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Politics : Formerly About Applied Materials -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: StanX Long who wrote (69264)	4/5/2003 4:08:13 AM
From: StanX Long	Respond to of 70976

Ground troops roll into Baghdad msnbc.com April 5 — U.S. Marines and Army troops rolled into the center of Baghdad in “substantial” numbers Saturday morning, a U.S. military official told MSNBC TV. Meanwhile, south of the city, Army forces captured the headquarters of the Republican Guard’s vaunted Medina Division and launched an air assault on Karbala. MARINES AND ARMY troops encountered only sporadic resistance from Republican Guard divisions as they advanced into Baghdad from the south, Navy Capt. Frank Thorp, a spokesman for U.S. Central Command forward headquarters in Doha, Qatar, told MSNBC TV. “We do have reports of engagement with a small number of Special Republican Guard,” Thorp said. “At this point, we have engaged the Al Nida Division of the Republican Guard.” Officials at Central Command told NBC’s David Shuster that the ground troops, members of the Army’s V Corps and the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force, were supported by a “full component” of close air support, meaning helicopters and low-flying warplanes were able to fly over the city without threat. Central Command officials stressed that the advance did not constitute the leading edge of an invasion. But the troops’ mission clearly was not merely a preliminary probing operation. “That’s not the intent to come back out,” Thorp said. “They’re in Baghdad.” U.S. special operations forces are known to have been in the city on covert missions for some time, but until Saturday morning, U.S. ground forces had not ventured inside the city limits. The special operations forces laid the groundwork for the ground advance, which had been in the works for some time, Central Command officials told NBC News. “All of this has been deliberately planned, and you are now seeing the fruits of that work,” an official said. There was no immediate comment from Iraqi authorities. MAJOR OPERATIONS SOUTH OF CITY • Urban Warfare: The military's nightmare In Suwayrah, 35 miles southeast of Baghdad, two tank companies and an infantry company of the 3rd Infantry Division rolled through the headquarters of the Republican Guard’s Medina Division unopposed, military officials at the Pentagon told NBC’s Carl Rochelle. Hundreds of bunkers and foxholes and dozens of artillery pieces, antiaircraft guns, tanks and armored personnel carriers littered the grounds of the base, the Associated Press reported. All of them had been abandoned by Iraqi troops. No troops could be seen. The U.S. tanks and Bradley Fighting Vehicles used their main guns to destroy the military vehicles along the route. Fifteen miles farther southwest of Baghdad, the 2nd Brigade, 101st Airborne Division, launched an airborne assault on Karbala, reported NBC’s Dana Lewis, who is traveling with the 2nd Brigade. Several hundred infantrymen were pushing into the city under the cover of AH-64 Apache and OH58D Kiowa attack helicopters. They met little resistance. Karbala was one of the cities the 3rd Infantry bypassed as it raced up to Baghdad. The 101st Airborne was cleaning up behind it in cities to the south of the capital, Lewis reported.