US forces plunged into the heart of Baghdad yesterday, raiding Saddam Hussein's presidential palaces, while Britain said its troops had overrun the southern city of Basra and there was strong evidence key Saddam ally "Chemical Ali" had been killed.
Baghdad echoed to big explosions and the rattle of small-arms fire and its skyline was smeared with thick smoke as US tanks and armored personnel carriers sped in from the west to assault Saddam's symbols of power, while Marines advanced from the southeast.
PHOTO: AP
But US officers described it as a tactical raid to give a "powerful message" to the Iraqi regime, not the start of the much-expected final battle to seize the capital, one of Saddam's last strongholds.
From the west, three battalions of the US 3rd Infantry Division, comprising more than 100 tanks and fighting vehicles, pushed toward the western bank of the Tigris river.
They captured Saddam's main official residence in the heart of Baghdad, as well another palace in the city center and a third near the airport, said Lieutenant-Colonel Peter Bayer, the 3rd Infantry Division's operations officer.
"First Brigade attacked out of the airport this morning and has seized the presidential palace [nearby]," Bayer said. "There are two palaces [in the city center]; we own both of them."
From the southeast, US Marines entered Baghdad undeterred by the blowing up of two bridges on the Diyala River, which runs east of the Iraqi capital.
"We're in Baghdad and we're in Baghdad to stay," said Brigadier-General John Kelly, assistant commander of the First Marine Division.
He did not say how many Marines had entered the capital or how far they had penetrated.
But reporters saw two US armored vehicles and 10 Marines in full combat gear at Saddam's main presidential palace in the city center.
The US denied, though, that that this operation was the final drive for Baghdad, styling it more as a "raid through the city" to show military muscle.
"What this is is a powerful message that we can go where we want, when we want," Pentagon spokesman Major Ben Owens said. "We are not at this point going to say that this is the start of the Battle of Baghdad."
Reporters said there was a heavy exchange of mortar and rocket-propelled grenade fire at the main presidential palace. An arms depot had caught fire and thick white smoke covered the area, while fuel trenches inside the compound were set ablaze, belching out layers of black smoke.
As the fighting raged, the streets were all but deserted. Almost all shops in central Baghdad were closed and the station for buses out of the city was empty.
Even as the world's news media filmed US tanks as they rolled down the western bank of the Tigris, the Iraqi government insisted it was repelling the assault.
Smiling and defiant, Iraqi Information Minister Mohammad Said al-Sahhaf held an impromptu press conference to urge the world not to believe US claims.
"Don't believe these invaders and these liars," he said. "There are none of their troops in Baghdad.
"We killed them, we made them drink poison and taught them a lesson that history will never forget," he added.
There were no immediate details from either side about the toll from the US operation.
But at least six US soldiers were wounded and six unaccounted for when an army position south of Baghdad was hit in a rocket attack, according to US military sources at Baghdad airport.
In the south of the country, British troops poured into the second largest city of Basra.
"The battle [for Basra] is more or less over now," Lieutenant-Colonel Hugh Blackman of the 7th Armoured Brigade said.
"We are covering all the areas of Basra, including the old city. There are soldiers and armored vehicles inside [the old city] right now."
Royal Marine commandos seized Saddam's presidential palace in Basra and other troops were in control of the city's main university after killing a dozen Iraqi militiamen holed up there.
British Defence Secretary Geoff Hoon said there was strong evidence that Ali Hasan al-Majid, the notorious Iraqi official better known as "Chemical Ali," had been killed in an air strike three days earlier.
"We have some strong indications that he was killed in the raid conducted Friday night but I can't yet absolutely confirm the fact that he is dead," Hoon told a London press conference.
Ali, a cousin of Saddam, won his grisly nickname for ordering gas attacks that killed thousands of Kurds in 1988.
Many Iraqis gave a rousing welcome to US Marines as they closed on the last 80km of their drive toward Baghdad, and there were similar scenes of jubilation in Basra.
US and British forces in southern Iraq are being bolstered by Iraqi opposition fighters, who were being flown in by the Pentagon.
NO-LIMITS PARTNERSHIP: ‘The bottom line’ is that if the US were to have a conflict with China or Russia it would likely open up a second front with the other, a US senator said Beijing and Moscow could cooperate in a conflict over Taiwan, the top US intelligence chief told the US Senate this week. “We see China and Russia, for the first time, exercising together in relation to Taiwan and recognizing that this is a place where China definitely wants Russia to be working with them, and we see no reason why they wouldn’t,” US Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines told a US Senate Committee on Armed Services hearing on Thursday. US Senator Mike Rounds asked Haines about such a potential scenario. He also asked US Defense Intelligence Agency Director Lieutenant General Jeffrey Kruse
INSPIRING: Taiwan has been a model in the Asia-Pacific region with its democratic transition, free and fair elections and open society, the vice president-elect said Taiwan can play a leadership role in the Asia-Pacific region, vice president-elect Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) told a forum in Taipei yesterday, highlighting the nation’s resilience in the face of geopolitical challenges. “Not only can Taiwan help, but Taiwan can lead ... not only can Taiwan play a leadership role, but Taiwan’s leadership is important to the world,” Hsiao told the annual forum hosted by the Center for Asia-Pacific Resilience and Innovation think tank. Hsiao thanked Taiwan’s international friends for their long-term support, citing the example of US President Joe Biden last month signing into law a bill to provide aid to Taiwan,
China’s intrusive and territorial claims in the Indo-Pacific region are “illegal, coercive, aggressive and deceptive,” new US Indo-Pacific Commander Admiral Samuel Paparo said on Friday, adding that he would continue working with allies and partners to keep the area free and open. Paparo made the remarks at a change-of-command ceremony at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam in Hawaii, where he took over the command from Admiral John Aquilino. “Our world faces a complex problem set in the troubling actions of the People’s Republic of China [PRC] and its rapid buildup of forces. We must be ready to answer the PRC’s increasingly intrusive and
STATE OF THE NATION: The legislature should invite the president to deliver an address every year, the TPP said, adding that Lai should also have to answer legislators’ questions The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) yesterday proposed inviting president-elect William Lai (賴清德) to make a historic first state of the nation address at the legislature following his inauguration on May 20. Lai is expected to face many domestic and international challenges, and should clarify his intended policies with the public’s representatives, KMT caucus secretary-general Hung Meng-kai (洪孟楷) said when making the proposal at a meeting of the legislature’s Procedure Committee. The committee voted to add the item to the agenda for Friday, along with another similar proposal put forward by the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP). The invitation is in line with Article 15-2