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22 March 2003

Defense Official Says Coalition Has Made "Considerable Progress"

(Defense Department report, March 22) (340)
Defense Department officials said March 22 that the U.S. and coalition
attack on Saddam Hussein's regime in Iraq continues to make
considerable progress.
Spokeswoman Victoria Clarke, briefing at the Pentagon with Army Major
General Stanley McChrystal, said the southern Iraqi oil fields have
been "saved to benefit the Iraqi people," and that "coalition forces
have [taken] the key port of Umm Qasr and are making good progress in
Basra," Iraq's second-largest city.
General McChrystal said more than 1,000 coalition air sorties were
flown March 21. Over 400 Tomahawk missiles were launched from U.S. and
British naval vessels, he said. And about 100 air-launched cruise
missiles were also fired, he added. He said the Ansar al-Islam
terrorist facility located in the northern, Kurdish part of Iraq was
attacked with Tomahawk cruise missiles.
Ground forces have advanced more than 150 miles inside Iraq and have
crossed the Euphrates River, McChrystal said. Between 1,000 and 2,000
Iraqi soldiers have surrendered and are now in coalition custody, and
many others are simply leaving the battlefield and "melting away."
Clarke said the Pentagon is aware of reports that journalists who were
not "embedded" with coalition forces have been killed and wounded,
though she could not confirm them.
"We've heard several different versions of what may have happened to
different sets of reporters, and it's very unclear to us right now
what has happened in different places. ... [I]t is very, very
dangerous out there, especially when people are wandering freely
between coalition and Iraqi forces," Clarke said.
Responding to a question about the plan of attack, Clarke said the
"objective, very clearly, is to break the back of the Iraqi regime
while causing as little collateral damage as possible."
Asked about negotiations with the Iraqi leadership, Clarke said,
"[D]iscussions are ongoing, and there is still an opportunity for some
people to do the right thing."
(Distributed by the Office of International Information Programs, U.S.
Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)