Operation Iraqi Freedom1

OPERATION IRAQI FREEDOM
MARCH 2003
Umm Qasr Liberated, But Now Under Siege By Looters

Source: Seattle Post - Intelligencer
Publication date: 2003-03-28
Arrival time: 2003-03-29
Once a gateway to the world, Umm Qasr is poor, crumbling and in the middle
of a war zone. And now the port city's factories are facing a new threat:
aggressive looters.
"Please tell the coalition to protect the factories from looting," pleaded Najim
Ahd, a gray-haired teacher, pointing at plants nearby.
"People were stealing everything from those factories yesterday - even tables
and chairs, doors and windows. It's a kind of revenge against Saddam Hussein.
He taught the people to steal, to lie, to kill and be killed."
The coalition has declared that the stabilization of Umm Qasr is one of its
highest priorities. As the only deep-water port in Iraq, it is a strategically
important entry point for military and humanitarian supplies.
British troops announced Wednesday they were clamping down on looting, yet
there were obvious signs that it was continuing. One man rolled a barrel down a
road near the port while carrying a sack over his back. Two men were stealing a
sofa.
"There's been tons of looting," said a U.S. soldier who was guarding the town's
old port. "When they realized it was safe, they grabbed anything and
everything."
He said he saw one man with a flatbed truck to haul looted furniture. Another
looter carried an entire sofa on his bicycle. Asked how the looter had managed
this trick, the soldier said: "Years of experience, I guess."
While British troops patrolled the streets, ordinary Iraqis continued to gather
outside the new foreign military compounds, begging for medicine, electricity
repairs and answers on the fate of missing people who might have been
arrested.
Yet of dozens clamoring for help, only Ahd dared to support the war.
"You can't imagine the huge suffering we went through from this political
regime," he said. "All of my friends - teachers, novelists - were suffering from
Saddam. Everything in Iraq is expensive, except death."
Iraq: Suicide Attacks Are Military Policy

Source: Associated Press
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MARCH 2003
A bomber posing as a taxi driver summoned American troops for help, then
blew up his vehicle Saturday, killing himself and four soldiers and opening a
new chapter of carnage in the war for Iraq.
An Iraqi official said such attacks would be "routine military policy" in Iraq -
and, he suggested chillingly, in America.
"We will use any means to kill our enemy in our land and we will follow the
enemy into its land," Vice President Taha Yassin Ramadan said at a Baghdad
news conference. "This is just the beginning. You'll hear more pleasant news
later."
U.S. officials said the bombing occurred at about 10:40 a.m. at a U.S.
checkpoint on the highway north of the holy city of Najaf.
A taxi stopped close to the roadblock; the driver waved for help. When soldiers
approached the car, it exploded, Capt. Andrew Wallace told Associated Press
Television News, killing the driver and four soldiers from the Army's 1st Brigade,
3rd Infantry Division.
The names of the Americans were not immediately released. But Ramadan
identified the bomber as Ali Jaafar al-Noamani, a noncommissioned army officer
and father of several children.
Iraq's state television reported that Saddam posthumously promoted al-
Noamani to colonel, and bestowed on him two medals - Al-Rafidin, or The Two
Rivers, and the Mother of All Battles.
"It's the blessed beginning," said the statement, alluding to the suicide attack.
"He wanted to teach the enemy a lesson in the manner used by our Palestinian
brothers."
It claimed that 11 American soldiers were killed in the attack, two APCs
destroyed and two tanks damaged.
"After he kissed a copy of the Quran, he got into his booby-trapped car and
went to an area where enemy armored cars and tanks were gathered on the
fringes of Najaf and turned his pure body and explosives-laden car into a rocket
and blew himself up," the statement said.
Ramadan said Iraq, like many other nations, cannot match American weaponry.
"They have bombs that can kill 500 people, but I am sure that the day will
come when a single martyrdom operation will kill 5,000 enemies."
Thousands of Arab volunteers have been pouring into Iraq since the start of the
war, he said, adding that Iraq will provide them with what they need to fight
the allied forces.
"The Iraqi people have a legal right to deal with the enemy with any means,"
he added.
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MARCH 2003
This was the first such attack since the invasion began. It was, said Maj. Gen.
Gene Renuart of the U.S. Central Command, "a symbol of an organization that's
starting to get a little bit desperate."
At a Pentagon news conference Saturday, Maj. Gen. Stanley McChrystal of the
Joint Chiefs of Staff said suicide attacks would not change the way U.S.-led
forces proceed in the war, except that they would take more care in vulnerable
locations like checkpoints.
"We're very concerned about it. It looks and feels like terrorism," he said.
Col. Will Grimsley, commander of the brigade that was hit, said force protection
remained the highest priority, "but that doesn't mean we're going to back into
little holes and hide."
"The local population that's here and happy that we're here - they tell us all the
time, they've been feeling the same kind of terrorist repression for years and
now unfortunately it's hit American soldiers. I think it only tightens the resolve
of why we're here."
The 3rd Infantry Division is based at Fort Stewart, near Hinesville, Ga., and
news of the attack hit the town hard.
"It's not the deaths, it's the way it was done," said Ellen Seider, a local print
shop owner who spent Friday night helping Army wives stamp out buttons
printed with photos of their husbands.
"There are bad people, there are mean people and there are evil people," she
said. "And Saddam Hussein is pure evil."
The attack did not come without warning.
Iraqi dissidents and Arab media have claimed that Saddam has opened a
training camp for Arab volunteers willing to carry out similar bombings against
U.S. forces in Iraq.
Al-Qaida mastermind Osama bin Laden also urged Iraqis in an audio tape on
Arabic television last month to employ the tactic, used frequently by Palestinian
militants against Israeli soldiers and civilians.
Though the Iraqis said the bomber was an Army officer, Lt. Col. Ahmed Radhi,
an exiled Iraqi officer in Cairo, Egypt and former commander of an army
brigade, said he did not believe it. The claim, Radhi said, was "a stupid method
to raise morale among the army."
If a soldier was involved, Radhi insisted, he either did not know his car carried a
bomb or was acting under duress.
In 1970, Saddam sent a group of security officers with a booby-trapped car to
kill Kurdish leader Mustafa Barzani, father of Massoud Barzani, current chief of
the Kurdistan Democratic Party. The car exploded prematurely, killing the
security officers while Mustafa Barzani survived.
The biggest suicide attack against the U.S. military abroad was in Lebanon,
when a truck packed with explosives drove into a U.S. Marine base in Beirut
and exploded in the early morning of Oct. 23, 1983, as the troops slept. The
attack killed 241 American servicemen and leveled the base. A simultaneous
suicide attack on a Beirut base for French soldiers killed 58 paratroopers.
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MARCH 2003
The Americans and the French were in Lebanon as part of an ill-fated

peacekeeping mission to end Lebanon's civil war. Iranian-backed Shiite Muslim
militants were blamed for the attacks.
In 1996, a truck bomb at the Khobar Towers barracks in Saudi Arabia killed 19
U.S. servicemen.
Loud Explosions Rock Baghdad Again

Several loud explosions rocked Baghdad again late Saturday and early Sunday,
many around the southern fringes of the city where the Republican Guard,
Saddam Hussein's best trained fighters, are thought to be dug in. As a heavy
string of blasts lighted up the horizon, buildings downtown shook over and
over. At one point, an orange fireball illuminated the sky, followed by columns
of white smoke.
Three-quarters of the allied air strikes are now going after Republican Guard
forces ringing Baghdad, Air Force Brig. Gen. Daniel Darnell told The Associated
Press.
Despite the fires and intermittent explosions, Saturday saw the heaviest traffic
on the streets of Baghdad since the war broke out. Many shops were open in
the commercial districts and thousands of residents were on the streets.
Meanwhile, wailing and sobbing, black-clad mourners gathered for a funeral
procession amid the wreckage of a Baghdad marketplace where Iraqi officials
say dozens of civilians died in a coalition bombing.
Elsewhere, Iraq's Information Ministry building was damaged but not destroyed
in a U.S. missile attack before dawn Saturday. Planes were heard over the
capital, drawing anti-aircraft fire, and the oil blazes started by authorities to
conceal targets seemed to be burning furiously, sending darker-than-usual
clouds over the city on an otherwise clear day.
During daylight operations Saturday, U.S. warplanes dropped six 500-pound
laser-guided bombs and nine 500-pound unguided bombs on military vehicles
and a command bunker south of Baghdad, said Lt. j.g. Nicole Kratzer,
spokeswoman for the USS Kitty Hawk's air wing.
At the Al-Nasr market in the working-class district of al-Shoala, crowds of
mourners wailed amid bloodstains and piles of wreckage. Blood-soaked
children's slippers sat on the street not far from a crater blasted into the
ground.
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MARCH 2003
At the scene of the Friday bombing, women in black chadors were sobbing
outside homes where some of the victims lived. Men cried and hugged each
other as a funeral procession passed through the market.
Down the road, residents gathered at a Shiite Muslim mosque, crowded around
seven wooden coffins draped in blankets. Some of the men stood silently.
Others sobbed into trembling hands. In the background, women cried, "Oh God!
Oh God!"
Information Minister Mohammed Saeed Sahhaf had said earlier that 58 people
were killed - and many others wounded - in the market explosion Friday
evening. There were conflicting reports, however, on the number of casualties.
Haqi Ismail Razouq, director of al-Nour Hospital, where the dead and injured
were taken, put the death toll at 30 and the number of injured at 47; surgeon
Issa Ali Ilwan said 47 were killed and 50 injured. Witnesses said they counted as
many as 50 bodies.
There was no explanation for the discrepancy.
Witnesses said the bombing took place around 6 p.m., when the market was at
its busiest. They said they saw an aircraft flying high overhead just before the
blast.
"Why do they make mistakes like these if they have the technology?" asked
Abdel-Hadi Adai, who said he lost his 27-year-old brother-in-law. "There are no
military installations anywhere near here."
The U.S. Central Command in Qatar, which has denied that coalition forces
target civilian neighborhoods, said it was looking into the incident.
Elsewhere Saturday, the Information Ministry remained standing after a
Tomahawk cruise missile attack that the U.S. military command said was aimed
at the ministry building. But many of the satellite dishes on the roof - used by
foreign TV crews - were destroyed, and glass from broken windows was strewn
in the hallways.
Information Ministry officials said the 10th floor, which housed the ministry's
Internet server, was gutted.
Most of the ministry's satellite dishes have been destroyed and there was no
sign of the two anti-aircraft guns that had been placed on the roof. Several
foreign TV journalists were able to use their dishes on a lower roof of the
building that seems to have sustained little damage. But most continued to
work at a parking area opposite the building where they had moved for fear of
attacks on the ministry.
Sahhaf told reporters on Saturday that 68 people were killed and 107 wounded
in Baghdad alone between Friday evening and Saturday morning. In addition,
74 people were killed and 244 wounded across the rest of the country, he said.
"These are cowardly air raids," he told Lebanon's Al-Hayat LBC satellite
television.
In one incident, Sahhaf said coalition forces fired a cluster bomb at an
ambulance carrying a wounded man to hospital. The wounded man, the driver
and a nurse were killed.
"We thank the superpower (America) and we congratulate this hated (Tony)
Blair. Now they are bombing ambulances," he said. "We are encouraging
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several groups, lawyers, professors of international law in order to present a

lawsuit against those war criminals."
Air Attacks Targeting Iraq's Elite Guard

Three-quarters of allied airstrikes are now targeting Republican Guard forces

that stand between advancing columns of U.S. ground troops and Saddam
Hussein's government, a top American air officer said in an Associated Press
interview Saturday.
From his desert command post in Saudi Arabia, Air Force Brig. Gen. Daniel
Darnell also said U.S. and British warplanes over the past week have attacked
virtually every military airfield in Iraq - believed to number roughly 100 - and
have seen only a small number of planes.
Intensified allied airstrikes on Saddam's best ground forces coincide with efforts
by the Army's 3rd Infantry Division and the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force to
consolidate their supply lines south of Baghdad before beginning a
multipronged assault on the Republican Guard.
The intent is to severely weaken those forces so they will fall more quickly to
American ground troops, minimizing U.S. casualties.
The air campaign against the Republican Guard ringing Baghdad intensified
after the foul weather that had impeded air operations lifted a few days ago.
Darnell said there will be no letup in airstrikes.
"That will increase at least a little more" in the days ahead, he said. The
coalition has flown roughly 1,000 missions a day in recent days.
Army attack helicopters are joining the battle. More than 40 Apache helicopters
from the 101st Airborne Division launched Hellfire missiles and other munitions
in an attack Friday on elements of the Medina division of the Republican Guard,
Maj. Gen. Stanley McChrystal said at the Pentagon.
McChrystal said the Medina division is trying to stay clear of U.S. air power,
which is "taking them apart, piece by piece."
Darnell said that although much of Iraq's air defense network has been
damaged or destroyed, it remains a threat around Baghdad because key radars
and other systems are moved frequently to avoid attack.
The Iraqi air force, which was vastly depleted in the 1991 Gulf War, has not
flown a single mission since this war began March 20, Darnell said. While that is
good news for allied pilots, Darnell said he and other air war planners remain
wary of the potential for Iraqi surprises.
The Iraqi air force is believed to have no more than 100 serviceable combat
aircraft.
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MARCH 2003
The United States has more than 600 aircraft in the region, as well as about 30
ships and submarines that have launched more than 650 Tomahawk cruise
missiles.
Darnell is director of a command post at Saudi Arabia's Prince Sultan Air Base
that runs all aspects of the air campaign. Known as the Combined Air
Operations Center, it is headquarters for Darnell's boss, Lt. Gen. Michael
Moseley, the top air commander in the Persian Gulf.
In the telephone interview, Darnell disputed suggestions from some critics that
the air campaign has failed to achieve its intended goals.
"We're on track thus far," he said, while acknowledging that some thought
victory would come quickly. He said the military challenge is bigger than in the
1991 war, in which the air campaign lasted five weeks before allied ground
forces prevailed in 100 hours of combat.
"We're faced with a much larger problem" this time, given that the entire
territory of Iraq is a battlefield, whereas the 1991 conflict was focused on
expelling the Iraqi army from tiny Kuwait.
"Any insinuation or opinion that the air effort is not meeting objectives is
misplaced," said Darnell, whose prewar assignment was commanding the Air
Force's largest flying unit, the 57th Wing at Nellis Air Force Base, Nev.
Darnell said he could not estimate what proportion of Iraq's formidable surface-
to-air missile force has been destroyed or disabled by the bombing. "I would be
totally guessing," he said.
Darnell said the Air Force's approach to war is based less on counting the
number of structures and weapons its destroys than in assessing the effects
those attacks have on the opponent's ability to command and control its forces.
The key effect sought in this war, obviously, is the loss of Saddam's control
over Iraq. Darnell declined to estimate the degree to which Saddam may be
losing his grip on power, although he said airstrikes against the pillars of power
in Baghad are having "some of the desired effects."
He said it has become harder for Iraq's leaders to communicate with each other
and to their forces.
In the early days of the air war, strikes against Saddam's presidential
compound, his communications centers, intelligence headquarters and other
strategic targets were the main focus. But in recent days much of the focus has
shifted from Baghdad to the Republican Guard on the outskirts of the capital.
By Friday, 75 percent of all air missions were targeting elements of the Medina
and other Republican Guard divisions, he said. The rest are against targets
inside Baghdad and in support of U.S. ground forces operating in western,
northern and southern Iraq, Darnell said.
The air command post at Prince Sultan directs not only Air Force missions but
also those of Marine Corps and Navy flights, including those flying from the five
aircraft carriers in the region.
Rear Adm. Barry Costello, commander of the USS Constellation battle group in
the Persian Gulf, said Saturday that his planes are pounding Republican Guard
positions south of Baghdad. He said they hit 40 targets in the past 24 hours,
including a Republican Guard headquarters near Kut.
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MARCH 2003
The bulk of close to 100 bombing missions a day from each of the five carriers
have been at night and have hit artillery, command posts and vehicle convoys
of the Republican Guard's Medina division, Navy officials said.
Kurds Move Closer to N. Iraq Oil Center

Without firing a shot, Kurdish militiamen moved closer Saturday to the key prize
of the north - Kirkuk and its oil fields - after Iraqi forces staged a sudden
withdrawal to possibly plug defenses targeted by U.S. airstrikes.
The extent of the aerial barrage around the northern centers of Kirkuk and
Mosul is not fully known. But Kurdish commanders interpreted the latest
retrenching of Iraqi forces toward Kirkuk as evidence that the daily attacks had
taken a serious toll and that Saddam Hussein needed to solidify the lines.
"They are getting ready for a last stand," said the leader of a front line unit,
Farhad Yunus Ahmad, as he crouched behind a knoll and scanned for signs of
Iraqi troops along the main road linking Irbil in the Western-protected Kurdish
region to Kirkuk.
Iraqi soldiers fell back at least 12 miles late Friday to apparently regroup near
Perdeh - also known as Altun Kupri - about 27 miles from Kirkuk, which is Iraq's
No. 2 oil producing region. Iraqi troops made a similar pullback east of Kirkuk
on Thursday.
Perdeh's centerpiece is an important bridge over the Little Zab River. Bypassing
the bridge would require coalition forces to make difficult and potentially
dangerous detours through rolling hills where Iraqis could stage guerrilla-style
ambushes or fire from higher ground.
But there are no orders yet to open a northern ground offensive.
The Pentagon has only about 1,200 paratroopers and some special forces at its
disposal in the Kurdish autonomous region - a force too small to directly
challenge Saddam's military, although reinforcements and heavier firepower
are expected. Kurdish leaders, meanwhile, have pledged not to launch any
independent attacks.
The Kurdish militia force in the Irbil area is about 5,000; in the entire enclave
there are about 70,000 guerrilla militiamen known as peshmergas - literally,
"those who face death."
Kirkuk would be one of the main goals of a northern push. U.S.-led forces hope
to avoid any damage to the vital oil fields. Kurds view the city as an integral
part of their ethnic territory and insist on the return of thousands of Kurds
driven out by Saddam's regime.
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The peshmergas advanced cautiously at dawn into the territory opened by the
overnight withdrawal. For many, it was their first look at land held by Baghdad
since a failed 1991 Kurdish uprising after the Gulf War.
The road appeared to be mined in places. Along one stretch, it was blocked by
long metal bars and earthen mounds.
At first, some Kurds feared the pullout could be a trap by Iraqi commandos. But
worries faded as each crest revealed a panorama of empty grazing land and
abandoned installations.
Iraqi soldiers left behind cinderblock bunkers, sandbags and barbed wire
barricades. But no weapons or strategic information were found, Kurdish
fighters said. On Friday east of Kirkuk, Kurdish militiamen said they'd found gas
masks and vials of the nerve gas antidote atropine in the headquarters of
Saddam's Baath Party in Qala Hanjir.
Along the Irbil-Kirkuk road, Kurds planted the yellow flag of the Kurdistan
Democratic Party - one of the two main Kurdish factions - atop a former Iraqi
observation hill overlooking the abandoned village of Shehan surrounded by
lush pastures dotted with yellow and violet wildflowers.
"I used to live on a farm over there," said fighter Hamza Ali, pointing to a
cluster of broken stone buildings outside the village. "The Iraqi army destroyed
everything. It's sad to be back here and see my village this way."
Tracks in the mud suggested the Iraqis had some tanks in the area recently.
In a foxhole, an Iraqi soldier left an empty pack of Al-Rashid cigarettes with
some pencil doodles on the inside cover. The Iraqi-made brand claims to be
"the finest Virginia filter cigarettes."
The Kurdish fighters - in mismatched uniforms and munching on wild celery -
posed for snapshots. Overhead, the contrails of U.S. warplanes left white cat
claw streaks in the cloudless sky. On the horizon: the dark smoke from a
bombing strike in the direction of Kirkuk.
"This move by the Iraqi forces must mean only one thing: Saddam's
government is using whatever it has left to try to defend Kirkuk," said a Kurdish
special forces chief, Nazim Harki. "And we are another step closer to Kirkuk."
Saddam Sacks Commander of Air Defenses

Saddam Hussein has fired his commander of air defenses as U.S.-led forces
claimed control of 95 percent of Iraq's sky, the British government said
Saturday.
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MARCH 2003
Prime Minister Tony Blair's official spokesman said Saddam had sacked his
cousin, Musahim Saab al-Tikriti, and replaced him with Gen. Shahin Yasin
Muhammad al-Tikriti.
The spokesman also said new, unspecified intelligence indicated that U.S. and
British bombing may not have been to blame for explosions in two
marketplaces in Baghdad this week.
He stopped short, however, of saying that Iraqi missiles were responsible for
the explosions, which reportedly killed scores of civilians.
According to Iraqi Information Minister Mohammed Saeed Sahhaf, 58 people
were killed - and many others wounded - in the explosion at the Al-Nasr market
Friday evening. Iraqi officials have also blamed U.S. forces for an explosion at
another market that killed 14 people on Wednesday.
The Blair spokesman, whose briefings to reporters are by tradition on condition
of anonymity, said many Iraqi surface-to-air missiles "have been malfunctioning
and many have failed to hit their targets and have fallen back onto Baghdad
before exploding."
He said the Iraqi regime had ordered civil defense workers to remove Iraqi
missile fragments which fell on residential areas before Western journalists
arrived on the scene.
"We are not saying definitively that these explosions were caused by Iraqi
missiles. But people should approach this with due skepticism," he added.
The U.S. Central Command in Qatar, which has denied that coalition forces
target civilian neighborhoods, has said it was looking into the incidents.
Saudis Protest Iraq War Despite Rally Ban

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia (AP) - Since the war on Iraq began, invocations to Allah to
"strike the Americans," "bring down their planes" and "burn them with their
own fire" have been heard at Saudi mosques following daily prayers.
Text messages on cellular phones ridicule President Bush and laud Iraq's
people, saying they're the "victims of the 'stubborn' missiles between the
United States and the (Iraqi) regime."
A group of 120 intellectuals refuses to meet with U.S. ambassador Robert W.
Jordan to discuss a letter they had sent to Bush, saying they are disappointed
with the U.S. administration's indifference to U.N. and world opinion on the war.
In a country where protests are banned by the government, the citizens have
found other ways to vent their anger against the United States and express
their disgust with a war that many believe is unjust.
Such passionate expressions of support for Iraq may sound strange in a country
that offered its territory for the U.S.-led campaign against Iraq in the 1991 Gulf
War.
But this time the kingdom is not in danger of being overrun by Iraqi troops, and
for Saudis, like for most Arabs, it's not only about Iraq.
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It's also about the United States, a country they feel has consistently betrayed
them with its unconditional support for Israel. Many Saudis feel that attacking
Iraq is the first U.S. step toward controlling the entire Arab world, especially the
oil-rich Gulf region.
America has "no regard to our dignity and our issues while at the same time it
talks about freedom, peace and human rights," Ali Saad al-Moussa, a columnist
for Al Watan daily, wrote Friday.
"Because of all the double standards, we will hate America and will support
from today every phrase or political speech that puts the black bull in its
place," al-Moussa added in a column that accused the United States of "leading
humankind to a catastrophe."
Foreign Minister Prince Saud recently told reporters that while the basics of
Saudi-U.S. relations are "healthy," a protracted war on Iraq "may damage that
relationship."
"The impact is already there. People see images that you bring them in the
media. The sight of blood and destruction is never conducive to understanding
and good relations between people," said Saud.
In the minds of many Saudis the war on Iraq has become intertwined with the
Israeli-Palestinian violence, with many drawing parallels between Bush's Iraq
policies and those of Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's government toward
the Palestinians.
In Al-Madina daily a whole page on Thursday showed pictures of Iraqis carrying
their dead, cringing with fear and inspecting damage from U.S.-British
bombardment. A headline read: "Sharon's massacres repeated by Bush in Iraqi
cities."
On Friday, Al Watan daily placed two pictures side by side on its front page, one
showing an Iraqi next to his damaged home and the other a Palestinian woman
weeping for two Palestinians who fell by Israeli fire in Gaza. The caption said:
"From Palestine to Iraq ... one roving tragedy ... carrying death and
destruction."
At mosques, Saudi preachers beseech Allah to inflict his wrath on America and
its allies. The unusually harsh language indicates the government - which
generally discourages clerics from using language that could be considered
inflammatory - sees a need for an outlet for anti-war sentiment in a country
where protests are banned.
Saudis also are getting to express their anger on the Internet, in phone
messages and through e-mails. The traffic is so heavy that the government has
told its people, through the clergy, not to believe everything they hear or read.
The kingdom is in a delicate position, having to balance its desire to keep the
street calm while at the same time quietly helping the Americans in the war.
Internet cafe owners report brisk business from people who surf for news, join
chat rooms that discuss the war and call for jihad, or holy war, on the United
States. They also forward messages making fun of Bush.
Some voices caution Saudis not to get too carried away and turn Saddam
Hussein into a hero.
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"The pretense of liberating the Iraqi people may be a smoke screen for the
arrogant exercise of power or the personal goals of the American president or
those of the cabal surrounding him," wrote Turki al-Hamad in Asharq al-Awsat
paper.
"But we should not forget that Saddam Hussein and his men have committed
unprecedented crimes against the Iraqi people and the Arabs, competing in
acts of ruthlessness surpassing in evil those of the tyrants of the past," he
added
130,000 troops called up in change of battle plan

Source: Daily Mail - London
A RADICAL switch in the Allies' approach to the war in Iraq emerged yesterday
as the U.S. ordered another 130 , 000 troops to the conflict.
The move by American forces chiefs could also see more than 4,000 extra
British personnel deployed to the Gulf.
It came amid growing signs that the Allies' 'fast and light' war strategy has
failed.
News of the massive reinforcements - which will double the size of the coalition
Army - came after a U.S. commander admitted the war was turning out very
differently to expectations as Saddam Hussein's loyalists adopted effective
guerilla tactics across southern Iraq.
Lieutenant General William Wallace, who leads the U.S. 5th Army Corps, said:
'The enemy we are fighting is different from the one we'd wargamed.' On
Thursday, Gordon Brown announced an extra pounds 1.25billion for the war,
which has already cost pounds 3billion and is costing Britain pounds 75million a
day.
Earlier in the week President Bush asked Congress for pounds 50billion to fund
operations over the next five months.
But it is thought far more money and reinforcements, on top of the extra
130,000 revealed yesterday, could be needed if the war stretches on into the
summer.
Yesterday Mr Rumsfeld raised the prospect of Allied forces encircling Baghdad
and laying siege to the city, hoping for a popular uprising, to avoid being
sucked into dangerous urban warfare.
And a British military spokesman admitted the southern Iraqi city of Basra is
'clearly nowhere near' under Allied control.
A British defence source said: 'Basra is very interesting to watch as an example
of how Baghdad will be tough to crack.
'The key thing is that U.S. forces do not want to get involved in downtown
fighting. It's all about applying pressure with the result of the regime falling.
'You need an overwhelming force to move into urban areas and I don't think we
will do it. We do not have the amount of troops you need to carry out urban
guerilla warfare.' Allied spokesmen insisted yesterday that the war was going to
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plan, but the changes sparked speculation that the Allied strategy may have
been badly conceived.
It is understood that Mr Rumsfeld and his closest aides were instrumental in
adoption of the 'fast and light' tactics.
The aim was to use hi-tech and mobile special forces and lightweight infantry
to hit quickly at the heart of Saddam's regime, in contrast to the heavy, five-
week bombardment of Iraq that preceded invasion in the first Gulf War 12 years
ago.
Mr Rumsfeld is thought to have been at odds with American field commander
General Tommy Franks, who advocated using traditional heavy armour to
invade Iraq.
It is now thought possible that the Allies might have to revert to increased
'shock and awe' tactics - heavy bombing raids designed to destroy the Iraqi
regime from the air.
The coalition force in and around Iraq totals about 250,000 - barely a third of
the massive 700,000-strong force used in the 1991 Gulf War to achieve the far
more modest task of liberating Kuwait. More than 30,000 members of the U.S.
4th Infantry Division - originally due to invade Iraq via Turkey - will start flying
from their Texas base to Kuwait this weekend.
But their heavy equipment is only now arriving by sea, and the formation may
not be combat-ready for up to a month. Another 100,000 U.S. troops are on
standby to deploy.
The British Army is drawing up contingency plans to send another battalion-size
force of 4,000 to 5,000 troops, possibly based around the 4th Armoured
Brigade in Germany or the 19th Mechanised Brigade at Catterick.
British army not taking a back seat to U.S. in taking on Iraqi

UMM QASR, Iraq (AP) -- Striking before dawn, British tanks and infantry staged
a lightning raid into besieged Basra on Saturday, destroying five Iraqi tanks and
blowing up two statues of Saddam Hussein before withdrawing without
casualties.
The strike was the first thrust into the city confirmed by British officers, and it
and other limited attacks around Basra could be a preview of how coalition
commanders might deal with a siege of Baghdad.
The move also was further evidence that British troops fighting for control of
Iraq's far south are not here just as window dressing in the war to topple
Saddam.
The 30,000 British soldiers and marines in the field have pedigrees that stretch
to El Alamein, Waterloo and earlier and aren't taking a back seat to an
American ground force about five times larger.
British troops have fought some of the toughest battles so far, mixing up
pinpoint raids in urban areas with the pummeling of Iraqi armored forces daring
or desperate enough to risk a head-on fight in the open.
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MARCH 2003
On Thursday, 12 Challenger tanks from the Royal Scots Dragoon Guards battled
an equal-sized force of Iraqi T-55s near Basra, Iraq's second-biggest city where
1,000 or so Saddam loyalists are holed up among 1.5 million people widely
unfriendly to the regime. The Iraqi force lost two tanks and saw two infantry
positions overrun.
In an army that thrives on obscure regimental histories and traditions, the
Scots Dragoon Guards have one of the proudest, wearing beret badges
resembling the eagle standard of Napoleon's army, which they engaged in a
suicidal cavalry charge at Waterloo in 1815.
Having long ago given up their gray war horses and sabers, they now fight from
Challenger II tanks, using some of the most sophisticated aiming systems in the
world to hit the aging Iraqi tanks while moving at 40 mph (64 kph).
Overhead, the Royal Air Force has been flying about 10 percent of the 1,000-
plus sorties flown by the coalition each day, employing their own aerial
refueling aircraft, Tornado fighter-bombers and Harrier jump jets.
Asked if the British, who are operating under overall control of U.S. Marine Lt.
Gen. James Conway, would need reinforcements to take and hold the south,
one of their officers bristled.
``We've got quite enough troops to do the job, 26,000 troops,'' Col. Chris
Vernon, the army spokesman in Kuwait City, told journalists. ``The British army
is a professional army that's probably second technologically only to the
Americans.''
U.S. Marines and Royal Marines surged into the Faw peninsula at the outset of
the war. Though they would have preferred to avoid urban fighting, they
needed to seize Umm Qasr, Iraq's main deep-water port, as soon as possible to
open it up for ships bringing in humanitarian aid.
The city was taken after five days of hard street-to-street fighting. Iraqi
militiamen sniped from windows, while others feigned surrender, then opened
fire when troops came up to take them into custody.
Military officers say the area is largely secure now, and the harbor is being
cleared of mines. British troops patrol the dusty streets, walking in pairs on
both sides of the street, a sight familiar from the days of urban guerrilla warfare
in Northern Ireland. Gurkhas, armed with assault rifles and their intimidating
13-inch kukri knives, help guard the port.
The most powerful British unit, the 7th Armored Brigade, has been at the gates
of Basra since midweek. Its soldiers are staging quick, sharp attacks on Iraqi
forces that took refuge in the city and reportedly have attacked civilians trying
to escape.
The brigade is descended from the ``Desert Rats'' that defeated Nazi
Germany's Desert Fox, Field Marshal Erwin Rommel, in the North African desert
in World War II.
On Tuesday, soldiers from the brigade raided the house of a senior official of
Saddam's ruling Baath party on the outskirts of the city and took him prisoner,
leaving 20 dead bodyguards.
14
MARCH 2003
``He was sitting there in his little building, thinking what a good morning, when
whap! we're in, whap! we're out, and 20 of them are gone,'' Vernon said. ``That
would have sent a shock wave through them.''
As Jets Pound Iraqi Positions, Ground Troops Continue Battling

Irregulars
Source: Knight Ridder Washington Bureau
Mar. 29--NEAR AN NAJAF, Iraq--In one area, American troops found caches of
weapons pre-positioned along U.S. supply routes. In another, they found signs
that Iraqis had executed one of their own, perhaps to stiffen the spines of
others. In a third, Cobra attack helicopters scrambled to defend a 70-vehicle
Marine supply convoy.
Throughout central Iraq, the battle continued Friday against the shadowy
irregulars who have harassed U.S. supply lines for days and slowed the
American march toward Baghdad.
Near An Najaf, elements of the Army's 3rd Infantry Division found small arms
and rocket-propelled grenades hidden behind sand berms and under debris,
apparently so Iraqi fighters could slip in unarmed, fire on convoys, and then
escape while appearing to be civilians.
South of al Kut, Marines reported on an engagement Thursday that killed 14
Iraqis. Marines picking through what had been the Iraqi perches found the
remnants of humanitarian-aid food that the fighters had consumed while
waiting to ambush the rear end of a convoy.
They also found an Iraqi, bound hand and foot and shot in the head, perhaps a
message for would-be deserters.
In the third, two Cobra attack helicopters and two infantry companies were
called in after a supply convoy was attacked with artillery and rocket propelled
grenades.
"We're going to find them and kill them," 1st Marine Expeditionary Force
planner Lt. Col. George Smith said of the Saddam Hussein loyalists who have
been sniping at U.S. rear areas and supply columns.
In the air, about 115 U.S. and British jets blanketed central Iraq at any one time
in a day-long swarm aimed at softening up Republican Guard units defending
Baghdad.
But on the ground, the persistent threat of attack from guerrilla fighters still
occupied American GIs. Even those who didn't experience an ambush were
feeling the threat.
"This is too much," said Lance Cpl. Matt Jungling, after a two-hour ride through
a sniper zone in which he and 10 other Marines were told to hunker down in the
bed of a dump truck for cover. "I'd rather walk naked down the street than deal
with this mess."
It was the second day of determined sweeps west of An Najaf by soldiers from
the 1st Brigade Combat Team of the Army's 3rd Infantry Division in search of
Iraqi fighters.
15
MARCH 2003
They discovered caches of small arms, including two shoulder-fired SA-7

surface-to-air missiles and several dozen rocket propelled grenades, one of the
Iraqis' most frequently used weapons. The weapons were destroyed.
"I think we put a dent in their operations for a while," said Capt. John Whyte, of
Billerica, Mass.
Villagers told soldiers that the weapons had been left there by Baath Party
members for use against U.S. forces. They said there were no regular Iraqi
army units or fedayeen militia in the area. American soldiers said some of them
have been told to enter An Najaf and capture Baath Party loyalists.
Marines south of al Kut combed through the site of an ambush on one of their
convoys the day before.
The Iraqis had dug themselves in along a sand berm running parallel to the
highway, setting up foxholes or hiding on the banks of a drainage canal behind
the berm, which offered a decent anti-tank ditch and escape route. Sitting in
small camps, each clustered around a small black tea pot, the Iraqis ate food
from aid packages while they waited.
After the armored portion of the convoy passed, including tanks and assault
vehicles, the Iraqis opened fire on the convoy's vulnerable end.
The Marines turned around, firing 25 mm machine guns and rifles. The Iraqis
were no match. Later, examining the dead guerrillas, Marine Capt. Sean Riddell
of the 7th Engineering Support Battalion said he was surprised by what he
found.
The Iraqis were older, many showing graying hair, receding hairlines and the
thick, stodginess of middle age. These were not new recruits or young fanatics
but looked more like experienced soldiers. Several wore the red bandana
associated with the Republican Guard.
Their gear was similar to that of U.S. fighting forces: black rubber gas masks,
green canvas carriers and camouflage outfits.
Then there was the 15th dead Iraqi, who was bound hand and foot and shot in
the back of the head.
There was other fighting reported:
--A Marine reconnaissance drone spotted 10 of Iraq's best artillery pieces,
South African designed G-6 howitzer that can lob shells accurately more than
30 miles, near the city of Karbala southwest of Baghdad.
The sighting allowed U.S. warplanes to knock out two of the big guns -- for
which Marine officers have expressed a healthy respect -- and give coalition
forces a hint about the whereabouts of senior Republican Guard headquarters
units around Karbala.
"That's a corps-level asset," said Lt. Col. Dave Pere, the senior night watch
officer at Marine headquarters outside of Nasiriyah.
Iraq has two Republican Guard Corps, with three divisions each, which have
control of all the G-6s, which can be used to fire chemical weapons.
--Three al Samoud missiles, of the type that was being destroyed by U.N.
weapons inspectors before the war started, spotted north of Basra, were
targeted with a long-range missile, a Joint Stand Off Weapon, fired from an Air
Force jet. There was no immediate report on the damage.
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MARCH 2003
--And in Washington, the Pentagon identified eight Marines missing since

fighting started last Sunday around An Nasiriyah in Iraq. They are: Pfc. Tamario
D. Burkett, 21, of Erie, N.Y.; Lance Cpl. Thomas A. Blair, 24, of Oklahoma; Cpl.
Kemaphoom A. Chanawongse, 22, of Waterford, Conn.; Lance Cpl. Donald J.
Cline, Jr., 21, of Washoe, Nev.; Pvt. Jonathan L. Gifford, 20, of Macon, Ill.; Pvt.
Nolen R. Hutchings, 19, of Boiling Springs, S.C.; Lance Cpl. Patrick R. Nixon, 21,
St. Louis, Mo.; and Lance Cpl. Michael J. Williams, 31, of Arizona.
The Pentagon also announced that a Marine listed as missing since Monday has
been declared dead. He was identified as Cpl. Evan T. James.
By Drew Brown, Matt Schofield and Steven Thomma. Brown reported from the
Army's 3rd Infantry Division near An Najaf. Schofield of The Kansas City star
reported from the 3rd Marine Expeditionary Force along Highway 7 in Central
Iraq. Thomma reported from Washington.
Juan O. Tamayo of The Miami Herald at the Marine Combat Headquarters in Iraq
contributed to the article.
Bodies of 15 Dead Iraqis Found after Ambush Tell Tales

Source: The Kansas City Star (Kansas City, Missouri)
Mar. 29--IN CENTRAL IRAQ -- Dead men do tell tales, and the bodies of 15 Iraqis
found after an ambush on a supply convoy told a story by themselves.
They were killed Thursday during a firefight along a blacktop highway in which
a U.S. Marine also was killed.
The Iraqis had lain silent while the fighting portion of the convoy passed,
including tanks and assault vehicles. But when the convoy's softer, supply end
was exposed, they opened fire. The assault vehicles quickly rounded on them
with 25 mm rounds and rifle fire.
When it was over, the Iraqis turned out to be a cadre of middle-aged soldiers,
some wearing the red bandannas associated with the Republican Guard.
Mysteriously, one of them had been killed before the confrontation, apparently
executed by the Iraqis themselves.
The attack came from sniper nests dug into a sand hill parallel to the highway.
Each hole held the remains of the attackers' last meal, yellow Humanitarian Aid
food bags and a small black teapot.
Capt. Sean Riddell of the 7th Engineering Support Battalion said the Marines
were surprised by the Iraqis' appearance.
Compared with the youthful Marines around them, these were older soldiers,
many with gray hair, receding hairlines and the thick stodginess of middle age.
They looked like experienced soldiers, though.
Several wore the red bandannas associated with the Republican Guard,
suggesting that perhaps the elite Iraqi fighting force was involved in guerrilla
tactics as well as the massed warfare it is known for.
The soldiers' gear was similar to that of U.S. fighting forces: rubber gas masks,
green canvas bags and camouflage outfits.
17
MARCH 2003
The Marines were baffled by the executed man, his body bound hand and foot
and shot in the back of the head. Riddell said they couldn't know what
happened, but one explanation was that the man might have been on the
verge of surrendering.
Troops prepare to build prisons

Source: U-WIRE
FULLERTON, Calif. -- Camp Bucca, somewhere in Southern Iraq -- The 36th

Engineer Group along with the 46th and 109th Engineer Battalions moved out
of their camps in Kuwait on Monday and into southern Iraq. Loaded into more
than half a dozen convoys totaling 400 vehicles, they left throughout the
morning, beginning at 6:45 a.m. The mission of the approximately 1,000 men
and women in the three units is to build a camp for Iraqi prisoners of war.
The destination of the 36th Engineer Group and 46th Engineer Battalion
convoys was a location about 70 miles north of the Kuwaiti border; the sight of
the future war prisoner camp to be called Camp Bucca. The camp is named
after a New York City firefighter who died at the World Trade Center on Sept. 11,
2001. Capt. Brian Chapuron of the 36th Engineers said the idea of naming the
camp after the fallen firefighter came from Col. Ecke of the 800th Military Police
Brigade, who is a reservist and a New York City firefighter.
The 800th M.P. Brigade is the unit that will guard the Iraqi prisoners of war once
they arrive. They will also provide security for the engineers while they build
the camp, Chapuron said.
The camp will be built on a large, flat, desolate plain and is designed to hold
several thousand Iraqi prisoners. It can be expanded if necessary. The number
of prisoners it will hold will depend on circumstances.
Most of the convoys arrived in the late afternoon and quickly began to set up
their large command and sleep tents to get the generators on line before night
made their work much more difficult. As it was, many soldiers worked late into
the night.
The next morning, several sleep tents had to be put up and most of them
sandbagged. Filling sandbags and placing them around the bottom of the tents
took most of the day.
Military personnel said the sandbags at the bottom of the tent were to keep
chemical agents out. But as the day wore on, it became clear they served
another, and more immediate purpose, to keep the tents from blowing away.
The day began windy and by mid-afternoon it was a sandstorm. Soldiers who
were fixing and putting up tents against a gusting wind in the morning found
themselves filling sandbags and placing them around the tents in a blizzard of
sand and wind in the afternoon.
Everyone was drafted to fill sandbags. Majors and captains worked beside
sergeants and privates kneeling in the sand, filling sandbags and tying them
up. The bags were then loaded onto the front hoods of Humvees and then
18
MARCH 2003
unloaded at the tents. By nightfall, work had stopped. The soldiers probably
would have continued working under normal circumstances, but the blowing
sand and darkness prevented it.
Maj. Christopher Sallese, a veteran of the 1991 Gulf War, said he didn't
experience anything this bad back then.
"We had the rain, but not the wind," he said. He then told me that the 109th
Engineers, who are camped about 60 miles away, had worse problems.
The 109th Engineers had put their tents up on pre-existing cement slabs. They
could not peg their tents into the ground and some of the tents blew over.
Others flooded when the cement slabs channeled water into the tents.
Sgt. Jimie Logan of Bellville, Ill., called the weather horrendous. It was "raining
rocks," he said.
When the wind slowed and it started to rain, Logan said several officers took
the opportunity to take a shower in the rain.
Because there have been communication problems in this location, it appears
that some of the units will move to anther location, possibly farther north, while
others will stay to build the camp.
Marines Convoys on Lookout for Snipers, Ambush Teams

Source: The Kansas City Star (Kansas City, Missouri)
Mar. 29--ACROSS CENTRAL IRAQ -- They roll down superhighways, across small
stretches of blacktop and up dirt roads, past small towns and cities.
They pass Navy Seabees working on roads, small prisoner-holding areas and
fields of tanks, artillery and armored assault vehicles. At night, U.S. helicopters
thump overhead, bombers rumble high above and spy drones pass with a
whining buzz.
It's a military convoy, the movement of Marines and materiel through a land
under siege, and for 48 hours, Lance Cpl. Jacob McGreevey kept his finger near
the trigger, because passage can be tricky.
Snipers and ambush teams are afoot, sometimes opening fire on supply
convoys after combat units have passed.
McGreevey crouched, poised and ready, a round in the chamber as his convoy
passed within a few miles of An Nasiriyah, one of the more contentious sites
yet in the war.
He rode in the back of a Humvee with eight other Marines, sometimes slowly,
sometimes halting every few minutes. At times, convoys stretched to the
horizon in both directions.
"I knew where we were traveling, I knew it was supposed to be dangerous, but
we didn't need to fire a shot," McGreevey said after the two-day trip to the
country's midsection.
The convoy geared up and left an old airfield in southwest Iraq before dawn
Wednesday. It became the equivalent of a rolling block party, with other
convoys dropping in and staying awhile before nipping off in other directions at
intersections.
19
MARCH 2003
The threat was of ambush, not all-out attack, and several times the convoy
rolled into areas where ambushes were expected. For two hours Wednesday
night, it rolled with lights out through a sniper zone, but drew no fire.
About noon Thursday, while fighting was fierce in An Nasiriyah nearby, the
convoy turned west and crossed the Euphrates River. The Marines halted
Thursday night and set up camp, prepared for a third day of travel, only to
learn Friday morning that they already had reached their objective.
"This is not Gulf War Two," said Staff Sgt. Michael Close of the 7th Engineering
Support Battalion. "They are fighting back pretty fiercely in places. But they're
fighting us and their own people, and I don't think they can do that for very
long.
"And what we just did, travel across an enemy country in the open, only one
week in, we're moving pretty quick."
A Wild West lifestyle on a newly occupied airbase

Source: Scripps Howard
A FORWARD AIR BASE IN IRAQ -- In a week's time, thousands of U.S. forces are
expected here, to create the most substantial coalition airbase in Iraq. But right
now it is still a Wild West kind of place.
There are some old Iraqi air force sand-cement buildings, with blasted out
windows and recent sandstorms have covered everything inside with a sheet of
filth. There are no closed or modern buildings, no bathrooms. There is no
electricity, except for the humvee's generators and their battery-powered
flashlights.
Wild dogs growl and bark just outside the secured perimeter and occasional
explosions further break the night. Some of the blasts come from members of
the Explosive Ordinances Demolition team finding and destroying live
munitions that are still dug into the sand, and some are from nearby skirmishes
with Iraqi resistance. There are security passwords for when the men encounter
each other roaming at night, because there's still a threat that individual
snipers can break through the barriers.
"Stick a few trailers on the side of the road, and this would look like Oklahoma,"
says Staff Sgt. Chad Wurm.
"And add a few satellite dishes," adds Airman First Class Brian Kolfage.
The 17th Security Forces Squadron, like many of the troops setting up camp
here, gets to work on making a home. Senior Airman Nathaniel Reed and
Airman 1st Class Peter Poole fill rows of sandbags, to fortify a shooting position
on the roof.
"Got lotion?" Poole asks, his hands cracked by sand and shoveling.
At first, they were going to stay in the large cement and mud hazzes' or
hangars, in rows of cots on the ground with the several hundred other
personnel that have rolled in. But after other new arrivals started stealing their
cots, the guys circled wagons around their headquarters shack and made it
home — complete with a workable shower.
20
MARCH 2003
"Come check this out!" says Wurm. He has used cord, a sandbag, a metal leg
from a cot and a tin bucket with holes punched in the bottom to make a
showerhead that balances through a window in one of the abandoned rooms in
the shack. He pours water into the tin bucket, and it spews out.
After some scavenging in the Iraqi buildings, the guys also find an old cylinder
to punch out and use as a stove. They put a pot on top, tear up MRE cardboard
boxes for fuel, and presto — they're making hot showers.
Next, they make a bathroom. They drag a bombed-out Iraqi truck against a
power generator, and top it off with camouflage netting. They rope off a door,
find another pot that looks like a bedpan, and when it fills, they set it on fire to
burn off the waste. They line the whole compound with C-wire, marking their
territory.
"We are going to have a restroom tonight," Wurm teases. "It's not going to have
a bidet, but you can only do so much in one night."
Inside the shack, the guys have lined up the remaining cots and are "hot-
bedding" it, with someone on the team on active patrol at all times. It's still a
dangerous place to patrol, not only because of the explosive ordinance, but
also because the Pave Hawks and C-130s taking off constantly through the
night are doing so blacked out, so enemy fire can't find them. They are near
impossible to see without night vision goggles.
Inside, 10 of the 13 men sleep. There's no complete block from the wind or
sand and some of the men are very cold. Airman 1st Class Damien Osborn
wakes up to find a scorpion on his pillow.
"I tried to stomp on it, but it kept squirming," says Airman 1st Class Jason
Harris. "Then I just took Wurm's bayonet and stuck it."
With the base so newly formed, every commodity has to be guarded, or it walks
off into another squadron's possession. Stacks of MRE's are lined up against the
mud walls, boxes of bottled water are sheltered too.
Even though there are some risky and scary moments, it's pretty clear the guys
are having the time of their lives. Airman 1st Class Brian Kolfage tears up some
cardboard and marks in bold, black lettering a sign they nail to the building:
"17th S.F.S."
Says Harris: "This is kind of cool. They train us how to do all of this, and now
we're doing it. Well, except for the showers."
Combat Seasoning Starts With 1st Mission

21
MARCH 2003
The infrared image on Chief Warrant Officer 2 Chris Montjoy's screen startled
him. It was early in his first combat mission, and the 101st Airborne Division
pilot almost reacted by firing.
He took a deep breath, paused and realized it was a dog. The dog's life was
spared, but not those of soldiers in several Iraqi tanks and armored vehicles in
a Friday night attack in Karbala - the first for the air assault division in the war.
"I don't think it's an adrenaline rush," said Montjoy, 28, of Clarksville, Tenn., a
member of the 2nd Battalion of the 101st Aviation Brigade, as he spoke to
pilots gathered under a large mosquito net draped next to their tent. "I think
it's just scared."
Like Montjoy, most of the battalion's pilots - including the commander - were
fighting in their first combat mission. The division's 1st Battalion and the Air
Force also partnered in the mission to take out Medina elements of the Iraqi
Republican Guard to allow the 3rd Infantry Division to move further north into
Baghdad.
The 2nd Battalion alone destroyed four tanks, six armored personnel carriers,
15 vehicles, a fuel site and a communications tower in a mission deemed a
success by commanders.
At a Washington briefing, Army Maj. Gen. Stanley McChrystal said the 101st
Airborne troops sent "40-plus Apaches" to attack the Medina division. He said
the Pentagon has some damage assessments but refused to give exact
numbers.
Lt. Col. Stephen Smith, the battalion commander, said combat experience is
invaluable in a fight, and the lack of combat experience might have contributed
to the crash of two of the battalion's Apaches in dusty conditions. One pilot was
evacuated to Kuwait with a broken leg. No other serious injuries were reported.
"I guarantee it makes a difference because of the unknown," said Smith, who
has been in the Army 19 years.
Smith, an instructor pilot during the 1991 Persian Gulf War, said the timing of
wars makes it possible to go an entire career without seeing combat.
Chief Warrant Officer 4 Ted Hazen, 41, of Nashville, Tenn., said he couldn't help
but feel a little left out when his unit wasn't deployed in the Gulf War.
"It's like busting your butt for the varsity team, then you don't get to go play,"
Hazen said.
On Friday, he got his chance. Watching the missiles fire, Hazen said, "was
pretty spectacular."
Chief Warrant Officer 3 Scott Jackson, 36, of Houston, said he doesn't think the
level of combat experience matters.
"You always plan three conditions of attack we think the bad guys will do and
they do the fourth," Jackson said.
Capt. Jeffrey Dahlgren, Bravo Company commander for the battalion, said
having one attack under the battalion's belt will help.
"I don't think it matters how much you train. It's going to settle nerves a little
bit. The first time is also a little unexpected," Dahlgren said. "You're not sure
what to expect, but I'm not saying we're going to become complacent at all."
22
MARCH 2003
Getting Supplies Through ; Food For The Troops Comes 'Just In Time'
Source: Buffalo News - Financial Edition
Gripping the phone to his ear and scowling, Gen. Charles W. Fletcher Jr. fought
his most important battle of the war to date with a few blunt words.
"We've got to get this going every day up here, or we're going to starve," he
said, hoping the officer on the other end of the line would help find the food
shipments that had been missing for days.
The officers and soldiers in the war room at this Army outpost would not have
been starving alone. As of Thursday morning, the 3rd Infantry Division --
America's key ground fighting force in the war in Iraq -- was running out of
food, too.
Two days of food shipments finally arrived here later Thursday, but Fletcher's
outburst from the night before illustrates one of the biggest challenges the
Army has encountered in this week-old war: getting food and supplies to the
troops.
With Iraqi militiamen controlling the northern parts of the main highway
between here and Kuwait, U.S. Army logisticians have been forced to move
supplies on a dusty one-lane road that has been a traffic jam since Sunday.
So food and other supplies are arriving days late, and it's not making Fletcher
happy.
"I'm starting to get an ulcer over this just-in-time delivery," said Fletcher, who
heads the 3rd Corps Support Command, which manages the flow of supplies to
Army troops here.
It's also causing problems for all those Army forces. In addition to food, fuel and
other basic items have been in short supply, partly because of that miserable
road between here and Kuwait and partly because of the Army's own war
planning efforts.
The problems haven't been critical. In fact, officers here say that the "readiness
rate" of units in the region is better than 90 percent despite the logistical
difficulties.
But supplies have been reaching the troops just before they need them, with no
time to spare, thanks in part to the huge traffic jam leading north from Kuwait.
That traffic jam, along a dirt path, has doubled or even tripled the expected
delivery time.
Officers here said it now takes at least 36 hours to make the 300- mile drive.
"All down that goat path there was huge congestion, traffic for as far as you
can see," said Lt. Col. Glenn Steffenhagen, 42, a Clarence native who made the
trip recently.
The Army is using that road -- which really is not much more than a goat path --
because the last 100 miles of the highway it had intended to use is not secure.
Stretches of that main road are controlled by militiamen from the Fedayeen, a
60,000-member militia loyal to Saddam Hussein's Baath Party and commanded
by Saddam's son Odai.
23
MARCH 2003
Army planners never predicted such a possibility, said Steffenhagen, who now
serves as executive officer for the 3rd Infantry Division's Support Command,
which makes sure the division's brigades get the supplies they need.
"No one thought there would be guerrilla warfare as much as there is,"
Steffenhagen said. "The planners never anticipated this."
Instead, the planners put together a logistics program aimed at minimizing the
backlog of supplies that would be at the front at any given moment. By
adopting a supply-delivery system similar to "just in time" delivery system of
the business world, the idea was to make the fighting force lighter and more
mobile.
"It's a very complicated system that was in its infancy," said Lt. Col. David
Brouillette, who serves as a liaison between the supply unit and the attack
command post here. He expects that it will improve as the war effort
progresses.
Under that system, troops arrived here in central Iraq with a five-day supply of
food and water. For the 3rd Infantry Division and for command and supply
elements here at this Army post, that supply was all set to run out until the new
two-day shipment arrived Wednesday.
Officers said the logistics situation is improving now. A fuel farm has been set
up here, near the biggest battle of the war to date, and a new water
purification system has allowed the Army to tap into local water sources.
In addition, troops from the 3rd Infantry Division have been dispatched to
patrol the route from here to Kuwait, to protect convoys from being ambushed.
MREs are A-OK

Source: Tulsa World
U.S. soldiers strap down hundreds of cases of MREs (MealsReady to Eat) that
just arrived by ship on Saturday at Port AlShuiba in southern Kuwait. The easily
transported and consumedmeals once unimaginative and tasteless have
becomemuch more palatable.
WALLY SANTANA / Associated Press
From Thai chicken to vegetarian burritos, rations actually taste good
Veterans who remember the canned C-rations of earlier wars may not believe
it. But the U.S. military has finally come up with standard-issue field rations
that actually taste pretty good -- assuming you don't mind eating your meals
out of brown plastic bags.
"MREs? They're OK, I guess," says Lance Cpl. Charlie Valle, 19, with the 1st
Marine Division at Camp Matilda, Kuwait. "But you get tired of them pretty
fast."
MRE is short for "Meals Ready-to-Eat," and most of the Marines in the Kuwaiti
desert eat them at least once a day while they're in base camp. While combat
Marines are on the move, MREs are their breakfast, lunch and dinner.
24
MARCH 2003
The meals come in 24 different menus, ranging from "Thai Chicken" to

"Meatloaf With Gravy" to "Vegetarian Bean & Rice Burrito" to "Beefsteak,
Grilled, Chunked and Formed."
The menu slowly changes over time, with some of the less popular items being
phased out.
For example, the ham and egg omelet entree, known to Marines as "Dead Man
in a Bag" because of an unpleasant aroma and greenish hue to the eggs, is no
more. The so-called "Four Fingers of Death" -- four hotdogs in a bag with beans
-- is also on its way out.
Each entree comes with a side dish -- rice pilaf, potato sticks, Mexican rice, etc.
Snacks such as M&Ms, and cheese or peanut butter that can be spread on a
vegetable cracker for fiber, are also included.
Lack of fiber apparently was a problem with earlier versions of MREs, earning
them the nickname "Meals Refusing to Exit." (Poor quality in the earlier
versions of MREs also resulted in them being dubbed "Meals Refused by
Ethiopians" and other, even less tasteful names.)
Each MRE also comes with an accessory packet: plastic spoon, moist towelette,
packets of salt, sugar, cocoa or Tasters Choice instant coffee, powdered
creamer, a small packet of toilet paper, Chicklets gum and matches. Unlike in
the old days, the new health- conscious military no longer includes mini-packs
of cigarettes with field rations.
Heating the MRE entrees and side dishes is simple, since each MRE comes with
a disposable "Flameless Ration Heater." Put the entree bag in the heater bag,
add a little water and a chemical reaction produces heat to warm the food.
Virtually every Marine agrees that without heating, the MREs are awful -- and
even when heated, the popularity of any given MRE varies from Marine to
Marine.
"I like the chicken and salsa," says Lance Cpl. Nena Shaw, 22, with the 1st
Marine Division at Camp Matilda. "It's the one that tastes most like real food."
"A lot of people like the beef patty," says Lance Cpl. Ben Wilder, 23, of Murietta,
with the 1st Battalion of the 5th Marine Regiment at Camp Grizzly. "The least
preferred is the pork chow mein. I got that three days in a row once."
"Yeah," agrees Cpl. John McFarling, 29, also with the 1/5 Marines. "If you get the
pork chow mein, you're getting screwed. The grilled chicken is pretty good --
but they all get old eventually."
To break the monotony, sometimes the Marines improvise. For example, Sgt.
David Crockett of San Diego, with the 1st Marine Division, offers this recipe for
MRE Chocolate Cafe Pudding:
Ingredients:
1 package MRE Cocoa Beverage Powder (Type 1 Fortified)
1 packet MRE Taster's Choice instant coffee
1 packet MRE Cream Substitute, Dry, Non-Dairy
1 canteen water
Directions:
Combine ingredients into cocoa beverage bag. Add small amount of water. Mix
thoroughly.
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MARCH 2003
Serves one.
U.S. Forces Wait for Next Move in Baghdad

Having weathered near-Biblical sandstorms, fought guerrilla-style ambushes

and brought their high-tech powerhouse to within 50 miles of Baghdad, U.S.
forces are waiting for the next move - a showdown with Iraq's best troops, the
Republican Guard.
Gen. Tommy Franks, commander of the allied coalition, appeared to be in no
immediate rush, while spokesmen at the Pentagon and the Central Command
forward headquarters in Qatar insisted the operational plan was on schedule.
After a two-day battering by sand-laden 40 mph winds disrupted the advance,
the Army and Marine divisions needed to regroup and resupply. Some field
commanders complained of shortages of ammunition, food and fuel, published
reports said.
Clearing skies allowed a resumption of air attacks on Baghdad and a nighttime
raid by AH-64 Apache attack helicopters on the Medina division, one of the six
Republican Guard units believed to be defending Saddam Hussein's capital.
Iraqi Defense Minister Sultan Hashem Ahmed told reporters Friday that the
coalition forces would have to fight for Baghdad street by street. "The enemy
must come inside Baghdad, and that will be its grave," he declared.
But it appears unlikely allied commanders plan a big frontal assault on Baghdad
that could lead to the kind of bloody urban warfare predicted by Ahmed.
American military forces last engaged in that kind of fighting in Seoul, during
the 1950-53 Korean War, and at Hue, in 1968 during the Vietnam War. Military
experts consider it the most difficult form of combat - slow, grinding and
guaranteed to be costly in human lives.
"The casualties would be extraordinary," said John Abrams, a retired Army
general and military analyst. "Whatever the U.S. strategy, it will be surgical,
and a very deliberate process. It cannot be an impromptu or spontaneous
action."
For the moment, the campaign seemed focused on using helicopters and
planes to pound the Republic Guard divisions around Baghdad and strike
strategic targets in the city.
Air attacks hit the Iraqi Information Ministry and other key government facilities
late Friday. Destroying these targets - spared in the "shock and awe" overture a
week earlier - would deprive Iraq's top commanders of ability to communicate
with field forces in a timely manner.
Analysts say the U.S. effort will continue an intensive psychological operation
aimed at persuading Republican Guard troops and the people of Baghdad not
to give up their lives defending Saddam.
Franks also is awaiting reinforcements that could relieve pressure on coalition
forces stretched thin across the desert after eight days of grueling road
26
MARCH 2003
marches and flare-ups of Iraqi resistance that some senior officers admitted
they had not expected.
Lt. Gen. William S. Wallace, commander of the Army's V Corps, said Pentagon
strategists had miscalculated the nature and tenacity of the adversary his
troops would encounter - especially the fanatical Fedayeen militia that clashed
with coalition troops in ambushes and fake surrenders.
"The enemy we're fighting against is different from the one we'd war-gamed
against," Wallace told The New York Times and The Washington Post. "We knew
they were here, but we did not know how they would fight."
Of major importance in recent days was the capture of two key airfields by U.S.
forces - one in Kurdish territory in northern Iraq and the other the Tallil air base
with its 12,000-foot runway near Nasiriyah.
Abrams called these takeovers "absolutely essential" to the campaign,
providing secure forward supply bases to support coalition forces outside
Baghdad with weapons, food, fuel and reinforcements, and eventually postwar
aid efforts by humanitarian organizations.
Planning for the campaign against the Republican Guard is based heavily on
the allies' overwhelming edge in technology and weaponry.
Iraqi armored forces consist mainly of aging Soviet-era armor and are about
half the strength of 1991, when Iraq boasted the world's fourth largest army.
The remnants of Saddam's air force - about 90 French Mirages and Soviet MiGs
- remain impounded in Iran, where they fled to escape destruction during the
first Gulf War. Other Iraqi planes or helicopters can take off only at peril of
being shot down.
Close Encounters Of Different Kinds

Source: Richmond Times - Dispatch
The U.S. Marines are meeting two types of people on their push north to
Baghdad.
On one hand are the local farmers along Route 7, who stare warily up from their
donkey carts as they watch the passing Marines in their miles-long column. If
any of their children wave, they get a passing smile from a young Marine who
might have a kid brother or sister the same age back home.
On the other hand are the truckful of AK-47-toting men who greet the Marines
at nearly every dusty hamlet. Whether they're civilians or soldiers in civilian
clothes, they usually end up the same - smoldering corpses in a demolished
vehicle.
The latter group has slowed the Marines' advance. The first group, the
indifferent farmers, has perplexed the Marines, who had hoped they would be
greeted as liberators the way young French belles greeted the Marines'
grandfathers during World War II.
"You look in their faces, they look so beat down," said Dave Zhorne, 36, first
sergeant of Charlie Company, 1st Battalion, 4th Marine Regiment. "Maybe
27
MARCH 2003
Saddam has been kicking their asses so long, they think of us as just another
ass kicker."
"They're so wary, they just stand there and stare at you," said Maj. Jim
Swafford, platoon leader in the 4th Amphibious Assault Vehicle Battalion.
"They're leery."
Perhaps they have cause to be. The march of Marines north has steadily gotten
bloodier as assailants with machine guns and mortars - Iraqi soldiers dressed as
civilians, according to intelligence reports - have met them in the few
significant towns they passed through.
Several thousand Marines are on their way to Baghdad, rolling through
farmlands along Route 7, which runs north from An Nasiriyah to Al Kut, then
veers west to Baghdad.
Along Route 7, Marines have not been greeted by Iraqi citizens grateful for
liberation, but by armed men, sometimes in vehicles, sometimes in ambush,
who open fire on the passing convoy of Humvees, amphibious assault vehicles
and tanks.
The Marines are also beginning to meet refugees, usually women with young
children, beseeching them for help.
The Iraqi strategy of hassling the Marines in various towns seems to be paying
off as a method of stalling an attack on Baghdad. Though the Marines
eventually rain down enough firepower to kill the assailants, their trek north
has been slow.
Wednesday, the Marines devised a system of leapfrogging up Route 7. First a
battalion would secure a town, then the other two battalions on the march
would move past it, north to the next town. One of the battalions would clear
that town, while the others moved north.
Another problem is the weather. Heavy rains fell Tuesday night, bogging many
vehicles in deep mud when they parked for the night. Wednesday morning they
had to be towed out.
Also on Tuesday night, word reached the Marines that Saddam Hussein had
dispatched a regiment of the Baghdad division of the Republican Guard from Al
Kut to battle them on Route 7. The Marines dug in for the night and waited.
Around 7 p.m. Iraq time (11 a.m. EST), a small convoy of cars and trucks
flashing bright lights tried to make it through the checkpoint the Marines had
set up. The Marines hit the vehicles with rockets and rifle fire, killing everyone.
The Marines presumed they were trying to get inside the camp to open fire. AK-
47 rifles were found inside the charred vehicles. Some of the occupants were
wearing soldiers' uniforms.
What Iraqi soldiers, fleeing quickly, left behind

Source: Scripps Howard
AN AIRBASE IN IRAQ -- Iraqi soldiers fled this airbase so quickly that they left
eggs in the fridge, ripe oranges on the tables and clothes, weapons and
intelligence scattered all over the floor.
28
MARCH 2003
"Some of them left real recently, the batteries in their clocks were still good
and the time was still accurate," said Maj. Rob Ament, a pilot who was one of
the first ones to arrive here.
With battles still raging seven miles away, the U.S. military has settled in
quickly. One of the first responsibilities of the early arrivals was to scoop up as
much of the paperwork left behind and ship it back to the states for intelligence
analysis.
"We're boxing it all up to analyze — some of it's classified. Some of its on how
they train, and if we can learn better how they train, we'll know better how they
fight."
Some of its not so classified like the glossy calendars of the Iraqi soccer teams,
colorful safety signs instructing the men, in English to "please conserve
energy." There's a green ceramic rabbit-shaped soap dish in the bathroom,
which is just a sink and a hole in the ground that gathers human waste.
In the Iraqi soldiers' quarters, pink and white translucent curtains block the sun,
but most of the windows are broken. The men left in a hurry, boots, pieces of
uniform, even guns are on the floor. A sandstorm Tuesday that washed over the
region left a thick film of dust on it all.
Their beds had no mattresses, just rickety metallic frames. One chest of
drawers included a tourist duffle bag from Branson, Mo., decorated with a
cowboy hat, star and a mountainside. Beside it, a tube of "Sinan Toothpaste:
Classical Taste, Powerful Effect."
Some of the intelligence left behind is elementary with simple drawings on how
to assemble a gun, what a line of sight to shoot a tank is. There are handouts
on how to properly carry a backpack. And there is a financial office, with charts
of attendance and some personnel ID cards.
Finally, in the back, there's a broken down armory, with boxes of ammunition.
And in a broken wooden box that gives everyone pause, there's rows of
discarded gas masks.
U.S. Troops in Iraq Get First Mail Call

NEAR KARBALA, Iraq (AP) - The magic words first came on the battalion's radio
network: "Mail is ready for pickup."
"Is that mail to go out, or mail coming in?" asked an incredulous 1st Lt. Eric
Hooper of A Company, 3rd Battalion, 7th Infantry Regiment.
"Why don't you go over and find out," answered Capt. Chris Carter, the
company commander, from Watkinsville, Ga.
Soon the lieutenant's Humvee pulled up, bringing mail from home.
Overstuffed letters, carefully taped boxes, all with U.S. Postal Service markings.
The surprise delivery, brought from Kuwait by cargo truck, sparked excitement
around the unit, and a few happy tears.
29
MARCH 2003
Spc. Luke Edwards of Raleigh, N.C., inhaled deeply the perfumed scent of an
envelope holding a letter from his wife. Then he ripped into it with an ear-to-ear
grin.
"She joined a gym behind my mom's work, she got a better job," said Edwards,
22, as he voraciously read the letter. "Nothing could be better right now. This is
the closest thing to going home."
In the desert, miles from any village or city, anything other than green or tan
stands out - especially a pink love letter.
Spc. Shaun Urwiler, 26, received letters from both his fiancee and his parents in
Tampa, Fla., filled with snapshots from home. His fiancee, Emily McFarland, sent
him photos of his cocker spaniel, Sparky, and a new armoire she'd bought for
their future home.
"I didn't expect to get mail for a couple of months," Urwiler said, disappointed
that he couldn't write back right now because mail hasn't yet begun to be
shipped to the rear. "I keep a diary, so I can tell them about it when I get
home."
There were also packages of snacks and letter-writing materials sent to "Any
Soldier" from supporters back home - everything made more precious because
it was unexpected.
"You look around and you're in the middle of Iraq," said Sgt. Paul Ingram of
Athens, Ohio. "You don't expect to get mail."
Carter received several back issues of Sport Illustrated. He offered the other
troops a chance to read them first, and they leaped from the lowered ramps on
the back of their Bradley fighting vehicles to get the first whiff of the pristine
glossy paper.
Several soldiers had held out hope for shipments of cigarettes, cigars or
chewing tobacco, but were disappointed. Their withdrawal pains seemed to
worsen. Many resolved to quit tobacco permanently, but were soon seen
bumming cigarettes or a pinch from the more fortunate.
Then came the next question: "When do you think we'll get mail again?"
WAR IN IRAQ; War `surreal' for tankers; Armor crews await action on
edge of fighting
Source: Boston Herald
IRAQ - As we sat in the sand at dusk, eating our MRE dinners, enjoying the cool
breeze and admiring a brilliant desert sunset, Lt. Nick Kauffeld mused.
"It's surreal," he said. "It's hard to believe we're at war and there are people out
there who want to kill us. Back home, our families are probably all freaked out,
thinking we're in all kinds of danger."
We had been talking about the interesting tracks lizards make in the sand
around the desert scrub and the paw prints of some kind of dog that passed a
few yards behind our Bradley in the middle of the night. Some GIs idly debated
whether POD can be both a Christian band and a heavy metal band.
30
MARCH 2003
A Company of the 4/64 Armor Battalion remains the farthest north of the U.S.
ground push in Iraq, barring some cavalry scouts and special forces teams. But
the battalion remains in a holding pattern, while "shaping operations" and
"situational development" takes place to the satisfaction of the generals who
will order them forward to attack the Republican Guard on the approaches to
Baghdad.
Minor skirmishes have taken place around surrounding units at night, as Iraqi
raiders and reconnaissance units probe the American battle force. For the most
part, those Iraqi units are utterly destroyed by air power, artillery and
occasionally direct U.S. fire.
The unit moved west a couple of kilometers in the early evening Thursday,
startling a wild ass that bounded away from the tanks, stopping to look back.
"Hey, where did that (expletive) donkey come from?" said Pvt. Robert Baxter,
the fire-support Bradley's driver. "That must be Hajji's MRLS (multiple launch
rocket system), a donkey with a couple of RPGs strapped to it. Or maybe he's
spying for Saddam. He got air- dropped in. `Go on, donkey, tell us what you
see.' "
Thursday night, two of A Company's tank platoons were ordered forward when
scouts spotted what they took to be a BRDM, a Russian- made armored scout
vehicle. The tanks were also to destroy a bunker that the battalion's infantry
company had cleared during the day. Hidden under the ruins of an oil pumping
station, the grunts recovered an Iraqi military radio, maps and radio logs in
Arabic, which were passed on to intelligence analysts.
Although the post was only a few kilometers from our position, Capt. Philip
Wolford suggested that "IV lines," rises in the landscape known as intervisibility
lines that can mask land force positions and movements, probably prevented
the Iraqis from learning details about the U.S. force's strength and composition,
although they probably knew Americans were here.
"It's the recon donkey," Baxter said over the Bradley's intercom as we listened
over the radio to the tanks maneuvering ahead of us. The eight tanks of red
and white platoons raced forward and took positions they hoped would head off
the reported vehicle, but never made contact.
"What were we chasing last night, Sgt. Ray?" Wolford asked his gunner.
"A (expletive) donkey, sir," Ray said.
"Was there a BRDM out there? We never saw it," Wolford said. "We could have
been chasing a ghost vehicle."
But he said it's possible the fast, wheeled armored vehicle used IV lines to
escape from the tanks toward Iraqi bases in the northeast.
However, Sgt. Jonathan Lustig in Red Four reported seeing two figures with his
thermal imaging device that ran across the desert and disappeared into the
ruined building with the hidden observation post just before he and Lt. Maurice
Middleton in Red One fired four high-explosive anti-tank rounds into it. These
were the first shots A company has fired in the war.
Wolford said the suspected Iraqi observers may have evaded the infantry
during the afternoon by hiding in some kind of air shaft. The infantrymen were
returning to inspect the wreckage today, but after four HEAT rounds were fired
31
MARCH 2003
into the small building, they didn't expect to find much of anything, let alone
anything alive.
Another face of the Iraqi war showed itself today, when a large tanker was
reported moving toward us from the Iraqi positions to the north. As Air Force
jets prepared to bomb it, we were ordered into our gas masks due to concerns
that it carried lethal chemicals. The thick black plume of smoke from the strike
suggested otherwise, and as the wind carried the smoke east, the all-clear
came and we gratefully stripped off the hot, suffocating masks.
Caption: ON THE PROWL: U.S. Army soldiers search a crumbling medieval
fortress near Karbala, Iraq, yesterday. Scouts had reported Iraqi military activity
in the area but no one was found in the abandoned ruins. AP photos
Caption: PROCEEDING CAUTIOUSLY: A pair of U.S. Army soldiers from the 3rd
Infantry Division take cover next to a brick wall in Karbala, Iraq, yesterday.
'Blue-collar warfare' dots way to Baghdad

Source: Columbian
SOUTH-CENTRAL IRAQ -- Convoys bearing tens of thousands of Marines bound

for Baghdad are taking days to crawl a few miles of central Iraq's "Ambush
Alley" so dubbed for the rocket-propelled grenade and mortar attacks along the
way.
Instead of barreling up to the big fight at Baghdad, they are seeking out their
opponent here.
Marines who recently found an abandoned Iraqi mortar nest by the side of the
road, with helmets strewn on the ground and tea kettle still at the ready, left
the mortars there instead of collecting them and moving on, as they might
have in past days.
When three Iraqi fighters returned to the mortars, Marines lying in wait killed
them.
"There's no magic solution to it. It's just the hard, grinding work of patrols," Lt.
Col. B.P. McCoy, commanding officer of the 3rd Battalion, 4th Regiment, said of
the ambush-style fighting. "Blue- collar warfare."
Instead of the mass Iraqi surrenders many had anticipated, the Marines have
met repeated firefights with a surprisingly fierce opponent and countless Iraqi
deserters, straggling on the roads.
Firefights increasingly pop up to the front, rear and sides of the route north,
bottlenecking advancing U.S. forces for hours or days while artillery, infantry
and rocket- and bomb-lobbing Cobra attack helicopters and F-18 fighter jets try
to clear the route. Sandstorms have slowed progress, too.
Going slow, the Marines have changed tactics.
"I thought the first fight was going to be tank on tank in open desert," said
Gunnery Sgt. Troy Yates of Sierra Vista, Ariz., who instead found himself
opening fire on Iraqi tanks and machine-gun bearing infantry in towns in the
south, with Iraqi families in the streets looking on.
32
MARCH 2003
"I didn't think it would ever be that close."

A tank commander traveling with the Marine 3rd Battalion, 4th Regiment, Yates
sprawled Friday on top of his tank watching two crew members play chess.
His crew, and those around him, were stopped in the same mud field for 20
hours and counting, after Marines up front ran into attack Thursday from Iraqis
hiding in a cement plant and fields just ahead.
All along the route, Marine tanks swing turrets toward open fields, while foot
patrols climb the dirt berms that line Iraqi fields and probe for attackers.
Kitty Hawk pilots pound Republican Guard positions to prepare for

ABOARD THE USS KITTY HAWK (AP) -- U.S. warplanes launching from the Gulf
are pounding Republican Guard positions south of Baghdad to soften up the
defensive line around the Iraqi capital in preparation for a U.S.-led assault by
ground troops, senior Navy officers said.
Navy strike planes launched from the USS Kitty Hawk on Saturday on the latest
bombing missions in support of Army and Marine forces that are consolidating
positions south of Baghdad. The two other U.S. carriers in the Gulf, the USS
Constellation and the USS Abraham Lincoln, are conducting similar operations.
Scores more flights were scheduled for Saturday and into Sunday morning.
The bulk of close to 100 bombing missions a day from each carrier have been
at night and have pounded artillery, command posts and vehicle convoys of the
elite Republican Guard's Medina division and other targets. Rear Adm. Barry
Costello, the commander of the Constellation battle group, told reporters
Saturday morning that planes from his ship hit 40 targets in the past 24 hours.
They included Republican Guard headquarters near Kut and artillery and
personnel carriers in the same region, in support of Marines in the area. Other
targets included buildings, vehicles and fuel trucks north of Hillah in support of
the Army's V Corps and artillery and missile sights south of Baghdad, he said.
``These are all close air support missions in order to prep the battlefield for the
advance of our ground troops,'' Costello said.
Army attack helicopters are joining the battle. More than 40 Apache helicopters
from the 101st Airborne Division launched Hellfire missiles and other munitions
in an attack Friday on elements of the Medina division of the Republican Guard,
Maj. Gen. Stanley McChrystal said at the Pentagon.
McChrystal said the Medina division is trying to stay clear of U.S. air power,
which is ``taking them apart, piece by piece.''
Kitty Hawk-based planes dropped 46 bombs on missions into the early hours of
Saturday, including six 2,000-pound (900-kilogram) target penetrator, or
``bunker buster'' satellite-guided bombs, eight JSOW satellite-guided bombs,
26 500-pound (225-kilogram) laser-guided bombs and six 500-pound unguided
bombs.
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MARCH 2003
The three U.S. carriers in the Gulf have flown around 1,400 sorties since the
war started, Capt. Dick Corpus, the Kitty Hawk's chief of staff, said Friday. He
didn't provide details of the number of bombs dropped.
Kitty Hawk-based planes hit a Baath Party headquarters, surface-to-surface
missile canisters, a military compound, other buildings, tanks and an early
warning radar site, officials said. All of the targets were between Karbala and
Baghdad.
From his desert command post in Saudi Arabia, Air Force Brig. Gen. Daniel
Darnell also said U.S. and British warplanes over the past week have attacked
virtually every military airfield in Iraq -- believed to number roughly 100 -- and
have seen only a small number of planes.
Darnell said that although much of Iraq's air defense network has been
damaged or destroyed, it remains a threat around Baghdad because key radars
and other systems are moved frequently to avoid attack.
The Iraqi air force, which was vastly depleted in the 1991 Gulf War, has not
flown a single mission since this war began March 20, Darnell said. While that is
good news for allied pilots, Darnell said he and other air war planners remain
wary of the potential for Iraqi surprises.
The Iraqi air force is believed to have no more than 100 serviceable combat
aircraft.
The United States has more than 600 aircraft in the region, as well as about 30
ships and submarines that have launched more than 650 Tomahawk cruise
missiles.
Darnell is director of a command post at Saudi Arabia's Prince Sultan Air Base
that runs all aspects of the air campaign. Known as the Combined Air
Operations Center, it is headquarters for Darnell's boss, Lt. Gen. Michael
Moseley, the top air commander in the Persian Gulf.
In the telephone interview, Darnell disputed suggestions from some critics that
the air campaign has failed to achieve its intended goals.
``We're on track thus far,'' he said, while acknowledging that some thought
victory would come quickly. He said the military challenge is bigger than in the
1991 war, in which the air campaign lasted five weeks before allied ground
forces prevailed in 100 hours of combat.
``We're faced with a much larger problem'' this time, given that the entire
territory of Iraq is a battlefield, whereas the 1991 conflict was focused on
expelling the Iraqi army from tiny Kuwait.
Dear diary life in the land of the embedded journalist

Associated Press reporters remain on assignment -- `èmbedded,'' in military

parlance -- with various U.S. military units as the war against Iraq continues.
Here are some daily snapshots of life in those units.
NEAR KARBALA, Iraq (AP) -- Wednesday, March 26: The sandstorm eased at
about 3 a.m. I woke up, stuck my head out of my tent and saw stars -- always a
34
MARCH 2003
good sign. But the damage inside the tent was already done. Sand covered
everything. Each time I rolled over in my sleeping bag, the dust would stir and
fill the air like thick smoke.
When dawn broke, I crawled out to more wind, but not so much sand. The
troops and I held out hopes that the sky would clear -- but no luck. Slowly the
winds built up and the sky thickened with sand. Soon, we were all squeezing
into our vehicles, trying to stay out of the growing storm.
When I stepped outside to stretch my legs, I found Sgt. Robert Compton of
Oklahoma City, with a balaclava around his face, goggles over his eyes and his
helmet firmly planted on his head.
`Ì'm not playing anymore,'' he said. ``This sandstorm stuff is getting serious.''
He'd learned an unforgettable lesson in aerodynamics the night before.
Sleeping outside in the storm, he decided to open his sleeping bag and let the
wind blow out the gathering sand.
But the wind filled it like a parachute, tossing him several feet.
`Ì thought for sure I was going to fly away,'' he said.
--CHRIS TOMLINSON, Associated Press writer, with the 3rd Infantry Division
ABOARD USS THEODORE ROOSEVELT (AP) -- Sunday, March 23: The media on
board the Roosevelt have been out to sea for two weeks now. With our ship
doing overnight duty, most of us have shifted over -- day is night, and vice
versa. The crew greets us with a cheery ``Good morning'' as we tumble into
the hallways at 6 p.m.
Breakfast is at 7 p.m. And lunch at 7 a.m.
That, and our mole-like existence, makes many of us lose all concept of time.
When the ship's combat aircraft are flying, the deck is off-limits, which means
we can go for days without being allowed to venture out to the top.
I'm beginning to understand the previously un-understandable -- how the
sailors talk longingly of the sounds of traffic and other nuisance noise that links
them to existence on land.
--GEORGE JAHN, Associated Press writer
ABOARD USS SHILOH (AP) -- Saturday, March 22: The Tomahawk blasts from the
aft launcher. The night before, each missile was heralded by a blinding flash, a
thud and a thunderous roar before a trail of flames and smoke climbed into the
sky and disappeared.
In the daytime, the deafening roar is still there, but the fiery exhaust isn't
blinding and the actual rocket is visible. As it flies away, you can see the wings
spread open and the booster fall and splash into the sea.
Unlike the boisterous crowd that gathered to watch the launch the night before,
the small crowd at the daylight firing is largely silent as they watch the missile
hurtle toward Iraq.
A minute or two after the launch, a sailor yells ``Captain on the bridge!'' as
Capt. Will Dewes walks in the door. He's been down in the combat information
center -- the nerve center in the guts of the ship -- directing the firing.
He gets on the ship's public address system, tells the crew the launch was
successful and that another is likely in about two hours.
35
MARCH 2003
``Since we successfully smoked a Tomahawk today, it seems fitting to smoke a

cigar on the bridge,'' he says, and invites any and all up the bridge for a smoke.
Around two dozen sailors take up the offer.
--MATTHEW ROSENBERG, Associated Press writer
NEAR AZ ZUBAYR, Iraq (AP) -- Monday, March 24: For Marines in the field, MREs
-- Meals Ready to Eat -- are the steady diet, morning, noon and night. And
weeks of the same 24 MRE selections force Marines and other soldiers to test
their culinary skills and create a little more variety.
It can be simple, like adding the tube of cheese spread that comes in many
packages to the chicken salsa, throwing in some Tabasco and a few crumbled
crackers that come in each package.
The Marines also make a sort of pudding by combining cocoa powder with
white dairy cream and sugar, and heating the mix until it turns thick.
On one of the ``tracks'' -- or Amphibious Armored Vehicles -- 21-year-old Cpl.
Jerod Elder, of Temecula, California, has devised ``The Magic Mocha Mix.'' It's a
hit.
The recipe is four servings of powdered cocoa, four servings of instant coffee,
and four coffee whiteners in a bottle of water. ``Shaken, not stirred,'' jokes
Elder.
Marines Push North Along 'Ambush Alley'

Thousands of Marines pushed north toward Baghdad in "seek and destroy"

missions Sunday, trying to open the route to the Iraqi capital and stop days of
attacks along a stretch that has become known as "Ambush Alley."
Charging into previously unsecured areas, the Marines tried to provoke attacks
in order to find Iraqi fighters and defeat them. A chaplain traveling with them
handed out humanitarian packages to distrustful Iraqi civilians encountered
along the way.
Army supply trucks appeared on the Marine route north for the first time
Sunday, supporting field reports that Army and Marine forces were meeting for
the first time in the ground invasion, which had the Marines trekking north
along Route 80 - known as the "Highway of Death" - and Army forces punching
their way across desert terrain.
Rank-and-file Marines, ordered to intercept and question each civilian they see
along the route after an Iraqi army officer attacked a group of Americans in a
suicide bomb attack Saturday, also handed out ration packets. For hungry
Iraqis, this gift was the only thing that could convince them the Marines were
not there to hurt them.
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MARCH 2003
"I had one of them tell me they'd heard to be a Marine you had to eat a baby,
or kill someone," one Marine about enemy prisoners of war.
Frightened Iraqis scrambled into their homes at the sight of the Americans,
Marines said. One old woman clutched her mule with one hand and smacked
her dogs forward with the other, trying to get them to attack the approaching
American soldiers. Like many other exchanges, that encounter ended with
smiles and gratitude for the rations.
Elsewhere, the U.S. Central Command, which oversees the war in Iraq, said
coalition warplanes hit a series of targets in the Iraqi capital overnight into
Sunday morning. In a "key strike," coalition aircraft bombed the eastern
Baghdad barracks of the main training facility of the Iraqi paramilitary forces.
With advancing ground forces expecting a showdown with Saddam Hussein's
Republican Guard in the final 50-mile march to Baghdad, the coalition sought to
hobble Iraqi forces by striking a fuel depot in the holy Shiite city of Karbala.
"While the army is not moving forward, it is the turn of the air to shape the
battle space," said Wing Commander Andy Suddards, the British pilot who led
the attack. "If the tanks have no fuel, it is all going to help."
Coalition warplanes also struck surface-to-air missile batteries in eastern
Baghdad, as well as the Abu Garayb presidential palace, just east of Baghdad's
international airport, and two facilities at the Karada intelligence complex, on
the banks of the Tigris River, Central Command said.
To the south, British commandos exchanged fire with Iraqi paramilitaries in an
eastern suburb of Basra, Iraq's second-largest city, British military spokesman
Group Capt. Al Lockwood said. The operation apparently aims to block off any
escape route for Iraqi forces trying to leave Basra.
"They are putting up some resistance, but they are disorganized," Lockwood
said of the paramilitary forces.
At least 4,000 Iraqi prisoners of war have been taken by the coalition since the
conflict began, Lockwood said. On Saturday, a British tribunal released 35
civilians who had been swept up among them, he said.
British forces surrounding Basra have skirmished with paramilitaries loyal to
Saddam for several days, mostly on the city's western outskirts. The Arab
satellite television channel al-Jazeera, which has a correspondent in Basra, also
reported a 90-minute exchange of tank and artillery fire Sunday near a bridge
on the city's western edge.
Basra, Iraq's main seaport, is the heart of the country's southern oil facilities. A
mostly Shiite Muslim city of about 1.3 million people, many in Basra may
oppose Saddam's Sunni Muslim regime, but the city remains gripped by his
ruling Baath party militia.
One Baath official warned on Arab television that fighters were competing to
die in suicide attacks like the one that killed four American soldiers Saturday.
"The holy warriors are rushing to die or be martyred," Abdul-Baqi Saadoun, the
No. 2 Baath official in southern Iraq, said in an interview broadcast Sunday on
al-Jazeera.
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MARCH 2003
Troops Prep for Possible Urban Warfare

The 101st Airborne Division encircled the Shiite holy city of Najaf on Sunday,
preparing for a possible door-to-door battle to root out Saddam Hussein's
fighters - but leery of damaging some of the faith's most sacred shrines.
To the north, Army brigades crept closer to Baghdad, advancing 10 miles with
little resistance, though battles with the Republican Guard loomed. To the
south, Marines launched "search-and-destroy" missions to clear the road to
Baghdad of Iraqi attackers.
But it was at Najaf - a city of 300,000, 100 miles south of Baghdad - that U.S.
military leaders were faced with a difficult decision.
It was unclear whether the U.S. strategy is to take Najaf or simply to cordon off
the city. There are too many Iraqi fighters to bypass them or leave them
unattended; they're a danger to supply lines on the way to Baghdad.
But if Najaf is a key stepping stone to the capital, it is also a dangerous one. On
Saturday, a suicide attack killed four U.S. soldiers at a checkpoint north of
town; on Sunday, nervous U.S. troops warned approaching drivers they would
be shot if they did not leave the area.
"This is our type of fight," said Command Sgt. Maj. Marvin Hill, of the Fort
Campbell, Ky.-based air assault division. "This is probably the most dangerous
part of combat and that's urban. Sometimes you don't find out who the enemy
is until they're shooting at you."
It is also a place where soldiers must tread with sensitivity.
It is in Najaf that Ali, son-in-law of the prophet Muhammad, is buried at an
extraordinary shrine, its gold dome and twin minarets gleaming for miles. It is
surrounded by low buildings and narrow streets, a nightmare of an urban
battleground.
Other Muslim holy figures are buried there and at the vast al Wadi es Salaam
cemetery - one of the world's largest - that forms a semicircle around the city.
Officers speaking on condition of anonymity said some of the Iraqi fighters
were hiding there.
A battle that destroyed these holy places could inflame passions of Shiites in
Iraq and elsewhere, most notably Iran.
The United States has been hoping that Shiite Muslims, who represent 60
percent of Iraq's population, will rise up against Saddam and his largely Sunni
leadership.
Ibrahim Khalili, a prominent Iranian Shiite clergyman, said: "I don't think that
anyone dares to attack a holy site in Iraq. An attack on holy shrines will only
38
MARCH 2003
provoke the uncontrolled anger of Muslims, especially Shiites, with serious

consequences to the attackers."
Capt. Micah Pharris, an attorney in the 101st Airborne's judge advocate
general's office, said some locations in Najaf are on the military's "no target"
list - to be fired at only in self defense.
"We take our responsibility to these things very seriously and treat them with
the utmost respect," he said.
So the Army still held out hope that the battle could be avoided. Using
loudspeakers mounted on Humvees, U.S. soldiers on Najaf's perimeter will soon
beseech its townspeople to turn over Saddam's zealots.
To the north, brigades of the Army's 3rd Infantry Division advanced 10 miles to
near Karbala, just 50 miles from Baghdad - also a Shiite holy city. One battalion
was slowed by the need to shepherd dozens of surrendering Iraqi soldiers.
A military intelligence officer, fluent in Arabic, spoke with farmers who now
faced hundreds of U.S. armored vehicles outside their window.
The officer held out fistfuls of candy for the children. The Iraqi men at first
stood back, hands behind their heads, struggling to hold up the sticks on which
they had tied flour bags in a sign of surrender.
The officer's message: U.S. forces would not hurt them, but they needed to
stay away from the American soldiers. As they spoke, artillery fired volley after
volley at the nearby city of Al-Hindiyah.
Republican Guard positions between Karbala and Baghdad continued to be
targeted for allied bombardment - Gen. Richard Myers, chairman of the Joint
Chiefs of Staff, said more than half of Sunday's sorties were directed at the
guard, Saddam's best equipped and trained forces.
At Tallil, the former Iraqi airbase near the southern city of Nasiriyah that has
been taken over the U.S. forces, A-10 Warthogs departed for missions
throughout the day.
Tallil grows in importance and size with every day; it is nearer to targets than
take-off points in the Persian Gulf, Kuwait or elsewhere.
North of Baghdad, meanwhile, U.S.-backed Kurdish troops took control of
territory left by Iraqi forces withdrawing toward the oil center of Kirkuk. They
advanced almost 10 miles - slowly, as the cleared more than 300 mines, some
the size of ashtrays, others as big as layer cakes.
That territory came without a shot - unlike the continuing battles with Saddam's
fighters in the south.
A British soldier was killed in action near Basra. Royal Marine Commandos at
first said they captured an Iraqi general there, but British military spokesman
Will MacKinlay later told BBC television that the report was wrong, attributing
the mistake to "the fog of war."
In what was described as the Royal Marines' largest operation of the war so far,
the British Press Association reported fierce fighting for the town of Abu al
Khasib, southwest of Basra. It said 30 Iraqis had been killed and hundreds
captured in what the British are calling Operation James, named after James
Bond.
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MARCH 2003
A reporter for Sunday Telegraph of London reported that Kalashnikov rifles

confiscated from defeated Iraqi soldiers were being collected by British troops
to pass to pro-Western rebels in Basra.
Marines from 3rd Battalion, 4th Regiment returned Sunday from a two-day
mission. Actively seeking engagements, they went to three cities and towns in
southern-central Iraq including Afak, about 50 miles east of Najaf. Some of the
fighting, they said, was building to building.
Allied Soldiers Move Closer to Baghdad

Allied soldiers inched toward Baghdad on Sunday and pressed their campaign
on a southern redoubt of Saddam Hussein loyalists, trying at every turn to gain
trust from Iraqi citizens and stay safe from those who may be combatants in
disguise.
The military campaign has increasingly become a confidence-building one, too,
and not only in Iraq. U.S. war leaders, deployed on the Sunday airwaves,
defended their strategy as a sound one and cast the painstaking pace of recent
days as a virtue.
"We have the power to be patient in this, and we're not going to do anything
before we're ready," said Gen. Richard Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of
Staff.
U.S. and British allies reported increased contacts with ordinary Iraqis on many
fronts Sunday, a development measured - like the march toward Baghdad - in
wary steps.
The reason for the caution was clear: persistent danger from plainclothes killers
and warnings from Iraqi officials that there will be more suicide attacks like the
one that took the lives of four Americans in Najaf. Iraqis said some 4,000 Arabs
have come to Iraq to help attack the invaders.
Airstrikes on Baghdad continued Sunday night against Iraqi leadership targets,
command and control centers and communications facilities, Pentagon officials
said.
The Army's 101st Airborne Division surrounded Najaf on Sunday and was in
position to begin rooting out the paramilitary forces inside the city, said
Command Sgt. Maj. Marvin Hill.
In Nasirayah, where fighting has been fierce for a week, Marines secured
buildings held by an Iraqi infantry division that contained large caches of
weapons and chemical decontamination equipment.
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MARCH 2003
A Marine UH-1 Huey helicopter crashed Sunday night at a forward supply and
refueling point in southern Iraq, said a spokesman, 1st Lt. John Niemann, in
Kuwait. Three people aboard were killed and one was injured in the crash that
occurred while the helicopter was taking off.
Questions grew in Washington over the war's pace.
Democratic Sen. Jay Rockefeller of West Virginia said the U.S.-led invasion is
clearly facing more Iraqi resistance than anticipated and the war plan will
probably have to be adjusted to deal with that.
"I consider them not to be trivial setbacks," he said on CNN's "Late Edition," but
rather "in the category of major problems."
Gen. Tommy Franks, the coalition commander, said: "One never knows how
long a war will take."
Close to 100,000 U.S. service members are in Iraq, supported by about 200,000
in the theater and with 100,000 more on the way.
U.S. officials said coalition ground forces were closing in on Baghdad from the
south, west and north - the southern front lines now 49 miles from the capital.
Myers said airstrikes have reduced some units of the Republican Guard,
Saddam's best-trained forces, to less than half their prewar capacity.
British troops moved into villages on the fringes of Basra, the southern city
where an outnumbered but tough core of Saddam loyalists have held off the
coalition for about a week.
Up to 1,000 Royal Marines and supporting troops, backed by heavy artillery and
tanks, staged a commando assault in a Basra suburb, killing some 30 Iraqi
fighters and destroying a bunker and several tanks. Officials said Operation
James - named for James Bond - was the Marines' largest mission so far.
Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said in Washington that the British are
getting "increasing assistance from the local people as to where the death
squads are located, where the thugs are. And they're systematically working
them over."
The British first said they had captured an Iraqi general, but British military
spokesman Will MacKinlay later told BBC television that the report was wrong,
attributing the mistake to "the fog of war." The spokesman said British troops
had killed a number of Iraqi officers.
Baath party enforcers have shot civilians trying to flee Basra and forced regular
troops trying to quit the fight to stay in it.
"As we win the trust of the Iraqi people," said British Maj. Gen. Albert Whitley,
"they're pointing these people out, and either we're targeting them or we're
detaining them."
Rumsfeld offered a frank assessment of why many Iraqis have been slow to
embrace allied soldiers even in some areas of the country unfriendly to
Saddam.
He noted that the Shiite population in and around Basra rose up against
Saddam after the 1991 Gulf War. "The United States and the coalition forces
left, and they were slaughtered" by the tens of thousands, Rumsfeld said.
For that reason, "I'm inclined not to urge people to rise up until we're close and
we can be helpful."
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MARCH 2003
Whitley, commander of coalition efforts to secure areas for humanitarian

shipments, said: "We did not really appreciate what 12-plus years of fear can
do to people. They're looking to see who hits them next."
That concern was voiced in the British-controlled southern seaport city of Umm
Qasr.
"The British army is here, we are safe," said Yasser Hassan Ghanim, 22, who
has been unemployed since running away from the Iraqi army in 2001. "But we
are afraid the armies will go back, just like in 1991."
After the suicide attack at Najaf and continuing trouble from combatants out of
uniform, every apparently innocuous Iraqi man in the path of the allies is
getting a hard second look. Nervous U.S. troops warned approaching drivers
Sunday they will be shot if they do not leave the area.
Still, with handshakes, candy for the children and chitchat in broken Arabic or
through an interpreter, U.S. soldiers were making acquaintances.
In a 10-mile advance toward Baghdad on Sunday, bringing them within 50
miles of the capital, soldiers of the 3rd Infantry Division encountered a dozen
farmers waving white flags attached to sacks of flour.
Capt. Chris Carter, the commanding officer, pulled back his convoy of hundreds
of armored vehicles to avoid damage to the farmers' run-down shanties. One of
his officers brought fistfuls of candy for the milling children.
There were warm smiles and handshakes even as nearby U.S. artillery fired
volleys at the city of Al-Hindiyah on the Euphrates River.
The U.S. Central Command said the latest targets hit by coalition aircraft
included military facilities at the Abu Garayb Presidential Palace, the Karada
military intelligence complex and the barracks of a major paramilitary training
center, all in different sectors of Baghdad.
Several telephone exchanges in the city also were hit Sunday, as well as a train
loaded with Republican Guard tanks.
In Kuwait, a man in civilian clothes ran a white pickup truck into a group of U.S.
soldiers standing by a store at their base, Camp Udairi, injuring about six
people.
U.S. Ready for Assault on Guard Forces

U.S. troops are ready to launch a major assault against Iraqi Republican Guard
forces protecting Baghdad, but the commanding general may wait for pressure
to build on Saddam Hussein before striking, war planners said Sunday.
"We have the power to be patient in this, and we're not going to do anything
before we're ready," said Gen. Richard Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of
Staff. "We'll just continue to draw the noose tighter and tighter."
Myers and Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said coalition ground forces
were closing in on Baghdad from the south, west and north. The U.S. troops
south of Baghdad were within 49 miles of the capital, Rumsfeld said, and
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MARCH 2003
reporters traveling with those units said several were on the move again
Sunday.
More significantly, Myers said days of relentless airstrikes had reduced some
Republican Guard units to less than 50 percent of their prewar capacity. Armed
reconnaissance elements of the Army's 3rd Infantry Division also have fought
with Republican Guard units, Myers said.
U.S. war planners want to be sure the Republican Guard - the best trained and
equipped of Iraq's military - are significantly softened up before coalition troops
meet them in ground fighting. During the 1991 Gulf War, for example, U.S.
ground forces didn't attack until Republican Guard units had lost 50 percent to
60 percent of their capacity.
American commanders have a target percentage in mind for the degradation of
the Republican Guard before launching the ground assault, a senior defense
official said Sunday, speaking on condition of anonymity. Officials will not
discuss the goal to avoid revealing their strategy.
Parts of the Army's 82nd Airborne and other units moved into south-central Iraq
over the weekend to help protect supply lines that have come under attack by
Iraqi forces. Other U.S. fighting units, including members of the 3rd Infantry
Division, moved closer to the Republican Guard forces between them and
Baghdad.
The U.S. military has detected signs that reinforcements are being sent to
some front-line Republican Guard units, while other Iraqi units are pulling back,
closer to Baghdad, the senior official said.
Coalition airplanes and helicopters have focused most of their missions against
Republican Guard units such as the Medina and Hammurabi divisions, which
are in place south, west and north of Baghdad.
"I imagine their morale is a little low right now because they've lost a lot of
their force," Myers said. "Their fighting capability is going down minute by
minute, hour by hour. There's not going to be much left to fight with."
Myers and Rumsfeld, making the rounds of the Sunday television talk shows in
Washington, would not say when the ground assault on Baghdad would begin.
Both predicted such fighting could be brutal.
"It's going to get more difficult as we move closer to Baghdad," Rumsfeld said.
"I would suspect that the most dangerous and difficult days are still ahead of
us."
The attack on Baghdad, population 5 million, might not be a siege of the city,
Myers said, saying the term "conjures up, sometimes, some really bad images."
"It will not be a sort of siege that people have thought about before," Myers
said. "We have plans for several different contingencies."
Pentagon officials continued Sunday to raise the possibility that Iraq could use
chemical weapons.
"There is no doubt that they have chemical weapons, that they have
weaponized them, they have them in artillery shells," Myers said. "They
probably have other means of delivery."
He cited the discovery by coalition forces of protective gear and nerve agent
antidotes left behind by Iraqi military and paramilitary forces. Myers said the
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MARCH 2003
discoveries indicate that Iraqi troops planned to wear the protective gear while
using chemical weapons.
Marines searching a compound used by Iraq's 11th Infantry Division in the
Euphrates River city of Nasiriyah on Saturday found more than 300 chemical
protection suits and gas masks, U.S. Central Command reported. The Marines
also found atropine injectors - antidotes for nerve agents - and chemical
decontamination vehicles and devices, Central Command said.
Earlier last week in the same city, Marines found more than 3,000 chemical
protection suits in a hospital used by Iraqi paramilitary forces as a base.
Also Saturday, British troops south of Basra found Iraqi training equipment for
nuclear, biological and chemical warfare - including a Geiger counter, nerve gas
simulators, gas masks and protective suits, according to British press reports.
In battle for Kifl, U.S. troops confront a relentless enemy 'It seemed to
me they were trying to test us, but it was suicide,' a soldier
remembers
Source: International Herald Tribune
It troubles him, now that the fighting is over. Sergeant Mark Redmond
remembers shouting "qiff," the Arabic for halt, but they did not halt. They kept
coming. Redmond's unit spent three days and nights fighting for the bridge at
Kifl, a village on the Euphrates River. By any military definition the territory
seized, the number of enemy killed, the mission accomplished the troop's fight
ended in victory. After victory, though, comes rest. And with rest comes
reflection. "I mean, I have my wife and kids to go back home to," he said,
sitting atop a box of rations at the troop's base camp, whiling away a lull as
unexpected as it was appreciated. "I don't want them to think I'm a killer." The
fighting around Kifl subsided Friday, officers here said, as it did around much of
An Najaf, the holy city on the Euphrates that the 3d Infantry Division struggled
to encircle in an unexpectedly fierce battle that began late Monday night when
Redmond's unit, Troop C, attached to the First Brigade of the 3d Infantry, first
crossed the river. The division's commanders said Friday that the withering
effects of an expanding armored ring around the city, coupled with air strikes
and artillery barrages, had at last halted Iraq's efforts to reinforce An Najaf,
though the situation in the city itself remains unclear. By Friday evening, there
was still no complete count of the enemy who died there, though soldiers and
officers said there were scores, at least. And for some, like Redmond, the
memory remained haunting. "They just came up to us," he said, describing
irregular Iraqi militiamen who began fighting as soon as Troop C crossed the
two-lane bridge over the Euphrates. "It seemed to me they were trying to test
us, but it was suicide." By Friday, only skirmishes continued. Iraqi forces fired
mortars late Friday morning at Kifl, but ineffectively, officers said. American
artillery barrages quickly silenced them. "They learned if they get too close,
bad things happen," Captain Adam Morrison, the brigade's assistant artillery
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MARCH 2003
officer, said in the sand-infused tent where the brigade's tactical operations
center is situated. Much of the brigade's and the division's firepower
concentrated instead to the north, firing rockets and calling in air strikes on
what officers said were artillery batteries and other Iraqi targets. The division's
commander, Major General Buford Blount 3rd, said in an interview on
Wednesday that the army's efforts were now focused on softening up Iraqi
forces on the approaches to Baghdad. In Kifl, the effort turned to the
accounting. The brigade's Graves Registration Team fanned out across the
village and its surroundings to collect the remains of Iraqi fighters, which they
packed in black bags along with any personal items that might help identify
them. "Basically we did the same thing with the Iraqi dead that we would have
done with American dead," said Captain Andrew Valles, the brigade's civil
affairs officer. For Redmond, 26, it was a time to digest what had happened. He
did not want to dwell on the details of the deaths his weapons caused. "Other
guys will tell you details maybe even embellish them to make a better story,"
he said. He joined the army three years ago after doing odd jobs around his
hometown, a four-church and no-stop-light place outside of Gainesville, Florida.
He wanted to be a combat soldier, he said, but his wife told the army recruiter
that she wanted him to have a safer job. The recruiter suggested he become a
forward observer, calling in artillery and air strikes. "He said I'd be close enough
to the front to see it, but not in the middle of it," he said. "Look at me today."
He was in his Humvee on the bridge when the Iraqis detonated explosives
underneath buckling, but not collapsing it and felt the sudden, wrenching fear
of isolation. In hindsight, he questioned the decision to send only an unarmored
scout troop across the bridge. He understood why. Like many soldiers here,
from the lowest private to the commander of the Army's 5th Corps, Lieutenant
General William Wallace, Redmond said he did not expect the Iraqis to resist so
doggedly. "I expected a lot more people to surrender," he said. "From all the
reports we got, I thought they would all capitulate." In the three days that
followed, they did not, and he fired every weapon on his Humvee, including a
50-caliber machine gun, his M-4 rifle and a grenade launcher everything except
the shoulder-fired anti-tank missile. Many of the Iraqis, he said, attacked
headlong into the cutting fire of tanks and Bradleys. "I wouldn't call it bravery,"
he said. "I'd call it stupidity. We value a soldier's life so much more than they
do. I mean, an AK-47 isn't going to do nothing against a Bradley. I'd love to
know what Saddam is telling his people." "When I go home, people will want to
treat me like a hero, but I'm not," he went on. "I'm a Christian man. If I have to
kill the other guy, I will, but it doesn't make me a hero. I just want to go home
to my wife and kids." The brigade's chief chaplain, Major Mark Nordstrom, said
he spent more than six hours with the troop's soldiers on Thursday after they
returned from Kifl. Redmond was among them. Nordstrom belongs to a branch
of the Mennonites with a pacifist theology. He has given this some thought. He
cites St. Augustine's theory of just war: "War is love's response to a neighbor
threatened by force." "We're in the thousands now that were killed in the last
few days," he said Friday. "Nothing prepares you to kill another human being.
Nothing prepares you to use a machine guy to cut someone in two." "They tell
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MARCH 2003
stories amongst themselves," he added of the soldiers. "When I come up, they
tell different stories. It bothers them to take life, especially that close. They
want me to talk to me so that they know that I know they are not awful human
beings."
Iraqi ambushes stall U.S. supply convoy Critical ammunition and fuel
held up as Marines heading north face firefights
The American convoy loaded with fuel and ammunition resumed its northward
march, marshaling its 300 trucks in a line that stretched for kilometers. Then
the Iraqis began firing, and the convoy turned around, leaving its stores of
shells and diesel fuel in the same place it was several days ago. The firefight
that unfolded Thursday in front of the U.S. caravan illustrated the difficulty the
military is having here in resupplying its troops at the front line. The rapid
advance of U.S. forces through Iraq has left the spearhead of the army 500
kilometers (300 miles) away from its main base. As a result, the supply lines
are stretched thin and vulnerable to the kind of attacks that have left this
convoy standing still since Tuesday. "The firing was very close," said Colonel
John Pomfret, who is leading the convoy. "We're going to have to wait." Pomfret
will try again Friday to take his convoy north in hopes of supplying the 22,000
U.S. Marines gathered about 16 kilometers to the north. He says that despite
the recent attacks, he will be able to get his supplies through without any
disruption to the force's ability to fight. But here in the parched plains of central
Iraq, it is much less clear that the American military can stop the harassing
Iraqi attacks that have been slowing the caravans down. The Marines running
the convoys say they can fight their way through just about anything the Iraqis
can throw at them. With their supply lines reaching all the way back to Kuwait,
the experience of this convoy suggests that the Marines may be doing a lot
more fighting than they bargained for. The Marine convoy is a gigantic thing,
involving trucks and tankers and jeeps and tanks, carrying thousands of liters
of diesel fuel, millions of rounds of ammunition and crates of ready- made
meals. So large is this caravan that it takes several hours for all of its vehicles
to pass through a single point. Among its cargo is 600,000 liters (160,000
gallons) of fuel and 180 tons of ammunition. Yet it is a measure of the
voraciousness of the modern army that this convoy, 300 vehicles long, carries
only enough supplies to last the First Marine Division a few days. Its guns can
shoot thousands of shells in a single day. The key to the Marines logistical
success is its ability to keep the train going, to keep more caravans, just as big,
rolling north. So far, the path of the convoys as they travel across central Iraq
has been anything but smooth. They have come under constant fire from Iraqi
soldiers, who often wait for the tanks and heavy armored vehicles to pass by
before opening fire. Each attack, however small, almost always requires the
convoy to stop, if only to allow their soldiers to respond. In the past several
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MARCH 2003
days here, the Iraqi attacks against the Marine convoy have been almost
ceaseless. First came an ambush Tuesday night, which left 23 Iraqis and one
American dead. Then a group of Iraqis attacked the convoy's base on
Wednesday, resulting in a firefight that left five Marines wounded. Then
Thursday, as the convoy tried to resume its journey north, it ran into a battle
between American and Iraqi forces about a mile from the base. In each case
here, the Iraqi attacks have been carried out by small groups who capitalize on
surprise assaults. Since Thursday, the fighting has been continuous. Cobra
gunships raced back and forth to the front lines, their racks full of rockets on
the way out, and empty on the way in. Twice on Thursday evening, American
officers sounded warnings for poison gas. All through the night, the ground
shook from the tell-tale explosions of U.S. B-52 strikes. All the while, the convoy
was still. The needs of the Marines battling at the front are not dire yet, officers
here say. But the constant fire from the Iraqis suggests that the effort to supply
American fighters at the front could be a battle itself. "The logistical people do
not want to be the cause of a pause in operations," Lieutenant Colonel Bob
Weinkel said. The Marine convoys have armed themselves heavily to repel the
Iraqi attacks. Each caravan is shadowed by several tanks and armored cars,
and they have responded ferociously to the recent ambushes. The Marine
commanders say they need to respond quickly and decisively to such attacks,
in large part because they are so vulnerable. The Marine convoy stuck near
Diwaniya, for instance, has more than a dozen fuel tanks 18 meters (60 feet)
long, each carrying 19,000 liters of diesel fuel. "I think about it a lot, getting
hit," said Gervonne Bell, a diesel truck driver. "I'm a sitting duck." Each of the
Marines, even the driver of the smallest water truck, is ready to taken down his
gun and fight. It is that, more than anything, the Marines say, that makes them
confidant they will be to keep the caravans rolling north. "We're not just truck
drivers," Weinkel said. "We're truck drivers with guns."
Battle for a village was 'a little piece of hell'

The concussive force of the tanks' rounds sucked everything off the sidewalks
and into the middle of this village's narrow, dusty main road "even people,"
said the captain of a tank company who fought his way through it. The blasts
shattered the plateglass window of a small barbershop, next to the girls'
elementary school, on the roof of which Iraqi troops had built a redoubt of
sandbags. Inside the barbershop were three chairs and pictures of haircuts to
choose from most outlandishly out of style. On the back wall, incongruously,
hung a large poster of lower Manhattan, seen from the New Jersey waterfront,
with the World Trade Center intact. It was not one of the kind sold in souks
across the Arab world, with a glaring Osama bin Laden or the airliners crashing
into the twin towers. Rather, with palm trees and sand in the foreground, it was
a picture of paradise Manhattan on the Euphrates. The tank captain had
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another word to describe his company's push through this village on

Wednesday afternoon, just as the sun set in the middle of a sandstorm, turning
the sky blood orange. "A little piece of hell," said the captain, who did not want
his name used, only his radio sign, Cobra Six. Army forces seized a toehold in
this village beginning late Monday night. It was supposed to be a relatively
simple blocking action, intended to prevent Iraqi reinforcements from reaching
An Najaf, a city of 100,000 across the Euphrates River about 16 kilometers (10
miles) away that the 3d Infantry Division was in the process of encircling.
Seventy-two hours later the division had a foothold, but the fight is far from
over, tying down an ever-growing number of troops that had been preparing for
a final assault on Baghdad, 120 kilometers to the north. The Euphrates here
runs gently south toward An Najaf, its deep green waters lined with marsh
grass and groves of palms. It might have been a pastoral idyll except for the
stuttering pop of gunfire. Iraqi forces had tried to blow up the bridge early
Tuesday, but the plastic explosives packed inside the columns only buckled the
structure. Iraqis came back under darkness early Thursday to try again, hoping
to isolate the forces of the 3d Division that, for the third day, had been steadily
crossing it. Three Iraqis died on the bridge in a firefight that ensued. Their
bodies lay in mangled heaps, wrenched by their last steps. One dead man, face
down, clutched his eyeglasses in front of him. The dead make a trail through
town. A sedan, its paint burned off, rests where it had lurched to a stop in front
of the barbershop. Inside were two charred skeletons. The American military's
policy is to pack the dead in black bags to be taken to makeshift morgues for
identification and, someday, repatriation. Here, there has been no time for it.
"Every time we clear guys, more come," said Colonel William Grimsley,
commander of the division's 1st Brigade, whose troops are trying to hold
several kilometers around Kifl. The village, normally home to several thousand
people, seemed deserted Thursday. The only activity comes from Iraqis who
keep fighting. They are irregular fighters and soldiers from Iraq's Republican
Guard, evidently sent to bolster An Najaf's resistance. "It sort of depends on
how you define enemy," Captain Darren Rapaport, commander of Charlie
Company, part of the 2d Battalion, 69th Armored Regiment, replied when asked
if enemy forces were in the village. "He could be right around the corner. He
could be up the street. He could be a few kilometers down the road." Minutes
later, the deep thuds of explosive rounds fired by a Bradley fighting vehicle
exploded nearby, bursting around some unseen enemy and sending a tuft of
black smoke above the palms. "Son of a bitch is still shooting at us," said
Lieutenant Colonel Jeffrey Randall Sanderson, the commander of the 2d
Battalion, 69th Armored Regiment. Through the morning, scores of Iraqi troops
poured down the road from Baghdad. Intelligence reports said there were as
many as 1,000. Some came in military jeeps, but most were in civilian trucks.
The battalion's lead units pushed north three kilometers up the road past the
sign marking the entrance to the village. "Welcome to Kifl," it said. At a brick
factory, just north of Kifl, M1-A1 tanks and Bradleys destroyed the vehicles as
they approached. Forward observers on the ground called in air strikes by A-10
attack planes overhead. Still, more vehicles came and unloaded more troops.
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An armored Humvee with a speaker blasted messages in Arabic, telling civilians

to stay inside and soldiers to surrender. "Your cause is lost," was repeated
through the night and the morning Thursday. "He's broadcasting, 'Surrender,
surrender, surrender,' and they ain't surrendering," Lieutenant Colonel
Sanderson said. "I don't know why not. If they want to fight out, we'll fight it
out." Every time they played it, he added, it seemed the Iraqis fought harder.
Cobra Six said he saw five Iraqis coming down the road on foot. It was around 4
a.m. There were three men with weapons and two women. They did not stop.
Three died, including one of the women. Commanders here said that 60 to 70
Iraqis died in the 12 hours leading up to midday Thursday. Lieutenant Colonel
Sanderson said two of his soldiers were slightly wounded by friendly fire on the
bridge in the confused firefight.
America at War: Marines battle Iraqis in Nasiriyah

Source: Columbian
IN THE IRAQI DESERT -- As pieces of the strategic puzzle came together Friday
to the north, south and west of Baghdad, U.S. forces almost 200 miles away in
Nasiriyah got a sample of the kind of firefight that may await them at the
capital city.
All day, Marines battled pockets of Iraqi resistance; four Marines with the 1st
Expeditionary Force were reported missing. Explosions from tank fire, artillery
and rockets fired by Cobra helicopters reverberated through the city of 500,000
as Marines battled to clear the main supply route north to Baghdad.
Artillery blasts set buildings afire throughout the city on the Euphrates River
thick black smoke from a burning power plant cast a pall. Helicopter crews
drew almost continuous small arms fire and rocket-propelled grenades.
In Nasiriyah's chaos, progress elsewhere on the Iraqi battlefield seemed so
distant.
But Saddam Hussein no longer controls 35 to 40 percent of Iraq, according to
Air Force Gen. Richard Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Troops were
within 50 miles of Baghdad to the south; north of Najaf, the Army's V Corps
defeated paramilitary attacks, military officials said. Air attacks focused on the
Republican Guard's Medina division.
Two Army helicopters, returning from an attack mission south of Baghdad,
crashed Friday night while landing at a base the 101st Airborne Division has set
up in a remote part of the southern Iraqi desert. Both aircraft were heavily
damaged, but there was no immediate word on whether any on board were
injured.
F/A-18s from the USS Kitty Hawk in the Persian Gulf attacked a fuel depot and
another site with missile cannisters belonging to the Medina division, said Capt.
Dick Corpus, chief of staff of the Kitty Hawk battle group. Royal Air Force pilots
also hit Republican Guard positions 60 miles southeast of Baghdad.
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MARCH 2003
"There was fantastic visibility and I could even see the camels on the ground as
well as a number of bomb craters around the encampment," Flight Lt. Scott
Morley, a Harrier pilot, told a reporter for Britain's Sunday Express. "It is not
carpet-bombing, it is still precision stuff. I got two good hits on Medina division
artillery pieces."
At least 1,200 troops are in place in northern Iraq, and special operations forces
have secured air fields and other strategic targets in the west.
The big target is Baghdad. "We'll attack when we're ready," Myers said.
But they won't be ready until more forces reach the environs of a city where
Saddam's forces were expected to mass for a last stand of house-to-house
fighting. And continuing attacks by Iraqi irregular forces along with almost
perpetual traffic jams on roads north have turned last week's sprints across the
desert into a distant memory.
Marine units pushed forward. Instead of trying to avoid engagements, they
looked for them, trying to clean out pockets of regime loyalists as they go.
Convoys moved day and night, taking food, fuel and other supplies north,
traveling in total darkness without headlights.
But they did advance. Authorities said the 1st Marine Expeditionary force was
north of Qalat Sikar, 50 miles up the road from Nasiriyah.
Karbala Gap seen as key to offensive

It is a gateway to Baghdad, a strip of land encompassing marshes and rich

farmland, densely populated and within sight of the canals of the Euphrates
River Valley. The Karbala Gap, a choke point approximately 90 kilometers (55
miles) south-southwest of Baghdad, is emerging as a significant potential
battleground in the U.S.-led advance on the Iraqi capital. It is a last stepping-
stone into Baghdad, and the Iraqi military and paramilitary seem intent on
turning the Karbala Gap into a battle to thwart the forces of the 3d Infantry
Division and inflict as many casualties as possible with tanks, artillery and
ground troops. "The Karbala Gap is the most direct route to Baghdad," a top 5th
Corps officer said. The gap is about 30 to 40 kilometers wide between the
Euphrates and Razaza Lake. The city of Karbala sits astride the gap. Like An
Najaf to the southeast it is a stronghold for Shiite Muslims, who are a majority
in Iraq but have been persecuted by Saddam Hussein and his fellow Sunnis.
"These are holy cities," an intelligence officer said. "We are treading on very
significant ground." U.S. officials said they wanted to avoid heavy damage to
the cities lest it enrage the populace. American officers said the corridor was
well defended by two Republican Guard divisions, the Iraqi Army's elites. One of
them, the Medina Division, south of Baghdad, was the force that fought off an
assault by U.S. Apache helicopter gunships Monday, downing one helicopter,
damaging more than 30 others and emerging relatively unscathed. Army
officers said that the Karbala Gap's location was perfectly suited for the jump
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into Baghdad. The gap rests near two major roads from Baghdad, Highways 1
and 8. Control of the Karbala Gap would, in the words of one top officer, open
both highways to the U.S. forces, enabling them to fan out and move toward
Baghdad in the open desert. "It is a choke point," said a ranking officer,
referring to the gap. "Once we go through, it allows us more freedom of
movement between the cities of Karbala and Najaf. "It allows us to disperse our
maneuver elements. Once through, we have more effective range for our
weapons. It allows us to target or monitor the Medina and the Hammurabi
divisions and allows us to cover the city of Baghdad itself." "For us, this is key
terrain," the officer said. "Those who hold it by fire or occupy it have the
advantage of maneuver and have the advantage over the enemy." Moreover,
by controlling the Karbala Gap, the officer said, the military would control
significant crossing sites over the Euphrates River, the biggest natural barrier
to the western approaches to Baghdad. In contrast to the surrounding area, the
gap's soil is sandy and easy to navigate, not only for troops but also for tanks
and armored personnel carriers. "Once we're through the gap, there's no
stopping us," an army officer said.
Bridging A `Land Between Rivers' ; Bogs, Marshes Abound In Iraq

Source: Richmond Times - Dispatch
Today we call it "Iraq," but the region was once known as Mesopotamia - "the
land between the rivers."
That fact of Iraqi geography explains, among other things, why the Army
mobilized three companies of Virginia reservists who build combat bridges and
why Marine amphibious assault vehicles make perfect sense in what we think
of as a desert.
While much of Iraq is truly dry, the bulk of the Iraqi people live in the region
watered by two of the world's most important rivers, the Tigris and Euphrates.
Legendary site of the Garden of Eden, that low-lying Tigris- Euphrates plain -
more than 700 miles long, and crisscrossed with streams, and irrigation and
drainage canals - is one huge wetland bog at this time of year.
Destructive flooding, particularly of the Tigris, is common, and scholars have
traced great flood legends, including the biblical story of Noah and the ark, to
the region.
The twin rivers' levels peak in March. American soldiers are crossing the plain
in the middle of Iraq's rainy season, and one that's been three times wetter
than normal.
U.S. tactical armored vehicles are either amphibious, as the Marines' assault
amphibian vehicle and the Army's Bradley fighting vehicle are, or capable of
traversing shallow rivers and deep streams, as the Abrams main battle tank
does using a special deep- fording kit.
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Though they can slowly cross water obstacles, military vehicles move faster
and in greater numbers when they can trundle over bridges instead swimming
rivers or floundering in mud.
Almost 480 Virginia soldiers from three Army National Guard and Army Reserve
companies were called up in the mobilizations for the war in Iraq:
* 110 Virginia Guardsmen with the 1031st Engineer Company from Southwest
Virginia's Gate City and Pennington Gap. The 1031st oversees construction of
traditional Army Bailey bridges - portable steel spans that a handful of engineer
soldiers can erect with simple tools - and floating bridges that unfold in sections
like accordions.
* 183 Guardsmen with the 189th Engineer Company out of Big Stone Gap in
Southwest Virginia. The unit upgrades tactical - combat - bridges to handle a
regular flow of supplies and reinforcements.
* 184 Army Reservists with the 299th Engineer Company from Fort Belvoir in
Northern Virginia. The 299th - "First Forward, Proud and Ready" - is a multi-role
bridge outfit, constructing pontoon and girder bridges, and using its float-
bridge equipment to raft troops and equipment across waterways during
assaults.
The trio of companies can also use their trucks for other engineer jobs.
Fed by snowpack and rainfall in eastern Turkey and in northwest Iran, the lower
Tigris and Euphrates rivers create vast reaches of interlaced tributaries, shallow
lakes, marshes and seasonally inundated floodplains running from Basra in the
southeast to within about 90 miles of Baghdad in the northwest.
This wet lowland also contains most of Iraq's population, as it has since the
world's first civilizations sprang up along the two rivers in antiquity. Though Iraq
built a major road network to carry troops and supplies during the Iran-Iraq war
of 1980-88, linking nearly all the major cities with paved roads, secondary and
feeder roads are mainly dirt tracks.
The road system offers good going for the Army and Marines for thrusts along
the rivers, though room to maneuver is limited.
Because of the many streams and canals, the U.S. military rates the Tigris-
Euphrates plain as poor for large-scale cross-country movements of its trucks
and tracks. The marshy areas are flatly inaccessible for most tracked vehicles.
While crossing the Tigris and Euphrates means putting up bridges and using
ferries for big operations, at the same time, however, the rivers themselves can
support military operations using boats and small ships. The region's
inhabitants have long understood water can be a weapon.
In what was labeled "the war of the pumps," both Iraq and Iran alternately
drained and flooded fields to help their war efforts during the 1980s.
Given that history, American officers cast a wary eye at three dams near
Baghdad that Saddam Hussein's Iraqis could blow, disastrously flooding the
capital's southern approaches.
Two U.S. Soldiers Survive Week in Desert

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NORTHERN KUWAIT (AP) - They gave away much of their food to Iraqis. They
drew "SOS" in the sand. One of them passed the time writing poems to his wife
back home.
For a week, two American soldiers were stranded in the Iraqi desert. They
survived - hungry, thirsty and tired, but eager to get back to their unit and back
to the war.
In a dispatch Sunday from a reporter embedded with the Army's 75th
Exploitation Task Force, The New York Times Web site reported the story of
Specialist Jeffrey Klein, 20, of Independence, Ky., and Sgt. Matthew Koppi, 22, of
Asheville, N.C., both mechanics with the Army's Third Infantry Division.
The soldiers said they were stranded when their truck's clutch failed on the way
to tow an officer's Humvee that had broken down as the division was traveling
toward Baghdad. They said a staff sergeant had ordered them to wait, and said
they would be picked up.
No one did. So the two dug trenches to defend their position, and took turns on
watch.
They gave most of their food to hungry Iraqi civilians, and watched nervously
as white vehicles - a trademark of Saddam Hussein's paramilitary Fedayeen -
passed by. Koppi had become a father 10 days before he was deployed, and he
wrote poems to his wife.
"It has been weeks since we have spoken, I know her heart is close to broken,"
went one couplet.
The soldiers were found Friday by Marines in Chinook helicopters. They were
dropped at a desert battle outpost, and then taken to Camp Udairi in northern
Kuwait by Col. Richard R. McPhee, who commands the 75th Exploitation Task
Force, which was on a mission in southern Iraq.
They were given a medical checkup, new uniforms and a hot meal. Klein's wife,
four months pregnant with their first child, took a while to calm down when he
called her on a satellite phone.
McPhee praised their resourcefulness and dedication.
"When we found them, they just kept saying that they wanted to return to their
unit as soon as possible to be part of the battle," he said.
U.S. troops south of Baghdad move forward, meet Iraqi civilians

NEAR KARBALA, Iraq (AP) -- U.S. soldiers south of Baghdad advanced 15

kilometers (10 miles) through the Iraqi desert Sunday, along the way having
their first face-to-face meeting with Iraqi civilians and detaining dozens of Iraqi
prisoners.
The 1st and 2nd Brigades of the 3rd Infantry Division moved forward in the
vicinity of Karbala, 80 kilometers (50 miles) southwest of Baghdad. One
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MARCH 2003
battalion, conducting a sweep on the U.S. troops eastern flank, near the
Euphrates River was slowed down by dozens of Iraqi soldiers surrendering.
The men of A Company, 3rd Battalion, 7th Infantry Regiment advanced with
almost no contact until they came up to a dusty, abandoned mine they had
planned to use as their camp.
The mine was no longer abandoned.
A dozen Iraqi Bedouins had taken over the old quartz mine and had dug a well,
which they used to irrigate a meager onion crop in the desert sands. As the
hundreds of hulking armored vehicles approached, with Attack company in the
lead, the Iraqi farmers climbed on top of sandberms, waving white flags.
Capt. Chris Carter, the commanding officer, informed his battalion commander
that he would need to pull his line of troops back a few hundred meters (yards)
to avoid the farmers' delapidated shanteys. Lt. Col. Philip DeCamp agreed.
Once his perimeter was set, Carter sent a military intelligence officer, fluent in
Arabic, to speak with the farmers, now facing hundreds of U.S. armored
vehicles outside their window.
The officer, accompanied by an assistant, rode up to the farm houses in a
Bradley fighting vehicle, then casually stepped out the back, holding fistfuls of
candy for the children. The Iraqi men at first stood back, with their hands
behind their heads, struggling at the same time to hold up the sticks on which
they had tied flour bags in a sign of surrender.
The Iraqis quickly relaxed when the officer, who asked not to be identified, told
them in Arabic that they could drop their hands and relax. The Iraqis walked up
to the officer, shaking his hand and offering greetings.
The officer's message to the Iraqis was simple, the U.S. forces would not hurt
them, but they needed to stay away from the American soldiers. As they spoke,
nearby artillery fired volley after volley at the nearby city of Al-Hindiyah, on the
Euphrates River. The concussion of each round could be felt as well as heard.
The officer quoted the men as saying that Iraqi forces had pulled out of the
desert toward the town 10 days ago. The Iraqis smiled warmly at the U.S.
troops and asked if it would be possible for the soldiers to avoid driving through
their fields.
Looking at the absolute poverty around him -- the ramshackle mud huts, a
small herd of sheep and goats, everyone barefoot -- the officer assured him
that no more U.S. vehicles would drive through the farm. One tank had already
broken several lengths of irrigation pipe, and that would the last of the U.S.
damage, the officer promised.
The men flew colored flags in their fields which indicated to whom they had to
pay rent to live on the abandoned mine. The men said they had to pay 10
percent of their crop to an Iraqi lieutenant colonel.
The officer said the men had invited the soldiers to drink tea, but the officer
couldn't bring himself to take anything from the families. Eight children,
covered in dust, lived in one 5-foot by 10-foot (1.5-meter by 3-meter) hut. A
teenage girl showed off her toddler, dressed in rags.
One man, who gave his name only as Mohammed, said he had escaped from
the Feyadeen, Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein's militia. He said he had been
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conscripted from his home as a teenager and trained to conduct ambushes and
suicide attacks, but had run away before the war started. In broken English, he
said ``Down with Saddam.''
The soldiers came away mostly with pity for the poverty of the farmers. Their
paranoia following reports of suicide attacks was softened by what appeared to
be sincere Iraqi smiles and ordinary people trying to eke out an existence in the
harsh desert.
``What a miserable way to live,'' the officer said.
U.S. Army Battles Its Way Into Hindiyah

Fighting street by street, U.S. Army troops punched their way into this town
Monday in the closest known battle in the U.S.-led advance on Baghdad. The
Americans captured several dozen Iraqis who identified themselves as
members of Saddam Hussein's Republican Guard.
Further south, the Army encircled the Shiite holy city of Najaf and said it killed
about 100 paramilitary fighters and captured about 50 Iraqis.
At least 15 Iraqi troops were killed in the fighting in Hindiyah, 50 miles south of
Baghdad between the sacred city of Karbala and the ruins of ancient Babylon.
The prisoners told the Americans they belonged to the guard's Nebuchadnezzar
Brigade, based in Saddam's home area of Tikrit, and they had the guard's
triangular insignia.
The 4th Battalion of the 64th armored regiment rolled in to the town of 80,000
at dawn - met quickly by small arms fire and rocket propelled grenades from
Iraqis hiding behind hedges and brick walls.
On the southeast side of a 200-yard concrete and steel bridge across the dark-
green Euphrates, the soldiers took up positions in abandoned bunkers and
sandbags and traded fire with Iraqis on the other side. A dark blue car
attempted to race across the bridge toward U.S. forces but it was hit with
heavy machine gun fire, which stopped it in the middle.
Iraqi forces dressed in civilian clothes with blue or red kaffiyahs wrapped
around their heads and faces scrambled between buildings, trying to sneak up
on U.S. troops on the city side of the bridge. Americans in tanks and Bradley
fighting vehicles fired back with heavy machine guns and 25mm cannon.
The ground shook as mortars landed, and the smell of gunpowder filled the air.
As the Americans began the cross the bridge, Iraqi troops tried to block it with
civilian cars.
Leading to the bridge was a broad boulevard with wide sidewalks dotted with
sidewalk cafes. Portraits of Saddam had been erected along the street every
100 yards. Senior officers, chewing on cigars, conferred as the tanks and
fighting vehicles ringing them fired toward the distance.
The assault on the key river crossing is the closest known point in the U.S.-led
advance on Baghdad, where a battle looms with the Republican Guard, Iraq's
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best-trained troops. But it was at Najaf - a city of 300,000, 100 miles south of
Baghdad - that U.S. military leaders were faced with a difficult decision.
It was unclear whether the U.S. strategy is to take Najaf or simply to cordon off
the city. There are too many Iraqi fighters to bypass them or leave them
unattended; they're a danger to supply lines on the way to Baghdad.
The U.S. Central Command said 100 "terror squad members" were killed
Sunday at Najaf and another town in fighting with the 82nd Airborne Division. It
did not further identify the "terror squads" or give other details about the newly
captured Iraqis.
The 101st Airborne Division surrounded Najaf, preparing for a possible door-to-
door battle to root out Saddam's fighters - but leery of damaging some of the
faith's most sacred shrines.
In Najaf, the prophet Muhammad's son-in-law Ali is buried at an extraordinary
shrine, its gold dome and twin minarets gleaming for miles. It is surrounded by
low buildings and narrow streets, a nightmare of an urban battleground.
Other Muslim holy figures are buried there and at the vast Wadi es-Salaam
cemetery - one of the world's largest - that forms a semicircle around the city.
Officers speaking on condition of anonymity said some of the Iraqi fighters
were hiding there.
A battle that destroyed these holy places could inflame passions of Shiites in
Iraq and elsewhere, most notably Iran.
The United States has been hoping that Shiite Muslims, who represent 60
percent of Iraq's population, will rise up against Saddam and his largely Sunni
leadership.
Ibrahim Khalili, a prominent Iranian Shiite clergyman, said: "I don't think that
anyone dares to attack a holy site in Iraq. An attack on holy shrines will only
provoke the uncontrolled anger of Muslims, especially Shiites, with serious
consequences to the attackers."
general's office, said some locations in Najaf are on the military's "no target"
list - to be fired at only in self defense.
So the Army still held out hope that the battle could be avoided. Using
loudspeakers mounted on Humvees, U.S. soldiers on Najaf's perimeter will soon
beseech its townspeople to turn over Saddam's zealots.
targeted for allied bombardment - Gen. Richard Myers, chairman of the Joint
Chiefs of Staff, said more than half of Sunday's sorties were directed at the
guard, Saddam's best equipped and trained forces.
territory left by Iraqi forces withdrawing toward the oil center of Kirkuk. They
advanced almost 10 miles - slowly, as the cleared more than 300 mines, some
the size of ashtrays, others as big as layer cakes.
That territory came without a shot - unlike the continuing battles with Saddam's
fighters in the south.
In what was described as the Royal Marines' largest operation of the war so far,
the British Press Association reported fierce fighting for the town of Abu al
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Khasib, southwest of Basra. It said 30 Iraqis had been killed and hundreds
captured in what the British are calling Operation James, named after James
Bond. A British soldier was killed in action near Basra.
A reporter for Sunday Telegraph of London reported that Kalashnikov rifles
confiscated from defeated Iraqi soldiers were being collected by British troops
to pass to pro-Western rebels in Basra.
Near the southern port city of Umm Qasr, British forces discovered a cache of
arms and explosives in a school, an Australian defense spokesman said
Monday. Australian mine clearance experts were called in to dismantle the
weaponry, military spokesman Brigadier Mike Hannan said.
Marines from 3rd Battalion, 4th Regiment returned Sunday from a two-day
mission. Actively seeking engagements, they went to three cities and towns in
southern-central Iraq including Afak, about 50 miles east of Najaf. Some of the
fighting, they said, was building to building.
A floating truck stop keeps navy commandos at work

Navy commandos have been inching their way into the Iraqi hinterland with the
help of an odd-looking ship with a jaw-like bow that, three years ago, was
ferrying commuters and their cars around New Zealand. The HSV-X1 Joint
Venture, an aluminum-hulled catamaran ferry that has been modified to carry
gunboats, amphibious landing craft, helicopters and marine platoons, has
become the aquatic forward operating base for navy special operations forces
that are helping to clear southern Iraqi waterways of enemy ships and mines.
"We are the mother ship," said Captain Phil Beierl, the ship's commander. The
Australian-built catamaran a light, high-speed ship with twin hulls has been
anchored in Kuwaiti waters within sight of Iraq's lone deep-sea port, Umm Qasr.
Like a floating truck stop, the Joint Venture has provided supplies, shelter and
spare parts for more than a dozen Naval Special Warfare boats that have been
darting in and out of the riverway that links Umm Qasr to the Tigris River on
the north and the Gulf to the south. For several days, the small, speedy special
operations boats have been searching Iraqi vessels for mines, snipers and
fleeing soldiers. They have combed through the river's numerous derelict
freighters, ensuring they are not booby trapped. And they have been carrying
Seal teams into Iraqi territory on reconnaissance missions. The work of those
small boat units and commandos was critical to securing the port so that a
British ship could begin bringing food, water and medicine into Umm Qasr's
container port. From there, the British plan to move aid northward by land,
including to Iraq's second-largest city of Basra, which is under siege. Without
the Joint Venture, the commando boats would have had to travel scores of
miles to reach bases in Kuwait for fuel and supplies, drastically reducing their
time on mission and adding as many as four days to the operation, Naval
Special Warfare planners said. "It would have been a mess," said Captain
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Snyder, who is in charge of logistics for the Naval Special Warfare Task Group
based in Kuwait. Like most of the Naval Special Warfare officers interviewed, he
requested that his first name not be used. With the Joint Venture nearby, the
Seal and boat teams were just minutes from fuel, hot meals, ammunition,
showers, warm bunks, Internet access and a video-stocked television room.
And when hurricane-force winds damaged an MK-V gunboat on the riverway
early Wednesday, the ship was able to limp back to the Joint Venture for
repairs. Naval Special Warfare planners hope the Joint Venture will be the model
for a new kind of ship for a new kind of unconventional warfare. Future battles
will increasingly involve smaller, swifter, stealthier forces that will need to
stage heavy equipment closer to a battle than in the past, they say. The Joint
Venture, or ships like it, will enable the Seals an acronym for the navy's Sea,
Air, Land commando units to mobilize larger, more complex missions than the
daring but smaller-scale insertions of the past. The Umm Qasr operation was a
model for that kind of mission, the planners contend. "What we did near Umm
Qasr was historic," said Lieutenant Commander Tom Rancich, who is in charge
of future operations for the Naval Special Warfare Task Group. "We've never
had 14 small boats operating independently of the big navy for seven days,
unresupplied." The Joint Venture and the smaller gunboats that have been
using it as a mother ship also exemplify a concept sometimes dubbed "street
fighter ships." Navy planners had already been searching for a fast,
maneuverable cargo vessel when they first observed Australian forces using a
commercial catamaran to ferry peacekeeping troops to the Indonesian island of
East Timor in 1999. Impressed, the Pentagon rented two of the $48-million
catamarans in July 2001 for about $5 million a year each from Bollinger/Incat
USA, a company based in Australia. Initially, the ships were viewed as
experimental. But they were pressed into war duty in January, and 40- person
crews were hastily assembled for deployment just weeks later. With its four jet-
propulsion engines, the Joint Venture can travel 3,000 nautical miles at 35
knots on a tank of gas. It carries enough extra fuel to keep several smaller
boats operating for days, has room on its car deck for as many as six small
boats and can carry more than 200 heavily armed passengers in relative
comfort. It also has a landing pad capable of accommodating one SH-60
Seahawk helicopter. Because it is a catamaran that rides high in the water, it
can also navigate relatively shallow waters. The trip close to the Kuwaiti coast
required the 96-meter (315-foot) ship to weave through narrow waters, creep
over a sand bar at high tide and slip under a bridge at low -
'These cats fight hard: they see a tank and try to shoot it with an
AK47 rifle'
Source: The Sunday Telegraph - London
THE US army's famous "Screaming Eagles" flew into battle for the first time
early yesterday as the 101st Airborne Division pounded Republican Guard tank
units south of Baghdad using helicopter gunships.
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MARCH 2003
At least 30 AH64 Apache helicopters joined the night attack and army officers
said that they destroyed 25 Iraqi tanks, armoured personnel carriers and
trucks, killing at least 50 soldiers of the Republican Guard's formidable Medina
Division.
"The 101st is back in flight. That was our first deep attack mission of the war,"
said Major Hugh Cate yesterday. The Screaming Eagles owe their name to their
eagle's-head shoulder patches. Founded during the Second World War, they
offer the Allies "agility and lethality".
Over the coming days the 101st Airborne - along with British forces - is likely to
be used to "soften" the Republican Guard units which are blocking the Allies'
march on Baghdad from southern Iraq.
In yesterday's battle near the holy city of Karbala, 50 miles south of Baghdad,
no Screaming Eagles lost their lives, but one pilot broke his leg in one of the
two crash-landings that left one helicopter badly damaged.
The Americans acted with RAF Harriers, which dropped more than a ton of high
explosive on the Republican Guard in the heaviest 24- hour period of sustained
bombing so far. British pilots are sleeping in four-hour snatches so that pressure
can be increased on the heavily-armoured units ringing the Iraqi capital.
The main roads from the southern Iraqi city of Nasiriya to Baghdad became
known as "Ambush Alley" last week, the most treacherous road in Iraq.
In dozens of battles and skirmishes, thousands of US troops saw their first
action of the conflict. Many came under enemy fire for the first time; others
boasted of their first "kills".
"We've been contested every inch, every mile on the way up," said Col Ben
Saylor, the 1st Marine Division's chief of staff. Senior officers have respect for
the tenacity of the small bands of Iraqi fighters that have endangered the lives
of the Allied troops.
"These cats are fighting hard," said Lt Col Terry Ferrell, commander of the 3rd
Squadron 7th Cavalry. "By no means do they see that tank and run. They see
that tank and try to shoot it with an AK47."
At the town of Kifl, on the Euphrates river, dozens of Iraqi bodies littered the
streets yesterday after the culmination of a four-day battle.
Some were wrapped in blue and black body bags, but others were still out in
the open, rotting in the midday sun. Several spilled out of their charred and
shattered cars and trucks, burned beyond recognition.
Earlier, when tanks of the US Army's 3rd Infantry Division, had rumbled into the
town, which lies north of Najaf and about 8O miles south of Baghdad, irregular
Iraqi forces had set up sniper nests up and down the main street, opening fire
from doors, windows, market stalls and patches of open ground.
US officers said fighters in minivans, pick-up trucks and cars drove straight at
the oncoming tanks. Others took to canoes, rowing down the river and trying to
fix explosives to the main bridge to halt the advance.
But the guerrilla-style forces were vastly outgunned and some US soldiers
estimate that about 1,000 Iraqis were killed. Officers said that just one
American died.
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MARCH 2003
The officers said that the tank unit fired two 120mm high- velocity depleted
uranium rounds straight down the main road, creating a powerful vacuum that
literally sucked guerrillas out from their hideaways into the street, where they
were shot down by small- arms fire or run over by the tanks.
"It was mad chaos like you cannot imagine," said the tank unit's commander,
who identified himself as "Cobra 6" because he did not want friends and
neighbours back home to know what he had been through.
"We took a lot of fire, and we gave a lot of fire," he said. "You couldn't see
anything except all those hues of red and the sound of fire from all sides. It was
not earthly. I'll have nightmares about it."
American troops were in agreement this weekend that the Iraqis had been far
more determined fighters than they had expected. Maj- Gen Buford Blount III,
the commander of the 3rd Infantry Division, said: "We did not expect the
ambushes," adding that the Iraqis had been more "tenacious and willing to
fight" than expected, as well as better equipped.
Sgt James Ositis from the 3rd Squadron 7th Cavalry told how he and his troops
were fighting through an ambush by hundreds of Iraqis near Najaf when their
tank was hit by a missile. "Everyone thought it would be like 1991 [the Gulf
war] when they gave up in floods. Now I've shot a lot of people, and not one
has given up," he said.
British officers fear chemical attack Martin Bentham, with the 7th
Armoured Brigade outside Basra, hears worrying intelligence from the
besieged city
Source: The Sunday Telegraph - London
ARMY INTELLIGENCE officers were investigating reports last night that mortars
with chemical rounds attached had been tested by Iraqi troops in Basra.
The reports, received from agents within the city supplying information to the
coalition forces, gave warning that Iraqi forces had fitted chemical warheads to
82mm mortar bombs in preparation for an attack on British soldiers on the
city's outskirts.
British officers fear that conventional mortar rounds fired at the Desert Rats
Black Watch battle group early yesterday, causing several casualties, may have
been a test run for a chemical assault over the coming days.
The Army is also concerned that the Iraqis might add chemicals to the oil fires
burning around Basra with the aim of catching British troops unaware. In
response, it has ordered daily checks to be made on the smoke from any large
fires in the area to ensure that soldiers are not caught by any such disguised
chemical attack.
As British troops intensified their efforts to take control of the city yesterday,
Capt Johnny Williamson, a spokesman for the British Army in Iraq, confirmed
that a possible chemical threat was being investigated.
60
MARCH 2003
"Military intelligence is reporting that mortars with chemical rounds have been
tested," he said. "It's possible that the mortars fired at us overnight were used
to get the range."
Capt Richard Ongaro, the chemical warfare officer for the Royal Scots Dragoon
Guards, one of four battle groups from the 7th Armoured Brigade, the Desert
Rats, added: "One concern is that they are using the oil fires to test the wind
direction so that they know when it is the best time to use chemicals. We're
also worried they might add chemicals to the fires to spread with the smoke."
The chemical alert emerged as resistance from Iraqi forces inside Basra
continued. Rockets from a T59 multiple rocket launcher were fired into the
camp of the Black Watch battle group just outside Basra in the early hours
yesterday, causing several powerful explosions. No casualties were reported.
In response, British artillery fired on Iraqi mortar positions in Basra. Overnight,
two American F15E Strike Eagle fighter jets used laser-guided bombs to destroy
a building where about 200 paramilitary members of the Ba'ath Party were
believed to be meeting.
A spokesman at the Central Command's battle headquarters said early reports
indicated that "no one came out" of the shattered two- storey structure. The
bombs used in the attack had a delayed fuse so they could penetrate the
building before exploding, minimising damage to surrounding property,
including a church.
Despite the coalition's overwhelming firepower, Major Charlie Warner, a battery
commander with the Royal Horse Artillery gave a warning that British forces
were likely to come under attack for the foreseeable future because of the
difficulty in identifying and destroying weapons inside Basra.
"We believe that the multiple rocket launchers were probably mounted on a
lorry," he said. "It's always been a concern that these type of weapons are very
difficult to find inside a city."
Despite earlier optimism that entry into Basra could be achieved last week,
British forces now appear to be settling down for what could be a prolonged
siege.
The strategy now, according to officers, is to "prod, prod, prod", in the hope of
encouraging a large uprising - allowing British troops to enter the city in
support.
This is seen as a safer option than the alternative of entering the city with a
show of force - an approach that British officers fear could lead to heavy
fighting and significant casualties on both sides. Street fighting - known in
military circles as Fibua (fighting in built-up areas) - is one of the most
dangerous forms of warfare.
One hope is that individual districts of Basra, which are particularly hostile to
Saddam Hussein's regime, might rise up, allowing British forces to enter the
city, sector by sector, consolidating each position in turn.
To keep up pressure on the paramilitaries, Ba'ath loyalists and Fedayeen militia
defending the city, British artillery shells and flares are being fired across Basra
each night as a reminder of coalition fire power. British troops are also carrying
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MARCH 2003
out a series of "in and out" raids into the city. There were reports yesterday that
four soldiers staging such raids had been kidnapped, but the Army denied this.
Efforts are also being made to sever Iraqi lines of communication after the
destruction of Basra's radio and television station last week. The aim is to
disrupt channels of propaganda which British officers fear may be hindering
their efforts to convince Iraqis that the war is against Saddam and not the
ordinary population.
Lt Col Hugh Blackman, the commanding officer of the Royal Scots Dragoon
Guards, confirmed that an advance into Basra might be some time off, saying
that the planning was "open-ended".
He said: "It might take a number of days before conditions are right. There is
still a significant paramilitary threat. The important objective for us is to
minimise the amount of collateral damage, both to their side and to ours and to
the city's infrastructure. We could go in and destroy the city, block by block, but
that's what we're trying to avoid."
In an attempt to minimise the number of people willing to fight to the death for
Saddam, many of the leading figures in Iraqi society are being told they will be
able to keep their jobs after the war.
Civil liaison teams composed of British and American officers and civilians
specialising in reconstruction have begun passing messages to local leaders,
businessmen, factory owners and others in southern Iraq, telling them they will
not be replaced when Saddam is defeated.
The aim, according to the British Army, is to reassure those who have risen to
senior positions on merit - rather than because of close links to Saddam's
regime - that they will not be penalised, thereby giving them less incentive to
take up arms to maintain their place in society.
The strategy is also intended to ensure that civil administration and the supply
of basic goods and services does not collapse in the aftermath of war. Problems
would be considerably worsened without sufficient key personnel.
Major Aidan Stephen, a liaison officer with the Royal Scots Dragoon Guards,
said: "People who run factories, provide utilities such as water and electricity,
or run local administrations - we need them to continue as much as possible.
Many of these people will be talented individuals who had no choice but to
work for Saddam's regime."
British officers say their intention is to remove only "cronies and associates" of
Saddam and the Ba'ath Party - separating the "bad guys from the good guys".
Maine-based cutter reaches Iraq for duty ; The U.S. Coast Guard cutter
Wrangell had to navigate mined waters to reach Umm Qasr.
Source: Portland Press Herald
A Portland-based Coast Guard vessel found its way safely to a Persian Gulf port
Friday, helping to bring humanitarian aid to Iraq.
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MARCH 2003
Officials said the U.S. Coast Guard cutter Wrangell, a 110-foot high-speed patrol
vessel homeported in Portland, was one of the many patrol boats that assisted
the British ship RFA Sir Galahad into the port of Umm Qasr on Friday. The British
ship is loaded with the first military shipment of relief aid for Iraqi citizens.
It was not an easy trip, as the waters into port were littered with mines. But the
news that the Wrangell made it through was welcome to locals who have
friends and family stationed on the vessel. The Wrangell carries a crew of
between 12 and 16 enlisted men and two officers.
"It's good to hear humanitarian aid has made it through and hopefully it will get
to people who need it," said Liselotte Barrows, wife of Coast Guard Lt. Chris
Barrows, who is the cutter's commanding officer. "And it's nice to know my
husband and the guys were part of that."
Sir Galahad's cargo includes 100 tons of water and 150 tons of rice, lentils,
cooking oil, tomato paste, chick peas, sugar, powdered milk and tea. It is the
first massive shipment of aid to reach Iraq. Medical supplies, blankets and
ration packs also are aboard.
"Further aid supplies from the United States and Australia are en route to Iraq
and are expected to arrive soon," said British Armed Forces Minister Adam
Ingram, speaking in London.
The British mine-detecting ship HMS Sandown cleared the route for the Sir
Galahad, underscoring the difficulty of navigating the Khor Abdallah waterway,
where U.S. and British minesweeping teams found and detonated six mines in
the previous 36 hours.
Working intensely for the past week, mine hunter teams have cleared a 200-
yard-wide channel along the 40-mile route from the Persian Gulf into the port of
Umm Qasr, which allied forces are hoping to make the center for humanitarian
relief distribution.
About 50 British, American and Australian divers, along with two mine-
detecting dolphins flown in from the United States, have been scouring the
bottom of the port area.
The Wrangell was deployed in early February as America prepared for
Operation Iraqi Freedom.
About 650 Coast Guard men and women are participating in the war, including
four patrol boats, a high-endurance cutter, a buoy tender, two law enforcement
detachments, two port security units, one mobile support unit, elements of the
National Strike Force and a harbor defense command unit.
"The Coast Guard brings expertise in a variety of missions to Operation Iraqi
Freedom, including force protection and port security," Lt. Cmdr. Jeff Carter, a
Coast Guard spokesman in Bahrain said in a prepared statement. "The men and
women of the Coast Guard are proud to be a part of the liberation of the Iraqi
people."
Storied 7th U.S. Cavalry unit finds new battlefields in Iraq

Source: Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
63
MARCH 2003
Within sight of Baghdad Storied 7th U.S. Cavalry unit finds new battlefields in
Iraq
Sunday, March 30, 2003
As satellite television beamed images of units of the 7th U.S. Cavalry Regiment
advancing northward toward Baghdad, its subdivisions calling themselves by
names like Apache and Crazy Horse, a moment in American history echoed
through the Iraqi desert.
The 7th Cavalry, a mobilized infantry unit that has been serving as a spearhead
moving in advance of the Army's powerful 3rd Division, is one of the armed
forces' oldest continuously serving regiments, its history replete with tales that
hint at the heroism, mishap and tragedy that go hand in hand in war.
Founded by Congress in July 1866, along with nine other regiments, it was
originally charged with helping to secure the American frontier, which had been
badly neglected from 1861 to 1865 while the nation was at war with itself. The
horse-mounted regiments roamed from the Gulf of Mexico to the Dakotas,
sparring with the Indian tribes then being uprooted and pressed toward
resettlement, even as they provided safe passage for the waves of pioneers
moving west.
In an 1896 account, Maj. E.A. Garlington wrote of the 7th Cavalry: "The
summer's sun found it plodding over the arid, dusty plains as escort to
commissioners, surveyors and what not, or dashing along in eager pursuit on a
fresh Indian trail. It subsisted for months on food unfit for human consumption,
and as a consequence scurvy frequently prevailed among the men, weakening
them to such a degree as to invite the more deadly disease, cholera."
Who sought the glories of this life? According to Melbourne C. Chandler, author
of "Of Garry Owen in Glory: The History of the Seventh United States Cavalry
Regiment," the enlistees were "young adventurers, professional frontiersmen,
outcasts from society, fugitives from justice, refugees from the Civil War, both
North and South alike, recently arrived immigrants to this country seeking to
enlist in the Army to save enough money to get started in the new land, and
professional soldiers who wanted to re-enlist in a new outfit."
Such were the men who provided the only security that pioneers might find,
and during the Indian Wars of the 1870s, the 7th Cavalry was made famous by
a string of victories.
But it was in defeat that it became legendary.
In June 1876, the Army was campaigning to force the Sioux, led by Sitting Bull
and Crazy Horse, onto reservations. Lt. Col. George Armstrong Custer and
about 220 of his men found themselves trapped and were slaughtered at the
Battle of the Little Bighorn after Custer made a classic military blunder by
dividing his forces. But the victory helped the Sioux little; Congress and the
public were inflamed, and soon the Sioux had surrendered or, like Sitting Bull
himself, fled to Canada.
In the 20th century, modern warfare dismounted the 7th Cavalry along with
other horse-borne units, but it did not sideline it. Rather, elements of the 7th,
now a mobilized infantry unit within the Army's 1st Cavalry Division, shared in
some of the climactic moments of World War II; they were among the first to
64
MARCH 2003
occupy Manila in 1944 when Gen. Douglas MacArthur returned there, and they
were with him for the occupation of Tokyo after Japan's surrender.
Then came Korea. On July 26, 1950, in the chaotic first weeks of battle,
members of the 7th Cavalry's 2nd Battalion, fearing that North Korean soldiers
were hiding among refugees, panicked and fired their machine guns into a
crowd of unarmed civilians huddled under a railroad bridge near the village of
No Gun Ri. The number killed is believed to be in the hundreds. Two years ago,
after an investigation prompted by news accounts recalling the massacre, the
Department of Defense said the soldiers had acted without orders from their
superiors.
In the 1960s, 7th Cavalry units rode again, in Vietnam -- this time aboard the
UH-1 helicopters known as Hueys -- when the 1st Cavalry became the nation's
first air mobile division. There, the 7th was present during another desperate
battle, a two-day firefight in the Ia Drang Valley in November 1965 in which
several hundred U.S. soldiers staved off several thousand North Vietnamese.
When the battle ended, 174 U.S. soldiers were dead and 256 more were
wounded. The North Vietnamese reportedly lost at least 3,000.
Kurdish Fighters Move Toward Key Oil City

Kurdish fighters in northern Iraq have taken control of more territory from
withdrawing Iraqi forces, moving closer to the major oil center of Kirkuk.
The nearly 10-mile advance Sunday by the U.S.-backed Kurdish militia was
unchallenged but slowed by dense minefields left by Saddam Hussein's troops,
said Ares Abdullah, a Kurdish commander.
It was the third significant shift since Thursday in the front line separating Iraqi
forces from the U.S.-backed Kurds. Each Iraqi move has allowed the Kurds to
move closer to Kirkuk, the nation's No. 2 oil-producing region. The Kurds
consider it an essential part of their ethnic lands.
In the hill country south of Taqtaq - about 35 miles southeast of the Kurdish
administrative capital of Irbil - Kurdish forces can clearly see the glow of Kirkuk
and its oil fields about 15 miles away.
"Our goal is now closer," Abdullah said.
Elsewhere in the Kurdish north, Kurdish guerrillas working with U.S. special
forces attacked extremists belonging to Ansar al-Islam, a militant group
allegedly linked to Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida network.
The attack Friday left 120 to 150 militants dead and dealt "a very serious blow"
to terrorism, said Barham Salih, prime minister of the Sulaymaniyah-based
Kurdish government that is a U.S. ally. He said 17 Kurds were killed.
"It was a very tough battle," Salih said. "You're talking about a bunch of
terrorists who are very well-trained and well-equipped."
The two main northern cities under Baghdad rule - Kirkuk and Mosul - have
come under relentless attack from U.S. warplanes. New explosions were
reported Monday in Mosul from the Arabic television station al-Jazeera.
65
MARCH 2003
The reason for the Iraqi repositioning is unclear. But Kurdish commanders
believe Iraqi troops have been seriously battered and need reinforcements.
Iraqi forces could also be rearranging their units, since the United States
apparently does not yet have enough strength in the Western-protected Kurdish
zone for a ground assault. Plans for a northern offensive were crippled after
Turkey refused to allow U.S. troops to use its territory for an invasion across the
border.
The Kurdish advance in the Taqtaq region came less than 24 hours after its
forces fell back along another front: conceding more than 12 miles along the
main road from Irbil to Kirkuk. Iraqi gunners have now dug in just outside Altun
Kupri - also known as Perdeh - about 27 miles from Kirkuk.
"We cannot move against them unless American planes bomb the positions,"
said Farhad Yunus Ahmad, leader of a front-line Kurdish unit near Altun Kupri.
Kurdish fighters spent Sunday clearing mines and poking through abandoned
Iraqi posts. They carried away war souvenirs and anything with possible value:
electrical cables, helmets, vintage gas masks, casing from anti-aircraft artillery.
The Iraqi outposts seemed little more than rough camps. Small cinderblock and
mud shelters dotted a clearing - probably a muddy quagmire in rain and a
dustbowl in the heat. Roofs were apparently tarps, removed in the withdrawal.
Dozens of positions were dug out for tanks or other vehicles.
Down the road, a team of Kurdish sappers pulled up about one mine every
minute. In just five hours of work, they cleared more than 230 anti-personnel
mines and 77 anti-tank mines, said the team leader, Abdullah Hamza Salim.
The light olive anti-tank mines are as big as a layer cake. The smaller mines are
black and about the size of an ashtray.
The team worked with no protective gear and used sticks to pry up the mines.
At least two sappers have been injured since Saturday. Salim said they had
received some mine-clearance training but wondered why U.S. experts have
not offered help.
"We would welcome the Americans, but they do not come," he said. "We face
this danger alone."
Three airstrike teams of six to eight combat aircraft each were launched late
Saturday against northern Iraq from the USS Theodore Roosevelt in the Eastern
Mediterranean late Saturday, according to Lt. John Oliveira. He said Iraqi
bunkers, artillery and surface-to-air missile sites and some Iraqi troops were hit
with laser- and satellite-guided munitions.
The Kurds established an autonomous region in northern Iraq after the 1991
Gulf War, beyond the control of the Baghdad government and protected by
U.S.-British air patrols. But Islamic militants control pockets of territory.
The United States sent more than 1,200 paratroopers into northern Iraq last
week and has begun coordinating military activities with the Kurds
U.S. Army battles its way into Hindiyah, surrounds holy city of
66
MARCH 2003
HINDIYAH, Iraq (AP) -- Trading fire with Iraqis hidden behind brick walls and
hedges, U.S. Army forces spearheading the drive on Baghdad battled their way
into this town 80 kilometers (50 miles) from the capital Monday and captured
dozens of members of Saddam Hussein's elite Republican Guard.
The fierce street-by-street fighting at the key Euphrates River crossing was the
war's closest known battle to Baghdad.
Farther south, the Army encircled the Shiite holy city of Najaf and said it killed
about 100 paramilitary fighters and captured about 50 Iraqis.
At least 35 Iraqi troops were reported killed and dozens captured in the fighting
in Hindiyah between the sacred city of Karbala and the ruins of ancient
Babylon. The prisoners told the Americans they belonged to the guard's
Nebuchadnezzar Brigade, based in Saddam's home area of Tikrit, and they had
the guard's triangular insignia.
An armored unit of the 3rd Infantry Division rolled into the town of 80,000 at
dawn and was met quickly by small arms fire and rocket propelled grenades
from Iraqis hiding behind hedges and brick walls.
One U.S. soldier was wounded in the leg.
On the southeast side of a concrete and steel bridge across the dark-green
Euphrates, the U.S. soldiers took up positions in abandoned bunkers and
sandbags and traded fire with Iraqis on the other side.
As the Americans began to cross the bridge, Iraqi troops tried to block it with
civilian cars. A dark blue car attempted to race across the bridge toward U.S.
forces but was hit with heavy machine gun fire, which stopped it in the middle.
Iraqi forces in civilian clothes with blue or red keffiyahs wrapped around their
heads and faces scrambled between buildings, trying to sneak up on U.S.
troops. Americans in tanks and Bradley fighting vehicles fired back with heavy
machine guns and 25mm cannon.
Leading to the bridge was a broad boulevard with wide sidewalks dotted with
cafes. Portraits of Saddam had been erected along the street every 100 meters
(yards).
``This must have been important to him (Saddam) to send down one of his
Republican Guard brigades,'' said U.S. brigade commander Col. David Perkins.
Looking across the river, he noted that Iraqis were firing rocket-propelled
grenades from the reeds, and told a company commander: ``Let's put some
artillery in there.''
Within minutes, 155mm artillery shells whistled overhead, falling along the far
side of the river, sending plumes of water into the air.
In another part of the city, a tank company attacked a bunker and killed 20
Iraqi troops and captured a dozen more in a different part of the city, according
to reports from the field.
At the Hindiyah police station, U.S. soldiers used shotguns to open a locked
door and stormed the building. Intelligence officers rifled through the desks.
Troops found maps with fighting positions marked out and organizational
charts.
67
MARCH 2003
Three Iraqi men were in the station's jail cells. They told U.S. soldiers they had
not eaten for three days. A company commander gave them field rations, and
the soldiers looked for the keys to the cells.
The 3rd Infantry is at the forefront of the advance on Baghdad, where a battle
looms with the Republican Guard.
But it was at Najaf -- a city of 300,000, 160 kilometers (100 miles) south of
Baghdad -- that U.S. military leaders were faced with a difficult decision.
It was unclear whether the U.S. strategy was to take Najaf or simply to cordon
off the city. There are too many Iraqi fighters to bypass them or leave them
unattended; they are a danger to supply lines on the way to Baghdad.
The U.S. Central Command said 100 ``terror squad members'' were killed
Sunday at Najaf and another town in fighting with the 82nd Airborne Division. It
did not further identify the ``terror squads'' or give other details about the
captured Iraqis.
The 101st Airborne Division surrounded Najaf, preparing for a possible house-
to-house battle to root out Saddam's fighters -- but they were wary of
damaging some of the area's sacred shrines.
In Najaf, the prophet Muhammad's son-in-law Ali is buried at an elaborate
shrine, its gold dome and twin minarets gleaming for kilometers (miles). It is
surrounded by low buildings and narrow streets, a nightmare of an urban
battleground.
Other Muslim holy figures are buried there and at the vast Wadi es-Salaam
cemetery -- one of the world's largest -- that forms a semicircle around the city.
U.S. officers said some of the Iraqi fighters were hiding there.
A battle that destroyed these holy places could inflame Shiites in Iraq and
elsewhere, most notably Iran.
general's office, said some locations in Najaf are on the military's ``no target''
list -- to be fired at only in self-defense.
The Army held out hope that the battle could be avoided. Using loudspeakers
mounted on Humvees, U.S. soldiers planned to beseech the townspeople of
Najaf to turn over Saddam's zealots.
bombarded by the allies. Gen. Richard Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of
Staff, said more than half of Sunday's sorties were directed at the guard.
In the south, a British air assault brigade attacked two companies of Iraqi
infantry north of the Rumeila region overnight and destroyed 17 T-55 tanks and
five artillery pieces, a British military spokesman said, speaking on condition of
anonymity.
British military spokesman Group Capt. Al Lockwood said an enormous amount
of equipment had been seized and some 30 Iraqis taken prisoner.
He said casualties were heavy on the Iraqi side, while one British soldier was
killed. ``There have been some significant military figures captured,'' he said,
but he would not elaborate.
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MARCH 2003

territory left by withdrawing Iraqi forces. The Kurds advanced almost 16
kilometers (10 miles), slowed by hundreds of mines.
69

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OPERATION IRAQI FREEDOM

Umm Qasr Liberated, But Now Under Siege By Looters

Iraq: Suicide Attacks Are Military Policy

The Americans and the French were in Lebanon as part of an ill-fated

Loud Explosions Rock Baghdad Again

several groups, lawyers, professors of international law in order to present a

Air Attacks Targeting Iraq's Elite Guard

Three-quarters of allied airstrikes are now targeting Republican Guard forces

Kurds Move Closer to N. Iraq Oil Center

Saddam Sacks Commander of Air Defenses

Saudis Protest Iraq War Despite Rally Ban

130,000 troops called up in change of battle plan

British army not taking a back seat to U.S. in taking on Iraqi

As Jets Pound Iraqi Positions, Ground Troops Continue Battling

They discovered caches of small arms, including two shoulder-fired SA-7

--And in Washington, the Pentagon identified eight Marines missing since

Bodies of 15 Dead Iraqis Found after Ambush Tell Tales

Troops prepare to build prisons

FULLERTON, Calif. -- Camp Bucca, somewhere in Southern Iraq -- The 36th

Marines Convoys on Lookout for Snipers, Ambush Teams

A Wild West lifestyle on a newly occupied airbase

Combat Seasoning Starts With 1st Mission

MREs are A-OK

The meals come in 24 different menus, ranging from "Thai Chicken" to

U.S. Forces Wait for Next Move in Baghdad

Having weathered near-Biblical sandstorms, fought guerrilla-style ambushes

Close Encounters Of Different Kinds

What Iraqi soldiers, fleeing quickly, left behind

U.S. Troops in Iraq Get First Mail Call

'Blue-collar warfare' dots way to Baghdad

SOUTH-CENTRAL IRAQ -- Convoys bearing tens of thousands of Marines bound

"I didn't think it would ever be that close."

Kitty Hawk pilots pound Republican Guard positions to prepare for

Dear diary life in the land of the embedded journalist

Associated Press reporters remain on assignment -- ``embedded,'' in military

``Since we successfully smoked a Tomahawk today, it seems fitting to smoke a

Marines Push North Along 'Ambush Alley'

Thousands of Marines pushed north toward Baghdad in "seek and destroy"

Troops Prep for Possible Urban Warfare

provoke the uncontrolled anger of Muslims, especially Shiites, with serious

A reporter for Sunday Telegraph of London reported that Kalashnikov rifles

Allied Soldiers Move Closer to Baghdad

Whitley, commander of coalition efforts to secure areas for humanitarian

U.S. Ready for Assault on Guard Forces

Battle for a village was 'a little piece of hell'

another word to describe his company's push through this village on

An armored Humvee with a speaker blasted messages in Arabic, telling civilians

America at War: Marines battle Iraqis in Nasiriyah

Karbala Gap seen as key to offensive

It is a gateway to Baghdad, a strip of land encompassing marshes and rich

Bridging A `Land Between Rivers' ; Bogs, Marshes Abound In Iraq

Two U.S. Soldiers Survive Week in Desert

Publication date: 2003-03-30

U.S. troops south of Baghdad move forward, meet Iraqi civilians

NEAR KARBALA, Iraq (AP) -- U.S. soldiers south of Baghdad advanced 15

U.S. Army Battles Its Way Into Hindiyah

A floating truck stop keeps navy commandos at work

Storied 7th U.S. Cavalry unit finds new battlefields in Iraq

Kurdish Fighters Move Toward Key Oil City

North of Baghdad, meanwhile, U.S.-backed Kurdish troops took control of

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