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Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD)

26 March 2003

U.S., Coalition Troop Strength in Iraq Nears 300,000

(Defense Department Report, March 26: Iraq operational update) (580)
There are now 250,000 U.S. ground forces inside Iraq, along with
40,000 coalition forces, Army Major General Stanley McChrystal, vice
director for operations at Joint Staff, said at a Pentagon briefing
March 26. Those forces have advanced more than 220 miles in six days
in spite of difficult weather, he said.
Some of those forces inflicted sharp losses on an attacking Iraqi
ground force the previous night near An Najaf, McChrystal said. The
U.S. Army's Seventh Cavalry encountered Iraqi irregulars, killed
hundreds and destroyed 30 Iraqi vehicles, while no U.S. forces were
killed, he said.
U.S. casualties so far are 24 killed and 19 wounded, Defense
Department Spokeswoman Victoria Clarke said at the same briefing.
Coalition air operations continue as well, McChrystal said. Close to
700 sorties were flown March 25, against "regime targets" near Baghdad
as well as against missile threats in western and southern Iraq, he
said. Since beginning the war on March 20, U.S. and coalition forces
have fired more than 600 Tomahawk cruise missiles and have dropped
more than 4,300 precision-guided munitions, he added. In contrast,
Iraq has fired 10 short-range ballistic missiles at Kuwait; seven were
intercepted by Patriot anti-missile missiles, while two fell in the
desert and another fell into the Persian Gulf, he said.
Responding to press reports that coalition forces had bombed a
marketplace in Baghdad the previous night, McChrystal said, "Coalition
forces did not target a marketplace, nor were any bombs or missiles
dropped or fired in the district" of the marketplace. "We'll continue
to look and see if we missed anything, but another explanation could
be the triple-A [anti-aircraft] fire or [a] surface-to-air missile
that missed its target [and] fell back on the marketplace area," he
said.
"But just like we mentioned [March 25], the bus on Monday that we hit
accidentally, once we have a better clarity, we'll get it to you. We
do regret the loss of ... any innocent life in any conflict," he said.
Asked about a report that Iraqi tanks and armored vehicles have broken
out of Basra and are headed south, McChrystal said, "I've seen those
reports as well. We wouldn't confirm their movements, but we watch
wherever they go...." He also said he could not confirm reports of a
column of Iraqi vehicles moving south from Baghdad.
Asked whether coalition forces would change tactics in view of Iraqi
battlefield actions that violate the laws of war, McChrystal said,
"They're trying to get an overreaction from coalition forces, so that
we'll fire on people who are trying to surrender.
"We won't change our rules of engagement," but U.S. forces "will be
careful," he said.
Asked about Iraqi efforts to interdict the ground forces' supply lines
back to Kuwait, McChrystal said, "One of the points I'd want to make
is the extent of this move [toward Baghdad] and the speed: the
logistics have not been interrupted. There have been some situations
[that have occurred], but it has in no way endangered or cut any of
our lines of communication."
Questioned whether coalition forces would go into cities to root out
Fedayeen Saddam forces and others, McChrystal replied that "when the
regime is taken down ... they will become less motivated and
effective."
(Distributed by the Office of International Information Programs, U.S.
Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)



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