Coalition forces begin ferocious assault on Baghdad's red zone

3.45pm

QATAR - The United States and Britain began a ferocious air and missile attack on the Republican Guard divisions protecting Baghdad today in their first concerted effort to force a way through, eventually, the treacherous "red zone" surrounding the Iraqi capital.

The US confirmed that one Apache helicopter gunship was downed in the first wave of air assaults, launched as a precursor to what military planners see as the decisive phase of the campaign.

And the US 3rd Infantry Division was slowed by a fierce sandstorm as it spearheaded the advance towards Karbala, around 50 miles south-west of Baghdad.

The two-person crew of the Apache, one of 30 to 40 on the same mission, were listed "missing in action" on a day which also saw the first combat death of a British soldier in fighting, at Az-Zubayr, near Basra.

Two British soldiers who failed to rejoin their unit after a fierce engagement were also still missing last night.

Earlier, a senior British military source had said that the first of what was planned to be a series of massive US air assaults had been launched early yesterday on the three heavily armed Republican Guard divisions firmly established in a semi-circle about 30 miles to the west, south and east of Baghdad.

Attacks by Apaches, B-52 bombers, Harrier GR7 strike aircraft , A10 "Warthog" tankbusters and Tomahawk surface-to-surface missiles is regarded as an essential, and possibly protracted, preliminary to an advance to Baghdad, spearheaded by the US Fifth Corps, from a front line running east of Karbala.

The Medina division to the south-west of the city, the Baghdad division to the south-east and the Al-Nida to the east, each numbering between 10,000 and 12,000 men - hitherto close to full strength and supplied with Russian T-72 tanks - are the best equipped and protected in the Iraqi army.

The British source warned: "Before we start to move forward, these people have to capitulate or be destroyed."

Sources said that British and US special forces are in or close to the "red zone" helping to identify targets for the assaults on the three divisions, half of the six which encircle the city.

At the same time, US forces have built a runway near Najaf to launch short-range unmanned surveillance drones to help identify targets for air and missile attacks.

To the north, troops have been landed in four transport aircraft on airstrips in Kurdish-controlled northern Iraq in a possible precursor to a planned northern front.

Plans for this front were put in doubt by Turkey's decision not to allow US forces to use bases in the country to launch an invasion.

The British source said that Iraqi divisions north of Baghdad would also be bombed if they tried to move south.

As Tony Blair told the Commons that ground forces led by the US Fifth Corps were going to advance on Baghdad as soon as possible, one senior military officer said: "This is going to be a fight, not a one-day campaign. Air is central, but it did not break his back inside of Baghdad."

As well as seeking to clear a path for ground forces into Baghdad, military planners are determined to prevent the divisions either moving south to attack Allied forces or to withdraw into Baghdad where they can stiffen further resistance in the city itself.

Lieutenant General William S Wallace, the commander of the US Fifth Corps, told Michael Gordon of The New York Times at his mobile command post "We have to shape the fight."

The initial air attack focused on the Medina division and was carried out by several squadrons of Apache attack helicopters from the Army's 11th Attack Helicopter Regiment.

More than 30 surface-to-surface missiles, called Atacms, were also unleashed on the division. Some of the attacks are concentrated on artillery in part because it is believed to have the capacity to fire chemical shells.

The advance has also been complicated by its speed and the unexpectedly stiff resistance which the military says has been offered by Fedayeen under the command of Saddam Hussein's son Uday and other elements of the Iraqi dictator's security apparatus.

Moreover, although General Tommy Franks, the commander of the Allied invasion, said yesterday that 3000 Iraqi soldiers had surrendered and many others had abandoned their posts and returned home, the surrenders have so far been fewer than had been suggested by some politicians and senior commanders at the start of the war.

On Saturday, Admiral Sir Michael Boyce, Britain's Chief of Defence Staff, said in London that the Iraqi 51st Division had surrendered. But senior US military sources now say that the surrender was undertaken by a junior officer posing as a commander in order to secure better allied treatment.

A US military spokesman here said that two bridges over the Euphrates near Nasiriyah, scene of fierce fighting which cost the lives of up to nine US Marines on Sunday, had been secured, and the Marines were advancing north of the bridges, despite reports of continued fighting in the area.

US military sources say that Special Republican Guard forces have not collapsed but are defending key sites in the city, including command centers and Baghdad airport.

To shield themselves from air-strikes, they are taking refuge in schools, mosques and other structures off limits to air attack, the sources said.

British officials said the task of the British 16 Air Assault Brigade was to continue to secure the Rumaila oilfield - where Allied officers say that only seven out of 500 wellheads are burning.

Meanwhile, the 7th Armoured Brigade's main task will be to "screen" Basra.

Besides special forces active throughout the theatre of war, British support units, including chemical and biological units, are also with the advance columns.

General Franks said the Allies had "intentionally bypassed enemy formations," but acknowledged that Fedayeen, the Baath Party paramilitary organisation, and the Special Republican Guard had been harassing the US and British rear in the south.

General Franks added: "We know that the Fedayeen has in fact put itself in a position to mill about, to create difficulties in rear areas, and I can assure you that contact with those forces is not unexpected."

He said cleaning up the bypassed forces would take "some time."

General Franks also accused the Iraqis of criminal behaviour in using civilians as human shields, intentionally placing them next to military equipment and formations.

He said the irregular units "have a lot of allegiance to the regime and so we can expect dead-enders. We have come across dead-enders and we have had some terrific firefights."

General Franks said that Saddam Hussein's regime is able to issue orders to its military units, although the command network is "less robust."

He added: "They still do have a means, a somewhat limited means, of communications."

General Franks said troops were collecting information about possible chemical and biological weapons as they sweep north.

"I think that we probably have received several... bits of information over the last three or four days about potential WMD [weapons of mass destruction] locations," he said.

US officers admit they have yet to find conclusive evidence of such weapons but say they are convinced they will do so.

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Herald Feature: Iraq