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Baghdad blitzed { March 21 2003 } Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A7167-2003Mar21.htmlhttp://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A7167-2003Mar21.html
Baghdad Blitzed, Invasion Force Closing in Fast
Reuters
Friday, March 21, 2003; 7:16 PM
By Samia Nakhoul and Alan Elsner
BAGHDAD/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States and Britain unleashed a devastating air assault on Baghdad on Friday, as their ground forces punched deep into Iraqi territory toward the capital where President Saddam Hussein's defenders were dug in.
The air attack triggered giant fireballs, deafening explosions and huge mushroom clouds above Baghdad. U.S. planes also hit military targets in the northern cities of Mosul and Kirkuk.
Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said the Iraqi leadership was in disarray, its grip on the country was crumbling and the scale of the assault was intended to show Iraqis that Saddam's rule was "history."
A U.S. defense official said the commander of Iraq's regular 51st division had surrendered to American Marines in southern Iraq.
"The regime is starting to lose control of their country," Rumsfeld told reporters at the Pentagon.
"The confusion of Iraqi officials is growing. Their ability to see what is happening on the battlefield, to communicate with their forces and to control their country is slipping away," he said.
Iraq said Saddam had survived an attempt by U.S. stealth fighters and cruise missiles to eliminate him on Thursday.
Acting on intelligence, the United States attacked a residence compound in a Baghdad suburb, where Saddam and his two sons Uday and Qusay, were believed to have been, dropping precision-guided 2,000-pound bombs and nearly 40 Tomahawk missiles fired from warships in the Red Sea.
"We believe that he and the boys were somewhere in the compound," a U.S. official said on condition of anonymity. "Were they killed? We don't know. Were they wounded? We don't know. Are they alive? We don't know."
Iraqi ministers asserted Saddam was still alive, but rumors persisted that he was dead or injured. He was not seen in public on Friday.
BOMBS RAIN ON BAGHDAD
Huge plumes of smoke rose from Baghdad as bombs and missiles slammed into one of Saddam's palaces and rained down on other targets. Repeated explosions reddened the night sky and shook the ground in the biggest raid of the war by far.
After two days of smaller air attacks, this was the start of a major air war, dubbed "shock and awe" by the Pentagon.
U.S. warships launched some 320 Tomahawk missiles at targets around Baghdad on Friday, said the commander of the USS Kitty Hawk battle group, Rear Adm. Matthew Moffit.
"The intention is to convince the (Iraqi) regime that it's time to leave and if they don't, we're going to take them out," he told reporters aboard the American aircraft carrier.
Fires raged in Saddam's palace and other buildings and black smoke billowed into the sky. Iraqi state television headquarters was among the buildings hit but it remained on air, broadcasting pictures of Saddam with his son Qusay. It was not clear when the pictures were shot.
Gen. Richard Myers, chairman of the U.S. military's Joint Chiefs of Staff, said hundreds of targets would be hit in the next 24 hours. He also said U.S. and British forces should secure oil fields in southern Iraq later on Friday and were accepting the surrender of several hundred Iraqi troops.
Saddam has concentrated his best forces, including the Republican Guard, in Baghdad, where he may be planning to force invaders into dangerous street fighting in hopes of inflicting heavy casualties.
The United States and Britain launched the war, saying they needed to strike Iraq preemptively to deprive it of chemical, biological and nuclear weapons that could one day become a threat. Iraq denied having such weapons.
Also on Friday, U.S. Marines captured the Iraqi port of Umm Qasr while other troops seized two desert airfields west of Baghdad. British Marines also launched an amphibious and aerial assault and secured key oil installations at the head of the Gulf. Other British troops headed for the port of Basra.
One U.S. armored unit ran into Iraqi resistance that halted it temporarily near Nassiriya on the Euphrates river.
After long delay, Turkey opened its air space to U.S. planes. But Ankara also rejected American demands to keep its troops out of Kurdish-controlled northern Iraq and said its forces would enter the country to prevent an influx of refugees across Turkey's borders.
"In the end it was determined the opening of air space was in Turkey's," announced Defense Minister Vecdi Gonul.
SWIFT VICTORY?
The startling speed of a U.S. advance from Kuwait up to 100 miles into the Iraqi desert in the first 48 hours had prompted some British and American officers to predict a swift victory.
"We're making progress," President Bush told lawmakers in the Oval Office. "We will stay on task until we've achieved our objective, which is to rid Iraq of weapons of mass destruction and free the Iraqi people."
Bush watched some of the massive U.S. bombardment of Baghdad on television on Friday, the White House said.
But British Prime Minister Tony Blair said the war would not be won overnight.
Reuters correspondent Andrew Gray, traveling with elements of the U.S. 3rd Infantry Division, said the unit came under fire near Nassiriya and temporarily halted its advance while it awaited reinforcements.
Iraqi ministers vowed to "incinerate" the invaders, ridiculed the claims of early U.S. successes and predicted the invasion forces would soon become bogged down.
"Baghdad will remain defiant and its walls will be an incinerator for the invaders," said Information Minister Mohammed Saeed al-Sahaf.
British commandos took the Faw peninsula on Iraq's southern tip, seizing oil export terminals, but Iraqi troops pinned down U.S. Marines pushing toward the port of Umm Qasr for two hours before British artillery blasted open the Iraqi defenses.
U.S. and British forces seized two boats off southern Iraq carrying 68 mines, military officials said.
Two U.S. Marines were confirmed killed in action in the first day of fighting. Eight British and four U.S. soldiers also died in a helicopter crash in Kuwait.
Rapid U.S. and British advances seemed to reassure oil markets. Britain's most senior military officer said only seven oil wells had been set on fire by the Iraqis.
Iranian government sources said two people were injured when a rocket struck an oil refinery depot in Abadan in southwestern Iran near the border with Iraq. Tehran warned Washington and London to respect Iran's air space, but it was unclear where the rocket had come from.
Widespread opposition to the war around the world showed no sign of abating. Thousands of protesters spilled onto the streets of some Arab capitals and clashed with police.
© 2003 Reuters
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