Numaniyah (Iraq), Apr 03: US forces closed to within 32 kms of Baghdad early today and warplanes continued to pound targets as the heart of the war neared the Iraqi capital.
Huge explosions shook southern Baghdad early today. US
military officials said coalition aircraft struck a military
storage facility in the al Karkh district of Baghdad.
In Washington, a senior military official who spoke on
condition of anonymity said us forces were within sight of
Baghdad's skyline, inside the "red zone" protecting the
capital, and would form a cordon around the city.
Iraqi officials, meanwhile, disputed the US claims.
Information minister Mohammed Saeed al-Sahhaf denied US troops
had crossed the Tigris River near Kut yesterday, saying: "we
welcome them, but this is not true."
President Saddam Hussein - in one of two statements read
on Iraqi television - said that victory was near. He also
warned Iraqi Kurds against collaborating with US forces,
urging them "not to rush and do something that you'll regret."
Saddam's whereabouts were still unclear. Footage aired
on state television showed him relaxed and smiling, but there
was no indication when it was shot.
A commander of the Republican Guard's Baghdad Division
denied its units were destroyed, and a military statement
yesterday claimed the Iraqis shot down a fighter jet, two
helicopters and a drone. It said 11 coalition tanks and 27
armored personnel carriers were destroyed.
The US Army's 3rd Infantry Division and the US 1st Marine
expeditionary force were heading toward Baghdad today.
American Infantry units surged past the strategic city of
Karbala, about 65 kms from Baghdad, targeting an estimated
2,000 paramilitary fighters. Army units seized a Euphrates
River bridge at Mussayib, northwest of Karbala, with little or
no resistance, as they advanced through the Karbala gap.
To the east, US Marines moved to within 65 kms of Baghdad
after capturing an important bridge over the Tigris River near
Kut.
US secretary of state Colin Powell called the coalition
military advances in Iraq a "success" that will lead to
victory in the war.
In turkey, Powell reached an agreement with Ankara on
allowing the US to ship food, fuel and medicine, but not
weapons, through Turkish territory to us soldiers in Iraq.
He and Turkish leaders also agreed yesterday on an "early
warning" system to avert friction between Turkey and Iraqi
Kurds - an accord designed to block turkey from sending its
forces into northern Iraq.
Qatar-based al-Jazeera television reported that about 30
Yemeni volunteers, carrying AK-47s, arrived in Baghdad
yesterday. Iraq's Embassy in Jordan, said 5,500 Iraqis have
obtained temporary passports to return home.
The International Red Cross, meanwhile, said some of its
staff members saw the bodies of dozens of people - including
women and children - in Hillah, east of Karbala. At least 280
injured people were being treated at a hospital there, the
Red Cross said.
Iraqi officials have said US Apache helicopters attacked
a residential neighbourhood in Hillah earlier this week. The
US Central Command said it was investigating the claim.
In northern Iraq, Iraqi forces shelled a village in the
Kurdish autonomous region yesterday. US air strikes hit Iraqi
positions 160 kms north of Baghdad and, farther north,
prompted Iraqi withdrawal toward the city of Kirkuk.
Saddam's warning to Iraq's Kurdish leaders read: "it is
my moral and constitutional duty to warn you of the dangers of
the game this time round if you and others persist in taking
part."
In Berlin, German foreign minister Joschka Fischer said
he hoped Saddam's regime would collapse quickly, a turnaround
from the German government's anti-war stance and its
opposition to regime change as a goal of the US-led campaign.
"We hope the regime will collapse as soon as possible
and we'll have no further loss of life - civilians or
soldiers," Fischer said.
British Prime Minister Tony Blair said invading forces
should hand over power to a new Iraqi government as soon as
possible after Saddam's regime is overthrown.
"Iraq at the end should not be run by the Americans,
should not be run by the British, should not be run by any
outside force or power," he told the House of Commons.
Protests against the war continued. In Yemen, 20,000
people demanded that their government let them go defend Iraq.
In Sidon, Lebanon, more than 10,000 Lebanese and Palestinians
chanted "Death to America!" and "Death to Britain!"
Bureau Report
