Thu, Mar 27, 2003 page1

• Iraq may be mounting an offensive

  HEADING SOUTH Saddam's elite troops may try to engage US Marines in central Iraq; meanwhile a missile struck a Baghdad market yesterday, killing 14

  • AP
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  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.

  

  An Iraqi man cries as he runs past a burning car destroyed during an air strike in Baghdad yesterday. At least 14 burnt corpses lay in a residential area of the city following a US bombing or missile raid.

  PHOTO: REUTERS

  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.

  "We're going into a hunting mode right now," said Lieutenant Colonel B.T. McCoy of the 3rd Battalion, 4th Marines. "We're going to start hunting down instead of letting them take the cheap shots."

  Hoping to cripple the Iraqi government's communications, the coalition attacked the state-run television headquarters in Baghdad before dawn yesterday with missiles and air strikes. The station's signal was knocked off the air for a few hours before it was restored; regular broadcasts started on schedule after daybreak.

  Far to the south, British forces on the edge of Basra waged artillery battles with more than 1,000 Iraqi militiamen, who reportedly also faced an insurrection by civilians opposed to Saddam Hussein.

  British officers said yesterday that the uprising became so threatening that the militiamen fired mortars to try to suppress it. British forces then silenced the Iraqi mortar positions with an artillery barrage, said Lieutenant Colonel Ronnie McCourt, a spokesman for British forces.

  McCourt said British troops also were firing at some of the militiamen who were trying to flee Basra.

  The British -- while awaiting an opportune moment to enter the heart of Basra -- have been telling residents over loudspeakers that aid is waiting outside the city. Relief officials say many of the 1.3 million residents are drinking contaminated water and face the threat of diarrhea and cholera.

  British forces staged a raid on a suburb of Basra, capturing a Baath party leader and killing 20 of his bodyguards, officials said.

  The Iraqis denied there was any uprising in Basra. "The situation is stable," Information Minister Mohammed al-Sahhaf told the Arab satellite television station al-Jazeera.

  Assigned to bring aid to another battle-scarred southern city, a seven-truck relief convoy loaded with food and water left Kuwait and reached the port of Umm Qasr yesterday.

  A handful of Iraqi children watched the convoy cross into Iraqi territory. One boy, about 10, pointed to his mouth and shouted, "Eat, eat!"

  Plans to bring supplies to Iraqi civilians had been stalled for days because of fighting across southern Iraq. On Tuesday, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan said the US is legally responsible for providing relief aid.
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