Dubai: Unfazed by the relentless bombing of Baghdad and other key towns, a defiant
Iraq on March 31 warned the invading US and British soldiers to surrender and
withdraw, or else the deserts would prove a "big graveyard" for them.
On the 12th day of the war, American stealth bombers and missiles pounded Baghdad,
targeting the Iraqi Information Ministry for the second time in as many days, even
as US claimed that its forces had killed about 100 Iraqi soldiers in and round the
Shiite holy city of Najaf and captured dozens of Republic Guard in Hindiyah, a town
South of Baghdad.
The state-run Iraqi television was back on air six hours after a Tomahawk missile
damaged the high-rise building housing the studios of the television and offices of
the Information Ministry.
As the coalition forces increased the intensity of the raids after ground troops
apparently making no major breakthroughs in the face of stiff resistance, Iraq's
Foreign Minister Naji Sabri, while questioning the legitimacy of the war, asked the
invading soldiers to surrender and withdraw.
"America and Britain have no choice but to surrender and withdraw," he told
reporters in Baghdad.
"They will not leave our land safe and sound if they continue to be stubborn in
their aggression…we will turn our deserts into a big graveyard for Americans and
British," he said.
The United States is sending thousands more troops to secure the town of
Nasiriya on the vital supply route to Baghdad. Special forces soldiers as well
as marines are being deployed to the area where coalition forces faced
stiff resistance.
They claimed to be making advances elsewhere in Iraq, encircling the key Central town of Najaf and seizing an opposition stronghold near Basra.
A convoy of more than 6,000 US marines resumed its push towards
Baghdad and is preparing to confront a key unit of the Iraqi Republican
Guard, reports reaching here said.
US said its forces were fighting Republican Guards South of Karbala, about
80 kms South of Baghdad and were engaged in a battle for control of a key
bridge over the Euphrates river.
US aircraft launched air strikes on Iraqi forces east of the Iraqi
government-held Northern city of Mosul. The US military also launched new
air strikes on Nasiriya, as well as the nearby town of Suq al Shuyukh.
Marines are also increasing their humanitarian operations in the city, to try to
win over local people, BBC reported.
At least 15 Iraqi troops were reported killed in the town on the Euphrates.
Troops had also cleared the towns of Afak, Hajil and Budayr in the region.
Fighting was also reported from Naif, and Southern Samawah while British
forces launched a major assault to secure a suburb of Basra.
In Northern Iraq, coalition aircraft pounded Iraqi positions in Kalak, a town
just East of the strategic city of Mosul.
So far about 42 American and 25 British soldiers have been killed. Seven
Americans are being held prisoner, according to Iraqi officials and 17 others
are reported missing.
There were no estimates of Iraqi combatants killed, but officials in Baghdad
said about 425 civilians have been killed and more than 4,000 wounded.
Meanwhile, US Defence Secretary Donald H Rumsfeld, who has been
accused of "micro-managing" the whole strategy and not despatching
enough troops and supplies said it was rather too early to start commenting
on the strategies.
He warned that the battle would get tougher in the coming days as the forces
moved closer to Baghdad.
"We have the power to be patient in this, and we're not going to do anything
before we're ready," said general Richard Myers, chairman of the US Joint
Chiefs of Staff.
Also, Syria and Iran came in for criticism by the US, with Secretary of State
Colin Powell warning Damascus against "supporting terrorist organisations
and the dying regime of Saddam Hussein".
In his address to the American Israel Public Affairs committee, Powell on
March 30 asked the Iranian government to "stop pursuing weapons of mass
destruction and means of delivering them".
PTI
