Post Latest Iraq War News Here - Part III

[Chemical Ollie]

21.00 Baghdad time
Coalition forces have started the assault on Saddam International Airport. 10 Iraqis, both military and civilians killed in the fight according to Reuters.

Electricity in Bagdhad cut for the first time since the war started.

Analyst from the Swedish Military Academy in serious doubt that the coalition has enough manpower in place to take control of the city. They will rather stay outside and make pinpoint raids into the city.

Images from inside Bagdhad of milita preparing defense positions in every street corner.

Source: Swedish TV News

[The Mad Monk]

The Baghdad Airport has been taken, reported by embedded reporter on the tarmac.

http://abcnews.go.com/sections/world/Primetime/iraq_main030403.html

edit: damn, that went quick.

[Koyaanisqatsi]

Civilians near Saddam International Airport are being told to head there, presumably to act as human shields. (CNN)

[monkspider]

Americans still unablel to break Iraqi resistance at Nasiriya

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/2913889.stm

[CrONoS]

Blair 'delayed US strike on Iraq'

Bush and Blair: British leader prevented 2001 attack on Iraq
US President George Bush was persuaded by UK Prime Minister Tony Blair not to attack Iraq in the immediate aftermath of the 11 September terrorist attacks, it has been claimed.
According to a former British ambassador to Washington, the US president had come under intense pressure from some in his own military to attack Saddam Hussein in the days after the 2001 terrorist outrages in the US.
==

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/2915149.stm

[CrONoS]

Basra battle 'is on two fronts'

British forces have been hoping the Iraqi troops will surrender
British forces are battling on two different fronts to secure the southern Iraq city of Basra, a military spokesman said on Thursday.
UK soldiers are fighting soldiers from Iraq's armed forces as well as against the irregular militia troops.

British Army spokesman Colonel Chris Vernon said the coalition forces were also striving to isolate these irregular forces from the local population.

"We must, in short, remove them from the community," he told a press conference in Kuwait.
==

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/2913879.stm

[monkspider]

Sadaam flees Baghdad to Syria?

http://www.debka.com/

"Baghdad pre-paid and chartered entire Hotel Cote d’Azur De Cham Resort at Syrian Mediterranean port of Latakiya near Assad family villa. Group may include Saddam Hussein or his sons, but this is not confirmed.

Top Iraqi officials hiding there since March 23, four days after coalition invaded Iraq, guarded by Syrian commando unit armed with anti-air missiles and Syrian naval missile boats securing port"


France: US made moral, strategic, and political mistake in Iraqi invasion

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story2&cid=574&ncid=721&e=4&u=/nm/20030403/wl_nm/iraq_france_raffarin_dc

Jordan sharply condemns US aggressors and shows strong sympathy with Iraq

http://www.upi.com/view.cfm?StoryID=20030402-042956-5552r

Israel threatens Syria with all out war

http://www.jordantimes.com/Wed/news/news4.htm

[Ned]

The 7th Cav did have a major battle with the Medina division:

"3rd Squadron 7th Cavalry
The 7th Cavalry Regiment some 12 miles from Baghdad has come under heavy fire this morning, the squadron continues to be the spearhead of the Army's 3rd Infantry Division. It has been reported that Iraqi slodiers were wearing gas masks.

Front Line News

The 7th Cavalry's "Apache troop", some 25 miles from Baghdad, came across an Iraqi anti-aircraft unit. There were three or four guns, 20 millimeter, of Soviet vintage. The 7th Cavalry opened up with tank fire and mortars, took them out and killed probably 20 Iraqis.

North of Karbala and about 50 miles south of Baghdad, units from 7th Cavalry Regiment of the Army's 3rd Infantry Division were engaged in a "knock-down, drag-out" battle with elements of the Republican Guard's Medina Division, a Pentagon official said. The clash began as a "probing action" of Iraqi defenses, and grew into "an all-out battle."

Full Story: CNN
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Apache troop, 7th Cavalry has been inching closer and closer to Baghdad. We can hear shooting all about us, particularly the 25 mm cannon aboard the Bradley fighting vehicles. The 7th Cavalry, along with its parent unit, the 3rd Infantry Division, crossed the Euphrates River. They are not encountering large Republican Guard units.

The Iraqi soldiers would dig small foxholes and small bunkers at intersections on backcountry roads, and firing at the convoys. They are no match for the heavy armored columns. The Iraqis we see are generally driving pickup trucks, or they are riding about in old Soviet Union vintage armored vehicles, which are no match for the armor-piercing shells that the tanks are firing.

This armored column has been under almost constant fire. When first crossing the Euphrates River, it was pretty barren in terms of not much of a civilian population. As we pushed closer to Baghdad, we began to see that the Iraqi population was indeed welcoming the U.S. Army convoy and welcoming them northward.

To the southwest, units from the 7th Cavalry Regiment of the Army’s 3rd Infantry Division thrust northwards after encircling the Shia shrine city of Karbala, crossing to the eastern bank of the Euphrates and advancing to the outskirts of Baghdad. "

http://www.us7thcavalry.com/ActiveUnits/

[Ned]

Clinton's CIA director, Woosley, says we are now fighting WW IV:

"He said the new war is actually against three enemies: the religious rulers of Iran, the "fascists" of Iraq and Syria, and Islamic extremists like al Qaeda."

"As we move toward a new Middle East," Woolsey said, "over the years and, I think, over the decades to come ... we will make a lot of people very nervous."

It will be America's backing of democratic movements throughout the Middle East that will bring about this sense of unease, he said.

"Our response should be, 'good!'" Woolsey said.

Singling out Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and the leaders of Saudi Arabia, he said, "We want you nervous. We want you to realize now, for the fourth time in a hundred years, this country and its allies are on the march and that we are on the side of those whom you -- the Mubaraks, the Saudi Royal family -- most fear: We're on the side of your own people."

http://www.cnn.com/2003/US/04/03/sprj.irq.woolsey.world.war/index.html

[Gatekeeper]

This is just surreal ... CNN is covering, live, a battle that's going on at the Baghdad International Airport while also at the same time their crew and U.S. soldiers are treating a wounded Iraqi soldier. Gunfire is everywhere, the picture is bouncy ... surreal ... just surreal.

Gatekeeper

[The Mad Monk]

Baghdadis Flee Airport Area After 'Night of Hell'

Reuters
Friday, April 4, 2003; 3:16 AM



BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Residents were fleeing suburbs near Baghdad airport into the city center on Friday, running from what one called a "night of hell" as U.S. forces moved in.

Reuters correspondent Samia Nakhoul watched cars loaded with blankets and possessions on the roof race at high speed up the main highway from the airport toward the city center. In the city center, however, the streets were all but deserted.

"There is a feeling that the war has arrived in Baghdad, everything is deserted," Nakhoul said.

There was little sign of new military preparations, aside from groups of green-uniformed militiamen armed with automatic rifles manning barricades throughout the city.

Most shops were shut and people largely stayed indoors, confused by rumors, not carried on state media, that U.S. troops had seized Saddam International Airport.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A25429-2003Apr4.html

edit: what happened to our 'other feeds'?

[The Mad Monk]

Al-Sistani Denies Fatwa Not To Resist Invasion

By Abdul Raheem Ali, IOL Staff

CAIRO, April 4 (IslamOnline.net) - Iraq's most senior religious leader denied a Fatwa Thursday, allegedly issued in his name, urging the country's Shia community not to hinder the U.S. and British invading armies.

According to a London-based charity organization – whose board chairman accompanied the British troops in Iraq - Grand Ayatollah Sayyid Ali al-Sistani – the foremost Shia authority in Iraq – called on Muslims to keep calm, stay at home, not put themselves in danger and not to fight.

However, n a statement signed by the grand Shia cleric, al-Sistani’s office in Najef categorically denied the “alleged Fatwa”.

The Ayatollah, who is 73, has been under house imprisonment at his home in the holy city of Najaf by Saddam Hussein's secret police for almost a decade. He was freed two days ago when his guards fled as U.S. forces advanced on the city.

Al-Khoiy Organization in London, headed by Mohamed al-Khoiy – son of one of the founders of Religious Center in Najef – has claimed that al-Sistani issued a Fatwa urging Iraqi Shia not to resist the U.S.-British forces.

Mohamed Bahr el-Uloum, a Shia cleric explained that the alleged Fatwa could have been issued “to protect the Shia shrines in Najef from being shelled and destroyed by the invasion forces”.

http://www.islam-online.net/English/News/2003-04/04/article02.shtml

[The Mad Monk]

Heavy Fighting In And Around Baghdad Airport

BAGHDAD AIRPORT, April 4 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – U.S. troops continued to exchange heavy gunfire and artillery fire with Iraqi troops in and around Baghdad's Saddam International Airport Friday, April 4, according to reporters in the embattled Iraqi capital.

The fighting, which raged as the troops attempted to gain full control of the facility, began at about 7:30 am (0330 GMT), shortly after U.S. forces said they had seized about 80 percent of the sprawling civilian and military airport complex, according to an Agence France-Presse (AFP) correspondent.

Iraqi forces were shelling U.S. positions within the airport, situated 20 kilometers (12 miles) southwest of Baghdad.

http://www.islam-online.net/English/News/2003-04/04/article01.shtml

[The Mad Monk]

Conflicting reports coming on capture of Baghdad airport

04.04.2003


By Dmitry Zelenin


ABU DHABI, April 4 (Itar-Tass) -- Vanguard units of the U.S. troops are controlling some 80 per cent of the territory of the Saddam international airport, near Baghdad, Al-Arabia satellite TV channel reported on Friday. According to its information, U.S. special task troops are combing houses and villages situated near the airport. Planes are continuously bombing the positions of the Iraqi troops, which are retreating in the direction of the Iraqi capital.

U.S. warplanes are in the sky over Baghdad all the time, but no reports about air raids have come so far. Electricity and water supply was interrupted in many parts of the city. The Iraqi authorities have made no official reports on the situation around Baghdad.

At the same time Itar-Tass correspondent Viktor Lebedev reported from Dubai that a correspondent of Al-Arabia staying several kilometres away from the international airport of Baghdad could not confirm the fact of its capture. He said that the sound of explosions was coming from the airport, the same as from other parts of the city. According to his information, air raids on Baghdad are going on. Al-Arabia showed the streets of Baghdad with cars moving by them. Electricity supply has been interrupted in the whole of Baghdad, while water continues to be supplied.

Iraqi leaders have not held their habitual daily press conference so far.

http://www.itar-tass.ru/different/oper_lenta/english/iraq/259388.html

[Eli]

Reuters :
3 American soldiers and one Iraqi pregnant woman were killed when a suicide car bomb exploded in a road block near Baghdad.