The battle for Baghdad appeared to be under way today as US troops reportedly took control of Saddam International airport, a key target just 10 miles from the city centre.
US forces launched their attack on the airport, to the south-west of the city centre, last night. By Friday morning, the 3rd Infantry Division occupied part of the airport and had sealed the entrance closest to Baghdad.
A US commander with the 3rd Infantry Division said that US troops have taken ”complete control” of the airport, adding that 320 Iraqi soldiers were killed in the battle. However, other reports suggest that US troops gained partial control of the airport complex overnight, and are still fighting to flush out pockets of resistance.
Meanwhile, US central command has said that the Iraqi Air Force headquarters in the city centre was hit with satellite-guided bombs at about 9.45am (6.45am BST).
It remains unclear how many Iraqi troops remain at the airport. Forty Iraqi soldiers were killed and five tanks and several armed pickup trucks destroyed in a firefight that began just after 8am (5am BST) after Iraqi troops counter-attacked, the Reuters news agency has reported.
Meanwhile, civilians in Baghdad were being ordered by Iraqi authorities to drive to the airport to defend it, according to CNN.
Troops from the 3rd Infantry Division fought four hours of running skirmishes with Iraqi fighters before their assault on the airport.
US military sources said that there was little resistance, but dozens of Iraqi troops and civilians died in an apparent barrage of US artillery and rocket fire attacks in the nearby village of Furat.
Iraqi officials put the total death toll in and around the village at 83, but this could not be independently confirmed. Iraq said that it had captured five US tanks and one helicopter.
At least one US soldier was killed by friendly fire in the fighting. Three were wounded by Iraqi fire, and three soldiers collapsed from heat exhaustion as temperatures rose to around 32C.
Intense raids shake Baghdad and Mosul
Baghdad was rocked by a series of explosions overnight, including 16 blasts in the centre of the city within the space of three hours. Renewed strikes are being reported from the direction of Saddam International airport this morning as the battle for control continues.
Reuters said that many of the missile strikes had hit presidential palaces belonging to the Iraqi leader, Saddam Hussein.
The south and south-western areas of the city, close to where US ground forces were said to have taken control of the airport, were also hit, with reports of about 20 explosions in rapid succession.
The streets of the sprawling city, which has a population of 5 million, were almost deserted early today, with little sign of last-minute military preparations to take on the army of a superpower. However, CNN reported that military checkpoints at the entrances to Baghdad had been closed for the first time.
The city remained in near-total darkness hours after the electricity supply was cut in most areas. US and British forces have denied causing the power cut.
An intense bombing raid was also reported near Mosul overnight as US and Kurdish fighters stepped up their campaign on the northern front.
Reuters correspondent Jon Hemming, in Dohuk, 40 miles to the north of Iraq’s third-largest city, said that the attack appeared unusual in intensity because bombing near that city was not normally audible.
The US attacks are part of a gradual escalation along the northern front. Earlier, Kurdish fighters, backed by small groups of US soldiers, battled Iraqi troops during an advance along a road leading to Mosul.
During a fierce firefight, lasting about an hour, US aircraft also pounded Iraqi positions, Reuters witnesses said. The Kurdish ‘peshmerga’ fighters said that Iraqi forces then pulled back about three miles towards Mosul.
Further US casualties confirmed
A US army soldier was killed by friendly fire when he was mistaken for an enemy fighter while investigating a destroyed Iraqi tank, US military officials said today.
A statement from Central Command in Qatar did not disclose the soldier’s name, but said that he was a member of the Army’s 5th Corps and that the incident had occurred in central Iraq.
In a separate incident, a US Marine was killed by his gun in central Iraq when the weapon accidentally discharged, the US military said.
The marine’s M-249 Squad Automatic Weapon fired one round into his chest, US Central Command said.
The accident took place on Wednesday night near the city of Kut, the statement added. The soldier’s name was not disclosed, but Central Command said that he was with the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force’s 1st Marine Division. ”The Marine died honourably in the service of his country,” the statement said.
Military officials also said they were investigating the possibility that a Patriot missile shot down a US Navy F-18C Hornet jet and a possible attack on US ground forces by an F-15E Strike Eagle plane that killed at least one soldier.
Rumsfeld: ‘No way out’ for Saddam
The US would reject efforts by other countries to broker an end to the war by allowing Saddam Hussein to go into exile, and has said that there is ”no way out” for the regime’s leaders.
As US troops closed on the capital in anticipation of a decisive battle with Iraqi forces, Mr Rumsfeld said: ”There’s not a chance that there is going to be a deal. It doesn’t matter who proposes it, there will not be one.”
The secretary told a Pentagon press conference that he did not know whether Saddam was alive or dead, but quashed any idea that the US was still urging Iraq’s president to leave the country peacefully as it did before hostilities began.
”If he’s able to get out of the country, he’s out of the country,” Mr Rumsfeld said in response to questions. ”If you’re asking are we still encouraging him to leave, the answer is no.”
Asked about reports that other countries such as France or Russia, both opposed to the war, might try to broker a deal for leaders in Baghdad to leave the country, Mr Rumsfeld said that any such move would be ”unhelpful.”
He added: ”For the senior leadership, there is no way out. Their fate has been sealed by their actions.” He called on Iraqi military officers to turn against the Saddam government, and said US-led forces had taken 45 percent of Iraqi territory
Lieutenant Colonel Oliver North, now a correspondent for America’s Fox News TV station, told Sky News he had heard reports that President Saddam had fled to Tikrit, his home city and powerbase, north of Baghdad.
Last night, US Central Command released video of a group of commandos raiding one of President Saddam’s palaces near Tikrit. They overcame sporadic resistance from anti-aircraft artillery fire and fighters on the ground.
Shiites defy Saddam with ritual in streets
Shiites in the southern Iraqi town of Umm Qasr performed a public ritual of self-flagellation, a move they said would have meant death if Saddam Hussein was still in control there.
The ritual, performed at a funeral last night, was the first open sign of defiance of the Iraqi president by Shiite Muslims in the port town since it was captured by US and British troops.
”Saddam ,your days are numbered,” the marchers chanted, as religious ritual turned into broader protest of a kind seldom heard anywhere in Iraq.
While many Iraqis still express fears that US and British forces could abandon them as they did during an uprising that followed the 1991 Gulf War, the move reflected confidence that the invasion would eventually topple Saddam.
Ayatollah tells people: ‘Do not fight troops’
Meanwhile, a leading Shiite Muslim has urged Iraqis to remain neutral and not fight the invading coalition troops, a UK Shiite charity said tonight.
Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani – effectively the head of Iraq’s Shiite community – has told his people not to take sides and to stay in their homes in and around the Shiite holy shrine of Najaf, according to the al-Khoei Foundation.
Ridwan al-Killidar, manager of al-Khoei, said its sources in Najaf had reported two fatwas issued by the Ayatollah.
He said: ”One of them urges people not to vandalise public property. The second one hasn’t been confirmed but people have heard that Ali Sistani has urged people to be neutral, not to take sides and stay in their homes. ”
Grand Ayatollahs are the highest authorities in Shiite Islam and Sistani is the only one in Iraq.
”Some of the Shiite Muslims in Iraq and Britain and elsewhere were worried about what stance to take in this conflict,” said Mr al-Killidar.
”This will help. Being neutral and not interfering will help a lot of people and will make a lot of people happy because it will save lives in Najaf. Being neutral will keep them out of harm’s way.”
Sistani is the supreme religious authority at the al-Hawza al-Ilmiyya theological school in Najaf and had been under house arrest on President Hussein’s orders since 1991.
Brigadier General Vince Brooks at Central Command in Qatar hailed the statement as ”courageous”.
He said: ”We believe this is a very significant turning point. We are seeing evidence of religious leaders who have had enough of this regime.” – Â