US commanders, beginning the ground war earlier than expected, sought to reclaim an element of surprise Thursday after the war's unexpected start.
The land assault Thursday by lead elements of Marines, Army and British forces was in striking contrast to the 1991 Persian Gulf War, when allied forces began their offensive after a 39-day air campaign.
It was also different in another important way: the degree of risk. When the US military began ground attacks in 1991, it had a much larger force and a more limited objective: evicting the Iraqi forces from Kuwait. This time the force is smaller and Iraqi President Saddam Hussein has his back against the wall.
The Marines had been instructed earlier in the week to be ready to attack on four-hour notice in case the Iraqis set the oil field afire, as in 1991 when they burned the Kuwaiti oil fields.
The early attack also seemed intended to help the allied forces regain the initiative and maintain some element of surprise. While the cruise missile attacks on areas around the presidential compound in Baghdad on Thursday night were predictable, the timing of the land attack was not.
The air and land assault that began Thursday night was actually scheduled to occur later this week after several days of preparatory air strikes, probes and psychological operations.
But the attacks were moved up after a cruise missile strike Wednesday night, ordered by President George W. Bush, which apparently failed to kill Saddam, but still disrupted Iraqi command communications. A formation of more than 150,000 troops quickly moved to ready themselves and their weapons to invade Iraq.
The Marines rushed to complete cutting slits in the sand berms and filling in the ditches that separate Iraq and Kuwait. The Army worked out the final details of its plan to fire its ATACMS missile, a surface-to-surface missile that is being used in combat for the first time with a potent 500-pound warhead.
Earlier Thursday, it was the Iraqis who seemed to have the initiative.
They responded to the cruise missile attacks on Baghdad on Wednesday night by firing missiles at the allied troops across the across the border in Kuwait. A Seersucker cruise missile exploded within 600 yards of Camp Commando, the headquarters of Lieutenant General James Conway, commander of the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force in Kuwait. The Iraqis fired the Seersucker, a Chinese-made missile designed as anti-ship missile, from Umm Qasr. Shock waves from the explosion knocked down some troops at the camp.
Then two more surface-to-surface missiles, probably Ababil-100s, were fired.
"This is not a drill," blared "Giant Voice," the loudspeaker system at Camp Doha, Lieutenant General David McKiernan's headquarters. The staff put on their chemical protective suits and gas masks and kept working.
By evening, the allies' focus was on wresting the initiative back from the Iraqis and moving ahead with the attack plan.
At 8 pm, McKiernan, the allied land war commander, held a classified video conference with Conway and General William Scott Wallace, the commander of V Corps, to make sure their plans were synchronized. Salvos of cruise missiles were already flying toward Baghdad and the beginning of the land operations was virtually at hand.
ROLLER-COASTER RIDE: More than five earthquakes ranging from magnitude 4.4 to 5.5 on the Richter scale shook eastern Taiwan in rapid succession yesterday afternoon Back-to-back weather fronts are forecast to hit Taiwan this week, resulting in rain across the nation in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration said yesterday, as it also warned residents in mountainous regions to be wary of landslides and rockfalls. As the first front approached, sporadic rainfall began in central and northern parts of Taiwan yesterday, the agency said, adding that rain is forecast to intensify in those regions today, while brief showers would also affect other parts of the nation. A second weather system is forecast to arrive on Thursday, bringing additional rain to the whole nation until Sunday, it
LANDSLIDES POSSIBLE: The agency advised the public to avoid visiting mountainous regions due to more expected aftershocks and rainfall from a series of weather fronts A series of earthquakes over the past few days were likely aftershocks of the April 3 earthquake in Hualien County, with further aftershocks to be expected for up to a year, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Based on the nation’s experience after the quake on Sept. 21, 1999, more aftershocks are possible over the next six months to a year, the agency said. A total of 103 earthquakes of magnitude 4 on the local magnitude scale or higher hit Hualien County from 5:08pm on Monday to 10:27am yesterday, with 27 of them exceeding magnitude 5. They included two, of magnitude
CONDITIONAL: The PRC imposes secret requirements that the funding it provides cannot be spent in states with diplomatic relations with Taiwan, Emma Reilly said China has been bribing UN officials to obtain “special benefits” and to block funding from countries that have diplomatic ties with Taiwan, a former UN employee told the British House of Commons on Tuesday. At a House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee hearing into “international relations within the multilateral system,” former Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) employee Emma Reilly said in a written statement that “Beijing paid bribes to the two successive Presidents of the [UN] General Assembly” during the two-year negotiation of the Sustainable Development Goals. Another way China exercises influence within the UN Secretariat is
Taiwan’s first drag queen to compete on the internationally acclaimed RuPaul’s Drag Race, Nymphia Wind (妮妃雅), was on Friday crowned the “Next Drag Superstar.” Dressed in a sparkling banana dress, Nymphia Wind swept onto the stage for the final, and stole the show. “Taiwan this is for you,” she said right after show host RuPaul announced her as the winner. “To those who feel like they don’t belong, just remember to live fearlessly and to live their truth,” she said on stage. One of the frontrunners for the past 15 episodes, the 28-year-old breezed through to the final after weeks of showcasing her unique