New York Daily News March 27, 2003
Marines build muscle
By James Gordon Meek
WASHINGTON - While the 3rd Infantry Division coils for a possible decisive battle outside Baghdad, the U.S. bolstered its forces yesterday on two other fronts that could threaten the Iraqi capital.
A force of 28,000 Marines pushed up a second road from the south toward Baghdad, and 1,000 troops from the 173rd Airborne Brigade made a nighttime jump to secure an airfield in northern Iraq, officials and news reports said.
The 1st Marine Division and a task force from the 2nd Division battled their way across bridges at Nassiriya yesterday and rolled up Route 7 - a highway that leads to the eastern approach of Baghdad.
Fuel problems and repeated ambushes hampered the drive, according to reporters embedded with the units.
A potential flashpoint is the garrison town of Kut, about 100 miles southeast of Baghdad and defended by 8,000 to 10,000 Republican Guards, according to defense analysts.
It's not clear whether the town's defenders, primarily an infantry unit, will prefer a street fight inside Kut or are entrenched outside. They also may be backed up by the armored Al Nedaa Division.
The leathernecks are traveling light in Humvees and Amtrac amphibious carriers. They have cover from attack helicopters and at least 60 M1A1 Abrams tanks - armor that could be doubled or tripled if other battalions are called in to back them up.
The lumbering convoy has been the target of repeated attacks, which the Marines have fought off. Journalists with the unit reported scores of mangled bodies and destroyed vehicles on the road after Marine convoys had passed.
The Marines, who are light on armor, appear to be an unsual choice for forced march and urban assault.
"The Marines are not designed to do this kind of warfare, the deep in-country, ground-intensive drives," said defense expert Patrick Garrett of GlobalSecurity.org.
But he said any attack on the Republican Guard units in Kut would likely first involve massive air strikes, followed by artillery missions. The grunts would be left to "pick up pieces," he said.
Rallying Kurd force
In the north, the troopers from the 173rd who jumped yesterday joined others from the unit who arrived by plane at Harir Airfield this week.
The paratroopers add to hundreds of Special Operations forces and CIA paramilitary operators who have been rallying a potential force of 10,000 to 20,000 Kurds if the U.S. decides to attack 90,000 Iraqi Army troops in Kirkuk, Mosul and Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein's hometown of Tikrit. The toughest of those units would be the 10,000-man Adnan Division of Saddam's Republican Guard.
But using the Kurds to fight Saddam could be politically problematic for the U.S., because NATO ally Turkey doesn't want the Kurds to establish an independent state in northern Iraq.
"I think the 173rd is there to keep the Turks and the Kurds apart," said analyst Matthew Baker of Stratfor.com, a defense think tank.
Copyright © 2003, Daily News, L.P.
