U.S. Hits 'Leadership Target' in Baghdad,
Citizen Uprisings Reported in Baghdad and Basra
Monday, April 07, 2003
foxnews.com
The United States struck a "leadership target" in Baghdad Monday as Iraqi civilians earlier rose up against Saddam Hussein's militia in Baghdad and Basra, the country's two largest cities, according to various news reports.
The target was believed to be one or more of the top government or military leaders in Saddam Hussein's regime, the officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
The strike was the result of "time sensitive" intelligence, meaning information which needed to be acted on quickly, the officials said.
• Maps: Iraq | Baghdad
Sources in Baghdad reported citizen uprisings against the Fedayeen Saddam, Kuwait News Agency said Monday.
Fox News also confirmed that preliminary tests on substances found at a military site near Karbala in central Baghdad have indicated the presence of several banned chemical weapons.
Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, at a Pentagon news conference, said the U.S. military does not know where Saddam is -- he could be dead, he could be wounded, or he could be "not willing to show himself" -- but "we do know he no longer runs much of Iraq."
"The circle is closing, their options are running out," Rumsfeld said of Saddam and his top lieutenants.
Sources inside the city told the Kuwait News Agency: "Major bloody confrontations are currently taking place between the residents of Baghdad and the regime's militia, killing dozens of Saddam's loyalists and forcing many of their leaders to leave their positions and change into civilian clothes."
In southern Iraq, the Associated Press reported that civilians turned on Saddam's loyalists in Basra, attacking militiamen and looting a state bank as British troops moved to take control of the nation's second-largest city.
Several militiamen were seen being killed by throngs of civilians, and a British soldier was told that civilians had killed a policeman who worked on their street corner, according to British press pool reports.
Senior Defense Department officials told Fox News that "we know very little" about the reports. "We can say as a general principal that Iraqis are coming forward" throughout the country to fight the regime, but as for Baghdad specifically, "we have very little significant information."
The uprisings came as coalition forces continued their aerial assault on Baghdad Monday afternoon, hours after U.S. troops barreled through the heart of the Iraqi capital just after dawn in a dramatic show of force designed to prove the coalition could enter the city with impunity.
It was the third straight day the Army penetrated Saddam's seat of power. This time, though, there were plans to stay. Rather than withdrawing at nightfall, as units did over the weekend, members of the 2nd Brigade of the 3rd Infantry Division hunkered down for the night at the sprawling New Presidential Palace where Saddam once slept.
Several miles away, two soldiers and two journalists -- one German and one Spanish -- were killed in a rocket attack on the 3rd Infantry Division south of Baghdad, U.S. Central Command reported. Another 15 soldiers were injured in the attack on an infantry position south of the city.
At about 8 p.m. (noon EDT), a large explosion rocked the center of the city. It was not immediately known whether the blast was from Iraqi artillery attacking coalition snipers in the area, or an air attack from coalition bombers.
U.S. Marines also crossed the Tigris River east of the city despite heavy damage to bridges from booby traps and heavy fighting.
Possible WMD Storage Site Found
Meanwhile, U.S. biological and chemical weapons experts believe they might have found an Iraqi storage site for weapons of mass destruction.
Preliminary tests on substances found at a military training camp in central Iraq suggest they contain a cocktail of banned chemical weapons, including deadly nerve agents, Fox News has confirmed.
Senior Defense officials confirmed that many large drums of "what appears to be" chemical weapons agents have been found at a "military facility" near Karbala. Preliminary testing conducted with field kits at the site just south of Hindiyah concluded that the drums contain both nerve and blister agents.
Major Michael Hamlet of the U.S. 101st Airborne Division told Reuters that the initial tests revealed levels of nerve agents sarin and tabun and the blister agent lewisite.
"If tests from our experts confirm this, this could be the smoking gun. It would prove [Saddam Hussein) has the weapons we have said he has all along," Hamlet said. "But right now we just don't know."
Agence France-Presse reported that the chemicals had turned out to be pesticides, but Rumsfeld said it could take several days to get a positive identification of the substance.
U.S. forces near Baghdad also found around 20 medium-range missiles equipped with chemical weapons, National Public Radio reported.
The rockets, BM-21 missiles, were equipped with sarin and mustard gas and were "ready to fire," NPR said, attributing the report to a top official with the 1st Marine Division.
Senior defense officials told Fox News that an exploration team is at the site now and there may in fact be something substantial there.
In a sign of growing confidence on the part of the coalition, the U.S. war commander, Gen. Tommy Franks, visited American troops inside Iraq, including soldiers in the holy Shiite city of Najaf.
Battles Rage in Baghdad
In Baghdad, Iraqi snipers fired on U.S. soldiers from the state-owned Al-Rashid Hotel. U.S. tanks returned fire with their main guns and .50 caliber machine guns.
Outside the deserted-looking Information Ministry, Iraqi men carried rocket-propelled grenade rifles, and a handful of army troops, flashing the 'V' for victory sign, took positions behind sandbags.
Nearby, Iraqi army trucks and at least two artillery cannons appeared abandoned.
Troops stormed Saddam's newest presidential palace and set up a prisoner of war holding pen. The ruling Baath Party headquarters was destroyed.
Iraqi forces took up positions in the University of Baghdad. They fired heavy machine guns across the 400 yard-wide river; U.S. troops called in mortar fire and close air support.
The main palace building was flooded, parts were destroyed by cruise missiles or laser-guided bombs and palace curtains were strewn over the ground.
"This used to be a nice place. They should make it like a Six Flags, or something," said Spc. Robert Blake of State College, Pa.
A coalition platoon conducted a patrol but stopped across from the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, where there were bunkers and foxholes built. Outside were dozens of pairs of military boots and some uniforms, abandoned by Iraqi troops. Inside the bunkers were dozens of rocket-propelled grenades and two launchers.
U.S. forces in other parts of the city used explosives to destroy two Saddam statues.
An estimated 600 to 1,000 Iraqi troops were killed during Monday's operation in Baghdad, said Col. David Perkins.
"We had a lot of suicide attackers today," he said. "These guys are going to die in droves ... They keep trying to ram the tanks with car bombs."
Three adjoining houses at the upscale residential al-Mansour area were destroyed Monday afternoon in what neighbors said was an allied missile attack. U.S. Central Command said it was investigating that claim. All that was left of the houses was a heap of concrete, mangled iron rods, ruined furniture and clothes.
Senior defense officials told Fox News that once Baghdad falls, the next battle may be in Saddam's hometown of Tikrit.
Allied forces also came near the state-owned Al-Rashid Hotel.
Militiamen and Iraqi army troops, meanwhile, set up barricades about 500 yards away from the Al-Rashid Hotel and closed roads leading to the old palace compound, a vast complex with several huge entrances. They made forays to the Al-Rashid and to the bombed-out Information Ministry, but unlike the palace, they did not stay to occupy them.
U.S. troops set up a prisoner of war collection point in the palace compound. As Iraqis were captured in street fighting outside, they were brought to the palace for processing before being sent behind U.S. lines. At one point, a group of nine Iraqis surrendered after hearing on loudspeakers that if they did so they would live.
An official at the al-Kindi Hospital in the working-class district of al-Nahda said at least 75 wounded civilians had arrived since the morning. Most suffered from gunshot wounds, burns and shrapnel.
There was no estimate of Iraqi casualties from the raid, but 10 miles outside the capital, about 100 Iraqi soldiers were reported killed at the Baghdad airport in seven hours of fighting that ended early Monday.
American soldiers who reached the New Presidential Palace used the toilets, rifled through documents in the bombed-out compound and helped themselves to ashtrays, pillows, gold-painted Arab glassware and other souvenirs.
"I do believe this city is freakin' ours," boasted Capt. Chris Carter of Watkinsville Ga.
Marines encountered tough fighting as they entered Baghdad for the first time, coming under machine gun fire. Lt. Col. B.P. McCoy said two Marines were killed and two were injured after an artillery shell hit their armored personnel carrier
The Marines repaired the bridge while others pushed ahead on foot, wary of booby traps. There have also been warnings of possible suicide attacks by bombers in ambulances.
"Once we get in amongst them, they are dead meat," Colonel B. P. McCoy told Reuters.
The Saddam regime, its brutal hold on a country of 24 million slipping away, denied all of it. "There is no presence of American infidels in the city of Baghdad, at all," insisted Iraqi Information Minister Mohammed Saeed al-Sahhaf.
The Iraqi government maintained its hold over state-run television and radio -- arguably its most important remaining levers of control over the country -- and broadcast emotional appeals to resist U.S. forces. Also shown were images of Saddam meeting with key advisers.
Battle for Basra; 'Chemical Ali' Likely Killed
Smoke was rising over the southern city of Basra, where British and Iraqi forces have been locked in a battle for control.
Iraqis went on a looting rampage, hauling furniture and carpets out of the state bank and a western hotel.
"Chemical Ali" -- Iraqi Gen. Ali Hassan al-Majid -- apparently was killed Saturday by coalition attacks on his villa in Basra. Al-Majid, a cousin of Saddam, earned his nickname when he boasted he was responsible for a gas attack that killed thousands of Kurds in 1988.
His death should show the people of southern Iraq "that the regime is finished," said British spokesman Group Capt. Al Lockwood.
U.S. Central Command wouldn't confirm his death.
Fox News' Ben Johnson, Carl Cameron, Bret Baier and Major Garrett and The Associated Press contributed to this report. |
