|
11 soldiers captured Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
http://abcnews.go.com/sections/world/Primetime/iraq_main030323.htmlhttp://abcnews.go.com/sections/world/Primetime/iraq_main030323.html
Soldiers Captured
11 Taken by Iraqis; Intense Battle in the Southern City
B A G H D A D, Iraq, March 23 — Eleven U.S. soldiers were captured after taking a wrong turn, and 50 military personnel have been wounded in a massive firefight taking place in the southern Iraqi city of Nasiriya, ABCNEWS has learned.
A senior military official told ABCNEWS that 11 U.S. Army soldiers, maintenance workers, had taken a wrong turn outside Nasiriya on a mission to carry out repair work. They were traveling in a column of vehicles that came under heavy fire, including from an Iraqi tank.
The capture was observed by other forces nearby.
Shortly after news of the capture came, video footage of what was said to be dead and captured American soldiers was aired on the Arab al Jazeera network.
The satellite station aired interviews with what the station identified as Iraq TV footage of American prisoners.
ABCNEWS has been unable to confirm if there is any link between the capture of the maintenance workers and those who appeared on the al Jazeera network.
In a separate development, the senior military official also said at least 50 Marines in Nasiriya were wounded when their vehicle was apparently hit by Iraqi artillery.
ABCNEWS' John Berman said a battalion of some 1,000 Marines was engaged in an intense firefight in Nasiriya, and helicopters had been called in to evacuate wounded allied soldiers from the battle zone.
The firefight had lasted more than 12 hours and was continuing, Berman reported.
Berman, embedded with the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force, said the exact number of people evacuated was not immediately available.
Nasiriya is considered a strategic city on the main highway to Baghdad.
ABCNEWS' Aaron Katersky reported from Kuwait that four CH-46 Sea Knight helicopters and several other aircraft launched an air-rescue mission after reports of casualties.
"The Marines are dispatching a helicopter rescue and recovery crew to an undisclosed area where a sergeant says there are a lot of casualties," Katersky said. "It's not clear how many are dead, what service they're from, or what kind of operation they were engaged in.
"But again, we do know that an operation, a rescue and recovery operation is now being undertaken, based here at this air base," he said.
"I'm told it is not just regular [Iraqi] army people but militia, people in plainclothes doing the fighting," Berman said.
Allied planes conducted aerial strafing runs in the battle and dropped several bombs, he said.
Iraqi commanders dispatched Fedayeen counterinsurgency fighters from Baghdad to Nasiriya over the past two weeks, military sources told ABCNEWS. The fighters were meant to bolster regular army soldiers, whose loyalty to Saddam Hussein is considered questionable, the sources said.
The Fedayeen fighters were to be used in urban combat and to threaten potential defectors with death if they didn't fight, the sources said.
One of Saddam's cousins is known to command the Nasiriya area, and is believed to be surrounded by handpicked loyalist troops.
Pilot Down?
Meanwhile, Iraqi forces apparently searched in Baghdad for what they say is a downed coalition pilot.
Security forces were shooting into river bushes along the Tigris River, which runs through the Iraqi capital.
"They're looking for what they say is a downed coalition pilot," said ABCNEWS' Richard Engel in Baghdad.
"I did not personally see anything. Some troops were shooting into the reeds. I can confirm they were looking for something," Engel said. Iraqi civilians and military personnel rushed over to the river, shouting and shooting into the water.
Shortly after the apparent search began, the military's Central Command Headquarters in Qatar issued this statement: "We are officially denying that any coalition aircraft was shot down over Baghdad."
ABCNEWS' Martha Raddatz said video of the Iraqi search along the river looked "staged."
Since the war began last week, Iraqi officials have routinely made unsubstantiated claims about capturing allied soldiers and destroying planes and equipment. On Saturday, Iraqis claimed to have destroyed several allied warplanes; U.S. officials said no planes were missing Saturday.
The conflicting stories from Baghdad came amid reports of progress in the march toward the Iraqi capital, and accounts of allied casualties. Also today:
Coalition aircraft launched heavy new strikes in Baghdad, as advance allied military elements raced to within 100 miles of the Iraqi capital. Allied air attacks also hit Saddam's hometown of Tikrit.
Confirmation came that a British warplane and its crew were missing after being engaged by a U.S. Patriot missile.
Military officials questioned a U.S. soldier in connection with an explosives and gunfire attack at a U.S. base in Kuwait that killed a fellow soldier and wounded 12 others.
A commander with Iraq's elite Republican Guard was reported captured during renewed fighting at the Iraqi port of Umm Qasr.
Friendly Fire Downed Warplane
U.S. officials said the British were conducting a search and rescue mission after one of their aircraft shot down accidentally by a U.S. Patriot missile.
"We can confirm that a Tornado GR4 aircraft from RAF Marham returning from an operational mission was engaged near the Kuwaiti border by a Patriot missile battery," U.S. Central Command said in a statement today. "The crew are listed as missing. An investigation is under way." Retired Air Force Gen. Richard Hawley, an ABCNEWS consultant, said from the few details available it seemed "there was clearly a breakdown in some element of that very complex chain that is supposed to prevent these kinds of incidents."
"They'll be able to reconstruct what the airspace looked like, which airplanes were where at the time this happened," Hawley added. "Of course, the Patriot also has a recording capability. So we'll be able to put an investigation together using those tools."
* A senior military official says 11 soldiers are missing and are believed to have been taken prisoner.
* The Arab al Jazeera network airs interviews with what the station identified as Iraq TV footage of American prisoners.
* A serious firefight erupts inside Nasiriya. Medical choppers arrive; 50 Marines are reported wounded after their vehicle is hit by Iraqi artillery.
* Officials say a U.S. Patriot missile shot down a British combat aircraft; the crew is missing.
* Iraqi forces in Baghdad search for what they say is a downed coalition pilot. The Pentagon denies a plane was shot down.
* A U.S. soldier is questioned in connection with an attack on the U.S. 101st Airborne Division in Kuwait that killed one and injured 12.
U.S. Soldier Held in Grenade Attack
Meanwhile, a soldier of the U.S. 101st Airborne Division was being held after he allegedly threw grenades into leadership tents at the division's Camp Pennsylvania in Kuwait, killing one and injuring 12.
The soldier — who had reportedly been behaving strangely and allegedly refused to proceed north with his unit — allegedly threw four grenades into four separate tents, military sources in Kuwait said. Three grenades discharged.
An eyewitness said grenades were rolled into tents that housed the leaders of the brigadier unit, Time reporter Jim Lacey told ABCNEWS. He said the first two people who left the tent were shot.
The commander of the 1st Brigade was not in the leadership tents at the time, a high-ranking officer with the 101st Airborne Division told ABCNEWS. But a number of key officers with the brigade were injured, including the executive officer, a sergeant major, military intelligence officers and a number of other officers in leadership posts.
Those wounded in the attack did not suffer life threatening injuries, but injuries to key personnel could force the 101st to shift their plans.
Max Blumenfeld, a spokesman for the U.S. Army V Corps, told The Associated Press preliminary information suggests the motive for the attack was likely resentment, but he did not elaborate.
Face-Off at Umm Qasr
Just over the Kuwait-Iraq border, U.S.-led forces again found themselves embroiled in a firefight at the Iraqi port of Umm Qasr, a frequent site of skirmishes where U.S. soldiers briefly raised an American flag days ago.
"It rapidly escalated from a skirmish into a full-scale battle," Marine Staff Sgt. Nick Lerma told British pool reporter David Bowden, after U.S.-led forces appeared to suppress their opposition.
During the battle, allied forces claimed to capture a commander with the Republican Guard, Iraq's elite military forces, Bowden said, and may have been facing off with more Republican Guard troops.
"They are saying here that they have captured a Republican Guard officer in civilian clothes and he has told them that there are 120 Iraqi soldiers in bunkers, 120 gunmen somewhere in there that will have to dealt with," Bowden said as the skirmish continued.
An Iraqi official exulted in news of yet another battle at Umm Qasr.
"The force in Umm Qasr is teaching the U.S. and British a lesson," Iraqi Information Minister Mohammed Saeed al-Sahaf told reporters, speaking through a translator. "They said they control the port. They don't. Fighting is under way and very intense in Umm Qasr. The soldiers are slapping their face and when they leave, will kick their backsides. Iraqis are resisting and defending their land."
Smoke in Baghdad
In Baghdad earlier today, ABCNEWS' Engel could hear air raid sirens followed by what sounded like an intensive 10-minute bombardment coming from the north of the city.
Engel could not see the explosions, in part because of poor visibility caused by smoke from oil Iraqis earlier had poured into trenches and set on fire.
It was not immediately clear what was being targeted in Iraq's capital, which has had occasional airstrikes, some of them heavier than others, in recent days.
The air raid sirens sounded about seven hours after B-52 bombers were seen departing from a base in Britain.
More B-52s were seen taking off from Britain later in the day.
Basra Progress
Meanwhile, officials were optimistic about developments around Basra, Iraq's second-largest city, which has seen sporadic clashes with Iraqis and Iraqi troop surrenders in its vicinity in recent days.
U.S. and British military officers have said they are trying to coax Iraqi military forces in the city to surrender it without a street-to-street fight, and they have dropped leaflets from the air into the city encouraging surrender.
But U.S. military officials were not ready to say Basra, a southern oil center, had fallen.
Advance on Baghdad
The U.S.-led coalition forces headed toward Baghdad have faced Iraqi resistance as well, but nevertheless may get there sooner than expected, perhaps posing a danger, reported ABCNEWS' Jim Dolan, in Doha, Qatar. U.S. forces are now within 100 miles of Baghdad and may have to be stopped at some point to wait for the completion of the air campaign against the city.
Reuters reported U.S. forces advancing up the Euphrates River toward Baghdad were halted by "small-scale enemy contact" about 45 miles south of the city of Najaf, which is about 100 miles south of Baghdad. Traveling with the First Marine Expeditionary Force, ABCNEWS' Bob Woodruff reported the units with him had crossed the Euphrates River in central Iraq, and were 175 miles from Baghdad.
Other allied forces, such as the Third Infantry Division, were possibly even closer to the Iraqi capital.
ABCNEWS' Richard Engel in Baghdad, Jim Dolan and Aditya Raval in Qatar, Arash Ghadishah in Kuwait, and John McWethy, Brian Hartman and Martha Raddatz in Washington contributed to this report.
|
|
