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Warplanes pound baghdad { April 5 2003 } Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,930313,00.htmlhttp://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,930313,00.html
2.30am update
Capital bombed as battle for Baghdad looms
· 'Non-conventional' threat
· Saddam: 'hit enemy with force'
· US soldier charged with murder
John Plunkett and agencies
Saturday April 5, 2003
Baghdad was pounded by US warplanes and artillery last night as coalition forces prepare for the approaching battle of Baghdad.
Eyewitnesses reported a series of explosions to the east and south-east of the capital. A huge blast rocked a presidential complex in the centre of Baghdad used by Saddam Hussein's son, Qusay.
Two fires blazed in the east of the capital, lighting up the night sky. The roar of US planes was heard overhead, accompanied by the sporadic rattle of anti-aircraft fire from the south-east of the city.
Reuters correspondent Khaled Yacoub Oweis said the battle appeared to be taking place about 20 miles to the east of the city centre
"It has really intensified," he said. "You can see explosions across the whole front, missiles, anti-aircraft fire, cruise missiles."
The new attack comes a day after US soldiers seized Saddam International Airport, renamed Baghdad International Airport.
Separately, the US military announced Sgt Hasan Akbar has been charged with two counts of murder following a grenade attack on the 101st Airborn Division in Kuwait that killed two.
Akbar, 32, was also charged with 17 counts of attempted murder following the incident on March 25.
Iraqi minister: 'We will commit a non-conventional act.'
The Iraqi threat to use a "non-conventional act" could see a "human tide" of civilians forced to march on the airport taken by allied troops, the leader of the British forces in the Gulf said last night.
The warning by Iraqi information minister Mohammed Saeed al-Sahaf fuelled speculation that Saddam Hussein could be on the verge of using chemical or biological weapons.
He said the strike, after nightfall, would involve a "kind of martyrdom operation."
"We will commit a non-conventional act on them, not necessarily military. We will do something that will be a great example for these mercenaries. I send my condolences for now, and I'll tell them exactly how many will be killed today and tomorrow."
British commander Air Marshall Brian Burridge said the regime may try to use civilians as human shields in an attempt to retake Saddam International Airport, renamed Baghdad International Airport.
He revealed allied forces had been surprised by the lack of resistance, and said any chemical or biological attack would be met with a "proportionate" response.
"An attack with chemical or biological weapons - that would have very serious consequences for the regime in that it would be met with a proportional response and those responsible would be held to account," he told BBC2's Newsnight.
"Secondly, he could use a human tide and we had signs last night that there were loudspeakers in south-west Baghdad signalling people should rise up and march on the airport.
"That was pretty much in character to use civilians in that way as human shields in a way that might put them in danger."
Saddam's TV walkabout - but is it him?
Saddam Hussein predicted victory over US and British troops in a broadcast on Iraqi TV yesterday.
"You beloved ones, the people of Baghdad and the people of Iraq, the vanguard of victory, with the will of God you will be victorious, and by the will of God they will be defeated and damned," he said.
The address also mentioned the shooting down of a US Apache helicopter by an Iraqi farmer in late March, which was the first clear proof that the Iraqi leader survived a bombing raid on the first night of the war that targeted him and his two sons.
Iraqi television then showed footage of what it said was President Saddam today visiting residential areas of Baghdad.
The White House spokesman, Ari Fleischer, said it was too soon to draw "firm conclusions one way or another" about whether the Iraqi leader was alive or dead.
Airport secured
The US says it has Saddam International airport, which it has renamed Baghdad International, under effective control with the only fighting against pockets of resistance in the complex.
The seizure is seen as a key victory in establishing a base at the city's edge. The defence secretary, Geoff Hoon, said it was a "huge psychological blow" to the Iraqi regime.
But Mr al-Sahaf, the information minister, said US forces were on an "isolated island" at the airport, and asserted it was those troops that would come under "unconventional" attack.
"It is difficult for the US forces that are surrounded in Saddam airport to come out alive," he said.
US commanders announced last night that the 1,500 members of the 3rd Infantry Division at the airport will be reinforced in the coming hours by hundreds of soldiers from the 101st Airborne Division and the 94th battalion, an engineering unit.
Fighting continued on the approaches to Baghdad yesterday as more troops moved on the city. US Marines said that the Nida division of the Republican Guard had "ceased to exist as an effective fighting force" after its defeat by troops pushing towards the capital from the south east.
But US officials, both on the front lines and at the Pentagon, indicated that an all-out assault by the troops massing on the city's edge might not be their first option.
General Richard Myers, the US joint chiefs of staff chairman, said that US troops might isolate Baghdad rather than storming it while work begins on forming an interim post-Saddam government.
"When you get to the point where Baghdad is basically isolated, you have a country that Baghdad no longer controls," Gen Myers said at the Pentagon.
He estimated that President Saddam's regime has already lost effective control of 45% of Iraq's territory.
Iraqi suicide bombers' 'final video message'
Two Iraqi women believed to have been responsible for a suicide bomb attack which killed three US soliders told in a video message how history would be "proud of them."
Film of the two women was broadcast on al-Jazeera TV and later Iraqi satellite television.
"I swear to God to sacrifice myself in jihad (holy war) against infidel Americans, British and Israelis to defend my country's beloved soil," said one of the women, holding a rifle and placing the other hand on the Muslim holy book, the Koran.
Standing in front of an Iraqi flag, the other woman recited verses from the Koran and said: "I swear to God...that I will defend Iraq and take revenge from the people's enemies, the Americans, imperialists, Zionists, reactionaries and Arab defeatists."
"You will be proud of your sisters, history will be proud of them," she said, without referring to the mission they planned to carry out.
Iraqi TV named the women as Nosha Majli al-Shambari and Widad Gameel al-Dileimy. Qatar-based al-Jazeera quoted Iraqi media as saying the two women had carried out the suicide bombing overnight at a US checkpoint northwest of Baghdad. US commanders said three soldiers, a pregnant woman and the driver were killed.
Coalition leaders to meet in UK
The US president, George Bush, is to visit Northern Ireland on Monday and Tuesday to discuss the situation in Iraq, Downing Street announced last night.
Mr Bush will meet the prime minister, Tony Blair, at an undisclosed location to assess the progress of the military campaign, plans for the future of a post-Saddam Iraq and the Middle East peace process.
Experts to examine 'chemical plant' find
US troops claim to have found thousands of boxes containing vials of unidentified liquid and powder, as well as manuals on chemical warfare, at two sites near Baghdad.
"It's unclear, at this point, what the vials contain, and we're sending a team of experts to examine them," Captain Kevin Jackson told Reuters.
One facility, which is close to the southern suburb of Latifiya, had been identified by the International Atomic Energy Agency as a suspected chemical, biological and nuclear weapons site and was checked by UN inspectors before the war.
Separately, Brigadier General Vincent Brooks of central command told a news briefing in Qatar that special forces in Iraq's western desert had found what they believed to be a training school for handling nuclear, chemical and biological warfare.
MSNBC television in the US has also reported that marines claim to have found cyanide and mustard agents in high concentrations in the Euphrates near Nassiriya. Neither central command in Qatar or US military officials in Iraq could confirm the report.
Special forces raid palace
Some 56 miles from Baghdad, in a dawn raid on Thursday, US special forces launched a dramatic helicopter raid on Saddam Hussein's Tharthar presidential palace, which is near his home city, Tikrit.
Republican Guards returned fire, but US troops got into the palace and found documents belonging to the Iraqi regime.
Lieutenant Colonel Oliver North, now a correspondent for America's Fox News TV station, told Sky News he had heard reports that President Saddam had fled to Tikrit.
Brigadier Brooks at central command today said US special forces had established effective control of roads between Baghdad and Tikrit.
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