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NEAR BAGHDAD, April 3: US forces launched an assault on Baghdad airport on Thursday after claiming that armoured units had thrust almost unopposed within commuting distance to the Iraqi capital. Saddam International Airport is about 20kms southwest of the centre of the sprawling city.
Artillery fire sounded on Baghdad’s southern fringes for the first time on Thursday, but the Iraqi government remained defiant, saying it had trapped the US soldiers in combat in every major town.
At US Central Command in Qatar, Major Randi Steffy claimed US troops were “outside the airport”.
But correspondents visiting the Saddam International Airport about an hour before sunset said the airport was still under the full control of the Iraqi authorities.
As ground forces advanced, planes blasted targets in and around the city, where the power went off for the first time since the invasion started two weeks ago.
“They’ve taken several outlying areas and are closer to the centre of the Iraqi capital than many American commuters are from their downtown offices,” US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said at a Pentagon briefing.
US officials said parts of four elite Iraqi Republican Guard divisions were moving south, setting up a potential showdown for the capital.
Political and military leaders in Washington and London fear urban warfare in Baghdad could be prolonged and bloody and they refused to be drawn on when they might authorize a final push to capture the city of five million people.
US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said the Iraqi government had run exercises in Baghdad and had organized block captains and dug trenches in anticipation of street fighting.
“The regime has been weakened to be sure, but it is still lethal, and it may prove to be more lethal in the final moments before it ends,” he said.
At US Central Command in Doha, Qatar, a spokesman said special forces had also raided a palace of President Saddam Hussein at a place 90kms northwest of Baghdad, capturing no officials but seizing documents. He also claimed troops had blocked the road to President Saddam’s hometown of Tikrit.
There has been wide speculation in recent days on the Iraqi leader’s fate and whereabouts. Western media have said he may have been killed or wounded in an air strike at the start of the US-British invasion.
Iraqi Information Minister Mohammed Saeed al Sahhaf accused US forces of killing 28 people with cluster bombs and said US claims to be near Baghdad were silly.
“They’ve not been able to control any Iraqi city. We’re waging a war of attrition against this snake and we will be victorious,” he said at a news conference.
CHEMICAL THREAT: Although US officials said on Wednesday frontline troops had crossed a “red line” into areas where they feared Iraqi forces might be most likely to use poison gas, there were signs the threat was now perceived to be easing.
US soldiers had been told they could remove protective boots from chemical warfare suits they were wearing.
Before launching the invasion, US and British leaders had justified the action by citing Iraq’s alleged possession of chemical and biological weapons. Iraq denies having such weapons and none have been found.
US forces did not escape completely unscathed. A Black Hawk helicopter crashed near Karbala and an F/A-18 Hornet fighter-bomber also went down, killing seven soldiers.
Officials said they were also investigating a “possible friendly fire incident” involving an F-15E Strike Eagle plane and ground forces in which one US soldier was killed and several were reported injured or missing.
In northern Iraq, Kurdish fighters, backed by small groups of US soldiers, advanced towards the oil town of Mosul, but were met by heavy machinegun and rifle fire.
US forces also bombarded Kut on the Tigris, about 170kms south of Baghdad.
Further south, US troops moved into the centre of the holy city of Najaf, searching for paramilitary fighters, and tightened their grip on Nassiriya.
Central Command’s Brooks claimed Ayatollah Baqar al Hakim, a prominent Shia religious leader in Najaf, had issued an edict urging Shias not to hinder US forces.
In the far south, British forces surrounding Iraq’s second city of Basra edged into the outskirts, capturing an industrial complex where Iraqi militia had spearheaded fierce resistance.
IRAQI STATEMENT: Iraq’s Information Minister Mohamed Said Al-Sahhaf said on Thursday US-UK forces were nowhere near Baghdad or its main airport, but remain trapped in combat with Iraqi resistance in every major town.
“They are not even within 100 miles (160 kilometres), they are on the move everywhere. They are a pig moving in the desert,” he said, referring to US and British troops as mercenaries and US Vice President Dick Cheney as “despicable”.
“If that’s the case we will welcome them with music and flowers,” added Sahhaf mockingly.
Mr Sahhaf said Iraqi troops continued to fight UK-US forces everywhere in Iraq, including Basra, Karbala, Najaf and Nasiriyah.
“It is not enough to say heavy casualties. We are destroying tanks, personnel carriers, killing them and we will continue,” said the minister, Iraq’s main spokesman since the start of the US-led invasion.
Fedayeen had destroyed three tanks and a personnel carrier south of Karbala and another Apache in the southern Muthana province, he said, adding that the same unit destroyed another tank in Muthana.
Mr Sahhaf said the 442nd regiment of the Iraqi army had pushed back a US-UK attack near Basra on Wednesday.
“Basra is in good shape and our fighters remain there,” he said adding that even in the port city of Umm Qasr there continues to be resistance.
As for casualties of bombing raids on Baghdad, Mr Sahhaf said that according to initial estimates 140 were injured and five killed on Wednesday night.
He added that early Thursday coalition forces dropped cluster bombs on the Al-Doura area of Baghdad, killing 28 people and injuring 66, while raids on Mahmoudia district, 60 kilometres from Baghdad, killed five and injured 59.—Reuters/AFP
