The Houston Chronicle April 11, 2003
War In Iraq: Day 23
Looters surged through Baghdad and government buildings were set on fire Thursday as U.S. troops fought fierce gunbattles with pockets of Iraqi forces.
Beyond Baghdad:
Coalition airstrikes hit Iraqi positions near Al Qaim, while special forces monitored the Syrian border to prevent enemy troops from entering or leaving Iraq.
Two Shiite Muslim clerics were hacked to death by a crowd in An Najaf.
U.S. officials said forces were close to entering Mosul and hinted at a possible surrender of remaining Iraqi troops in the city.
U.S. Special Operations forces and Kurdish fighters gained control of Kirkuk and its oil fields; one oil well burned near the city.
Airstrikes pounded Saddam's hometown of Tikrit, which was not yet in coalition control.
Marines battled holdout fighters at the Imam Mosque, the Azimyah Palace and the house of a Baath party leader.
Marines kept looters away from a police armory filled with rifles, crates of mortar shells and grenades.
Four Marines sustained serious wounds when a man strapped with explosives blew himself up at a U.S. checkpoint near Saddam City.
The Interior Ministry was being turned into a command center; nearby, the office building of Saddam Hussein's son Uday stood damaged, its upper floors blackened.
Marines from the 3rd Battalion, 7th Marines set up camp in a sports stadium.
Mobs plundered the French Cultural Center and the German Embassy.
Several artillery shells hit the U.S.-held presidential compound.
U.S. troops occupied the Oil Ministry.
GRAPHIC: Graph: 1. Beyond Baghdad (TEXT); Map: 2. Baghdad
NOTES: Sources: National Imagery and Mapping Agency; GlobalSecurity.org; Associated Press
Copyright © 2003, The Houston Chronicle Publishing Company
