Southern Iraq, Mar 21: The US marines and army rolled into Iraq and engaged Saddam Hussein`s forces in the desert, joining British troops in launching the war`s ground assault. Meanwhile, according to the latest reports, around 200 Iraqi troops have surrendered to the US forces. In what could be termed as initial signs of success for the US, Iraqi troops waved white flags and surrendered. American and British army is interrogating them.
As U.S. armour drove deeper into Iraq this morning, British troops conducted an assault on the strategic al-Faw peninsula, Iraq`s access point to the Persian Gulf and the site of major oil facilities. British military officials said they hoped to seize key port of Umm Qasr before the day`s end.
Through the night and as the sun rose, artillery barrages lit up the sky, and witnesses in northern Kuwait side said they could hear thunderous explosions from the Umm Qasr area.
Last evening, US forces in northern Kuwait signaled the start of their advance on Iraq with a thundering artillery barrage over the border. Infantrymen on the move, their weeks of waiting at an end, cheered as shells screamed overhead.
Under the shelter of night and supported by heavy bombing, the armoured vehicles of the 1st marine division rolled into southern Iraq at around 9 P.M. local time (2330 IST). As they moved through the desert, burning oil wells were visible, spewing black smoke.
The 20,000 marines met light resistance from Iraqi "rear guard" units. They opened fire with machine guns on an Iraqi T-55 tank and destroyed it with a javelin, a portable anti-tank missile.
Troops from the army`s 3rd infantry division also crossed into Iraq and came into contact with several Iraqi armoured personnel carriers, destroying at least three of them, front line troops reported by radio. There were no reports of US casualties in the engagements. In northern Kuwait, a helicopter crashed killing the 12 British and four American troops on board.

Last evening, elite British troops were dropped by Chinook and sea stallion helicopters to seize oil facilities in al-Faw after U.S. seals prepared the area, according to Britain`s press association news agency.
By taking southern Iraq, the allies would command access to the Gulf and set the stage for the first major conquest on the way to Baghdad - Basra, Iraq`s second largest city, just 32 kilometers from the Kuwait border.
The move on the area between Basra and the Persian Gulf suggested that the allied strategy on the ground calls for a two-pronged attack - one to clear Iraqi resistance in the southern oil region while the other charges north toward Baghdad.
Australian troops, meanwhile, were on the ground identifying targets for coalition aircraft and monitoring Iraqi troop movements, a defence force spokesman said in Canberra. Australian naval forces were patrolling coastal areas in an effort to cut off any attempt by Iraqi leaders to flee by sea.
Members of Australia`s special air service regiment are ``now undertaking active operations inside Iraq,`` brig. Mike Hannan told reporters. It was the first confirmation the 150 commandos were in action.
Australian fighter jets were in action yesterday escorting coalition bombers that targeted Baghdad. Australia has 2,000 military personnel involved in the coalition to disarm Iraq.
``Things are going very well,`` said U.S. defence secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, in Washington.

Yet conditions were sometimes difficult. Marines drove through thick, swirling dust storms. Troops detected Iraqi tanks and armored vehicles hidden behind sand berms by the heat they gave off, and U.S. aircraft attacked the positions.
None of the forces apparently encountered chemical or biological weapons. The marines passed burning oil wells, though it was not known who had set them afire. Flames shot up hundreds of feet, thickening the air with black smoke. Artillery, mortars and howitzers rumbled for hours in the nearly deserted far north of Kuwait, mixed with bursts of rocket launchers. The explosions rattled tin roofs noisily on their wood frames miles away and shook concrete houses.
The attack came at the end of a day that began with allied troops at the other end of the gun barrel, as Iraq - responding to the American bombardment of Baghdad and other targets - launched missiles into Kuwait, where allied forces were primed to attack.
The Iraqi military claimed in a statement it had repulsed an ``enemy`` attack at al-Anbar province, on Iraq`s border with Jordan and Saudi Arabia. It was not clear what force could be attacking from that point, and the statement did not mention attacks in the south.
Meanwhile, the U.S. 3rd infantry division`s artillery opened fire on Iraq with paladin self-propelled howitzers and multiple launch rocket systems. More than 100 artillery shells were fired toward southern Iraq in a five-minute barrage. White light glowed in the sky above the cannons, as explosions were heard from Iraq.
No fire was returned, but the shooting was unnerving to those within earshot. Pakistani and Indian farm workers ran out in their yards in the dark, shouting. ``Give me my passport,`` one field worker told his foreman.
``The Americans are bombing to the left of us, to the right of us, the front, the backside, and I`m under it!`` the foreman said later.
Under a bright moon late last night, troops had streamed toward the border in convoys of trucks, tankers, humvees and other military vehicles of the 101st airborne division.
As the convoy moved at a steady 30 mph clip, troops pulled scarves across their faces as huge clouds of dust rose from the flat desert. Pairs of red tail lights and yellow headlights strung across the desert, filtered by a fog of dust.
Earlier in the day, the waiting troops had their first brush with action when Iraq fired missiles into Kuwait. There were cries of ``gas, gas, gas,`` and U.S. troops ran for their protective suits and gas masks - but authorities said none of the missiles carried biological or chemical payloads. Bureau Report