As US and British forces swarmed into Iraq on Friday, reports from the front said that Iraqi forces had set fire to oil wells in the southern parts of the country.
There were no other details of the burning wells, the official Kuna news agency reported.
There were also reports that 37 civilians had been wounded in the US missile strikes.
Smoke was still billowing from at least one of five targets in Baghdad near a key compound of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein hit by US cruise missiles.
Three small buildings near the planning ministry located on the right bank of the Tigris river were completely burned after the missile attacks late on Thursday.
White smoke was still coming out from one of them. Armed soldiers and security forces were deployed at the entrance of the ministry, where a giant bronze statue of Saddam holding a rifle stands guard.
The ministry, just next to the al-Jumhuriya bridge that gained fame when it was destroyed by US-led strikes during the 1991 Gulf War, is at the periphery of Saddam’s main compound in the capital, the Republican Palace.
Meanwhile, US forces in Afghanistan were pounded by rockets launched by suspected extremists as coalition troops continued a major al-Qaeda hunt, the US military reported.
Representative Colonel Roger King said more than a dozen rockets were targeted at three separate US bases in what was the largest assault on US forces in almost five months.
The attacks came as more than 1 000 personnel continued a major air and ground offensive against al-Qaeda, code-named ”Valiant Strike”, in mountains near the former Taliban stronghold of Kandahar in southern Afghanistan.
King refused to link the attacks, which occurred over a 24-hour period in southeastern Paktika and Khost provinces and central Uruzgan, to the start of US-led hostilities in Iraq.
”Special Forces in Orgun (in Paktika) reported six 107 mm rockets impacting near their base at around 6:00 pm (1330 GMT) Thursday,” King told reporters at the US military’s Afghan command on Bagram air base, north of Kabul.
”Four rockets were fired one hour later to the north of the base, followed by a last round at 10:00 pm (1730 GMT).” ”This last rocket fell four kilometres from the base and none of the rockets fell within 500 metres of the base. There were no casualties and no material damage,” King said.
King said US Special Forces also observed missile fire against a border post on the nearby frontier with Pakistan at around 2am on Friday (2130 GMT Thursday).
He said fire was returned and close air support from an A-10 aircraft dropped several bombs on the suspected positions of the attackers. Again there were no US casualties or damage reports. – Sapa-AFP