U.S. blazes through Iraq's best troops

By Tony Perry and Geoffrey Mohan
Los Angeles Times

WITH U.S. FORCES IN IRAQ — U.S. Marines broke through Saddam Hussein's Republican Guard south of Baghdad early today and began rolling straight toward the Iraqi capital, commanders said.

Soldiers of the U.S. Army's 3rd Infantry Division launch missiles at Iraq's Republican Guard, the most loyal force to President Saddam Hussein, near Karbala today. Takanori Sekine • Kyodo News via AP

The Marines pushed across the Tigris River and severed Route 6, one of the main arteries leading north to the capital, 1st Marine Division commanders said. They said their troops now controlled access to Baghdad along Route 6.

In a breakthrough along a second approach to the city, a brigade of the Army's 3rd Infantry Division battled its way north into the Karbala Gap, securing a strategic chokepoint less than 50 miles south the Iraqi capital and moving for the first time inside the "red line" perimeter that is the city's final line of defense.

Bradley fighting vehicles and soldiers from the 3rd Infantry rolled up Route 9, a second key artery leading north. They moved toward Karbala, a Shiite Muslim holy city of about 549,000, where they battled the armored Medina Division of the Republican Guard, some of the best trained and heavily armed warriors standing between the American forces and Baghdad.

Allied aircraft pummeled Medina's tanks and troops. The thundering booms of artillery and rocket fire shook the air every five seconds throughout the night and early morning, and the sky in the direction of Karbala glowed hot red.

U.S. commanders said that defeating the Medina Division would leave their march into Baghdad virtually open.

The commanders said they had detected movement of other guard divisions to come to Medina's aid, but the reinforcements seemed to have failed.

Similarly, Marine commanders said the 1st Division had flanked other Republican Guard units near the Baghdad Division. Neither the Marines nor the Army reported any American casualties.

On the eastern flank of the war, Brig. Gen. John F. Kelly, assistant commander of the 1st Marine Division, ordered a message sent to Republican Guard soldiers:

"Come out. We don't want to kill any more of you. You are cut off from Baghdad and have no artillery. Remember how well you were treated as prisoners in 1991. Remember also how efficiently we can kill you. Many of your officers are already resting safely and comfortably in coalition hands.

"Know that people we have liberated in the last few weeks have welcomed us. We can be your best friend or worst enemy."

With U.S. paratroopers in northern Iraq and large Army and Marine units to the west, south and east of Baghdad, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld told reporters at the Pentagon yesterday, "The circle is closing."

Rumsfeld said Saddam's government had been planting rumors that U.S. officials have been negotiating with Iraqi leaders, trying to convince the Iraqi people that "the coalition does not intend to finish the job."

"There are no negotiations taking place," Rumsfeld said. "There is no outcome to this war that will leave Saddam Hussein and his regime in power. The only thing that the coalition will discuss with this regime is their unconditional surrender."

Military officials said the number of U.S. troops killed in the war had risen to 46, from 44 listed Monday. Thirty-eight have been killed in combat and eight in other incidents, including accidents. Fifteen service members were listed as missing in action and seven as prisoners of war.

In Baghdad, thunderous explosions shook the center of the city early today as allied warplanes struck Saddam's presidential compounds along the Tigris River, sending flames and clouds of smoke into the sky.

A message read on state television on behalf of Saddam called on the people of Iraq to rise up in a jihad, or holy war, against U.S. and British forces.

"Strike at them, fight them," the statement said. "They are aggressors, evil, accursed by God, the exalted. You shall be victorious and they shall be vanquished."

The statement was read by Saddam's information minister, Mohammed Said Sahaf.

The fact that Saddam did not appear renewed speculation in Washington about his whereabouts and well-being.

At the White House, press secretary Ari Fleischer sought to sow fresh doubts about Saddam's fate. Fleischer said U.S. officials do not know whether he is dead or alive.

"The fact that he failed to show up for his scheduled appearance (on television) today raises additional questions," he said. "If you're in Iraq, if you're part of the Iraqi regime, if you're part of the leadership structure, especially, if you had something hard or concrete to report, such as that Saddam was alive, the question is, why aren't they showing it?"

In southern Iraq, skirmishes persisted around Azubayr Bridge leading into Basra, Iraq's second-largest city, from the nearby town of Safwan.

Iraqi military and paramilitary forces launched mortars, artillery and machine-gun fire at a checkpoint just east of the bridge, where British forces have established their most forward line of control.

Around the nearby village of Shuaybah, meanwhile, three Humvees filled with U.S. troops launched a small reconnaissance drone just west of Basra.

Shuaybah, site of one of Iraq's largest oil refineries, is nominally under British control.

It has drawn repeated attacks by Iraqi paramilitary fighters in civilian clothes, as well as mortar and artillery fire.

Yesterday morning, U.S. Cobra helicopters and a British Challenger tank struck the Bin Majid munitions factory just outside Basra. In defiance, paramilitary forces raised an Iraqi flag a few hours later over its scarred facade.

"We'll see men go into the building without weapons, which means we can't engage them," said Ian Pickford, a platoon commander in the first battalion of the Irish Guards.

As he spoke, machine-gun fire from inside the factory compound sent British soldiers at the Azubayr Bridge checkpoint diving for cover.

With three large explosions shortly after midday, however, the British blew up thousands of tons of ammunition and other war materiel abandoned by the Iraqis in the area.