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Politics : DON'T START THE WAR -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: GUSTAVE JAEGER who wrote (23989)	3/29/2003 10:06:50 AM
From: Ed Huang	Respond to of 25898

U.S. Orders 4-6 Day Pause in Iraq Advance-Officers Sat March 29, 2003 09:49 AM ET CENTRAL IRAQ (Reuters) - U.S. commanders have ordered a pause of four to six days in a northward ground advance toward Baghdad because of supply shortages and stiff Iraqi resistance, U.S. military officers said on Saturday. Senior commanders at their Gulf headquarters in Qatar said, however, that there would be no pause in the overall air and ground campaign to overthrow Iraqi President Saddam Hussein. Field officers south of the capital said the "operational pause," ordered on Friday, meant that northward advances would be put on hold while the military tried to sort out logistics problems caused by long supply lines from Kuwait. Food rations have been cut sharply for at least some frontline U.S. units and fuel use has been limited, Reuters correspondents with the forces south of Baghdad said. The field officers said the U.S.-led invasion force would continue to attack Iraqi forces to the north with air strikes during the pause, battering them before any assault on Baghdad. "We have almost out-run our logistics lines," one officer said at a U.S. unit at the northernmost stretch of the advance in central Iraq. Some units have advanced to within 80 km (50 miles) of Baghdad, but are almost 500 km from Kuwait. Some units further to the rear were still pushing forward, Reuters correspondents with the troops reported. At war headquarters in Qatar, British spokesman Group Captain Al Lockwood said the attackers needed to prepare for a new phase but did not confirm a formal pause of several days. "It is simply a matter of shaping the battle space, shaping the battlefield, getting up troops equipped with all the assets they will need for the next part of the campaign," he said. He said the overall war plan was "on track and on time." NO OVERALL PAUSE U.S. Major General Victor Renuart told a news briefing later that there would be no overall suspension of military activity: "I think that with respect to a pause, there is no pause on the battlefield. Just because you see a particular formation pause on the battlefield it does not mean there is a pause. "I don't believe there is any intent to pause on the battlefield. We will continue to focus our operations. Sometimes they will be focused in the west, sometimes in the north, sometimes in the south, sometimes all together." In Washington, a U.S. defense official said: "There is nothing at all to suggest that we are just going to sit there for four to six days and do nothing." On Friday, Britain's Army chief, Mike Jackson, dismissed suggestions that the campaign had become bogged down after a few days of quick advances from Kuwait since the invasion started on March 20. But he spoke of a need to pause. "Armies cannot keep moving forever without stopping from time to time to regroup, to ensure their supplies are up," he told a London news conference. "It's a pause while people get sorted out for what comes next." Renuart said 10 days did not amount to a long conflict, noting it took some 60 to 70 days before the Americans "installed" Hamid Karzai as president in Afghanistan after the U.S.-led military campaign to topple the Taliban administration. SHORT RATIONS One Reuters correspondent with a frontline U.S. unit said soldiers' rations were cut to one Meal Ready to Eat -- or MRE -- a day from a normal three until supply trucks can get through. Renuart said he could not confirm rations were short. U.S. field officers have also said that use of gas-guzzling armored vehicles had been restricted to save diesel fuel. No resupply was expected in their area for 24 hours. Items like batteries for radios are also limited and soldiers and Marines have been told to conserve the ones they have. Fresh water, however, is not a problem. Stiffer-than-expected resistance from Saddam Fedayeen militias in towns along the advance lines has made running supply convoys a real problem, particularly from the southern city of Nassiriya northwards. Convoys this week through Nassiriya have been ambushed. But Renuart said this was not a major problem: "There have been some harassing attacks on our supply lines but they have not stopped the movement of our logistical support." In Washington, a defense official said units of the U.S. 82nd Airborne Division had been placed near Nassiriya, 235 miles southeast of Baghdad, to defend the supply lines. Saddam's government has played down the swift advance by the U.S.-led forces, saying that most of the gains have been across tracts of desert while skirting major towns along the route. Near the city of Najaf, 100 miles south of Baghdad, the U.S. military is building an airstrip able to handle C-130 transport aircraft to limit the need for supplies by road. reuters.com