The Hindu : U.S. paratroopers open northern front; Baghdad pounded again

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Friday, Mar 28, 2003

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U.S. paratroopers open northern front; Baghdad pounded again

AFP

U.S. paratroopers take positions near an airstrip in the Kurdistan Democratic Party-controlled town of Harir in northern Iraq on Thursday.

IRBIL (Iraq) March 27 . Kurdish militiamen and U.S. special operations troops linked up with more than 1,000 U.S. Army paratroopers today to secure the area around a strategic air strip, as the first large coalition ground force in northern Iraq began opening another front against Saddam Hussein's regime.

To the south, columns of U.S. Army troops and tanks fought off Iraqi resistance on the slow trek towards Baghdad, even as powerful explosions rocked the capital and more blasts shook the city's outskirts, with the U.S.-led war marking a week.

The Army's 173rd Airborne Brigade, including elite Army Rangers, jumped out of low-flying C-17 transport planes under cover of darkness and secured a snow-dusted airfield, which will be used to bring in supplies and support personnel.

The airdrop — one of the biggest paratroop drops in decades — was a dramatic entry for ground troops into a region where only small groups of U.S. special forces have been operating.

With the skies finally clear after two days of sandstorms and good weather forecast for the next few days, U.S. commanders said allied forces would step up attacks.

At a news briefing in Qatar, U.S. Brig. Gen. Vincent Brooks said several American units battled successfully against Iraqi forces on Thursday, destroying vehicles and inflicting casualties. Some Marines were injured in fighting near An Nasiriyah.

Thirty-six persons were killed and 215 others injured during airstrikes on Baghdad on Wednesday, the Iraqi Health Minister, Omeed Medhat Mubarak, said.

He put the total number of civilian casualties since the war began at more than 4,000, including 350 dead.

He accused the U.S. and Britain of deliberately targeting civilians. "Neither the Bush administration nor their bombs are `smart."

In Moscow, Iraq's Ambassador, Abbas Khalaf, quoting fresh reports from Baghdad, claimed that nearly 700 American and British troops have been killed in the past seven days of fighting.

In the last 24 hours, over 500 American and British troops were killed in fierce fighting in An-Najaf and Karbala, he said.

Brig. Brooks said that it was possible that an Iraqi missile was responsible for Wednesday's marketplace explosion that killed 14 civilians.

Near An Nasiriyah, more than 30 U.S. Marines were injured, two seriously, in an "accidental" exchange of fire between American units, according to reporters for French and British media.

Two groups of Marines were dispatched during the night to repel an Iraqi contingent, but ended up firing at each other.

In central Iraq, U.S. forces moved closer to Baghdad on several routes; one of the Army columns was 16 km long. Battles with Iraqi troops flared in several areas.

Outside Karbala, southwest of Baghdad, small groups of Iraqi armoured personnel carriers approached American positions but were hit by U.S. warplanes.

In southern Iraq, British forces destroyed 14 Iraqi tanks that tried to break out of the besieged southern city of Basra on Thursday, Group Capt. Al Lockwood said. Humanitarian aid was expected through Umm Qasr, but British officials reluctantly postponed the start of a sea-borne relief operation after discovering Iraqi mines in the shipping channel leading to the recently-captured port.

In Washington, officials said that the war could last months and more U.S. reinforcements might be needed to ensure a victory.

Foul weather, long and unsafe supply lines and an enemy that has refused to yield to American military force had led to a "broad reassessment" of the situation by some top U.S. Generals, the Washington Post today quoted senior defence officials as saying.

Military commanders were talking of a "longer, harder war than had been expected just a week ago", the officials said adding that some of them saw the possibility of requirement of more and more U.S. forces for a "drawn-out fight".

Many of the top Army commanders were favouring a pause in ground operations and securing the Army's supply lines while ensuring the resupply of force after days of sandstorm and battle damage.

However, a Pentagon spokesman yesterday rejected "the pessimistic assessment" and said the war was going according to the plan.

"The plan has moved almost exactly with expectations... it's right on the mark," the Post quoted Army Major General Stanley McChrystal as saying.

U.S. targeted at U.N.

At the United Nations Security Council, the U.S.-led military action came in for severe criticism with several members questioning its legality and Baghdad calling it a "barbaric aggression", leading to thousands of casualties.

"Iraq, a founding member of the United Nations, is being subjected to a criminal, barbaric American-British military aggression," the Iraqi Ambassador to the U.N., Mohammed Aldouri, said and demanded that the Council deal with it first.

Addressing the emergency Council session, he asked the U.N. to condemn the military action, hold the U.S. and its allies responsible for it and take action to end it. He also had some harsh words for the Council which, he said, had been discussing the issue of humanitarian aid rather than dealing with the aggression.

AP, Reuters, PTI

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