US ground troops preparing to march on Baghdad engaged for the first time in "serious" combat against crack Iraqi Republican Guards as British commandos yesterday pursued a major assault on the southern port city of Basra.
US officers said 200 Iraqis had been killed, wounded or captured in the first major battle against units of the elite Iraqi Guard that broke out overnight southeast of Karbala, 80km from Baghdad.
Colonel Will Grimsley, of the US Army's 3rd Infantry Division, said there had been sporadic encounters earlier with elements of the Guard in the area, but "this is the first serious contact."
PHOTO: REUTERS
For days now, US and British warplanes have pounded positions south of Baghdad believed held by the Republican Guard, seen as President Saddam Hussein's most formidable military unit and key to the defense of his seat of power.
Reports of the battle around Karbala, a Shiite Muslim holy city in central Iraq, came as US armored units finalized plans for a decisive thrust toward the capital within a week, commanders said.
The 20,000-strong 3rd Infantry Division, a heavy armored force spearheading the invasion, has concentrated near the Euphrates valley town of Najaf, 150km south of Baghdad.
Elsewhere, fighting was reported in Najaf and southern Samawah while British forces launched a major assault to secure a suburb of southern Basra.
Some 600 men from 40 Commando attacked Abu Al Khasib on Sunday in the first all-out British assault by a full commando since the Falklands War in 1982. The operation was continuing yesterday.
British troops suffered an unknown number of injuries, but said at least 300 enemy prisoners of war were taken and a number of Iraqi tanks, armored troop carriers and bunkers destroyed.
A correspondent for the Arabic news channel al-Jazeera said British artillery had opened fire on the western suburbs early yesterday afternoon. The network showed live pictures of clouds of smoke and debris.
On day 12 of the war, the blitz in Baghdad to bring down the regime continued, with the information ministry blasted by missiles and domestic television off the air for several hours as US-led forces targeted communications.
Facing mounting criticism of their war strategy, US commanders have said they plan to "tighten the noose" on Baghdad before any decisive push.
"We have the power to be patient in this. We are not going to hurry," Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman General Richard Myers said Sunday. "We will be patient and continue to draw the noose tighter and tighter."
Yesterday's hit on the information ministry was the second successful strike on the regime's propaganda machine after damage to the building Saturday.
Meanwhile, big explosions boomed out from the edge of the capital as they have daily since the war began, but Baghdadis were out on the streets again and at work trying to maintain a semblance of normal life.
At least seven of Baghdad's telephone exchanges have been pounded in recent days, knocking out services in some areas, and adding to the anguish of residents.
Smoke meanwhile was seen rising from Saddam's sprawling presidential palace on the banks of the Tigris after at least eight explosions just after midnight.
More blasts then rocked the city of 5 million into the morning and al-Jazeera reported a new wave of bombing on Baghdad shortly after noon.
Residents said that 20 people, including 11 children, were killed when a missile attack struck a farm on the southeast edge of Baghdad on Saturday night.
British troops near Basra reported Sunday that they had discovered a Geiger counter and nerve gas simulators marked "dangerous to humans if exposed for 10 minutes without a respirator."
US Marines near the southern city of Nasiriyah also discovered two decontamination vehicles as well as hundreds of chemical warfare suits and gas masks in the southern Iraqi city of Nasiriyah, the Central Command said yesterday.
In the north, Iraqi positions on the frontlines between government troops and Kurdish rebel-held territory came under air attack for a third night running.
The latest official US toll stood at at least 39 dead and 15 missing since the launch of the campaign. A total of 25 British servicemen have been killed.
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