Thousands of terrified civilians are fleeing Baghdad as US troops edge closer to the city.
Residents packed buses, cars and even horse-drawn carts with blankets and food in scorching temperatures as US forces prepared for a full-scale attack on Baghdad.
Witnesses said most appeared to be heading north-west of the city, possibly to seek refuge in neighbouring Syria.
US Marine Captain Matt Watt told the Reuters news agency he had seen about 2 000 people heading south from Baghdad on Friday.
”We may find that as we roll north and get closer to the city we’ll probably find more and more people pushing out. I really think that’s going to clog up the roads and slow us down,” he said.
”It’s going to prevent us from engaging the enemy if we have all those civilians around us.”
US jets attack Baghdad
US attack jets were today put on 24-hour alert over Baghdad in preparation for an assault on the Iraqi capital.
Air Force Lt Gen Michael Moseley said the planes would support American ground troops in what could be bloody urban combat.
”The trick, if you have to do this, is to use the smallest weapon possible to get the maximum effect, so that you don’t create unnecessary loss of civilian life or property,” Lt Gen Moseley said.
The US military said today its troops would continue moving into Baghdad as and when it chose, but that the war against Saddam Hussein’s forces was ”far from over”.
Operations director Major-General Victor Renuart told a news conference in Qatar earlier today one American unit had gone into Baghdad on a reconaissance mission, but he declined to say whether any other troops remained in the city.
”This is a clear statement of the ability of coalition forces to move into Baghdad at times of their choosing. These kinds of operations will continue,” he said. ”But this fight is far from over.”
Asked why there had been no witness reports of an incursion, Major-General Renuart replied: ”I’m pretty confident that in some parts of downtown London you can’t see other parts of downtown London.”
Iraq denied any US forces were in Baghdad and said its troops had driven the Americans from the international airport – a claim denied by the US military.
Meanwhile, the news agency Reuters reported that US marines had begun digging up a suspected chemical weapons hiding place in the courtyard of a school in the town of Aziziyah, south east of Baghdad.
Saddam tells Iraqis to ‘step up attacks’
President Saddam has urged his army and the Iraqi people to to increase their resistance against the invading troops.
In a statement read out on Iraqi television by the information minister Mohamed Saeed al-Sahaf, President Saddam said coalition forces were now focusing on Baghdad.
”You must inflict more wounds on this enemy and fight it and deprive it of the victories it has achieved… you must rattle their joints and terrify them and speedily defeat them in and around Baghdad,” he said.
Troops find ‘makeshift morgue’
The remains of as many as 200 people have been discovered in a ”makeshift morgue” by British soldiers in southern Iraq. The skulls and bundles of bone in strips of military uniform, were dumped in plastic bags and unsealed hardboard coffins in an abandoned Iraqi military base on the outskirts of Zubayr.
A forensics team have been called in to investigate a possible atrocity perpetrated by Saddam Hussein’s regime. One British officer said the bodies had been there some time and were unlikely to be related to this conflict.
Situation in Baghdad
Witnesses in Baghdad said today they saw no evidence of the incursion described by the US military, although the streets were said to be teeming with armed men who have taken positions on main roads leading to the southern, southeastern and western exits of the city.
Army tanks were deployed inside the city and on the road to the airport, Iraqi army troops danced on top of what they said were US armoured personnel carriers destroyed in battle on Friday and Saturday.
The US military said Baghdad was now in a ”choke hold” with troops encircling the city and 24-hour air patrols being carried out by the US military.
President Saddam’s much feared Fedayeen militiamen reportedly materialised in the city centre for the first time in weeks. Recognisable by their black uniforms, they roamed the streets while fires started by the government to conceal targets raged through the morning haze.
Meanwhile the International Committee of the Red Cross said Baghdad’s hospitals are finding it increasingly difficult to cope with the almost continuous influx of war wounded.
The ICRC – virtually the only international aid organization in Iraq – said that four hospitals visited by its staff in the capital reported ”several hundred war wounded patients as well as dozens of fatalities” from yesterday’s fighting.
Kerbala attacked
US aircraft and ground troops attacked the central Iraqi city of Kerbala today in an effort to protect US forces moving into Baghdad, US officers said.
Troops fought street-by-street battles with Iraqi paramilitaries in the narrow roads of the Shi’ite shrine city.
”It’s freaky in there. Lots of bullets flying around. It’s pretty scary,” one evacuated US soldier told Reuters.
Republican Guard HQ ‘captured’
US forces today claimed to have captured the headquarters of the Republican Guard’s Medina division in Suwayrah, a town about 50km south east of Baghdad.
Two tank companies and an infantry company of the 3rd Infantry Division rolled through the headquarters unopposed and quickly took over the entire base. It appeared the Republican Guard defences had completely collapsed.
Outside the base on a 5km stretch of road were hundreds of bunkers and foxholes and dozens of artillery pieces, anti-aircraft guns, tanks and armoured personnel carriers.
All of them had been abandoned by Iraqi troops. No troops could be seen. The US tanks and Bradley fighting vehicles used their main guns to destroy the military vehicles along the route.
‘Suicide attack’ at airport
US military sources have said they are ”not aware” of a suicide bomb attack on US army soldiers at Baghdad international airport. Reuters had earlier reported an attack.
And the Iraqi information minister, Mohammed Saeed al-Sahaf, said Iraqi forces had recaptured Baghdad’s international airport – claims the US military dismissed as ”groundless”. – Guardian Unlimited Â