Post Latest Iraq War News Here - Part II

[DanS]

An Najaf reported to be partially taken. Iraqi irregulars retreat. Troops welcomed!

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A4297-2003Apr1.html

This and Karbala are the linchpins to Shiite Iraq. It would be great news if it holds!

[MichaeltheGreat]

POW rescued!

from CNN:

Army PFC Jessica Lynch, 507th Maintenance Co., MIA since 23-Mar, was rescued fron a hospital in Nasariyah. She's in "stable" condition, having suffered multiple gunshot wounds. No other details on her condition, or the fate of other MIAs/POWs lost in the area.

[Daz]

Not aljazeera...

At least 11 civilians, nine of them children, were killed in Hilla in central Iraq yesterday, according to reporters in the town who said they appeared to be the victims of bombing. Reporters from the Reuters news agency said they counted the bodies of 11 civilians and two Iraqi fighters in the Babylon suburb, 50 miles south of Baghdad. Nine of the dead were children, one a baby. Hospital workers said as many as 33 civilians were killed.

Also...

President Hosni Mubarak warned today that a protracted U.S.-led war in Iraq will lead to a dangerous rise in Islamic militancy across the Arab world.

"If there is one [Osama] bin Laden now, there will be 100 bin Ladens afterward," Mubarak said in a televised speech to army commanders in the city of Suez, 80 miles east of the capital, Cairo.

In the same speech, he defended Egypt's decision to grant the United States the right to use the Suez Canal to transport troops and materials.

"Crossing of ships of the Suez Canal is a right for all countries and is an international commitment that cannot be trampled with," Mubarak said.

Mubarak's speech reflected concern among U.S. allies in the Arab world that the lengthening timetable for the war would bring more protests and a rise in extremism that could damage their governments. But it also revealed the need to criticize the war while at the same time maintaining good relations with the United States.

The Egyptian president has condemned the war repeatedly, but he also blames Iraqi President Saddam Hussein for his failure to cooperate with the international community

[Ned]

CNN, FOX MSNBC:

Marines cross Tigris, destroy Baghdad division, move up East bank of Tigris towards Baghdad.

3rd ID takes Karbala and moves rapidly North. Surrendering troops in Karbala claim to be border guards.

Officers drive from Baghdad and surrender to 3rd ID. They report that Russian military is actively assisting Saddam's forces. As well, the French and the Russians have been supplying night vision goggles and anti-tank weapons.

[MichaeltheGreat]

Link to that last part?

I find nothing on any of CNN's, Fox or MSNBC website about French or Russian aid to Iraq, let alone active assistance by the Russian military.

Most recent from cnn: http://www.cnn.com/2003/WORLD/meast/...tle/index.html

[The Mad Monk]

Last night on the radio, I heard they had discovered a cache of French-make anti-tank missles. They weren't sure at the time if the missles were pre- or post- GWI.

[Daz]

I heard the dates were in French, so they couldnt decipher it right away...

Sorry MTG, coment deserves comment.

Anyway...

A Russian navy squadron is set to depart for the Indian Ocean next week in the largest naval deployment since the Soviet times, a news agency reported.

When the Russian navy ships reach the Indian Ocean, they plan to take part in joint maneuvers with the Indian navy, the Interfax-Military News Agency reported, quoting an unidentified official at the General Staff of the Russian armed forces.

Participating in the voyage are the Black Sea Fleet's flagship missile cruiser Moskva, escort ships Pytlivy and Smetlivy, landing ship Cesar Kunikov and several supply ships. The Pacific Fleet is sending anti-submarine ships Marshal Shaposhnikov and Admiral Panteleyev and a tanker, the agency reported.

It said the ships were scheduled to set out to sea from next Tuesday.

Russian Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov has said repeatedly that the naval deployment was unrelated to Iraq

In an interview published Tuesday, he reaffirmed that the Russian navy ships weren't going to the Persian Gulf. The deployment "isn't aggressive or directed against nations of the region," Ivanov told the daily Komsomolskaya Pravda.

Ivanov said joint maneuvers with the Indian navy was a possibility, but didn't give any further details of the deployment.

The Russian navy's presence in world oceans has been slightly reduced since the Soviet collapse. Most warships have languished berthside due to a lack of fuel and spares.

"The navy was staying dockside for many years, the seamen were losing their skills and people abroad stopped recognizing our ... flag," Ivanov said in the interview. "Why don't we correct this defect?"

[Ned]

MTG, the reporter is MSNBC man embedded with the 3rd ID. His last name is Bloom. I saw an updated report just a few minutes ago. This time he stressed that these "Russian" military are former USSR military.

[Messer Niccolò]

Reuters News

NEWS - DAY 14 OF THE WAR
* Vanguard of U.S. forces 30 km (19 miles) from south edge of Baghdad, sources say; some over "red line" where risk chemical attack
* U.S. says Baghdad Division of Republican Guard "destroyed" near Kut, southeast of capital
* U.S. air raid hits Baghdad maternity hospital, trade fair
and motorists; several killed and at least 25 wounded, hospital sources and witnesses say
* Colin Powell says has agreed measures with Turkey to ship military supplies to U.S. troops in northern Iraq
* Iraqi TV says Saddam chairs meeting of top officials
including two sons; no footage of meeting shown

REUTERS WAR POLL
* Defence experts say U.S. troops likely to need four to
eight weeks to take Baghdad, but say predictions difficult
* Fund managers see average six more weeks of war, taking conflict into middle of May
* Fund managers expect S&P 500 to gain five to six percent in next three months, but see little to strengthen dollar ( )


CASUALTIES
* U.S. - 53 killed, 11 missing
* Britain - 27 killed
* Iraqi military - no confirmed figures
* Iraqi civilians (Iraqi estimates) - at least 677 killed, 5,036 injured

MILITARY ACTION
BAGHDAD: U.S. advance towards Baghdad on two fronts against Republican Guard; reaching to within 30 km (19 miles) of city
Iraq says U.S. warplanes hit Red Crescent maternity hospital and city's trade fair in morning bombing, killing several
B-52s drop cluster bombs on Iraqi tank column guarding city

CENTRAL IRAQ: U.S. says American troops destroy the Baghdad division of Republican Guard near Kut, southeast of capital;
Iraq denies that U.S. Marines secured a key bridge over Tigris
Units with U.S. 3rd Infantry cross Euhprates north of
Kerbala, secure territory on east bank
Euphrates dam seized by U.S. troops northwest of Baghdad

SOUTHERN IRAQ: U.S. Marines rescue female PoW from
Nassiriya.

NORTHERN IRAQ: B52s pound Iraqi front line between Mosul and Kurdish-controlled northern Iraq; Turkish-registered trucks with U.S. escort head towards Iraqi front line

-----
edited minor changes

[SlowwHand]

AP Photo
11 Bodies Found With Rescued U.S. POW
(AP) - Eleven bodies — some of them believed to be Americans — were found with prisoner of war Pfc. Jessica Lynch when she was rescued in a U.S. commando raid on an Iraqi hospital, a military spokesman said Wednesday. Lynch, a 19-year-old Army supply clerk, was captured by the Iraqis more than a week ago after her maintenance unit made a wrong turn and was ambushed in Nasiriyah. Twelve other members of her unit were also feared captured; five of them are officially listed as POWs.


more

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20030402/ap_on_re_mi_ea/war_us_pow_52

[Adam Smith]

Baath Party Remains In Control of Many Southern Towns

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A6106-2003Apr1.html

From Strife-Torn South, Reports of Fear, Isolation

By Anthony Shadid
Washington Post Foreign Service
Wednesday, April 2, 2003; Page A01

[exerpt:]
BAHDAD, April 1 -- At the Karkh bus station today, near the Ibn Buniyya Mosque, drivers loaded their ramshackle green buses with pilgrims, soldiers and families. The road is open, the drivers said, but two weeks into the war, travelers describe the cities of southern Iraq as besieged and beleaguered.

In conversations with bus drivers, families traveling to and from Baghdad and relatives who have stayed in contact by telephone, stories are recounted of isolated and fearful residents, dependent on dwindling government rations, terrified by relentless U.S. air assaults. In more candid moments, they complain of being trapped in the middle -- between a U.S. attack they fear will lead to an occupation and a brutal, unpopular government flashing an iron fist in the traditionally restive south.

Without exception, they insisted that the ruling Baath Party remains in unyielding control -- "at least 90 percent," in the words of one -- with thousands of cadres deployed with green uniforms and Kalashnikovs block by block, intersection by intersection to prevent the fall of cities such as Basra, Nasiriyah, Hilla and the sacred Shiite Muslim town of Karbala.

"If you take your shoe off and throw it outside, it will land on one of the Baath Party guys," one relative told a traveler here.

The conversations shed light on the loyalty of Shiites in southern Iraq to President Saddam Hussein. They provided insights, too, into the fragility of their fealty. Residents say the Baath Party's numbers in the southern cities burgeoned in the 1990s -- the $15 a month members received was one of the few sources of income in the miserably poor region. Their ranks have, in part, allowed the government to saturate the streets with an almost blanket control that has yet to show any fissures. For how long remains a question.

[monkspider]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/2909925.stm

US bombs maternity hospital, scores of innocents feared dead

[DanS]

CNN reports that Karbala (the city itself) has been taken, in large part.

[MichaeltheGreat]

Originally posted by monkspider

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/2909925.stm

US bombs maternity hospital, scores of innocents feared dead

According to CNN, the International Committee for the Red Cross has visited the hospital, and the actual target was a building across the street. The hospital had some blown out windows and knocked down ceiling tiles, and cars parked on the street were damaged, but the hospital itself is functioning and there were no confirmed injuries.

[Dinner]

The Pentigon has just said two key Republican Guard Divisions have been effectively destroyed.

• Medina and Baghdad Republican Guard divisions no longer "credible forces," Pentagon reports
• Military sources: Infantry division 25 miles from Iraqi capital
• Central Command's Brig. Gen. Brooks: "The dagger is clearly pointed at the heart of the regime"
• Army takes Karbala, Marines seize Kut

http://www.cnn.com