U.S. repels fierce attack

Knight Ridder News Service

NEAR AN NAJAF, Iraq — A rippling yellow curtain of sandstorms slowed — but did not halt — the coalition's advance on Baghdad as U.S. troops battled a large enemy force yesterday, killing as many as 500 Iraqis on the road to the capital.

Pfc. Joseph DeWitt, 26, rushes to get medical help for an Iraqi boy injured in a battle between the U.S. Army's 3rd Squadron, 7th Cavalry Regiment, and Iraqi forces near the village of Al Faysaliyah. The boy's father, left, is turning back to help others in his family injured in the fighting. Warren Zinn • Army Times

Guerrilla attacks on lengthening supply lines prompted U.S. military commanders to shift their emphasis from overwhelming two elite Republican Guard divisions near Baghdad to securing roads through southern Iraq, a senior administration official said.

Until Iraqi irregulars in that region are defeated, the official said, it may not be possible to move enough fuel, ammunition and other materiel north for the final push to Baghdad. Officials would not estimate the duration of the delay, but it was not expected to exceed several days.

In a fierce battle yesterday, the Army's 7th Cavalry Regiment came under heavy fire near An Najaf, about 100 miles southwest of Baghdad, from Iraqis armed with rocket-propelled grenades, according to a senior defense official at the Pentagon.

"We did not engage them," he said. "They engaged us."

U.S. troops reportedly repelled the attack, killing as many as 500 Iraqi fighters. Early today, combat re-ignited in the area when Iraqi tanks began probing U.S. positions. U.S. artillery units destroyed eight Iraqi armored vehicles and killed an estimated 40 enemy soldiers, officers said. No U.S. casualties were immediately reported in either engagement.

With what could be the most decisive battle of the war looming over the horizon in Baghdad, more U.S. troops closed in on the city. Artillery pounded Republican Guard positions that stood in the way. Airstrikes battered Iraqi missile sites just outside the capital.

And nearly everyone cursed and endured the storm. "It looks like it's raining sand," said Marine Capt. Neil Murphy.

Shortly before daybreak today in Baghdad, cruise missiles and bombs struck a communications complex, killing the signal of Iraqi state television and damaging key satellite communications facilities, a Defense Department spokesman said.

As supplies of food, water and other necessities dwindled in Basra, the British media reported a popular uprising there. Most of the city's 1.3 million people are Shiite Muslims who historically have chafed under Saddam's Sunni-dominated regime.

The nature of the rebellion was not clear. Unconfirmed reports claimed that thousands of residents rampaged through the city last night, setting fires. The British Broadcasting Corp. said Iraqi troops fired mortar rounds at defiant civilians and, in response, British artillery bombarded the 1,000 Iraqi paramilitary troops there.

British military officials, with limited access to Basra, said the situation was difficult to assess. They acknowledged some form of rebellion there, but said its scope, duration, targets and leaders were unknown.

Still, British forces on the edge of Basra launched attacks to support any insurrection.

"It is in our interest to ensure any uprising must succeed," said British Army spokesman Col. Chris Vernon.

Two British soldiers were killed by friendly fire near Basra when their tank was mistakenly targeted by another British tank, officials said.

In Washington and London, the coalition's leaders expressed confidence in the war's progress, but again warned that it could be lengthy and — as the battle for Baghdad approaches — increasingly bloody.

At least 20 U.S. troops have been killed by hostile fire or in accidents and 14 have been captured or are missing since the operation began. Iraqi forces have sustained far deeper losses, with 3,500 reported captured. There was no accurate death toll of Iraqis, though various accounts placed the number in the hundreds or thousands.

"We're making good progress" President Bush said during a visit to the Pentagon. "We cannot know the duration of this war. Yet we know its outcome; we will prevail."

As the president spoke, two Marine columns heading northwest to Baghdad were still advancing despite the twin plagues of wind and sand. Officers said they absorbed no casualties, as the infrared sights on their tanks gave them an advantage in near-blackout conditions.

"The Iraqis open their eyes and see a 65-ton tank coming," said Col. Dave Pere of the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force near Nasiriyah. "They are just blowing right past them."

More troops joined U.S. units closest to the Iraqi capital, settling in outside Karbala, 50 miles southwest of Baghdad and near a stronghold of the Republican Guard. Coalition forces battered the Iraqis from the air and ground, hoping to soften them.

The sandstorm drastically reduced air sorties, particularly those planned by Army and Marine attack helicopters assigned to hammer Republican Guard divisions around Baghdad. "It's a little bit ugly out there," Maj. Gen. Victor Renuart said.

But Air Force, Navy and Marine jets stepped up their attacks on SAM anti-aircraft missile batteries near Baghdad. Those targets originally were to be hit later in the war, but were accelerated because the ground advance is moving so quickly, officers said.

Combat also flared behind the front lines.

In one of the most daring raids of the war, about 100 troops from the British army's Black Watch Regiment fought their way into the southern city of Az Zubayr and snatched a leading official of Saddam's Baath Party from an office.

"He's sitting there in his little room thinking he's having a good morning and whap, we're in, whap, we're out," said Vernon, the British Army spokesman.

The raiders killed 100 Iraqis during the fighting and suffered no casualties. A British officer said the operation was designed to break Baath Party control over the area's military so more Iraqi soldiers might surrender or desert.

Elsewhere, the Marines reported capturing 500 young men aboard several buses at a checkpoint near Nasiriyah, a southwestern city that has offered sporadic but stiff resistance to the allied invasion.

Described as members of the pro-Saddam al Quds militia, they surrendered without a fight, according to Marine officers.

In other action, Marines captured 170 paramilitary troops near a hospital in Nasiriyah in which the Iraqis had hidden weapons, ammunition and — provocatively — 3,000 chemical protection suits.

"Why would they need chemical protection suits if they weren't planning to use chemical weapons?" asked one U.S. military official who requested anonymity.