US faces Baghdad dilemma
By Peter Spiegel in Washington
Published: March 28 2003 2:32 | Last Updated: March 28 2003 9:53
US military commanders have reached a decisive point in their Iraqi campaign, having to choose within the next few days whether to attack Baghdad now or to wait as much as a month for reinforcements.
Washington is planning to significantly bolster its fighting forces in Iraq as commanders on the ground meet tougher than expected resistance from irregular forces who are using guerrilla tactics to hold key positions. Reports overnight said as many as 120,000 extra US troops are being sent to the region, though the Pentagon claimed these troops had always been included in the original blueprint for war.
The first line of reinforcements is already on its way to Kuwait but is unlikely to be ready to cross into Iraq until April 9 at the earliest. Equipment for the Fort Hood, Texas-based 4th Infantry Division, is making its way across the Red Sea, with the last of its supply ships still traversing the Suez Canal.
Allied warplanes continued to pound Baghdad's key military sites early on Friday in the most powerful bombardment of the Iraqi capital in days. US military officials said two 4,700lb "bunker-busting" bombs had been dropped on a major communications tower in an attempt to loosen President Saddam Hussein's grip on his forces. The impact shook buildings across the city.
Earlier in the day, Iraqi officials warned that seizing the capital would cause significant military and civilian casualties.
Sultan Hashim Ahmed, Iraq's defence minister, promised exactly the sort of street-by-street fighting that UK and US commanders had hoped to avoid.
"It will be no surprise that in five to 10 days they will be able to encircle all our positions in Baghdad," Mr Ahmed told reporters. "They have the capability to do so. But they have to come into the city eventually...God willing, Baghdad will be impregnable. We will fight to the end and everywhere. History will record how well Iraqis performed in defence of their capital," he said.
Meanwhile, more US troops were reported to have been flown into Harir in Kurdish-controlled northern Iraq, where 1,000 paratroopers from the 173rd Airbourne brigade secured an air strip on Thursday. The move could help to open up a northern front using 60,000 Kurdish regular forces who have pledged an alliance with the US.
Forces of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, one of two main Iraqi Kurdish factions opposed to Mr Hussein, advanced on Thursday to within 15 km of Kirkuk, the northern oil city, occupying positions abandoned by the Iraqi army.
PUK sources said the Iraqi troops had apparently withdrawn in the face of sustained bombing by US aircraft, leaving mines on the road from Chamchamal that had to be defused by PUK soldiers. The officials said the forces did not intend to attack Kirkuk and would not do so without coordinating any future action with US officials.
Discontentment grows among US military
As Washington ponders how best to unseat Mr Hussein from his Baghdad stronghold, insiders who have spoken with senior Pentagon officials, particularly the army top brass, say there is growing anger directed at Donald Rumsfeld, defence secretary.
The officials claim Mr Rumsfeld dismissed their efforts to include heavier ground forces in the field before an invasion, although Mr Rumsfeld insists that the war plans followed thorough consultation with senior uniformed officers.
"I don't know how anyone outside of the government knows what my views are, what General [Tommy] Franks's views are," Mr Rumsfeld said this week. "We've all been deeply involved and the plan has been a plan that's been approved by all the commanders."
The criticism follows a week of intense fighting on the road to Baghdad.
British forces were unable fully to secure the southern city of Basra and US army units faced fierce firefights outside Nasiriya and Najaf, two strategic crossing points of the Euphrates river.
Military officials have acknowledged that holding the cities has been much harder than expected, and commanders in all three places have had to redirect resources to fight back against assaults by Iraqi paramilitaries.
General Richard Myers, chairman of the US joint chiefs of staff, insisted on Thursday that this "harassment" has not slowed allied operations.
"This will not delay the execution of the plan," he told a congressional hearing. "It is not having a major impact, in fact it is not having any impact on the supplies reaching our forward troops."
Leading Pentagon adviser resigns
Mr Rumsfeld and others in Washington's neo-conservative movement were dealt a blow on Thursday when Richard Perle, the influential Pentagon adviser and a staunch advocate of the war on Iraq, stepped down amid mounting criticism that his business dealings presented a conflict of interest.
Mr Perle was appointed by Donald Rumsfeld, the defence secretary, in 2001 to chair the Defence Policy Board, a group of unpaid private-sector figures who advise the Pentagon. But his work for Global Crossing, the bankrupt telecommunications company, made him a source of controversy for the Bush administration in recent weeks and prompted calls for a congressional investigation.
The company paid Mr Perle $150,000 (£96,000) to advise it on the sale of its assets to a Chinese-controlled company, which has been held up by Defense Department objections. He was to be paid another $600,000 upon government approval of the deal.
Mr Perle, who denied last week there was anything improper about the work, said on Thursday he would also cease to advise Global Crossing.
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