CBS MarketWatch April 1, 2003
Intense and ambiguous fight on road to Baghdad
By August Cole, CBS.MarketWatch.com
August Cole is spot news editor at CBS.MarketWatch.com in Chicago
WASHINGTON (CBS.MW) -- U.S. and British forces continued to battle Saddam Hussein's regime Tuesday as the unconventional tactics used by Iraqi guerrillas create an ambiguous and dangerous situation on the road to Baghdad.
While U.S. air strikes in Iraq's capital intensified in the beginning of the week, fighting elsewhere -- particularly near Basra in the south and oil-rich areas in the north -- played out in the 12th day of the campaign to overthrow Saddam.
"The coalition attacked regime targets over the last 24 hours in Baghdad and areas throughout the country. Precision attacks against surface-to-surface missiles and Republican Guard forces also continued. The coalition remains focused on every aspect of the regime," said Gen. Vincent Brooks, spokesman for U.S. Central Command in Doha, Qatar, during the daily Centcom briefing.
But Iraqi fighters, using guerrilla tactics and in one instance a suicide bomber, have put up fiercer resistance than U.S. planners had publicly expected.
Iraq has said that suicide bombers would play a role in the country's defense, which makes patrolling and securing the rear areas of the U.S. advance much more difficult.
Late Monday, the Pentagon said that U.S. soldiers killed seven Iraqi women and children in a van that didn't stop at a checkpoint manned by the 3rd Infantry Division in central Iraq.
The rules of engagement at checkpoints have changed since a weekend incident in which four Marines were killed by a bomb hidden in a taxi that had stopped for inspection near Najaf, where the recently deployed 82nd Airborne has been fighting Iraqi groups. Further north, the 3rd Infantry Division has been engaged in fighting on the capital's southern approach, also the scene of numerous air strikes.
The U.S. Defense Department has said 50 U.S. soldiers and 26 British soldiers have been killed in the campaign, according to CBS News.
Against this backdrop, U.S. stocks advanced modestly in New York in the first day of second-quarter trading. Crude futures in New York pulled back by more than 2 percent.
Path to Baghdad
Defense officials have made clear that they expect fierce fighting as 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 defenses and are inside the perimeter that some expect will trigger Iraqi units using chemical weapons, according to CBS News' Defense Department sources.
Iraq's Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz said Monday the regime wouldn'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, Centcom said, 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.
Special operations forces are also at work near Nasiriyah, Centcom said on Tuesday, directing air strikes and working with local groups.
In southern Iraq, Basra remains outside of coalition control as British troops continue to battle for the second-largest city. Mine clearing continues in the shipping channel at umm-Qasr as ships heading into the port are being searched by Navy commandos.
On the ground, there are 125,000 coalition troops involved in Iraq, and the Defense Department is expected to double that.
According to GlobalSecurity.org, there are about 850 M1 tanks. Ships carrying part of the 4th Infantry Division began crossing through the Suez Canal on March 23, GlobalSecurity.org reported.
The air campaign has so far involved 700 cruise missiles and 8,000 precision-guided munitions, the Pentagon said. But the use of cruise missiles is being questioned; Turkey and Saudi Arabia have complained that some of the long-range weapons have landed inside their borders.
Iraqi positions near the northern cities of Mosul and Kirkuk were bombed in what appears to be some of the heaviest air strikes so far. U.S. and British special operations forces are on the ground in the area, along with a contingent of paratroopers from the 173rd Airborne Brigade, dropped in to secure an airfield last week.
It was announced Monday that Secretary of State Colin Powell will travel to Brussels and Turkey this week, where he's expected to discuss the status of the Iraq campaign with diplomatic officials.
Kurdish forces are also reportedly moving in toward the oil fields near Kirkuk. U.S. special operations forces and local fighters engaged in fierce fighting over the weekend against Ansar al-Islam fighters, who had sought refuge in northeastern Iraq, according to the New York Times.
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