soldier was killed on Monday in combat near the port of Az Zubayr in southern Iraq, the first British combat death since the war began, the Ministry of Defence said in London. Sixteen British servicemen had died in two helicopter accidents and the downing of a British jet by friendly fire from a U.S. missile battery.

An AFP report from Basra, quoting British military officials, today said fierce Iraqi resistance forced British troops to withdraw today from Basra to regroup. Elements of Britain's Seventh Armoured Brigade, the Desert Rats, withdrew from the southern Iraqi city — the nation's second largest — after coming under attack by mortars and guerillas disguised in civilian clothes.

Military officials admitted they had vastly underestimated the strength of Iraqi resistance and the loyalty of Basra's population to the regime of Mr. Hussein.

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