Author:
Faizal Ally (Mujahid)
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Date Posted: 17:10:56 04/08/03 Tue
April 08 2003 at 11:09AM
By Samia Nakhoul
Baghdad - United States forces staged an explosive show of supremacy in central Baghdad on Tuesday, blasting government targets virtually at will after trying to kill Iraqi President Saddam Hussein and his sons with four huge bombs.
Tanks, backed by ground attack planes and helicopters, pushed some three kilometres into the nerve centre of Saddam's administration, meeting scattered resistance from fighters with assault rifles and rocket-propelled grenades.
The US military said it was expanding its presence in Baghdad.
Two Abrams tanks emerged onto the Jumhuriya bridge across the Tigris river in a clear message of power to forces still loyal to Saddam in this battered city of five million people.
But Iraq's information minister said Iraqi forces would "tackle and destroy" the invaders.
"They are going to surrender or be burned in their tanks," Mohammed Saeed al-Sahaf told reporters in front of the Palestine Hotel. "Baghdad is bracing itself to pummel the invaders."
Ambulances tore through the streets, ferrying casualties to hospitals already struggling to cope with the impact of fighting that reached the core of the capital on Monday when US forces seized a main presidential palace compound.
Al-Jazeera television said its Baghdad office was hit during a US air raid. One of its cameramen, Tarek Ayoub, was killed and another crew member, Zohair al-Iraqi, slightly wounded.
Four Reuters journalists were wounded in a blast at the Palestine Hotel, where most foreign media are based.
Plumes of smoke billowed from central areas as planes, tanks and artillery pounded government ministries and official buildings. Helicopters and planes could be seen attacking a Republican Guard compound southeast of the centre.
To the east of the capital, US marines were assaulting the Rashid airfield, about five kilometres from the centre.
Iraqi state television went off the air. It had failed to broadcast a morning news bulletin, showing only old footage of Saddam being cheered at rallies. The radio also went silent briefly, but returned with a range of songs praising Saddam.
The US military indicated that they had targeted Iraqi television transmitters. "Clearly we would like to destroy Saddam's capability to disseminate lies," said Major Michael Birmingham, with the US 3rd Infantry Division.
Confusion and fear gripped the capital, where few telephones are working. Residents desperately questioned journalists on the progress of US forces, or tried to get messages to relatives abroad via the few foreign aid agencies still operating.
There was no word on the fate of Saddam.
US aircraft dropped 900kg bombs on a building in a residential area late on Monday after intelligence reports said the Iraqi leader and his sons Uday and Qusay might have been inside with other Iraqi leaders, US officials said.
"A leadership target was hit very hard," Major Brad Bartlett, a spokesperson at US Central Command war headquarters in Qatar, said. "Battle damage assessment is ongoing."
Saddam was also targeted in the first US strike of the war, in the early hours of March 20, that hit a residential compound on the western outskirts of Baghdad.
Witnesses said two houses were flattened and four buildings badly damaged in Monday's air raid on the Mansour district. They said nine Iraqis were killed and four wounded.
A US A-10 Warthog plane went down near Baghdad Airport on Tuesday but the pilot was rescued, the US military said.
"The pilot ejected safely from the aircraft and was recovered by coalition ground forces near the airport. The pilot is reported to be in good condition," it said in a statement.
American President George Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair were meeting in Northern Ireland and were expected to say they would welcome the United Nations playing a role in postwar Iraq, but not as the controlling authority.
The two leaders, who went to war despite opposition from old allies such as France and Germany, have turned their attention to the postwar period now that US and British troops "appear" to have the upper hand.
A US-led civil administration will start work in Iraq on Tuesday when a team of about 20 officials deploys in Umm Qasr to assess humanitarian needs, a spokesperson said.
"You can say it is our first step in setting up ORHA's regions inside Iraq," said a spokesperson for the administration, known as the Office for Reconstruction and Humanitarian Assistance (ORHA), which is currently based in Kuwait.
Its mission is to provide humanitarian assistance, work on reconstructing Iraq and install a civil administration to pave the way for the creation of an interim Iraqi government.
It will be split into northern, central and southern regions and is headed by retired US General Jay Garner, who made a preliminary visit to Umm Qasr last week.
Garner's presence in Kuwait has prompted deep Arab suspicion about Washington's motives and widespread calls that the United Nations be given the job of handling postwar Iraq.
Analysts say his mission has also stirred debate in Bush's administration, with the state department arguing with the Pentagon over how to shape Iraq's political future.
US deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz said on Sunday it would take more than six months to form an interim Iraqi authority to run the country once Saddam had been defeated.
Garner will report to US General Tommy Franks.
Source: www.iol.co.za
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