CBS MarketWatch March 31, 2003
U.S. hits Baghdad in fierce strikes as forces close in
By August Cole, CBS.MarketWatch.com;
August Cole is spot news editor at CBS.MarketWatch.com in Chicago
WASHINGTON (CBS.MW) - U.S airstrikes in and around Baghdad appeared to intensify Monday even as top U.S. officials remained on the defensive over criticism of the campaign to overthrow Saddam Hussein.
In addition, the 3rd Infantry Division engaged in fighting on the capital's southern approach. In central Iraq, the recently deployed 82nd Airborne fought Iraqi groups near Najaf. One of Saddam's sons was reportedly targeted by the latest air strikes.
Further south, Iraqi fighters, using guerrilla tactics and in one instance a suicide bomber, have put up fiercer resistance than U.S. planners had publicly expected.
"There will be tactical surprises that happen on the battlefield. We are going to deliver a whole lot of them. And there may be some that come our way as well," said U.S. Central Command spokesman Brig. Gen. Vincent Brooks on Monday.
Defense officials made clear all last week they expect fierce fighting as U.S. and British forces close in on Baghdad.
With U.S. and British forces about 50 miles south of the capital, the top U.S. general overseeing the campaign said there has been no pause in the military effort. Some small units are probing Baghdad's southern defenses and are inside the perimeter that some expect will trigger Iraqi units using chemical weapons, according to CBS News' Defense Department sources.
The tempo of air strikes remained intense throughout the country. Among the Baghdad targets hit by cruise missiles Monday were more command and control facilities like the Information Ministry and a telephone exchange, according to Reuters.
Markets around the world remained on edge on the last day of first-quarter trading. Crude oil ended the day near $31 a barrel. At home, President Bush warned that terrorism remains a risk. "The dying regime in Iraq may try to bring terrorism to our shores," Bush said from Philadelphia in an address at a Coast Guard facility.
U.S. stocks traded sharply lower, as did European and Asian bourses. In New York, the Dow industrials ($INDU) rebounded off the session's lows but closed down 153 points.
On Baghdad's doorstep
With fighting reported by NBC News in Hindiya, about 50 miles from Baghdad, the duration of the conflict remains unclear, according to White House and Pentagon officials. Bush last week said the campaign would go on for "however long it takes."
Iraq's Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz said the Iraqi regime won't stop fighting until U.S. forces have left the country. "We're not going to beg for a cease-fire as long as there's one soldier in our territory. Cease-fire OK, end of war OK, but with complete unconditional withdrawal and with decision to leave," he told ABC News.
So far, U.S. Central Command said in Doha that the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force is conducting raids near al-Kut, on the Tigris River southeast of Baghdad. The Marines also captured chemical-warfare equipment near Nasiriyah.
In southern Iraq, Basra remains outside of coalition control as British troops continue to battle for the second-largest city. While also working to clear mines from the shipping channel, other ships heading into the port of umm-Qasr are being searched by Navy commandos. Nearby close air support targeted Iraqi armor on the ground, according to CNN.
On the ground there are 125,000 coalition troops involved in Iraq, the Defense Department is expected to double that force level. The U.S. and British military presence in the Persian Gulf region is more than 250,000-strong. According to GlobalSecurity.org, there are about 850 M1 tanks in the theater. Ships carrying part of the 4th Infantry Division began crossing through the Suez Canal on March 23, GlobalSecurity reported.
The air campaign has so far involved 700 cruise missiles and 8,000 precision-guided munitions, the Pentagon said. Further use of cruise missiles has been called into question because Turkey and Saudi Arabia have complained that some of the long-range weapons have landed inside their borders.
The U.S. Defense Department puts U.S. casualties at 42 dead, seven captured and 17 missing. The British casualties stand at 25 killed, according to Associated Press.
The Pentagon also said that U.S. soldiers killed seven Iraqi women and children in a van that did not stop at a checkpoint manned by the 3rd Infantry Division in central Iraq. The rules of engagement at checkpoints have changed since four Marines were killed by a bomb hidden in a taxi that had stopped for inspection. Iraq said after the weekend attack suicide bombers will play a role in the country's defense.
Northern front
The Iraqi positions near the northern cities of Mosul and Kirkuk were bombed in what appears to be some of the heaviest air strikes in the war so far. The U.S. ground presence in the area consists of U.S. and British special operations forces and a contingent of paratroopers from the 173rd Airborne Brigade dropped in to secure an airfield last week.
Turkey's opposition to U.S. forces in the area has meant a gradual buildup in northern Iraq and a drawn-out opening of a northern front. The role the NATO member will play in the conflict isn't yet apparent.
It was announced Monday that Secretary of State Colin Powell is planning a trip to Brussels and then on to Turkey this week where he's expected to discuss the Iraq campaign in Ankara.
"President Bush was very clear the other day in saying that our policy is that we would oppose a unilateral Turkish move into Northern Iraq. But the Turks tell us that the reason they would feel that they would need to do that is because there might be a refugee crisis; and so far, there is no refugee crisis in Northern Iraq," said State Department Under Secretary for Political Affairs Marc Grossman in an interview with al-Jazeera.
Kurdish forces are also reportedly moving in toward the oil fields near Kirkuk. Notably, U.S. special operations forces and local fighters engaged in fierce fighting over the weekend against Ansar al-Islam fighters, according to the New York Times, who had sought refuge in northeastern Iraq.
Regional ripples
Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak warned that war in Iraq will create "one hundred new bin Ladens," Reuters reported. Defense Secretary Rumsfeld already warned Syria last week that the U.S. was aware that military equipment, like night vision technology, continues to flow over its borders into Iraq.
Journalist Peter Arnett in Baghdad is no longer working for National Geographic television and NBC News after he gave Iraqi state television an interview in which he said the coalition's first strategy had "failed. Fox News correspondent Geraldo Rivera has been kicked out of the 101st Airborne unit he was covering for revealing tactical information.
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