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05 April 2003

U.S. Forces Make Daylight Foray Into Baghdad, General Says

(U.S. Central Command briefing, April 5: Iraq operations) (760)
U.S. Army forces from the Third Division made a daylight raid into the
center of Baghdad April 5, according to a U.S. Central Command
(CENTCOM) spokesman.
Major General Victor "Gene" Renuart, CENTCOM director of operations,
told media at CENTCOM headquarters outside Doha, Qatar, that two task
forces of the Third Infantry Division started from south of Baghdad,
conducted a raid north to the Tigris River in Baghdad, and then
continued west toward the airport which is a few miles outside the
city. The task forces were composed of M-1/A-1 Abrams tanks and
Bradley infantry fighting vehicles, Renuart said.
"The fight through there was characterized by a number of irregular
forces mixed with Republican Guard or Special Republican Guard
infantry fighting positions, nests of irregular forces and the
technical [non-military] vehicles ... and air-to-air artillery weapons
that were used in a direct-fire mode against our forces," Renuart
said.
Asked what the purpose of the strike into Baghdad was, Renuart
answered, "It was, I think, a clear statement of the ability of
coalition forces to move into Baghdad at times and places of our
choosing and to establish their presence really wherever they need to
in the city. And those kinds of operations, I believe, will continue."
Other topics discussed in the briefing included:
-- The logistics transmission line from Kuwait to Baghdad is 350 miles
long. About 2,500 vehicles transport needed supplies daily. So far 65
million gallons of gasoline have been transported into the region. Air
operations consume about 2.5 million gallons of fuel a day. About 2
million tons of spare parts and support equipment are moved around the
battlefield daily, Renuart said, and the combat troops eat about
one-third of a million meals ready-to-eat [MREs] daily.
-- Renuart said the World Food Program delivered 1,000 metric tons of
wheat April 4. Its warehouse in Basra has stockpiled cooking oil,
flour, coffee and other items that are packaged for distribution.
Other humanitarian groups have distributed kerosene for heating on
cool nights.
-- Renuart gave further details of the rescue of Private Jessica Lynch
from a hospital in An Nasiriyah that was also being used as a military
command post. Nine of the 11 bodies recovered outside the hospital
have been identified -- eight were from the same unit as Lynch.
-- The Baghdad airport is secured "to a fairly good degree," Renuart
said. One runway will be usable quickly, and though there have been
attacks against U.S. forces there, the attacks have had no success, he
said.
-- Republican Guard units encountered going into Baghdad fought hard
in many cases, Renuart said, but were isolated and not well organized,
which he attributed to a combined-arms effort [air strikes, artillery
barrages and special operations forces] before ground forces engaged
them in combat.
-- Renuart could not say how many Republican Guard forces remain in
and around Tikrit, because a number of their units were "sort of
thrown into the fight, literally" outside of Baghdad.
-- Whether or not that was Saddam on Iraqi television April 4 does not
matter, Renuart said, because the operational plan is to end the
regime, and will continue.
-- Iraqi National Television is apparently broadcasting through the
purchase of commercial satellite time. The coalition would like that
to cease, Renuart said. The coalition would also like to have local
leaders in the liberated communities broadcast on Iraqi Channel 3,
which coalition forces can do.
-- The coalition is not responsible for the loss of electric power in
Baghdad, Renuart said, and is looking for ways to restore it.
-- Coalition forces have about 6,500 enemy prisoners of war in
custody, he said. In addition, "many units ... in some areas just left
their equipment and went home. So they didn't surrender -- they just
chose not to fight...."
-- Coalition forces flew about 3,000 total sorties on April 4, he
said. Of those about 1,500 were in the immediate area of Iraq, and
under 1,000 inside Iraq itself.
-- Before a real search for weapons of mass destruction (WMD) can
occur, he said, coalition forces will have to gain control of the
country and control of suspected WMD sites. Coalition forces remain
prepared to operate in the face of chemical or biological weapons
attack.
-- There have been reports of some refugees fleeing northward and
northwest from Baghdad, but not in large numbers, he said.
(Distributed by the Office of International Information Programs, U.S.
Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)