US tanks make foray into Baghdad

7.00am

BAGHDAD - American tanks have made a foray into Iraq's battered capital for the first time in what US officials dub a demonstration of their ability to operate in President Saddam Hussein's power base.

But Saddam's information minister, saying Iraqi forces had kept American forces out of Baghdad and had pushed them back from its international airport, insisted no US forces had entered the city.

Reuters correspondent Khaled Yacoub Oweis, who drove freely around the sprawling city of five million, saw no sign of US forces in areas he visited on Saturday (Sunday NZT).

US Major-General Victor Renuart told a news conference in Qatar the tank thrust, after 17 days of war, was a "clear statement of the ability of the coalition forces to move into Baghdad at times and places of their choosing".

Iraqi Information Minister Mohammed Saeed al-Sahaf said film footage showing US tanks and troops was shot 30-40 km from the heart of the city. "The film they broadcast to you is a lie," he said. "This is a ploy."

US military sources said dozens of tanks and Bradley fighting vehicles met sporadic fire as they pushed into southern Baghdad, before meeting up with US forces at the airport.

The US task force, they added, carried out a reconnaissance sweep through the city's Dawra suburb before rumbling back down the city's main highway south.

Earlier, Sahaf read a message on Iraqi television he said was from Saddam urging Iraqi troops and citizens to step up attacks on the US and British invasion forces.

"The criminals will be humiliated," the message said. "To hurt the enemy more, raise the level of your attacks."

In his weekly radio address, US President George W. Bush said his troops were fighting a "great and just cause" and would battle until Saddam's government was toppled. "Village by village, city by city, liberation is coming," he said.

The US foray into Baghdad met resistance described by one spokesman as sporadic. "There were firefights, but if you're one of those folks who were involved in that firefight on the ground, it was pretty intense," Captain Frank Thorp said.

Four US soldiers were wounded, one of them shot in the head, and an Iraqi general was captured, US sources said.

US forces called in air support to attack Iraqi tanks on the northern edge of the airport, military sources said. US troops also destroyed a Republican Guard headquarters.

The Americans said they had won control of the airport, 20 km from the city centre, but not all outlying areas.

A military official told Reuters the airstrip itself was in good condition and was expected to be up and running within days for troops, supplies and humanitarian relief.

An Iraqi military spokesman denied US forces controlled the airport and said hundreds of US troops had been killed in the fighting. Sahaf said the rest had been expelled.

A US Marine gunnery sergeant said on Saturday his unit had been told there had been a suicide bombing at the airport.

"The last order we just got said there was another suicide bombing at the airport, so be especially vigilant at roadblocks," Mark Woodward told Reuters correspondent Matthew Green, with the Marines southeast of Baghdad.

Renuart said he was aware of the report but was not aware of any suicide bombing at the airport.

US-led forces have been on heightened alert for possible suicide attacks after two previous bombings killed a total of seven of their soldiers in Iraq.

As US units operated around Baghdad, other troops protected their rear with a ground and air assault on the Shi'ite Muslim shrine city of Kerbala, 110 km to the southwest.

In the Kerbala fighting, helicopter-borne troops of the 101st Airborne Division landed on the western edge of town and moved in beside a tank battalion with Apache attack helicopters overhead, Reuters correspondent Kieran Murray reported.

Iraqi paramilitary forces fired assault rifles and rocket-propelled grenades from city rooftops. US forces hit back using attack helicopters, artillery and heavy weapons.

"It's freaky in there. Lots of bullets flying around. It's pretty scary," said one US soldier who was among half a dozen troops wounded in the fierce street fighting.

US officers said fighter jets had hit a Republican Guard facility, the ruling Baath Party headquarters and an ammunitions depot with 2,000 pound bombs shortly before midday.

Three huge plumes of smoke rose above Kerbala and secondary explosions were heard after the air strikes.

In Basra, US forces said they struck the home of Ali Hassan al-Majeed, or "Chemical Ali", the cousin Saddam put in charge of Iraq's southern front. Majeed earned his nickname overseeing the use of poison gas against Kurds in 1988.

US officials did not say whether he was in the house at the time.

In the north, US forces moved from Kurdish-held territory towards Iraqi lines defending the oil city of Mosul, after a day of American air strikes on the area, a Reuters witness said.

A senior Kurdish commander in the north said the strategic northern Iraqi oil hub of Kirkuk could fall within days now the noose was tightening around Baghdad.

The push into Baghdad followed a blistering overnight air and artillery barrage against its eastern flank.

The International Committee of the Red Cross said several hundred wounded Iraqis had been admitted to Baghdad hospitals after US troops reached the city and fighting erupted.

As the war came closer, many people fled in cars packed with blankets and belongings. The mood in the capital was grim.

"This is it. This is the final battle. We have no way out," said Nour Khaled, 48, a mother of two. "We're confronting the mightiest army in the world. What can we do? Where can we go?"

Hundreds of men, women and children were trudging south from Baghdad on a main road 20-30 km outside the city, Green reported. Most were empty-handed or carried children too young to walk in midday heat through open fields and marshlands.

To the north of the city, US military officials reported traffic jams as Baghdad residents fled.

Washington launched the war vowing to oust Saddam and rid Iraq of chemical and biological weapons. Baghdad denies having such arms and invasion forces have yet to find any.

South of Baghdad, a US officer said first tests of a white powder found in thousands of boxes showed it was not a chemical weapon. Colonel John Peabody told Reuters most of it appeared to be the nerve gas antidote atropine, and another chemical.

The US military identified eight soldiers killed in the reported ambush of a supply convoy in southern Iraq on March 23, raising to 75 the number of American troops killed in the war.

The remains of the troops were found in a hospital in Nassiriya more than a week after the encounter by US special forces who rescued a captured woman soldier, Jessica Lynch.

On the diplomatic front, a US official said the United States would unveil the first stages of a civil administration for post-war Iraq in the next few days.

- REUTERS


Herald Feature: Iraq war