A large contingent of Iraq's elite Republican Guard headed south yesterday in a convoy of about 1,000 vehicles toward US Marines in central Iraq -- an area that already has seen the heaviest fighting of the war, US military intelligence officers said.
Brigadier General Vincent Brooks told a press briefing in Qatar, however, that "we've not seen any significant movements of [that] type of force."
Intelligence officers with the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force said the Republican Guard units were headed with a 1,000-vehicle convoy from Baghdad on a route that avoids advancing US Army forces but leads directly to the Marines who have been fighting in recent days around the city of An Nasiriyah.
In Baghdad, Iraqi officials said two cruise missiles hit a residential area, killing 14 people.
Brooks said that there had been fighting between different groups of Iraqis in the contested southern city of Basra, where British reports suggested there may have been an uprising against Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein's regime.
"We saw fighting in the city between Iraqis -- some of them in uniform, some not," he said.
He said Iraqi paramilitary forces were "shooting into the town of Basra" and compared their behavior to "global terrorists."
"It was a very confusing situation, to say the least," Brooks added.
The intelligence officers said about 3,000 Republican Guard troops were spotted in one town along Highway 7 and 2,000 more at another.
The advance appeared to signal that the Republican Guard, Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein's best trained and most loyal force, was still prepared to go on the offensive despite several days of allied air strikes and missile attacks on its positions.
In Baghdad, Iraqi defense officials said two cruise missiles struck a residential area. Lieutenant Colonel Hamad Abdullah, head of civil defense in the area, said 14 were killed and 30 injured in the attack in the northern Al-Shaab neighborhood, which contains dozens of shops and homes.
Television footage showed a large crater in the middle of a street, a child with a bandaged head and bodies wrapped in plastic sheeting in a pickup truck. Hundreds of people stood in front of damaged buildings, some chanting "Oh, Saddam, we sacrifice our souls and blood to you."
The US Central Command said it was aware of claims that a market area had been hit and was checking the report.
Meanwhile, a series of explosions could be heard yesterday afternoon across the Iraqi capital.
In the far south, British forces fought on the fringes of the beleaguered city of Basra, while the first substantial relief convoy reached Iraq yesterday after weathering a blinding sandstorm.
To the west of where the Republican Guard was advancing, the US Army's 3rd Infantry Division drew to within 80km of Baghdad.
A military source said the US Central Command in Qatar now had evidence that the Iraqi regime had wired many of the bridges around Baghdad for destruction.
En route to Baghdad, units from the US 7th Cavalry Regiment fought a fierce running battle Tuesday and yesterday with Iraqi forces near the central city of Najaf. According to preliminary reports from American military officials, US troops killed up to 500 Iraqi fighters, suffering the loss of two tanks but no casualties.
US units in central Iraq appear to be shifting their strategy because of the attacks from Iraqi militiamen. Instead of racing to Baghdad, some units are moving slower to clear out pockets of opposition.
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