Britain and the United States today suffered their first casualties of the war in Iraq, with a US marine dying in combat and 12 other servicemen being killed in a helicopter crash.
The soldiers were killed as coalition forces continued to consolidate gains made overnight after the launch of the ground invasion over the Kuwaiti border.
US defence officials confirmed the marine’s death, making him the coalition’s first reported combat death of the war. It is not known how many casualties Iraq has suffered.
The soldier, part of the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force, was moving in the ground assault in southern Iraq, said Lt Col Neal Peckham, a British military spokesman in Kuwait.
Lt Col Peckham said he had no further details. MSNBC cable network reported that the soldier was felled by Iraqi gunfire during the advance on the Rumeila oil field.
Helicopter crash
The incident came hours after eight British and four US soldiers died in a US marine helicopter crash. A British military spokesman said the crash was an accident.
The British prime minister, Tony Blair, today paid tribute to the eight British commandos. He said they were brave men who had given their lives to make British people’s lives safer.
Blair said: ”I would like to express my personal condolences and those of the government to the servicemen who were killed in the helicopter crash overnight.
These were brave men who in order to make us safer and more secure, knew the risks, faced the risks and had the courage to serve their country and the wider world.
”We owe them an enormous debt of gratitude and our thoughts and prayers are with their families.”
The dead British soldiers had been part of the air and seaborne assault on the strategic Faw peninsula in southern Iraq. The CH-46E helicopter, which crashed at around 0040 GMT about 10 miles south of the border with Iraq, was not thought to have been brought down by hostile fire. It would take some time to determine the exact cause of the crash, a British military representative said.
Push towards Baghdad
Coalition troops could be in Baghdad ”within three or four days”, as tanks from the US 7th Cavalry speed towards the Iraqi capital meeting little resistance, a representative for British forces in the Gulf said today.
”If I was a betting man, and I’m not, I would say hopefully within the next three or four days,” said Group Captain Al Lockwood.
Meanwhile, four US B-52 bombers took off from RAF Fairford in Gloucestershire today. It is not yet known whether they are heading for Iraq.
It would take the eight-engine bombers, based at RAF Fairford since the beginning of the month, about eight hours to reach Baghdad.
Gains made in southern assault
US Marines today ran into mortar fire as they took control of the main highway leading to the key port city of Basra, at the heart of Iraq’s southern oil facilities.
British forces said they ran into ”stiff resistance” as they moved against the port town of Umm Qasr, on al-Faw peninsula to the south of Basra. The peninsula was taken in the very first hours of the ground war. British defence secretary Geoff Hoon called the peninsula’s capture ”certainly a significant strategic success”.
”It means that we have a bridgehead from which to operate, but crucially it means that part of the plan of the Iraqi authorities to destroy their oil wealth has been averted.”
But he said troops encountered ”stiff resistance” from Iraqi forces defending Umm Qasr, 20 miles south of Basra. Initially light opposition had stiffened considerably with the push north, Hoon added.
”Our forces are in fact already facing some stern resistance around Umm Qasr as I speak. The Iraqis are not simply giving up in the way some commentators suggested that they would.”
US marines raised the US flag over the new town in the key southern Iraqi port today, but the old town, one mile away, was still being held by Iraqi forces.
The British troops are heading for the port of Basra to open a supply channel for humanitarian aid into the country, a British forces spokesman said today.
”Obviously we will attempt to secure the peninsula and the objective eventually will be to secure Basra, the port in particular, so we can start the flow of humanitarian aid into the country,” Group Captain Al Lockwood said in Qatar.
Royal Marine commandos opened their ground war on Iraq before dawn on Friday with an airborne and seaborne assault on the coast around al-Faw peninsula to secure Iraq’s main oil pipeline terminals.
”They captured the essential oilheads and pumping stations that supply the oil to be offloaded into the north Arabian Gulf,” Capt Lockwood told Reuters.
This morning US and British forces responded to Iraqi fire with artillery barrages and jet attacks on one position to the west of the town.
The US 1st Marine Division needed air support to suppress Iraqi mortar and small arms fire while seizing Route 80, which leads from Kuwait to Basra.
Supported by Cobra attack helicopters and howitzers, marine tanks and armoured vehicles rolled down Route 80 through the demilitarised zone between Kuwait and Iraq.
Until then, the marines had taken side roads. Route 80 allowed a faster approach to Basra itself, and hundreds of marine vehicles moved up it into Iraq.
The marines had encountered resistance in the area for several hours this morning after moving to attack the nearby town of Safwan, which fell within hours.
The US 15th Marine Expeditionary Force advancing in southern Iraq today encountered 200 or more Iraqi troops seeking to surrender.
One group of 40 Iraqis marched down a two-lane road towards the Americans and gave up. They were told to lie face down on the ground before being searched.
Northern oilfield ‘secured’
The BBC today reported that US special forces may have secured the Kirkuk oil fields in northern Iraq, quoting unnamed intelligence sources.
”The oil fields of Kirkuk, which are the busiest in Iraq, may have been already secured by American special forces,” BBC correspondent John Simpson reported from the northern front line.
”It’s from that direction we’ve been hearing all the firing and the activity this morning and that may lend a certain amount of currency to the idea.”
A US official said earlier this month that Iraq had placed explosives at the Kirkuk oil fields to prevent them being captured in the event of an invasion.
A fire at an oil well in the Kirkuk field, ablaze for four weeks, was caused by human error and not sabotage, the head of an emergency response company recently evacuated from Kirkuk said today.
Michael Allcorn, managing director of Alert Disaster Control (Asia) Pte Ltd, said that he had not seen any evidence of Iraqi military preparing oil wells in the Kirkuk field for destruction.
”The fire in the Kirkuk field has nothing to do with the military. It was due to improper application of drilling practices”, he told Reuters.
British military sources today said that up to 30 oil wells across Iraq have been set on fire.
Kuwaitis ‘shoot down enemy Scud’
A Kuwait defence official said coalition Patriot missiles had shot down an Iraqi Scud missile in north-western Kuwait today.
”It was a Scud but Patriots hit the Scud,” a defence ministry official said.
Iraq fired several Scud missiles towards Kuwait yesterday, mostly towards US and British rear positions in the north, a British military representative said earlier today. He said the Scuds had not caused any damage. Most were intercepted by Patriot missiles.
Saddam Hussein ‘survived air strike’
The Iraqi president, Saddam Hussein, survived yesterday’s US air raids that targeted his family houses, according to a senior Iraqi official.
Iraq’s information minister, Mohammed Saeed al-Sahaf, told a news conference: ”They targeted the houses of Saddam Hussein and his family, but they are safe. They are safe,” he repeated, adding that the US president, George Bush, was the ”leader of an international criminal gang of bastards”.
In the first official Iraqi response to the invasion launched yesterday by US and British forces, Sahaf said: ”We will not let them leave the swamp they have entered. They will meet their fate.”
Turkey airspace deal delayed
Last night’s apparent deal to open Turkish airspace to US aircraft was in disarray today as Turkey delayed the agreement, demanding close control of overflights and greater freedom to dispatch its own troops over the border.
Turkey’s parliament held a long-awaited vote yesterday, granting permission for US warplanes to cross Turkish territory. Washington had hoped mission could go ahead immediately, easing pressure on a main invasion force pressing up from the south, but the deal became bogged down in all-night talks over terms.
”We’ve taken a break in talks with the US because there are snags both concerning airspace use and movement of Turkish troops into northern Iraq,” a Turkish foreign ministry source said.
Washington opposes any unilateral dispatch of Turkish troops to northern Iraq, fearing fighting could break out between Turkish troops and local Kurds, disrupting the US war campaign. Diplomatic sources said Turkey was demanding detailed information of every overflight, its timing and nature of the aircraft and its load. Ankara was expecting a reply from Washington today. – Guardian Unlimited Â