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Us forces take baghdad airport Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
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Airport Airfields Seized
U.S. Forces Overrun Baghdad Airport
B A G H D A D, Iraq, April 3 — U.S. ground forces have swept into Baghdad's international airport under cover of darkness, overrunning its airfields with tanks and other armored units. They encountered almost no opposition from Iraqi forces.
Reporting from the tarmac of Saddam International Airport, ABCNEWS' Bob Schmidt, embedded with the 3rd Infantry Division, said the airport was in pitch darkness as coalition tanks entered the facility.
U.S. forces encountered very little Iraqi resistance, said Schmidt, although some units of the 3rd Infantry Division did encounter scattered firing by Iraqi foot soldiers and men in pickups.
He reported seeing Iraqis waving and cheering as U.S. tanks rolled toward the airport, which is just 10 miles from central Baghdad.
A Reuters reporter said dozens of Iraqi civilians and soldiers had been killed in a village near the airport in a coalition air raid earlier in the day. The news agency also reported that military sources said U.S. forces had discovered a tunnel system under the airport and one tunnel led all the way back to the Tigris River.
As U.S. troops advanced toward the center of Baghdad, a large part of the city was plunged into darkness — the first time this has happened since the war began. U.S. Army Central Command said they had not targeted the city's power supply.
Earlier today, ABCNEWS' Ted Koppel, traveling with the 3rd Infantry Division on "the doorstep of Baghdad," said there were firefights along a six-lane highway leading to the airport.
There was no information on which Iraqi divisions had been manning the airport's defenses. ABCNEW's John McWethy said the airport assault was led by a combination of special operations forces and the 82nd airborne. They were followed by elements of the 3rd Infantry Division and 101st Airborne, according to sources.
Before the blackout in Baghdad, ABCNEWS' Richard Engel described the situation in the capital as "eerily calm," with no signs of movement from Iraqi troops or paramilitaries. Intermittent explosions could be heard from the direction of the airport, he said, although they were not heavy explosions.
And even as U.S. forces were positioned around Baghdad, Iraqi Information Minister Mohammed Saeed al Sahaf dismissed reports of coalition troops closing in on the capital as "silly."
"They are nowhere near Baghdad," al Sahaf told a news conference in the capital today. "Their allegations are a cover-up for their failure."
Awaiting Troops Inside Baghdad
While coalition military officials believed the Medina and Baghdad divisions of the Republican Guards had collapsed, McWethy said there were indications that some Republican Guard soldiers and other Iraqi security forces had pulled back into Baghdad.
Block by block, a "mixed bunch" of Iraqi Republican Guards and other security forces loyal to Saddam Hussein were reportedly taking over private residences and offices on top floors of buildings, said McWethy.
U.S. military sources told ABCNEWS there were elements of some Republican Guard divisions moving south from Baghdad and from areas north of the capital. But they were not believed to be in mass formations.
Dramatic Palace Raid
As troops closed in on Baghdad, special operations forces conducted a raid on the Tharthar Palace, about 50 miles southwest of Baghdad, said Central Command spokesman Brig. Gen. Vincent Brooks.
One of several palaces built by Saddam, the Tharthar Palace is believed to have been a vacation retreat for the Iraqi leader and his sons.
Although U.S. special forces were initially fired on, there were no regime leaders present during the raid, Brooks told reporters at a Central Command briefing in Qatar.
But several important documents had been seized and were currently being examined, he said.
U.S. Losses in the Air
The advances on the ground however, came with a few air setbacks.
One U.S. soldier was killed and several others were missing or injured in a possible friendly fire incident involving F-15E Strike Eagle aircraft, U.S. Central Command said in a statement.
Hours earlier, an F/A-18 Hornet fighter-bomber was downed near Baghdad, and on Wednesday, a Black Hawk helicopter was shot down by small arms fire near the central Iraqi city of Karbala.
The status of the pilot of the F/A-18 was described as "unknown" and there were six crewmembers aboard the Black Hawk, but the number of casualties was unknown, according to U.S. military officials.
Although Brooks refused to speculate on what caused the F/A-18 downing, ABCNEWS has learned that military officials had reason to believe that the aircraft came down due to friendly fire, possibly a coalition Patriot missile.
U.S. officials believe the fighter was flying too high to be shot down by Iraqi defensive missiles, said McWethy.
Warnings of Iraqi Bombings on Shiites
As coalition troops have been moving to secure cities and towns south of Baghdad, Central Command officials today warned that the Iraqi regime may be planning to begin "anonymous bombing campaigns" in several Shiite neighborhoods in Baghdad in an attempt to falsely accuse coalition forces of the resulting destruction.
Iraq is home to some of the world's most sacred Shiite religious sites, including the Ali mosque in the central Iraqi city of Najaf, which contains the tomb of Ali, the Prophet Muhammad's son-in-law .
At his briefing in Qatar today, Brooks said the grand Ayatollah Sistani, whom he described as a prominent Shiite cleric in Najaf, issued a fatwa, or edict, today, calling the population to remain calm and not interfere with the coalition.
But several Islamic scholars have noted that Ayatollah Sistani was not a high-level cleric in a vast network of Shiite clerics, many of whom have been supported by the regime in Baghdad.
Flood of Deserters
South of Baghdad, coalition forces were making steady progress, said U.S. military officials.
Around the central Iraqi city of al Kut, north of the Tigris River, ABCNEWS' Mike Cerre, who is embedded with the 1st Marine Division said the division had been encountering several busloads of Iraqis down a highway before dawn, surrendering to the Marines. The Iraqis were dressed in plain clothes and claimed to be civilians, but their military boots and haircuts suggested they were deserting soldiers, Cerre said.
A translator said the men had left Baghdad Wednesday night after their officers gave them weekend passes, knowing they were likely to desert. It was not clear if they were from the Republican Guard.
"As the sun rose, we could see civilians join the parade of Iraqis trying to protect their families and calling an end to this war before it is too late," said Cerre.
A British official today estimated that coalition forces had taken about 9,000 Iraqi prisoners of war.
U.S. military officials also warned that Saddam's loyalists could still pose a threat with chemical and biological weapons. War planners fear Saddam's troops may use chemical or biological weapons on coalition forces as they move inside the so-called "red zone" to Baghdad.
Though no chemical or biological weapons have yet been found or detected, troops have been finding clues of their existence, including stockpiles of chemical-protection suits in abandoned military installations. The "red zone" is considered the area where Iraqi troops are most likely to use chemical weapons.
ABCNEWS' Richard Engel in Baghdad, Ted Koppel and Bob Schmidt with the 3rd Infantry Division in Iraq, Mike Cerre with the 1st Marine Division, Jim Sciutto in northern Iraq, Aditya Raval in Qatar, and John McWethy and Brian Hartman at the Pentagon contributed to this report.
War By the Numbers
Wednesday, April 2:
1,900 total missions flown total
900 attack missions
500 air refueling tanker missions
250 cargo airflift missions
100 command, control, intelligence, surveillance and recon missions
Focused on killing Republican Guard targets — Medina, Baghdad and Hammurabi divisions — and hitting strategic targets in Baghdad.
Since the Start of the War (as of Sunday, March 30):
21,000 sorties flown
8,000 precision guided weapons dropped
70 percent of all bombs dropped precision guided
24.7 million gallons of fuel pumped into planes on refueling missions
28,000 short tons of cargo moved by aircraft
36,000 passengers moved since October 2002.
26 million leaflets dropped
*All numbers are approximate.*
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