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Republican guard destroyed near baghdad Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/story.jsp?story=393238http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/story.jsp?story=393238
US 'destroys Guard division' on road to Baghdad
AP
02 April 2003
US ground forces today said they had 'destroyed' an entire division of Iraq's Republican Guard and were 20 miles from Baghdad.
US Central Command said the Guard's Baghdad Division had been routed on the highway leading to the capital. Two other divisions had been engaged and they were advancing on Baghdad from both the south-west and the south-east.
In the south-west, 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 US 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 dug in.
At least 20 Iraqis were killed and an unknown number of fighters were taken prisoner, field reports said. No US casualties were reported.
"We have moved beyond where the Republican Guard is and beyond where the popularly known red line is," said Navy Capt. Frank Thorp, a US Central Command spokesman. The "red line" is the area within artillery and missile range of Republican Guard units defending Baghdad.
Brig. Gen. Vincent Brooks said that allied forces had seized control of a dam on Lake al-Milh. Some analysts had feared the Iraqis would try to destroy the dam and trap U.S. forces with the resulting flood.
To the east, Marines seized an important bridge over the Tigris River near the city of Kut amid fighting with the Baghdad Division of the Republican Guard, according to a Pentagon official who spoke on condition of anonymity.
The bridge allowed thousands of Marines from the 1st Expeditionary Force to cross the river in their push toward Baghdad from the southeast.
Around Karbala, Iraqi defenders fired anti-aircraft guns into the sky most of the night, as US 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.
Late Tuesday, the Army fought parts of the guard's Medina Division after Tomahawk cruise missiles and airstrikes pounded division positions near Karbala.
Pentagon 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.
The Pentagon's top general, Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Richard Myers, said the Medina Division's fighting strength had been reduced by more than half. Military officials said the Baghdad Division, centered around Kut, also has been similarly worn down.
An F-14 Tomcat fighter on a bombing mission in Iraq crashed late yesterday because of mechanical failure and both crew members were rescued via helicopter, US 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 US military would not give any further details of the accident.
Overnight, US warplanes dropped 16 2,000-pound (900-kilogram) 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.
2 April 2003 20:13
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