Fresh waves of air strikes rocked Baghdad today as US-led bombing squads struck surface-to-air missile sites, a presidential palace and the main training ground for Saddam Hussein’s fedayeen paramilitary forces.
In a series of what officials termed ”key” strikes, satellite-guided bombs also struck an intelligence complex that the American military said was being used to ”direct military intelligence operations and to coordinate the oppression of internal opposition”.
”The strike enhances the security of coalition air forces conducting missions over the capital city of Baghdad,” the US military’s combined forces air component command said in a statement.
The raids targeted the fedayeen training facility’s barracks in eastern Baghdad, which the military said were used to control security in that part of that city.
Bombs were also dropped on ”command and control facilities” at the Abu Garayb presidential palace, east of the Saddam international airfield in western Baghdad.
US-led aircraft also dropped satellite-guided bombs on two surface-to-air missile complexes in eastern Baghdad at bout the same time, the US military said.
Iraq threatens more suicide missions
Iraq’s vice president has threatened more suicide bombings against US and UK troops, following the death on Saturday of four US soldiers from a suicide bomb.
The suicide bombing, the first of the war in Iraq, killed four US soldiers north of Najaf as well as their driver.
The bomber, identified as Ali Jaafar al-Noamani, has been awarded two posthumous medals by Saddam Hussein, according to Iraqi state television.
Iraqi vice president Taha Yassin Ramadan told a news conference said Ali Jaafar al-Noamani was a non-commissioned army officer and father of several children.
The US soldiers, members of the 1st Brigade, 3rd Infantry Division, were manning a checkpoint on Highway 9 north of Najaf when a taxi drew up and the driver signalled for help. When the soldiers approached the car it exploded.
Arab television station al-Jazeera had reported that the bombing was the work of the Fedayeen, the pro-Saddam militia. American and British troops have been warned of the possibility of suicide attacks, with reports in the Arab media that the Iraqi leader has established training camps for such attacks.
Baghdad bombardment intensifies
Large explosions rocked Baghdad early this morning, as the fierce US-led bombardment of the Iraqi capital continued.
Reuters correspondent Hassan Hafidh said: ”There were four very loud explosions, one after another, and this time they aren’t far away, it seems they’re around the centre,” said.
Around an hour and a half earlier, before midnight local time, Reuters reported that around 30 explosions hit the capital and its surrounding areas as warplanes were heard overhead. Meanwhile al-Jazeera has reported explosions around the northern city of Mosul.
Iraq’s information ministry building was damaged but not destroyed in a pre-dawn US missile attack on Saturday. Planes were heard over the capital, drawing anti-aircraft fire, and the blazes started by authorities to conceal targets seemed to be burning furiously, sending darker-than-usual clouds over the city on an otherwise clear day.
During daylight operations yesterday, US warplanes dropped 500lb laser-guided and unguided bombs on military vehicles and a command bunker south of Baghdad, said Lieutenant Nicole Kratzer, a spokeswoman for the USS Kitty Hawk’s air wing.
Cook calls for UK troop withdrawal
Former British foreign secretary Robin Cook today dramatically called on Tony Blair to bring Britain’s troops home from Iraq.
Cook — whose resignation as Leader of the Commons was the most high-profile political protest against UK involvement in the war – denounced the campaign in Iraq as ”bloody and unnecessary”.
And he warned that Britain and America risked stoking up a ”long-term legacy of hatred” for the west across the Arab and Muslim world.
In an outspoken article for British newspaper Sunday Mirror, Cook said that the US president, George Bush, and his defence secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, did not appear to know what to do now that their hopes that Iraq would swiftly capitulate had proved unfounded.
They appeared to be contemplating laying siege to Baghdad, which would result in massive civilian suffering and many unnecessary deaths, he said.
Cook wrote: ”I have already had my fill of this bloody and unnecessary war. I want our troops home and I want them home before more of them are killed.”
Al-Qaeda ‘operating in Iraq’
A group of non-Iraqi Arabs belonging to terrorist network al-Qaeda are operating in the Najaf and Kerbala regions of Iraq, according to a leading opposition group.
The exiled Iraqi National Congress (INC) claims that al-Qaeda is acting on an agreement made between Osama bin Laden and Saddam Hussein which would allow al-Qaeda to take control of the area if they can defend it.
The INC also believes that the suicide bombing which killed four US soldiers in Najaf on Saturday morning involved members of the group.
Zaab Sethna, a member of the INC based in northern Iraq, said: ”We have been told today by a source based in Iraqi intelligence in Baghdad that non-Iraqi Arabs affiliated with al Qaida are operating in these areas.
”Najaf and Kerbala have the two most important Shi’ite holy sites in the world and are under threat of destruction by Bin Laden’s group, which is violently opposed to Shi’ite Islam – almost as strongly as it is to America.
”We are worried for the safety of the Shi’ite civilians and the Shi’ite holy shrines in these two areas.”
Iraqi air commander replaced
The commander of Iraqi air defence forces in Baghdad has been replaced after Iraqi missiles went astray and hit the country’s capital, Baghdad, said a representative for British prime minister, Tony Blair on Saturday.
The representative said the source of this information came from intelligence reports. He stopped short of saying that the missiles had been responsible for the deaths in a marketplace in Baghdad last night, but US and British officials had suggested earlier in the day that stray Iraqi missiles could be to blame.
Missile in Baghdad marketplace ‘kills 62’
Doctors at Baghdad’s al-Noor hospital have said that 62 people were killed in an explosion in a busy marketplace in the city on Friday night.
Iraqi officials claimed the carnage was caused by a stray coalition cruise missile, but there was no immediate comment at US central command in Qatar.
Late on Friday night, doctors at al-Noor hospital said they had seen 52 corpses, by Saturday morning the reported death toll had risen to 58 and the latest reports indicate that deaths have risen to 62, with many more injured.
Seven tomahawks missed their targets, says Pentagon
A Pentagon representative said on Saturday that a total of seven tomahawks had ”not made it to their targets” in the war on Iraq, largely as a result of mechanical failure.
The comments were made by joint chief of staff Major General Stanley McChrystal in a briefing to journalists on Saturday evening. He went on to stress that the US was going to great lengths to protect Iraqi civilians.
At the same press conference, pentagon representative Victoria Clarke condemned the ”flagrant cruelty” of Iraq’s military tactics.
She said the Iraqi military was using unacceptable tactics, such as posing as civilians, faking surrenders, using human shields and using civilian vehicles to transport military personnel.
She added that coalition forces were growing more dominant on the ground and in the air and they had now secured 600 oilfields.
Maj Gen McChrystal said troops were facing ”sporadic resistance” in southern Iraq.
He expressed his concern over the continued threat of suicide bombings and said the investigations into the market bombing in Baghdad on Friday night were continuing.
Break in Baghdad advance denied by US military
US central command said on Saturday there would be no pause in the advance on Baghdad, despite earlier speculation to the contrary.
According to Reuters news agency an unnamed US soldier had said that commanders had ordered on Friday a four to six day pause in the move by ground forces into Baghdad. Sky News then reported that the Pentagon had expressed surprise that the break in action had become public knowledge.
But Major General Victor Renuart said in a press conference this afternoon that there would be ”no pause on the battlefield”.
”Just because you see a particular formation pause on the battlefield it does not mean there is a pause,” he told journalists.
Missile fired on Kuwait City
An Iraqi missile exploded in the sea close to Kuwait City on Saturday, rocking a shopping centre and sending plumes of smoke above the city.
The missile – the 13th to be launched by Saddam Hussein against Kuwait since the war started – came down at about 2am local time (11pm GMT) by the seafront in the Souq Sharq area of the city.
It was the closest that a missile has come to Kuwait City since the war began. Two people were injured, according to Reuters.
British soldier killed in ‘friendly fire’ attack
A British soldier was killed and two others badly injured in a suspected ”friendly fire” incident near Basra, according to defence sources.
The British soldiers were thought to have been hit when an American A-10 ‘tankbuster’ aircraft fired depleted uranium shells on two armoured vehicles yesterday afternoon.
Three other soldiers were described as ”walking wounded”.
Twenty-three British soldiers have now died in the war on Iraq. The soldier who died would be the fifth Briton to die in a ”blue on blue” incident. Only four have been killed by the enemy.
US jets destroy ‘regime’ building in Basra
American jets destroyed a two-story building in Basra where some 200 Iraqi regime paramilitary members were believed to be meeting on Friday night, according to US Central Command.
The F-15E Strike Eagles used laser-guided missiles to destroy the building, while leaving undamaged the Basra Christian Church 300 metres (yards) away, officials said. – Guardian Unlimited Â