BAGHDAD, March 31: US and British planes pounded Baghdad on Monday, striking Iraqi President Saddam Hussein’s palace compound, after US forces engaged in their first significant clashes with his Republican Guard.
Hospital sources said a coalition bombing in a residential neighbourhood of the capital had left six Iraqi civilians dead and many more wounded.
Residents of a village on the southeastern edge of Baghdad said 20 people, including 11 children, were killed at the weekend in a missile attack on a farm. Survivors said 10 others were hurt.
The intense waves of air strikes in the capital came as Iraq again said that thousands of Arab volunteers were ready to carry out suicide attacks against the US-led forces.
Iraqi Information Minister Mohammad Said al-Sahhaf said his country’s forces had killed 43 US and British soldiers in 36 hours.
The latest official toll from US and British military sources put the death toll at 25 British and at least 39 US soldiers killed.
In the south, British forces attacked the outskirts of the port city of Basra, seen as crucial to the coalition’s efforts to control southeastern Iraq, but said they were waiting for reinforcement before making a final push.
On day 12 of the invasion, coalition planes battered Baghdad and its outskirts, with massive explosions reverberating throughout the capital.
A low-flying plane launched two missiles into President Saddam’s sprawling Republican Palace compound, the first such strike in broad daylight, sending a huge plume of black smoke into the air. One missile had already hit the palace on Sunday night.
Several hours later, Iraqi state television showed the president chairing a meeting of top advisers, including his elder son Uday, who had not been seen on television since the invasion began on March 20.
Earlier strikes in Baghdad hit the information ministry, interrupting state television broadcasts for several hours. Telephone services have been knocked out in several parts of the capital.
As US and British forces stepped up their bombardment of Baghdad, Iraqi Foreign Minister Naji Sabri accused them of trying to colonize and partition Iraq, demanding their immediate withdrawal from the country.
“The colonial forces are seeking to achieve their dreams that are to partition Iraq so that there is no longer a unified Iraq,” Mr Sabri said at a press conference.
He reiterated that some 5,000 Arab volunteers were ready to commit suicide attacks against coalition troops, following in the footsteps of an Iraqi who killed four US soldiers in a car bomb attack near Najaf on Saturday.
But a US spokesman, Gen Vincent Brooks, dismissed the threats, saying at a news briefing at the US Central Command’s forward base in Qatar: “It’s not a very effective military tactic at all. It’s a terror tactic and it won’t be effective.”
More than 8,700 bombs and missiles have been launched by US-led forces in the war on Iraq, the Pentagon said on Monday.
“We are seeing significant degradation of those forces”, said Army Maj. Gen. Stanley McChrystal, adding that 3,000 precision-guided bombs alone had been dropped since Friday.
REPUBLICAN GUARD: South of the capital, US troops massing for a decisive push toward Baghdad saw their first serious action against Iraq’s crack Republican Guard unit near Babylon and Karbala, 110kms and 80kms respectively from Baghdad.
The clashes are thought to be the closest land battle yet to Baghdad.
The battles around Babylon and Karbala came as US armoured units finalized plans for a decisive thrust toward Baghdad within a week, commanders said, with forces concentrated near Najaf, 150kms to the south.
US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld on Sunday warned there could be a long fight for Baghdad, explaining that “to the extent the Republican Guard pose difficulties, which we expect them to, there will be dangerous days ahead”.
US forces claimed they had advanced to the outskirts of the city of Hilla after fierce fighting in which 200 Iraqis had either been killed, wounded or captured.
There was also action around a bridge over the Euphrates river at Hindiya, just 80kms from Baghdad, where US troops encountered Iraqis firing from buildings and foxholes dug in along a road through the date-growing region.
A military official claimed US forces had taken control of a jailhouse at Hindiya and found maps for the defence of the city, detailing where Iraqi forces were camped.
As an intense artillery barrage opened up on Baghdad’s southern outskirts on Monday, some US ground units seemed to be probing towards the capital, attacking Iraqi defenders, including the Republican Guards.
Fighting around Imam Aiyub, several kilometres south of Hilla on the eastern, or Baghdad, side of the Euphrates, began early in the morning. Hilla, with a population of 300,000, is the main city between Imam Aiyub and Baghdad.
Reporters travelling with US troops heard mortar and artillery fire and saw smoke rise near a main road.
NORTHERNMOST ADVANCE: Most of the US force in the area between the cities of Najaf and Karbala appear to be still on the western bank of the Euphrates.
But the move towards Hilla seemed to be the northernmost advance by US ground forces towards Baghdad along the eastern bank of the Euphrates, about 20kms south of the site of the ancient city of Babylon.
Coalition troops used tanks, helicopters, mortars and artillery against Iraqi positions after travelling along a road littered with burned-out vehicles from previous fighting.
They also called in British Tornado jets and US Navy F-14 Tomcats to drop laser-guided bombs.
The Iraqis hit back with tanks, mortars, small arms and rocket-propelled grenades.
US officials called in extra forces and said they had advanced to the outskirts of Hilla and fighting had become more sporadic by the end of the day.
“Two enemy tanks have been destroyed and a host of (Iraqi) infantry,” claimed a military official.
A soldier from the 101st Airborne Division was killed by small arms fire, a US official said.
Iraqi prisoners from the battle included an officer who said he was from the Nebuchadnezzar Division of the Republican Guard — a claim that surprised US commanders who said they believed this division to be based much further north.
A US spokesman said in Qatar that troops from the Nebuchadnezzar Division, named after an ancient Babylonian king, “may be reinforcements, may be replacing losses”.
An Iraqi military spokesman said Republican army forces attacked US troops near Karbala and destroyed a tank and three personnel carriers. He said US troops were either captured or killed and Iraqi forces “returned to their base safely”.
Further east, a separate advance by US Marines was halted while troops try to consolidate supply lines and tackle Iraqi forces mounting guerrilla attacks on their columns.
BASRA: In the south, British forces attacked the outskirts of the key southern port city of Basra, but said they were waiting for reinforcements before making a final push.
Commanders said 600 soldiers, backed by tanks and armoured vehicles, were battling for the second day to move through the nearby town of Abu Al Khasib, 20kms to the southeast of Basra.
British artillery pounded the western edge of Basra, Qatar-based satellite news channel Al Jazeera reported, saying paramilitaries from the ruling Baath party and militiamen remained the only Iraqi forces in the city. —Reuters\AFP
BAGHDAD, March 31: US and British planes pounded Baghdad on Monday, striking Iraqi President Saddam Hussein’s palace compound, after US forces engaged in their first significant clashes with his Republican Guard.
