The US-led air and ground assault on Iraq continued on Sunday, as Baghdad was bombed for the fourth consecutive night and coalition troops advanced towards the capital.
The Pentagon said that US ground forces had crossed the Euphrates river and made their way 150 miles into Iraq, more than halfway to the capital.
However, US and Iraqi officials said that Iraqi troops had halted an advance by US forces up the Euphrates river early on Sunday, engaging them in battle near the Shia holy city of Najaf, 100 miles south of Baghdad.
Najaf is the closest point to Iraqi capital where ground fighting has been reported since the US-led attacks began on Thursday.
Iraq’s ruling Ba’ath party said that the local leader of President Saddam Hussein’s Ba’ath party, Nayef Shedakh, was killed in the fighting.
US officers said they were confident of moving on quickly toward Najaf where they believed they could meet a division of President Saddam’s better-equipped Republican Guard.
Bombs hit Iraqi cities
Several explosions shook Baghdad before dawn on Sunday in the latest wave of US-led aircraft and missile attacks that have pounded the city for more than three days.
Much of Baghdad was plunged into darkness on Saturday evening after numerous large explosions throughout the day. Explosions were also reported around the northern city of Mosul.
US ships and warplanes hit Iraq with 500 cruise missiles and several hundred precision weapons in the last 24 hours, Major-General Stanley McChrystal of the Joint Chiefs of Staff announced on Saturday evening. Warplanes flew 1,000 missions from aircraft carriers and air bases in the region, he said.
Columns of dark smoke rose from points around the Iraqi capital on Saturday evening. Al-Jazeera television reported that the plumes were coming from fires that Iraqis had set to oil containers around Baghdad in an effort to obscure targets.
At around midnight (2100 GMT) on Saturday anti-aircraft fire streamed into the night sky over Mosul, aircraft flew overhead and explosions could be seen from 25 miles away, Reuters correspondent Sebastian Alison said.
13 US soldiers wounded in grenade attack
Thirteen US soldiers were wounded early on Sunday, six of them seriously, in a grenade attack on a rear base camp of the US 101st Airborne Division, a US military spokesman said.
A statement from US central command said that a US soldier was being questioned after the incident at Camp Pennsylvania in Kuwait near the Iraqi border.
Battles for Basra and Umm Qasr
In the south, US forces said they had defeated Iraqi forces on the outskirts of the key southern city of Basra after moving through Umm Qasr and Nassiriya on their push north from the Gulf. US aircraft bombed Iraqi tanks holding the bridges near Basra, a city of 1,3-million, and Iraqi forces responded with artillery fire.
There are reports that Iraq’s 51st division has surrendered but Baghdad says that is not true.
The US was reluctant on Saturday to assert that it had occupied cities, with General Tommy Franks insisting: ”This is about liberation, not occupation.” In Basra coalition US took an airport and a bridge and moved on, leaving British troops behind.
Although the US administration claimed on Friday that the port town of Umm Qasr had fallen, street battles were reported on Saturday and a US official said that that the aim was to ”open the port and get humanitarian aid into southern Iraq as soon as possible”.
Fighting in Umm Qasr included street battles against Iraqi soldiers wearing civilian clothes and using guerrilla tactics, said British military spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Chris Vernon.
US abandons plans for northern front
The US military on Saturday abandoned plans to open a northern front against Iraq that would have sent heavy armoured forces from the 4th Infantry streaming across the Turkish border.
The decision came after the collapse of weeks of wrangling over financial compensation and arrangements for Turkish forces to join the US troops in northern Iraq.
The Turkish military today denied reports issued yesterday by one of its officials that some 1 000 Turkish commandos had crossed into northern Iraq, a military move that would be likely to increase tensions with Iraqi Kurds and with Washington.
British TV crew may have been hit by ‘friendly fire’
Missing British TV reporter Terry Lloyd and two of his ITN news crew may have been hit by ”friendly fire” from coalition forces in Iraq, it was reported today.
Cameraman Fred Nerac and local translator Hussein Othman were also missing after the incident which happened as they were trying to get to the front at Basra on Saturday.
Another cameraman, Daniel Demoustier, was injured as the crew drove towards the key southern city in two vehicles, but was able to get to safety.
He said they had been fired on by tanks from the coalition forces at Iman Anas, while they were trying to drive away from a group of Iraqi soldiers.
Journalist killed in northern Iraq
An Australian journalist was killed on Saturday and nine other people were injured in a car explosion in northern Iraq.
Kurdish officials are saying that an Islamic militant group Ansar al-Islam group, which has been linked with al-Qaeda, is responsible.
The car bomb exploded outside the village of Khurmal close to the Iranian border.
Four US soldiers killed in central Iraq
Four US servicemen were killed in central Iraq following a rocket-propelled grenade attack.
The reports from Reuters news agency quote Sky TV’s Colin Brazier, who was travelling with the soldiers, as saying that the soldiers were ambushed while driving Humvee jeeps at the head of a column.
Seven dead in helicopter collision
On Saturday morning two Royal Navy Sea King helicopters collided in mid-air over international waters in the Gulf, killing all seven crew on board. The Sea King Airborne Early Warning (AEW) aircraft went down at around 01.30 GMT (4.30am local time).
Reports say that one helicopter was coming in to land as the other was starting out on its mission. Sea Kings normally fly with a crew of three. Six of the fatalities are British, the seventh is reported to be an American.
On Friday a US Marine CH-46 Sea Knight helicopter crashed in northern Kuwait, killing the four US crew members and eight British Commandos on board.
One of the British servicemen in the crash was today named by friends as Royal Marine Llywelyn ”Welly” Evans. He came from Llandudno, north Wales, and was serving with the Plymouth-based 3 Commando.
General Franks talks of war objectives
US General Tommy Franks announced in a news conference at 1400 GMT that the main objective of military action in Iraq was to end President Saddam’s regime and then to identify and eliminate weapons of mass destruction.
Outlining what described as the seven objectives of US action he went on to say that the third and fourth objectives were to capture and drive out terrorists and to collect weapons related to terrorist networks.
He added that the action was also aimed at ending sanctions and delivering human support. Objectives six and seven were to secure Iraq’s oilfields and then to help the Iraqi people create conditions for transition to self-government.
Coalition forces have found weapons, ammunition and explosives in Iraq, added US military representative Vince Brooks this afternoon. He described the explosives as ”not meant as defenders”.
He said only nine out of Iraq’s 500 oil wells had been sabotaged by Iraqi forces.
Polls today suggest that support for the war is growing in the US with more than 70% of the population now supporting the war, a jump of nearly 20% in the last week.
Thousands at anti-war protests
Hundreds of thousands of anti-war demonstrators marched in cities around the world on Saturday, with approximately 200 000 said to have attended protests in London and New York.
In Britain there were minor clashes between protesters and police and a small number of arrests.
Tens of thousands of demonstrators took to the streets in cities across the United States and Europe, as well as the Middle East. In Sudan anti-riot police reportedly shot dead a 19-year-old university student during a protest in the capital, Khartoum. – Guardian Unlimited Â