Dubai: In what appeared to be a key offensive against Baghdad, the invading US
ground forces on April 2 launched a major attack against four elite Republican Guard
units near the holy city of Karbala after seizing a key bridge across the river
Tigris, even as President Saddam Hussein urged Iraqis to defend their country,
declaring that "victory is at hand".
Republican Guard units of Medina, Nebuchadnezzar and Baghdad were being engaged by
US troops around Karbala, 80 kilometres South of the capital. The Adnan division was
being attacked from the air from the North.
US troops were supported by wave after wave of air attacks and repeated firing from
rocket launchers, reports reaching here said.
On the other side of the Euphrates river, a second US column was progressing, while
to the East, US marines claimed they have seized a key bridge across the river
Tigris at the city of Kut, allowing them to take control of one of the main highways
North towards Baghdad.
Medina division around Karbala and Baghdad division around Kut are among the main
military forces resisting US advance towards the capital.
The capital Baghdad itself continued to come under bombardment with at least six
explosions reported before dawn.
There is no sign yet of the advance, but residents are fully aware that troops are
tying to encircle the city, a BBC correspondent reported from Baghdad.
Iraqi officials said American Apache helicopters attacked a neighbourhood in the
Central Iraqi city of Hillah on April 1, killing 33 people and injuring more than
300. The US central command in Doha said it was investigating the claim.
In Washington, officials claimed that the US air and artillery assault over the past
few days had greatly reduced the strength of Saddam's elite troops, but there has
been no independent verification of these claims.
Pentagon officials said the Republican Guard units must be eliminated before US
ground troops go into the capital.
Following April 1 night's attack on the Republican Guard in Karbala, the 3rd
Infantry Division is now pushing towards the city, BBC reported.
US troops found 11 unidentified bodies while rescuing their female commander
Jessica Lynch, 19, who was taken prisoner by Iraqi forces, an American officer
said.
Lynch, Army private first class, was rescued during a raid in an Iraqi hospital in the
Southern town of Nasiriyah.
Increasing numbers of US troops are now arriving in the Gulf to provide back up to
those units pushing ahead.
Some 5,000 troops from the US 4th Infantry Division are now on the ground in
Kuwait, but it could still be weeks before they enter Iraq, according to the
division's assistant commander, brigadier general Stephen Speakes.
In Baghdad, communications facilities and a presidential palace were among the
reported targets of the US-led attacks with TV pictures showing thick smoke
rising over the city.
US officials accused Iraqi forces of firing on them from inside a mosque, but
Iraq's Information Minister Saeed al-Sahhaf said American troops had attacked the
site.
A British soldier was killed in an accident involving a light armoured vehicle –
becoming the 27th UK serviceman to die in the Iraq conflict.
Surviving members of an Iraqi family, whose van was fired on by invading forces
killing 11 people including women and children, said they were travelling toward
allied lines thinking an air-dropped leaflet had advised them to flee for safety. "We
were thinking these Americans want us to be safe," Bakhat Hassan, a member of
the family, was quoted as saying.
General Richard Myers, the chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, lashed out at
reports that Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld had pushed US commanders to
go into battle with fewer troops than they wanted.
Calling the claims "bogus", he said, "This subject is not useful. It's not good for our
troops, and it's not accurate."
He claimed the US air campaign had reduced at least two of the Iraqi divisions to
50 per cent fighting strength.
PTI
