US forces are continuing to target government buildings in Baghdad, including the planning and information ministries, in a series of sustained attacks. One Reuters journalist witnessing the attacks on the Iraqi capital’s nerve centre said: ”It’s raining bombs.”
Earlier, Iraqi forces sent buses and tanks full of fighters across the Tigris river in an attempt to overrun US forces holding a strategic intersection on the western side of Baghdad.
According to US commanders, around 500 Iraqi fighters took part in the counter-attack. They were made up of special Republican Guard, Fedayeen and Ba’ath party loyalists, many dressed as civilians. At least 50 Iraqi fighters were killed. Two US soldiers were reported to have been wounded, one seriously, as a result of sniper fire from rooftops.
US forces, operating from a presidential palace on the west bank of the Tigris, used A-10 Warthog attack planes and artillery and mortar fire to retake the intersection.
US troops had launched a tank and air assault in an attempt to seize the heart of the Iraqi capital. During the morning, they targeted Iraqi units guarding a crossing to the east and, in the process, fired a tank shell at a hotel housing the foreign media. Two cameramen were killed.
Saddam fate uncertain
The question on the mind of all coalition troops is whether or not the US succeeded in killing the Iraqi president, Saddam Hussein, when four 2,000lb bombs were dropped on a smart Baghdad suburb. Saddam and his sons were believed to have been meeting there.
US central command in Qatar today revealed that the bunker-busting bombs had destroyed at least three buildings in the district of al-Mansour, and had been launched following information received from intelligence sources.
They would not say whether they have confirmation of whether or not Saddam had been in the area. DNA tests of the bomb site will have to be carried out.
”A leadership target was hit very hard,” said Marine Major Brad Bartelt.
He said he could not comment on casualties or say how long it would take to determine the damage.
Those close to President Saddam have said that he is so obsessed with security that very few people would know about his movements. He maintains dozens of residences and uses doubles to keep people guessing.
Two journalists killed in hotel blast
Two cameramen have died after the Palestine hotel, the Baghdad base of much of the foreign media, came under US tank fire today.
Television cameraman Taras Protsyuk, 35, was killed in the blast. A Ukrainian national based in Warsaw, he had worked for Reuters since 1993 and had reported from conflicts in Bosnia, Chechnya, Afghanistan and Kosovo.
Jose Couso, 37, was working for the Spanish television station, Telecinco. He died while undergoing surgery for injuries to his leg, chest and jaw. He was married with two children.
Samia Nakhoul, the Lebanese-born Gulf bureau chief for Reuters, and Faleh Kheiber, an Iraqi photographer, were both treated in hospital for facial and head wounds and concussion. Doctors said their injuries were not serious.
Television satellite dish coordinator Paul Pasquale, from Britain, was taken to hospital with leg injuries but doctors said he was not in danger.
David Chater, of Sky News, who was in the hotel, said that he saw a tank barrel aiming in his direction just before the blast hit.
”A lot of us feel very vulnerable now. How can we continue doing this if US tanks are targeting western journalists?” he said.
Al-Jazeera television, which had earlier lost a cameraman, Tareq Ayoub, in a US bombing raid, showed frightened reporters wearing flak vests running in the hotel’s corridors. Footage showed colleagues carrying the wounded to the lift down to the lobby.
US General Buford Blount said that a US tank had fired a single round after ”receiving small arms fire and RPG [rocket-propelled grenade] fire from the hotel”.
The office of another Arabic news network, Abu Dhabi TV, was also hit this morning.
Meanwhile, Iraq’s domestic state television today went off the air in Baghdad. Earlier, it had failed to broadcast a morning news bulletin. Instead, it showed only old footage of President Saddam being cheered at rallies, and played patriotic songs.
There are fewer media reports now coming out of Baghdad. However, before the Palestine was shelled, areas of west Baghdad not held by US troops, who were mainly in positions in view of the Palestine on the opposite bank of the Tigris, also came under air and artillery attack.
Smoke and fire were seen pouring from the area around the information ministry, and US tanks later moved towards government buildings in central Iraq.
US forces were estimated to have moved two miles since dawn, taking them into the nerve centre of Saddam Hussein’s administration, which houses most of Iraq’s ministries and other official buildings.
The Iraqi information minister, Mohammed Saeed al-Sahaf, today said that Iraqi forces would defeat the US invaders.
”They are going to surrender or be burned in their tanks. Baghdad is bracing to pummel the invaders,” he told reporters.
Bush and Blair blur UN role
The US president, George Bush and the prime minister, Tony Blair today again left blurred the UN’s role in a post-Saddam Iraq, in their third meeting in less than three weeks.
Pressed on the issue at a joint press conference at Hillsborough castle in Northern Ireland, Mr Bush said: ”When we say a vital role for the UN we mean a vital role … there’s evidently some scepticism in Europe that I mean what I say. Saddam Hussein now knows that I mean what I say.”
Mr Bush defined a ”vital role” as being about ”food, medicine, aid, contributions” and as ”helping the interim government stand up until the real government shows up”.
Mr Blair intervened to say that the ”important thing is to not get into some battle over a word here or there, but for the international community to come together… rather than endless diplomatic wrangles”.
Marines begin push to city centre
On the eastern edge of the city, US marines spent the night scouring foxholes, trenches and what appeared to be bunkers, and attacked a military airfield.
Military sources said the marines, who yesterday fought to enter Baghdad over a tributary of the Tigris ringing the city’s eastern outskirts, would gradually push forward towards the city centre.
East Baghdad is densely populated and includes the district of Saddam City, home to many poorer Shia Muslims.
The marines said they had met stiffer resistance on the edge of the city than at previous bridges they had captured but would pour tanks, armoured vehicles and thousands of men across the Tigris tributary to reinforce their push on the city centre.
Saddam targeted in bombing raid
US central command in Qatar today revealed it bombed an upmarket residential area of Baghdad yesterday where President Saddam and his aides were believed to be meeting.
At least three buildings were destroyed in the attack on the district of al-Mansour in western Baghdad, which blasted an18-metre-deep crater, ripped orange trees from their roots and left a heap of concrete, mangled iron rods and shredded furniture and clothes.
Rescue workers looking in the rubble for victims said two bodies had been recovered and the death toll could be as high as 14.
Residents standing around the rubble said shrapnel killed victims as far as 200 metres away.
A single B-1B bomber dropped four ”bunker-busting” bombs on the district after US military intelligence received a tip off that President Saddam, his sons Uday and Qusay and other Iraqi leaders might be meeting there, US military officials said.
”A leadership target was hit very hard,” said Marine Major Brad Bartelt.
He said he could not comment on casualties or say how long it would take to determine the damage.
Those close to President Saddam have said the Iraqi leader is so obsessed with security that very few people would know about his movements. He maintains dozens of residences and uses doubles to keep people guessing.
New leaders for Basra
A community leader, identified only as ”a sheikh”, will form a new leadership in Basra province, the British army announced today.
Colonel Chris Vernon, spokesman for the British army, said a local leader who approached the military last night will be at the head of a committee to govern the city and its province.
”This person approached us, we met with him last night. We have ascertained that he is worthwhile, credible, has authority in the local area particularly with the tribal chiefs,” Col Vernon said.
”He will now form his own committee. Who he wishes to come onto that is entirely up to him.”
Col Vernon added that no significant resistance remained in Basra and there were now no areas of the city of concern to UK troops.
Fighting in the south
US forces today battled Iraqi soldiers northwest of Hilla, using helicopters and artillery to target Iraqis who fired at them with small arms, rocket-propelled grenades and mortars.
Hilla lies close to the site of the ancient city of Babylon, around 62 miles south of Baghdad.
Warplane downed
A US A-10 ”Warthog” has crashed near Baghdad airport but the pilot was safely rescued, central command said in a statement.
A-10s were today pounding Iraqi anti-aircraft positions close to the airport. – Guardian Unlimited Â