Up to 500 Iraqis have been killed in a two-day sweep past the Shia holy city of Najaf by the US push to Baghdad 160 kilometres to the north, American forces claimed yesterday.
Tanks and mechanised units opened fire when Iraqi tanks and anti-aircraft weaponry, bolstered by ”thousands and thousands” of other weapons, were turned on the US 3rd Infantry Division.
Command Sergeant Major Kenneth Preston, of V Corps, said US forces opened fire on meeting ”a lot” of resistance near Najaf. He attempted to play down the Iraqi defences, saying: ”This could have been very ugly, but they’re not very motivated. I think a lot of them wanted to go home.”
There was no independent confirmation last night of the US claim. Sgt Maj Preston’s pointed remarks on the low morale of the Iraqi troops sat uneasily next to his claim that they had offered strong resistance.
To compound the confusion, Iraq’s information minister claimed that 16 Iraqis had been killed in the 24 hours up to last night. But Mohammed Saeed al-Sahaf, who is unlikely to have a full picture of what is happening in Iraq, has been playing down the number of casualties to bolster the morale of his forces.
While there may be scepticism about the US headline, there is no doubt that Iraqis have suffered heavy casualties as the US forces thrust towards Baghdad.
Nassiriya
A Reuters journalist reported that at least 30 Iraqis were killed yesterday as US marines finally forced their way through Nassiriya after five days of bloody fighting in the strategically important southern Iraqi city.
As troops struggled to cope with heavy sandstorms, Cobra attack helicopters are understood to have opened fire on the conscript troops 12 miles north of the city as they travelled south to relieve Iraqi forces holed up in Nassiriya since last Thursday. Around 30 dismembered bodies were seen by the wreckages of two buses. No Iraqi weapons were visible around the wrecked vehicles. The deaths were believed to be the largest number of casualties of the war witnessed independently.
Sean Maguire, a Reuters correspondent travelling with US forces, said: ”The blasts were obviously huge. We saw dismembered bodies, headless corpses, and limbs scattered across the road.”
Another group of 25 to 30 prisoners, who apparently survived the blasts, were seen being led away by US soldiers. Several were wounded and on stretchers.
”They were all adult males, some of them wearing the black clothes of Iraqi irregular forces,” Maguire said. ”There was a large hole in the road and a [US] military officer said it looked like it was bombed from the air.”
The killings came as the US marines finally secured a two-mile corridor through the city, allowing them to cross the Euphrates river on their push north towards Baghdad. Under the cover of helicopter rockets and an artillery barrage, armoured vehicles and other transport crossed the Euphrates followed by tanks.
The symbolic crossing followed five days of fighting in Nassiriya, which resumed at first light yesterday. American tanks shattered low-rise brick homes in the 400 000-strong city with high-explosive shells from close range, sometimes as little as 100 metres.
Marines took up defensive positions on the low rooftops of the dusty, brick buildings lining the streets, looking for snipers and, they said, irregular fighters with rocket-propelled grenades and machineguns.
Captain Joe Bevan said that his men fired at a stronghold of 10 to 15 black-clad Iraqi fighters from a range of 300 to 400 metres. Many of the fighters are believed to be from the Saddam Fedayeen militia loyal to the Iraqi leader.
Journalists reported seeing two middle-aged civilian men being killed, while another was wounded. US marines, who first arrived on the outskirts of Nassiriya on Thursday, are understood to have been surprised by the ferocity of the Iraqi defence of the mainly Shia city. But the Iraqis were determined to put up a fight because clearing a route through Nassiriya, which lies about 376 kilometres south of Baghdad, allows the marines to advance north towards Kut, on the Tigris river.
Once the marines had left Nassiriya, however, they soon came under fire again on the road north.
”We’re getting ambushed up there right now,” said Lew Craparotta, commander of the 3rd Battalion, 1st Marine Infantry Regiment.
Umm Qasr
The fierce fighting in the north came as British and US forces claimed that Iraqi resistance had finally been overcome in the southern Iraqi port of Umm Qasr.
Coalition commanders insisted that they had put an end to resistance by Iraqi gunmen in the old town adjoining the deepwater port of Umm Qasr, which Britain and the US want to use to unload humanitarian supplies to Iraq.
Their claims may be met with scepticism because both Britain and the US have repeatedly claimed to have secured control of Umm Qasr, only to suffer a fresh Iraqi uprising. – Guardian Unlimited Â