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Carpet bombing karbala Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20030402/ap_on_re_mi_ea/war_battlefield_295http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20030402/ap_on_re_mi_ea/war_battlefield_295
Yahoo! News Wed, Apr 02, 2003
Middle East - AP
U.S. Fights Republican Guard in Karbala
2 hours, 19 minutes ago
By CHRIS TOMLINSON and ALMIN KARAMEHMEDOVIC, Associated Press Writers
NEAR KARBALA, Iraq - Advancing on Baghdad from both the southwest and the southeast, U.S. ground forces Wednesday penetrated the Iraqi capital's "red zone" defensive cordon and fought Saddam Hussein (news - web sites)'s battle-hardened Republican Guard.
In the southwest, lead elements of the Army's 3rd Infantry Division pushed through a gap west of Karbala after a night-long bombardment of the Shiite holy city some 50 miles from Saddam's seat of power.
The U.S. forces were up against the Republican Guard's Medina and Nebuchadnezzar divisions and also attacked towns and positions north of Karbala where 2,000 Fedayeen loyalists and Baath Party members were believed to be hunkered down.
At least 20 Iraqis were killed and an unknown number of fighters were taken prisoner, field reports said. No U.S. casualties were reported. One tank belonging to the Nebuchadnezzar Division was reported destroyed.
"We have moved beyond where the Republican Guard is and beyond where the popularly known red line is," said Navy Capt. Frank Thorp, a U.S. Central Command spokesman.
Army Lt. Col. Scott Rutter, a battalion commander, said Iraqi troops concentrated their attacks on his unit, allowing the rest of the brigade to pass through the Karbala gap unscathed. The gap is a chokepoint between a lake to the west and the city of Karbala to the east that opens onto a plain.
Southeast of Baghdad, Marines seized an important bridge over the Tigris River near the city of Kut amid fighting with the Baghdad Division of the Republican Guard, Thorp said.
The bridge allowed thousands of Marines from the 1st Expeditionary Force to begin crossing the river in their push toward Baghdad from the southeast.
"They are making good progress. There are no reports of casualties on the American side," Thorp said.
Farther south, the highway leading out of the town of Nasiriray was choked with coalition military convoys headed north. Vehicles churned up billowing clouds of dust as they drove through a barren landscape of cracked land dotted with green clumps of grass. Blown bunkers and collapsed buildings flanked the road.
"The noose is starting to tighten around Baghdad," Sgt. Jeff Lanter, crew chief of a Marine CH-46E Sea Knight assault helicopter, said as peered down at the mass movement.
Around Karbala, Iraqi defenders fired anti-aircraft guns into the sky most of the night, as U.S. artillery pounded suspected military positions in the ancient town. B-52 bombers circled Karbala throughout the night, carpet-bombing some areas while fighter jets went after small targets.
Pentagon (news - web sites) officials have said the Republican Guard must be eliminated before ground troops move on Baghdad. For more than a week, coalition airstrikes and artillery barrages have pounded Republican Guard units to the south, west and north of the capital.
Military officials have said that the Medina and Baghdad Divisions' fighting strength has been reduced by more than half.
Meanwhile, an F-14 Tomcat fighter on a bombing mission in Iraq (news - web sites) crashed late Tuesday because of mechanical failure and both crew members were rescued via helicopter, U.S. Central Command said. Neither was seriously injured.
That brings to 67 the number of coalition forces extracted from hostile situations by search-and-rescue teams, the military said.
The U.S. military would not give any further details of the accident.
Also, a Marine Corps VA-8B Harrier jet was lost while coming in for a landing on the amphibious assault ship USS Nassau. The jet plunged into the water. The pilot ejected and was in fair condition, military said.
Overnight, U.S. warplanes dropped 16 2,000-pound precision-guided bombs on an intelligence compound in the southern city of Basra and hit radar sites, a Republican Guard barracks and other targets in and around Baghdad, military officials said.
The intelligence compound — about 10 multi-story buildings in a complex the size of a city block — was severely damaged, said Lt. Brook DeWalt, a spokesman for the aircraft carrier USS Kitty Hawk in the Persian Gulf.
The attack was the busiest night of the war so far for the Kitty Hawk's bombers.
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