US claims foray into Baghdad; it’s a ploy: Iraq: Saddam calls for intensifying attacks
BAGHDAD, April 5: The United States claimed on Saturday that its tanks had made a foray into the Iraqi capital for the first time, as civilians streamed out of the city to escape the looming battle for President Saddam Hussein’s power base.
But Iraq’s information minister and a military spokesman insisted Iraqi forces had kept the US military out of Baghdad and had pushed them back from its international airport, killing hundreds of them.
Correspondents who drove freely around the sprawling city of five million during the day, saw no sign of US forces in areas visited.
But a US spokesman, Maj-Gen Victor Renuart, said at a news conference in Qatar that the tank thrust was a “clear statement of the ability of the coalition forces to move into Baghdad at times and places of their choosing”.
Iraqi Information Minister Mohammed Saeed al Sahhaf said film footage showing US tanks and troops was shot 30-40kms from the heart of the city. “The film they broadcast to you is a lie,” he said. “This is a ploy.”
US military sources said dozens of tanks and Bradley fighting vehicles met sporadic fire as they pushed into southern Baghdad, before linking up with US forces at the airport, 20kms from the city centre.
The US task force, they added, carried out a reconnaissance sweep through the city’s Dawra suburb before heading back down the city’s main highway south.
SADDAM’S MESSAGE: Earlier, Mr Sahhaf read a message from President Saddam on Iraqi television. It urged Iraqi troops and civilians to step up attacks on the US and British invasion forces.
“The criminals will be humiliated,” the message said. “To hurt the enemy more, raise the level of your attacks.”
In his weekly radio address, US President George Bush said his troops were fighting a “great and just cause” and would battle until the Iraqi government was toppled. “Village by village, city by city, liberation is coming,” he said.
The push into Baghdad followed a blistering air and artillery barrage against its eastern flank.
The International Committee of the Red Cross said several hundred wounded Iraqis had been admitted to Baghdad hospitals after US troops reached the city and fighting erupted.
Many people were seen leaving Baghdad in cars packed with blankets and belongings. The mood in the capital was grim.
“This is it. This is the final battle. We have no way out,” said Nour Khaled, 48, a mother of two. “We’re confronting the mightiest army in the world. What can we do? Where can we go?”
Hundreds of men, women and children trudged south from Baghdad on a main road 20-30kms outside the city.
Most were empty-handed or carried children too young to walk through open fields and marshlands in temperatures reaching 35 Celsius.
To the north of the city, there were massive traffic jams as thousands more Baghdad residents left.
US-RUN ADMINISTRATION: The US administration said on Saturday it wanted to install the first stages of a civil government to run postwar Iraq in the southern port of Umm Qasr within days.
A retired general, Jay Garner, is set to make his media debut in Kuwait on Monday as the man Washington has named to be Iraq’s temporary civil administrator.
“What we are going to start trying to do, even before the fighting is over in Iraq, is to move to areas in Iraq that are relatively peaceful,” the official said.
The plan, like the invasion itself, has sparked controversy. Critics say the Iraqi people, not the US administration, should chose leaders to run a post-Saddam government.
Iraqi exiles and senior US officials meeting in London agreed on Saturday that international oil companies should take a leading role in reviving Iraq’s oil industry.
RESISTANCE: The US military said the foray into Baghdad had met sporadic resistance. “There were firefights, but if you’re one of those folks who were involved in that firefight on the ground, it was pretty intense,” Captain Frank Thorp said.
Four US soldiers were wounded, one of them shot in the head, and an Iraqi general was captured, US sources said.
US forces called in air support to attack Iraqi tanks on the northern edge of the airport, military sources said, claiming troops also destroyed a Republican Guard headquarters.
The Americans said they had won control of the airport, but not all outlying areas. A military official said the airstrip was in good condition and expected to be up and running within days for troops, supplies and humanitarian relief.
An Iraqi military spokesman denied US forces controlled the airport and said hundreds of US troops had been killed in the fighting. Mr Sahhaf said the rest had been expelled.
In a statement, Mr Sahhaf said the Iraqis were able to “decapitate” the enemy forces, it added. “The enemy had to halt and retreat ... once again, our armed forces’ fire pursued them, leaving hundreds dead.”
Saddam International Airport had become “a cemetery” for the US forces, the statement added, without elaborating.
Earlier, US Colonel David Perkins had claimed around 1,000 Iraqis had died in bloody fighting as US tanks entered Baghdad on Saturday morning.
US Central Command in Qatar also denied Iraqi claims it had retaken control of the airport, adding the facility had been secured by coalition forces.
A US Marine gunnery sergeant said on Saturday his unit had been told there had been a suicide bombing at the airport.
“The last order we just got said there was another suicide bombing at the airport, so be especially vigilant at roadblocks.”
The US military spokesman said he was aware of the report, but was not aware of any suicide bombing at the airport.
US-led forces have been on heightened alert for possible suicide attacks after two previous bombings killed a total of seven of their soldiers in Iraq.
BASRA: In Basra, US forces said they had struck the home of Ali Hassan al-Majeed, the cousin President Saddam Hussein put in charge of Iraq’s southern front.
US officials did not say whether he was in the house at the time. In the north, US forces moved from Kurdish-held territory towards Iraqi lines defending the oil city of Mosul, after a day of American air strikes on the area. —Reuters
BAGHDAD, April 5: The United States claimed on Saturday that its tanks had made a foray into the Iraqi capital for the first time, as civilians streamed out of the city to escape the looming battle for President Saddam Hussein’s power base.
