Battle rages south of Baghdad

3.00pm

BAGHDAD - US ground troops are waging a "major battle" with the Iraqi Republican Guard south of Baghdad after President Saddam Hussein issued a statement urging Iraqis to wage a holy war against invaders.

On a day in which US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld made clear that only an unconditional Iraqi surrender would end the war, a US military official said a big fight was under way near the southern town of Kerbala, 110 kilometres southwest of Baghdad.

"This is the big battle," the US military official at Central Command forward headquarters told Reuters.
Asked if the fighting represented a much anticipated new push toward the Iraqi capital, the official said: "It well could be."

Late in the day, as US planes returned to pound Baghdad once again, the US Central Command said its forces had rescued a prisoner of war in Iraq. A family member confirmed the POW was Jessica Lynch, 19, a member of the maintenance company which ran by mistake last week into an Iraqi unit.

"She's alive and well," the family member told Reuters from the family home in Palestine, West Virginia.

Reuters reporters travelling with invading US and British troops earlier said a pause of several days in their advance toward Baghdad -- under heavy bombardment since the war started 13 days ago -- appeared to be over and armour was moving again.

In Baghdad, in a statement attributed to Saddam read out on state television, the Iraqi leader urged Iraqis to fight American and British troops wherever they were. "Hit them, fight them. ... Fight them everywhere," the statement said.

Saddam, 65, did not appear personally. Rumours have swirled since the war began that he may have been hurt in a US air attack. He has been seen several times on television but it was not known when those appearances were recorded.

In recent days, US warplanes have subjected Baghdad and Republican Guard forces around it to a tremendous battering as land forces fought to within 50 miles (80 km) of the capital. A Reuters witness in Baghdad heard at least six massive explosions in central Baghdad early on Wednesday local time.

Reuters correspondent Samia Nakoul said she saw at least one blast at a presidential compound.

"The area that was hit is where there are many ministries, many military buildings," she said. "One of them was a big explosion. It looks like they hit an artillery position or ammunition store."

Saddam's message this time, unaccompanied by images of the leader, was read out by Information Minister Mohammed Saeed al-Sahaf. Rumsfeld said the fact that Saddam "did not show up" in person was "interesting."

Rumsfeld's use of the term "unconditional surrender" was the bluntest statement yet of US war aims, which are officially to oust Saddam, his family and supporters, install a more representative Iraqi government and destroy the weapons of mass destruction the United States insists Saddam is hiding.

So far, no such weapons have been found.

"There will be no outcome to this war that leaves Saddam Hussein and his regime in power," Rumsfeld told a Pentagon briefing. "Let there be no doubt, his time will end, and soon. The only thing that the coalition will discuss with this regime is their unconditional surrender."

But Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Tareq Aziz said he was confident Iraq could frustrate Washington's war aims.

"We are confident of victory. Victory how? Victory is defeating aggression by preventing it from achieving its goals. This is victory," he said in an interview with the Arab satellite channel LBC.

Saddam's call for jihad followed more fighting in the south, continuing air raids on the Iraqi capital and on the northern city of Kirkuk and more civilian deaths in an air raid, deaths that have further fired Arab anger.

US commander Richard Myers expressed regret for the deaths of seven women and children killed by US troops at a checkpoint on Monday. He said, "the climate established by the Iraqi regime contributed to this incident."

US troops have been nervous of possible suicide bombers since a suicide attack killed four soldiers on Saturday.

Marines on Tuesday shot dead an unarmed driver and badly wounded his passenger at a roadblock south of Baghdad.

The civilian deaths were bound to damage US efforts to win Iraqi hearts and minds. But White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said "slowly but surely the hearts and minds of the Iraqi people are being won over as they see security increase in their areas, as humanitarian deliveries are stepped up."

Myers told reporters in Washington that the pummelling from the air and ground had left two of Iraq's elite Republican Guard divisions below 50 per cent of their initial combat capability. While they had not staged a retreat, he said US officials had seen some troops disperse into civilian areas.

Reuters reporters taken by Iraqi officials to a hospital in the town of Hilla saw 11 bodies, apparently civilians. Residents said they were killed when US bombs hit the residential area. Sahaf said nine of the dead were children.

"What has he done wrong, what has he done wrong?" demanded the driver of the truck carrying the bodies, as he held the corpse of an infant.

At a televised news conference on Tuesday (Wednesday NZT), Vice-President Taha Yassin Ramadan said 6,000 volunteer fighters had arrived in Iraq. More than half were suicide fighters and "you'll hear about them soon."

The United States has downplayed the diplomatic fall-out from the Iraq war so far, but Secretary of State Colin Powell left Washington on Tuesday morning for a hastily arranged trip to Europe and Turkey.

Powell told reporters he sought a "spirit of accommodation" and a Turkish pledge not to launch an incursion into northern Iraq, a move Washington fears could undermine its war effort.

- REUTERS

Herald Feature: Iraq war