BAGHDAD,
April 3 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) - U.S. forces said
Thursday, April 3, two soldiers were killed “apparently" by Iraqi
rocket-propelled grenades as they reportedly drove towards Baghdad from
two directions, killing 500 Iraqis in fighting for the bridge over the
Euphrates River, 30 kilometers (20 miles) from Baghdad.
The
soldiers from the Third Infantry Division were killed in an “apparent
RPG attack”, said Major General Buford Blount, commander of the Third
Infantry Division.
The
soldiers were in Humvee all-terrain vehicles in a support unit for an
artillery battalion when a moonless night allowed Iraqi fighters to
sneak up within several hundred yards of them, said Blount.
“It
was zero illumination,” he said of the attack, which occurred around
3:00 am (1200 midnight GMT) near a bridge captured by U.S. forces on
Wednesday, April 2.
In
the early hours of Thursday, the Iraqis launched three counter-attacks
to try to recapture the key bridge south of Baghdad but were repulsed,
U.S. officials was quoted by Agence France-Presse (AFP) as saying.
But
U.S. forces hit back with artillery fire from Bradley armored vehicles
and Paladin guns, as well as from A-10 Thunderbolts which flew overhead.
A
U.S military official said that the U.S. forces already moved near
Baghdad airport.
“I
can confirm they’re outside the airport,” said Major Randi Steffy, a
spokeswoman for the U.S. Central Command in Qatar, said of the facility
southwest of the capital.
But
Iraqi Information Minister Mohamed Said Sahhaf dismissed this, saying
the U.S. forces “are crumbled every where they go.”
“The
invading forces are only repeating lies to deceive the public opinion
and launch psychological war” he told a press conference in the Iraqi
capital.
The
aerial blitz against Baghdad showed no signs of abating as dull
explosions from the edge of the city continued during the morning after
a night of heavy bombardment on its southern and southeastern fringes.
Some
500 Iraqis were killed in fighting for the bridge over the Euphrates
River, 30 kilometers (20 miles) from Baghdad, Major John Altman, an
intelligence officer with the 1st brigade of the Third Infantry Division
said earlier.
A
BBC reporter traveling with the Americans said thousands of U.S. forces
vehicles crossed the Euphrates heading towards Baghdad after a “fierce
fight” to seize a dual-carriageway bridge.
He
described a scene of “Iraq prisoners on their knees, with American
soldiers standing over them, and Iraq dead in the roadway, and yes,
American dead being tended on stretchers.”
The
Pentagon said late Wednesday the Iraq war had left 49 U.S. troops dead,
40 of them in combat, seven known prisoners of war, 15 missing and 150
wounded. A U.S. F/A 18 Hornet fighter and Blackhawk helicopter have
since gone down.
The
latest attack resulted in the first combat deaths for the Third
Infantry.
Moving
Southeast
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“The
U.S. forces are not near Baghdad,” said Sahhaf.
|
The
U.S. marines said they pushed cautiously towards Baghdad from the town
of Kut, around 150 kilometers (90 miles) southeast of the capital.
“We
have accomplished every objective quickly and easily. I don’t think
it’s a trap by the Republican Guard, they’re still trying to fight
but they have no training, poor equipment and they’re very sloppy,”
said Master Gunnery Sergeant Errol Ovid.
But
the Iraqis dismissed incurring heavy losses in Kut, saying its troops
put up ferocious resistance to the invading forces.
Iraqi
President Saddam Hussein hailed the “courageous” resistance of Iraqi
fighters in the town in a message read on state television by Sahhaf.
“Your
noble struggle and your resistance have soothed our hearts,” said the
message, which Sahhaf said was addressed to the local leader of
Saddam’s ruling Baath party, Ghazi Al-Obeidi.
Basra
Still Resistant
In
another related development, in the southern port of Basra, besieging
British forces were still facing resistance from around 1,000 Iraqi
militia, along with regular troops who have moved back into the city, a
British military spokesman said Thursday.
“There
are somewhere around a thousand, but it may be more,” Colonel Chris
Vernon told reporters when asked the size of the irregular forces within
the city.
“It’s
quite clear that elements of (the Iraqi army’s) 51 brigade that we
gave an opportunity to capitulate have pulled back inside,” he added.
Vernon
said that the British had no immediate plans to launch an all-out
assault on the city but they were able to stage incursions on a regular
basis.
“We
are in and out as we see fit. We will go in, come out, and one day we
will stay.”
He
denied that British troops were besieging Basra, saying that a passage
in the northeast of the city over the Tigris river had been left
“entirely open”.
Vernon
admitted that such a policy could allow Iraqis to attempt to move
reinforcements but he added that “we have got eyes on that area”.
